SKYNI

Every year, there will be professional photographers who will go around the schools to takes photos of the students. They will send a package to the parents and ask the parents if they would like to have these pictures. This picture came in different sizes and the package can cost up to Kr 721 (SGD 110). I think it is quite a nice service tho’.

I love this picture of Jonathan. His smile in the picture just warms my heart.

The temperature is dropping very quickly. It has been averaging between 4 to 10 degrees during the day time. At night time, it can drop even lower. But still no snow.

This year, it is a little tougher getting used to the early sunset and the days are surely a lot shorter now. We need to get used to the darkness and the Swedes make really good use of cosy lighting in their houses.

Nichlas thinks that November is the most difficult month of the year. The early darkness, the wetness, naked trees and the drop in temperature makes it quite depressing at times.

However, the children are just looking forward to the snow and their favourite holiday, Christmas!

Just a couple of weeks to our visit back to Singapore. Our first since moving here last July 2010. We are really looking forward to it.

We have already started preparing the kids for the trip, telling them that they get to see their po po, aunts, cousins and for Linn, her best friend Anan. I think it will be really sweet. I wonder how they will react. Linn was asking me if we can physically move our house in Sweden to Singapore as she claims she likes our house alot.

Loo, as per your request.

With the kind courtesy of Estee Lauder.

Definitely too much work to do this regularly.

Happiness is watching my kids playing together.

My dearest Jonathan,

Happy Birthday Jonathan! You are six today and I felt like it was just minutes ago when I held you in my hands for the very first time six years ago.

You are growing so fast and I am so proud of you. I hope you have enjoyed all the birthday celebrations and your pirates party.

My wish for you for your birthday is that mummy can help you to fulfill your dreams and that you will always be happy.

I love you Jonathan. I may not be able to show you often enough as you probably only hear me giving you instructions. But you are truly special in my heart.

Kiss and big hug,
Mama

We had a fantastic weekend with lovely autumn weather. The sun was shining and the colours of autumn are simply breathtaking. I love it specially when the leaves turn yellow and red. The temperature can be quite cold averaging 10 degrees every day But there is quite a lot of sweeping to do in the garden with the fallen leaves piling up high.

Time really flies and in a few weeks, we will take a short Autumn/Winter break in Singapore. It has been a rather busy 3 months and I am really looking forward to going back to Singapore. We will be back 26 Nov to 22 Dec.

Do I miss Singapore? Honestly, I do not think so much about Singapore food, my old life, transport, shopping, warm weather, services etc anymore. But what i really miss are my family and friends. And spending time and catching up with my family and friends will be my number one priority when we get back to Singapore. I am really looking forward to that!

Today we took a leisurely drive because the weather was very nice and we needed to get out It was then we found the open green airstrip with old planes, check out the photos of the kids

Dressing the little diva is getting harder these days. She insists on wearing clothes that are either Pink, Purple and Yellow – today she reminded me and added ‘and a little bit of gold’.

I got her some new Hello Kitty long sleeves T shirts because she likes all things ‘Hello Kitty’ but she says that she does not like them because the clothes on the Hello Kitty are not pretty enough and the Hello Kitty character on the t shirt must also wear pink, purple or yellow.

The picture below shows Linn’s current favourite t shirt – from her cousin Elin. She wants to wear this shirt everyday!!!

On the other hand, Jonathan is a perfect angel when it comes to dressing. He will wear whatever I tell him to wear and will never argue with me.

In my attempt to discipline my daughter, I told her that she cannot negotiate with me as long as she is shorter than me.

Linn gave me a smile, said ‘Ok mummy…let’s do this’ and she stood high on top of a chair.

I asked Jonathan what he wants for his birthday and he showed me a toy magic lamp…yes, like the one in Aladdin.

Yes, how i want a real one too.

Apologies for the silence. I have been extremely busy in the past few weeks and will continue to be until the end of October.

I think I have taken multi tasking to the extreme. At this point of time I am trying to juggle between daily swedish classes, completing the homework (which is quite a lot), learning to drive the swedish way, taking care of the kids and getting them to and from school, preparing meals, and keeping an eye on the bathroom renovation, shopping for food, pink clothes for the diva and looking at bathroom tiles. It doesn’t sound that difficult as I write it all down but it is quite a lot to do somehow.

I hardly have any time to sit down and just daze (which I do alot in my previous life in Singapore). These days, I turn a blind eye to the mess in the house because I really do not have the time to keep the house really tidy. I barely have the time to pick the apples and plums growing in the garden!

And I am usually in bed by 10 pm because I am flat out tired!

I hope I do not sound like I am complaining. I actually enjoy the rush and the challenges at times. Believe it or now, it is only recently that I realised that I have actually moved out of Singapore and now have a new life in Sweden. Yes, it took me a while to really come to terms with it and maybe because I have been too busy adjusting and adapting with the daily activities to really think about it. It’s crazy i know…but sometimes I have to remind myself to also LIVE and ENJOY the moment. (like now!)

Ok…the moment is over…now I have to get back to my swedish homework. There is another test tomorrow.

It has been a relatively quiet week. The kids are settling in school and adjusting to their new routine. I have been good myself, attending Swedish class and doing my homework every day.

Whilst Jonathan is trying to keep up with school, Linn on the other hand is fully enjoying her new school environment and friends.

Linn had her annual mandatory checkup this week. She is now 99 cm tall and 19 kg. She is doing ok but I was told by the nurse that Linn has problems with her ‘r’ and she needs to roll her tongue. If there are no improvements by the time she turns 5, she needs to seek help.

I myself cannot roll my tongue and make the ‘rrrrrr’ sound Maybe I should seek help together with Linn.

Mummy…can I ask you a question? How come Barbie doesn’t have to wash her hair when she takes a bath? Can you also not wash my hair when I take a bath…just like Barbie?

Please mummy please… i don’t like it!

I experienced something really wonderful today.

I was going home from school today and waiting at the bus stop with some of my schoolmates. Suddenly, I heard a very familiar voice shouting out for ‘Mummy’. It sounded just like Jonathan. I quickly looked around, I saw him waving to me at a distance 100 m across the road. It was a busy street and he was on top of an overhead bridge. Jonathan was with his school teacher on the way to the weekly swimming class and he had no idea that I was at the bus stop at that time. But he spotted me. We waved at each other from a distance and his teacher then dragged him away.

It was really sweet that he spotted me and it brought such a warm feeling in my heart.

I turned around to my schoolmates and said proudly… ‘That’s my son!’.

My dear Jonathan

We are so proud of you…you did well in your first week of school. We are really glad to see that you have started to eat some salad and glad that you have taken a strong interest in climbing. You have been really sweet to your sister as well enduring her bossing around you and trying to protect her when you know she is in trouble with us. You have no idea how happy I was to see you fully engaged in playing a boardgame with your teacher when we picked you up from school the other day. It is good.

But we really really cannot help you to look for those light sabres anymore. You must continue to work hard on listening. Maybe you got that problem from me. Haha

I know it is hard for you sometimes. Don’t give up Jon and we will never give up on you.

Love,
Mama

This is how Nicke found Linn one morning in bed

The family went to Kolmården, Stockholm’s safari last weekend. I think it could be 3 times the size of the Singapore Zoological Gardens but with perhaps fewer animals The entry ticket also costs 3 times more!!! The zoo is closed during winter time as some of the animals go into hibernation.

The animals just have more space to roam around. It was a great experience as we saw many Scandinavian animals (elk, reindeer, antelopes, deers) gorillas, the big brown bear plus the usual suspects. They used to allow cars to go around the safari but now replaced it with a cable car that allows visitors to come up close and personal with the animals. Plus many playgrounds for children to burn more energy.

Definitely worth the one hour drive out into the country side. The great thing about the zoo, from a Singaporean’s viewpoint, was that I actually spent 7 hours out there and not perspire at all. But having said that, I really miss the Singapore Zoo and am really really proud of it! Nichlas thinks that many zoos in the world are really trying to replicate our Singapore Zoological Gardens.

Kolmården definitely deserves a 5 stars rating!

The children started their new school term yesterday. Nichlas and I are really happy to see Jonathan starting official school and Linn will be attending a new daycare which is very close to Jonathan’s new school.

Jonathan is attending a special school with only 4 students and one dedicated teacher in each class. The class has 3 students with Aspergers. So we really hope that he will enjoy being in the school and be comfortable in the new enviroment.

Linn’s new daycare is an international ”daycare’ where the teachers speak to them in English but they can speak in whatever language they like. Many of the kids speak Swedish but some only speak their mother tongue Spanish, Korean, etc etc. It will be interesting . We hope that she will continue to do well in her swedish and improve her English. We noticed that she is speaking Swenglish when she says ‘Jag ska show you’.

So cheers..here’s to another school year.