Kitty’s Place

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Maud

My Grandma passed away yesterday, a week after her stroke. She never woke up from it and just slipped away. My middle brother articulated my thoughts when he said her passing marks the end of an era.

My gram was a sweet lady, a homebody who raised 5 kids and cared for my grandpa for 71 years. She always had time for us, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. She was a hands on grandma so we all knew her and loved her. She was superstitious and we all learned about not coming in one door and leaving by another, spilling salt and all those oldtime sayings. She was so proud the day I graduated from college, because when she was young she had dreamed of being a nurse but instead she married and had a family.

Grandma also came from Avoca, Quebec. She was the only girl and had two brothers. She grew up on a farm and went to school and church in the village. She married my grandpa when she was 18, they had 5 children together. My mom was a teenager when her grandfather died, I was teenager when her grandmother, my great grandmother died, so my grandma came from people who were blessed with long lives as well. My grandparents moved from Quebec to Ontario because my grandpa got a job in the nickel plant in Port Colborne. My gram had a hard time moving, she did not want to leave her family. We talked about that a lot when I made the decision to move to Sweden. But they made the move and eventually moved into the home they would share for the next 60 years. That home will live in many memories for years to come.

Baking, canning, making jelly. All things I learned from my grandma. She made the best tea biscuits and a birthday was not a birthday without a “grandma cake”. We canned dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, beets, peaches, pears and anything else we thought looked like it would be fun, one year we did green beans with hot peppers, just because. As a child I spent lots of time at my grandparents, sleeping over on Friday night and helping gram with the cleaning on Saturday. I loved using the old buffer on the floors and helping hang clothes on the line.

My gram of course had faults, the one that comes to everyone’s mind immediately being her slowness. If you wanted her to be ready to go somewhere at 5 pm, you had to tell her that you were picking her up at 4 pm and maybe you could leave on time. Grandpa always did everything quick and grandma did everything slowly. They would be going somewhere and grandpa would go out and back the car up to the door and wait … and wait … and wait. Finally he would get impatient and start honking the horn. In the house grandma would be puttering … and puttering … and puttering and when the horn started blowing she would say “I will just take longer if he keeps honking that horn”.

When I heard last week that she had had a massive stroke, part of me was devastated and part of me was not surprised. I always thought that when one of them went the other would follow shortly. I was surprised how long she held on after, in her coma. This morning I heard something my youngest brother said yesterday, “grandpa was honking the horn and grandma was taking her sweet time”. It made me laugh through the pain of losing her.

Whenever we saw each other we always hugged hello and goodbye, we always said “I love you” to each other, including our last telephone conversation. So I want to say it one last time: “I love you gram”.

Life has been rolling along. LL and I went to church 2 Sundays ago, but didn’t make it last week. He loved it and I am glad to be going to one with a service in english and that is the same as the denomination I grew up with. We are hoping to get there this coming Sunday, since it is the first Sunday of Advent.

School is rolling along as well, although I feel like I am never there. We had an appointment at Danderyd hospital on the 14th. Llywellyn will be having a tonsillectomy and a large polyp removed from his nose, although we have no date for that yet. The ENT doctor we saw threaded a wire guided camera through my little boy’s nostril and down into his throat. She sprayed xylocaine into his nose first but it really was uncomfortable for him. He is such a trooper though, he sat still as anything and the only resistance he gave was a couple of gags when the tube went past his gag reflex. She showed us the film after she was done and sure enough, even though his tonsils don’t look so big hanging back there in his throat, they are so broad that they block his tongue when he makes certain sounds. The polyp was a surprise to all of us, it is so large it blocks one side of his nose when he breaths. Which accounts for the phenomenal snoring he does. *laugh* LL didn’t hear a word the doctor said after she said “OPERATION” and “NEEDLE” (well that is how he heard them *laugh*). But he likes the idea of being home a week from school eating ice cream and popsicles.

The 16th I went to Tom Tits, a hands on science museum. 4 of us went by car and got there an hour or so earlier than the rest of the class. We went around and saw the cool things they have there and I vowed to take LL soon. Then the rest of the class arrived from the train and we had a guided tour. After the tour we 4 left, since we had kids to pick up from school and the rest of the class stayed and had fun. So it worked out well for all.

On the 18th LL got his first filling. From the sarcasm and grief given to me by the dental hygienist, I thought he had huge awful cavities. He has however two small surface cavities that they are filling as a precaution since they are in baby teeth that will fall out by the time he is 10. It was so simple he didn’t need freezing and it took about 15 minutes from start to finish. He goes back next month for the other one and it should be exactly the same. I did ask the dentist about extra fluoride and she said I can safely give him one tablet a day, so we have started with that, just to help protect against further cavities.

We had snow on the weekend, so my fellow changed from summer to winter tires on the car. He had already planned on having them done at a car place this week, but didn’t want to be driving without them once it snowed.

My grandmother had a massive bleed into her brain on Sunday. I talked to my brother on Monday night and he gave me what medical details he could. She was in hospital from Sunday to Tuesday but since there were no beds for her there and she had been in observation in the ER for 2 days with no change at all in her condition, they moved her back to the nursing home to a palliative care area. It was 4 months yesterday since my grandfather died and I am sure she will be following soon, since she is still in a coma with only basic reflex responses. So needless to say I have been feeling very sad.

Llywellyn’s teacher phoned me last week, during the day. Of course I had an instant panic reaction but she said right away there was nothing wrong. He had been out playing in the schoolyard, which for him is fields and forest and he lost the lens out of one side of his glasses. Apparently everyone searched but no one found it. We didn’t make it to the optical place till this week and they ordered a new lens. Right after we came home from there, his teacher called to say that one of the kids found the missing lens. *laugh* We decided to get him new glasses now, so next week we will be taking my fellow along and picking out frames. However we will be picking out for 2 of us, since I had an eye appointment this morning. I have been having a problem with blurred vision for a couple of weeks and today after getting my eyes tested, I was told I need to get either reading glasses and glasses to see distance (distance is the kind I have now) or I can get bifocals. Now I feel old! *laugh*

That is pretty much our life since the last time I posted to my journal.

Today it was brought to my attention that I have never told LL any knock knock jokes. We practiced a few then tonight at the dinner table I said “Knock knock”, he said “who’s there” I said “boo”, he said “who boo”. Can you imagine the laughter that ensued at that point? *laugh*

We had a nice weekend. I did lots of laundry Saturday and then lots of ironing. The kidlet played out with his friends and my fellow got some well needed rest. We got pizza for dinner and the kidlet went around with 2 of his friends and trick or treated. They just went to each others homes and a couple of other apartments where their other little friends live, so there was not much candy but there was lots of fun and excitement (even if it was the wrong day! *laugh*)

Sunday I woke with the worst sinus headache of my life. Really. I took some Tylenol sinus that I actually keep on hand for my fellow and went back to bed where I stayed until 2 pm. Then I hopped up and we all went to the movie theatre to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a cute movie, LL laughed lots. Their teacher is reading them the book during morning fruit break, so he knew the story beforehand. I have to say that I rather missed Gene Wilder, it isn’t that the movie was inferior in any way, it is just not the version I grew up with. *laugh*

Monday I stressed because I thought I was behind in math. Our teacher has given us page numbers to do for homework, but it did not correspond with what was in our schedule for the term. So I had gone further in the book but did not quite complete what was in the schedule. Silly me, I am now ahead two classes, so I stressed for no reason. My fellow had to work late, so we had a quiet evening here. He and a co-worker came home and had a quick dinner here and then headed back to work. I thought I would stay up and have tea with him when he got home, but at 0415, after watching two CSI’s and two Law & Order’s and Family Guy for the second time in one day, I had to go to bed. *laugh* I think he got home after 5 and then was back up at 7 am to take us to school and go back to work. He was looking very tired when he left for his meeting this evening at 7 pm. I do hope he is done soon and can get to bed. Today was swedish for me and we had a new teacher. One of our swedish teachers (we have two since we have swedish twice a week instead of once a week like the swedish students) is retiring at the end of this term and today we met the woman replacing her. She was very nice, very interesting and really is excited about teaching. She has just finished teacher’s college after working in various other professions for many years. While she is new as a teacher, she is not new to the school. She was previously the school secretary and is currently the school accountant. So it was an interesting and fun day. LL had swimming lessons today and after the class was over he asked to stay for a few minutes to play in the big pool. He and a little girl in his class had the best time jumping in, sometimes together, sometimes holding hands and sometimes cheering each other on while they did fancy jumps into the water. It is a far cry from when these same two kids started swimming lessons together a year or so ago and both were afraid to get water on their faces. *laugh*

Tomorrow LL has a friend coming home with him after school. Thursday is a parent/teacher meeting for LL, Friday, Saturday and Sunday have not a thing penciled in on the calendar. Yay! *laugh*

Next week is jammed packed with activities. We have a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment, a telephone consultation with a different doctor, I have a school trip one day and LL has his last class of this session of swimming lessons, which means that parents come and watch while the kids show off what they have learned. *laugh* A week from this coming Saturday, I am going to Taxinge castle to a julmarknad (christmas bazarr), just me … myself … no fellows along. *laugh* It is a bus trip arranged by the condo association and while there will be a lot of people on the bus, I plan on relaxing and listening to music the whole trip. No talking and no listening! *laugh* I am told this is a great julmarknad with quality handwork, so I am sure it will be a great day.

So today was the last day of fall break. We spent the day at Kungsträdgården, a park in the middle of Stockholm. We were there for a bit on Monday and I got these shots of the kidlet on the outdoor skating rink.

Testing the ice.

Skating without skates.

Today the rink was fully operational so there was no more playing on it in shoes. It was also a bit sloppy since it rained a lot yesterday, so we passed on skating today.

We started the day out playing table hockey and table soccer (which I know has some other name but I just can’t remember it *laugh*). We tied in hockey and he won soccer, 9-4.

From there we went to Friday’s for lunch, since I had promised him we could eat at Friday’s on Friday. It was fun, has been ages since I had wings. He got a big red helium filled balloon that traveled with us for the rest of the afternoon. Next stop was the Music Museum tent where he made a kazoo and a bird whistle. He had great fun doing that and it was hilarious hearing all the kazoos around us and seeing the kids swing the bird ones so they would make a sound.

From there he went to the puppet show at 1315, it was “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. I waited outside because it was such a tiny tent and there were lots of kids who wanted to see it. LL loved it, had never heard the story before and thought it was too funny. Then we popped into the next tent for Circus School at 1400. He didn’t do to well with juggling but he was really good with the spinning plate. It was lots of fun after he got past the tears caused by dropping the balls so often. It didn’t make one bit of difference that all the other kids were dropping them too, he wanted to do it perfect from the start.

After the school we wandered and did a variety of things. Watched rabbits jumping over little hurdles, played chess, bean bag toss and ping pong.

By then it was after 4 pm, so we took the subway to Central Station and then the train home. The only sad part was that his balloon that had spent the entire afternoon out in the cold, lost it’s helium when we got inside the subway. *laugh*

Pappa is not home this evening, he had a political thing to go to, so the kidlet got hot dogs for dinner. It really has been a perfect day. *laugh*

So this week has been about museums. I didn’t want the kidlet to spend this school break watching tv and playing computer games, so we sat down with a museum guide a couple weeks ago and plotted our week.

Monday we went to Tekniska Museet. LL had been there with school once and wanted desperately to go back, so we spent 3 1/2 hours looking at all different things. The scariest was going down into a mine. He was really freaked out by the old wooden stairs and there were only a few of them. I told him that when I went to the silver mine with school we went down a few hundred of those steps and he decided he won’t be going there any time too soon. *laugh* As I recorded yesterday after the museum we went to Kungsträdgården. We are going back on Friday to build an instrument with the music museum, learn to juggle at circus school and see the puppet show. Of course he will go out on the ice again, he thought that was so cool.

Yesterday was a 3 museum day. It was also a bonus travel day, since we took bus, train, subway and then a BLUE bus, which for some reason he goes crazy over. Our first museum was the Spårvägsmuseet. As well as old streetcars (spårvagn)dating back to the days when they were pulled by horses, there are buses and subway displays. For Llywellyn who has loved buses and trains since he was old enough to recognize them, it was a wonderful time. He hopped in and out of streetcars and buses. “Drove” a bus and a streetcar (but the video for the subway was on the fritz so he couldn’t “drive” that one) and got to push buttons and pull levers just like a real driver would do on a train. He also bought 3 rulers, each with a different picture, one an articulated bus and the other 2 were different types of subway trains. He has wanted one of these since we first saw one last summer so he was thrilled.

A second musuem lies within the spårvägmuseet, the Leksaksmuseet. In addition to oohing and aahing over lots of cool old toys, the kidlet watched model trains, played a real pinball machine and a real jukebox. I wanted him to play B17 but he didn’t. *laugh* We had a little snack there and then we headed back to the subway where we traveled to Gamla Stan.

Our destination there was the Postmuseum. Llywellyn has been interested in stamps for a while now and he joined the swedish kids stamps club on his birthday. So this was a fun museum to see. He really like the little post office, a whole area set up for kids. There are mail sacks that kids can use to deliver mail around to little mailboxes on the walls, a post office and a craft room where kids can make their own postcards or letters. We were there until 1600, when they closed and then we headed home. LL was chipper but I was exhausted. *laugh*

I fell asleep a little after 9 pm, worn out from all the fun. Today I had planned on doing laundry but we don’t have much, since the kidlet has not been getting muddy at school every day this week, like he usually does. So I rebooked the laundry room for the weekend and we are going to have a quiet, relaxing day here. LL is currently drawing pictures and thinking about what he wants for breakfast, since he slept in today.

It has been much too long since I updated here. Lots has happened in the past few weeks, funny things, stressy things and mostly the Kitty being sick thing. *laugh*

Let’s see, I last updated in September. I finally caught up on the school work I missed the week I was ill and then on Sept 28th we had a class outing for science class. It was definitely different. We met at 0550 in Sigtuna and headed into the woods so we could watch the sunrise. The plan was to see the sunrise, study some fauna and flora and then go to Viby by, a living museum in an old village in Sigtuna. So I got off the bus in the dark and met up with 1/5 of our class, the rest obviously had decided it was too early and that sunrise would not be so impressive in the rain. *laugh* We had been advised to dress very warmly and take with us something to eat and drink. No one mentioned flashlights however so there we were at 6 am in the rain marching through the forest and tripping over tree roots and rocks. The sunrise never occurred, it just got lighter behind the clouds and rain, a few brave birds chirped to let us know the sun was coming but most of them were sleeping in I think. Our teacher had brought along coffee and cake so we sat on rocks in the shelter of the trees and ate, drank and chatted. We passed on the flora and fauna thing because of the rain and made our way to Viby by instead. It is a cute old village but there was not much action there at 7 am. So we were back at the bus stop and ready to go home before 8 am, cold, wet and actually quite happy, because in spite of the downside, it was a lot of fun.

October rolled around and on the 9th Llywellyn and I went to the Canadian Club Thanksgiving lunch. It was a lot of fun, nice to chat with other canadians, hear familiar accents and the food was great. LL bobbed for apples with two other kids his age and thought it was great. There was a draw and he won a small pumpkin. He had a wonderful day and is still talking about it.

October 10th was the start of something called Stockholm Week at school. We had been given the choice of half a dozen themes and formed groups to work within those themes. I was in a group that was going to give a talk on Kungsträdgården (it is a park in the centre of Stockholm and was once the garden for the Royal castle there) and what there was around it and what people do there. Our group was made of 5 women, 4 of us in our 40’s, one in her mid 20’s and two 20 something guys. The guys never showed up at all the 3 days we were in Stockholm but we women had the best time ever. We spent time checking out things in and around the park, chose a different place for lunch every day and stopped for coffee at least once a day. On Monday our class went to the theatre for an english play but I didn’t go because LL had a dentist appointment. It actually was canceled at the last minute because the dentist was ill but it was too late to change plans. Tuesday we all went to Nordic museum and there something set off my asthma. Wednesday I was really feeling bad but I was not going to let our group down, so we spent a fair part of the day doing outdoor things around the park. The rest of the class went to see a Shakespeare play but we 5 in our group did not, since we are all moms and could not arrange for child care till after midnight. Thursday and Friday we worked on putting our research in order for the presentation the following week. I was really in distress with the asthma and worked hard to get everything done in case it got worse. The following Monday I was unable to go to school and saw a doctor instead, my asthma was the worst it had been in 4 years. It was then I discovered the previous doctor who prescribed a new type of medicine the last time I had a problem, had actually decreased the dose of my steroid inhalations to 1/10 of the dose I have been using for 17 years. Because it was a nasal spray instead of an inhaler I did not realize the dose was different. The doctor I saw on Monday was flabbergasted and said she could see why I was not getting any relief from the meds. So I got new steroids and was home until Friday, when I had to go to school and do the group presentation. It took until this weekend before I was able to go more than 30 feet without wheezing but finally I am over this flare up.

Last week went ok at school but I am getting stressed because I am feeling depressed and having a hard time concentrating. I am hoping that now that I am feeling better physically I will perk up mentally.

Saturday, the 29th, we went to a halloween party. It was so much fun! LL was so excited about it and for days before he talked about how he could not wait. He had a fabulous time and one of those perfect childhood days. We took the pumpkin he won at thanksgiving and he carved it at the party. Everything was fun, even when we missed our bus, we popped into the store and he got to pick out a treat. It was a long day, we left here at 0930 and got home 1945. I had taken with lots of decorations and made up halloween treat bags. There were not so many kids at the party so I had bags left over. About 2030 there was a knock at the door and 8 kids in costume yelled trick or treat (in swedish of course). I let LL give them the treat bags. The first kid looked at the little plastic bag and said “what?????” then he looked in inside and said “ohhhhhhhh”. The kids all said “you had these ready?” and were totally surprised we were prepared for halloween. *laugh* I am guessing there were not many families here who had things or trick or treaters, since halloween is new here in Sweden. Apparently many people give out kronors like they do at easter time. As much as I love halloween, I don’t think it will ever be much of a holiday here and that is fine, they have their own tradition here and that is how it should be.

Now it is fall break here and we are off school for the week. Yesterday I took LL to the city and we spent almost 4 hours at the technical museum, then went to mAx for lunch (it is like Harvey’s in Canada) and then spent a couple hours at Kungsträdgården where the outdoor skating rink is ready and there are numerous kid activities. LL got candy and an apple at the fishpond, skated in his shoes and had his picture taken and then printed out to look like the front page of a newspaper. Today I slept in till 0900, I am so tired I could sleep 20 hours a day at the moment. Then we went and bought some cards, one for my gram who turned 90 on Sunday (all my cards are late, including the halloween exchange ones for the halloweenie community), a housewarming card for a friend and a condolence card for a ‘kanska/lis friend. I will get them addressed tonight, as well as the halloweenie ones and then I will almost be caught up with life again. I do have a chapter of math and a book report to get done but I think I can manage those. We are planning on going back into Stockholm twice more this week, to see 3 more museums and back to Kungsträdgården on Friday to see a puppet show, learn to juggle and build a musical instrument.

LL is learning to read and is doing well. He is spelling things phonetically when he writes them and I have giggled so much lately, but never in front of him. Last weekend he came in and woke us up to show us the notice he had printed out. It said “ialp pooh” (hjälp pooh or help pooh). He was so proud that he wrote it all by himself. *laugh* Speaking of giggles, today I took him to McD’s for lunch. A little boy, perhaps 6, was getting the table ready while his mom ordered. He got straws first and lay them on the table and then went back to get ketchup. While he was gone, one of the girls who worked there walked past the table and took the straws, thinking they had been left as garbage. The little boy came back and literally stopped in his tracks when he saw the empty table. He went to his mom and said “but mom, I put straws right there, I KNOW I did”. The look on his face was priceless. *laugh*