In love

There is no better way to describe how I feel about Inara. I get butterflies in my stomach when I think about her during the day, I often gaze at pictures of her when she's not around, I look forward to talking to her in the evening, everything she says is fantastic and smart, I'm amazed at how cute and funny she is, her sense of style is flawless, and I even watch her while she sleeps (maybe that last one fits better in the stalker category). 

Like a Fish

My mom came along to swimming lessons before Christmas and I've been meaning to post these pictures and videos for a while, but here they finally are:

Ready...

1, 2...

...3!

 

Fun, fun, fun!

And through the hoop!

Next class we'll light it on fire.

Working Life

I thought I would do a quick update on working life:

I've successfully completed two days and have to say it seems like a great place to work. Even though the tasks may not be super exciting, the positive work environment makes up for it. At this point, I haven't actually started doing any of the things I'll be doing after the eight week training period, but at least that's what I imagine. The coworkers are great and I finally got my very own office. The only downside is being away from Inara. However, she seems to be doing great at her preschool and is happy to go there. I guess also that I have pretty much zero energy when the day is done.

Inara has been learning to say so many new words in the last couple of weeks that her vocabulary is up to around 80-90 words (counting duplicates in English and Swedish) and she seems to be learning new things ever day.

Some funny things that she's doing right now:

- Going "lalalala" when she's irritated. 

- Going "brrrr" and shivering as soon as she sees something cold (or sometimes warm) or gets ready to go outside. 

- Stretching her arms up in the air and yelling "jaaa!" (yes) when we suggest something she's onboard with. 

- Saying "mamma" in that condescending, teenager voice when I drop something or make some other embarrassing mistake.  

- Hushing us and saying "tyst" (quiet) while holding a finger up first to her lips, and then in the air in our direction, when we watch kid's shows together and she thinks we're narrating too much.

Here's another picture from Christmas. Inara and grandma K. watching Rudolph the rednose reindeer. Which just happens to be where she learned to go "brrrrr."

Congrats Jennie and Ben!

My good friend Jennie got engaged to her Ben on Christmas Eve. I'm so happy and excited for them! They make a great couple. Now they are going to have to find a way to live closer so they can stop commuting between Thailand and Malaysia every weekend to see each other. 

Congrats Jennie and Ben!

Styling

Grandma Kartchner became Inara's personal hairstylist while she was here:

Christmas Eve 2012

We celebrated a nice and quiet Christmas Eve at our place with just the right number of dinner guests for our little apartment. Here are some highlights from the day and evening:

 

Every Christmas, I'm just as amazed at how many presents accumulate under the tree. No matter how much we've all talked about not buying a lot of stuff, this is always how it looks. In my defense, I "blame" some very generous grandparents for a lot if it. 

Snuggling with grandpa Kartchner, aslo known as "faffa," which is not only the Swedish word for grandpa, but also what she calls grandma Kartchner.

The sweetest gingerbread man around.

Ready to start opening presents.

Opening presents.

 Judging by these facial expressions, you may be fooled to think that this was a funeral (perhaps even the funeral of some of those present), but it's just the jetlag talking.

A few days before Chistmas, we went to Stockholm to meet with Holly and Mark. Inara was super excited about the boat and from the moment she woke up, all she could say was:

"Åka båt " (go on boat). When we were on the boat, we told her we were going on a bus next and she quickly switched to "Åka buss" (go on bus). She actually loves buses in general and lucky for her, one goes by our house several times a day. Yesterday we let her get on it just for fun and she loved it. 

We were supposed to visit the Stockholm zoo and see all the Christmas events going on there, but due to unforeseen and unfortunate events, we never had a chance to do that, but old town was very pretty with lots of snow. For some reasons I didn't take any pictures. Not like me at all. 

Anyways, more updates on the holidays to come soon. Hope everybody is having a great start on the new year!