A proud custodian!

Today, I got THE news from a very nice officer at the Swedish Tax Authority. Agne is Erik's sole custodian!

THIS IS BIG NEWS!

Next step will be contacting the authority who cares for that parental salary and child support wll be payed out. Agne will need to transfer his parental leave days to me asap. It needs to be done before Jennifer turns 2,5 on April 6th as I will loose a huge part of my income other ways. Hope it goes well!

Past weekend we went to our swimming hall again to enjoy some water fun. This time our camera was along :)

Relaxing after a nice swim

Jennifer loves this!

Happy!



Days of our life :)

These days are, I guess, just adorably average and my hardest challenge in everyday life is to get a good routine so that both kids would stay healthy, pink and happy. Erik and Jennifers needs are, of course, quite different and their requests might be a bit tricky to combine some moments. But on the other hand - this is all I dreamed of! I'm a mother of two wonderful, beautiful kids who turned out just as adorable as I ever imagined! I'm blessed. Not the least do I nowadays have a great husband aswell. Triple blessed :)

Two good things do I have to tell about. For the first, our Family Court has acknowledged the Proof of Fatherhood letter that our SM, N, got sent to her for signing. Wonderful Jaya at SI quickly called N, who came to the SI office the very next day. A week ago we got this valuable paper back again and on Monday it was signed under by our Family Court officer. Now it should be with the Tax Authority officer already and I'm currently trying to reach them in order to check that everything is allright now and Agne's sole custody of Erik is noted. Having this approved is going to be such a BIG step on the road. As soon as it is confirmed, I can apply for adoption (yeah, again, it sounds silly that I need to adopt the baby who is genetically all mine and whom I have been taking care of and breastfeeding since he was born).

Secondly, an earthly thing. When we were in Mumbai, we sent 3 parcels home. The two last ones, that we posted just the day before we left India, arrived after 2-3 weeks. But the first one,posted already on January 19th, has been kind of lost on the road. According to tracking, it was sent back and forward 4 times from Nitie Post office to Foreign Post office. Reason to this was obviously that Nitie Post office (right behind Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai) isn't ackredited to handle parcels to be sent outside India. Don't go there! Finally the parcel was somehow transfered to another post office and sent again. Thanks to the wonderful staff of Lakeside Chalet, we received this information along with a new tracking number. The worrisome thing was, that when we tracked our 9,5kg parcel, filled with childrens clothes, it was now stuck in Mumbai Foreign Post office since March 6th. Terribly worried that we would never see those clothes again, I asked for help from Amit and Heena at Ubiquity but they couldn't get out any information since they didn't have a receipt. Poor them and poor worried me. And now allthesudden, we got a message saying that a 9,5kg imported parcel is waiting for us at our post office! It seems like angels have helped us here and I'm thankful for it. I guess this was a kind of uninteresting story to read but it is a quite good example of  how things can work in India and how wonderfully helpful our friends there are. This is for you, my dear friends!!

Now, some pictures. Maybe many of them. Maybe even to many, but heey, it's my blog :)

Some horse back riding before bedtime. Erik in the gym behind

Jennifer wanted Erik to try aswell

Erik 11 weeks

Cuddling

Jennifer is not very fond of being taken on photo but with little brother it's alright :)

Why put money in the mattress if one can sleep with the piggy bank?

Findings in Jennifers bed after her afternoon nap

Jennifer with her daycare group on a mini-trip to the forest

A teddybear called Erik :)

A new bumbo got unexpected attention... or not unexpected at all :D

12 weeks and trying out his new swing

After bath

A great saturday and more not-so-much-news

After two very intensive working weeks for Agne, we could finally enjoy some family time all together. We went to the swimming hall where we have been so many times together with Jennifer. Jennifer has always been such a little fish, she absolutely loves to swim, dive and play in the pool. She had not been swimming since we came back from Mumbai one month ago. Boy was she happy to be there :) She was all smiles and loved the water as always. I was of course very curious about how Erik would react.

He loved it!

He was totally peaceful and enjoyed the warm water around him. Just like I hoped for. I hope we can go swimming many-many times alltogether. :) Will try to bring the camera aswell so we can share the joy.

The same evening Jennifer got to have some very longed for daddy-fun-time.

Wheeeyy, flyiiing :)

Cuddles

Evening fun

Erik has got the most beautiful knitted outfit from my mother :)

My treasures

11 weeks

We are still awaiting the paper to arrive from Mumbai that N has signed under. When it has come, we can hopefully have Agne's fatherhood and custody cleared. It is a boring and painful process but, I must say, ours has been quite smooth until now. I so hope it will continue like this aswell...

Tomorrow I will visit my ward at work. It's going to be wonderful :) Wednesday it's time for Erik's 2 months doctors check-up - a little delayed but still. I will keep you up to date with the results :)

2 Months

I just have to say that even though SO incredibly many fantastic things has happenend during last 2 months, I still can't understand it's already 2 months since the day when our little Erik was born. The sensation is yet so fresh; the look on Agne's face aswell as Jennifers expressions of joy when we all got to hold him for the very first time. When did this little bundle...

turn to this alert little guy?

All smiles and tongue out :)

Within 2 months we have been 6 weeks in India, became second time parents - totally in a different way than the first time - and got married. Twice. I've definitely had more boring months. I feel I left a part of my heart in this, Erik's country of birth. I MISS INDIA! I miss our doctors and the whole team SI, Heena, Amit and Shikha. I miss Lakeside Chalet with the people, pools and palm trees. Indian food, mmm... miss it toooo.

As March has arrived, our first month of spring season is here aswell :) I love spring! Our first "winter-fighters"are alredy in bloom!

When Jennifer turned 2 months, I took hand- and footprints of her. Of course, it was now Erik's turn to turn into a mini-hulk

This is just a beginning!

Turning more and more green...

Today we visited our Family Court, again. One more paper is needed for being able to give Agne custody of Erik. Now we are waiting for our surrogate, N, to sign it and SI staff send it back with FedEx. Hope for a quick process as we really-really want to proceed to next step, that's me applying for adoption of Erik.

Happy boy!

Oh, so good news!

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Wonderful everyday life

Days pass by just as quickly as I was scared they would do. Erik is 8 weeks already. Eight weeks!

Erik a week ago, 7 weeks in a sailors jacket knitted by my mother

Erik 8 weeks

He doesn't smile that often yet but when he does, it melts my heart. Most often he looks at me, looking like he was thinking of a good joke, kind of like Mona Lisa. He loves closeness and really doesn't want to be put in bed. As long as he can be close to the breast, he is a dream baby. But as you all know, it's kind of hard to manage daily life like that. I'm struggling sometimes when Agne is on business leave in many days but most often we are doing just fine. I'm lucky to have a very understanding daughter. Sometimes I wish I could give her more quality time alone with me. It's kind of hard to organize since I'm breastfeeding and Erik is yet so young and without clear sleeping routines.

Erik in mom's knitted sailors bodysuit, with daddy

My wonderful mother has knitted beautiful things for my little ones. A full sailors kit for Erik: hat, bodysuit, jacket and socks. And a warm hat and neckpiece for Jennifer. My mom is amazing with knitting!

Pretty in purple :)

Past weekend we celebrated Agne's birthday and we so enjoyed his family's visit. Thank you! And thank you for wonderful gifts!

Three generations of men

When it comes to other news, last week Jennifer declared that she wanted to sleep in the "big white bed" instead of the crib. She really seems to like it, although she now wakes up at night and can't resist to get up and call for attention. But she gets easily back to sleep only we come in and guide her back to bed.

We have been in touch with our Tax Authority, asking about the progress with giving Agne sole custody. The nice lady explained she needed a paper which prooves his paternity so this friday we are going for a new meeting with our Family Court.

I want to take the opportunity to congratulate my fellow bloggers for their new babies! I'm very happy for all of you. I wish you all the best and lots of happiness! AND, I want to congratulate those of my readers who reasently has got positive results on their attempts - you know who you are! Lots of LOVE and fingers crossed for a smooth pregnancy!

I'm officially a mrs

This week is supposed to be the coldest and most "wintery"of the year, at least according to statistics. Therefore, children in the South of Sweden celebrate winter holidays. But Mother Naturte decided to ignore that rule this year and melted all the snow during the past weekend so it kind of looks like spring outside. I love spring and therefore the rain on our Swedish wedding day was perfectly fine. It was beautiful anyway and we spent a wonderful day with our two best friends and their families. For different reasons it would had been impossible for us to gather our family members. Therefore, we decided early on that our Swedish wedding ceremony would only be witnessed by my oldest and best friend, Kristi, and her family and Agne's oldest and best friend, Simon, with his family. It was lots of fun and a very happy day, a memory that we will cherish forever. Kristi did my hair and helped me get dressed; I felt like a princess. :) We also got the most thoughtful gifts, which we absolutely love.

Speaking about Erik's paper process, nothing has really happened. He's got his social security number but our tax authority let us know that no custodian is registered. We are hoping the papers we left at family court soon will make a change in this matter. We continue to hope everything will go smoothly even though it might take some time. Erik is growing well and is continuosly on breastmilk only. He smiled back to me at 6w2d :)

Big news and lots of pictures

Yes, it's about time I sit down and give you a proper update. It will probably take quite a while to write this but hey, that's ok, right? :)

I better do this cronologically. SO, first of all, I must tell you about a wonderful day: 29th of January. Thanks to good friends, we had our hindu wedding in a small and simple tempel in Mumbai. It was totally according to our dreams and just as wonderful as we thought it would be.

Dressed for ceremony

One of the best things besides us finally getting married was that our dear dr. Yash and dr. Sudhir gave us the honor of being our maid of honor and best man. We are so happy they made our day so beautiful!

Dr. Yash and dr. Sudhir arrived in Swedish colors :)

Dr.Yash was by my side all the time to assist and translate - thank you!

He is mine!

Dr. Yash ties us together as a part of the ritual

Getting married in a hindu tempel is nothing like going in and out to the church - which we love!

The wedding ceremony was according to hindu traditions, with 7 vows and lots of rituals. Dr. Yash and dr. Sudhir were right next to us all the times and translated to us, what we needed to do. Since a brother must hand me over to my new husband, dr. Sudhir was happy to become my new brother and gave Agne's ear a good twist as a sign of being there for me in case Agne wouldn't take good care of me. It is a BIG honor and joy to be able to titulate dr. Sudhir not only as doctor but also as my brother.

Oh, Agne, you better take good care of me or my brother will twist your ear again!

Remember my mehendi? That's what it was for - our wedding day :)

Love is in the air!

After our wedding ceremony, which took about 2 hours, dr. Yash and dr. Sudhir invited us to share a wonderful wedding lunch at a perfect Indian restaurant on R City Mall top floor. We enjoyed traditional Indian food together with good friends, it was so perfect. I'm especially proud of being able to eat without spilling on my exclusive wedding saree :)

At the restaurant - wonderful, wonderful, mmm!

We will cherish our memories from that day very much. We are so happy as we are going to have two wedding days - one hindu and one Swedish, as we need to have our marriage registered here in Sweden aswell next saturday, the 18/2.

We truly miss Mumbai and our friends there very much and can't wait to be back. We even miss the Powai lake crocodile :)

Yes, he is for real! 3-4 meters of dino

I miss Lakeside Chalet with their staff a lot. Jennifer speaks often about going down to play with Silky in the play group. Nevertheless, it has been wonderful to meet our family members again.

3 generations

Yesterday we had an extremely busy day: we started with a visit at our local care center for leaving bacteria cultures from the whole family. This was in order to exclude the risk of being infected with any multiresistent bacteria in India. After this, we visited our family court and submitted papers that will hopefully give Agne sole custody of Erik. As per Swedish law, our surrogate mother, N, has sole custody of him and this must be changed as soon as possible. We also visited our Tax Authority in order to register Erik as Swedish inhabitant and "order" a personal identity number for him. This will, of course, take a couple of weeks, unfortunately. Please, pray for a quick process!

Erik is doing well and seems to have adapted to the climate quite well. Jennifer sure misses to swim and to play in Lakeside playgroup but she was very happy to see her old toys here at home when we came back. She was also very happy to see her aunty, grandfather and Mona.

A little bit more dressed than in Mumbai. BTW, this is one of few moments he has accepted a soother.