Mommy's ballerina.

Leia trying to throw her leg up over the couch so that she can get up there and get closer to Caesar. :/ :)

(And yes, she has a sock in her mouth.......) :/

Boots.

We bought Leia a pair of boots yesterday.. Needless to say she does NOT like them.. :/ Actually.. she didn't like any of the shoes.. :/ She screams and cries.. :/ :) A shoe phobia??





A little better after she is allowed to play with the forbidden telephone..

Fantastic weekend!

Not sure about Fredrik, but I have had a fantastic weekend. :) I have a feeling that he has enjoyed the weekend too. :)

A picture of Leia sleeping for awhile in the car on the way to Fredrik's morfar. Leia's great-grandfather.

She is still completely unfond of car rides.. :/ Something we are just going to have to let her outgrow. But at least Metallica helps her to fall asleep.

I sat in the back with her for awhile and she enjoyed some Cheerios. :) She loves to pick out which ones she wants. She will look at them a few seconds and finally pick one. :)





I drove part of the way.. from Åmål to Karlstad. There was a lot of traffic. :/ It was pay this past week, so everyone was out going shopping.

We finally arrived at our destination and Leia got to spend some time with her great-grandfather.

Here are some of our favorite pictures.. Mostly pictures of Leia being Leia. :/ :)














Sooooo many fun toys there!! So many things to grab and play with that she isn't allowed to have! :D Of course great-grandpa's appartment isn't baby-proofed, with everything raised up 3-4 feet off the ground, out of reach of little, chubby fingers. :)) So we had fun chasing her around and grabbing things out of the way. :)

Leia got to have her first drink of sugary juice, and her first tiny little bite of a candy bar, thanks to her great-grandpa. :))) It was sad to leave; Leia's great-grandpa cried lots when we left. :(

After our visit we drove to Örebro and went to a shopping center called Marieberg. Fredrik hadn't been there in years, and they were doing some major renovation. We went to a Babyproffsen.. a baby store chain in Sweden. This one was huge, and it made me sad that we don't have any proper baby stores anywhere near us. :(

We didn't have too long to look around, as we wanted to get home by Leia's bedtime, 7pm. So we made a trip into H&M, which has our favorite baby clothes. They also have Hello Kitty clothes, so I bought Leia a few items for her birthday. :) I'll try to get some pictures.

Today we all took a nice, long walk this morning, and then when Leia slept Fredrik and I finished carrying the pellets to the cellar. I got some school work done. Fredrik fixed us a yummy dinner and Leia laughed and played all day.

:) It was a fun day.
But now it is getting late and it is bedtime. :)

A few walking videos.

Too much Metal.

The only way that Leia will sleep in the car... (make sure your volume is turned up)

A sign that I listened to too much heavy metal when I was pregnant?

Normal day..

So today was a normal, boring day.. :) I like those days. :)) Leia slept well today, and like normal this week, she hasn't been asleep when I've put her in bed and she's fallen asleep just fine by herself without making a peep. And she's taken her normal naps the last couple of days, too.

There is no sign of new teeth coming in, which is always.. what I am hoping for when she has a bad day.. that there is an obvious reason for it. We're pretty convinced that she is going to have 6 teeth for the rest of her life.. :D

We avoided our construction walk today, but continued with the rest of our normal walk on the walking path on the East side of town:






It is a nice, quiet place to walk. Very few people there when we are, maybe an occasional high school student on their way to class.

If everything goes as planned, we are going to go visit Fredrik's morfar tomorrow! It has been awhile since we've seen him so we want to make a visit.

Not sure if there is much else.. :/ :) Not much to talk about if it is a simple, easy day!! :D

Fredrik and I watched a horribly bad movie tonight.. :/ Called "Hardware" from 1990 I think. It was.. bad. :/ :) Not even funny-bad. Just bad. I hope that as an audience we are supposed to loathe the main actress, because it is impossible to not.






I am not the best self-photographer, but at least it is something!

Leia loves to shake her head "no." :) She will try to shake "yes" but she throws her head back and on the way down she turns her head to the side instead and it turns into a "no." :)) So she just shakes "no" all the time. :)

She's been walking lots today, each time it is a little farther. Not long now until she will be running around. I don't have any walking on video, because it is just so random when she decides to do it.

It was 2,8 degC (37 degF) yesterday morning at 7.30.. :/ Cold.
But during the days this week it has actually been pretty warm. The sun has been shining every day except today, which isn't very common for this time of the year. :P Sweden is very dark and dreary during the Fall and Winter. Very cloudy. The days are getting shorter and shorter. I notice it more in the evenings.. It is pitch black by 19.30. It is a surprising drastic change from day to day, on how much earlier the sun goes down.

EHh.. that is enough for tonight.
Hopefully some good pictures for tomorrow!

Tja!

I finally got Leia to say "tja." :) Phonetically "shaa" in English.
It is a slang "hello." Her vocabulary is slowly growing. :)

Leia has been walking around a lot more this morning. :) She will stand still for a few seconds and then start walking. :) After 6-7 steps she starts going faster, excited I suppose, and then she goes to her knees. But I'm super proud of her. :)



Leia and I had our normal walk this morning. We turned the corner down one of our normal streets.. and they haven't stopped the construction. :/ Digging machines and trucks parked on the street. I started down, but got closer and realized we couldn't get passed any anything. We turned around and I stopped to tie her hat back on her head and I gave her one of her corn snacks and one of the construction workers walked over to us and told me that he would have them move the machines so we could continue. :/ :) I said that it was okay, that we could go around.. And he asked if I was sure, that it wouldn't be any trouble, and I told him again that it was okay. :/ :) I'm not so sure the drivers would have been so happy to be told to move their machines so that I could get past with my baby stroller.. :/ :) But it was nice though. :)

Headache.

I woke up with the worst headache ever. I took 4 Tylenol at 6.45 and then at 7.45 I took 3 Advil, and the headache wouldn't go away. I had it all day, pulsating the left side of my head.. Until I had some coke tonight, I took a few drinks of regular coke (which I never, ever drink) and then it finally drifted away a little....... Annoying !!! I still have it, but at least it isn't as bad as it has been all day.






Fredrik was able to get plenty done at work today, so he didn't have to come home too late! Which was nice.. because Leia wouldn't sleep, and she screamed and cried for 2 straight hours. I couldn't get her to stop.. :/ And that didn't help my headache. :(

The headaches are weird. Probably caused by my TMJ (jaw problems caused by stress) ... and I have a brace to wear in my mouth so that I don't clench, but sometimes I get the headaches anyways. They are like migraine headaches. They just don't go away. It takes time, a quiet, very dark room, and did I say time?







Leia's walking comes and goes. She of course usually tries to walk when she is standing on a book or her pants are under her feet or she has one foot in a toy box..... So she always ends up falling.. :/ :)

At least she eats well. She will eat anything. She loves vegetables. We sometimes have to mask her meats behind veggies. :/ :)

Fredrik's workmate is looking for a house.. where he moved from. :/ So I guess he and his wife will be moving away. We hope to go see their animals soon, even if Leia doesn't get much out of it. :/

Leia and I will meet Fredrik at the eye place tomorrow so that we can help Pappa pick out glasses that he likes. :) When I pick out glasses I have to solely use Fredrik's judgement, because I can't see what I look like with the glasses on. :/ I am completely blind. I'd love to have eye surgery.. :/ But not so pressingly important to spend so much money on that. :/ :))

Hmmm...
Leia didn't sleep so I didn't get anything done today.. :/ I really need to get lots more school work done. I sent my 2nd assignment to my Swedish teacher (which I've probably said), but haven't heard anything about either of them. Tomorrow I'll go by my teacher's office to pick up a few more papers that he had forgotten to print out for me.

Just feels like I have so much to do and so little time. Which it probably isn't as bad as I think it is.. But I think I just need more of a baby-break than what I get. But there really isn't much that can be done about that.. :/

New chair !!

Sooo very comfy!
And the color is perfect for the room! :)

School.

I finally met with my SPCS teacher today and he gave me everything I need for the class. So that means I don't have to order any books! Yay! Much cheaper that way. :) We went over a few things and it should be pretty straight forward I think. While I talked with my teacher, Fredrik and Leia walked around and looked at some ducks. :)

Tomorrow Fredrik is going to work plenty over, because of having to come home early on Thursday as well. So he'll go in early tomorrow, and stay a little later. Of course this week there are lots of little things that he has to do.. :/ :) And on Thursday he has his eye appointment that we didn't get to have before.

Our chair was delievered today! I took some pictures but it is upstairs and I don't wanna go get it.. :P :)) So I'll put some pix on tomorrow.

Leia barely walked at all today. :/ :) Just like her talking, some days it is lots and sometimes nothing. She slept a good 3 hours today. And we had 2 tons of pellets delievered. :)

But now it is an early nap time... tired.. :P

A sign that it is cold in the house??

Leia loves scarves. :/ :) She started wearing her socks around her neck, so we gave her a scarf. :)

She's walking now. :) Not completely, but very, very close. :) Makes me angry that we didn't push her more, because it didn't take much effort to get her going. We pushed her last night, and then today she started walking around on her own.. 5-6 steps here and there and her balance has increased greatly. By this evening, she was doing great and she is very, very proud of herself. :)

Tomorrow I get info to start my SPCS class, computer course for book keeping. I'll meet with him early evening, Fredrik will come home early from work.

Her poor little nose.. :/ She has sooo much snot and nasty stuff. :/ Her nose bleeds because the boogers get so stuck to her nose, that when we take them off, it leaves a scab. :/ There is just so much coming out. It has been that way for over 2 weeks now. :/ We gave her a bit of the saline nose drops to try to help make everything loosen up and run out easier, but I don't think it is helping. Because of her nose she couldn't sleep today, and she only napped for 45 minutes. :( So her nose is an endless problem right now. She screams if you try to clean her nose, and if you clean it, it bleeds, but if you don't clean it then it just gets worse.

The construction work is almost done.. :/ :( They put a second layer of dirt on today and "patted" it down. Soon they will be paving and then they will be going. Nothing fun for us to watch anymore on our walks. Leia loves looking at the machines. :)

Hmmm..
Leia let me sleep in a little longer this morning. :/ :) She played in her playpen quietly while I dozed in bed. :)) Sometimes she'll only play for a few minutes before wanting breakfast, other days she lets me sleep. :))

We've been giving her 12 month cereal. It is.. the same mush (gröt) that she's been eating, but it has real cereal and oats mixed in. We figured that it would fill her better and she would eat less, but she still eats 2 servings. Or I'll fix 1 serving and she'll get a banana too. I've had to increase her nightly milk serving. One night she drank 14 ounces (420mL). Right now she gets 8 (½ formula, ½ cow's milk) during the day, and at night she is getting 10 ounces (2 ounces formula, 8 ounces cow's milk), and she even gets a snack and juice before her bottle. She is doing well with the cow's milk. She is liking it.. as long as it is warm. :/ :) The child has a black hole in her tummy.. :/ :))

She gets her water through a straw now, too... she drinks it better that way. She loves drinking through a straw. :/ :) She's really good with it too, she's never lost a drop. :) But she tries to sneak her hand in her cup.. :/ :D She will be drinking, and all of a sudden you'll see her little hand raise up and she tries to dip her fingers down in her cup. She is quiet and she keeps eye contact.. sneaky little booger... :D

August pictures.

Pictures from the month of August.

Jämtland.

Pictures from our trip to Jämtland.

Shopping day.

Today we went shopping and bought lots of candles, a couple of cheap bathroom hand towels for the downstair's bathroom, some durable, plastic, reusable food containers for Leia, and a few odd things like that. :) Then we did a little grocery shopping.

It is nice with Leia napping later in the day now, so we can get things done in the morning. :) We came home and she napped her 3 hours. During that time, I sent some stuff to my Swedish teacher, and then I looked up about 10 Swedish words that all mean "scream." :T It is difficult to figure out the different ways to use words that all mean the same thing, like: yell, shout, scream, etc..
You have to have examples of each word, to learn how to use them, because they all mean the same thing. The joys of learning a language !

We carried the last piece of outdoor furniture to the garage, looked around in the yard down the hill, and tried to figure out what to do with the overgrown grass on the hill. The neighbor (gray/blue) house can get us a birch tree, and we are thinking of a couple of apple trees too. To provide some shade and hopefully help things not grow so much. We want to start with that and then see how it looks and what we will have to do from there.

And we talked about trying to have the city repave the sidewalk that should be connected to our property. There used to be one, but it is gone now... The neighbor (gray/blue) house said that he talked to someone too, about getting it fixed, but "they" (the commune) said that there is no plans for a sidewalk there. Who stops paving a sidwalk halfway down a street..?!?! Seriously. So. Fredrik has been looking up our property plans at work.. his job can come in handy! :) Once he has the right papers, we hope to get something done about it.. to make them fix it so that it looks better. Fredrik can even offer to measure it for them for free, to cut down on cost or whatnot. But he's having trouble finding the right documents. :/ So that is on one of his to-do lists. :/ :)

Seems like all the fireplace fixing people are in Säffle. :/ :) Still trying to get that organized.

While she slept, we took in all the summer gardening stuff, repotted plants and put them inside. Put out a few Winter plants.. things like that.

We need to order pellets.. :/

Now the blog entry is starting to sound like my own personal to-do list.. :P :)

Hmmm...
Leia stands to poop now.. :/ Wondering if we should use this as a time to start potty training her. Not something I am looking forward to. :/ :) I've potty trained plenty of other people's children...... :/ :) Someone else should potty train Leia !! :))

The sun actually shone today. :) (First time in a month?) It was early evening. :) So after dinner, since it was nice and dried the grass up a little, Fredrik mowed. He hopes it will be the last time of the year, but I doubt it. :/

But now I want to go to bed.. :P Leia was up a little earlier than normal this morning (at 6), and I wanna get some sleep incase she does the same tomorrow. :P

Smögen.

Pictures from our trip to Smögen.

July pictures.

Pictures from the month of July.

American BBQ.

Pictures from our American BBQ in Dalsland.

This is what happens...

...when I leave Leia alone with Fredrik... :D

How much is too much??

I am extremely anxious for the day when Leia comes into our bedroom and I tell her "go fix your own breakfast" and I roll over and go back to sleep. :))) But we still have a little while to go before we get to that point.

Leia slept for about 10 minutes in her stroller yesterday on the way home from our walk. Then she didn't sleep for her nap. :/ Which is what she does 100% of the time even if she sleeps for a few minutes. So she was cranky yesterday. :/ Since she didn't sleep anywhere close to her 3 hour nap during the day. Then I couldn't get anything done. It was the "perfect" ending for a long, drawn out week. I was so excited that Friday had finally shown up, and it ended up being such a horrible day. I had lots of cleaning that I *had* to do, and she stood/sat and screamed at me the whole time I did anything.

The week was so.. unfun that I even went to the purse/bag shop in town and eyed a few nice items. :/ :) How much is too much to spend on a bag? In the store they range from 300-2000 sek (50-300$). No matter how nice it is, I don't think I could spend 2000sek on a purse. :/ I didn't buy anything, even though I wanted to. Fredrik thinks that all mine look the same.. so I am making him have the final say from now on. :P

Fredrik came home an hour earlier than he normally does on Fridays. It is nice to have a little extra help. :/ He even made dinner yesterday. :) So I managed to finish vacuuming while he was doing that.

I hope to turn in my 2nd Swedish assignment today. I hear from my new Swedish teacher even less than the old one. :/

So Leia will soon start daycare. We still have to decide on how long she will be there. We get 25 hours a week. I'm thinking 3 days a week (tue-thurs), and then maybe 5-6 hours on those days. I think she will do well though. :) We got a welcome postcard from the daycare. And they said that she will start her "inskolning" (assimilation) on the first Monday of November, from 09.30-11.00. Fredrik will take the day off, or the morning, so that we can both be there. Not sure about the rest of the week though, if he will take off a little here or there, to see how she does. :) I'm excited for her though. :) I think she will love playing with other children. :)

When we went to the Thai place for dinner the other day.. A family with 7 children came in. :/ (And the mom was pregnant!) The Thai place didn't have room for them, because they were expecting a large group for a party. There was a little girl, around 4, that kept staring at Leia and wanted to play with her. And then there was another one around 2. Leia and the 2yo finally noticed each other.. and at the same time, their arms reached straight out, their hands almost touching, and they both had looks of amazement on their faces. :/ :) It was the weirdest thing. Leia in her highchair was reaching her arm out as much as she could, and the 2yo slowly creeped forward with her hand reaching for Leia's.. we all were laughing and the dad finally moved the 2yo away. It was as if they were long lost friends and hadn't seen each other in years. :/ :))

Completely tuckered out.