Side-step Boogie

In the mid-1970s, there was a line dance called The Hustle that became famous with help from, among others, the film Saturday Night Fever.

Frankly, I cannot exactly recall the look or steps involved in the Hustle, but when I see Christopher, now 8 months, standing at the table's edge and side-stepping his way left and right, I can't help but whistle a bit of 70's disco music.

In fact, there are a few occasions where I have a habit of singing to myself when he does things. In the early 90's, a rap group called Culture Beat had a big hit called Mr. Vain. Christopher's pre-occupation with his own image leads to a bit of humming of that 1993 tune. Mirrors tend to get a lot of attention if Christopher is around.

Consistently, when he pulls himself up at the table's edge or on chairs it leads to my signing of Bob Marley & the Wailers Get Up, Stand Up. Moreover, getting him to sleep by rocking him in my arm is naturally an AC /DC song; For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).

Perhaps there should be a music anthology to accompany Christopher's childhood. I'm already convinced that there will come a day when he will say: "Dad, you were strange!", to which I will start singing the Doors' 1967 song People are Strange.

Quick Enamel Developers

One tooth, two teeth, how about six!

Christopher has won the tooth lottery. Tooth number three arrived last Monday, Oct 14. Teeth four, five and six showed up simultaneously today.

He's been rather cranky and perhaps the gum-buddies are to blame.

Sophia set the precident. She too got a mouthful off pearls rather early, though never do I recall three coming it at once.

Needless to say, he is drooling and chewing on everything around which he can get his mouth. Sleep is sporatic, at best, yet on the upside, he seems to really like this whole chewing concept.
Last weekend, we went on a road-trip to Karlstad in western Sweden. On the trip home, the thing that made Christopher most content was to sit in his car seat and eat crackers. Go figure.

What A Difference A Year Makes!

Back in July, I commented about how the horses and their foals had been put out to pasture in an area near to where I work. The young foals were testing their legs and would prance around their mothers full of energy.

Well, I suppose the attempted analogy has now become rather obvious.  Our little foal is bustling around his parents on all fours and getting into all kinds of new trouble here in our little pasture.  So much of the first months of his life were about the basics; eat, sleep, diaper-change. Within only a few weeks, he took his 6+ months of passiveness and decided that it's time to move - and really move, at that.

Just under a month ago, he began to make the first motions towards crawling forward.  As he has caught on, it has meant a new form of "babywatch" as he now motors around the apartment. Not to be content with just crawling, he has added the pull-myself-up-on-anything and -everything feature to his repertoire, so long as it doesn't fall back on him first.  All and anything is acceptable to be chewed on, so long as he can get his mouth around it.  It takes a new kind of awareness and endurance to keep up with him.


Actually, these strides seem all the more monumentus today in particular due to a rather special anniversary.  It was one year ago that we were at Akademiska hospital in Uppsala for an ultrasound.  

When I post a blog update, I tend to be cautious about using too much hyperbole and/or clichés.  We are not the first people to experience the development of a baby.  It is just simply that at particular intervals we recognize how very drastic the change has been.  To look in a mirror and compare our own reflection with that of one year ago would show few overt differences.  Conversely, to put a black and white ultrasound picture side-by-side with this little boisterous boy says volumes.

To now be cliché and sing "what a difference a year makes..." or use superlatives such as "Christopher is a talented boy, taking brilliant new strides at a phenomonal pace"... or to blankly say, "he crawls, he laughs, he is a happy boy" are all the same.  Instead, the better picture to illustrate is that it is in fact we, the parents, as the metaphorical mother horse.   We are close behind our little foal, with a gleem of pride and an eye out for danger, as he bounces, plays and discovers his world. 

He crawls... FORWARD!

Six months ago today, Christopher made this blog make sense. Up until then the name of the blog was a bit of an fallacy... Okay, nevermind. That lame attempt at humour is mearly a tangent. Here's the real news:
CHRISTOPHER IS CRAWLING FORWARD!
Like Neil Armstrong before him, he is taking one small step... er, crawl for mankind.

Frankly, this is a bit of overblown excitement. Its significance is moreso because it should lead to the end of some of his frustration. For the last number of weeks, we have noted his determination and frustration at being unable to reach things. Now that he can inch forward, perhaps we will see his excitement about discovering, instead of hearing a dull whine of getting stuck under the dresser, again. :)

Happy 6 months Christopher! Way to go!

First Crawl Backwards - it will lead forward

The summer months are gone and the fall is full of colour and promise. Holidays in Canada were superb and both kids were excellent travellers.
Our arrival home has meant a return to routines and perhaps also a bit more awareness of the small things. Specifically noted is Christopher's ear-splitting screams, his attempts at crawling (at present only backwards), and the two sharp teeth that have appeared on his lower gums.
Sophia is back at daycare and is the local Cinderella. Each day when we pick her up, she is wearing a blue Cinderella dress and twirlling like she is at the ball.
At home, she has her Cinderalla slippers (bought by grandma) which seem to always be on her feet.
The kids laugh at each other and continue to be helpful. As both Cecilia and I start our work schedules, our kids seem to be finding their own little routines to make the world turn.
After spending the majority of August in Grandma & Grandpa (Farfar)'s 200+ sq m house, returning home to our 69sq m apartment was a bit of an adjustment.  Luckily the kids found a way to compartamentalize themselves (see picture)

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.