Day 308: off to Sweden again

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Tomorrow we make our journey back to Sweden.  It has been a good trip back to the US, but I am ready to go back home.  After all, although I am American, home for me is in Sweden.  A visit back to the US is more of an update to my system about what the US is now, as well as to feed any desires I have for American things (food for example) that I might be missing.  

Seeing family and friends while I am here has become the biggest priority, and it is something I look forward to on our next journey here too.  Until then though, I will continue to make my home abroad, and I will continue to find myself step-by-step further away from the country I am a citizen of.  At the core, I am still American, and happily so, but upon that core are built layers from other cultures and customs from not only the places I have lived but the places I have visited, too.

Day 307: Happy Flu Year!

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Happy Flu Year!  Stomach flu, that is.  For 2 parents of a 13 month-old.  Tjoho!  It’s fun!! 

Yesterday my wife and I had a nice day with the little guy, and then a good friend of mine and his wife and daughter drove 4 hours to meet us for New Year’s Eve and weekend.  We met up with them and he and I went to the supermarket to get food for the evening.

When we got back, my wife told me she was feeling a bit nauseous, and she did not want any food.  As we ate, she excused herself into the bathroom and threw up.  I suggested that I put the little guy to bed and join them in their room.

We hung out as parents with small children do, and I was back to our room by 10:45.  I got ready for bed and laid down, and by 11:20 I was in the bathroom too.  And then at midnight to celebrate the new year I was back in there.  And it continued a few more times until 5:30, and I didn’t really feel very good until I got up at 14:00.

My wife was feeling better by around 9, so basically we knew she was about 5 hours ahead of me both in getting sick and recovering.  All of the symptoms point to stomach flu, one of the worst things I can possibly think of to have, especially while traveling.  

Stomach flu comes on suddenly and has similar symptoms to food poisoning, except it comes with diarrhea, chills, and a much longer sickness and recovery time.  On this instance, now we have to take it easy regarding what we eat, drink slowly, and not enjoy any of the finer things in life (no sweets, alcohol, or fatty foods).  As for the little guy, we are now convinced he contracted stomach flu and that’s how we got it, but fortunately because of the timing of my wife and I getting sick, he was taken care of just fine.  Here’s to a healthy year ahead for everyone.

Day 306: extra nighttime reading

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I wrote a while ago that the little guy seems to have a penchant for reading, and at that time he was using reading to get to his nighttime bottle.

Now it is clear that he simply likes reading.  He loves to read so much that multiple times a day he will crawl or stumble up to us with a book in hand, and nestle in for a story.  When it is over, he wants it read again or picks a new book.

The bedtime routine involves reading 3 books, followed by a bottle, then sleeping – most of the time.  So you can imagine the surprise I had last night when the following happened.

We are still in the USA, so we are staying in a hotel, luckily we found a decently priced suite with a separate bedroom.  So, my wife brought the little guy into the bedroom to put him to bed while I stayed out in the living room.  I heard the reading, then the silence while he was drinking the bottle.

Next thing I know, there’s a little person crawling out through the doorway into the living room.  He turns to the carry-on bag where his things are stored, opens it up and pulls some things out until he gets to one of his favorite books.  I call his name, but he doesn’t respond, and then he crawls back into the bedroom, book in hand.  Apparently he just wanted to read one more book, then he fell asleep.  ðŸ™‚

Day 305: the little guy gets food poisoning

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Would you ever imagine that a child spending time in Hong Kong and traveling to developing countries would get food poisoning not there, but in the USA?  Me either.  That’s what happened last night.

To make a long story short, we wanted to give the little guy some pre-made chicken (like rotisserie chicken), but we went to Trader Joe’s and they did not have anything like that.  So we found in the refrigerator section some pre-cooked chicken, like you would put on salads, for example.  We went back to our hotel, and tried to feed it to him but he was not interested.  It smelled extra strong but I just thought it was the smell from being packaged.  So bit by bit thru dinner while he was eating other things, I was slipping pieces of chicken into his mouth, which he didn’t like the taste of but ate anyway.

Fast-forward to 2:30 in the morning, and my wife wakes me up saying, “hey, the little guy’s throwing up!”  She has a handful of baby vomit, and he is covered (along with our bed sheets) with puke.  So I jump out of bed and get some towels.  Fortunately we are staying in a hotel, so there are a lot more readily available towels than there would be otherwise.  

We get him all cleaned up, and get him some water, and we all fall asleep.  30 minutes later he is throwing up again.  Ah!  So we go thru the procedures again, this time we change his clothes and diaper while we are at it.  30 minutes later he throws up some more, and again, and finally by 4:30 he is ok again and we were all sleeping.

The reason we know he is not sick is because he was his same old self all thru the vomiting – smiling and not really acting like he is when he is sick.  He didn’t look miserable or act like he normally does when he is sick.  All day today, he was just fine, except not really interested in food, and a bit tired – which is all fairly normal if someone was puking during the night.

As for Trader Joes, we brought back the chicken and they refunded us.  That much is to be expected.  What bothers me is that they didn’t really seem to care or to want to take action to make sure there is no more of this chicken in their store.  They just acted like it was a refund because we didn’t like it.  This is a big deal to me because it is supposed to be a natural food store, and they should therefore care about the freshness and health of their customers.  Whole Foods, the competing store of the same type, might not have had a better response, but there is no way I could recommend anything that could get you sick (meat for example), from Trader Joes.  This is not just because of the experience we had, it’s because if it happened to us, it means they do not have systems in place to keep their food fresh and their customers (and their children) safe.  You shouldn’t have to approach the food you buy at a store in AMERICA like you would if you were in a developing country.  Not cool, and I hope the little guy is back up to speed 100% again tomorrow.

Day 304: self-awareness in the little guy 

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The little guy has been meeting a lot of relatives and new people on this trip to the USA, and has also been learning a lot of identification of things from books and the real world.  Pointing out a dog on the street, a pig in a book, and so on.  It has gotten to the point now where if you are reading a book and ask, “where’s the cat?”, he will point to it.

Pointing like this also happens with people, not just things.  So if we say, “where is grandpa?”, he points to him, and the same with grandma, mamma, and pappa.  And today, we asked him “where is (his name)?” And he pointed to himself.  This was so cool, it was the first time that he had done that.  He knows who he is, he knows he is separate from other people, and he knows he has his own identity, to some degree.  Amazing stuff happening mentally and physically virtually every day, I can’t wait to see what interesting things are around the corner.

Day 303: a little flirt

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The little guy noticed a long time ago that if he does certain things, he will get attention from women.  He will for example do something they find cute, like look at them and smile when they smile – and when they smile back it reinforces his behavior.

Tonight at the hotel, he was flirting with all the women in the area.  A stare, a point, a wave, some words (that don’t make sense) – all followed by words of adoration.  When he was just a little baby it was super funny to me when he did these things.  But now as he gets older and I realize he is just learning from everything he experiences, I get a little embarrassed and worried when he does it.  Is he bothering them?  Is this cute for them? Is he going to learn this bad behavior and keep on doing it?  I guess I should just keep laughing and enjoy it when it happens, after all it is impressive to see how he turns on his charm 😉

Day 302: an American football game

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Today my father, brother, and I partook in a pastime that millions of Americans enjoy: we attended an American football game.

The game started at 19:30, and the temperature was 12 f (-11 c), so we bundled up as much as possible considering we were traveling and had minimal warm weather clothing with us.  We got there before the game and sat there “enjoying” the freezing cold weather.

Then the game started.  It was a sensory experience, the smell of hot dogs in the cold air, the taste of the excessively expensive food, the sound of the crowd singing the song “skol Vikings” and clapping with mittens on, the feeling of losing the sensation of feeling on my nose, and the view of the spectacle before us.  And what a spectacle it was!

Fireworks!  Touchdowns!  More fireworks!  Cheerleaders!  FIREWORKS!  The game was a complete blowout where our team won, and it was fun to watch them score – nothing worse than a low-scoring game.  What a great way to spend time with my father and brother. 

  

the home team runs onto the field
 
before the play starts
  

Day 301: holidays memories

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We all have memories of various holidays from when we were younger.  Hopefully for most people they are good memories, but they can carry with them the range of emotions depending on where you are in your life.  For examples, I can remember every Christmas I have celebrated as an adult with my extended family, and what was happening for me emotionally at that time -and some of those holidays were really hard for me.

What is crazy to me is that the nostalgic memories we create from the holidays come from a time period  are really not very long in terms of the range of days.  We are talking just a few days, yet we pack the memories into them.  As kids we seem to absorb a lot of memories from those few days – yet you couldn’t even remember your mom told you to clean the room at the time.

So these days go by quickly, wrapped in new family memories being created, although they are packed into just a few days, and these memories stick with us.  These memories become more and more romantic as the years go by.  It’s crazy how the mind works.

Day 300: Merry Christmas

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In Sweden Christmas is celebrated on 24 December, and while it is often celebrated on the 24th in the USA, the 25th is the official day we call Christmas.

Today we have a nice and cozy Christmas in the big log cabin we rented as a family. The fire is going, there is snow outside in the cold winter day, and we are having a nice day.  How special it is!  Merry Christmas!   

Day 299: his second Christmas 

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This year after a long journey we made it to our family’s Christmas celebrations.  We are using this as an opportunity to do a family reunion for a few days, so we get to see almost everyone in my extended family, which is really special.

Being around family at this time of year really reminds you of how fortunate it is to have family to be with during the holidays, and especially how fortunate it is to have family who likes to be around each other.  It’s easy to take it for granted, and good to remember how lucky it is whenever you can.