Balloon Chasers

Recently Lucas had a friend's birthday party on a late Saturday afternoon. Mats left to get a pizza for dinner, which left Henrik and I home alone. We had a mission: to make a gluten-free, yeast-free pizza. But before we could get started, Mats called and told us to look outside- a hot air balloon was going by.

Henrik and I rushed out to our back yard in time to see a rainbow-colored balloon floating peacefully over the tree tops. We could hear the whoosh of the fire as the balloon was refilled. As it continued its journey past our house, Henrik had the idea to follow it to see where it lands. In a few seconds we were on our bikes - we were balloon chasing!

We went to the main bike path and followed it towards the balloon. To our right, a second balloon floated over an open field. It had an "M" on it.

We continued on the path, trying to keep up with the balloons. At times they looked like they were going to land, only to rise up again and continue on.

Finally, we had to bid farewell to the balloons.

We returned home to our pizza project, but Henrik and I had to fuel up on a bit of cereal first, after our big adventure.

Haircuts

My boys' hair was getting shaggy - I'd put off finding a place to get haircuts long enough. One mom said her friend cut her kids' hair, but recommended a cheap place if I didn't mind it not being very fancy. I called, and Henrik's cut would have been $40 (280 crowns), and Lucas' $50 (340 crowns).

When I told people here, they all agreed: haircuts are expensive in Sweden. (Random side-note: college education, aside from books and lodging, is free.)

I asked another mom, and she said her mom cuts her son's hair. I was seeing why people had friends or family cut their kid's hair. But she said there was a cheap place ($20) by the train station. I Googled "hår tåg Lund" (hair, train, Lund), but couldn't find it - I'm not very good at searching the internet in Swedish yet. But I found a place that, when I called, said kids' haircuts were $30, so I made an appointment, same-day.

The place was nice, but seemed more oriented towards older women compared to the kid's haircut place back home with the plastic castle and toys everywhere. Neither boy wanted to go first, so I told them they'd have a treat at home.

Lucas finally went, but Henrik hid under the antique chair saying, "I don't want a haircut!" Eventually I persuaded him, and he sat on my lap. We shared the black cape that's supposed to catch the hair, so we looked like a two-headed blob.

The woman looked at me and said with an accent, "At last, we're done. That wasn't easy." I agreed. I realized I didn't know if I needed to tip. I asked, and she said it was included, no need to pay more. I appreciated her honesty, and then gave the boys five crowns (80 cents) each to give her, just in case.

I'd like to learn how to cut my boys' hair - it can't be that hard, right? But then again, I found out a woman's cut and highlight is cheaper here (by at least $50) than at home. So I guess it all equals out.

Swedish Tooth Fairy

Lucas' tooth was so loose. Drove me nuts, I wouldn't be able to handle a floppy tooth in my mouth; but he let it get looser, and looser. It was the bottom right one, his second loose tooth.

He lost his first about a month before we moved here. It "just popped out" one day at school. He literally lost it for a few minutes, and then one of his friends found it on the floor under his desk. His teacher, used to her pupils' teeth falling out, had a cute little tooth-shaped necklace thing to hold the tooth.

When he woke up the next morning, there was a dollar bill under his pillow from the tooth fairy. Seemed to be the going rate. But she'd left his tooth, and this confused Lucas since she's taken his friends' teeth when they lost them. He looked at me and said, "Did the tooth fairy really come, or did you just put this under my pillow?" I asked him what he thought, and something on the TV distracted him, and that was the end of that conversation.

Two weeks ago he finally lost his second tooth. He had been crying earlier that day because every time he bit down, it hurt. With my urging, he tried to pull it out, and a few minutes later, he ran to tell me he'd lost his second tooth.

"Lucas, you're going to get a dollar!" Henrik said, evident that he wished his teeth were falling out.

"No, Henrik, we're in Sweden now, so it will be in crowns," Lucas replied. "Maybe I'll get 500 crowns! That's the biggest bill!" Then he started dancing and singing, "Money, Money, Money, must be funny, in a rich man's world!" (ABBA)

I laughed. "Lucas, 500 crowns is like $75, I don't think the tooth fairy gives that much."

"We'll see!" he said, still optimistic.

The tooth fairy came, and this time took his tooth. Lucas got a gold-colored coin - ten crowns. Seems to be the going rate. She wrote a little note in Swedish that said, "Welcome to Sweden Lucas!" (She used the plural vs. the singular form of "welcome" but that's OK, her job is collecting teeth, not writing after all.)

Waiting for Da Stuff

Before we left for Sweden, we had a bunch of decisions to make, and all seemed to have their pros and cons. The biggest decision, to move to Sweden, had finally been made, after only two or three years of vacillating. Granted, we counted ourselves lucky to have these options, but that didn't make the process any easier.

Should we:

Rent or sell our house in Ca?
Sell or ship our cars to Sweden?
Ship our furniture (most of it IKEA), or just our personal belongings?
Sell our remaining furniture and stuff, or get a storage unit?

We did sell our house, though we loved it, because we didn't want the transcontinental responsibility of an older home. We shipped one car, sold the other. We craigslisted most of our furniture and packed our remaining favorites in a small storage unit. And finally, we shipped our STUFF. 61 boxes in total, 21 of which were books and magazines.

We shipped it all about a month before leaving, and now, 2 months and 2 days post-arrival, our boxes are going to be delivered tomorrow, a Valentine's gift.

(Our car arrived 2 weeks ago, and the few boxes we were allowed to put in it were a welcome care package, including the mix for gluten-free cornbread we made the first night to celebrate.) Though I'm still puzzled why we shipped a random box of unsorted desk junk.

We've had endless conversations about our stuff. I've since forgotten everything we packed, or didn't pack, so when my kids ask, "Did you ship the talking globe?" my answer is, "I don't know, we'll see when the shipment arrives." (Although I'm pretty sure the globe is in storage. We'll have to pick it up this summer.)

I remember reading Waiting for Godot in high school, and thought this wasn't that much different. Except I think Godot never arrived. We did wonder if our stuff ever would arrive, as the date kept being pushed out. Henrik said, "I think our shipment is stuck in another world." I think he meant another country, as he'd heard us saying it had been in Germany clearing customs since before New Year's.

Lucas can't wait for his box of LEGOs and stuffed animals, Henrik can't wait to see Hobie and Shadow, his golden and black stuffed animal Labradors that were named after my mom's dogs of the same breed and colors. I'm 99% sure those are in there. I'm looking forward to getting our paintings, holiday decorations, our favorite food coloring-free candies, and whatever else it is I packed. Mats is waiting for his tennis shoes and most of his clothes, as we hadn't fully realized how long it would take.

I'm not sure where it's all going to fit in our townhouse without a garage, but we'll figure it out. Lucas says tomorrow we'll have a house made out of toys. He may be right.

Dreaming in Swedish

I've had the book Dreaming in Hindi on my to-be-read list for a while.

I was reminded of it a few weeks ago when I was upstairs working, and I heard Lucas talking in his sleep. Usually I can't understand anything he says, it's more a jumble of words. But this night, what he said was very clear: "Titta här!" (Look here!)

I stood looking at him, and lay my hand on his head. He's dreaming in Swedish! I thought.

A Swedish Christmas - Dec. 24

For the past 13 years, Mats has celebrated Christmas with my family in California. We always talked about going to Sweden for Christmas, or having his family out to us, but it's a hard time to travel, and it never happened.

This year was the first time his family was all together for Christmas since he moved to the U.S., and the first time they got to celebrate with the kids.


We even hosted, for the first time ever. I always had romantic thoughts of cooking the turkey for the first time, but 1) I'm not much of a cook, and 2) we'd just moved in a few weeks before and I didn't want to hunt down a turkey in snowy Sweden. So instead, we had halibut. I think I'm happy to have that as a new tradition.


God Jul to all. And to all, a good night!

Taking Flight

I had a vivid dream years ago in which I was able to fly in my fish tank. Technically this would be swimming, I know, but it was different- I could fly underwater.

According to a dream book I read years ago, flying symbolizes freedom from constraints. As for flying in airplanes, to me it means a new opportunity for travel and adventure. Of course, air transport is much different with two young sons. Gone are the days of watching a movie in its entirety, losing myself in a good book, or, one of my favorite past activities on a plane- sleeping.

There are advantages too- while you walk the aisles with your young ones, you get to meet all the child-friendly people on the plane, meanwhile finding out who would rather not have a toddler pat his lap to say hello. Actually, I'm always surprised how few in number the child-unfriendlies are.

In a few months we will board a plan to Sweden, where we'll do a house swap with a friend. Not only does this help out with the cost of traveling, but since we have kids around the same age, both families get to experience "new" toys! But just to be sure their favorite toys aren't left behind, my boys have already packed their mini backpacks for the trip. They get this planning ahead gene from their father, I'm pretty sure.

Speaking of Scandinavia, sons, and flying, a friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail titled, "The boy stuff us Moms go gray over." This video make me think back to my flying dream, and for a second, I wanted to join these dare-devil young guys jumping off cliffs in Norway and flying. Or at least I could go see them in action. But my next thought stopped me- I don't want my boys to see this. I'd rather them stick to jumpy houses with confined, padded floor and walls for now.

Here's the video, and happy flying:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399&server=vimeo.com&amp

Extreme Christmas House

Once a year we visit Edmundo Rombeiro’s Christmas house. The Griswald house doesn’t hold an electric light to this one. When we drove up to it this year, my son remarked, “Wow, that’s a lot of Christmas lights. Maybe too much!” Out of the mouths of four-year-olds…

Not only is Rombeiro’s house decorated on the outside, but all rooms, save one bedroom, are totally decked out inside as well! My neighbor is Rombeiro’s cousin and she and her husband are there almost every night in December. They need helpers to make sure people don’t touch, or in one case, attack, the decorations.

Early in December she said they had 660 visitors in one night, and that’s not even the rush time. Tour busses, often with seniors, stop by regularly. The family keeps track of the amount of people by how many candy canes they give out each night.

My favorite room is the angel room. Although there are way too many angels to focus on just one, it has a calm and peaceful feeling. My neighbor has seen people enter that room and just begin to weep.

My son’s favorite room, of course, is the train room which we visited twice.

By the end of the visit we are always on sensory overload, but officially in the Christmas spirit.

Impromptu Trip

If there is something Mats and I have not been since having kids, it’s spontaneous.

We love to travel. Or loved to travel, I’m not sure which tense to use these days. Traveling with kids is different. The sleep and exhaustion factor are always there.

But on Friday night, for perhaps the first time in over four years, we decided to take a weekend trip with the kids at the last minute. We left at 9 p.m. and arrived at my parents’ property in Central California at midnight.

The boys had a blast. Lucas was Grandad’s little helper the whole weekend, a title he was quite proud of. He even got paid a quarter and wants to buy something with it. The second night we all slept well. Mats and I went for a hike at the Pinnacles National Park, sans kids.

It was a great trip.

Arriving home today we were all a bit out-of-sorts, but we survived. And we have more memories than if we had stayed home. Time to start traveling again!

Lucas says he wants to go down next Saturday. OK, maybe we’re not that ready.