A light in the tunnel

Today Julie and I strolled by Kungsträdgården in Stockholm and saw that the beautiful Japanese cherry trees were in full bloom! We got inspired and had sushi for lunch. Mmm, me like!

Today the sunrise was at 04:49 and the sunset'll be at 20:42 so the days are becoming longer now. I'm like a battery charger when the sun comes and it almost bubbles inside my body of happiness!

Welcome spring, sun and looong summer nights!

If you have one foot in the past

and the other in the future

you pee on today!

Our Easter was more than eggs

My sister Susanna came home from Kenya this Easter and we've done so many fun things together! I look forward to the summer already when she and her boyfriend come home to Sweden again!

Love you, sis!

I had promised myself neveeer to do...

There are things in life that you are convinced that you'll never do like your parents once did. Today I did something that I had promised myself neveeer to do...which was to use my own saliva to take away a dirty spot in Julie's face. It sounds more disgusting than it actually is (I'm saying to my defence now after the incidence)!

The hilarious thing is that I had my mom over for lunch today and had made a chevre chaud salad with blueberries. On our way out to go shopping I saw that she has a bluberry smudge on her cheek...

...and without a blink I stop her, lick my finger and rub it away!

I don't even think twice of what I've done...but it's my mother who starts laughing out loud at my little blunder! So now I'll never say never...

A unique exhibition for children

The cultural house in the center of Stockholm arranged an exhibition for young children aged 0 to 1 year and their parents earlier this year (the 20th of December 2008 to the 1st of March 2009 ). It's a unique exibition because it's the first time (ever in Sweden at least) the targeted group is only small children!

Today there are so many activities that stimulates the child. There are baby swimming, baby rhythmic, baby dance... and this exhibition is quite the opposite. It's a calm place painted all in white with many soft pillows (round, small, big, baggy and umbellical cord-looking ones) and there are round mirrors on the floor like lakes and soft music in the background. This exhibition is a celebration for the lifelong bonding between the child and the parent/adult and is a place where they have quality time together without other stressing imputs.

Julie and I were very curious to visit this exhibition and we were invited to go with my friend and collegue T and her son. My friend Å and her son were in the town too so we all went together. One had to purchase tickets before so that there wouldn't be too many children and parents there at the same time. Although we went together to this exhibition we decided to focus on our babies and meet eachother by the exit an hour later.

Aaaahh, it was so peaceful to enter this room! It really felt like the pulse from the city just outside the window was far far away and Julie and I was on an exploration trip in a neutral soft and "non-forcing" atmosphere with many visual and tactile imputs.

Julie tasted the mirrors with her mouth, played with a soft woollen rug and rolled around on the big pillows. It felt as if it was only us two in the room!

To sum up our day it was a truely great experience and we hope that there'll be more cultural experimental experiences like this for young children in near future in Stockholm!

Last chance to try the baby rhythmic at the Dance museum in Stockholm

BABYRYTMIK FÖR BARN 0 – 18 mån
Sjung, dansa och ha kul tillsammans med din baby. Med sång, dans och rytm skapar vi en härlig upplevelse. Bland Dansmuseets färgglada och inspirerande dräkter blir det nog en mazurka med Herr Gurka, en vals med armen om din hals och kanske en tango...

Den 7 maj är det sista tillfället! Jag och Julie ska gå kl. 10:30 (0-8 mån) och det skulle vara kul om du vill hänga på med din lilla/e palt! Jag vet ännu inte om man kan förbeställa biljetter. Det skulle vara snopet om det var fullt!

Kl. 9.15 ca 8 - 18 mån (för dig som kan krypa och kanske till och med gå)
Kl. 10.30 ca 0 - 8 mån (för dig som trivs bäst i famnen än så länge)
Biljetter: 70 kr/barn (30 kr/syskon), vuxna gratis.

Besöksadress: Gustav Adolfs torg 22–24, Stockholm
Tunnelbana: T-Centralen (alla linjer), Kungsträdgården (blå linje)

Picture: Julie in a Cha-cha-cha-pose in January 2009.

Help, my hair is falling off!

Unfortunately it's not Julie's favorite animal toy Chien blanc that's losing it's fur EVERWHERE but I. I find strands of my hair in the entiiire apartment. Well, I've never had a great hair quantity or quality but another month or two with this hair loss I'll need a wig by Midsummer ;-).

When I was pregnant with Julie both my hair and nails grew excellently. I felt like a princess and I loved to paint my nails and to curl my hair...

...do I need to mention the condition of my nails now? I've heard that during the pregnancy one doesn't lose any hair at all and after giving birth one loses all the hair that should have lost previously. Ok, fair enough as long as it'll stop falling off my head soon!

It's definitely worth going through this hair loss if I look at the wonderful result we've created: Julie. For now I'll look at the many pictures of me while I was pregnant and dream of the time I had a lot of nice hair to "play with"!

I hope Julie'll get Mamie Martine's hair!

Picture: My hair a month ago...!

The spring is finally here in Stockholm!

During the Easter we had such a splendid weather and today the sun's back... hopefully to stay this time! The sun recharged our batteries and inspired us to go running with Julie in the stroller along the water close to us (Kaanan). Afterwards we stretched and tried to relax in the sun on the balcony with some salsa music in the background. I wrote "tried to" because that was our intention but after a while the wind made us put on our pullovers again...ok, I admit that I'm not a Viking!

During the Easter my sister Susanna came home from Kenya to meet Julie... and the rest of the family too of course. We had such a great time together and my heart made somersaults when I saw her play with Julie!

So now we look forward to both tomorrow when it'll be even warmer than today AND to the summer when Susanna'll come back!

...AND to the nights when Julie'll sleep 8 hours or more in a row...

...AND to the holiday in Bordeaux with family and friends...

...AND to the day (soon!) that I'll get my driver's license...

The lost baby carrier

During our last trip to my grandparents up in the north of Sweden (Luleå and Kalix) I managed to lose our baby carrier Baby Bjorn. Probably in the cab going from the airport? Well, when you travel with a child it's like travelling with a circus (and we just have one daughter!). It wasn't that she was sad or anything -quite the contrary- but things like stroller, car seat, clothes... ok, you got it!

So now we're about to buy a new baby carrier but are stuck between a Manduca and an Ergo... It's a tough decision for me because I've heard positive things about both of them and despite my research I haven't come to a conclusion yet. Any piece of good advice out there?

In the picture you see Julie 2 months old in her Baby Bjorn on our first trip on the subway.

------
Footnote: I've now ordered an Ergo baby carrier! At the open pre-school today I tried both the Manduca and the Ergo and I thought the latter was better...more ergonomic ;-)!

Today at the gym...

During one of the exercises I realized that I had a reeeally bad balance. It was the exercise when you stand on your four "legs" and raise the right arm at the same time as you raise the left leg...

..the reason why I almost fell over was that I raised the arm and the leg on the same side! How clever! Embarrassing but funny... at least afterwards!

I'm a frequent and enthusiastic visitor at SATS (a Nordic gym chain) because there I can exercise together with Julie. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there's SATSbaby where Julie's used as my weight in some of the exercises (She loves that!) All the other times I can leave her at miniSATS -which is like a kindergarten- while I exercise in the gym or take a class. If Julie needs me they come and get me or say in the loudspeaker: Julie's mom please come to miniSATS!

Then I walk slooowly and proudly through the gym to show everyone that cares that I'm the lucky mother of Julie.

Julie 5 months

Date: 2009-04-20
Weight: 7125 g
Length: 66 cm
Head: 41,5 cm

Arreu, arreu...

Our little French/Swedish daughter says "Arreu, arreu..." and my husband and I quickly and happily reply "Ouiii, arreu, arreu..."

It's amazing that she's begun to train for the French language already! We've made an interesting observation that it's only Julie that makes those sounds among the babies in our circle of friends. ALL Swedish babies say "Ga-ga", "Ma-ma" or "Da-da"! Dear Swedish friends please correct me if I'm wrong.

For now my husband speaks only French with her and I speak Swedish and sing French songs... the thing is that the songs and their melodies have stuck to my head as a chewing gum and refuse to leave. So now nothing else can fit in my head but...

...Savez-vous planter les choux, A la mode á la mode... Bonjour ma cousine, Bonjour mon cousin germain... Alouette gentille aloutte, Aluette je te plumerai...

Well, hopefully I will improve my French at least... Arrreu, arreu! Thank you A and L for the great music cd with "Chansons et comptines de notre enfance"!!

For the Swedish people that know the song Alouette: The song is actually about "plucking" the feathers from a lark (Swedish: lärka), presumably in preparation for cooking. A lark is considered to be a small bird considered to be suitable for food. All the verses are the same except the part of the body... the head, the nose, the eyes, the tail... a pretty cruel children song when you listen to the lyrics ;-)!

A cool girl in her new sunglasses

We finally decided to buy the expensive but cool candy apple red sunglasses at Polarn och pyret for Julie when the sunny Easter weather came to Stockholm. They have been (and still are) very useful and everyone who looks at her begin to smile because she looks so cute (ok, as a mom I'm a little biased)!

Julie with her animal wig

Julie has many different toy animals (used to be her mom's collection items...) which she loves to play with. During the day she likes the colorful ones and when it's bedtime she preferes to have her soft and hairy Teddy and Chien blanc (white dog) to fall asleep. She both gently snuggles and talks with them and attacks them with a dinosaur-ish scream and her gums... aaAAARRGH!...

...which results in hair balls...

...which come out...

Isn't she lovely our little gem!

Julie and the African hens

Yesterday Julie noticed and reached for the mobile with the African hens -a cool gift from her aunt S who lives in Kenya- which have been hanging in the middle of her room for about three weeks. Julie's becoming more and more aware of her surroundings and her sticky fingers seem to reach everywhere...

...I'm starting to fear the time when her legs will take her everywhere too!

Thank you McG family for all the pieces of advice you gave us regarding child proofing our home during our wonderful week together!

Rise and shine

This morning when I went into Julie's dark bedroom to "see" if she was awake -yes, she'd slept 7 hours- my eyes hadn't aclimatized. I leaned over her entire bed and with a deep concentration I focused my tired eyes on what I thought was her head...

...and at the same time I realized that it was her favorite puppy Chien blanc I was staring at I got a feeling of being observed...

....Julie was laying sideways at the foot of the bed quietly smiling, anticipating that it's finally time for breakfast and with the curious expression on her face: "Mommy didn't you see that I was down here!"

My husband G and I compete to be the first one at her bed in the mornings -yes, even on weekends!- and be showered by her beautiful contagious smile!

”Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present”.

-Kung Fu-Panda (Walt Disney)

Julie (4 months)