Mother's day

Today is Mother's Day here in Sweden. My day started with a nice sleep in. After that we got ready to go in to the city. The plan was to have an early lunch at Max (the local hamburgar place) but we got there at 11.30 and they didn't open until 12 so we had a walk around the main street and Jakob got an ice cream. After finally getting our lunch at Max we went to a playground for a while before we had to head home, since Adam had to go to Kalix to work. Just as he was leaving mum and dad came over. Jakob got really excited and played outside with mormor for a long time.
A bit later Anders, Helena, Moa and Lucas came over and Jakob and Moa played really well together even though they were pretty crazy, especially Jakob who screamed a lot and ran around without thinking about everyone around him. At least they had a good time.

Between dinner and dessert Moa and Jakob took all there clothes off and thought it was great fun to eat dessert naked.

Lucas was happy as always and we almost forgot about Isak who was just in the middle of all the talking, running, screaming. I am trying to cut down on his day sleeps to see if it makes him sleep for longer stretches at night. Before he has always had a 30min sleep around 4.30-5pm but now I am trying to skip that one and have him waking up from his last sleep before the night around 4. Last night was the first one and I noticed no difference during the night but the evening went well with him being up more than usually. This evening was the same, he was happy all evening but still to see what the night will be like. His nights have been pretty much the same since he was born where I feed him 2 times a night. Not bad really but hopefully it will be less and less over the next few months.

Routines

Both Adam and I are quite messy people and I really hope that Jakob won't be as bad as us when he gets older. At least I am trying to change for a few different reasons:
1 I like when it is tidy at home
2 I want Jakob to get used to picking up things after himself and to not just drop clothes etc on the floor when he takes them off.
3 I have noticed that Jakob takes after us in everything we do so if we try to be tidy I think he will to.
4 I am a bit lazy and think that it will be less work for me at home if Jakob learns to tidy up after himself.

What I am doing is very basic stuff that I should have done long ago but better late than never I guess. He always has to take away his plate and bowl after breakfast, dinner etc. He has to help tidy up before he goes to bed (at least most nights), when we come in after having been outside he has to put his cap away in his drawer and put the shoes neatly by the door.

It is working quite well and going better and better. The other day he said that he wanted to tidy up all the shoes in the hall and what he did you can see in the picture!

Friday

Friday we had a very fun and busy day. Started in the morning by going to the singing. Zara, Helena and Maria were all there with the kids so Jakob had a great time as always. This time he actually did a bit of singing as well, it sounds so cute!
From the singing we went straight to Hertsön outside the city for lunch and to look at the animals. We ended up staying for about 3 hours. The cafe has very nice surroundings and there is lots for the kids to play with and animals to look at. The sun was shining so we just enjoyed a great afternoon together with Zara and Sara with their kids. Zara goes back to work on Monday so it was sort of a last day together :-(

Friday afternoon

Friday afternoon Roger had organised for all of us to get together at Nicklas and Sigrid's place to hang out and to have take away pizza. What a great idea! I haven't seen Roger for SO long (we went to high school together).

The weather was amazing so we all sat outside and enjoyed to sun.

Jakob was very happy to get to play with Elvin but he also got really excited when Finn arrived a bit later than us.

Jakob enjoying his pizza.

Jakob posing for the camera.

Jakob has said a couple of really funny (or sad) things this week. One day when I was driving him to child care he said to me: mummy today I don't want you to kiss me good bye when you leave. I asked if I could at least give him a kiss but he said; no mummy just say good bye. Oh well, he is 3 now and obviously already trying to be a big boy and not hug mummy in front of his friends. I thought it would take a few more years but no.

The other funny thing he said was to mormor (grandmother). He was sitting next to her and looked at her face closely and said: Mormor, you are broken! didn't take me long to understand that he was talking about her wrinkles. He said you have lines everywhere in your face.

Last weekend

Last weekend we spent the Sunday afternoon at Zara's and Micke's place and ended the day with a super nice dinner. The weather was nice so the kids played outside for most of the day.

Today

Jakob was very tired and grumpy when I picked him up from dagis today. He was standing next to Linus playing with something by the window when I came. I knocked on the window and his first reaction was a big smile, that very quickly turned in to a grumpy look. When I went inside he said straigth away that he didn't want to go home, he wanted to stay and play and have snacks with the other kids. It took me about 15 minutes to talk him in to coming home and he was really sad and teary. I finally got him to sit in the car and he was sort of happy, then he saw Linus through the window sitting by the table having his afternoon snack. Jakob burst in to tears again. Poor thing who has to be with his mummy! when we got home he ate 2 big sandwiches and after that he fell asleep when I was feeding Isak. There was nothing I could do to keep him awake. He only had about 10 min before I managed to wake him up.

THe rest of the evening boths of the kids were happy and Jakob was like a different child after his power nap. When we were about to have dinner he said: mummy the food looks so nice! Nice to hear from someone like me who is not very good a cooking. At least he thought it looked good.

As always Jakob was very good to Isak tonight. As soon as he cries he gets up to find a toy and he talks to Isak and sings to Isak and is just really really caring. I am not looking forward to the day when Isak starts taking Jakob's cars, it will be a nightmare and I can see Jakob being hysterical trying to keep them away from his little brother. So I am enjoying this time now when he thinks that Isak is the best in the whole world.

Isak

Isak has now started to try to roll. He is still quite far away from doing it but at least he is trying.

Yesterday I bought Isak a new light beany and a jacket. Isn't he cute in his new clothes?

Party at dagis!

Last night was the yearly summer bbq party at Jakobs dagis. Jakob and I got there an hour early to help to set it all up and Adam and Isak came a bit later. After a very rainy day the sky started clearing up and by the time it was all starting the sun was shining and it got quite warm. Everyone brought their own food to put on the bbq and we all sat outside and ate. After dinner each family walked around answering 10 questions. It was mainly questions that only the children could answer, questions about things they done in the last few months.

After that it was time for the kids to perform. Last year Jakob did not want to join the group and sat in my lap the whole time. This year he stood with the group the whole time. I can't say he did much singing but he seemed to have fun.

Jakobs best friend at dagis is Linus. According to the carers they play together all day long and never fight. I find it hard to believe but from what I have seen they seem to get a long very well. Linus live very close to us so hopefully they can play together a bit this summer. I spoke to Linus mum about that and got her phone number.

The children also got medals for having done a walk once every week for the last couple of months.

Presents...

Before it was time to go home, 3 trolls arrived. The kids got very excited and a bit scared. Jakob wanted me to stand next to him the whole time and go with him when he went to get his bag.

All the kids got a baloon and some bubbles.

Jakob showing daddy what he got.

Shopping

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the city with mum when Jakob was at dagis. Before I was leaving I dressed Isak on the kitchen table and left him there when I was getting ready. He was very quiet I thought, and took a closer look... he was asleep.

I did a lot of shopping yesterday. Bought a couple of presents, a few things for the kids but most important, I bought 3 pairs of shoes for myself!! there is a shop in town that is closing down and had 30% off everything and I managed to find 3 pairs of summer/spring shoes that I really liked. I have never been a big "shoe shopper" before so this was very exciting. Now I am covered for the summer, and for our trip away later in the year.

Fun in the rain!

Adam took the camera to work on Monday so these photos were taken by Zara. As always on Mondays Jakob is home all day and we had a lot of fun. First we went to the riding club and he helped me with everything. He cleaned out the stable, filled up the water buckets and also filled up the hay bags. After all hard work we had a fika in the cafeteria and Isak got some milk.
Next destination was just around the corner where we met up with Zara and the kids. By then the rain was pouring down but we still had a good time. Jakob and Finn did well on their three wheelers, we kept saying that we are going to a playground not very far away. What we realised was that what once was a nice playground was now nothing, just a little bit of sand was there. The boys looked pretty disappointed but took it well and played in the sand and had some hot chocolate sitting on the ground. All we could do was laugh at the funny situation.


Before we left we went to a place where they have sheep and hens to look at. There is also a little cafe that we will go to next time, especially if it's raining...

Saturday night.

Jakob was really tired tonight and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow almost. Normally he doesn't want to be covered by the quilt but tonight I think he was a bit cold. The weather was nice today but a bit cooler and he still wanted to wear shorts and a t-shirt

Isak always goes to sleep very easily at 7pm. I feed him, wrap him and feed him a bit more until he is more or less asleep. After that I don't hear from him until he wants his next feed. Normally I feed him 2 times a night and the last 1-2 hours in the morning he sleeps with me in bed. Not a good habit but it makes him sleep until about 7 instead of waking up between 5-6. Not sure if I will be able to do that for so much longer. He is getting cuter by the day and is so smiley and happy at the moment. Even at night he tries to get eye contact with me and wants to smile. I can't help myself sometimes and we smile to each other for a while but I am so worried he will wake up too much and won't go back to sleep.

Feeding during the day is still a bit hard. When I am at home I always go in to the bedroom and turn off the light to try to have no distractions around us. I lean my head back and make sure I don't look at him and that's working quite well. Being out and about makes it harder but we can still manage.

Great day!

After a nice sleep in this morning I walked in to the city with Isak. It felt like I was flying pushing just Isak in the pram. As soon as I got to the city he woke up and I went to a cafe to feed and wait for Stina and Lova to come. We had a nice fika together at Åhlens in the city.

After that Isak and I met up with Jakob and Adam who had also walked to the city. We watched the running competition on the main street for a while but Jakob just wanted to get an ice cream as he was promised.

Friday

Yesterday was another great but full on day with the kids. I decided to try the new toddler seat for the pram and walk in to the city to the singing with the kids in the morning. The seat was great but it was bloody hard work pushing the pram. The steering didn't work so well and that made it hard to keep the pram straigt. Not a big problem but I was exhausted after walking in and back home again.

Isak slept in the pram on the way in and the way back but was awake the whole time at the singing. He spent the time on his back on the floor enjoying watching and listening to everything going on around him.

Helena was also there with Moa and Lucas.

In the afternoon Emma and her little girl Eira came over. We sat outside on the veranda and had a great time. Jakob wanted to have a bath in the pool so I filled up the pool with cold water from the hose and carried lots of buckets with hot water from the kitchen (with Isak on one arm). When I finally finished Jakob changed his mind and didn't want to have a bath anymore. Just tip the water out again mummy! he said to me. When the visitors had left I cooked dinner and cleaned up and when Adam came home from Kalix at 6.30 I handed over the responsibility for the kids for the last half an hour before bedtime. I was so tired.

Playing outside...

Thursday night we had Andreas and the kids (Alice and Melvin) over for dinner. Maria is on a girls trip to Barcelona (I am so jealous!!). The weather was great so we got the pool out and Alice and Jakob had a great time running around like crazy.

Carnival at dagis

The other day all the kids, carers and some parents attended a carnival in a little park in the area. All child care centres in the area went there and there must have been hundreds of children. There was a stage with some kids characters performing and singing and dancing and the kids were supposed to wear costumes (if they wanted to). Jakob who is still a bit young to understand I think was first going to dress up as Father Christmas and then Spiderman, but in the end he just wanted to wear his normal clothes. Adam and I both went and it was great to get to see Jakob in the dagis environment and also get to see more of the children that he normally play with.

I think Jakob was a bit unsure of how to behave when Adam and I were there and he got quite shy with the other kids and carers when we were around. He stayed around us most of the time.

He spent some time on the swings with his good friend Efe.

When the peformance was over all children got ice creams and Jakob finally started to relax a bit. Here he is hanging out with Linus and Noel.

Adam and Isak.