Daily Jamie

Sushi And The City

Jamie and I spent the afternoon with Erin and Ossian again today in the city.  We met up at Central Station and ordered sushi at a counter there and then picked a table where I made the especially messy decision to let Jamie try an avocado roll.  He loved it, of course, but I was finding rice within the folds of his clothes, in the stroller, and on my person for hours afterwards.  Well worth it to see his excitement at trying something new and, of course, eating with his hands, which, as we all know, is THE BEST.  I'm pretty sure after seeing the disaster that became our side of the table, though, Erin was resigned never to start Ossian on solids.

Daily Jamie

Supply Run

We're going to the country this weekend and we'll be staying in our own cabin for the first time.  The Swede, Papa Swede and Sarianne worked hard getting it painted, laying a new wood floor and rewiring the electricity over the past couple of months and now it's finally time to move in.  Cue a trip to Ikea for a few of the basics like a waste basket and a lamp and, oh, why not a rug and a cute mirror while I'm at it?  Add a meatball lunch with my best little guy and that's what I call an afternoon.

Top Three

• Lilacs.
• Girls.  I've only seen the pilot, but I'm hooked.
• Having booked our US summer vacation.

Daily Jamie

On The Way

My sweet, little blob of a helpless babyness is totally toddling and it's blowing my mind how quickly he's turning into a real boy.

Information Overload

We're planning our trip to the States for Selah's wedding in August! It's getting a little complicated, though, as we compare flights, car rentals, and hotels on different sites, some in dollars and others in kronor. It's become a multiple-device affair and I'm almost longing for the days when you just called a travel agent to take care of everything for you. Oh, wait, I wasn't really around for those days. I guess my generation's travel agent is Steve Jobs.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Nothing Better

Daily Jamie

At The Races

Today we all got dressed up and went to the horse track.  One of the most distinguished international horse races, Elitloppet, takes place every spring just around the corner in Bromma.  There were thousands of people there, many of whom had camped outside the gates last night to get the best viewing spots today.  We had to park a half-hour walk away but it was a beautiful day for a stroll and, even though our horse didn't win, it was a very cool thing to experience.

Daily Jamie

Italian For Beginners

The Swede woke up early and hopped a flight to Göteborg for the day to attend an IT fair.  Scanners were on the agenda.  But why should he have all the fun?  So Jamie and I took the train into the city and enjoyed the gorgeous day with an al fresco Italian lunch under the shade of an umbrella. 

Daily Jamie

We played dress-up at Sukai's today.  Jamie got just a taste of how exhausting it can be to be a lady.

Daily Jamie

The Robin To My Lilly

When I went to the English-speaking mommy group a couple of weeks ago I really hit it off with one of the girls, a Canadian with a quick wit.  Totally my style. Minus the Canadian part, heh.  Just kidding, of course.  Anyway, we got in touch thanks to the magic of Facie and made a lunch date for today.  I brought Jamie and she brough her three-month-old son Ossian, I introduced her to overpriced lunch at Åhléns and she introduced me to pretty much the best walking path on the planet along the waterway in Kungsholmen.  The afternoon went too quickly and before we knew it we were forced to make plans for next week to continue the conversation.  Oh, darn.  P.S. Baby duckies!!!

Top Three

• Heat.
• Comfy shoes.
• New friends.

Daily Jamie

First Haircut

My apologies if you, like me, get totally sicked out by hair.  Yes, it's lovely on heads but the second it comes off it may as well be explosive, I want so little to do with it.  This, though, is the hair of my two favorites, so it's okay.  Yesterday I trimmed a little off of Jamie's baby mullet just to class things up a bit back there.  Of course, like all sickos moms, I wanted to keep his first lock but first I wanted to compare it to The Original Baby Swede's.  So out with The Swede's trusty baby book, a work I have come to cherish and reference often over these past ten months.  Jamie's baby hair, while not obviously in the picture, is definitely redder than The Swede's and since he grew to be a towhead, as was I, it's very possible that Jamie will too.  Or he could stay a ginger and we'd still love him all the day long.

Top Three

• Browsing Hemnet with The Swede, dreaming about our future.
• Jamie's Bamse outfit.
• Packing away all the winter clothes for a few months.

Daily Jamie

Batter Up

Today's theme was baseball.  It started when Jamie and I walked into Kungsi and passed the high school's baseball diamond where the team was practicing.  Jamie was enthralled from the seat of his stroller.  I could practically hear the wheels in his head turning as he memorized the rules of the game right then and there, storing them safe and sound until he can put them into practice in a few years.  Later, The Swede came home from work with Indians popcorn balls that one of our colleagues in Cleveland brought with him to Stockholm!  Fortunately, The Swede isn't wild about them, so they're both all mine.  I can't wait to sink my teeth into them and get sticky popcorn bits stuck in the rugs and my molars.  I guess I'm more into sports than I thought.

Top Three

• Finding something easily that I thought would take forever to locate.
• The garden Ray planted here lives on nearly two weeks later.  I haven't killed it yet!
• Popcorn balls, obvs.

Daily Jamie

Lunch Break

The Segerstens are in town for a mini break in the big city and stopped by for lunch.  The Poor Swede had to go into the office today so I put Magnus to work on the grill while the ladies (and babies) acted silly in the kitchen.  It wasn't long before they moved on to an exciting stay in a hotel in Stockholm, but the visit made our day!

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Trademarked

No, I did not give permission for this popcorn company to use my hallmark as their brand name and yes, it's making me feel litigious.

Top Three

• The Swede is on his way home!
• Instagram.  Everything looks prettier through some retro filters.
• The Hunger Games series.

Daily Jamie

At The Castle With Our Prince

When I took Mom and Ray to Drottningholm Castle last week it was a bit of a bust.  It was raining and Jamie had fallen asleep on the way there so Mom and I just hung out in the car while Ray peeked into the garden.  Today, however, was a perfect day to be there and everybody knew it.  It's a red day so the place was packed with folks enjoying their day off.

The only thing missing was The Swede, seen here in a photo from the first time I was at Drottningholm the summer I moved here.  Pretty awesome that this guy married me, huh?

Top Three

• Jamie's bedhead.
• Frozen Ikea pancakes.
• An outdoor fika.

Daily Jamie

The One Where Things Got Out Of Hand

I used to tease my mother-in-law about her holiday toy shopping style, which essentially consists of her sticking out her arm and walking down an entire aisle while everything at arm-level falls into her cart.  I get it now.  Toys are so magical, dudes!  I went into Toys R Us to get Jamie some balls since he chases them around our house for literally hours without getting bored and a couple have disappeared under the couch or who knows where.  I found the balls in the store quickly and then things just spiralled out of control.  My pocketbook took a major hit and I think we all know that, sadly, Jamie will probably still prefer a toothbrush and an empty Coke bottle to that snazzy new steering wheel on his stroller.  

Top Three

• Twinkies.
• Five hours of sleep. IN. A. ROW.
• Text love from the hubby.

Daily Jamie

Spending Time

I love, love, love being on maternity leave, but I must admit that the days can seem pretty long sometimes.  On those days I long for five o'clock when The Swede walks in the door, always in a good mood and happy to see us no matter what happened at work.  With the husband off fishing I've been trying to keep busier during the day so that I don't miss that five o'clock ray of sunshine so much.  Yesterday, for example, I invited the girls from my mama group (the ladies in our community who had their babies around the same time I did) over for a playdate and fika.  The babies, who had gotten to know each other over the past several months in mama group, got to practice sharing toys while I got to know their mommies for the first time outside the walls of the clinic.

Then, today, Jamie and I headed over to Petra's for pancakes.  She made them from scratch, they were awesome, and Jamie's world was rocked.  We ended up walking to the outlet mall and strolled around all afternoon.  Petra is mere weeks from giving birth, so we needed a long coffee break during which she made me laugh so hard that she was forced to shush me.  My mom, who I shushed about a thousand times last week, would have been proud.

Top Three

• A baby who maintained his good mood despite skipping his nap.
• Feeling Petra's preggo belly.
• My new jacket.  It is shameful how much I love it, really.

Daily Jamie

Eleven Years Later

I'm going to tell you something right now that is going to sound like a wild exaggeration but that I assure you is one hundred percent true.  I've been waiting for this moment my entire adult life.  Seriously, every time I've turned on a television since I was eighteen and fell in love with Paul Newman after seeing him in Exodus I have hoped to catch his Biography.  Okay, that was an exaggeration, but it is absolutely true that for over a decade, every time I've seen a Biography on the guide I've checked to see if it was Paul's.  Sure, I could have found it online quick as a flash, but then I wouldn't have gotten to experience this moment.  Now the baby is asleep and I'm going to curl in for an hour-long Newmarama.  Finally.

Daily Jamie

Every Mothers' Day

I was so excited, you guys.  I was going to be celebrating American Mother's Day with my mom.  Last Sunday I gave her a big hug and the customary greeting and she was all, "Thanks, sweetie, but it's next Sunday."  Yeah.  If we were in the same place today I'd take her to breakfast, but only if that place were America because breakfast is totally slammin' there and it's not so hot here.  Literally.  They eat cold sandwiches for breakfast.  So since I can't do the breakfast thing I thought I'd honor her with a donation to CARE via Every Mother Counts, an organization that aims to help prevent the hundreds of thousands of annual deaths of women and girls during pregnancy and childbirth.  My mother could have very possibly died while giving birth to me, but was able to become my mother due to access to modern medicine and the ability to deliver in a safe, sterile and reachable environment.  Jamie's birth, while long, was uncomplicated and low-risk but I cannot imagine having had to do it without drugs, outside of a hospital, or even alone as many of the world's women do.  It's easy for us to take these things for granted, the same way we often take our moms for granted, so today I'm going to try to remember how lucky we are to be alive to be mothers and to be extra grateful for the fact that I got to give mine a hug in person this year.  Just a week early.

Ma Nature's Lyrical With Her Yearly Miracle

Jamie and I took a drive out in the country today.  This was particularly convenient considering the country is essentially across the street.  Have I mentioned that I love this about my neighborhood?  We're twenty minutes from Stockholm and have a lake and woods in our backyard.  Unreal.  Our first stop was a flea market inside of a barn, which was lovely except that, oh yeah, I don't like flea markets, and it was too tight for Jamie's stroller, and I got the eerie feeling that everyone there knew each other except for us.  It was like going to a new church for the first time where they have, like, too many members so nobody's trying to make you feel welcome.  The real party was outside anyway.  The sun was shining, the bees were buzzing, and the walking was good.  The lambs were a bit nonchalant for my taste, but that's sheep for you.

Jamie fell asleep the minute I transferred him from his stroller to his car seat so I just kept driving through the farmland into a nature reserve.  I had the radio off and the windows down and the sounds and smells of the woods from inside the car reminded me of the weekend drives we used to take in our Volkswagen van when I was a kid.  Don't ask my brother about these weekend drives.  His memories are likely not as fond since his clownin' bottom was planted in The Slap Seat.  Good times.  But really, this afternoon drive was pure magic and I think I'm going to need to make it a tradition.  

Daily Jamie