Ugh.. No.....

I'm sick too now.. :/
NOT fun. :(

Poor Leia - I hate it for her that she felt this bad. :(
No wonder she didn't want to sleep alone.

I'm just glad it is still the weekend, so that Fredrik can watch Leia tomorrow and I can try to sleep and get better so that I can keep up with Leia on Monday.

Blah.....

Leia: The Photographer.

A bit better..

Leia is a bit better I suppose.
She did throw-up after dinner though. :/ But that was our fault, not because of her being sick. She is allowed to have boiled things, so we gave her a bite of peas, and that made her gag and she threw up her "dinner." So I cleaned purple yoghurt off the dining room rug.. :/

She refused liquids today.
But I took some apple juice (very yummy juice made only from apple concentrate and water) and I deluted it even more and that was the only thing she would drink today. She wants milk, but she isn't allowed to have milk. :/

She'll take a few sips of water here and there, but right now she is living off of yoghurt. :) She is still happy though, even though you can tell how tired she is. She slept only 2 hours today, but she went to bed tonight without a problem.

Fredrik and I are handling it much better this time. Last time we were more stressed and worried about her, but that was also the first real illness she had. Now we are pros.. ;)
We are dead tired though. :/

Took this picture of Leia today, my little gansta' baby:





Leia eating takes up a big part of our day. So since she isn't eating - we have a lot of extra time.. :/ So we took a very short/fast walk today, up and down the road, just to give us both some fresh air. So I took some pictures of the house while we were out:

















(A "few" pictures.)


And one very frozen lake at the end of the street:

Daycare pictures.

As promised, here are some pictures off the daycare's website:


Ann with one of the twins, Leia sitting behind her.

Leia sledding with one of the new girls.

Leia watching Sara decorate their snowman.

Leia all the way to the far right.

8 of the 13 children at Leia's daycare. 12 girls and 1 boy. :D Behind Leia is her "bästis" (her best friend), Elinor. Elinor's mom told me that ALL she does at home is talk about Leia. :)


Leia is doing much better!
She slept 4 hours today and she went to sleep tonight without a peep. She didn't get sick, which is good. We'll wake her up during the night though and try to make sure she drinks some of her sugar-salt-water mixture.

At least 6 of the 13 at daycare are sick, as well as 2 of the 4 teachers. :)
And the meeting was cancelled!

Daycare epidemic.

Fredrik called Leia in sick this morning to daycare, and one of the teachers said, "Is she throwing-up??" And Fredrik confirmed, and she said that everyone else is throwing-up too..... :) Seems like there is a virus going around and everyone else at daycare is also sick! So at least we know where she got it. :)

Seems like no one showed up to daycare today. So that parent meeting we were supposed to have at daycare tonight might very well be cancelled and rescheduled! :) Which is fantastic. We hope they reschedule it. Fredrik and I were both looking forward to going. With everyone sick there might not be many showing up anyways.

Leia managed to throw up about 3 more times last night. :(
She would fall asleep very easily when I held her, but she didn't want to be alone. So Leia and I kicked Fredrik out of bed. :) Fredrik got the couch and Leia and I slept in bed together. She went to sleep without trouble. She didn't throw up any more after that.

I woke her up at 4.45 and gave her some of her sugar-salt-water mixture. I continued giving it to her this morning. She drank 1 liter (4 cups), within a 4 hour period. Then before her nap, I let her have "majsvälling" (corn-based thick formula). 'Välling' and yoghurt is all she is allowed to have today. And if she is still okay by tomorrow, then by tomorrow evening we'll add apples to her diet. :) We're going to take it very slow.

She is in a fantastic mood though. Playing very well and happy.

Since she can get on the couch now - that is her favorite place to read her books. :) There was once only toys all over the floor, but now there are toys all over the couch as well. :)

She fell asleep for her nap today without trouble. She's been sleeping over 2 hours. She drank ½ her portion of välling and I put her in bed and she didn't make a peep. I'll give her some more välling and water-mixture when she wakes up. Then for dinner, she can have as much yoghurt as she wants.

I got some pictures off the daycare's website! There are pictures of them out in the snow. I'll add those later. :)

I'm feeling pretty okay I suppose - for not having got ANY sleep last night.

Stomach flu.

Leia is sick. :/
Not so much fun. :(

They said at daycare today that she didn't eat much of anything. I didn't think much of it. She ate fine after she got home. Ate dinner and even an apple for dessert. But right before bedtime she threw-up quite a lot. And she then again threw up in her bed later, and then she threw-up.. I don't even know how many times.. :/

The last time was just stomach fluids/acids.. so we think she has finally emptied her stomach. We'd sit up with her, waiting to see if she'd get sick again, and right after we would put her in bed, she would get sick.... :/ :)

But after the last time, I rocked her to sleep and she has been fine since then (almost a ½ hour now).

So no daycare tomorrow. And no daycare meeting (for all the parents) that Fredrik and I were looking forward to tomorrow. :(

Now her tummy is empty, and during the night we will start giving her that salt-sugar-water mixture that we gave her before, and see how she does. She isn't sick like she was before. This is much more stomach-flu than what she was sick with over Christmas. Then she just threw-up once at a time. Now she threw-up until her stomach was empty.

But now to go wash lots of dirty clothes and sheets.. :/ Including a sheep-skin rug from Leia's room that might be ruined now.. :/ :)

And I'll give an update tomorrow of course!

Fettisdagen.

Yesterday was Fat Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday) in Sweden. A day where Swedes eat semlor.

I didn't even realize it was "fettisdagen" (literally = fatty-day) until we got to daycare and a teacher mentioned that they baked bread yesterday, and were going to eat their semlor. So Leia had her first semla yesterday. :) They let the children fill them and decorate them themselves. :) The teacher said that her whole face was covered in whipped cream. :))

Fredrik hates the store bought ones. They have an almond paste and then whipped cream. The homemade ones he is used to has chopped almonds mixed in with the whipped cream. And the homemade bread is a little better as well. We have a wonderful recipe thanks to Fredrik's mormor (maternal grandmother).

But I bought 2 anyways, so that we could have a semla on the proper day. I shared mine with Leia. She ended up licking the plate clean - even though there was nothing on the plate. :P

Today I've made the bread for homemade ones, just about ready to go in the oven.

Catholic school girl.

Leia can climb up onto the couch by herself.. :/
Fun for Leia - not so much fun for mom and dad.

Mina!!

Leia's new favorite word to say: "Mina!" (mean-A)
Which is the plural form of "mine." :) A very easy word for her to pick up from daycare. 12 other children running around saying "Mine. Mine. Mine!" But in Swedish of course. :)
She will sometimes say "Min-mina." Double emphasis maybe has more effect??

She will also say "hi." :))

She is "arguing" more with us. And she has horrible temper tantrums. :/
If you don't let her do what she wants, even if that includes not putting the outlet in her mouth, she will start screaming and lay down on her stomach and refuse to move. :/ She has a very, very strong will, which she's always had.

This is just the beginning..... :/
I can't wait to see the things she manages to come up with.

This morning when I was drying my hair - Leia managed to reach off the dining table and get her milk cup from breakfast. She took out the straw and dumped all her milk onto the couch..
Good times..

Talkative.

More snow!

It has been snowing a lot and Fredrik did some shoveling this morning. Leia and I joined him. It has already started to melt away. :(

Leia very much loves to be out in the snow. While Pappa shovelled, she and I walked up and down the street about 20 times. :))












LOVES the snow!



A little sceptical.

Teetering on the mound of snow.

Daddy burying Leia under the snow.

Loves her kitty.

Snow!

It has been snowing almost non-stop for the past 2-3 days, here are some pictures from today:

The joys of learning a language 01.

Inflections and putting spaces where they don't belong.

Here are a few sentences (more to come), of where you should and should not put spaces within Swedish sentences/words:

a = should not be said
b = should be said

1a) Kassa medarbetare - Bad co-workers
1b) Kassamedarbetare - Tellers

2a) Här börjar kassa kön - The bad queue starts here
2b) Här börjar kassakön - The head of the queue starts here

3a) Vi behöver ett bygg till stånd - We need a build to boner
3b) Vi behöver ett byggtillstånd - We need a building permit

4a) Matt tvätt - Tired laundry
4b) Mattvätt - Carpet cleaning or carpet cleaner

5a) Brun hårig sjuk sköterska - Brown hairy sick nurse
5b) Brunhårig sjuksköterska - Brown-haired nurse



More to come!

Blåste ner i havet – dog

Blåste ner i havet – dog

Publicerad: 2009-02-19

Pappan kysste sin älskarinna – då föll barnvagnen i vattnet

LONDON. Barnen satt fastspända i sin barnvagn på promenaden vid havet.

När pappa Andrew släppte taget i några sekunder för att kyssa sin älskarinna tog vinden vagnen och barnen hamnade i det iskalla vattnet.

Rebecca, 2, dog.

Andrew Hopper tog med sin arbetskollega – och älskarinna – på en promenad vid havet i brittiska Folkestone när olyckan inträffade.

Både han och älskarinnan dök genast i vattnet för att lossa barnen från vagnen och få upp dem på land. Sex förbipasserande slängde sig också i vattnet för att rädda barnen.

Var blå
Rebecca, 2, och lillebror Lewis, åtta månader, var alldeles blå när de kom upp. De kördes med helikopter till sjukhus i London men Rebeccas liv kunde inte räddas. Hon dog av kylan, skriver Daily Mail.

– Hon var så söt och underbar och vi älskar henne så mycket, säger föräldrarna Andrew och Sarah.

Fyllde år nästa vecka
Mamma Sarah var helt ovetandes om sin makes affär med kollegan.

Rebecca skulle ha firat sin tredje födelsedag nästa vecka.

Nu planerar föräldrarna hennes begravning och vakar vid brodern Lewis sjuksäng. Hans tillstånd är stabilt och han förväntas bli återställd.

”Tragisk olycka”
Vid den engelska kusten är det vanligt med promenadstråk mot vattnet utan räcken.

– Det var en tragisk olycka. Vagnen gled bara iväg på en lutande del av gångvägen, säger barnens farfar Barry Hopper.

Article Source (including a picture of the little girl)

_____________________________________________
My best to translate:

Blew into the ocean - died

Publicerad: 2009-02-19

Papa kissed his lover – then the stroller fell in the water

LONDON. The children sat connected in their stroller during a walk by the ocean.

When the father, Andrew, let go of the stroller for a few seconds to kiss his lover, the wind pulled the stroller and the children landed in the ice cold water.

Rebecca, 2, died.

Andrew Hopper took his work colleague - and lover - on a walk by the ocean in the Brittish Folkestone, when the accident happened.

Both he and his lover immediately dove into the water in order to disconnect the children from the stroller and get them back on land. Six people passing by also dove into the water to save the children.

Was blue
Rebecca, 2, and little brother Lewis, eight months, were nearly blue when they came up. They were taken by helicopter to a London hospital but they couldn't save Rebecca's life. She died of the cold, writes Daily Mail.

"She was so cute and wonderful and we love her so much," said the parents Andrew and Sarah.

Birthday next week
The mother Sarah was completely unaware of her husband's affair with his colleague.

Rebecca would have had her third birthday next week.

Now the parents are planning her funeral and sit beside brother Lewis's hospital bed. His condition is stable and is expected to fully recover.

"Tragic accident"
Beside the English coast it is common to not have a railing along the walking paths.

"It is a tragic accident. The stroller only glided away on an inclined part of the pathway," says the children's grandfather Barry Hopper.

Mondays..

Today I'm having a "case of the Mondays" as it would be called....

I'll start off by saying that I've been having trouble with my cell phone. It is over 2 years old, and we all know 2-3 years is the life expectancy of a modern cell phone. So it has been acting funny lately, like not showing the time, for example.

I set my alarm on my cell phone last night, like always.

I woke up on my own at 07.30 this morning. Half an hour later than Leia and I were supposed to get up to make it to daycare on time. And I woke up very, very tired and with a horrible headache. I wake Leia up and we have breakfast. I decide to drive illegally to daycare, giving us an extra 20-30 minutes to get ready, instead of walking.

I "jump" in the shower, only to find cold water. Then I became angry and realized the pellet burner probably ran out of pellets to use. Then I remembered that the last time I refilled it was on Friday, and it was probably very empty. So I took a semi-fast cold shower and then it took me forever to get ready afterwards.

Since the pellet machine had no pellets to use, that meant there was no warm water for the furnaces all night, and the house was freezing. [Since we were in such a rush, I didn't get a chance to refill and restart the pellet machine until after I got home from taking Leia.]

Clean the frost off the car and warm it up and defrost it so I can see to drive, and we finally made it to daycare. Luckily Leia was a perfect angel this morning, which made the horrible morning go a little faster.

We ended up making it only a little late to daycare.

Destined to be a nerd.

Bad comedians.

Ugh.. I hate bad comedians. Their job is to make us laugh, and if they can't then they shouldn't be a comedian!! I watched a bit of a Swedish stand-up comedy show and there was a Canadian guest-comedian tonight. And he wasn't funny at all. It was more painful if anything.

Ehhh.. but we are all doing well I suppose. :)

Fredrik hopes to be done with a majority of the sanitation project this week. If all goes as planned, he'll be finished with what he is working on and then he'll start taking off Mondays. :)

We're trying to figure out what we are going to do this summer for Fredrik's vacation. Or for part of it at least. :)

They ended up hiring the guy Fredrik was hoping for. He is 25 or something like that, and lives in the town where they work. He and Fredrik worked at the same place before, and Fredrik even thinks that the guy took over his job when he left! He also likes fishing and he is a computer nerd. :P The only bad thing is that he is single and doesn't have a family. But hopefully he and Fredrik will get along well. :)

The bad thing is is that the guy is currently working in Norway. And they have a 3 month notice for leaving a job. So if things go as planned, he won't start until May.... Which leaves Fredrik alone until then. But we're thinking that those in charge my try to work something out with his bosses so that he can leave earlier.


Hmmm..

Not much happening with me.. :P

Leia made this today:

Valentine yum-yum.

Our yummy dessert yesterday:





My delicious brownie with ice cream inbetween, drizzled with Hershey's chocolate of course. :) A yummy dessert for two; Fredrik loved it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night Fredrik and I had a movie night! Once a month we wait until Leia has gone to bed and we get a pizza and watch a movie we've been wanting to see. :) We enjoy it.

And today is Valentine's Day. Every year it gets a little bigger in Sweden, but it isn't nearly as celebrated as it is in the US. In the US there are... expectations for Valentine's Day that don't exist in Sweden. (And I sorta hope they never do.) Although there is something intriguing about receiving nice jewelry for Valentine's Day... ;) :D

I got Fredrik 2 seasons on DVD of the British TV series "Extras." Hilarious show!

Yesterday I got some roses. :) Fredrik suggested that we go to Karlstad today and go to IKEA. And that we could also have lunch at Subway (there are a few here and there in Sweden, but few and very, very far between).

First we went to a baby store and Leia tried out a big-girl potty:





She LOVES her toilet and she carries it around the house.. :D

Then we went to a small mall area and had lunch. The stores there were mostly clothes stores (like always), so there wasn't too much to look at otherwise. They did have a Toys-R-Us nearby, but we didn't try it out, after lunch and the mall, we were already getting tired.. :D (We had also done lots of grocery shopping in the morning before we left for Karlstad.)

Then we went to IKEA and looked around and bought a few things. Leia checking out some bookshelves:





We bought some sheets for our bed, candles of course, and more mixing bowls like the ones we already have. So that was my Valentine's present: going to IKEA. :)


Leia's vocabulary has increased tremendously.
She now says:
- Uh-oh
- Tack / tacktack (= thank you)
- Mamma
- Pappa
- Daddee
- Mommee
- apple
- nana ("banana")
- bear
- 'ouch ("couch")
- hejpo ("hej då") = bye (and she waves)
- hejhej (and she shakes your hand)
- dat ("katt")
- brrrrr (with her mouth closed) (= "moooo")
- pumpa/pampa ("lampa") = lamp
- min (= mine)

She'll try to say almost everything, but sometimes she just can't say it. The words above are common words that she says now at any time. Which is.. fantastic for a bilingual child her age! (She was 16 months old yesterday!)

I'm making a yum-yum treat for Fredrik and I tonight. A yummy desert. Now I'm going to finish that and watch a few episodes of his new DVDs! :)

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope everyone had a wonderful day with their loved one(s). :)

Cold hearted?

Octuplets' mom seeks online donations

(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, the single mother of newborn octuplets, is using the Internet to help support her family of 14 children. She's started a Web site seeking donations.

The Web site features pictures of a rainbow, child's blocks and all eight of Suleman's newborns. Also prominently displayed on the Web site is a prompt for visitors to make a donation, noting that the "proud mother of 14" accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal.

Suleman, 33, had the octuplets through fertility treatments, despite already having six young children and no clear source of income.

Suleman said she plans to go back to college to pursue a degree in counseling, NBC reported. She also said all 14 children have the same biological father, a sperm donor whom she described as a friend.

Maybe I'm being cold hearted, but.. does she really deserve donations?!

Unemployed. Single. Already has 6 children, and on purpose has 8 more... and then has the nerve to ask other people to fund her and her children's survival??

Please.....

Moment of truth.

I cried last Thursday when I left Leia at daycare.. :T

It came quite unexpectedly. I felt a little silly and realized that I really miss her when I leave her. She is so much fun to have around and now since I have no school or work things to work on now - that I get pretty lonely when she is at daycare. It didn't help that right before that, when they said "Say goodbye to Mommy," that she turned around and ran to me with arms stretched and wanted in my lap - and didn't want me to leave. Then I left and didn't get but 4 feet from the daycare and started tearing-up.

I've had difficulty trying to figure out what to do with my time now. I have a "little" volunteer pet-project that I'm working on for the moment. So that is keeping me busy. But that will eventually come to an end and then I don't know what I'm going to do.. :T

I've decided: No more school.
I started school when I was 4. I've gone to school continuously, since then, for the last 25 years of my life. I'm finished.
Having said that, I know I'll probably end up back at school before too long.......

So I don't know what to do.. :/ :(
It makes me want to keep Leia home all the time with me. Then I try to remind myself that she is going so that she can interact with other children and adults, not just so that I have time to myself or to get things done.


Talking about interactions:
Fredrik stayed home from work this morning because he had to take his work car in for its scheduled check-up.

So he got to take Leia to daycare this morning. :) Which is good for both of them. :) I made him ask them if she interacts well with the other children, since we had the nose-biting incident. I wanted to make sure she is kind and behaves well. They said she is very good, for the interaction this age group has with each other.

One of them had mentioned to me though, that Leia has a little best friend at daycare. :)) The little girl, Elenor. She is maybe 2 months older than Leia. Elenor has now also learned how to say Leia's name and she always asks for her and they are always together. :)

It was really nice having Fredrik home from work today. He didn't go in until 11. So we had a little (quite) time to ourselves.


There is no way I would take Leia from her daycare time. She is learning so much so quickly. I was just going through words and I said "apple" and she just said it right after me as if she's been saying it for years. She also now says "baaanana" or "bnana." :)) She also says "apa" (ape). She tries to say "couch" but it comes out as "ouch." :)) If there is a word that you say that she can't repeat, she will make the same amount of pretend noises in the same amount of syllables with the same tone. :)

Her climbing has gone full-force. She will soon be able to pull herself up onto the couch, which we aren't encouraging her to learn. :P We are ignoring it at the moment.

But that is enough for tonight.. :P
Just about 21.30 and I am getting tired.


Leia's favorite place to read her books.
It takes her a good 5 minutes to get situated in the space, so that her butt fits and she can open her book.

Mommy's ballerina.

Apple!

Leia has been saying "apple." :)))

And when Fredrik says "äpple" in Swedish, she says "apple" in English more clearly and slowly. To correct him I guess? :) he he

Mio.

Yesterday we took a short walk down the road to Mio, a Swedish chain furniture store. (The only furniture store in Åmål?)







We love looking at the couches, as we are always looking for new ones. We really want new couches, but then we have to move the TV and we can't since there is no electricity in the living room. We're thinking about having an electrician come and give us an estimate on how much it would cost to run wires to the room and/or how complicated it would be. But that is a future problem after we get the fireplace fixed this Spring.


When we came home, we built a snowman!