Sandriux

 I need to mention that since three days ago, our summer/fall is officially over, now we have WINTER termperatures.  Now it’s about 5 degrees Celsius, and the wind is blowing very nicely (it feels like needles all over your body).  I wasn’t sure of how to dress Daniel, this is always a little bit of a hassle.  How much is enough and how much is too much!.  Here in Sweden they have this outfits that go on top of your outfit (just like a snow outfit). And they have great performance,which means that they are flexible, not too bulky, water/snow repellant, and they keep the body heat at the same time as being breathdable, so that they won’t come out of it soaked.   In Sweden they are always engaging in extensive research about baby/kids products.  They actually take all the ones available in the market and test them against all possible scenarious and compare them against each other.  This one we chose in particular is made by a Finish company called Reima, and it was the best in test, but also the most expensive.  The cheapest of this brand is about 130 Us Dollars.  And no!, there are no sales,  maybe a  15 to 20% at the end of the season (if you are lucky).  But when it comes to your little one, you just don’t take chances.  Not with that, not with a good pair of boots and a good pair of gloves.  So at the end of the day, you end up paying about 200+ dollars to dress your little one properly for the season.

And it was sad but true,three days ago when I dropped Daniel at Daycare, all the kids playing outside were wearing this kind of outfits. So yesterday was my day with Daniel, I took him to the Theater with Esther and Camila. But I really didn’t know how to dress him, he was going to be inside most of the time, but he also likes to walk to and from the place…….  Well, I think I ended up putting too little clothes in the bottom, but fine on top. He did do some running around with Camila, but once inside the theater I think he was fine. 

I took him to the Theater  regardless of what everyone said, that he was too small (it was supposed to be for kids from 2.5 years) etc…. But Daniel did just fine,  he kept pointing at the scenario,  it was really cute and funny.  I think also that we were a bit lucky, but it went just fine!!

We’ve been doing a lot of playing around in all the playgrounds around the area.  It’s been unusually beautiful and nice here in Sweden, by this I mean that we’ve had lot’s of sun and even warm days.  But this fall has been wonderful.  We’ve had this same weather all the time (17 Celsius or around 62 F), the sun is shining and so on.  Well, every day I say, this might be the last one, so I better get out with Daniel and explore some.  But we’ve been doing this constantly every day.  That’s probably why I haven’t had time to blog. (oh well). 

That, and the fact that now that I have time I’ve been socializing like crazy.  I’ve met some new friends, and I’ve had coffees every other day, or more.  My mouth doesn’t stop.  I’ve always been quite talkative, but now it’s like all of a sudden I can actually stay and chat for more than five minutes at a time.  And guess what? I’m not only chatting about kids stuff.  Now I’m making plans about my next project.  I’ve been searching something to do with one of my hobbies, and I think I found it.  Talking to a friend, she saw my pictures and encouraged me to make a Calendar, and sell it in bookstores and other places.  Even if it was among friends, I thought it was a great idea for New Years. So I’ve started to do my research, where to do it, etc.  This is getting fun. 

OH, and another coincidence, from the new friends that I’ve made, 3 of them are into photography as well, so I’m loving this deal.  With each I share different interest as well, such as kids or tennis or entrepeneurial view (I don’t know how to say this, but what I mean is that I like to start new businesses).

It turns out that my Daniel can do a lot more than I thought.  For starters he can sit at a table and wait for his food, serve himself what he wants and then afterwards clean up his plate and his table.   He’s able to follow a line, orderly wash his hands and wait for the others until they are all ready to move on. He even walks up and down the stairs on his own (with some difficulty.. but still).  He’s also starting to take his pants off on his own, although this can take forever.  But he’s even shown how to put them up again.  I’ve also noticed that he’s begining to let me know when he needs a diaper change, and all this has happened in just a few days.

This visit was such an EYE OPENER, and it also is important that I know now how to help him get better at those things, and encourage him a lot more than I was doing.   For starters I didn’t know what he was trying to do when he wanted to pick up his plate when he was finished, now I know…. It was indeed great to be able to see that. It was a lot of fun. 

In the afernoon we ended up  playing in the yard with two of our neighbor girls.  They are so cute and they wanted to help Daniel in the Tricycle.  They also go to the same Daycare, so they are getting very close.  It’s so cute to see.

 Estas últimas dos semanas han sido muy buenas para Daniel, ahora se encuentra mucho mas acoplado y ha habido veces que hasta se despide de mí con la mano sin llorar.  También tiene que ver que un día estuve con él todo el día, en un "día de campo" con algunos otros papás.  Fue muy divertido y me llamó mucho la atención el hecho de que Daniel fuera tan bien portado, es como si supiera que ahora era hora de portarse bien.  A lo que me refiero es que si decían "de la mano" entonces agarraba a la niña de al lado de la mano.  O si le decían que agarrara la carreola, él la agarraba.  Lo único es que no comió muy bien conmigo, pero yo creo que simplemente no quería desaprovechar ni un segundo de poder jugar en los juegos a los que nos llevaron.

Se subió en el triciclo con un  niño mas grande que él y que no iba con nosotros, solo le importó que el chico podia pedalear y Daniel, por el otro lado, se quería sentar atrás (todavía no puede pedalear). Se la pasó casi 45 min con este chico y después corriendo y subiéndose a todo.

También nos tocó ir a un granja, había patos, ovejas, pollos, gallos y conejos, y todos se dejaban tocar.  Daniel estaba feliz. La pasamos muy agusto, y yo aproveché para platicar con algunos de los padres y me enteré de cosas de la escuela.  En realidad quería ver como se comportaba Daniel con otros niños y cómo eran las pedagogas.  Que en realidad no me dejaron muy sorprendida, los dejan hacer los que se les antoje.  Y cuando los niños son mas grandes, creo que no hay tanto problema, pero cuando son todavía tan pequeños como Daniel, creo que sería bueno que les pusieran mas atención. Yo me la pasé correteándolo todo el tiempo.  Aún y así me divertí y fue un muy buen día. 

So apparently, according to the rules of Daniel’s school I’m having him part-time.  Which means I can have him for up to 30 hours a week in Day Care.  That means 6 hours a day.  When I said part-time I kind of thought 3 hours a day, anyway, since they don’t go out everyday at the same time, to ensure that he is out at least once a day he needs to be there from 9am to 3pm.  So I decided to leave him at that schedule, but this week I’ve introduced a new rule, I want him to be with me on wednesdays.  Here is my thinking, I think that I don’t have to work at this point, and there is no need for Daniel to spend most of his day being educated by other people.  So yes, it’s important for me to see him with other kids and play outside and all, but it’s also important for me to be with him.  I guess that when kids are planned, (by this I mean you have them, when you think you are ready) well, you might as well enjoy them.  We are very lucky to be able to spend time with him, so why not do it.  Although I must say that I feel a bit of peer pressure, cause no one here seems to mind the long hours at Day Care.  Most mothers are actually thrilled to go back to work.  Are our cultures that different? Or am I being a little bit too much "mommy".  I never thought I would be, but now I’m starting to doubt it.  I just think that every stage with our kids is so short.  I can just imagine when I will be putting him in normal school, and is not really a choice anymore… he will have to go to school whatever hours needed.  And not only that, but that stage where he wants to come and sleep at our bed in the middle of the night… well, that will be history too.

I guess for most people this is not a matter of choice, most couples nowadays need to work full-time to earn a living.  But I wonder if given the choice how many would really stay with their kids as long as they could? and would it be better, worse or no impact on our kids? I am more of the idea to always find a balance with everything, and I guess this is the stage where I’m at right now.  Finding what would be a balanced time between Day Care and Day with Mommy.

I took Daniel to Daycare and for the first time he didn’t cry when I left.  He wasn’t thrilled either, but he wasn’t crying…. and that felt good!!!

I talked to him all the way to the school, I don’t know if it made a difference, but I explained to him how long he was going to stay at school, and then I went on explaining the days of the week etc.   I wonder really, how much they understand, we were not born knowing about weeks, months, all this basic stuff.  And this is the first time that I thought of explaining it to him.  I wonder what goes through his mind? "why am I going today to that place called Day Care and not yesterday?" "why is daddy leaving every morning? and some mornings he stays home" I wish I knew how much he understands of what I say, since the poor thing has to deal with 3 languages at a time.  I keep speaking to him in Spanish the whole time, Hakan (AD) keeps doing it in Swedish. And Hakan and me, well, we keep using English for ourselves.  But even though it sounds like a chaos, I feel that he understands me very well Spanish and Swedish, I can’t tell about the English yet, I guess that one will come later.

He has now started to say "no" to things that he doesn’t want. Something he learned from his cousin Ximena, but he didn’t use very well, until yesterday.  We were eating and when he was finished, I asked him if he wanted anything else, and he responded "no" at the same time as the was moving his head….. WOW!!! that was cute and surprising for both of us. It was a clear and even polite "no", there was no screaming or annoyance behind.. just a "no"…