After a morning of playing outside in the sun we went inside to have a drink and a "rest". Lucas was asleep as always.
Jakob calls this four wheeler a tractor and he talks about it (and other tractors) ALL the time. When he gets close to them he is really scared and doesn't ever go closer than this.
is the name of a Swedish tradition that we celebrate the last of April every year. Not sure exactly why we do it (can anyone help me?) but I think it something about welcoming the spring. The main event is that you light a big bonfire and you also have small fires around the big one where you cook typical Swedish sausages. This is what it looked like when we first got there. We were the only ones there and it was hard to convince Adam that it is actually a really nice tradition.
My friend Karin that I got to know in Australia, and who has now moved back to Sweden came up to visit for the weekend. In the photo you can also see Jakob's cousing Moa and uncle Anders.
The big moment!
A family photo of the three of us. It was impossible to get Jakob to look in to the camera.
These two photos from our backyard were taken only a few days apart. In the beginning of last week we still had quite a lot of snow but at the end almost all of it had melted. Jakob still talks a lot about shoveling snow but he quite likes his new hobby - picking up leaves and putting it in bags (or just kicking the piles of leaves that we have raked...).
This afternoon we had some friends, Maria, Mattias and theri son Felix coming over to play and have dinner. Maria and I have known each other since we were about 10 and started hanging out at the riding club. Felix gave Jakob a really nice present -a blue car!
Jakob just loves shoveling snow and playing with the snow. Felix showed him how to make cakes out of snow.
Adam bought a new gas bottle for our bbq that we brought over from Australia and today we used it for the first time. It was great! we look forward to many more bbq's in the next few months.
Yesterday we went to Ale to celebrate Åke's 60th birthday. Jakob loves going there and as soon as I mention that we are going to Ale he starts talking about everyone that we are going to meet. Maggi, Åke, Åsa, Mikael, the sheep and so on. When we got there Jakob walked up to Åke on his own, handed over a present and said Grattis Åke, which means Happy Birthday in Swedish.
Andreas and Jakob gave them some hay.
Jakob bonding with one of the lambs. Last time we went to see the sheep he was a bit scared but this time he just walked in to the sheep house with great confidence.
The sheep and the lambs are just so gorgeous!
Anybody wants a coffee?
All the relatives were there to celebrate Åke and of course Jakob was in the middle of it all.
It is hard to believe that Jakob is only just over 2 years old. Before I had him I would never have thought that a 2 year old could know so much. I think he is not far from being smarter than both me and Adam.
Saturday morning Jakob woke up at 5.15, I don't know what has happened to him but it is not good in any way to have to get up with him that early. He is so cute though when he comes in to our bedroom saying that he wants to sleep on my pillow and climbs up to our bed. Unfortunatley he only lies there for about 5 seconds before he says Finished and wants to do something else.
Earlier this week Adam changed the tyres on both cars from winter tyres to summer tyres.
Jakob has always gone to sleep very easily in the evenings and we have never had to sit with him when he goes to sleep. He has been quite happy laying there on his own talking and singing until he goes to sleep. That has now changed. About a month ago we moved him from his cot to a matress on the floor and the first few weeks went extremly well. He used to run in, jump in to bed and tell us got go out after only one or two songs. About 2 weeks he started wanting us to stay in there and the last week we have had to stay with him for over an hour before he goes to sleep. It is really nice and cosy because he keeps his arms wrapped around my neck and wants to be so close, but at the same time it doesn't feel good to have to be in there for a long time every evening. Today I tried a new method to change this habit. I prepared him during the day that I was going to sing 2 songs and then leave and he seemed ok with it. Of course when I did it tonight he started crying and didn't want me to leave. I went in and out about 10 times giving him a kiss and a hug and talked to him every time. After ten times I told him that I was going to the toilet but would come back. That was no problem and he was happy when I came in again. Then I kept leaving and coming back about 5 times, extending the time I stayed outside the room every time. He had no problem with me leaving the room when I said I was coming back, and I made sure that I went in there again to show him that he can trust me. All up it took about an hour tonight but at least he fell asleep happily when I wasn't in the room. We will keep doing this for a while and see if it works. If not we will try something else or just take a few weeks or months to be in there with him until he goes to sleep.
The other day Adam found some second hand toys on a website. We decided to buy them and one of the things we bought was this slide! Jakob got SO excited when he saw it and went up and down about 20 times.
This afternoon Jakob spent a few hours at mormor and morfars place. He had a bath, some dinner and played a lot before they brought him back to our place. Jakob loves playing with pool table that we have upstairs in our house. He puts the balls in the holes and runs to the other end to pick them up again. Today he wanted mormor to play with him.
Today Maria and Andreas took a walk over to our place with the kids (Alice and Melvin) in their new double pram. The kids played and have fun, and we all had a very simple lunch together.
Jakob is a very active little boy and he doesn't sit still very often. He loves running, jumping, climbing, chasing, hiding and playing with balls. In the pictures he is playing innebandy with daddy.
Jakob is still obsessed with shoveling snow. He just loves it. He does it all the time at child care and he does it at home with daddy (and sometimes with me, but he prefers daddy) as often as he can.
Jakob has talked a lot lately about going to see the horses so Saturday morning we took a trip out to the riding club. First we spent some time inside the stables sweeping the floors and cleaning out Robbans stable. Jakob worked really hard, and even though he didn't really understand what was supposed to stay on the floor and what to clean out, the end result was pretty good with my help.
When we moved to Sweden I started to ride a horse called Scott once a week. It has been great fun to ride and be around horses again, but on the weekend Scott got sold to someone in Finland. From now on I will start looking after Robban, the horse in the picture, sometimes. Bettan who owns Robban is a friend of mine and I used to ride her horse Tarkan for many years before I moved to Australia. We used to be a very good team and I look forward to helping her again, even though it won't be as often as before. Robban is turning 5 this year and he is a beautiful horse.
