Crazy Easter

Yes, I know. I'm crazy. I have 5 days over Easter, and am spending them in Sweden. That is a rather normal thing for me to do, as it is only a leisurely 8-10 hour drive each direction. But this year I have lots of company. To be precise: WiseKid, WiseKid's girlfriend, WiseGrandkid, and two dogs. WiseMan decided that he didn't want to ride with this circus, so he would stay home, start the taxes, and spend time at the spa. To each his own.

We got an early start, so that we would have something of the first day in the cabin. Amazingly, they all slept for most of the way. We have a two hour ferry ride in the middle, we had a nice place away from the crowds for WiseGrandkid and the dogs to bounce around. I pretended not to notice the poop they had to scoop away.

We unpacked, unloaded the dogs, and set off shopping. Oh my, they were loading the cart like as if we were staying for a week! All this cooooool Swedish stuff we just HAD to have.

They decided to have a family room in the guest house, as I flatly refused to have the dogs in the house. That was actually kind of nice, I had the house to myself evenings.

We went to the zoo the first day. It took ages to get the show on the road, getting everyone up and dressed and fed and lunches made. But the zoo in Höör was just so worth it! Not only did we get to feed the wild boars and pet a horse, we were able to both pet and feed a moose! That was really the attraction of the day, or as WiseGrandkid says: "Super!"

Petting a moose

Day two we had the usual problems getting going, then made our way to Aq-va-kul in Malmö for swimming. It was smaller than I had remembered it, and not all that exciting I thought, but it was just the right size for WiseGrandkid. We first sat on the edge of the wave bath and enjoyed the gentle waves. Then WiseKid loaded her on a floating raft and paddled her around. What glee! We sat in the "hot tubs" that were the same temperature, just bubbly, used the baby elephant slide about 1500 times, and WiseGrandkid went swimming with me. We enjoyed the "whitewater" chute many times.

Easter Sunday we kept the dogs locked in while we hid the eggs. WiseGrandkid didn't quite get what it was she was supposed to be doing, but eventually she figured it out. And she was enchanted with the plush hippopotamus that her parents had hid in the willow tree. We then just chilled, ate chocolate, and went shopping. Grandma went to church in the late afternoon, surprise, no one wanted to come along.

Tomorrow we head back home - wish me a sane and safe trip!

Grandkid Stuff

WiseGrandKid is coming over this evening with her parents. She is now very mobile and adept at crawling, she even scootched up two of the stairs the last time she was here. Our place hasn't been child-proof for years, so I hit the Mega-Baby-Stuff-Store this morning, along with approx. 37 expecting couples and 42 with offspring in tow.

Although the kid's high chair that we got for WiseKid is still going strong, we didn't get the baby set then. I tried to get one today, but the production has changed and so they are not available for older models.

I did get this too-cute-for words place mat from Stokke:

It sticks to the table with giant suction cups and has high rims to contain spilled milk. I had been a bit worried about how the polished stone surface would react to a child banging on it, as I remember the deep cuts WiseKid made in our wooden table when he was a kid. This will do the trick!

I cleaned out the lower shelf that used to contain lots of things not suitable for children (and found the lovely Swedish tea-light holder sheared off, that probably happened during a past visit and I didn't get told). I put up a sign and some stickers and put some toys on the shelf:

Oh, that Monchhichi, WiseKid didn't like it so it is still in pristine condition, it is just too cute for words:

Grandmas

I went to an in-school training session on examination law (on account of being the chair of our program's examination board) on Friday. It was at the other school campus, the one I used to have my office at. I was quite pleased to meet some colleagues I haven't seen for a while, in particular one of the few other women in the computing departments.

After greetings and handball chat (she likes handball, too) we got down to business: She's a new grandmother, you see, first grandchild last month. Oh, I said, I'm a grandma now too, since July. She looked at me, shocked. "How old is your son?" "21".

And it turned out, we are both the same age, she had her first son at 21, and he is a dad now at 35. WiseKid was born when I was 35 and is a dad at 21. So I've caught up with her!

Both of us flunked the first Grandma Test: neither of us had a picture of our grandkids in our wallets. I guess I'd better get some pics sent to my phone.