Leif's first birthday (early)

Today we had a very small celebration for Leif's first birthday - just the four of us and our neighbors. We ate, drank champagne, opened presents, chased bubbles, and played outside - I think it was perfect for Leif.

Agneta made the (ice cream) cake, a hedgehog in a forest scene with (marzipan) mushrooms, berries, snails, slugs, and green frogs. It was beautiful, and I'm afraid Leif is going to be disappointed for the rest of his life when he sees what I make.

An egg shaker! A perfect gift:

August looking at his new book with Hanna:

The birthday king, wearing the crown his brother wore on his first birthday (here too, and see James donning the crown here):

Playing outside:

The school escape artist

If we can't catch him, we can't take him to dagis. 

And some shopping help yesterday: 

A day at Hornstull

Today was a beautiful autumn day, so we decided to head into Stockholm and run around our old neighborhood. We had such a lovely, laid-back day.

In this picture, he's telling me stop taking his picture. "It makes me angry."

May I present to you...

...Leif, the walker! (Email subscribers, click here to watch Leif totter about!)



Leif LOVES walking. He is so happy and proud to be bipedal. He has also become quite the cheeky bugger, too; I can't say quite what it is, but ever since he's been walking, he's seemed a bit more mischievous to me. There's a new glimmer in his eye, and that glimmer means trouble.

Guys, remember this and this? I can't believe August was ever so little! Listen to those screeches, look at that little toodle-toddle (I just made that up). Where does the time go? {Tear in my eye.}

Dinner with the neighbors

We are so, so lucky to have amazing neighbors, Henrik and Agneta. We share a balcony with them and their two-year old Chesapeake Bay retriever. They invited us over for a traditional midsommar lunch back in June, and since then we've been sharing (almost) weekly dinners. We host one week, they host the next. It's been great on so many levels: James and I get other adults to talk to on a regular basis; we get informal lessons on Swedish society, history and language; the boys get spoiled with ice cream (see below!), and at least one night every other week, neither of us has to cook or do dishes. We're always saying that we won the neighbor lottery--we're so lucky to have them.

Big baby Leif

The big, big news around here is that Leif is walking! A couple weeks ago he took a few steps, and he went on for a couple weeks with just a step or two here and there. And then, a few days ago, he just started walking as much as he could. Two days ago was the first day that he walked more than he crawled. I don't have a good video of it yet, I'll try tomorrow. But in the meantime...

I don't have many days of this left, do I? This cute little squiggle crawling up to my knees, then climbing up onto my legs and wrapping his arms around my neck -- soon he'll just be crashing into me, arms outstretched.

(I know they aren't in focus - he was moving too fast - but the series was too cute not to post.)

When I walked away with the camera that he'd crawled all that way to get:

Getting ready to eat!

He remains a serious eater. We have to feed him far more than we feed August! He's getting better with a fork and has the idea of a spoon, but he usually holds it upside-down.

Another day in paradise

After school, August and I went to one of our old favorite playgrounds. After spending some time on the digger,  I convinced him to play at the beach, too.

Leif the little reader

Weekend with Ah Mah and Auntie Tina

Ah Mah and Auntie Tina (James's aunt) came to visit us last weekend. The boys had a fun time, and it was lovely to watch them all spend time together. (More pics to come in a separate post).

This was funny - Tina grabbed Leif's hands and started to walk with him, as you see here, and they were moving around just fine. I grabbed my camera and ran in front of them to take a picture - and Leif must have realized that it wasn't ME he was holding onto, because as soon as we saw me he burst out crying!