Almost Christmas

Tomorrow Elias and I fly up to Luleå. I can't believe it is almost Christmas! December has just flown by. I guess we have been pretty busy organising the buying of the house and the selling of the flat. We chose between two estate agents and decided to go with one that was a bit more expensive but that seemed to be better. To start with they wanted 4% but Dave said we would only go with them for 3.75% and they agreed. Then when I was there to sign the contract the guy all of a sudden said "oh, the fee is wrong, we decided 3.5% right!?". I didn't disagree! So now we are actually getting the same price as with the cheaper estate agent. We will have the public showing in January and hopefully we will get a nice wad of money for the flat, unfortunately prices have dipped a bit lately.. We will do a bit of "styling" to make it look better and paint one ceiling that looks a bit tatty. I have been wanting to paint it for years; shame we didn't do it earlier so we could enjoy it as well.

So, tomorrow Elias and I go to Luleå. There is snow there but at the moment the temperature is +1 (we have -5!), hopefully it will get colder soon again. I think Elias is quite excited to get a visit from Father Christmas and hopefully get a few new toys. At the moment his favourite toy is a ladle, poor deprived child.

I also have to show you this lovely picture before logging off for a feww weeks, isn't he the cutest?

New Old House

Yes, as Viktoria said we have signed on the line for a new house. It cost a mind-blowing amount of money but some friends have commented that we got it cheap. It is pink and not that big, but we think it has some character. It was built in 1951, the same year as my mum (was born not built). It has a cellar, which they simply just don't build anymore (for good reason unfortunately, they are prone to moisture). It has a small garden too, hopefully big enough for a Kubb match in the summer, and maybe Elias and I will be able to practice our keep-me-ups out there.

It all began last weekend. We decided to sacrifice poor Elias' baby swim class because it was our last chance to go house hunting this year. We went to three "visnings" (public showings of the homes before the bidding process begins), one in North Stockholm and one in the South. The first in the North was a no-no. Like so many others we've seen it was loads worse than the published photographs on line. The second house was in quite a quiet green area that felt like it was miles from the city. It was nice, one of the best we've seen, semi detached. We were put off perhaps sillily by the cold floors underfoot downstairs. By the final house poor Elias was nearly at the end of his tether, but we ploughed on. We both liked the house straight away although I was more enamoured than Vickan. The selling point for me were the lovely warm floors in the basement, which were heated. We had our usual whispered conversion to each other to decide what we would pay for the house and agreed on 3.7 million.

We thought we'd give the bidding a go for this house, mainly for practice, we did not expect to get it because there were many other wealthy looking speculators at the visning whispering excitedly to each other. The bidding lasted over two days. Bidder 1 opened on the asking price of 3.2 million. We were the next bidders and we didn't mess around and layed 3.3. I knew bidder 3 were real players when they took it straight to 3.4. We were quickly running out of playing room since 3.7 was our limit. Then bidder 4 came in with a laughable attempt to get the house for 3.425. Bidder 3 quickly cut them down to size taking it to 3.5. The last bidders, number 5 also tried the same trick, showing their poor grasp at bidding psychology with a paultry 3.525. Bidder 3 quickly snapped back with a bid for 3.6. Then Vickan played her master stroke (who I should add was giving all our bids to the estate agent). She took it up to 3.7 just before bidding closed for the day. Getting in the last bid of the day is a great strategy (we thought) because it forces everyone else to think carefully about their bids. While the bidding is happening, it is all too easy to have an emotional rather than a rational response to another bidder's bid - you are tempted to bid on just to win the game rather than because you really want the house!

Anyway our trick nearly worked because the next morning the two weak bidders (4 and 5) dropped out. The agressive bidders (3) bided their time. We sensed it was not over simply because they had not dropped out. Bidders 1 had perhaps gone on holiday because we hadn't heard a peep from them since the opening bid. Time passed and just when we thought we may have got the house bidders 3 struck with a 3.75. Still a strong bid, but less agressive. Clearly we were finally converging on the true value of the house. Then we had a crisis of confidence. We had only planned to go to 3.7 but it did not feel good to let 3 have it for a mere 3.75. We had a signed letter from the bank saying we could spend up to 3.8. I was very keen on the house and wanted to make the bid of 3.8, vickan was not so sure. I managed to persuade her, one of my arguments being that I thought there was at least an 80% chance of bidder 3 topping 3.8 anyway, and it would be a shame not to at least try. Anyway in the end we made our 3.8 bid, but a lot of time had passed possibly giving away to the opposition our weakness. A swift bid would have hidden the fact that 3.8 was our limit. And sure enough, without much delay, bidders 3 brushed us aside with the final decisive bid of 3.85 million crowns. It was a bit disappointing but at least we'd tried and I think played our cards the best we could. I had a feeling however that it was not over.

That was wednesday. On Friday Vikoria got a call from the agent, bidders 3 had pulled out of the deal. Apparently they had been bidding on two places all along and had chosen the other place. Maybe if we hadn't made our 3.8 bid, they would have chosen our house for 3.75. So anyway we got the house. We had already decided that if this situation arose we would offer 3.7 million instead of our 3.8 bid. We could have offered less, but we thought then it would be tempting for the sellers to start the whole process afresh. As for bidders 3 - that behaviour is frustrating, although you can't really blame people for doing it if it maximises their chances of getting the place that want - it is not against the rules. Of course it should be against the rules because the practice of making phoney or hollow bids artificially fuels the prices to rise higher.

That's not quite the end of the story. It was not happily ever after because Vickan had serious doubts about the house through Saturday. Suddenly everything about it was wrong - it was too much money, our current home is too good to leave, we won't know anyone, there was nowhere to keep the pram. These were all genuine worries that I shared although I kept trying to convince her anyway because I thought it was a too good opportunity to miss. Anyway, I finally managed to drag us to the signing of the contract on Sunday, and things immediately felt more positive. The existing owners turned out to be really nice and they agreed to let us come back with them to show us personally around their home. After that things seemed much better, and now we can't wait to move in!

You can see some pics of the house here

We have a house!!!!

The big news this week is of course the fact that we have bought a house! I will leave it to Dave to write more about the last few days that have been very emotional and crazy.

Here is a picture of the house though:



Hopefully we will get more pictures from the inside soon and then we will show them to you.

First cold

I guess it had to happen sooner or later - Elias has gotten his first cold... On Monday I started to notice signs that I was getting a cold and on Tuesday I was definitely ill. By Wednesday Elias had cought it too. I am feeling a lot better now, but he is still very snotty and coughs a bit too. It is so horrible to hear how snotty he is without being able to do much.. We just want to tell him to blow his nose but of course he can't.. He hasn't had a temperature though wich we are glad for. Hopefully it has peaked by now and he will get better over the weekend.

So, what else have happened since the last post? Well, auntie Anki came to visit. On Thursday we went in to town but didn't get to do much shopping because Elias didn't want to sleep in his pram. I guess it is quite hard to sleep when one goes in and out of shops and the temperature varies between -3 and + 20... We did manage to buy a present for our friends Anna and Edvard who had a baby Otto early October. On Friday afternoon we went to visit them and it was so much fun. It is hard to imagine that Elias was ever that small. When Anna offered me to hold Otto I got all nervous and didn't quite know how to hold such a small baby. It was like holding air compared to Elias! ;-)

As I wrote earlier, Elias is now sitting very well but we still make sure to seat him in padded areas because he usually falls over sooner or later. It has been very nice for me now he started sitting because all of a sudden he could entertain himself for quite long and I had time to read the newspaper or do other stuff that needed doing. A favourite game of his for a few days was to kiss his own reflection in the mirror. Extremely cute!

Mirror, mirror on the floor, who is the cutest boy in the world??

It seems that he isn't quite content just sitting anymore though. Sometimes he sits and plays but quite often he wants to get somewhere else and as soon as I sit him down he leans forward on his arms and it looks as if he is about to crawl away. Of course he can't crawl yet and just flips over on his tummy and gets annoyed after 30 seconds because he hates to be on his tummy. So I sit him back up again and then after like 2 minutes he is back on his tummy again ;-)

I want to crawl!!!

And now to the most important news! I had a haircut and here is the result:
I have added a few picture to the month 6 album, so make sure to check it out!

Wonderful news!

Yesterday Andy and Kate had a baby boy. Hipp hipp hurra!! At first we thought baby Callum was a biggon (9lb 7 oz) but then Andy texted again and said that he was actually 7 lb 9 oz. Phew! Felt quite sorry for Kate if the first size had been correct. Not that giving birth to a smaller child is a walk in the park exactly but I doubt it gets easier if the baby is huge! ;-)

This weekend we skipped the baby swim and went to see some friends in Västerås instead. It was great to see the Andersson family and I think Elias enjoyed it too. They have a 3½ year old daughter who really enjoyed playing with Elias and he seemed to really like it although it got a bit much after a while. I guess he hardly ever meet older children so he was really fascinated by meeting another child that could actually DO stuff. All of his other friends are quite immobile so far.

He has been sleeping a bit worse lately, been waking up very easily and needed help to fall asleep again. I don't have to feed him every time but it is still hard. Last night me and Dave switched place aroud 4.30 in the morning and after that Elias didn't seem to wake up as much. It could be that when I lie closer and he wakes up he can smell me (food) nearby and therefore find it harder to fall back asleep.. Coincidence or not? We'll see..

On Wednesday Angelika is coming to Uppsala for a work thing and on Thursday and Friday she will spend the days with us. Yippee! On Friday we are gonna go to Stockholm and see some friends who had a baby early October. Can't wait to finally see little Otto!


Just have to show this picture as well. Guess what he is doing ;-) We think he looks hilarious!

Pictures from the christening..

.. are now available in the album The Christening. Sorry about the delay..

We hope you have noted Elias's christmas list on the right as well. The stuff on the list are just suggestions and some links just go back to the blog in case you wonder why nothing happens when you click on them..

Snow and sitting

Both Dave and I feel like we have seen a lot of progress/change/development in Elias lately. Below is a little display of his new skills and games.

One of the major things he has learnt is that he can sit pretty well on his own now. We always put a duvet around him though so he has a soft landing when he falls over, which he always does sooner or later.


Another favourite thing right now is to play with his feet. Before he has only done it while sitting, but now he grabs his feet as soon as we put him on his back pretty much. It can be a bit annoying when one is trying to change his nappy..


Newspapers are very interesting as well. He would prefer it if we allowed him to chew on it as well, but the ink is probably not very healthy for a little boy..


Today we were supposed to have a "work day" in the garden with all of the other tenants. Last night it started snowing though and this morning we woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground and the work was cancelled (hard to rake leaves in the snow). Instead we went on a nice but slippery walk in the sun. Very nice indeed!!

Back home

After our big adventure we are now back again and all went well. On Wednesday I strapped on our huge rucksack and steered the pram to the train station. I managed to get all of the stuff on the train but of course I managed to pick a coach where there already was a family with children (and prams). I could squeeze in our pram though and Elias actually slept through the whole kerfuffle. In Stockholm I got (much needed) help to get off the train and then Dave came and helped me to get on the next train. This time we were the first ones with a pram to get on the train so there was space for it. phew.. 4 hours and a lot of feeding later we came to Lund where Angelika was waiting to help us off the train. The trip went better than I had thought but it feels like it is needed to have assistance to get on and off the trains..

In Lund we had a great time. We spent the days shopping, going for walks, cooking and more.

Weekend update

Today we have been swimming again and again Elias seemed to like it even though he got a bit grumpy with 5 minutes left.. So we haven't made it through a full session yet, but we are getting closer! ;-)

Yesterday we had a very nice day. Dave was a bit hungover, but I pretended not to notice.. I made us go out on a long walk in the morning. It was a grey autumn day but very pleasant. We met Anna, Patrik and Jacob for a fika in a quiet and babyfriendly cafe. We fed Elias solids for the first time in public. He got carrot for the first time and seemed to love it. Then we went home and spent the rest of the day lazily with the heroes marathon on tv in the background.

On the way home Elias wasn't quite ready for his sleep so instead Dave carried him in our new sling and he seemed to like it. He actually fell asleep after a while!
Here is a picture of Dave with Elias in the baby-ergo:

The coming week Elias and I have a busy schedule to say the least. Tomorrow we go to Stockholm to see my cousins Erika and Therese and my great aunt Lilly. On Tuesday we might meet up with some friends but mainly we will pack. On Wednesday morning we then catch the train to Lund and auntie Angelika. We will stay there until Monday and we are really looking forward to it although I am a bit nervous about the train ride.

Sleeping success

We have just had our best night ever. We put Elias to bed around 7.30 pm last night and after a bit of complaining he fell asleep around 8. Then when we went to bed at 10.30 he woke up, like he does basically every night. This time we decided to try and not to feed him, he probably wakes up from the noise rather than from hunger. Dave was a hero and walked him a bit which calmed him down (so he was not hungry, just like we suspected). When we put him down in his bed again he got a bit upset but after a little while he fell back asleep. Yes! I did think he would wake up pretty soon again, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I woke up at 4.15 am and he was still sleeping. At 4.30 he woke up and I must admit I was quite glad to feed him then, the boobs where quite full.. ;-) After that he slept until 7.30 this mornig. What a star!!

Swimming success

Yesterday we went to our second baby swimming class. Last week wasn't very successful so we were a bit nervous this time. We made sure he had gotten plenty of sleep right before the class and I also fed him a bit just before getting in the pool and it worked! He seemed to really enjoy it this time, even the dives. It felt a bit strange to dunk him under water but he didn't seem to mind it too much. He just looked a bit surprised and coughed up the water and then he was happy again. The idea is to always repeat the same words before a "dive" and eventually the babies will learn to shut their mouths so they don't swallow any water..

We left the babyswim a few minutes early so that we would have a chance to look at a house in Stockholm. The house was ok, but not great and I don't think we will go for it. It was nice but a bit weird. And there were loads of people there so the price will probably go through the roof. We looked at another house too which had "potential". It looks as though the previous owners have done nothing since 1962 when the house was built so there was a lot of interesting wallpapers. Maybe it would go for a pretty ok price but it would mean a lot of work before we could even move in plus we didn't get a good feeling about the area so we will probably not go for that one either.. So at the moment we are a bit depressed about the house business and will probably take a break from house hunting for a few weeks.

On Saturday we went to Jacob's 1 year birthday party. I can't believe that he is one year already and is walking around. Time sure flies! Elias was suited up in an outfit that I (and/or Anki) wore when we were babies. Cool huh!?


I have added a few more pictures to the Month 5 album by the way.

Sleep, food and other stuff...

Opps, haven't been writing for a while. Not because there is nothing to write about, but because it is hard to find the time..

So, what has happened since the last entry.. Well, he is not so keen on the dummy anymore - sorry Granddad! Not sure what we are doing wrong, Stig must have a magic touch.. He did also take the bottle a few times but the last few days he has refused and starts to cry as soon as he sees the bottle. We can usually get him to drink a bit from it but far enough from a whole meal.. Oh well.. I guess we just have to keep trying..

We met up with some of the people from the parent group last Sunday. It was fun to see the other dads and I guess they liked to see all of the babies as well. We met up at Jessica and Eric's flat and there Elias had a go on the "jump swing". He didn't jump around in it but still seemed to like it..

By the way.. The table and chairs in the background used to be mine. I sold them in 2003 and as it turns out, it was Jessica and Eric that bought them. Uppsala is a lot smaller than one thinks! ;-)

Two nights ago we think he had a bit of a fever but it didn't seem to affect him much. We took it quite easy yesterday and now he seems ok again. We hope he will be fine tomorrow as we start babyswimming then. If he is ill we can't go of course but as I said, he seems ok now. Today we need to go and get him some swimmingshorts though. Haven't had any luck finding any in town, but hopefully they will have some where we are going today. I guess it isn't quite season for swim wear..

We have also started to try to get him to fall asleep on his own rather than falling asleep in my arms when feeding. He isn't that happy about it but hopefully it won't be that many evenings before he accepts the new routine. It feels quite cruel because he is so unhappy but it is for the better in the long run. I am so glad that me and Dave are doing it together, I could never keep myself from picking him up if Dave wasn't there to help me. And I think Dave feels the same.

It has gotten quite cold here all of a sudden. The other day when we were out for a walk there were actually a bit of snow flying around in the air. So now we make sure to wrap up the boy before going out. We are actually using the "travel bag" that I used to lie in as a baby.. Cute bow on the hood huh!?


Today we tried feeding him a bit of puree again. I have tried it a bit during the week but with quite poor results, maybe because the food was homemade. Now we tried a jar of potato and parsnip puree and he seemed to really like it. How rude to prefer bought stuff to homemade!! Oh, well.. after trying it I must say I understand him, the bought stuff tasted a lot nicer.. ;-)
I have started a new photo album as well, Month 5 as you can see to the right..

Breaking news!

Elias has for the first time ever fallen asleep with the help of the dummy and kept it in for at least 20 mins!!! Of course it was Granddad Stig, the master of getting babies to sleep who managed it.. Well done!!!
Also thought I should show this picture so you all can see how wonderfully chubby he is ;-)



Yesterday he turned 4 months by the way, but I guess you all know that already!

Head better

When we went to the clinic on Monday she recommended a cream for the cradle cap and that combined with combing off the flakes seem to really help. We have also taken measures to make sure he does not scratch his head at night.


We have simply started to put mittens on at night. I thought he would really hate it but he doesn't seem to mind having them on at all.

Elias has had a bit of an upset stomach lately so the nurse at the clinic thought it might be best to wait a bit with the food tasters. He got the bad tummy before we gave him potato so that didn't cause it, but I guess we should wait before giving him more. He has also had a few nights with bad sleep, but last night it turned for the better again.

Today Grandma Inger & Grandpa Stig are coming, yippiee!

First food

Today Elias tried real food for the first time! At lunchtime we made him some potato puree and fed him a few tiny spoons. He seemed a bit surprised but we think most of what we fed him actually went down. Tomorrow I will feed him a bit more. The recommendation is to start with tasters around the time when they are 4 months so we are a few days early, but I think he is ready. We will take it slow and see how he reacts.. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of this big moment, we were to busy focusing on the actual feeding. We will make sure to take pictures in the future!

Tomorrow we are going to the clinic to have Elias measured and weighed again. It will be interesting to see how much he weighs now. I just checked in my old records and what he weighed at 3 months I weighed at 5 months.. A big guy, definitely! Tomorrow I will make sure to ask how we can prevent him from scratching his head to shreds. I don't know if it is the cradle cap (skorv) that itches and makes him scratch the head or what, but it looks as though he has been in a fight with a cat. We try to cut his nails, but still there is a new cut every morning it feels like.
It aint pretty!

Daddy is back!

On Sunday David came back from Boston.Yippie! David brought some nice gifts back for us. Here is a supercute pair of shoes and a pyjamas for Elias. Hopefully the shoes will fit when it is time for him to start using them.


On Sunday we also had our 1-year anniversary but since Dave was a bit jet-lagged we decided to not do much and save the celebration for next weekend. Looking forward to testing some of the wine we got on our wedding!

Yesterday I went to a step-up class for parents and babies. It was fun but very hard. I am so out of shape! Elias slept through most of the class and then woke up and looked at all the sweaty mums.

Today we have had a great day! Elias woke up a bit early and I was really tired, but while he had his morning nap I managed to get a bit of sleep too and after that and some coffee I was back to normal. After lunch we went to öppna förskolan (open nursery?) for babies 0-6 months. Öppna förskolan is like a nursery but the parents go there with the children. We were there for about two hours and spoke/played with other mothers and babies. It was great. After all new impressions Elias was quite tired and as soon as we left he fell asleep in the pram and slept for about 1 hr. Since coming back home he has been in an excellent and sunny mood.

Elias is starting to be very strong now I think. Just look at how high he can lift himself up when on his belly...

To Stockholm and back

Today we went to Stockholm to see Jenny and Maya. Normally Jenny would be at work and Maya at nursery but someone burnt down the nursery on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday so until they have managed to come up with a temporary solution all children at the nursery has to stay at home. It is really terrible that someone would burn down a nursery, but on the upside is that we got to spend a really nice day with them...

First we had lunch together and then we went for a walk past the nursery. The ruins were still smoking..
Maya was really interested in Elias and I am sure she wish he was a bit older so they could play more.

On Sunday we bought Elias a highchair by the way.. He doesn't love sitting in it yet, but he doesn't hate it anyway.. I'm sure he will soon prefer sitting in the highchair so he can participate more when me and Dave are eating.


Tonight I have finally joined facebook and I am a bit worried I must say. It is very addicting!

All by ourselves

Yesterday Dave left for Boston so now it is just me and the little guy for a few days. It feels a bit scary to be on my own for so long, but I am sure we will be fine. My arms will probably be quite tired by the end of the week but apart from that I think we will be ok.

Yesterday some of the girls from the parent group came around which was really nice. Elias is usually better behaved on days when we meet other people or have something planned. I guess he gets a bit bored when he has to play with me all day long.. It is so much fun to see the others and their babies, they are all so cute. It is fun because the babies are almost exactly the same age so we all go through the same things at roughly the same time. According to the others Elias is very easy to get to smile and they think he 'talks' a lot too. He is so clever! ;-)

Elias and his proud/crazy mum

After our guests had left we played and I put him on his stomach which he normally hates, but this time he was quite content. He was pushing himself up on his arms and looked around and all of a sudden he rolled over again. It seemed really easy for him this time. It will be interesting to see if he manages it again today..

Today we have a beatiful autumn day. It is probably a bit cold, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining so I hope Elias will be up for a walk later. We are having two friends over for dinner so I need to shop some food..

Christened

The christening on Sunday went very well. We were a bit worried that he would scream throughout the whole ceremony because he didn't want to sleep during the day. Finally he slept 45 mins just before it was time to go to church which made us feel a whole lot better. We got him into the dress without too much trouble, the belt was almost too short but luckily we managed to tie it around his big belly. We had tried the dress before but not the belt ;-)


We didn't take any pictures of the actual christening with our own camera, so you will have to wait for those until we get some from my dad or P-A.

After the christening we all went back to the flat for a bit of lunch and fika. Elias got loads of really nice pressies as well. Thank you all for that!

The whole weekend was very nice with Joyce and my parents visiting. It makes quite a difference to have many willing arms to carry Elias, my arms felt very relaxed!

On Tuesday me, Elias and three of the girls from the parent group went to "pram-cinema". The film was "No reservations" and quite a perfect film to watch while also looking after a baby. It was quite a funny sight to see all prams parked at the front, I wish I had had my camera with me!

Tomoeeow the building we live in celebrate it's 70th birthday with a party. I have been involved in planning and organising it and I am quite happy that it is finally happening so I won't have to do any more work for it.

Hip hip hooray

Today Elias is 3 months old today! He is getting stronger and stronger every day it seems. Both stronger body but also stronger minded. It seems like his neck has gotten a lot stronger recently and he can now hold his head very well. We might buy a high chair soon so he can sit with us at the table. He will probably need to be prodded up a bit but I think he will like to participate more.

This morning he managed to roll over from stomach to back again, this time with no help from me.. When he is on his back he quite often rolls over to his side, but he can't roll from back to stomach yet.

Yesterday we tried on the christening dress. I have been a bit worried that he might be to big for it but it fit quite well. Getting it on and off was quite tricky though so by the time we finally got it off he was quite upset. Hope it goes better on Sunday..

On Thursday it was my birthday and some friends of ours were very kind and offered to babysit so we could go out for a meal. It was a bit nervous but it worked out very well in the end. We had a lovely time and managed to relax. Elias behaved well and only got grumpy just in time for our return. It would be a bit easier if he took the bottle, I guess we need to practise more..

For my birthday I had told Dave not to buy anything expensive because I wanted us to get a new camera. I bought it on Friday and here it is:


Quite nice huh!? We have taken quite a few pictures with it, but I haven't had time yet to learn how to get the pictures from the camera to the computer so it might be a little while before we post new pictures..

Roll over!

Breaking news! Elias just rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time. Mummy is so proud! Maybe I did help a tiny tiny bit, but it wasn't much, I promise. When I put him back on his stomach again he started to try to roll over again, but got tired and angry.. Maybe tomorrow...

Trying, trying....

Hmm, how did I get here??

New skills

Because I/we spend so much time together with Elias it is sometimes hard to realise when he has learnt something new. It all comes gradually and seems so natural. At the moment we are reading a book about then 7 phases (or Big Changes) a baby goes through in its first year and reading that makes me realise that a lot of the things he does are part of his development and not just something a bit funny.

What he does now is for instance:

• Blows bubbles with his mouth
  
• Tests his voice by sometimes shrieking
• Lies with his legs straight up in the air (will try to get a picture of it)
  

Lately we have had lovely weather but now they are saying that tomorrow will be the last day of summer.. Better make the most of it then..

We have quite a lot of plans actually. On Saturday we are going to a 30th birthday party and on Sunday some of my relatives are coming for some Surströmming . Hopefully the weather will be good enough so we can sit outside ;-)

Weekend report

I was planning to write this two days ago but somehow time just seem to disappear and all of a sudden it is Wednesday..

Anyway, we had a nice and quiet weekend. On Saturday we went to the flee market on Vaksala torg. There is a flee market there every Saturday in the summer, but we hardly ever go. This time our friend Helena had a table and sold some stuff so we thought we should go there and say hello. David found a globe from 1978 that he bought and it looks very nice we think!



Later on Saturday Jenny, Tommi and Maya came to visit. Last time we saw them was in April on Maya's birthday party. I couldn't believe it when I saw how much she has grown since then. Or maybe she hasn't grown so much, but the fact that she is now walking, the face is less chubby and the hair longer just made her look so much older. Still super-cute though!


This week we have tried the bottle again, this time with milk we had saved up. Unfortunatelly he really hated the bottle this time. We're not giving up yet though!

First week

The first week on our own is almost coming to an end now and it has gone very well. On Monday the weather was pretty bad and it was a bit hard for me to 'get going' so we ended up not doing much. On Tuesday the weather was better and we took a walk to a shopping centre on the outskirt of Uppsala and did some shopping. Mainly I bought clothes for Elias. He has grown out of quite a lot of his clothes and often we need to change him at least once a day because he has gotten puke (or something else) on his clothes so we need quite a few outfits for him. Luckily H&M is quite inexpensive when it comes to baby clothes!

On Wednesday we went to the clinic for a routine checkup. First he was weighed and measured and then it was time to see the doctor. By now he had gone from very happy to very grumpy and he screamed his lungs out the whole time we saw the doctor. I felt a bit stressed because he was so unhappy so I didn't ask any questions on what she was looking for really, but I will ask next time. She listened to his heart and lungs (between the screams) and checked his testicles ( I think) and moved his legs around. Afterwards I sat in the waiting room feeding him and she came out to ask a few questions about his development, if he smiles and communicates and so on. I guess even she got a bit stressed by his wailing ;-)

After the doctor's appointment we met up with two of the mothers from our parent group; Kristina with Hugo and Camilla with William. It was great to see them and especially Camilla and William since we hadn't seen them before. We had a lovely day together with them and didn't get back home until 4.30.

Today we are seeing the bank just to find out what kind of budget we are looking at in case we find a house we really want. We have been going to a few showings lately but not found anything great. For me it will be more interesting to look at houses when I know what we can actually afford as well. We might go and look at a few on Sunday..

More pictures added..

Just added a few pictures to the Month 2 album. Thought I should tell you so you don't miss them, coz as always they are great! ;-)

One that I especially like is this one from the drive up north:

A parent has got to do what a parent has got to do when the nappy needs changing.

Today is David's last day of holiday so on Monday Elias and I will be on our own. Will be strange not having Dave around but hopefully we'll cope. Anyway, with a boy this cute, what can possibly go wrong??

First bottlefeed

Managed to bottlefeed Elias for the first time a few hours ago! We tried before but then he hated it. Now we bought a new bottle with a different teat and it seems like he preferred this one. Hopefully it will work the next time we try as well..

Up north and back again

So, what has happened since our last update?

Well, on the 26th we started the drive up to Antnäs, Luleå. It took almost exactly 12 hrs. We felt quite sorry for poor Elias having to sit for so long in the car, but on the whole he handled it well.

There wasn't much opportunity for Grandma Inger and Granddad Stig to cuddle Elias when we finally got there since he, quite understandably, was a bit grumpy. But since we were staying a few days hopefully they got to cuddle him enough to last until they see him early September. It seems I didn't take many pictures of Elias with his grandparents but here is one with his granddad anyway, and as you can see Stig is very well equipped for the climate up north!
On Friday my cousin Erika came around and spent almost the whole day in Antnäs. The weather was surprisingly nice and we had a lovely day, playing crouqet and getting a bit of sunburn. For the first 4 hours of Erikas visit Elias slept, but he did finally wake up so she could cuddle him a bit too. I guess he was a bit worn out from the long drive the day before.


On Saturday the parts of the family that lives in Skellefteå came so Elias got to meet two of his great uncles and his great grandma. Of course we took the opportunity to take the classic 4-generations photo.
On Saturday the weather turned for the worse and the rest of the time up north we didn't really do much apart from going for a few walks, played with Elias, played cards (without Elias) and went in to town once. Oh, and I almost forgot, we went to CARBINGO as well. Elias was a big hit amongs all the old biddies!

On Wednesday my aunt, Bert-Ola, and Erika came for a visit. Auntie Anna-Lisa and Bert-Ola had been on holiday in Stockholm the entire time we were in Luleå, but luckily we managed to meet up a few hours after they landed. Dad went to pick them up from the airport and then they came around to mum and dad's. It was so nice to get to see them, being up north a whole week without seeing auntie just wouldn't have felt right. And of course we wanted to show off Elias as well!
The drive back was pretty much like the drive there. Ok for most of the time, but quite hard at the end when Elias was getting real fed up.

After spending the week at mum and dad's we got quite keen on getting a house (again) so on the Sunday after we got back we went to a few house showings but didn't find anything perfect.
We weren't really expecting to though, it was more of a research trip. We have booked an appointment at the bank though to see how much we can afford. It is quite scary to think about getting a house since it is so expensive and we don't really know anything about houses so there is always the risk of getting stung bad by buying a crappy one. Hopefully we will find something nice in the end though.

Monday and Tuesday we went to visit Anna and Patrik on "the Island". Patrik's mum has a summer house on a tiny island about an hour north of Uppsala and we have been talking about going there for years and we finally managed to find a time that suited us all. The weather was amazing when we were there, almost too nice considering the little boys. Unfortunatelly we didn't take many pictures of the lovely place, maybe it was too hot, but here is one at least..
(There are more pictures from Antnäs in the Month 2 album and we have now started the Month 3 album)