Some 'before' shots

our bedroom

the kitchen

the lounge

lounge/dining area

Our house

Our house is now finished (pretty much - not the garden yet, and need to get some furniture), here are some photos of the masterpiece :)

the lounge

the lounge

the lounge/dining area

the kitchen

stairs

the nursery

the bathroom

our bedroom

Myser med min bebis

Half day trip...

...to Stonehenge!

Really cool place - very interesting, historical & mysterious! 

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today me & Teek celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Teek took the day off (and tomorrow!) and off we went to Bath, Somerset. We were debating wether to go or not since BBC Weather forecast said it would be heavy rain today, but we took the risk and drove off. It turned out they were completely wrong, the sun was shining most of the day with just a few clouds, so the weather was perfect. Bath is a lovely little town, very old & historical (roman times) and we saw some nice sights. Unfortunately we couldn't go to any spa as they won't allow babies! Which is understandable I guess... The whole point of going to a spa is to relax and forget about stress etc (including screaming babies).

So, lovely day in Bath - that's the furtherest I've been from London in the UK! And I've lived here 2 1/2 years... Need to do more day trips I think!!

"This stuff is tasty!"

Some pics from Sweden trip

Easter flowers

Tina visiting

Pretty horse

On the floor

Bath time

Visit from Jonkoping

Great grandparents

Grandma and Annika

On the floor

Food!

Yesterday I gave Annika baby food. I wanted to do it myself but since our hob doesn't work I went and bought some jars of baby food, flavour potato, carrot and parsnip. She loved it!! I'll upload a picture 'cause she looked soo messy, there were food everywhere, all over her face (even in her nose) hands, her clothes, my clothes... So today, on her name day (in Sweden) we might celebrate with some mashed banana. :)

Update again

Lots has been happening lately, the main things are me & Annika went to Sweden for Easter, which was lo-ve-ly! Nice to spend some time with family & friends, and to enjoy the swedish country side. We even saw the real easter bunny (or, maybe just a normal one...) and a (easter?) pig running outside the house. 

When we got back Teek had moved the last bits over to the house and made it ready to move in to, so now we're finally in! It's quite a few little things to do but nothing too major (except for garden), I'm spending the days cleaning/unpacking. But it's really really good to be here now, in our own home! It's a great little street too, with lots of families with babies. And there's a park just next to us - actually I might take Annika tomorrow to go on the baby swing...

I'll upload some photos of Sweden + house soon!

Update

Lately I've been down quite a lot down at the hose, helping out (or, doing what I can - Annika has a tendency to cry when we go down to the house!) and now it's pretty much done! It's just the garden that isn't finished, but we're gonna do that slowly this spring/summer. So when me & Annika are back from Sweden we're moving in! Yeeey! Super-exciting!

The last couple of days Annika has been sick, she's got a cold and has been sniffly and runny eyes. I guess we've been lucky that she hasn't been sick at all until now, when I've spoken to other mums a few of them has said they've never been to the doctor as often as now with a baby. I think Annika is a strong little Viking! :)

Photobook

I've been writing some notes every month since Annika was born, about her development etc, and I wanted to do something creative with it. So I thought I'd make one of those photobooks, with photos & text. I came across a blog where I saw a really nice little book, and thought I'd use that as inspiration. This is how far I've got, I still might change some photos, move things around etc, but I think this is the direction I'll be going! I think it could be a nice little thing with notes from her first year.

Fun in the bouncer

Trips!

Only 1 1/2 week left to go to Sweden! I'm really looking forward to it, just a bit nervous about the flight - I bet I'm gonna be the Mum With The Crying Baby that you always get on a plane. :) Oh well, it's only 2 1/2 hours... I can't even remember the last time I was home for Easter, (or even celebrated Easter) it must have been like 7 years ago or something?!

Another trip is planned, but for my grandma & my cousin, to come and visit us! It was my grandmas idea, she wanted to come and visit and didn't wanna go herself (grandpa is not really fit enough for a London weekend trip..) so she's asked my cousin Anna, who will be joining her. Should be fun!! My grandma has been here once before, on our wedding 2 years ago, but they didn't really see any sights or anything, so this time I'll probably show her around a little. 

Then we've got my sister-in-law's hens weekend, which probably will take place in June, and abroad somewhere. Hopefully I can leave Annika for a couple of days, by then she has to take the bottle! (or a cup) Then there's their wedding reception (a 2nd one, the main one's here) in India in August, which will be exciting. 

So, lots of fun trips to look forward to in the next few months!

No time...

I've been busy with Annika, house and freelance work lately so that's why I haven't updated the blog in a little while. Will be back soon(ish)...

Efficient morning

I woke up at 5.15 feeding Annika, back to bed for 10 minutes before she was properly awake at 6am. Since then I've been putting in a wash, folding yesterday's laundry, made breakfast x 2, washed up last night's dishes, played with A and had a shower & got ready. And it's only 7.15! That's gotta be pretty efficient...

Today is babyclub plus cleaning the house. Hopefully we can move in on the weekend...

Spring is here!

Today me & Annika went to cheer on Teek when his football team played in a cup semi-final in the park. They won! Unfortunately Teek hurt his knee so didn't play the whole game. (And no, Annika didn't play, even though it looks like she did on the picture...) It was such a nice day today, lots of sun and 15-16 degrees. On BBC's website they're saying it's going to be 18 degrees on Thursday!! Let's hope they're right... Bring on spring!

Passport's here!

Phew! Annika's passport is here. She looks quite funny in the picture. :) It's actually valid for 5 years, a bit strange; she'll look so different by the time she's 5!

Going home!

Just booked a trip home for Easter - found some not so expensive tickets for me and A. Now we just have to hope her passport arrives in time!! 

Happy Holi

Today we celebrated the indian holiday called Holi, the festival of colours. There weren't that much colour though but there was a fire by the temple which people (for a reason I can't remember) threw popcorn into. Tomorrow is the main 'colour day', where people traditionally throw coloured water and coloured powder to people on the street - sounds like fun but it doesn't really work as well here in England as in India though!

I think it's nice that Annika gets to celebrate double sets of holidays, both Indian and Swedish. She's got Holi, Diwali, Midsummer, Lucia plus Christmas and Easter - there's something on almost every second month! We wanted to go home to Sweden this Easter, but unfortunately Annika's passport hasn't arrived yet so I haven't bought tickets, and since the flight ticket prices are going up we'll probably have to do the trip a bit later, hopefully in May. I can't wait to take her home and get all her great grandparents to meet her. I think her grandparents and aunts misses her too, so I'm sure she'll be getting lots of attention!

My darlings

Today's outfit / Dagens outfit!

Grey, paint-stained trousers from Primark; Red, also paint-stained, hoodie from the campus shop at New Jersey Institute of Technology (where I've studied). The shoes which you can't see are old Nike's and are also paint-stained. All right on trend! Or at least in the house renovation circles... ;) Annika's a bit more fashionable, wearing red trousers from swedish shop Kapp Ahl and a Winnie the Pooh jacket (not sure from where), plus her cool hand-made little booties. We've just been down at the house, varnishing the wooden floorboards. Or, Annika was mainly sleeping in her pushchair in the garden, lucky girl!

Missing my beach

It's grey days like these that I miss Sydney... I just realised the other day that I haven't been on a beach since Coogee Beach, Sydney, which is like 2 1/2 years ago! Ahh... I really hope spring comes soon and that it will be a long, warm summer in England! (even though there aren't any beaches)

Multi-tasking

Having a baby makes you quite good at multi-tasking, I've noticed. A few things I now manage to do:

- Going food shopping with a pushchair and a shopping basket

- Going food shopping with a pushchair and a shopping trolley (NOT recommended!)

- Typing with one hand whilst breastfeeding (like right now)

- Making phone calls/eating/texting/cleaning baby's double chin whilst breastfeeding

- Taking up car seat w. baby in it plus various bags up the stairs (not really multi-tasking, but really heavy!)

- Carrying baby and eat/be on the phone/put in a wash

What I've learned is to take every moment Annika is happy and content to do as many chores as possible (and to play with her) - forget the saying 'sleep when the baby is sleeping' - yeah right! Luckily our baby sleeps quite well at night - she only needs one, sometimes two feeds at night, so I'm not too tired in the day. It could have been a lot worse; I met another mum whose 12 weeks old son never slept more than an hour and a half, even during the night! Then I guess you have to sleep when baby sleeps...

Chilling in the bouncer

Annika likes bouncers. She likes her own, but also other babies bouncers - this is her friend Ben's, which she seemed to enjoy!

Renovations

Not much left to do in the house now, although it looks like more because of the mess! :) I'll be helping out this week with some tidying up. Fingers crossed it should be ready to move in to in about 2 weeks now. 

Above is a photo from today, it's Teek & Annika in the kitchen area, looking out towards the garden (which we'll finish in the spring/summer). I love love love those big glass doors at the back, they bring in so much light to the kitchen!

(I also just wanted to mention the cool little shoes/socks Annika is wearing, they are crocheted (virkade) by a work colleague to my mum - a very big hit this winter! I know they're a bit hard to see though...)

Weddings & buggyfit

This week has gone really fast, they just keep going faster & faster! I'm already almost a third through my maternity leave...scary thought! Anyway, the wedding last saturday was nice & quite fancy ('tjusigt' som man skulle kunna saga pa svenska!), in Maida Vale & Mayfair. We brought Annika along since she's still breastfeeding and pretty much refuses bottle, and it went pretty good, although we left quite early. It was nice to come in to town actually, my first time in months!

Other things this week;

- Annika laughed this week! Like a proper little chuckle, not just smiling. I've been trying to get her to do it again with no success...

- Went to this thing called Buggyfit, excercise in the park for new mums. Much harder than I thought, with running, situps and lunges involved!

- Got a bit bored on wednesday and went to Kingston. Wanted to check out a swedish interiors shop only to find out it's closed down! Took a nice photo from that street though with falling phone booths. (not falling for real)

Not much of interest otherwise. The house is getting there, slowly but steadily. This weekend I'm looking fwd to breakfast at Greedies on Saturday!

Have a nice weekend!!

Lights, blinds, paint, tiles, taps...

It's not much left on the house now, and it's looking really really good. I've been lying awake at night though cause I am so indecisive - did we pick the right lights? Paint colour? Tiles? And so on. But I think we have, and it's actually nice to be a part of deciding everything in our new home, it becomes more personal then.

The only thing we haven't got yet is furniture! Well, we got a couple of drawers and a bed which we'll bring over, but the rest we'll have to get gradually. It's gonna be quite empty for a while! It will be so weird going up the stairs when going to bed, so cool to have a whole big house!

Will post photos soon, will prob. take some on the weekend. Oh, we're going to a wedding on saturday, in the city. Should be fun!! We're bringing Annika along, she'll wear a cute dress she got from my friend Jo. I'll be wearing a purple patterned dress from Oasis (a little bit hippie'ish). Will post photos from there too!

Magda, tack for ditt meddelande (av nan anledning kan jag inte kommentera for tillfallet), allt gar bara bra tack, helt underbart med en liten bebbe! Hoppas allt ar bra med er, Leia maste val va typ 5 man nu eller nat? Kram!

Josefine, kul o hora fran dej!! Forlat att jag inte svarat innan. Hoppas allt gar bra for er med lilla Liam! Kram!

The best pie

I made a rhubarb pie on the weekend, it's one of my favourite pies, ever! Here's the recipe:

Chop rhubarbs (about 500 g) into smaller pieces. Spread out on a tray and sprinkle some sugar on them.

Mix 2dl flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2,5 dl oats and 2 dl sugar in a bowl. 

Melt 150g butter; add 0,5 dl syrup and 1dl cream. Mix and take off the stove. Add mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl and stir.

Spread mixture on the rhubarbs.

Put in the oven for about 20-25 min, 175 C. 

Serve with ice cream, cream or custard.

Enjoy!

PS. 1 dl = 0,35 cup (I think it could probably be 1/2 cup...)

Favourite game

Annika's favourite game/song at the moment is Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes - or Huvud, Axlar Kna & Ta in swedish. I sing it in both languages for her, with the movements as well. This is her on my knees, in action (with her favourite body suit, of course!). I can sing it 10 times in a row until she gets bored!

Best job in the world?

I think so!

http://www.islandreefjob.com

Today

Went out this morning to see the health visitor to weigh Annika (by the sound of the name you'd think a health visitor would actually visit you, but apparently not!). Since there's still snow on the roads, and ice patches, we took it pretty slowly. Other than the snow & ice it's been a lovely day with lots of sun and no wind at all. I'm surprised I didn't meet more people on our walk! Annika had gained over a kilo since last time (2 weeks ago), so she's now 4.64 kg! Will have to change to Pamper's number two size nappies soon! 

Then we took a little trip with the car, after getting all the snow of it first (took a while). We went to B&Q (a DIY store) to get some paint for the living room - not an easy task! I tried to get Annika's opinion but she would probably been as happy if I bought bright orange for the whole room as boring beige. I went for boring beige in the end (Dulux 'Chalk stone'), but now I think I might have changed my mind...The problem is that we've ordered a dark grey sofa, and I'm not sure how good it will look with grey sofa next to a light cream/beige wall...But I couldn't find a light grey/beige colour so I just went for the chalk stone, plus if I had stayed in there longer I would've gone crazy. Fingers crossed it will look good...  The other rooms look great, 'magnolia' in Annika's room, 'soft coffee' in the other bedrooms, and 'soft almond' in the hallway/staircase. White in bathrooms plus 2 shades of cream for floor and wall tiles.

That's pretty much our day - right now I'm cooking, kidney bean curry with rice, and Annika's playing in her gym. Tomorrow she's getting her 2 month immunizations. Time flies...

Sno-kaos!

Tagen ar installda. Skolor ar installda. Folk kan inte ga till jobbet. Det ar kaos pa vagarna. Ja, det har snoat i england, det varsta snokaoset pa 16  ar (typ).  Som ni ser pa bilden at det OTROLIGT mycket sno. Ingen gar saker... ;)

Taget fran BBC's hemsida:

South-east England has the worst snow it has seen for 18 years, causing all London buses to be pulled from service and the closure of Heathrow's runways.

The BBC Weather Centre said up to 6in (15cm) of snow fell overnight with more falling throughout the day and temperatures unlikely to get above 0C for the rest of the day.

Thousands of school children across England and Wales woke up to the news that their school was closed for the day

All London buses have been withdrawn from service due "to adverse weather and dangerous driving conditions"

A BBC reporter said he saw many people left confused and distressed after waiting for long periods for buses, only to see them drive past without being in service.

Decision time

There has been lots of progress in the house renovation, in fact it might only be another month until we can move in. Very exciting! I had a look at the house today, and it's looking great! Since I'm pretty much stuck at home, I get to do the fun job - i.e pick tiles, taps and wall paint, among other things. It's not easy though! It's a jungle out there, soo many choices. Who knew Dulux did about 50 shades of green for example?!  

Cheeky monkey

Interesting experience

Yesterday I went to the cinema - yes, a luxury thing when you have a baby, but this movie screening was different. It was a 'newbie' screening, in the middle of the day, just like a normal movie but with the difference that it was especially for new mums and their babies! So all mums left their prams outside the room and held the babies in their arms whilst watching the movie ('Yes Man' with Jim Carrey yesterday; quite funny), feeding when needed and leaving the room if they would cry too much.

I think it's a brilliant idea, especially 'cause new mums don't exactly have time to do these things otherwise. And also nice to get out and meet other mums. I'm sure I'll be going again!

Btw, Annika was behaving quite well... ;)

Beautiful lyrics

Come stop your crying
it will be alright
Just take my hand, hold it tight.
I will protect you from all around you, 
I will be here dont you cry.

For one so small, you seem so strong.
My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm,
This bond between us cant be broken,
I will be here dont you cry

'Cos you'll be in my heart, 
yes you'll be in my heart,
From this day on now and forever more.

You'll be in my heart, 
No matter what they say, 
You'll be here in my heart,
Always. 

Phil Collins, You'll be in my heart

Birth story

I don't know if anyone actually wants to know, but I thought I'd make a blog entry about the birth of Annika (not in too much detail!). 

The day before (the 8th) me & Teek went to B&Q (a D.I.Y warehouse) to look at stuff for the house, and a christmas tree (which we didn't get because I couldn't be bothered with all the mess from the needles). Didn't feel any different than the day before, no signs that just 24 hours later I would have a baby. In the middle of the night, at around 1am, I woke up and couldn't sleep. I walked around a bit in the kitchen, and noticed something wet - I thought I had wet my pants...but when it kept coming more and more, I realized that it must be the water that had broken. OMG - I really didn't expect that to happen, especially before my due date! Everyone was saying how the first baby normally is a little late, so I had my mind set to give birth closer to Christmas. 

I was wondering what to do, but I thought I'd better wake Teek up at least (duh...). He was extremely calm (or still sleeping...?) and told me to call the hospital to check what to do. So I did, and they told me to come straight in to labour ward, since they need to check if the water actually had broken. So we got dressed, took my half-packed hospital bag and drove down to the hospital (Teek still half sleeping), expecting to have an examination and then go back home and sleep. 

When they had examined me and established that my waters had broken, they started to feel and look at my belly, looking slightly worried...They thought that the size of my belly was a little bit on the small side, so they would like me to stay in the hospital over night. Of course, we got a bit worried too, as no doctor or midwife had previously said anything about my belly being small. But they said that it was probably because the waters had broken, which could lead to the belly looking smaller. (I still thought it looked enormous) So Teek went home to get me some snacks and other things for the night, still thinking I could go back home the following day and he to work. 

They put me in a sort of 'waiting room' for women almost in labour that aren't ready for the delivery room, where I was supposed to try and get some sleep. That was however quite impossible as there were other women in there who by the sounds of it were having contractions or other pains... I managed to get maybe one hour of sleep though. As the hours went by, I started to feel weak contractions, and by 9am they were quite painful. I asked the midwife how much worse they would get, and she assured me that this was nothing compared to what was to come... Oh great! 

Teek came down (dressed and ready for work!) and when he saw me I think he realized this might be it! Around 10-11am (not sure about time here, it's all a bit of a blur) the contractions were getting really bad, I tried a hot shower but that didn't really help. I asked for some painkillers which I got, and they didn't do any good either. By this stage, I was half-lying on the floor, with a chair and my wedge pillow to support me, holding Teek's hand; and the contractions were so bad I were screaming out loud for each one. I was given gas & air, which helped a little, or at least the control of it helped. I was starting to wonder when they were going to take me to the delivery room, as I felt like I was going to die or something. After a while they finally examined me and were surprised to see that I was more dilated than they had thought, and immediately moved me to the delivery room. Luckily, the midwives had a shift change, so the midwife that had helped me (?) up to this point left and a lovely woman called Kelly took over. The contractions were getting unbearable and I was screaming for an epidural -  which I didn't get! Teek and Kelly said that on the other hand I couldn't take anything, not even gas & air, as I had to use all my powers for pushing! I was sooo angry, and didn't know how I was gonna get through this. 

Then the pushing started...It was a horrible pain, but not really worse than the contractions. It felt like it would be impossible, but after a while, at 2 in the afternoon, out came a little baby girl with lots of black hair and big brown eyes. And the pain disappeared almost instantly! It's amazing how after all that pain, it just goes away when they put the baby on my chest. 

Me & Teek were ecstatic, and Teek called around to our families and texted friends the news. After a nice warm shower, we went to a private room where me & Annika stayed the night. 

It was definitely the worst pain I've experienced, but it was all worth it and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again!

Overdose in pink :)

Lovely gifts from friends and family!

I haven't disappeared...

...It's just so hectic having a little one! I don't know where the days go - it's all a bit of a blur. It's great though, me and Annika are having a great time together. :) She's 1 month old today, I can't believe it...ohh gotta go, I can hear her starting to cry!!