Anna Fair and True

One Year Older

2012-01-28T18:25:00.001+01:00

* Breakfast with bread and croissants from the bakery and freshly squeezed orange juice
* Back to bed for two hours while Peter's up with Isolde so I could catch up on some sleep after the work week
* Fika with my parents and gift-opening (boots, perfume, sweater, theatre tickets, purse for cocktail parties, tea towels, napkins and candles)
* Responding to 50+ birthday messages, mainly on Facebook
* Dinner with Peter at Lux while my parents baby-sit (my treat though, as Peter's birthday present 2011)

Things You Miss When Not on Maternity Leave

2012-01-28T00:59:00.001+01:00

The sight of Isolde stuck behind the bathtub (we have one of those old-fashioned ones with legs) after having crawled under and then not finding her way out again. I would have taken a photo before "rescuing" her but Peter is a good father :)

Isolde at 12 Months

2012-01-23T21:57:00.003+01:00

Right now Isolde...

's most used word is still "där" but now she's rediscovered "mamma" and "pappa" and she practices often on them, though not necessarily to us. One morning she said "mamma" while looking at me and then she smiled like she was both proud of herself and a bit embarrassed. So cute! She's also trying to say "ja" and "nej" and she babbles a lot of "rappakalja" that we don't understand.
likes waving goodbye to me in the morning and it's always with a smile. If she's slightly whining it's because she wants to come out to the exciting stairway beyond the door. When I come home she comes crawling - or walking, but crawling is faster - and when I pick her up she hugs me hard and sometimes takes my face in her little hands and gives me a kiss (well, sort of a kiss, more like a nose kiss).
took her first (unsupported) steps just after Christmas (at 11½ months) and since then she's been taking more and more steps and getting steadier and steadier and in the last week (12 months & 1 week) it's like she's finally really got it and she can now walk across a room and over dorrsills and carpets, even if it's still a bit wobbly. See video! It was interesting to see how it progressed from standing without supporting, to learning how to stand up (rise) on the spot without holding on to anything, to taking almost like running steps and then sitting down hard, to walking a few steps and then stopping, i.e. exercising being in control, to finally walking without much effort.
at the moment likes books with flaps for lifting or other ways to discover new things in the book and we read Tippen säger god natt (Spot says good night) and Miffy på bondgården every day. She still likes one of her first favourites, Vad lilla Anna fick se, in a very read and falling apart version from when I was little. She seems to prefer books with more text and longer narratives now.
usually sleeps from 8pm to 7 or 8 am. In her own bed and room until 5 or 6 am and then in our bed for another couple of hours. I love cuddling with her in the morning and going back to sleep together but I'm really grateful we get most of the night to ourselves! One or two nights of week she wakes at midnight or 1 am and sleeps with us for the rest of the night, since it's usually difficult to get her to go back to sleep in her bed at that hour. It usually takes her between 5 and 15 minutes to go to sleep in the evening but sometimes it can take up to 30 minutes. She almost always fall asleep by herself in her crib but it often takes a few times of picking her up, giving her another hug, putting her down again, more singing, and patting her back and bum, not exactly in that order, before she finally lets go. She has so much energy in her little arms and legs right now so sometimes it actually helps to hold her legs so she can't kick around in bed.
doesn't mind being fed (jar food or other wetter food) but prefers feeding herself, mostly with her hands but sometimes with a spoon or fork. She's really good at being fed with a adult-size fork. It's like she's understood that it's bigger and sharper and she opens up wide and carefully. She often eats two lunches and two dinners since she eats quite a lot of our food too (our mealtimes don't really match yet). Her favourite food is corn - she could live on it if we let her - and of course raspberries, but she's still not keen on banana unless it's mixed with a lot of other fruits.
is such a little proper person now. She's always been her own little person - it surprised me how the personality was there from the beginning - but now we can literally see how she develops and grows mentally every day. It's amazing how much a little brain takes in every day, every minute, every second. She's learning things every day that shapes her. She is showing more and more will and she can be a little dramaqueen sometimes. We can tell that she already is trying to "manipulate" us (not maliciously of course) and tries different techniques to get what she wants. But she gives up quite easily and her "tantrums" can hardly be called that yet. We just think it's cute at this stage :)
probably weighs at least 8.3 kg and is 70 cm tall now but I'm not sure since we haven't been to BVC for a month and a half. The next appointment is not until she 18 months so we'll have to try and weigh and measure her at home at some point to keep track. We can see that she's healthy and growing but I'm a bit of "keeping track"-geek so I want to know the numbers! :) We have now put away all her size 68 clothes (though some still fit, especially Polarn & Pyret stuff) and she wears size 74 and some 80.
gets so happy when it's someone she recognises, like her grandparents and her godmother Maria (who's probably the friend of mine who she's met the most and who she's really close to). It's lovely to see her interact with people and especially people who know her. She's very social in general and when we had 30 adults and 10 children here for her birthday (we had an open house so they were not all here at once but most people were here the first two hours) she didn't mind the chaos at all and was her usually happy self.
had her first proper injury (including some bleeding) a few days before her first birthday. Or so we thought. Turns out she had hurt herself once before at her grandparents (farmor & farfar). But it can't have been that bad at all since she didn't even have a swollen lip when we picked her up after a couple of hours. Anyhow, it was bound to happen at some point and there will be many more injuries in her lifetime I'm sure even though we'll of course do our best to prevent them!
still toothless! Well, she has her two bottom teeth but when will she get more?? I fear she'll get ten at once and we'll won't sleep for a week!
has her mouth wide open when she's doing something exciting, like riding on her new bee car or playing with something new she's found.
takes after her father and has rhythm in her blood (Peter is quite the dancer). She moves her little tushie almost to anything and lately she's started doing some sort of jazz hands thing too. It's so funny how it's almost impossible for her to listen to music without "dancing".
wants to play the baby apps (Pekaboo farm, Pekbok and Soundtouch) on our iPhones or the iPad so much that we have to hide them. If some of those apps weren't so good, especially Soundtouch, we would regret showing her the iPhone in the first place!
wants to be with us and see what we're doing, and especially in the kitchen, but can also play for a while with the stuff in her room or her toys in the living room while we eat dinner (after she's eaten half of our food) or watch TV. We have started playing some imagination games, such as pretending to cook food and eat as well as cuddle with the stuffed animals. It's still mostly her wanting us to pretend while she's watching and handing us the stuff.
thinks the hoover is scary but at the same time really interesting. She doesn't cry but she practically jumps into your arms when the hoover starts.

Height of Futility

2012-01-22T20:34:00.001+01:00

This must be the most useless and unnecessary device ever!! Who buys this sort of stuff??!! What's wrong with a little bit of reflective tape (since the sales argument is "both for decorate purposes and for safety reasons when out during dark hours"?!

Première!

2012-01-21T17:49:00.001+01:00

Restaurant Prose

2012-01-20T20:54:00.000+01:00

The British restaurant reviewer A. A. Gill visits Stockholm and writes a food piece that's both informative and funny (Swedish and English version available). I especially liked the part about the vikings:

This is the only Viking-themed restaurant in Stockholm, so that’s a blessing. But it is still one too many. You should invite the Saxons to come and sack it. Considering how much the rest of Europe suffered from the bloody Vikings, it would be a cruelty to make a visitor relive the trauma here.

Fight for Kisses

2012-01-18T23:15:00.000+01:00

Great commercial!

Better video quality here.

Twenty Twelve

2012-01-17T10:53:00.000+01:00

Since part of my job right now is related to the London 2012 Olympics (nope, I cannot get anyone tickets; I don't even get to go myself) I just have to watch the BBC comedy show "Twenty Twelve" about the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Love Refugee

2012-01-16T22:34:00.000+01:00

Today one of my best friends, Jenny, has left Sweden for her new home country, Brazil. Her plan is to return to Sweden at some point but not until 2025 at the earliest when her partner, Mauro, retires. It still feels a bit surreal that she's actually going to live there and I'm not going to see her on a regular basis but I guess it will sink in eventually, and there's nothing I can do about it anyway.

It's quite an adventure she's embarking on! Less than a year ago she didn't even know Mauro (I think they first met online in March 2011) and now she's moving across the Atlantic to be with him! She went there for a month in August and he came here in November, when we also got to meet him - such a wonderful man! -, and now she's going there for good. It reminds me of another brave woman, Beverly, who made a similar life-changing decision 10 years ago.

I will miss her so much and wish she could stay here but at the same time I'm so happy she's met the one! And I'm happy it's 2012 and not 1912 and that there is air travel, Skype and Facebook!

See you next Christmas, if not before then!

Jenny, hope it's okay I borrowed a photo off your FB page!

Read Books 2011

2012-01-15T23:00:00.002+01:00

Not even worth a post but...

Best - "Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann" by Jonas Jonasson
Next best - "Himmel över London" by Håkan Nesser
Third best - "Luftslott" by Sheila O'Flanagan
Useful - "Att möta förlossningssmärtan" by Gudrun Abascal

Seen Films 2011

2012-01-15T22:56:00.002+01:00

If anyone is looking for film recommendations.

5+
Never Let Me Go

4+
Contagion
Crazy.Stupid.Love
500 Days of Summer
Friends with Benefits
Bridesmaids
Paul
Source Code
Just Go With It
The King's Speech
Fair Game
It's Kind of a Funny Story
Easy A

3+
Cashback
Hangover 2
Adam
Super 8
Horrible Bosses
Harry Potter 7
Burke & Hare
The Adjustment Bureau
Limitless
Taxi 3
Unstoppable
Anchorman
Due Date
Tangled
Rallybrudar
The Joneses

2+
Take Me Home Tonight
Did You Hear about the Morgans?
Rango
Rio
Love and Other Drugs
Megamind
Forces of Nature

1+
The Green Lantern
Where the Wild Things Are

In Remote Heaven

2012-01-15T21:17:00.001+01:00

She has lots of new toys following her first birthday party yesterday and what does she do? Discovers the house's four remotes and dad's iPhone lined up on the sofa.

2011 Recap

2012-01-14T23:41:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year! A bit belatedly perhaps but I haven't managed to post a new year blip until now.

This year's...
...happening
Becoming a mother

...project
Moving before the summer and renovating the kitchen at the end of the year

...song
Blinka lilla stjärna (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), Trollmors vaggsång, Sov du lilla videung, which are the three songs I sing to Isolde every night

...trip
Nice, France in April and the US (Delaware and Florida) in October

...hip hip hurray!
My grandfather turned 90, my dad 60, my cousin 40 and we attended one wedding (Anna and Richard)

...person
Isolde

...toil
Giving birth!

...garment
Nursing top

...best book
Read a grand total of four book :( But of those, I enjoyed "Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann" by Jonas Jonasson the most

...worst book
Not applicable

...purchase
Our new car, a dark blue Passat 140 TDI, which runs on diesel and is a green car according to the Swedish definition

...TV moment
I follow very few series except for sitcoms so difficult to choose a moment. Maybe the British royal wedding?

...change
Becoming a parent and being home with a baby instead of working

...film
Never Let Me Go was the only one I gave a 5 (list of all viewed films coming)

...daily joy
Waking up to baby babble and laughter

...gratitude
To have a healthy baby and as a bonus, a very content baby that is seriously one of the happiest babies I've ever met (I don't lie when I say that she very rarely cries)! And I'm grateful every day for my little family.

...greatest expectation
Isolde's next development leap as well as moving to a new home

...greatest disappointment
Can't think of anything. Perhaps that I had planned to change jobs during my parental leave but time flew and I didn't even try. But when I did return to work, I had the opportunity to do almost 100% new stuff so going back didn't end up too bad after all.

...greatest joy
Isolde and Peter as a father

...greatest "I wish more had happened this year"
Before I went on maternity leave I had great plans about how to spend the leave (besides taking care of the baby); I was going to bake sourdough bread, plan our wedding [party], scan all my old photos, etc. but I have done none of that...

...most wonderful weekend
Maybe not wonderful as such since it involved 30 hours of gradually increasing pain...but the Saturday and Sunday of 8-9 January when we were about to become parents is probably the most memorable weekend. It was such a fascinating experience and despite the pain (which I have in many ways forgotten - it's so true what they say) I have only good memories from the delivery room and especially from our room at the ward afterwards.

...ponder
How come time flies?

...restaurant
Pontus (like last year) where we had a big dinner the evening before I went into labour

...hardest and saddest
My grandfather and two friends still having health issues. I also still think a lot of a friend whose mother passed away in 2010 already - my friend had a baby this year and I think about the fact that her son doesn't get to meet his grandmother and my friend doesn't get to share what I do with my mum. But she has her dad of course but becoming a mother is perhaps a time when one's mother becomes extra important.

...best party
We haven't thrown any parties this year except for Isolde's christening but I promise that next year we'll finally have our big wedding celebration!

...gadget
The iPhone. Still. Again.

...personal greatest success
Being the best mother Isolde could have! :)

...memories
So many, especially with Peter and Isolde of course. The birth feels like it just happened and at the same time so far ago.

...forgot to do (deviance from normal behaviour)
Didn't hug and kiss Peter as much as I should. It's like you're both so pre-occupied with the baby that it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon before you realise that you haven't said "good morning" to each other yet!

...greatest lesson
Carrying around a baby builds really good arm muscles and you can't really complain about not sleeping when you should have really gone to bed when the baby did at 8pm instead of at midnight when you ended up going...

...spending
Buying and renovating a flat, buying a new car, baby clothes...

...new people
The mothers and babies of my "mummy group"

...most romantic of the year
Peter continuing to make me breakfast every morning - during my maternity leave when he got up to get ready for work and now when I'm the one working he gets up and makes me breakfast while I shower and get ready even though it should be me making him breakfast now!

...New Year resolution
Even though I lost all the pregnancy weight I still have some excess around tummy and thighs which will need to go this year. So go to the gym (that I'm actually paying for every month)! And read more books!

Urgent Design Help Needed!

2012-01-14T10:37:00.001+01:00

Which bed spread should we choose?! The off white goes better with the dark grey bed and gives a lighter look (it's even lighter in the picture as it's near the window). The brownish goldish beige goes better with the wallpaper and gives a cosier look. I want to have some accent colours, maybe dark purple or cerise pink - which one would they match best with?! And what colour curtains with either spread?! Apologies for the bad quality iPhone photos - didn't have time to take out the camera.

Cool Pink

2012-01-12T20:46:00.001+01:00

Check out the jacket Isolde got from her farmor & farfar (grandparents) for her birthday!

A Regular Tuesday?

2012-01-10T20:05:00.001+01:00

Work. Dentist appointment (major filling but avoided a root canal, yay!). Electricity only in half the flat after Peter's fiddling (as an electrical engineer he's allowed but jury's still out whether he caused the problem or our contractors' electrician has messed up). A bath and some quality time with the husband instead of TV and computers is not that bad after all.

Update 22:50: Unpacked all our books instead and did some other post-renovation stuff instead of the bath but I enjoyed doing it! Fun chores exist!

12:04

2012-01-09T12:04:00.001+01:00

Now Isolde is officially 1 year old! Can't believe it's already been a year since she arrived! And now we cannot imagine a life without her!

Grattis vårt lilla busfrö!

Wallpaper

2012-01-08T22:53:00.000+01:00

For those of you curious about our newly redecorated flat, here's a sneak peak at Isolde's wallpaper* on my friend's blog. I promise I will post more photos once the contractors have finished some bits and pieces and we have tidied up after them.

* We're painting Isolde's crib this week so soon she won't have to sleep in a travel bed anymore!

This Time Last Year...

2012-01-08T12:26:00.001+01:00

...Isolde started knocking on the door.

First Injury

2012-01-06T22:43:00.001+01:00

Isolde hurt herself for the first time today. She's fallen over and bumped her head a few times but never hurt herself properly or bled before. But there has to be a first for everything.

Tonight she was trying to open the drawers of a cabinet while at the same time getting up to stand, when she slipped (she didn't wear non-slip socks at the time) and hit her mouth on the cabinet. Luckily the outcome wasn't too bad. There were lots of tears and some bleeding (already washed off in the below picture), as she cut the "string" of the inside lip on the upper gums (which I googled and found out is called the superior labial frenulum). She was soon her usual self again albeit with a swollen lip and she didn't have any difficulties eating a little bit of cucumber or drinking välling before bedtime or, most importantly, sucking her beloved thumb. I suspect I will want her to be a little bit more careful in the near future though.

Sales Finds

2012-01-04T00:20:00.001+01:00

I haven't bought anything for myself yet (though I really need a new pair of jeans so I should really take a shopping day for myself before the sales end) but Isolde's wardrobe is just getting fuller and fuller...

Thursday

2011-12-29T23:07:00.001+01:00

Today was one of those days at work when you're taking it easy and looking forward to having some time off (only worked two days this week) and you're already in holiday mood when you realise that "oh, s**t, there's lots of stuff I need to finish before the end of the day and it's already 3 pm!". So I had to stay an extra hour (which is not that bad after all) but now I can relax until the next day in the office, 9 January.

In other news, Isolde has slept through the night for the first time in over six weeks! Last night she slept from 8pm to 5:20 and then in our bed until 06:45, and the night before, our first night back in the flat, from 8pm to 7am. If it's not a one-off, or two one-offs to be exact, it proves that we were disturbing her (and she us) when we were all sleeping in the same (tiny) room in our temporary accommodation (first my parents for 1 1/2 weeks and then Peter's parents for 3 1/2 weeks). The last two nights she's been in her own room (her new room, pictures coming soon!). The last six weeks have been really tiring with Isolde waking literally every night and often staying awake for 1-2 hours. Not what you need in general but especially not when you are working every day. She's had periods of irregular sleep before but never so long and so consistent. And those times one of us could go and sleep in a different room (the couch) but that wasn't possible at our parents (but we're so grateful we had somewhere to stay during the renovation!!).

So fingers crossed this new sleep pattern is a permanent one!

God fortsättning!*

2011-12-26T22:34:00.001+01:00

I forgot to wish everybody a Merry Christmas here on the blog but maybe Boxing Day (where it's celebrated) is not too late to do it?!

Isolde is on the move now. She stands without support and she has taken mini or semi-steps. I wouldn't call them real steps but she's definitely almost there. Will keep you posted!

* One of those expressions that is difficult to translate

Secret Santa

2011-12-20T21:49:00.001+01:00

One of the highlights of the year, Emma's Christmas Present Exchange, just took place. My gift travelled to Karin in Åland (hope she has received it?!) and I received a package that had travelled much further. Thanks Annika!

"Who are these jolly people?"

"Mummy, let's open this one first!"

"I like the Christmas ornament - and especially the bell inside - but mum likes the cards the best. And the iPhone gloves will come in handy when I want to play Peekaboo Barn while out in my pushchair."

Isolde at 11 Months

2011-12-19T21:53:00.001+01:00

Our soon-to-be-one-year-old girl...

can stand by herself for up to ten seconds. Just yesterday she didn't want to practice even though she sometimes stood for two-three seconds but today it's like she found her balance and now she she's getting steadier and steadier. Walking soon?! She hasn't wanted to walk just holding one hand but maybe that will change now.
has been very picky with her food lately. She doesn’t want to be fed but cannot work a spoon yet so dry finger food is what goes right now. To her dad’s frustration (and I'm secretely happy I don't have to deal with it every day). Fortunately she had still grown as much as she should when we checked last Friday.
weighs just over 8 kg (8,070 gr) and is 68.5 cm tall.
has started drinking välling (formula) in the evening but sometimes oat cereal is her evening meal, sometimes she has both (dinner is earlier around 4-5 pm).
doesn’t sleep very well at the moment. We usually have no problem putting her to bed in the evening but she wakes up several times from 1 or 2 am onwards and is sometimes awake for 1-2 hours. She still takes two naps a day, one in the morning and one after lunch but if she continues having trouble sleeping once we move back home we may need to shorten those or remove the afternoon nap. I think may be separation anxiety that only shows at night? Otherwise she’s her happy usual self during the day (except the food business). Or it's just a phase. Or it's because all three of us are cramped up in a small room (at Peter's parents, due to the renovation of our flat) right now.
wants to be up and in someone’s arms if we’re doing something, especially in the kitchen. Why stay down on the boring floor when you can observe what’s going on. You might miss something otherwise. It seems like she's very interested in cooking but maybe it's just because we spend quite a lot of time there (or especially her grandmother whom we've been staying with for a while)?

gives you books to read or the iPhone to open the picture book. The meowing cat is the favourite. I love that she loves books so much already.
is a fast crawler nowayds and she never tummy crawls (ålar) anymore. She often stands on her knees and watches, plays or holding up her hand to be picked up.
still thinks the baby swim lessons are fun and when we started again you could tell she had missed it. But this time the group is so big and she’s more interested in watching all the others than diving or practicing climbing out of the pool.
she has become more and more cuddly and shows affection by giving us nose kisses or wet kisses (mouth wide open). In the morning she's busy playing but in the evening when I get back to work she wants to cuddle and she puts her head on my shoulder and sucks her thumb.
she got her first booboo a week ago at a playdate. She walked into the door frame, cried for 30 seconds and Peter didn't think of more of it. But in the evening we noticed a bruise on her forehead, a small one but it took a few days to disappear.
is impossible to change because she doesn’t stay still, not even if you give her an exciting toy, which makes especially no 2 changes a bit tricky to say the least.
waves goodbye. She has understood the word vinka (wave) and you don't have to actually do it yourself for her to start waiving.
sticks her tongue out half-way when's she doing something. It's like she concentrating and being mischievous at the same time. Very cute!
still has just two teeth. I sometimes wonder if she'll ever get more?!
talks a lot but no real words yet except där (there), which she says almost all the time, pointing to things or taking up a thing to show us. But she doesn't say mamma or pappa more than a month ago.

Show & Tell: Saint Lucia

2011-12-13T22:10:00.000+01:00

Friday's Show & Tell theme was Saint Lucia, a Swedish holiday (one of the most cherished and celebrated?), and since it's always on 13 December, today, I figured I'd wait until today to write my post. But turns out that I don't have much to tell. Or show. We didn't dress up Isolde in a Lucia gown or as a little Santa's helper - she couldn't care less of course - and slept through the Lucia celebrations on telly this morning. Some years we've been treated to a little Lucia performance at work but this year (and last) there were no willing singers. We did meet for a quick glögg in the afternoon though but turnout was small, as many of my colleagues with children had already left for their children's Lucia celebrations at pre-school or school. Next year will be very different though I suspect because then it will be Isolde's first real Lucia, first real Christmas, etc. Bring it on! But until then, some calm!

Little Friends

2011-12-11T22:09:00.001+01:00

Two tired and serious-looking girls on the rocking choo choo train but they did have fun together even though it may not look like it in the picture :)

11 Months!

2011-12-09T08:09:00.000+01:00

How did almost a whole year pass already?! Crazy!

Sleeping in Gothenburg

2011-12-06T22:28:00.001+01:00

I am in Gothenburg on business and I don't know what I'm looking forward to the most, the prospect of interrupted sleep* for one night or two hours Christmas shopping tomorrow after my meetings have finished... Irrespectively I should probably turn off the lights now, as it's 10:30 pm and I need to get up by 7 am the latest.

* Isolde has had trouble sleeping lately. She has no difficulties turning in sometime between 7 or 8 pm but then wakes up every night between 2 or 4 am, usually around 2, and then doesn't want to go back to sleep for at least 1½ hours... Don't know if it's a phase or because we're not in our own home or due to other changes in her life (me going back to work). She's her usual happy-go-lucky self during the day though - except that she's picky with her food right now - so I think it's probably a phase.

Promenading

2011-12-05T22:10:00.001+01:00

If we didn't already have a Bugaboo (or weren't happy with it, which we are) I'd consider getting a Phil & Ted Promenade. It's similar to the Bugaboo in many ways, not as ugly as the iCandy for example, reminds me of Brio Go (but better-looking) and has some features that are lacking on Bugaboo - it's fully collapsible and have much more (storage) space under the bassinet/seat, to name just two.

Shop 'til You Drop

2011-12-03T22:15:00.001+01:00

Isolde just remembered she never showed you what she bought for herself on our US trip. She didn't realise it while she was busy shopping but there was a certain blue theme. Matches her beautiful blue eyes though!

Striped onesie, two tees from OshKosh and a polo blouse from Ralph Lauren (RL) to the left and three dresses from Tommy Hilfiger (TF) to the right.

Knitted sweater from RL, two leggings from RL and one pair of soft, leggings-type trousers from TF to the left and three blouses, top one from TF and the bottom two from RL, to the right.

Hat from TF, blue Toms (one pair for you, one for a child in need somewhere) and red Converse.

Show & Tell: The December of My Dreams

2011-12-02T23:03:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd jump on the Show & Tell train again. Annika is hostess for the month of December and she has given us five seasonally appropriate topics :)

2 December - The December of My Dreams. The hostess has assisted with some questions: what would the ultimate month of December be like for you? Maybe you want to skip everything to do with Christmas? Or would you go away? Or do you want to maximise Christmas [like Annika herself]? Tell us!

9 December - Saint Lucia

16 December - Half-year check. A Show & Tell tradition where we show what happened July-December.

23 December - The day before Christmas. What do you most look forward to? What food would you not want to be without? What traditions must be there for you to call it Xmas?

30 December - Thoughts for the new year

I'm going to be very "right now" in my post today. I'm not really going to answer Annika's question but just tell what's on my mind right now:

My dream this December will be that our kitchen (and the rest of the flat, but that work will be much quicker in comparison) will be ready by Christmas! And with a few days left until Christmas so we can make it Christmassy and cosy. And I hope that we can actually move back (staying with Peter's parents right now) next weekend so that we can start unpacking and decorating, both design-wise and Christmas-related. Peter's parents are not too much for that sort of stuff, not for Advent at least, so the don't even have a single advent light up (just four real candles). I'm quite minimalist in terms of Advent and Christmas decorations but I want at least one advent light in each room/window.

Even if the kitchen will take right up to Christmas (and maybe longer because the stone counter that we've ordered might not be fitted until after New Years), it looks like our bedroom will be ready any day (though it's next to the kitchen so we'll be sleeping in Isolde's room for the remainder of the works) and next they will wallpaper the living room and the hallway. So it's getting there. I can't wait to see it all ready, or even part ready.

I don't know if I ever told you what wallpaper we chose in the end... so here is hopefully what our bedroom will look like! Though the bedroom picture shows another colour combination than the one we chose, the one in the first picture (Ludlow from Cole & Son).

For the living room we chose a wallpaper in white with stripes with three different widths but unfortunately I don't have a photo yet (Décor Maison).

Have a nice weekend!

Cottage Cheese* Music

2011-12-01T21:08:00.000+01:00

Maybe this is already old to most people but I just discovered Erato!

* They are drumming on Swedish cottage cheese boxes

Hard Currency?

2011-12-01T20:12:00.000+01:00

Someone broke into our basement and stole a screw gun and Bugaboo winter wheels. Not the DVD or other bits and bobs.

Advent

2011-11-27T21:37:00.001+01:00

A little update. We're now 1 1/2 weeks into our kitchen+ renovation and yesterday we moved to Peter's parents after having stayed with my parents until now. We'll stay here for a week and then see if we can move back. At the moment it's just too dusty. The liveable part of the flat, i.e. Isolde's room, is fine (except we discovered last Monday that they had turned off the electricity the previous Friday and we had to throw out everything in the fridge and freezer...) but we'd have to go into the dusty part to access the shower (there's only a toilet adjacent to Isolde's room, for now; that's our next renovation project) so that's not an option right now.

It's been a busy weekend (the preceding week was "just" work and a looong commute). Friday we had a little family birthday dinner for my dad who turned 60 today (we had a bigger celebration in the summer) and Saturday we ran some renovation related errands and went to Wera's 2nd birthday party, in addition to "moved" from my parents to Peter's. And today we had an Advent get-together at our friends Maria and Daniel together with two friends of theirs and their two children. One of the children is just three days older than Isolde and we've been planning to get together for ages but it took 10+ months!

Happy first Advent!

Pearl Necklace

2011-11-23T20:49:00.001+01:00

No, it's not what I want for Christmas (well, jewellery is always on a girl's list...). It's the string of cars driving in the middle lane on the motorway between Stockholm and Södertälje tonight on my way home from work.* Always when I'm driving I get so annoyed (in a calm way as I'm a rather calm person) with all drivers who stay in the middle lane, even though it's empty in the right lane or they are driving too slow for the middle lane, or both. Is it that so many Swedes are nervous drivers and stay in the middle to prepare for a shift of lanes or exiting (even though exits are mostly to the right) 13 km down the road, or because they don't want to have to change lanes if another car is entering (even though it's the entering car that has to yield and you don't have an obligation to move). Tonight was extreme with a string of cars in the middle lane even though it was completely empty to the right. Why?! In a way, tonight was less of a problem since there wasn't much traffic, but when there is traffic, which is most of the time, these drivers are really blocking off a big part of the road. The third lane between Södertälje and Stockholm is rather new (and there are now lights all the way) but if people are not using, what was the point of building it?!

* I decided to drive back and forth as it saves a lot of time, especially in the evenings.

First Week

2011-11-20T21:45:00.001+01:00

It's Sunday evening and tomorrow I start my second work week post-maternity leave. The first two days of week 1, I didn't think that much about Isolde and actually just thought it was nice to get a "break" from motherhood. But towards the end of the week I was really missing her and missing her development (well, I didn't think about her that much during the day but when I got home and saw her I felt like I had been missing something). The second part of the week felt worse not only because the change had started to sink in but also because I had to commute from Södertälje, and had a longer day away from her than at the beginning of the week. I shouldn't really complain about commuting though since I'd only do it temporarily and so far I have only commuted for real one day (Friday) as Thursday Peter and Isolde also went to town and we took the car. But Friday's commute felt sooo looong - I left the house at 7:30am and returned at 7pm. Driving on Thursday took only a little over one hour. I'd like to be green but I think I may be driving even those days when Peter isn't going to town. We're probably just staying in Södertälje for another week so it's not like I'm polluting that much/for that long. If it hadn't been this early after going back to work I wouldn't have cared as much maybe but now it doesn't feel good to leave a sleeping baby in the morning and return just before her bedtime.

This weekend I also - which was perhaps bad timing but I didn't want to bail out - spent Saturday night at a friend's house for a party. But I didn't leave until 5pm Saturday afternoon and returned today at 1pm so I still got to catch up with Isolde over the weekend. By the way, it doesn't seem that she has really understood yet that there's been a change of "management". She's happy when I come home from work but she doesn't seem to really know how long I've been gone and she doesn't seem to have started missing me yet. Part of me is happy that she's so content with her dad but the other part would want to see more hurt feelings haha :) But all in all it's good of course since I think it's the right choice to go back to work now and share the parental leave 50-50. And I'm really enjoying work and look forward to getting down to business with my new responsibilities.

In other Isolde news, she had her 10-month check-up this week. This one was not just measurements (but those were 7,740 gr and 68 cm) but also a developmental update with the doctor (normally we just see the nurse). Everything was in order and we learnt a few interesting things about children's development at this age, for example that eating food on her own (i.e. not being fed but picking pieces of food with her fingers, also stimulates speech development because when she's putting stuff into her own mouth she uses her mouth differently (basically more the front than the back of the mouth) and thus trains different nerves and muscles. So now she'll only get finger food for a while! Haha, maybe not but definitely more than before. As she's also rather a lightweight still, the doctor also recommended cold pasta (fusilli or similar) as a snack - many calories but also a good finger food and easy to bring with you when out and about.

Where There Was Once a Kitchen...

2011-11-17T22:08:00.001+01:00

Tedious

2011-11-14T20:22:00.001+01:00

Not much time to reflect on the first day of work / parental leave for either of us... Sold our cooker (and with 15 interested I probably priced it too low but I just think it's good it doesn't end up on a dump) today and a friend is taking the dishwasher. We'll keep the fridge and microwave for now so that we can stay here on and off during the renovation. Peter finished the last touches on Isolde's room (except for wallpapering which the contractors will do for us later) so we have somewhere to sleep (as we're not just having the kitchen redone but also the rest of the flat painted and wallpapered). Can't wait for Christmas when it's all supposed to be finished!

Father's Time & More

2011-11-13T21:38:00.001+01:00

Today, the day before Peter starts his parental leave (and I go back to work) was very appropriately Father's Day. We didn't celebrate much (not Mother's Day in May either) this year*, as we were busy packing all our kitchen stuff ahead of Wednesday, the big day, when our complete kitchen renovation starts. We also need to pack all loose items in our bedroom, living room and hallway, and move some furniture around, as the same company will paint and wallpaper those rooms too, but that's for tomorrow and Tuesday night. I don't understand how we have so much stuff, even though we left some stuff in the attic when we moved in, as we knew we were going to do some work later on in the year... Wish us luck for the next couple of days, we need it!

* I suspect these days will become more of a big deal as Isolde grows up and comes home with Mother's/Father's Day drawings from pre-school :)

Bird Walk

2011-11-11T15:14:00.001+01:00

Today took Elvina and Isolde for a walk while Malin and the rest of her family attended her dad's funeral (70 years old is too young to leave this life!). The chapel was next to a little lake (Lötsjö, Sundyberg) so we walked around the lake and stopped at the playground for a while. It was rather chilly though so the girls thought it was quite nice just to sit in the buggy and look at the ducks.

Even though it's a chilly day today (5-6'C), it doesn't feel like winter is on its way. It's been so mild and apparently there's no snow ANYWHERE in Sweden right now, not even in the far north, which is very rare. But they say harsh winters come in fours and we've had two in a row now so I think it'll hit us soon! And I don't really mind because I like snow!

Isolde at 10 Months Old

2011-11-10T23:00:00.000+01:00

Our 10-month old:

has two teeth. The second one appeared our first days in the States and we completely missed it coming through so it must not have hurt as much as last time (which wasn't that bad either but she was evidently cranky then), maybe because it's next to the other one and the gums are already soft.
is now a hands-and-knee crawler but still tummy crawls when she wants to get somewhere fast.
can sit up herself, i.e. pull herself to sitting (she's been sitting since she was 4½ months). Before she had to pull herself up, first to her knees and then to standing, and then sit down. Now she quickly moves between lying down on her back or tummy, crawling, on knees or any position, to sitting.
sits and play sometimes but mostly stands and walks along furniture or anything she can find, as well as with her toddler wobbler. About a month ago we had to constantly watch her* but now she can move around the living room without us following her around. She tries to climb the sofa as well so when she's in that mood you need to watch her carefully.

is basically never still!
has much more hair than before we went on holiday. It seems to grow in spurts. A bit like development leaps.
has in the last few days started talking more - more "words" and with more melody in the language. Says "mamamama" and sometimes "pampampampa" (for pappa) but it's more like she's practicing the words rather than saying it to us or calling for us.
is becoming a little bit interested in what we eat but still doesn't care that much and is happy being fed and is not interested in holding the spoon or trying to feed herself yet (except some finger food).
likes bread and especially sourdough - think it grew on her in the States where she ate a fair share of it as a compensation for - in her view - the lack of tasty baby food. She probably didn't need to eat as much food while we were in warm Florida, and fruit and smoothies provide plenty of nourishment too, but it was quite a relief to come home and see her want to eat cooked food again. One of the brands of baby food that she did eat was Happy Baby (and to some extent, Earth's Best).
continues to be super-social and easy-going and it was in many ways very easy to travel with her, especially in child-friendly US (where people would come from the other side of the room to talk to her). She can sit for quite a while in a high-chair in a restaurant as long as you have a supply of toys and some bread. That said, it was quite nice to come home and get some routines back in her and our lives, especially when it comes to food and sleep.
has still not shown any separation anxiety but at night only mummy will do, which is kind of interesting because in the last few weeks she's been quite "want-to-be-with-daddy-all-the-time" (pappig) during the day. If Peter is at home that is; she doesn't seem to miss him when he's at work. Or maybe the realises that she has missed him because she's so happy when he comes through the door. It will be interesting to see how it will be next week when we switch roles and I go back to work.

started sleeping a bit irregularly before we went on holiday - from sleeping 8-5 to waking up at 3 or 4 and wanting to breast-feed - and the first week back suffered from jetlag, which wasn't helped by her parents dragging her to dinners with friends and the like, and is not back to "good" nights yet. Initially I planned to stop nursing her when I went back to work but I have decided to continue as long as it works for me sleep-wise. So most nights I nurse her before bedtime (she eats oat cereal earlier) and in the mornings (partly to get her to sleep longer). I try to get her to go back to sleep without feeding if she wakes up before 5am (as a 10-month old doesn't need to eat at night) but sometimes I cave in... I guess it might get "worse" when I start work, as she might want to "make up" for not seeing me as much during the day. We'll see.
often sleeps on her tummy now and rotates 360' several times a night. It's sometimes difficult to put her to sleep because she has so much energy and can't always unwind. Sometimes we have to hold her little leg and arms so that she can come to rest. Sometimes when she's falling asleep she's sort of whining. She can go on for half-an-hour and she's half-asleep, half-awake. Sometimes she wakes up and grinds on for a while before going back to sleep.
when she wakes up, sits up in her bed and chats away by herself or calls for us - but she's almost always Little Miss Sunshine when she wakes. If she's still tired she sucks her thumb and looks at us with her big eyes.
is very interested in small(er) babies and tries to "talk" to them - she gets so excited and it's very cute. She has also shown interest in dogs and cats even though she hasn't met many - the first dog she met for real was our friends Suvi & Nick's dog Bramble (then she was more interested in Bramble than their newborn son actually) and my American host family's cat Sammy. She was a bit afraid of Bramble at first while she tried to crawl after Sammy almost right away - probably meeting Bramble earlier had helped, as she probably can't distinguish between a dog and a cat.

plays more and more with us and shrieks of laughter if we tickle her or play imitation games. She loves playing peekaboo in different ways, even the "simple" ones are fun: looking away and then turning your head quickly towards her (and sometimes making a face).
can be quite rough when she plays with you. She pulls and pokes at our noses and eyes (and my hair) and thinks it's fun and obviously doesn't realise it hurts. We try to teach her to "be nice" but at the moment she thinks it's a game. It's probably also a way to show affection but she cannot control all her movements completely. At night she can lie still and just twist my hair softly though so she knows how, really. By the way, she has started picking her own nose. She has picked ours for a whole, or stuck up her finger in our nose rather, but now she's "discovered" her own :)
doesn't always want to ride in the pushchair anymore. Either it's a phase or she got used to being carried in the BabyBjörn or just in our arms on holiday. Peter is not used to as much complaining so he lets her "escape" much earlier than I usually do. I.e. he spoiled her and it will be interesting to see if he's going to have to carry her throughout his paternity leave?! :) This week she's better than last though, even though the trick is often to let her ride forward-sitting.
learned how to clap her hands properly while we were in the US. Before that she did it very softly and not very often but now her hands make a real clapping sound and she claps a lot. She also "claps" with two toys (or whatever she can find).
is probably approaching 8 kilos (will find out next week) and wears more and more size 74 but can still fit in 68.

Earlier posts at 9 months and 8 months.

* As a parent you're on a constant watch of course but you know what I mean, you don't have to be there ready with the parachute.

10 Months!

2011-11-09T21:11:00.002+01:00

Isolde turns 10 months old today! She celebrated by having her favourite, raspberries. Actually, she gets this "treat" quite often, but loves it every time. She could eat an endless amount if we let her and as you can see in the film she seems to be looking for more berries under the plate and wondering why she can't have more but somehow accepting her fate :)

Last Two Weeks...

2011-11-02T22:45:00.003+01:00

The count-down has started! 11 days until I go back to work and lots to fit in that limited time!

Past...
Mon 31 Oct: We came back from the US mid-day, unpacked (half of the stuff), did laundry, rested...
Tues 1 Nov:Peter went back to work while Isolde and I slept until 11 and didn't do much the rest of the day except for meeting up with Peter to buy food for our anniversary dinner.
Wed 2 Nov: (today): Away Day with work (quite exciting for me; I'm going to have an almost new job description, which is the challenge I was looking for). Isolde had a great time with her grandparents.

Ahead...
Thur 3 Nov: Roadtrip to Sandviken to meet and spend the day with Anki and E. Looking forward to seeing Isolde and E. play.
Fri 4 Nov: Lunch date with Malin and all three kids, dinner with Peter's parents and his sister and husband to celebrate three birthdays
Sat 5 Nov: Baby-sitting Wera in the afternoon and then staying for dinner with her parents Åsa and Rikard
Sun 6 Nov: Visit by my parents and brother including brunch at Villa Källhagen, dinner at Peter's cousin Sandra with husband to meet their newborn son Axel.

Mon 7 Nov: Quick work meeting in the morning for me while Isolde visit Peter's work, baby song and dance mid-day
Tues 8 Nov: "Open pre-school" (öppna förskolan) followed by walk with the mummy group, my last time with them for a while at least :( Show/Stand-up (Ljust och fräscht) for me and my friend H. in the evening.
Wed 9 Nov: No plans yet
Thur 10 Nov: Might go the Thursday baby song and dance group, as we missed one session when we were in the US, otherwise no plans. Work reception for me in the evening.
Fri 11 Nov: Dinner with friends Maria, Daniel and Jenny AND Jenny's new boyfriend Mauro from Brazil - first time we get to meet him!
Sat 12 Nov: Fika at Suvi &Nick's to meet little Edward again
Sun 13 Nov: Probably going down to Södertälje to celebrate my brother's birthday and Father's Day, unless we go Saturday instead

And in between: sort photos, start making some photobooks, write in Isolde's diary (I'm so behind!), maybe bake some saffron buns for Christmas (before our kitchen renovation starts on 15 November), pack all kitchen stuff and more ahead of the renovation, take long walks (though Isolde doesn't like the pushchair at the moment...), and cuddle a lot!

- via Isoldes padda

Anniversary

2011-11-01T20:20:00.001+01:00

Peter and I have been married for a year today! How fast the year has gone! Isolde is a lot to "blame" for that I guess! :)

Since we just got back from the US yesterday we celebrated in low-key style: at home with some champagne and food from Östermalm covered market. Isolde liked Norway lobster (havskräfta) too - she has expensive taste, that one!

We're still planning to have a big party, or our second wedding, soon, just need to set a date (looking at April/May next year)!

Layover

2011-10-30T23:04:00.001+01:00

Now we're on our way home after a great vacation (more about it and travelling with a baby later). When we arrived to Washington D.C. (Dulles) around 1pm after a short delay, we picked up our luggage and planned to check in on our 9pm flight to Stockholm and then leave the airport and meet fellow Swedish blogger Annika (Life in the Suburb). Great plan! If only Iceland Air had an open check-in or ticket desk... No lockers to be found either, and I doubt they would fit two suitcases, a pushchair transport bag and three carry-ons anyway. So instead we had to haul our stuff around until check-in opened at 5pm, which meant we mostly sat around waiting, had lunch, had some Starbucks...

Now we're finally checked in and inside the terminal and Isolde can let off some steam. Luckily it's a pretty new terminal or at least the carpets look quite clean, or clean enough (but why no play area for kids anywhere?!).

Miami & South Beach

2011-10-29T04:57:00.001+02:00

Our second full day in Miami was spent here in South Beach where we're staying (at Congress Hotel on Ocean Drive). We headed to the beach at 11 to try to combine nap time with beach time (she slept 12-13:30ish) and stayed until 3pm. It was very cloudy and at one point there was even rain drops but I still managed to get red even though I was using sunscreen and it was only sunny for 30-45 minutes out of the four hours. So no sun for me tomorrow!

This evening we checked out the shops in Lincoln Road, South Beach's "pedestrian mall" or "gågata" in Swedish, and ended up buying a few items at Banana Republic as well as Toms (shoes where for every pair you buy another pair gets donated) for Isolde and me and a pair of dressier sneakers for Peter at a shoe shop called Mixx. The street was well-designed but we thought it was going to have fancier stores as it's located near the posh hotels such as Delano. Where do the rich and famous shop in Miami?! Post-shopping we stopped by Jerry's Famous Deli for some dinner. It was approaching 8pm and Isolde was tired so we thought take-out was in order.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we drove out of Miami to the posh sticks; Coral Gables and Coconut Grove (though there are other much posher areas in Miami too!). We only drove through the latter but in Coral Gables we stopped at Biltmore Hotel where we had a really nice lunch by their super-sized pool, and toured (en voiture) the famous neighbourhoods planned and built by George Merrick in the 1920s, the first planned communities in the US, and had a quick peak at the neighbourhood's famous Venetian pool (which was overrated). Back in South Beach we stopped at Whole Foods supermarket for some baby food (and diapers, which didn't keep Isolde dry through the night so we'll try to return them - that has never happened before so it must be the diapers) and dinner from their deli and salad bar (our hotel room has a kitchenette so it's easy to heat up food or do easy cooking).

When we arrived from Key West on Wednesday it was 4pm already so our first evening here we just took a walk down to Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant where we discovered the waiting for a table was 1 1/2 hours but also that they have a deli/cafe next door where we could eat almost the same food in a more baby-friendly (but still designed and atmospheric) environment. Recommended!

Here are some pictures from the beach today (don't know how to insert pictures in the text where I'd really want them with the Blogger app?!):

Baby food

2011-10-26T04:20:00.001+02:00

A while ago I joined Buzzador, a site for word of mouth marketing, and a few weeks ago I participated in my first campaign: I received a box of free baby food - Nestlé sweet potato and beef - to try on Isolde and also to distribute to other parents. Isolde actually liked it so much that she ended up finishing all jars herself, but I guess that's a good result if any!

Normally I'm not too keen on Nestlé's food, as I prefer to buy a Swedish brand and I also find Nestlé's food too watery once you've fed directly from the jar (like now on vacation) and want to feed the leftovers later. Instead we usually buy Semper and sometimes Hipp (German, so not Swedish, but organic). Semper also has several organic dishes, which I haven't seen among Nestlé's products (?). There's also a brand called Ella's kitchen (American I think, as I've seen it here in the US too; or British), which is organic and comes in really smart packaging, but it's a bit pricey so Semper "wins" usually.

Here in the US while on vacation we have bought the Semper equivalent, Gerber, and Isolde seems to like them almost as much even though they are a bit too much puréed for her (usual) liking and also has a lot more tomato then the Swedish (e.g. lasagna or spaghetti bolognese) kind. We've also tried a brand called (I think) Beecham Farms but they were so watery and not tasty at all according to Isolde.

Key West

2011-10-26T01:44:00.001+02:00

A little update. Following Kristin and Doug's wedding on Saturday we left Dover* early Sunday morning and drove to Washington DC for our flight from National/Reagan airport to Key West via Miami. Even though Isolde's cold was still pretty bad she didn't seem to mind take-off nor landing. In Key West we have enjoyed the scenery and walking (otherwise we've mostly taken the car to go places) and today we first visited the Hemingway home and then went to the beach at Bahia Honda State Park. It was Isolde's first swim in the ocean ever and she seemed to enjoy it even though it was a bit cold (compared to what she's used to). After her bath she got a treat, her favourite, raspberries, and after that she tasted some sand :)

* Friday evening we did some more tax-free shopping by the way...

Tax-Free

2011-10-21T03:53:00.001+02:00

Since we're in Delaware, the tax-free state (as in VAT; there's still income tax of course), shopping is a must. Including shopping at the outlets at the beach (Rehoboth). We were quite lazy in the morning but got to the outlets at a pretty decent hour - 11:30 - and had about four hours to spend before we had to drive back at 4pm. With Isolde in tow and fitting in meals and nappy changes we didn't do as much shopping as last time we were here (3 years ago), when we filled the whole trunk with bags, but we still managed to pick up (and spend) a decent amount.

This evening we had dinner out with (my aupair host mother) Karin and (her partner) Steve, made a quick diaper and baby food stop at Walmart and are now watching telly. Isolde played with the rocking chair and befriended the cat before she fell asleep. The cat also cuddled with Peter and slept on his lap before it suddenly threw up a hair ball on Peter and the sofa :)

Tomorrow we're going to hang out with Kristin (my aupair daughter, the real reason we're here right now as she's getting married on Saturday) and the check out the shops at the mall.

Fly Report

2011-10-19T16:01:00.001+02:00

First morning in the States this time around. We stayed at a hotel last night but for the next few days we'll be staying with my old aupair family in Delaware. We figured it was better to stay at a hotel the first night instead of arriving after midnight. Now I'm very happy we decided to do that since our flight (to Dulles, Washington DC, via Iceland) was almost one hour late and immigration took a while (and the drive to Dover would have taken two hours).

Isolde did so well on the flight! She was her usual happy-go-lucky self and she slept at least four hours plus a couple of power naps. She even slept through some heavy turbulence that made me cry a little - did not want my little family to perish yet! We had a free seat in between us where she could either sleep or sit and play. So the adults could even enjoy the in-flight entertainment!

After the flight I was more worried about Isolde's jetlag, something I hadn't thought of beforehand, but I managed to get her to sleep better that I thought last night, even if I didn't sleep as much as I wanted, and we slept until 07:30 US time (and 13:30 Swe time). We'll see how the day goes. I think getting the meal routine going will be the trick to also get her to sleep when she should.

Family Friendly Flying

2011-10-18T12:52:00.001+02:00

Pushchairs for loan at the airport. Things you don't know before you have kids and travel with kids. Now we don't have to use the BabyBjörn as much.

Isolde at 9 Months

2011-10-18T01:07:00.001+02:00

And here's the 9-month post! As we're busy packing for our US trip I don't have time to post any photos.
Right now, Isolde...

is a fast crawler, but still flat on her tummy and not on her knees though she uses her feet and knees; she looks like she's in military training (or been injured in action). She easily crawls over doorsteps including a pretty high one to our bathroom.
walks with the walker wagon (toddler wobbler/gåvagn). This means busy times for this mum now (so happy Peter will take over soon hehe!) because in addition to the wagon she stands up against anything she can find and walks along some furniture. She's rather capable on her own now but I still want to be nearby just in case. She easily entertains herself with crawling, "climbing" furniture and generally exploring, so now I have to be there for safety and not necessarily because she wants me there :)
still can't move from horizontal to sitting up unless she first pulls herself up on her knees, then to standing and then sits down.
has no more teeth since her first came a month ago and there are no signs of a second one coming.
continues to be easy-going and easy to bring to cafés and restaurants. I have however noticed that while she sleeps well in the seat during the day she doesn't sleep well in it in the evening. So we bought an extra Bugaboo frame (second-hand) to reattach the bassinet so we can easily switch (otherwise it's a hassle). Not sure why I didn't think of it earlier. Since she's pretty short she still fits in the Bassinet. The first time we tried it she slept very well for several hours.
likes being read to more and more and has a few favourite books, e.g. Stina Wirséns Aj
is interested in holding and chewing on the spoon when being fed, though not necessarily trying to feed herself. Sometimes letting her hold the spoon or the sippy cup is the only way to get her to eat.
is quite outgoing and forward in our mummy group but at the baby song and dance we go to when there are 20 babies she's not as "brave". But last time we went she actually crawled up to Lotta and tried to stand up against the drum like some of the other babies do but when the others were in the way she looked a bit unhappy and came crawling back to me. She's pretty tough though and doesn't mind if another baby comes close or tries to crawl on top of her or wants to touch her. Instead she pushes them away if it's too much but doesn't cry.
is still a very happy and content baby. People are always telling us how harmonious she seems to be. Only really cries sometimes during the night, when she's very hungry or very tired, especially if she's in the pushchair and she wants to be out and home.
eats all the time! Or at least it feels that way. She eats oat cereal for breakfast (between 8 and 9am), then lunch at 11-12, snack (before crackers and fruit, now more fattening stuff such as Greek yoghurt) at 1330-1430, dinner at 4-5pm, oat cereal at 6-7pm. If Peter's is alone with her she can go to sleep on oat cereal but if I'm at home (most evenings) I also nurse her before bedtime around 730pm (though we're planning of making her bedtime around 7pm as she's pretty tired by then. She probably eats 75% jar food and 25% home-cooked but that will change gradually. She seems to like most food though she was a bit sceptic when there was too much dill in the fish dish I made. I rarely cook just for her but try to think also of her when I cook for us. She doesn't like broccoli and is not keen on banana anymore but she loves raspberries!
makes lots of noises and "talks" a lot but she hasn't said a "real" word yet. I read that some babies say "mum" and "dad" now but she doesn't seem to call out for us yet. Except maybe at night sometimes. She does say something sounding like "hej" (hi) sometimes and sometimes she waves at the same time.
tinkles on her toy piano; sometimes hard and sometimes soft and slowly on one key, as if she's really trying to listen to the sound she makes.
does well with baby-sitters. Our friends Maria and Daniel sat for the first time last Friday, otherwise we've "hired" the grandparents. She still has shown no "only mummy (or daddy) will do" tendencies yet or fear of strangers or separation anxiety. She likes cuddling, mostly in the morning and in the evening and tries to kiss me (which is mouth wide open and wet), but no kisses for dad yet.
has mastered the "pincer grip" now even if it sometimes is with the thumb and the two first fingers.
has taken off her socks for a long time now but now she also attempts to put them back on sometimes.
used to just flop happily in her bed when we came to take her up but now also reaches out her arms and shows she wants to be picked up sometimes.
starts games, such as making specific sounds and shouts and wants you to make a noise or shout back. She also likes playing that game where she drops stuff and we pick it up...
still tries to eat and chew on everything! When does that stop??

There are really lots of things happening now both in terms of physical development and personality wise. Fun times for a new parent!

Isolde at 8 Months

2011-10-16T23:12:00.000+02:00

Isolde turned 9 months one week ago so this is perhaps slightly overdue but I want to keep it for my records :) 9-month report can be found above!

At 8 months Isolde...

started crawling tummy-style (not up on her hands and knees). She was very frustrated around 7½-8-months before she cracked it.

started pulling herself up against the coffee table and tried to walk along it but was quite unsteady still. I wished then that we had that padded playpen at the Children's Library!
was able to go to sleep without being breastfed, on oat cereal alone, but when I was home (most of the time) I'd nurse her before bedtime in addition to oats. I think she can benefit from mummy milk a while longer.
slept 1930-2000 to 0500 but sometimes woke up at 02, 03 and/or 04. This is still her routine at 9 months. Most nights it's easy to make her go back to sleep (after 1-5 minutes) but sometimes I have to revert to nursing here before 5am, if we've tried unsuccessfully for an hour or more to get her to fall asleep again. If I feed her at 5 or 6am she sometimes nurses for 30-60 minutes and I doze off 50% of the time. But then she's wide awake and wants to play. So we're usually up from 6 or 7 am and then she (and usually I) sleep again from 9 for 1-1½ hours. She sleeps again after lunch for 30-45 min, maybe an hour.
had not shown any sign of separation anxiety or "only mummy will do". She had a period of frustration around 7-8 months when she wanted me to play and be with her all the time but it felt it was more because she needed help to do things than she was afraid that I was going to disappear.
first showed her love of raspberries! Since they are so soft it's a great dessert/snack for her with no risk of choking!
laughed a lot - proper laughs and giggles. She played games with you, usually imitation of faces and shrieks, whereby she'd start and we'd imitate her and then she'd imitate us in turn.

was really studying people, both adults and other children. She'd crawl up to the other babies and stare at them, sometimes scaring a few by making some sort of sudden noise. She'd also sit for a long time studying a toy; she seems like an investigative girl.
she also started (or maybe it was even at a younger age) tilting her head to the side to get contact with another person, adult or child. Very cute!

got her first tooth. Her first teeting experience was a couple of days of bad sleep. I noticed on a Tuesday that she didn't want to eat crackers (smörgåsrån) and thought maybe a tooth was on the way but didn't see anything. But the next day her lower gums were swollen and you could see one was definitely on the way. The following day it was through and she could eat crackers and was sleeping much better again. This was around 8 months and 1 week.
had another phase of blowing/spitting out her food when she was being fed, again not because she didn't like the food but because it's fun.
loved the mirror (like all babies?) and found it curious that mum could be both in the mirror and next to her at the same time.
liked the BabyBjörn a lot even though we don't use it very often at all since mum prefers the pram, which can be piled with lots of stuff!

remained a calm and content person; she seems very even-tempered.
still loved water and swimming. She'd want to play with the water and touch the taps when washing her face and hands.

had a few favourite books. I thought she tried to close the book all the time but then I realised she tried to turn the pages. But chewing on the books were second-best.

Stuck in the Toy Box

2011-10-14T15:46:00.001+02:00

And mean mum takes photos before helping...

Books Etc.

2011-10-13T22:32:00.001+02:00

Finally I have had a chance to play detective and find out who my secret book friend is (I participated in the book exchange Pocket & prassel in case you don't remember) even though the package arrived over a week ago. I think it's Mrs E who's the culprit!

Look at the lovely content! In addition to the book - which sounds really good - and a film that I haven't seen either, I got some tasty licorice (all gone already!), chocolate (almost gone!) and tea, a shopping list note pack, ribbon and a little gadget for curling ribbon (can't wait to try it!) and a nice card.

Thank you!

9 Months!

2011-10-09T21:36:00.000+02:00

Today this little Miss Charming turns 9 months old! 9-month-old report coming soon (and the 8-month report which is way overdue...)!

Kavat

2011-10-07T19:06:00.001+02:00

Of course Isolde had to sport her new shoes when we visited work (only 5 weeks or so until I go back for real) today for fika.

Via Anna's iPhone

Toddler Wobbler

2011-10-06T17:01:00.001+02:00

Busy times for this mum now (so happy Peter will take over soon hehe!) because Isolde's new favourite is the walker wagon and standing up against anything she can find (she's done that for a while but only against "easy" furniture but now she's getting braver and braver) and trying to walk along furniture. Luckily she's pretty careful and she has also understood that she needs to adjust her body in the right position before she pulls herself up or take care when she moves from e.g. the coffee table to the sofa. And she's a pretty tough cookie so falling and/or bumbing her head once in a while doesn't seem to perturb her. In the video she gets a bit annoyed when the wagon doesn't move forwards but we have tightened the screws for a reason... In the video you can see that she also uses her mouth for extra grip. I don't particularly like that but it's difficult to stop her...

(Unfortunately I don't know how to rotate the video around so you'll have to turn your head a little bit.)

Water Girl

2011-10-05T22:20:00.000+02:00

Here are some videos from Isolde's swim lessons that I thought I'd show you. She really loves swimming, and water in general. She's taken two courses so far, one lesson a week for 7x2 weeks, and at the end of November we'll start Babysim 3.

1) A simple dive, that we have practiced many times:

2) This particular day Isolde was a very reluctant diver; it was more interesting just watching what else was going on. But be patient, she jumps in eventually!:

3) In the third video, Isolde dives from the edge of the pool and then we return her to the edge so she can practice holding on. She's getting pretty good at it now! Eventually, maybe during the next course (no 3, which starts at the end of November), she'll learn how to turn around and swim back herself!

4) She has also learnt how to float and swim a little with the balance/rubber ring:

5) This water game is called the merry-go-round or the helicopter:

6) In the last video of the day Isolde tries the arm rings for the first time and it was not a hit. It was mostly the fingers under her neck that she didn't like. But they say the rings take a few tries to get used to.

Wednesday Morning

2011-10-05T10:15:00.001+02:00

No sleep-in today as Isolde had her monthly check-up (we go every 4-6 weeks now) at the Children's Health Centre. Today's numbers were 7,410 gr, 66.5 cm and 45 cm (if anyone is keeping (head) count). She's proportionate but the nurse recommended we feed her a bit more at snack time and include high-fat products such as Greek yoghurt and also add a teaspoon of oil in her food at mealtime. That will give her a better reserve if (when?) she catches colds this winter. And since she's very mobile (she's crawling but still flat on her tummy, not hands-and-knees style) now she needs lots of energy.

Now this mummy is enjoying a coffee and a gossip magazine at a café while the baby is sleeping. Next on the agenda is shopping presents for my friend Suvi's little newborn son (who arrived on the 26th) and buying some more winter gear for Isolde, before we meet my cousin's wife Kristina for lunch.

Via Anna's iPhone

Blog Date

2011-10-03T20:25:00.001+02:00

This morning Isolde and I met Marianne from Nya äventyr (New adventures), previously in Kairo and now in the metropolis Älmhult (or thereabout) for fika (coffee and cake) before she had to catch the train back to the birthplace of Ikea. I'm so happy we were able to see each other 'cause it's been a while since last time!

Via Anna's iPhone

Little Pianist

2011-10-02T20:06:00.000+02:00

Future concert pianist in the making?

Thanks H, T, E & H for the piano (christening present)!

Can't Complain

2011-09-30T22:42:00.001+02:00

Peter had the day off today (compensation for on-call duty) so we decided to "hire" a babysitter (the grandparents) and treat ourselves to a nice breakfast at the Zink Grill (recommended) and a spa visit including massage at Raison d'Etre at Grand Hotel (highly recommended; our third visit).

When we left the spa at 3pm we walked home through a sunny Stockholm filled with people enjoying a rare 20-degree warm autumn day. After picking up our daughter we stopped by the sushi place for some take-out late lunch/early dinner and the bakery for a treat, and got home just in time to devour both on the balcony before the sun disappeared behind the building opposite. After that we packed the car (with way too much stuff but that's what happens when you have kids) and drove out to the summer house.

And here we are, half asleep on the sofa in front of the fireplace and the TV, baby asleep upstairs. Only thing I can complain about is that there's never anything to watch on telly, most days but especially Fridays (no, not particularly interested in Idol).

Via Anna's iPhone

The World in a Magazine

2011-09-28T22:54:00.000+02:00

Before the summer we switched our daily newspaper subscription from Svenska dagbladet (SvD) to Dagens nyheter (DN). Not for good but for a while, until we jump on an offer from the competitor again, as you do. SvD is really too conservative-leaning for me but I like their (neutral) reporting and layout otherwise and think it's better than DN's. At least until now because I really like DN's new look. At first I though the layout and the font and everything looked really strange but after just two days I could see past that. There's a new focus and style of reporting and I also really like the Stockholm edition.

But that's not what this post was going to be about. Instead I was going to tell you about the monthly magazine DN Världen (DN World) that DN launched almost a year ago now. It's has really good in-depth articles as well as shorter interviews with people and snapshots from around the world. For non-subscriber it's for sale at newsagents or on the iPad (or equivalent). The edition below was a really good one featuring a long articles about Central and South American refugees trying to get to America, and an recent edition with a special about Thai berry pickers in Sweden was also great journalism.

"Hej hemliga bokvän!"

2011-09-27T22:56:00.002+02:00

I decided to join En bok om dagen's book exchange Pocket & prassel 6.0 even though I've been a very, a very, lazy reader lately (not just this year but especially this year. This is the second time I'm participating in a book exchange; my first time was in May. It was a lot of fun, both to figure out what to send my recipient and to wait for a parcel from some other blogger and reader out there.

So this post is primarily for my secret book friend but, who knows, it may contain some interesting information for my regular readers too!

En bok om dagen has provided some helpful questions, see below, and my post from the last book exchange also be useful.

About books
* Which genre or author do you like the most? No particular author. General fiction including both drama and feel good (but not too much chick lit) and crime/detective, but not fantasy or science fiction. Lite horror à la Låt den rätte komma in but no real horror.
* Which genre or author are you curious about? A bit sceptic about the vampire trend but maybe, maybe... Haven't read that many Nobel laureates so that's an idea.
* Is there a list of what you have read over the years? In the post from May there are links to lists from 2008 onwards.

* Anything else literary, worth knowing? At the moment I have a little one disturbing my reading so perhaps no 1,000 page-book... Books in Swedish and English are equally welcome.

About goodies
* What kind of sweets do you eat? All kinds! But prefer sour, licorice and chocolate:)

* Tea or coffee? Both! As far as tea is concerned I prefer black or red but not too fruity or sweet flavours. My favourite tea is Sir Williams and my favourite coffee (or chocolate) flavour is cardamom.

Other
* Hobbies? Blogging, magazines, film, interior design, embroidery

* Favourite film? Can't choose one but here are some lists of what I liked and didn't like in 2010 and 2009 and how many of the classics I've seen.

* Favourite music? I like almost everything except perhaps hard rock, heavy metal and Swedish "dansband". Not too much of a classical music listener either.
* Sign? Not an astrology fan... Favourite colour? Currently blue and coral red (and regular red)

* Do you collect something? Not really (except books that I don' read at the same pace :) Maybe wrapping paper and ribbon because I always save old gift wrapping. Also like to have a stock of gift cards. I used to "collect" shoes and handbags but now I have significantly reduced my "collection" :)

Hope that provides some inspiration! Exciting!

The Weekend

2011-09-25T20:48:00.001+02:00

What a lovely weekend it was! Sunny gorgeous weather and time with family and friends. Saturday we took a long walk with our friend Jessica and had lunch at Blå porten.

On our way home we stopped by the swings in Humlegården. The playground was sooo crowded but the swings located outside the main play area were free just after a short wait.

Today my mum, my friend Malin with kids, and I (and Isolde of course) went to a children's bazar in Södertälje. I didn't find shoes in Isolde's size but some other things I was on the lookout for, e.g. a toy mirror and a baby snow sleigh. In terms of clothes I only bought a knitted sweater and a hat - Isolde has inherited about three wardrobes full from Malin's Elvina and Helena's girls and I've done my fair share of shopping so... The rest of the day Isolde and I hung out at my parents. My dad and brother had been out mushroom picking so they were busy cleaning them while my mum was playing with her grandchild and I got a well-deserved rest :)

Via Anna's iPhone

Friday

2011-09-23T16:43:00.001+02:00

Window shopping (and a few minor errands) downtown - check.
Plan and buy tonight's dinner - check.
Enjoy sunny autumn afternoon on the balcony with a coffee (Anna) - check.
Pick and try to eat flowers on the balcony (Isolde) - check.
Water plants on balcony (Anna) and play with water can including scratch nails on the metal (think blackboard) (Isolde) - check.

Via Anna's iPhone

Twins?

2011-09-23T08:52:00.001+02:00

Isolde plays with her best friend who lives in farmor & farfar's (Peter's parents) wardrobe :)

Via Anna's iPhone

Isolde on Tape

2011-09-22T20:50:00.005+02:00

Just thought I'd show you some recent videos with Isolde, as I realised I haven't shown much moving image of her. The first video is from our second visit to the children's library that I told you about a couple of weeks ago and the second one is from our friends' house when we visited last weekend.

Fun Day

2011-09-17T18:23:00.001+02:00

Isolde tries the trampoline for the first time and the swing for the second time. Both are a hit.

Via Anna's iPhone

Silly Walk

2011-09-16T21:15:00.001+02:00

Wonder if Isolde will walk like this once she starts walking?

-Via Isoldes padda

This Week

2011-09-14T23:41:00.004+02:00

Monday: Second week of baby song and dance. The "class" is about 1 ½ hours long with a main 45 minute session, followed by fika for the adults and playtime or food for the babies, before a 10-15 minute session with softer/calmer music. Isolde loves it so far. First time she just sat there for the first 15 minutes with her mouth open but last time she was participating more actively almost right from the beginning. Lotta, who runs it has eight (and a "bonus" child) children and has worked full-time with baby rhythmics for almost 20 years so she knows how to captivate the little ones.

Here's a picture of Isolde on top of the toy pile at break time.

Monday evening featured some baby free time for me, as I went out for dinner and a movie (Bridesmaids) with some girlfriends. I haven't been out much at night as Isolde has rejected the bottle (but would've taken it eventually if we had insisted harder, I'm sure) and besides time has flown and I haven't felt the need to go out without Peter yet and I've wanted to spend time with Peter and Isolde. So most of the baby-sitting by the grandparents for example has been during the day. But now she's able to go to sleep on just oat cereal, though when I'm home I breastfeed her before bed. So Peter put her to bed her regular bedtime and when I got home at 23:30 she was still sound asleep.

Tuesday: Tuesday is the standing mummy group day. We always meet at 1pm and walk somewhere where the kids can play and we can have coffee. During spring and summer our regular hangout was been Rosendal garden (or lately, The Museum of Etnography) but with autumn and cooler temperatures on the way we'll have to move indoors. Yesterday we started with coffee at Mocco, then walked to Room for Children/the children's library at the Culture House where we hung out for a while. Isolde got her first library card and borrowed three books!

The padded play pen at the library is great!

Wednesday: Today we took a drive to the Södertälje area to visit Malin and meet little Jack (11 days old today) for the first time! He was so tiny! Can't imagine now that Isolde was ever that small but in fact she was smaller! Isolde tried to steel Jack's dummy even though she's a thumb sucker :)

Next stop was my friend Maria and we made a spontaneous visit her cousin and her boys, (almost) 5 and 1 years old, something we've been talking about doing for ages. Isolde was not at her best though because she's about to get her first tooth! Exciting! That's probably why she was cranky yesterday too and didn't sleep well last night. But when I checked for any signs of teething yesterday there was nothing but today there are clear signs!

What about the rest of the week?

Thursday: Tomorrow we have a quick "trade" meeting to pick up a harness for the high chair - it's through the Facebook group I told you about earlier. After that we're having lunch with Peter's cousin Sandra who's expecting a baby next month but is on sick leave for pregnancy related difficulties. Thursday is also Isolde's swim lesson at 5 pm.

Friday: No plans so we'll just take it easy, do some chores at home and the like.

A (work) week in the life of a baby and her mum!

Via Anna's iPhone

Must Have

2011-09-12T16:56:00.001+02:00

Isolde just had to get this at H&M today. Even if she won't be able to wear it until next autumn (smallest size was 86). She insisted.

Via Anna's iPhone

Sweet News

2011-09-10T23:28:00.001+02:00

Just heard that my blog (and now also IRL) friend Petra has given birth to a baby boy today! Sweet Pea is finally here! All children are little miracles but some are a little more longed for because they took a bit longer in the making.

Congratulations!!!

Via Anna's iPhone

Summer Remnants

2011-09-10T18:25:00.001+02:00

We're spending the weekend at Peter's family's country house and today felt almost like summer with sunshine and shorts weather, even though autumn has definitely arrived; the evenings are chilly, the nights cold and the leaves will start turning soon. We spent most of the day on the grass with books, magazines and toys - and adults and child fighting over the iPhone... - except for a nice walk in the forest (didn't find any mushrooms though). Peter went for what's probably the last swim of the year - the water was 17 degrees. Actually he didn't spend that much time on a blanket compared to Isolde and me as he cleaned the car (mum - tell dad!) as well as the pram and cut the grass.

Via Anna's iPhone

8 Months Old Today!

2011-09-09T10:55:00.001+02:00

Two of Isolde's favourite pastimes/toys right now: standing up against furniture and hogging all the remotes. Another favourite - but not with mum - is screaming and roaring at a very loud volume, sometimes because it's just so much fun, but more often out of frustration because she wants to crawl but hasn't really figured it out yet.

Via Anna's iPhone

Child at Heart

2011-09-07T21:42:00.000+02:00

Peter's dessert at Pont Nouveau tonight. I had strawberry compote with goat cheese ice cream, which was tasty but definitely not as well presented.

Via Anna's iPhone

Homemaker*

2011-09-06T22:11:00.006+02:00

I've been quite the little housekeeper lately. Last night I made spaghetti bolognese that was a suitable meal for all three of us (Isolde has mostly been eating ready-made baby food except for the first introduction to food - more on that below - but I have always planned to make my own) and today I finished painting the chest of drawers (needed four layers!) and started a batch of sour-dough (another plan for my parental leave but never got around to it before the summer) and pickled some beet root.

As I said above, the aim has been to make home cooked food for Isolde and I did start her off on homemade purées but when we were still struggling to get her to eat more than a couple of spoons after almost two months of trying I started buying jars (in addition to reducing breast-feeding). That way I was able to try different dishes (I never bought the simple first purées but the complete meat, fish or vegetarian meals). It was a relief to see her eat and it's also been convenient during the summer when I've wanted to be outdoors instead of inside cooking. But now when she's a very good eater and the post-summer routine is back it feels like a good time to start making my own food. I have also grown tired of constantly carrying home jars from the shop and also seeing how much glass it generates (though we recycle, I know many who don't and that makes me both angry and sad...). I will certainly still buy ready-made food too but I will try to serve more home-made than bought meals. In terms of home-cooked, it's easiest to give her whatever we're having, if it's suitable of course. I used my regular recipe for the spaghetti bolognese but didn't add any salt and pepper (added it when we were eating instead). But soon-to-be 8 months old can eat onion, garlic and herbs!

Isolde was a bit sceptic at first but then munched on as usual. She didn't eat as much as when she eats ready-made food but apparently jar food has a lot of added (unnecessary) water. She drinks water from a sippy cup now so she doesn't necessarily need that much fluid from the food she eats anyway.

First ever attempt at making sour-dough. Will keep you posted on success or failure!

First ever attempt at pickling beets - but I've pickled herring before - but it's not difficult at all, just a bit messy with the red colour.

* Though I don't like the expression "homemaker". Just call it what it is, housewife or stay-at-home-mum, instead of using euphemisms trying to make it a professional category. It's not that I don't think being a stay-at-home parent is hard work but it's not a profession as such.

Sack 'N Seat

2011-09-06T00:16:00.001+02:00

Our newest baby related purchase is a Sack 'n seat, a foldable baby seat for use when there's no high chair around - which is often the case when visiting friends who don't have children or going to less baby friendly cafés or restaurants. We used it for the first time on Sunday (except for a trial session at home) and we can definitely recommend it. It folds into a small sachet that's easily stored in the nappy bag or underneath the pram. The bag it comes / is folded in, is part of the chair so it can't be lost. This chair is considered much safer than other portables fitted/hung onto the table and it also fits most types of chairs. The price is very reasonable, 199 SEK, and we got it on sale for 149 (Jollyroom.se).

Via Anna's iPhone

New Buddy!

2011-09-03T11:51:00.001+02:00

Isolde's little friend Jack has arrived! Congratulations to happy parents Malin and Ronny and proud big sisters Filippa and Elvina!

-Via Isoldes padda

Insomnia

2011-09-01T02:35:00.001+02:00

Can't sleep even though I don't have any reason not to. I.e. I can't blame the baby because she's sound asleep. Think it was the coffee after 8pm that did it, though usually it doesn't affect me so I don't know... Maybe the combination of coffee and a long to do-list? Luckily I have a pregnant friend (due any day now) who also suffers from insomnia, resulting in many text messages back and forth. And I just read that we're not alone.

-Via Isoldes padda

Evening Job

2011-08-30T23:50:00.001+02:00

Painting furniture for Isolde's room. First of three pieces (the other being a chest and a crib).

Via Anna's iPhone

7 Months 3 Weeks

2011-08-29T23:09:00.002+02:00

BVC (Children's Health Centre) visit today. Isolde weighed in at 7,180 gr and measured 65 cm (I think she's taller but the nurse doesn't want to stretch the little ones too much). As Isolde is approaching 8 months (what?! already?!) the nurse checked a few physical (e.g. if Isolde was cross-eyed) and developmental (mostly by questions to me) things. She passed with flying colours. Next visit will be another routine check-up followed by the 10-month appointment with the doctor in November (previously at 2 and 6 months).

I also asked the nurse about blocked milk ducts and if it was okay - and whether it'd help - to take lecithin capsules that I learned about on Google (as you do). She told me that in some county councils (responsible for healthcare provision) it's prescribed for this very problem (among other things) and she thus recommended me to try them to help clear the ducts (however in Stockholm I had to go to the alternative medicine shop to buy them). Will let you know if they do the trick!

In other "Isolde news", she has just mastered both waving (a few days ago) and clapping her hands (today). She didn't really want to cooperate with the camera though so this is what you get!

Via Anna's iPhone

Chantarelles

2011-08-26T23:02:00.001+02:00

Last night I cleaned and parboiled mushrooms and tonight I made some canapées (chèvre balls) for my dad's 60th tomorrow. Next project: pickle beetroot. Maybe on Sunday?!

Via Anna's iPhone

Reuse Reduce Recycle

2011-08-25T16:39:00.003+02:00

The other day Isolde and I met up with another mother (with two kids only 11 months apart - don't know how she does it!) and exchanged a few items - I got two child development/rearing books and she some children's clothes. We "hooked up" through a Facebook group I've joined, Bortskänkes/bytes/mottages i 08-området, where people can swap things. No sales allowed, though people sometimes swap with lottery tickets and gift cards. Great stuff (compared to lots of other useless FB pages/groups)!

One of the admin people has set out rules and guidelines and created photo categories, so now the group is much more organised, a necessity with 20,000 members. But as always there are always someone who doesn't like something, complaining about admin "dictatorship" and the like. Sigh.

Via Anna's iPhone

Blockage

2011-08-24T23:15:00.002+02:00

Arghhh! I have blocked/plugged milk ducts for the fifth time in a month! I didn't have any problems for six months (and the first two months of these were cold, cold winter month) and now I get it from the slighest breeze! It's so annoying! So far I've managed to cure it before it turns into mastitis (breast inflammation) but it's still painful (and affects me for 12-24 hours). I started getting it when I stopped breastfeeding during the day (I only nurse in the morning and the evening now) and no longer "use" the breast as much. As a result the breast doesn't fill up as much as before and when it's smaller it seems to be more sensitive. I try to wear a sweater outside but when it's a sunny and warm day I forget and don't think about the breeze. It's always my left breast that gets affected - it has always been my tender breast (especially in the beginning when the milk was almost overflowing) and the one Isolde has found more difficult to nurse from (at least the first two months; not sure why but maybe the cells in the right one are better?). I now have a white dot on my nipple, which is an indication of blockage, even when I don't have any pain or problems. I read that you can try to remove the white blister with a sterilised needle but that sounds a bit scary and possibly painful?!

Now I'm thinking that perhaps I should just stop breastfeeding altogether but on the other hand I know that Isolde could use a couple of months more of the good stuff! What to do?! Tips on how to prevent and alleviate are also welcome, in addition to what I'm already doing - applying heat and then nursing (or pumping), wearing a loose bra and trying to remember the breeze. I had put away the wool nursing pads because I thought they were mainly for winter weather but guess I have to wear them now when autumn comes...

-Via Isoldes padda

Song Book

2011-08-24T15:53:00.001+02:00

Today we visited the city library's Rum för barn (Room for kids) for the first time (together with Tora and Ester) and I already know it's going to become a regular hangout for us. In addition to lots of books (of course, it being a library) it has a special area for babies and toddlers (bebisbibblan), which is very baby friendly with pillows and one of those sunken playpens (padded hole) where Isolde could practice standing up without risking hurting herself. Just when we were about to leave two of the librarians started singing and playing the guitar so we joined the ring for a while (would have stayed longer if we didn't have an appointment), which was popular with Isolde as well as Ester (not the girl in the picture).

Via Anna's iPhone

Sit N Ride

2011-08-20T16:02:00.002+02:00

Isolde has graduated from the bassinet to the seat.

Via Anna's iPhone

iRepaired

2011-08-18T22:19:00.005+02:00

Got the iPhone repaired yesterday. After two days with Peter's Blackberry I couldn't take it anymore. Figured I wouldn't last until October anyway so I could just as well cough up the money now.

In the last couple of years several places that fixes iPhones (and other smartphones/touchscreen phones but many are specialised in iPhones/iPads/iPods) have cropped up (well, not by chance; the opposite really as it's pretty good business! And they provide jobs to loads of young people.). I went to the cheapest place I could find in town , Iphonereparation.se, which charges 699 SEK. I think there are places in the suburbs that charge 500 SEK or even less but I didn't feel like going out there maybe only to find a dodgy phone shop?

It says on iPhonereparation's website that they fix your phone within 24 hours but the turnaround is actually two hours (and 30 minutes if you pay extra). You drop it off, get a receipt and then pick it up after two hours or later and pay upon pick-up. Efficient. They have a 90-day guarantee as well (which I assume doesn't apply if I drop it on the ground again but only if the new screen falls off or similar).

Once there I found out that if I promised to blog about them they'd give me a 10% discount (making the total 629 SEK). I jumped on the offer course. So if you've dropped your phone in the loo or cracked your screen like me, iPhonereparation is the place to go! :)

Isolde at 7 Months

2011-08-15T22:34:00.004+02:00

Can't believe our little busfia is already 7 months old (almost a week ago, on 9 August)! Where did the time go?!

At seven months, Isolde:

sucks her thumb often, and occasionally her toe. It's always the right-hand thumb. A month ago she sucked on both thumbs and also quite often her index finger (like her dad did when he was a baby) and it was a irregular activity for her; a lot one day and then not again for a few days, but now it's all the time. It gives her comfort when she finds something new a bit "scary" and it puts her to sleep in the evening and back to sleep in the middle of the night. She'll never lose it like a pacifier but I guess it will be harder to wean her in two-three years time... But that's then and now's now!

at six months mainly wanted to sit still and play and fiddle with things - she can still entertain herself for quite some time though if she's in that mood - but now wants to stand up or practice crawling. It's far from crawling at this stage; she can creep backwards and she also does some sort of push-ups whereby she gets up on her toes and pushes her bum in the air. She hasn't succeeded in getting up on her knees yet though. She things it's more fun though to hold on to our thumbs and raise herself (no help) to standing, or to pull herself up in the pram by holding on to the sides (in the safety of a harness!). She wants to stand up almost all the time!

still rode in the Bugaboo's bassinet until today when we changed to the seat (when we tried a few weeks ago we felt she was still too little and short and the seat harness was way too big). I had to buy a harness for the bassinet though since she has wanted to sit up for the past month and could potentially climb the sides and fall out.

has a wonderful giggle and laugh. She loves it when we tickle her or pretend to scare her. She's still a very happy and content girl who hardly ever cries (mainly only at night and then it's mostly in her sleep (or she's half-awake) - we truly feel we've been blessed with such a sunshine girl!

with some exceptions, is a good sleeper, often without much fuss from 8 or 9 pm to 5 am (if she goes to bed later she still wakes up at 5). After a feed she usually goes back to sleep for another two hours. Irrespective of whether we get up at 6, 7 or 8 am, she usually wants to play for 1-2 hours and then take a morning/AM nap (and mum usually sleeps then too). She usually sleeps an hour in the afternoon too. She often falls asleep during the evening feed but when she doesn't, she's pretty good at putting herself to sleep, however not without some whining and thumb sucking. This applies to nap time during the day too but then she's usually tired and wants us to leave her alone in her crib. Often she naps in the pram while we're out and about though. In her crib she sleeps like a banana with her face pushed into one of the corners. Or right across the bed.

still flirts with strangers and hasn't shown any signs of separation anxiety yet but I assume it will come soon as she's at that age. The first few minutes she's usually studying the person though, sorting through her person file cabinet. But then it's like she found the right one and a smile appears.

smiles for the camera and sometimes stops what she's doing to pose. A real linslus!

doesn't have any teeth yet. We thought one was on the way a couple of weeks ago as she's had a couple of cranky days and nights. She was drooling and fiddling with her tongue a lot, but nothing. We'll probably know once the real teething does start though, as I understand it's quite tough for most babies. I've heard that the later the teeth break, the better, as they are stronger then but I don't know if that's correct. For me I don't mind if they wait as long as I'm still breast-feeding.

can protest when she doesn't like something, for example when 1½ year-old Elvina was getting too close (but she was still intrigued of course). When she's "upset", as in not wanting to do something we want her to do, such as eat, or she's bored or tired and not happy with being left on the floor, for example, she groans and grunts rather than cries. And in between the groans, sucks her thumb :) She also grunts if we don't feed her quickly enough when she's hungry.

kisses us in her own special way, which means an open mouth and lots of dribble on our cheeks or noses. She used to be more cuddly with me but since Peter started his holiday and has been with us 24-7, she's starting to be as cuddly with him.

eats really well now after the sloooow start on solids. In the early hours she still breast-feeds but after 8am she eats oat cereal (usually around 9am) for breakfast. The next meal is lunch around 11am-12 noon. Dinner is between 4-5pm. At lunch and dinner she eats ½ to 3/4 of a jar of baby food followed by fruit purée (half a jar or half a banana or equivalent at the most). Between lunch and dinner she's served a snack, usually fruit and wafers with liver patée or cream cheese. Sometimes she also snacks between breakfast and lunch depending on when she eats breakfast, which in turn depends on when we get up in the morning... The food day is finished with oat cereal between 6-7pm and breastmilk an hour afterwards, roughly. At the moment it feels like all day is about feeding! Full-time nursing was so easy - we didn't have to keep track of the time and she could easily eat when she wanted, where she wanted. Now we have to remember to pack food, bibs, etc.

talks a lot - although no words or anything near words except for perhaps hej (hi) - and with more melody in the language. She tries new sounds and noises and makes new faces almost every day. Sometimes she's babbling and looking at us intently like she's really trying to tell us something. She still blows bubbles and makes fart noises. Lately she's been doing it a lot when she's being fed, not because she doesn't want to eat but because it's more fun with food in her mouth I guess!

is just such a little darling and hanging around her is like walking on sunshine every day. It's amazing to rediscover life and the world with her every day. We could not imagine how much we'd enjoy being with her and how strong the love for her is - because it is in a way stronger or at least different from what we feel for each other. It's so cool to see how she learns something new or develops in some other way, constantly - every day. It's like she's a new person every day and at the same time, the same personality that could be seen when she was a few hours old.

HP

2011-08-15T20:52:00.004+02:00

Peter and I had some precious "us time" today. We left Isolde with her grandma farmor in the afternoon so that we could go and see the final Harry Potter movie. In 3D of course! Next on the agenda is a meal for two at a restaurant before summer is over.

Entourage

2011-08-14T22:50:00.004+02:00

I hadn't seen a single episode* of Entourage until this summer when Peter started plowing through the series. At first I didn't like it but the more I watched it - difficult not to since Peter has seen several episodes a day (weather and other things dependent) - the more I liked it. So now I'm almost hooked as he is (though I don't mind if he watches an episode when I'm not home or busy doing something else). Now we're at season 6 out of 8.

* Though I know SVT shows it and had probably seen a few minutes of it here and there.

Cracked

2011-08-13T23:18:00.004+02:00

My iPhone now looks something like this...

Have dropped it several times before without damage but today I was very unlucky as it landed on a tiny pebble. The touchscreen still works but I don't want to put it to my ear (the glass is sharp and shredding tiny pieces of glass) so it's useless for phonecalls! On the other hand I do have a handsfree so maybe I could live with it until October when iPhone 5 comes?! Peter has a Blackberry - the old crackberry before iPhone came along - he isn't using so I could also use that if I don't opt for getting the glass replaced. It is a rather expensive fix but I have found a place that does it for 650 SEK and I've heard there's an even cheaper place that charges around 500.

Lucky me we have an iPad too so I whatever happens I don't deal with my i-diction right now! ;)

Little Gymnast

2011-08-12T21:10:00.008+02:00

Lucky Isolde - and us - that she's properly harnessed in the pram these days because when she's sitting up she doesn't want to sit but pull herself up with the help of the handle bars or the nappy bag. Why sit when you can stand?! Think it's time to change from the bassinet to the seat (we tried a month ago but felt she was too short and too little for the seat's unbuilt harness then).

7 Months!

2011-08-10T21:57:00.007+02:00

I don't know where the time went but yesterday Little Miss Sunshine turned 7 months!

A post about Isolde at 6-7 months is under production and coming soon!

Leftovers

2011-08-05T17:47:00.002+02:00

Made (lime parfait with) rhubarb compote for dessert the other day, and ended up with some excess fluid that contains, in addition to rhubarb; white wine, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Turns out that together with some gin and tonic it makes a pretty tasty drink! I'm sure it can be mixed with other things too but that's what I found in the bar cabinet here at the summer house.

Via Anna's iPhone

Flexible

2011-08-01T19:01:00.002+02:00

Isolde sucks her thumb (she doesn't like pacifiers) but a toe can fulfil the same function just as well apparently.

Via Anna's iPhone

Little Dancer

2011-07-31T23:25:00.007+02:00

Do you remember that Isolde's working/blog name was Belly Dancer?! She hasn't shown any interest in belly dancing per se yet but as you can see she seems to enjoy So You Think You Can Dance! Or maybe it has something to do with her parents meeting through a mutual friend - Sabina - who's a dancer! Or maybe being allowed to watch TV even for a few minutes is a hoot!

Big Hat

2011-07-29T23:44:00.002+02:00

Borrowed daddy's hat for a while!

Via Anna's iPhone