Henrik's blog

Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:28:00.002-05:00

This year Henrik decided what he wanted to be. A Robot. Awesome!

I'm a killjoy so Olof's suggestion of making a Bender costume was vetoed. Instead, I had plans of an elaborate light up costume with movable parts! But uhm, he's 3 and that would weigh poor little guy down. So plan b, a kick butt glowing at night, but daytime super cute!

Here are a few shots of the fitting and then the painting.

We went to the Goblin Walk downtown in San Carlos and had a blast!

He met the cast of The Wizard Of Oz!

Almost there...

Today, there was a party at school complete with a parade and cupcakes!

He was licking the frosting off the box!

Parade!

And glowing Henrik!!

So there you have it, our first Halloween in Belmont. I hope to become a regular blogger again :) Hope there are still a few readers out there!

Happy Birthday Henrik!

2011-03-21T00:04:00.005-05:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Henrik!

Must set camera to speed of light. Henrik is fast!

We had a small play date with some new and old friends on Saturday (his birthday). Henrik opened presents as people arrived, which totally cracked me up!

He is enjoying everything, but oh boy oh boy, the bubble mower was the hit. I think he spent 30 solid minutes running back and forth with that bad boy! There was of course much coveting of the mower and unfortunately, it (the mower) needed a nap.

We went out to dinner and Henrik had a BLAST! They sang for him and he got a giant sombrero and a green and purple dinosaur balloon!

Then, when we got home, he put on pjs and then tucked in the mower with a blanket, hug and kiss!

Party Cupcake! He blew out all candles with one puff!

Nom Nom Nom!

Mmm Satisfaction!

Griffin makes cupcake face!

Adrian likes the cake part of the cupcake!

Katie's cupcake face!

Thanks for joining us on our play date with cupcakes! We were so glad to spend the afternoon with you guys!

Stats for Henrik:
Height- 38"
Weight- 36.4#

He's more than half as tall as me!

California

2010-11-27T13:11:00.004-06:00

Let's see if we can start up some of the blogging again. We've been bad at it ever since most of our families starting connecting with us on facebook instead, since it seemed like a quicker way to share some of the everyday stuff.

Anyway, we've all made it to California now. The house has been sold, the movers have picked up all our stuff and most of it is in storage, and we're now in a surprisingly large 2-bedroom apartment for 2 months while we start searching for a house to buy. Sniffle.

Being in an apartment again is a lot of adjustment. While it's pretty roomy, there's definitely less space to get away from the rest of the family for a bit (for all of us), so there's less downtime and more friction. Also, while the everyday stuff works quite well, Henrik hasn't been having a great time. From sleep adjustment (waking up at 5.30 is starting to get old :) to more frequent tantrums, he's also quicker on his mood swings and doesn't listen to us the way he used to. It's all part of adjusting to a new place, etc, we know that. But it's still taking a toll on all of us.

Unfortunately most of the week has been rainy, so we haven't had a good chance to get out and do much as a family yet. We did dare the crowds a little bit yesterday to pick up a new winter jacket for Henrik (see the post below? Yeah, it's still missing, and he needs one). We also got a car GPS (TomTom) for Brandy, since she'll probably spend most of her time being lost otherwise. :-) We hope to go explore more soon. First real touring of houses with our Realtor is tomorrow!

have you seen this coat?

2010-11-03T16:50:00.002-05:00

I can't seen to find his jacket and am wondering if I lent it out to someone. So, if I did and you have it, could you email me :)

Thanks :)

Boo!

2010-11-01T08:44:00.003-05:00

Uhm, long time no post! Wonder if anyone still has us on their readers? :)

I'll do an update tonight or tomorrow. As I was loading up pictures from last nights, we looked back over Henrik's 3 Halloweens and just had to share the cuteness with the world!

Henrik the monster and his buddy Rhett the Monkey! (7months)

Henrik the penguin (19months)

BamBam and Pebbles (Audrey) (2y 7m and 2y 10m)

I made the costumes!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun halloween!

Dinner and a movie with Audrey!

2010-08-20T21:50:00.004-05:00

We've been busy not selling our house, but keeping it clean for the last month. This house not selling is really wearing on us, but on the bright side, Henrik is back to his old happy go lucky self.

I think Henrik just had his first chaperoned date!

After nap time Audrey and her mom and brother came over to spend the afternoon/ evening with us. We decided to bake cookies (from scratch), make pizzas and watch Wall-E.

So dinner + movie = date...

Baking with kids (while messy) is a ton of fun. The kids are pretty interested in creaming the butter and sugar in the giant mixer. While this is going on I combine the dry stuff so they can scoop it in the mixer. Henrik and Audrey were great helpers in the kitchen!

They added the flour perfectly and each got to dump a bag of goodies into the cookies. We ended up with chocolate chip, butterscotch and heath toffee cookies! Yum!

As the bazillion cookies were baking, they ran off to play and make a giant mess. It was wonderful. Henrik has been so timid to make a mess and it's just been the last two weeks he's loosened up. Today they pulled stuff out from top to bottom and the look of joy on his face was wonderful to see.

Next, we heated the pizza stone up and got the dough ready for them to top. Both kiddos tasted everything and either liked it or put is back on the plate. It was so fun to watch them pick and choose. They used pepperoni, fresh basil, black olives, pineapple and CHEESE glorious CHEESE!

We turned on the movie and brought them out their pizzas on predesignated plates. Audrey said she gets the very clean (cleaned by herself) pink plate and Henrik gets the blue plate. They were super cute eating pizza and watching the movie.

My heart was melting all over the place and then I looked at the photos we took during the afternoon and seriously... puddles of love all over the place.

Here is a link to the highlight reel from today. Make the browser window as large as you can before clicking on it, and enjoy. :-) You have to see Audrey's super cute little brother chomping on some pizza!

Click me Click me!

Another month has passed

2010-07-11T21:35:00.003-05:00

So, first to follow up on the previous post: We did get the house on the market in the two weeks we were gunning for. It was a LOT of hard work, and we had some very much needed help from some of Brandy's friends.

We've had some showings in the two weeks it's been on the market, but no offers yet. Traffic has picked up in the last few days though, so we're somewhat hopeful again. We'll see what happens in the next week or two.

One thing we've been bad at doing is to bring our camera along. We've taken snapshots with our phones and posted on facebook, but the "real" camera has been sitting at home a lot. We've tried to get better at it lately and here are a couple from today. :-)

We swung by Precision Camera today to look at lenses, and this is how grumpy Henrik was. He had his nap cut short due to a showing. Grumpy, but cute. :-)

Some friends of ours had their baby last night, and we went to see her (and them) today. She was very very cute, and Brandy will be doing a newborn session with them this week so keep an eye on her photoblog for sneak peeks from that later on. But this photo of Henrik and mommy was cute enough to share as it is. :-)

No posts, what's going on? Lots!

2010-06-11T23:36:00.003-05:00

We've been very very bad at blogging lately. Most people we know already know why but I figured we would update here anyway.

First things first... When I left IBM for a silicon valley startup 4.5 years ago, we agreed that I would travel for a while but we would eventually move out there. Things ended up dragging along though, and circumstances were never right. They still aren't ideal but we've decided that they probably won't get better if we wait either.

I started a new job back a couple of months ago, with a larger company out in California. They want us to move out there, and we've decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

This means we've been CRAAAZY busy. We're working with a realtor, we've been working on getting the house ready for sale (it should be on the market in about 2 weeks), and on top of that I of course have a new job with all that it entails.

Most of our friends who follow our blog are these days friends with us on facebook, and the regular trickle of updates from our life (and Henrik's) gets posted there, which has also meant we've been less active on posting here.

It will be really hard to leave Austin. I have personally grown tired of the heat and a few other aspects of living here, but we've made some really good friends here over the years and it will not be easy to leave. We will definitely have to come back to visit every now and then. :-)

So, we'll try to keep the blog updated, but there's a good chance we'll be bad at it in the upcoming weeks.

-Olof (and Brandy and Henrik too)

Playdate at a fun park

2010-05-17T14:40:00.005-05:00

Friday Henrik and I met up with my old buddy from DE, Mitra and her super cute little guy Adrian.

We went to a park and Henrik had a blast. Not only was there sand (and sand at the park isn't that powdery sand you have at the park in Texas, but nice big grains that shakes off easy), but there were also swings, slides and a stroller to push! With a kid to feed in it! Holy Fun times Batman!!

Hey there!

So cute!

Where to buddy?

Lots of traffic, want a snack?

Hello? ! ?

Greetings from California!

2010-05-15T23:42:00.005-05:00

Uhm, so lets pretend it hasn't been over a month since I posted. I have been reading all of your blogs, but since I read them in google reader, there isn't a quick way to comment. Sorry if you guys think I've forgotten you!

So, in the last month lots has happened but that's not the post for today.

Let's talk about running late to the airport.

Thursday we needed to leave the house by 6am to get there in plenty of time.
I was ready to go at 6:05. I went up to get Henrik and he had a full on fit about leaving the house. It seriously took me 20 minutes to get him to let me touch him/ pick him up. So leaving the house at 6:30. Not cool.

Got on the toll road and see 40 miles until empty tank. I think that's ok, we'll fuel up when I get home. Nope. Around Cameron Rd the car was on 0 miles left and the needle was pointing below the 0. Crap Crap Crapity Crap. I figure there is nothing for a while after Cameron so I exit and have to drive out to Parmer to f ind a gas station. Ugh.

Fueled up a bit then headed to the airport.

Parking men make me park way far away. I strap Henrik into the beco and get ready to run to the airport. The bus was waiting so I figured I'll just take it. It's probably faster than me running. We get loaded and I see the clock on the bus, 7:26. Plane starts boarding at 7:30. Crap.

We run to the counter and they lady gives me priority pass so I can just walk right up to the first security checker dude. I get lots of dirty looks from people that have been waiting. I feel horrible, but my plane is boarding so whatever.

We run to the gate and get on the plane. I put H down in a seat and fiddle with the Cares Harness we borrowed. No one was booked in the seat behind H so that was nice. I didn't get it right but I was so freaking hot from running, the humidity and well Henrik is like 10000 degrees F. As I was strapping him in I think a few beads of sweat dropped on him and he laughed at me. Thanks Kiddo ;)

So after we got to cruising altitude and the seat belt sign was released I fiddled a bit more with the harness and got ti on right and tight! I think I like it, but I'll reserve judgment for after the return flight.

I was so stressed out, but we got here and Henrik was super happy to see Olof so that made all the morning stress worth it.

Glad Påsk

2010-04-04T21:15:00.003-05:00

We had a fun day today. We hung out at home most of the day, but in the afternoon after Henrik refused to nap, we decided to take a few eggs and go up to the park at the top of our street. Henrik had a blast. We were invited to dinner at some friends' house later, had a great time but Henrik finally hit the wall of tiredness and we made our retreat home.

We brought the camera to the park, it had been sprinkling on and off today and the light was a bit funky. But I can't seem to whittle down the number to a small one. So here's another big batch of photos. :-)

Playing after dinner

2010-04-03T22:25:00.002-05:00

We went to dinner with Frank and Catherine tonight, and we played a bit in the parking lot afterwards. Well, not in the lot, but in the grass between two of the lots.

We did a lot of spinning around

Which makes for a dizzy Henrik

Splat!

More? Ok!

... but not too much. Need to keep dinner down.

Some people say we look alike. I don't know what they're talking about. :)

Aaand we're done. :)

Birthday Party!!

2010-03-28T21:55:00.004-05:00

Henrik's birthday party rained in last weekend, so we had to reschedule it. Today was the day, and while it was nice and warm (in the sun), it was windy. Not only that, but it turns out that the pavilion we had booked at the park was in a spot that had no protection at all from the wind. Still, we think most had a pretty good time!

I was running around like crazy getting balloons and ice and this and that (and Henrik was with me, trying to get a little nap in the car seat). I got there just in time for them to go on the train ride! :)

Here's the train rolling into the station. Henrik is sitting with Hadley and Mar in the first row!

Second car of the train full of friends :-)

Jack always knows how to have a good time.

Heading back towards the party, Henrik holding hands with Anabel

Of course, when you are 2 years old, there is no such thing as "quickest way from point A to B". :-)

"Look mom, I'm sitting down. Can I have my cupcake now?"

Light the candle, already! (It was very windy indeed)

Haaappy Biiirthday dear Henrik, Happy birthday to you!

The cupcake passed the Henrik quality control.

Wyatt and Mason were there too

Cupcake and bubbles. Can it get much better than this for a 2-year-old Henrik?

A view of the pavilion and the crowd :-)

Dennis and Kenzie

Travis and Alex

Isabella running on the field

Rhett on the soccer field next to the pavilion

Brandy was trying to hand out balloons to the departing guests. She did a handful until at one of them, the whole bunch slipped her grip and went bye bye in that cruel way that only balloons can. Luckily, no children were traumatized by it this time. :-)

A few of us (Me and Henrik, Monte and Rhett, Abby and Kim with Wyatt and Mason) took a last trip on the train before we finished packing up and headed home!

The hunt is on!

2010-03-26T21:04:00.004-05:00

The easter egg hunt, that is.

Today was the easter egg hunt at Emma's house, and we had a lot of fun. He got to see the usual crowd there (besides Mya, who couldn't be there). There was also a new member of the gang there. :-)

Here's the whole group on the back porch

Kenzie and Annie hanging out

Shelby and Madison

Henrik having a blast, like always. :-)

Kenzie and Kristen

More Henrik

Emma and Kristen

And one last Henrik to finish off the set with. :-)

Austin Zoo

2010-03-19T23:10:00.004-05:00

As mentioned earlier, we went to the Zoo this afternoon. It was the last day that they were showing their new lion cubs! It was crazy busy when we got there around 3.30 but people had already started leaving. The cubs were only out until 4, but we got a look at them. Then we wandered around and looked at the large cats, some of the petting zoo and took a ride on their train.

All in all, a great visit even though it was a bit on the crowded side. :)

Plenty of pictures below...

Looking at the lion cubs :)

Here they are (it was hard to get a good photo)

Hanging out in the stroller heading to the next part. He's almost too big for this one by now...

More big cats, hanging out

This one is the father of the cubs. The mom and him weren't very happy to not have their little ones around. He was roaring some, and she was pacing nonstop...

Another one of the cat two pictures above..

Walking around a bit, near the deer

Food! Anyone hungry? Henrik was all about feeding the animals. Kept asking for more until we were all out (well, he poured out some on the ground at the end). He even tried to feed it to some of the chickens. :-)

Given the amount of visitors today, I'm surprised any of the animals still wanted food. I'm sure they're rarely as overfed as they got today. :-)

Henrik doing the things Henrik does best... Being a 2-year old. :)

More walking around :)

Final one, this one is on the train :-)

Look who's two!!

2010-03-19T12:55:00.002-05:00

Wow. Only two years ago...

And one year ago...

And this morning...

Henrik got his big birthday present from us when he woke up. He did NOT want to get out of it to go get some breakfast.

More photos through the weekend. We're going to the zoo this afternoon, that should be fun! :)

What a week and it's only halfway through!

2010-03-03T21:44:00.003-06:00

So, last week we started getting serious about finding a preschool/MDO for Henrik for the fall. MDO is a part-time daycare, it's two days a week (usually Tuesday and Thursday), and it's only half the day.

There is one that we found that we liked, and we made the application for the fall. Our neighbor works there, and her youngest goes there. Henrik has another friend who's been there all year and her parents like it.

But, there's also another preschool/daycare that has opened up in the neighborhood next to ours. It's brand new, and when Brandy went there to take a tour, she also ended up filling in the application paperwork.

They had immediate openings! Whoa. So, we chose to let Henrik start MDO right away.

Tuesday was his first day. He LOVED it. He didn't actually want to come home. Brandy had a harder time dealing with it than he had. :) But they say that the second week is tougher, the novelty of going a new place wears off for the child and all that.

The class is so far quite small (only two other children on Tuesday). One of the others was having a harder time though, she was crying at their nap time when we were there to pick him up. Henrik was so sweet though, he was trying to comfort her, walking over to her cot and petting her head.

So, anyway. That's what's going on. :)

Here are a few photos from Tuesday morning.

Henrik getting ready (watching a few minutes of TV, Brandy was OBVIOUSLY blocking the view for him).

Styling his hair!

Time to go! (Cutest backpack ever!)

In class! The calendar was taken off the wall by him before we left. I guess they will glue it in place next. :-)

Weekend report

2010-02-28T20:02:00.003-06:00

Figured I would post a weekend update since we got a bunch of pictures to share.

I was out in California last week, and came back late on Friday night due to flight delays. At least we got to see the Canada/Slovakia game on the plane (JetBlue has TVs in each seatback. Love it).

Saturday I got to sleep in while Brandy and Henrik went to swim class. They also signed up for the next class since the current is about to run out. Henrik is doing so well in the water!

Afternoon was a first birthday party, and at night we had a dinner/party at some friends. We all went for the dinner, then I drove the others home and went back for a couple of more hours. Brandy went to bed early, she's had a long week.

Sunday morning Henrik slept in late. Brandy had a photo shoot (see her blog for a sneak peak of that later tonight). Henrik and I hung out at home for a while, then we got the stroller our and went for a long walk to a playground with a large sandpit a few miles down the back trail. Brandy met up with us there when she was done.

The afternoon was spent at home. Henrik napped, we watched the hockey game and played around a bit. He was getting bored and needed to get some energy out of him before dinner, so we all went out back and played for a while.

Henrik LOVES books these days. He will go pick one up, then come over to you, back up against you and sit down in your lap (if you're on the floor). He even had one with him on the walk today, just sitting there holding on to it.

A more and more common sight at our house.

Playing at the dino sandbox.

Sand lollipop? No? Ok, well he had to try...

Nellie hanging out in the back yard tonight

Brandy (it was windy and a bit chilly)

It was getting dark quickly at the end. These last ones got a bit grainy but in black and white they turned out OK.

(Photo geeks: All the night play pictures were taken at ISO 6400, the last ones were grainy mostly because they got underexposed by mistake. I'm still blown away by the high-ISO performance of the D700.)

Snow!

2010-02-23T14:24:00.004-06:00

Ok, so weekly blogging is a start right?

We woke up pretty late today (almost 9 am) and I thought we missed our snow chance. The snow had turned to rain by that point and I was honestly a little bummed. An hour later, snow started up again!

I grabbed his snowsuit from last Sweden trip and looked at the tag, it said 80 and his current size jacket is 90 but it's roomy, so I figured lets try it!

I put on a long sleeved shirt and long socks then stuffed him in Randy style (A Christmas Story).
He waddled over to the door and out we went.

He had a blast! We played for a long time until we noticed the lady across the street was outside. Henrik wanted to waddle over so we did, but he stepped into a puddle. This is when I realized the booties on the snowsuit aren't waterproof.

He was not happy to have freezing cold wet feet. :)

C'mon Mama!

How do I eat this stuff?

With my hands?

OH! Like this!

I've fallen!

And I can't get up!

Hanging out

2010-02-15T23:00:00.004-06:00

No blogging for a few days. We upgraded some of the software on our "photo computer" (iMac), and it hasn't been entirely without glitches. Apple's Aperture 3 is awesome, but it definitely still has a few warts. Oh well, hopefully fixed soon.

Anyway, we've been taking it easy around the house. Potty training has officially begun, which includes hanging out in the living room between dinner and bath without pants. Henrik doesn't seem to mind. :)

We were experimenting with off-camera flash, and of course Henrik wanted to help out. Especially since it was a neat "toy" that blinked!

Valentine day party at Kenzie's!

2010-02-11T11:25:00.007-06:00

On Tuesday we went to our friend Kenzie's house to have a little party.

We had a lot of fun, the kids all went crazy after snack time and were running around like madmen! Thanks for having us over! I promise to make the bird nests for Easter :)

I dug up some pictures from our house last year.
I didn't find one with Emma in it though :(

Look how big they all are!

I used a tripod with the new camera for the first time!

Sluggish Sunday

2010-02-09T10:36:00.001-06:00

[This WAS written on Sunday but we forgot to publish. Gah!]

We've been bad at blogging lately. Not sure why it's not happening, we just don't seem to get around to it. We haven't been bringing the camera with us enough, and the photo taking and the blogging tends to go hand in hand. The weather has been so cold and rainy that we haven't really had much inspiration.

So, what's been going on? Lots, and not much all at once. We've had a few events around town (Ruby's dad turned 30, among other things), and Brandy and Henrik have been staying busy most of the weeks. They went to the YMCA to swim for the first time this week outside of class, and had a blast. I think it will become a regular thing for them, Henrik loves water so much and, well, Brandy does too.

At home things have been more of the same. Henrik has been busy being a soon-two-year-old toddler, making sure we always have plenty of tidying to do. I've been busy with work, but it's been nice to stay home for a few weeks in a row (I go out to San Jose next week again). We've finally started taking action on getting our roof replaced as well. It got damaged enough in the hail storm in March last year that insurance pays for a new one, but it hasn't been damaged enough that we've been in a hurry to get it done.

Brandy got a new desk for her office last weekend, instead of the less-than-awesome computer desk we still used for her corner. We shopped around quite a bit, and Pottery Barn had two really nice desks that we liked, but the price tags weren't as great as the desks themselves. But we found something at World Market that is nearly as nice, at a much nicer price. Maybe we'll upgrade to a fancier desk down the road but for now this is quite sufficient.

Brandy took Henrik to get a haircut yesterday, at a new place. Foolish of us, we'll switch back. This one was a little closer to our house but the haircut wasn't nearly as good. It looks ok from the front but the neck looks like a bowl cut at the bottom. Sigh.

Wow, this got quite verbose. I'll be quiet now, and post some photos instead. They were taken this morning when Henrik was painting some in the living room.

Hello, My name is Brandy and I'm a bad bad blogger.

2010-01-28T21:07:00.005-06:00

So yeah, It's been a while. Sorry guys. I hope to get more on the ball and have posts more often!
I also promise to not just read your blogs in my reader, but click on them so I can leave the comment I'm thinking the day I read them, not like 3 days later... :)

So Monday, Henrik and I invited our friends Christine, Audrey and the adorable Finn to the park for some fun and photographs. :)

Well of course being toddlers, they went in opposite directions at any given chance. We thought we should take them over to the porch and have snack time. Can you say Big Mistake?

Meltdown ensued over a bag of Craisins. Poor kids... It all turned out well in the end though, as always.

Happy-Go-Lucky to...

End of the world in 2 seconds.

We will try sharing the bag.

Ok Henrik you took too many. I want them back.

NOOOOooooOOOoo!

Craaaaiiisins...

Really Mamma, I love them!

If you don't share, I'm telling my Mamma! See I'm pointing at her.

Maaammmmaaaa!

I just happened to have a coordinating hat ;)

I think Finn might have the best cheeks ever!

Open Gym day!

2010-01-22T22:05:00.003-06:00

We signed up for a gym pass back in September and well, we never went back. That is until today :)

We had such a blast! Henrik ran and bounced so much he was a total sweat ball afterward! I took our point and shoot camera and lets just say the results were less than stellar. Since you are supposed to be w/in an arms reach of the kiddos, I was leery of bringing my camera. I think I might bring it next time though :)

We met up with Kenzie and Anabel there and all three had a lot of fun. There were some together times but I think most of the time the kids ran in opposite directions.

I think we'll have to make it a regular thing, one Friday we'll go to Yoga and the other we'll go to the gym. :)

Chicken dance warm-up!

Pre play cuddle :)

Rocking Kenzie in the boat.

Foam cube pit!

Waiting for their stamps!

The manly stroller has arrived!

2010-01-21T10:17:00.004-06:00

And what do you put in it? A Winnie the pooh bear of course!

Henrik has been absolutely obsessed with stroller the girls next door have. We searched high and low locally for one that isn't so... girly, but we come up short.

We finally decided to order one online. We found a nice dark blue and green plaid that is totally manly! While I love it, I have to ask what is up with the lack of non pink/purple strollers? I know Henrik isn't the only boy that loves to push a stroller.

So instead of being able to just pick up an el cheapo stroller we did have to spend 20+ dollars for one. A little bit unfair, but hey, he loves it. Just saying there is a double standard :p

Anyway, enjoy H and his new stroller!

The stroller from next door.

New Stroller!

Pushing his camera around and still wondering what's going on across the street.

Pooh Bear!

More bear and yes our Christmas cards are still up.

Cedar is high today, so we're stuck inside! He loves these blocks!

Happy Birthday Audrey!

2010-01-19T23:45:00.003-06:00

We've been bad at updating the blog lately. Oops.

On Sunday we all went to Audrey's birthday party. She turned 2. Her newborn little brother Finn got baptized that day too, so it was a combined party of the two events.

Henrik wasn't having that great a day. He woke up early and didn't nap very well, so he was in a cranky mood at the party, always trying to get into some sort of trouble and getting upset when we tried to redirect.

So, we didn't stay all that long. :( Here are a few snapshots from the party.

Her cake!

Birthday girl. :)

Henrik was checking out her bike. Can't wait to get him one and teach him how to ride in a few years!

Yeah, we had a lot of this that day...

Henrik's new camera!

2010-01-10T23:02:00.004-06:00

For Christmas, we bought Henrik his own kid friendly digital camera. Henrik's friend Jack has one and he loves to play with it at his house, so we thought we'd get him one.

It's pretty nifty, has a two eye view finder so he can see through it easily and even takes video!
Of course we promptly misplaced the cables. Maybe I should say Henrik put the cables away. ;)

We found them and uploaded his pictures (and added a memory card so we don't have to 'find' the cables again.

So with out further ado, enjoy the vision that is Henrik! (some adult help may have been had on the steady shots)

Furniture and porridge

2010-01-05T21:20:00.006-06:00

That's right! This morning Henrik and Farfar assembled the little chair and table set that we got at IKEA. It was so much fun, and we can't weed out just a couple of pictures so there's a little slideshow below.

We also had porridge (risgrynsgröt) for lunch. Henrik liked it, and took a few drinks out of his bowl, as you can see. :-)

Hello 2010

2010-01-02T21:40:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!

We've started out the new year in a quite moderate pace here. So far it's been two pretty slow days.

It was a cold night here last night, frost on the deck and the cars when we got up this morning. But we bundled up and went out on a walk (all 6 of us).

Henrik was playing a little in the drive way waiting for us to get ready. He LOVES the little pull-along toy his Farmor got him at IKEA.

A little pit stop during the walk to adjust blankets :-)

Overall we had a great walk. When we got near the house Henrik got to walk a little.

Brandy wanted to take some pictures too, and I walked up to adjust his hat. Little did I know what I walked into. He was having NONE of that!

The only person who could make it better this time was good old Mommy.

Beware! With awesome hats comes awesome hat hair!

Last post of the year; A recap in pictures

2009-12-31T18:22:00.007-06:00

We've only had the blog pictures on SmugMug since early June, so it's hard to make one common slideshow for the whole year. But here is one with most of the pictures from this year (and a few bonus ones that we never blogged).

(I've added in a few that came from MobileMe but not everything. Lesson learned for next year. :-)

I'm a toddler!

2009-12-30T22:58:00.005-06:00

So we took the front of Henrik's crib off yesterday and put on the toddler railing. In the middle of this I realized what we were doing and had a mini freak out. Holy crap! He's not an infant/baby anymore. He's a real TODDLER!

He ran around the bed and giggled a lot, then we laid him down for his nap, pulled up his blanket turned on the music and that was that. He went straight to sleep. Awesome!

I went out that afternoon while he was napping and when I got back Olof let me know Henrik stayed in his bed and waited for help out of the bed. Double awesome!

So bed time came, same thing, he went straight down! In the morning he was laying with his legs up the side of the bed and singing to himself.

I was home after nap time today and went up to get him. I brought the camera and he hammed it up!

(Hold on to your keyboards, there is a whole bunch of pictures!)

Is this where I get out?

I'm just gonna hang out here a bit!

Ready to go?

... looks a little tall. Daaaad?

YEAH!

Practicing my "hey baby" look :-)

Oh, hey guys! You still here?

Oh yeah, and guess who went pee in the potty tonight!

Crispy morning

2009-12-27T10:52:00.004-06:00

Whoa. Two blog posts on one day, this is getting out of control. :)

Sunday morning was real nice and crisp. The car had frost on the windscreen when we got out in the morning.

It has become our tradition that Sunday is the day that Brandy gets to sleep in. So Henrik and I got up and went to get some bagels in the morning. When we got home we played out front a bit, he ran his little crocodile walker up and down the sidewalk, I hope we didn't wake anyone up (it's loud!).

After that we went inside, had a bagel and rounded up the grandparents for a morning walk. Henrik is very serious when he sits in the stroller, but he had a good time. It was pretty quiet out, I guess the cold kept people from wanting to venture out early. The trail is normally quite busy on Sunday mornings.

More holiday fun

2009-12-27T10:46:00.002-06:00

A couple of more photos, these ones from christmas morning. We all got up and hung out for a while, and Henrik got to open his presents. He lost interest about halfway through so the last bits of it we did in the afternoon after his nap.

He got a bunch of neat toys from near and dear (and some far too :-).

Julafton (Christmas Eve)

2009-12-24T23:34:00.003-06:00

Henrik had a couple of crummy days at the beginning of the week while he was battling his cold, but he's feeling much better now and is back to his old self, lots of playing and having an overall good time.

In Sweden they normally celebrate christmas on the 24th, and since Olof's parents are here visiting we did some of our traditions today (a small buffet dinner and we watched some of the Swedish holiday cartoons).

Henrik got to open one present after he woke up from his loong afternoon nap, it was a toy guitar from his great aunt Donna. He loved it, and gave it a big old hug after playing with it for a few minutes. :-)

Well, now we know what it was

2009-12-20T10:15:00.003-06:00

Turns out Henrik was having an ear infection, caused by allergies and drainage. Brandy brought him in to Treehouse on Saturday since he had a bad bad night with coughing before. He has them every now and then but as usual he didn't really give any signs of being sick; no fever, etc. Just a little extra crankyness.

He slept a whole lot on Saturday, first a 3 hour nap when they got back from the doctor, then another hour and a half just an hour later. But he's feeling better today and has more energy.

Today we're about to load up the car and go look for a tree. Pictures tonight, perhaps. :)

Another week has flown past...

2009-12-18T22:39:00.005-06:00

... and no new posts here. We've been busy, getting the house ready for visitors, I was out to San Jose Sun-Wed, and my parents arrived on Tuesday night.

First few days with them have been slow, mostly just hanging around the house a bit. Today we went down to The Domain to have Henrik photographed with Santa, and had dinner out at CPK.

Henrik has been a bit clingy lately. While he normally tolerates sitting with us and getting cuddled, it's rare that he actually seeks us out and wants to be picked up for it. But not the last few days, he's had separation issues from both of us while we are still at home, and he's been fussier than normal. It's almost like he's not feeling super spiffy, but there's no signs of illness beyond some coughing at night and some (clear) runny nose. Not sure just what is up with the little guy but I hope it gets better soon.

Some pictures from Santa below:

Afterwards he got a little chocolate chip cookie while we walked over to dinner.

No news is good news

2009-12-11T17:04:00.004-06:00

It's been pretty quiet here lately. What have we been up to?

Well, I've been busy fixing up our front room so Brandy has somewhere to keep the photo stuff and I have a room to enjoy my audio system in.

Brandy has been busy being a mom, chasing Henrik around and dealing with everyday stuff that comes up.

Henrik has been busy being sick for a bit (all better now, just a sinus infection), and doing the things Henrik does best. He's become quite the toddler. He runs more than he walks, he loves Curious George and has a new found obsession of his little Brio model trains.

We've also finally designed our Christmas cards, they will arrive here next week. We are cutting it very close for getting them out in time for people in Sweden, so they might arrive late there. We'll see. :(

But, final piece here: Both Brandy and I have been a bit busy on the side. I've been slaving away as her IT guy, getting her domains registered, web site configured, blog installed and configured and set up. She's been busy taking photos, proofing them and dealing with all the real parts of the work. Things are slowly starting to move, and at least I am excited about it. Brandy is excited AND nervous, I think. :-) Still lots of little things left to do.

So, to get to Brandy Leigh Photography's blog, please go to http://www.photosbybrandy.com/blog/. She will be adding sneak peaks and bits and pieces over time. (I'll add a link at the top right too).

And since it's not a blog post without some pictures, here's a couple from the last week and a half:

Henrik eating a pear, big-boy style!

Henrik was also making Brandy company while she was taking some pictures of Annie (and Kristen) on Wednesday. He was having a bit of a grumpy day so we let him have his pacifier outside of naptime.

Party time! Excellent!

2009-12-01T20:28:00.005-06:00

Saturday we went to help celebrate our friend Ruby's 1st birthday!

We had so much fun. Good food, good friends what more could you ask for?

Cake you say? Oh yeah, there was cake! See below!

Ruby and her Mama Emilia.

Ruby was a little timid at first.

But once Henrik showed it was ok...

She dug right in!

She sure seemed to like it!

Henrik Loved his cupcake :)

And he loved her new wagon!

Sickies

2009-12-01T05:30:00.005-06:00

For the last week or so, Henrik has been sniffly, but hadn't shown any signs of being sick so everything pointed towards it being allergies.

And it probably was, but on Sunday morning he woke up early with a fever. We kept an eye on him through the day, and gave him some Motrin and Tylenol to keep the fever down. He did quite well, but was starting to get more congested (and his snot was turning colors).

Since he went to a birthday party on Saturday we wanted to make sure that it wasn't something contagious that other parents should be worried about (the flu). We took him in yesterday afternoon, and the flu test came back negative. Out pedi said it's likely an infection, we got prescribed some antibiotics and will take it easy for the next few days. His fever isn't as high any more and the worst of it seems to be over.

But he still wakes up at night and going back to sleep can be hard since he's congested. While we have been spoiled by him being such a good sleeper, I have to admit I don't mind getting up -- he is super cuddly and curls up on you to go back to sleep.

Anyway, he seems to be staying asleep this time so I should go get another couple of hours myself now.

[Brandy is a little behind on blogging the birthday party. I'm sure something will show up here in the next couple of days. :-)]

Worldless Wednesday [Occupational hazards]

2009-11-25T10:06:00.001-06:00

Ear muffs and WB targets

2009-11-21T14:34:00.003-06:00

I ordered Brandy a white balance target that arrived this week, and of course we had to try it out today.

Henrik is apparently all about using appropriate safety precautions. He didn't want to take the ear muffs off after we put them on for fun while playing a little while earlier. :-)

Delaware trip

2009-11-19T20:42:00.005-06:00

We took a trip to Delaware to see Brandy's family last weekend (Friday-Monday). The travel went pretty well, and it was fun to see everyone again.

Last time we flew with Henrik (JetBlue to SFO), we decided that even though he's technically below 24 months and isn't required to have his own seat, we can't really have him in our laps on a 3-hour plane ride any more. He's just got too much energy for it, and it makes all of us grumpy and miserable.

So he got his own seat. We also borrowed a GoGo Kidz roller from a friend, so we could wheel him around in his car seat:

He also sat in the seat on the plane, and that went much better. Only drawback was that he could reach and kick the seat in front, and was very strongwilled about actually pressing against it. We just had to do our best to keep him entertained.

AA had inflight wireless for free, so on the trip back I got the idea to bring up youtube and watch some sesame street clips and other fun stuff with him. Next time we'll make sure to have some entertainment for him on our phones.

Friday we checked into the hotel and just stayed in for the night. They had snacks at the breakfast area and we all made an early night.

Saturday we did a quick trip to the mall, then we met the rest of the Suvie clan for a big family picture gettogether at Babies-R-Us. All I can say is that I'm very impressed by the people working there, taking group pictures of 10 toddlers in one shot takes some patience. :-)

Then we had dinner at Angie and Gregg's house (Brandy's stepsister and husband). Fun times, and Henrik got to play with his cousins. He was very tired at the end of the night, and crashed as soon as we loaded him into the car seat.

Sunday was a nice slow day, lunch with Sean (Brandy's brother), looked for new shoes for Henrik but didn't find any (we did get him a cute pair of boots for the rainy season though). Dinner out with Brandy's aunt Donna. Henrik got impatient at the end so we took turns walking around with him outside to keep him busy for a bit.

Monday was return travel day, which went without major hitches. There was a slight delay and threat of canceled flights, but in the end we made it through without problems. We did get a later flight from Dallas to Austin, but our bag made it on the first one so we just had to pick it up at the luggage office when we got there. Lucky us, because I had accidentally put my coat that had the car key in it inside that bag. Ooops...

Here's a few more pictures from the weekend. We didn't take a whole lot of them this trip.

Cousin Vinnie

Cousin Cole

...and cousin Payton (Cole's little sister)

One more of Vinnie :-)

Worldess Wednesday.

2009-11-11T09:34:00.001-06:00

Lunch with Audrey

2009-11-09T21:17:00.007-06:00

Today we met up with Audrey and her mom for Baby bloomers and then on to lunch. The kids had a blast and ended up so tired that both her mom and I got a nice little break this afternoon.

We went to Chedd's for lunch. All grilled cheese baby! Enough said.

A few doors down we found Planet Yogurt. It was my first time at a place like that. There was maybe 8 flavors and you fill your cup up with how much of any of them you like. Then you pick your own toppings. Just remember you pay by the ounce ;)

Henrik and Audrey loved it and so did the mamas! Henrik even shared some with Audrey!

Afterward we figured why not let them run off some steam. And boy did they -- by the end they were both laying on the ground nearly passed out. Love it :)

Audrey smiling pretty!

Dancing toddlers.

Petals in the wind.

Want a taste?

Mmmmm

Got yoghurt?

MOO [updated]

2009-11-07T22:50:00.000-06:00

So Henrik doesn't talk much yet, but we've been trying to teach him a few of the animal sounds. He'll do what we (but probably noone else) recognizes as a "Woof", and he has a very cute "Moo" that sounds like "Boo".

So, he might seem serious in this photo but he's really just saying "Mooo" to the cow :)

Photo by Leann.

[The rest is by Brandy]

Our friends told us about a little fair in the parking lot of the Dell Diamond this morning, so we made plans to go by later in the afternoon.

It was pretty small, but lots of fun for the little ones. We went through a fun house that has sliding floors, shaking steps, spinning floors and more! The guy had to stop the shaking floor for Henrik to walk across it and the spinning exit too, but he smiled and it was still fun.

The kids liked the pink flying elephants, but Henrik spotted some flying balloons and after the train ride, we made Inara's dad take the kids on the balloons. He was squished but the kiddos LOVED it.

We took two spins on the horse carousel and they even won prizes! It was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to the Austin Fair on Thursday!

This morning we picked up bagels and Henrik LOVED the pumpkin one!

We went to Amy's Ice Cream's Anniversary earlier this week. Free ice cream!

Henrik likes to play with cars now! Vroom!

And he likes to drag my bag ;)

More photos from Life In Motion!

2009-11-06T15:40:00.005-06:00

Lyndsay put up more pictures from our session on her blog yesterday, they can be found here:

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/photoblog/?p=3556

We're very excited and happy with the results! There's also a slideshow of proofs on her regular website, login as "henrik" under the client proofing section.

Can't wait to see them printed. We should pick at least one to blow up on a canvas too. :-)

Houston trip!

2009-11-04T20:43:00.000-06:00

Back when we took our trip to Sweden in June, we applied for a Swedish passport for Henrik. It got sent to the consulate in LA, and we ended up asking (and paying) them to send it on to a location closer to us. We got to choose between Houston and Dallas.

The distance to the two cities is about the same, but the drive to Dallas is booooring. Besides, there's some cool stuff to look at in Houston (I'm sure there's some in Dallas too).

So, early Monday morning we loaded up the car and headed out. We were hoping that Henrik would still be asleep when we left (and sleep halfway there), but nope. He woke up bright and early on his own. Still, he did great in the car and only at the end did we have to entertain him in the back seat.

We arrived there as they opened at 10am, and the passport business was quickly taken care of. It's just a small office in a building there, and we didn't think to take pictures. They played a little with Henrik and we talked a bit, I think the whole thing took about 30 minutes.

After that we knew that the little one would need to get a bit of energy out of him, and when asking around for parks nearby there wasn't all that much available. We did know (thanks to Tabatha!) that there was a nice mall not far away, and right next to it was a large "fountain" called Williams Water Wall. We wandered around a little in the mall, bought Henrik a new coat for the winter and grabbed some early lunch. Then we headed to the park by the wall and hung out for a bit.

Henrik was completely exhausted after, he was asleep in the back seat before we had left the parking garage. He slept almost all the way home and overall did really great. We had dreaded the 7.5 hours of car riding in one day, but it was no big deal. We're not eager to redo it though. :-)

This gives a little perspective of the height of the waterfall

Henrik posing in front of some random person. He just walked up and stood there waiting to get his picture taken :-)

Across the park is the Williams Tower. Tall building!

Playing in the park for a bit

Saturday nights and Sunday mornings

2009-11-01T11:50:00.008-06:00

Last night was Halloween, and Henrik got to go trick or treating for the first time. We met up with some friends and went to a few houses on their street, maybe 8 or 10 in total. It was a lot of fun, even though he couldn't say "Trick or treat" yet himself. But he did carry his pumpkin most of the time!

Loading up with a few raspberries before going out

Trick or treat?

For some reason, Henrik has a thing for garage door handles. He got the other boys hooked on it too, showing off his handle-rattling skills here.

Henrik has yet to actually taste candy, by the way. We figured if we can wait with introducing it, he won't really know what he's missing. So we've got a small bowl of candy for mom and dad in the house now. :-)

Saturday ended up being a late night for all of us. When we got home we stopped by next door, and Henrik got to hang out with the kids there for a little bit, watching a movie and playing. He was in bed by 9.30 or so. We watched a bit of tv and before we knew it time was midnight. Oops.

This weekend is the daylight savings change here in the US, so while kid-free adults get to sleep in an hour later, there is no such luxury with a 19-month old in the house. Instead we packed up the stroller and the whole family went for a walk, followed by a breakfast taco and a cup of coffee out. It was a bit cold right when we left the house, but it warmed up pretty quickly and it is now a very nice day out.

Flashback Friday!

2009-10-30T17:49:00.004-05:00

Last Halloween at the Library!

Picture of the day

2009-10-30T11:44:00.005-05:00

Not really. It was taken on Tuesday, but anyway.

Henrik the percussionist

2009-10-29T14:42:00.002-05:00

We had a photo session...

2009-10-28T20:20:00.004-05:00

... with Life in Motion Photography today. She just posted a sneak peek at:

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/photoblog/?p=3450.

Can't wait to see the rest!

going backwards part 1

2009-10-27T16:35:00.005-05:00

So, I've gotten lazy with the blog again. So we shall start with the most recent and then play catch up.

On Sunday we followed the suggestion of a friend of ours and headed down to Goblins in the Garden at the Wildflower Center. We met up with some other friends there and had a great time.

We had never gone there before and were surprised how pretty it was. It's definitely on the list for a re-visit sometime.

Henrik got to dress up in his penguin costume again, and he sure is a good sport about it. The event was more geared to the slightly older kiddos, but we painted some gourds, went a scavenger/learning hunt, took pictures and climbed the spooky tower!

Henrik had his first taste of jello in the form of brains with worms and had some spooky juice!

Duck, meet Penguin.

King of the Penguins!

Want some?

More cowbell!

Just chillin'

584 days

2009-10-24T23:26:00.006-05:00

I sat down tonight to move some of our older photos, including old photos of Henrik over to our SmugMug site, and I started looking through them all instead.

I should be in bed, I'm supposed to give Brandy a sleep-in tomorrow morning. But I just realized just how much has happened in just 19 months. This photo was taken when Henrik was about 14 hours old.

And this is Henrik on our walk Sunday morning while Brandy got the morning off :-)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-21T14:54:00.002-05:00

Sweet Berry Farms

2009-10-20T09:01:00.001-05:00

Brandy has been talking about going to pumpkin patches for as long as I can remember. I never saw the point of it, but now that we have a kid I figured it's time to give it a go. Seeing pictures from Henrik's friends made it look like a lot of fun too.

And while I'm happy we waited until now (since there would be almost nothing to do there without a kid in tow :-), we had a lot of fun. I have to say that when I look at photos, we didn't do much with pumpkins though. Most of the spots where they were was crawling with people, and noone had enough sense to stay out of the line of sight when we tried to take a few shots. Bottom line: It was just waaay too crowded to deal with it.

We met up with Kim and Rhett (Rhett and Henrik were born just a few days apart), and we were there at opening time.

See the line of cars in the distance? They're lining up to get a parking spot. It was crazy.

But we had fun in spite of it being crowded, and got some good photos without pumpkins in them. Henrik got to ride a horse, and he loved the goat petting zoo they had.

Pumpkin painting was fun, and while the paint did wash off in the tub before bed, we had a hard time getting him clean while we were there. Lesson learned for next year. :)

So, all in all it was fun, but next year we will make sure to go earlier in the season before it gets too crowded, or maybe even go on a weekday instead.

Here is a link to the rest of our SmugMug album from that day.

Mommy and daddy have a new toy

2009-10-17T13:17:00.004-05:00

Both Brandy and I have our birthdays in the fall. This year we decided to pool our gifts and go out and buy something nice together.

That nice thing is a new camera and lens. I ordered it this week and it was waiting for me when I got home yesterday (Friday). I didn't touch it until Saturday morning so Brandy could take part. Who was I kidding, I hogged it all for myself. Sorry sweetie but you'll have it all week when I am out of town.

I love it. While we both really like our D80 (especially once we got the 17-55mm lens for it), this one is definitely a huge improvement. The ergonomics of the D80 were good, but these are great, and overall it's a nice upgrade. The really impressive improvement with it is the light sensitivity. It has a bigger sensor (FX) than the D80 (DX), but only a slightly higher resolution. This means each sensor element is larger, and can catch more light with less noise.

The result is being able to take photos in natural light where we would normally need to use the flash or get very grainy or blurry pictures. Like this one from this morning:

On a side note, I also hope that I can push Brandy to get going with a bit of children's photography. She takes great pictures, but I am traveling a bit too much for her to be able to do it often out on her own without Henrik. One of her talented friends has been growing quite a successful business in the last year, and she's tempted to get started in a small scale on her own. More for the fun of it than for the money (which isn't great in photography anyway once all expenses have been accounted for).

Yay for charity!

2009-10-16T08:43:00.004-05:00

When you give something you get something back. Usually what you get back doesn't make your heart go pitter patter from the cuteness though!

We attended a fundraiser Halloween party earlier this month. We were raising money for cancer research at MD Anderson in honour of our SUPERSTAR friend. He is totally kicking butt against the big C and we are so in awe of the strength this family has shown. It's a pleasure knowing them!

We had a blast at the party and patiently waited for the resulting pictures. Our favourite photographer Lyndsay at Life In Motion generously donated her time to photograph over 40 kiddos in their Halloween best.

We raised $1,700 and I feel so proud to be part of that!

She is trying to raise a bit more and is offering a raffle! For $10 you are entered in to the raffle, the more you give, the more chances you are entered, so give already!

You won't be disappointed with the prize.

Here is the SLIDESHOW !

Central Market trip

2009-10-10T21:08:00.002-05:00

Last week we met up with some friend at Central Market for lunch and playground fun.

The weather was so nice, we ate outside and chatted away while the kiddos munched on their food. Henrik found it hard to concentrate while the playground beckoned, but he did eat his grilled cheese sandwich and fruit.

It seems almost all of Henrik's friends are walking now, so that makes playgrounds more fun. I noticed that Henrik has started to actually play with other kids now.

It is so cool to see him growing and changing!

I had my camera with me so of course I took some pictures.

Here's a link to the whole album on SmugMug.

ACL day 3 (but really day 2)

2009-10-04T22:51:00.005-05:00

We skipped Saturday, Olof wasn't feeling 100% and we figured if he stayed in, then we'd have more fun on Sunday. Totally right. Though I'm bummed I didn't go down on my own and meet up with some gals I know.

We are already excited for next year. Henrik is so much fun! I can only imagine what a dancing machine he'll be next year.

Yesterday (Saturday) there was some major rain at Zilker Park. It turned into a giant mud pit. So we packed up change of clothes for Henrik, shirts for us and picked up a pair of el cheapo flip flops with back straps for the kiddo. What we should have worried about, was clean dry shoes for Mama and Papa!

We went to kiddie limits and had a blast. Henrik got his hair painted green. The girls at the booth thought it was so cute he already had it styled. We got a cool picture taken of him on 'stage' and then went over to colour a frame, then we went to colour a flower pot and that had seeds and earth to take home.

We headed off to the B52's for a bit, had some lunch with friends. Headed back to kiddie limits so that Henrik could play with his new found love, the HEB Buddy grocery bag. Yes, he loves the big bag costume. We played in the sand and wondered around some more.

There was a raffle for some musical instruments so we hung around until the drawing for that, he didn't win, but we did get a tambourine.

We thought we should let him walk in the mud and he sure did enjoy it.

Look out 2010 -- Henrik is ready, are you?!?!

Right after getting his hair styled. The people in the background is just a poster, but it sure looks cool :-)

We got a printed photo from the same as above, and he got to make a frame for it!

He loved the costume guy, and went over to him every time he saw him.

Crashing the party at the hip-hop tent :-)

Playing in (and eating a little) sand! Shaded sand pits for kids to play in, another of the nice things they do for families at ACL Festival.

On our way home we let him "try out" the mud. He loved it, and washed off fairly easily. :)

We took 10 minutes break in the grass (not mud) across the entrance, and just hung out for a bit in the sun.

One of his favourite activities is pushing his own stroller around :)

This is what the tub looked like once Henrik was clean.

ACL day 1

2009-10-03T21:47:00.005-05:00

Friday we headed down to see Phoenix and stand in line to get autographs!

Henrik had a blast and was photographed by countless people. It's kinda cool and a little weird all at once. We seem to be among the few parents with hearing protection (earmuffs) for their kiddos. I can't tell you how many people stopped us to ask about them. It's pretty cool.

We've been keeping our eyes open for any posted pictures anywhere, but not seen anything yet.

You can not bring in a camera with a detachable lens, so we are stuck with the point and shoot. I really think we should get a better one ;)

Here are a couple of pictures from Friday!

Old friends!

2009-10-02T14:17:00.004-05:00

It had been a while since we saw our buddies, so since we got a new slide and a train table, we thought we'd invite them over. We had a great time seeing everyone, but we did miss Annie! Mya was asking for her the whole time!

Everyone played on the slide and seemed to have a great time.

I brought up the ginormous container or animal crackers and that was a big hit!

I thought it would be cute to take a picture of everyone in Henrik's crib. Apparently not everyone thought that was a good idea. I won't put up the sad face pictures even though they are super cute/sad.

After the cookie pandemonium!

Alex wearing Henrik's shades.

Overseeing the the AT&T guys in our yard.

Five little monkeys jumping in the bed!

18 month checkup! (4 posts in a row)

2009-09-27T23:29:00.000-05:00

weight: 26#8oz 50-75%
height: 33" 50-75%
head: 49.8cm 90-95% (monster head)

He is doing great!
He can walk and pretty much run. He loves to dance.
He babbles a ton, but not that many words yet.
He uses a spoon and a fork pretty well (but of course fingers are just as much fun).
He is really good at holding my hand when we walk, if he refuses, I just ask him and 95% of the time he reaches up. I think it is a matter of 'him' doing it versus me just taking his hand.

He's had a few temper tantrums. So far they aren't too bad. He'll make a lot of noise or cry and loudly sigh. Most of the time it is just a matter of him saying he is upset and it's over. Usually he comes over for a hug after.

He loves to colour with chalk and crayons on the easel we got from some friends. He equally enjoys eating the chalk though, so I got some giant chalk eggs. I think they are too big for him to bite ;)

He climbs up the wrong way on the slide, but is figuring out the right way too.

He's a lot of fun to be around and I love him to bits!
If you want a giggle, tickle his thighs! Gets him every time.

Pecan Street Festival

2009-09-27T14:30:00.005-05:00

Today we went to the Pecan Street Festival. They had a petting zoo where you could go in and feed animals. There were baby sheep, buffalo, goats and even a joey. A few older animals as well, including a llama.

Henrik had a blast, and really didn't want to leave. But it was a warm day and we needed to get him cooled down at the end. :)

Animals are in there!

What are the pokey things on the goat's head?

This one is my size!

Here ya go buddy.

Mmmm! Can I have some too?

There are no animals here!

Why do we have to leave???

A few pictures from last weekend

2009-09-26T17:59:00.004-05:00

Since we're a week behind on blogging, here's another one. :-)

Last weekend we got an invite to go to a morning movie with Rob and Cheryl. We had already seen it (and didn't want to find a last-minute sitter for Henrik), so we passed on it. But we all met up for lunch after instead -- Rob, Cheryl, Carrie and Jess. After eating we headed down to the park/fountain area next to the restaurant and played for a bit. Here are a few pictures from then.

California trip, mischief and a new friend!

2009-09-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

So as some of you might know, we went out to California last week with Olof.
We learned a few things:
1) Henrik now needs his own seat.
2) Olof gets to travel out on his own, we can come the next day.
3) Nothing is out of reach of a toddler.
4) Sometimes good travelers have crappy days too.

We are trying JetBlue these days and so far they are pretty awesome. Great customer service, nice stewards/esses, free snacks (you can have more than one packet too) and DirecTV!

On the flight out we realized Henrik was too wiggly to sit on our laps. Seriously -- he was all over the place. The flight wasn't full, so Olof moved a few seats away and Henrik could sit on his own and it was much better.

The flight home was almost good! He had his own seat. Olof was behind us. Henrik sat on his own during take off and sure seemed to have a great time. He did get sleepy so we tried to rock him to sleep, the steward even turned down the lights in the galley for us.
He was so close to being asleep, but then the plane turned and the light from the sun flooded in and he was up for the rest of the ride.

At SFO you have to ride a tram to from the airport to the rental car building. Henrik loved it. There was a big window ledge/seat we all sat on and he stood up against the window.
He found a cute young lady (20's) to blow kisses at. Yes, he blew her kisses w/out prompting. I guess he thought she sure was cute.

As parents, we find that sometimes we need to leave our little ones alone to use the restroom. When this happens we sometimes give them something to occupy themselves. I found myself in this situation while on our last trip.
As a good mommy, I gave Henrik a hand full of bunny crackers and went to the restroom. Shortly thereafter, I heard a splish-splashing noise. It was weird, but I didn't think much of. I heard crunching, this concerned me a little. There was giggling and I knew I better get out there.

He had dumped the entire box, and I found him running over across the pile of bunnies as if they were hot coals. He then sat in the middle and started scooping them up and sprinkling them over his head. Laughing a big belly laugh of pure pleasure.

I had to call housekeeping (since I could not get all the bunny crumbs up). It was after housekeeping hours, so I was worried they'd be upset with us. When I opened the door, you could tell she fell for little mister immediately and all was forgiven. She even squeezed his cheeks!

My friend from back home had a sweet little baby boy not too long ago. We got to see him while we visited. He's super cute and Henrik adored holding him and 'petting' him.

All in all, we had a blast! We went swimming, to the super cool mall playground and spent lots of time with Mitra and Adrian. Next time we have to catch up with some other friends. Can't wait to head back!

Haircut part deux!

2009-09-19T21:44:00.006-05:00

We decided it was time for a haircut.
We wanted something a little fun, a little different, but we weren't sure we could go for the full on mohawk. We settled on a faux'hawk.

He was surprisingly good again! I did end up in the same airplane as last time, but that's ok. I guess he likes it!

Before!

Half way.

*sniffle* bye bye curls.

Seriously?!? it's not done yet?

Trimmer buzzbuzzed!

I think this'll do!

Cool Dude after!

Dance dance!

2009-09-12T23:46:00.003-05:00

We haven't been posting much lately. It's been a busy week and we just haven't gotten around to it.

Here's a little gem from Brandy's cell phone earlier today though. Henrik had just woken up from a nap and started dancing to the music on the radio (TV) when I put him down in the living room. :)

Gotta love the *PLOP* at the end too!

Worldess Wednesday.

2009-09-02T12:31:00.002-05:00

Busy Monday!

2009-08-31T22:01:00.005-05:00

What a day, I am drained! It started with Henrik and Jack playing at the museum today. It's Jack's last visit for a while, he's starting MDO next week. We are bummed but happy for him because we know he'll have a blast!

Jack going to MDO has put this Mama's bottom in gear to look for one for Henrik!

Henrik met up with Audrey at the museum too. They decided to walk together on the way back to the cars. Not only did they walk, but they held hands! It was too cute. We had a Mommy toddler chain going.

We decided to meet up at the sprinkler park after nap time and had a blast all afternoon.

We're going to see some friends out in Blanco tomorrow for lunch and fun. Henrik gets to play with Rhett, while I get to play with a set of twins that are nearly one month old. Can't wait!

Wednesday is full with a morning playgroup, then lunch and afternoon play date.

I'm not planning anything else for the rest of the week!

Jack and Henrik cold chillin'

Henrik and Audrey plotting.

Totally busted! Waiting for their parents to pick them up ;)

Cooling off in the afternoon!

Bubbles!

Making a break for it!

Walking home from the park on Saturday with Pappa.

Pantless reading!

Butler Sprinkler Park

2009-08-29T08:45:00.004-05:00

We met up with some friends yesterday for more sprinkler park fun. I love sprinkler parks. I don't know what we'd have done all summer without them!

This was a new one for us. I put in the name of the park into my phone and it sent me to the baseball fields! Should have been more specific :) There were giant mud puddles, but I wasn't quite that adventurous.

We got there pretty early 9:30ish. I know you are thinking, 9:30? to get soaking wet? Yeah, if you don't go out that early it's hotter than Hades down here. It was already almost 90 that early. We are 2 days off of the all time record of 69 days over 100 degrees here. Yes you read the correct. We have had 67 days over 100 degrees and summer isn't over here yet. (yuck)

So you can see why Henrik and I love to be in the water all the time. We might hit a new fun pool this weekend and next week we are planning a trip to another (new to us) sprinkler park.

Olof got back to Austin last night. We are so glad he's home! I love how Henrik's face lights up with he sees his papa. Olof is back out to California next week. He didn't like his hotel that much so we will skip the next trip, but hope to start flying with him again soon.

Traveling with Olof presents a few negatives which include boarding Nellie (but really, she loves) and planning activities for Henrik. Usually the price of what we sign up for isn't exorbitant and thus it is ok to miss a class here or there, but some of the ones I've been looking at this fall are much more than the others we've signed up for in the past. So I'll have to figure what we want to do.
Without further adieu my water loving little boy!

Playing nice with a new friend.

What more can I say...

I am Henrik! Hear me ROAR!

Nothing to see but us grass eaters!

Daydreaming

I forgot to check if it was ok to put pics of our friends up. So I didn't :)

1st day of school and a trip to the car wash.

2009-08-25T14:56:00.006-05:00

This is the week everyone is back in school here in Texas.

So in honor of back to school shopping (and tax free weekend) we picked up some new shirts and shoes for Henrik. He is pretty cool about shoe shopping so far and he impressed the sales girl by letting us put on and take off shoes.

As for the car wash, most of the visit was great. He met two 20 something chicks the adored him. They reminded me of my best friend in high school and myself. One was a bit more in fashion and the other a little more granola. Want to guess who was who?

We were watching cars and playing a bit when an older guy came in. He put his hat and stuff down on a side table there, then he crouched down and told Henrik, "come here" with big wide arms. So yeah, Henrik went running.

I was mortified. Seriously? Who does that?

He scooped up Henrik and twirled him around and was laughing and giggling with him.

I looked at the girls and made a face that said, "I don't know what to do".

They came up and one held her hands out and said it was her turn. Henrik went to her and then realized something was funny and held his arms out to me.

It turns out the guy has grand kids, one 8 years old and one born in March. I tried to make a little small talk, but had enough and we went outside.

I've never been so freaked out. It would have been completely different if he had asked first. So, that was my first scary mommy moment. *shudder* let's hope that doesn't happen again.

If he went to school, this would be his first day outfit. Stripey shirt that brings out his eyes and snazzy shoes!

He loves to walk around the house!

After so much walking, he needs to relax with Baby U2.

Where are the cars going?

He liked watching the workers twirl the towels when they were done with the cars.

Not so lazy Sunday

2009-08-24T22:23:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we guys decided that mom needed a good sleep-in for once. So when Henrik woke up at the crisp and early hour of 6.30am, we hung around the house for a little bit waiting for it to get light. We had breakfast and played a bit.

A little before 8am we loaded up the bike trailer with Henrik, diaper bag, water bottles and camera.

We went out on the trail, seeing if we'd make it to the end this time. Last weekend we turned around before it ended, partly because I'm way out of shape, but also because we went later in the day and it was getting too warm for Henrik.

This time we made it all the way to 183. Turns out we were almost there when we turned around last week.

Here is a link to the approximate route we took.

It didn't take long for Henrik to fall asleep in the trailer. I was planning on taking a break when we turned around, but since he was passed out I decided to keep going. About halfway home he woke up and made it in no uncertain terms known that he was ready to get out and stretch his legs for a while.

So we stopped, he ate half a banana that was left from breakfast, and walked around a little. He stumbled and scratched up his chin, but it seems to be healing nicely.

After that it was just a short ride home and by the time we got there, Brandy was up. After a few minutes of winding down, we packed up the car and went to the Pflugerville pool, all three of us. It was a BLAST. Henrik absolutely loves the waterslide they have there. It's straight and wide and it's easy to hold him in your lap. He giggled every single time we reached the water, and it was just so much fun. (Sorry, we didn't bring a camera).

After that, we had lunch out together (Henrik barely woke up for it), then home. Henrik slept for a good 3 hours while Brandy went to the movies with a friend, and I did a few small projects around the house.

The day was finished with me mowing the yard, us having dinner and then a little TV followed by packing for this week. Yes, I am out in California again...

A few more pictures from the bike ride below.

"Put the camera away so we can go, dad!"

"Dude, we're still just sitting here, what's going on?"

Stretching our legs a bit.

Hanging out at home while mom's at the movies.

Sprinkler park (again)

2009-08-16T22:16:00.001-05:00

Saturday night we went to dinner with Andy to Mandola's. Henrik loooves Gnocci with pesto sauce (so do mom and dad).

Afterwards we went over to the sprinkler park that is in that neighborhood. We were hoping Henrik would run around since he just started walking on his own, but he mostly sat and crawled. He had fun anyway, as seen in the pictures below. :-)

Color/light might be a little off, we had to temporarily pack up the iMac since we've sold the desk it was on. :-)

Just hangin' out

Where are you going, Henrik? Watch out for the water!

Close call!

Walking around a bit too

Sprinkler? More like rain!

Sprinklers make you sleeeeeepy!

Busy day!

2009-08-13T22:03:00.002-05:00

After all that walking and the concert this morning, Henrik took a mega nap. He woke up around 2 this afternoon. I brought him downstairs and put him down. He promptly stood up and took a lap around the living room. This included chasing poor Nellie. She looked up at me with her big puppy dog eyes. Her eyes said, "OMG what is he doing??? Stop him!" sorry Nellie, I think he's going to be walking from here out!

We met up with Monica and Anabel for some sprinkler action and a little snack picnic afterward. I tried to catch the kiddos chatting with each other, but of course every time I pressed the button, they stopped.

Most of the still pictures from this morning look really weird. Like seriously weird. We hope the pictures taken by everyone else come out! I'm having trouble with point and shoot camera so maybe it's time for a new one of those :)

Here are a few from the sprinkle park and picnic.

He loves this one. Stands on his tippy toes to reach the high bits!

Cute Anabel!

Toddlers on a picnic! How cute is that?!?

Such a big day, he chilled in his new chair.
I think it's awesome he knows how to lounge already!

It's about time!

2009-08-13T14:09:00.003-05:00

Today we went to a concert. Henrik the party animal he is started walking today. Like more seriously walking, not just between us. He took off across the room. He danced with a cute girl and her brother and he bumped into countless others.

He loved the singing, but oddly enough there wasn't much of that. The guy kept talking. It was good for the bigger kids, but the little ones didn't understand the chat.

Anyway... Here you go. Turn off your sound though.

The week thus far!

2009-08-12T20:27:00.007-05:00

I'm already behind on blogging again!

So far this week has included a trip the the Austin Children's Museum, swimming at Cassie's neighborhood pool and invading an infant get together.

I had no idea my sweet little boy was so crazy! He was all over the place, but none of the Mama's were complaining and he only sat on one baby's hand so all in all it was a good day!

Today we were going to meet up at the baby wearing group, but Henrik had to see the pediatrician for some tummy trouble so we missed that and Kenzie's house.

Tomorrow we are meeting up for a concert. Hope Henrik will like it. He's pretty into music so I have high hopes!

Friday we are going back to YOGA in the morning and hope to head to Kristen and Emma's pool in the afternoon (note to self, check if that is still on).

Here are a few pictures from The wee so far.

Giant Lite-Brite at the Children's Museum

Henrik, Emma, Kenzie and Alex at the pool.
Seriously how is Henrik dwarfing everyone else?
Lessons in perspective!

Yo Yo Yo! Henrik & Jack in da haus!

Henrik's first tricycle

2009-08-09T21:40:00.006-05:00

We went to Kaleidoscope Toys here in Round Rock on Sunday. It's a nice little local toy store that we try to give our business, the world needs more small stores instead of Wal*Marts and Toys-R-Uses.

Anyway, I digress. We had found out that they had a sale on clearance items, and we were hoping tricycles would be part of it. We lucked out! So Henrik got his first tricycle today. We assembled it during his nap, and even though it was baking hot out we had to take it for a test spin. He's of course too small to pedal on his own, but it comes with a push bar that's handy. He loved it!

Scouting out the park.. What to do, what to do?

Looking serious

Yes, it was a very hot day. Cooling off at the pavilion before going home

But it sure was lots of fun!

Mommy's little helper!

2009-08-08T22:30:00.001-05:00

*sorry for funky format i was lazy uploading pictures!*

Henrik has become pretty clingy late in the day and sometimes I can't put him down. I don't mind holding/wearing him, but I can't exactly cook with him in my arms or strapped to me.

Enter The Learning Tower!

I have high expectations for it and so far looks good. While I was at a doctor appointment today, Olof sent me this video. I think he likes it!

And here are a few shots from dinner time! (excuse the post swimming pool hair)

I'm so evil

2009-08-07T23:26:00.002-05:00

He loves it, and he didn't get sick, so I guess it's not too bad. :-)

Monday w/ Henrik

2009-08-03T23:14:00.004-05:00

I am too tired to write anything coherent.
Enjoy some pictures.

Lunch: Salmon and couscous salad with feta and balsamic

Behold, the wrath of Henrik

There is still stuff in here!

Yeah, definitely bath time tonight

I found the s'getti!

Long time no post

2009-07-29T22:02:00.005-05:00

Wow, I guess that haircut really was traumatic for me. I haven't posted since!

We've been fairly busy around here:

Saturday we went to Anabel's birthday party and had a splashing good time!
Monday was Baby Bloomers at Austin Children's Museum and playing at Chik-fil-a.
Tuesday was Lapsit and the Singing Zoologist at Cedar Park Library (am).
Tuesday was Mamma Mia / 50th Bday Party for Mar's Mom (pm).
Wednesday (today) we had dim sum with some other Mammas!
Thursday we are taking the day off and Friday we are going to the Pflugerville pool!

Here are a few assorted pictures from the last week or so! I did have a crappy camera day on Tuesday so please excuse the quality :)

Pool party birthday!

He loves the turtle!

Peek-a-Boo Emma, I see you!

Trying to escape Mamma Mia

Grrrr!

Home again, and first haircut

2009-07-18T20:22:00.007-05:00

We got home safe and sound earlier this week. Our regular luggage made it with us, but the stroller and car seat didn't -- they missed loading ALL special luggage in Sweden, there were a bunch of families waiting for strollers that never got them in Chicago.

Thankfully, United had a loaner car seat so we could make it home. Not the greatest, but it was only a couple of years old and not too dirty. Our own stuff was delivered two days later and we're certainly happy to have it back.

Anyway, to the real topic of this post: Today was a big day. First haircut! Something about being asked how old our daughter was a couple of times too many resulted in some pressure to get it done.

We went to Pigtails & Crew Cuts, they were great. Henrik got to sit in a little fire engine while they cut his hair. Before we started we sat down and talked with them and we had a priority list in case he was too wiggly or unhappy to get it all cut today. He did great though, no fuss and all got done in one sitting!

Getting ready. See those long curls, soon to be gone.

Starting out. She was careful to collect the first few clips, we got to keep them.

All done! It looks a little shorter in the front here than it really is.

Bye bye, curls!

Travel time

2009-07-13T15:08:00.002-05:00

We're now all packed for our trip back to the heat. It's been soo nice to have cooler weather, but I guess we'll survive in Austin too.

Last set of trip blogging (4H, etc) will have to wait until we get home. Now we need to get some sleep before our alarm goes off at 3AM. Loooong day ahead, finished by a drive from Dallas to Austin tomorrow night!

Ok, here's one bonus picture of Henrik showing off his wrinkle-nosey face at 4H. He looks grumpy but he was having a blast!

Park time!

2009-07-12T15:16:00.003-05:00

We started the day with a trip the the 4H open house, but we haven't uploaded those pictures yet so stay tuned for tomorrow!

Henrik, his farmor and I headed to a park we noticed while out walking the other day. There was a side for little kiddos and a side for bigger kids. I didn't bring my camera but farmor did and she took some pictures.

Old School wooden slider

Modern Motorcycle! *Vroooom*

Henrik goes down all by himself!

He loved playing under the slide too!

Too little to sit in the seat, but can work the sand machine while standing!

Tire swings totally rock! He loved to twist/untwist!

Olof, Henrik and I went back after dinner and we played on the coolest teeter-totter ever! We left Henrik standing on the fence and tried out a standing teeter-totter, but I didn't like it as much (Olof like to make you pop up so fast your feet leave the ground). Henrik had walk/crawled his way to the big awesome one again so we had to ride it again! It goes up and down and twirls around. AWESOME!

best teeter-totter ever! (stock pic)

Link to the product

Just hanging out

2009-07-11T16:14:00.003-05:00

Not much blog updates for a while now, mostly because we've mostly been doing more of the same.

Tuesday we went back up to Luleå to see some college friends. Wednesday we went to Umeå to see some other college friends. :-) Thursday was a slow day around the house, and friday we had a family get-together. Saturday was spent mostly around the house.

Pictures from the family get-together are available in a separate SmugMug gallery here.

Hanging out with farfar at the family meeting

Farmor got Henrik a new hat this week. It's like a strawberry hat, but blue. It's really cute, and hopefully large enough that he will still fit in it when it gets cold enough for it back home!

He has started wrinkling his nose when he smiles and he has a few new faces he makes when playing too!

Put up your dukes!

Ladies and Gentlemen tilt your heads

2009-07-09T15:39:00.003-05:00

hit play and enjoy!

Tractor fun

2009-07-06T17:35:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we checked out farfar's tractor, and Henrik took it for a little spin (with some minor assistance from dad).

Then mom decided that I should be riding the little cart instead of pushing it around. :)

New skill!

2009-07-04T14:48:00.002-05:00

Henrik enjoys cleaning the windows!

Hur man kommenterar

2009-07-04T10:11:00.006-05:00

(Swedish only this time, instructions on how to comment. :-)

Jag fick veta att det har varit svårt att kommentera på bloggen här. Det verkar vara lite knepigt, men det skall gå om man gör såhär:

1. Skriv kommentaren
2. Välj "Anonymous" eller "Name/URL". Om du väljer Name/URL kan du fylla i ditt namn och eventuell address till blogg om du har någon. Eller lämna den tomt, det går också bra.
3. Det kommer upp en liten verifiering av att det är en människa som postar, skriv in ordet du ser
4. Klart!

Skicka gärna brev om det inte fungerar (olof.johansson@gmail.com)

Luleå

2009-07-03T19:21:00.003-05:00

We went to see Erik and Sonja in Luleå today, and had a great visit. Good food and pleasant company as always.

We brought our travel bed (think no-frills pack-and-play but 50% longer), and Henrik went to bed there for a while. On our way home we took a little detour to take this picture. Unfortunately we missed the reddest part of the sunset but it was still very nice.

Now it's time for us to go crash so we're not complete zombies in the morning.

Note: This picture was taken at midnight. It doesn't get much darker than this at this time of year. The sun is already rising as I'm typing this at 2.20am.

Slow day

2009-07-02T16:33:00.003-05:00

Not that much to report about today. It's been a mostly slow day, Henrik almost slept through the night (he slept from 7.30pm to 5.30am). We're hoping for even better tonight, even though I hear him stir right now as I type this.

We went to the beach again, pictures tomorrow. It was colder today, and almost empty. But we still played in the water for a while, had an icecream and walked home.

We got some pictures off of my parent's camera from the other morning, where Henrik was helping his farfar fix the weed whacker. Lots of fun to be had around here!

Just tell me what you need help with, farfar!

I've got it! Fixed in no time!

He's taken to liking the little radio on the deck. Lots of fun buttons to push!

And we did a bit of wheel barrel riding today too. Can't get too much of it!

Beach part deux -- In which Henrik goes native!

2009-07-01T14:27:00.005-05:00

A few years ago Olof and I were here (Byske) in the summer time. I dragged Olof to the beach and boy oh boy was the water cold. I don't think he even put his feet in! I figured it would probably be cold again, but since there has been a heat wave, I had my hopes up.

Olof's uncle stopped by the night we arrived and mentioned that "People were in the water!"

My heart sang! I would be able to drag him to the beach again with Henrik in tow. We even made it down one night to scout it out (see the previous post).

Yesterday, we went after lunch. It's a quick walk (maybe 10 minutes). We found a nice spot, put down the blanket and changed Henrik. We totally couldn't resist buying him a speedo, but we aren't sure he liked it.

As we walked into the water, Henrik laughed heartily every time a wave hit him. We stopped to play on a sand bar with water up to his belly button. After a quick rinse, we went to the blanket to play in the sand.

We had a great time and are heading back tomorrow!

After the beach you need a bath and in the endless day that is summer here, we gave Henrik a bath outside and he LOVED that just about as much as the beach.

I gotta say, he's becoming such a fun little dude.

Going native, and not loving it

Playing in the sand after the dip

Back yard bath time

Having fun fun fun in the tub tub tub

Swish me around some more!

Pictures fixed

2009-07-01T04:10:00.000-05:00

Ooops, I have now fixed so the pictures will show in the last few posts.

Beach time!

2009-06-30T15:06:00.004-05:00

Last night we decided to take a walk after dinner. We went down to the beach (10 minutes), and while we were only planning on taking a look, Henrik got so excited that we took off his outfit and let him take a dip in just his diaper (we had a spare with us).

He LOOOOOVED it. So much that we went back again today (we're a day behind on blogging, go figure). More about that later, but here are a few pictures from last night. More on the SmugMug gallery.

Scouting the beach

Aaarrgh, I be a pirate today, matey!

Trying out the water

Ok, we're going all in!

A little deeper, and just as happy

After the dip, I was having a serious discussion with my farfar while I was warming up.

Who you calling chicken??

2009-06-29T05:21:00.004-05:00

We went next door on Sunday and let Henrik meet their chickens. He loved it!
He even 'caught' the rooster a few times. By caught I mean the rooster pecked Henrik's finger a few times. The hen is sitting on four eggs so there might be babies next week!

The Hen

The Rooster

Peek-a-Boo Henrik can see you!

Almost got you!

Got you!

Hello from Sweden!

2009-06-28T13:46:00.003-05:00

We made to Sweden without much issues. We got just a couple of hours of sleep over the Atlantic, but Henrik did the travel quite well (as always so far). We lucked out and got an empty seat between us on the long flight so that helped. But the whole "get on board, go to sleep, wake a couple of times and that's it" is no longer our mode of traveling. The small price we pay for parenthood!

We had access to the business lounge in Chicago, but we didn't want to stay in there when it got crowded, mostly because Henrik was a bit on the active and loud side. The play scape nearby was a much better option, and he got to roam around a little before being on the flight for 8.5 hours.

Connecting in Stockholm was tight but we made it without problems. We even got our luggage with us!

Saturday was a tired day, we played around the house and went for a walk, but bed came very early to catch up with sleep. Today Henrik spent a few hours with his grandparents while we went downtown to pick up a few things and just walk around a bit. They're getting along great.

We've started a smugmug page to provide a bit of pictures from our trip so far. It's available at our SmugMug album here. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the color calibrator, and the MacBook seems to need a calibration. Apologies if the colors are off.

A couple of photos are so far are withheld because I wanted to let Brandy blog about it herself. :-)

Oh, and one final note:

Sunrise today was 1.52am. Sunset will be at 11.25pm. It's great to have lots of sun but it's always hard to take good photos when the light is too sharp. The light at night is awesome though, once we've caught up with sleep we'll definitely explore it more.

15 month visit!

2009-06-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

Today we went to see Dr. Chang for our 15 month visit. (or rather Monday we went)

Weight: 23# 5oz (25-50%)
Height: 31" (50%)
Head 48.5cm (75-90%)

So height and weight are based on the Formula Fed baby charts. It's a little annoying that the doctors don't use the breast fed baby chart. So his %'s would be higher on the bf charts. It's not usually a big deal, but it did make me have to go in for weight checks b/c he leveled out sooner (as bf'ed babies do) and that caused this Mama some unneeded stress.

I love that Olof brought up the bf versus ff chart at the visit. He totally rocks!

Henrik is also so close to walking it is just silly! He'll take a few steps here and there, but has this tendency to lean way back (we're talking almost horizontal) because he thinks it is funny when you 'push' him. So we hope he'll be a walking machine when we get back!

I'm so happy to get out of this horrible heat! Seriously it's now 10 days in a row of temperatures over 100F and that is just icki. Good luck to those of you stuck here.

He has recently rediscovered the baby swing.

He has also decided to crawl on his knees when he feels like it.

Getting excited

2009-06-23T13:43:00.002-05:00

We're all getting excited about going to Sweden. We're looking forward to some quality time with farfar and farmor, but also a bit of downtime and just taking it easy. It will be so nice to get away from this heat for a while.

Packing has yet to begin. Tonight maybe, who knows. We try to travel light, but that is easier said than done when you have a 15-month old. And there always seem to be a hundred little errands that need to be taken care of before leaving. Busy busy days!

Mommy got a new toy!

2009-06-19T21:40:00.002-05:00

I got this today. I'm excited! I might even start remote blogging!