Trip to Sweden
January 2007, Magnus is 6.5 months old

In the middle of the winter we took a long weekend and set off to Sweden to visit Mikael, Tezz and Lukas. We started out in the evening on a Thursday, so that Magnus could sleep in the car on the way, and we drove to Karlstad, which is about halfway, to sleep there. Upon arrival, Magnus threw up so much all over himself, never seen it that bad. I wonder if that was carsickness?

We had arranged to get a babybed in the hotel room, but Magnus did not really want to sleep in it, so he ended up in our bed in the end. We had to rearrange the hotel room to make sure he could not fall out of the big bed. It is a weird feeling of being watched by an unknown number of strange people when your baby is crying loudly in a hotel room in the middle of the night...

We had planned to arrive at their house in Linköping by the end of the next workday.

While it was nice to see them again, I had difficulty relating to Lukas this time. To me, it was all Magnus-Magnus-Magnus. This was our first visit after my becoming a father, and a new experience. Neither of the others seemed to have the same problem, and I took great joy in seeing how Mike and Tezz took Magnus into their sphere. I just could not cope with relating to more small kids than my own just yet.


Lukas was very excited to have Magnus around, and wanted to play with him and hug him all the time. Magnus was a bit too small to understand the games, and easily became overrun during the hugs, so the challenge was to steer their games into something that would work for all involved.

...and there was something for everyone. But I really had to think, because Lukas observed a lot and wanted everything Magnus got. If I played with Magnus by throwing him in the air, Lukas would go to his daddy and want to be thrown in the air. And so on.

I was curious to see how nightsleeping would turn out, if the two of them would wake each other up crying. But it went very well, the only anomaly was when Magnus woke early in the morning and Muna went to the bathroom, Lukas woke from the sound of the steps thinking somebody was getting up without him and started crying alot louder than Magnus knew how yet.

It is a bit over 1 years age difference between these two, which is lightyears at this age. The needs are so different. While Magnus is content eating on mama's sleeves in toothless meditation, Lukas is peeling and eating bananas by himself.

But what really warms a parents heart is to see the little ones share. "Here, do you want to borrow my Voffe?"

On the second day we spent some time outside. Magnus borrowed Lukas' primary stroller (we didn't care to bring ours), while Lukas sat in his sports stroller. Mama Tezz had planned snow-sleigh-riding, but Lukas insisted on strolling when he saw his stroller being prepared for Magnus. Fair is fair!

After the stroll, Lukas demonstrated how to dress and play for being outside during winter...

...while papa Micke demonstrated snow angels.

We also had a trip to a neighbouring town to look for new safety-car-seat for Magnus, since these things are much cheaper in Sweden than in Norway. We ended up buying the one we had been looking at in catalogs, the Rolls Royce of carseats; Britax Secura.

Are you sure this is how the fastening mechanism works, daddy?

On Sunday we returned home again, yet again taking a halfway-stop in Karlstad to avoid so long driving stretches. I was thinking through how little contact I had actually had with Lukas during the weekend, and felt bad about it. Next time I would do better!

In the hotel we had chinese takeway eaten on the desk, and Magnus was very happy with the evenings entertainment.

However when time came to go to bed, he remembered that he did absolutely not like to lie alone in that strange babybed. So he just cried until we let him come up into the big bed. But who wants to sleep when there's so much new territory to explore ???