Posing for the ladies!

Thank you to Uncle John for the awesome photo of little Mickey Blue Eyes here!

Cruisin for the ladies!

H2 update

You’ll be pleased to know that Mr. H2 (yes, for those of you who haven't already heard, it is a boy!) is doing great in there and is now officially a fully developed little boy, technically ready to come out and meet the world! With less than a month to go, we could not be any more eager and excited to meet the little guy!

Ethan’s old crib has now been readjusted and raised to infant level and has been moved into our bedroom and Ethan’s first onesies have been washed again and are ready to be used by his little brother. Hard to imagine that he is going to fit those tiny little things!

What else? Well the hospital bag is pretty much packed and phone numbers to the maternity section at two different hospitals have been plugged into our phones for when ‘it’ happens.

T-minus 23 days!

We know, we know...

...bad, bad bloggers!

We just haven’t had a chance to update the blog for a couple of weeks. The reason being a combination of lots and lots going on (as per usual I guess) and tiredness. After all, the final countdown to the arrival of H2 has started! Not long now and we are prepping as best as we can.

So, in the spirit of time efficiency; let’s do a recap on the highlights of both last weekend and this weekend at the same time:

Last weekend:
Hands down, the highlight of last weekend was what we believe to be a new summer family tradition in the H-H household; a visit to ‘Cirkus Maximum’ – a Swedish travelling circus that’s been touring Sweden for almost 30 years. One of their stops for the 'Viva Maximum tour' was in Jakobsberg, just a few minutes drive from us so we thought we’d take Ethan to their afternoon performance. Cirkus Maximum is a full on professional circus with performers from all over the world, exotic animals, clowns and a live band. At the same time it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as I used to sneak in to their performances when I was a kid whenever they visited Piteå. Also really cool to see that they had the same circus director now as they had all those years ago!

Ethan absolutely loved it and was standing in the middle of the aisle, stomping, yelling and clapping and by the time the performance was over, he was spent, sweaty and very happy!

Below is probably the nuttiest performance they put on; 2 dirt bikes driving at full speed inside a huge steel ball with a girl standing in the middle. Once the girl had left the ball (alive, just for the record) a 3rd dirt bike was introduced(!):




This weekend:
The highlight of this weekend was without a doubt little Elias’ 4-year birthday party in, what we believe to be one of the most interesting party venues we’ve ever been to.

Uncle John and Mikaela had rented a communal hall next to their apartment building for the occasion. The venue is located in a typical Swedish 50’s apartment block basement bomb shelter and supposedly, this caretaker-guy in the area had spent the last 20-odd years decorating and collecting furniture, knick-knacks and random crap for the bomb shelter. We’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The party was great though and little Elias was showered in cool gifts from by a flock of kids, just the way it should be! After the party, Shaena headed out for a mommy-network dinner night out and Ethan and I stayed behind at John’s for Thai food takeout and then we took the choo-choo all the way across town home. Care to guess if Ethan was ready for bed after that?

The party in full swing

Care for anything from the bomb shelter bar of randomness?

Tea time - bunker style!

You can never have too many whaterver-that-is'

Cosy corner behind a bullet proof door

Opium - clearly a necessity during times of war

Yet another classic self photo

"Ethan! Look at mommy! Ethan... Ethan! Look at mommy! Over there! Say Cheese!"

"Bil! Bil! Car! Car!"

Afternoon in Hagaparken

The King's gates

Olle, Jack & Ethan

Olle & Jack

Ethan & dad

Ethan

Linda & Shaena

Zero carbon footprint lawnmower

Zero carbon footprint lawnmower

Ethan 23 months

It is almost a bit surreal how crazy fast time flies when you become a parent!
Our little buddy is almost 2 years old already!

This little guy who made his first fumbling attempts at crawling on the soft bedroom floor in our then apartment in Edinburgh has grown up to be a full-on powerhouse dynamo who can easily commandeer a play structure on any given Sunday!

Ethan at the supermarket checkout overseeing the handling of the hotdog buns

Snacking away on the balcony

Looking for airplanes

Double-fisting ice cream and juice

Making his way down a slide all by himself

Jumping on a trampoline at the playground

"Why don't you stick this in your pipe and smoke it?"

It's really just our rolled up pre-grown lawn that has arrived but doesn't it look suspiciously like one of those seized massive shipments of wacky tobacco that you see on TV?

We heart care packages from Nini!

Fun with Art & Lauren

It has come to my attention that my contributions to the blog are lacking. I have now been instructed that if friends from the land of the West come to visit us, it is my duty to write a thoughtful well composed entry to relay the comings and goings of our time shared.

Lauren and I go way back. All the way to grade 7 to be exact. We have been great friends and have kept in touch all these years and finally, after my persistent requests, she and her boyfriend Art, decided to make a stop in their European adventure to where ever we may be. Once Stockholm was officially to be our new home, they booked their flight from Amsterdam to us then off to Berlin and then Portugal.

It was quite nice to have a familiar face visiting and also to the fact that it was the first time the Harrison Ford was in use to schlep to and from the airport. Their first night here was a lovely dinner and movie night and of course, playing with Ethan till he was so pooped, he pooped! No, I'm kidding. He was out like a light though.

On Saturday, we took them for a drive to city centre and showed them around a bit through Gamla Stan and where all the cherry blossoms are. It was such a gorgeous day in Stockholm just to be out and about. Not to mention that we were able to share with them the experience of Max burgers! If you are ever in Stockholm, you must have a Max burger! YUM!

Saturday night was awesome before I start. Erin and Svante offered the week before to babysit Ethan for the night so we had them, Marie & David (Peter's friend from Piteå) and the rest of us for a grilled summer meal. Then off we were for our first night ever out on the town! Peter got a call from Henrik and we decided to meet up with them at Obaren in city centre. This place is not at all what I was expecting though as it is a very ritzy area and this club was just rafters and tables about the size of a closet. People watching was great fun. Many different coloured pants on guys and their hair all slicked back with cougars draping themselves all over them as it was known they come from money.

Sunday was relax o' clock day and Monday was a trip out to Hammarby Sjostad. This area is renowned for its architecture and being a drab place before remodeling started in 2000. It is also a very expensive place to live as family of ours rent out a studio apartment for 9,000kr/month! I was also able to introduce Art and Lauren to the typical kebab shop in Europe. Particularly Sweden though and the awesome garlic sauce! Afterwards we took Ethan to Andy's Lekland and scored a free entrance for all of us. Ethan was thrilled to have someone to guide around the play area rather than plain old Mommy.

Then it was time to meet Peter as he was finishing up for the day at work. We bused it to his train station and the 5 of us went to our local Pizzeria for traditional Swedish pizza which was analyzed again and again and of course lathered in garlic sauce!

Sadly, tuesday was the day to pack up the Harrison Ford and take our guests to the airport for their next leg of their journey.

Thanks guys for visiting! You will be missed! Come again anytime!!

Art & E down the slides at Andy's Lekland

Art & E playing in the tent

Art & Lauren

Flower blossom in Kungsträdgården

Bluegrass + G N' R = Cool redneck rock

What do you get if you cross redneck banjo and fiddle tunes with classic Guns N' Roses rock songs? Well, a workmate of mine introduced me to this weird and wonderful combo and I kinda dig it!

Royal wedding frenzy around the world...

...and this is how Ethan felt about the whole thing:

Easter – Check!

Easter long weekend was a hoot! A great combination of r’n’r, playtime and getting stuff done around the house. On Thursday afternoon pretty much everyone in Sweden had a half day as, after all, you need a bit of time off work to mentally prepare yourself for time off work. Makes perfect sense. So around noon, Shaena and Ethan came to pick me up from the office and Shaena had prepared a picnic that was had in Humlegården; a huge park in Stockholm city centre. The weather was fantastic and Ethan was running around like a madman in the park! Great way to start the long weekend!

On Good Friday we decided to go for a drive and check out the sights around Stockholm so the Harrison Ford took us out to Vaxholm, a well-known summer destination for ‘Stockholmians’. Vaxholm as a place to live is a bit on the posh side and there are lots of sizeable, gorgeous houses right by the water out there so we had look around there and then enjoyed another picnic in a park and playground. Once again, E ran around like a madman at the playground and was happier than a tornado in a trailer park!

The rest of the weekend was basically spent at IKEA, thinking about IKEA or putting stuff from IKEA together. Well, that didn’t sound too exciting did it? But actually, it was and we got a lot of stuff done and even managed to… wait for it… close off the last item on the ‘wish list’ once and for all! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the wish list; Shaena had a rider-type list of a few things she absolutely wanted when we moved to Sweden, like an iPhone, a car and a dishwasher. The iPhone and the car you already know about and now we’ve also secured a brand new dishwasher! Very exciting times and this shiny new puppy is getting installed on Monday.

Oh, and we managed to squeeze in and host a pancake breakfast for 10 on Easter Monday as well! You can’t go wrong with Canadian-style pancakes and what a great way to round off a fabulous weekend!

Next up: A visit from Winnipeggers Lauren and Art!

Schleeep! Night night choo choo!

Sleep has been something that has lacked in our household since Master Ethan was born. He never really got the hang of sleeping through the night until we moved to Sweden and now we still get the occasional nightly call to his room...well things have changed! This past weekend we bought him his first big boy bed at Ikea and rather than him trying to lead us to our room for night night, he actually wanted to get into his own bed tonight! Hurrah! Major successful milestone!

Hard to believe we only have roughly 8 weeks though till the sleepless nights start again with H2! Ha! Ah, we're prepared and ready for him and feel much better the 2nd time round as we sort of know what to expect (let's hope!)

Inside El Flaterino - Part II

Ethan's new sleeping quarters/play place

Our balcony kitted out with a new set of table and chairs

Lights and reflections

Shaena's bedside orchid

The projector finally made it up on the wall

Just pure vanity

Ethan 22 months