Yesterday was a rough day here, with lots of fighting and running away and yelling and various other sorts of misbehavior I’d rather not bring back to mind by recounting in detail. Suffice it to say that I texted Olof just before lunch with the message, “Your kids are assholes. Just thought you should know,” and that was before they really got going. Ugh.
Today, so far, is much better. I got everybody up without too much trouble, and since it’s so nice and sunny outside, the two littlest girls, the dogs, and I stayed outside for a couple of hours after dropping Petra off at school. Brynja played in the yard and dug in the sandbox while I drank coffee and read my book next to a napping Yrsa. As a matter of fact, Yrsa is still asleep out on the porch in the pram. Should probably go check on her.
Okay, she’s still sleeping. It’s always amazing to me how soundly they sleep outside. I’ll probably never be able to adopt the Swedish custom of putting my babes outdoors to sleep in the winter, but when the weather’s nice it’s all good. Right now the pram is parked in the shade of the balcony and the newly leafed rowan trees, and the sounds of carpentry being done next-door are coming over on the breeze, all of which are better than any lullaby at sending her off to dreamland and keeping her there. Would that all my days were like this.
I still remember how my 4 month old slept soundly (inside) while our next door neighbor had his driveway jackhammered. Sleeping outdoors in the winter — that’s a new one for me. I think people in the rural US used to leave babies alone outside in clement weather more that we would now.
Livia sleeps all the better when it´s really cold outside – when she was Yrsa´s age she sometimes slept 4 hours in the pram… I think it´s a combination of REALLY fresh air and being tucked in with a lot of blankets. She always sleeps outside – you should try it! I only put her inside when it´s below -30 c. Sometimes the pram is all covered up with blankets…
Nimble — you’d be amazed what kind of weather people put sleeping babies out in over here! And to tell you the truth, they do seem to sleep very well in it. There’s a well-known Swedish saying, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing,” and that seems to applies to infants as well! 😀
Nina — I remember the first time I visited up here and Alex was just a couple of weeks old … I was shocked to see him asleep in the pram outside in what was still the middle of winter! That was probably one of my first big culture-shock moments. 😀
I think a lot of my problem is that I just can’t relax when they’re outside and I keep running out to check on them. Maybe I should just get a baby monitor!