Kitty’s Place

Wow am I tired. *laugh*

Yesterday the kidlet had his first hemsprak class. It takes place at 1230 at St Gertud’s and the 3 kids from Rävsta go directly from the bus to class. So it is perfect and I don’t have to go and wait with him for an hour before class starts. He enjoyed it, said that he can only speak english in that class but if he does say a swedish word it is ok, she just says the correct english one.

It was a bit of a tough tongue healing day, I ran a fever and had some draining from it. This happened with other piercings so I was not freaked out, but I was exhausted. So I did minimal talking, lots of rinsing and was in bed by 2130 last night and slept like a log until the alarm went off this morning. Today there is no fever, no draining, no redness and decreased swelling, so things are looking up. I am still tired though. *laugh*

It is school picture day. I sent a brush along with the kidlet and repeated over and over that he is to wash his face after lunch and brush his hair before pictures are taken. I remember hearing of other kids who ended up with dirty faces and messy hair in their pictures because teachers didn’t say “get cleaned up” before they were taken (not at LL’s school but here in Sweden). I told him I won’t pay for the pictures if he has lunch on his face in them. *laugh* Because the photographer is coming after lunch, LL will come home on the 1450 bus instead of the 1220 one. He is all excited that he gets to stay late with the fritids kids. I packed him an extra fruit in his knapsack for the afternoon and he thought that was just the cats meow. *laugh*

Back on the 10th of September we went to Skattemyndigheten (tax authority) and dropped off a form for shared custody of Llywellyn. The woman there told me that we should hear from them in a week or so and that the decision would be from the date we dropped off the request. Last Friday I still had not heard from them … no surprise considering our dealings with them since we moved here. So I made a request on their website for a printout that shows LL’s official info according to the tax department. It came yesterday and shows both of us as legal custodians (it was just me on the same form in May), so obviously they have made the decision, just never bothered to let us know. *laugh* I am so relieved this is finally done, it was a long drawn out process for something that should have been automatic. We have joint custody in Canada, but just because we are not married we had to jump through hoops to get it here in Sweden. *laugh*

We are waiting for someone to come and change our cable tv outlets. The complex is upgrading to digital cable. LL is playing and making messes, my fellow is at work and I am wishing the swelling in this tongue would go away. *laugh*

I am watching ER at the moment, I have two episodes taped and hopefully will see them both today. It was our mutual love of ER that brought Ibo and I together back in 1996, but while I still love and follow the series, he lost interest a couple seasons ago. It just came back on a couple weeks ago and is airing opposite CSI, a show we both enjoy, so ER is now relegated to vcr land. *laugh*

The party for Benjamin was a big hit and LL had a great time. We went to my fellow’s parents for a visit while we waited to pick up the kidlet post party and then his dad and sister came here for dinner. It really was a nice weekend all around.

This morning my fellow stayed home and had a “work from home” day. I hopped on to the train and went into Stockholm sans child (who has no school today or tomorrow). First stop was Panduro and then I took the subway to Skanstull and went to East Street Body Piercing where I got a lovely tongue piercing done. *laugh*

My fellow mentioned a few weeks ago that he thought it would be cool, so I read lots about them and decided to go for it. While I was there I asked about nipple piercing but since the last two times I have had it done have ended in the rings migrating out, I was told it was not really worth trying again. Apparently eyebrow, naval and nipple piercings are the ones that are most likely to migrate and if they do it once, it is unlikely they will stay at all. I waited an hour there since it was just frantically busy (surprising to me since it was 1300 on a Monday). I saw lots of kids with multiple piercings buying new jewelery, a mom with her teenage daughter signing for an eyebrow piercing, an elderly man looking for a new earstud and a teenager who was also getting her tongue pierced, who brought along 6 giggling girls for support. *laugh* It was interesting to say the least. I made sure I iced lots the first hour, went through two glasses of ice from McDonalds and it seems to have done the trick because there is minimal swelling, although the tongue is a bit sore. The fellow who did the piercing said I had a perfect tongue for piercing. *laugh* I have to go back in two week to get the barbell changed to a shorter one and I think I will drool over jewelery some, since they had such a wonderful variety to choose from. *smile*

The kidlet went to the dump with his dad and grandfather. He was really disturbed when they mentioned last evening that they were going there today. At first I wondered why then I remembered we had just seen a Simpson’s episode where a bear chased Homer at the dump. We explained that there are no bears at swedish dumps and then he was all for going along. *laugh*

The trip to Malmö was great fun. Apparently they took the wrong bus to the airport though, so time was shorter than planned and all the kids went to Ethiopia. *laugh* I did say to my fellow that they should be on the X bus if they were going to the Flight Academy but he said no and I believed him. It was too funny hearing LL talking in to his hand like it was a microphone “you are on the wrong bus”. The older kids got little passports and the younger ones came home with boarding passes. When the simulator “landed” they were all greeted by a group of people from Ethiopia in their national costume. LL explained to me quite earnestly that they were quite dark skinned, not just light-dark like his grandfather. I had explained that people from Africa are often darker in colour than people from Sweden and that Egypt was in Africa, so I think he wanted me to know that there are different skin tones in different parts of the continent. *laugh*

Friday we got the rest of the party stuff organized, picked up the dry cleaning and then went to the airport to meet my fellow when he got back from Gotebörg.

Today was the big, well anticipated party! It started at 1 pm and there were 5 of his classmates here. They played, they watched a movie, they ate hot dogs. They played Pin the tail on the Pig and had a fish pond. They had cake and candy from the goody bags they fished for. By then it was 4 pm and parents arrived to take the other kids home. One of the dads’ stayed with his daughter, but the rest of them did the drop off/pick up thing. It all went well and LL enjoyed every minute. He was so exhausted that he actually said a few minutes before bedtime that he was tired and wanted to go to bed.

In addition to the kids, we had my fellow’s sister and cousin here (they did the games with the kids), farfar, my fellow’s uncle (Jonas) and a friend of Jonas’ (Oskar). Jonas couldn’t come last week for the family party because he was ill, so it was nice he came today.

He got some cool gifts, a small red sports car, 3 rescue vehicles (police, fire and ambulance), a Lego Knights Kingdom figure, a Planet Fighter (dinosaur that transforms into a warrior), 4D puzzle of an Orca and a cool pencil with a space ship on it. He also got this from Jonas and Eva (Jonas always finds the perfect kid gift), a new Beyblade from Oskar, and a treasure chest of candy with a cool skeleton head key from farfar.

Tomorrow LL will go to a birthday party for one of the kids that was here today. He is as excited about it as he was about today. *laugh* Thank goodness they have 2 PD days next week so he has some time to wind down.

I do have pics from today but no editing program on this computer to resize them, so I will post them later. *smile*

I took the kidlet to school this morning and then he was off on another school trip. This time he and the other small children are going to “Malmö” while the older kids head off to “Ethiopia”. They will be home at 1500. *laugh* How is this possible you ask? Well lots of imagination and a parent who works at the flight school where they have simulators. This trip was a big secret, all the kids knew was they were going on an “utflykt” and they were taking the city bus. Right now the small kids are learning about Sweden in geography, so that is why their destination is Malmö. The older kids are learning about Africa, hence Ethiopia. They headed out this morning on the bus from Sigtuna to Märsta, where they switched to the bus to Arlanda airport. They will get off at the flight school and commence a day of great fun. I know LL is going to love it, since he is so crazy about planes. This is yet another advantage of him being in a small school, since it would be a logistical nightmare to arrange this with a couple hundred students. *laugh*

His birthday was a fun day. We had meatballs and mashed potatoes for dinner, his favourites and then instead of cake (which we will have at his party) we had chocolate mousse. His had a sparkler in it and he got another round of “Happy Birthday to you” at that point. Meaghan phoned to wish him a happy birthday. That was a great surprise! Aunt Maud phoned as well but she got stuck late at work and he was asleep when she called, so she called the following evening.

Tuesday we went and got some new books at the library. One of them is called “Six Dinner Sid” and what a cute book it is. My fellow had no meeting on Tuesday so we had a nice relaxing family evening.

Wednesday we went and picked up party stuff after school. So far we have had 4 parents confirm that their kids are coming, 1 maybe and 1 who can’t come because they are leaving on Saturday for 3 weeks in Spain (I would pass up a birthday party for Spain too *laugh*). It was swimming lesson day as well and we got to the pool just at the stroke of 1515. We actually met his teacher coming in to the change room since none of the kids were there yet. I went to get him from the pool 5 minutes before his lesson was supposed to be done and he was standing at the door, tapping his foot and he proceeded to scold me for coming late. I pointed to the clock and said that if his teachers felt the need to stop class early, I was not at fault. *laugh*

My fellow headed off to Göteborg this morning and will be home tomorrow evening. I am in cleaning mode here since I have a few hours to work away at it. Today I am carrying out stuff to the recycle bin and the big garbage shed. Tomorrow I have laundry time to wash the area rugs and then a quick floor wash on Saturday and the place is party ready! We have Winne the Pooh hats, horns, plates, cups, napkins, tablecloth and balloons. We also picked up some candy and little dollar store toys to put into bags for the kids to take home. I think those will be the fish pond catches. *smile* There will be hotdogs, fruit juice and cake (with those little paper Swedish flags on toothpicks because LL thinks they are necessary *laugh*). I think I have everything covered but if anyone has any hints, feel free to add them here. This is a whole new experience for me.

I spoke with one of the other mom’s last night. We are still trying to arrange things so the 3 kids that have english as a home language can start hemsprak now. While we were talking she mentioned that her son is having a party Sunday but his birthday is actually Saturday and she wondered if LL’s was too, since that would have been a real coincidence. She asked if we had the invitation but we didn’t. So I asked Llywellyn if he had received one and he said yes, but that the teacher kept it. So I guess I will have to call the other boy’s mom again and find out when and where the party is. *laugh* If I had not been in such a sleep deprived state this morning I would have asked his teacher about it, but we were talking about hemsprak and frit
ids and it slipped my mind. *laugh*

It was a big clothes shopping week. I got the kidlet 15 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants and I pair of jeans, 3 pairs of those one size stretch gloves and 1 pair of “good for temperatures down to - 40″ winter boots. That should last us for a couple months, since he goes through socks like crazy(I threw out 5 pairs of holey ones Monday) and seems to be stretching out a bit taller every week. *smile*

We have had a nice few days, even though we missed my fellow while he was down south.

The kidlet enjoyed his class trip to Viby but I think some of it was a bit boring. *laugh* I was a few minutes late picking him up because the bus broke down at our bus stop and I missed my connecting bus. Luckily it had already been arranged that the teacher would be staying with the kids at St Gertruds until the late bus came from Rävsta, so it was not a major problem. I did discover though that I did not have the school # programmed into my cellphone. That has been corrected! He did start swimming lessons after school and had fun. There were many tears though because one of his classmates is in the class after his. He wanted to switch but all the classes are full and it is not really a good time for us to take the later one.

We were up bright and early on Thursday to take the bus to Sigtuna. It was rainy and cold, summer is definitely over. After school we made a trip to the airport to watch planes. Then we came home and I did laundry. LL was so worn out from Wednesday that he fell asleep on the couch and so was half asleep when his dad called to say good night. *laugh*

Friday we went to IKEA with farmor. I saw light fixtures for the living room and we looked at the shelves I wanted but they were too big and heavy for us to take ourselves. So we have to take the men and a trailer next trip. *laugh* I also picked out a sofa bed. My fellow was home in time for dinner and we had a nice cosy evening at home. We did have a minor catastrophe, the kidlet took off his glasses and put them on the floor in his room then forgot about them and stepped on them. The frame was bent and glass popped out of one side. I did not get angry but I did tell him how disappointed I was that he did such a silly thing as lay them on the floor.

Saturday we took the glasses in for repair. We didn’t know if they could be done at the optic shop or would need to be sent away. The woman working there said to come back in half an hour and she would see if she could fix them. She knew right away what happened to them and said to the kidlet “hmmm, you stepped on them”. *laugh* So the kidlet and his dad went to the library cafe and I went and picked up some gifts for the kidlet. The glasses were good as new when we picked them up and the kidlet said “there, now you don’t need to be angry with me any more!”. *laugh* Of course I was actually just that when I discovered the glasses on his floor at bedtime, but we just had another talk about being responsible. *laugh*

My fellow’s family came for dinner and we had a party for the kidlet. We just had pasta and sauce but there was a great ice cream cake with a “6″ candle and sparklers. The kidlet got a cool moon wall lamp, a lasar pistol with sounds and lights and a down filled vest from his aunt and grandparents. From us he got a few little toys he has been pointing out for weeks. One of them was a Hulk doll that kicks and punches and says things like “Hulk smash!”. He was thrilled with it. His grandmother pointed out that the lasar gun was not to be played with on weekend mornings when mom and dad were sleeping. *laugh*

Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of the lasar gun and Hulk. *laugh* We went and picked up invitations for his party on Saturday and otherwise had a very laid back day.

This morning we took the bus to Sigtuna and he handed out some of his invitations to classmates. I woke him early singing Happy Birthday to you and he just beamed. I really can’t believe it has been 6 years already since he was born!

We had a nice weekend. The kids day was fun and we did a big grocery shop. My fellow’s family were here for dinner Sunday. Kidlet had a hoarse throat all weekend but never really felt ill.

Monday was uneventful, school, bus home, playing outside. The normal stuff. *laugh*

Yesterday the kidlet learned the letter V. We went to the library and dropped off books after school. There was a parents meeting at his school so his aunt came and stayed with him. Not only did he have his beloved ‘Sandra’ here but Rikard (my fellow’s cousin) was here too! It was like a great holiday for LL. *laugh* The parent meeting was interesting. There were things that I just did not catch completely because of the gaps in my vocabulary, but I did understand most of the things that were discussed. They are looking for parents to sit on a committee (sounds like PTA) that would liaison between parents and staff. There was not a lot of interest and my fellow commented on it. I don’t feel I have enough swedish to volunteer but my fellow said how do I know without trying. So I am debating it. *laugh*

Today my little boy is going on his very first class trip! We dropped him at St Gertrud’s this morning and his class as well as the St Gertrud’s kindergarten class are going to Viby by. It is a 2 km walk and then they will have 2 separate tours and the walk back. Big undertaking for kindergarten kids. *smile* I found this little bit of info about Viby by:

Viby Village
“Just outside of Sigtuna town is the farming village of Viby. The village has been preserved, un-changed through the centuries. The village’s farms from the 1800s show how people lived before the agricultural reforms.”

I will pick him up at 1415 today, two hours later than usual. He has swimming lessons starting today as well at 1515, but I told them he likely would not be there since I suspect he is going to be a tired little boy. So we shall see if swimming gets into the picture today. *laugh* Sadly it is cold and we have had already had one wild and windy thunderstorm this morning, so it isn’t the best day for an “utflykt” (outing).

There is another class trip planned for next week. It is a secret, all the kids know is that they are going on a outing. *laugh*

My fellow is gone to Göteborg for 3 days. He took the kidlet to school this morning, came back, had breakfast and then headed for the airport. I already miss him. *laugh*

Wednesday must have been a very uneventful day, I have no recall of it at all. *laugh*

Thursday we went to Danderyd and saw LL’s eye specialist. She was happy with the progress since he got his glasses and loved that they were Moomim ones. After our appointment with her we walked to the subway. We waited for an old train and rode in to T-centralen. Then we got onto a commuter train and went to Spånga to the tax authority. I submitted our application form for shared custody of LLywellyn. Yes, I do procrastinate way too much. *laugh* It took forever to get the proper form and then I was advised to take it in person so it would not get lost. I just have forgotten about it until I came across the paper recently, so now that is done. Personally I think it is silly that we have to request shared custody in Sweden when he was born in Canada and we have shared custody there. Then we headed back to Stockholm and LL had McDonalds at Central station. I talked to Aunt Maud last night, always a fun thing to do. *smile*

Today LL went to his old preschool and spent the morning there. They are now down to only 3 kids and the lone boy was thrilled to have Llywellyn join them. I went and spoke with the woman who runs the hemsprak program and she was very nice. We discussed him going to a class here near home this year and then they will organize things to accommodate his school next year. I think we will just wait though so he is going with his classmates.

Next week his class is going on their first school trip. I am feeling like my baby is growing up much too quickly. *laugh* He will be six in 10 short days. He wants 2 parties, one with his school friends and one with his home friends. *laugh* I need mom help here!

Tomorrow The condo association here is having a “Kids Day”. Hot dogs, scavenger hunt, karaoke and assorted sundries. Should be an adventure. *laugh*

The kidlet has played this new game, 18 WoS Pedal to the Metal and now he is tucked in bed and story has been read. Tonight it was “Edmund the terrible racoon” which he thought was quite amusing. Last week we were at the library and they had a section where the childrens books had been sorted by language. He wanted some in arabiska but since I don’t read that, he agreed to get english ones. *laugh* We found one that was called “When Findus was little and disappeared”. He was thrilled to see a Pettson & Findus book but he wasn’t sure if he had ever heard that story before. It caused a smile on the face of the librarian when I had to translate the title to “När Findus var liten och försvann” before he would agree to borrow the book. I guess it defeats the purpose of borrowing english books in Sweden if I have to translate them back to swedish.*laugh*

Thursday we have an appointment at Danderyd with the opthamologist. I am interested to see if his glasses are doing any good. He really is not bothered having them on and is much more careful with them than I thought he would be. We are going to go to Spånga the same day and drop off some forms at the tax office. Friday I am thinking we will see if Shrek 2 is playing anywhere near and we can go and see it.

I don’t know if it is his age or just the adjustment of school but the kidlet is being very mouthy lately. I can say “go and brush your teeth please” and he will say “have you brushed yours??? I will brush mine when you do yours!” or I say “go and pick a book and hop into bed now and I will be right in to read to you” to which the response is “why don’t you have to go to bed now? Why can’t I stay up as late as you? You should have to go to bed too!”. *laugh* Pretty much every request is met with a smart remark back. The other day he asked me who the mineral water belonged to. I said it was mine. He said “just yours???” and when I said yes he called me dumb mom. That one got challenged since we had been shopping and he got pop while I got mineral water. So I asked if I should call him dumb because he drank all his pop himself. *laugh* I do hope this is a passing phase, on the whole he is still sweet and funny but this attitude thing is rather irritating. *grin* Worse is that he has taken to swearing in swedish, nothing bad, an occasional jävla (damn) at home which I point out as not acceptable (and he points out that his farmor says it so he should be able to) but imagine how mortified I was on Monday when we were at the busstop and a stranger commented to us on how warm it was to which my sweet little son smiled at her and replied yes it was “skitvarmt” (shit warm). *laugh* I have explained to him that it is really not a nice way to describe a warm day. I guess I am really aware of it because we do not swear at all. Maybe I should take it up?

No, not the musical kind although I like that type very much. *laugh* I am feeling down at the moment and trying to get myself back to my usual cheery self. *smile*

School is going well for the kidlet. Last week they learned the letter “A”, finished making thier Olympic rings and if I got the gist of it right, they drew pictures that will be made into puzzles. Since the weather has been fairly nice, he has been outside for classes every day and loves that.

We have talked to Gram and she is now out of hospital and in a room at a retirement village, where she is recovering well. Grandpa is still at the nursing home but he will be joining her there as soon as he can. They did get together for their 70th wedding anniversary, which Gram spent in hospital. We cannot manage a trip this year though, even with the reduced fares. I am sure this is why I am feeling so depressed and have had a headache for going on three weeks. I tried really hard to sort it out so we could manage it but at this point with the seat sale ending soon, it is not a go.

Ibo and I were out to a party last Friday. LL went to the cottage with his grandparents. We had fun, his old coworkers are a great bunch and we always have a good time when we get together. I didn’t get to drink alcohol because I am taking medication to get rid of the headache, but since I rarely drink it really did not dampen the fun at all. *laugh*

We are trying to sort out the hemsprak program thing for LL. There is a class he can go to but we have to drive to his school every wed morning and take him to another school for the 40 minutes and then we have to drive him back to his school. I think this is wrong and even if I agreed to it, I don’t drive and there is no bus that goes anywhere near his school, so it is a no go this year. Tomorrow I will take the application to the hemsprak coordinator and explain that we can’t organize transportation but we want him to have hemsprak, in hopes that they can sort this out a bit more realistically for next year. If they moved the class at St Gertruds from morning to just after lunch, the 3 boys who are eligible for english hemsprak could make the trip there on the regular 1220 bus and then parents could just come after the class is done. Because this is a new school they were not ready for this at all and since he is in kindergarten I have no problem missing out this year, but I want it known everywhere that next year we expect things to be arranged so they can have the class without parents having to leave work in the middle of the day to drive kids around to other schools.

I could journal more but I am being kicked off my computer by a 5 year old who wants to play a new game. *laugh*