Ice Skating - Day 2

Ellie was so excited about ice skating that she wanted to head back to the park for more.  We were feeling pretty Swedish with our big blue Ikea bag holding all the skating gear.  Ellie’s goal for the day was, “I want to do it all by myself.”  She had several practice runs holding on and then became braver, wanting to do it by herself.  It was amazing how much further she could go today than yesterday without falling.  She and Daddy even went around the whole rink together twice; part of the way holding hands and partly by herself.  It is so much fun to watch her discover new things that she can do. 

Look!  I can do it!

New favorite activity - climbing the snow pile left by the zamboni.

Ice Skating

After a fairly lazy morning, thank you David for letting me sleep in, we headed to Vasaparken to try out ice skating.   Ellie was so excited.  She loves the idea.  After getting all geared up with skates and a bike helmet, she was ready to go.  She was very surprised how slippery the ice was.   Within two steps, David fell for the first and only time of the day.  I think it was actually a good thing he fell first because it took the pressure off of Ellie.  They started with David supporting Ellie under both elbows.  Soon she wanted to try just holding hands like she saw some of the other children doing.  Before long with started wanting to try without holding on.  So far she is just taking a few steps but doing an awesome job of learning to balance.  After about ½ an hour her legs were done.  We then headed to McDonalds for lunch, Ellie’s choice. 

Daddy wipes out first!

Getting started!

Getting braver.

Rest Day

Because Ellie ran a fever last night and had a really runny nose this morning, she had to stay home from dagis (preschool).  I don’t think she was too sad because it was supposed to be her first day by herself.  She had a great lazy day which she probably needed since we have had such a busy week.  I was able to get caught up on some household things that haven’t gotten done this week.  I am still not sure how people who work fulltime get anything done.  Our fun project of the day was painting with stamps.  Ellie had used paint with stamps at the carnival and when she saw some at the store Wednesday wanted to get them.  She had so much fun playing with different colors and ways of stamping.

After naptime, Ellie was feeling much better.  One of David’s coworkers had let him a pair of ice-skates for Ellie.  Now he just needed a pair of skates.  Stadium was having a sale of adult skates so off shopping we went.  I couldn’t believe we found him a pair for under $30.   They are all set to go skating tomorrow.  I can’t wait until next year to join them.  After shopping, we splurged and went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  David has wanted “American-style” pizza for a while but didn’t get any over Christmas.  A supreme pan pizza really hit the spot.  I think Ellie is becoming a thin crust girl.  She really seems to prefer the Swedish style pizza. 

Dagis - Day 2

Today was day two of dagis for Ellie.  She was less excited this morning because she knew that I would not be staying with her the whole day.  Today was a day for an outing.  The class walked to a nearby park about 7 blocks away.  The kids do such a great job of holding hands and staying together.  They each get bright green/yellow vest to wear with the name of the preschool and the phone number on it.  Ellie looked so cute in her vest.  They played at the park for about 40 minutes and then walked back to school.  Ellie has really bonded with one of the teacher assistants, Isabelle.  For about an hour in the morning, I sat in the corner and watched and Ellie played.  She kept coming over to try to get me to play and it was so hard to say no.  They had music playing for a while which she loved because she was able to dance.  Watching 6 preschoolers dance to “Oh Mickey” (in Swedish) was so funny!

After lunch, it was time for Ellie to have a trial without me in the room.  There were quite a few tears but finally I was able to head to the break room and let her stay by herself.  She did a good job.  Her logic is kicking in though.  She reasoning is, “You have stayed to play two days with me.  You can stay every day.  My teacher won’t mind.”  When we talked about the other kids parents not being there her response was, “I can’t help they don’t want to stay and play.”  Hopefully we can get her psyched up to try this by herself.  After nap, she woke up with a fever of 101 and really congested.  Her first preschool illness, let the merry-go-round begin. 

Field trip to the park

Climbing with Ms. Isabelle

Looking cute in the preschool trip vest.

Is it break time yet?

Swedish lessons and Midwife Appointment

It is day two of Swedish lessons.   Today we worked on numbers, ages, years and relationship words.  In Sweden, the word for Daddy is Papa.  Ellie has already run into this a dagis and is a little confused by the concept.  We have been talking about how Chloe has different words for her grandparents like “nana”, and  I think that has helped some.  The really interesting part of the relationship words I think is the words they have for grandparents.  Your mom’s mother is your “mormor.”  You mom’s dad is your “morfar.”  Dad’s mom is your “farmor”  and Dad’s dad is your “farfar.”  Not sure Ellie will adopt these terms but that sound better than “my Alabama grandma/papa”  and “my SC grandma/papa”  which is how she differentiates now.  After class a group of us went to the train station for pizza.  It sounds like a strange place for pizza but they have excellent pizza and it is right across from Electrolux which makes it easy for the guys. 

 Joannah, Angie, Ellie and I went craft shopping after lunch.  Ellie found some stamps and paints she just had to have.  She loved stamping at the Electrolux carnival and has been eager to try it again.  Ellie and I then met up with David for a midwife appointment.  I had gained a pound and the baby was measuring good.  My BP (100/58) and blood sugar were both in good ranges.  Our midwife also helped us find a pediatrician for Ellie and the baby.  In Sweden well care and sick care are delivered separately.  We will go to one clinic for all of the well care appointments and see the equivalent of a nurse practitioner.  If Ellie is sick there is a separate clinic that we can go to or afterhours they will see her at the ER. 

After the appointment, Ellie and I headed back to the station to catch the train home.  After waiting about 15 minutes we discovered that the green line was down.  Thankfully we were not far from T-centralan.  We were able to walk there and catch the blue line to Friedemsplan and then a bus to St. Eriksplan.  It amazes me how organized everything is when part of the trains system goes down.  They always have a backup in place very quickly. 

First Day of Dagis

Today was Ellie’s first day of dagis (daycare/preschool).  She was so excited to finally be starting.  She even woke up early.  We took the train to Odenplan and walked the block to her school.  They start the morning by playing outside in all types of weather.  Drop-off starts as early as 7:45 and they play outside until 9:45.  Ellie will be going from 9-2 normally.  She spent the morning play time making snow birthday cakes.   After playtime they headed upstairs for snack.  The snack was either apple and/or banana.  Ellie ate ½ of an apple and ½ a banana.  Then it was time for art.  They drew with crayons and then used paint to paint over their drawings.  I was sent for tea to begin the process of Ellie feeling comfortable by herself with the class.  Art was followed by free play and then circle time.   Lunch was a fish in dill cream sauce, rice and cabbage salad.  Ellie ate everything on her plate and went back for seconds of salad.  After lunch, they settled in to read books aloud.  Then it was time for more free play.  Ellie did puzzles, played memory with some of the other children, drew pictures, looked at books, and played train and checkout.  Afternoon snack is served about 2pm.  It was buttered bread with cheese.  Then it was back out to the courtyard for more outside play time.

She was so tired at the end of the day.  She really had a fun day though.  After a great nap for Ellie, we went to Hard Rock Café, Stockholm to celebrate David’s successful oral defense and Ellie’s first day of dagis. 

Making Snow Birthday cakes

Ellie's Artwork - Bottem Left by the door handle

Ready to head out to her first day of dagis.

All bundled up with Fairy in hand to ease jitters.

Swedish Lessons

Today was David and my first day of Swedish lessons.  Electrolux is providing lessons for all of the expats and their wives.  Classes will be twice a week and be immersion style with little to no English being spoken.  Because Ellie is not in preschool yet and all the babysitters I know are in class with me, I thought I would have to miss the first few classes.  However, David’s coworkers told him just to let her come in and hang out with them.  We packed her a bag of activities and snacks.  She thought she was such a big girl to be able to sit at Daddy’s desk. It was so strange to get her settled at David’s desk and walk off and people not think it was strange.  While not an everyday occurrence, kids do show up at work with their parents from time to time when childcare falls through.   Mr. Robert let her watch a movie on his iPhone.  After class, she was still sitting happily at his desk eating her snack and playing.  Hopefully, his coworkers were not lying when they said she had behaved well. 

Class is going to be very entertaining.  Because of the large number of participants, we have two classes. They split the husbands and wives up so it will be interesting to see the difference in the way the classes are taught.  I love my teacher she is awesome.  I hope by the time the class is over I will have a basic ability to communicate in Swedish.

Tonight was David’s oral defense.  Because of the difficulty in trying to get the committee all together,  It ended up being scheduled for 6:30pm EST, which was 12:30 AM for David.  It was quite a nerve racking evening for me.  I can’t imagine what David was going through.  I knew he was well prepared and would do wonderful but the waiting was so hard.  He went back to Electrolux to be able to use a landline and have a speakerphone.  Both the presentation and question and answer session went well.  During the question and answer session he had a security guard stop by to check his badge.  That would have thrown me for a loop but he just kept on going.  Once he got home, he called the family to let them know he was now “Dr. House”.   We are all so proud of him and can’t wait to start planning our trip to Phoenix, AZ for graduation. 

Playing at Daddy's Desk

Food, movies, coloring book and V-reader....what else does a girl need!