Visitors

Today Annika, Theo and Lise-Li visited us. Annika used to live in Luleå a few years ago but now lives in the south of Sweden. We used to ride a lot together and attend lots of show jumping clinics together and often meet up on a Sunday morning, build up some fences and jump together. We always had great fun together. Annika's Theo is only a few months older than Jakob and Lise-Li is 2 days older than Isak.

The babies did what they normally do, they slept, ate, relaxed a bit and cried a bit.

Annika and the kids were here from about 10.45 until 4.30 and Jakob and Theo played together the whole time without needing any assitance from us!!! I have never seen anything like this before. Jakob normally gets a bit grumpy or starts fighting over a car or somthing and there is always a small (or a big) figth that needs to be sorted out by us adults. Today there was nothing like that. Jakob and Theo played all sorts of different games and they talked, laughed, discussed things and just had great fun together. They only sat down a couple of times for a very short time to eat something.

Size 68

Isak has a lot of clothes size 68 that we have been lucky to get given to us. Today I tried some on thinking that they would be far to big but no, they actually fit him really well! He is growing very very quickly our little baby!

Brothers

I keep trying to get a good photo of the two boys together but it is not easy. Have to make a proper effort soon where I chose a time when they are not tired and also make sure I have a nice white background. And Adam there to try and make the kids smile when I take the picture.

Playing on our street

It is hard to believe that our street was covered in snow only a few weeks ago. Yesterday Jakob and Isak and I went for a walk/bike ride around the block.

Happy boy!

Jakob has been in a very good mood latley and listen quite well most of the time. The last few weeks he has started doing something funny. If I get a bit frustrated with him if he doesn't listen he puts his hand on my shoulder and says: Mummy are you not very happy? I reply and say something like, yes I am happy but I get a bit frustrated when you don't listen to me. Then when he has done what I asked for he comes back and says: Mummy, are you happy now? Not sure where this comes from. I hope it is not about him doing things only to make me happy. I want him to learn to do the right thing because HE wants to do the right thing, not because I want him to. Does that make sense?

On the couch

Jakob and Isak often sit on the couch together especially in the morning before dagis or in the evening if Jakob is tired after dagis or after a big day.

Isak is a very relaxed baby and doesn't complain much. Not even when he is about to fall down from the couch...

Photos from last week!

Jens came over for dinner one night last week. Can you see Isak on the table?

Jakob loves playing games and the baloon game is one of the favourite. He runs the show and if you don't stop him he takes over and tells everyone how to play and make up his own rules.

Life back to normal!

After a week of studying ash clouds and various airlines websites Adam's parents finally made it back to Australia and Adam back to Sweden. They met somewhere in the air between Stockholm and Luleå Thursday afternoon. Adam ended up having a pretty good week at a golf resort in Wales and even though it was a bit stressful not knowing when they would get back home, I think he had a good time there. Jane and John flew down to Stockholm Tuesday night but caught the night train back to Luleå since their Stockholm-Paris flight got canceled after they left Luleå. Who would have thought that a volcano eruption could cause so many problems?
Having Jane and John here for longer than planned meant that I could continue to go for my walks by myself nearly every day and I also went riding one day. John looked after Jakob and Jane Isak. It also meant that I had some company while Adam was away and got lots of help with the kids and they got to see Jakob and Isak for a bit longer than planned. Jakob has been obsessed with playing with John and he didn't get a moment to himself apart from when Jakob was a dagis. Jakob's English has been getting better and better and before they left he spoke at leastut 50% English (do you agree Jane and John?) when speaking to grandma and poppa. From only saying a few words he started saying 3-4 word sentences in English.

Yesterday I went to my work's conference/leisure place just outside Luleå for a get together with my department at work. My collegues were there all day but Isak and I turned up after lunch. We did some work in groups and Isak slept for a big part of the afternoon so I could be a part of some of it. Nice to see everyone again and also nice to hear about what's happening at work. I stayed for dinner as well and Isak entertained by farting loudly when laying on the table when we were eating.

Today I have been for a walk, been out shopping boxes and storage containers etc, taken Jakob out for a ride on his bike (and Isak to sleep in the pram), had mum and dad over for a coffee, had a nice dinner and dessert cooked by Adam. After the kids gone to bed I spent the rest of the night cleaning out drawers, the cupboard in the bathroom and organising some folders and boxes etc. Not often I feel like doing things like that so better get on with it when I feel like it, even though it happened to be Saturday night.

Sunday night!

The latest news from Adam is that he will come home on Thursday if the airports have opened by then. Still not sure when Jane and John will be able to leave. They still have tickets for Tuesday but too early to say if they can go then or not.

Jakob and Isak

Jakob is such a big boy now. He talks constantly and asks questions all the time. His English is getting much better as well. The first week grandma and poppa were here he hardly said any English words but now we hear him saying sentences in English. He has also learnt that it helps to say Please when he wants poppa or grandma to play with him.

Funny boy!

In Australia it is very common to wrap babies when they sleep. That worked really well with Jakob and I have been doing it with Isak as well. Isak just loves it. When he is due for a sleep during the day I wrap him up and as soon as I do that he starts smiling. It feels like he wants to say: Mummy, I am really tired and I know when you wrap me that I can have a sleep.

Playing with poppa

Poor poppa doesn't get a minute to himself. Jakob never gets enough and just wants to play, play and play. Today I took Jakob outside to play in the snow for an hour to give John a break. Jakob and I had a great time shoveling snow and making and throwing snowballs.

Carina's birthday!

After spending some time at the riding club we went straigth to Andreas and Carina's house to celebrate her birthday. Mum and dad were also invited so they got to see their new house for the first time.

Jakob on a horse!

Yesterday I finally managed to get Jakob to have a ride. He has always liked being around horses but has never been keen on riding. The day before yesterday I asked him if he wanted to go riding and he said yes. Didn't think he would do it, but he surprised me and was not scared at all! he picked the biggest horse and was really confident in the saddle.

After the ride he wanted to sit and watch the horses in the indoor arena for a while before leaving.

Isak 10 weeks old

Isak is now nearly 2 1/2 months old. He is growing every day and his legs don't look like bird legs anymore and his face has filled out a lot. He is starting to be awake a lot more during the days and when we are at home he only sleeps for 20 min to 45 min at a time. When outside he can go for a little bit longer but he hasn't had a 3 hours sleep now for nearly a week. He is happy most of the time but has started to show more of a personality and can go from being asleep to screaming in a second. He doesn't like being in the pram when he is awake so I now have to try to avoid having him there when he is not due for a sleep. Unless I want to carry him.
The nights are going quite well. He goes down at 7pm, has his first feed between 12 and 2 and a second feed around 4-5 in the morning. The other night he only had one feed at 2.20 and slept until 7 after that. I am looking forward to more nights like that...

Our plans changed...

Wednesday night Adam, my brother and some other golf nuts left for 4 nights in Wales. They were lucky to get there before the ashes from the volcano reached northern Europe.

Adam's parents weren't so lucky. They were supposed to go back to Australia yesterday but all the flights got canceled. The plan is now that they will leave on Tuesday but who knows if the airports are open by then? and who knows if Adam will be back by Sunday night?

All I know is that Jane and John have to stay with us for at least 5 nights more than planned. Lucky that they are stuck here and not in an airport somewhere and I am getting some help with the kids which is nice now when Adam is away. I am keeping up with my new life with more excercise and go for an hour walk almost every day. Hope I can (and will) continue with that even after they have left.

More family photos

This is the first photo we have taken of the four of us. Not very easy to get Jakob to sit still for more than a couple of seconds.

Jakob and Isak's grandparents!

Jane and Isak

Grandma and poppa with Jakob and Isak.

Jakob and Isak

So far Jakob has been really really good to Isak and doesn't show any signs of being jealous. On the other hand he has always had lots of people around him giving him attention. Will be interesting to see what happens when grandma and poppa go back to Australia and Adam gets more busy at work. I am positive though and think it will be ok but I am sure there will be some challenging times.

Isak already adores his big brother.

Ale!

Last Sunday we all went to Ale to have a look at the sheep and all the newborn lambs. When we got there the water had just broke on one of the sheep so we waited and hoped we would get to see the birth.

Åke found out that the first lamb was breech so he had to help it out.

The sheep was having triplets so Åke helped her to deliever another 2 beautiful little lambs.

I am so glad we got to see it all, what an experience! Jakob really enjoyed it too and both him and I wanted to go in there and help.

Åke showing Jakob one of the lambs.

Jakob did not want to leave the sheep and really enjoyed watching them. He also wanted to open the gate and go in to them.

Getting ready for a bbq in the warm sun!

Carina and Jakob having a chat

Åke and Andreas

Relaxing in the sun...

John, Jane and Adam

Carina, Maggi and mum

Dinner at Anders and Helena's

Today I started the day with an hour walk by myself. I have been quite good with the excercise the last few weeks and I will continue to go for walks as often as I can (please remind me if I start getting lazy!). After lunch Adam and I went shopping for some shelving and a shoe rack for the garage. Our garage is really messy and I have been wanting to organise it a bit better for a long time but been really lazy. Now for some reason I have inspiration to do it so buying the shelving was a good start. Adam and his mum went shopping in the city in the afternoon and John and I stayed home with the kids and also spent a couple of hours assembling the shelving. I thought it would take 20min or so but it was quite hard and took us a lot longer than I thought. We only managed to do one of the 2 but at least it is a start and I think the garage is looking better already.

When Adam and his mum got home we just got changed and started walking over to my brother's place where we were invited for dinner. Jakob and Moa haven't played together for quite some time and Jakob was so happy to get to see Moa again. They played really well and had lots of fun.

Lucas getting to know Isak...

Family photos

Today we took some family photos. We were supposed to get some of the kids as well but it is nearly impossible to get them all to sit still at the same time. It was hard enough with the adults...
Adam and I and Anders and Helena.


Mum and dad and Anders and I.

John and Jane with Isak

Mum and Lucas

Having fun!

Lucas can now walk by himself but he loves pushing this little trolley around.

Jakob and Moa played like this for about an hour taking turns pushing.

It takes about 15 minutes to walk home from their place. A nice walk, not too far but long enough to feel a bit better after a big dinner.