Comme des cousins

Oscar, Ebba and Max are formally mom's cousins. But agewise they match me better, so I claim them to be mine.
(In big-child-playing decisionmaking is mainly based on age, remember? Now, my sitting group only has three chairs, and Max is over two months younger than I am. Consequently, he's not in the picture.)

Elusive Elsa

I have a busy social schedule these days. When our guests had taken off yesterday, we went to meet with Aaron and Elsa Holmquist, and their mom, another former dorm mate of mom and dad's. (Aaron and Elsa's dad is a friend of mom and dad's from university and dad claims to be the architect behind the match.) I don't have any good pictures to show. Elsa's two months older than I am and she runs away from the camera really fast. And Aaron, who's three years old, was more interested in his older cousin than in us. Nice acquaintances, both of them, though.

The perfect gardener...

...is the one who eliminates whatever weeds and waste the gardening produces, right?

How do I know these people?

It is a justified question, wouldn't you say? Or is type of behaviour just something you should expect to encounter when you're a baby? The answer is probably yes. Anyway, mom and dad and Calle and Ingelina and Martin and Mira all used to live in the same dorm back when they were students. Mira moved in with Martin on his 17 sqm. Calle and Ingelina met in the dorm, so they had 17 each. And mom and dad started out with 17 but by the time they moved out they had expanded to 34.(In case you're wondering, whatever impression you get from the pics, they seem to all have made it all right in life.)

Entertaining and being entertained

I get to meet new people all the time these days. My latest aquaintences are Ingelina and Calle and Mira and Martin. Ingelina and Calle came down from Stockholm on Friday night and yesterday, we did southern Öland, which you know all about by now. This time we also went into the little lighthouse museum by Långe Jan.

When Mira and Martin arrived last night, we went to the limestone quarry to watch dad and Calle swim in the cold water. It looked fantastic and I wanted to join. But to my great annoyance, Martin stopped me from getting in the water. Despite the fact that I tried to get in with my back first, just the way they've taught me to!

Big-child-playing with Freja

So today, I took all my new big-child-playing skills over to the Carnhede house, to play with Felix and Freja. Two problems became apparent: 1, Felix is too old to take interest in playing with me and 2, Freja is too young to appreciate the big-child-game. When I took her ball, she protested, despite the fact that I'm bigger. Maybe we'll continue the side by side game for a little bit longer...

Big-child-playing with Filip

Now that Filip has been here, I've practiced playing like big children - that is with each other as opposed to next to each other. For example we spent dinner last night sitting under the table, completely caught up in a very interesting discussion. And then Filip removed the heavy weights from my walking stroller and placed me there instead. You see, when big children play it's the biggest one that sets the rules.

At the southern tip - a very educational blog text

Like the vikings had a habit to do on the way to Gårdarike (Russia), all migratory birds in this part of the world stop to victual at the southern tip of Öland. Thus, the place once used to be really poor and populated by people who fled when they saw strangers. And now it's the Mecca for ornitologists. Filip and I studied birds as well. Or singular, perhaps, as in Mårten, the goose that Nils Holgersson flew on when Selma Lagerlöf let him visit all of Sweden a long long time ago.For people who are not so into birds, the southern tip of Öland is mainly known for its really tall light house, Långe Jan. To reach the top, you have to climb 197 steps. Something you only do once, if you have the choice. To fend Danish and main land invadors off, canons have been placed at the southern tip. Just kidding! Of course they didn't have such things as canons back in the dark and dangerous ages. Acutally, they used super big slings. At Eketorp Fort from the Iron Age, they show a miniature sling that actually works. The big kids use it to throw small paper balls and small stones at the visitors.

Exciting circus

Filip Berglund is here visiting with his parents. To show off a little, I'd ordered a circus to Grönhögen for the day he arrived (ok, maybe they had planned to come here anyway, but still, it was here!). It had it all: clowns (not so much fun), camels, jongleurs, horses, trapeze artists (all of those ok), and dogs (lots and lots of fun!!!).

A day out and about in Grönhögen

This week we've had a full house. Kia and Fredrik and Grandma and mom's cousin Kalle and his girlfriend Louise. Is it because I turned 10 months? We celebrated that as well as dad's birthday and mom's nameday this week. But I think the main reasons for the visits where the beauty of summer, friendship and Öland.

Kia and Fredrik also enjoyed the brisk winds that enabled their windsurfing, but today we just hung out in Grönhögen. We had lunch at the boat house café.

And whe I had my nap, Kia and Fredrik found a substitute for their heeds...

I've made two identical friends!

I've made friends with Molly and Emilia, 14 months. But they are absolutely identical and I can't tell who is who: they look the same, dress the same, move the same way and pull the same faces. At the same time. However, Molly is a bit more independent than Emilia, so if I had half an hour or so with them, I could probably tell them apart. I'm afraid the twin sisters will beat me badly in golf when we grow up. Their mom is a golf instructor, their dad a scratch-player and they where practically born on the golf course. In our case, dad is decent, mom has really good equipment and Manila golf courses are preventively priced for simple diplomats.
But like the twins, I live close to a good links course here at Öland. So if I get long summers here, I'll challenge them!

Tremendous Tuesday

Why so happy? Well, maybe because Grandma, Kia and Fredrik are here visiting. And maybe because mom found a good-sized swimmingpool in the basement, perfect for cooling down between the rain showers...
Ps. Notice the whiteish wooden floors in the background? The result of many hours of hard supervision!

Bring'em on!

I'm a big child now. Almost tall enough to take a walk with the stroller. Really looking forward to practicing my care-taking skills live. Come visit, baby Max! Let's play, baby Freja! Hurry up and get born, Signe's baby bro! I'm ready for you!

Making up for scarcity at home

Usually, I barely have any balls to play with. But at the Kosta playground, where we stopped on the way back home, there was no shortage at all!

Decorating for the parents' anniversary

I'm not sure how I feel about mom and dad celebrating their second anniversary by leaving me with Grandma and Grandpa for the night. It's not that I didn't enjoy sleeping there, but I also didn't really like it that they seemed to take pleasure in my absence! Despite that, I decided to help out with the decoration of their hotel bathroom:

Dad and I are amazing flying superheroes!

Today dad and I developed a head-worn disguise that made it possible for us to invisibly fly through the house. Very useful if you'd, for example, like to be able to open the dishwasher without Grandpa noticing. (In case you're wondering what tricks I'm contemplaing in this picture.) As you may have noticed in the past couple of blog posts, we've been down in Helsingborg for a couple of days, so it's Grandma and Grandpa's house and dishwasher I'm talking about. Tomorrow, we're heading back home to the back-country, where the table top dishwasher is impossible to reach, no matter how invisible you are.

Weaning the Swedish way

All Swedish kids seem to love gruel. Cheered on by their parents (who appreciate the nutrients of the vitamine and iron enriched mixture), they have it for breakfast and before going to bed. I'm slowly getting there too, but it's mainly a social move.

Better being bathing baby

Bath-tub-swimming with Signe is something I enjoy a lot more than she does. She thinks I splash too much. And she has a point: I still have some work to do on my motor skills. And when the water is just the right temperature and the company good, I just can't help myself! Thus, her streched up arms is a sign of her wanting to leave the ship rather than a joyous move. Alas.

Don't mind me!

Lisa's a medical doctor now, which we celebrated in old-fashioned style, with sandwich layer cake, seven kinds of butter cookies and champagne. Actually, the term "we" is incorrect in this case. They celebrated with all those goodies - I didn't get to taste any of it. However, I had a feeling that would be the case, so I didn't bother to help with the preparations either.

But to be honest, I did enjoy myself at the party!

Like a dark clowd

The title of a Swedish punk song from the 80's translates to: "Behind my sunglasses" followed by: "I can be myself". What were they thinking? I find sunglasses uncomfortable, in the way and they alter both my apparence and the apparence of the world (neither of which I think is called for). And no, it doesn't matter that Emely, dad and Nicke wear them as well. Behind MY shades, I can be nothing but annoyed.

Going golfing

Nicke and Emely are here. And since we live next to a terrific links course and they are avid golfers, we've been out playing. As soon as we reach the tee of the first hole, my stroller turns into a golf cart. Just like that.