I’m sitting at a cafe with my infant daughter. I feel like a monster of productivity, having successfully left the house twice in one day, eaten actual meals, and avoided being covered in poo (for the time being).
Elizabeth is the daughter, three months old. She sleeps in the stroller I thought I would never use. As a non-parent, I had overlooked its function as a laptop/sweater/blanket/grocery/diaperbag-carrier, and had no understanding of the speed at which it knocks out a fussy baby.
The last three months have been a time of great change. I am clocking in at about one life lesson every three hours.
Recently I’ve learned:
- To type fast and not muck about with formatting while the baby’s napping. Editing is not for parents.
- If you can afford it, fresh fruit is always a worthwhile purchase.
- That you can’t go for a walk in my neighborhood without tripping over a stroller or a border collie.
- Sweden makes awesome baby equipment (Jané: the 4×4 truck of strollers)
- If you join a clan and are online regularly at 3am, you can make lots of friends in Finland, and Norway.
- Other Scandinavians mock Swedes out of some obscure national rivalry. The punchline of every joke is inevitably “Svensk”. If you understand this, please let me know.
Right, that’s it for now. Elizabear is waking up and we’ve got some major walking to do.
My parents visited this weekend, bringing birthday presents with them. As usual, these gifts were thoughtful, appropriate, kind, and Extremely Heavy.