Happy Christmas!

For Christmas we had Grandpa John visiting. Here we are at our Julbord (Christmas Eve dinner). As usual, Iain snarfed up the sill (pickled herring) with great abandon. That boy can EAT!


We open about 1/2 our gifts on Christmas Eve, so here's the kids opening gifts at night: Ria loving her hat, her jammies, and her farm.

...and Iain helping set up the farm

Daddy and Ria posing for Grandpa John

Iain in motion trying to figure out his Meccano Erector set. Its a bit beyond his abilities, but he loves it ;-).

Another Daddy and Ria shot.

You can't quite see him, but Iain is the dude in the penguin jammies playing with his remote control ATV.

Finally, Grandpa John and the kids watch to see if Santa will make it down the course they made for him (computer game).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! God Jul och Gott Nytt Ar!

Potty Time!

On 23 December, Ria and I carried out all her "day diaper" paraphernalia to leave them for the "diaper fairies".

In the morning, Ria found that Fairy Amiya (the left one, looks a little like her friend Amiya) and Fairy Ria had stayed behind to help her put her poos in the toilet. (Mommy had spent quite a bit of time the previous night making flower fairies while Daddy wrapped all the gifts.)

Results?
Well, she's kind of potty trained.... With reminders, her pee is 100% contained. Her poo....well.... we're working on it. It's kinda-sorta working. Mostly. ;-). Another week or 2 will no doubt get things more consistent on that end. So to speak.

Tomorrow we send her to school with undies. Wheee!

Early December 2009

Early in December we got to see Aunti Julia as she passed through for a conference.

Kids playing happily together building with the Quattros. (Isin't it great how on blogs you can make it look like your kids never fight!)

And finally, a video: Here's Iain helping Ria spin on the "Dizzy Disc" (those who tend toward dizziness might not want to watch). They're saying "I'm a-watching a movie, I'm a watching a movie, I'm a watching a movie...OW OW OW". The "OW"s are supposed to occur while whapping your head on your forehead. Can you guess which kid came up with that one? ;-)

Halloween and November 2009 pictures

So, I'm giving up on post-dating ;-) Here's some pictures from Halloween and November last year.

Our friends Chris and Wonder-Woman Sarah went trick or treating with William the Convict, Ria the Bumblebee and Iain the Dinosaur. Yep, Iain has finally given up on his Tomtebobarnen costume that he used for the last 4 years.

Early November found William in Toronto for the sorrowful event of Irene's funeral. Nonetheless it was joyful to have the 4 siblings together with John.

Ria looking cute in her hat.

One day Iain had a day off school, but Ria didn't, so he and I had a lovely hike.

Kids making faces for the camera always makes a good shot:

As does any image of the intrepid explorers, off to investigate the wilds of our house.