Gymnastics

Marlee had his first gymnastic class today, which he really enjoyed!!!

The weather today was great so we had lunch outside again :-)

Sun, BBQ and soccer!

What a wonderful day!!! The sun was shining and warm and I did not want to go inside. The best winter day so far! I am so happy that we had the chance to enjoy it!

Our friends Mobi, Sofia and Aman have been in India and Sri Lanka for a month and got home yesterday, and today they came over. We decided to have some bbq in the nice weather and eat it outside. They brought hotdogs and I prepared the tables and the grill. We got to enjoy their company the whole day and we dropped them off by the train not long ago. Now both boys are sleeping, Alex is taking a bath and I am soon going to bed.

Adults ready for hotdogs!

Children ready for hotdogs!

Marlee ready for beach 2013!!

Bits and pieces

The big news for me is that I finally feel like I have gotten my energy and creativity back that I had before Marlee was born!! I really really hope that it will last and not be a temporary "visit". Partly because of that I have decided to start a "gymnastic group" for children age 2-3 here. I have rented the P.E hall in a nearby school and we will mainly sing, play to music and use all the different material and tools at the place to make it possible to jump, climb, balance, run etc. Perfect for Marlee, since that he what he does all day anyways :-) I have 15 children signed up and each child needs to have at least one adult with him/her. It starts on Monday and I am really excited! The other day I sewed some bean bags to use, too. Good to balance on you head or throw.

Home made bean bags

The artist in action!

Marlee had a friend over, without a parent yesterday, for the first time. His friend Benjamin came over. It worked very good and they played both outdoors and indoors. 

Marlee and Benjamin

A dear visited us yesterday (captured through the kitchen window)

I might have mentioned it before but Marlee have questions about everything now, and has for a while. I am very happy that he is so curious and wants to know but sometimes you simply run out of answers, or you do not know. Until today he has accepted that I do not always know and it has been possible to say "I don't know". But now that will not end the questioning, because that initiates the question "Why don't you know?", and we are back in the never ending loop again :-D

Today we all went ice-skating on an outdoor rink. It was a lot of fun and Alex even got to play some hockey! If you happen to talk with him tomorrow (Sunday) please ask him how he is feeling!! (he was complaining about his body aching in the car home already and it will not be better tomorrow!!! :-) We got home late and had a late dinner but now Noah is sleeping and Marlee will soon, too.

Resting in Marlee's bed after the ice-skating

Noah really likes his new high chair and of course he loves to throw down his toys from it. Marlee is helpful however and picks them up for him :-D It will be very convenient now when I have slowly started to give Noah other food then milk. We have tried some mashed potatoes, banana and porridge, of which nothing have been very popular, as you will see in the video below. I was not sure if I should post it but I decided that it could lead to some laughter even if it is kind of yucky (if you are not his mamma ;-).

A helpful big brother!!

Funny face!

Happy face!

Banana was not a favorite...

I am sorry for laughing Marlee but you were just so cute struggling so hard and then not really getting any reward for it... I love your persistence!

I know that I am posting so many "non-action-pictures" of my boys and it might be boring to look at them all but I just cannot help it. They are just so cute and I have to share them, so here are a couple more...

Two teeth! Swimming! High chair!

We have noticed another tooth that is on its way next to the other one:-)

Today I went swimming with both boys. They behaved perfectly and it all went very good. Marlee even went on the big slide on his own several times!! I later realized that the slide was for people 7 and older.. What can I say, he is a brave boy!

After the swimming I went to buy a high chair for Noah. He grows so quickly!!

Skiing with mormor and morfar

Yesterday the weather was kind of grey but we went out skiing with mormor and morfar anyways. We wanted to take the chance while they were "in town". I took Noah on  my back and went skiing with mormor (5km & 3,1 mile) while Marlee practiced his skiing with morfar. He did really good! :-)

Noah sleeping on my back

A great family day

We have had a great family day! It does not happen often that we spend a whole day together, when Alex does not have to work, but today we did! The day started out with me sleeping in and Alex taking the children. Alex and Marlee went outside and built snowmen when Noah needed to join me in bed! When they got back in we all had a yummy pancake lunch with home made orange juice, that Marlee was partly responsible for :-) (Yesterday, Marlee showed Alex how to turn on the washing machine, he is such a good helper!!!)

Making orange juice

After the lunch the whole family went to buy some ice skates for Marlee. Mormor and morfar had found some in a store that we went to check out and they worked good so Marlee got his very first ice skates! We drove back home and went down to the lake. Since there is a lot of snow on the ice it took us a while to "find" the ice, but soon we had our own private ice skating rink! :-)

Mormor and morfar came back to Stockholm a few days ago so we have spent some time with them. These are some pictures from the last few days.

Snow lantern made by Marlee and mormor

Marlee and Noah in the morning, blurry but cute

Noah with great grandpa, "gammelmorfar"

Noah News

This might be a pretty long post but I hope that it is going to be enjoyable to read! There will be some goodies as well as some big news coming up! ;-)

We have had snow for a while now and more keeps coming. It is such good exercise to shovel snow, plus you get some nice fresh air! I know that I have said it before, but there is no air like "winter air". Marlee normally go sledding or ski while I shovel and Noah sleeps in the stroller.

Noah and Miss Sophie (the giraffe) on the kitchen floor

Telling stories

Mr Teddybear gets to wear big boy undes, too

Marlee in a pile of snow!

Noah with mamma at the hair dresser

Marlee on the floor in his room "reading" a book

Yesterday was the, so called, "Fettisdagen" (Shrove Tuesday in UK and Mardi gras in France). It is the last day before the Lenten fast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettisdagen). Noah and I visited my friends Johanna who had baked her own "Semlor" for this day and we had a yummy evening :-)

Swedish "Semlor"

I got home soon after eleven and both Marlee and Alex where sleeping. Marlee was sleeping like this...    

Today I dropped off Marlee at the daymum, Annelie, in the morning. While he was there I ran some erands and then fixed in his room a little before picking him up in the afternoon.

This is how I left Marlee this morning

Marlee's room before fixing a little...

Marlee's room after my fixing :-) (I built a shelf of two IKEA "Lack" tables that I joined together)

This is how I picked up Marlee today, sledding with his friend Moa

And so what about Noah...? Today he turned from back to belly for the first time!! And he is also getting his first tooth!!! I am not thrilled since I am still breast feeding but I must say that he is a very happy toothing boy! I have noticed that he is almost attacking things with his mouth when he gets hold of them and he is waking up a lot during the night, sleeps two hours in row at the most, but I guess he has a good reason to...

The new tooth!!

 

Winter weekend

The cold came back and so did the sun! No more snow yet but soon hopefully! We have spent the last few days practicing winter sports. Friday Marlee went with Emily to go sledding on a hill where it was still enough snow. He had great fun until he crashed into some thorny bushes and hurt his face a little.

Saturday the weather was wonderful and we had some time outside before lunch, trying out the cross country skis. Marlee did good even though the little snow that is left now is as hard as ice. 

Practicing skiing in our yard

Noah was happy in the stroller

Marlee makes sure to put the skis back when he is done :-)

After lunch we all went to a birthday party for Marlee's friend Benjamin. He had lots of fun with the other children and got to eat a Lightning Mcqueen cake!! When the party was over we continued to our friends Anders, Nonny, Ika and Tea where we were going to spend the night and then go skiing on Sunday :-D

Eating Lightning Mcqueen :-D

We had a very good time with the family and it was a good ski place 2 min drive from their house. Marlee and Ika got to try out their skis and Noah and Tea chilled in the stroller.

Ika and Marlee, right before lunch, hungry and tired...

Tea and Noah

Marlee and I :-)

Afterski a'la family life

Marlee skiing in the big slope!

Marlee skiing on his own!!