Our growing family

Borås Djurpark

Yesterday daddy got to take work off and we went to the Zoo :)! I'm usually not a fan of the zoo (something about caged-in animals that seem so depressing). But, when kids are involved, somehow it changes the atmosphere and makes it okay. We all had so much fun! The weather was beautiful and everyone was just in a great mood. We got to see lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, zebras, elephants, giraffes, penguins, cheetahs, and all sorts of animals. Samuel and Sofia spent the day as each animal as we walked from one place to the other (Samuel always the daddy-animal, and Sofia the mommy, of course). Samuel's favorite was the lions that we got to see being feed (they fed them horse-meat...a surprise to me. Samuel was fascinated by how the lions tore into the meat and wondered why we also don't eat horses. (He also wondered who it was that killed the horses to give to the lions.) Sofia's favorite was the mommy orangutang holding her little baby orangutang. She was amazed at how the baby clung to her mommy and how the mommy would feed her (just how Sofia's mommy feeds Emmy). Sofia walked around for the next half hour being the mommy and pretending to hold her baby orangutang in her arms. So adorable! We came home after being there for nearly 7 hours all happy tired and glad. :)

Playing House

Sofia and Samuel have really gotten into playing house lately. Usually Sofia's the mommy and Samuel's the daddy and I end up as the little sister (Emmy's always the baby of course). But, the other day we had our good friend, Ida here who got to be the mommy while Sofia was the baby. I walked into Sofia and Samuel's room and saw Mommy-Ida laying in bed with her two babies just cuddling (note: Sofia does not have a binki...she's prentending, cause that's what babies have, right?). And I realized all over again how innate are genders are. Daddy-Samuel was off to work, so he wasn't home. And the girls lay close together cuddling, something Samuel has never done. It's amazing and so right and so cute to watch!

Strong Muscles

Samuel saw this shirt in the store the other day and immediately wanted to buy it (because it didn't have any sleeves, and then you could see his muscles and see how strong he was :)). So, I told him that if he wanted it, he'd have to earn the money himself to buy it. The shirt cost 80 SEK, so we decided he needed to earn "8 monies". The next 2-3 weeks he looked for every opportunity he could to help out around the house and do his jobs so that he could earn and save his money for his spider man shirt. He actually helped out quite a lot! Mom and dad were proud. When he finally earned enough money, he gave it all back and went and bought the shirt. He was so proud of himself and kept looking at his arm muscles and smiling! He got it monday morning and didn't want to wear it that day because he wasn't going to school until Tuesday and didn't want to get it dirty. However, since then, he's worn it every single day, until today (Saturday), when we finally decided he needed to throw it in the wash! Gotta love that kid!

Our two little runners

Samuel's preschool had a mini-race last week. Samuel was totally pumped since Chris had been training for his half-marathon and in preparation we had even gone out and bought some new running shoes (he needed new shoes anyways). He was so proud of himself as he dressed in his running clothes and shoes and ran his little heart out with his other 4 year old friends. It was really cool to see him get so into it and feel so proud of himself after coming across the finish line! (The race was a whole 200 meters).

Then last Saturday it was daddy's turn. Chris had been training quite a bit for this half-marathon, but a week before got a cold. His entire body felt week as he started the race and half way through he ended up throwing up. Needless to say, he finished with a time of 1:29 which is still incredibly fast! However, he was very disappointed. Samuel was pretty proud of him though :) And there's always next year. (which I plan on running as well!)

So, the big half-marathon is coming up this Saturday and poor Chris feels a cold coming on. He is hands-down the healthiest person I know and only days before he just happens to get a stuffed nose and sore throat. So, he is trying EVERYTHING to get rid of it. He came home today from the pharmacy with vitamin C, protein, zinc, omega 3, and a big bottle of breath-mints. Apparently, eating onion/kaviar-in-a-tube sandwich with herbal tea is a famous home-remedy guaranteed to get rid of colds. It's as gross as it sounds folks...wheat bread and two thick onion slices with kaviar spread across the top. Yikes! He thinks it's working and hopefully by Saturday he'll be feeling top-notch again. (needless to say, I've been keeping my distance...eating raw onion can get quite potent!)

Fun at Farfar's!

Farfar and Farmor have a little treehouse in their backyard that Sofia has recently learned to climb up all by herself :) These are a couple pictures farfar took while playing at their house one day.

This picture is so typical Samuel...he is always some superhero :)

The last couple weeks

Well, time is just flying! Grandma has come and gone. It was GREAT having her here and so sad when she had to go back to America. The kids absolutely loved her and I loved not only having an extra set of hands around helping with every little thing, but also the touch of home and familiarity that she brought with her. It was nice to be around MY family (well at least one person in my family) and be able to speak English and talk about things that only those who grew up in America would/could understand. Grandma Alder left having defrosted our freezer, weeded our little garden, planted flowers there, mopped the floors and the bathrooms, picked Samuel up from preschool every day, played with Samuel and Sofia for endless hours, told countless stories, woken up in the middle of the night to "deal with" our stubborn Sofia, and made dinner every single night for us! She really was a HUGE help! We're looking forward to aunt Heidi coming out in July and uncle Steve coming out in August!!!

Last Friday was a holiday so Chris was home. We had a great weekend. The weather's been beautiful (not so hot, but beautiful!), so we spent the day Friday in our huge down-town city park (Samuel and Sofia got to ride horses!), then Saturday we were at the beach (not so much beach as "rocky ground by ocean"). The ocean is about a 40 minute walk from our apt, so I took the stroller and meet Chris and the kids there. Samuel was sure it was warm enough to swim (60F), so he insisted on bringing his swimming suit, but after he waded in knee-deep, he quickly admitted it might still be a bit too cold.

In other news, I think we've finally decided on a name for out little princess. For some reason this has been so hard trying to decide and we still have yet to decide on a middle name, but I think we've landed on Emily (something) Malm and then call her Emmy for short. We've been so indecisive and changed her name so many times, that Samuel and Sofia have a hard time remembering what her name is and have to ask all the time. They end up referring to her as "the baby" most of the time. :) It's kind of funny, but hopefully they'll get it soon.

Emmy has been such a great little baby. Eating and sleeping like clockwork. But, I guess that's what most newborns do. I don't think the responsibility of having 3 children has hit yet since she kind of seems to just be in the background so far with sleeping so much. Samuel and Sofia are very cute with her. Although Sofia gets bored with her quickly since she doesn't really DO anything. Samuel on the other hand loves to just hold her and talk to her. It's very sweet.

Anyway, this post is long enough. Just thought we'd send some pictures of what's been happening. Enjoy!