Advent!

When I came home in the afternoon I got on to some baking straight away. Most people know that baking is not something I do very often so I was pretty proud of myself for doing both "lussebullar" and chocolate muffins in one night.

I made a few mistaces along the way I have to admit but the end result was ok.

Adam was still feeling horrible from his night out so he only moved from the couch when I forced him to have some of my newbaked "fika", and later on when I crashed on the bed with a sore back and I forced him to tidy up after Jakob and get him ready for bed. Even though I sometimes miss having a beer or a glass of wine, I don't miss those big nights out and feeling that crap the day after...

Time for me to get ready to go to bed. Tomorrow I will have a busy day at work in the morning and in the afternoon I am going to my parents place to help at dad's 70th birthday party! Early Tuesday morning both mum and dad are going by bus to Umeå to get ready for dad's operation the day after.

Sunday morning

Adam had a biiiiig night last night so he had a sleep in this morning and wasn't feeling so good when he got up.

Last weekend I complained about Jakob always waking up earlier than normal on the weekend but this weekend he has slept really well. Good for me that he slept until 7.45 this morning because I slept badly last night, as always when Adam is out.

Anyway, Jakob and I had a really really nice morning together and about 11 Adam took Jakob skating again, for the third weekend in a row. I stayed home for an hour and did some cleaning, mainly our bedroom, it is now looking great! and I can't wait to go to bed knowing that the room and the sheets are clean. When finished I went to the ice arena but they were all just finished and about to go to McDonalds for lunch so I joined in for that. After lunch Adam took Jakob home for a sleep and I spent a couple of hours doing Christmas shopping and grocery shopping.

Saturday night on my own

The afternoon went really fast. Adam played floor ball, I dropped Jakob off at mum and dads and went to the riding club, picked Adam up and took him to a party in the city, went to mum and dad to have some dinner and pick up Jakob, went home and put some Cristmas lights and candles up first together with Jakob, and then on my own after he went to bed. At the moment I am sitting on the couch, have had too much lollies, watching tv and doing computer stuff and just enjoying myself.

Jakob went to sleep very easily. I always have to sing a song about trains and one Swedish lullaby before I leave the room. He always calls me back in after a while to put his quilt over him. When Adam is home he always calls for him when I go out, or the other way around, but when I am on my own it is always a bit easier.

Nearly bedtime for me too!

Saturday!

This morning I got up and started cleaning and tidying up in the house, to prepar for the first of Advent tomorrow, which is sort of the start of Christmas. Adam took Jakob outside to clean up around the house and after a while Maria, Andreas, Alice and Melvin came over to play. I finished Jakob's bedroom when they were out playing. Jakob's new bed is coming next week and I wanted to move some of his furniture in preparation for the new bed. It is looking really good now!

Adam cooked us all a very nice lunch and Jakob and Alice played really nicely together. A very nice way to spend a Saturday!

Celebrating dad's/morfar's birthday!

Dad's birthday is on Monday but last night we celebrated him together with Anders and the family. Also Maggi came to join us. We started in the afternoon by giving him a big present with lots of little presents inside. We had a very nice night with good food, lots of talking, some drinking (not for me) and just watching the kids have fun and go crazy. For some reason I didn't take so many photos.... maybe because I had the video camera as well...

The previous photo is of dad and Lucas. Today Lucas crawled for the first time, he is getting so big! and is almost always happy!

This one is of mum and Lucas...

Later in the evening the kids had a bath together and after that mormor read them a book about poo. Yes that's right, the book is all about poo.

Before we went home to put the kids to bed they gave us an impressive dance show!

Playground and singing!

Yesterday we went to our traditional playground and singing session in the morning. Zara, Finn and Lykke were there as usual but today Maria came as well with Alice and Melvin. Jakoba and Finn are normally the crazy kids running around dancing, jumping, throwing themseleves on the floor etc. This time they were both quite calm.

Last week Jakob hit one of the drums so hard that he broke it. This time he was a bit more careful.

Moa and Lucas were there as well, you can see her in red in the background. Her dancing skills are on a higher level than Jakobs at this stage...

After the singing we went to Max and met up with Adam and Micke and had hamburgers for lunch. I left on my own to go and look for Christmas presents and also had a coffee with Stina, and Adam took Jakob home.

30 weeks pregnant

This is what I look like being 30 weeks pregnant. The belly is getting bigger and bigger but so far I am feeling pretty well apart from the normal stuff, harder to sleep and move in bed, harder to put on shoes, and a bit more tired. Nothing to complain about and I know it could be a lot worse. Another couple of months to go if it all goes as planned so hopefully I keep feeling well.

The baby is now very active and moves around all the time it feels like. Jakob is really carful with me and the baby and seems to understand that I don't want to carry him so much. Always when stepping over me in the bed he says that he is going to be careful of the baby and takes a big step over my belly. He also asks if the baby is going to come out soon and that he is looking forward to spending time with the baby. Let's see how long that lasts for when the baby is actually out and home with us...

Jakob and morfar

After the party we dropped Adam off at home and Jakob and I went to visit mormor and morfar and had some dinner there.

Just over a week ago we found out that dad/morfar has a tumour in his brain. That explains why he hasn't been feeling so well the last few months, and also where the bleeding in his brain comes from. He still doesn't know what sort of treatment they can give him and he is waiting to get an appointmen to the hospital in Umeå (300 kilometers from Luleå) to find out more. Until then all we can do is hope that it can be removed but of course we are all very worried about him. Tonight he cooked Jakob and me some nice hamburgers and enjoyed some time together with Jakob after a bath with mormor. As always they also had some ice cream. Both of them just LOVE ice cream. Just like me...

Skating and Finn's birthday party!

Sunday morning started early and we all just had a nice quiet time at home. Later in the morning Adam took Jakob to the ice skating arena to try out his new skates that Adam bought earlier in the week. I stayed home and started going through boxes with Jakob's baby clothes and picked out the ones I want to use for the baby when he arrives. Adam told me that at first Jakob wasn't as excited about the whole thing as last week, but when Finn arrived he got more confident and did really well. In the afternoon we went to Finn's third birthday party!! Zara and Micke had done a great job with organising the party and had fun games for the kids and really delicious cakes etc.

In this photo and the previous one Jakob is trying out the game where you are supposed to climb, crawl and jump over things without touching the floor. Do I need to say that Jakob loved it?

It became so clear to me that Jakob is now longer a little boy. He played and had fun all afternoon without wanting us to be involved, even though there were a few kids there that he hasn't met before.

Even when the kids were sitting down for cakes he sat still the whole time (not like when we are trying to have dinner at home...) and didn't freak out when he got some cake that he doesn't like on his plate (at home he would probably have screamed that he doesn't like cream and picked it up with his hands or something like that :-)) Anyway, he behaved really well and Adam and I tried to stay as far away as possible from him as we thought that would make easier.

At first Finn didn't want to blow out his candles so Jakob was lucky to get to try. He didn't manage to do it so....

...in the end Finn did with a bit of help from his parents.

Show at the riding club!

Saturday morning Adam and I took turns in sleeping in and I got the first couple of hours. It was great!! Makes such a big difference to the day when I don't have to get up at 6. For some reason Jakob sleep in much longer most weeks Mon-Thurs but when I am off work Fri-Sun he always wakes up much earlier. Why??

In the afternoon the whole family went to the riding club to watch a show sponsored by one of the local newspapers, but organised by the riding club. We say horses jumping with girls in fancy dresses riding, dressage, the police showing how they work with their dogs etc. After the show there was pony riding for the kids to try but Jakob didn't want to. He is still a bit scared of riding.

Busy Friday

My Fridays always end up being very busy. I want to jam in as much as possible in one day and it normally works quite well, even though I feel that my body is getting more tired than a couple of months ago.
The morning started just before 6 when Jakob woke up. Him and I got up and had some nice time on the couch when daddy got to sleep in for another 40 min before he had to get up and get ready for Swedish class.
At 8 I dropped Jakob off and mum and dads and went to my dentist appointment. Had to have another root canal done... same as when I was pregnant with Jakob. It all went well and I am not in pain anymore. Picked up Jakob straight after the dentist and went to the usual playground and singing with Finn. Moa and Lucas were also there. After that we met up with daddy and together with Finn and the rest of his family we went out for lunch to an Asian restaurant that had buffe lunch. It wasn't really a relaxing experience since Jakob doesn't want to sit still for mor than about 30 sec at a time. In the beginning the kids were going crazy but after a while they came up with the idea to play under the table, which gave us a little bit of time to eat up our lunch, instead of chasing them around the restaurant. Adam took Jakob home for a sleep and I stayed in the city and did some brithday and Christmas shopping. Most of my family have their birthdays around Christmas time so I prefer to start early... After not being able to go for the last couple of weeks, I went to pregnancy yoga class later in the day. It was great to be back and the highlight as always is the rest at the end of the class when we get to relax for 8-10 minutes. Most of us always fall asleep, not really meant to do that in yoga but just can't stop it from happening.
Adam and I had a quiet night at home and watched the movie 7 pounds.

Jakob ice skating!!

Today we took Jakob ice skating for the first time ever. I thought he would be a bit scared but he wansn't and he did so well! Zara helped him a bit to start with....

...then Adam took over...

And I also had a go. I borrowed some skates from Zara and managed to get around without falling. Last time I tried skating was when pregnant with Jakob and before that was probably 15 years ago.

Jakob got more and more confident and only laughed when he fell on the ice. I think it helped a lot to see his friends falling as well.

At the end Jakob could stand up on his own and move forward a few meters without falling. It wasn't proper skating in any way, more like walking on the ice but at least a very very good first try!

Friday

On Friday morning Jakob came with me to the midwife for the first time. He did really well! He had a big smile on his face when he got to listen to the babys hearbeat, not sure if he really understood what it was though... He also watched when the nurse took some blood from my arm, and helped me to take the band aid off a bit later.
After visiting the midwife we went straight in to the city to go to the playgroup and baby/kids singing. Always a success. His friend Finn was there and also Moa and Lucas.
After a quick lunch at mum and dads I caught up for a quick coffee with Stina and Carina before picking Jakob up and take him for a drive to sleep. Later in the afternoon Anders, Helena, Moa and Lucas came over to celebrate Adam's birthday and to have dinner. We have tried to organise this for a couple of weeks now but because of everyone being sick we have had to rescedule. Finally it happened and we had a really nice night. Jakob and Moa did a lot of dancing together had lots of fun. I only took one photo from the night, of Lucas sitting in a high chair.


Adam fell asleep before Jakob Friday night and I thought they looked so cute...

Dinner at mormor and morfars

A great weekend ended with a really nice dinner at my parents place. Helena is sick and stayed at home but Anders was there with Moa and Lucas and as always Jakob and Moa had great fun together. In the photo they are both having some ice cream for dessert while two of the dads were watching Sweden lose ice hockey against Finland.

Happy Father's Day Daddy

After our visitor's had left Jakob gave Adam a big hug and a Father's day present as a thanks for being such a great dad!!

I had bought a present for my dad and that made Jakob want to give his morfar a present too so he got to make a really nice painting to bring to morfar.

Sunday morning

Jakob slept until 9.30 today. I don't think that has ever happened before. I slept quite badly so for me it was heaven to get to stay in bed for that long. Adam got up early and had a sauna and spent some time in front of the computer getting bored because we were all asleep :-)
Just after 10 my cousin Andreas and his girlfriend Karin came over to visit us and to play with Jakob. They took him outside for over an hour to play in the snow. That gave me some time to go and by some grocerys and make some lunch for all of us, and Adam got to relax since it is Father's day today!

Karin and Andreas built this nice snow feature where you can put a candle inside. Unfortunatley a lot of the snow has disappeared already but I hope we get more very soon.

Karin and Andreas kept playing with Jakob after lunch and he just loved having them here, they are just the best play mates!

Busy weekend!

After having Wednesday and Thursday home from work I started feeling much better. Still don't think it was the swine flu, feels like just a normal cold. Friday was a very busy day, probably a bit too busy. Went in to the city with Jakob in the morning to a playgroup where we met up with Zara, Finn and Lykke. After some playing and singing we all had lunch at Max before I drove Jakob to sleep and left him at home with Adam. Went out shopping all afternoon. Bought some Christmas decorations, food, Father's day presents, photo album etc etc.

Saturday we woke up to the first proper snow! it was so nice, after having had a few dark and rainy weeks the snow felt great. Jakob got really excited so I took him out for an hour to play. I showed him how to build a snow man and we also went for a walk in the snow around the block. In the evening we had Zara, Micke, Finn and Lykke over for dinner. Finn is only about 2 months older than Jakob and they seem to get on really well. After dinner they played together for over 2 hours pretty much on their own. That is not something we get to see very often. At about 10pm they crashed on the couch (see photo). Finn fell asleep but Jakob got up and started playing again after only a few minutes. He stayed awake until they had all left when he fell asleep in his bed in the middle of a sentence.

Me and the belly...

This is me 27 weeks pregnant. The baby is growing as it should as far as I know. I am now 28 weeks pregnant and feel really well (apart from having a cold with a runny nose and sore throat).
Hard to believe that the belly will be growing for another 3 months if everything goes as planned. It is a bit different being pregnant in the middle of a Swedish winter instead of in the middle of the Australian summer. Much harder to find clothes that fits unless you want to spend lots of money. So far so good and I have been lucky to get to borrow some clothes from friends.
The other thing with being pregnant for the second time is that Jakob is there and that he sometimes wants to be carried. He now weighs over 16 kg so he is pretty big for his age. Normally he is very very understanding and accepts when I say no to running with him for example. He just says okej, you have a baby in your belly and can't run. It is hard to know how much he actually understands though. I mean, it is hard even for me to understand that there is a baby in there, even though he is now moving and kicking a lot. I really enjoy being pregnant and I hope I feel the same in another couple of months.

Brest

After 4 nights in Paris we took the train to Brest to visit my old friend Karin. We have known each other since we were 2 and even though we haven't seen each other for a few years it always feels like yesterday. Karin picked us up from the train station and took us straight to their house. Jakob got to meet their cute cat Milou. He was SO friendly and wanted even wanted to sit in Jakob's lap. Adam wasn't so keen though...

The kids getting ready for a first dinner together. Vincent, who works for the French navy was out working the first two days, and Adam had the flu and had to take it very easy the first few days. I was just happy to be there and spend time with Karin and the kids and enjoy their house and France.

Walk in the area

Karin, Vincent and the kids live in a really beautiful area on the countryside about 30 min drive from Brest. They have built a great house only a couple of minutes walk from the Atlantic ocean.

A typical night with the kids in Brest.

After dinner the kids went crazy most of the nights. They ran around the tables, threw themselves on to couches, chairs, floors etc and chased the poor cat.

The time they spent relaxing on the couch normally didn't last for more than a few minutes...

unless they were eating ice cream.

The night ended with reading a book before they all went to their own bed and fell asleep after us only having to go back a couple of times to tell them to stay in bed. Overall it went really well.

Day trip

One of the first days, when Vincent was still away, Felicia was in school, and Adam home sick, Karin and I went to a really nice beach with Anna and Jakob. There were also some old stone buildings that we looked at before going to the beach.

The area was really beautiful and reminded me a bit of Ireland.