3 hours & a swimsuit.

Leia and I went on a 3 hour walk yesterday! I really didn't intend for it to take sooo long, but we had a nice time. :)

She didn't sleep of course until I started the way home. Then I sat at the harbor on a bench, rested for awhile, enjoyed the nice weather, and watched a bunch of construction workers work on something slightly far away next to the restaurant on the lake. Then we made our way home and she woke up soon after arriving home. Pappa got home only a few minutes after us. :) (He came home early.) The weather was pretty nice yesterday afternoon.

And right now Leia is making her way across the living room to try to suck on the strands of a rug..... Which she very well knows she shouldn't do that because it is slightly disgusting, but she doesn't listen to us and does it anyways. :))

She still prefers green toys over others. :) And of all the toys she has, she loves this... round edged container for breath ments that I had bought while in the US. She grabbed it and started playing with it and won't let go of it. :/ :))

And I just filmed her chasing this green breath ment case around the living room. For awhile she was stuck on her red stuffed dog from "Uncle" Uffe. I'll get that on here of course. :)

Fredrik's friend, Daniel, who has a daughter 5 days younger than Leia, definitely agrees with Fredrik that Leia said "Pappa" in the video. :D I have a feeling that new Dads unite on things like this.. :D

Leia and I went out with much purpose yesterday, but we didn't get much accomplished besides at our trip to the grocery store.

We did get a little bit of clothes for her. I found the most adorable outfits. Especially this little red and white striped skirt with leggings attached. But they were too small, especially around the waist.

Ooh.. and she takes a pacifier now! She would randomly come across one while playing, and she would stick it in her mouth. And now she will suck on one every now and then. It will pacifier her for a little while, or she will play with it.

But I found some Pippi brand onesies and little leggings. Very simple and cheap (which is always good, considering baby clothes prices in Sweden). I bought size 80 (10-12 month), which is what fits her now. Her length is definitely in her waist. We realized that she is very quickly growing out of her clothes.

And once I saw it, I had to buy it:





Leia's first swimsuit. :)) I bought a size 92, hoping it will fit by the time it is warm enough to get wet... Which by God it should, since that is a 24 month size. But it looked so small.. It will probably be too big by then, though, once she thins out some more with getting longer, but that is okay, we'll have it for next year if it is too big. :)
I found a really cute baby pool.... It had like a baby gym on it, and toys attached.. But Fredrik complained about me getting it. And then when I put it back, he told me I should get it......... Men. :P

Leia had some beef stroganoff yesterday. :) Her first meat. I found it and thought I'd let her try it. She was very confused. :)) She.. not sure if she liked it, but she kept wanting more. She only had a few spoonfuls before she threw up.. :/ :)) I think the texture was a little different, it wasn't exactly puréed and she.. not sure it settled well with her. :) So we will save that flavor again for some other time. :/ :)) But this morning she had some baby oatmeal from the US. And she really, really liked that. :)

Okay, now Leia is getting a little grouchy, so it is time to go wake up Pappa.. :D

Presents from Carie.

A couple of days ago we got a box of presents for Leia from our dear friend Carie in the US.


Leia loves her Baby Einstein. :))





So adorable! :) The dresses will probably fit next summer, but with how fast she is growing, it wouldn't surprise me if she could wear them this summer.. :D

Carie is a teacher in the US Air Force and she just graduated a class yesterday. She now has 11 days of deserved rest before the next class starts. :)

Thank you so much, Carie! :)

Not sick.

I'm not sick.. technically. :)
Just tired and overwhelmed. :)

House keeping and cooking, and fulltime school work, and a 5 month old that can crawl..... Just tired and all that.
I've been having bad headaches and getting dizzy and lightheaded.
I thought I was sleeping very well. I usually go to bed around 21.30 every night, but I might not be sleeping as well as I thought I was.

And Leia is ALL over the place. :/ :)
She took it easy for awhile but now she is crawling everywhere and of course getting into everything she shouldn't. And she isn't interested in napping now. She is very happy and all that and doesn't get the least bit tired during the day (at least she is pretending well, and not going to sleep). She just wants to play, but it doesn't give me a second's rest. :/ :)

Crawling at 5 months.. And for awhile now she has been trying to pull herself up. Not into a sitting position but to a standing position. And honestly, we don't think it will be long before she walks.. :/

I barely get 30 seconds to sit still before having to go after her again. Of course that comes along with the "joys of parenting" but I thought we had at least 2-3 more months before that would begin.

I've been so bad at keeping up with people lately. I feel so bad about that. So many people I need to get in touch with.

Argh.. but now I should try to read a little while I might have a second.

Totally not fair.

If Fredrik gets sick or doesn't feel good. Then he just stays home from work and gets to sleep in bed all day.

If I am sick or don't feel good, then I still have to occupy an extremely energetic baby........

Newspapers.

We don't need to get a subscription to a newspaper because at least 2-3 times a week we get a free paper from at least one place or another as an enticement to get their paper. So.. we are covered.. :D And news around here is so slow, that it is enough with 2-3 papers a week.. :/ :))
There are so many little places with their own small papers. Today we got Säffle's newspaper. :)

Fredrik was in Ed today measuring for a house someone is building.

He has Monday off.
Tuesday and Wednesday he is in Karlstad for classes.
Thursday he works.
Friday he (everyone) has a meeting in Trollhätten to meet the new boss.

So he has 1½ days of work next week. :/ :)) Nothing that he is complaining about. :)

School is going okay.. :) Trying to study when I can.
Learning a lot about taxes with the book keeping class. Much more than I really care to know.. :D And it is no surprise that the unemployment rate is so high in Sweden, once you consider all the taxes that employers have to pay for their employees.

We finally change our time this weekend! They changed in the US weeks ago, so instead of the normal 6 hour difference, it has been 5 hours, which is difficult to keep track of (when the time is different than normal).

Not too cold today, and the sun is shining plenty, but there is still plenty of snow in the yard. Looking forward to the end of this week, when supposedly, the weather is supposed to get warmer and Spring should be on its way.

Now some lunch for Leia.. :P :)

Wonders of the Internet...

More Dop pictures.

Last night we received some pictures from Farmor o Farfar from the Christening.

95th Percentile.

I've been keeping an online growth chart going for Leia. And here they are:




She is in the 95th Percentile for growth and length.
However this is by American standards, as it is an American site, so I don't know exactly what it would be in Swedish standards, as the midwife didn't give us a print out today of her chart.

2nd Round.

We had our BVC appointment today (10.30). Which was a really bad time because we had to wake Leia up an hour early from her nap... :/ So she has been really tired today. :/ But Leia had her 2nd round of immunizations today. And it went really well. She cried a little when she stuck in the needle, but she got over it very quickly.

We also weighed her and measured her:

8.315 kg / 18.3 lbs
68 cm / 27 in

:)

We stayed after the appointment for the Öppen Förskola (Open Nursery) and it was extremely uneventful and pointless. :) The children are all much older and very feisty and lots of screaming.. :/ :) Gave Fredrik a good view of things to come. :))

Of course they had a keyboard laying around (?), so Leia thought that was a lot of fun. And the Öppen Förskola leader came over and said "hi" and of course she thought that Leia was a boy..... :)



But when we left, we ran into one of our parent-group moms! She was there with her little one, Oliver, and we talked to her a few minutes and let the babies play. They played with each other's toes and hands. :)) But he had been sick the last couple of months, found out he is lactose intolerant, but he is doing much better now. So that is good to hear. :)

And we went and bought Leia some more formula to help her poop. We are going to have to continually give her small amounts of it mixed in with other formula. She hasn't pooped since Sunday and she is very unhappy about that. :/ We hate it for her, but at least the formula works very well.

Today I have to meet with my Swedish teacher. There are 5 different sections, and I finished the first one a long time ago, but this was the first day that she could see me. So I have no idea what we are going to do, probably just talk about things that I've read and what I think about them and yadda yadda yadda... It will be extremely uneventful and boring, that I am 110% sure of.

Leia's next appointment will be a regular check-up with the barnläkare (pediatrician), since she will be 6 months. April 15th.

Leia's Dop.

Leia's Dop.