With about 6 months to go before our flights, which have already been booked, my husband (who shall henceforth be referred to as Beanstalk) and I have been well aware that we need to get passports organised for our boys. The main thing holding up the submission of passport application forms for them has been the lack of passport photos.
Yesterday, we all went to the post office to have their photos taken. Our older boy, Mstr 4, was fairly easy to take photos of once we got him to stand still 'like a soldier'. After about 3 photos, we had a good one of him. Our younger boy, Mstr 2, on the other hand was a nightmare to get a good photo of. We thought we had a good photo of him early on, but it just cut the bottom of his chin off. We weren't sure if it would get knocked back, so we decided to see if we could get a better photo of him.
Over the next hour, between customers, the post office lady did her best to get Mstr 2 to not move, look straight ahead, and not open his mouth. Not an easy ask of a 2 year old. Eventually, she pulled out some stickers, and Mstr 2 showed an interest in an aeroplane sticker. The post office lady stuck it onto her camera, just above the lens. Mstr 2 got upset at not being given the sticker, so she gave it to him and got him to choose another sticker. Mstr 2 chose the "wokka" (helicopter), and the post office lady stuck the "wokka" sticker to her camera.
Mstr 2 was much happier, but he kept raising his hand to point at the "wokka" and opening his mouth. There were a few times where we thought we had a good photo, only for Mstr 2 to raise his hand or open his mouth just before the photo was taken. In the end, we finally got a good photo. However, when it was printed up, it looked darker than Mstr 4's photos. I'm just hoping that they aren't too dark, because I'm not looking forward to going through the ordeal of taking the photos again.
Tuesday 8 January 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Monday 7 January 2013
Countdown to Sweden
In approximately 172 days, I will be boarding a flight to Sweden. I'm an "information" person, and as such, I have been looking up a lot of information online. My husband is already thoroughly sick of me bombarding him with details, so I've decided to start this blog so that I have somewhere to chronicle the information I've found, and to share my experiences.
I've been to Sweden once before - during Dec 07 and Jan 08. I had an awesome time over there, visiting my friend and her fiance in their home country for the first time, meeting their families, and experiencing their beautiful country and culture. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Christmas Swedish style, including the tradition of watching Disney cartoons, and the visit of Kris Kringle to deliver presents to us all on Christmas Eve. And the Julmust. We can't be forgetting the Julmust. My obsession and increasingly desperate attempts to sniff out the ever-decreasing quantites of Julmust in the shops as it approached New Year's Eve became a source of amusement for my Swedish hosts.
Of course, being from Australia, I found the cold and the lack of daylight in Sweden at that time of year to be quite a shock, especially having left a rapidly warming-up December behind back home. By the time we travelled to the north of Sweden after Christmas, there was only about 3 or 4 hours of daylight in the day (we were below the Arctic Circle).
This time, I will be travelling to Sweden in late June for my friend's wedding. I'm really looking forward to having the experience of Summer in my birthday month. I had always wanted to have my 30th birthday in Sweden and have the experience of having my birthday in Summer for once. Having a Winter birthday really bites. Alas, I don't have enough leave from work saved up, so I will arrive a couple of weeks late. My friend has assured me that we will do something nice as a belated birthday celebration for me.
Of course, I won't be travelling by myself. My husband and two young sons will be accompanying me. By the time we leave, my older son will be 4.5 years old, and my younger son will be 2.5 years old. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to introduce my boys to my friends and their family and to share the experience of travel with them, but at the same time, I am really dreading the thought of long haul flights with a toddler and a pre-schooler.
So, any suggestions on how to survive a long haul international flight with two young, very energetic boys? Especially the one on the way over which has a 7 hour stopover at Hong Kong?
I've been to Sweden once before - during Dec 07 and Jan 08. I had an awesome time over there, visiting my friend and her fiance in their home country for the first time, meeting their families, and experiencing their beautiful country and culture. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Christmas Swedish style, including the tradition of watching Disney cartoons, and the visit of Kris Kringle to deliver presents to us all on Christmas Eve. And the Julmust. We can't be forgetting the Julmust. My obsession and increasingly desperate attempts to sniff out the ever-decreasing quantites of Julmust in the shops as it approached New Year's Eve became a source of amusement for my Swedish hosts.
Of course, being from Australia, I found the cold and the lack of daylight in Sweden at that time of year to be quite a shock, especially having left a rapidly warming-up December behind back home. By the time we travelled to the north of Sweden after Christmas, there was only about 3 or 4 hours of daylight in the day (we were below the Arctic Circle).
This time, I will be travelling to Sweden in late June for my friend's wedding. I'm really looking forward to having the experience of Summer in my birthday month. I had always wanted to have my 30th birthday in Sweden and have the experience of having my birthday in Summer for once. Having a Winter birthday really bites. Alas, I don't have enough leave from work saved up, so I will arrive a couple of weeks late. My friend has assured me that we will do something nice as a belated birthday celebration for me.
Of course, I won't be travelling by myself. My husband and two young sons will be accompanying me. By the time we leave, my older son will be 4.5 years old, and my younger son will be 2.5 years old. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to introduce my boys to my friends and their family and to share the experience of travel with them, but at the same time, I am really dreading the thought of long haul flights with a toddler and a pre-schooler.
So, any suggestions on how to survive a long haul international flight with two young, very energetic boys? Especially the one on the way over which has a 7 hour stopover at Hong Kong?
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