Here's Looking At You, Kid

She turned four today. My baby turned four.
My youngest, my littlest, my teeny tiny baby.
Four years old.
She turned four today and I was lucky enough to spend the whole day in her company.
A whole day hand in hand.
Like that very first day, four years ago.
My baby turned four today and I was there for the ride.
We had big plans:
Go for coffee
Have haircut
Eat lunch
And when the haircut turned out to be too much of a hassle, we focused on what's more important in life.
Peach juice and croissants.
Noodles and chicken.
Miso soup.
Chocolate and cookies.
A muffin.
When my girl fell asleep tonight she smelled of sugar and spice and all things nice.
And I held her hand.
Or if she held mine.
Just like that first day.
Four years ago.

Happy birthday, Blanka Susanna! You make me happy every day.

Hello Friday

Yeah. This was a while ago.
But pulling Blanka home today (on a sleigh, yes, but still) I thought there was a little spring in the air. The days are longer. The sun doesn't set right after sunrise anymore.
We're slowly getting there.
Though tonight was rather wintry. We celebrated Friday with a roast and Wilhelm - the king of McNuggets - asked for "more blood". The child who hasn't eaten a vegetable or tasted a sauce in his life looked at the very red meat and said "Can I have some more blood, please? From under there? I really like the blood." Is he a vampire? Is that why he can't stand carrots? All that karotene reminding him of sunshine?
Another dinner highlight was Blanka, leaning over to peak under my shirt, saying:
"Mommy, your breasts? They used to be longer."
Longer? I still don't know if she offered me a compliment or insulted me.
Jesper's snoring on the couch now and it's time for us to bid this Friday goodnight. I just have to wake him up first (he's really going to appreciate that).
Hello Friday. Goodnight, Friday.
You've been a good one.

Random Three (Plus A Question)

The sky was baby blue with pink clouds when we walked home. And I thought to myself that it's a good thing the iPhone can't do this sunset justice – since if a real photographer with a proper camera had taken a picture of it, you never would have believed she wasn't faking it.

Blanka had a breath mint today and exhaled with pleasure "Mommy, mommy, smell my voice!"

A genius friend told me I look like Jarvis Cocker in the picture below. And I so do! I laughed myself off of a chair.

I need something good to read. Can you help? I think you could give great recommendations, if you wanted to.

Specs!

January is turning into me!me!me! month. My apologies. But if this isn't a milestone, I don't know what is. I'm with glasses. Spectacular spectacles. They are huge, so it sort of feels more like they're wearing me, than the other way around. But boy, do I feel stylish. Stylish and seasick, that is. I can read ANYTHING. I'm more or less Superman in that area. But the world has turned crooked and my head is spinning. They said it would take about 30 minutes for my brain to adjust. I'm on the second hour now and feeling no progress. Well, I can read ANYTHING and that's of course progress. But the tipsy twirly feeling, when will that disappear? Walking home I felt like I'd turned into something from Gulliver's travels. The ground was suddenly closer than ever, like I was 60 centimeters tall. And the stairs are all tilted, making me compensate by leaning backwords (and looking like a total idiot, I might add). Oh well. One thing at a time. Did I mention that I can read ANYTHING? And the stylishness, you can see that, can't you? God, my head hurts.

This Way Please

This new thing we have.
The new situation. Our changed days.
It's a different rythm.
And I didn't know how much I needed a change of tune.
I'm like a tourist, checking into my own life.
Looking at things from the outside.
And finding them pretty spectacular.
It's a good feeling.
Even after this weekend of whining and wasted hours and nothing much enjoyed.
It's such a good feeling!

This Weeks Eats

Jesper started posting our menus on Facebook last week and is talking about a menu Tumblr, but for now I'll post them here as well. So, my dear eaters, menu no 2 2011 goes like this:

Monday
Spaghetti Melanzane, tomato sauce with aubergine (egg plant?) and mozzarella.
Tuesday
Chick pea and leek soup with pancetta (but I know I'll forget the pancetta).
Wednesday
Falukorv i ugn, sorry this does not translate well. Sausage in oven! Child friendly, to say the least.
Thursday
Salmon in sesame seed and soy sauce, Asian stylee.
Friday
Proper bloke's lasagna (yes, J did the menu this week).
Saturday
Proper bloke's leftovers.
Sunday
The last of the venison. Very sad. But oh, how brilliant it has been!

Grey And A Little Blue

Saturday everything turned grey and yesterday the rain came. It's 4°C and drip drip dripping. Ice everywhere. Blanka fell once on her way to the car and once on her way from it. Driving lesson was a also a bit of a challenge, more like a skating experience than speed and safety.

Photos above from Saturday's excursion to the island where Marylove lives. Very pretty, very different. It's really close to the city, but feels like another continent. The children found the bridge from the mainland exciting going on terrifying. Or should I say "wicked", like Wilhelm did. It was. (And the eggs benedict weren't halfbad either.)

This week holds a lot of work for all of us and I find myself wondering how we will handle it. We could have started off better, for sure. But there's always tomorrow. Right?

Thanks for reading. Happy Monday. No ice for you, I hope.

Facetime

This started out as a an anonymous blog.
That didn't last very long.
I don't do anonymous very well.
It also started out as a blog where I'd talk about my children sometimes, but never show them.
That didn't last very long either.
And here we are today. A blog full of mememe and the kidskidskids and photos of everyone and everything.
Things like this can happen, I am told.
You start to tell a story and end up somewhere other than imagined.
I'm so glad I did.
That we did!
So I'm celebrating the fact that this place turned into something I didn't know I wanted with a recent photo of myself.
I know, huh. What a way to celebrate.
But I wanted to say Hi.
A proper Hello.
Hej.
Hullo, dear Brits.
Bonsoir, Hélène.
This is who I am.
This person with the big forehead and the unplucked eyebrows and the happiness is me.
And the future is wide open.

Thanks for reading.

Disconnected

My computer crashed. Dead, out, gone. Thought it was the end of it.
Now it's back in my loving arms and we're very slowly getting to know each other again.
It's a mess, but most things are still here. Upside down and in the wrong places, but here.
I am, for one.
Are you?

Love,
A.