Julmarknad på Västerhejde skola - Haylie's school Christmas fair

Today, we went to Haylie's school for the Christmas fair. I had baked 2 kinds of spritz cookies, iced gingerbread cookies, and peanut butter cookies for the bake sale. Stefan made knäck, which are like caramels with little almond bits in them. His candy sold fast, and the gingerbread cookies. I think the Swedes were afraid of my American cookies though. Hope somebody buys them. The proceeds from the fair go to a field trip they have every fall for the whole school, and to charity. They are sponsoring orphans and abandoned children in Columbia, so they have studied Columbia and drawn its flag and stuff like that. All the kids got free hot dogs, and we bought a wreath, candles the kids had decorated, a Christmas popper of the non-explosive variety, some cookies and candy, glögg, and did the pony ride.

For once, Stefan had a coat on, but of course no hat or gloves.

Haylie went on a pony ride.


Here she is, working the money box. All the kids had a 20 minute shift to work, selling what they had made and what the families had donated.

She had an idea in the car on the way home about "double-selling". She explained that you can buy stuff at a Christmas fair, then go and sell it again at another Christmas fair for more money. I had to laugh at that one.

Here is Haylie, all dressed up in her new dress. Today she is at her cousin Isabelle's friend birthday party. We will go to the family birthday party on Tuesday as well. They are 7 days apart, so we have a few weekends of partying in a row here for the six-year olds.

32 weeks

Here we were on Saturday on our way out the door to a birthday party. Haylie is posing with her Little Mermaid pen and diary. We have to spell everything she wants to write, but she writes it down.

Haylie was practicing her photography skills. We both have heads and it is relatively in focus, so I guess she did a good job.

She lost her tooth (finally) after weeks of it dangling by a thread.

Finally...

We finally bought lighting for over our kitchen table. It is getting dark early now, and we have been eating by candlelight for a few weeks now. We went to the lighting store on Saturday and picked this one out surprisingly fast. It was about our fifth visit to the store, but they hadn't had this one before. It is sort of three-leaf clover shaped.

Stefan and I looked for studs in the ceiling to hang it from while Haylie was at the movies with her friend Hilda. Hilda thought the light looked weird, and Haylie was more impressed by the spotlights we bought for her closet and installed while she was gone.

29 weeks

Our cactus at home flowered for the first time. All of a sudden this long, weird appendage started growing out of it.

The flower was pretty spectacular, but only lasted 2 days, of which it was only really fully in bloom for one.

On Sunday, we went to the baptism of Stefan's childhood friend Tomas' daughter, Sally. It was at the church in Havdhem, farther south on the island. There was a luncheon and coffee afterwards and Haylie got to play with two of her friends from her old daycare that she doesn't see so often anymore, so she had lots of hyperactive fun.

Tonight we bought a stroller. It is an Emmaljunga Edge Duo Combi with sport chassis.

Enormous, but good for bouncing around in the woods, and we will be getting a infant car seat that can snap onto the chassis as a travel system. You can remove the bassinet part to use as a cradle on the floor - it is rockable (and has handles in the zippered sides). Lots of finesses.

Today I bought a "babygym" from a woman at work. I don't even know what they are called in English. Haylie seems to think I bought it for her. Right now she is playing farm in it. I was going to buy one anyway, so it felt like a bargain to get it used in good condition for half the price of new. I have a ton of stuff to buy in the next 3 months, it is starting to feel a bit stressful. One thing is crossed off the list now, at least.

This was last week. Haylie and Stefan found a big toad. She played with it for the longest time before it "escaped" while she wasn't looking. We start to feel sorry for them after about 30 min-1hour of being cuddled, kissed, forced to hop, and bedded down in a bucket.

She was very proud of it.

Foxy Loxy was taking a nap at the base of the dirt pile.

Third ultrasound today

Today we had the official regular ultrasound. I had one in week 7 when I was puking my guts out to check how far and how many, then one week 13 because the midwife had a brainfart and totally scheduled me wrong. So today we had the regular one. I liked the technician - she showed us a lot and narrated as she was doing it what she was looking at. Plus she printed 5 photos where you usually get 1 view. The measurements set my official due date now at January 3rd. The placenta is low, so I have to have another ultrasound November 11th to determine if it is Placenta Previa.

Haylie said "Det ser ut som en dödskalle" - It looks like a skull. Hard to explain ultrasound to a five-year-old. I think she liked the computer animations of fetuses that I showed her on Babycenter better.

A good shot of the arm, hand, scapula and ribs.

This one isn't as active as Haylie was. She was doing flips in the womb, and it felt like it constantly. They had trouble getting measurements with her because she was moving constantly. With this one I have just been feeling some gentle jostling - and that is about all it has been on the ultrasounds too. Not much action. At one point it turned its back to us, and at one point the knees were up by its forehead and then they went down. No flips, in other words.

Here you can see both hands in front of the head.

Here was a good profile where you can see the soft tissues of the face. With Haylie, you could see on the ultrasound that she had Stefan's head shape and profile. This one I am not so sure - might be my forehead.

Haylie and her little friend

Tonight, as Stefan and I were gathering rocks for fill under sidewalks in one of our big dirt piles, we uncovered yet another toad. Haylie got her hands on it and played with it for at least an hour until I was able to convince her to let it go free. She made a sleeping bag for it out of hosta leaves and had it in a bucket with moist dirt, but mostly was playing with it.

And of course, all animals that are caught must be kissed. Including sow beetles.

Here is how far we have come in the front. And when I say we, I mean Stefan. I am the one with the vision, and he implements it.

Mostly done paving the patio in the front. The step will also be clad with limestone. We need more stone for the back, so we will have to keep an eye out for some pieces for the little spots that need to be filled out here as we work on that. Later, we will fill the cracks between with cement.

Photos from this week

I haven't blogged in ages, since a uncooperative computer stopped most of my internet access. Now it is working well again. I also have been getting used to the idea of being pregnant again, now in my 17th week, and struggling with debilitating morning sickness which is starting to pass now. Now that I am doing fairly well, I don't have an excuse not to post. So here are some photos from the past week.

Last weekend, we had Isabelle over for a sleepover. The girls did a lot of arguing, not helped by being stuck inside due to torrential rains, so finally we had to just put them in their rain clothes and send them outside. They didn't mind, and jumped in all the puddles. Then they were climbing and sliding down the big piles of crushed limestone and dirt we have lying around for landscaping. They were completely covered in gray limestone, so Stefan had to go out and hose them off before they could come in.

We have had at least 2 little foxes hanging around the house, coming several times a day. They have been pooping everywhere too. Stefan and Haylie are still on vacation, and are home during the days. This little fox snuck up on Stefan while he was working on the landscaping, and was right behind him before he noticed. It came back when they were sitting on the step, totally unafraid. This picture is taken without zoom, just a few feet away from them. Stefan finally had to throw a stick at it to scare it off. We are going to end up with one in the house one of these days if this keeps up.

Here is what Stefan has been working on, at the front of the house. Haylie is in the background on the big dirt pile. I have moved some of my perennials that we brought from the apartment there, and in the middle is the fountain I got for my 30th birthday. Now we just need stones to cover the green mesh; we will collect some from the shore next time we are at a rocky beach.

We are making a little patio, which together with the front step will be covered in Hoburgs limestone, like we have in the entry but not polished and cut. They will be irregularly shaped pieces which Stefan will have to put together like a jigsaw puzzle. You can see a few of the pieces we brought home last week next to the step. Now we just need more and we can make the patio. The front was a nice place to sit in the sun in the early mornings, and in the shade during the heat of the day in the summer. Stefan has wired the fountain and the spotlights on it to switches in the house. It will be nice when this gets done, so something feels "done" on the outside.

Haylie was having fun on the big dirt pile, digging and burying her feet, including her shoes. The feet came up without the shoes, and she had to dig them out.

The dirty feet, standing on the Hoburgs limestone.

Rock 'n' Roll Hello Kitty

This weekend, Haylie had 2 birthday parties to go to. Here she is dressed up and feeling rock 'n' roll before going to her friend Hilda's party.

This week we got our closets put together and everything in place in them. Now our room feels organized. We even put up the first picture frames since we moved. Busy organizing the storage room and the guest room today. I mostly feel like I am moving crap around more than anything else. I did get 3 boxes of old clothes sorted for goodwill, but now it is a matter of getting them out of the house as well. I went for a walk in the woods and other than a bit of a breeze, it is a nice day. We are having the first of several housewarming parties next Saturday, this one for the family. So the rest of the week we will be working on cleaning and getting ready for that.

This was March 25th. As the snow started melting away, the stuff left from building the house under it became visible. We have spent the past few weekends burning and driving stuff to the recycling center. Now the snow and the trash are gone, just leaving mud, wildly growing thorny shrubbery, and piles of rocks behind. But that is natural at least. Last weekend we got Haylie's trampoline put up for the spring, and she got out her bike and has been riding a little on our street. She has been collecting Ladybugs and worms as we do yardwork and letting them jump on the trampoline with her or having them swing on her tree swing.

On Easter Sunday, we were at Stefan's mom's for dinner. Haylie and her cousins painted Easter eggs.

We got our bathroom light fixture and Stefan put that and the mirror up on Thursday night.

It is called Curling Classo from Belid.

Stefan has been working on all sorts of projects today, the biggest one being putting up the sliding closet doors from Mirro, which he picked up this morning. He is working on the one in Haylie's room as I write this.

The one in the hall is the same as in Haylie's room. It made the hall seem so much less cluttered as soon as the coats were behind doors.

He even put up some hooks at Haylie height.

I put away the Easter stuff today and put this on the table instead. The bowl reminds me of Grandpa Lloyd. It used to sit next to his chair where he would sit and take turns between sleeping and muttering to himself, so it reminds me of him. The Hardanger beneath is one my Grandma Delores made.