Moody.

Leia can be so moody some days. :/ Today she was easily irritable. But not always, she went back and forth today. Most days she is just happy. :) Everynow and then she is moody, and then once in a blue moon she will be cranky all day. Today she started screaming because she saw some grapes on the table, but I gave her some bread instead... :/ :)

She is good at fake tears too!! She makes a squished face and she squints her eyes together really tight, and she keeps doing it a couple of times and then after the 3rd time or so a couple of tears will come out... She is.. rotten.

I finally started my school work. :/ The Swedish. It is so boring. :/ :( I don't learn anything. I'm hoping to get through what I have left to do for my distance work, and then after Leia is settled in daycare, I hope to maybe go to class. Maybe I will learn something that way. :/ Grammar I know.. that is easy stuff. And I have a good vocab.. but it still just more words that I need to learn. Which in my opinion just takes time. Trying to memorize words just doesn't work - you have to use them plenty before it sticks.

To pass this class I have to also take a national test, the same as Swedes take for Svenska A / Swedish A (first high school level grade). I'm not really looking forward to that. :)

We spent the day inside "watching" movies. Leia slept well but it rained all day. :/ We made some waffles and Leia had some for her after nap lunch.

Tomorrow we have our 9th (second to last) parent group night. They are renovating and expanding the building where we usually have our meetings (same building as the midwife, BVC, and a few other things) so it will be in the commune building. Fredrik doesn't get home until the time the meeting starts, so Leia and I will go there and Fredrik will meet us. Not exactly looking forward to it, but it is something to do.

Tired.

I'm tired.. :/ Going to be going to bed soon. Fredrik and I watched a.. different movie tonight. It was called "Shrooms." It was.. it could have been much worse, but it.. could have been better too. It wan't THAT bad.. but lacking a few qualities that movies should possess.

We are taking walks now in the mornings, since Leia is taking a later nap. We went into town to get a few things we needed from the grocery store and I got some paper for starting my school work and we bought Leia some pants. She has some thinner pants that she can wear around the house but she needed some thicker ones since it is getting colder out. So we got some that will fit now and a couple of pair that she can grow into. One pair was 30$ (180 kr) and that was including 30% off.. :/ I hate shopping here. :/ :)

She didn't nap well today, which has caused me to have a really bad headache. Because I am the designated co-sleeper for when she doesn't sleep. She HATES co-sleeping, so it is difficult to get her down for a nap. So I have had a very bad headache from the in and out of sleeping with her during the early afternoon.

Fredrik is having trouble putting Leia to sleep again. It was fine for awhile, but it started to get worse when he started back at work.. :/ So maybe with him being gone it really does make a difference.. :/

He really wants to take some pappa-leave. He also still has lots and lots of vacation days left (even after his 4 weeks off this summer). So we're thinking he will take that around Christmas and have a very nice long vacation, maybe take all of December or something like that. He can even work from home here or there if necessary if they need him.

The sanitation project he is working on in Bengtsfors was supposed to end after the new year, but it seems like the kommun has all of a sudden found money they didn't have and it will continue on into the Spring. :)) After the project is done, we're not sure what Fredrik will work with. Just lots of stuff here and there, no main project that we know of yet. There is a job going on in.. Falkenberg.. where he could be away for a week and be home on the weekends. But he is sure enough that there is enough work around here that he wouldn't have to do that. :) Although the money would be good.. :/ :) Where he works just depends on the demand of how quickly something needs to be finished. And if others need a break, like when he worked in Smögen.

Interestingly he has been working on hypothetical stuff for work. He was asked to find out what would happen in Smögen (coastal town) if the sea level rose 2½ meters (8 ft) (global warming).

Leia is eating well. A little too well? :)
For breakfast she had a double portion of gröt (baby oatmeal stuff). She had about 5 of her corn snacks for lunch and 6 ozs (180 mL) of formula. For after nap lunch she had steamed mashed veggies and some fresh pineapple. For dinner she had a few bites of a leftover hamburger from yesterday, a good helping of fruit flavored cottage cheese (keso), a slice of my homemade bread, a handful of diced grapes, and some chicken.
And then she had her 2nd bottle with 8 ozs (240 mL) of formula.

We hope she is eating well and that she is getting all those things that babies need. We add a little bit of butter with almost everything. Babies need their fat.

Caesar is doing well. :)

Leia's new schedule seems to be very popular though. On Friday she napped for 3 hours during the day, 11-2. So we've lost a bottle, and she is very okay with that. :)

But I think I need to get to bed now.. :/ it is almost 22.30 and I'm dead tired. :P

A few sweet gifts.

Leia received a little package from Nyköping this past week. :) Our friend Yamini, from California, sent Leia an adorable little shirt. I think it will fit her well. The sleeves might be a little long but we can roll those up! And then she might be able to wear it for awhile. :) We love Halloween. :) And the adorable Hello Kitty hair clips and a necklace and bracelet. Those are in Leia's jewelry box until she is just a little older. :)

Just a few pictures.

New schedule + 12 month plan.

So I'm trying a new schedule with Leia. Since we know when she will be starting daycare, I want her on a better schedule. Her morning nap is very soon after she wakes up, and her afternoon nap is a bit forced. So I really wanna get her to 1 nap during the day, hopefully a longer one. Right now she sleeps 2 naps 1½-2 hours each nap. I would be happy with 1 nap at 3 hours or something like that.

This morning she went to bed at 10.45 (instead of 9). I gave her much more of a breakfast, 1½ portion of her baby cereal. So I hope that we can fix her schedule better. It would probably work to give her a double portion. She is a hungry little baby in the mornings. :))

I also have a 12-month plan of getting Leia off of her bottle. She still takes formula for her naps and at bedtime. By the time she starts daycare, I want her off her bottles for her day-time naps, and for her night-bottle I want her only to have cow's milk (I don't care if she has a bottle for that). So we'll see how that goes! I don't really think the bottles will be that big of a problem, except she might not sleep unless she gets them. So ... that is why I'm trying to figure out a new schedule and trying to make things better for her daycare-days. :)

We are.. a bit nervous about her going to daycare. Not because of the workers, but because of Leia. :)) Even though she is a good baby, we are afraid she will be a horror.. :D Be mean to the other children, scream all the time, not eat for them... But I have a feeling that that is not an uncommon fear for parents. :/ :) We are afraid they will call us to come pick her up and they will tell us she can never go there again... :D

She has been trying lots of new foods. :)
Farmor made Leia some applesauce from some apples from Aina's yard. So she has been having some of that with some cinnamon added in. She's had chicken, baked beans, turkey and ham lunch meat on sandwiches, salmon, cous cous.. among some others. And she's been getting cow's milk too. It isn't that popular right now, but she is getting more used to it.


Bubbles with a little bit of Leia.





I know I've been horrible about writing lately. :/ I can't use the laptop when Leia is around, she bangs on the keyboard and tries to steal my mouse. :T

I have finally gotten intouch with my teachers, and they've finally gotten back intouch with me. I have a new Swedish teacher. His name is Rolf. And I still have my bookkeeping teacher for my SPCS class. He is really busy it seems, so he isn't in that much of a hurry to get me started. I don't think it will take me long to finish that class anyways. I am probably the least of his worries right now. But only those 2 classes this term. Only parttime.

And I've been trying to keep in touch more with friends than spending time blogging. Our new friends in the area are fantastic and I love chatting with them, even through e-mails.

We're trying to put together plans for Leia's first birthday party. :) I think Mormor is going to be sending us some Hello Kitty decorations from the US. :))

Leia and I have also been taking at least one walk during the day. Trying to get in some exercise, and she loves to be outside. Fredrik and I need to make a trip to Säffle (our new favorite place to shop) and buy Leia a good rain and snow outfit so that she can go outside when it is now wet. She will need them for daycare, too. I wanna get her a new pair of jeans, too, for her birthday - she needs pants.

Leia received the cutest presents from "Aunt Yamini" and "Cousin Vanya" from their trip to the US. *jealous* I wanna go shopping in the US too!!! :)

I had the strangest dream the other night.. :/ Leia's Uncle Johan had 4 wives!! including Aunt Anna, and Fredrik and I were camping with the 5 of them in the mountains somewhere.. It was a strange dream. And then like always someone disfigured showed up with an axe and tried to kill us all. (A typical dream for me.) And we all ran away and I got saved by someone that looked like the guy from my Swedish class in Nyköping that was from Kosovo.






Fredrik's worried about having time to fix and finish and do things for the house. Having a baby takes time, having a house takes time... having both.. ehh.. :D There is some painting he wants to get done before Winter, but we've been having so much rain, it is difficult to get to it. And he wants to really trim down our hedge, so that it will hopefully fill-in in the areas where it is bare (or it will just die and we'll have to replace it). :)) And it is raining so much, he is mowing a couple of times a week. We need to replace a door in the cellar before we have our next pellet-burner inspection - and a few other things here and there that are always in the back of your mind. :/ :)

I have lots of pictures to fix on fotopages (where I store pictures to share), but the website hasn't been wanting to cooperate lately, and I haven't been able to add anything.

Lots of little things for us to do and get done, things that we have to get done and things we would like to get done. so we'll see how much of it we actually accomplish. :))


A picture.

Förskolan.

I have some fantastic news! :)

Leia was accepted into our first choice of daycares! :) Our first choice was a private daycare. Our 2nd choice was a public daycare, but it is very, very close to our house. The private daycare is farther away, but they are much more flexible on times.
And she will start on November 3rd! :)

Here is their website:
Förskolan Myran

Under "Personal" you can see the 3 very nice women that are running the daycare.
Under "Bilder" you can see a few pictures of the daycare.

I am so excited! :)
Of course I am going to miss my little baby girl :( - but this will be so good for her to finally get to play with other babies. :) She'll be just a little over 12 months when she starts. :)

Yay! :)

Swinging.

Leia and I went into town today so I could pick up a few things. I remembered that there is a little play area and a baby swing. So Leia got to swing for the first time. :) She absolutely loved it. :) She laughed and clapped her hands.

Babies.

This is a short clip of a longer video I took this morning.

Notice how.. she is fine and happy, she gets stuck and angry, and then she is fine again. And of course she makes her "angry face" and looks at me to see if I'm looking at her.

Babies. :/ :)

Halden, Norway.

Today we drove to the summer house to visit with Farmor + Farfar. We also drove to Halden, Norway for an early dinner. We took a different (longer) way home and stopped by a cute store.

So of course I have tons of pictures. :)



A buckeye from the buckeye tree at the summer house ... Leia really wanted to try to eat it. :))



















Some line dancing at a bachlorette party. :)







A really cute hat. :)

Dog protected abandoned newborn

(CNN) -- A dog sheltered a newborn baby abandoned by its 14-year-old mother in a field in rural Argentina until the boy was rescued, a doctor said Friday.

The man went outside and found the infant lying beside the dog and its six newborn puppies, Daniel Salcedo, chief of police of the Province of Buenos Aires, told CNN.

The dog had apparently carried the baby some 50 meters from where his mother had abandoned him to where the puppies were huddled, police said.

"She took it like a puppy and rescued it," Salcedo said. "The doctors told us if she hadn't done this, he would have died."

"The dog is a hero to us."

CNN article.

Leia and her Pappa.

Leia has gotten another tooth. :) I noticed it this morning. So now she has 4 teeth on top and 2 on bottom. That is probably why she was in such a horrible mood that one day this week.. Her tooth was coming. :)




Leia loves to reach her arm out the side of her stroller and let her hand graze across the hedges. :)
















Fredrik made the comment this past week that we could never have another child... that people would hate us forever if we graced the World with ANOTHER beautiful child... :D