Pretty in pink

This is what it looks like when Pontus helps me open presents:



Shredding paper always puts a big smile on his face.
Or maybe he is so happy because of the big bow I put on his head. Maybe he believes that he won 1st prize for his outstanding shredding abilities. Maybe he likes how the material of the bow feels against his head. Maybe he thinks that he looks especially pretty in pink. Maybe he just laughs back at his silly mother who had so much fun seeing him like this.
Or all of the above.

Cupcakes vs. Muffins

Tomorrow I have to go to work to talk to my boss about when I will return to work and for how many hours per week. I assume he won't be happy, considering that I won't get back to working full-time for a couple more months.

At the same time I wanted to take some cake with me to celebrate my birthday, so I spent part of the afternoon making cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes, not muffins. I researched the matter online and the most hands-on advice for distinguishing the two was this:
"If you threw a cupcake against the wall, you would hear something of a "poof!" If you threw a muffin, you would hear a "thud!"
Mine are definitely "poofers", not "thudders".

Here is the result of my labour:



Top row: Bounty cupcakes and Lemon cupcakes
Bottom row: Hazelnut cupcakes and Chocolate chip cupcakes

Before you get too impressed let me point out that I only "made" them the way my mother "made" all kinds of food: open bag, enhance content by adding a little extra, heat, serve. I had thought about making everything from scratch but then I realized that I was in fact not completely crazy and could certainly come up with a better way to spend my Sunday. It's not like my colleagues care - they will happily eat half-frozen supermarket cake as long as it allows them to take a coffee break. This here should be a real treat for them...

Deutschland vor, noch ein Tor

This is what Pontus will look like when Germany plays the final of the European Football Championship against Spain tonight:



I mostly mean the outfit, not the smile. There might not be much to smile about.

As I have mentioned before I am not very enthusiastic about the way the German team plays at the moment. There's so much that's not working out, I don't even know where to start.
Against Spain tonight the lucky streak that got them to the final will probably come to an end. Considering what the Spanish forwards are capable of and how shaky the German defense is it seems they will need a miracle.
But then again you never know. Germany is a team that regularly does well in tournaments, so maybe they will get their act together and surprise everyone tonight.

As Mundstuhl said in their song "Germans":
We're Germans
Football play we better than you

Sympathy for others

I had taken some personality tests on this page and was talking to my husband about the results:

I: "It examined five personality traits and then rated you on each of them..."
He (mildly interested): "Mhm..."
I: "I had a lot of average scores, except for one part where I got a lower score. It was the part about sympathy. I mean sympathy for others. It didn't say "sympathy for others" though - there's a word for it..."
He: "Compassion?"
I: "Yes! Exactly! Compassion!"

Apparently I do not only (supposedly) lack it, but I don't even have a word for it. How sad is that?

Me love canopy swing long time

Here it is, my beautiful canopy swing!



I made it clear to my husband that he'd better get started on assembling it right away in case he wanted to watch the soccer game later in the evening and that not-so-subtle threat seemed to do the trick. It took him somewhat longer to put the swing together than it took Spain to beat Russia, but at around 22:30 h we had a functioning canopy swing in our backyard. Unfortunately it was dark outside by then and making out a dark canopy swing against a dark background on a photo proved to be tough, so I re-took the picture this morning.
Don't you just wanna sit down in it and canopy swing the day away?

Pink things

My husband does not exactly share my enthusiasm for all things pink, but has to live with the consequences of it everyday. There is at least one pink item in every room of the house, our vacuum cleaner is pink and I even have a pink Christmas tree. Not to mention my insanely pink room...

Over time he has not only learned to cope, he even keeps a look-out for pink things for me.
Just yesterday he showed me a picture of this outdoor kitchen that is available at Rusta:



Then today he offered to buy me this tv for my room (check Prylportalen for details):



And yes, he would really buy these things for me if I said I wanted them. How much better can it get?

Canopy swing countdown

Today we will finally go and buy my canopy swing. When we went to the store last week it was temporarily out of stock, but they said they would get in new ones today. And they better do, because I have been waiting long enough...

I will post a picture as soon as we have put it together, which, knowing us, might mean either October or never.

11 reasons why Germans can't play soccer

< Enter names of yesterday's German squad here >

The fact that we won anyway proves that there is no Soccer God.

"Du är en Svenne nu"... *

...is what the lady at the post office said to me upon handing over the mysterious letter that I had received a pickup notice for.

Never one to believe in psychic powers I opened the envelope and saw that she was in fact right. Less than 2 weeks after I sent in the forms Migrationsverket had granted me Swedish citizenship and sent the certificate to prove it. I believe the papers were in the mail longer than it took them to process the application.

Of course I immediately started to think about the great new possibilities I now have as a Swedish citizen. I could for example pile up debts or commit crimes. This would have been a problem before as it negatively affects your application for Swedish citizenship. But now that I am Swedish - why hold back?
Because it is wrong, people. It is wrong and not funny at all. What were you thinking...that I'd really...? Shame on you!

Another thing I could do is change my name. Or add another one at least. In Germany it is close to impossible to change your name for reasons other than marriage or divorce. Here in Sweden it is relatively easy though, especially if you just want to add a middle name. And I find that thought tempting, considering how much I dislike my given name. I could just add a cool (or at least cooler) middle name and then have people call me that. But I need to choose wisely...

* (Translation: "You are a Swede now")

Mopey and lazy

I am a little mopey at the moment, for no specific reason. Being mopey takes a lot of energy away from other things, so I haven't finished any of the projects I started today.

I did not:
- publish any of the 4 longer postings I wrote
- buy a present for my friend Sarah's wedding (which is on Friday)
- improve the layout and design of my blog (I did take a look at the XML file though)
- find a suitable photo management software for the kazillions of pictures we have
- reply to any of those emails from people waiting to hear back from me

But then again there's always tomorrow...

Pink elephants

Why do I keep feeling the need to paint a picture of a pink elephant?
What does it all mean?

Uber-mother

I had bought more fruit than was needed for Saturday's fruit sallad and the usual mode of operation in this household would be to let it rot until it starts to look and/or smell funny.

Yesterday, however, my inner Uber-mother came out and demanded that I don't waste food but instead turn it into healthy, self-made fruit puree for Pontus. And so I found myself standing in the kitchen last night, equipped with a hand blender and the fierce determination to make the best damn puree ever.

The mix of 1 nectarine and 1 banana turned out to be too runny, so 2 more bananas were sacrificed to the puree god. And then 1 pear. And 1 apple. In the end the puree was just as runny as before, there was just much more of it. So much more in fact that I wasn't sure I had enough containers to fill the mud-coloured slime into. (Really, how do the big manufacturers manage to make their puree so viscous? Do I even want to know?)



I gave Pontus a spoonful to see if the puree was worth saving and he seemed to like it. Actually, he liked it so much that he ran after me in his little baby walker to get some more, constantly driving into my heels as I tried to pour freezable portions.

Being an Uber-mother hurts...

Diaper bag extravaganza

I am still window shopping for a new diaper bag. Unfortunately most bags are either impractical or ugly or, in the most unfortunate case, both.

I found some alternatives to the OiOi Change Mat Kit I wrote about a couple of days ago though:

1. Gaia Ready Set Go

This is another all-in-one solution which is very similar to the Oioi Change Mat Kit. The main differences I could make out are the position and style of the pockets and the fact that the Gaia model has a strap. I think the strap is smart, because then you can carry the set around your wrist and have the second hand free to support the baby. I am not so fond of the colours and designs though - the Oioi Change Mat Kit is much prettier. And yes, that matters.




2. Dadadoo Quick Change

Dadadoo has a lot of very nice diaper bags (just look at the "Sweetheart" for example. The Quick Change is a smaller bag with a seperate changing mat and comes in 5 colours, 2 of which are different shades of pink. It too has a strap so that I could use it as a regular little handbag once Pontus learns to use the bathroom. There isn't much that is not to love about this bag, really.



All the bags/sets basically cost the same (between 350-400 kr), so price is not a deciding factor.
But which one should I take? Or should I buy a new full-sized diaper bag instead? Help!

Mullet 2008

If you follow the European Football Championship on TV4 here in Sweden, you have inevitably been faced with the most horrible of sights: Peter Jihde's hairdo!

Being German I have had to suffer my fair share of jokes about mullets, but after having seen THIS, I won't take any crap from Swedes about unfortunate haircuts anymore. More frightening than calls to Försäkringskassan, more repulsive than Kalles kaviar - it's the mullet of the new millennium:



Why you ask? Why does this man look as if a beaver died on his head? And how much damage is done to the ozone layer every single day trying to fix this style (or, as Janet Jackson would say, "hair malfunction")?

I have questions and Peter Jihde better has answers...

Beached whale diet

Yesterday I had what will undoubtedly go down in history as the world's smallest birthday party.
My friend Katie came over and we ate bacon-wrapped fillet of pork with cream cheese filling and curly fries on the side, followed by fruit sallad with yoghurt cream sauce. You know that the food was good when people lie on the couch like beached whales afterwards, unable to move or interact except for the occasional grunting noise.

We then got our party on by playing the Pop Culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. As Katie and I were equally knocked out by the food it was a close game. Finally finding a worthy opponent was good news after all of my other friends turned out to be completely oblivious of trends, celebrities and the like (sorry, but it's true!).

Passing out on food: Age factor 45
Playing board games: Age factor 60
Doing both and still having a great time: Ageless

I can do magic, me

Everytime I change Pontus' diaper I feel like a magician. Not only do I magically make a dirty diaper disappear and a clean one appear, I also get to practice a trick that is popular with illusionists and clowns alike: the handkerchief chain. I am sure everyone has seen a long chain of colourful hankys that are tied together being pulled out from a sleeve or from behind someone else's ear at some point in their lives.
That is essentially what I do with the wet wipes. I NEVER manage to pull out just one from the dispenser, usually finding myself holding up a chain of 3 or more wipes with my right hand while trying to keep Pontus in place with my left one.

It's the year 2008 and we have been sending people to the moon for decades. How difficult can it be to make a working wet wipe dispenser?

New wheels

Only a little more than 6 months after his birth we bought a second stroller for Pontus today.

He just never really warmed up to the seat unit of our Gesslein F2. Everything went well for about a week, but after that he would not stop screaming and throwing himself around whenever we put him in the stroller. He even tried to climb out a couple of times.

Things got better when we turned the seat unit so that it was facing forward, something that is really not recommended for children younger than 1 year. But Pontus seemed to be so happy not to have to see my face all the time that I could actually go out for a walk with him. As soon as I stopped walking, however, the screaming started again, so I had to find some unconventional ways to constantly keep the stroller in motion.

When we went to Germany we tried the stroller my parents bought (a Römer/Britax Yanis) and Pontus just loved it. He could sit up in it and lean forward, which made a big difference. The seat unit of our Gesslein stroller is (similar to that of the Bugaboo) pre-shaped in a way that it can not be adjusted for Pontus to sit completely upright. But now that he has learned how to sit and lean he does not want to be half-lying on his back, looking up at the sky (or me) anymore.

So we went today and bought him a stroller similar to the one my parents have: the Babytravel Clik Clak.



They had a special price for the camouflage one and it was actually not that ugly (and a little more colourful than plain black), so we took it. It also folds up nice and compact, so I will maybe take it with me a little more often than I could be bothered to pack the big Gesslein Stroller.

I do have a vague feeling though, that this was not the last stroller we will buy...

Pontus and the Chocolate Factory

I always had a feeling that Pontus resembles a big movie star. And today it hit me:


He already has the short stature and with some make-up, courtesy of Hipp (Noodles with Vegetables and Ham), Pontus looks just like an Oompa-Loompa!

Diaper bag issues

The first diaper bag we bought was chosen more with focus on how well it would match our stroller than actual functionality. That was, of course, a huge mistake, as we wound up with a bag that is as wide as it is deep, making it very hard to keep it organized. The bag is very spacious, but everything important tends to wind up at the bottom of it. It also only has one fairly short zipper, which means that in order to get to the bottles or the diapers one needs to unpack everything through a tiny opening. At the end of the day my hands and arms often were so full of scratchmarks from the zipper that I looked as if I had wrestled a Siberian Wildcat.

When the weather got better I quickly ditched that diaper bag and started using one of my regular shoulder bags. It is open, which is why I can not use it in bad weather, but at the same time it makes it really easy to rummage around in it. My new "diaper changing kit" now consists of 2 diapers that I put in a Ziplock bag, a little package of wet wipes and a small towel that I use as a changing mat. That is more than enough and works very well. But I want to improve upon perfection and I think I have found the solution:

Low and behold, the OiOi Floral Bouquet Change Mat Kit.





I could put the diapers and wet wipes in it and leave the towel at home. And if I need to go and change Pontus' diaper I can just grab it from the big bag and don't need to carry everything else with me. Plus it is really pretty, unlike a lot of other, similar products that I have seen.

I like it!

Pink my life

If you, like me, love all things pink you will undoubtedly understand that finding a page like Pink Superstore is as close to shopping heaven as one can get. It's just all pink, all the time. They have a whole section just with pink diaper bags - how much better can it get?

Another great site is Pink Princess, which (the name gives it away) is also dedicated to making your life just a little more pink.

I got my tax refund a couple of days ago, so it's the perfect time for a little retail therapy...

Wrong priorities

My parents-in-law are coming over later today. I should be cleaning. I REALLY should be cleaning. Instead I am sitting here, writing postings, reading the news, listening to music, eating German candy and trying hard to come up with anything that will allow me to postpone my cleaning obligations another hour or two. Or three.
I so don't have my priorities straight...

Smart cookie

Last weekend we went to Germany to visit my parents.

In my world, "going to Germany" is just another expression for "shopping". I hit the stores and I hit them hard. Especially the supermarket, because there is so much good German food you can't get here in Sweden. And with food I mostly mean candy.

We usually travel to Germany with one suitcase in which we keep a really big extra bag. On the way back to Sweden that bag is then filled with all of the clothes I bought and the suitcase holds as much German food as the airline's weight limit allows for.

One of the things I buy in Germany is called Goldmünzen (golden coins). It is hard chewy caramel, about the size of a Swedish 5 kronor coin, in a golden wrapper. It is really a typical Christmas candy - buying a dozen packages in the middle of summer always gets me curious looks.

With the coins being as big as they are I usually bend them in the middle or try to break them in half in order to better fit them into my mouth. A good fit is essential, because you need to chew long and hard in order for the caramel flavour to unfold. Good things never come easy!
I was sitting on the couch earlier today, eating the last three coins from a package when suddenly half a coin was missing. I had broken it in the middle, but there was only one half left in the wrapper. I searched everywhere, but the other piece was nowhere to be seen. So I sat and thought for a while and then I had a great idea: why not repeat everything and see if I could make another half coin disappear to that mysterious land of lost candy. There was nothing to lose, really (except for my precious candy of course). But it actually worked! I watched as the other half coin flew through the air and disappeared into a crack between two cushions. And when I dug around with my hand I also found the first half coin that went missing.

I am a smart cookie!

29 (+1)

Yesterday was not only an utterly crappy day, it was also my birthday. My 30th birthday at that. Goodbye sweet carefree youth, hello middle-age martyrdom.
Wikipedia tells me that what I can look forward to from now on is an increased accumulation of body fat, loss of skin elasticity and a possible mid-life crisis, to name just a few.

My husband decided to surprise me and lift my spirits by announcing that he will buy me a canopy swing for our garden. I had talked about wanting one for while, it had kind of become our running gag. Good thing he didn't realize I would have been just as happy about a set of hot pink baking bowls that cost less than a tenth of what the canopy swing goes for.

Memory overflow

Unlike Muddiz, I have only been married for one year. Yesterday was actually our first anniversary. Or would have been, if I had remembered it. Which I didn't - my husband had to remind me. Good thing he didn't marry me for my long-term memory...

Doctors galore

In the afternoon I had to take Pontus to yet another doctor, this time to check the x-rays we took at the hospital about 1,5 weeks ago. You might be wondering if my child is coming apart at the seams, considering how much time we spend running from doctor to doctor. Pontus is, in fact, a perfectly healthy baby. It is simply the ineffciency of the Swedish health care system that turns routine check-ups into multiple consultation events over the course of weeks or even months.

We finally left the doctor's office for good at around 15:30 h.
Another day well spent...

"However..."

People living outside of Sweden tend to think that the Swedish health care system is wonderful and provides great service to the people here.

People living in Sweden who depend on that very health care system know better.

Let me tell you the story of a growth. It is a tiny little growth right at my son's left ear, close to the tragus. It was the first thing I saw when they put him on my chest after he was born. I knew right then and there it had to go. "No problem", the doctor at the hospital said during the exam. "All they do is put a piece of really thin string around it and pull it right off", she said. "However, we don't do this here. The pediatrician at your BVC (medical center for children) will take care of it", she said.

The pediatrician at our BVC turned out to be a very young woman who looked like she had just graduated med school a month ago. She too took a look at the growth. "No problem", she said. "This can definitely be removed", she said. "However, I have never done this, so I would rather have a more experienced colleague take over", she said.

A couple of weeks later we met another doctor, again at BVC. He was only slightly older than the woman we had met last time and only there for the day, because the attending doctor had called in sick. He looked at the growth, just like everyone else before him. "No problem", he said. "This can definitely be removed", he said. "However, I am only helping out here for the day, so I don't know if I have all of the equipment. I will refer you to an ENT doctor who will remove the growth."

Pontus is now 6 months old. Today I went to meet the ENT doctor. After having waited for 20 minutes he took a look at the growth and said: "That is nothing dangerous and can definitely be removed. However, I will not do that. It really isn't that big and he is still so small and I am worried about how he will react to the local anesthesia...". Then he talked about how the growth was something natural and could stay where it was and that he might have done something about it if Pontus was 10 years old, but that he did not feel now was the right time.
Do I need to say that I lost it?
I told the ENT doctor that I had come to him today to have the growth removed, not to listen to the same monologue again and that I had no intention of waiting another 9,5 years until he felt ready to do his job. "I understand", he said. "I am sorry that everything has taken so long", he said. "What I can do is refer you to Karolinska hospital and then in 3 or 4 months you might be called to a doctor there to surgically have the growth removed while Pontus is completely under anesthetic", he said.

Four doctors and six months later this tiny little growth has apparently turned from something that could be taken off with a piece of string to a medical problem that requires surgery and anesthesia. If any of these so-called "health care professionals" had ACTUALLY DONE what they all acknowledged was DEFINITELY DOABLE, this problem would have been solved months ago. Instead I am off to meet yet another doctor...

Baby bondage

Pontus has a new favourite move: leaning forward. This is especially helpful when feeding him. I essentially just need to hold the food in front of his face and sooner or later he will throw himself forward and swallow the spoon and everything on it.
He both gets nutrition and a chance to train his gag reflex.

Pontus has also understood that leaning forward makes it possible for him to reach for things on the table and that almost everything makes a noise when it hits the floor. And if the item itself does not make a noise, I certainly will at the sight of it lying on the ground. So either way Pontus wins. Adorable, isn't it?

No, seriously, I need to buy restraints. Think Hannibal Lector in "Silence of the lambs" - lots of straps, little movement, that's what I am going for.

Pimp my blog

I have spent the last 30 minutes looking at skins for my blog on blogskins.com. I tried out two interesting ones but returned to the tried-and-tested blogger template, because I wasn't 100% satisfied.
Maybe I should try to design something myself...

Is there such a thing as too much pink?

I found this faceplate skin for my Wii guitar on amazon.com and I just have to have it. It would make my life so much more...pink!

Bacon-wrapped plums

Some food pornography for I-think-we-all-know-who.
Come on, zoom in! I know you want to...

Hearing impaired

Many good things can be said about my husband. He is my best friend, a great father and, above all, a true optimist who believes in the good in everything and everyone.
Unfortunately, he is also hearing impaired.

Imagine lying in bed and hearing an alarm go off. Not a nice, smooth alarm, but one of those industrial techno sounds that give you a headache faster than you can say "280 beats per minute". You wait for the music to stop. It doesn't. Instead, it gets louder. And louder. You are now fully awake. Your head is pounding. You open your eyes and see that your respective other is doing what looks like aerobic exercises to that very music in his sleep instead of turning off his damn alarm.
I have a lot of mornings like that.

As they say: "...in good times and in bad..."

Waiting to exhale

Muddiz believes that she has a special talent for doing stupid things and, having read all the stories about her little mishaps, I am not even going to disagree. But I too have my share of not-so-bright moments.

Those dear and faithful fans that memorize all of my postings certainly remember that I had a cold about 1,5 weeks ago. And, as I already announced back then, over time all other symptoms vanished and all I was left with was a nasty cough. Sitting on the couch one evening and doing Sudoku I realized that I had made a mistake, so I removed the cap from the eraser at the end of my pen and...can you see where this is going?
Yes, I put it between my lips when a sudden cough attack made me gasp for air and I inhaled that stupid little piece of plastic. It got stuck in my throat, I couldn't breathe anymore (didn't want to breathe anymore for that matter, because I did not want to swallow the cap completely), so I leaned forward, half hanging off the couch, and coughed it up, while my husband, not understanding what was going on, looked at me with a combination of amusement and bewilderment.
I guess I would have done the same if he had suddenly started to twitch and make sounds like a wilderbeast in heat...

Unwanted visitors

About two months ago we had ants in the kitchen. We laid out some traps and within a day no more ants were to be seen. Then a couple of weeks ago we had ants in the living room. Again we laid out traps and they disappeared. Ever so randomly my parents-in-law drop by at our house unannounced. We have repeatedly told them not to do that, but without any success whatsoever. Why is it easier to get ants out of the house than in-laws?

Okay, so it is maybe not a very flattering comparison, but the fact remains: even though we keep saying that we do not find it okay to just come over unannounced they keep on doing it. Take this Sunday for example: my husband had gone over to Muddiz to help her husband with his construction work, so when I heard a noise outside our door I assumed he had come back. It was very warm, so I was wearing something that reminded of the clothes that "Charlie's Angels" wore back in the days. Unfortunately my body also looks as if I had been one of the original cast members (meaning like that of a now old woman), so I can not really get away with wearing very short shorts and tank tops outside the comfort of my own home. Guess how happy I was to be standing face to face with my parents-in-law upon opening the door. They had been out cycling and just so happened to be in the neighbourhood and thought they could return my husband's bus card and see the baby and....

Before I knew what was happening my mother-in-law was inside the house, critically inspecting the kitchen and living room, while I desperately tried to stretch the fabric of my clothes in hopes of covering more of my exposed body. An akward conversation ensued while I not-so-subtly tried to get them to leave and they tried to pretend not to notice my apparent discomfort. After the longest 3 minutes of my life they left to go over to Muddiz to meet my husband and Pontus there. Of course I called there as soon as they had left and warned them...

I can not wrap my head around why people think it is okay to just invade other people's homes. My home truly is my castle. It is where I can run around in whatever I want to and do whatever I want to, whenever I want to. I do not want to have to live as if there might be visitors any minute, especially not on the weekends. Why is that so hard to understand?

We have people over at our place often, but I like it to be on our terms and think that that is the way it should be.

You wanna come over and it's okay with us? Be our guest and feel right at home!
You wanna surprise us by coming over unannounced? We never really liked you anyway...

Baby on wheels

On Friday I took Pontus to Södersjukhuset (SÖS) to get his hands x-rayed. The department actually has a special waiting room just for children, complete with tons of toys, books and colourful murals. There is however no blanket, pillow or rug - anything one could lay a little baby on. For a second I considered putting him down on the linoleum floor, but then I found this:


It is essentially a yellow plastic box with wheels and a short handle, like a little cart for children. Pontus fit in it perfectly. Then I just threw in some bricks and he sat and played until it was our turn...
I wish it was always this easy!