Spring cleaning.

I started Spring cleaning today..... Ugh. :) I mean *really* cleaning.

I started in Leia's room. Got about ½ way done maybe. Considering the limited time I had to work while she was at daycare.

Then I tried to figure out how long it is going to take me to clean the house.

There are 7 rooms, 3 hallways, 1 kitchen, and 2 bathrooms.
13 "rooms" total. (Not including the cellar.)

If I average 2 days per room, that is 26.

I have 3 days a week that I have time to work on the cleaning (the few hours when Leia is at daycare). So 26 divided by 3... It will take 9 weeks to finish..... :D

Lazy Sunday walk with Pappa...

Teething.

Yep.. :/ Leia is teething and it has made her a little cranky. She wouldn't be nearly as cranky if she would only eat something! She's been a bit picky with her food lately, so we are happy when she will just eat anything.

We're not sure if it is the teeth or her just being picky, but it can definitely be annoying when she'll take 2 bites and then refuse to eat anything else. But we're hoping that it quickly passes.

Her nose is SO runny though.. :/ Not exactly sure how many tissues we've gone through the last 3 days.. :/ :)

The meeting on Thursday evening was nice! Leia was the only child there. :/ There were 5 other parents/couples there. So 6 of us total, but we represented 8 of the children (a set of twins and then 2 siblings). All the other children were with grandparents..... But Leia had to be there with us, since we have no family to watch her when we have things to do. After the meeting, on the way to the car, Fredrik said to me "Yay.. we get to be the weird parents that have to take their children with them everywhere."

They told us about plans for the Spring. They are going to start teaching them about nature: leaves, trees, flowers and bugs, etc.. They hope to take some field trips! So I think it is going to be good for her.

Lots of others that I know in Sweden, they complain that their daycares are more like glorified babysitters. It makes me happy that we got Leia into a private daycare. Since the teachers invested their own money into the business, they are very interested in making everything work well. I'm so happy that they are actually going to try to teach the children things.

Leia has been saying "dumma" for the last couple of days. It means "stupid." Definitely something she has picked up from daycare.. not exactly one of the words I was hoping she would pick up early.. :/ She hasn't attached the word to anything yet, she just says it randomly. At least for now.. :/

Spring is supposed to be on its way. We had one last snow last weekend, but it melted away the next day. We had our first rain, on Friday I think it was.

I just looked at pictures from March of last year, and on March 2nd, we had no snow and we had some Spring flowers:



They are called "snödroppar" (snow drops).

Leia was 17 months old on Friday! :)
She is a smart little baby. :) At least we think so. :)
While going through her books, if she sees a cat - she points to it and says "dat," if she sees a banana - she points to it and says "nana," and if she sees a monkey - she points and says "apa." :)

Actually a year ago today, we were at a birthday party, here are some pictures:





The weather is a little different today than a year ago today.. :/ We still have snow and it is much colder. And the lake is still frozen.

Fredrik hopes to start taking off next Monday, not this coming Monday. Then he'll get to spend more time with Leia. :)

That is enough for tonight!! :)

Restored faith!

Tonight I have regained faith in my fellow Swedish citizens.

Thank you, Sweden for sending Malena Ernman to the European Song Contest (Eurovision)!
At first I didn't like the song, but it has definitely grown on me and I love it! She is a great singer and I really hope the song does well at the European final. :)

Language stuff...

Leia has been having a little trouble today with her languages.. :/

Today she has said:

"mine-a"

instead of

"mina" (mean-a)

And she also said:

"green-a"

instead of

"green"


She is adding an "A" to the end of her English words. :D


And while in her room today, she was rocking the rocking chair back and forth. I told her "watch your toes, Leia." She went and got a cloth and wiped her nose. :D

Which College Major Should You Be?

Which College Major Should You Be?
	Your major should be Engineering. Logic is your friend. With enough work, you can find a solution to anything... Unless it involves dating or parties.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

What Kind of Wife Are You?

What Kind of Wife Are You?
	You are a(n) Good Wife. You are an absolutely good wife! You're not so perfect that you look fake and you don't nag so much that you'll end up in divorce court! Your marriage has ups and downs but you and your man love and respect each other. You are supportive and expect the same from him. You are right where you want to be and couldn't imagine your life differently.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

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.