1 year ago...

... we standed, with huge excitement, weak knees and bumping hearts, waiting for a new miracle to be born. Born in a completely different way compared to our first child. Born thanks to a very brave and kind lady, who will be in our hearts forever. N, not a day passes by without thinking of you and your family.

It was dr. Yash who brought our Little Viking to us, wrapped in a green operation sheet. "It's your little brother," she softly told Jennifer. Our family was complete - two precious miracles. No matter how they are created and born, they are made of  LOVE.

The arrival of two past years - 2011 and 2012 - my hubby, Jennifer and I celebrated in Mumbai with fantastic, huge, delicious dinners. Hence it was almost a bit strange to be in the cold Sweden to welcome 2013. But it was wonderful as we could be with good friends. 

Joyris, Jorell, Lars and DJ celebrating New Year with us

Nevertheless, my thoughts were in Mumbai many times during this evening and when the New Year bells rang in India, I had to take a break for sending a text message to our friends and doctors, wishing them a happy new year. 

These past weeks truly have been hectic and we realized, that's how life is going to be every year: it starts with my birthday celebrations (=dinner) on December 18th, continues with Christmas Eve (=tons of food preparations), then New Years Eve (=fancy dinner, again)  and on January 2nd, Eriks birthday (well, you guessed right, dinner again). 

Our family on Christmas Eve

My sister with her family visited us for Christmas this year which was fantastic

Crazy Estonian sisters and their kids :)

Back to today, we have a big boy now and no more baby! Indeed, even if it's hard to realize, also these longed for miracle babies, made in India, grow and turn one. As you wait for your little bundle of joy and happiness, you don't think of them turning 1. At least I was very much focused on the moment of holding my new baby, breastfeeding and feeling the "complete family feeling", which obviously was going to overwhealm us totally (which it did, too!). Today, I looked at my cheeky little boy as he was admiring his birthday balloons, saying little (real) words, I was overwhealmed by pride, joy and LOVE. He got many extra hugs, while I was thinking of how grateful I am for him being our son. We love you so much, little Erik! And, you have the best big sister in the world. A big sister, who gladly helped you with blowing out your candle today and opening your presents, too :) We are the luckiest parents on Earth!

New Years Eve

Our happy girl on New Years Eve

Erik is saying "hej" ("Hi") as daddy takes the picture on New Years Eve

Happy happy birthday, our Erik!! 

.... and I'm so so sorry, but tomorrow it's time for your vaccinations. I'll return with his weight and length tomorrow!
***
Weight at 1 year: 11 505g, height 75cm, head circumference 46,5cm
Erik doesn't walk by himself yet, but he rises up from the floor without support, walks along furniture and can walk next to us when we hold one of his hands. Cuteness all over! He loves to say "Hej" and "Där!" ("there"). He has got 2 new teeth (molars) (10 teeth totally) and there is more to come soon. The only trouble right now is actually hes slee. He is weaned - I stopped breastfeeding on December 11th which went great. After a week he slept really well in his own crib all throgh the night. Unfortunately, right now he wants to hold hands (with me) when he sleeps and wakes up many times in his crib before we go to bed around midnight. Inbetween us he sleeps tightly and well. I suppose, it is a combination of guests in the house, learning so much new, a slight cold and teething. I spoke to our childrens nurse today at our appointment and she recommended to give him the extra closeness he obviously needs at the moment, wait until teething and his cold are over and our everyday life is back to normal. She said, Erik will probably sleep better again since he just won't wake up as easily if nothing bothers him.  Longing for a good-sleep-period!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From our family to you! Happy Holidays!

My blueberry babies :)

Birthday kisses for mommy

Look what I can do now!

It's....

DECEMBER 2ND, ERIK IS 11 MONTHS AND IT'S SNOWING!!

Happy 11-months day, our darling!

Erik is such a strong little boy. He gets and stands up very easily now. He has been standing without support a couple of times but yet it's nothing he seems to desire to do, really. (Which is a bit funny, since Jennifer was standing without support at 9 and walking by 10 months of age). He's a super quick crawler and a real p..n in the a.. for Bessie since he loves to climb up on her too, which she strongly dislikes. Our Little Viking really loves a big plastic police car. He makes car noise and drives it around a LOT. As it comes to words and sounds part, he definitely says "Hej" (Hi), "Mamma" (mommy), "Oj" (wow/oops), "Nej" (no). Besides that, he can make different funny sounds which we have learned him.  

Heading towards the hill

It was very slipery

Our snow dog, happy and relaxed. She LOVES snow.

Hungry!!

In the swimming hall, we all loved it

Jennifer and I did som Christmas-time baking

It has happened. As Jennifer was about the same age, she fell asleep while eating.
Now it was Erik's turn :)

Eye candy :)

Now I stand most of the time.
Sometimes I stand by myself a couple of seconds, too!

Doctor Jennifer gives me an injection.

Right before bedtime

Just a moment before it all fell into the floor :)

¨

AND GUESS, WHO'S GOT 7 TEETH!

10 months! (picture heavy)

Our happy little Mohican :)

At 10 months, Erik:
* Weights 10540 grams
* Measures 72,5 cm
* Has been crawling for several weeks now

* Can stand up against furniture - or me
* Loves to walk with support
* Is still breastfed but only a few times per day - mainly between 3-7 AM
* Loves the bath time with his big sister

* Continues to be a good eater. At the same age, Jennifer weighted 2 kg less than Erik, while being almost as tall as he. Jennifer, on the other hand, has never been a big eater - at least not after 6 months of age when we introduced solid food. Today Erik most often eats as much as she does - at the age of 3. And I wouldn't say he eats supersize portions. Here we really need to think, what's normal for Jennifer and what's for Erik. They are SO different when it comes to food.
* Loves to bite my shoulder when he sits on my hip. He bites HARD. He also fancies my other body parts and I have bite marks that look like snake bites here and there. Nevertheless, he is clever enough not to bite when he is being breastfed.
* Tries to say "tack" ("thanks" in swedish) - "tah-tah," he says. Cute!
* Is getting pretty good at going to sleep in the evening and can self soothe, at least until early morning hours. At that time I just want him to fall asleep ASAP so I pick him up from the crib and nurse him back to sleep as we co-sleep the rest of the night. It works good for us right now. He goes to sleep at 8PM and sleeps until 7-8AM, waking up 2-3 times. During daytime, he has his first nap around 10:30AM as we walk to the daycare to pick up Jennifer. He usually only sleeps around 30 minutes or so. In the afternoon he sleeps somewhere between 2-5PM. Sometimes he sleeps really well, about 2-2,5 hours, sometimes only an hour.

* Loves to swing

* Has got his BCG vaccination which is developing perfectly

November is one of the worst months of the year here in the South of Sweden. The weather is really ugly, being windy, rainy, cold and dark as there is no snow here yet. The days are so short and the trees are naked. We have raked the most of our cherry tree leaves past weekend and there is only a little left for this weekend ahead - if it won't pour the whole time. I wish we could pack our bags and fly to Mumbai...

If you look closely, you can see our cats in their outdoor fence in our backyard

Jennifer has discovered baking and I try to do that with her as often as I possibly can. It's a lot of fun! I wish she would eat what we have baked though, which she rarely does...

Jennifer also has pretty quickly learned how to play Memory. This is a daddy-princess thing. They often play Memory after dinner. I love to see them do that.

Today, as we were walking home from the prescool, Jennifer said she wanted me to take pictures with her and Bessie. I got some fantastic photos, I must say. Jenni is so big now that Bessie trusts her not to be that kind of a terrorist that Erik is, hence she really loves her attention. 

We tried to take a family picture couple of weeks ago. It wasn't the easiest thing to do. We need help with getting a good one!!!

Sending a lot of love to you all. Tons of baby dust to those who still are on the bumpy road of infertility. I deeply hope you will be able to snuggle your own babies soon!!!

Jennifer 3 years!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETHEART! 

You're 3 now!!

Our birthday-girl with the owl-hat she got from her best friend, She LOVES it!
Thank you,  Alexander (and his mommy and daddy)!

Jennifer helping mommy with preparations

Erik, looking handsome on big sisters birthday party.
Walking is da thing :)

Princess with her new toys. No time for posing :)

A post-party picture from tonight, right before bed-time.
Both kids acting really tired in their own silly way.  

9 MONTHS!

Our little Viking is 9 months. It's incredible, truly!

Erik has 6 teeth. He is still in high level training in order to start crawling properly, BUT he is definitely on the move. If I sit him down at his toy box, I can be sure of finding him several meters away from it and probably not sitting any more. He is very good att turning around in sitting position, comes easily up to crawling position, can move backwards but has just not taken this first step forward. We are waiting with great excitement! :) He also has truly discovered and LOVES to walk when we hold his hands. I think this is his favourite thing right now.
He is more and more expressing himself with "mamama" and "dadada" and similar sounds. He also says "heeey", especially when he sees our cats or dog. He loves when we imitate him and laughs so easily. He's our chubby happy boy. Even now when he has got a slight cold from me (I have been way more sick than he or Jennifer), he eats and sleeps quite allright. Despite my constant coughing. Somewhere around midnight he usually wakes up and we co-sleep after that. It works best for us as he is not weaned yet. He loves both breastfeeding and co-sleeping, hence, right now I'm happy that he sleeps in his own bed until I go to bed.

 Erik loves toys on wheels. His favourite thing at the moment is a truck that I once bought for Jennifer and which she loved aswell. It plays more than 12 different sounds and melodies. But I think Erik likes it because of the wheels. He loves to sit and roll it forward and back. Today we also rolled the car between us - so much fun. He can not push it properly yet but he knows how to clap on it so it rolls away bit.

Erik loves bath-time. He splashes so the floor is wet and laughs a lot while doing it. Jennifer and Erik always bathe together, something they both appreciate very much.

Tomorrow it's time for his BCG vaccination (against tuberculosis). Hope his immunization process goes as smoothly as it did for Jennifer.

In the middle of September we visited a Viking market close by. It was a lot of fun, a great day outdoors. Jennifer enjoyed horseback-riding, as always :) She is already so stable on the horse back, sitting straight and keeping the balance.

As Erik is growing, Jennifer and he associate more and more. Jennifer really tries to entertain him or to involve him in a game. It's cute but we really must watch them carefully as Jennifer can be somewhat tuff on him sometimes when he doesn't do as she hopes him to do. But they do have a lot of fun together already!

Our treasures in a treasure box :)

Jennifer has given Bessie some extra attention lately.

She is just to CUTE, this little person! She talks very well now, correcting us if we say something in a silly way. Jenni is very caring. For example, she currently asks me every day how my throat is doing :) For couple of weeks ago, she quitted having her afternoon nap. She just wouldn't fall asleep anymore. It felt like an era had come to its end, a bit earlier than I thought. And she never even asked if I was ready to skip my afternoon rest!

She grows so quickly - on Saturday she will be 3 years. Incredible. 3 years ago they put her on my chest as she took her first breath of air. 3 years ago we planned to get pregnant again very soon. I had the most perfect uterus and was happily unaware of my cervical cancer that was obviously there, waiting to be diagnosed. So much has happened since that day. So much indeed. We have achieved so much!