Speaking of India...

Yesterday, as we were walking home from Jennifers daycare, she wanted to talk about how we flew to India, what we did, saw and the people she met. I was so amazed about how much she remembers. She spoke even about Taj Mahal, which she saw when she was 14 months! She said she misses India, our surrogate, N, dr's Yash and Sudhir aswell as Amit and Heena. And Silky, the kids group teacher from the Lakeside Chalet. When we arrived back home, she insisted on a "dot in her forehead". And, she brought her favourite bathtube ducks and called them Roshan and Sidhi. :)
Today, walking the same road, she said "Mommy," - "Yes?" - "India. I like India. And I miss dr. Yash. I want to go to dr. Yash. Not to dr. Sudhir. To dr. Yash. And play with dr. Sudhir". Back home, she prompted me on showing her pictures from our last trip. Amazing, how many details and feelings she remembers and tells me about when she looks at those photos. Both me and Agne kind of thought that she was to small to be able to remember this fabulous adventure we took her on but, I believe, we were wrong. She is such a smart little girl, developing so much each day, really. Her vocabulary is great, she speaks clearly and is very good at expressing her feelings and intuitive about others emotions. This week, when the daycare opened again after summer break, Jennifer went there for the first time without diapers.  It works great and she quickly learned to tell the teachers when she needs to go to bathroom. :) She only has a diaper during nighttime now.

Trying on daddy's boxing gloves .)

The only thing Jennifer does not do so well is eating. On that point she is just like I was. She just does not have that big appetite and tends to prefer proteins and veggies, not carbs that are more rich in energy. Everybody says, kids grow so much during the summer but I really didn't believe she had done so. As I put on her pants for going to the daycare this monday, after 4 weeks at home, I got a view like this:

WOW! When I looked at her closer, her legs really had grown a lot!

Agne has started working again and is at the moment in Spain on a job conference. I was kind of spoilt during the summer, having him around most of the time so the first days without him made me missing him like crazy. Despite that, I have had a good routine for managing both kids well. Ever since Erik started to sit by himself, he is so much easier to deal with and to entertain. Jennifer too finds him more fun and tries to play with him :)

Our happy little boy is doing good. He still has 2 teeth, eats and sleeps well. He sits well and loves to play, reacts clearly on his name, loves to play pickaboo. No signs of wanting to crawl, yet, but he's more happy to lay on his tummy and can turn around in order to get a toy further away from him.

I have managed to program him to take his first nap as we walk at 10:30AM to pick up Jennifer from daycare. The second nap is coordinated with Jennifers afternoon nap at 2PM. Also at nights, Jennifer goes to bed at 8PM, whichafter Erik gets his evening cereal and goes to bed aswell. This has given me the whole new oportunity to do some very needed workout. During Agne's vacation I finally could start going out for running again. Wonderful but boy, was I in bad shape at the beginning.

I tried to weigh Erik at home the other day. According to it, he weights whooping 9,7 kg! 

At the sea with grandfather. Jennfier loves to join  him in his fishing boat along with daddy and see the eel 

That's all, folks! Thank you so much for reading and following.

Bessie loves to lay down close by when Erik is out
and playing

Look who...

can sit really well :)

<3

Our little doctor also gave Agne a free ear checkup today. This girl  most certainly knows what to do with an orthoscope... :) 

Having fun at my father-in-law's tonight; us and my sister-in-law aka "Lala" as Jennifer calls her

7 months, Estonia and back

Happy 7 month birthday, our treasure!

We have had a great week in Estonia. As I've told earlier, this is the country where I grew up and lived until I was 18 years and finished college. My parents still live there, as the most of my family - besides my sister who also lives in Sweden nowadays. Last time I visited Estonia was 2008, before I got pregnant with Jennifer. So it was definitely about time to go back. The first visit for both of my children. Yes, MY children! The day before we left, I received a letter from the court confirming that I now have custody of Erik aswell. I am his mother also in the eye of the law. With this, our whole process has come to its end. It took 6 months. I am so happy and humble.

Our trip to Estonia was wonderful and way to short. But still, we managed to meet some fantastic persons and do some fun stuff. I'll tell you in pictures :)

It all began with that our dear friends - Joyris and Lars with their kids arrived from Gothenburg. They stayed in our house and took care of our animals during our trip.

As they took care of our kids, I managed to do some gardening before we left

This photo is taken at Copenhagen airport just before boarding. Erik had had a meal and Jennifer made sure he had a good zip of water before we departed :)

Our kids are made for flying and travelling. Jennifer was so happy to fly again!

At my parents house

Having fun at my parents

Mom, Jennifer and dad

At Tallinn Zoo

Jennifer tried horse back riding for the first time. First she tried the pony...

Then she headed for a horse :)

We went swimming, the weather was fantastic the whole week.

Jennifer enjoying the sand and water

Tallinn downtown

Town hall of Tallinn

Having fun with my best friends kids

Before my godsons baptising

me and my godson

daddy and Erik in church

Jennifer, church dressed and happily playing

Long live Estonia!

My cousin and Jennifer

my auntie Ella <3

We also visited our highschool and college teacher. Here's me and my best friend along with our dear teacher.

my best friends and our children together

on our way back home

Jennifer happy in the train

Little Wiking report

He surely looks like a wiking nowadays. :) Here's an Erik-update:

* Monday the 9th we visited our childrens nurse for measuring and weighing. Erik had grown a LOT! He measured 8880g and was 67,5 cm.
* Today, it was time for our 6-months doctors visit. As our beloved doctor expressed, he's an "exellent baby". 8970g and 67,5cm.
* Until now, Erik has made noises like "grrrrrrrrr" and, sometimes, "määää". Past saturday, the 14th of July, Erik started to say "Babababa". It is really, really cute. :)

* Erik is still a good eater and seems to like everything. He likes his baby porridge - oats in the morning and  spelt in the evenings (both ecological). He manages to eat so much more solids than Jennifer did at 6 months. Sometimes, his portions are maybe even bigger than we could tease Jenni to eat at the age of 1. Until now, feeding Erik has been a true joy.

Grandpa' and Mona swinging our treasures

Auntie Ingela and Mona giving Jennifer a biking lesson

* We used to have 3 40-years old birches in our backyard. They were absolutely beautiful, yet they made the backyard a bit more shady than we wished to. Also, the lawn got only worse and worse. We asked our neighbours and they were happy to help us to remove 2 of the birches.

One of our neighbours making preparations

Getting ready for birch two to fall right

Jennifer in our back yard with Bessie and Jöns the Ragdoll

Bessie is our 9-year old Owcharka/German shepherd mix. For 2 past weeks she has been really limb and we have been worrying since the usual Green-lipped mussel pill has not helped to reduce the inflammation in the arthritis troubled joint she has. Yesterday, Agne took her to the vet. She got antiinflammatory painkillers and today already it seems like we have a whole new Bessie. She is so much back to normal - curious, glad to join us and relaxed. I so hope she can stay with us for a couple of years. She is a very large dog and I know she wont become the oldest dog in the world. But we love her dearly and hope for the best.

Erik playing :)

Love to your all and thank you for following me.

6 months and lots of feelings

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR HALF-BIRTHDAY, OUR HAPPY MIRACLE!

If you look really carefully, you'll see his first tooth, too :)
It grows every minute!

 Incredible, how time flies. Today, my parents left us and flew back to Estonia. Luckily, we are soon off to visit them. Jennifer is so used to kiss and hug them goodnight and Erik loves to be held by my mother and seems to have a very special connection to my father, too. But boy, does the house feel hollow today. Agne too had to leave for a business trip. All the sudden I'm all alone with my two treasures and fury friends.

I have been thinking a lot lately, how incredible it really is, that we have Erik. How fantastic our doctors, Yashodhara and Sudhir truly are. What an amazing journey we made in order to have another child. We really really worked hard and travelled far, we gave everything we had (and could loan) and we were so blessed. He was there for us.
Each and every child is a miracle. Erik is too, given to us by a fantastic lady, mrs N. As easily as Jennifer came to us, as hard was it to have Erik. Interestingly, still, they are same. Both as adorable, as dearly beloved and created by same parents. We needed  HELP and helping each others, loving is what man kind is made to do.

It was a horrible pain to learn that I no longer could carry a child. Coming home from the hospital, holding a 4 months baby Jennifer in my hands and knowing she is the only one who got to grow in my perfect uterus, now gone, was totally terrifying. There was such a conflict in my head. On one hand I was just her mother, nursing and taking care of my baby. On the other hand, someone had made it impossible to get pregnant. I knew I had had cancer but I had never felt ill. I was still in my happy-first -time-parent-bubble and someone popped it with a big BANG! What should I do now? Would Agne still want me? Would I survive? What about my plan of being a surrogate for my sister?

Sitting here, 2 1/2 years later, holding this little miracle who loves sleeping on my arm, milk drunk and adorable, I feel so blessed. Thanks to this little child, I have a complete family. Thanks to him I have a husband (we probably would never married if it wasn't for the legal process of getting custody of Erik), Jennifer has someone to grow up with, to play with and lean on when they are grown. Thanks to Erik, I have met so many incredible persons - drs Sudhir and Yash, everyone of team Surrogacy India, our surrogate, N, and her family, dr. Bijal Shrivastava and all the wonderful nurses of Hiranandani hospital. Our dear friends Amit and Heena, Nutan and Jasbinder. I wouldn't have my Indian Brother. We got to see and love a whole new country far, far away from Sweden. I LOVE India! I love my family! I love our little Wiking. Made in India, still so Nordic.

Happy to have eachother

Erik has popped his second tooth today. He's a healthy baby, a good eater - at least for now. I am so lucky each time I scoop spoons with food into his mouth. It's so much fun :) Hopefully he'll keep up the good spirit of eating.

Strawberries are soooo good!

While my mom and Erik inspected the berries,
Jennifer was so amazed to see such a big amount of strawberries

 He is getting very very interested in discovering the world. Erik grabs things you give to him and those you don't. He studies persons around him and is so aware of everything. He starts to practice crawling and tries to sit on his own.

Nothing's like sitting in your own backyard

A good, soft place to practice sitting.

                                                                                                                 

















Every week I help someone who is about to start or in the middle of their surrogacy road. I love it. When we were about to start our surrogacy journey, I knew so little and there were so few people in Sweden who could help me. SI hadn't had so many Swedish customers yet. I searched for information day and night, so happy there was an international forum, the Surrogacy India forum. Today, when I share the hope, excitement, joy and sorrow of others, I feel so blessed. I am so happy to help but also SO happy our road is complete and almost over - just waiting for the Court to give me custody of Erik. To make me his legal mother.

I AM SO BLESSED!