A Fig in Sweden

look ma, no petsmart!

Tilly is now sitting pretty, thanks to my new sewing machine. Yes, I am becoming domestic. It took 37 years, but I finally get why my mom used to pull out her sewing machine on an almost daily basis to make things for us.

It took moving to Sweden to inspire this newfound hobby. Tilly's dog bed has been developing a hole for weeks. And, well, there isn't exactly a PetsMart, Petco or Target within thousands of miles. IKEA sells a sewing machine for about $75, and I have been lusting after it since the summer. This week, one of our interior designers told me that he had just bought one himself and that he really liked it (even preferred it over his other more heavy-duty sewing machine).

So we picked up our little beauty on Friday night, and I made this new cover for Tilly's bed my first project. (Using IKEA fabric of course. This one's called Elisabet.) That was after Lewis had me practice on all his shirts with ripped seams that needed repair. Hemming his pants is next. I think he's already starting to add up all the ways we can make that 75 bucks back. :)

Seriously, though, I'm not sure I ever would have tried sewing if we didn't live here. Back in the States, my instinct would have been to order a new dog bed from L.L. Bean. Instead, we paid about $7 in fabric, and a few bucks for Velcro®. (I thought a zipper would be way beyond me.) The whole project took about 2 hours from start to finish.

So, yeah, I think I'm definitely becoming mom material... (just 11 weeks to go!)

peter the pachyderm

If this doesn't say "proud pappa to be" I don't know what does...

(You can get your own huge, super-soft elephant at my favorite swedish store near you.)

third trimester here we come

It's good to know that I'm not baring my belly in vain! I'm about a week late posting this month's belly pic, and I actually heard from some of you wondering where it was. :)

Unfortunately, there's no animation to show just how much my belly has grown in five weeks. But you can click here to see what I looked like then. My computer is on the injured reserve list until I get an AC adapter shipped to me from Hong Kong. The old one went up in a puff of smoke earlier this week. Yes, literally.

We met up with our friends Mark and Åsa, and their 2 kids, for fika this morning in Växjö. They have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, and we basically spent an hour trying to absorb as much parenting information as possible. I caught Lewis in a blank stare a couple of times, examining the 1-year-old and pretty much freaking out over the idea that we will have "one of those."

He said those exact words after we visited the hospital a few weeks ago to get a tour of the facilities and find out what we do when my water breaks. The delivery wing is BARE BONES. I mean, this is not the kind of cush accomodations I've seen in the U.S. One thing I do like, though, is that I have a lot of freedom in the birthing room. I'm pretty much free to be in any position I want (standing, kneeling, sitting, laying...) and I can even use the hot tub. There is no doctor present unless complications arise, and I can get laughing gas. It's banned in the U.S. but not here. It's my room from the moment I arrive at the hospital until about 2-3 hours after delivery. Then I am taken to another room where I can stay for 1-3 days. There is no TV. If it's busy, I have to share the room. Otherwise, Lewis can sleep there too. And the baby stays with us AT ALL TIMES. In fact, if the baby needs to be taken to another room for testing, Lewis must accompany the baby. In other words, he or she is never out of our sight. Or earshot...

In a strange, inexplicable way, seeing the birthing room made me eager for childbirth. I know I will regret saying that, but I'm really curious to see what it's all about. Lewis, on the other hand, seemed in a daze as we drove home. He's like, "The next time we leave this hospital we'll be bringing one of those home with us."

And then one of his oh-my-god-we're-going-to-have-a-baby moments happened again this week when my first cloth diaper purchase arrived in the mail. I bought a barely used cloth diaper wrap off tradera.com, which is a Swedish branch of eBay. Lewis was in disbelief that we'd have a little person whose tush would be small enough to fit in it.

Just three more months until we see what this little soccer player in my belly looks like... I start the third trimester on Tuesday!

food for thought

This is the kind of question that is starting to keep me up at night. :) Luckily some creative Swedes at boob® have figured it all out.

bring on the swedish winter

Five cubic meters of dry birch logs were dropped off this morning by a guy named Henric. This is in addition to the 7-10 cubic meters of pine logs we bought in August. Yup, I think we're set.

For those of you who remember our wood-buying adventure last year, this one wasn't nearly as animated. But I did do the whole transaction in Swedish... over SMS that is. Much easier than a telephone conversation. :)

fearless baby-clothes shopping

I stole Lewis' train pass yesterday and spent the day shopping in Lund. The weather was gorgeous... low 60s and sunny. The excursion totally recharged my batteries.

Now I knew I would be facing the wrath of my penny-pinching husband if I went too wild with baby purchases. In the end, I came home with two well-priced outfits plus this adorable Danish-designed (read: way overpriced!) doll, Fearless Fred. I knew the price tag would kill Lewis, but I love the bold contrasts for infant brain stimulation, and Fred's pegleg just cracks me up. Well worth the big bucks in my opinion!

Check out the whole line of Roomie Dolls here.

I was also daring enough to venture into Polarn O. Pyret, the Swedish baby clothes shop I mentioned a few weeks ago. If we knew we were having a girl, this penguin dress would have definitely been smuggled into the house!

it's not easy flying green

You know those calculators that measure your carbon output based on how much you drive, how much energy your home uses, etc.? Well, you can be the most efficient person in all areas, but one transcontinental flight a year will make you a bigger carbon hog than a huge suburban family with an SUV.

This is quite depressing for me and Lewis, since we rarely drive, have CFLs all around the house and unplug gadgets when they are not in use. (Yes, even when your TV is off it still sucks about half the energy as when you are watching it! We have ours plugged into a power strip, that we turn off.)

Anyway, I wrote an article on the state of the airline industry and what airlines are doing to make air travel greener. You can read it here. It's a bit depressing but there are some useful tips at the end of the article.

celebrate your buns

Today is cinnamon bun day (kanelbullens dag) in Sweden! Trays and trays were brought into the office this afternoon. Yes, we still had to work... the country's love for this pastry apparently does not warrant paid time off. :)