Midsommar boys

Today was the Swedish midsommar celebration. It was cold and rainy, so the celebration itself was a bit underwhelming. But we came home to a lovely lunch at our neighbors' home with all the traditional Swedish foods - pickled herring (sill), fresh new potatoes, salads, and a dessert with berries. 

One of our neighbors made a midsommar hair wreath for August, which he didn't like but Leif didn't seem to mind. 

Midsommarstången in the background:

An evening nature walk

Here we are on a walk a few nights ago.

New backpack:

Airplane!

Tiny meadow and orchard:

A Baltic ferry, crossing to Talinn:

At home, all tired out:

The boy who loves to eat

I mentioned yesterday that Leif loves to eat. Here's the proof:

Have you ever had so much fun with sweet potatoes?

My beach babies

I keep meaning to tell you how much we are loving our new place and the nature we're immersed in. We go for nightly nature walks, looking for slugs and snails and toads and ducklings. August loves it. Saturday it was finally warm enough (finally!) to go to the beach. (Our beach isn't quite ready yet, they are still landscaping the property, but this one is a short walk down the path from us and almost visible from our balcony).

Leif loved feeling the sand in his fingers (and between his teeth), and August loved running in and out of the water. It was such a joy to watch them playing and exploring outside.

Ahhh, life in the Swedish countryside...

The boy in the background, probably a bit older than August (maybe three or three and a half), was running back and forth in the water, pulling his boat behind him. There was another boy, maybe three or four years older, lying on the rocks and casually watching him. Shortly after we arrived, the two boys packed up their things and walked off down the path. They were at the beach alone! Totally normal in Sweden, but I'm sure their parents would have been arrested in the US. And we would have been reprimanded for letting our little boy play on the beach naked.

Leif at 8 months

I'm a little late (two weeks, which means he's more than halfway to nine months), but here's a little update on Leif at eight months. 

First, I'll confess that I'm embarrassed that I got his age wrong on the blocks! I took all these pictures and then realized I had the '7' instead of the '8'; it was such a hassle doing this on my own that I couldn't bear to set it all up again when I looked at the pictures and realized my mistake (you can see the '8' in the background, far left, of the first, third, and fourth pictures). I got it right once (second picture), though.

Leif continues to creepy-crawl around the house. He's taken a few cross-crawling steps here and there (pushed up on his hands and knees instead of inching along on his tummy) but isn't doing it consistently. He's pulling up to standing frequently, if not easily. He loves to eat, and his favorite food is anything you put in front of him (except avocado, he wasn't such a fan of that). He usually just keeps eating if we keep putting food in front of him. 

He's babbling away, smiling most of the time, curiously watching his big brother buzz about. They love to bounce on the bed together (well, my arms do the bouncing for Leif). August shows more and more interest in Leif, sometimes giving him toys, hugging him, or bending down to tell him things. 

Perhaps the best news of all is that the sleep is much, much better now. We started changing his diaper overnight (he can make it through the night in one diaper without peeing out), and he's no longer waking so frequently in the morning (used to be every hour from 3 or 4am on). The biggest change is that I'm not sleeping in the same room with him anymore, and for his first wakeup of the night, James goes to him. Within two nights of doing this, we went from him waking 1-4 times before midnight to him sleeping until 4am without needing a feed! Now, instead of 4-6 (at least) wake-ups a night, we're down to 1-3. 

I'm sure there's so much more to tell you, but I can't think of it right now. And, instead of falling asleep, Leif has spent the last hour practicing standing up in his crib, so it's time to work some mama magic and get this kid to sleep.

Baby butts and rainbows

Still haven't managed to get back into a groove with blogging. But, have some pictures anyway. 

There's a video of this - the one James is taking - that I'll share as soon as I can. 

A full rainbow right outside our living room!

His new undies. Dinosaurs! We aren't using diapers anymore unless there's a real need for them. August totally has James's knees. 

A view from the trail through the woods right beside our property. 

August in profile

Nature walk and polenta play

I'm always trying to come up with activities for August, and he's usually not interested. This is one of the first that really stuck - he came back to it all day, bringing different items into the polenta.

More August, more chocolate

I have a ton of pictures hiding out on the camera, waiting to be uploaded and organized. Here are a few of the recent pictures of August. It's so hard to take his picture, because as soon as he sees the camera he wants to play with it, so he runs behind it to look at the screaming. And because he never sits still.

Except, that is, when he's eating chocolate.

He's trying to show off his ponytail in this picture whilst not losing sight of the camera.

More August pictures to follow!