Campervan packed

Now we have collected the campervan. Here it is outside our flat in Solna. Its basically packed, just have to put the bikes on the back in the morning.

No.2 on its way

So it’s official. Our second baby is on its way and Caroline is now 15 weeks pregnant :)
We’re very pleased about this. We had our first view of little No.2 at Södersjukhuset on Friday. The ultrasound was booked three weeks earlier then usual, because our trip in the campervan starts on Monday and we’ll be away on week 18. The doctor explained we may not see all she wanted to because of the early date, but she was very good and managed to make the necessary head diameter and bone length measurements. This confirmed the 15 weeks +2 days status of the pregnancy. That should make this another October baby! The little baby was moving around and often had its hand up by its face during the scan. We could see the heart beating clearly and some of the major organs. The profile picture is quite cool and shows a very clear outline of the face. We have another scan booked for July, so we’ll get a good chance of seeing if it’s a boy or a girl at that scan.

Only a week to go!

Its only a week to go now, before we set off on a 2 month trip around Europe. We've hired a campervan for the trip. One with lots of space for us and Liam. We just have to get into gear now and get all the things on our list done before we run out of time. We also have to do some packing and sort out all the things we want to take with us.
Our plan is to drive south via Denmark, Holland, France and Spain, then back via France, Itally and Germany. Well anyway thats the basic plan... but all plans can be changed on the way if needed. Thats the whole point of a driving holiday.

Easter preparations

It's Easter Sunday tomorrow and of course we need some proper Easter eggs.
So we boiled some eggs, coloured them and finally decorated them in different ways. Liam got to paint his first Easter egg and helped Daddy painting his'.
Now we are all set up for a nice Easter breakfast tomorrow!

Happy Easter everybody :)

Easter bears

On Good Friday we went to Skansen to have a look whether the bears had already finished their winter sleep. And yes, they had! The three youngsters were playing with each other and their mum and were obviously enjoying that the sun was out. Liam had fun walking around and looking at all the animals.
My personal highlight of the day: we found some snow bells on the way. Even in Sweden spring is finally on its way!

Visit to Mariefred

Liam and I made a day trip to Mariefred to visit our German friends Miriam and little Tim. The sun was out and so we took the chance to take a little walk in their garden to check out how the snow melting was going on. The boys found some puddles which were great fun to play in.

Shanghai view

In Shanghai again for business. This place is a never ending city with almost 30 million people living in the city. It's hard to understand just how it all works. Anyway I'm here for a week and missing Caroline and Liam already.

Boys Fika

It’s Saturday and Liam and I went out to get some fresh air and pick up some shopping. We took the bus to Odenplan, got some things for Caroline who was having a rest at home, then did a quick shop in the super market. We decided to walk to Nortull and stop at a café for a snack. We picked a drink and a big bun to share. Liam was very pleased with the big bench seat and sat patiently while I poured his fruit drink into a glass. I gave him the glass with a straw, which he hadn’t yet mastered, but he seemed to know just what to do and managed to drink with the straw straight away. He also found it quite amusing and laughed out loud several times. He’s so cute when he sits and drinks his drink and tells me about the things he can see around him, even if he only has a limited number of words to use at the moment.

Liam walks with pram

This is a short clip of Liam walking with his new toy pram. He's having a great time discovering the flat on his feet now that he's started to walk.

Liam loved Dalí

Just got back from a visit with Liam to the Salvador Dalí exhibition Moderna Museet. He must have loved it... because for the first time, he did'nt fall asleep at a museum :)

Hotdog

During a post Christmas break visit to IKEA, Liam had a taste of his first Hotdog, and he seemed to like it. There was no chance I was going to help him out with it. He took control and ate it up himself. We got the new things on the roof of the car, even though it was -18 C in the car park.

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.