My new job starts tomorrow

Bessie HATES it when I leave for work in the morning.  As soon as I start packing my bag she starts barking her little head off.  If the coffee hasn’t woken us up yet, she definitely will. 

Luckily for all of us though, she won’t need to bark like that again for a long, long time.

The true cost of potty training

If you've already done potty training then you know what is involved but it seems like nobody will tell you these things.  It's a horror show. In fact, it is so painful that it has inspired me to try to get Lucy on one of the gazillion potties we have lying around the house just in an effort to reduce this pain in a few more years.

1. You need to buy at least 3 different kinds of potty (maybe more if you have multiple bathrooms in your house) and they are all way more money than you want to spend. For some reason, Sweden's cheapest potty starts at $46. Total for the 3 various potties we own, $150 and NONE of them even flush!
1. A potty that fits on the big toilet with a stool for climbing up
2. A small potty that sits on the floor that they can get to on their own
3. A travel potty 
2. Incentives, bribes, whatever - don't skimp - you need them. Calvin needed BIG rewards - Disney Planes characters. Find the motivation and buy it in bulk. Stock up on stickers too.
1. 3 Disney Planes/Rewards, stickers, bubbles, etc - $60
3. 20 sets of underwear. It's gonna get messy - $75
4. Extra laundry soap - $25
5. Patience, love and compassion - priceless

Total damage: ~ $310

If you buy one of those gimmicky, "Potty train your child in 1-3 days" books or online resources, that's another $40 or so. They prey on desperate parents who will sell their souls to end the horror show and $40 seems like a really good deal but don't do it! There are free guides everywhere and believe me, nobody can guarantee you anything. It just takes time. Good luck!

Raising the stakes to learn Swedish

The Background
After living in Sweden for 2.5 years, we've attended classes, had a private tutor and bought Rosetta Stone and yet we still haven't greatly improved in our understanding of the Swedish language. It is not so much of an inability to learn as it is a lack of proper motivation. My job is entirely in English and I work from home, so I'm somewhat isolated. Jon works entirely in English and has some coworkers who are willing to have fika time in Swedish, but it isn't helping nearly enough. Jon's parental leave is beginning at the end of this week and we both decided that it was time to set aside dedicated language time each day. This is Jon's greatest opportunity to learn the language and if we don't commit, we will only continue to slowly struggle.

The Issue
One of the biggest motivating factors is Calvin. He is truly bilingual and can consciously switch between Swedish and English if we ask him. I wouldn't say we can count on him as our main translator as he has led us astray in the past - he's a practical jokester already - and also because he is 3 years old. We are responsible for our own integration. Our neighbors have told us that he speaks perfect Swedish when we aren't around but when we are present, his Swedish declines and he speaks in English. We don't want to be in a position where we are negatively affecting his social skills with his peers. We want him to be able to play and invite friends over to our house. It is a major issue if we can't communicate with his friends. We don't want to be the limiting factor here. That's not fair to Calvin.

Raising the stakes
So, to really buckle down, Jon set a bet. We will be using the free online program, Memrise, and their handy iPhone app, to set daily competitions. The program awards points depending on how accurately and quickly you respond to reading and writing comprehension of a vocabulary set. Whoever has the least number of points awarded during their 30 min study session will have to do the laundry that day. We can practice in addition to those 30 minutes but only that session will be scored and will determine the winner and loser. Believe me, our house has a lot of laundry so this is truly a motivating factor.

So when you see us using a lot more Swedish on Facebook and in emails and texts, it is because I really don't want to do the laundry anymore and Jon is trying his best to beat me. BRING IT ON!