Girl Scout Cookies.

A big thank you to Mormor and Morfar for hunting us down boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. :) I used to sell them when I was in the Girl Scouts of course, but they are a little more expensive now, 18+ years later.. :P But Fredrik has never had any before and we missed the ordering dates for the cookies. So my parents went to the head office in Lorain County and were able to buy some boxes there. :)

So Leia had her first Girl Scout Cookie today!
A peanut butter sandwich cookie - and she LOVED it. :))




And a few other goodies:
- green bear for Leia for St. Patrick's Day
- flashcards for Leia
- a puzzle, that makes animal noises
- Goldfish snacks (cheese flavored crackers)
- small pasta meals


Leia loves her new puzzle!

She tries VERY hard to get the pieces in the holes. If she does it on her own, it ends up like this:



But when you show her which spot they are supposed to go in, then she does it perfectly!!


Fredrik had a meeting at work today with someone for the sanitation project. They went over lots of maps that Fredrik made. Since everything was okay, and Fredrik's work load with that project will be less - he will start taking Mondays off for Pappa-time with Leia. Not sure when he will start though, as he has to hand in a "permission" paper to his boss.

Bed without dinner.

Leia had to go to bed tonight without dinner. *hmph*
She refused to eat what we offered her, fish and potatoes. She would start eating and then spit it out, so we decided that it was by choice - for whatever reason, not necessarily because she didn't like it. And definitely not because she wasn't hungry.

So she got to sit and watch Mamma and Pappa finish dinner, and then she had her bath. Then she had her välling like normal.. :P So she didn't go to bed on an empty stomach - she just wasn't given a replacement for the dinner she didn't want to eat.

Harsh on a 17 month old??
We didn't think so.

Fredrik is deathly afraid she will start eating like him: which means no veggies or fruits. So he is determined to make her learn to eat what she is given. Although getting her to eat veggies is NOT a problem. She loves them!

She did however ask for a "nana" after she refused to eat her fish. So...
We told her she wasn't allowed to have a "nana."

Fredrik has a work meeting tomorrow - in some town by the coast, a couple of hours away. So we don't know when he will be home tomorrow evening. And then we have Leia's daycare meeting on Thursday evening.

Not much happening around here. :/

We found out today that they have raised the price/cost for daycare in Åmål. What a difference a few tenths of a decimal can make...... :/ :)
They raised it from 2,6% to 3,0%. Which is a big difference, especially after Fredrik's raise this Winter. But we're still paying .. what? like 10% of what the average daycare costs in the US....

Leia loves playing dress-up. But she has to wear ALL of her dress-up clothes at the same time. 3 tops and 3 skirts. *sigh* :)

We think she has been saying her first sentence. :)
"Va gör du?" (What are you doing?)
But it sounds more like:
"Va gör det?" (What is it doing?)

We aren't sure which one she is saying, but she responds more to "Vad gör det?".
She definitely says it with a rise at the end of the sentence, it is definitely a question.

It will be interesting to see if that becomes her first phrase/sentence.

Random Leia stuff.

- The remote controls are named "mina" (mine).

- Her name is now "eia."

- She is afraid of her food being too warm and is hesitant to start eating.

- She likes to lick glass....

- If you ask her if she has "poopied," she will put her hand on her butt and say "nej" (no). Even if she just stood infront of you and pooped.

- Loves building with blocks.

- Caesar is the most awesomest thing in the WHOLE World. And she screams a high-pitched, happy scream whenever she seems him. Needless to say - he hides from her.

- If you ask her where "Pappa" is - she will go into the office and look up at the desk.

- When she's hungry, she runs into the kitchen, points at the bananas and says "nana!"

- She'll eat anything.

- She LOVES peanut butter. Especially on waffles. :D

- Loves birds. Even loves the antennas the birds sit on. She points to the tops of houses and laughs - even when there are no birds there.

- Waves at everything. Trees and cars are her favorites.

- Can't go 5 minutes without sitting and looking at a book.

- Will try to say every word you say to her, even if she miserably fails.

- Shows comprehension of everything we say in both Swedish and English.

Elvis wanna-be.

I apologize that I haven't written in awhile. I needed a little break. :)

But we are all doing well. Fredrik and I are having our monthly pizza-movie night tonight. :)

Not much else going on.. :P
More soon!

Getting better.

Leia was still cranky yesterday, but she got better and better as the day went on. This morning she was much more herself, but a little confused when I left her at daycare.

Fredrik and I felt very good by yesterday evening. Much more back to normal. This morning was the same for both of us. But after my shower this morning, my tummy hurt a bit.

I haven't heard from Fredrik yet, but I'm sure he's doing well at work. I know he has plenty to check up on from his 2 days off.

I washed 4 loads of laundry after Leia got sick, and after we all got sick, I've washed 6 more loads. So I've done 10 loads of laundry in 1 week. :( (The fastest cycle on our washing machine is 62 minutes.) I have 3 piles of clean clothes to fold and put away. That is my assignment for today. And to reboil most of Leia's pacifiers.

Leia was a little confused when I left her at daycare this morning. Neither happy nor sad. When we got there, one of the new little girls, My, came running up to Leia and gave her a big hug. :D Leia was really confused. :))) Then she helped Leia take her jacket off. She really likes Leia I suppose. Which is good - she is the little girl that lives about 3 houses down from us. :)


Never too sick to play dress-up!
She's wearing 2 skirts!!

Out and about.

Getting out was good for Leia - she was VERY happy to be out. She didn't make a peep as soon as we left the house and she was much better after we came home. She went to sleep without a problem.

We got a new matress, but there were only 2 choices:
- 500sek (80$)
- 99sek (12$)

A bit of a price difference.......
So we bought the 99sek matress.. thinking that she is more than likely to get sick again at least some time in the near future and ruin it again.. so why pay so much if we are going to have to buy a new one anyways? At least that was our reasoning.

It was nice to get some fresh air, but Fredrik and I were more just anxious and counting down the time for Leia's nap so that we can sit still for a few minutes and rest. :)

I lost 10 pounds (4,5kg) within 2 days. :P (Not exactly a desirable way to lose weight.)
Not sure how much Fredrik has lost, but Leia has lost a lot of weight too. :/ Hopefully she'll gain it back without too much trouble.

Now to try to eat a little something and have some tea!

Up and down.

We're all going up and down.
Feel good, feel bad, tired, icky, okay....
Ugh.. I think we wish it would more just pick one phase. :/ :)

Leia is making us more ill than anything I think.
She is now refusing to eat anything.
She is very screamy and whiny. Just like last time she got really sick - she regresses.

We think she is tired of being at home - so she is definitely going back to daycare tomorrow. And Fredrik will return to work.

Soon we are going to go and hunt a new matress for Leia's crib. It is very ruined now with how sick she was. Today is the first chance for us to go get a new one.

She did sleep okay last night and she didn't get sick. So we gave in finally, because we were tired of her screaming and we let her have 1 portion of gröt (over-cooked oatmeal) for breakfast. She was very grateful. And we let her have some milk. Even though she still isn't supposed to have either.

We are anxiously waiting to feel better and I think we are more anxiously waiting for Leia to get back to normal........

A belated update..

I should have updated earlier in the day - but we've been busy.. and sick. :P

We've spent the day trying to get Leia to drink anything. And I've done lots of laundry and finally emptied the dishwasher and loaded the dishwasher and washed lots of dishes that can't go in the dishwasher. I've done 2 loads of laundry and have about 15 more to do.... We have a very "germy" house to clean.

Leia went to bed at 18.30 last night. After plenty of cheerios.
Fredrik and I went to bed at 19.30.

Leia woke us up at.. I dunno.. 07.30 maybe.
And she had thrown up sometime during the night. Which really upsets me because she didn't complain, like she normally does. So she slept in it.......... We had no idea. :( So she had a morning bath and then we all had breakfast.

Fredrik called Leia's nurse at the BVC and she gave some tips for us - since Leia won't drink anything. She thinks the cheerios were too much fiber for her and caused her to throw up what she had left stuck inside her. Which.. might very well have been a good thing she threw it up then - to get rid of it.

But she had cheerios this morning, before we knew it was still too early to give them too her. But she hasn't gotten sick today from them.. so that is good. She is just really, really tired of yoghurt. :/

I found some baby, flavored, rice puffs from the US in the cellar, and so we gave her some of those. Since they dissolve in her mouth. She was VERY happy to get those. :)) And I deluted some more apple juice.. it is more water than apple juice - but she is drinking it. So.. That is good.

Fredrik called daycare and said she wouldn't be coming tomorrow. We don't want her going until she is eating normal foods. Then he had to call and cancel her dentist appointment for tomorrow..... *sigh* We didn't really want any of us going since we were all sick.

We also called the BVC because Leia was blue in the lips during the morning, but it went away. She said that it was probably because she is dehydrated and not drinking it is causing her circulation to be bad. So after she started moving around more - the blueness went away. It hasn't come back.

We've had yoghurt and toast today. We are soon going to have a snack and then mashed potatoes for all of us for dinner. :)

Fredrik and I are tired and have headaches that come and go. We are taking tylenol so we think that is helping a lot! The achiness (is that a word? I'm sure I spelled it wrong at least) is gone from our limbs, so that is good. We feel better and better as time goes on. But it is just the whole thing that is tiring and stressful.

Being alone and having so much to do and take care of.. and not having any energy. So much needs to be cleaned and washed. We haven't cleaned her toys up in days.

Fredrik did manage to get to the store this morning - so we have all those essentials that sick people need.

We have decided that we do have the infamous Winter Vomiting Virus (Vinterkräksjuka). Which is known as Norovirus in the US. (In the US it was first know as Norwalk Virus, since there was an enormous outbreak in Norwalk, Ohio in 1968.) In Sweden and probably other places in Europe - Winter Vomiting Virus spreads like wildfire. We are certain Leia had a stomach flu during Christmas break, since Fredrik and I didn't get sick.

Every hour that goes by - we feel much better. But it is still going to take time.

Leia LOVES being on the couch. She is a pro now and we let her get up and down completely on her own. She loves to lay there and lay on the pillows. She is very good at getting down too. It is a new little adventure for her.

Fredrik has decided that if we are in fact reincarnated into another life - that he wants to be reincarnated into a Teletubbie.

Right now Leia is standing infront of the TV dancing to the ending credits of Star Wars. :D

It started snowing this morning and it hasn't stopped.......
So now it is time for a snack.
I'll give an update soon.
Thanks for all the get-well wishes!

Not going so well.

Not going so well here for any of us.
Fredrik and I both feel horrible and Leia has been very moody and whiny and screamy all day. We aren't sure what is wrong with her but it isn't very much fun. Especially when you're sick. :/

We are afraid she is going to get sick again.

We all had bowls of yoghurt for dinner.

Fredrik and I are still very dehydrated and we are just so completely sore. And I've been having chest pain - anxiety attack pain I think because I am just so worried about how long it is going to take for us to get better and worried about Leia getting sick again.

The house looks horrible. :/ Dishes and cups everywhere.
If neither of us feel better tomorrow, we're going to have a friend in town pick us up some groceries. Which we might should do anyways - not sure we should be leaving the house. :/

Leia is very, very tired - but she just screams when you try to help her go to sleep. She even took her kitty and put it in her crib - which is what she does when it is bedtime. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sleep with her tonight - which means no sleep for Mommy. :/

So we'll see how tonight goes and hope at least some of us are feeling better tomorrow.

Both of us.

A few hours after I got sick last night, Fredrik got sick too.
Not so much fun. :/ So neither of us got sleep.

Leia is very angry today. She wants normal food. She is a meat and potatoes kind of gal - and yoghurt and water just isn't doing it for her. I let her have a little milk this morning, and some corn puffy snacks.

Fredrik and I just don't have the energy to keep up with her. She is much better of course.

When changing her diaper this morning, after I took her diaper off, I almost fainted. I got very light headed, my eyes were spinning, I started sweating and my ears starting ringing.

I put in Teletubbies, and Leia (thank God) is completely in awe of it, so it is keeping her occupied for now. I sent Fredrik to bed to sleep, and I have been dozing on the couch.

Fredrik won't be going to work tomorrow, we'll see about the rest of the week.

I'm sipping on water and keeping it down - which is good - because I am dead thirsty.

There is nothing like throwing-up for 8 hour straight and looking in the mirror and seeing a pale face and blood-shot eyes. :/

Not sure how we are going to make it through the day.