Okay, so Maria is under the weather with what Swedes call the Winter Vomit Sickness. Pretty accurate name. I, being an American, only vomited once before defeating it utterly. Inara only being 50% had a bit rougher go, but the good blood won out. Maria on the other hand has been completely leveled by this disease for going on three days now. She attempted to go to the hospital but sitting in the emergency room puking was worse than sitting at home puking. They also don't like committing people who are projectile vomiting around others with weakened immune systems. Go figure.
I have, valiantly, taken it upon myself to post some stuff. I know how you folks yearn to hear/see the goings on here. Also it has come to my attention that the U.S.A. is sending many fewer hits to this page than the Swedes. You can do better U.S.A. people. You know who you are.
So last Sunday it snowed a small amount here. We walked out in the snow and got some pictures of Inara's complete lack of interest in the snow.
Meh.
Inara has also taken great interest in standing and walking, with assistance. She is able to stand up with no lifting assistance, other than an object to steady and lift herself on. So better than Maria right now. Here are some pictures of her little feet.
And a short movie of her standing solo, sorta.
She is a bit of a narcissist so we frequently find her kissing reflections of herself such as here:
Big sloppy open mouth kisses. This one probably involved some tongue.
I just found this picture that Maria apparently took while I was at school. Gonna make an executive and post it. Maria will probably take it down when she recovers. Enjoy!
Like mother like daughter. Nice.
Inara's morning hair just keeps getting better and better.
Inara may be a dentist based on her interest in teeth. Probably not though, I think she was grabbing at my uvula. What occupation does that?
I'll close up with this movie of Inara watching one of her stuffed toys fall repeated on its face. She loves it. Good girl.
Please show your approval at this blogs marked improvement since I took the reins by commenting below.
...Inara is on the move! Earlier this evening, Andrew was doing dishes and I was on the computer while Inara was playing on the floor. All of the sudden Andrew asked me if I had moved Inara and when I looked back at her she had moved a couple of feet (few decimeters) forward. Turns out she started scooting around on her bottom. She's still pretty slow, but she managed to scoot about a meter (yard) in ten minutes. I guess we have to start locking things up!
Also, she started giving me "hugs" (or at least I like to think of them as hugs) where she wraps her arms around me and snuggles into my shoulder. Last night, I though she might top it off with a kiss as she gently put a little, chubby hand on either side of my face, pulled me close to her... and burped into my mouth. Tonight Andrew was trying to get her to burp, but was having a hard time, so he jokingly asked me to come open my mouth so she could burp into it. I laughed and walked up to kiss her and she burped right in my face, again. Oh, the joys of motherhood!
I tend to struggle to find a balance between documenting my experiences and experiencing my experiences. I've always been obsessed with taking pictures to be sure to remember everything and everyone. Now that I have Inara, it can get a little out of hand between this blog, her baby book, her message book, all her pictures, photo albums and everything else. I have to tell myself to stop and enjoy the moment rather than run and get the camera. On one of my trips my camera actually got stolen and although I was upset, it almost ended up being a nicer trip after that. While everybody else was struggling to get the best pictures, I just sat back and took everything in.
Our New Years Eve was pretty quiet. We lit a couple of Chinese paper lanterns that are becoming quite popular here as a quieter, more environmentally friendly alternative to fireworks. We lit ours early, but at midnight the sky was full of them (kinda like in "Tangled" for those of you who've seen it).
At midnight we woke Inara up to see the fireworks and she really seemed
to enjoy them although she was really sleepy at first. The video of her
watching didn't turn out though.
Inara got some glowing stars from grandpa B for Christmas, so we put them up above her crib. Andrew put up all of our individual signs and the big dipper, although it's hard to see in the picture.
Watching dad put the stars up
We also got a our Christmas gift from Rhett and Brittney: A chess set with some familiar faces:
Speaking of over documentation, we checked on Inara the other night while she was sleeping and she was so cute we wanted to take a picture. Because the camera wouldn't do it without a flash (which would wake her up) we decided to use the ipod and a flashlight instead. This was the result:
Probably not our best parenting moment. Poor Inara!
Inara playing with grandpa G.
Waiting to go outside.
Enjoying bubbles for the first time. Now she cries when we put them away.
Inara and Andrew at a nearby cafe.
My cousins visiting.
I leave you with this comic that I got a kick out of and hope you're having a good start on the new year!
Oh, and we managed to find a way to make the videos look better, so all the old ones have been updated.
Christmas is over and it's warm and green like a spring day here. We had a nice Christmas Eve at my uncle's house and spent Christmas Day at our house. After a short family quarrel, Inara got to open presents both days and enjoyed the wrapping paper every time. She also briefly noted the contents.
Bo and Inara (wearing a new hat grandma made for her)
Using all he baby might to open a gift from Cajsa
Cajsa and Inara
After Christmas Eve dinner we went for a walk around town which was completely deserted and very beautiful, just wish we would have had snow.
I also want to brag a little about how I made almost all of our Christmas gifts this year. Turns out that everybody else in my family had been spending their evenings crafting away as well and our gift exchange turned into a great cavalcade of socks, hats and goodies.
The other night when Andrew was feeding Inara, she all of a sudden did this:
Happy as a clam
Inara keeping me on the straight and narrow around the house
Ready for battle
Andrew made a peppercake house. I'm pretty sure it wasn't up to code.
New dress from grandma K. A girl can never have too many animal prints.
And lastly, the long awaited apartment pictures. I probably should just have posted them right away instead of building up some sort of anticipation.
Bedroom
Living room
Living room
Kitchen
I guess I do have one more thing to add. I was checking the stats for the blog (I have a thing for stats) and noticed that Russia places second after the U.S. for number of visitors, followed by several eastern European countries where we don't really know anybody. I thought this was very exciting and would love to see a comment from one of these areas. I actually love comments in general. It makes me feel all special and fuzzy inside.
I took Inara in for her 6 month check up on Thursday and everything was fine and on track, but they did ask if she had started vocalizing, saying ba, ga, da, ma etc. Nope, I said. Just high-pitch screams, raspberries, squeaky door imitations and the occasional fake cough. Then, that very night she began saying "daidaidai" and "bababa" and hasn't stopped since. When she didn't want to go down for a nap, she laid in her bed whining "bababa" which I thought might be a call for daddy (pappa in Swedish) to come save her. These two videos are sort of a before and after:
Inara seems really pleased by the independence being able to sit up brings. She is now able to play contentedly on her own for long periods of time, also giving her parents a break. I often wonder what goes through her mind as she seems completely engrossed in a little piece of cardboard or a rubber giraffe for 10 minutes.
She also keeps us entertained when her bedtime rolls around, rarely crying, but often making a ton of noise. She drags her pacifier along the bars of her crib (like a little prisoner), laughs, blows raspberries, kicks her legs, and now also yells "daidaidai."
Another thing that warms my little motherly heart is that she has started reaching for us. When Andrew was blending her food up and the noise scared her she immediately furrowed her brow and reached for me.
Andrew is off from school for three weeks but will need to work on some papers and his thesis. It's hard to believe that he's already half ways through his program. Other than that, we've just been to a few Christmas and Lucia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day) parties where Inara has of course been the center of attention. She has no problem what so ever spending time with strangers and doesn't cry no matter who holds her and doesn't seem to worry about where her parents are. She probably gets to hear more languages than the average baby, considering we hang out with a very international crowd. Just the other evening she spent an hour being watched by three Latvian girls and a couple of Greeks are her biggest fans.
I'm guessing we like tigers in this house.
Snuggling with grandma
Enjoying her new toy given to us by one of Andrew's classmates!
People always talk about how much Inara looks like Andrew, but I have to say I think she looks a little bit like me here:
I also have to say that we're enjoying Inara more and more each day, she's a ton of fun to play with and there is not a dull moment when she's around.
Lastly, we're now pretty much settled in the apartment and I really was going to post pictures today, but since the sun rises at 8.30 am (when I'm generally asleep) and sets around 3.00 pm, I never seem to have enough daylight to take them.
