West, South, North...and a bit of East?

Phew! We have a nutty, fun filled couple of weeks behind us and a nutty, fun filled month to look forward to! Shaena came back after an absolutely amazing trip out west to Washington DC and Appleton, only to get a day’s rest, shake off a bit of the jetlag and re-pack our bags for our first family-of-four vacation to Makgrigialos, Crete, Greece.

So, in two weeks we’ve covered off trips out west and down south. In the next few weeks we’ll be embarking on our next family road trip up north (you will be happy to know that we’ve also done our first family-of-four road trip this week when we rented a car and drove around the south/east tip of Crete!) and will probably squeeze in a bit of east as well, just for the hell of it! ;)

Anyway; below is a selection of Shaena’s photos from the DC part of her US trip and as you can see, she did us proud and managed to capture some of America’s most iconic landmarks whilst operating a Segway for the first time!

Landmarks, landmarks as far as the eye can see

Franklin D. Roosevelt 

 

The World War II memorial

Kate and Orlaith

5 ladies lined up in front of a gorgeous setting in Georgetown

The famous stairs from the last scene
in 'The exorcist'

Varying participation levels in class
at Georgetown Uni.

Ollie

Orlaith, Maeghan and Shaena

Posing in Georgetown

Yep, it's The White House

Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building

The Old Post Office

Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson

Lincoln Memorial

Abe

Washington Monument

Toes getting dipped in landmark water

Made it!

Last night alone with the boys tonight and Shaena is back tomorrow. Nothing broken and no physical or mental scars, at least to my knowledge. The exhilaration and relief I feel right now is to be compared with Lance A. crossing the finish line after a Tour the France race or Neil A. getting back safely after a trip to space!
I even got a rhyme in there! ;)

Fun, fun, fun

There’s no rest for the wicked, Harrison-Helins included. To quote ‘Glee’; “Here’s what you missed”:

In Sweden: Grandma Gertrud, Roland and Ida have been visiting for a few days and on Thursday we were invited to a 60th birthday open house at Roland’s sister's south of the city. Good times were had and we got to catch up with extended family that I haven’t met in years and years. Other than that we’ve done everything from BBQ’ing to boat-shopping to car maintenance to outdoorsy fun to cuddles on the couch!

In the US: Oodles of fun! Lots of shopping and good food over the last few days and this afternoon Shaena Skype-showcased all the cool stuff and goodies that will be coming back with her in a few days. Ho-ly! That our boys are getting spoilt silly is an understatement!

Conclusion: We’ve got ourselves a sweet set-up over here and our family around the world is pretty awesome! Thanks guys!

"Here we are at the..."

4 lovely ladies and 1 lovely lad

Shaena, Jen, Orlaith, Ollie and Maeghan ...and Kate behind the camera

All's quiet on the eastern front

A couple of days into flying solo with the kids and I am pleased to report that everything is going really well! Ethan and Hudson really are the sweetest little kids (not biased, not at all!) and it is such a joy and privilege to be able to do the whole morning routine, drop off at dagis, hang out with Hudson for a few hours and then pick Ethan up again and do something fun in the afternoon. Dagis pick-ups are always great confidence boosts as well. Ethan is getting praise for things like being the best eater/fork user at his table, the best tricycle-rider, for being sweet and helpful with the other kids, for being great at dressing himself and hanging up his clothes after outdoor play... tiny little things to reaffirm that we are doing the right thing.

Speaking of morning routine; the movie of choice for Ethan has been 'Top Gun' for the last couple of weeks and he especially enjoys sitting in the couch (very) early in the morning with a bowl of cereal watching the Top Gun intro. Before I even get a chance to rub the sleep from my eyes and turn on the TV, Mr. Ethan says "Watch airplane, titta flygplan!" and hands me the TV remote. He then adds "Button!" as if what he is really trying to say is: "Here, turn on the TV right now so I can watch Top Gun. You know the drill!"

Another movie that has grown on him lately, and seems to have made it to the top of his charts in record time, is 'Gnomeo & Juliet' - an animated gnome love story produced by Elton John and packed with Elton songs. Actually not a bad flick at all, check it out! On the other hand; his judgement in movies and animated clips has its flaws as well as 'The Gummibär song' on Youtube is something he doesn't mind watching and listening to over, and over, and over again. Ethan calls it "Green bear, dance!" - I call it Chinese water torture.

Other than that; we've had a lovely couple of days with lots of walks and outdoor activity so let's hope the Swedish summer has arrived and let's also hope that these two crazy cats continue to be on their best behavior for the rest of the week.

From the other side of the pond, our action reporter Shaena is having a fabulous time catching up with the girls! Copious amounts of Starbucks beverages are being had and I hear the boys' next-size-up wardrobes are quickly filling up. A very well deserved trip and I am sure we'll hear all about it shortly!

Next week:
Hello Crete, hello all inclusive hotel, hello pool, hello beach, hello Tzatziki, hello Moussaka, hello Mythos beer!

Kids never cease to shock and amaze

Today was supposed to be a tough day. Ethan is in a mommy-phase right now where only mommy gets to put him to bed and he gets really upset when Shaena leaves the house. So for that reason; we figured that today and the first few days into Shaena’s trip would be a bit of a nightmare with lots of crying, lots of calling out for mommy and so on. But kids never cease to shock and amaze.

Ethan cried for a little bit after dropping Shaena off at the airport and after that, both boys had a good nap and that was that pretty much it. The rest of the day we’ve been coloring, playing with Play-Doh, watching Top Gun/Andy’s airplanes/Monster Jam, Skypeing … stuff like that.

We then had dinner and a bath and chilled on the couch after Hudson went to bed. Ethan said: “Daddy, cuddle me” and we cuddled. Ethan said: “Daddy, big huuug!” and we hugged. I then said: “Time for bed, Ethan. Would you like to sleep in daddy’s bed?” to hopefully make bedtime a bit easier. Surprisingly, Ethan said: “No, Ethan’s bed!” and marched off to his own bed and laid down.

After a few minutes he sat up suddenly as if he had an idea. “This bed!” he said and pointed. I figured he wanted to sleep in our bed after all and proceeded to pick up his blanket and pillow and was half way out of the room when I realized that he was half way up the bunk bed ladder!

He proceeded to clear the top bunk from toys and stuffed animals and handed me one stuffed animals after the other until the bed was completely empty. He then crawled to the far end of the bed, put his head down, and patted the side of the bed and said: “Daddy, pillow!” and wanted me to crawl up and lay down as well. After a few songs, he was out. It was perfect.

We don't feed our kids enough

Wink!

The Hudson filter used on Hudson

"Your chariot has arrived, Master Hudson!"

T minus 4 days

Daddy days are approaching fast and the excitement level is reaching boiling point even faster! The weather here in Stockholm has been great overall for the past week and you can definitely tell that the number of sun hours have increased in the last month or so… which unfortunately also means that our lovely kids seem to think that wakey-wakey time is now even earlier than usual!

A couple of weeks or so back; Shaena and I were talking about what to do when I go on daddy days and Shaena also said something along the lines of “You know what – I should ‘disappear’ and technically not be here for a few days so you get to experience the full force of the boys and take care of both kids all by yourself for a few days…”.

Well, the idea sounded good at the time however; I think you will all agree we are going all-in on that 'parenting experiment' when I tell you that Shaena is heading to Washington DC and Green Bay for just over a week starting on Saturday! *gulp* Way to kick start daddy leave!

The girl crew from Edinburgh; Orlaith, Jen, Maeghan, Kate and Shaena are reuniting in Washington DC and I know they are all crazy excited about the week to come so stay tuned for updates…

Dual languages

It's that time of year again...

Yep, it's travel time! Our first ever family holiday as a family of four is all booked! Our usual googling and reseaching frenzy resulted in an amazing all inclusive charter trip to a nice hot location complete with a great hotel room, kiddie pool, evening entertainment, all the ice cream the kids can eat and all the local beverages the mom and the dad can drink, meals, snacks... Can you tell that there's excitement in the air?

Anyone care to guess where we are going?

Brotherly love

Buddy H.

More merry moments at Mulle Meck