Not a day too late.

Yesterday my boss called me to talk about my work hours when I start in September. Since that call I've realized that my maternity leave actually is coming to an end. And it's not a day too late. Because the girls are driving me insane. I don't have any patience left. If the weather doesn't allow us to go outside we turn into three monsters, whining, screaming and argue about everything. It can be a tiny thing, like and apple in the toilet that freaks me out.

A thunderstorm made us stay inside this afternoon. The comfort is in the oven, an applepie made of apples, speltflour, oats, maple sirup, cinnamon and butter. I believe it's a tiny bit more healthy than the regular pie made from flour and white sugar, don't you agree?

Out of energy.

Monday morning. Girls totally out of control. I've been on the phone all morning and it's like they have a sensor. When mum is on the phone let's make a little hell here! Screaming, crying, climbing, there's no end to the mischief they come up with...

Anyway, I've now talked to my insurance company, I've talked to two other companies about bills that where wrong, I've talked to another company about an order that wasn't right and I've booked a dentist appointment for me and Lovisa.

Now the girls are fed, Andréa's napping and I'm boiling the bouillon for tonight's supper, feeling rather exhausted. It's just lunchtime...

Rascals...

The lovebed...

We packed our bags and made a picnic and took the boat to visit the beautiful Stockholm archipelago. The boat took us to Fjäderholmarna which is one of the closest islands from the mainland. Once again we experienced that this world of ours isn't that big after all. H met a wooden artist from Quebec that lived in Sweden for over 40 years and has his own little craft store. They chatted away, H happy to speak some Quebecois. This guy was really excited over his master piece that had a central place in his shop. When I first laid eyes on it I would never have guessed what it was - a lovebed. You just fold it out and voila, there's your own little love nest...

Feeling stupid...

I was watching the Olympic opening ceremony the other evening and I have to say I really like the Olympics. So much talent and will gathered and so many countries united for this peaceful event. But I can't help feeling rather stupid seeing all the countries marching in, where does all these countries come from? Who invented them and how could I have missed them all (considering that geography actually was one of my best subjects in school)? Is it just me or did you ever hear of: Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Palau... Weird...

Alone again.

My mother went home yesterday evening. So now the girls has no extra bed to jump on in the livingroom and I'm going to miss the extra help. Fortunately it's not going to be that long before we see each other again, it was much worse when we lived in Canada, then we never knew when the next time would be when we said goodbye, would it be months or even years? This is one of the hard thing with moving abroad - separating from your loved ones. That's why I really appreciate my family right now, they're precious and they're always there.

Eyes in my neck.

Me and the girls have been hanging out in our beautiful, big park with a paddling pool all week. It's been really great but I have to say it's bloody nerve wracking to take two toddlers to the park as a single adult. For example the other day Andréa did a big poop in her swimming suit so for a minute or two I lost focus on Lovisa and of course she took off when I was wiping her sisters butt... So there I was running around the park (and it's a pretty big park) with a naked Andéa in my arms. I don't know how many times I told Lovisa to never, ever, take off so she's out of my sight but when she's caught up playing she's in another world. She goes deaf and even if I stand one meter from her, screaming her name, she doesn't hear me. That's one of the reason I'm very happy that my mother arrived Wednesday. She's the eyes in my neck.

 A focused Lovisa

 Playing together

 Andréa's happy, playing with grandma

Mum's leaving this weekend and than it's two more weeks until the daycare opens. I hope we'll all be alive and sane then.

Supper time!

We offered her salmon with new potatoes and white whine sauce but she preferred this. Go figure...

Sweet child of mine.

I often say to my girls that I love them. At least once a day, probably more. So I've kind of expected them to say it to me sooner or later. And yesterday Lovisa said it and it was one of these rare moments that I'll cherish forever and think back on when times are tough.

She was watching TV and first I heard her say to the TV "I love the TV!" and I was laughing to myself. Then she went to Andréa, gave her a big, hard hug and said "I love you Andréa!". Then she came to me and gave me one of those wonderful hard hugs and said "I love you mamma!". I got so happy that she said it 5 more times just to watch me smile. Sweet, sweet Lovisa.

To sum it up...

The last day of the vacation is here. To sum it up we had a wonderful time. They say it's been one of the rainiest and coldest summers for a very long time but despite the bad weather, that has been the talk of the summer, we had quite a lot of sunny days on the beach and between the sunny days a lot of other great days as well.

This last weekend has been crazy, Friday - the Zoo, Saturday - visiting Taxinge castle (that has Northern Europe biggest cake buffet) and today we spent the day on the beach.

The Zoo also had an amusement park, to Lovisas and my great joy!

It's not strange at all that I gained 2 kg during the vacation... 

Now I'm looking forward to three weeks together with the girls while H is working, then it's time for daycare and two weeks after that it's time for this stay-at-home-mum to drag her ass back to work. Time do fly!

Our paradise.

This view was ours last week.

Home again.

After another weeks vacation, this time at my dad's place, we're home again. It's been a lot of fun, the girls loved the cat and I hope the poor thing didn't get any permanent damages from being more or less chased every day. Andréa squeezed out 4 new teeth and has been a bit whiny. Lovisa has been drawing on new walls and we now know what we suspected - that she has a bit of an obsession when it comes to wall drawing... We've been swimming in the small lake, or rather the girls has been bathing while H and me watched them, we did a few boat trips and H tried to catch some fish. We've been eating and drinking, seeing friends and family. To sum it up, vacation's been pretty great but not what it used to be - lazy days in the sun with a good book. It's been early mornings, full activities all day long and then a state of coma in the sofa during the evenings. H and me have complained that we're so tired and to be honest I think we need some vacation from the vacation now...

 On the dock

One of the rare moments when Lovisa actually got to pat the cat

Usually it stayed away since Andréa loved to chase the poor thing...

Our last precious vacation week is here and I pray for some more sleep and some more sun... The only ones that likes this shitty vacation weather that we've had so far, seems to be our roses on the balcony...

Hello from vacation!

Back in Stockholm again after 8 days on the countryside in Värmland. We had beautiful days filled with sunshine (!), swimming in the small lake, a bit of rain and wind and of course lots of eating and drinking. The kids have been playing so much, it's a miracle they didn't play themselves to death (another quote from our beloved Astrid Lindgren).

 Little miss sunshine

 Me and my sister - swimming and chatting

 Andréas first icecrem...

 A hot, beautiful day on the beach

Lovisa in the water

I ran in my new running shoes, I just love them! I did 22 km in one week, not to bad for vacation time.

Now we're getting ready for our next little adventure, changing apartments with my dad and his wife. They're going to do Stockholm and we're hopefully going to do some fishing, swimming and barbecuing and of course looking after their old cat - Skorpan. 

What are you all doing on your vacation?