The Harrison-Helins

Saturday, July 23

Better late than never: Ethan's birthday picnic @ the beach

"Mmm...hotdogs!"

The picnic in full swing

Ethan is not overly keen on unwrapping gifts but once he was halfway through this one, all of a sudden he got very excited. A Buzz Lightyear water gun!

...and it worked too!

Almost ready

"Say cheese!"

Helene and Ethan blowing bubbles

Ethan and Isabelle ended the day with a quick snog

Tuesday, July 19

Sunday, July 17

One of the world's most famous movie-ships, the HMS Bounty, is currently in Stockholm as a part of its 'European summer tour' and Uncle John, Ethan and I could not resist the urge to swing by the dock for a closer peek. This ship has seen its fair share of ‘celebrity captains’ and appeared in a handful of Hollywood productions. After all; the Bounty was built specifically for the filming of ’The Mutiny on The Bounty’!

Nicked from the HMS Bounty website:

"HMS Bounty...at one with the sea...global voyager...movie star...dedicated to preserving the fine art of square-rigged sailing.

The HMS Bounty is one of the most famous ships in the world. Known for the storied mutiny that took place in Tahiti in 1789 on board the British transport vessel, the current Bounty, a replica, has survived to tell the tale. Built for the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” with Marlon Brando, HMS Bounty sails the country offering dockside tours in which one can learn about the history and details of sailing vessels from a lost and romanticized time in maritime history. Since her debut in “Mutiny on the Bounty”, HMS Bounty has appeared in many documentaries and featured films such as the Edinburgh Trader in Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Mans Chest with Johnny Depp."

Friday, July 15

Rock Hudson

3 weeks old and, from what it seems, already very determined that he is not going to be named after a famous guitarist for nothing. The other day when we propped him up for his mandatory 3-week photo shoot on top of our decorative cushions, the little man sure delivered!

Hudson's one man band caught on camera:

[Lead vocals]

[Drums]

[Lead guitar]

The Tom Tits Experiment

Wednesday, July 13

New family member - new blog template

We have now had Hudson for 3 weeks we and have, unanimously and as a family, decided to keep him.

Therefore, we felt it was only fair that we’d update the blog header and remove the ‘…and bump!’ since the bump is no more. In the end, we ended up with a completely new blog template instead and ’The Chronicles of Peter, Shaena and Ethan’ is gone as it felt kinda silly to add another name to it and it was time for something new.

Other than that, it’s all business as usual; just thought we’d let you know in case you were wondering if you are in the right place. You are.

So, how do you like the new look and feel?

Saturday, July 9

"What do you want? Poop or bedtime?"

A very fitting quote from Shaena that kind of sums up our new reality with 2 kids in our lives. Shaena coined this quote in passing when Hudson had made a #2 and Ethan was just about to crawl into bed for the night.

In other words; “Take your pick: Do you want to change Hudson’s dirty nappy or put Ethan to bed?” which really illustrates how different it is with two kids instead of one and how we have to readjust and divide our time differently. For this reason alone, it’s been a great help to have extra hands on deck during this adjustment period and no doubt there will be a lot more adjustments and new routines to be made in the next little while, but it’s all good!

The last couple of weeks have of course been fantastic and exciting, but also hectic, tiring and very busy, as you can imagine. Lots of routines that we’ve built up with Ethan now have to be tweaked to fit our new little roomie and at the same time Ethan is trying his best to understand and adjust to his new reality as a big brother that who no longer gets 100% undivided attention.

For the most part he’s been great (with occasional defiance blow-outs where he's been screaming and slapping our legs for attention when one of us has been holding or feeding Hudson) and has slowly but surely started approaching Hudson and is now at the point where he is helpful and is bringing Hudson formula bottles and soothers. Today, he even took it upon himself to rock Hudson in his seat and fix his blanket when he was sleeping as one of his feet had been uncovered.

Isn’t he the sweetest little big brother?

Hudson 2 weeks old

The thrill of the grill - A BBQ-themed weekend

This weekend Grandma Gertrud and Roland and sister Ida paid us a visit to meet little Hudson and the rest of us. They had kindly bought us a really nice charcoal barbeque complete with sacks of charcoal and lighter fluid so we thought “heck, let’s throw stuff on the barbie for dinner all weekend long!” and let me tell you; it was absolutely divine!

Yesterday we hosted a steak dinner for about 10 people all in all and barbequed loads and loads of fillet of pork and Greek Halloumi cheese and combined this with oven roasted vegetables and country potatoes, salad and a wide variety of cold sauces… and bucket loads of red wine, of course! :)

Tonight, the same crew minus 1 decided to go with fish instead and our visiting master chefs whipped up a delectable grilled gravlax with Swedish ‘Hasselbackspotatis’ which are butter glazed, cut and oven baked potatoes. This little slice of heaven was served up with a cold dill and Dijon mustard sauce and a peach and apple salsa. All homemade of course. To top if off; Grandma Michelle treated us to a fantastic fruit-dipped-in-whipped cream-and-youghurt dessert which felt really refreshing after a heavy barbeque meal. Not too shabby, eh!

It feels like we’ve stuffed our faces in goodness all weekend but we have actually done other stuff as well. Yesterday, for instance, Ethan and Hudson got spoilt. Again. Ethan for his belated birthday and Hudson, well, for making an appearance in this world, I guess! ;) The kids got new clothes and toys and an addition to their newly opened savings accounts. Speaking of getting spoilt; the other day we also had a parcel in the mailbox - It was from our dear Dublin-friend Nathalie who had gone out and bought the kids some really cool rock clothes! Ethan got a new pair of shades and a cool bandana and Hudson got himself a new AC/DC onesie! You are awesome Nathalie, thank you!

The weather here in Stockholm has been very nice these past couple of days as well so we’ve spent lots of time outside doing holiday-y stuff playing kickball, eating ice cream, drawing colourful art on the asphalt, and we’ve also discovered yet another awesome beach to hang out at here in Kallhäll. Life is good!