life and a cup of tea: Traveling with kids went... great! Baby jet lag? Not so much. And recap of our time so far (and all things pumpkin)

On October 9 Leiah will be 5 months old! Amazing. Today she weighed in at 8.4 kg and seems healthy and happy. She now rolls around and can sit by herself a little before she tips over. She loves playing, eating her books, baths, and watching Yaminah jump up and down and dance.

We are now in the US, since I am on maternity leave for Leiah and Tomas is on paternity leave for Yaminah. Here is a recap of our travels and our preparations.

After lots of preparation and the apartment basically turned upside-down and covered with suitcases, bags, and piles of our possessions for weeks, our travel day finally arrived. As always, packing is a horrible job, despite how much effort I had put into it ahead of time as I organized our clothes, chocolate (for gifts), etc, into categories, while Leiah slept. Whenever we figured we were finished that morning (and running out of time--taxi's coming soon!) we found more things we needed to bring. Granted, packing is always challenging, but even more so when packing for such a long time away (we will be away from Sweden for 2 1/2 months) and especially when we packed for children. Leiah would be growing out of at least one or two sizes, making it even more difficult. Leaving for such a long time required arranging watering of plants (thanks so much, Maria!), cleaning out food, letting neighbors know our plans, and goodbyes.

And then we somehow pulled it off, were packed and ready, and we were off!

I highly recommend flying Iceland Air if you are traveling from Minnesota to Sweden or vice versa, for many reasons. They still allow two suitcases per person (yay! already started shopping secondhand stores!), the flight attendants are very friendly, and switching planes in Reykjavik is much simpler and more convenient (especially with kids) than, for example, in Amsterdam. Yaminah, 5 1/2 years old, is our excellent traveler. Despite our long flights and our long day she never complained. Tip: whenever you fly with children, bring along a few surprises and give them at different times during the trip (and snacks). When she was younger I had four or five small gifts along that would be fun to play with. This time we had bought her a few nice sticker books and a comic book, and these kept her busy for a long time. Of course, having individual television screens helps too, and she watched a movie as well. For takeoff and landing, always feed children! That is my biggest tip of all, coming from Yaminah's many ear infections. Now that she is old enough, she chews gum or sips water during takeoff and landing.

Leiah, only 4 1/2 months old when we flew, also did great, but there again I made sure to feed her for takeoff and landing. (Whenever we have flown and babies scream during takeoff and landing, I think to myself, feed the baby something! Just in case it is the ear pressure that is causing the discomfort). She slept a few hours in my arms.

Another tip: when traveling with children, always bring extra clothes for them (obviously) but remember to pack an extra outfit for yourself as well! I chose tights, a soft skirt, and shirt, all that could be easily rolled up.

Once we had arrived in Minneapolis at my sister Sarah's Yaminah did well despite her jet lag, since she understood what was going on ("I am tired now because I have jet lag, since in Sweden I would be sleeping now!" she said). But the baby is another story! Now that we have been here for two weeks, she is finally starting to get into a better sleep routine, but it is still not great. When we first arrived in Minneapolis she went to sleep at 3 PM, ready for her night sleep. Then, of course, she was awake in the middle of the night instead, expecting all of us to get up. Baby jet lag is exhausting! In her confusion, she also figured she needed to be fed every time she woke up at these odd hours, so I did not get much quality sleep, to say the least. Due to jet lag, for the first few days in the States the Stenbacks actually sat down to breakfast together, the whole family, at 5 AM (we never sit down to eat together, so this was a change. :) Tomas was hoping it was a new change for us, but once the jet lag wore off, we were back to our own, different schedules again!

We spent the first several days in the Twin Cities where we saw Sarah and Scott, David, Mom and Bruce, Rachel, Kiera, and Colin, Beth and Billie. We went to a Twins (major league baseball) game, shopped at the outlet mall in Eagan, and hung out a lot. Thanks to Beth, Yaminah even visited her first American school, when Beth brought her to cousin Kiera's class for lunch. She was so happy!

Yaminah playing with cousins Kiera and Colin

Leiah's first shoes! (Daddy found them).

Yaminah's diary entry after visiting school

Baking pumpkin cookies with Aunt Sarah

Twins game

After the Cities we drove up to Duluth to visit Dad and Beth. At first the weather was rainy, but later it became beautiful. We drove along the North Shore once, took walks together (including in Canal Park), ate out at Duluth Grill (delicious), and Yaminah and I went to a movie, Hotel Transylvania 2, which Yaminah loved. I enjoyed it as well.

Stopping for lunch on our drive along the North Shore of Lake Superior

At the Duluth Grill with Grandpa and Nana

After Duluth we drove over to Fertile to stay with Mom and Bruce. So far the weather has been cool but lovely. Today we took pictures with Caty at Cloud Nine Studios Photography, so we are looking forward to seeing those pictures later. We have seen Danell and Paul and their beautiful new home, Yaminah has been playing with neighbor girl BreElla and having fun, Tomas has been golfing once so far, and we are just relaxing.

With Danell

I am especially happy to be home in the fall. So far, I have consumed an impressive amount of fall-inspired foods and drinks, everything from Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks (tall, nonfat, but don't skip the cream...) to pumpkin muffins, cookies, tea, beer... etc. If it has pumpkin, I will try it! I can't explain why pumpkin is so great, but it is. It is a part of fall, and who doesn't love fall?! The leaves are turning yellow and red and the air is fresh and crisp. (Here is an article from NPR about America's love of pumpkin).

Yet although I go crazy for all things pumpkin and fall, the real reason we are here is to have quality time to spend with each other, after quite a crazy year and the world's longest pregnancy (ahem), quality time with friends and family, and for our girls to spend lots of time in the US with their American family and friends, and to practice their English as well.