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.

A month old and lots of laundry

Us Montgomerys have run the gamut of common illnesses over the last 31 days - and all four of us at that. Common colds, stomach aches, fever, sniffles, stuffed sinuses, coughs, even engorgement (look it up on Wikipedia if you so dare) etc...

For the most part we are all doing fine. I suppose it is simply a rythym that we are striving after. The tough part has been having these little illnesses pop up every couple days. Christopher makes the big strides when he is healthy. The awareness in his face, his strength in his neck, the general calmness, come when he hasn't been battling the two head colds that have lead to stuffed-up breathing and short sleeps and long nights for his parents. Eventually they too succumbed to illnesses (see above list). Let's put it this way, we've bought our fair share of tissue paper!



All that said, we are such a content little foursome. Sophia continues to be a helpful big sister. She has learned the word for spit-up (in Swedish "Kraks") and points it out with great glee. Her parents on the other hand try to catch it with one of our many handtowels before it goes all over him, on clothing, furniture or the floor. The downside (aside from the laundry and stained clothes) is that it seems like all our photography is taken with a puke-towel as background. The poor kid is going to have baby pictures constantly framed by 5kr ($0.99) Ikea towels (see above). Thank goodness for modern photo-edit programs - a bit of Photoshop can jazz them up a bit.


Even if there does seem to be a lot of "feedback" after each mealtime, he is certainly gaining weight. On Saturday, he and I stood on the scale and if my math is correct (subtract my weight, squared, cancel the x, square root, carry the one, etc.), then his one month weight has brought him up to the 5.0kg level (11.0lbs). More significantly is perhaps that we've graduated two diaper sizes in one month! He is growing up so fast. Not that graduating two diaper sizes isn't enough, the kid on the new version of diapers doesn't even look babyish! (oh, the anguish of a young parent!)

Perhaps even more exciting is that Sophia is quickly leaving her diaper days behind her, or rather better put, she is putting cloth, instead of diapers, on her behind. We are proud of her new talents, but at the same time constantly a bit nervous for a so-called "accident". Thankfully, available at a moments notice, there is always our abundant supply of spit-up towels!

Hugs from Uppsala... The Montgomery four.

Some recent pictures

They do seem to like each other. Sophia is always eager to hold Christopher though admittedly her interest tends to wane after a half-minute or so.

His little neck is remarkably strong and his eyes seem so infinitely curious.

The Siblings

Sophia met her little brother in mid-afternoon on Thursday March 15. She ran to mom's bedside and in mid-hug saw her little brother sleeping beside Cecilia and uttered in a kind of combined sense of awe, surprise and wonder "bebis". It was a bit of a cautious approach at first and she gently reached out and touched him saying softly "klappa" (to stroke or pet). It wasn't long before she was eager to hold him and on her face was what I can only seem to described as pride and fascination. Here she was holding her little brother. The concept of birth, brothers and babies are slightly too big for her to fully grasp with her mere 2 years of gathered wisdom, but somewhere inside her head the wheels were spinning and we like to think that she kind of gets it. Sophia is a big sister and a good one, so far, at that.