Bar stools.

We (Fredrik) couldn't decide on a bar stool that we liked, so we just decided to go ahead with ol' faithful and buy some at IKEA.

Silly kitty!

Trip to IKEA.

Today we had our "exciting" trip to IKEA. :)

We bought most of what we wanted, and a few other things that we knew we could use. And then of course a few extra things for Leia that she didn't need but that we wanted.. :D

We had a fun day, though, I think. :)
Leia road for the first time in a shopping cart, and sat for the first time in a highchair (barnstol).

She LOVED every minute through the store. She was looking at everything and was very happy. :)


After leaving Åmål.


She fell asleep for awhile on the way to Karlstad.


First time in a shopping cart. :)


She held onto the front and looked around everywhere. And she even held some of my papers for me for awhile. Doesn't she look older than 4½ months?!?!


Such a cutie. :)


After IKEA we went to COOP to try to buy the... protective things for the... radiators. And we were picking out sizes, and we realized they only had 1 of the size we needed.. we needed 2 of them.. :/ :( So we couldn't get the stuff. That was really annoying, but we didn't know how expensive it all is.. :/ Have to take out a small loan to buy all the stuff.. :D
But we'll have to try to get that some other time.. :/ Hopefully they'll have all the pieces then....

After that we went to one of the baby stores in Karlstad. A baby store / toy store. And we bought some onesies and PJs that are the next size up. And some refills for our diaper garbage can. Two rattles that are adorable. Hmm... and two little books.. We also looked at high chairs (barnstol) to see what we are interested in buying. We think we will go with the family owned place in Säffle and buy one from them. They always give good prices on things. And we looked at car seats (bilbarnstol) to see what we like, going to have to get a new one soon. We are thinking of just getting a used one from Blocket.se. It is so far to drive anywhere to get one, it would be easiest to buy one from someone here in town.


Talking up a storm after leaving Karlstad.


One of her many silly faces.





The flowers looking very pretty.


And finally some baskets for my yarn. :)))


Fredrik has an icehockey game to watch around 21.00 and then he is going to put together the few things that needs assembling.

Mormor and Morfar bought their tickets to come visit us this Summer! :) They will get here on June 17th, just in time for Midsummer. And they will go home on July 28th.

After this it is a little bit of studying for me. I read some computer stuff in the car today. I'll take the next computer test on Thursday.

My Sweethearts. :)

Sounds.

Leia made her first recognizable sound about two day ago. :) She said "gah." :))

Today, Leia and I baked chocolate chip cookies. :) A whole bunch of cookies. In the box from Mormor and Morfar, we received some vegetable crisco, and so today we used some to make some cookies. :)

And tomorrow we are going to go to IKEA. Fredrik is determined that we write out a list of what we want, so that we don't forget anything. :)) And then we will go to the COOP construction store and buy some radiator protection coverings for Leia's room and for the living room. We think it will make the living room look a lot nicer. The radiators are the first things you see when you walk into the room and they aren't so attractive.. :)

Leia pulled off an orchid petal and stuffed it into her mouth.. :/ :))

Whenever she sees something new or exciting or Caesar, she gets very quiet and a very serious look on her face and she mouths things. She is sooo cute when she gets very serious. :))

It is a bit weird when I think about.. that she was in my tummy... :/ :D
She is an extremely happy baby. There isn't anything you can't do that she won't laugh. :) She sleeps extremely well at night and then she takes a morning nap without any trouble. In the afternoon we always try for a second nap and sometimes that goes very okay, and other times it doesn't happen. She just wants to play instead. :) We don't have a set schedule, but we definitely have a routine. :)

Right now Pappa is giving Leia her bath. She gets one every other night. She loves her bath time. :) She will sit in the tub and splash the water and play with a few toys.
As soon as you lay her on her back, she rolls over to her tummy. She definitely prefers to be on her stomach.

My studies are okay ... I've not been able to get ahold of my Swedish teacher. Which is making me very angry. I'm going to take another computer test next week. My computer teacher and my bookkeeping teacher have been fantastic. I haven't been able to do anything with the Swedish teacher as I can't get ahold of her.

Every now and then I regret taking classes. I feel stressed and overwhelmed. Afraid that I won't be able to get through all the work. That feeling comes and goes. I think a bit of it is because I know the best and only way to learn a language is to sit in a classroom with others, and I'm not sure if I am accomplishing anything with the Swedish class. But I know that I am learning plenty of new words with the other classes. But at least it is giving me a little something to keep my mind going, like Mormor said. I can feel like I have something "adult" to do, instead of playing with toys and watching cartoons and not having much of adult conversations during the day... With this I am keeping my brain going a little.

Angelica, the American in town, invited us to her son's birthday party next weekend. So Fredrik and I will be going to that! We are very much looking forward to that. :)

We have plenty we want to buy tomorrow. (Too much, probably.) A new step-stool for the bookshelves, as the one we have has paint all over it, 2 bar stools for the kitchen, 2-3 pictures to put above the DVD shelves, some extra shelves for the bookcases, some tin pots for my idea with the breakfast room (for the wall), and some other things, too probably.. We decided to take the trip to give me a chance to get out of the house.. :/ :) And give us something to do together. Something besides watching a movie. :)

More tomorrow, I'm sure.. :)

February pictures.

February Pictures

There are 215 pictures.. :P So it might take a second for the page to load.

Rock n' Roll Princess.

Teething ring.

Leia loves her American teething rings. She will hold it and chew on it like there is no tomorrow. She has symptoms of a cold, but no cold, so we are guessing she is teething.

Fredrik had a dream last week that Leia all of a sudden had 7 teeth.. :D

Her eyes are a strange thing. In most pictures they look blue, but in real life they are dark gray. They are very pretty, though. Gray is the most probable of mixing my hazel and Fredrik's blue eyes.

She isn't really crawling, but she is moving.. Sorta.. worming her way around the floor.. Not only is she changing directions now but she is actually moving herself in distance, but again, not by crawling... so, we think the crawling will come soon.

We have finally stopped counting her age by week and we are counting by day of the month now. So, she is technically now only around 4½ months. We'll count 5 months on March 13th. So, considering her age, with rolling over in both directions and her crawling, and walking around in her walker (gåstol), she is doing extremely well with development.

Every time we go to see Leia's BVC nurse, she would ask things like "she should start to roll over from her tummy to her back..." And we look at each other and say "she's been doing that for the last month."

So soon she will start to crawl, and then walk, and then I will never, ever get a moments rest.. :D

Pots and Metallica.

On our walks, Leia and I end up at the greenhouse at least one a week.. something which Fredrik isn't so thrilled about... :D This is what I bought yesterday:





Some new pots for the office room. I thought they were different without being TOO much. And some Spring flowers to add some nice color.

And.. going to a greenhouse, you're going to have mostly older women ... and they are all going crazy over Leia..... Which is nice, but slightly annoying.. :)

We received an Easter box from Mormor and Morfar today. With some Easter candy, some American baby food for Leia (lots of different flavors they don't sell in Sweden), a few late Baby Shower presents for Leia, an adorable Easter dress that Leia can wear Easter Sunday before her Christening, and 2 onesies that I ordered for Leia.

When I saw these, I had to buy them... :D





They were expensive, but adorable. :)

We plan on going to IKEA this weekend. We are going to make the long drive to Karlstad and try to accomplish some things. Not sure what to do with Leia.. :/ :) She is too heavy to carry, but too small really to sit in a shopping-cart. So, it should be interesting. :/ :) Might have to make her learn how to sit in a shopping cart.. :))

But the bookcases look much better:




I still don't have any of my hundreds of books from the US. I really wanna ship them over. :/ They have M-bags, where you can ship media (books, sheet music, CDs, DVDs, etc) for a slightly lower cost than normal, but it would still be extremely expensive. So I've been thinking about boxing them on a couple of pallets, and shipping them over that way.. :/ I really want them.. :/ Or maybe I can find an American in Ohio that is moving to Sweden that is paying for a cargo shipment and I can pay for some space in their container and get my books that way...... :D

And our next parent group is on Monday, so I should sit with Fredrik and we should decide if we should try to host a party for our parent group people. We are thinking more people might come if it is a party-type thing... Hmmm.. we'll see.. :/ What do you think?!

Leia has been sleeping for a little while, her second nap today, and now I need to try to get some things done.. :P

My genius husband... ;)