Birthday Party!

Today Jakob had his third birthday party! a little bit early, his birthday is not until 1st Feb but because of us not knowing when the baby will come we thought we have it a earlier rather than later. Adam took Jakob skating so that I could do all the preparations for the party at home without interruptions.




Zara, Micke Finn and Lykke were the first ones to arrive. Jakob had woken up from a day sleep only 20 min earlier and was not in a good mood when he woke up. He did not want to wear the clothes we tried to put on, the only present he wanted was a car that he has been talking about and was just not up for any conversation or games. Luckily Adam started running and falling on the ground and in a matter of seconds Jakob got interested and suddenly the bad mood was gone and he was happy again. The party could have ended in a disaster.

Jakob was really happy with all his presents and the first one was a dvd from Finn with his favourite car. He was in heaven!!

Party pics

The boys playing with a car game...

...and the babies with some baby games...

The kids having cakes in the kitchen. They did well and were very cute and quiet when eating. Didn't have the patience to sit down for very long though.

Since Jakob doesn't like traditional birthday cakes I had bought an ice cream cake for him. Not really sure if he ate much of it. He managed to blow out his three candles in two blows and seemed happy with that.

Kids playing

Jakob and Finn playing with one of the games Jakob got for his birthday. Most of the time the kids played really well together and I think Jakob had a very very good time.

I had organised a small treasure hunt for the kids where they had to find a bag of goodies. They all got a picture each of a place in the house that they had to look for. Jakob got to try lollies for the first time and was very excited even though he didn't eat them all. It is starting to get really hard to keep him away from lollies and we thought today could be a good first time for him. We will still try to keep him away from it as much as possible (we don't want him to become as addicted to sweets as me...) but we will see how it goes.

After some pretty quiet games the kids started getting more comfortable and when Adam started chasing them around the house they all got excited and were right in to it.

Jakob and Finn having a wee together... They remind me so much of me and my best friend Karin. I have a similar photo of us when we are about the same age and me sitting on the toilet and Karin on the potty. Very cute.

No baby yet!

The baby still hasn't come out but it should be getting closer to the big day. I am still feeling pretty good, but a bit heavier and not as flexible as usual. Adam took Jakob out this morning when I was asleep and he got to try the skiis he got from grandma and poppa for Christmas. He did very well according to Adam. Later on Jakob and Adam went to a small hill not far from home where they played on a bob (small sledge with steering that goes fast down a slope). I stayed home and did some more baking and cleaning. I really look forward to being able to do more outdoor activities once my belly is gone (or is at least smaller...).

In the afternoon Adam went to the gym and Jakob and I went to see mormor and morfar. Mormor had just made some pancakes that both Jakob and I had a taste of.

Jakob also played with play dough, had a bath with mormor, read some books with mormor and played games with morfar. Morfar has now had 3 weeks of treatment and he has another 3 weeks to go.

When we came home Adam had prepared the kitchen for making pizza! We all made a pizza each and it was great fun. Jakob loved both making it and eating it.

Tomorrow we are having a small birthday party for Jakob unless the baby decides that he wants to come out before that (I doubt it). Jakob is really excited about it and talks quite a lot about turning 3 years old and having friends over for a party. Unfortunatley his cousin Moa hasn't been feeling so well latley and actually spent last night in the hospital. We hope she will be feeling better soon so that she can come over and play. Jakob was so disappointed when I told him that Moa probably can't come to his birthday party. Anyway we hope she will be back to normal very soon.

Sleeping problems...

The last week or so I have been sleeping really badly and also Jakob has had some bad nights. A bad night for me is that I feel very tired but can't go to sleep, and I wake up a lot during night and struggle to go back to sleep. A bad night for Jakob is that he wakes up once but takes forever to go back to sleep. From having pretty much never in his life slept in our bed, he has now slept with us a few times during the last week. He comes in so quietly and before we know it he is on my pillow and has pushed me to the edge of the bed. Sometimes he puts his arm around me and puts his face in front of my face. Really cute and nice moments, but I am just so uncomfortable and can't sleep like that!! Adam only wakes up for a few seconds and then goes back to snoring again. At least he can get up with Jakob in the morning and I can have some more sleep. I deal better with Jakob at night since I can't go back to sleep quickly anyway. Adam is good in the morning since he wakes up early most mornings anyway. Tonight my plan is to take him back to his bed and stay there until he goes back to sleep. It is not a good thing for him to get used to sleeping next to me before the baby comes.

Stretching...

Adam has started a new life after Christmas and has been going to the gym (it's true!) 3 times a week and plays innebandy 2 times a week. Here he is getting ready for tonights innebandy game by stretching with Jakob.

Jakob's injury is looking much better and before he went to bed I took off his band aid from yesterday and put on a new clean one. Last time I took a band aid off, it took me 4 days to talk him in to doing it but tonight he let me do it straight away.

The negative of the day is that after the carers at dagis having talked about how nice Jakob is, today he wasn't very nice to his best friend at dagis. He pushed him over 2 times. When I talked to Jakob about it he said to me; but I said Sorry after! and looked very pleased with himself. Hopfully tomorrow will be a better day.

Bettan and Rubin

Today I went to the riding club for the first time in many weeks. Bettan and I took beautiful Rubin for a walk in the snow, even though I didn't last for very long and went back to the stables.

What I look forward to the most after the baby is born is to eventually get back to riding and going to the stables again. And to be able to sleep on my back again :-)

Baby bed

A few weeks ago we put together the baby's cot since it was still in the packaging after moving from Australia. Jakob was as always very helpful and of course he wanted to try it when it was in place. Hard to believe that he used to sleep in there less than 3 years ago.

Old photos...

Below follows some photos from Christmas and New Years. My camera was broken but I borrowed one from a friend, and it has taken me until now to download them to the computer.

New Years Eve!

New Years was celebrated at home with a very nice dinner and nice drinks (for those who can drink alcohol...). We all helped with the cooking and it turned out very well. Jakob and Hugo went to bed early but were both a bit restless and kept waking up on and off throughout the evening. Overall it was a very nice and quiet night.

Dinner with mum and dad

Mum and dad invited us all for dinner but we decided to have it at our place since we have more room for everyone. The day after mum and dad went to Umeå to start dad's first week of radiation.

Stina and Martin's cabin

One day we were invited out to Stina and Martin's cabin. Karen and Jason got to try their snow mobile and we also had some nice fika inside the cabin.

Dinner at Finn's place!

Jakob and Finn making their own pasta, they really liked both making it and eating it!

Jakob and Finn hugging, sort of. Doesn't happen very often :-)

Ice hockey

Adam and I were invited to talk at a function before one of the ice hockey games after Christmas. I was quite nervous about being interviewed in front of about 80 people but it went well and was fun! This is me 36 weeks pregnant taken before going to the function.

Mixed photos

Jakob's cousin Hugo with some of his toys.

Jakob playing with the battery driven train set he got for Christmas.

Jakob buliding a tower, very impressive I have to say!

Jakob loves the new red pants he got for Christmas.

Australian Christmas!

Australian Christmas is celebrated on Chirstmas day, the day after Swedish Christmas. We started in the morning with opening more presents!

Jakob loved the duplo bridge that he got from Jason, Karen and Hugo.

Adam cooked lamb for Christmas lunch, it was delicious!

In the afternoon Alice and her family came over. Alice and Jakob exchanged presents and guess what? they had bought exactly the same game for each other!!

Us drinking and eating and talking :-)

Swedish Christmas!

The Christmas party of the year was held in Ale at my aunite Maggi's place on the country side, just 30 min drive outside Luleå. As always Åke had prepared some fun games for all of us.

Santa is coming!

Later in the afternoon everyone was waiting for Santa to come with some Christmas presents...

Hugo got a present from Santa

And Jakob got one...

Jakob and mormor playing with some of the toys he got for Christmas before heading home to Luleå again.

Tuesday night

The end of the weekend was really good. We went ice skating on Sunday and I borrowed my brothers skates so that I could have a go. It is really fun and I think Jakob liked having me on the ice too. He watched how I did it (probably not a good thing) and tried to copy. I fell over once and I think that was good for him to see too. Not a big deal to fall.
After the usual Mc Donalds lunch with friends after skating Jakob and I went to visit mormor and morfar. He mainly played with mormor and she read to him, gave him a bath and played with play dough. I also had a really nice bath and some rest.

Today Adam and I went to dagis at the same time. Adam to pick Jakob up and I to have a meeting with Jakob's main carer at dagis, Stina. They have the meetings 2 times a year to talk about how the child is going etc. She only had positive things to say about Jakob. He seems very secure she said and really likes it at dagis. He eats well, he plays well with the other kids, especially 3 of them that he plays with all the time, he is very helpul when it comes to picking up toys and helping other kids to get dressed. He is talking really well and understands pretty much everything you say to him now. He is also getting better at concentrating and sitting still when they read books or have a gathering to talk about something. In general it was just positive information which is very nice to hear. She said of course they sometimes fight over toys, and gets upset with each other but that is more just normal for the age and nothing to worry about. Before we had finished the talk Adam came in to the room telling us that Jakob had hurt himself on the way to the car and was bleeding next to his eye. Poor thing had blood all over his face and was really sad. We decided that I would take him to the medical centre just around the corner just to let them have a look at it. Jakob said he didn't want to go to the doctor but after talking to him he came with me and did so well. A nurse had a look at him and he sat still the whole time. The nurse cleaned him up and put a band aid on the cut and Jakob did not say much at all. It started bleeding a bit more when we came home so we put on a bigger band aid. Hopefully it looks better tomorrow. He was so proud of himself when we left the place and said that it went so well at the doctors!

Today!

After an average sleep last night I had a cuddle with Jakob in the morning before going back to sleep for an hour or so. It was so nice!!
Later in the morning Adam took Jakob out to play in the snow and I picked up mum to go shopping. They got home from Umeå last night and since dad is doing really well on his own we went out for a few hours. I bought some more clothes for the baby, some thermals for Jakob, a sheet for our bed etc and we also found some birthday presents from mum and dad to give to Jakob. After that we met up with Adam and Jakob at mum and dad's apartment and while Adam went shopping Maggi gave Jakob a haircut. He did great and sat still almost the whole time.
The day went so fast and not long after we got home Maria, Andreas, Alice and Melvin came over for dinner. We had a great night where the kids were happy pretty much the whole time. Andreas played some fun games with them...


...but they also played very well by themselves. It's funny, sometimes they get in to arguments all the time, and other times, like tonight they work so well together, talk through things (sort of), take turns and just come up with games they both want to play. At the end of the night they were both very tired and just sat on the couch reading and talking.