March 11th 2012 - Damien and Daddy´s excellent adventure!

What an incredible experience it was to be able to travel alone with Damien to the US. When I usually go on trips I have goals of things I want to accomplish. The one and only goal I had was that I wanted to have a great time with Damien. Mission accomplished!

We were together in the US for a total of 11 days. The trip came up out of nowhere, as we had booked the flights less than three weeks before we left for the US. Linda and I had been previously looking for a little city hop in Europe that we could take for a weekend, since we were about to lose some of our bonus miles. That’s when I clicked on “offers” and found a direct flight to and from the US for a cheaper bonus miles price than it would have been to travel to destinations in Europe. I asked Linda if I could go and take one of the kids with me, and she reluctantly agreed. Deciding which kid would be blessed enough to
go to the “land where the streets are paved with gold,” ended up being easy. We thought that for such a short time away Alicia would probably not enjoy the long flights. Liam was too young to be away from Mommy for so long. So we agreed that Damien would get the most out of the trip, and it would be easier for Linda to just have the two calm kids that pretty much stay where you put them. We also thought it would be fantastic for Damien to get to be the center of attention.

I really had n o had to do’s on the trip and I did not have any expectations that had to be meet. Since the trip was out of the blue, everything that we did or everyone I saw was an unexpected bonus.

The flight over was non-eventful. Damien only managed to sleep for about an
hour of the 9 hours we were on the plane. He split his time between watching Dora DVD’s and walking up and down the aisles. He managed to charm everyone on the flight, by walking by them and then starring at them to get their
attention. Charming people was a reoccurring theme for Damien during the whole trip.

Since I was in the US with just Damien, I figured I could split the time by staying at my parents’ house, which we were based out of and staying at my brother’s place. We also stayed once at my sister’s house, when he fell asleep there.

Every day Damien and I did some type of activity. We walked up to my elementary school playground two times, once with my sister, Dad, and Damien’s cousins Jamison and Harley; and once with my mom. Everyone was surprised with how good he was at kicking soccer balls and chasing after them, and how long he could run around for without getting tired. As usual he enjoyed swinging on the swings and sliding down new slides.


Damien trying out a new slide
Two other days we went to a park by my parent’s house called Mason District Park. Both times we went with my Dad, Jamison and Harley. Damien really enjoyed playing with his two cousins.

Another day my dad, Damien, his cousin Harley and I went to a huge playground. They ran around through a maze and we played hide and go seek in the maze.

We also went out to eat. One time it was just Damien, my parents and I. One time it was with my brother, sister, parents and Damien’s cousins; and once it was with my mom, sister, and Damien’s cousins. Each time was a fun experience and a chance to get some good family bonding going. Damien enjoyed pigging out on lots of new types of food.


Damien, MeMere and Jamison getting ready to eat a delicious lunch.


Damien, MeMere and Pa Paw waiting for pizza.

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Damien hanging out with Pa Paw at a resturant.
The one activity that I had wanted to do with Damien before we left Sweden was to take him to the National Zoo. So one day my dad kept Jamison and Harley
home from preschool and we had an enjoyable trip to the zoo. Some of the animals we saw were lions,monkeys, birds, pigs, cows, donkeys, meerkats, and Damien’s favorite the elephants. I had really wanted to go to the zoo with Damien, because he knows his animal sounds and I thought it would be fun for him to see the animals in real life and then make the sounds at the
animals. I was not disappointed as Damien preformed all of the sounds, especially the monkey sounds and the elephant.

It was nice being able to spend quality time with my nieces and my dad. My dad always does a good job of keeping everyone entertained. It was funny and
beneficial to be able to share child raising ideas with both of my parents. My dad has an incredible imagination that he uses to keep the grandchildren happy and entertained.


Who wants to go to the zoo? "We do! We do!"


" I love being at the zoo!"


Can you spot the two monkeys?;)

I enjoyed going to the zoo so much with Damien that I decided to fit one more trip to the zoo in with him. It was incredible to be able to spend so much
time with just father and son.


Damien and Dady looking at the tigers.

Probably the best thing that occurred while we were in the States was Damien’s development of new words. My mom really worked with him on getting him to say what she was saying. All of my family was really supportive and positive; when he would say something that sounded like a word they would give him loads of positive reinforcement. In the short time we were there he started
saying Ma Mere (grandma in French), Dora, No (by far his absolute best word), banana, ball, book, block and Damien. He also practiced a lot of times with his Babblarna, which is a computer game that has different characters that imitate the first sounds of the Swedish language. The clarity that he said the
words with was a great sign of his increased speaking ability. The characters he would say were Baba, Bibi, Booboo, Dada, Didi, and Dodo. My mom and
I each had fun watching Damo practice playing with the computer game.
With my parents watching Damien I was able to see some of my friends.

Jay and his girlfriend Jessica and I got to go out a couple of fun and
crazy nights. I also enjoyed just staying at Jay’s house and watching new tv shows, listening to music, and hanging out with Jay and Jessica.


Damien hanging right before bedtime with Uncle Jay.


Letting Damien out of his cage in the morning;)

As usual having family dinners at Sue and Craig’s was fantastic. After dinner we all enjoyed each others company by playing Apples to Apples.

We definitely missed Alicia, Liam and Linda. We Skyped just about every day to say hi and tell each other about our days. Damien would bring his little song bag to the computer and have Linda sing him different songs. He didn’t think I was so good at singing;)

The best part of the whole trip was getting to be alone with Damien. We spent almost every minute together. I felt so confident after being the main person responsible for him for the entire trip. We really had fun together. He was a lot more attached to, and dependent on me than he is back in Sweden.
It was so cozy waking up in the morning to him hitting me or kicking me
and then laughing. He would give me a kiss whenever I would put him down for a nap or put him to bed for the night, which made me excited for him to wake up so I could get another Damien kiss. We had so much fun when we would hide under the covers and I would say, “Where is Damien?” and he would laugh until I found him. Then he would laugh uncontrollably. Even the almost daily trips to the grocery store were a father and son adventure. He would run up and down the aisles and try all of the free samples a couple of times. The best part of the
entire trip is that it brought Damien and I closer than I could have ever imagined. I love you Damien!