Liam helps at home

As with all young children, Liam is keen to help out at home. Now that he’s getting more mobile (he started actually crawling properly) and can stand up at things and reach all sorts of things, he’s become a real help at home. Recently he helped Caroline re-organise all her CD’s in the living room. He’s also become a dab hand at loading the washing machine, although he’s not always sure what’s clean or dirty!

Medieval France

After Tim and Eglantines wedding, we spent the rest of the week staying in an apartment in Saint-Remy de Provence. It’s a central point for reaching the string of medieval towns in Provence. We visited the fantastic city of Avignon, toured the great papal palace, one of the largest and most impressive medieval Gothic buildings I’ve ever seen and walked on the famous bridge, Le Pont d'Avignon. We went to see the great roman aqueduct at Pont-du-Gard. It was great weather and we had Liam in the carrier and sat by the river, ate our lunch and threw stones into the river.
The apartment was very well equipped and was in a renovated farm house in a quiet location just outside the town. We had a BBQ one evening by the pool and enjoyed the relatively warm evening. On our last day we went to Niemes and bumped into Diana and John outside the tourist centre. We walked around the old city, looked at the Amphitheatre and had lunch in a park. After, we drove to Marseille airport to catch our flight back to Stockholm.

Liam hits the beach

While staying in Saint-Remy, we planned a beach day and drove the 50 min drive to Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer. It’s an open marchland area south of Nimes, with fields of grass, loads of horses and flamingos. We only caught glimpses of the flamingos, but the horses were in stables and farms all over the place. The small seaside town is a bit of an odd place, more like a Mexican ranch to me, than a French resort. This was to be Liam’s first beach day. He donned his new red swim gear and took in the beach view. He was fascinated by the sand and held it up in his hands and let it fall like water. He filled his bucket, squashed the sand castles I made and generally enjoyed himself. The water was warm enough for us and Caroline and I both swam, but it was a bit cold for Liam. He realised he could crawl into the water, but wanted out as soon as a small wave came. It was only after an hour or so that he tried eating the sand… I suppose he was getting hungry and it seemed like a good idea. So we saved him from it and went for an ice-cream and Liam got some food too.

A wedding in France

You just can’t beat a good location for a wedding, and a remote village top church in France makes a great one. That’s where Tim and Eglantine had chosen to get married this year.
Caroline, Liam and I flew down to via Munich to Marseille and then with a hire car on to the village of Sabran, which is 20min north of Avignon. It was a very small village on a hill with views out of the wooded countryside. We were all staying in a complex of self accommodation rooms and cottages on a hillside, with lots of steps. The wedding was on Saturday afternoon on the small and very pretty old church on the top of the hill. The 100 guests made the climb up through the village in time and nicely filled the small church. Liam was in good form but the long French ceremony eventually lost his interest, so I went out with him from time to time or stood at the back. Afterwards everyone mingled for photos and walked back to the reception. This was fun, with good food and some funny speeches and film shows of the wedding couple. Liam had a great time and was up most of the nigh laughing and amusing the guests. The next day all the guests were invited to a brunch by the river. This turned out to be more of an adventure, with the entire party and the food having to be transported over the river to the riverbank on the other side. It made quite a spectacular seen and surely something only the Kennaugh’s could pull off, which they did. On the Monday we said our goodbyes and set off for Saint-Remy de Provence, where we would spend the rest of the week in a holiday cottage.

Liam starts to crawl

During our holiday, Liam had started to show signs of moving on his own. But when we arrived home, he set off with a vengeance across the living room floor. Using his pull with his arms and push with one foot technique, he slid across the polished floors, finally able to discover the flat for himself. It was as if coming home, he had been reminded about the flat and suddenly he had a way to get around, so he did. We stood and smiled as he went from room to room. Although it wasn’t conventional crawling, it was good enough for Liam, and he was enjoying it very much.

On to Germany

The second part of our summer holiday was 2 weeks in Germany. We took a flight from Bologna to Cologne and stayed with Christian and Til for the first week. They have a great house, are very easygoing and fun to stay with. Other than sitting in their garden, we were busy planning for our event in Cologne. This was a chance for Caroline to invite her family and friends in Germany to a belated wedding celebration. We had hired a room and garden at a local restaurant for the event. We were lucky with the weather and the sun came out to warm us as we had a welcome drink in the garden. About 45 people in total were there and I think they all enjoyed both the food and the relaxed atmosphere. The theatre group put on a great show for us, with their improvisation theatre. Franz even organised some Greek dancing for us, with a traditional Greek wedding dance in a big circle around the garden. Following that weekend, we took the train down to Caroline’s mums, where we stayed for the rest of the week. After four weeks away, we finally flew back home to Stockholm… a good holiday and nice long break.

On holiday in Italy

This year, our summer holiday started with 2 weeks in Italy. We took a flight to Pisa and were collected by Franz and Eva, two of Caroline’s German friends who were sharing the house in Tuscany with us. Christiana and Til were already at the house, another couple from Germany, who also drove down from Cologne. The location was just great, a stone farm house, set on the side of a hill and surrounded by vineyards. The village of Lucareli is in the hills and is about half way between Florence and Siena. We spent the 2 weeks relaxing, cooking, swinging in the hammocks and generally having a good time. Liam enjoyed all the attention and splashing in a small plastic pool in the shade. Caroline spent time painting in the studio with the girls, who were all painters too. During the two weeks, we made numerous outings to the local villages, such as Greve in Chianti, Castellina and Radda, where we shopped for food and wine… what lovely wine, and Italian ice cream. We also made some longer day trips to Siena and San Gimignano, where we ate and photographed the classic Tuscan city streets and architecture.
So at the end of the two weeks, we were very pleased with the Italian start to our holiday… now on to Germany.

Nine months!

It's been quite a while since I've posted something, so I guess its about time. I'm now nine months and two weeks old, thats pretty much the same amount of time that I spent in Mummy's tummy. At the moment I'm busy practising to move around. I'm already pretty good in rolling around on the floor. I've also managed now several times to get on my tummy from sitting up. I suppose I have to work on sitting up myself soon, as I'm getting a little bit fed up now with always having to wait for somebody to help me. When it comes to food, well, I'm not always especially interested in it, I have to say, although I've tried quite a lot by now. I like my porridge in the morning and I really like the little strawberries that Daddy is growing on our balcony. Bananas are good, and apples too. But I'm not really into veggies at the moment and I'm afraid that Mummy isn't so happy about that. I guess I'm just more a fruit person ;) I still love my bath in the evening and as its summer now I get to bathe quite often. Thats cool, I just love to splash about! You can look at some pictures of me, if you click on the picture below. You might notice that I've even grown some hair :)
See you soon!!

Click on my picture to view the slide show.

First anniversary and first bike outing

On the 16th of July, we were celebrating our first wedding anniversary!
We decided to take our bikes and our newly purchased bike trailer for Liam to sit in for a ride and a picnic.
We only made a short trip before, so that we wanted to take it easy and not go too far to get Liam used to the whole experience.
Our destination was one of the royal castles in Ulriksdal. We sat there in the beautiful garden and enjoyed the sun and our picnic, in remembrance of the day one year ago when we also had a picnic in a royal garden after we got married.
Liam seemed to quite enjoy the trip in his little house, he even had a kip in it during the afternoon.
In the evening we managed to go to the cinema to see the new film by Woody Allen 'Whatever works', thanks to Emma.
Altogether a great first anniversary, with hopefully many more to come ;-)

Now Liam is 8 months old

Now Liam is 8 months old and cute as ever. He’s eating a combination of breast milk and solids. This includes porridge with banana for breakfast and vegetables for lunch, which Caroline is cooking for him. He’s very good at opening his mouth wide and is enthusiastic about the whole process. He’s still chatting and babbling lots and has quite a range of sounds. He’s able to imitate the sounds you make and really enjoys the conversations in baby talk. Although he’s very stable at sitting up, he still hasn’t started moving around from a lying position yet. He’s more focused on playing with toys around him and is very good at manipulating small things in both hands. His stacking tower cups are popular, as are the balloons left over from Emma’s graduation party.
Check out more pictures by clicking the on the picture below.

Click on the picture to view the slide show.

Liam’s second flight

We went to Germany for Easter and this provided Liam with a chance to fly for the second time. He was actually quite cool about the whole experience. When we first got onto the plane he had his poker face on and was looking very suspiciously at the interior and the other passengers. He was a little concerned about the takeoff and kept looking up at me as he lay on my lap. After a while was having fun and spent some time reading the safety instruction page, which he laughed at and flapped around. He found travelling quite tiring and soon went to sleep lying on my lap with his head on my arm.
He made a few small complaints on the way down, so Caroline fed him which did the trick. We changed planes in Berlin for our connection to Stuttgart and he was much the same on the next flight… what a good lad :)
In Stuttgart we took the local train to Harrenberg where Caroline’s mum met us in her car. Caro’s brother was also there for Easter and had his first chance to see Liam. The weather was great and we had a good time in the sun. we visited some of Caro’s friends in the area and visited the old town of Harrenberg. There’s an old castle on the hill behind the town and we walked up to the top to see the view and stop at the café. I flew home on the Tuesday evening, leaving Caroline and Liam to say another week with her mum. Then they would go on to Cologne to visit her friends there.

Back from England

Following a busy week in England we are back home for a few days. I was there in London on business for a metro conference and Caroline and Liam came along too. This was Liam’s first flight, which he managed in his usual casual manner. After some initial suspicion, he mellowed up, relaxed in my arms, laughed, read the safety instructions and then slept. We stayed at Michaels during the week and had a good time cooking and chatting with him. Zoe came over one evening to see Liam and ate with us all. Actually she helped cook too. We had arranged to meet the family at various locations so we could take them out for dinner to celebrate our wedding with them. On the Friday we had a hire car and drove to Carol’s for a pub lunch with Dad and WSM. We then drove down to Mum and Ross’s for the weekend. On the Sunday we met up with the rest of the family and Penny’s family for a pub lunch. We then drove back to Heathrow on the Monday for our flight back to Sweden. Again, Liam was great on the plane.

A Hoax

OK, its official, it was hoax. I had not fractured my hand. A second x-ray at the hospital in Stockholm could not reveal the suspected fracture in my hand. So the plaster was cut off my arm and it was down graded to a serious sprain! Well I’m pleased anyway… I was already fed up of the plaster and would not have survived the next 10 weeks with it on.

Snow and Elk in Sälen

We finished packing the car and set off for Sälen, only an hour late, but on our way at last for a 1 week break in the Swedish winter. The weather was OK as we drove the 400km to Sälen, stopping a few times on the way to feed and change Liam. He seemed to take the trip pretty well in his stride and slept most of the trip. We arrived in Sälen and headed up the hill to Tandådalen, the resort where we would stay, even the roads became snow covered and it was a few degrees below zero. The wooden cottage we had hired was easy to find and it was still just light when we opened the door. It was a really nice place and after clearing some of the day’s snow from the path, moved in all our stuff and lit the log fire… perfect.
We spent most of the week relaxing and having fun in the snow, which was about half a metre deep around the cottage. Liam quickly adapted to the new environment and seemed to enjoy be pulled in a sledge as we walked. I went on my snowboard for a couple of days, which was good fun. Just a shame we weren’t able to go skiing together as Liam is so small. On the Wednesday we all went for a short ride on a dog sledge ride. Liam was mildly impressed with the dogs, but Caroline was thrilled to find out that the pulling dogs were the same breed as the dog she had previously had in Cologne. They looked just like her dog. On Thursday when I was boarding I fell on my hand badly during a fall. Later that evening it became very painful and we decided to drive into Sälen and have it checked. The diagnosis was a suspected fractured bone in my hand, so on went a plaster cast… boring :(
Caroline’s highlight of the week was Fridays visit to an Elk Park. There we got a personal guided tour by the owner, who showed us at close hand the elks and told us all about them and their habits. There were 3 adults and 2 young elks there. They all fed next to us while we were there and afterwards we grilled sausages and discussed the story behind his elk park project. He had a small shop and Caroline couldn’t resist buying some things for Liam with elk motives on.
The week was fun and relaxing and we had time to play with Liam, read and play some scrabble. We drove back on the Sunday, which was much longer drive due to the snow and volume of traffic. Liam was again very patient and that made the drive much easier.

Pictures from our trip to Sälen

Friday update

Wow… I look at our blog and see its ages since I posted anything. The year has started quite peacefully and only a few bad colds to mark the calendar. Even Liam had one, which he seemed to shrug-off with out any big fuss. Hannah came back from England at Christmas and had decided not return to continue with her University course in Manchester. She’s decided she wants to consider a new University course after the summer, probably somewhere in Sweden. She’s started working part time and plans to fill in the gap to the summer with this.
One of Caroline’s friends from Cologne, Christiane, came to stay for a long weekend at the end of January. Being a painter herself, she was very interested in all the arty things in Stockholm, so we visited some art galleries with her. She also found her way around very competently and visited several of her selected locations on her own. Liam joined us on a trip to Millesgården, which is his third arty outing to date. He’s really into art and managed to stay awake long enough to see at least the first two or three exhibits before falling asleep again in the carrier.

Liam is now 4 months old and is simply the cutest baby ever. He’s almost always happy and quick to smile when he sees you. He’s still very interested in everything going on around him, especially what’s behind him and can twist his head in all directions to get a look at whatever’s captivating his attention. On his changing table he’s always fun and talking and playing with Mrs Cow, who he can now grab him self to chew. It’s fascinating watching him with his dummy, which he now passes from one hand to the other and turns until he gets it the right way round to fit in his mouth. He still doesn’t seem to understand the point in legs and doesn’t appear to be very interested in his feet. He kicks them and wiggles his toes, but he can’t reach them himself yet. I guess there is no rush and plenty of time for him to get the hang of them later on. He’s also sleeping really well at night, which is a relief.

This close-up was taken in the gallery at Millesgården.