Julia Marianne

Thursday, June 4th 2009
6:56 p.m. - 18:56 (Central Standard Time)
8 lbs - 3640 gram
19 1/2 inches - 50 cm

Very little hair - blonde peach fuzz, same as her sister Elina. (Anja and Isak both had much more).

May Pictures

Elina and her friend Abby.
See the post "Beyond Words," below, to learn more about their friendship.

Isak and best class-mate Zile on the last day of school.

Anja's first REAL turtle at our new house. We're close to the woods and the river so we get all kinds of critters here.

cooking

the trio - Elina lost her smile just before I clicked..

We moved!

And have been without communication (phone and internet) until now. Unpacking is coming along, a little slower than usual.

37 weeks

I can view pictures of myself as pregnant without mental pain about 1 year after the baby is born. This is for my family members in Sweden. And since it is my last time being pregnant, I might as well have it commemorated. June 4 is the day.

(That's a light behind my head - Isak, 6, took this picture)

It is easy to see why packing boxes is sort of hard right now. But I am thankful we can move before the baby is born. I do feel like a million bucks when the baby is out, compared to when I am pregnant, but still, 6 hours of nursing a day I'd rather be doing after a move, than during, if you know what I mean.

I have almost no pictures to prove that I have been pregnant, because not only do I gain 60 lbs each time (55 and counting at the moment), but I also suffer from extreme edema - swelling of every appendage of my body, including my nose/face, and that starts very early in the pregnancy. Right now I do sorely miss my waist from last summer, but more than anything I long to get my nose and face back, which will return to me in some sort of normal fashion in mid-June, about two weeks post partum. The 45 lbs of maternal stores take a bit longer to go away, though... I'm hoping Christmas '09 may not be too unrealistic.

Kid Bowling

"Ja, må hon leva..."

Anja turned 2 on May 2nd and we went bowling as a family. At Andy Alligator is where kids are primed for gambling, I soon found out. But there is also great kid lanes and bumper cars. Don't know if I can ever face all the arcade sounds again, though. I thought I would have a seizure by the end.

Anja is the family sport enthusiast.

Elina was full of confidence, as usual.

Focused.

Isak got the evening's only strike.

Bumpercars. For once, Elina was glad to be a big kid, because she passed the height requirement with ease. Isak is driving the car behind her, out of view.

Anja sings at Grandma Donna's house

Moving

For those who may not have heard: we are moving across town. What should have been okay timing ended up being dragged out a bit because of our buyer's bank and their super-slow appraiser. But it looks like we're moving on May 16th. I will be 38 weeks pregnant. Volunteers accepted. Pizza and drinks served, of course.

Beyond Words

Our daughter Elina has a friend who can't talk. Or so she told us three weeks ago when we were discussing what 'mute' meant.

"I have a friend like that," she said simply.

"You do? Who?"

"Abby, my best friend at school," she replied.

I quizzed her over the next several days to know just exactly what she meant by saying that Abby can't talk. Elina had never mentioned this before and she has played with Abby daily at school since three weeks into the fall semester. At the first parent-teacher conference the teacher went on and on about how grateful she was to Elina for being shy Abby's friend. She said Elina always included Abby in the girl's group play and made sure she had a place among them, Elina being one of the leaders in the class and THE authority of Flying Pegasus games. I was thrilled to hear it, but I did not understand the extent of Abby's shyness.

Over the course of a week after the 'mute' discussion the description slowly emerged. Only because I asked 20 different questions. To Elina it was nothing remarkable. "Abby doesn't talk, but she can play. She can make an angry or a happy face. And she can sometimes whisper in my ear, but not since I came back from Sweden." (Elina went back to Sweden for three weeks in Feb-March and the teacher told us that Abby had missed Elina so much during that time.)

My thoughts went back to the the first three weeks of school, before Elina had discovered Abby as a play mate. She was the only one who cried at drop-off - and miserably too. But these kids are only 4 or 5 at the very most when pre-K begins, so a few criers per class is not unheard of. Suddenly I realized her crying stopped just about the time that Elina dubbed Abby her best friend.

I asked the teacher about it finally, because I was so stunned. Abby is not mute, but suffers from selective mutism. But yes, it was true. Abby has spoken to only one person since she started school: Elina. And only in whispers in Elina's ear. Elina has been the translator for Abby at school, for lack of a better expression. She answers no direct questions unless they can be answered with a head shake or a nod. I asked Abby recently at drop-off if she wanted to come to our house for a play date and she smiled wide and nodded while holding Elina's hand and her large, brown eyes glittered with excitement.

Last night I asked Elina again.

"So, since you came from Sweden, Abby has not whispered in your ear?"

"Only once," said Elina.

"And what did she say?" I pressed.

Elina cupped her hand over her mouth to illustrate, then said in a whisper: "You are still my best friend."

That is all she has spoken to Elina for five weeks even though they play together every single day. That is all she has said in school, period, for eight weeks. How much more meaningful, then, are those words? And anyone who knows Elina knows that there is a constant stream of chatter coming from her lips. I am so surprised and proud of her for not saying what some would, "How I am supposed to play with that girl? She never talks back." Instead there has been some sort of meeting of the souls here. Elina has become a fiercely loyal friend and received a friendship back which is truly beyond words.

More Easter Eggs

The Swedish Easter Eggs Mormor bought, filled with mostly American candy and some Swedish fish. (Elina is chewing something blue, here, I think...)

Painting Easter Eggs.

As I post this I realize I am always behind the camera. This is generally the norm for me. True, I am camera shy while pregnant, for the most part. But no one ever offers to take pictures that have me in them. Should I die the kids would have precious little evidence that they ever had a mother, if pictures were the only proof.

below: Isak (and his new Easter haircut).
Looks good, if I am allowed to say so myself.

Anja needed no instructions. "Måla, måla, måla," she sang.

No confidence issues for this girl. Elina declared her eggs the prettiest of all that were painted that evening. (In all fairness, her mother's were! Don't tell her, though.) How I prefer that over an over-critical "Mine look like crap" - attitude.

Easter Insanity

Egg hunt. 100 first graders. And some siblings. Elina, though two years younger, could pass for one of them thanks to her height. The same cannot be said for nearly 2-yr old Anja, but she managed to hold her own. One word: Madness.

"The field is white and ready to harvest"

Scramble

Elina

Anja

Isak

Lunch