Mushroom Picking

I think Swedes are so funny. Everyone has a secret spot where they pick mushrooms during mushroom season, and you can't tell ANYONE where your spot is, or else you won't have any mushrooms to go pick. Before moving to Sweden I would have never thought picking mushrooms could be fun and enjoyable. Gosh I don't even like mushrooms!! 

It's a good thing my dear mother-in-"love" has a beautiful way of showing how passionate she is about certain things, and picking mushrooms is one of the things she loves! I can't help but love it along with her because she rubs off on me that much ;) We make sure to bring lots of snacks, the mushroom dictionary (to tell the difference between the poisonous ones and the good ones), little baskets to put the mushrooms in (that Joel used when he was little) and the most important thing: hot chocolate!! We can't pick mushrooms without having hot chocolate to sip on. This year we went with my Joel's older brother Sebastian, his wife Eva, and their kids. I love spending time with them, they really are my family and I feel so blessed to have such good in-laws that I get along with so well. 

Here are some pictures I took from our little adventure last week:

Teaching Emma to put the mushrooms in the basket, and not eat them ;)

This little girl loves chocolate, if you couldn't tell from the chocolate she's saving for later  ;)

"Moooom I don't want to take pictures, I wanna go plaaaay!!"

These two little cousins are my favorite! They are 7 weeks apart.

Baby #2 Bumpdate: Week 33

People are already commenting how close I look to being done, and ask when my due date is. I then say that I still have 7 weeks left... and by the looks of their faces they thought I was closer to being done than they thought ;) right now 7 weeks seems so close yet so far away!!!

There isn't too much to update on this week! Other than everything getting heavier and more painful... nothing new has happened! I'm usually always in pain somehow these days... Luckily Emma's run is as fast as my waddle. But I REALLY can't wait to meet this little guy. I've been trying to imagine what he looks like... Will he be a mini Joel? Mini me? Or look like a little boy version of Emma? I'm so curious!!! I'm not to the point in pregnancy where I can't stand to be pregnant anymore... but I can definitely feel it creeping up on me. So far I still love being pregnant, other than heartburn and the baby kicks starting to hurt... it is still wonderful for me thank goodness! Joel recently went to the store and bought me some heartburn medicine, and it has changed my life!!! I don't know why I didn't think about taking medicine earlier. I can actually sleep at night now ;)

My midwife has moved my due date up by a few days (better up a few days than backwards I guess!), but I'm still telling everyone my due date is on Halloween because 1) it's easy to remember and say, 2) I can't really remember which day she moved it to and 3) Emma came 11 days late, so I have to prepare mentally for the same. I know this baby can come earlier, and I'll still be ready with everything of course! But mentally.... having him late is where I need to be. I was soooo disappointed with Emma, I just felt crushed and defeated with every hour that passed... but this time around I will be more prepared! Here in Sweden they will induce if the baby hasn't come by 2 weeks... which part of me is happy with and part of me wishes they would induce earlier! I like the idea of letting my body and baby do the work naturally, coming when both are ready. But gosh!! Every day that passes over the due date is HARD. I am really curious to see how this labor and delivery will go.

So far we haven't agreed on any boy names. Too bad we love so many girl names, haha! We like the classy names that you can never misspell. That much we have agreed on ;) If we were having a girl we like: Alice, Victoria, and Amanda. It's so typical that we're having a boy and can't agree on anything! I want to start thinking of names now, but Joel wants to think of names after he comes and then see what will fit him. He thinks that when we see the baby we will be able to decide on a name... we'll see ;) Also we need names that will sound good in Swedish and English, which is harder than you think! All the names that "work" are taken by Joel's family and extended family of course. For example: I don't want to have the name Jacob because in Swedish it will be pronounced Yakob, the "J" making a "Y" sound. we need a good international name that will work in both countries! It will be interesting to see what we end up picking.

I feel so blessed to have such a good pregnancy, and that I can still chase Emma around for the most part ;)

Emma Elaine: 18 Months

I feel as though I start out with all of Emma's blog posts with, "How did my baby get so big?!" Just like every other mom I suppose... time goes by so fast. Other days it can be soooo sloooow too, where nap time and bed time can't come fast enough. Sometimes I wonder why we are having another baby, because having just one kid has been so easy lately! We have such great routines right now, aaand then we're gonna throw a newborn into the mix! Poor Emma has no idea of what is about to hit her. She doesn't understand at all that there's a baby in my belly... all she does know is my belly makes an excellent chair and step to get closer to me ;)

Her favorite seat: on the window sill

At 18 months old, Emma has started talking a little bit more. Her favorite word to say is, "Ball! Ball!!" over and over again, and she can spot them from quite a distance! Even though Emma doesn't talk too much, she understands a lot. She can point to everything on her face in English AND Swedish which amazes me! I think it is the coolest that our kids will be bilingual. I don't understand how she understands, it works I guess! Right now she's in a phase where she's really impatient about what she wants and can't communicate, so she whines and points at what she wants and I have to guess! Of course I get stressed because she's stressed and it is so hard for me to think straight about what she wants! It is times like these when I wish I had learned and taught her baby sign. ;) I was quite overwhelmed with the thought of her learning Swedish and English and not knowing what I should speak to her, so I put my dream of teaching baby sign on the back burner.

Mom confession: sometimes I purposely put her diaper on cooked just because I love to see her cute bum poking out! I may or may not pinch it as well ;)

Those eyelashes though!!!!

Emma's newest word is "Farfar", which means dad's dad in Swedish, or grandpa. While my in-laws were babysitting Emma a few nights ago, my mother-in-"love" (as I like to call her ;)!) asked her randomly if she could say Farfar, and she said "fa fa" in the sweetest little voice! She said fa fa over and over again for the next hour melting everyone's hearts until we picked her up. To say Joel's dad was beaming with pride is an understatement ;) She also says: car, bye bye, uh oh, eye, and a couple other words I can't remember right now but will probably come to me as soon as I finish this post. #typical It's weird because I don't really notice she's saying a word until I think about what she's trying to say and communicate to me. Like the other day she was pointing at the banana's and saying, "nanananana??" and it took me forever to realize she was asking for a banana!

So far the only foods we have found that Emma doesn't like are olives and raisins. I am so impressed by how good of an eater she is! She eats what we eat, even if it is a bit spicy. I have a hard time letting Emma be messy, I can only handle cleaning up after her so many times! Good thing she likes her baths afterwards ;)

I have been curious to see what Emma would be attached to. Would she like babies? Cars? Dolls? So far she loves stuffed animals! She sleeps with a couple soft little animals, her favorite being a little bunny. This bear she carries around is actually the one Joel used to have when he was Emma's age. How cute is that?! This bear used to have a t-shirt on, so I put on a dress instead to make her more girly ;) She especially loves to give her teddy bear kisses and hugs.

One of Emma's favorite things is to go outside and play. As soon as I say, "Emma! Let's go bye bye!" She runs and grabs her shoes then stands by the door until I'm ready to leave. I'm such a wimp because it's been cold and rainy lately, so we've spent a lot of time indoors. I have the goal to get out of the house at least once a day, even if it is just a quick trip to the store it really makes a difference! We especially love going to the library, because they have the cutest little play place that has a good slide. An added bonus is the play place is closed off and only has one entrance, so if she runs off I can catch her a bit easier ;) 

I really need to figure out new ways to keep her busy! She's gotten to be such a busy body lately, and it makes me nervous with these winter months coming up and having a newborn on top of that. She loves TV, especially Daniel the Tiger, Frozen (typical, right??), Tangled, and Winnie the Pooh. If I say, "Emma, do you want to watch a show??" she gets this huge smile on her face then runs and sits on the couch patiently for me to turn on a movie for her.

Her face when I turn on a show ;)

I find it amazing to see how quickly she is catching onto things, and is watching us. Little things like her trying to pluck her eyebrows just like I do. Well, she was almost poking her eyes out haha! I just sat there in amazement watching her trying to do the same things I do. She's also recently grabbed my eyeshadow brush trying to put on makeup.

Emma LOVES to pray. She carefully folds her hands, bows her head, mumbles a bunch of baby gibberish, and instead of saying "amen" she laughs and claps as loud as she can. Not only does she pray when we bless the food, but sometimes I'll be driving and when I look back to check on her I can hear her mumbling while folding her hands. This is probably one of the things I'm most proud of, feeling like I am succeeding at this whole parenting thing!

Happy 18 months to our sweet baby girl!!! We love you SO MUCH.

Joel's 2nd Crossfit Competition

Last weekend was quite a busy one! I took my friend Alyssa (who was visiting from the states for the week) back to the airport at 4:30 on Saturday morning. Joel then had his competition so we dropped off Emma at the in-laws and headed into Gothenburg! After Joel's competition we hurried home and got ready for the wedding reception later that night! I don't know how we squished that much into one day, but we did it!

Joel did SUPER great at his competition. Especially considering the fact that his parter ended up coming down with a fever the night before, so an hour or two before the competition started he happened to find someone to team up with! Phew!! I was worried he wouldn't be able to compete! It was SO NICE to relax and take pictures of him competing without Emma there wanting to be held the whole time, like in his last competition. I loved being able to support and focus on him 100% ;)

Here are some pictures I took, it was hard to narrow them down!

This is Joel's partner Maria. While one would do one workout, the other would do something else then they would switch. I'm just glad it wasn't me working out!!! These guys are beasts!

Definitely my favorite picture! He set a personal record here during the snatch! Woot woot!!

Poor Joel was SO tired after all the workouts he had to do! But he completed them all, and I am oh so proud of him!!