Neela & Liam with their friends on New Years Eve

Visit Junibacken

Liam and I went to Junibacken, the indoor theme park based on Astrid Lindgrens books on Pippi Longstocking. We went together with Aaron and his two children.

Pippi in the show

Liam goes Christmas shopping

Now its Christmas Eve and all is well, well almost. Neela still has her cold, but is now asleep in her pram. Liam is also sleeping and the flat is quiet, except for the Christmas songs on the radio. Our Christmas tree looks great with all the presents around it and the cold snow outside makes it all feel very seasional. Soon we will open some presents :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS
GOD JUL
FROHE WEIHNACHTEN

We wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas break and all the best for 2011!

Preparations for Christmas

Christmas tree admirer

Out in the garden

Today we were out in the garden and despite of -12°C, Liam had an"icecream".
He might turn into a proper Swede after all!

Neela - two months old!

Can you spot me?

Nikolaus!

Nikolaus came to our house last night!

We all put a shoe out at the front door, so that Nikolaus and his helpers could put something inside it in the night. He usually comes to the children, but luckily he came to Richard and me too.
Liam was happy to find a little Santa, some nuts, tangerines and a Lego ambulance in his shoe, or rather next to it :)

New Sledge

Yes its cold and we have snow. After a week or two of cold (currently -6C) weather the snow is still falling softly outside. I went out with Liam to test his new sledge, which is a Christmas present from Mum & Ross. I don't think we will be wrapping this one up! We have now also put up our Christmas lights on the balcony.

In the garden outside our flat

Neela is 6 weeks old and winter is here

How time flies. Its now 6 weeks since little Neela was born and time seems to have gone so fast. She is such a sweet little girl and growing fast. She has put on weight at the prescribed rate and is looking very round in her face now. She has also settled into a sort of routine now and is sleeping through most of the night, with one feed sometime in the early morning. It’s now possible to see a sort of smile when she sees your face and makes an attempt to say something too. She’s watching us moving around and follows you with her eyes and a little with her head already. Liam is generally uninterested in her these days, other than watching her getting a nappy change and when she has a bath. Caroline’s mum has been staying with us for 3 weeks and went home last Friday. She was a great help to Caroline and looked after Liam while she recovered. That also gave me the chance to plan in a business trip to China. I was there for a week and had the chance to visit Nanjing and WuHaun and travel by the new High-speed trains in China. This week winter has arrived with a bang, with minus temperatures and drifting snow, much to Liam’s delight. Here are some new pictures of us from the past few weeks.

Liams 2nd Birthday

I'm a little late in posting something on Liam's Birthday. He was 2 years old on the 7th of October. He ended up celebrating it on several days, due to the late arrival of Neela. Here are a few photos of him opening some of his presents on the actual day. He was very pleased with the train for his wooden train set, which has now been named Dennis the diesel, after the one he knows in his Thomas the Tank Engine video. The bike was fun, only he needs to grow a little more before he can use it.

Our baby girl has arrived!

Tuesday started as another day wondering if this would be The Day. Caroline was 41weeks+2days and she was starting to wonder if this pregnancy was also going to be 2 weeks overdue, as Liam’s was. But in the late afternoon there were signs of some contractions and by the time Liam was ready for bed at eight, we were fairly sure this was going to be it. We decided it was best not to put Liam to bed and that he should go to one of our friends for the night. We called the second of the two midwives planning to attend and she came over to check the status of Caroline. When she arrived I packed Liam and his overnight bag into the car and drove him over to our friend’s house. He was very impressed with the drive in the dark and pointed out of the car window and said “night” over and over. He settled in very quickly when we arrived and was in bed before I left to drive back home. When I got back things were moving along and they had called Diane, our main midwife, and she was on her way. Diane arrived at about eleven and while she checked on Caroline, I put up the birth pool and filled it with warm water. Caroline was still unsure if she wanted to use the pool or not, but when the contractions got more intense she decided she wanted to try it. She got in the pool at about midnight and it seemed to help her find a position to deal with the contractions. It went quite quickly after that and at 00:53 a little girl was born in the pool. She had a good colour and a head of dark hair. Caroline was fantastic and both the midwife’s were impressed with her composure. We got Caroline out, cut the babies cord and let them relax together for a while. Soon they were in our bed and having a cosy cuddle. We weighed and checked the baby, 3650g and 51 cm long. The midwife’s packed up and went home after a quick photo session on the bed. Soon we were all in bed and settling in for our first night. The next day Liam came home in the morning and was pleased to see his promised new sister. He seems quite interested in her. We spent the next day trying out the names we had short listed and finally settled on Neela Louise Graham Holt.

Autumn Haga

Us boys were out in Haga park today for a walk and some football practice. Autumn is upon us and the sun is already low in the sky, which makes for good photo light.
Still no sign of the new baby yet!

Wow, some catching up to do on our blog! It’s been ages since I posted anything and loads of things have happened. Liam is now almost 2 years old and is such a big little boy now. He’s talking all the time in English and German, running, jumping and playing. He’s very much into his Brio wooden train set and his Lego at the moment. The latest addition is a Lego dustbin lorry with tipping bin holder on the back. It’s quite like the one he sees out of the living room window emptying the bins and he loves to look out and watch it. So having one himself is very important for him just now.
In preparation for No.2, who’s due soon around the first week in October, we put together a new bed for Liam last weekend. No.2 will get Liam’s old bed, which we will have next to our bed to start with. He was very helpful as usual in putting it together and was very please with it. It’s much like his old one but bigger and we’re keeping the sides on for now as he’s sleeping so well and we want this to continue, especially when the new baby arrives. More on that soon we hope…

Art in Stuttgart

While staying at Coraline's mums, we left Liam with her one day and went into Stuttgart. Its just 30 min away on the local train. We went to the Art Museum of Stuttgart which has one of the main art collections of German artists on display. The art displays were good and the building was interesting to. We had fine lunch on the top floor restaurant, with a great panoramic view out over the city.

No mountains but rain

From Orange we drove North in the rain towards Switzerland, hoping to see some mountains but the clouds were too low. We exited the motorway just South of Geneva and drove into the countryside to find a place to stop for the night. We came to a very small village on the side of a hill, with a large car park above the church. We parked and as we fixed dinner, the cloud came down to our height and we could hardly see a thing. The next day the cloud and rain persisted, so we drove through Switzerland and to the capital Bern. We went straight to the Paul Klee Zentrum, a big art gallery only exhibiting the Swiss-German artist Paul Klee.
The next day we went into the old town of Bern. It’s a classic old city, basically unchanged for ages and full of old town houses with vaulted passageways next to the street. We even got to see the city bears, which can be seen from the bridge and by the river side. The river Aare dominates the city landscape as it twists around the old town. It was also very full and flowing fast. We stayed a second night in the city campsite and then left in the morning for Germany. On the way we stopped at the famous “Rheinfall”, a spectacular waterfall where the river Rhein drops over rocks. There’s a place where you can get down the cliff to the water rushing over the edge of the fall, very dramatic. We then drove on towards Stuttgart and to Herrenberg, where we would stay with Caroline’s friends, Alfred and Anette and their three girls. They had friends visiting from Austria and we all had a really nice evening together with a great meal that Alfred cooked for us.

View to the old town of Bern.

The streets of the old town.

The Rheinfall.

With Alfred&Anette, his mum and their friends Chris&Christiane with 6 kids.

My birthday in Aigues Mortes

In the afternoon before my birthday we are driving from Canet-en-Roussillon a bit further North to the medieval town Aigues Mortes in the Petite Camargue. I was there almost 20 years ago (oh my, makes me feel so old saying this), during a bicycle tour in the Provence and Camargue with three girlfriends. We find a parking area for camper vans by the canal with a view to the old town wall.
In the morning I get lovely birthday cards from my boys and a present and after breakfast we set off to see the town. The old town is completely surrounded by a wall with several towers. It's possible to walk all around town on the wall, but we only manage one side as Liam seems to have a bit of a lazy day and wants to sit down on every occasion.
We find a really cosy little restaurant in a small sidestreet where we treat ourselves with a delicious three course lunch. It's warm and sunny and we can sit outside on their small terrace. We stroll through the pretty streets and eventually get back to the camper in the afternoon.
As we set off, we can see already big dark clouds full of rain in the North. We arrive in Orange a couple of hours later on a campsite full of puddles, to Liam's delight.
Orange is the northern gate to the Provence. I had been there as well almost 20 years ago, also in heavy rains which then stopped us from visiting the town and the huge Roman amphitheatre.
The next morning we drive into town to look at the theatre and the old town. As we find a place to park, the heavens are opening again and it's pouring down with rain. We sit in the camper and wait for the rain to stop, but after half an hour we give up and continue our journey.
Apparently it's not meant to be for me to visit Orange this time either...

Happy Birthday!

The city wall of Aigues Mortes from outside.

The view from the North side of the city wall.