Royal Castle

This is the Royal Castle (Kungliga Slottet) in "Old Town" (Gamla Stan) Stockholm located on City Island (Stadsholmen).

When you first enter the Castle you are in the church. Here are a couple pictures of that entrance. Unfortunately, this is the only indoor location that we were permitted to take pictures.

The Swedish flag flies high above the Castle as can be seen from this Courtyard picture.

The castle is guarded by the Royal Guards (Högvakten). We missed the Changing of the Guard ceremony, but hope to go back on Friday to see that. Despite that we did get to see this performance by the guards at the top of the hour.

Despite this not being the official Changing of the Guard, these guards did infact change.

Swedish Traditions - Kräftskiva and Fika

These pictures were taken at Kräftskiva. That is a party that takes place in August in Sweden where people eat crayfish that has been soaked in brine and cooked in dill. Traditionally there is a lot of alcohol involved too but we did not have much at this party. Butterfly is up for any custom that includes her eating! She also likes to hang out with her cousins. Witchlet and Goobie-kins had some fun in the playroom as well.

Here is Butterfly all ready for Fika. Per Wikipedia: Fika is a social institution in Sweden, it means having a coffee with one's colleagues, friends, date, or family. We went to Fika to celebrate Butterfly's great-grandmother's 87th birthday. Butterfly really enjoyed this because there was food!

Butterfly also really liked this nifty seat I bought for her to use whenever high chairs were not available.

Skansen

The ferry ride to Skansen. Finding parking can be very difficult so it is often better to use busses, subways, and ferries.

These lemurs were very cute, especially the baby lemur.

Goobie-kins had fun pretending to be an ambulance driver, while Witchlet took a turn at the swings in the little ride area of Skansen.

What would a trip to the zoo be if you didn't pet a few animals?

And see a reindeer? There were actually lots of reindeer. We think this must be Comet.

Butterfly with her uncle, Niko. She is asking him to take her back to the binky tree!

And here is this binky tree!!! There were thousands of pacifiers strung up on trees in Lil Skansen. Butterfly loves her bink-a-binks!!

Well if uncle Niko wont take me back to the binks, then Maybe I should ask aunt Mona!

Since no one took me to get a new bink, maybe I can convince mommy to give me some ice cream by giving her a kiss!

Some vacation fun!

The last few days have been pretty good. Butterfly is finally sleeping at night, which means I am sleeping at night.

Friday we took Witchlet and Goobie-kins to a Museum where they do science experiments. It was pretty fun and there was some yummy food there. There are even a couple rides there and we rode one that reminded me of a smaller version of Power Tower at Cedar Point.

Saturday we took the kids to a place called Skansen which is partially a zoo and partially a historical place. They have a lot of the historical buildings of Sweden there and then there are a lot of animals. The interesting thing about Skansen is the number of animals that you are free to touch if you choose. A lot of them will come right up to you and some of them roam pretty freely. My kids especially liked seeing the reindeer. Butterfly spent about 5 hours that day in our Ergo Baby carrier. That thing was probably one of the best investments I have made. After that we went to a Kräftskiva. This is a crayfish party. I love shellfish, but I could not have any of them because they were first soaked in brine, but I was able to eat some of the shrimp. After the party we went to my sister-in-laws for a little while, which was really nice for the kids since they could play.

Sunday we went to a Fika for my husband’s grandmother’s birthday. This seems pretty similar to a tea party, though maybe more casual, not that I have attended many tea parties. I saw a couple people I had not seen since my wedding and met some new people. Butterfly was in fact very much a social butterfly there and Goobie-kins had a really good time. Witchlet did well in the beginning though after awhile it became a bit overwhelming to her and she sat on my lap for a bit.

Today we are registering Butterfly as a Swedish citizen (she will have dual citizenship) and then going to the Royal Castle to see the changing of the guard and then visit a couple museums. Hopefully this evening I can get some pictures of what we have done and post for everyone to see.

Vacation? Relaxation? Not in my life.

So we have not had a particularly busy couple of days, but it sure feels like it.

Yesterday we went shopping for some groceries. This takes a very long time when you do not know the language and need everything translated for you. We got home and my MIL made dinner. Salted ham, potatoes, and a cucumber salad. So I ate some of the salad and the potatoes, but salt is NOT my friend. I had already had a ton of salt Tuesday night and then again there was a lot at lunch on Wednesday. My whole body is swelling. My wedding ring no longer fits and I had to use soap to remove it as it had already left a welt on my finger that has cut open. So I decided against the ham (ok I snuck a few bites because it DID in fact taste good .. and it was there on the plate). So because of this today I am even more swollen and it is making my fingers ache. Also Butterfly chose to not go to sleep until 4:30 am. Have I mentioned that at 4:30 am it is light out in Sweden? This caused me to not get right to sleep and I ended up sleeping until 1 pm.

Sleeping until 1 sound good to you? Ah but we had plans for today that we could no longer keep because we were not able to get ready in time. Witchlet was really upset by this. Now I must admit that her reaction was much more controlled than it was before her new meds, but still she was not happy and everyone knew it. We ended up going to a park to play and I think all kids had fun there. My SIL brought our niece and nephew as well.

Then we come home to figure out dinner. Again we have the salt issue. It seems that most meals here are prepared with A LOT of salt and this is causing me extreme discomfort. At home I cook things fresh most often and adding salt to anything is very rare. So I had thought we would be getting some fresh chicken and some vegetables as well as some tomatoes that we would slice along with the mozzarella I bought yesterday. This seemed perfect, but apparently my MIL had other plans. Pancakes (different than the ones we are used to in the US, they are good but not eaten with syrup here) and some soup from a package. Well checking on the soup we learned this has 900mg of sodium per serving which is approximately 1 cup. That is extremely high considering I am on a low sodium diet. I made a comment that I probably should not have and said “this is why I hate leaving home” and he took it to mean nothing here is good enough for me. That was NOT what I was getting to. There are plenty of foods in that grocery store that are just fine for me. However, I feel like I have no choice at all over what I eat or what my kids are eating and that is hard for me, ESPECIALLY since there are food issues. I have tried to explain this but feel like I am not understood. My husband is feeling like I am rejecting his home country when I am really only rejecting this diet that I fear might kill me. My veinous insufficiency puts me at a higher risk for blood clots so aggravating it AND causing my blood pressure to increase with the salt when I need to sit in an airplane for about 12 hours (another risk factor for blood clots) in 11 days is not a good idea. At this point I am just feeling like I should just not eat anything at all and say nothing about it because the stress of the fight is no good either.

Airports, airplanes, and kids

Of course traveling with children brings about much chaos. We get to the airport and through security and almost immediately the kids start to fight. At this point my husband realizes he has left his charger for his laptop at home. So I call my mom and send her to my house to get it and have her bring it to the airport. Our flight has been delayed for an hour. Joy.
My husband has his charger and just when I think we cannot handle another minute in this airport, we get to board. We get Butterfly's car seat installed and everyone else boards the plane and we are off. 20 minutes later we are at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. We eat lunch and then get to where we need to be to board the plane. Here there is a lot of chaos. My kids start to get irritable and panic. This is when I am so thankful that my friend Lynn convinced me months ago to get an ergo. I totally love my ergo. Again we get on the plane and get everyone settled. Butterfly falls asleep within minutes of takeoff. A little later they serve dinner and Butterfly is still sleeping. When they are about to clean up I decide to wake her so I can get some food in her. BIG mistake. Waking her meant she decided she was not going to sleep again until an hour and a half before the flight lands in Amsterdam. In other words she did not sleep until just before they served a light breakfast. She did not eat. I must say that Witchlet was a perfect angel on this flight. Goobie-kins was talking so much though that he was making me want to test out my abilities of parachuting. Are there even parachutes on those planes? Could I survive the minus 72 degree outside temps if there were? For a good couple hours Butterfly fussed and I am sure that if she was not so damn cute that the other passengers were ready to toss her out too. Thankfully she is cute and they let her stay.
After a couple hours in Amsterdam we board the final flight. This one is with KLM. Major difference between this flight and the other flights. This time the crew checked out the installation of Butterfly's seat. Making sure that it was appropriate for air travel, installed securely, they gave me the required belt for a lap held child in case we decided to take her out of the seat. Now we had her out of the seat many many times on the trip from Detroit without this safety belt thing, but the people on KLM wanted to be sure I had safe options. They also gave us a special flotation device for her since the ones on the plane are too big for a baby. Overall I felt the KLM crew did many things that made the last part of the flight easier. I would LOVE it if we could be with them on the long trip across the ocean. And of course, Butterfly fell asleep before they served sandwiches. By the time I got to take a few hour nap, I had been up almost 24 hours.

How my summer failed ... and the successes I did not expect

So when I decided to quit my job at the beginning of summer vacation, I had this plan of how our days would go. Breakfast, cleanup, play time, lunch, cleanup, fun activity, nap, dinner, evening activities, house cleaning bed. That was my schedule. That schedule has actually happened maybe 2 days out of 2 months.
I forgot to take into account doctor's appointments, grocery shopping, laundry, cheerleading practices becoming more frequent, baseball games getting rescheduled because of rain, zoo trips being canceled for heat, birthday parties to attend, hours spent on the phone with insurance companies, billing specialists, and government agencies.
Lately I have been feeling like I am failing miserably as a stay at home mom. When I worked, I would do something good and my boss would send me an email of appreciation. I would help a co-worker and hear thank you. I got tons of positive messages about what I was doing. I quit my job and then the hard work began. I was with kids day in, day out, and for 19 of those days I did not have any help. No one says thank you when you change a diaper, wash some dishes, shop for groceries, spend time on planning that grocery trip to maximize your money with all the rising costs. It is hard to feel good about things when you hear all the fighting, complaining, and dont hear the postives to counter it.
Last night I had really bad insomnia because I had all these cheers going through my head. Witchlet missed out on early cheerleading practices. Well she went, but because of a scheduling conflict she was practicing with the senior squad and since this is her first year she is a junior cheerleader. The squads do the same cheers .. but they have different movements. This has caused her some confusion and I said that I would put my high school cheerleading skills to use and work on reteaching her. Thus the cheers in my head. So I got to thinking about the smile on her face when she gets it right after I have spent time working with her on a cheer. It's her success of course .. but that smile is my reward.
Goobie-kins loves the computer. He will sit in front of it for hours if we let him. It isnt just the games though. He likes to use the different programs and see what they do. He created some artistic picture using paint and he was so excited about it. When he wanted to show it to me my first thought was the laundry I needed to be doing. But I took the time and went to look and he had a picture that he had made and the words said "I love my mom" (I think something might have been misspelled but that was the message) My heart melted in that moment and I hugged him. Another success.
Then there is my little Butterfly. With her every day brings new things .. at least new to her. Every day is filled with lots of smiles, happy giggles, her happily babbling to anyone who will listen. Isn't a happy baby a success for her mom? I mean if I was really failing, she would not be this happy all the time, would she?
Those are some of my big successes, but I have had little successes too. I got to taste green peppers that I grew in my garden and tomorrow I get to try a tomato that I grew. I have planned how I will do my garden next year too. I pulled off a really good party for the kids, which was a lot of effort but then I realize in the big picture not so important. Next year I wont do so much. I did quite a bit of yard cleanup from the junk that the previous owners left behind.
So my perfect summer schedule went right out the door .. and now we are heading overseas for 2 weeks in Sweden. When we return, I do have to get on a schedule in preparation for school starting, but I think that once Witchlets cheerleading is over, I want to be very careful about not overbooking the calendar.

The present my husband did not know he gave me

Yesterday was my birthday and it got off to a pretty rough start. Things did get better as the day went on. My husband got me some books as I really like to read. One of the books is "I was a really Good Mom before I had Kids" and I have already finished reading this book. Let me tell you, this gift was more than a book. Reading this book may have been one of the best things I ever did .. for me! In reading it, I learned how unnecessary a lot of my stress is and how much of it I put on myself. Of course it wont mean an instant transformation to a low stress life as a mom. I have to reprogram myself .. but it has made me realize that doing things for me, saying no, and not doing everything for everyone does NOT equate to me being a bad mom, bad wife, and overall failure. Lately I have felt so stressed. I have this list of everything that needs done and I put the responsibility on me to make sure it all does, but it never all gets done and then I feel guilty. I feel guilty for taking the time to post to my momma groups .. I am in 2. I still do it, but everytime I am left feeling guilty. Why should I? Those wonderful women, along with a few other friends and some family members are my support system. When I am reaching a breaking point I can always count on one of them to make me feel better. I have decided I will never feel bad again for taking the time for those friendships. They are so worth it.

Why I hate my birthday

Today is my birthday. Every year I keep thinking this year will be better .. but it isnt. When I was a kid, there just wasnt enough money for all the b-day. Being the oldest, I had to be the one to wait for b-day presents that came a month or 2 late.
As an adult, I have been fired on my birthday (not because of anything I did, but because someone's friend needed a job, nice eh?), had pets die twice (a couple years apart), among other things.
So this morning my kids forgot my birthday, all they did was fight for hours, causing me to be late getting out of the house. I got to the license bureau to get my license renewed and their computer went down just as I got to the counter. I was told to come back Monday. Well my flight is on Monday. This means I dont have a valid license for 18 days! I got back home to more fighting. I now have a million or so things to get done and I dont feel like doing any of it. If I dont do it then I have wasted money on plane tickets and my husband will be angry with me for ruining his trip home.