November 8, 2009
It’s father’s day in Sweden today. It’s the second one for Sam.
In an earlier entry I told you about Noah’s first time drawing with crayons. As soon as he sees a pen he usually wants to draw so we have several pictures to choose from to make a card for Sam. I snapped these pics the other day. He is just so excited about color!
On a totally different note, Shie made an entry about signs. Yesterday we were downtown and ended up at a bakery. I just had to take this picture for her.
November 5, 2009
Last weekend Noah´s aunt and cousin came for a visit. Noah was thrilled to spend some time with his cousin who came with a bunch of toys, shoes and clothes. Noah also joined us for a “fika” which ended in a pile of crumbs.
I caught Noah´s reaction to his cousin. He seems to really want to wrestle but T who is much bigger is a bit apprehensive over how to take this attacking kid. So gentle with Noah who kept reaching for his eyes.
November 1, 2009
Yesterday we had our good friends over for a “fika”. Noah got to eat a cookie too since it was Saturday. We were so excited to see them as it would be our first time to meet Svea, 5 weeks old. She is almost exactly 1 year younger than Noah. It’s amazing to think how much happens in one year. Noah was 5 weeks old when we did the blue foot prints.
Our friends are great parents and Svea is a beautiful and precious little girl. It’s so much fun to listen to their experiences as new parents.
October 30, 2009
Noah has always been fascinated (and at times a bit frightened) by the vacuum cleaner.
I am a bit persistent when it comes to the vacuum. I hate having crumbs, dirt ect. on the floor. So I usually take out the vacuum once per day. Lately, Noah has been doing most of the work for me.
October 27, 2009
The other day we brought out some crayons and a blank sheet of paper. Noah was sitting in his highchair with the items on the little table in front of him. He was so excited. He has only used a regular pen before. Having color options was a thrill. He got so excited he picked up crayons with his little hands and held them close to his chest as if to hug them. He used a few different colors as he painted the first piece. I took pictures of him and of the art he created and was so sad to realize that the pictures had accidently been erased from our camera.
So no pictures of Noah in his high chair or the first painting he did. I would take a new picture of what he drew but it’s all tucked away in his room where he is fast a sleep at the moment.
However, Sam brought him to the open day care today and he had made a special request to let the kids paint with water color. Today Noah got to use a paintbrush. No actions shots are available but his artwork is! You can clearly see which hand he uses to paint.
October 25, 2009
I sometimes wonder how much time we spend in a life time to wait. Waiting for the bus, elevator, coffee to be done, train, commercial breaks to be over with or doctors. We had a professor in college who would always bring a book (theology or otherwise growth producing) just to flip open while waiting. It was an attempt to not loose valuable time.
I found myself in a waiting room at the hospital while Andy and Marie saw the speech therapist. I didn’t bring a book but I did have my camera. I just sat there reflecting over how ugly a lot of these waiting rooms are. Usually fake flowers, bland colors, plastic flowers, same ugly chairs everywhere.
In this area they tried to make it nicer with an aquarium, to me it just got a bit more sad. An attempt sure… but really??
Then the placement of some pictures. I am allergic to this sort of “off center” attempt to make something intresting. It’s just tacky! In my opinion the only place where you MIGHT pull off an “off center” picture placement is the stairs. Then the sign that sort of fell down a bit. Sort of made me laugh.
It was nice to see a lot of toys for kids to play with but if someone sits in the farthest away chair to the right against the wall, how would you be able to get through with a wheelchair or a walker?
I guess I am happy to see that they are spending the money where it matters the most. With patient care and treatment, at least I hope so!
After taking a few pictures, waiting for people to leave the area, cause I didn’t want to scare them, I grabbed a fashion magazine and read something I already forgot.
October 22, 2009
I left Sam and Noah in Jönköping on Wednesday morning and got on the train. It will be the longest period of time I’ve been away from Noah. I won’t be bacl until Saturday evening. Sam had loaded our Zune with movies and music for me to keep me entertained while traveling
I have spent time with my niece and nephew and we have been laughing a lot together. Chicco and I have been out on a couple of walks since I got here. He couldn’t figure out what I was up to when I stopped the process of getting ready to get out and had him sit down and pose in front of the door. He wasn’t too thrilled when I took so much extra time.
Today my sister in law’s assistant came. We decided to head down town. Marie’s assistant is a very nice person and I am happy to have met her.
We stopped at an ice cream store and had a “fika”.
I thought of Christian when I noticed the pink bubble gum ice cream. I had no idea we had it over here.
October 17, 2009
While we were still in the US I kept updating myself online what was going on in our hometown. I read an interview with one of my old favorite artists. He was coming to our town. Might give you a hint about the status of his career… although we have had such persons as Tom Jones and Bob Dylan come through.
Already as a child I focused more on texts/lyrics than on the rest of the music. I can still remember hearing one of Niklas’ songs on the radio, standing in our kitchen in Trelleborg looking out the window at the trees. Listening and in my imagination seeing a sad person at the train station in Stockholm with a packed bag and a one-way ticket to Venice. I must have been around 7. Then I ended up buying a cassette tape with his latest “album” named “OM” or “IF” in English. I kept buying his albums until I moved to the US and lost contact.
Niklas hasn’t toured in about 10 years. He is not very popular anymore since the “Idols” took center stage and names such as Britney, Lady Ga Ga and Shakira is floding the radio.
I took the bus… just missed one… in the cold fall weather to the concert hall. I snapped a picture of the bus stop and the add, thought it was kind of fun to give you a glimpse at my evening.
Once at the concert they announced several times that taking pictures or recording any part of the concert was strictly forbidden I got a bit scared. I had brought my camera to be able to blog about this but decided to stick to the much smaller and less obvious cellphone. Quality is a bit bad… but you get the general idea.
This was a very intimate concert. I was on third row. He brought pictures that he showed and talked about his life and inspiration to writing the specific songs. He had a sort of dialouge with the audience. The two musicians he had with him were AMAZING. Very talented. Switching between several different instruments and singing back-up vocals. The drummer was at one point playing drums, base and singing all at the same time! Very impressive.
It was a bit strange to hear all of his old songs. Moments, situations, intense feelings from my childhood and youth came flooding back. A display of my life from about 7 to 19. That can be a bit overwhelming.
An old friend from the local paper took this picture since he was allowed.
I am very thankful I got to go. Sam stayed home with Noah.
October 11, 2009
The last day in Malta we decided to bundle up Noah and Jaeg and give them a ride on the lawn mower. By now the weather had switched from warm sunny summer to windy chilly fall.
Kids were squeeling with excitement and their little voices were heard over the loud motor noise.
We all headed back to Billings and made a stop in Zortman for lunch and admiring the landscape and old ghost town looking buildings. It felt a lot like being in the wild west. Jim informed us that no one ever escaped from that jail.
Zortman is an old mining town near Malta. It became infamous after a gunfight between Kid Curry and one of the town pioneers, Pete Landusky. (Kid Curry and his gang “The Wild Bunch” along with The Sundance Kid had a hideout near Zortman.) Landusky was killed.
A door, I have to add a door picture! 
We returned to Minneapolis on Wednesday and spent some time at the Mall of America with Jonas, Shie and Esther. That night I got very very sick.
Jonas and Shie had arranged for us to spend some days at a cabin in Alexandria. It was raining most of the time but we had such a good time relaxing, playing with the kids and watching movies at night.
Sam’s cousin Nikki came by to see us. She brought her boyfriend. Noah ran right up to him and up in his arms.
