Wild strawberries, Morris visiting and pappa coming home!!!

Sunday, Marlee and Linn went for a walk and returned with wild strawberries threaded on a blade of grass. Linn went back home later the same day. It was good to have her here!

Later that day my friend Ulrika and her son, Morris and boyfriend, Nicolas, visited. They moved to Oslo (Norway) a few months ago so we have not seem them for a long time. Unfortunately, I only have "nakenfis" (naked) pictures of the children so I do not want to publish them here. We had a great sunny day and most of the day was spent my the pool :-)

Late at night Alex retuned from Brasil and Marlee and I picked him up at the airport. Marlee was very exited to go pick up pappa but fell a sleep about 5 minutes before arriving to the airport. "Luckily" he woke up when we got home so Alex got to say Hi to him before he went back to bed. This morning they got to enjoy some time together while eating a good breakfast before Alex dropped him off with the daymum.

I picked these!

So proud!!

Yummy wild strawberries

Today we saw two baby deers in
our neighbourhood.

Future pro

Midsommar - a great day!

Midsommar, or Midsummer as it is called in English, is supposted to be the longest day of the year on this side of the earth. Midsummer is always a Friday so naturally it will not be the correct day most years. This year the longest day was June 20th so we are already going towards the dark days! ;-) Today was a great sunny day and we have enjoyed the sun from 3.30 am to 10.11pm today, ok maybe we did not enjoy it very much the first hours...

My sister is here visiting for the weekend so we started the day we a good breakfast before the guests arrived. Everyone contributed to the menu today and we have pretty much eaten the whole day, apart from a break when we went to the midsummer pole to dance and a visit to the local "beach". I am completly exhausted now but I believe that we all had a great day we lovely sunshine!

Moster Linn and Marlee on the way to the Midsummer dance

Kantareller (Chanterelle) already!!!

Dancing around the Midsummer pole.
Sofia and Mobi to the right

Pick- nick!

Eating cookies
(blame Apple for making it impossible to rotate the picture!)

All "states" have their advantages!

Chilling in the sun!!!

Taking a dip in the water!

Can you tell that it was about 14c (57,2f) in the water!!

Snail hunter

Marlee has collected snails in the garden. No killer snails though :-)

Yummy berry smoothie

Annelie

Last Friday, the day Alex left for Brasil, Annelie, Marlee's "day mum", had a dinner for all children and parents. It was a social even where everyone got to meet but also a good time for us, the parents, to see what our children have been doing during the year.

Eating ice cream on the veranda
(Annelie's husband works for an ice cream company)

Football game with parents and children

Some things Marlee has created.
The binder contains paintings, pictures etc
Marlee also have a bucket with a potato plant that
we can harvest soon, and a pot with a Geranium.

The pictures below are from the binder and are taken during the year while he has been with Annelie. I apologize for the picture being sideways. I though I could fix that on the blog but i could not...

Painting the snow

Painting a pine cone, turning it into a pink pig :-)

Sleeping in the stroller a winter day

Creating an Easter chicken

A day in the forrest

Working with wool

'

Blowing bubbles during a day when they focused on technology

This small picture I received yesterday when they had an early Midsummer celebration. Annielie sends me mms every regularly so that I can see what they are up to. So nice!!

 

Marlee in front of the
Midsummer pole



Killer Snail Hunt

Marlee is still not back to normal but the fever has been gone since yesterday afternoon and now it is only a cold and a cough left. He was quite tired yesterday and this morning but this afternoon we visited a friend and Marlee played with her daughter for a few hours, which he enjoyed.

Back home Marlee and I went hunting for, what we call, "killer snails", in Swedish. Also known as Spanish slug. They eat everything (even each other) and they eat it fast! There is only one natural enemy which is a kind of duck that is not very common here and this year there are soooo many of these snails! Luckily Marlee really likes hunting them so he is a good partner :-D

Watching Monster truck videos on You tube

Eating waffles with Alexandra

A proud snail hunter!!

Sick

Marlee has been sick since Thursday with high fever, close to 40C (104F), and a cough. However, he does not seem very affected during the day and he is still quite active and wants to play and be outside. During the night he has had a hard time to sleep and wants to lay very close to me or Alex and he seems to have nightmares and cries and screams during the sleep. Today the fever went down and the cough got better but before the he went to sleep the fever was back up again... Poor thing!!



Sitting on the roof of the car while we are at the car
mechanics to get some oil out (added too much)



Listening to the baby brother

A BIG Day for a BIG Boy

It has been a big day for Marlee today, and it is not because it is the Swedish National day, but because he peed on the potty (pottan) for the very first time!!! AND he is sleeping in his own room for the first time!!! A few days ago Marlee and I went to IKEA to pick out some sheets for his new bed and we ended up with one set with cars on it (Surprise!!) and one with stripes and animals.

"Pottan"



Marlee in his new bed

As I mentioned, it is the Swedish National day today so Marlee and I went to Görväls castle where they had organized some events. We had a very nice picknick with some friends while listening to music. It has been raining pretty much constantly since farfar and farmor left but today the sun came back again. What timing! When we got back home around four, we replanted some of the plants before we had dinner and and prepared Marlee's bed :-) Since Marlee has moved down stairs to his room, so have Alex and I, but to the other bedroom. I am exhausted now and my body is too, but what a great day!!!!

Helsinki, coming home and getting a haircut

Helsinki

After leaving St Petersburg we took the cruise to Helsinki. I only stayed the day and took a flight to Stockholm in the evening while Marlee, Alex, farmor and farfar stayed another day and then took a cruise back to Stockholm. The great weather continued and we had a good day! The Finish people who are norally considered quiet and reserved appeared very smiley and friendly after spending two days in St Petersburg :-) We only met friendly people.

I was a little worried to leave Marlee since he had been a mama's boy during the trip. He had been very happy to spend time with farmor and farfar (and of course pappa, too) but only as long as I was around. But my worried was for nothing. He did not even cry when I left and he did not miss me at all. That made everything so much easier for me, too. I knew he was in very good hands and knowing that he was happy made it possible for me to relax at home, when I did not work, and enjoy some time on my own. It was the first time I was home alone without both Alex and Marlee, since Marlee was born! Two nights was enough, though! :-)

Back home again

So they all came home safely after a good time in Helsinki and I got to some work and prepare our house for our guests :-) Back home we spent some time with friends (Sofia, Aman and Mobi as well as Emily) and we also visitied Sigtuna for Mother's day (Swedish's). We cannot forget all the presents farmor and farfar brought from the states for all of us, plus the coming "lillebror" (little brother). The big favourite was Duplo, which has kept Marlee pretty much every minute Marlee has been inside!!!

Mobi swimming in the pool

Marlee is making Mother's day paintings

Having some youghurt

Alex and Buddy by Emily's house

The day before farmor and farfar had to leave was a busy day. It started with Marlee getting a haircut by farmor. It turned out very good! After his nap Marlee, farmor, farfar and I went to a playground caleed Mulle Meck, where Marlee had great fun! When we left the playground we went straight to mormor and morfar where Alex met up, too, for dinner. We had a good night and Marlee was in heaven with all the attention!! :-)

Farmor and farfar left yesterday morning and now everything is back to normal. Marlee got very sad when they had passed the security check at the airport and he realized that they were not coming back.