Arrival at “North Pole”

By AdventureDad on July 23rd, 2005 Print This Post Email This Post

Daniel and I arrived at the summerhouse on schedule. He's really a superstar when it comes to traveling. Most people think Stockholm is pretty far north but try driving another 11 hours north and you are at our summerhouse. And close to the place where I grew up. Of course it's only an hour by plane and so far we have never driven. It seems like a complete waste of time to spend a whole day in the car. The flight was packed but since it's so short it doesn't matter. We had time to have a sandwich and a quick afternoon meal for Daniel. Thought I had gotten lucky and scored the only open seat on the plane next to me but just before the doors closed another passenger showed up. Turns out it was a great looking 18 year old blond girl which Daniel and I enjoyed. She looked like Britney Spears, except better, and she was certainly a 100 times smarter (not a tough task). He kept calling her "Mamma" the whole flight which was kind of amusing. It's one of the few words he knows so pretty much everything he sees is "Mamma".

Daniel is only 17 months old but has traveled quite a bit so far. He's logged three trips to New York, two trips to Mexico, and also a few domestic trips in both Mexico and Sweden. He has so far always behaved like an angel on the plane. After each flight there are always passengers telling us how well he behaved on the flight. He's mostly smiling, sleeping, eating, and walking around the airplane. I don't like screaming kids on the plane. I know that sounds stupid since we have a child ourselves but we are very spoiled since he rarely cries. Both me and Sandra believe Daniel's good behavior is a combination of luck, calm parents, and of course starting to travel at an early age. We would also like to think our parenting skills had some positive impact but that might be wishful thinking.

Here at the summerhouse the pace is very slow and we have managed to find the only two cloudy and cold days in a couple of weeks. But as long as it doesn't rain we are alright. My father took the picture above the day before we arrived and we are hoping for some more of those evenings soon. Daniel runs around everywhere and has lots to explore. The only downside is that he has no other kids to play with out here. But our hometown, Boden, is only 15 km. away so tomorrow we'll stop by to do some quality playing at some cool playground. He's definitely affected by the increased brightness in the north, it's a lot brighter than Stockholm, and getting him to sleep is not an easy task.

Our summerhouse is filled with old toys from me, my sister, and her three kids. So Daniel has plenty to choose from. What toy does he like best? Of course not a toy, he wants to water the garden all day long. He's got some kind of fetish about garden hoses. It's like having your own gardener. A 17 month old toddler walks around just fine but is not coordinated enough to water flowers without getting soaked. After 30 minutes it's time for a new set of clothes and some more garden duties. Tomorrow I hope to train him to use the grill and serve daddy some nice wines. Then I'm all set. AdventureMom arrived in Paris without problems and is likely to sit at some cozy restaurant right now with a nice bottle of red and some delicious French cheese. She'll arrive here in two days and it will be nice to see her again. Originally she was meant to be in London but the girls changed plans at the last minute. Thank God for that since terrorism is becoming a major problem in London. And we have most likely just seen the tip of the iceberg.