Getting into the Christmas spirit...

So it's the 1st Advent here in Sweden this weekend, when everyone gets all the Christmas lights and stars out of the basement.  Lights candles and bakes nice smelling buns and gingerbread cookies.  It's also time for the kids to open their first little present from the advents calendar.  Normally I find it difficult to get into the actual tradition because I am always busy at work or just not quite there yet with the Crimbo buzz.  However this year I am feeling all into it and I think it has to do with this mostly...

It's snowing already and really cold at the moment which is nice since it has pissed down rain for weeks and there is nothing worse than rain!  The other reason is that Tilly has started to understand Christmas and all the things that go on and is singing all the songs she has learnt in dagis.  She has written her letter to Santa and Santa you better get a ticket to Disney Land because that is where most of the shite she is asking for comes from!  

But it's so fun, because it was only 3 years ago she was a teeny tiny little creature we were just keeping alive, surrounded by a teeny tiny tree and a poor excuse for Christmas in general.  Except of course our big gift was her, a whole 3 weeks early, 10 days before Christmas.  Thanks Santa!  

So I have settled down tonight with a glass of Cava, lit lots of candles, written the cards, planned the gifts and am now looking forward to a fun and cosy weekend with my family getting all merry!

Only 13 days left until Lucia (another Swedish tradition I will write about) so wrap up warm folks and spread the joy.....x

Sweet dreams...

Soon Tilly will be 3 and it's time to get her a big girl's bed.  She is sleeping in her cot which transforms into a bed, but it is still only the length of a cot.  Although she is cosy, we think it's time for her to have a change.
There is nothing better than decorating a kids room.  I went all out from day 1.  She has slept in her own room since coming home from the hospital, because we never wanted her to get used to the idea of our room as a place to sleep.  Absolutely as a place to cuddle up with mamma and pappa in the mornings, but to have sweet dreams at night, everyone needs their own bed, especially mamma and pappa!

She really loves her room and often closes the door and says 'go away!' - which is quite nice sometimes because we know she is comfortable and independent.

She has a little cosy corner where we read at night, and she can reach everything that she likes to play with.

I ordered this bunting with her name on from a place in New Zealand called Little Kiwi's nest.  It's cool and has taught her how to spell her name.

There is lots of colour and patterns and things to keep her busy.  Just the way a kids room should be I think.  I've seen a lot of muted tones in kids rooms and I just don't get it.  There will time enough for beige and brown when they get older.

Right now anyway we are contemplating a kind of loft bed.  It is only 107cm high, which is not as scary as the high bunks and that way it shouldn't take up anymore space in her room and still have a spot for her cosy reading corner underneath.  What do you think? Any other great ideas welcome....

Ageing gracefully and naturally...

I'm just sitting at home half watching some programme about plastic surgery for people who have stuff wrong with them like an extra large nose, or boobs that literally touch the ground.  And it got me thinking of all the people, especially in Hollywood who have so much shit done to themselves, when they looked perfectly above average to begin with.  And then I looked over at the damn Barbie doll my daughter got given against my will, and it got me thinking even more about what kind of image kids will have of how they should look.  Considering Barbie is like 50 and still looks pretty good, Tilly might think that's normal.  Girls seem to be starting so early now with botox and skin products and are so obsessed with ageing.  I've heard of girls getting lip enlargements for 18th birthday presents.  And I see alot of girls with the same profile - duck lips which they think looks natural.  It's not natural at all and if they are starting so young, what will they look like when they get older.  

I scanned the net and found some interesting pictures and wonder how these celebrities think we can't see that they have had surgery. Duh?!

 

Then I found some pictures of older woman who I think have aged naturally (well almost) and they still look beautiful.

All I know is that I will try my best to encourage and be an example to Tilly, to show her it's ok to get grey hair or a few wrinkles.  It shows you've lived.  

Happy living all you beautiful people....

4 years down...

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary.  In some ways it feels like just yesterday and in other ways it feels like a lot longer.  I think that might be due our extra family member, who has changed everything for us, and time goes much slower and the days feel way more full.  But either way, it has been the best 4 year of my life and I am so blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful husby!  To celebrate we had a night out last Saturday and Tilly stayed over at her grandparents.

We started the day by going to the cinema, which is one of our favourite things to do, and saw 2 days in New York, which is the sequel to 2 days in Paris.  After that we went for a drink and I finally found a the perfect bloody Mary.  Even though it cost 126kr which is like ridiculous.  Unfortunately the fact that it was perfect was due to the bartender and not the bar.  So when I ordered my second one, he had finished his shift, and his colleague knew nothing about making a bloody Mary.  But we were not going to let anything mess our night up.  So we went to our old favourite restaurant SMAK.

We have been there a lot and even though we love trying new places, there is something comforting about knowing that you will be impressed with every course and have a great night, almost guaranteed.  The restaurant is based on Taste which is the English translation for its name.   You can pick 3, 5 or 7 courses and have wine to match.  Its incredibly well priced for the type of place it is, so that is one of the bonuses.  Each dish is a flavour like garlic, mint or Parmesan and then the dish is based around that.  We went all in and had 7 and didn't mess around with any desserts, we just stuck to the good stuff.  Very full and a bit tipsy we caught our 380kr  cab (again ????)  and opened the Jameson and turned up the tunes.  No child in the house and no one to wake you up at 06:30 means extra large ones were poured!  This resulted in a very late, fun, romantic and 'just like the old days' night.

Thank you my gorgeous man and I look forward to another year or 30 with you x

Hen...???

So here in Sweden at the moment there is this big debate going on about what I would say is the biggest crock of shit in the world.  It revolves around calling children (mostly) 'Hen' instead of Hon or Han - which for my English friends is Her or Him, and therefore Hen would be 'It' I suppose. ?????

This is so that we do not differentiate between the genders and ensure men and women are not pigeon holed.  Well I'm not sure about you, but I can find more than one biological fact that makes us different and ones we cannot get away from no matter how PC we are.  Physically we have parts that are specific to each gender, which also makes it only possible for women to reproduce.  And as I found in this article, there are 78 other differences.  

But what annoys me about this new obsession with this, is that it has double standards.  Are we to call our children unisex names now or should we call boys Judy and girls Richard just to make sure we are not specifying gender?  If it isn't supposed to matter what gender you are, then why do woman still get paid less than men, and why can't little boys go around wearing sparkly shoes?  

I just think everyone has taken a serious overdose of trying to be politically correct about everything, and I don't know if its just here in Sweden - so please fill me in on what else is going on out there.  

Tintin in the Congo was almost taken out of the library because it portrayed black people in a derogatory way.  It was written in the 30's, so by taking it away would be like deleting history. 

 This kids book above has been in the news too lately because its considered racist because of the black character.  She is too black basically and we are not meant to make a point of this.  Again its like deleting people out of the world and is just inverted racism.  

I say just let people get on with it and stop trying to restrict everything we say about each other, because eventually we won't be able to recognise any differences between us.  Be kind to each other and then it wont make a difference what colour or gender you are anyway!

Peace out!

Arty Farty...

Last week we went to see our good friend Joakim Kocjancic's amazing photographs at the Gallery  Kontrast in Stockholm - which is still on for a few more weeks.....SO DO IT!
He is an amazing photographer and we were lucky enough to have him take our wedding pictures.
 Weddings are not really what he does, but he since he was a guest and had lived in Dublin a few years before, he was kind enough to capture our special day, in a style no one else could have done as well.

Anyway Tilly had a great time looking at all the photo's and it felt good to get her appreciating art so young.  Definitely something for all those winter days ahead!

If you want to see them all go here .
ALL PHOTOS ARE THE PROPERTY OF JOAKIM KOCJANCIC.

My buddy...

Tonight was definitely hands down, one of the best evenings I've had with Tilly.  She is my best buddy!
The moment I walked in the door she summoned me to her room to show me all the things she was up to.  Husby went to a parent meeting at daycare, so she was very interested to know why she couldn't go too.  So we had a long discussion about it over dinner, where she, as usual ran through her day with me.
After dinner she then did the best role-play game ever, where she pretended to be me, and I had to be her and she was taking me to daycare.  She acted out all the stuff we do in the morning and then said good-bye and told me to not be sad and that she would be back later to get me, she needed to go to a 'meeting'!  It was adorable.  Then she came to 'collect' me and asked if I wanted to go to the park.
Later when we were reading before bed, she explained all about how she sometimes get sad when I leave and just needs another hug and kiss and then she can go and play.....needed to look away for the tears in my eyes!
She told me she loved me in English and Swedish and wondered where I love you lives.  I explained that love lived in your heart in your chest.  She thought it was quite funny that she had it inside her!
I really love the age she is now and I can't wait to have more brilliant conversations with her every night from now until the end of time!
Thanks my little buddy!