PROUD DAD

Today I’m a really, really REALLY proud dad. Why?…

Watch this and this ! It took me almost two years but it’s finally done. My son now finally knows which one of all his cars is the worlds bestest car!!

🙂

ECZEMA

So it seems that my worries wasn’t in vain – my son has indeed inherited my eczema. It’s not a huge surprise since it’s in the genes on my side. And on every checkup I’ve made it a point to tell them I’m concerned he’s inherited it and that the dry red hardened patch on his throat may not only be dry skin but actually eczema and everytime I’ve been told it’s normal. As late 6 weeks ago we were told it’s normal by the pediatrician. 2 1/2 weeks ago we were told it’s not normal but probably a result of the tonsillitis. And now after 10 days of penicillin it’s still bad and we saw a doctor on tuesday who said “no this is definitely eczema, I’ll send you to a specialist”. And I got the “no shit Sherlock”-feeling I hate.

And then it gets worst when I tell people it’s eczema and we’re going to see a specialist, I’ve always gotten a “well good it’s nothing bad/worse than that”! It’s like people don’t know what it means! It’s a life long suffering with itching and scratching and bleeding and creams!! I’m really happy it almost went away when I hit puberty but it’s come back in the past few years, so yeah, I still have to use prescribed creams and stuff all the time. So you bet your ass I hoped it was something else like chicken pox or something like that that would be bad for a week or two and then it’s over, or even something else that there’s a cure or treatment for, but eczema, you’re never gonna get a treatment for that (unless there is some huge advances in genetics!) so that’s a life long issue to deal with, one I hoped my son wouldn’t.

Don’t know when we’ll get an appointment to see the specialist or even when we’ll be able to test his allergies. Worst case is that he’s as allergic to fur as I was and we’ll have to get rid of the cats.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

Sam is pretty pissed nowadays. The most frustrating thing for him is he want’s something and he says it, he points to it and we, being the totally oblivious parents that we are, have no idea what he means. At the dinner table he can point at something and says “ia!” and we’re sitting there guessing at everything that’s on the kitchen table and after the 10th guess he gets upset and frustrated and then it goes downhill after that.

He understands what we’re saying most of the time, you can clearly see that. We just wish we could understand him better and what he wants. As it turns out he’s had an infection in his throat (tonsillitis) for weeks without us knowing that it was something medically wrong with him. In our defense we took him to the doctors before Christmas and they didn’t think it was anything serious, it was last Monday that they actually did tests and since then he’s been on penicillin and he’s getting better.

But he still gets upset when we don’t know what he’s talking about. Then again who wouldn’t…

KINDERGARTEN AGAIN

This week I’ve been with Sam to his new kindergarten for 3 days, spending time with him from 9-15. And I gotta say I should’ve spent this much time with him before! When I was home with him for 8 months I never really REALLY spent time with him compared to now. And the big thing is that when I’ve been at the kindergarten I haven’t had the option of doing anything else than being with him. Not watching TV, not checking my mail, not playing computer games, not cleaning the house, making dinner, mowing the lawn etc, there’s always been something else to do. But for these 3 days there’s been nothing but him. Which has been great cause it feels like I love the little guy much much more now than I did 3 days ago!

But tomorrow I’m leaving him at 9 and going home. If he’s ok being there all day I’ll pick him up at 4 and same thing on friday. Which means I’ll have 2 days of me-time. But considering how many days of vacation I’ve taken this year that’s not alot. But I’ll take it!! 🙂

ANOTHER 2 WEEKS OFF

I got another small vacation coming now! After working for 2 weeks I got 2 weeks off. The first one will be spent trying to keep Sam entertained and stimulated which is getting harder and harder all the time it seems. Can’t wait for him to become a slacking teenager lying in the couch watching bad TV… just like his old man!

And after that he’s gonna be starting kindergarten. And this time a real kindergarten! Not one made up of some barracks and people picked from here and there, no this is a real established kindergarten that’s a few hunder meters from the house. Which will make dropping him off and picking up a bit easier. I’ll be with him the first few days at the new kindergarten so he eases into it a bit and by thursday I’m counting on dropping him off at 9 and go home to just slack and slack all day for once! I am after all on vacation!

Unfortunately we’re in a bit of a Formula 1 drought because the crews needed a vacation too after two back-to-back races and just when it got interesting as Ferrari are getting their act together 🙂

DOING GOOD

This week has been a good one for us I think. Except my throat being a bit soar we have all been healthy and well, especially Sam. And you can really tell the difference!!

But now he’s done with the temporary kindergarten! Now we have about 6 week vacation and then he’s off the the real kindergarten that’s just around the corner from where we live!

Today we went to my parents. We were supposed to be there last weekend but as I wasn’t feeling well we never made it. Anyway, good times, good food, good company and Sam had fun! Tomorrow off to see Transformers 3 at the movies with my sci-fi friends. Here’s hoping it’s better than the second one!

WEEKEND RECAP

Here’s a little recap of what went down last weekend.

We started the weekend off on friday evening with a nice dinner in front of the TV with wine and beer, some cookies and cheese but went to bed early since we knew what a big day we had ahead of us.

On saturday morning my sister AC arrived to take care of Sam for us. We love the little guy but to really relax we needed someone to “off-tank” him (all you Warcrafters now what I mean). We suited up, took some photos and headed into Stockholm. Since we didn’t know exactly where we were supposed to be (Stockholm’s city hall is a big building!) we went a bit early. After doing some recon we sat down for some coffee and a muffin and a nice lady at a table next to us wanted to take some photos of us with our camera since she thought we looked like the cutest couple ever. And then my dad called my to ask if they could stop by so we had to tell them that “nope, because we’re in Stockholm getting married” which they had no clue about. At first he wasn’t sure if I was being serious or not but soon realized I was.

After that I took some nice photos of Helena by the water with the wind all over her dress! Then we went in as instructed 15 minutes before the service and it was totally packed! We thought this is where people went that didn’t want to have a big wedding but we were wrong – almost everyone had their families with them, all dressed up and wedding dresses and tuxes, made us feel a bit under dressed. And when it was finally our turn it was over in 5 minutes. Just a quick “do you” and “do you” and some text that I don’t remember that much about. And fortunately one of the assistants helped us by taking some photos of us, even though she wasn’t that camera savvy so half the photos are out of focus.

After the ceremony we got into the car, texted all the people that should know we got married and then drove off into the sunset… or to Norrköping where we had booked a suite with their “Love”-packaged. Got champagne on ice and fruit and chocolate, that was really nice. After winding down and walking around the city for a bit it was time for dinner which was at their local pub. Not really the fanciest place to have a post-wedding dinner but it worked for us. Then enjoyed a drink in the bar and then bed time. Yeah, I know, we actually go to bed early nowadays. But we slept really late on Sunday 🙂

After we finally got up on Sunday Helena tried out their Jacuzzi while I was just l laming around just enjoying not being stressed or worried or entertaining Sam or anything, it was just us! After we checked out we went to Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant. Then we drove to Huddinge hospital to check up on a friend of Helenas that had a daughter a few weeks ago. She was tiny as hell but she was born way WAY premature so not surprising.

Then home again and take care of Sam so AC could get back to her real work.

So that was our weekend. Except for the mediocre dinner it was awesome!!!

Pictures are here by the way.

THE HEAT

That was quite a switch from “cold” to “this is perfect” to “cooking” in less than 3 weeks! I’ve always prefered being too cold to being sweating as hell in bed when trying to go to sleep but when it’s closing to 30 degrees in the bedroom you really do think about investing in an AC. Then you’re reminded how much they cost, the noise
they make and the hose that has to go somewhere and it’s not a good idea anymore!

Fortunately Sam is taking it alot better than I am. He still goes to sleep before 8 and sleeps pretty much all night and wakes up between 6 and 7 ready to rock. But we’ve noticed that he’s way too understimulated at home! Although we try to read to him, play with him or go out walking he still has all that energy that we don’t have.

It’s times like that that you are thankful for kindergarten!!

SAMS FIRST TASTE OF THUNDERSTORM

Today was Sam’s first encounter with thunderstorms! When preparing to go to kindergarten I noticed it was getting darker in the skies. So I put on his raingear and made sure I had an umbrella and off we went for that 15 minute walk. About 5 minutes in lightning struck about 5 seconds away (because you always count how many seconds away they are right?). The after that it was only 2 seconds away and the rain came poring down! Fortunately we were able to take shelter under some tin roof which made for some interesting noises for him. A few more lightnings and 2-3 minutes later it was ok to continue the walk as the lightning was getting further away. But just like his dad he got more excited than worried over the sound of thunder! I like my little guy, he’s pretty fearless. So far 🙂

LIFE MOVING ON

Nothing really exciting to report.

Sam is doing very well at kindergarten. Surprisingly well I think! I drop him off at 7 am and H picks him up at 5 pm so that’s a full 10 hours he’s there. But by the time I get home and dinner is over with he’s pretty much ready for bed. And then he sleeps 12 hours until it’s time to do it all over again. But tomorrow will be different ’cause he’ll sleep until he wakes up himself whenever that is nowadays. He definitely sleeps longer in the mornings now than he usually does.

And this weekend we don’t have much planned actually. Neighbors coming over for a quick visit bit that’s pretty much all we have planned. And the F1 race from Monaco of course! And put up the doors for the greenhouse so I can finally say “Done!”.

NOTHING HURTS MORE

I don’t think anything hurts more than when your child is in pain and there’s nothing you can!

Sam had a bit of double-trouble this week. On Tuesday his molars started pushing through which apparently hurts a bit. And for Sam it was more than a bit! He couldn’t quite fall asleep at all in the night, only slept for like 15-20 minutes at a time then woke up crying. And on Wednesday Helena stayed home with him and he cried so much he lost his voice. Or maybe it was the cold he’s had for a few weeks now but he couldn’t even cry or scream or anything and that made him even more upset. But it really hurts, holding your son, trying to comfort him when he’s in pain like that. On Thursday I stayed home with him and it got better and by the afternoon I could hear his voice coming back and he didn’t seem to be in pain anymore. And on Thursday night he actually went to sleep and slept for 11 hours!

Today we handed him in to the daycare, no problem at all!

TREATING MY SON LIKE LUGGAGE

Every morning on a normal working day at 7 am I hand my son Sam over to a woman I hardly know and everytime I get the feeling that I’m treating him like luggage at an airport – “here, take care of this and I’ll pick it up on the other side”. I hope I’m not the only one that feels like that? Because as we understand things this is what you do after staying home for a year?

Ofcourse we can only blame ourselves – if we had stayed in our old 41 squaremetet apartment we would have afforded being home more. Or if we’d lived closer to my family they’d happily take care of him. Bu we chose to build a house and it made sense giving a child the same comfort of growing up in a house like I did. But considering that choice now means we have to check him in at a kindergarten for 10 hours a day I’m wondering what’s more important for him…

SON STILL NOT DOING WELL

Our little boy Sam still isn’t 100% after all these weeks. The burns are almost gone now but he’s still coughing and sliming up the house and last night he even had a slight fever.

I don’t know if we’re just too paranoid or obsessive but it would be such a relief if he could just wake up one day and feel normal. We know it’s probably the normal RS-virus that every kid gets in kindergarten but that doesn’t make it any easier on us or him 🙁

PARENTING FAIL

On friday me and Helena decided to have a small BBQ with our small grill. What we didn’t really think about was that our son Sam have on multiple occasions used that BBQ as a tool to stand up. And for a few seconds I took my eyes off him and watching 2 1/2 Men on the TV and when my eyes went back to him he was just reaching for it. I yelled at him and ran as fast as I could but it was too late. He got burnt! At first we didn’t think it was that bad but when the swelling really kicked in we knew we had to see a doctor. So in to the ER where they bandaged it up in a nice neat package and we got an appointment Tuesday morning to see the burn-specialist that’ll take a better look, but they weren’t the least bit worried about it, they said he’d be fine. Unfortunately until then he’ll have a stump at the end of the left arm, as he’d lost his hand in an accident. It looks worse than it is, or so they say.

So those few seconds were all it took. After spending the winter looking after him like a hawk so he wouldn’t get burn on our indoor fireplace only to relax for a few seconds.

And you’d think he might have learnt something? Not, on Saturday morning he was all over that BBQ again (which ofcourse wasn’t lit)!

The Life of a Parent

Sometimes being a parent sucks. Right now it’s trying to comfort our little boy who caught some bug at kindergarten and is now down with a cold. It’s so difficult when he’s to young to understand or to be reasoned with, trying to tell him he just has a cold and it’ll pass in a day or two, all he knows is he doesn’t feel good and he doesn’t like it.

But it’s kinda expected now that he’s in kindergarten. I got a little bit of a cold but not as bad as Helena that was totally out on monday. And ofcourse we didn’t help by exhausting ourselves on saturday..

Ooops, I Kinda Forgot

Ok I’m now the officially worst blogger since I haven’t written anything here in over 2 months now!

But after I’ve gotten back to work it’s all beeen pretty hectic in my life actually, both at home and at work. But I’m gonna have to chance that and make this a daily thing to get on here and make an update or two.

So what’s happening at work right now? Well I’m in the middle of upgrading our Adobe Connect from 7.5 to 8 which is not happening so looking at a fresh install instead, and that means having to do battle with SSLs again. And then we have SharePoint 2010 migration and on top of that we’re rolling out Windows 7 with new office and document management which is huge here.

At home my wonderful fiancé Helena is taking care of Sam and he’s just now begun kindergarten and so far it seems to be ok. Hopefully it’s not only because Helena is still there with him but we’ll see tomorrow when he has to deal with 5 hours there without her. Other than that it’s same old same old – trying to spend time with the love of my life while trying to get time to play some computer games, watching the latest episodes of House/Chuck/Big Bang Theory/SG:U and then there’s F1.

I am anything but bored 🙂

Image album finally fixed

I’ve finally fixed the image album! So now you can all check the latest pictures of my son Sam 🙂 The password is still the name of my employer, all in lower case letters.

Here is the link to the image gallery.
Here is the direct link to the “best of Sam” album.

Cooling Down…

Now we’re into day 11 of Sam’s life and me and Helena have tried to be as good new parents as we can giving him whatever he wants. It really get’s to you when your son is screaming as loud as he can and you can’t get the milk to cool down fast enough for him. And I’m getting good at changing diapers!
Fortunately for us in Sweden we’re aloud 10 days off from work after having a baby but as of monday I’m a working man again. It’s bitter sweet, I liked being with my son all the time but it’s also liberating being at work when you only have to take care of work.

But before that we’re going to my parents this weekend to unwind a bit 🙂

That’s My Boy!

Click here for pictures from today’s ultrasound of our boy. ETA february.

🙂