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.

Liam Talking

In December Liam started to "talk" in his own individual way. See for yourself :)

Now it's Christmas

Our Christmas tree is up, there is no snow, but it’s cold outside, so now it’s Christmas 2008. We are having an easy relaxing Christmas at home this year. The girls are at their mums and we are celebrating with Liam, who will be 12 week old. As you can see, he’s got the Christmas spirit and has dressed-up as one of Santa’s helpers. One of his presents is a little baby carrot, which he’s able to hold and chew for short periods of time. We’ve eaten Christmas dinner, a turkey with all the trimmings, with our friends Martin and Lotta. We have also been out for walks in the park, as its sunny most days. Will post some more photos soon.

The great escape

Liam is now 10 weeks old and is “talking” more and more. If you sit with him, get his attention and start talking to him, he quite soon starts talking back to you. His talking is mainly varying tones of cooing and gooing, with some bubble blowing and squeaks thrown in, but he takes it very seriously and puts a lot of effort into it. He has also made an interesting discovery over the last week, his hands! He’s started to hold them up in front of his face and study them moving, although in a some what random manner. It’s a bit early to say for sure, but it seems he is doing this with his left hand more than his right. It will be interesting to see if this is any indication that he might become left handed when he’s grown-up.
While Caroline is breastfeeding, we have his cot in our bedroom next to our bed. I had taken away the side of his cot when I put it together, so that it would be easier to lift him over to our bed in the night. The other day I put him into his cot lying on his front, tucked him in and then pushed the cot up to the side of our bed as usual. I tucked our bedding between our mattress and the cot and left him to sleep. A few hours later we could hear him waking up with some small cries. I went into the bedroom to get him and when I got to the cot, he wasn’t there! He had managed to escape! He had never moved before, but for the first time he had managed to move, by rolling over on one side. He had rolled out of his cot and was now on his back on our bedding between the two beds. This new trick was obviously aided by the soft bedding and his heavy head. I immediately replaced the side of his cot and for the time being, our little Houdini is confined to his cot when sleeping.

Now we are 6

In the week that Liam turned 6 weeks old, the weather here in Stockholm also turned, as it did in most of Europe. Temperatures dropped and by Friday night the snow had started and by Saturday morning we had 20cm of snow on the ground. Our morning view from the kitchen was transformed to one of winter. “Yippee snow” said Liam. Well that’s what he would have said if he could talk, and if he actually knew what snow was, which I doubt he does. Caroline’s friend Andrea from Cologne was staying with us for the weekend, so she also had a pleasant surprise when she woke up on Saturday morning. We drove to Djurgården and went to a gallery to see an exhibition of Swedish art from around the 1900’s. Liam is into art too. He spends a lot of time looking at Caroline’s paintings in our flat. By the way he studies them and the look on his face, I’m not sure he fully understands them yet. Anyway, he was quite interested in the paintings in the gallery, at least until the 3rd room, when he fell asleep. Art can be very tiring sometimes. The adults enjoyed all the paintings and stayed awake. We then all went on to a well known café next to the gallery for lunch. The snow picture below is taken in the garden, with Liam in the baby carrier. Now 6 weeks old, Liam started smiling in a big way. He really enjoys looking into your face and then he smiles and makes small cooing noises, which is his way of talking. Sometimes he can tell a whole story!

First snow of the year

Liam Smiles