''my mum is....''

I bloody love it! This top, married with Lily's killer evil stare will ensure she rules the playground. Oh god, I have said it once, and I will say it again, that one has the potential to be the one that causes us trouble lol.

My sweet, darling last born and I, have a special day today. It is our last proper day off like this, just her and I with Maia at nursery. Tomorrow dear mother in law arrives for a week, and on the 10th we start schooling Lilypops in at nursery, ready for  me to go back to work on the 24th. The end of an era you could say. Sweet salvation for a mamma's brain springs to mind too. Disaster for a mothers aching heart and an ever growing guilty conscious for not being there is another thing. Comfort, in knowing that I have actually done a good job so far in raising confident, secure and happy little souls, that are full of love and cuddles, goes someway to mend the afore mentioned negatives. Or are they really negatives? Can you tell I am feeling philosophical today!? Sheeessssh!

Seeing as Lily is actually having another super early nap today I am going to make the most of it and put some washing on and tidy the mornings playtime away and try and catch some Z's too. Tonight will be a late one I think, doing decorations and a last spruce up and dusting, washing floors and hoovering ready for MIL tomorrow and the party on saturday. Laters!

snuggles on sofa before bed last night <3

and she's off!

the mamma's look of disbelief

Bejezaz, I am NOT ready for this. Well, I am, but I am not. Today can most definately be said to be the day that Lily started walking. Not just between me and Mark/mormor/grandad/Alex, but fully turning herself away from the support she has and toddling off in t'other direction...gaaaah!! I have not a little baby no more!

It all started just before lunch at Camilla's where Lily turned from me sitting in the sofa and took 4 steps away before plonking herself down. This afternoon I was sat at the desk and she crawls up to me, puts her head in my lap and makes that little ''aaw-im-so-cosy-giving-cuddles-noise'' turns around and walks back to the sofa. Since then, any chance to toddle away and she's been off. I have a bit of a habit of setting her down by the dining table when I am going to the cooker/sink, to occupy her and keep her happy moving about, and it was all walk walk walk today. Bless her.

Oh, and she ALSO today mastered the art of climbing up on the sofa. Fanflippintastic!

the girls

Voila! the not so extraordinary covers, but by golly do I love'em

Good morning world! Waking up to another fine sunny view out of the living room, and a dark foreboding mass of dark clouds out the kitchen window. Yes, another typical day it is. Thunder and lightning has been predicted several times now, but nothing. Yesterday started out the same and the day turned out fab. Todays agenda is unclear -  We may be seeing the SA's later, I may get my hair done and I may start sanding Maia's bookcase to get that painted too. A rather unplanned and open day, by all accounts. 

Speaking of Maia, check out this ensemble. Daddy's crocs, Lily's sunhat and a baby in a carrier. All grownded up! Cant believe her 3rd birthday is drawing near. Mad stuffs. Also mad, is her philosopy on life that is starting to emerge. Planes do not fly to other countries, but to the moon. She is not a little girl, she is a mumin. Or a blubblerbly (butterfly). Daddy is a monster, Grandad a baby and mamma is either a mumin or butterfly too. Spankin' eh!  Someone could have told me I was getting pale and lump like... ;)

On wednesday we have an eye check up, which is part of the routine with her arthritis, and thankfully, she is still symptom free. The physio we've been doing at home has helped her knee to straighten out - she just still has the habit of putting her weight over on the other leg, but that will take longer to get out of bless her. Here's hoping things keep going as they are and we aren't in for another bumpy ride this autumn/winter. Fingers crossed people, fingers crossed!

And what about this monkey? You leave her for five mintutes and she unscrews mammas nice new body butter and smears it over her face. Nice one my love, nice one haha ;) Lily is quicker than the speed of light, sleeps with one eye open, ready to pounce and not miss a thing. Ok, she doesn't actually sleep with one eye open, but she is quick to wake and come round ready for action so she may as well be IMO.

She has finally cut teeth, two is up and three just hovering- that makes a tooth a week so far, not bad eh? She takes several steps by herself now, and we tend to walk just holding hands the normal way when going anywhere here at home. The master of face pulling and expression is our Lilypops. Lily most certainly is more forward in showing how she feels. Maia is an independent strong willed girl, not backward in coming forwards but in comparison she is a little more reserved and takes things in and assesses them, where Lily just steams through. Zoom Zoom is Lily's motto

Times like these, I wish I had started blogging sooner to be able to read back and compare how the girls are at the same ages - least I will have these nuggets of gold to look back on =) Anyhoo...time to get on with my day! Here's to feeling those happy monday vibes =)

Lily 8.5

This is what eating by yourself looks like hehe. Bless, I actually think she looks rather neat compared to a certain sister when she started trying to eat by herself ;)

Lily's 9months day is slowly creeping up - two weeks on friday! To say time has flown would be an understatement. More like it lit a rocket up its a$$ and went at the speed of light. Fast. There's still an awful lot of gummage going on, not even a hint of a toothypeg even though I have been convinced time and again that perhaps there was one lol. She'll be more like me and get her tooth at 11months or so, and then there will no doubt be an explosion of the buggers and we will have ten rounds of hell before they are all broken through.

Today, we have been walking. From the living room to the kitchen, kitchen to the girls bedrooms, then back to daddy at the sink in the kitchen. Hello bad back. The crawling thing I think is something that may be just left out. She spins around with squeals of delight in the same spot and pushes off backwards, but so far, actually moving her knees once she is up on them seems like far too much effort hehe. She has rather perfected the commando crawl though. Go Marine Go!

4m, really?!

This is what 4am looks like. It would be almost pretty, if it weren't for the fact that I had a screaming toddler to attend to and try and make sure she doesnt wake the baby up. That I succeded in, atleast. Failed miserably at getting the toddler to sleep again. All because I gave her the ''wrong'' dummy. I swear, those things are sent from the devil himself and he is having a whale of time laughing at the choas it leaves us parents to deal with. Smug git. I think it is time for them all to just magically disappear. *P*O*O*F*

It shall be interesting to see how the rest of today goes...no doubt Maia will collapse around 14.00 and want to sleep for several hours and we will have another tantrum when we wake her up until she goes to bed. Which, because she is in said tantrum, mean routine will go to pot and perhaps we will have her settled by 9pm. If we are lucky. And that is not taking into consideration Lily being woken up.

She's another kettle of fish altogether. I realized last night I am very quick off the mark to run into her room to sooth her or give her a bottle when she wakes, as we are terrified she will wake Maia up who then wont sleep. Vicious circle, I believe it is called. 

How to break that circle without causing too much disruption to the rest of the household?

hi ho hi ho its off to work I go

Mamma is enjoying a bit of extra Lily time this morning as I am not starting work til noon. Yay for a chilled out morning and lazy getting ready, boo for very long evening work. Well I say boo, its only boo if I miss Grey's tonight, now that we have finally gotten the tv sorted after TWO weeks. We have also sorted out and ordered the internet, so once we get the xtreamer/etrayz boxes plugged in to an actual box thing what the internet comes through ( cant remember the word in swedish or english) I can show you the Before renovation pics and it will give me a chance to tidy up to show some smart After ones haha. Lived in look is great and the standard here, I cant live in a so called show home. But it would be nice to have some pics showcasing our apartment in all its lovely glory.

Anyways, husband back from shop, me ready to head out the door. One of the biggest perks of being a hairdresser is that you can go to work and do your hair, or even have others do it for you. Saves time and effort in the morning and leaves me less likely looking like a worn out mama who's tried to hard on the run to nursery and now more resembles a disheveled drinker from Union Street on a saturday night, than the yummy glamorous working mamma that was intended. I am not claiming to be either by the way haha, just paiting a picture of words ;) Right then, off I go! Toodlepip and happy hump day, all smooth riding from today to the weekend, woop woop!

greetings from the other side

well, we have done it now, all moved in and settled bar 4 smallish boxes that need to be unpacked. I think I might try and get that done today. If I can call unpacking fun, then it most certainly is that when faced with three ikea bags of ironing instead - having done 2 bags of ironing last night, I feel somewhat unenthusiastic to start the day the way it ended yesterday.

Speaking of end of days, Lily went into her own bedroom last night, and even if it wasnt as successful as the previous night when daddy left us in bed and took up the sofa, it was still better than the nights we have had as a threesome in our room. The motto " Keep Calm & Carry on" springs to mind, and is somewhat of a mantra at The Wilson's at the moment. Incredible the effect of sleep.

¨

 Wonderful news on Miss Maia! If any of you missed it on facebook, Maia has been given an almost all clear!
We saw her doctor on tuesday, and to be honest, I went there fearing the worst. Since her cortisone injections 5 weeks ago her knee still cant straighten out 100% and I was convinced that she was going to need immune suppressants (meaning then that any colds infections could make her actually quite ill, and there would be a lot of time of work needed). But lo and behold, her bloods were as good as could be, no signs of infection or inflammation in her body, and now we are to finish her course of meds she is already on and then stop them and see how it goes over the summer and if it flares up again when the cold arrives. Maia will also be getting physio for her knee as its stiffness due to lack of proper use since October that is causing her to not be able to use it properly =)

In other news, terrible two's and the constant testing from Maia is tiring, but also intriguing. Intriguing for seeing this little person finding her feet in the world, becoming her own person and exploring everything and anything around her. Her vocab seems to have expanded tenfold in just a few week, and she's making little sentances (though not usually more than 3/4 words). The day of hotly debating what to wear/eat draws ever near! Actually, we already to debate food. All she wants is "doooooosss" (smörgås/sandwich). My favourite word of hers at the mo is "apelpin" (apelsin/orange) for the way she crinkles up her nose when she says it and her tone of voice lol. My wonderful, fantastic little terror <3

little treasures

Sometimes all the tantrums, sleeplessness, and sibling rivalry is blown away and forgotten when I see my little treasures playing together nicely. I really hope they will be friend for life! <3

6 months

Today, our dear Lilypops is a whole half a year old. Incredible how much love this little person can bring, how she's made our family complete and how flippin cute she is!

Lily now eats proper food, sleeps well at night, and is on the move! A cheeky knee keeps finding itself half raised when she's having tummy time, she rolls around and around and around and around, and zooms around and bounces in the walker in fits of squeals and giggles. Being in the walker is perfect for the curtain pulling that seems to be the skill du jour.

 Its better than I imagined, having two scrummy, yummy, funny little girls. I cant imagine what our family dynamic would be if we had one of each lol. Now shoot me down in flames, but I'm guilty of dressing them the same (well its only 1 top that they both have  the same lol) and I try to co-ordinate outfits, so they look well put together and cute. Its also very practical to have them wear the same colours at the same time; makes for washing to be organised, apparently. Never seem to quite get ontop of it tho, but hey ho ;)

Seeing my children blossoming into these delicious little people is a feeling hard to put into words, but something that every parent will be able to relate to. I look forward to the days - although I am sure I will come to curse them - when we can have proper conversations, gain a better insight into the wonderful way that they see the world and the people around them. We have only been here about 18months, but we have truly been lucky to have met so many incredible people, for which we are all very grateful for. It makes it easier when we miss and wish for the chance of a quick cuppa with you bestest people back in the UK. There will be one heck of a tea party when we see you at Christmas!

Anyhoo, I shall leave you with a pic of Lily from today, lookin rather Spring-y in her Marks&Sparks gear from GeeGee <3

family..because two people fall in love

This little lady is a whole 3 months old today. Time flies and all that. Having fun etc. I cant seem to keep from cliched expressions nowadays. Maybe its a case of the mummybrain. Or maybe life is as cliched as it seems. I dont reallyknow lol. Sometimes I guess we find outselves living by the rule book rather than making our own.
There is a recipe for successful family living, I am sure. I'l be damned if I even knew where to start with that one? Maybe it's as simple as 1+1=3. And that 3, morphs into 4. or even five. Maybe more, if you are so inclined ;) Personally, our two little ladies are more than perfect for us <3  Ofcourse, should some higher power bestow upon us another bundle of fun, then so be it. If I have my way, I am done, thank you very much. I will get a cat instead, to fulfil all my cuddling and snuggling needs. Sorted.

naaw all snuggly squishy babies...can you guess who's who?

So lets see where we are...Lilypops had her injections on tuesday, the first lot. They are a bit different over here with their timings for having injections, and space them out a bit longer inbetween. So instead of 8,12 and 16 weeks, we have 3 months and 5months, and then Im not so sure lol. Havent got a little red book thats filled with info like last time =)
Lily now weighs 6605g /14lb 8oz, at 13 weeks. Maia at 14weeks was 5530g / 12lb 3oz. Maia was 20 weeks old when she was the same weight as Lily lol. But then I suppose, Lily was  almost a whole kilo heavier than Maia when born =)

I am rather proud, that I ave been organised enough to get Maia & Lily's christmas presents sorted out. Everyone elses, is just a case of going to get them in town as I know what I want to get. Apart from 2. But those have to be thought of as they need to cope with and fit into suitcases and flying lol... so I  am hoping for moments of brilliance and inspiration when I am wrestling and elbowing my way through the crowds.
At the moment it is actually rather difficult getting into the christmas mood. I think we got rather spoilt with all the snow last year. Funny how after just one winter, its something I have already come to expect!

These were all taken end of november last year...now we have rain and averaging +4C. It has actually been blowing up a right storm these last few days, and the weather forecast shows possibility for snow this time next week. But even then its mixed with rain, and then getting ''warm'' again, that is anything above 0C at the moment haha.

Anyway, I am off to bed now. We have had two wonderful nights wih Maia, I daren't say we are back to normal, but here is hoping. Always pays to try and stay ahead when it comes to sleep lol. Yay for friday tomorrow!

<3 kim