Daily Jamie

Uneven Trade

Sweden's children are dressed up and out knocking on doors this evening and I am ready. I got six bags of chocolate, greased up the hinges on the front door, and reminded myself to tone down my enthusiasm so that nobody would get freaked out. That went out the window, of course, upon the first pling of our doorbell. They were so cute, you guys! They gave me their little drawings and took one of each kind of candy apiece and said "Glad påsk!" about a dozen times over the course of the transaction. They got chocolate and I got crappy drawings and I still think I came out on top.

Daily Jamie Dyes Eggs

Jamie's half-year-long cold continues this week with the addition of a cough and fever. He had a visit with the doctor this morning who assured us that we had nothing to worry about so we're just going to settle in, continue not working and not going to school, and let the walls close in on us until he's back in form. The past two days were pretty rough on him and he didn't do much of anything, but today his fever had broken and he was in the mood to play. This is where I admire stay-at-home moms because I was at a loss of what to do to entertain him. Sure, we read books and pushed cars and wrestled and practiced our animal sounds and colored, but there's only so much of that one can do in twelve hours. So I came up with the brilliant idea to dye Easter eggs. And it was at least forty-five minutes more brilliant than I had imagined because after we plopped them into the dye, Jamie decided to move them around from color to color and back again, break them open and squish their hard-boiled insides, and splash food-colored water all over the kitchen for, like, over an hour. I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was a disaster to be sure and it took every fiber of my being to keep from wiping everything up the entire time but he loved it and only one piece of blue, vinegary egg white made it into his mouth. I was thinking, at first, that this will go so much more smoothly next year, but really he couldn't have been happier and that was the point.

Daily Jamie

Broken Glass

Oh geez. The Swede has been telling me for approximately, well... exactly as long as I've been letting Jamie play with my iPhone that I was going to regret it. But it really is a much more tenacious piece of equipment than it looks and has held up to dozens of accidental falls and purposeful, frustrated flings alike. My luck ran out today, though, and while everything still functions it totally gives me the creeps to run my fingers over broken glass so I guess I'm going to need to lay down the time (a trip into the city on the dreaded subway or sending it away for who knows how long via post) and a pretty significant chunk of change. And then, when it's fixed, I think I'll uninstall of all Jamie's apps and keep this bad boy outta sight.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Blog Mingle 2013

When Sarianne asked me if I'd like to join her at a luxurious event for mommy bloggers I was all for it, naturally, but also a little cautious with my expectations. You remember the green luxury weekend from last fall, after all. Well, these twenty-four hours exceeded any expectations I dared to have and more. The event was held at Kolmården's Vildmarkshotell and spa inside northern Europe's biggest zoo. That in and of itself is pretty awesome and I would have been happy to just BE there, but there was so much more the day had to offer. For example, to start with, upon checking into our rooms we were greeted with four goodie bags. The absolute best item in the bags, in my opinion, were these Crocs boat shoes. I am no fan of Crocs whatsoever, but I think we can all agree that these are pretty cute.

The food was plentiful and delicious. I mean, this was just the fika. And I think it's pretty safe to say it was the best fika of my life.

There were a couple of lecturers, Swedish celebs, giveaways, and a mini-fair with booths from the event's sponsors that kept us busy all afternoon. Later, in the early evening, we had a few hours to visit the pool and spa, have a couple of drinks and spend some time getting ready for the night ahead.

We spent the night doing a photo sess (yeah, I decided to part my hair on the other side after Friday's incident), drinking, dining and dancing. And it all couldn't have been more fun. So thanks, Sarianne! This time you nailed it.

Daily Jamie

Poor little Jamie was home with a fever today and not looking his best.

You Should See The Other Bed

I've been waiting for this day for a while now. The time capsule project was coming to a close and I was going to ride up to the copper mine with a couple of colleagues to watch it being set into the ground, to be displayed there for eternity. My alarm went off at 5:15 and I hopped out of bed, excited for the day ahead. Then I reached down to pull my cell phone charger from the wall and slammed my forehead into the head of our bed with all my might. The reverberation shook The Swede awake. "Oh no, is it bleeding?" he asked. "No, I don't think so," I answered. Then drip, drip, dripdripdripdripdrip onto the floor and the bed and my phone and the towel The Swede brought to rescue me with. The bleeding stopped quickly and revealed a pretty major gash right above my eyebrow, which The Swede insisted required medical attention. I would not be going to the copper mine. Two stitches and several hours in the ER later, I was good as new but with a heap of new street cred. In Damara vs. Nordli, the bed may have won, but who came out looking like a bigger badass? Exactly.

Daily Jamie

It Was Easy

Take eight minutes and let Justin rock your body like the old days. I did approximately twenty-seven times today and feel like a much better person because of it.

Daily Jamie

Good As Gold

Please check the Reese's cups my colleague Filip brought back from Cleveland! I gave a few away and then ate the rest over the course of four hours. It hurt, but was totally worth it because I feel really positive about paying Filip's good deed forward to my weight-loss competitors. 

Daily Jamie

Mexi-Can't

We made a discovery on Sunday afternoon. Behind Ikea is a poorly marked, nigh imperceptible Mexican restaurant. We did a loop around the block to pass it again and make sure our eyes weren't deceiving us. I hadn't eaten in forty-eight hours, what with the weekend's illness and all, and couldn't think of a better way to break my fast. So that was Sunday and this is Tuesday and I'm only NOW telling you about this?!?! Well... see... it wasn't that good. I mean, it was by no means bad but it was definitely a letdown. I guess I should have expected that seeing as the menu mentioned that the food was tailored to the Swedish sensibilities, but please, even Swedes love cheese. They can handle a little spice. Um, and where's the rice? And I don't see no beans! Maybe in another four years someone else will come along and get it right. In the meantime I guess I just have to remain satisfied with my annual Stateside feast.

Glamiversary

Sorry, folks, no time for a proper blog post. It's our anniversary and there's a champagne bubble bath to be had. That, and an 8:30 bedtime necessitated by today's 5:15 wake up call.

Daily Jamie

Making Up

Yesterday I was pretty sick with what turned out to be, thank goodness, a twenty-four hour bug. During those hours I only left the couch to go to bed, which made for a pretty boring day for the whole family. I am, of course, where the party's at so when I'm outta commiss the whole place shuts down. I was miraculously totally healthy this morning, so The Swede and I decided to make up for yesterday's lousy parenting with a packed agenda for ol' junior. First, we lovingly tolerated a five o'clock wake up call. Then, when it had opened, we went to Ikea and let Jambo lead the way through the kids' department. We were home in time for his nap, during which I was able to do the week's grocery shopping, getting that out of the way so that when he woke up we could go check out the horses at the local riding school. He was beside himself. It was so nice out that we ended up taking a walk in the woods afterwards, then played outside for a bit when we got home. We ended the day with a Skype with Aunt Selah and a drama-free bedtime. We don't usually pack that much action into an entire weekend so I'm calling this one Mission Accomplished.

Daily Jamie

Eating popsicles with a sick mommy.