Trip to Sweden

We had a fantastic time in Sweden. The babies did incredibly well with all the new experiences, I got to meet some more members of Dan's family and see more of the real Sweden and Dan got to catch up with loved ones after a very long time away.

The Flight

This was the thing I'd been most nervous about but in fact the flight itself went really well.

We woke the babies up at 4:30 am to get the 4:45 taxi for our 7 am flight. They didn't make any fuss and in fact seemed quite chilled out to be up that early and going to a strange place.

It was a bit tricky at first at the airport with all the bits and pieces we had with us but once we'd checked in the suitcases and car seats, things weren't too bad. We went through the airport with the babies each in single strollers and just three items of hand luggage between us. We were able to pick up some formula and baby food at Boots air-side which was very convenient and everything went well.

Once on board, Ella decided to have a bit of an ongoing whine which worried me a bit as I felt sure the other passengers were thinking negative thoughts about being stuck with whiny babies. She turned out just to be thirsty and stopped whining as soon as she had some juice to drink. Take-off was fine with no ear issues. We made sure to have juice and dummies on hand for take off and landing.

Carl fell asleep fairly soon after takeoff with Ella following suit a little later. We actually managed to eat the meal despite having a baby on each lap and all in all it was a really pleasant experience. The staff on board were lovely and very helpful.

Copenhagen / Bridge to Sweden

We landed at Copenhagen airport for our extremely brief visit to Denmark and I believe it must be the worst signposted airport ever. There were no directional signs for anywhere. You only found the sign when you were at the place you needed to be directed to. We somehow found the car rental desk despite this and got our car organised. Then  made our 5 minute walk (our only Danish time) to the car park to pick up the BMW estate they gave us. Once we'd figured out how on earth to fit everything in it, we were off. Dan did well with the Krypton Factor luggage and buggy positioning challenge!

Driving on the wrong/other side of the road posed almost no issues and within about 5 minutes we were crossing the Oresund bridge which connects Sweden to Denmark. It's a beautiful bridge and takes a very long time to cross, not surprising as it is 16km long. It's a stunning piece of architecture.

Sweden

The drive from Malmo to Ronneby where we were staying was lovely.

The babies slept for quite a bit of it and I got to see the Swedish countryside. For Dan it was somewhat of a trip down memory lane. The last time he drove here was sadly for his grandmother's funeral but this trip was in much happier conditions. We were both really looking forward to being able to introduce Carl and Ella to their Swedish relatives. We stopped in a small town called Bromolla for lunch which had a lovely lake.

It was a really hot day but despite Dan's suggestions, no swimming took place. This was mainly due to how much hassle it would have been to find the swimming stuff in the full car boot.

Ronneby Brunn

We stayed in a lovely hotel in a family room which was large enough for two cots and had a curtain to divide the room in half. This was perfect as we could partition the room off once the babies had gone to bed or whenever we wanted them to nap in the daytime. We unpacked the essentials then, as the weather was glorious, we went for a drink on the terrace followed by dinner at the hotel's restaurant.

The babies were incredibly well behaved at dinner despite having got up at 4:30am that day. We even had another hotel guest come over to us to say how well behaved they were and how cute they were chattering away to each other. Proud parents moment.

The hotel was lovely. It had a spa which both Dan and I had a turn at using on our own during the week for some well deserved RnR as well as a huge outdoor fun pool complex which we didn't use but hope to return to one year when the babies are older. It's a very large hotel and it did take quite some time to walk from our room over to the restaurant for breakfast each morning.

It's set in a lovely park, Ronneby Brunn which we explored on the Sunday and had a Japanese garden, its own lake and all sorts of other beautiful features.

All around the park are outdoor barbecuing grills for public use, very civilised.

It was an incredibly warm day. Here's a picture of Ella after Daddy applied suncream all over her head.

Visits to the local area

We made good use of the rental car to visit some places from Dan's childhood, some places which his mum grew up in and places generally of interest to his family history. It was lovely to see these places which I'd heard so much of over the years and to finally have a sense of the area. For Dan, it was very special to relive childhood holidays and revisit places he hadn't been to for a long time. This is the old water tower that Dan and his brother used to walk up to from his grandmother's flat. 

Ronneby

We saw the house his mum grew up in which is a beautiful house in the historical quarter. We also went to see his grandmother's flat where they spent many summer holidays.A highlight here was the church in which Dan's parents got married and also where Dan was baptised. It's a beautiful church with an interesting history. Inside it is very dramatic and quite breathtaking.

 Less sentimental revisits included the local ICA Maxi supermarket where we bought some Swedish things for Carl and Ella, some chocolate from Dan's childhood and had the best meatball and mash of the week! We puzzled over the punctuation in the name of the smaller supermarket in town though!

Saxemara and Svanevik

Of special mention were the trips to Saxemara and Svanevik. Svanevik (Swan Bay) is an archipelago with a number of houses. It has water on both sides and is extremely scenic. Dan's grandfather on his mum's side grew up here and old censuses have his family resident at 2 different house numbers over the decades. It's also the name Dan's parents gave to their house here in Maidenhead so it's a name I know well. It was wonderful to see the original Svanevik for me. 

Saxemara church is where a number of Dan's relatives are buried and a graveyard he has described to me in the past. We visited the grave of his grandparents on his mum's side and paid our respects to Karl and Elin with Carl and Ella.

It is a truly beautiful spot with a view of the sea and incredibly peaceful.

Karlskrona

On the last full day, we also visited Karlskrona, the nearest main town. It consists of a series of interconnected islands and has sea views at every turn. We stopped to look at the harbour and actually saw a submarine moving around. We assume it was a Swedish submarine, as opposed to a Russian one :-) We also paid the obligatory visit to the statue of Rosenblom, whose story can be read here - The Tale Of Rosenbom
The babies have become quite used to eating out during this holiday, as even breakfast was in the hotel restaurant. They are now experts at perusing menus and sitting well in (of course IKEA) high chairs.

Family Visits

The highlight of our trip and indeed the main purpose of the holiday full stop was the visits to Dan's relatives. I was delighted to meet the people I had heard so much about. Dan was over the moon to be reunited with them and Carl and Ella were happy to be made such a fuss of.

Firstly we met Dan's aunt, Siw, her husband, Lars, their son, Martin and his partner, Frida at their home in Ramdala.

We were given such a warm welcome by them all. I was nervous as I couldn't speak Swedish and Dan was nervous about whether his Swedish was too rusty. In fact we all communicated wonderfully. Dan's Swedish  was absolutely fine and he was able to converse for the entire afternoon, even having political debate with his uncle! I was delighted to find out that Frida spoke great English and so I was able to have conversations even when Dan was in full Swedish flow.

Dan's aunt, Siw was utterly lovely and looked so much like my mother in law, Ulla.

The babies may even have thought they were at Nanna's house. It was lovely to be welcomed into a traditional Swedish home and have a delicious meal with lovely people. I was amazed to see a graduation photo of Dan on the wall too which made us feel at home despite being many miles away. We spent quite a few hours there inside and outside in the garden and Carl and Ella were given fantastic presents from everyone.

Secondly at the weekend we were delighted to be able to visit Dan's other cousin, Mikael and his partner, Cina at their home in Jamjo.

Once again we were given a wonderfully warm welcome and Dan's Swedish was put to good practice. Again, I was delighted to find out that Mikael and Cina could speak English well and so we were able to have conversations in both languages.

We were treated to a lovely barbecue as again the weather was beautiful and Carl and Ella were very excited to be there and to meet Mikael's cat.

We are hoping to meet up with all of Dan's relations again and more frequently if possible, both in Sweden on our future holidays or here if they would like to visit us.

It was a really successful trip which all of four of us enjoyed. We definitely want to make it more of a regular destination in future years. I think it's very important for Carl and Ella to know about their Swedish heritage and for Dan to have the chance to catch up regularly with his family. Think I had better start learning some of the language......

10 months old

This is one of the official photos taken at Carl and Ella's nursery last month. They really do love being there and I think this photo shows that very well. Last week we received their first 'school report' from the nursery. Both are coming along well and meeting age-specific targets. It was interesting though to read on Ella's report about how much she enjoys seeing and playing with her brother. Carl's report didn't mention anything of the kind!

It's been another month of sicknesses unfortunately. A stomach bug did the rounds, hitting Ella first but just for a day. Carl unfortunately spent 10 days vomiting quite nastily to the point where we had to return to the hospital as he wasn't keeping down liquids at all. As is always the case, that was the point at which things began to change and he started to improve. The never-ending cough and cold is still making its presence felt and eyes, noses and ears are all full of discharge as a result. We are hoping the ear drops will help before the babies' first flight next week to Sweden. 

Weights and Milestones (oh and some selfies as apparently there haven't been many pictures of Mum in this blog so far)

Carl is now 7.4 kg / 16lbs 7oz This is great news as his first weight gain since April and we are hoping this will continue. Although in the picture above he was looking very scrawny, he is now back to having chubby pinchable cheeks again :-) He has dropped down to below the 9th percentile so we need to keep focused on building him up and finding ways to add calories.

Carl sits up on his own much better now and reaches for his toys. He often ends up face down on his tummy though. He used to scream like crazy when this happened but now he is quite happy staying down and rolling over to reach things. He makes crawling movements with both his arms and legs but not at the same time yet. He has started sleeping on his front in the last week or so which I think is helping him with his reflux issues at night. Bumpers have now been removed from the cot to prevent him from using them to pull himself up as he is constantly wriggling and trying to climb everywhere.

Carl has 5 teeth now, 3 on top and 2 below. 

Ella is now 8.32 kg / 18lbs 5oz This puts her just above the 50th percentile so she's done incredibly well considering she hovering around the 9th for quite sometime. It's funny how things have changed as it was always Ella that struggled with food and milk in the early days. She holds her own toast and feeds herself very efficiently. We are still struggling to move onto sippy cups but she sits upright now when drinking from her milk bottle and is getting close to holding it herself.

Ella sits up extremely well and rarely falls over. She can bend from a sitting position to almost flat to reach things in front of or to the side of her. She is starting to enjoy tummy time a little more these days but shows no interest in crawling despite pushing up with her arms and moving her head in all directions when on her front. She has slept on her front for a long time already and always used to snuggle up to the cot bumper which ran horizontally across the top of the cot. Unfortunately we have had to remove those from both cots now for safety at their age so she now snuggles up to the wooden headboard. She still however sleeps across the cot but now her feet stick out through the bars. 

Ella's first tooth is coming through on the bottom now. 

Trip to Shropshire

We went on our second trip away, this time for a long weekend to Shropshire. It's an annual meetup of friends from high school, their partners and children. Last year we were there with a large bump; this year with our 2 lovely babies. It was a very different experience of course with babies in tow but still enjoyable and lovely for us to catch up with old friends and for the babies to make new friends.

The travel itself was far less stressful than Cornwall had been as it wasn't the first time and we had more of an idea what we were doing. The babies did very well in the car, sleeping most of the way.

Family visits

There have been lots of opportunities to see family recently with birthdays and the end of exams etc. and we've really enjoyed being able to spend time with everyone. Carl and Ella are lucky to have 6 wonderful cousins who are fantastic with them as well as Aunties, Uncles, Nanna, Nannies and Grandad.

Trip to Sweden

A week tomorrow we are flying to Sweden for a week. A chance to meet some of Dan's family and see a bit of the area his mum is from. Flying with babies..... excited and nervous! Fingers crossed all goes well.

9 months old

Carl

Carl was the first to get a tooth. The first one came in the middle at the bottom, closely followed by one more next to it and two in the middle at the top. So he is now a lethal weapon when fingers get too close.

Carl has had a difficult time of things recently. Since starting one day a week at nursery, he has seemed to get virus after virus. He's had a number of colds and coughs, gastroenteritis, infections in both lungs, eye infections and tonsillitis. What a tough little fella to battle all those one after another at such a young age. I can only hope that now his immune system will have become quite resilient. Twice he was sent to Wexham Park Hospital; the first time just for a few hours until he kept down some fluids and the second time overnight with me in a campbed beside him.

Over the weeks of illness he lost weight and looked very scrawny, especially in comparison to his rapidly growing little sister. Things are definitely changing now thankfully. He's starting to put on a bit of weight and isn't looking as skinny anymore. Still got a way to go but heading in the right direction. He was also put on a six week dairy free food trial as he was vomiting an awful lot after milk feeds and yoghurts etc. He now has a soy formula which he has shown no dislike to at all so it can't taste too different from the previous one. He stopped vomiting immediately so something seems to be working there.

During the weeks of illness, Carl was very quiet, clingy and a bit lifeless but he's making up for lost time now. We had forgotten just how much he likes to laugh and chuckle. He is reminding us of that constantly at the moment. One development however is that he seems to have become rather cheeky and dare I say mischievous? I think I am really going to have my work cut out with him. He plays little tricks on us and cracks up laughing. He is hilarious but very very cheeky.

Carl hasn't attended as many swimming lessons as Ella due to his illness and isn't as confident yet. He is doing underwater swims well but gets a bit clingy halfway through the lessons.

Developmentally he is very dexterous, using both hands very well to get exactly what he wants. He is getting better with his fingers to pick up smaller items and manipulate them. He is VERY active when well and thrusts himself around, twisting and turning when having his nappy changed etc. His legs are rarely still and he kicks a lot. He's not moving yet in any kind of deliberate way but all the kicking and thrusting means he's often moved a bit from the spot where he was placed. He's very close to being able to sit up by himself but still needs some support as he falls more often than not. This afternoon he seemed really chilled out lounging next to his sister.

Ella

Ella still has no teeth but can dribble for England. She has been showing signs of teething for months but nothing on the horizon. She loves her food and has taken well to solids. Her weight is increasing  and she looks nice and healthy now.
Ella has very recently began to try feeding herself with finger food. Perhaps watching her brother do it for quite a long time spurred her on.

She tends to use one hand at a time rather than both but is quite accurate with it. It can be hilarious to watch her sitting next to Carl and reaching over to take his dummy (which is attached to his clothing) and put it in her mouth despite already having her own one in her other hand.

Ella sits up by herself with confidence and doesn't fall over unless she's reaching too far behind herself. This has made life much more fun for her as she can now sit surrounded by toys and choose which ones she wants to play with.

She is doing very well at her swimming, going underwater and swimming to the surface. She kicks her legs well and goes after the toys ahead of her on the surface.

Life is full of smiles and chuckles these days. 

Holiday to Cornwall

Our First Family Holiday

We had a fantastic time on our first holiday as a family of four. Catching up with friends, visiting new and previously visited places, seeing the babies in a different environment, eating different things and just having time together with very few appointments or deadlines was wonderful. I think we did some lovely family bonding as a result.

Journey down

This went surprisingly well. Of course we didn't leave when we had planned to but I think we were only an hour behind the schedule we had hoped for!  Of course we had packed every last inch of the car space, not to mention the newly purchased roof rack! Of course the babies had some grizzly moments but actually far fewer than we expected and we only needed to make one service station stop in the end. Sitting in the back next to Ella behind Dan wasn't the most comfortable way to travel but it meant I could see and interact with both Carl and Ella and keep them a bit happier. With Dan being tall and our car built for shorter people, that was about the only configuration we could make work for a long journey.

Visiting Jen & family

So happy that we were able to fit this in. Very lucky with the timings too as it meant we met Shigeki who had flown out just a couple of days earlier and got to spend some time with them all before they flew back to Japan a couple of days later. It's always a lovely visit to Bude and always wonderful hospitality from Christine.

Flowrider & Creche

Luckily there are no photos to share of us doing this rather unusual experience! We had a crèche session as part of the package for the resort we stayed in so we used it on Tuesday morning so that Dan and I could have a go on the Flowrider, a machine that creates waves so that you can learn to surf, or in our case, bodyboard.

I'm sure we looked just as professional as this! Getting the wetsuits on was the first challenge, then taking the plunge and launching with the board from the side. Dan was so much braver than me and just went for it whereas I was hanging back thinking I can't do this! Once we'd had a couple of goes (and taken a couple of falls) it was actually quite a buzz and really enjoyable. I think we can safely say we made the most of our child free morning.

Carl and Ella got on very well at the creche. They were the only children there and had the full attention of the lovely lady running it. That's the first time we've left them with someone outside the family and they were absolutely fine. I'm sure this went a long way towards preparing them for going  to nursery one day a week.

Travels around Cornwall

We visited both the south and north coasts as well as spending a day at The Eden Project - definitely worth ticking off the bucket list. 

As we were staying in the same resort that the Poldark cast stayed in (despite not having watched it) we heard a lot about the show and the locations so decided to visit Charlestown mainly for that reason.

While there we went to the slightly odd but interesting Shipwreck museum. Pushing our buggies down very steep, old harbour tunnels was a bit hair-raising but neither Carl nor Ella seemed to notice.

The babies spent a little bit of time walking with us on their first beach visit to Mawgan Porth. This is one of the few beaches with direct flat access for buggies and wheelchairs but it's also one of my favourite beaches in Cornwall. I remember it well from our previous visit. Bit too windy to have a picnic or anything else but lovely views as we walked. 

We also visited Port Isaac, home to Doc Martin, which again is not a show I've watched but it was absolutely beautiful.

We also revisited a section of the north coast which we had visited before between Newquay and Padstow which has some magnificent views from the car. We had an incredible view from our table having lunch at the Bedruthan hotel which is possibly the most family friendly restaurant I have ever seen. 

No holiday in England would be easy to dress for. This was no different. Sunhats worn with hoodies was the most practical way to dress the babies most days. 

On site at the resort

We took the babies swimming a few times which they loved. We were able to put into practice some of the things we've been learning in the classes they've been attending. Both babies have no problem swimming underwater for the time being which is lovely to watch. We also had a baby music class one morning which again they participated in very well, being quite used to classes like this at home. 

Dan and I had a lovely date night meal at the restaurant on site while the babies were looked after by a babysitter. It's called The Green Room and is run by a Masterchef winner, James Nathan. Very delicious food and so nice to be out in the evening after so long.  Here's my fantastic chocolate pyramid dessert.

There was quite a bit to do on site, which helped on rainy days. We took Carl and Ella to the playground and they went on the swings, down the slide and on the seesaw, all with a bit of help of course. We had a very relaxing Sunday afternoon, sitting in the lounge having lunch and reading the Sunday papers while the babies slept in their buggies, quite unusual for us. There was also a lovely lake, stocked full of fish and ponds all over the place so lots of opportunities for nice walks in better weather. Our lodge came with a hot tub, so we made good use of that in the evenings once the babies were in bed. Unfortunately they did struggle to sleep in the beginning as they weren't used to the travel cots so we didn't get them to sleep until quite late some nights. 

Travelling Home

This was a bit more difficult than the travel up. The babies weren't as happy in the car and the journey seemed to take so much longer. We had a lovely stop off though at Jamaica Inn, a place I've wanted to go for many years and never got round to each time I was in Cornwall before. It was nothing like I imagined though especially as when we visited, the weather was lovely and the sky was blue! Not quite the mists of eerie dark fog that the book conjures up. 

As a big DuMaurier fan, I was really excited to go and pleased to see the pub had some real character.

Unfortunately it was also a stopping point for lots of coaches full of tourists which meant it lost a bit of its charm and the food wasn't great but nevertheless we enjoyed being there and did the tourist thing too!

It was quite late when we got home and we had a frantic unpack to find the essentials to get the babies to bed. They went down well though and then we were able to relax. 

A lovely week away as a family. Can't wait till the next one.