Good morning sunshine

22. December 2008 · Comments Off on Good morning sunshine · Categories: Uncategorised · Tags: , , ,

This was the view from our lounge shortly before sunrise yesterday morning:

The front of the house faces East, so the sun then popped up and blinded me throughout breakfast.

Today we picked up our (nearly) new car – a 1 year old Saab 9-5 station wagon. It’s a proper grownup family car, can run on petrol and/or ethanol, and can also go fast so L is happy. We also visited Skatteverket to apply for my personnummer, which is going to take some unspecified amount of time (usually 10 days, but it’s Christmas, so no-one knows). And of course we did some shopping – mostly Christmas shopping, but we got a tree holder for the Christmas tree that we don’t have yet.

In pregnancy news, the bump seemed to have a sudden growth spurt overnight on Saturday and I woke up feeling much bigger and heavier. Squirt is having some very active squirmy periods and I’m sometimes finding a little foot sticking out my right side, fairly high up. Occasionally I get some other body part poking lower down on my left hand side – I imagine Squirt is doing this:

Although, he/she is head-down, so you’ll have to invert that into an upside-down mini Travolta.

That’s my best guess to what’s going on, anyway.

mini break

10. December 2008 · Comments Off on mini break · Categories: Travel · Tags: ,

The week before last, we snuck off to Paris for a 3 night mini break, and (unlike my other half-dozen or so trips to Paris) we even managed to do some touristy stuff.

Our first outing was to the Chateaux de Versailles:

Which was sparkly.

The next day we descended into the Paris catacombs:

Not so sparkly. I was a little alarmed by the sign warning of the 130 steps down and 83 steps up that would be required, since even unpacking the dishwasher makes me start panting these days. But actually the staircases weren’t too much of a problem, and we went straight to a cafe for refreshments when we got out.

We also went to see Keith Jarrett doing a solo improvisation concert, and took a nice dinner cruise on the Seine. The set menu included a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine per couple – I had half a glass of champagne, and Linus made a valiant effort and managed to polish off most of the rest.

Back in London, we are in the thick of moving arrangements for the big shift to Sweden. The movers are coming next Wednesday to take our stuff, and we fly over on Friday. We are staying with my cousin in north London for the last 2 nights after all our belongings have left. The BMW is on Ebay and we’ve been looking at Saabs on the internet – ooh, to have a car with functional heating! What a treat!

There’s not much news on the pregnancy front. We had a bit of a growth spurt last week, so I suddently felt a bit heavier and really notice the increased waddle and the difficulty of rolling over in bed. I had my last appointment with our local GP yesterday, all was fine and she was confident that baby is head-down at the moment, so I’m hoping he/she stays that way. I’ll be 33 weeks when we fly, but SAS will accept pregnant lumps up to 36 weeks and I have a “fit to fly” letter from the GP so all should be fine.

Here’s a picture of the whole family in Paris:

knitting, knitting, knitting

21. November 2008 · Comments Off on knitting, knitting, knitting · Categories: Craft · Tags:

I’ve finished off a couple of baby things recently, although as usual they both sat around buttonless for a couple of weeks before being properly finished. Both are basic raglan-sleeved cardigans knit from the top down (no seams. I hate seams)

The first is from a 100% superwash wool that was donated by Ulla, from the Bjursås stash. I found some cute teddy-bear buttons to finish it off. The button photos is more accurate in terms of colour:


The second is made from Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, a lovely yarn that is 80% bamboo and 20% wool. It’s got a lovely silky feeling and nice sheen to it. It’s another top-down raglan cardigan, but with a V-neck this time and a simple cable down the sleeves. I had a packet of cheapo white buttons in my sewing bits to use on this one.


I also made a pair of socks recently for Paula’s belated birthday present. These were from Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, which was very very nice to work with. Much better than the cheap stuff I usually use for socks 🙂

My other recent knitting is for Christmas gifts, so I can’t post anything about it here 😉

it’s a … surprise!

12. October 2008 · Comments Off on it’s a … surprise! · Categories: Anneli · Tags: ,

we went for our 20 week scan this week, and were hoping to find out what we’re having. well, know we know – we’re having a stubborn little brat! he/she was not being very cooperative and the sonographer had to do a lot of poking and jiggling just to get a good view of all the bits she had to check and measure. when it came to trying to find out the sex, there were a pair of little feet planted firmly in the way, blocking any view of the baby bits. the sonographer very kindly offered to have us back for another go, after going for a walk and getting a coffee, to see if that helped. it didn’t, but at least we got a picture:

so, unless we decide at some later date to go for a private scan, this baby will be a february surprise.

house – before and after

05. October 2008 · Comments Off on house – before and after · Categories: Uncategorised · Tags: , , , ,

A full set of “before and after” photos of the flat are online now, here

And here is a picture of the belly last week, at 20 weeks:

This morning Squirt was kicking hard enough that we could actually see my tummy moving from the outside. We have the inaccurately named “20 week scan” this Thursday (at approx 22 weeks) and if Squirt is cooperative then we should be able to find out whether we should call it a he or a she.

Amazing lounge transformation

20. September 2008 · Comments Off on Amazing lounge transformation · Categories: Uncategorised · Tags: , , , ,

Today we got our new sofa and chair, and the lounge is complete! Here is a before photo, and a couple of after photos – the rest of the pictures are here

Before:

After:

It doesn’t seem a fair comparison when the “before” photos were taken just after the chaos of moving in, but I don’t have any other old pictures to compare with.

The flooring is strand-woven bamboo, which is both environmentally friendly and extremely hard wearing. The walls are a lighty mushroomy-beige colour, that doesn’t really show up accurately in the pictures. Overall we’re very pleased with how it all turned out!

it moves!

16. September 2008 · Comments Off on it moves! · Categories: Anneli · Tags: ,

A few weeks ago, I felt a twitch inside my abdomen, that felt a lot like one of those little convulsions you get in your eyelid sometimes. I decided it was far too early to be baby movement, so I forgot about it.

But now over the last week, the twitching has increased in frequency and intensity, and little Squirt is making his/her presence known. It’s quite a funny sensation – a lot like an eyelid convulsion, and a lot like someone is gently prodding me … from inside. It happens most if I’ve just been faffing around and doing a lot of things, and then I sit down and relax.

There hasn’t been a lot of other baby-related happenings – this stage is quite boring, actually. Squirt and I are both getting bigger, and I think I definitely “look pregnant” now. I have started prenatal yoga, and had my first unusual craving: limes. MMmmmmmm, limes. I bought a lime one day from the supermarket by work … I squeezed a little into the soup I had for lunch, but just ate most of it. Nom nom nom.

and here is the news

02. August 2008 · Comments Off on and here is the news · Categories: Anneli · Tags: ,

Everyone, meet Little Squirt

This was taken at the 12-week scan yesterday. One baby, one head, 2 arms and 2 legs with the correct distribution of hands and feet. We’re very excited, glad to let the cat out of the bag at last and looking forward to meeting Squirt whenever he/she decides to make an appearance (estimated Feb 8th 2009).

I’ve been feeling mostly fine, apart from a few bouts of nausea (but no vomiting), some headaches, and some serious bloating of the tummy which makes me look rather a lot more than 12 weeks pregnant (it really is only 12 weeks, I promise). I get tired pretty easily and I eat, burp, and pee frequently … not much different from usual, really 😉

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