Jakob and Moa

 Yesterday Jakob and I hired Moa for the first time. Jakob was really excited that he would have her all to himself, help to get her ready and learn how to get up and down on her etc. First he walked her in from the paddock and he looked SO proud.

The ride went really well but didn't last for more than about 10 minutes. We even tried trotting but Jakob didn't like it at all so we took it all very easy and only practiced stopping and starting and getting up and down. Very fun for both mummy and Jakob :-)

New cousin!

Thursday this week Jakob and Isak got a new cousin! Karen and Jason had a baby girl called Arabella. We are all very happy and excited about the wonderful news :-)

Åsa's 30th!

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon my cousin Åsa had her 30th birthday party in the old school building in Ale. We all had a very nice time with good food and drinks and happy children!

 A blurry but nice photo of mum and auntie Maggi.

 Isak getting to know Vilmer.

Jakob was in heaven getting to play in the small gymnasium in the school. He just loved it. In the car on the way home we had some deep talks about the future. Jakob told us that he wanted to live in that old house and have 10 children, but changed it after a while to 4 children. The mother was going to be Helena (my brothers wife). He had it all worked out, that him and Helena were going to take turns in cooking and playing with the children. He was a bit concerned about how to push 4 prams but I told him the the oldest children won't need one. He then pointed out himself that we have 3 prams at home and only one child that we need them for. 

The movies...

After a quiet morning at home Jakob and I dropped Isak off at mormor's place and met up with Moa and Helena at Max for lunch. It always feels very special to be out doing things with Jakob, just the two of us. After lunch we watched a 3D movie for the first time. Jakob didn't like wearing the glasses but didn't seem to mind that the picture was a bit blurry. After the movie Jakob helped to pick a couple of t-shirts for Isak and was really happy that he found a McQueen t-shirt for him.

After Jakob's teeth problems we have started to be harder on him when it comes to eating sweets. Saturday he is allowed sweets but today at the movies he was only allowed popcorn. I felt a bit sad in my heart when he looked at all the other kids holding bags of lollies and asked why he couldn't have some but over all he handled it well.

Isak

Isak is a funny little character. He is now 20 months and becoming a really big little boy. If he would start speaking he would be even more fun to be around. He still only says a few words like Mama, Tack (thank you), Bajs (poo). Mamma he says about 4000 times a day which is nice but gets a bit much at times. He says it when he is just walking around by himself, he says it when he points at something he wants to eat, he says it when he puts his hands up to daddy to be picked up etc etc. He is also a very neat and tidy child. He closes doors after himself, he picks up toys, he switches off lights when he leaves a room, he wants to clean up if he has made a mess, he wants to put clothes and shoes away properly and so on. The question is how to we keep these nice qualities in him for the rest of his life? I am afraid that we will, instead of encourage this behaviour take it away from him by doing all of this for him. Sometimes I don't have the energy and time to wait for him to do all his procedures so I just end up doing it for him. Hmmm. Have to get better at letting him do his things.

A weekend with Jakob and Isak

Adam has worked all weekend so the three of us have had some nice quality time together. Yesterday we went grocery shopping in the morning. I haven't done it with both kids for a while and it actually makes shopping more fun having them with me. I wouldn't pick a busy day or go after a long day at day care, but Saturday morning when the shop has just opened and the boys are in their best mood it is just really nice!

The rest of the day we were just home playing games, reading, playing etc. Isak slept for 3 hours and Jakob also had a small kip on the couch.

In the evening we went to Karin and Andreas for dinner which was nice as always.

Cute brothers

Isak trying to impress Jakob...

Take away with Zara and the kids

After the boat trip last Saturday Jakob and I went to the riding club for a few hours and then to Zara's for a really really nice take away dinner from a Chinese place in the city.
Tired kids eating lollies and watching tv.

Boattrip

Last weekend we went on our first and last boattrip for the year when Jens and Ann-Helen invited us out to the cabin for lunch. Adam had a friend (Carl) over from Australia for a few days so he got to see some of the nicer parts of Luleå.

BBQ by the water.

Crazy Isak

Isak looooves standing up on the couch and falling forward without putting out his hands when he lands. He goes absolutley crazy when he does it, he giggles and jumps and is so excited. He can do it 20 times over and over again without stopping. We are just waiting for him to have a nasty accident. He is actually not even close to as wild as Jakob was at this age but this throwing himself on the couch has sort of become Isak's crazy thing that he loves doing.

The four cousins

The other night Moa and Lucas came over for a visit.

Playing games

Jakob playing games with mormor and Isak wanting to be involved.

The dentist

The other morning I took Jakob to the dentist to start fixing the two holes he had last time we went. The dentist took some pictures of his teeth and it showed that he had 8 holes!!!! I couldn't believe it! Poor little angel had 8 holes!
The dentist was very patient and did a great job to slowly go through the process of fixing the problems. He put some "sleeping cream" on his hand first for 2 mintues and then he tried it in his mouth. Than he put some "sleeping liquid" on his hand before he gave the injection in his mouth. Jakob did not quite understand what was happening but he did what the dentist told him to do and he only got a bit scared when he started grinding the tooth.
This time it was all about training and getting used to the process but there will be many more visits before all 8 holes are fixed!

Tired boys

Jakob and Isak tired after a long day at dagis. They are both coping really well with long days but they are often very tired at the end of the day. Isak has now done nearly 2 months at dagis, hard to believe that he is such a big boy now!

Cars cars cars

I thought Jakob's interest for cars would die out or at least slow down over the years but he still loves them!

Mum's new apartment

Mum's new apartment is really really nice and homey. It is really well planned and has lots of cupboard and wardrobe space which is not so common in city apartments. It is quite amazing that dad actually grew up in this apartment building! I am sure he is smiling somewhere up there feeling quite good that mum is now living in the same building.
A small but nice kitchen!

Heaven

Last weekend Jakob found his new favourite place in Luleå! the new built skate park not far away from where we live. Jakob loves his kick bike and this place was just the perfect place for having fun with a kick.

I was constantly scared and it was more luck than anything else that we got away with only a couple of bruises.

Next time we go I don't think Isak will be allowed to come because me running after him trying not to get run over by a bike, kick bike or a skate board was not easy. Isak loved the place as much as Jakob but not for the right reasons. I don't think I need to say that he didn't listen to anything I said and I must have looked like a hysterical mum around boys just having a bit of fun.

Boys having fun

Sunday last week we had a nice day at Zara's. The boys played and had lots of fun and Zara cooked us a nice lunch with sweets for dessert. Can't complain about that.

Happy Isak!

Ale

Last weekend Adam was on a boys trip for 2 days so Jakob, Isak and I had lots of quality time and made the most of the weekend. On Saturday we did some work both inside and outside the house in the morning and when Isak had his sleep Jakob and I fell asleep together on the couch. We didn't quite have a "3 hours Isak nap" but nearly an hour and it was amazing. After nearly 3 hours we had to wake Isak up since we had planned to go to Ale with mormor.

Maggi was looking after little Vilmer who is now 3 months and real cutie. This time we even got to see him awake for a few minutes!

Åsa has a new border collie puppie!

We also stopped down to road in Ale to have a look at the house Maggi and Åke are moving in to in the next couple of months.

Looking good :-)

This is what I have been looking like for the last few weeks. Getting back to work after maternity leave wasn't a slow start. After only 4 days I started working 12 hours night shifts for a time that felt like forever. It was great fun (not so fun for the company though) and a challenge for me since it was work that I don't normally do. Tomorrow I go back to my normal job and I think I will appreciate things like sitting down, wearing jeans and having proper lunch, even though I will miss getting dirty, working with my hands and eating hot dogs at 2 in the morning.
During this time mum has moved to her new apartment and because of my work load we haven't been much help. Luckily there are others in the family that are willing to help!
Isak is doing great at dagis. He waves goodbye every day with a smile and is happy when we pick him up. He doesn't sleep as much as he does at home and they have to build a wall of pillows around him and the other children that sleep during the day. Otherwise he wakes them all up if he wakes up before everyone else. Not so popular. He is getting much more determined and gets very angry if he doesn't get what he wants when he wants it. He still loves sleeping and nowdays he walks to the bed himself as soon as we talk about going to bed. doesn't matter if it is in the middle of the day or in the evening. He is a freak. Jakob has never ever been like that, sleeping is just not so high up on the list of things to do for our oldest son.

The other day I booked flights to London so in November when Adam and the kids are in Australia I am going to visit Isabel for a long weekend. I need to have something fun to do while they are away.

Autumn!

Today we had a nice day at home, I am starting to get used to not working night shifts which is nice. Zara and the rest of the family came for lunch and after sitting inside for too many hours Zara and I took the kids outside and realised that the weather was really really nice. It felt like I hadn't been outside or seen the sun for a month.
Lykke and Isak in the cubby house!