The joys of Saturdays; eating chocolate cake and sing alongs

Today on the tram...

Noah: "Man sitting on the toilet."

Shawn: "Thats a man in a wheelchair."
Noah: "He's not sitting on a chair, he's sitting on the toilet!"

The funny this is that Noah met my friend at work today that is in a wheelchair and he was very interested in it. Now I wonder what he thought she was doing, sitting on that thing in her office ;-).

Don´t get used to it :)

When I picked up Noah from dagis this afternoon, the first thing he asked me was: "Mummy, where is the taxi?". Oh yeah, I can totally see him getting used to luxuries in the future hehe..

Above is an image from Saturday - getting colder as you can see

What a feast

I'm back in Gothenburg after a short and highly productive visit in Italy. We arrived around lunchtime in Milan and were quickly out walking the streets. Milan is a fashion city and I would love to dress up accordingly for the shopping and browsing the streets but being pregnant you have to realise your limits and I wore sneakers for the whole stay. Due to the comfy shoes, I was able to do 9 hours of walking on our first day in the city - and that is after getting up at 4AM and sitting on two flights and struggling with ligament softening! So not a pretty shoe choice but a smart one! And we had fun!

What I love most about Italy is that everywhere you go, there is delicious food and divine coffee. So we ate, walked and talked and ate some more. Unfortunately, having to avoid unpasteurised cheeses I couldn't enjoy all the fantastic cheese dishes but luckily there is plenty of other things to eat. To make the most of our really one and only day off work, we hopped on one of those red sightseeing buses that takes you around the city in about 2 hours. This gave a good idea of what Milan is about and what it can offer on the next visit.

Thursday went to do some actual work - student recruitment is fun and very intensive. When we wrapped up and left the fair in the evening, we were exhausted and definitely ready for..some more hearty Italian food.
Then Friday came along and it was time to go back home. It had been great to stay the rest of the weekend and see and eat some more. But to be completely honest, I missed my boys so much and couldn't wait to get off that plane, inhale some fresh Scandinavian autumn air and put my arms around the family. I actually took the taxi from the airport straight to Noah's daycare and surprised him. He was thrilled to see me - or maybe it was just the fact that there was a taxi waiting for him outside. You can never tell, boys being boys ;-).

Pack your bags!

Short notice indeed - yesterday I found out that I'm going to a student recruitment fair - in Milan, Italy! Who would say no to that? Not me, especially when the rain is pouring down and we are getting close to zero degrees. Some sun, good Italian coffee and pasta will do me and the bub just good. So two days of hard work but also a chance to get some "me time". But of course, being a mum and pregnant with hormones almost coming out of the ears, I already long for my two boys at home (even if I haven't left yet)! Especially the little boy, that is no longer so little. Looked at some old pictures tonight and I can't believe that he has grown so much. Where have those little chubby arms and legs gone? Luckily, he is still as cuddly - can't wait for the next cuddle when I get home again ;-).

The Joker

Incident from last week's pick up at daycare; the teachers tell me about the lunch hour:
Noah's lunchbox was the kids favorite meal of all times; meatballs and pasta but for some reason, it didn't please his taste buds that day and he was not really eating. So the teachers asked if he please could finish his lunch since mummy had gone through much trouble to prepare him a lovely meal. "Don't you want to make your mummy happy?" they asked him. You won't believe what his answer was!!! "I will make my mummy happy when she makes me pancakes for lunch!" which upon he smiled and cracked up in big laughter. Seriously :-)?

Noah 1, 5 years old - East Perth, WA, Australia

Bilingual learning

Noah loves his own bookshelf which contains a variety of English and Swedish childrens books. We read every day and Noah gets to choose whichs books we should read. He prefers if Shawn sticks with the English books (I don´t blame him) whereas I´m allowed to read in both languages. The favoured books are the ones with less pictures and more text and some evenings I´m so sleepy myself I can hardly stay awake til the end. I mean, 30-40 minutes of reading, laying down in a warm bed with a warm little person on your arm...not easy after a long day at work.

Anyway, currently Noah is in the process of learning to read and he just loves phonetics. He reads the letters out loud and tries to put them together. The other night we were reading a Swedish book and on the last page it said "The End". The Swedish word for this is pronounced " s l u u t" with a "long u". As he is trying to learn the phonetics of two languages at the same time, sometimes mixes the English and Swedish pronounciation of the letters. So...he reads it slowly and then proudly says "SLUT". I tried to be as pedagogical as I could in this moment where I was just cracking up of laughter :-). I explained that the Swedish word "slut" means "the end" in English. "Ohh", he said, "you mean finished mummy?". Yep. Yep, I did :-).

A visit from auntie Sutanya

Since we moved to Europe we have been blessed with several visits from Shawn's cousin Sutanya. Being based here and she "only" over in NY allows for more frequent visits. Last time we saw her was in January, at Noah's birthday party. Now in early October she was in Europe again and decided to pass by Sweden to pay us a visit. Noah loooves Sutanya and he was so happy to have her here! So were we of course :-).

Time to get real

With a new addition to the family, we will soon need more space. Currently, we live quite small but spacious enough for a family of three. Since we got to Sweden, we have felt overwhelmed with the different options regarding where to live. With no preferences, we could live just about anywhere in the city as long as it is good public transport. Which you find most places in Gothenburg.
But we have finally decided and have now put a deposit down a townhouse! We are building from scratch which will be very exciting! It is in an area with lots of new development going on, right now only trees and a lake but it will stand ready in late summer 2o13. We decided to go for "compact living" and not pay for unneccesary squaremeters that look good but do no use. This way we can have more money over for fun and family time! Attached is the floor plan.