Searching for trolls at Sigesta Gård

Today we went to a beautiful farm a couple short (car) ferry rides away, Siggesta Gård. We go less for the animals and more for the food and attractions. August (and Leif) played mini-golf for the first time today! And we walked a short forest trail searching for trolls.

The troll hunt:

This guy would have much preferred to start the afternoon at the cafe. The trolls terrified him!:

But this guy had a great time, leading the way on the trail and finding all the trolls (sorry, didn't get any good pictures of them!):

James got him to kiss the little animals and high-five the trolls:

Mini golf was a success if you measure by fun, but not if you measure by actual amount of mini-golf played:

This was after lunch, so Leif was totally happy to join in:

We didn't let them get this close to each other with putters again (no one was hurt):

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:

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."

At the beach with Grandma

These were taken at the beach right in front of our house.

Quick family photo

SO much has been going on around here - my mom came out to visit for a week and she left yesterday. I don't think I sat still the entire time she was here! Of course that's due as much to the boys as to running around doing things with her, but it does mean I haven't even thought about sitting down to post.

Here's a photo Uncle Robert took when he visited for a few days last week.

Leif at 10 months

While James has been away, the boys and I have slipped into a lovely rhythm, sleeping late in the mornings, getting August off to school, spending quiet time around the house, and being outdoors after pickup. I've even managed to figure out how to get Leif into the baby carrier on my back all by myself for our evening walks. The bedtime routine has been anything-but-lovely, though, as suddenly this week Leif is having lots of early wakings (but his sleep the rest of the night has been great). I think 9:30 is the earliest I've gotten them both sent off to sleep. It'll be nice to have reinforcements with us tomorrow - James is coming back!

I've been wanting to do individual posts about the boys, but haven't had the mental energy to get them up. Let me try now...

These photos are from a couple weeks ago, when Leif made ten months. At ten months he can stand fairly well without holding on to anything and he's just started cruising on furniture. He babbles with a lot of ma-ma-ma and da-da-da and especially ba-ba-ba. All of our neighbors remark on how happy he is, greeting everyone with a smile. I've been using (very basic) sign language with him, and in the past week it *seems* like he's starting to sign back, things like all done, more, and waving hello and good-bye. (I've added in some other signs like airplane and boat and dog, and August seems to enjoy using those.)

We didn't quite figure out the framing here, did we?

His seventh tooth broke the gums a week or more ago and I think he has another on the way out, so he'll have all eight of his front teeth very soon. He loves to clap and play in the water table. He eats everything, copiously. Often, as soon as I start to set the table for a meal, he'll crawl to his chair and wait - though not so patiently, he usually screams to be fed.

Look at these photos of August at 10 months! Can't you see how cheeky he is?

Grinda, again

We took a short trip to Grinda last week, an island in the archipelago where we spent a few nights two years ago. a last trip before our summer holiday ended. We spent way too much money, but we had a great time.

The same beach we went to last time:

This little blueberry eater: