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[01 Nov 2009|12:54am] |
Happy Halloween!
Sean and I went to a Halloween - Trick-or-Treating party. He really had fun. Once he realized they were giving away candy he was totally onboard. haha He was very polite and said thank you every time he got candy and then tried to shut the people's front doors for them. haha I made his outfit this morning. There are things I wish I could have done better/different, but over all I'm super happy with it. And he just looked so darn cute I think I squealed and smiled all night long. haha
( a few more pics )
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[29 Oct 2009|11:47pm] |
This is just for my family really. It's just Sean on a Sunday afternoon.
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[29 Oct 2009|11:07pm] |
I've been lazy about posting pictures this month. Here's one from this evening:
He really loves drawing right now. He doesn't like to do it for very long at one time, but he likes to do it several times a day. And, you know, I couldn't be happier about that. He drew a shape and pointed to it and started neighing like a horse. I asked him if it was a horse and he said yes. Later in the day I asked him where the horse was and he took me to the table where the paper was and pointed to the exact same spot, that had by then been scribbled over many more times. I love it!
( Click for some puppy lovin'. )
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[10 Oct 2009|08:49pm] |
Things have felt hectic in my life lately. Like I'm always forgetting something, or almost forgetting it. Whenever I leave the house I have to run back in at least two or three times to grab something. I went to the grocery store, did the shopping, got to the check-out and realized I had left my wallet at home. I nearly started to cry. I asked the cashier if I could go ahead and take the things and return to pay the next day. She let me!
We have two families interested in our house but neither one has placed an offer yet. We have a viewing tomorrow and another on Wednesday. We're getting really dissappointed in our realtor and may have to ask for someone else. She's very lazy. And she put the most unflattering photo of our house in the local paper. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I'm not stressing about it though, I know the right people will find our house and fall in love. It's a beautiful home. :)
My Grandpa is dying. He's lived a long mostly happy life and he's at peace with passing although he wished it didn't have to be this way. I don't remember how many heart attacks and open heart surgeries he's had in his life, but it's a lot. He had another one this last week that was "a real son of a gun", in his words. He has no arterial function left in his heart, it's only the small veins around his heart that are supplying his body with blood. That won't work for much longer. There's nothing the doctors can do, anything they could try would also cause him to die so it's better to just let it happen naturally. He may have a month or two, he may have a day or two. Nobody knows.
What I know is that it has stirred up a lot of feelings about my Dad's death. God I miss him. So much. And, for me at least, I can say it's a million times better to know that a person is dying and to be able to talk to them about it than to just have someone die quickly and totally unexpectedly.
Sean is doing great. He was sick last week with a fever and cough. We had to start him on the asthma medicine again. He hated breathing into the mask thing. Really hated it. Robert had never done it before so on Sunday I made him do it so I'd know for sure he knew how while I was at work. Sean threw the biggest fit ever! We had him literally pinned to the bed with the mask smashed over his face. It was horrible. But also fantastic because I guess he realized that it wasn't much fun like that either and the next time I went to administer it he just stood there and exaggerated his breathing and acted like it was the greatest thing ever. And now he begs for the medicine. Crazy kid!
His vocabulary is exploding right now. It's so fun. A lot of the words sound very similar but I think that's pretty normal. Daddy lets him watch way more films than Mommy and it was really clear when he was begging for "Gabba" (Yo Gabba Gabba) all day long while Daddy was at work. haha
Here's a video of how Sean discovered a brand new way of torturing Jessie:
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[19 Sep 2009|09:19pm] |
On Thursday Sean turned 18 months old! He also had his 18 month check-up that morning. He's healthy as can be and smart as a whip. He's gotten taller and lost weight, no suprise there. Sometimes I look at him and think who are you? because he's just changing so much right now. In three months he has grown 3cm and is now 88cm (34.6") tall. He also lost 1.9 kilos (4 lbs.) and now weighs 18 kilos (39.6 lbs.). The nurse said that he is at a perfect weight and that he's following a nice curve again instead of the weight being so off the chart. haha I thought she was going to say that he still needed to lose weight, but she didn't. She said he's never going to be the skinny, skinny type of child because that's just not his body type (ya think?! haha) and that he's just fine where he's at. Yay!
His language is exploding right now and he's trying out different words and sounds daily it seems. His understanding of what we say has also dramatically increased. I think it's so wonderful that when he is upset I can actually have a conversation with him now to figure out what is wrong. He's so friendly and outgoing and funny. And naughty! So, so naughty! hahaha But he's a kid, that's his job. haha The other morning I was in the bathroom washing my face and I was blocking the cupboard that he wanted to open. He started pushing me out of the way but at the same time was saying "Hi! Hello Mama. Hi! Hi!" in the sweetest little smiley voice. I looked at him and said, "Are you trying to charm me so that I don't notice that you are being naughty?" He cocked his head to the side, thought about it and then said, "Yes!". hahaha At least he's honest!
Getting frustrated because he can't get into the dog bed from the back side.
Down right mad because he still can't get in and because mommy is just sitting there taking pictures and not helping.
The magical transformation of mood the second he finally gets in the bed.
We had our garage sale today. It was a lot of work getting ready for it, mostly because I am adamant that every single thing have a price tag on it and that there is some type of order to how things are laid out. I personally don't like going to sales where the prices aren't marked, I'm more likely to not buy something than to ask how much it costs. I stayed up until 6am getting everything in order, then slept for one hour until Sean woke up at 7am. I didn't even feel all that horrible until about 3pm. Luckily our sale ended at 2pm. haha And we did fantastic!! Way better than I expected to do and Robert was in shock the whole time. They don't really have yard/garage sales in Sweden so he's never been to one or had one before. When we were going through the house to gather things to sell he kept telling me that it was just garbage and he couldn't imagine that anyone would buy it. He kind of felt like we were wasting our time. I can tell you that he does not feel that way any more! haha In five hours time we made 5434 kr (791 dollars)!! Awesome! Better yet, there is a charity coming by to pick up absolutely everything we didn't sell and we don't even have to lift a finger to help load it up. Ahhhhh.
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[14 Sep 2009|07:12am] |
We are putting our house up for sale which means we need to get rid of a whole lot of stuff. We're having a big indoor "garage sale" on September 19th from 9am-2pm. We've got lots on offer at really cheap prices including:
yard tools and machines
power tools
kitchen gadgets
furniture
lots of brand new PartyLite candle stuff
lots more odds and ends.
Let me know if you need the address. :)
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[09 Sep 2009|10:36pm] |
This was a day for celebrating!! Sean can wear jeans! JEANS!!!
Perhaps you don't understand the weight of that statement. haha He hasn't worn jeans or any type of non-stretchy pants since he was three months old! He was just too chubby for them. But today, today he wore jeans. I'm such a dork that when I realized that they fit him I nearly started to cry out of happiness. haha
And, in celebration of this whole new world of baby fashion available to us, I decided to once again try to buy him some sneakers. Never before have I found any shoes that would fit his feet. But today was like no other, and he did indeed end up with shoes! Not just any shoes either, shoes that blink and flash when he walks. Very cool indeed! hehe
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[23 Aug 2009|04:04pm] |
Ugh, payday (Tuesday) cannot come soon enough this month. It feels like we've been stretching money for weeks. It wears me out. But we've had some sunny weather which makes things more pleasant. Sean had a little snack of blackberries and plums that he picked in the neighbors yard this afternoon.
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[19 Aug 2009|12:51pm] |
It's just about one month now before I have to go back to work. I'll only be working three days a week and Sean will be at home with Robert those days for a few months. Even so I just can't stop welling up every time I think about having to be away from Sean for so many hours on those days.
I went to my work place last week for a visit. They are wanting to change my job. I think it will be a good thing and am initially excited about it. I've been promised things before though that never happened so I'm not holding my breath. They've gotten much busier though in the nearly two years I've been on leave and working only three days a week as the sample seamstress won't cut it anymore. We would all get way behind in our work. So they want to keep on the woman who has been filling in for me on a part-time basis and have me do some sewing and also head up a new quality control department. Evidently in the time I've been away they've also had HUGE quality control problems and nearly 95% of the garments have to be sent back in some cases. Not good. Having that kind of flexibility will also keep me from having to sit in front of the sewing machine all day long, which is not good for my crotch. So, I hope it works out and is as good of a deal as what they are telling me.
Today was the first day back at öppnaförskolan (open playschool). Sean was sooooooo excited! I have to say, it is MUCH easier now that he can walk. haha There were so many bratty kids there today though and their mother's either weren't paying attention or didn't seem to think they were bratty. There was one three year old girl, in particular, that seemed to focus all her brat attention on Sean. She was sitting on one of those rubber bouncy horses and all Sean did was walk by her and she leaned into his face and screamed "NOOOOOO!" really loud. He didn't let it bother him much and just continued on his way. But then every toy he had she took away and everywhere he wanted to play was right where she wanted to be. I was really annoyed. When she tried to push him off the slide I'd finally had it. My back was to her mother so I gave her a stern look and told her she'd better stop that right now! And miracle of miracles, she did! And she kept a wide berth around Sean from then on.
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[19 Aug 2009|01:25am] |
Sean is now 17 months old. He is such a character. He's quite funny. And he knows it, and likes making people laugh. hehe He's got a stubborn streak that knows no bounds. I'm pretty sure he gets that from me. *ahem* He's talking more and more every day. It really suprises me too how much he really understands. He's very into imaginary play right now. We pretend that different toys are plates and food etc. He "feeds" me and loves it. He loves playing with anything from the kitchen cupboards. I let him explore and play with almost everything. Not the knives though. I'm a good mom like that. He's a big time copy-cat right now too.
This isn't new, he's done this thing for awhile now and I've thought it was super funny but never really talked about it because I figured it was probably normal for all bilingual children. From what I gather though, it's not. So, now I'm going to tell you how brilliant and funny my boy is! haha It's usually during dinner that he will point to something, like maybe the table, and look at me and wait for me to say "table" and then he'll look at Robert and continue to point at it and Robert will say "bord". Then he looks back to me, then to Robert, then to me, etc. He waits to hear the difference between what we each call things, and he wants to hear it over and over about ten times in each language before he's satisfied. Brilliant I tell you!!
And this silly boy is all about dancing recently. He dances for about a half hour non-stop each night before bed time. He's sweaty and exhausted and crazy hyped up! But, thankfully so worn out that it usually only takes a short time to get him off to sleep. Here's a bit of his dancing from this evening. The video quality is not great because it's from my digital camera. For some reason I'm having a heck of a time changing the format of the videos from our video camera into something actually viewable. *sigh* Anyhow, enjoy! :)
And, yes, that is a frying pan on the floor of our computer room. Why do you ask?
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[13 Aug 2009|11:09pm] |
Just recently Sean has been allowed to watch a few television programs here and there. His favorite, by far, is Yo Gabba Gabba. *cringe* He usually sits in the big leather chair with his bottle of water and a stuffed animal and is happy until the episode is over. This morning I got him all set up and then went to clean up the kitchen. When I went back in to check on him I saw that he had abandoned the bottle and stuffed animal, climbed out of the chair, and was instead hanging out with the dogs on their sofa. :) He made sure to give equal petting time to both, he'd lean towards one for awhile and then the other. hehe
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[11 Aug 2009|02:12pm] |
Saturday was lovely and sunny. Robert had to work for a little bit in the morning so Sean and I spent some time exploring the backyard.
We have a huge black currant bush in the yard that was absolutely bursting with berries. I don't like black currants but Sean thinks they are the best thing ever. When the weather is nice I let him go out and have a snack. He thinks it's fun picking them and even more fun eating them.
And I had to add this picture because when I was showing the pics to Robert later that afternoon every time this one came on the screen Sean would point to it with eyes lighted up and a big smile on his face and say, "mmm...mmmMM...MMMMMM, yum, yum, YUM!". haha
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[07 Aug 2009|11:37pm] |
Today was a very momentous day! My baby boy got his very first haircut! Gone are the oh-so-sweet baby curls. :( I didn't want to do it, but it really was neccessary. His hair is really thick and was actually quite long. The curls were getting so tangled that it was difficult to comb his hair.
He did so well at the salon. He sat on my lap and looked at his favorite book. When that got boring I pulled out the bubbles and he was thrilled. The only part he wouldn't stand for was having the clippers around his ears so that part of the cut isn't as sharp as it could be. But I was happy enough with it even though I was also sad to see the curls go.
( Here's the before and after: )
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[04 Aug 2009|10:03pm] |
Sean is 16.5 months old now. He started walking last Friday. He's never even stood up without holding onto something and then all of a sudden on Friday he just up and starts walking on his own. Today he is running. He is something else! haha
He hollers through the house for Robert (Pappa!) to find out where he is. If Robert isn't home or doesn't answer he gets mad. Also, if I lose my patience with the dogs and tell them to go lay down he tries to mimic what I've said, in the same tone. Eeek!
New words he says: shoes, Kian (the neighbor boy), bubbles, diaper.
Whenever he sees something that is soft, like a teddy, a dog, a cat, etc. even if it is just a picture in a book, he squints his eyes a little, rubs his cheek with his hand, and says, "ohhhhhhh" trying to convey how soft it is. I love this. hehe
As for me, I've been struggling with some emotional things, but it's getting better. I've been to the doctor about a problem with my ears. It's not better so I'll be calling again tomorrow. All my various pains are still present although the SPD pain is getting a lot better. I think the stop in breastfeeding has helped that a lot. I start back to work in 6.5 weeks. :/
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[18 Jul 2009|03:25pm] |
Well, we got back from vacation on Wednesday afternoon.
Our hotel was so very bad. Really, really bad. It was filthy dirty. The bed was as hard as a rock. It smelled bad and was damp all the time. The managers were not friendly or helpful at all. They were extremely irritated if anyone dared to ask them a question about anything. And the food. Ugh. It was so, so, so bad. A couple of times it was so inedible that we had to go buy dinner elsewhere even though we had already paid for it there.
The good news was that the island was amazing and beautiful and everything you would think Greece should be. We had a lot of fun swimming and taking walks. Sean slept a lot during our trip. He grew three new molars and I think between that, the heat, and the amount of swimming he got really exhausted. He took two two-hour naps a day, plus slept all night!
Robert's parents had suprisingly agreed to watch the dogs for us. Robert dropped the dogs off at their apartment late Tuesday night and they stayed there until Saturday morning when they came and stayed the rest of the time at our house. I hate having them stay at our house. Hate it! But it was better for the dogs so I didn't say anything. Well, they didn't do one single thing while they were here. They washed up the dishes they used and that was it. They didn't even run the vaccume to get up the dog hair. No big deal, but I found it kind of weird because I know that my family would not just pick up after themself but would try to be helpful to us as well. Whatever. His dad picked us up at the airport and when we got home I changed Sean's diaper and then went to the bathroom. His parents left while I was on the tiolet, they hollered good-bye to me through the door! We hadn't even been home five minutes. We hadn't told them anything about our trip. They hadn't seen Sean in almost two months. Bye! Later in the evening I went down to the cellar to start some laundry. Our family room with the tv is down in the cellar, evidently they sat down there and felt free to smoke cigarettes!!!!! They know without a doubt that we have never allowed smoking inside the house. A wall of stink hit me when I descended the stairs and I was furious! It's now Saturday and it still stinks down there! I'm so mad about that.
( some pics from our trip )
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| I've created a monster! |
[03 Jul 2009|10:57pm] |
I'm positive that aliens have taken my son and left a foul-tempered look-alike in his place. Seemingly overnight Sean has developed a powerful temper and a very strong sense of what he does and does not like. And what he does not like the most is to be told "no".
I have no doubt about where he got his temper. It wasn't from his placid father. *ahem*
He woke up at 6am this morning. I handed him his water bottle and turned to check the clock. His alphabet book was sitting in front of it so I moved it and that caught his attention. He wanted the book. I told him no, that it was too dark to see it and we would read it later. Then I closed my eyes and was trying to half sleep a little longer. But no, instead I got a bottle slammed down onto my head and a screaming banshee in my bed. I took the bottle away and told him not to do that. Then, stupidly, closed my eyes again only to be double slapped across the face. What the....???!!!!
He scratched the skin off of Robert's nose yesterday. He gave me a titty-twister today because I was changing his diaper and he didn't approve. Pinching is his new greatest joy. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) carrieb I'm so totally understanding the abuse you've been going through these last years. haha
Although he is still my little angel, he's certainly good at being devlish. I mean, look at the gleam in those eyes. Something painful happened about two seconds after that picture was taken. haha
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[01 Jul 2009|09:35pm] |
It's been hot, hot, hot here over the past week! I'm not complaining though, not much anyway. I do complain at night when I'm trying to sleep and am instead sweating and sticking to the bedding. Ugh. I will be much happier at this time next week when I get to endure hot temperatures with my choice of a sea or a pool to lounge in. haha
Sean is not breastfeeding at all anymore. Last Thursday he was pretty uninterested in the session before bedtime so on Friday night I decided that if he asked for it he could have it but otherwise I wouldn't offer. He didn't ask. And he hasn't asked since. I was a bit sad at first because I really wasn't ready to stop. I enjoyed the closeness with him and that little bit of special time we had together that was unlike anything he had with anyone else. But that's how it goes. And I am super happy that throughout the process of weaning it was fairly painless for him, and me. I only had to pump once for relief. I wanted it to be easy for him and it seems that it was.
He's climbing staircases now. But he doesn't do it on his hands and knees. No, no, my son does it on his hands and feet! haha He definitely has a strong sense of how he wants to do things and there's no persuading him otherwise. He's also very interested in using silverware and feeding Robert and I. He thinks it is especially fun to feed us his bottle of water. And if we forget, he is there to remind us to make the Ahhhhh sound when we're finished. hahaha One time he was sharing his water with me and I told him no thank you and that I was finished and I kind of turned my head away. Well he just leaned forward, grabbed my chin, turned my face back towards him, brushed the hair out of my face, and stuck the bottle in my mouth! Such a crack up!
Today I cleaned up the kiddie pool and filled it with some water. Normally I would just let him get in it naked, but I wanted him to try on his new sun protection swimsuit, plus I didn't want to slather on full-body sunscreen an hour before naptime. And because I'm lazy. Ha! He was a little dubious of the pool at first, he loves taking a bath so maybe it was the red color or the fact that it was outside that threw him off. But it didn't take long for him to enjoy it and then he didn't want to get out.
And look at those curls!!! His hair is actually really long it just coils up into these tight little spiral curls. hehe I think it's soooooo cute!
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[24 Jun 2009|09:23am] |
On Monday Sean had his 15 month healthy baby check-up. And he is healthy. In three months time he has grown 5 centimeters and is now 85cm (33.4") long! And he weighs 0.3 kilos more than he did three months ago, so currently 19.6 kilos (43 lbs). He did weigh over 21 kilos, and probably more, but the near stop on breastfeeding and the increased mobility have done their magic and he is slimming down. Just as I always knew in my little mommy heart. haha
Here he is with his nurse, Sister Karin.
The words that he says right now (that we have caught on to anyway):
juice
cheese
Jessie
goose
blomma (flower in swedish)
hi
bye bye
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[21 Jun 2009|02:12pm] |
We had a lovely midsummer celebration. We spent the day with our neighbors and friends. We ate all the typical foods, sang the songs, danced around the pole, and laughed late into the night. Of course I had to make Sean a flower crown. He was good about keeping it on until it slipped into his eyes and then he didn't want anymore of it, so it made the rounds on other heads and as a table decoration too. haha I made the dessert, it was a raspberry mousse cake. We even got sunshine for much of the afternoon and evening! It was lovely. :)
Today is Father's Day and so the neighbor and I took our husbands to a fabulous cafe for breakfast and then presented them with their "DADDY" photos. :)
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[13 Jun 2009|11:24pm] |
I got my hair cut on Thursday. I went to a new stylist. I didn't know what I wanted so I was a little nervous, but not much. It is just hair, it will grow. I told her I wanted a change, I wanted it shorter, and I didn't want any spiky hair. haha These Swedes, every time the hair is short they think you have to have stiff, gel encrusted spikes everywhere. I wasn't sure about the super short bangs at first but it's grown on me. And the rest of the cut I've loved from the start.
I only nurse Sean for ten minutes at bedtime, and it's been that way for about a month now. He still wants to nurse more often throughout the day but he's more easily distracted from it. Since he nurses so little I've started taking my PCOS medication again. OMG!!! I've been taking it for two weeks now and I cannot believe what a HUGE difference it's made. I am a completely different person in every way possible. Hormones are crazy, powerful little bastards let me tell you.
My SPD pain is still present but has gotten a bit better. I'm seeing a doctor on Monday who told a friend of mine that she was pretty sure she could help me. I'm hopeful, but I'm not going to get too excited yet.
My big news is that in less than a month I'll be laying on a beach on the island of Thassos, Greece! In the nine years Robert and I have been together we have never had a real vacation together anywhere, besides going to the US to see my family. But that's not really the same thing as taking a proper vacation, you know what I mean? We've never even just gone away for a weekend. NEVER. So, I am beyond excited that we get to go and do this.
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