Sweden and Snot

Just got back from my trip over to Oxelosund. Had a lovely time, thank you very much. Me and Ellen packed our bags and headed over to Sweden on Friday last week and spent the weekend relaxing, eating lovely food and going on little excursions to Stockholm. Very nice. I must have caught some nasty little bugs on the plane there though, as the last day there I felt like my throat was on fire and knew there was a cold coming.

So here I am, flued up to the ears and poor little Elle is sniffling too. I should probably be added to the Guinness Book of Records for sneezing the most times in a row.

Seeing a Chiropractor tomorrow as my right arm is all buzzing now and I am still dizzy on and off.

Gotta go, Ellen's crying.

My beautiful sister...

Was chatting to my sister on MSN the other day. She'd got a new webcam and we were chatting away with our videos showing. I suddently appeared to be chatting to a "shark" in the according to the video. Sara was trying out some new filters that apparently came with the webcam. Below are the results...I must just point out...Sara is a super-beautiful young woman and how she managed to get this incredibly ugly, well my god those filters really must be good.

Amor has struck again. I thought he should be aiming for the heart though?


Would you let this person in if she looked through your keyhole?


Frankensteins Bride:


The next queen?


If only the Terminator could look this cosy in all the films...look at that smile...!


I think its Vincent Van Gogh

Hens and no chickens

Sarah survived her hen-weekend, and we all had a great time. We started the evening with some drinks, snacks and an Ann Summers party. The girl hosting it was pretty rubbish, but we had a great time anyway. The host was trying to be funny, but I think we were laughing at her rather than with her. Highlights there was Mandy trying to use a rampant rabbit to change the channel on the tele, Bev winning all the games because she quite frankly was excellently rude!, and playing the Alphabet game (where you had to shout out dirty and filthy words on the letter shown by the host) and Barneys mum shouted "LITTER" on the letter L... (well its dirty, isn't it! she defended herself!) I on the other hand, spotted the letter H and blasted out: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE...yes, spelled with an H, as we do in Sweden...I didn't win that card...I won Dildo, Underwear and Masturbation...?! Bev on the other hand won with 12 cards or something...

After that we had gorgeous food cooked by one of Sarah's friends, who works as a caterer. Handy that! She made the most delicious pizzas I've ever tasted.

Then in came the stripper, dressed up as a work-man (hard hat and the whole shabang). A man with a sixpack and a supertrim body would normally be a real turn-on eh, but ooooh noo, not this one...He was a 5 foot orange midget! Haha. No, not quite but he was a short man with some kind of orange faketan. Sarah looked more than shocked and disgusted having him bumping and grinding all over her and throwing her down on the floor and wiggling his bits all over her. Poor thing, but she survived although I do think she might suffer from Poststripper Depression or Chock or something.
Anyway, we've got pictures but hmmm not sure they should be posted on here. Will send to those of you who fancy seeing some of them... request only...

So after that we all had to have a stiff drink and bang our heads against the wall to remove the image of the dwarf from our minds.
Seriously good night anyway.

Below: One of the dwarf's victims...

4 o'clock wake up call

Not only dizzy today, feeling absolutely fuzzy and wacked in the head.
Ellen has decided to have tooth-ache again. Glad she's getting some more teeth to chew those big bread bits she stuffs in her gob, but not so happy about the crying at 4am.
She basically just screams, straight out! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...and then again AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA there is really nothing you can do. I tried giving her some pain-relief which she basically just coughed back up. Not a happy bunny. So today is a little bit fuzzy around the edges as I said. She's catching up on some sleep now though. I, stupidly, cannot sleep and decided to make a Spagetti Bolognaise for myself. Why? Go to bed you fool.

My vertigo is easing, I think. Went round to my mother-in-law yesterday and felt ok, but now and again my head just spins and I feel drunk again. Just like being hung-over really. But I haven't drunk for daaaays...buhhuuu.

Its raining lots today. Not much fun out there and not much fun in here either. Having a major clean of the house again.

Two things I am feeling proud about:
1. I am cooking food for Ellen and making little pots of "Baby Bolognaise & Pasta", "Carrot & Salmon Pure", "Tomato Courgette & Cheese Pasta" ooooh its alll lovely and she scoffs it. Its really satisfying to see her eat it all, and it tasts 10 times better than the food you can buy. Yes, a bit of hassle, but then you've got food for 1-2 weeks in the freezer. So nice.

2. Our potty-training (well not quite potty-training, more like potty-routine) is going well. FOr about 1,5 weeks I have put her on the potty after lunch and after her other feeds and sleeps. 8 times out of 10 she goes and so pleased she's getting the hang of it. So we'll see how it goes.

Things I am looking forward to though: Sarah's Hen Weekend and the weekend after that me and Ellelina are going to Sweden, Oxelosund to be precise, to see Sara, Filip & my muuuum. Hurrraaaaah! Super Excited.

Now I am going to shut my eyes for 3 seconds. I'll expect a cry from upstairs in 4 seconds then....

Dizzy blonde

Unos, dos, tres, catorce
Hello, Hello
Hola!
I'm at a place called vertigo (¿Dónde está?)

I have been dizzy now for a week...blonde and dizzy, not a good combination. Well, anyway, its getting better and I can see straight again. Felt like a drunkard bumping into walls and having to crawl up the stairs. Steve thought it was too much wine. Its possible...

Skuggan over Stenbanken

Laser den just nu (igen)...helt fast. Hur underbar bok som helst. Tror jag laste i 3 timmar utan att ens lyfta blicken.

Sa tja, kanske ett litet boktips sa har pa varkanten. En klassiker.

Sunday morning - ridgeback or cat?

Not quite sure if Ridgebacks are supposed to sit in people's laps like this?
It didn't say in the manual when we bought him.

We thought FIERCE, GUARDDOG, VICIOUS, BIG & SCARY, MACHO... we didn't think WOSS & LAPDOG...

Our tenant

There is a little Robin Redbreast living in our courtyard roof. We call him Ruben.
He's got a great life there I think, as he's top floor flat is right above where we keep the birdseed, so he hasn't got far to go for a three-course meal. He's got CCTV as well, covering his little den. He's probably the Beckham of the bird-world at the moment. Some pictures of little Ruben below.

The one thing is, he keeps flying into our house and is circling round for ages in our main hall, but then seems to know where to fly out again. Maybe he's just checkin out his neighbours...?

Early mornings.

Seven o'clock again...Ellen doesn't seem to want to sleep past 7. So here I am, early morning fiddling around on the laptop. Ellens spinning round on the floor, learning to crawl it looks like but at the moment she just rolls to where she wants to get to.

Going to the gym today then maybe a walk along the seafront or something.

Not quite awake yet, so I will go now before I start to ramble.

Best friends

"What? There is a big dog next to me?


"Oh this one...oh he's just a big pussycat"

Reminiscing

Found these "old" photos of Ellen on my phone.
Thought I'd share them with ya'll!!


The first one is the day after we got back from the hospital.


And this one is her in her "Old-Geezer Trousers" pulled right up under her armpits!


So small the straps in the car-seat were too big...nowadays I have trouble getting them to fit!!!


Ehm, I think she takes after her father in this picture...cause I don't think she looks like my daughter!! Haha, she looks mad!


"Great Mum, thanks....strap me onto a shopping trolley...."

Summer clothes & nurseries

Oh, the sun the sun the sun. I love the sun! Its proper Spring weather here and life feels wonderful. Glorious flowers and beautiful birdsong, all was perfect...until I opened my wardrobe.....
Realized yesterday I had NOTHING to wear. While I was pregnant I threw away so many clothes (or at least tucked them away somewhere safe in storage) that I thought I'd never be able to wear again. What a stupid thing to do.
As I rummaged round the wardrobe pulling out faded black tops and jeans smelling of mildew or something, I knew I had to sort this out.
So me and little Torrence (Ellen...nickname....don't ask...) packed ourselves into my Jeep and headed off to Lakeside. Lakeside, this huge shopping centre that I haven't been to in ages, and truly forgotten how great it is! I zoomed round for about 1 hour trying dresses on and shoes and god knows what, bought a few little things and just when I was thinking "oh time to go Ellens getting tired", she fell asleep in the pram....AH! Well how excellent, I thought, and carried on into H&M. Came out with a rather large bag full of clothes and then stumbled into another shop...by mistake of course...and ended up in another changing room trying more dresses and more tops on.
So after about 2-3 hours I went home and ooooh how nice my wardrobe looks all of a sudden. Retail therapy certainly works as I was soooo cheerful that evening.
And bounced out of bed this morning, cause I knew there was a lovely dress to wear!
Stupid.

So, I've decided to use the creche at the gym for the first time. Haven't really had the need for it til now. I just really fancy a workout today and will give it a go.
Will see how it goes. Hopefully she will be fine and just enjoy sitting on the playmat with all the other babies...I am just dreading her screaming the place down and me having to take her home again. But I can only try.

Pierce & Louise had their son Archie Michael Peter, Wednesday, 18 April. Such wonderful news and I can't wait to see him!

Went to yoga on Wednesday as well. Lisa was going and asked if I wanted to tag along. I though great, haven't done yoga for a while. I remembered all the "moves" and managed to keep up with the other yogi-bears and felt great afterwards...until I woke up the next morning...oouch...legs, bum and shoulders....could I feel it...yeeeeees.
And as the day progressed both me and Lisa were suffering more and more. Maybe its another reason why I am dying to workout today, cause I realised I am so unfit...

Ellen is awake now, gotta go.

Little sister getting married!!!!!

Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooongratulations!!!
I got an SMS yesterday from my sister, saying that she'd got ENGAGED! Oooooohhhh, how wonderful. First I smiled my biggest smile, then I got all warm inside, then I started feeling incredibly sentimental. My little sister getting married, my little sister...and thought back to our childhood and so a little tear rolled down my face.
Huhuuuuu, how wonderful! God, if I am a wreck like that after an SMS, imagine what I'll be like at the wedding.........I would suggest putting me somewhere right at the back, maybe in a cupboard to drown out the sobs...



So proud! So happy! Did I say soooo proud!?!! And happy! And proud and happy!
Up in the Swedish winterlandscapes in Ammarnas it happened. Can't wait to speak to her properly as we still haven't had a chance. Apparently they had a power-cut due to all the storms up there. But anyway, I will update you all soon with details on rings, the bride to be and all their plans! YAAAAY!!!

She's zooming around

Now the exploration has begun. My gosh. Little Ellen is zooming round in her walker in the kitchen, opening drawers, checking out the dogs water bowl, opening cabinet doors, pulling out recipes from drawers and eating them...
Yep, she is definately started her exploration-adventure, and I guess its neverending from this moment on...

Had a lovely weekend with grassmowing,lie-ins (all 3 of us!),chilling and Sunday was spent in Surrey in Chobham at a busrally. We weren't really there for the buses though, just for a nice day out and doughnuts in the grass. Ellen loved it. She was grinning at all the bus-enthusiasts...my god they are weird (some of them anyway). They all have mad hairdoos, the curlier and fluffier the better, and I even saw a cross-dresser. A man with a deeep v-neck jumper, long fluffy hair (of course!), earrings, an evening ladies purse....need I go on?

I have a new favourite fruit: The Dragon Fruit! What a great, super, wonderful looking thing it is! It looks delicious and it IS delicious. Here's a pic.

Just wonderful.

Going round to Lisa's today. Ellen and Lauren can play together and we can talk about adult things for once.

Tonight I'm heading to the gym for the first time in ages. Just really fancy going back although I am usually shattered by 7pm. But nope, with the lighter evenings its going to be lovely. And to end the session with a cool swim, aaah yes.

Going to get some lunch down my neck now.

Sol, vind och lite vatten?

Ah, underbart. Varen ar har. 17 grader igar och varmare ska det bli idag. Gick pa en promenad med Ellen och hundarna langs River Crouch igar. Saa skont.
Ellens forkylning ar nastan forsvunnen och hon ar gladare. Nar klockorna bytte till sommartid, sa bytte tydligen hon ocksa till sommartid. Hon somnar nu 8 pa kvallen och vaknar 7. Skont med "sovmorgon" till 7, men lite jobbigare kanske att hon ar uppe langre pa kvallen...men det fixar sig. Hon har ocksa forvandlats till en liten maetlarv. Hon kravlar och rullar och fipplar. Sa snart kryper hon kanske. Vi far se!

Ska lagga upp lite soliga bilder efter idag hade jag tankt. Ska bara hanga i tradgarden idag och kanske ga pa en liten promenad Sen maste jag jobba lite ocksa. Fixar lite graphics till en buss. Trist? Tjao.

Nu ska vi ata frukost.

Things that happen

The reason why I like travelling is that you can watch people and something funny always happens. This time, on the plane back to London City Airport, I was afraid I was going to be the main attraction, for all the wrong reasons. It was a rather small plane, with very little leg room (yes even for the normal sized people, not extra tall ones like me!), the plane was full of men in suits carrying briefcases looking like they'd had a long hard important meeting and just wanted to sleep on the plane. And then there was me! With a baby...carrying a huge changing bag filled to the brim with toys, baby milk, wipes and nappies. They took one look at me and probably thought: here we bloody go, that baby is going to scream all the way to London.

Because it was a smaller plane, the flight was going to take 2 hours 40 minutes...I was dreading it to be honest. The businessman next to me (well luckily there was a seat between us) looked over the moon with me sitting there...NOT. Before take off I unpacked the babymilk and a blanket and the dummy, ready to take on the worst. He just wanted to sleep the poor man, and sat there with his eyes closed. Ellen had other plans. She leaned towards him trying to get eyecontact (luckily he had his eyes closed and didn't see us) while doing her "bird-mouth" as I call it. She does this pouting thing when there's something she wants to "taste"...oh dear oh dear. Poor man I was thinking, he's got a long noisy flight ahead of him.
But no...she didn't scream, didn't cry...just took a bit of clever entertaining and my arm was digging around in the changing bag every 10 minutes for new and exciting toys. The best toy was the sick-bag. Just a tip for you future mums! And my arms took a battering for sure, my arms felt like jelly when I got back home. But we did it.

The only other person there without a suit (or a baby) was a big black guy, who looked just like he was from Da Ghetto and looked WELL 'ARD!!! But his scary, gangster image was short-lived. When he sat down in the seat in front of me, I saw that he had forgotten his price tag on his big cap! Haha, £10 Top Shop it said!!!
He then ordered a cup of tea, in his scary big guy voice...and then spilled the whole thing down his trousers and looked like a seat-wetter for the rest of the flight.
Yo yo yo.

I went to Tesco the other day. Love going now cause Ellen can sit in the "big" baby seat in the shopping trolley. She loves it. I grabbed a trolley, and as always when you get a few metres in to the shop you realise you've taken a trolley which has a wonky wheel or one that doesn't spin. This one had a wonky wheel, that didn't spin properly with a bit of plastic wrapped round it...hmmm...don't recommend this rare trolley.
It somehow got itself charged up off the floor, and everytime I touched the metal I got a huge static shock. The first two times, ok I thought I was dragging my feet along the floor so I started walking properly actually lifting my trainers off the floor, but after the 14th time and still getting electricuted, I was ready to leave the trolley in the middle of the shop and leave. But I managed to do my shopping (thankfully not that much to get) without touching the metal. A good game for you who want to try it. Its not as easy as you might think.

Going to make myself a Latte now as I've bought myself a lovely coffeemachine. It makes pretty much anything I think, apart from bread! Frothing milk and gorgeous espresso coffee. I have frothy milk with everything now!
Then we're watching Fifi and the flowerpot .....thingys

En liten bild

Hola

Har kommer en sot liten bild pa Ellen, for ovanlighetens skull!
Hon ligger och sover sa sott i sin spjalsang just nu och har sitter jag, klockan ar 09.15, trott som en raka och langtar efter att fa ga och lagga mig ikvall...

Sverige Sverige fosterland

Hejsan hejsan
Drar en svang pa svenska, sorry all englishspeakers...
Hade en uuuuunderbar semester i Sverige hos syrran, sen mor min, och sen hos pappa.
Traffade aven mina kusiner och morbror plus fruga. Jattetrevligt. Varenda minut.
Kunde verkligen slappna av och bara njuta. Ingen disk att diska, inga golv att dammsuga osv. Ahhhh.

Forst var det Guitar Hero, Betsson Poker, Pizza, handla pa Ica, leka med lill-spratt-hunden Disney, soooova, slaaapppa, se Schlager och sjunga med i sangerna fast med fransk text. Jee vouuuuuu, le pas sans de troi.....hon som sag ut som hon kunde varit Greklands bidrag, med hang-brost...typ. Minns ni henne?

Pa sondagen akte Steve hem till England igen och jag och lilla Ellen fortsatte upp mot Skelleftea. Pa Arlanda fick vi hjalp av troligtvis varldens snallaste och hjalpsammaste person. Han checkade in oss, fixade med bagaget och allt var gjort pa under 5 minuter, istallet for att behova koa i 30 minuter. Tack va du nu hette!
Nar vi vantade i gaten bestamde sig Ellen for att halla tal! Hon stod pa mitt kna och babblade glatt pa hogsta volym. Vet inte om de halv-trotta passagerarna var sa imponerade...
Hon sov i allafall hela vagen upp till Falmark, sa det var skont. Jag passade ocksa pa att vila lite.

Minus 18 grader nar vi steg av flygplanet. Josses. Det kandes i kinderna. Men mammas bil var varm och skon, och nar vi kom hem till henne fick vi Oboy och mackor. Gooooottttt. Sen baddade vi ner lillan i hennes Care Bears paslakan och slangde oss omkull kring 1 pa morgonen.

Under veckan hann jag springa pa stan, klippa mig, kopa mockasiner till Ellen pa Barnens Hus.

Forst var det matdags hos Mamma/Mormor Inger


Sen sov vi lite i bilen!


Somnade med benet i vadret.


Katten Bilbo ville vara i centrum, mitt pa Trivial Pursuit spelplanen.


Sen Moffe och Ellen tillsammans


I pappas Nike mossa...nar vi kommit hem igen. Snygg va!


Sitter och leker lite pa golvet.


Kan sitta sa himla fint sjalv nu!

More sleep!

She seems to have got it afterall. The sleep. A few nights later and she is sleeping like a "baby" again! Hurrah for her. And for me!

Now I've got a grinning little girl sitting in her playhoop on the floor. She is soo lovely when she's had enough sleep. Smiling and playing and no grotting at all.

Going to Coffee Lounge with Lisa and Kate today for some lunch. It gets kind of crowded with 3 prams round the table, haha. Will try to feed Ellen there, but I suspect it won't go very well, as she is very easily distracted.

Have started to pack, or at least dug out some things I am bringing to Sweden. The dogsitter is coming tomorrow nigh and we are leaving Friday morning at 0640 from here. The flight is about 9 I think. Will be interesting to see how Ellen finds the flight. I really hope everything goes well.

Gotta get dressed now.
Later Alligator

What's so bloody funny at 6am

I think we're just going to have to realize our little girl doesn't like to sleep past 7. Not even 6 sometimes. Christ. She does sleep a lot better, without her dummy now and falls asleep perfectly at night. She doesn't eat during the night anymore. So that's all good.
Not so good is that she seems to wake at 5.30-6.00 in the morning and she's wide awake and does NOT stop crying until we get up. No chance to get her back to sleep and if we try to leave her in her cot, she just howls. Great. But as soon as she's up, she is the most happy baby going. Grinning like a nutter and everything is sooo hilarious. Me and Steve aren't as amused! ;)

But 10 minutes after I've got up, and got my morning-dose of her smile, I feel alright and she's all worth it again. Its just that 5.30-6.00 o'clock feeling when you KNOW she is awake and we've got no chance of sleeping more.

Phhhhhewwwww....yaaaawwwn.....siiiiiighhhh

This week I need to get myself a bigger suitcase, and get packing. Going home to Sweden for 11 days, hurrah. First my sisters and then up north to see the family. All of them! Cousins, grandma, uncles and aunties. Can't wait.

Got the builder in again today. He's going to put up another cupboard on the kitchen wall. So more space for me to fill with junk. Then tomorrow he's building us a bathroom door for our en-suite. That will be nice.

Right, time to watch "Babies loves babies" with Ellen. Its all basically babies doing baby-things on a DVD and she loves it. I just think all the babies are either ugly or annoying, or both. I shouldn't be allowed to be a mum. Baaad mum. But here we go, "Babies loves babies" it is.

Over and out, Rocketsnout