Trötthet.

trötthet [²tr'öt:he:t] noun
fatigue


I've been so tired lately. :P I've been falling asleep on the couch for the last few evenings and then Fredrik has to drag me up to bed when he realizes that I've fallen asleep.

Leia wasn't feeling too well today we don't think. She laid in the couch today for awhile off and on.. head on a pillow, pacifier and kitty, and even under the cover. She was very tired. She has never done that before. That is the first time that she has ever taken a break on her own without us putting her to sleep. So we think something is bothering her, maybe her tummy (constipated) or her teeth are pushing through more.

She's a non-stop child. :) Only one time has she ever fallen asleep because of fatigue. That was after her 3 straight weeks of not sleeping after we got back from the US. She was sitting on the couch and playing with her blocks and she just fell asleep - hand still in the toy box. :) So that is good to know.. it takes 3 weeks of no sleep for her to fall sleep on her own.. :P

We're all doing well.. :P Rain, rain, rain and more rain.. :( Very little outside house work this past week. Fredrik did as much scraping as he could, but it rained too much for him to get on the roof and paint. And I've been painting the deck here and there during the few dry spells. So we spent some time trying to throw things away and stuff like that.

Fredrik goes back to work tomorrow. :( Going to miss him. :(
He is going to take more pappa-leave though. He has decided to take 2 days off a week. :) So he will only work 3 days a week then. He'll start in a couple of weeks. He did get plenty of work calls though this week (so he is never *really* on vacation).. :P But lots more work is coming in, so that is good. He might not have to go up to Norrland after all.

I've met with 2 of my teachers and I'll meet the 3rd one on Wednesday.

My English teacher was old but very sweet. :)
The class is late afternoon, so there is no way that I can go to it and she was a little sad about that. She thinks that I would be a good asset to the class, for the other students that is, with having a native English speaker in the class. I am still a little surprised that they let me get away with taking the class.. but anywho.. We'll be reading tidbits of novels that I analized to death at University.. ;) So I don't think the class will be much of a challange. :) But fun! I told her that it has been awhile since I've written anything in English with some substance, so I am really looking forward to it!

I made it to my first Samhällskunskap class (social studies).. and oooooh my gooodness....... I have NEVER had such a boring teacher in all of my life. After 26 years of schooling in two different countries, and possibly hundreds of teachers -- I have finally met the most boring teacher in existance.

The woman is.. kind.. but emotionless. She is very knowledgable and projects that knowledge well ....... but she is expressionless in her jestures and in her face and.... We sat there.. for like a good 80 minutes and just looked at each other. Each time she explained something (like how to turn the pages in a text book) she would go around the room and ask each person if they understood what was going on. It was so incredibly painful.

The class is at a local "high school" but pretty far from the house, so it isn't possible for me to get there, and definitely not possible for me to get to Leia in time afterwards. And thank goodness I have an excuse, because there is NO way that I can sit in her class. There are also others, thank goodness, that can't make it very regularly (others that work and/or have children).

Luckily I was sitting next to some very nice Swedes that kept me awake during the class. One also has a daughter, 1½ years old and she is married. The other is 24 years old. Both of them retaking the class to be able to continue to University studies. Both very sweet, I really enjoyed talking to them!

At our first chance, one of them turned to me and said, "So you are from the US?" (As I explained when we had to introduce ourselves to the classroom.) And she asked, "WHY are you in Åmål?!?!?!" :D They were curious as to where I was from and how I ended up in this horrible, little town. We talked a bit about Swedish university stuff. I was surprised by how open and nice they were, and how talkative. Maybe because they were younger than the other people that Fredrik and I have encountered here in town. Even if I never get a chance to talk with them again - I so enjoyed the chatting we had!

I will meet my Swedish teacher on Wednesday.

Thanks to my good friend Yamini in Nyköping, I saved 300sek (40$) on my school books! She gave me a tip about a sale that a certain website was having and I got a really good deal. The 3 books that I ordered would have cost me 900sek (140$), so instead I only paid 600sek (100$). Cool!

I am so tired.. :P I am using all my will-power and strength to not fall asleep right now.. :P

Leia's most favoritest thing to do right now is to color. ALL day long she has to "color." "Coloring" involves Mommy and/or Daddy writing the alphabet so she can say the letters. :) Or going through numbers. She is much more confident with her numbers. When she goes through her letters, she will look at me before she says it and then say it once we have eye contact. She does great with it.

Hmm..

Fireplace guy is coming September 14th! He figures 2 weeks to complete everything.

Ehh.. I think that that is it for tonight.. :P

Painting.

Leia has thoroughly been enjoying daycare this week. :) And I've been enjoying having Fredrik home. Like he said on Monday, it feels like he is playing hooky from work! :)) Cause it doesn't feel like he should be home, especially with Leia gone.

We are getting some things done though, around the house. We've been scraping the drainage pipes and gutters and today we finally started on some painting. Some bad news though, it is suppose to rain the rest of the week.. :( So we hope that it will stay away so that we can paint more. I also scrubbed the back stairs to the cellar, and they look brand new! I also did some finishing painting from last year on the deck. The metal stands for the deck railing was never painted when we moved in and Fredrik did a couple of coats on it last summer, so that it would just be painted. Today I put another coat on and they look fantastic. It looks so good that my project tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, is going to be to repaint the entire deck. :P

Fredrik will paint the last horizontal gutter and then also try to start scraping the vertical gutters. They are difficult to get to. If we get all that done this week, with time to spare, then we are going to do the last few coats of paint needed on one side of the house. Part of the wall has a few coats of paint, and half of the wall has maybe one coat of paint, and then it isn't painted at all near the gutters.. *sigh* .. The outside of the house is a uniform stucco, but it needs special paint and all that.. So surprisingly it is a much bigger job than scraping and painting the gutters.

Tomorrow I will meet with at least one of my teachers, hopefully all 3 of them. Then I will order my books and officially start my classes.

Leia's still not sleeping right. She didn't sleep at daycare today either, and this is what I found when I walked into the hallway, when tired babies don't sleep:



hehe.. :)

But no.. she isn't sleeping. She is pretending. :) That is her scrunched-pretend-sleeping-face. :))) But she did lay in the floor for a veeery long time in the hallway and I did think she was going to fall asleep.

Hmmm... *think*

I made some homemade rhubarb juice the other day! Turned out very well. It was just a little too thick after I bottled it, so we just add a little more water to it and it is very nice to drink!

So Wednesday and Thursday = cleaning and painting
Friday = funeral
Saturday = Going to the summer house to hunt blueberries with Leia. Also to start bringing back firewood.
Sunday = Not sure yet. :P

Never drive in Karlstad without a tour guide.

This is Mr. Kitties doing the movements to "The Wheels on the Bus." :) Leia and I were bored in the car while waiting for Pappa to turn in his expensive measuring instrument, so we sang plenty of songs.

The drive to Karlstad was uneventful, but then Fredrik and I got us lost. It is a very confusing town to drive in! We found the industrial area that we needed to be in, but we were still in the very wrong area. We found the bridge we needed, but it was being rebuilt.. *sigh* so we wasted LOTS of time trying to find the right place to be! :)) But we finally got to the right place!

Then we tried to find our way BACK into the city center, and that was another headache. We were going to look at a few shops to look at baby clothes (for fun - not because we really needed to buy anything). But the driving is just ridiculous (and the traffic) - and Leia fell asleep, so we decided to go to a toy store instead. I went in and did some shopping, picking up a few things we were interested in and Fredrik waited in the car with Leia.

Then we decided to try to let her sleep a little more, so we stopped at a little mall, and I went tight-hunting for Leia at H&M, Lindex and Kapp-Ahl. (Or however it is spelled.) Fredrik again stayed in the car with Leia. :) I didn't find any tights, only leg-warmers.. *sigh* leg-warmers for 2 year old ?!?! Anywho.. But I did get her some pants. Four pairs of thick winter pants. Great for the upcoming (soon coming) Fall weather. :) I got them pretty large, so hopefully they will fit her through the entire Winter/Spring season.

Then Leia was awake and we made our way (finally) to IKEA! :)



Leia in IKEA.

After I took Leia's pictures, she said "Kaaaatt!!!" and held up Mr. Kitties to the camera. He needed his picture taken too. :))


We had a nice walk through IKEA and a nice, yummy (and cheap) lunch/dinner in their store restaurant. Leia behaved very well the entire time and we bought her some nice things! We found a bed for her. Not one of the adjustable beds like we wanted, but an inbetween sized bed. It is a good size, she'll be able to use it for a long time, and it is cheap (700 sek / 100$). And it is cute (which is most important, right??) We were going to get it, but the boxes wouldn't fit in the car. (Well it would if we took the carseat out and laid the seats down in the back....) :)) So we'll have to have that delivered some time in the near future!

After we got home yesterday, we started putting together Leia's new items. :))

Leia loves her new table and chairs!

But I think she likes rearranging furniture even more!


A new storage container for her toys, etc.. This and the table will eventually go up in her bedroom. When we clean out more of the "baby" furniture and stuff when she gets a bit older, and when she is more able to spend more time upstairs = when she can go up and down the stairs better by herself.









We had a very nice day together. :)

Today we had dinner in Säffle and we would have done a little looking in some stores, but everything closes so early on Saturdays in Sweden.. *sigh* So we ate and then went to a slightly larger than average grocery store and just looked around a little. :)

No specific plans for tomorrow, probably some cleaning and tidying around the house. And collecting plums from our plum trees!

Poltergeists??

No.. just Leia..






Don't you just love her new table and chairs that we got today?? :)

Shopping day.

Today we are going to Karlstad!

Fredrik needs to turn in his measuring instrument for a regular service, which is in Karlstad. So we are driving it there instead of him mailing it and then we get to go shopping too! So we are looking forward to that. :) Going to IKEA and probably getting Leia some early birthday presents. (A table and possibly a new bed.) Maybe some baby/toy stores to look around which is always fun. (Which I think is more for Fredrik to look at all the LEGO collections.) :))

So wish us safe driving and hopefully I'll have pictures when we come home! :)

Waiting...

After we come downstairs in the mornings, Leia takes her kitty/kitties and sets them down next to her pacifier. They sit there and patiently wait for her while she eats breakfast. She is so precise and pays great attention to make sure they are sitting the exact way she wants them. If this stool isn't there, then she sets them up on the kitchen countertop. :)

Things are going okay I suppose. Fredrik has decided to take this Friday off from work, since work is going veeeerrry slow right now. He would rather give any work to the new guy and take the time off himself. :) And then he will have vacation next week.

The guy(s) fixing the fireplace will be showing up on Monday to come and start taking it down and look at it. They will check out what they need to do and then what they will need to bring back with them to start working on it. Hopefully it won't take too long then before they can start working on it. With any luck, we hope to be able to start using it by the beginning of December. Which means that we need to start hauling firewood here from the summer house!

I start school on Monday, I still need to order my books.. blah.. gonna cost lots of money.. :/ :)) I hate buying school books. Not nearly as bad as buying university text books in the US, but still.. you never know how useful the book is going to be or how much you are going to use it and it feels like a waste of money because you'll probably never open it again after the few months that you have class.

Leia was able to play with Nils for a couple of days and his parents came to pick him up yesterday and Leia was able to play with Alice a little yesterday too..

Leia saying goodbye.


Then Leia made her way down the street to another house and she jumped in their trampoline:



She screamed quite a lot when we made her get out.. :/ :))

Hmm... and when was it.. maybe Monday I think.. They neighbor's daughter beside us, Emma, came and played with Leia and Nils. Leia was a little left out because Emma is 5 and Nils is 4, so she really couldn't do that much with them.. but she ran around with them anyways. :) Nils played mostly with Emma, but every so often he would go to Leia and give her a hug and a kiss. :))) Emma was really good with Leia too, she went home to get a sweater and brought back one of her favorite stuffed animals for Leia to play with. :)) How sweet!

Fredrik talked with his boss though, and obviously the amount of work to do is going to be getting less and less as the year comes to an end. Fredrik might also have to go up to Norrland to work up there, which isn't the end of the World. Better that he do something to earn his salary I suppose.. :P :) I think it would be fun for him though!

Rainy day inside.

Saturday we made another trip to the summer house, so Leia could spend some time with her Farmor and Farfar. It rained pretty bad all day, so we were forced to stay inside. We had a great time anyway and Leia spent the day eating, coloring, and doing puzzles!

Mommy & Leia.

Never too early..

..to start caring about the environment!





You can also see her scratched upper lip. She had a nasty fall in the road yesterday.. she was running too fast and tripped and hit her mouth on the cement. :(









Yes, I know she is dressed for October weather, but that is what we have here now! It is cold and rainy and a bit nasty outside.. :/

6 years.

A cute picture of Leia in her trendy little outfit. :P All is well here I suppose. :P I know it has been awhile. Sometimes there just isn't time and other times it is actually nice to get a little break. :)


On Saturday, we drove to the summer house and spent the day there. We had the pleasure of meeting a family friend and it was lots of fun chatting with her through the day! :)







We had a bit of a scare while we were there, to say the least!
She decided to go down the porch steps, which are very steep, by herself while I was getting her shoes. She didn't fair too well and she fell off the porch pretty violently and wedged herself in between an enormous flower pot and the porch and hit the stones in the ground pretty hard. She screamed and screamed and I managed to get her out. She was very angry. :/ :) Not hurt, maybe sore, but more just scared I think about the horrible fall. Afterwards she mumbled things to the effect of "dumma blomma" (stupid flower). :D

She sat in my lap, but that didn't make her feel better and with all the screaming Fredrik had started walking up to the house. She jumped out of my lap as soon as Fredrik reached the front of the house. She started running as soon as she got down and managed to wedge herself through the small space between the fence and the hedge. The same second as she passed through the gate, we heard a car coming. Cars speed up and down this road soooo fast. She took a few steps into the road and stood there and Fredrik was already on his way to get her. I froze, as well as Farmor and our guest. Fredrik grabbed her at the same moment the car swerved.

I was still shaking an hour after the incident.

Her little life literally passed before my eyes.
Probably scared the poopies out of the driver of the car too. If anything hopefully it will make someone drive a little slower on that road from now on (but I doubt it).


Here are some pictures from our day there!












Then on Sunday, Fredrik and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! :) It honestly feels like it should be longer than that, but I think that is just because we have been together for so long. We didn't do anything to celebrate, but we did watch a movie that Mormor and Morfar sent for us after Leia went to bed. :) They have promised to babysit Leia so that we can go out and have a belated anniversary dinner. :)

Otherwise things are going well. Leia is enjoying daycare and Fredrik has very little to do at work. Which also means he has very little to give the new guy to work with. I told Fredrik he can start sending him out on our shopping errands. :D

The weather has been decent. Very hot for a couple of days and then it has cooled down a lot, a little more like Fall on some days. We get a little rain still most every day.

I'll try to make it not so long before the next post!

I love my baby girl.

Sometimes words just aren't enough.