Daily Jamie

I feel like I spent more than my fair share of time at the changing table today.  This Day of the Diaper deserves its own photo to remember it by.

Party Planning

Linda and the babies and I headed to the mall today to check out the party supply store.  Linda's elder daughter is having a birthday in a couple of weeks and I wanted to check out what was available for an upcoming event that you'll hear more about later.  We had fun picking out items that we would have loved when we were kids and daydreaming about how sweet it would be to have a pinata.  (Sorry, I don't have a tilde on this Swedish keyboard and I'm too lazy to go copy and paste one from a website or something.  Not too lazy to write two whole sentences about it, though.)  Linda walked out with the makings of a sweet little girl's birthday party and I picked up a couple of ridiculous items that I can't wait to tell you about in a few weeks.

Daily Jamie

Christmas Number Two

The US Postal Service was particularly slow this year so even though my mom shipped our Christmas package weeks ago, I've still been checking the mail day after day and no package.  Then, today, while I was Skyping with Mom, the doorbell rang and there was The Post with the package in hand!  The timing couldn't have been better.  Mom got to watch Jamie open all of his presents and see me get excited over the loads of candy, toys, cookie-making stuff, Baby's First Christmas ornament and stockings for the whole family, among other things.  And that pug?  That's for Jamie, not for me.  Not at all.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Jumpin' Jamie

The Swede and I decided to take advantage of the sweet after-Christmas sales and headed over to the baby store to pick up a jumper to give our arms a rest.  He's a little too short for it, as the armholes are so high that they force him to raise the roof a bit while he's bouncing, but he loves it nevertheless. 

Daily Jamie

December 23rd

December 24th

December 25th

Jul With Jamie

Jamie, The Swede and I spent the former's first Christmas in Söderköping.  Despite the warmth and lack of snow outside, it was cozy as ever indoors.  Jamie got to play with his crazy cousins...

...and his two favorite grown-ups.

He got to take part in traditions like preparing a bowl of rice porridge for Tomten.  Santa Claus runs on cookies, but Tomten prefers porridge, so you do the math as to which culture's Father Christmas is the more sympathetic character.  Jamie's too young for math so he just went along with it. 

Then, the next morning, on Christmas Eve, Jamie and his cousins each got to open one present.  This is a tradition I'm pretty sure anyone could get down with. 

Later, the whole family went for a walk to the cemetery to light a candle for the departed...

...and then continued on to the center of town where we took a publicity shot for Mini.

Everyone was starving when we got home, so Mama Swede slaved away in the kitchen while we watched Kalle Anka.  She worked for hours to prepare a meal that was so delicious that everyone was stuffed with seconds and thirds within minutes.

Then the long wait was over and Tomten showed up to dole out presents.  By that time, Jamie had had just about as much excitement as a baby can take and was a tired crank-master.  He napped through much of the present-opening and screamed through the rest, but I do believe he was satisfied with the result.  And his mom sure didn't mind opening all his presents.

So with Baby's First Christmas under our belts, it's off to bed.  A Very Merry Christmas to you and yours from The Family Swede!

Daily Jamie

An Extra Pair Of Hands

The Swede hasn't been feeling well so he's been home for the past couple of days.  I can't tell you how awesome it is to have him around full time, even if he's not feeling 100%.  And it doesn't hurt that I've been able to plop the baby with him to get some presents wrapped and some extra laundry done prior to our trip to Söderköping this weekend.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Coincidence

A friend gives us a pair of movie tickets today and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens tomorrow.  So, yeah, who's babysitting?

Daily Jamie

Clark W. Griswald

This evening The Swede put up our outdoor lights.  You'll be pleased to know this wasn't the end result.

Daily Jamie

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

I've been singing Christmas carols to Jamie for weeks now and have felt like such a fraud.  There hasn't been much snow to speak of yet this winter.  A couple of flakes last week, yeah, but nothing the least bit Christmasy.  Yesterday morning, it was raining and then, all of a sudden, the raindrops turned into snowflakes, and who knows what happened after that because it got dark and we hid indoors and then, late last night, after the street lights came on and the lighthouse was lit, I happened to look out the window and noted that the snow had finally come.

Daily Jamie

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Today we went Christmas shopping.  Like everybody else.  And, like everybody else, we started with a cup of coffee.  I ordered it to go so that I could drink while we shopped, but The Swede suggested we sit down for a moment, have a real fika like a real Swedish family.  It lasted approximately fifty-four seconds.  If you look closely at that crowd of people, you can see my husband walking away to get started on the shopping because the fika was "too cozy."

Daily Jamie

Mommy and Jamie a'bloggin'.

Joy Indeed

I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but I know there are a couple of things I'm good at.  Decorating sugar cookies is not one of them.  The problem yesterday wasn't the frosting.  It was yours truly.  I decorated cookies/comforted a sleepy, cranky baby for, literally, hours today and these three mediocre rascals were the only ones out of a batch of TWO DOZEN that are worth mentioning.  The rest look like the were decorated by toddlers.  Toddlers with sub-par fine motor skills.  You can probably guess that the "joy" cookie was one of the first since that was the last thing I was feeling at the end of the ordeal.  I'd set the whole bunch of them on fire if they didn't taste so darn good.

Daily Jamie

Homemaking Like It's My Day Job

This should be a picture of the beautiful Christmas sugar cookies I baked today, but my frosting was a disaster.  I'll try again tomorrow, though, so just take it easy, okay?  You'll get what's coming to you eventually.  Today, though, you get these smällkarameller that I made yesterday when I was feeling only slightly less crafty than I was today when I decided to bake cookies.  There's a surprise inside for my husband.  So get excited, babe!  Not too excited, though.  It's just a lousy piece of chocolate. 

Daily Jamie

Matching outfits again.  No big deal.

The Silent Treatment

I tried and tried to get Jamie and Saba to give a care about one another this afternoon.  It totally didn't work.  Either that or they have some relationship that I'm not privy too and things are on the rocks big time.

Daily Jamie

Made To Order

Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on all the good hip hop living in Sweden.  I mean, we get some mainstream stuff on the radio but certainly not as much as I became accustomed to in Cleveland and Nashville.  And now, being home on maternity leave, I hardly ever listen to the radio so this may already be a huge global hit and I'm way late catching the bus.  At any rate, this song and its video are amazing and, like, custom-made for my taste, so thank you, Selah, for bringing it to my attention.  

Daily Jamie

Motley Crew

A couple of months ago, our niece Elin was in the midst of a fund raising campaign for her school or handball team or something.  You know, the ones that you just LOVE your co-workers' kids to be involved in.  Anyway, kids could earn themselves some pretty sweet prizes by selling a lot so the whole family pitched in to help Elin earn a moped.  A MOPED, people.  The Swede and I sat down with the catalog and picked out the most attractive items we could find.  I recall putting a lot of time and thought into the selection process.  So over the weekend our order was delivered.  Now, as I said, we placed the order a couple of months ago so we had both forgotten what we had ordered.  This assortment of entertainment came as quite a surprise, I can tell you.  A book about edible mushrooms?  I'm quite certain we didn't order that.  Did we?  Three-hundred and fifty-three minutes of documentary on Sweden's history?  What, because we have so much time on our hands to sit down in front of a documentary series?  A panflute CD?  Okay, that was all me and I stand by that selection.  So, yeah, expect some rando presents under the tree from our family this year.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Chew Toy

The Swede is at a friend's birthday party this evening, but we didn't have any plans last night so we decided to drive down to the cabin and hang out with the clan for at least part of the weekend before winter really gets going.  We hadn't seen The Grandparents Swede yet this month so Jamie took advantage of the opportunity to open his daily Advent gift in their presence.  It was a squeaky toy and it went directly into his mouth, just like everything else he gets his little paws on nowadays.

Daily Jamie

Future Fisherman

What is the look in this young man's eyes?  Terror?  Excitement?  Certainly some form of anticipation.  Thing is, little dude is seeing a bit of ice on the lake for the first time in his life.  This wouldn't mean much if he was born someplace else or to a different family, but he wasn't.  He is the grandson of Papa Swede, a man whose love of ice fishing has been well documented on this blog.  So this young man, for better or for worse, will be spending a chunk of his life shivering on the great Lake Mälaren, hunched over a hole in the ice and clutching a tiny fishing pole with his icy fingers.  Who knows, maybe he'll love it like ol' Farfar.  Or maybe he'll hate it and still be a champ like his papa.  Either way, the fact that I gave birth to a boy means double the fish-smelling laundry for mom.

Daily Jamie

The Lord made Jamie's eyes to match Old Glory.

If Floss Is Your Idea Of Goodies

Okay, you know I'm a big USA Lover, right?  But that I also believe, or, dare I say, KNOW, that people are taking much better care of one another in Sweden?  Well, dental care is not Sweden's proudest area in terms of social welfare.  It's free until you're twenty and then there is a decent voucher system to help offset any high cost treatments, but it doesn't compare with the amazing health care system.  Consequently, The Swede waited until the pain became unbearable to make an appointment.  It seems to have been necessary, though, as he came home with a numb cheek and then did something I never thought I'd see in a million years: he poured a bottle of Coke down the sink.  Convincing dentist, eh?  Also, generous.  The Swede was sent home with a goodie bag.  I have no idea whether or not the goodies were government subsidized.

Daily Jamie