Åsa's birthday!

Last Saturday we were invited to Ale to celebrate Åsas birthday. Isak and Adam stayed home so once again Jakob and I got to do something fun together and Adam and Isak had some time for bonding.

After having had some nice cakes we went to have a look at the lambs.

The lambs have grown a lot since last time!

For the first time ever Jakob tried to sit in a real tractor. At first he didn't want to but when Moa did it he changed his mind.

Anders parked the caravan under cover for winter and is reading the instructions to make sure he has done all the right things :-)

Singing

Last Friday Jakob and I went to the singing together. I haven't been there for quite some time because Isak normally sleeps between 10 and 12 in the morning but since Adam was home I could go without Isak. It is so nice for Jakob and I to do things together just the two of us.

Jakob is always so helpful! and he has calmed down a lot. Only 6 months ago he used to go crazy at singing and did not listen very well. Now he is listening to the songs and also to me (at times...).

TV star!

Last week mum and I were in the city looking for a book. A TV team asked me if I could answer a couple of questions in front of the camera that would be shown on the news that night. I said no straight away and really tried my best to get out of it but the guy managed to talk me in to doing it.
Dad's helpers were very helpful and organised so that dad could sit up in an armchair in the living room and watch us (mum was also on tv) in the news.

The lifting aid they use to move dad to and from the wheel chair etc looks like this. It is actually designed and made by a Luleå based company and works really well.

Good day!

The departure for our trip to Thailand and Australia is getting closer and we are starting to prepare and fix everything that needs to be done before we go. If we go. Adam and Jakob will go whatever happens but Isak and I will probably decide what to do in the last minute. A very difficult siutation.
Today Adam had a sleep in and I got up with the kids. Jakob slept until 7.30, doesn't happen very often! In the morning when Isak had his sleep I started raking the leaves at the back of our house. It was really fun and nice to do some work outside the house. I don't do that very often. I also managed to squeeze in a nap on the couch before Isak woke up :-) Finally posted our passports with the visa applications to the Thai consulate in Gothenburg today. I hope we get them back before we leave...
Jakob and I did some more raking in the afternoon after dagis so it is starting to look quite nice at the back. Still some work to do at the front of the house.
Today after dinner I asked Jakob to take Isak in to his room and play with him while I was tidying up. Ok mummy he said and picked up Isak gently, carried him in to his room, put him on the floor and played with him/next to him for quite some time. He is such a wonderful big brother. Most of the time...

Helping morfar

Yesterday Adam took Jakob skating after dagis and after that he dropped him off at mum and dads place. Maggi was there visiting and she had promised to cut Jakob's hair. He looks great in his new short hair cut!
Dad eats most meals in bed and as always Jakob is so helpful. He brought the plate with food, a glass of milk and also dad's medicin to him.

Sunday i Kalix

I have been wanting to go to Kalix with the children to visit Adam at work all summer but for some reason I never really found a good time to do it. Sunday Adam was working in the cafe all day so we decided to go for a drive up to the golf club. Jakob got really excited and went to his room and picked a really nice shirt to wear for the day. He wanted to be dressed up when visiting daddy at work!
Adam making coffee!! I didn't know he knew how to do it.

Jakob and I had hamburgers cooked by Adam for lunch.

It was a windy and quite cold day but the sky looked really amazing.

Jakob getting ready to go out and try some golf. Him and I hit some balls on the driving range and it was actually quite fun! Jakob did well for the first 10 minutes and after that he missed every ball but had great fun.

Finally some new photos

Finally I have attached some photos from the last couple of weeks. It is Saturday night and as soon as I have posted this I will brush my teeth and go to bed. For some reason I am really tired tonight. Jakob has been pretty active all day and Adam has been in Kalix all day so even though we have had a fun day it is full on! Zara, Finn and Lykke came over after our picnic and I think Zara felt a bit the same as me (and Adam when he came home). Nice with some company though and Zara and I started planning a trip to Ikea. I need to get a few things from there before I can move Isak out of our bedroom.

Picnic at Udden!

Since the weather has been so amazing all week Zara and I decided to have a picnic at Udden. Of course today was not a sunny day but that didn't stop us and we had a great time!

Isak trying a swing for the first time.

Jakob focusing on going as fast as he can!!

Lots of fun...

Lykke is such a cute little girl!

Zara and I managed to get the boys to sit down for a bout 5 minutes to have some hot chocolate and a sandwich.

Me trying to impress Jakob by climbing higher and faster than him :-)

Back home!!

After just over 2 weeks in the hospital dad came home again yesterday. It went really well and he was very happy to be home in the apartment with mum again. He has a new bed (hospital bed), a lift to help him to get to and from the bed to the wheel chair and gets lots of help from the council. They come 4 times a day and 2 times a night to start with but that can also be changed if needed.

Last night

Last night we were invited to Maria, Mattias and Felix for dinner. We haven't seen them for quite some time so it was great to catch up again. I do see Maria at the riding club most Tuesday nights when she has her riding lesson and I ride Robban though but it was nice to get the families together. We have been very bad latley inviting poeple over for dinner, something that we normally really enjoy doing. Adam has had a very busy summer at work and with dad being sick and Isak coming in to the family (even though he is an extremly easy going baby) the energy levels have not been on top. Just because we are crap at inviting people over doesn't meen that we don't want to see our friends so thanks Maria and Mattias for having us over. We had a really fun evening together and Jakob was in toy paradise since Felix has all the cars that Jakob dreams about. He played by himself for hours and just loved it. Felix was tired and went to bed quite early but Jakob kept playing until he crashed on a bean bag just before 10pm :-)

Felix was really great with sharing his toys with Jakob. Jakob was allowed to play with any toy he wanted and Felix was just really generous. I brought that up with Jakob today and he told me that it made him feel really happy that he got to play with all Felix toys. My hope is that he learns from that...

Moa and Jakob

Yesterday Moa came over to play in the morning. Anders and Lucas joined a bit later and we had lunch and "fika" and they played both inside and outside in the beautiful autumn weather.

Brothers...

Jakob watching tv and Isak just happy to be with his big brother.

Isak once again happy to get to watch Jakob play in his room.

In general Jakob is treating Isak very well and he seems to love having him in the family. At times he seems to get jealous when Adam holds Isak and plays with him. He is so used to seeing me with Isak but it is harder for him to see Isak with Adam. We have talked a bit about it and thinking of ways to make sure Jakob still feels loved and important. Is there anyone who has got any good advice??

A day in Isaks life...

Isak normally wakes up between 6.30 and 7.15. I keep him in bed for as long as I can by breast feeding and playing with him.
After about 30-45 min we get up and he gets changed and not long after he has his morning porridge. At about 9.45 he is ready for a nap and he normally has it at home in his bed. When I bend down to put him in his bed he puts his fingers in his mouth and looks for his wrap and always look very happy to be in his bed about to go to sleep. Just like me!

Just before 12 I wake him up and feed him his lunch and after that he is awake until about 3-3.30pm when I put him down for another sleep.
If he is not awake by about 4.3o I wake him up and only a few days ago I started feeding him a proper meel (only a small one) as dinner as well. Some time between 6-6.30 he has porridge and at 7pm on the dot he is breast feed and asleep in bed.

Routines with little babies change very often and quickly especially the first year so soemthing that seems to be working quite well this week might not work next week. Very soon I want to move him in to his own room and I am not sure how that is going to go...

Big day!

One day this week Jakob got to go home from day care together with his best friend Linus. His mum and I have been talking about it for quite some time and this week we made it happen. I was a bit nervous. Jakob was so excited in the morning and told the carers at day care what was going to happen. Linus mum is really nice so I didn't expect it to be a problem at all but you never know. An hour after she had picked them up she sent me a message that they were having great fun together and that they didn't even have time to sit down for a snack. After nearly 3 hours together I picked him up and of course he didn't want to come home. I tricked him by starting to talk about a missing car that I found when cleaning at home and he forgot to be upset about leaving. That night he slept from 6.45pm until 7.40 in the morning!!
Having friends in your life is something that I think is extremly important and something that I value a lot in life. I am very happy to have many really close and amazing friends in my life. I know how much it means to have good friends around you so I want to encourage Jakob to have close friends in his life (if he wants to of course). I try to teach him how to be a good friend and what good friends can do for each other. Not so easy with a 3 year old that is very very attached to his toys and not so fond of sharing, but I think he is learning and questioning things is only a healthy thing in life.

At the hospital

Earlier in the week dad was starting to feel much better and he even had a few meels in the eating area sitting in a wheel chair! since the plan has been to bring him home as soon as possible a lot of time this week (busy days for mum) has been spent organising everything that needed to be done before his return home. Tuesday I attended a meeting at the hospital with mum, a nurse, and a couple of people responisble for making sure the equipment needed for him to be looked after at home gets organised and booking all the care he will get when he comes home. Dad was of course also in the meeting and it all went very well.

These photos were taking on Monday when Maggi and Åke were there at the same time as me and Isak.

Leos

Adam is having lots of time off work now during the week so that gives us time to do things together as a family and also taking turns looking after the children so we can also do other things. Earlier in the week we went to Leos with Anders, Moa and Lucas. Adam and Jakob were there from just after 10 in the morning until 5pm!! Isak and I joined the group for a few hours in the middle of the day but left them in the afternoon to go and see dad at the hospital.

Carrying Isak

Jakob has recently become really interested in picking Isak up from the floor, holding him and walking around with him. He does it really well and is really soft and careful but still.... he is only 3 and I get a bit worried that he is going to drop him.

I have been trying to teach him how to put him down softly thinking that it is better helping him than forbidding him from doing it.

I know I have to keep a close eye on him though because Isak is getting very heavy and it is not easy carrying someone/something like this: