What the Henkel, Padawan?

One month away from her first birthday. How did that happen? This means that my maternity leave is almost up. Well, luckily, I’m not going back to work until school starts again. So, she’ll actually be 15 months when I go back. Erik will soon take over as her primary caregiver, which also scares me a little bit. *wink*

I thought for this post/update I would name 11 things that I love about what Adrienne is doing right now.

• I love when you… wave at the walls of the long hallway downstairs when we are leaving for and coming back from an outing.
• I love when you… sit in front of the mirror and chat away to yourself, making yourself smile and giggle.
• I love when you… get excited about brushing your teeth after your bathtime.
• I love when you… sit and watch other babies and little kids, you seem so calm around them.
• I love when you… scatter to get near me when you are startled by a noise.
• I love when you… reach out your hand to gage how far away I am from you.
• I love when you… react to me saying your name. When you do, I know it was the perfect name for you.
• I love when you… play Peek-a-Boo, especially with your daddy, both of you light up so much.
• I love when you… sit and practice your speech. Today, you worked on “Bbbbbb” and “Brrrrrr”.
• I love when you… look for your daddy when you hear the sound of his key in the door.
• I love when you… spin around wildly in your exersaucer when one of us says “SPIN! SPIN! SPIN!”

I always seem to post at the end of the month, so I’ll mix things up and write mid-month!

One of the fun parts about being a parent, at least for me, is being able to buy adorable baby outfits. There are millions of cool things out there to buy. I’ve been trying to control myself, since at this age, she will outgrow some outfits in a matter of weeks. So, like any obsessed first-time parent, I’ve been hoarding bigger sizes of clothes for when she’s older. Some of my favourite brands are: Tea Collection, Po.P (Polarn och Pyret), me&i, Old Navy, Baby Gap, and H&M. Most of the sizes that I have are 12-18 months and 18-24months. I’m so excited that Adrienne is starting to fit in many of those outfits.

It’s not just name brands that I’m interested in. I’m also addicted to Etsy, where you can find an enormous amount of handmade kids’ clothes. Recently, I purchased the sweetest little lounge set (pictured below, on the right). It has a japanese theme but, what is the most appealing to me, is how comfortable it looks. I wish they sold them in my size too, I’d definitely buy a set for myself! I wish I could sew well enough to make lounge sets myself, but I think it might be a little too advanced for me right now. Until I can, I will continue to scour Etsy for more adorable clothes.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned on my blog (CreaDiem) that I am looking some Amy Butler fabric. Not only would I like to use it in my art journal/mixed media pieces, but for some sweet kids clothes too. My good friend, Cyndi, is an expert seamstress and makes amazing clothes! She made Adrienne a gorgeous jumper dress (pictured above on the left). I would love to try to make one of those, or even a pinafore dress, on my own. I think the dresses would be easier to make than a lounge set, so I will try them first. I haven’t sewn for years!

I’m even having fun dressing her in little Eeyore halloween costumes and bunny ears for Easter. So far, she’s very patient and tolerant of her overly fanatical mother.

In other news, Adrienne and I went to the local “öppna förskola” (open daycare) today. I didn’t think she was going to like it since she’s been pretty shy and more clingy than usual lately, but she loved it. She started playing with all the toys as soon as I put her down on the floor. She even watched a couple of other babies playing, waved at them and even laughed when their toys made noise. We’ll definitely be visiting there again.

It’s so convenient to have such a place only 3 minutes away from our apartment. The lady who runs it was a little surprised that this was our first visit to a daycare. I guess a lot of Swedish parents introduce this type of establishment to their children to help prepare them for “real” daycare. Most children in Sweden join a daycare, whether it be on a part-time or full-time basis, at around 1.5 years.

Many people are doing these lists on facebook, so we thought we would do one to start blogging on this site again. I asked Adrienne to come up with some things to tell about her experiences so far. Enjoy!

25 Things About Me - The Adrienne Edition
1. I was born 5 weeks early with almost no warning.
2. A few days after I was born I had to go in a special suntan bed to get a cool diva tan.
3. I was allowed to leave the hospital with my mommy and daddy after one week.
4. For the first few weeks, I would only sleep while I was laying on my mommy or daddy.
5. During the first few weeks, I slept a lot but had to be woken up every three hours to eat.
6. I got to meet my grammie and grampie when I was a month old, they came all the way to Sweden to see me.
7. I was what they call a “high needs” baby, I just like to think of myself as high maintenance, cause I’m worth it!
8. My Grammie is the only person I allow to put me to sleep without food first. She has the best rocking skills!
9. I hate tummy time!
10. My smile can melt anyone in three seconds flat.
11. When I was about 2 months old, my right eye started to bother me.
12. I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for doctors in hospitals. I’ve become quite good at it.
13. Nurses with needles bother me.
14. Some people think I wear an eye patch for medical reasons, but really I’m just a pirate.
15. I got to spend my first Christmas in Canada while I was visiting for eight weeks.
16. While I was in Canada, my grampie got me addicted to cookies.
17. My other favourite foods are mango, sweet potato and pasta (with sauce!)
18. I miss my favourite babysitters, Aaron and Ashley. I can’t wait to play with them this summer.
19. Bath time is my favourite time of day!
20. I think my Aunt Shand is funny, but I love messing with her to make her think she’s not.
21. My nicknames are: Poker Face, Goofy Goober, Sweet Cheeks, Shining/Super Star, Cookie Monster and The Cookie Philosopher.
22. For the last few weeks, I’ve been growing alot of teeth. I think they’re overrated. Right now, I have seven of them. (Grampie’s cookies REALLY help my gums feel good!).
23. I love to pull on cords, especially white ones attached to computers.
24. I love it when my daddy tickles me with his stubble and twirls me up in the sky.
25. I groove to music even when it’s just my mommy singing to me.

For as long as I can remember, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to be one of those mothers who runs into the emergency room every time my baby coughed or got a slight rash. So, when we saw that Adrienne had some puffiness around her eye, we decided not to panic. We kept speculating about what it might be - a blocked tear duct? a fingernail scratch? a bop on the eye with her tiny fist?

When it didn’t go away after a few days we started to wonder if it was an infection. We decided we would wait and talk to the pediatrician at our first appointment that was happening in a few days. We were relieved to hear that she thought the same things that we did, but she decided to send us to the hospital just to make sure.

The first hospital said that they didn’t have an eye specialist, so they sent us to a special eye hospital (I didn’t even know those existed!) in the city. There, we were told that they weren’t equipped to handle such a tiny patient, so we were told to go to the children’s hospital the following day. We finally got in to get a head scan. It showed that there is a mass of something behind her eye that is pushing it forward. It doesn’t sound as scary as it looks. In the x-ray, she looks like Quasimodo! Does this look like Quasimodo to you?!?

The doctors from both the eye hospital (is there a special word for those?) and the children’s hospital will be working together on our case. That makes me feel better, but it also makes for a lot of waiting time. We were finally called back in for today but were bumped at the last minute on account of emergency case that came in while we were being prepped. She even had a local anaesthetic cream already applied to her skin to help them insert the IV. I hate waiting, but it’s good to know that this isn’t a crisis and isn’t seen as something that can’t wait.

We will try again on Friday. In the meantime, we have an appointment with the eye specialist tomorrow morning. I hope he has some good news for us.

From now on, I think I’ll be one of those mothers who runs to the emergency room for every little sneeze, just to be on the safe side. Stay tuned for more of Adrienne’s eye adventures…

I can believe that Adrienne is 8 weeks old, but when I think that she is 2 months old - it just doesn’t sound right! I think it has to do with the fact that I compare her to all the milestones in the baby books/websites with her “corrected” age. If we treat her as if she was really born at the end of June, then she should technically be only 1 month old. Really, she’s 2 months old.

She’s been developing dramatically over the last couple of weeks. She is having more and more awake time, as well as more and more fussy periods. One of the things that she’s done that is completely amazing is how any time that I’ve laid her down for a nap with me (on my pillow), she falls asleep right away or stays there calmly looking around the room. Of course, I’ve only tried that when all else has failed. I never believe that it’s going to work, but it does! I really don’t want to wear that one out since it’s a wonderful way to get her to sleep and I will need it when I’m taking care of her all on my own.

We’ve just started taking Adrienne out to social gatherings and she has done well so far. We have joined some new mommies from Stockholm group for fika, had lunch with the girls and for supper over at Heather and Måns’s. During all of these visits, she’s slept through most of the time - so I hope that keeps happening. When my father was here, she was a wonderful sightseeing tourist . She’s such a natural!

Just look at the fun we can have while she is sleeping

She’s also becoming more interactive with us. Here she is having a conversation with her grandmother. I’m not sure who was doing most of the talking at the time, but they both seem quite involved.

I was going to try and not go public with the news until we had another confirmation, but I can’t do it anymore! I have been trying to use the “she/he” but I slip up all the time, and it’s probably 90% accurate anyway, so…..there it is! A rockin’ little girl!

I was having a hard time writing about the baby on here yesterday without using “she”, so this should make things sooo much easier!

Now, the big question is blue or brown eyes!!!