Summer is for Somersaults

Most of Sweden is remarkably quiet right now. It is high season for holidays and we (the Uppsala Montgomerys) are not yet among the masses already on vacation. I read a study that said that close to 80% of Swedes holiday in July. That is perhaps the reason it is so quiet. Nevertheless, I am still working and we are still at home, that is until next week when our holiday will finally begin and we will jet off to Canada.


I work 20km south of Uppsala, on the countryside, next to a horse farm. Each day as I pass the sprawling pastures, I see the young foals prouncing around testing their new bodies. It never ceases to get me thinking of my own little ones, who too are testing their new legs, so-to-speak.

Earlier this week, Sophia, Cecilia & Christopher came to visit me at work. We took the chance to go see the horses in the pasture. Sophia got the concept of the mothers and their babies, pointing at them she would say "mamma häst" or "bebis häst".

What was perhaps more noteworthy of the visit was Sophia's spontaniety. As she was meeting some of my co-workers, for whatever reason, she decided it was high-time for a somersault - no explanation, but very funny!

Like the horses, I suppose she was just trying our her legs.

We have lots of laughter

The spring has breezed past. Perhaps that sounds cliché, though it does seem quite remarkable that Christopher is three months old today. The last posting talked a lot about spit-up, laundry and sickness and those have all tailed off. Thinking back to the first month, we certainly did have a lot to do, but it certainly could have been much worse.
Our son and daughter are quite a fun pair. Christopher is growing quickly and gaining a joyful personality. He laughs, gurgles, explores and seems to be well advanced motor-wise for his age. He has rolled over, will often try to sit up, and has always had a strong neck - all things that are not necessarily expected of a 3 month old. The good health over the last month seems to have let him really develop. No sickness led to lots of weight gain and this whole awareness thing. Today, he had a spontaneous laugh attack... and that was certainly contagious. At the last weigh-in Christopher tipped the scales at 7.2kg (15.8lbs) and 64cm (26" or 2foot 2inches).

Sophia meanwhile is wonderful. We see very little jealousy and simply a lot of desire to help and care for her little brother. There are the typical outbursts of a two year old and that leads to conflict between Sophia and her parents, but for the most part, we are a pleasant little family.

I have been in my new job (same company, but now with Inside Sales) for 6 weeks. We had a visit from our sister company in France last week. Swedish is our language at work, English is my mother tongue, but deep in my brain I still know a good deal of French, though it has not been accessed for a number of years. My French is a dusty old file folder in the back of a file cabinet. It is enlightning meeting and speaking with folks from other European cultures, yet having some sense of intelligent speech come forth from my mouth would perhaps be even more worthwhile in such encounters. The result last week was more or less a collision of my three languages causing a linguistic traffic accident and forcing my eyelids to shut in hopes that they could sort it all out. A bit of a ridiculous situation, but our colleagues from France were quite forgiving. In the end, I realised that a refresher course is in order and a French course this fall looks très bien.