Nearly finished!!

The walls in the sauna room are now finished!

Rainy day

Today it has been raining most of the day so the kids have had a pretty quiet day. After lunch I went in to the city to swap a pair of gum boots (Jakobs), buy new gloves for Isak (see the red ones in the pic below) and to have a fika with Carina.

Isak was being out of control before and during dinner (didn't eat anything at all) so I took both him and Jakob outisde after for a bike ride around the block, soccer in the back yard, playing in the sand pit etc etc. It had stopped raining and was really nice.

Ice hockey

Finally the ice hockey world championships are over for this time and life can go back to normal. Quite a few evenings both Adam and Jakob have gone to sleep watching a match but tonight they both stayed awake throug the final. Very impressive by Jakob who woke up early this morning and was pretty tired tonight. They have both been watching Australian footy on tv and the computer as well latley and I look forward to when Jakob can start participating in sport instead of just watching it.

Dinner with friends...

Yesterday the weather was really nice so after a nice sleep in and an hour walk I did some raking and cleaning outisde and also got the outdoor furniture for the front of the house out. Isak and Jakob were "helping" with the raking and did a pretty good job. In the afternoon we went to Zara and Micke for a really nice dinner and one of the best desserts I have ever had!

Jakob and Finn had a good time but I am not sure how much they actually played with each other. Jakob has an obsessive side to him and I worry about the day when we can't keep him away from computer games at home... as soon as he gets hold of a game he disappears in to a different world.

Isak who is starting to become a very determined little boy decided that it was Zara, and nobody else, who was going to change his poo nappy. Fine with us!

Isak and Lykke ruling in the kitchen.

It looks like Lykke has more experience of kissing than Isak.

Better start practicing...

Ugg boots

Yesterday Isak found a pair of kids size ugg boots that I had forgotten that we had. Now he can be just like daddy!

Talking about wanting to look like daddy, Isak is actually a bit in to me at the moment. He still hasn't learnt to say mummy, he calls me nannie, or nanno or something like that, but I think it is me he is talking about/to. He looks at Adam and says No daddy, and comes to me with a big smile saying Nanno!

Dinner at mum's

We all felt quite tired today so it was nice to not have to cook dinner.

Mum cooked a very nice meal with strawberries and ice cream as dessert. My first fresh strawberries this year! yummy!

Cakes...

This is what you will get if you come here for a "fika" in the next few weeks!

Rainy day!

Today is a public holiday so we were all home together and Jakob had his friend Linus over for a few hours. Adam worked on the sauna room and I baked while the big boys played and the little one played for a while and had a long day sleep.

Grumpy Isak

Isak was very grumpy this morning. He was eating breakfast happily from a green plastic bowl, when Jakob came in and had his in an orange bowl. Isak pushed his green bowl away and clearly showed (without talking) that he wanted the orange one. Bad luck. After about 15 minutes when Jakob had finished breakfast long ago, and after Isak had cried and screamed a bit, he came back and ate quietly from his green bowl. Life as a 2 year old can be pretty hard at times. Being grumpy doesn't stop him from being cute though.

Mormor visiting

Jakob and Isak always like when mormor comes for a visit. She is very good at playing and talking and cuddling.

Haircut!

Last weekend I got the scissors out, Isak's hair was just getting too long and food and snot got stuck in it all the time.

Isak was almost as proud as I was over his new hair style!

More renovations...

A few weeks ago Adam decided that he was going to paint the walls in our sauna/shower room. It was only going to take a few hours (translated to a few weeks in my head...). This is what it looked like a week later.... When ripping down the walls he found some wet patches near the old door that was hiding behind the wall. Adam called Andreas to get some help and after that they spent one evening planning and shopping and last Sunday from early morning til late night rebuilding the wall.

They have both done an amazing job and I am so glad Andreas was helping, he is just a super guy! I think I did quite well serving everyone with lunch and dinner and fika in between taking Jakob to a birthday party and cleaning but I don't get any credit for that. Life is unfair sometimes :-(

Jakob

Jakob had a new record, he slept until 10 am last weekend!! I blame (or thank...) the ice hockey world championships for that... Jakob has completley lost the plot and stays up watching ice hockey every night utnil nearly 10pm. He just loves it so much so we let him do it... Adam has also been able to leave for work a bit later in the morning so the kids can sleep in a bit. Isak had a new record too the same morning as Jakob, he slept until 11am!! good timing for me who had quite a few drinks at my brother's place the night before when we had dinner there...

Jakob has mother tongue education one hour every week. An English teacher comes to day care and spends an hour playing with him, reading to him, talking etc etc. Every week the teacher sends an email about what they have been up to and how it went. This is the last one:

The weather was wonderful this afternoon and the kids were all running about outside when I arrived. I brought out the cricket bat (foam) and ball
(even foamier) and we got started playing this Noble sport. I was amazed at how quickly they grasped the rules (my wife has never been able to)
and pretty soon they were bowling and batting, taking wickets and scoring runs. Jakob and Eddie seemed to be on top form. Seeing Jakob bowl today
reminded me of the time I saw the great Merv Hughes crush the England team during a test match for the Ashes at Lords. Merv's mustache might have been
another colour (big bushy black as opposed to Jacob's snotty green), and Merv was more than 6 feet tall and built like a brick house where as Jakob
relies more on brain than brawn, but their throwing styles were distinctly similar. At half time we broke for a game of hockey and then I managed to lure
him over to look at a book about sharks (considering that a former Australian prime minister was once eaten by one I felt we had the Australian connection).
We also managed a game of memory before I had to leave.

Jakob and Isak

 These two angles have had a good last few weeks. They have sometimes played really well together and Jakob is sometimes helping and looking after Isak really well. When I say sometimes that means that they of course have some bad moments in between the good ones and since Isak wants to do everything that Jakob does and have everything that he has Jakob sometimes lose his patience, very understandable, we do that too...

 Jakob putting a tattoo on Isak's arm...

As long as Isak follows Jakob's rules he is allowed to play with him...

How close can I get to my big brother?



Sick Isak...

A couple of weeks ago were invited to Maria and Andreas for dinner. Isak had a little rest on the sofa before we left but for those of you who know Isak there is nothing unusual about that , he loves sleeping. When we got to their place in the evening Isak seemed a bit tired and felt very hot. We checked his temperature and he had 39 degrees. He sat on my lap during dinner and even had a little nap. When he woke up he seemed to have a bit more energy and started playing but after only a few minutes he started throwing up all over the floor. We had just finished dinner and dessert so Adam cleaned up the floor and I cleanded up Isak, put him in the pram and walked him home and put straight to bed. Adam and I took 7 white pepper corns on Maria's recommendation. The next morning Isak woke up fresh and well and none of us got whatever it was he had. Maria and Andreas and their kids didn't get it either...

Birthday party!

 Last weekend, or was it the weekend beofore? yes it was... Jakob and I went to Gerd to celebrate her 80th birthday. Gerd is dad's cousin and she has always been a close part of the family.

Gerd and mum

Jakob and Moa entertained all the oldies in the nursing home by running up and down the corridors and joining a few of them watching tv. The staff from downstairs had to come up and check what was going on when they heard the noise through the roof. Everyone was nice though and Jakob and Moa were only having fun

1st May!

1st May is a public holiday in Sweden and we went to Ale in the morning to join the others for a local tradition where the whole village gets together to make waffles over open fires. The location is a small hill in the middle of Ale where families have their own waffle rock where they have made waffles over many generations. It is great to get to be a part of such a nice tradition! Especially a day like today when it was sunny and warm.

Jakob and Isak ate a lot of waffles.... and when finished they both took off climbing and jumping from the cliffs. Isak shows no fear and it is scary watching him stumble around the edge of the cliffs in his gum boots with a big smile on his face.

Maggi in action!

Quiet playing on the flat ground after the climbing experience.

And of course a visit to the "sheep house"

Isak is very in to kissing right now and he kisses people, toys and animals.

Both children fell asleep in the car on the way home tired after a late night yesterday and an early morning.