Kitty’s Place

Friday was a good day. We did the swimming lesson thing and then got on the bus to go and do some errands. We met Emma and her mom and brother on the bus. She asked what time she could come over and I said after lunch. The kids thought it was too funny they were on the same bus. *laugh* We went to pick up my fellow’s watch, but it wasn’t ready. We went to the optical store and looked at frames. We went to ÖoB and picked up some odds and ends. We met Emma again there and the two of them were just in stitches that they even were in the same store. Kids are too funny. I thought we would pop into the library but for some unknown reason they were closed until noon. So I got a coffee and the kidlet got an ice cream at the cafe under the library. While sitting there we got into a conversation with a man from Afghanistan. He has been in Sweden a year, but was in the US for a couple of years before that. He heard us talking english and spoke to us. The kidlet being the friendly person he is told the man our address, how old I am, his name and age, his dad’s name etc. Luckily the man didn’t really catch all the kidlet said and we had a long talk on the weekend about not telling strangers things like your home address. *laugh* After we came home Emma came over and they made ice cream. It was a real hit.

Saturday we went and ordered the kidlet’s new glasses. It took almost an hour to find a pair we all 3 liked and that fit properly. Then we went to the jewelers and picked up my fellow’s pocket watch. He was thrilled to have it back and it cost a whole 150 SEK for repairs. So that was a bonus. Then it was another trip to ÖoB and we picked up more little things for the apartment. The kidlet got a race car set too. From there we went to Arlandastad and had fika. Picked up new bathing trunks (do they even say that anymore?) for my fellow. We headed over to my fellow’s parents after shopping and had dinner there. The kidlet set up the race car set there and left it so he has something else to play with when we are there.

Yesterday we slept in till about 1100. Then I mentioned to my fellow that soon I would need to go to Kista centrum because my shampoo was almost done. So he said “let’s call and see if my mom wants to go”. Since he hates shopping that was a real treat. We headed out to Kista about 1230 and had a nice afternoon. I got my shampoo, the kidlet got some little gardening gloves and tools to use at the cottage and a new pail and shovels to take out to the sandbox here. We looked at stereos and things but didn’t buy anything like that. Had lunch there and we did fika before we came home. After we got home I got about 1/4 of the stuff cleared out of the spare room.

This morning I was so tired I literally sobbed when I got up. I really have no idea why I am so tired but it is a bit irritating. *laugh* We went to see the speech therapist again and she said that we will do a follow up in September but his speech is much better and progressing well now. She also said that we can likely forego the appointment with the clinic at Danderyd, because it will be at least 5 months before we even get assigned an appointment time and she thinks that he is doing so well that he won’t need anymore therapy at all by then. We got home a bit ago and now the kidlet is watching a Blue’s Clues tape. I need to continue unpacking once I am done with lunch. *smile*

I forgot to record this. Today is the longest day of the year and according to the weather page we have “Length Of Visible Light: 22h 00m”. It was basically the same last year.

LL had a friend over after dinner. She had to go home at 2000. So 20 minutes before they came and asked if they could bake buns. I said there wasn’t time. So they asked what they could make, they wanted to make me a surprise. I took out digestive cookies, chocolate syrup, sprinkles and little meringues. They covered the kitchen in sprinkles and meringue powder but the final results were just priceless. I did take a picture and will post one day when I finally get my computer set up. *laugh* It was fun for all and she wants to come back tomorrow evening so they can bake muffins and they want to make ice cream with the kidlets’ ice cream machine.

Swimming lessons are going well. Now I understand why parents arrange these summer activities, to have some non “amuse me I am bored mom” time. *laugh* After swimming lessons we came home and watched tv, played Simpsons Road Rage, did laundry together and played the word games from the speech therapist. By 2 pm he was beginning to tear apart his room in boredom. Thank goodness some of the kids got home from daycare about then and he went out and played with them instead.

I did watch and enjoy “The Return of the King” while my fellow was in Göteborg. One night when my fellow is away down south I want to watch the entire trilogy. *laugh* That will keep me occupied when I can’t sleep.

We went shopping at IKEA last evening when my fellow’s mom got finished work. We ate there as well. The kidlet was so excited because they had a kid’s meal for 10 SEK ($1.80 CDN). He got pasta and meat sauce and a drink. He also got a big chocolate brownie with whipped cream on it, that cost 15 SEK. I didn’t notice until later that the cashier forgot to ring that in, so he really did get a great dinner deal. *laugh* I wanted something to store his stuffed animals in and got this. We also got this for storing toys and as a bench for him. While we were shopping the kidlet saw a glass globe that he wanted very much, but I said no, we really didn’t need it. He is a good kid and didn’t say another word but he looked back at them until they were out of site. A bit later we came across this halogen lamp on a display and it had the glass globe he wanted sitting on top of it. So back we went and got the globe and now he has a very cool night light. *laugh* It was a fun shopping trip and then we went to my fellow’s parents after. He had gone there from the airport and visited with his dad while we finished shopping.

So the kidlet asked me yesterday after his swimming lesson why we picked such a hard name for him. The instructors had a hard time with it and I guess he is getting fed up. *laugh* He told the opthamologist to call him “Lou” and told me that it is okay if we call him Lou-ell (this is how many people here pronounce it).

When we chose his name we were living in Canada and I had never been to Sweden. We had spent countless hours going through the baby name books and just could not agree one. When he arrived 6 weeks early we had no name and the day after his birth found my fellow and I sitting on a hospital bed together going through the book again. After we had finished, my fellow said “I like the one with all the L’s in it”, so Llywellyn it was.

For me there was nothing difficult or strange about the name. It was a family name. We grew up knowing about Llewellyn Newton who died in WW1 and is buried in Holland and closer at hand was one of our Quebec cousins, Llewellyn Bates. My family physician at that time even taught me how to say the name as it would be said in Wales. But I had absolutely no idea that 18 months after his birth, my son would be living in a country where no one even wants to attempt saying his name. My fellow never told me that it would be such a difficult name for swedes to say.

On the positive side, even though many adults shy away from trying to say it, or rhyme it with “kvällen” adding in the “v” sound, kids his age only need to hear it once or twice and they say it with no problem. So perhaps one day, like his mom who absolutely hated “Kitty Sue” as a youngster, he will appreciate the uniqueness of his name.

The kidlet had homework to do tonight. It was for his swimming class. I find that hilarious. *laugh* It was to lay on his bed on his tummy and practice the legs motions for swimming. I can see a difference after just two lessons. He actually dunked his head to his eyebrows today where he only went as far as his nose yesterday. He is also getting more confident and not hugging the safety board thingy. He thinks I should come swimming too and wants to do all the things he does at the pool with farfar, which includes using the bubble pool and the sauna. *laugh* I have explained that we have just paid for lesson time for him, not time for all the other things. We will go one day and I will swim with him.

I was thinking of Carrie today when I was waiting with the kidlet for his group to start. There were 5 teenagers in the pool with an older man. They were doing laps and he appeared to be thier trainer. Four of the kids were swimming properly in their lanes but the fifth was just puttering around with no direction. He yelled to her to get with the program (I am paraphrasing of course) and she ripped him a new one, screeching from the other side of the pool that she was told she could do what she wanted and he was not to be telling her how to swim. If this is the kind of thing you had to put up with there in the north Carrie, I have great sympathy for you!

I did some housework today and a bit of unpacking. The kidlet had a friend over late afternoon for a while. She is a really nice little girl and they had great fun playing first in his room and then playing a Pippi game on the computer. She wanted him to sleep over at her place but I said no, perhaps another time. My fellow is away in Göteborg and I prefer the kidlet home when his dad is away. It is good he was home this afternoon because this morning he fed the dog a slice of bread (I suspect it was actually two) even though I explained to him that the dog should only eat dog food. Because he was in this afternoon he got to see the results of being good to the dog, 4 bouts of diarrhea on the kitchen floor. I think LL will now remember not to give in to those big sad eyes when he is eating. *laugh*

Now I think I am going to make some coffee and sit and watch my Return of the King dvd.

Lots has been happening in our little “world”. *laugh*

When I went to school on June 2nd (late as usual), I got there just in time to hear the names of the people in our class who had scored high enough on the written to take the oral one. Wow, was I relieved to hear my name, but I sure was not expecting to take the oral exam right then. *laugh* I was paired with Yvonne, a really sweet lady from Holland. She is expecting her first child in August, so the principal gave us the topic of what we thought about the concept of “pappaledig” here. Then we had to leave messages on imaginary answering machines. By the last one I was talking way to fast and very nervous, even though I have been doing exactly this kind of thing for years here. *laugh* We went out and waited and a few minutes later were told we had passed. What relief! *laugh* When I went to school on the 3rd we got to see the passlist and I placed 3rd, behind Yvonne and her husband. So now it is time to move on and get high school swedish under my belt. *laugh* We started watching the movie “Utvandrare” on Thursday but since I wasn’t there Friday I missed a big chunk of it. We saw more of it on Tuesday, I think that they figured we were studied out and why try to actually have classes. *smile*

We have our new appliances installed, well almost. We got them all on June 3rd, but the dishwasher was only a decoration until today when the plumber came to install the pipes and hook it up. The exhaust fan is still sitting on the floor in the hall because one piece of it did not arrive yet. But those are minor wrinkles in the total joy of having all these wonderful new things here. The vacuum is the coolest, a real treat to use. The microwave is cool and the timer works so I no longer have to set the egg timer when using the micro. *laugh* I really love this ceramic top stove and had the best laugh when I read the manual and the first thing it said was “do not stand on the stove top”. Was this a problem somewhere? *laugh* It really is wonderful to have full sized appliances again.

June 5th was Valstadagen. I was out with Susan and when I got home LL was calling to me from the balcony. His friends’ mom had offered to take him along to the festivities with them and he had come up and asked pappa, who said “ask mom”. So he headed off with Melvin and we followed a few minutes later. It was fun, lots of flea market stuff, good food, pony rides, a big castle thing to hop in and a fire truck for the kids to check out. My fellow’s family came over in the evening and we loaded the old fridge and freezer into a trailer for his uncle to take home.

Llywellyn saw the logoped again on the 7th. He can now make the K and G sounds even though he is not using them in words yet. She said that is great progress. We also went to the enurisis clinic on the 7th. She read the charts we had kept of what the kidlet drank and what he peed over 72 hours and there was no problem there. She said to continue on as we are with waking him before we go to bed, limiting fluids after 6 pm etc. Apparently night wetting is not so uncommon at his age and she said often it is this time between 5 and 6 when they outgrow it. We have a phone appointment in the fall so she can check if he has stopped by then. The most important thing was not to stress over it (we aren’t *laugh*).

Our class trip to Uppsala was on June 9th. The kidlet slept over at his grandparents, spent the morning with farfar and then farmor came home at lunch and took him to school. I stopped in on my way home and told him he could come home himself if he wanted. We headed out about 9 am, 4 busloads of students and teachers. Once we got into Uppsala the buses dropped us off and we broke into groups. Some of them were going to see an old prison, I chose the castle because I have wanted to see inside it since the first time I laid eyes on it 3 or so years ago. *laugh* It was a great tour, the history was interesting, the architecture was fascinating, but there was not much else to look at, so it must have been boring for those who don’t have t
he same passion I do for architecture. The guide was a bit difficult to understand, she used a lot of slang words. I kept up by listening closely, but a good portion of our group was students from the first level of SFI, so they had little comprehension of even basic swedish. There were some lovely tapestries and it was interesting hearing about Gustav Vasa and seeing where Queen Katrina abdicated so she could go to Rome since she was a catholic queen in a non catholic country. this and this are the exterior of the castle. From there we went to the Domkyrka (cathedral), somewhere else I have wanted to see for ever so long. It was absolutely awe inspiring. When I stood and looked down the aisle, it reminded me of the scene in the LOTR movie where Gandolf lights his staff and we can see the wonder of Moria. There was so much history and it was so fascinating architecturally that I could have spent the rest of the day there. After the church we walked to the city park and ate lunch. It is lovely, gardens galore. I got my fill of lilacs there and saw the cutest mamma duck and her ducklings. All in all it was a terrific day. After dinner we went to a “gårdfest”, a little party in a parklet. It was a political thing, with fun stuff for the kids and a big push for the parents to remember to vote in the EU parliament elections on the 13th. The kidlet built a bird house, competed in a sack race, did the fish pond thing and got to eat lots of hot dogs, cooked by his dad. I took pictures of my fellow manning the bbq, it is proof that he can cook even if he never does. *laugh*

As I have already journaled, I missed my graduation on Thursday. *laugh* It was also party day for LL at his preschool. They actually finished on Friday, but some of the kids couldn’t come then so they had the party a day early. He came home with a booklet of pictures he had drawn and a little message on it from his teacher.

Friday we went to Danderyd Hospital to see the opthamologist. What a huge place! We had a 10 am appointment and the doctor was sweet. She checked him over really well and then when she was done she asked him which eye saw better … he pointed to left. Then she turned and said all her tests showed he had a problem with the right eye but the referral said left. *laugh* He has hyperopia as well as a very slight astigmatism in the right eye. She said it was borderline if he needed glasses or we could correct it with an eye patch. So she asked if we could wait and see another specialist, he would fit us in rather than waiting for another referral time. The second doctor said glasses were necessary and that they could correct this problem by the time he is 9 or 10, although it is also possible he will always have to wear them. So my son is going to get glasses and hopefully he won’t do what I did, I hid mine behind the stove thinking I wouldn’t have to wear them anymore and instead my parents bought new ones, which I know now was likely a very unwelcome expense to a family with 5 kids and one income. *laugh* It was a mad rush to get back here for his final afternoon at school but we made it and were only 30 minutes late. Now we are both off for the summer.

Saturday I let my fellow sleep in and then when he woke up, I fell asleep and slept till 3 pm. It was a well needed rest. We grocery shopped and had a quiet day.

Sunday was election day here. We voted for our representative in the European Parliament. There was only about a 37% voter turnout and 3 of the 19 seats went to Junilistan, an EU skeptic party that just formed. They thought they might get one seat but this was a bit of a backlash vote I think. People are not pleased with how some of the larger countries in the EU bend the rules to their benefit and then slap down the smaller countries for trying the same. I did see some poll results last night showing that even though there is a lot of complain
ing about the EU, a majority of swedes would still vote to remain part of it (of course they may have polled all the supporters in the country and really only 2% want to remain *laugh*). I was thrilled to get to vote, a big benefit of having swedish citizenship.

Today the kidlet started swim school. We will go 5 days a week for 3 weeks. He thought it was great fun. As previously mentioned, the plumber was here and we now have a functioning dishwasher. I had lots of plans for the day but a headache sidelined them somewhat. At least I got to finally update here. *laugh*

Now the biggest news, MEAGHAN IS COMING TO VISIT! She is going to be here for Canada Day on July 1st. I am so excited that she can manage to get here during her summer in Europe. Of course this means I had better to sort out the spare room, or she will be sleeping atop a pile of boxes. *laugh*

I must be so disorganized, or else I am just darn busy. *laugh* Have done lots in the past week though and hopefully will get it journalled before I forget it all. Today was our last day of school. I was away on Monday since I had to appointments that day for the kidlet. So I missed the announcement that school started at 1030 today not 1230. Consequently I missed graduation. *laugh* I got there in time to chat with my classmates as they finished lunch (it was a grill party). The sweet secretary came out and saw me and took me to the office to give me my diploma and a swedish flag. She said they would want to take my picture also and that happened a few minutes later. It is nice to be done school for the summer.

At the moment I have a roast in the oven and tons of housework waiting, so the rest of my week will have to wait to be recorded for posterity. *laugh*

I passed! I am so relieved I could cry. *laugh*

… is that what they called it at KFC? Some days I really miss that greasy chicken. *laugh*

The exam has been written, I have no idea at all how I did. My fellow has promised me the Return of the King dvd if I pass. *laugh* It was another long weekend here in Sweden. So my fellow worked from home on Friday and took care of the kidlet while I wrote the exam. After I got home I took said kidlet to school, then did cleaning and got a coat of wax on the kitchen floor. We thought we would do one before the appliances are changed, as a bit of protection and then put another coat on after they are in place.

Saturday was my fellow’s birthday. He got breakfast in bed (french toast) and a cute little card the size of a business card that says “I love you exactly as you are” (in swedish of course *laugh*)from me. He took it easy while I got things ready for dinner here with his family. We had a mish mash dinner of all things we like, crayfish, fresh shrimp, smoked salmon, couscous salad, sweet corn on the cob, lettuce salad, fresh dinner rolls, a number of types of cheese and assorted sundries. There was a cake for dessert. The kidlet bought him a coffee cup that says “worlds coolest dad” and a cuddly little stuffed bear holding a heart that says “Happy Birthday”. That is for pappa to sleep with … I am not sure if that means I need a new bed now or not. *grin* There were clothes from his family and a lovely mum that he appears to be allergic too. So it is on the balcony now and the kidlet has made it his job to water it every day. I got him new clothes, 6 short sleeved dress shirts and 2 more pairs of dress pants. That should get him through the summer, since it is beginning to be short sleeve weather now.

Sunday was Mother’s Day here. I got breakfast in bed. My fellow made coffee for me and the kidlet made me a sandwich. It was light rye bread with butter, Kalle’s randiga kaviar (that is mild caviar and cheese in a squeeze tube) and strawberry jam. Yummy. *smile* My fellow managed to get just kaviar on his sandwich. It was really sweet that the kidlet was so excited about making me such a great breakfast and I ate it with a big smile. Then we quickly packed up an overnight bag and went out to the cottage in Månkarbo. It was a last minute decision to go, since my fellow did not want to miss his F1 racing at 1355. I packed up all the leftovers from the birthday dinner and off we went. It was a nice time there with his parents. The weather was lovely and we had a sauna Sunday evening. We also got to use the new bathroom, the outhouse has been fixed up and will be the extra bathroom from now on. It was nice to go into the nice newly built one with a heater and everything. *laugh*

Monday my fellow tilled the area we are going to use for the pool this year. It was really hard work even with the gas tiller and he came home with both hands well blistered. Next is to get the sand for under it and then we can get it set up for the summer. There is a bird nest in one of the plum trees and at least two baby birds are in it. It was hard work to keep the kidlet still and hidden long enough to see the parents feeding the babies but it was worth it, he thought it was too cool. *smile* We got home about 6 pm and it was a quiet evening here.

My fellow headed off to Göteborg this morning and will be home tomorrow evening. I did laundry and cleaned up some here. The kidlet walked to school himself today. He was so excited about it that he ran all the way. *laugh* Then he called me on my mobile phone to report that he was there. There was a meeting tonight here for everyone who could help with the bastu (sauna) building. I had no idea they had one here until I read it in a real estate ad last week. Thursday there is a welcome meeting for all new owners and we will find out just what there is available here. *laugh* The work on the play area is stalled, we do have the police car in ours though, the kidlet went out and asked the workmen if they could please put it here. Apparently he made small talk first, asking if it was hard work buildin
g there and then he asked for the police car. *laugh* But the slide they were in the process of installing had a wrong piece with it, so we have to wait for the right one. The workmen are busy doing the play area in the next gård (courtyard) and according to the monthly newsletter from the condo association, all the play areas are being replaced this month.

Next week will be a busy one, so this week I have no plans. *laugh* We have 3 appointments for LL, one in Märsta and one in Upplands Väsby on Monday. One at Danderyd hospital in Stockholm on Friday. Friday is also his last day at Nyckelpigan preschool and there is a party in the afternoon. On Wednesday I will be going to Uppsala with my class. We are going to do a castle tour among other things. It will be fun and if I did pass the national exam, it is unlikely I will see most of them again after next week.