Eating applesauce has never been so much fun (and never been so messy)

Off to the market we go

"Santa? Is that you?" Part II

"Santa? Is that you?"

Grandma Gertrud and Roland arrived this afternoon and I met up with them at their hotel after work to take them to our pad. They of course got to meet and cuddle with Ethan, and they also got to meet Shaena for the first time. Shaena has now officially been ‘mother-in-law-ed’. Think it went well. We had a nice time and a good chat over a takeout meal from good old 'Rice King', and lordy-lord did Ethan get spoilt again!

He got the cutest little Santa outfit complete with a little Santa hat (which by the way is meant for a 6-9 month old, but he fit them just fine!), and he got a ton of stylish new clothes like sweat pants, pajamas’, socks and t-shirts. They had also bought him a very nice ‘Elsa Beskow's Mors Lilla Olle' melamine set with a bowl, plate, sippy cup and cutlery for his little baby meals, you know one of those keepsakes for when he is older and can say "Aaah, ooh, that is too cute! Did I really use that!?". On top of all of this, Grandma had also knitted an adorable strawberry hat and a strawberry sweater, and a few more items of really nice knitted clothes, and even a knitted blankie and pillow case. For us, they had bought, and carefully brought, the nicest and hugest handmade glass plate all the way from Sweden. Thank you so much!

Tomorrow we’ll be hitting up the German Christmas market for some mulled wine and Aberdeen Angus burgers, but for now, here comes Santa Claus!

Big In Japan? (Or: Will One Night In Bangkok really make a hard man humble?)

Either way, we are proud to announce that our humble little blog page now has circled the world from West Hollywood to Tokyo!

According to our geek-tool Google Analytics, since we started using it in September of 2009, we have gone full circle around planet Earth with occasional visits from towns and cities all the way from glitzy Hollywood in the United States to small industrial towns like Mo i Rana in Norway, we have made it down to metropolitan Madrid in Spain and the French Mediterranean coast, south-east to Karachi in Pakistan and over to bustling Ahmedabad, India and even more east to Bangkok, Thailand and down to Mandaluyong in the Philippines, down under to sunny Brisbane, Australia, and finally up again to the home of the Tamagotchi: Tokyo, Japan!

The internet is a fantastic concept, and it is amazing that someone sitting on the number 25 bus in Edinburgh on his way to work on a Thursday morning can have readers across every continent in a matter of minutes or hours.

Thank you everyone who has paid us a visit! Would be cool if you could drop us a quick ‘hi’ in the comments field and let us know where you are from!

Harrison-Helin's Christmas Eve pot-luck party!

Our plan to have a small scale Christmas celebration at home here in Edinburgh this year is no more. Gone. Out the door. Erin and Svante will still be coming over from Sweden of course, but ‘adventurous’ as we are, we have decided to put our apartment to the test once more by hosting a Christmas pot-luck on Christmas Eve! Maeghan & Reg and their friends are coming, and Jen & Mike are coming as well, so all in all we will be 12(½) people here in our 1 bedroom apartment. So, as you can imagine, Ethan will not be lacking people to charm over Christmas, that’s for sure!

Also, on Christmas Eve during the day, the girls will be coming over for a baking-session in our teeny tiny kitchen. Pumpkin pies and gingerbread men and gingerbread MC Hammers will be made for the rest of us to enjoy (Ethan and I will help out by eating the delicious dough of course). Speaking of which; we will have to start planning our annual Christmas raid of IKEA's food market soon! Lists will have to be made and logistics will have to be organized, preferably before all the goodies have sold out.

Off the top of my head, these are some of the must-have items for Christmas Eve:

- Glögg (mulled wine)
- Köttbullar (Swedish meatballs)
- Gravlax
- Julöl (Christmas beer)
- Kaviar (smoked fish rye that you put on bread)
- Julskinka (grilled Christmas ham)
- Lussekatter (saffron buns)
- Polly (awesomeness in the shape of chocolate bon-bons)

As we’ve been saying before, we are really looking forward to giving Ethan a fab first Christmas, we are really looking forward to seeing everyone, and we are definitely looking forward to a bit more time off before the year is over.

Oh, and did you notice the snazzy Christmas decorations we've decorated the blog with?

Tack Peter!

My brother John has crafted this video to say thank you to me, a true, full blooded, awesome, Swedish hero! It is fantastic to say the least, but mostly if you are Swedish... sorry to all you brits, canucks and yanks! (Click on me, and the video will start.)

Ethan's first swim... and ours too!

Today Ethan, Peter and I went to the swim centre near our house! We've been meaning to do this for sometime (even before Ethan was a twinkle in our eyes) but it was way more fun with him!!

So we suited up and dove in and we thoroughly enjoyed it!! Ethan though didn't seem to care either way as he sucked his thumb and floated around!

Afterwards we went out to our Pizza Express for some nibbles and Ethan flirted with everyone around! He's such a charmer! Lock up your daughters!

Unfortunately we were unable to snap photos at the pool due to privacy laws that prohibits any photos taken where children are. Makes complete sense so we adhered.

However we did get a few nice pics while out for lunch so here you go!

Aunty Isabel Elf-ed ourselves!

Zonk!

It is Friday evening and usually on Fridays, after a long week of work and activities, we are not too energized. Tonight however, Shaena and Ethan both seem to be just a little bit extra sleepy. I came home after work, whipped up some homemade hamburgers, made bottles for Ethan, and ‘Zonk!’, they are both out cold! I am of course going to take full advantage of this one-man-boys-night-in, so I have already watched one episode of ‘Top Gear’ and two ‘Fifth Gear’ episodes (they are British TV car shows, and I don’t even like cars!).

In just a little while I am moving swiftly on to the 2nd world war flick ‘Downfall’, a movie I have wanted to watch for a while, and maybe I’ll even dig into a bag of ‘Gott & Blandat’, imported Swedish sweeties, and Shaena’s delicious banana bread.

Don't know if that sounds like a lame boys night in, but I don't think the traditional stereotypical alternative is my cup of tea either; the sports channel, TV-dinner, an old sofa, a dirty wife beater top, hand in crotch, cans of beer, fistful of chips... or is it!?

5 months and 15 billion diapers later...

Ethan is now about 5 months, 2 days, and 4 hours old... but who's counting? More importantly, our little boy has grown and developed so much, it is hard to grasp that he is only 5 months old! People say that when you become a parent, you forget all about the time before the arrival of the baby. There is a level of truth in that statement; it's kind of like it never happened and that you've had your baby all along. Weird!

Anyway, we are happy to report that Ethan is now equipped with his first pair of pearly little teeth, a full head of short fuzzy blonde hair, a very contagious laugh, and he has learned how to bum shuffle/crawl backwards! How about them apples?

Visit from Grandma Gertrud and Roland

Next week, Ethan will get to meet his Grandma Gertrud and Roland for the first time. Their visit has been in the making for some time, and they finally decided to book their trip the other day. Time really does fly past us in mach speed, and I have not seen my mom, Roland or my sisters on that side of the family in probably 5-6 years! The long of the short of the story behind that is just that we don’t talk very often, simple as that. Crazy long time though, and a lot has happened since, so this’ll be a good opportunity to catch up.

I do appreciate that mom and Roland are making the effort to come out here to see us, I do appreciate them wanting to take a step closer to us, and I really do think it is important that Ethan gets a chance to meet all of his grandparents. Funny how something like the birth of a child can bring family closer together, and funny how it sometimes takes just that to get people talking again.

Life is a funny thing, and we have built a great one for ourselves. We may not have a lot of possessions or money in the bank, but we have love. Lots of it. Tons of it, in fact!

Goes without saying; we’ll keep you posted.

What we've got here is
... failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach.
So you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it
... well, he gets it.
I don't like it any more than you men.

Go Bombers!

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!

2 years ago, Peter tricked me in coming up to meet him at the Edinburgh Christmas Market, where, at the Gypsy Cart, he got down on one knee and proposed! It was magical and still is! So on this beautiful wintry night we took Ethan to this very spot! He LOVED it!! We had quick nibble and ventured down to the ice rink where Orlaith, Nicky and Safia were skating (well not Orlaith...she was jumping in the bungee jumper contraption for 8 year old kids) and we had some delicious hot chocolate.