Siste Post

Hey blogarati.

I feel like I spent the whole blog year (a blog year being 16-18 months, in this case) apologizing for long silences, but this has possibly been the longest. Saturday was two months since we left Norway, when I promised to write soon with news and photos. Here's a quick overview of what's transpired since we left...

...we endured a sixteen-hour flight from Oslo to San Francisco, and I'm happy to report Leo was an angel

...we reacquainted with Grampa Tim, friends, tacos, and kombucha in San Francisco

...we flew up to Portland for Thanksgiving, where Leo met Uncle Jodge, Auntie Steph and Uncle P., Sean and Gretchen, Alicia and Ralph, second cousins Eva and Marie and their kids, and great aunt Milly

...we drove down to Santa Barbara, where we spent a very mellow ten days getting to know Nanna Anna and Baba Brode (that's a mouthful!), Aunts Carrie and Emma, uncles Thomas and Chris, and cousin Brody

...I flew to Boston with Leo on my own, when he was not quite as much of an angel, but overall not bad

...Ben arrived three days later

...we spent a lovely Christmas with my family

and

...we stayed, since Ben is still jobhunting and the quality of life at Casa de Pam and Bill is pretty great, plus my mom had knee surgery so we can help out a little.

Last night, I dreamed about Norway. I was driving past a coffee shop and inside sat my friend Stine Svenkerud and Norsk Extra Mom Eldri with her three grandkids. I said to whoever was driving, "Stop! There are my friends!" but we sadly drove past. I woke feeling a little desperate.

The night before, I dreamed about Norway too. I was speaking Norwegian, badly, but still.

In fact, the past week I have been thinking about Norway all the time. I really miss it. I miss...our dear little friends Agnes, Rannveig, and Inga. I know they're skiing, sledding, and building snow forts with their parents--AND, in Agnes's case, turning six! I miss drinking wine with their parents. I miss Sunday dinners with Petter and Eldri, that great lamb dish with the garlic-wine potatoes and the good conversation that accompanied it. I miss Stine and Kreg and Dagny, good talks and laughs. I miss Natasha and my mom's group, which kept me busy, and sane, at least once a week. I even miss the dark, just a little bit, especially that nice warm glowy blue that happens in the late afternoons.

It was an incredible year for all of us, and I think when I first got back here in November I sort of stuck all the memories in a box and tried not to think about them too much. But two months later, they're all coming back. I've immortalized some of the good times in two albums, one a sort of "Part Two" of Norway--where's Part One? Maybe on Facebook. Anyway, here is a link for y'all:

And here is another one.

And what have we been doing since we've been back? Gosh. Mostly, getting reacquainted. Here is Leo and some of his new friends. From top to bottom: Leo with Aunt Carrie, cousin Brody, and Nana Anna; Leo with Auntie Steph; Leo with Uncle Jodge and second or third cousins Carson and Nick; Leo's future girlfriend Ruby with her dad, Ry; Leo with Auntie Annie; Leo's other future girlfriend Maria, with her mom Lili; Leo with Grampa Brode, aka Baba; Leo with Brody and Uncle T; Leo with Aunt Emma; with Uncle Chris; and with Alison and her family, plus his dorky mom ("everyone make a funny face!" Susie does. No one else does).













More photos of the world's cutest baby can be found all over the tabloids, as well as on Facebook, most notably.

Oh, dear friends--thanks for your loyalty over this past year. I know there have oft been bigger fish to fry, and it's meant a lot to have you read. And if you're interested, I'll be starting a new blog project as soon as...

...I get Leo's sleep once and for all sorted out (we're down to two night wakings from eight)

...we get settled, or maybe before.

MVH, Kjaerlighet, og en stor klem,

Susie

Siste Dag i Norge

Hei alle sammen,

I've been wanting to spend some time on a blog entry and have just found a tiny window as Leo is sleeping. His routine is pretty screwed up since we've been so all over the place, so who knows how long this nap will last. In any event, the carry-ons are almost packed, the last of the laundry is drying in the sauna, and we say goodbye to Therese and family and Thor and Kristin and family this afternoon. Ben, characteristic Ben, is off frantically trying to return some library books and I'm scared when I see the small piles of his stuff still around...we are at six bags so far. One giant duffel, two large suitcases, and two large backpacks, plus Leo's allotted ten kilos of stuff. I have called Iceland Air to warn them that because it is a sixteen-hour journey for us with a baby and I have a variety of food allergies (so I stretched the truth a little on that one, but wheat is a biggy), they need to be a little lenient on us for the amount of carry-on baggage we're bringing. I mean, I've got ten diapers and three changes of clothes for Leo, plus one for myself (change of clothes. No diapers for me)...

ANYWAY. Boring details.

It's a gray rainy rotten Sunday, the kind of day I don't think I'll miss too much. I had a little crying jag this morning but now I feel okay. Not much else to say on that. Won't get emotional now.

When we're settled in San Francisco I'll write about our goodbye party and this last week. For now, though, ha det bra, Norge, og takk for nå.

Susie

Stratos

Sorry. But this one really cracked me up too.

Swine Flu at the Casa de Fredrik Stangs?

Hi gang,

Oy, long interlude--sorry. I've been pretty consumed with the details of leaving Norway during the past few weeks. Less than two to go before we leave--I can hardly believe it. The running joke with all our friends here is that we're leaving at the right time, the start of the mørketid. Sun sets circa 4:30, and it's fuzzy out when Leo wakes us up at 7:00. It's not Norway's finest time, though it's nice for getting all koselig with candles and loved ones...

I've been enjoying last days in Norway by taking a lot of walks up in Nørmarka with my friend Natasha and her baby Anna, which has been really fun. Up in the forest it's quite cold but the babies sleep happy as clams in their prams or, in Leo's case, on his mama's chest in the Moby. And I've enjoyed walks and lunches with my barselgruppe, my new-moms group (yet another of the amazing services socialized medicine hooks you up with--a crew of moms all on maternity leave, all of whom live within a half-mile radius of each other). We had a fun Halloween party at Thor and Kristin's, though attendance was low due to illness. What else...well, we're doing a lot of last-minute shopping for Norwegian wool and gifts for folks at home and I've actually packed one suitcase!

It's been an eventful week as Ben and Leo got sick simultaneously, with seemingly different illnesses. Tuesday night Ben got THE FLU. Was it THE FLU or just the flu? Who knows--he was achy-headed, nauseated, felt really blech, etc. We've medicated him only with Tylenol, oscillococcinum, and fluids, despite a brief period yesterday when he was demanding Tamiflu and I was encouraging him to hold out (I haven't been convinced he has the flu of swines, but what do I know?). Anyway, the main concern has been keeping Ben away from Leo, who woke me up Tuesday night with mucusy chortlings and choking sounds and sneezes. Leo has had a very slight fever--37.6 C at its highest (99.6 F), so I had the unhappy task of taking his rectal temperature at the first feeding last night, circa 11:30. He SCREAMED. Generally Leo is a pretty good-natured kid, but when you attempt to mess with his nether regions (i.e., a diaper change or related) when he's hungry, he gets furious. On the other hand, if you feed him first and then change him in the middle of the night, he gets wide awake and lies there in the crib saying "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" and then it takes ages to get him to shut up and go to sleep. So, I opted for the screaming, redeemed by a nice long nursing session.

This morning, Ben claims to be almost all better, and Leo's fever is fluctuating but still just vaguely high, and he's being mellow on the couch (snoring, actually). Parenthood seems very weighty when your kid is sick. The urgent care place told me to just watch him and if the temperature went to 38 (100.4), to bring him in. But of course I have to watch his mood, too, make sure he's feisty and hungry and etc. Because Ben is not allowed to touch him, I'm the mom in charge. It's good for me, but scary.

Okay. On a lighter note, this Norwegian tv commercial is really cracking me up. The punchline, "melk styrker kroppen," is basically the Norwegian take on "milk: it does a body good" ("milk makes the body stronger"). Enjoy.

And here is a picture of Leo. It's from when he was about three weeks old. I look at it and feel amazed by how much he's grown.



Peace out, brothas and sistahs.

Bittersweet Birthday

Well, I'm 36 today. And in case that wasn't enough to depress hell out of me, it's a rainy cold gray day. And Ben and I just bought our plane tickets to leave Norway. We fly to San Francisco on November 16. There is a slight chance we'd come back after a long visit, but I doubt it. So the plan for now is to visit visit visit--with our family in San Francisco and Santa Barbara, with our family in New England, and with friends all over, including up in Portland, before settling....where? Wherever Ben gets a job. I'm so excited to see everyone--and part of me is deeply sad at the thought of leaving Norway. I don't know whether lack of sleep is making me emotional, but I feel very torn and kind of gray today.

I'm going to put on some music and clean the heck out of the house. Maybe make myself feel better. Ben took Leo for a bit. On the roster for the weekend is lunch with Kristin and Thor, Therese and Thomas, and Ian tomorrow--and bowling this afternoon (Ben's idea, of course).

Happy birthday to me.

Love,

Susie

Hi

hi gang,

doing a lot of one-handed typing these days, as my main computer time is when leo is on my lap doing something like nursing or snoozing. so forgive my lack of caps.

sunday morning, ben and i are half-listening to a podcast of "fresh air," and leo is waking up on my lap. okay, now leo is shrieking, a rare occurrence of late. i think maybe eating half a head of romanesco (like fancy broccoli) last night might not have been the most brilliant idea. ben is walking him around as he arches his back in pain. poor little guy.

[Interlude. I feed Leo some fennel tea. He pukes on the floor. Ben takes over, rocks him underneath the stove fan, Leo's favorite noise. Susie cleans the house frantically while she has two hands free.]

And now Leo is on Ben's lap, and I have capital letters again. Life as a mom continues. Oslo is spectacular these days: crisp, sunny, breezy, and all the sorts of things that happen in summer somewhere else happen in September here: the nighttime candle-lit walk along the Akerselva (the river that runs through East Oslo), the two-day farmers' market extravaganza on Karl Johans Gate. It's great to have diversions and things to do when you have a new baby and your husband is simultaneously writing a Masters thesis and looking for a job.

I have up and down days. I'll admit the lack of independence can get to someone as happy about her free time as I am. But Leo is steadily becoming more joyful to be around. I feel like we just had a couple breakthroughs that have made my life feel more complete and a little less chaotic. One, he seems to need to eat a little less frequently, or maybe I have figured out that he wasn't really eating the whole time he was camped out on my boobs for 45-minute long sessions that took place every 90 minutes (let's just say, Leo is a breast man at the tender age of eight weeks). And, and I almost hesitate to write this lest I jinx it, he seems to have become a better sleeper in the past five days, napping more consistently and, better yet, falling asleep on his own (i.e. without a parent rocking him to sleep, which we had to do every time before now). The funny thing is I would have just kept on rocking him, assuming he wouldn't fall asleep on his own, had Ben not unceremoniously dumped Leo in his basinet one night because his back was hurting and he was sick of standing up with him in his arms—only for us to find three hours later that Leo had fallen fast asleep and stayed that way. Oh joyous day. He compensates grudgingly for this move of independence by wanting to be carried a lot during the day and taking at least one nap cradled in my arms. To be honest, I don't mind one bit. It is, to use the Norwegian word, one of the most koselig things I can imagine, having a little warm cute guy all snuggled up in the crook of your arm. These days don't last forever, so the experts tell me.

And he's smiling; looking at books with pictures of dots and circles and things. I'm singing to him and reading him poetry. He tends to start crying when I read the poetry. He smiles when I sing.

Not much else to report. Today is a little gray and we're going to go for a walk in the city, maybe get a coffee, stroll around. My thoughts are starting to turn to home and so are Ben's, though there are days I don't want to leave Norway at all. Part of this is practical—the medical care is incredible here. Seriously. Any of you, or your relatives, who wants to hear about my experience with socialized medicine, I am happy to share. And I have made some really good friends, and of course the thought of leaving the Steen and Brook Steen families makes my heart break. But I really miss my family...Ben's family...tacos...

Here are a couple of recent pics.

Leo with grampa Tim, who visited a couple weeks ago:



Leo with Auntie Jorin, who surprised us, armed with raw goodies and John Lennon onesies and fancy Italian leather baby shoes:



And Leo and me in the Vigelands Park. In case you were wondering, yes, the gorgeous thick hair I had for nine months is falling out in clumps. Fleeting pregnancy hormones, ya bastards.




Cheers,

Susie

Back!

Hiya--well, Leo is seven weeks old tomorrow and I thought I'd at least make an effort to start writing my blog again. It is exceedingly difficult to get things done with a newborn! Leo...



Well, Leo is a pretty amazing little guy. Ben and I are loosely practicing something called attachment parenting, which as I interpret it means giving your kid a lot of love by responding to him when he needs something/cries. There are other factors, like carrying the baby close (in a baby sling, for example), (breast)feeding on cue rather than on schedule, etc., but the responding thing is really the main idea. The whole stick-your-kid-in-the-crib-and-let-them-cry thing doesn't play. Frankly, I don't imagine it would work for most babies or parents anyway, theory be damned--unless you have a huge house and could lock your kid in a room where you can't hear him crying, when the kid starts to shriek, it does something to you psychologically and you want him to stop. IMMEDIATELY.

Why am I telling you this? I guess just to impress upon you the amount of work involved in parenting a newborn when you don't believe in letting him screech for hours. And I think Leo is a little bit of a higher need baby anyway, but maybe not. Let's just say, there have been weeks when we were not able to put Leo down. EVER. We might get an hour or two of unattached sleep a night, but otherwise we were holding him, rocking him, or carrying him in a baby sling 24 hours a day. Wow, exhausting. And sometimes even when we're doing everything right, he just fights us--fights off sleep, fights while nursing, fights while getting changed.

But, friends, I think all this holding and loving is paying off. Kristin (aka Tante K) told me that the first six weeks are chaos and after that you have some semblance of normalcy, and I think she might have been right. At least, I all of a sudden have a very sweet, smiley, happy baby who will even hang out by himself in his crib occasionally while his mom does the dishes. Does he still lose his mind occasionally? Of course. But we're coping.

So it goes in Oslo. More soon.

Susie