The Quilting Queen has quilted again

Ethan ♥ Sam

Christmas is over – Thank you to one and to all!

We’ve had a fantastic Christmas over here in the US and would just like to take a moment to say a big thank you to all our family and friends around the world for all your thoughtful holiday wishes, messages, Christmas cards and of course for all the nice gifts we have received!

We hope you all had an equally awesome Christmas!

Christmas at Nini's

Timmy safely contained in wrapping paper. Little did we know how much the "Baa!" would affect us all this Christmas!

Nini, Ethan and Daddy unveiling the now infamous 'Night Night Timmy'

Artsy...

...and Fartsy took over the camera once again!

Color accent kitchen conversation

Ethan likes his oranges and french toast

3 cousins, 1 Ethan and 4 billion Mega Blocks pieces

Ethan with one of many awesome Christmas pressies

"Oh Christmas tree..."

The leader of the pack?

3 year wedding anniversary at IHOP... and cake!

3 years ago on Boxing Day December 26th, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison-Helin tied the knot in the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida dressed up in Mickey & Minnie ears. After the wedding ceremony, the happy couple (us) and the wedding company headed over to the International House Of Pancakes for a wedding day pancake feast and as we are conveniently in the States right now, we thought we’d head over to IHOP for a bite to eat and to celebrate 3 fantastic years. Later in the evening, the guys back at the house surprised us with a cake they had decorated just for us! Very sweet and a very yummy cake!

Here’s to many more celebratory visits to IHOP!

Walko "The Wisconsin Whirlwind" McWalkerson

And so this is Christmas... and what have we done?

First off; we made it to Aunty Nini in Green bay, Wisconsin in one piece with no delays or cancellations! Thank Jebus for that! We left Edinburgh very early Wednesday morning for our first leg to London Heathrow (which, when we got there looked more like a refugee camp than an international airport with people sleeping and eating on blankets in the departure hall). The first leg was trouble free and easy, however we were definitely a bit nervous about our long-haul flight getting cancelled due to the 'severe weather conditions' in the UK. We checked in, got through security and walked up to our gate where the newscast on the TV in the background told of another batch of snow hitting London in the next few hours! We boarded our flight and made it out just on time before the next snowstorm! Despite pink eye, a cold and an ear infection, Ethan was great throughout the whole long travel day and we finally arrived on time and got picked up by family dressed in elf hats! Go elfs!

Thursday was a day of rest and preparation for the Christmas food feast palooza and as expected, from the minute we stepped in through the door, we've been pampered, fed and well looked after. Some of the guys finished up their Christmas shopping (Shaena went to the mall and scored a pair of really nice brown leather work shoes for my new job!), prepping and wrapping on the Thursday and some of us (moi, Peter) saved it to the last minute on Christmas Eve. Nini and I went out on a mission to put together a 'Moving to Sweden Survival Kit' for Shaena and raided the bookstore and international food market for maps of Stockholm, Swedish phrase and grammar books, a things-to-do-when-you-are-bored kit and and some traditional Swedish Wasa crisp bread.I mean; what else do one need to make it as an expat in Sweden?

On Christmas Eve we were served fantastic foods and snacks throughout the day and the culinary crown jewel was of course the Turkey/roast ham dinner combo! Awesome! As tradition dictates, we also got to open our 1 selected Christmas pressie. Ethan got a 'Night-night Timmy' stuffed animal from us that we, minutes after he'd opened, started to regret ever buying! :) Night-night Timmy is snoring when he is laying down for sleeps and is baaing when he his sitting up for playtime. A lot, loudly and often! Ethan loves it though and that is all that matters.

Today, Christmas Day, started early with everyone waking up early in anticipation for the upcoming Christmas stocking and present opening session. Well that, and Ethan waking everyone up by banging repeatedly on a bedroom door handle that echoed throughout the whole house. "Time to wake up, everyone!"

The three of us got spoilt silly and showered in really nice Christmas presents! The list of awesome gifts could make up for a very long blog entry so I won't go there but luckily, one of the presents we got was a brand new hardcase suitcase that'll help us get all the loot home to the UK. Ethan however, probably gave us the coolest gift of all: Walking! This morning, he surprised us by starting to walk all by himself and he can even turn around and continue walking in the other direction!

Hope you are all having an absolutely fabulous Christmas and that Santa treated you well wherever you are!

Now... off to indulge in some more of yesterday's turkey leftovers!

“Baa… Baa…. BAAAAA!” - Timmy rules our mornings!

Ethan has a favourite TV-show above all others. It is called ‘Timmy Time’ and is about a claymation sheep and his friends on the farm. A part of his morning routine is to watch a couple of these 10-minute episodes while eating his morning yoghurt... and it is not to be missed! No matter what. No exceptions.

Ethan has also started sleeping in our bed again and every morning he’ll wake me up with either a slap, a poke in the eye, an attempt to pull down my blanket or any other crafty way he can think of at the time; all whilst shouting “Baa… Baa…. BAAAAA!”.

One morning this past week, Ethan was so keen on watching Timmy Time that he did all of the above but when he still couldn’t get one of us to take him to the living room to turn on the computer so he could watch the show; he took matters into his own hands. He simply crawled down from the bed, out into the dark hallway where he was chanting “Baa… Baa… Baa!” down the hall and did not stop his chanting until he had made it to the coffee table in the living room where he proceeded to pry the laptop lid open. If that is not dedication, I don’t know what is!

To feed his addiction further and to make sure we always have a constant ‘supply’ for our little Timmyoholic, Shaena has downloaded the whole 1st season and the two of them also found a plastic Timmy figure at Tesco’s. Wonder what Santa will have in his bag this year...

Happy Holidays from Disco Ethan!

Ethan dings the bowl

Train kept a rollin’! New job, new country, new adventures!

December of 2010 is turning out to be big ‘news month’! Big time! Here’s the next showstopper for ya:

We are moving to Sweden!

No, there is no need to rub the sleep out of your eyes or renew your contacts prescription, you read it! The Harrison-Helin’s are closing the books on Scotland to set up shop in a new-old country. Good old Sweden. The home of IKEA, Volvo, ABBA, Roxette, Mats Sundin, H&M, Ace of Base and the Harrison-Helin’s. Has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?

Why, you ask?

Short answer: Because opportunity knocked.

Long answer:

After working very closely with the sales- and management team in my company’s Swedish office for over 3 years from over here in Edinburgh, the time has finally come to join them, full time and on location in Stockholm. I have been offered a very exciting opportunity to work even closer with major accounts in Sweden together with this awesome group of people and the details around this move were finalized yesterday. This is no doubt a fantastic career opportunity and I am so ready to get my teeth stuck into a new challenge!

The opportunity to work for CareerBuilder in Sweden aside; the timing could not be better for us. Moving to Sweden has always been an option for us when we’ve been discussing ‘what to do when we grow up’, only we love Edinburgh and our wonderful network of friends here so we’ve had no desire to change that. Now that we have Ethan and with H2 on the way, we’ve had to reconsider and rethink our priorities. For some time now, we have weighed our different options for things like childcare, benefits, opportunities, etc here in the UK and compared with our options in Sweden and needless to say, Sweden won.

Here’s a math example to illustrate part of our reasoning behind this decision:

Fulltime day care in the UK per month for 1 child: £900 or 9653 SEK
Fulltime day care in Sweden per month for 1 child: 1280 SEK (monthly fee capped at a maximum of 1280 SEK by the government)

So, if you do the math, you will see that 9653 SEK divided by 1280 SEK = 7.5. Hence; we could in theory have our flock of 7.5 future kids in fulltime day care in Sweden for the same cost as for 1 fulltime day care spot here in Edinburgh! To top that off; In Sweden, for a second child the fee is reduced to 840 SEK, for a third child it is 420 SEK and for a fourth child, completely free! …and as an added bonus, Ethan will of course get to learn Swedish even faster by hanging out with his fellow Swedish toddler friends all day long!

Moving country with everything that comes with it in terms of logistics, planning & timing, visas, etc is a huge undertaking. We know this after moving from both Sweden, Canada and Ireland. Now add a 17 month old son with a need for speed and a bun in the oven to the equation!

But we love a good challenge and we have already started our usual research and are Googling, phoning and emailing like crazy. To top all of this off even more; my start date in Sweden is February 1st, we are about to head off on our fabulous Christmas trip to the States and once back in Edinburgh, I am away for a few days on a work trip to Barcelona. Phew!

Wish us luck!

Baby H2!

We are thrilled, excited, proud and over the moon happy to officially be able to announce that Ethan is going to be a big brother! ‘Baby H2’ (which is our project name for our new addition to the family. Ethan’s project name was ‘Avocado’) is due on the 23rd of June next year and we cannot wait! Yesterday we passed the first big pregnancy-milestone: The 12 week scan! In mommy’s tummy there is now a 52mm tall, healthy little baby with a strong heartbeat.

We have of course already told Ethan that there is a baby in mommy’s tummy as we want him to get used to the idea as soon as possible and in Ethan’s head, with his very straightforward baby-logics, he now thinks that there is a baby in his tummy as well and is pointing at his tummy whilst saying: “Baby! Baby!”

Ethan Noel Harrison-Helin 17 months

For snowsake!

Like any other day in Edinburgh for the past week, it is snowing again. The only thing with today is the city has decided it can't cope and ALL bus services have been shut down and it is impossible to get a taxi as they are not taking any bookings. So my question is, what would have happened someone was in labour or had a non life threatening emergency? I mean, the ambulances are not a taxi service, or are they even capable to withstand the overflow that the rest of the city is pointing their way? Not to be so melodramatic but I am sure situations like this are happening right now!

Luckily for Peter, he caught the last bus out of work but the rest of the office might be stranded there. Ethan and I are happy to walk about town with him comfortably in his sling though 30 pounds is quite a bit to lug around town. I think we'll be making some hot chocolate and baking this afternoon to keep the cabin fever down. Not to mention that I scored the 1st season of Degrassi High! CLASSIC!

My only great fear right now is that this weather phenomenon continues for the next few weeks and we don't get to fly for Christmas. Then I'll be cursing a snow fearing city! Come on people, grow a pair! Get out there and shovel and sand!

Julbak at Antonia’s place

Yesterday afternoon, Ethan and I trekked over to Morningside where my Swedish work mate Antonia had organized a Swedish ‘Julbak’ (Christmas baking) and international turkey dinner. Ethan was of course excited to meet new people and he got to bake his first ever ‘pepparkaka’ (gingerbread cookie) and I helped myself to cup after cup of ‘glögg’ (mulled wine) and ‘Lussebullar’ (saffron buns). Very yummy and good fun!

Antonia is definitely a Martha Stewart in the making and Ethan of course loved all the attention he got and all the snacks he scored. When we went home, I managed to leave Ethan’s milk bottle, one of his slippers and our camera behind. Way to go dad!

Ethan has a dagmamma!

[dagmamma is Swedish for ’day mommy’ or childminder]
These past few weeks, Ethan has been going to childminder Anne a couple days a week for a few hours and he his having an absolute blast! Every morning when I drop him off, he is so excited to go play with the other 2 kids there and Anne’s kitty ‘Puss’, he doesn’t even have time to say his usual ‘Ba ba!’ and doesn't notice me leaving. This morning he did not even have time to take off his woolly Eskimo snowsuit and boots and instead crawled away into Anne’s living room half dressed to pet the cat. When picked up around lunch time, he is tired out from all the playing and ready for a nap! Perfect! :)

It is of course really good for him to get used to being away from mommy during the day and also good for Shaena to get a couple of hours in the day to herself.
The best thing about choosing Anne as our childminder (except for the fact that she lives pretty much around the corner from us) was that we knew that she came highly recommended as another mommy friend has had her son there and she is also registered on the Edinburgh council website for childminders, which makes us feel good and safe about our decision.

Wonder if she does magic tricks as well?

When trying to express oneself, it's frankly quite absurd,
To leaf through lengthy lexicons to find the perfect word.
A little spontaniaty keeps conversation keen,
You need to find a way to say, precisely what you mean...

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it is something quite atrosicous!
If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious,

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye