Day off at Djurgården

By "day off", what I really mean is a day on for me. We've had a couple of gorgeous fall days when I've felt that all I wanted to do was run around with my babies - so that's what we did. I've done this three times now - kept August home from dagis and taken the boys on some sort of outdoor adventure. This last Monday we went to Djurgården to visit the aquarium and see what else we could find.

Both kids liked the aquarium, but it's quite difficult to have two-under-twos in a small space with lots of other people. August loved running around and finding all the different fish, while Leif mostly clung to me. As stressful as it may have been, I loved watching them experience new things and have fun.

Leif makes the most beautiful little "ooo" face when he sees something exciting; his lips form a perfect O. It's not great, but here's a profile shot:

After lunch we found a beautiful picnic spot on a carpet of yellow leaves:

Both kids sat on the bench and ate, ate, ate:

I loved seeing them sitting together (holding still!):

And then running around:

The books took a stroller nap while I walked and walked and walked, finding new views:

And I finally found the perfect arrangement for the double nap:

After the nap we found a little playground before heading home:

I was exhausted by the time we got home - I thought I was going to fall asleep driving, thank goodness we'd picked up James to keep me awake. I'm hoping to get in 1-2 more adventures before the weather turns too cold to be outside all day.

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."

More pics from our camping excursion

Way back in July, at the beginning of our 5-week family holiday, we went camping on Ljusterö. I'm finally getting the rest of the pictures from that trip posted.

Tomorrow, August goes back to dagis, James catches a flight to Baltimore until Saturday, and Leif and I go back to doing whatever it is that we do all day. Summer's over, just as it's finally getting started weather-wise. I suspect it's going to be a rough transition for all of us in the next few days, especially August. This morning after we read some books in his bedroom, I told him that tomorrow he starts school again, and also that James is going on a trip for a few days. He seemed fine with it, but then he walked into the living room and started crying.

We are so lucky to have had this time together--five weeks of hanging out as a family, going on trips, going to the beach, being at home. It's a part of the Swedish lifestyle that we hope to take with us wherever we go.

Now, back to camping.

Notice the falling carrot!

Little wine lover

This evening we had a picnic dinner at a local park. Well, James and I ate - Augie just ran around. Mostly with a wine bottle.

He was fascinated with the corkscrew after I opened the wine, so he spent several minutes trying to reopen the bottle:

Then he ran away:

Then he came back for the wine:

And ran away with it:

Eventually he came back and I had at least four seconds of cuddle time...:

 ...before he ran away again:

Perfect summer day, part 2

To finish our perfect summer day, In the afternoon, we met our friends Linden, Malin and Kristin at the canal, where we rented kayaks and set out to see some turtles.

Linden!

It wasn't long into our trip before Augie reached over to feel the water. He spent most of the ride in this position:

 

Our traveling companions:

Augie got bored soon enough, and tried climbing out of the kayak into the water. There was some crying and some scrambling, so we turned back. As soon as we got him on the dock, he tried to climb back into the kayak.

 Then we all went for ice cream, where these two played on the cellar door:

(In case you missed it, click here to see the first post about today).

Yum yum

Augie and I had a little outing yesterday afternoon. We went to the library in Princeton, then to my favorite gluten-free bakery & cafe in Lawrenceville, then to a park in Pennington. A good time was had by all, though at least one of us was thoroughly worn out by the end of the day.

By the way, his language is really coming along. While he doesn't articulate words very well (except, alas, "No!"), through careful listening I've realized that he has consistent words for certain things, like banana, keys (his current favorite toy), and as of yesterday, juice. I went into the kitchen to pour him a small glass of juice and told him what I was doing; from the dining table he shouted out, perfectly, "juice!". (Though, since he doesn't get to drink juice very often, that's not a word that's likely to stick). He regularly tries to imitate what we say. As mentioned before, his clearest word is "No!". He never says "no" - it's always a resounding, loud, clear, "No!". I spent all yesterday trying to make the word of the day "Yes!", but he wasn't having any of it. And while I don't particularly enjoy the repetition of that word, it is such a joy to hear his voice, his clear little voice, saying something.