A Fig in Sweden Portland

mudder!

Yup, that's our girl splishing and splashing in the middle of the mud puddle. Her daycare had a slideshow of pictures rolling to show parents what they did this week. (These are pictures of the pictures on the TV taken with my cellphone.) We stopped by today for a quick meeting about Sophie's development. Our first parent-teacher conference. Her "report card": she's very happy and a very picky eater. No news there.

P.S. Aren't her rubber boots adorable?

we're broke inside but happy yellow outside

And by broke I mean that we are putting almost all of our savings into a new roof and new paint for the house. It's long overdue. We negotiated the price of our house based on the fact that we would need to do these repairs. That was three years ago.

Lewis keeps telling me that this is exactly what we saved the money for. I know, I know. But a month in an exotic location would have been pretty nice too. And I really hate the idea of not having a safety net.

The painters started a week ago, and even after just replacing the rotted wood and painting the trim, the house looks SO much better.

Here's a before pic:

And what we hope it will look like in a couple of weeks:

our little bookworm, songbird and chatterbug

Sophie reading from ginny on Vimeo.

This went on for 20 minutes before I realized I needed to capture the moment on video, albeit my crappy cellphone. We often catch her "reading" her books.

She sings a lot, too (sometimes for an entire 30-minute stroller ride). And talks up a storm. So much so that the woman at dagis told Lewis the other day that "when Sophie grows up, she's gonna be the girl who talks a lot." Hehe.

why i blog

In the beginning it was about our exciting adventure moving abroad and a way to stay in touch with family and friends we sadly left behind. I remember documenting my first  experience at the grocery store, figuring out what to feed our dog Tilly, and trying to buy firewood in Swedish.

Then it was about living abroad and being pregnant, and a way to feel less lonely about going through such a huge, thrilling change without so many special people around me. The fact that I posted monthly belly pictures kinda explains my feeling of desperation. I promise I will NOT show my bare belly to the world with Sophie's future brother or sister.

And now, almost four years later, it's about being a mom, which has been the best adventure to document of all. And while my close friends and family still read along to follow Sophie's development, I probably have just as many blog friends whom I've "met" along the way. No, technically we've never met. But we click. And if people can find true love online, then I should be able to find friends online too.

There was Linnea, who spent a semester in Lund and made every minute of her time here count.
Then her mom, Sally, suggested baby names for our "Tito" and continues to inform me about Swedish baby songs.
I had always hoped to meet Lisa, but then her husband moved the family back to the States.
Hillary came along with good advice about new motherhood from another American expat in Sweden.
I connected with Diana, who used to live the Swedish life and now runs a B&B in Italy.
And then there was Nina and Sophie's future buddy, Stella, who I just have to meet for real one of these days. (Nina is the designer behind Sophie's new bib. She's a hip mom with a budding new business.)

There were also the many random passers-by who had questions about importing pets, what to bring when moving here, where to find cloth diapers and what we miss most about the U.S. It's been a real treat every time I hear from someone (hint, hint).

But, actually, the real reason I blog is that I'm lazy. I don't seem to have time for journaling or making a baby diary or scrapbooking. So that's what this is. And someday when Sophie is old enough to ask questions about what our life was like in Sweden, I'll pull this blog book off the shelf and show her. Belly pictures and all.

honey, get the camera!

We are such first-time parents. Completely absorbed in life with a toddler. Captivated by every little thing that could even remotely be called a "milestone."

One such Earth-shattering moment happened last night, when Sophie fed herself with a spoon. For a while she's been able to feed herself if we load the spoon for her. But she's given no signs that she was ready to do it all herself. So when I gave her the spoon and she started shoveling the food onto it and then into her mouth, Lewis and I stopped everything we were doing and looked at each other with our mouths agape.

Other "milestones" that we have been awe-struck over lately:

- She points at everything and says "titta!" (Swedish word for "look")
- She can drink from a cup (but then she needs a new outfit, so we don't practice that one so much!)
- She waves hello to everyone

Now if only we could get her to eat something besides pasta and bratwurst.