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.

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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)!