Fever

Poor Isolde has a fever!  Guess she picked something up on the plane.  It started last evening when I thought she felt a little bit warm.  She only had 37.7 then but in the middle of the night around 1 am I woke up next to a very hot little girl (she slept in our bed as she was already cranky at bedtime).  Turns out she had 39.6.  We've been very lucky and she hasn't been ill at all in her first year of life except for two colds but then she didn't have a temperature so this is her first fever*.  After some paracetamol it went down to 39.2 and today she's had between 38.2 and 38.5 all day.  She slept quite a lot during the day but tonight she cannot come to rest.  Peter's trying again right now and I'd better go and join him.

* Except once when she had 37.6 for a few hours.

Like a Celebrity

I like reading about celebraties' kids and when we were in Oxford this past Saturday it was like Isolde and her little friend Imogen were such mini celebs!  Except for the fact that us parents weren't of any interest at all, which I guess would be the case with real celebrities.

I took quite a lot of photos with the real camera but here's one with the iPhone as well as a short video for now.  Unfortunately I was too slow with the filming when these Japanese girls went the most crazy.

Shop a Little

Peter was the big shopper last week but I managed to pick up a few things in between coursework. A dress and a pair of shorts for Isolde and a Barbour jacket (International Summer Wax model) for myself, something I've been wanting to buy for a long time. I also bought some presents for people but won't show them here!

Another Day

Another course day for me and a day of leisure for Peter and Isolde (the course is really great but I wish I had at least one day just strolling). In the morning they just went to the local playground but after lunch they visited the Swedish church for a weekly play group (where they offered semlor, cream buns for Shrove Tuesday!) and then ventured to Jermyn Street for some shopping (they had a buy-one-shirt-get-two-for-free-deal so Peter bought three shirts and one tie for only £86!).

When I got "home", we walked across the Embankment bridge to the London Eye for some London views from above. I've gone once before when the wheel was new but Peter had never been on it. It's perhaps not worth its ticket price but it's still something to check off the list. And I can watch Houses of Parliament and Big Ben at night over and over again! After the 30-minute ride we walked up to Covent Garden and Neal Street and spent quite a lot of time at Barbour - Peter bought a quilted spring-autumn jacket but I'm still deciding - before devouring moules frites at Belgo's. Finale of the day was a crêpe to share from the crêperie in Covent Garden on our way back to the hotel - Shrove/Fat Tuesday is Pancake Day in the UK after all!

London Continued

Today was the first day of the course (International Communication Skills) I'm attending (very interesting so far) so Peter and Isolde were on their own. They spent their day doing a bit of walking, shopping and checking out the nearest (unfortunately not that near) playgrounds. Yesterday we were all together though and the sun was shining (though it was still rather cold)! We walked on the north side of the river from Embankment down to the Tower of London where we had fish & chips with all the other tourists, before crossing over on Tower Bridge and walking all the way back on the south bank. We finished the day with a visit to the Courtauld Gallery, which can be recommended if you've already been to many of the other art museums in London.

In the evening we went out for dinner. First we tried Porter's English restaurant in Covent Garden but it was full so we ended up at an Indian chain place, Masala Zone, which had received good reviews on Trip Advisor but that I would NOT recommend! Sure, they were friendly and it was quick - it's sort of like Indian fast food but with table service - but the chicken was fatty and the rest was rather bland. So we didn't stay long, which was perhaps good because Isolde was tired and not in restaurant mood. She has started screaming in a high-pitch fashion when she doesn't want to do what we want her to do, such as putting on her jacket, or when we're stopping her from doing something she wants. I really hope it's just because she's been tired and bored from sitting in her pushchair all day, as I really don't want our restaurant days to be over!

London, Baby!

* Rise and shine at 4am in order to be at the airport at 6ish for flight at 7:30.
* Exciting and somewhat scary finish to our flight, as when we're just about to land in pretty windy weather, a gust of wind forces the pilot to ascend and turn around to try again (or rather, he made a judgment call that it was better to divert). Luckily the second attempt was successful and was actually a very soft landing, considering. There was probably never any real danger to our lives but it was still pretty scary!
* Quite a trek from City Airport to our hotel in Trafalgar Square, as both the Circle and District lines were suspended for weekend engineering works, causing us to make a couple of extra changes and have to use less accessible lines. Not so much fun when you have a baby and quite a lot of luggage including a pushchair (in a transport bag).
* Once we had got to our hotel and fed Isolde lunch, a looong walk from Trafalgar Square down the mall and through Green Park, past Knightsbridge and through Kensington Gardens, down Oxford Street and New/Old Bond Street and back to T Square.
* Afternoon Tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace, during which we just missed most of the heavy rain.
* Some excitement at the end the day to match the morning; power cut in our room due to a defect toaster. Luckily the hotel was quick to come to our "rescue" and restored both the electricity and (new) toaster within minutes. Well, the first replacement toaster didn't work but third time lucky!

How was your day?!

Isolde at 13 Months

Want to keep up these updates for a while longer!

Our little one-year-old at 13 months old is:

• showing more and more emotions.  She's making a lot of new faces and you can really tell that she's trying out both feelings and faces and waiting to see what we do.  Relatedly, she's also developing stronger and stronger will and is trying to show it by exaggerating (or so it seems).  So there's a lot of trying different cries and wining and looking at us to see our reaction.  And sometimes if I say "no", e.g. no to carrying her right there and then, she goes to daddy and "complains".  And vice versa.  Her cries are still very soft but they are getting stronger and higher and she's starting to try high-pitch screaming to get what she wants too.
• not much of a talker yet but has recently started saying "noo, noo" (not English [noe] but more like Finnish "nu" if that makes sense haha).  She shapes her mouth like she's going to make a kiss and says "noo noo noo".  It is very cute!  Otherwise she's not saying many clear words even though she's constantly "talking".  She's not saying mamma or pappa very often right now. Guess she's practising on other words.
• learning how to play.  She brings us toys and she wants us to play with them.  It's not always easy to understand what she wants so sometimes it's obvious we're not doing what she had in mind.  It's not always fun for me in the mornings because that's when she's in her best mood and she wants to play or be read to but I have to get ready for work :(  I know she has Peter who will play with her but it gives me a little heartache to turn her down.  She's doesn't seem to care that much herself yet.  As long as daddy reads instead she's fine. 
• struggling to walk in her winter boots and snowsuit but otherwise she's always walking and hardly ever crawls anymore.  Lately she's often been walking backwards like she's practising that.  She's not running yet but you just wait!
• eating more and more with utensils but still mostly with her hands, or fingers, really.  Sometimes, even if she manages to get a piece of food on her fork she takes her other hand and picks the food from the fork and puts it in her mouth with her fingers. 
• not very patient and has a short attention span right now.  This means we usually read two pages - and sometimes just two lines - of a book at the most before she wants to read the next one, and so on.  She also throws little tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants but it's still easy to distract her with another toy or "ignore" (i.e. let her get a bit mad for 30 seconds before she gives up and is happy again) her so that she decides to find something to do anyway.
• still a lightweight at 8.4 kg and 70.5 cm (according to our attempts to weigh and measure at home) and wears mostly size 74 but some 80
• not keen on wintersuit and boots (as mentioned above).  I think it's because she feels very immobile.  She hasn't really learnt how to walk properly in her boots yet, mainly because she's mostly in her pushchair when we're out and about anyway.  So we should probably make her practise more.
• drinking less and less välling (formula) in the evening so we've actually stopped making it, at least for now.  She seems to be fine, i.e. sleep through the night, without it.  Maybe because she usually eats a second dinner with us ha ha.
• learning how to kiss goodbye and good night.  I usually make a kissing mouth and kissing sounds and after a while she leans towards me and rubs her nose towards my nose or my mouth.
• sleeping in her own bed throughout most nights, 19:30-20:00 to 07:30-08:00, but one or two nights a week come to our bed either in the early morning or around midnight or 1am.  Every two weeks or so she has a night where it's impossible to get her to fall asleep again and we (or mostly Peter) have to stay up with her for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night as nothing we tried works - välling, new nappy, sleeping in her bed, sleeping in our bed...  It's like you just have to wait and tire her out by letting her play.  She is tired but it's like she's on the fifth roll.  Any tips?!
• often playing in her room provided we stay with her.  Otherwise she goes in there on her own and brings a toy out to the kitchen or the living room. 
• still very interested in cooking and it's difficult to do anything in the kitchen with her attached to your legs, wanting to be picked up.  If someone is in the bathroom at the same time that's pretty interesting but not for very long.
• getting pretty good at the sorting box at least with the square and the round one - the triangle is difficult - and she knows she's done a good thing when she fits the right one in the right hole because she's stretches her arms out like "ta da!"  But sometimes she goes "ta da!" when she does very easy things too, like just putting something back in a drawer when she's playing in the kitchen.  She already knows praise is good haha! 
• a little bit afraid of the hoover.  She doesn't cry or scream or anything but she wants to be picked up immediately and then she wants to follow the hoover around at a safe distance, i.e. 1,5 metres up in your arms.  With thumb in mouth.  But when the hoover is off she happily plays with it. 
• loves the iPhone and the iPad so much we have to hide them sometimes.  It's pretty cool how she's pretty good at the baby apps.  However, she's discovered the menu button and turns off the programme all the time (and hasn't learnt how to turn the app on again yet).
• still sucking her thumb but also her right index finger, mainly when she's in the pushchair or in the car

There's lots more to write about her but I need to continue packing for our UK trip!  Stay tuned until next month for Isolde at 14 months!

Bringing Winter Inside

Sort of :) If you ask Isolde sledding is even more fun indoors without that cold white stuff and all those uncomfortable clothes.

My Hearts

Low-key Valentine's Day with my darlings. After work Isolde (sporting my old 70s hat) and I took the walk to the covered market (Östermalmshallen) and bought today's dinner and in the evening we ate said dinner in front of the fire while it was snowing outside. Post-dinner, very fittingly, my preoccupation has been emailing possible venues for our wedding celebration that will hopefully take place (finally!) this summer. Suggestions welcome by the way!

Breather

The boss is away all week, which usually means less ad hoc tasking.  On the other hand, we're two people down in the team (training course) this week, which usually mean more random requests.  So plus minus zero, as we say in Swedish.  I sure hope though that this week will allow me to catch up on my backlog (two-three hectic weeks have caused major pile-up) because next week I'm going to be in London on training all week and I'd really want to clear my inbox as much as possible before then!  We'll see how much work I'm able to do tomorrow though because at the moment I have a sick husband (flu symptoms but I sure hope it's just something temporary or light) so I may have to stay home with Isolde (and this being Sweden I could actually take VAB - compensation for staying home with a sick child - if he calls in sick even if he's on parental leave right now). 

Origami

A bit tempted to get one but we don't really need another pushchair.  But it has a button and it's automatic and it self-charges and... Fitting name by the way! 

First-Time Sledder

Sled première!

Northern Friends

Gotta love BBC's reporting from the Northern Future Forum!   Can't embed the video for some reason so you have to go directly to the page.

More serious reporting from BBC here and here.  And a short clip from SVT:

Morfar

My beloved grandfather has left this world and is probably catching up with my grandmother over (half*) a cup of coffee somewhere in the heavens.

I will always remember this past Christmas when he was in good spirits and played with Isolde.  It is sad to think that he was doing pretty well just weeks ago and now he's gone.  But at almost 91 it's okay to let go I guess.  He has been unwell on and off for the last two years so we're happy to know he didn't have to suffer for long now in the end.

Hej då morfar! Vi ses i Nangijala en dag!

*My grandmother would always answer "I'll have half a cup" when asked if she wanted some coffee and was once given an actual half-size cup (half-moon shaped) as a gift (by my dad I think).

Birds

A must have for Isolde's room!  Which will probably stay on the wish list considering the price tag... Why are beautiful, stylish things so expensive?!  And why are cool lamps always so expensive?!

This Week

Highlights from the week, which has been work work work for me, but family time too.


Before the snow arrived today (Friday) we had several days of cold but sunny winter weather when Stockholm is at its best. This picture shows Stockholm's changing silhouette with the new Stockholm waterfront building to the right of the City Hall. The front building is pretty cool but not the boring office building behind...

Isolde is still a major thumb sucker but she's sucking more and more on her index finger, just like her dad when he was little, especially when she's in the pushchair.

One of the week's work highlights was a visit to Saltå kvarn...

...and looking good...or not...in protective gear for the visit inside the mill and the bakery.

Last weekend Isolde had a great time on the swings of Humlegården but wasn't as happy when she fell forward like a log on the snowy path.  She's not used to wearing boots or snowsuit and not being as mobile and flexible as she's indoors. 

Not a great photo it will have to do; we finally found a lamp for the living room that we liked! 

Here's a better picture.