first day of spring.

I just handed over my report... now the waiting game begins. I still haven't gotten the results of my exam so god knows how long it'll take to get the results on this. On Tuesday the next course begins and I'll be learning all about international politics and conflicts. This is the one I'm the most exited about since I'm kind of hoping to go into conflict resolution in the future. I can't wait to get my books.

In other news the weather here in mtl has been lovely and we're spending more and more time outside. I can't wait for the weather to be warm enough so we don't have to wear coats anymore but I'm sure it'll come soon.

Yesterday it was 13°C (that's 55°F) outside and sunny. It was absolutely lovely outside so we took W to the park. He played like never before and was so happy he danced and ran at the same time too cute. Our neighbours are moving back to Switzerland in a week or so so they decided to give away their couch and left it on the curb for someone to pick it up. We decided to channel the Simpsons and do a couple of family photos. It is potentially the ugliest couch ever with the different coloured maple leaves on it but still someone picked it up over night and it's now gone.

Well yesterday was lovely and as crappy as it is outside today it still gave me hope that summer might still come this year.

Stuck

I am now officially stuck. I have be working on this report for what feels like forever now and I just can't get it done. I feel like I am somehow missing the point of the assignment. So I am taking a breather and sending it off for review with my mom and me and W packed up our stuff and went to the botanical gardens to look at butterflies. Not the dead pinned to a cushion behind glass kind, but the free flying kind. They are beautiful but a bit creepy crawly for my taste. I kind of jumped and held W very close as soon as one of them flew a little too close to my head... or his head for that sake.

the butterflies are hungry too

pretty but very creepy crawly

my own personal butterfly!

Checking out the moth cocoons.

in the land of Canada (and Australia)

Sorry for the lack up updates I have been a busy busy bee. Last week I had my exam to write and this week I am doing my report. I have to write a 4000 word report on the differences and similarities of the Canadian and Australian political systems. If you guys have any awesome words of wisdom on the subject please do tell!

Anyway my head is swimming with information on the two countries and when I'm not taking care of W, writing my report or relax I am doing my citizenship application since I am now legible to apply. Woohoo!

So for more great details of our dull everyday life you guys will just have to stay tuned for when I will feel finished enough to write something here.

Lia

hey you!

Didn't I tell you to remind me not to ever ever ever again go to the biodome during school break?? I am pretty sure that I did... or maybe I didn't. Whatever I'll just blame you guys anyways!

So we went to the biodome today and it was packed. When we walked in the guy told us there was a 15 minute wait to buy your ticket to get in. I have a membership card so I just flashed that and got to go straight in with about 100 angry parents giving me evil eyes. Anyways made our way through the thing quite fast cause there were too many people to see any animals and then we had lunch. After lunch we went to the English showing of "The secrets of the Biodome" which was very cool and very quiet since we live in Quebec. Then we went home.

W fell asleep in the stroller on the Metro and slept for like 2 hours in there. He really loves his new stroller and so do I. My mom bought us the MacLaren Techno XT. It's fantastic.

I still have the sniffles and I still have my exam to do. I've almost finished 7 out of the 9 questions so it feels quite good so far.

the common cold

Today W had gymnastics this morning. I wasn't sure if I was gonna take him since he's been sick and all but this morning he was fine. He was playful and happy and he didn't even fight the snow pants. So off we went. We got there everything was fine until it was time to go inside. He did not want to. He refused to let go of his little mater car and just wanted me to hold him the whole time. He didn't want to dance with the other kids or do any of the activities, he just wanted to be held. Then another kid spotted his mater car and promptly demanded he'd get his cars out as well, his mom caved and gave him a car. W spotted the other car and decided he wanted both cars. He was very determined and cried and cried, the other mom encouraged her kid to share so we swapped cars. W was happy for a whole 30 seconds then he wanted mater back. He simply wanted to have both cars and he was not gonna settle for less.

That's around the time I decided to leave. One of the other moms asked me if I wanted her to see if W could get a sticker anyways (they get stickers at the end of the class) but I told her he did not deserve one. I then felt pretty bad all day for saying my son doesn't deserve a sticker. I mean he was not well behaved at all but on the other hand he was a bit sick still. I just thought that the behavior he showed at that class should not be encouraged by giving him the reward for a class well done when he didn't do it at all. Maybe I'm over thinking this... what do you think?

So we left and went grocery shopping instead. Then we had an absolutely lovely day at home. W was happy and playful and didn't ask for the TV or the pacifier a lot. He slept well ate alright and was a joy to be around. So he seems fine, now I'm the one feeling crappy. I have the sniffles also known as the common cold and the horror of the winter. When will we find a vaccine for the common cold?

wittle one

I have a headache, and W's been sick for the last 3 days. Yesterday his fever didn't go below 39°C (that's 102°F) all day. I gave him tempra but it just didn't do anything for the poor little one. In the evening I gave him motrin and down his fever went. Me and J were both agitated and worried and kept arguing and trying to decide if we had to take W to the hospital. He tends to have breathing difficulties when he gets sick and last time we ended up spending a night at the hospital because one of his lungs collapsed partially. You can read about that here. Below is a photo from that terrible night.


So naturally we get worried everytime he gets sick and especially when he gets a cough. We give him two different kinds of inhalers and keep a close watch on his breathing. W unlike most people doesn't like to sleep when he's sick, he'll fight and fight and fight until finally he'll fall asleep wherever he happens to be. Yesterday that was in the chair in front of the TV.


I hate it when he's sick. He's a little better now though. We'll see if he's good enough to go to the gymnastics tomorrow.
Now I'm gonna attempt to answer another couple of questions on my exam for my university course.

all those photos

When me and W landed in Sweden after a good 15 hours of traveling and not much sleep my mom picked us up at the airport and told me that I have 6 boxes (big boxes) waiting for me in my old bedroom (which by the way is not kept the same way I left it, my mom called me about 2 months after I moved out and told me she converted my room into an office) for me to go through. Yeah yeah yeah I said, I'll do it later. I didn't do it later at all actually, I left it for the second last day I was in the country.

I opened the first box and discovered a whole lot of photos. There were photos of me and my friends in school and me and ex-boyfriends and all the crazy people I met while living in hostels in England and while traveling. There were framed photos that used to hang on my walls and be in my bookshelves, there were photo albums I made with my own comments on the photos scribbled in silver pen on the black background. There were photos of my dad as a baby that my farmor gave me a while back and some photos of my mom when she was young. I spent most part of that day looking at old photos and remembering when they were taken and remembering the people in them and realizing how many of those people in those photos that I no longer know, that I haven't seen in years, that I can't remember their names.

There was this one photo in particular that really opened a floodgate of memories and feelings. It's a picture of me all dressed up at a party with this guy N that I barely knew at the time but had a huge crush on in time we grew to have quite a complicated relationship but not when that photo was taken. It was all new and I was so young and it felt so important what I felt for him at that time. I remember really wanting a picture of him and me and practically bribing one of our mutual friends to take my camera and force us to get in the picture together so it wouldn't seem like my idea. I was so happy to have that picture and I treasured it, I used to take it with me everywhere.

I also found the photos from the first three months I spent with my husband, only he wasn't my husband then. You can see some of those photos here. There are photos from my leaving party as I was leaving London and him to go back to Sweden to study music management. There are photos of me and E and M and all the fun we had during our time in London, there are photos of the tiny studio apartment me and E shared and of the bars we worked in. M met her J around the same time I met my J and they are still going strong and their little girl N is W's future wife.

There are photos of us roaming London, lovely London. It reminds me of the summer I was unemployed and living off my husband. We lived in this lovely house in Camden, it had 4 bedrooms and we were always at least 8 people sharing it. It was on this cobbled stoned little road just off Camden Road and I spent my days walking around London. J worked in Notting Hill so some days I used to steal his CD Walkman and walk there. I still can't listen to Postal Service without it bringing me back to warm summer days, walking along Hyde Park to Notting Hill.

I also found my old school photos, there were classphotos from ninth grade and this awkward photo of me and my then best friend J and this boy from our class that I barely knew. We all look very uncomfortable.

I ended up not doing more than two boxes all together cause it just took too long going through all those photos. Next time I go I have 4 more boxes waiting for me, maybe there is another one full of photos and memories, I kind of hope so.

The trip in pictures

Looking cute!

Sleeping on the plane across the Atlantic.

Being pushed around by the future wife...

Hanging out with auntie E.

Playing with the future wife and the future mother-in-law and auntie E.

Finding treasures at "rum för barn" (a room for kids) at the culture house.

Snowball fight!

Too busy watching "Howl's moving castle" to say goodbye to godmother I. Notice the W sized armchair.

the reason

I'm back! But I have yet to write about the trip. I'm sorry about that but I do have a good reason. Behold the cheek!


No I have not been beaten by J. I have simply been manhandled by my dentist. I returned home on Monday with a serious jet lag and a tooth ache so I made my way to the dentist Tuesday and had the troublemaker removed. It now hurts way more than it did before and my brain is porridge due to pain and medication and lack of food. I'll hopefully be back to some state of normalcy by the weekend so I promise I'll write about the trip then.

For now I'll just have to live with looking like me on the right side and looking like Rumer Willis on the left.

Off.

Tomorrow is the big day. Me and W are taking the plane to go see mormor for 10 days or so. It's a long trip and I have been stressing and packing like a mad person over the last week to get everything right. The hardest part is entertainment for the little guy. I am packing an ipod with movies and music and books and some toys. and lots of snacks.

So I just thought I'd let you know I might not update very frequently at all while I'm away since I tend to be very busy when I'm gone. But I promise I'll write a long post about the trip when I'm back again.

So behave yourselves!