SKYNI

We rarely go to parties these days but we attended 3 yesterday. (Kids birthday parties are to be excluded)

We (Nicke, the kids, my mom and I) had a great BBQ with my classmates from China in the afternoon. I met them in my Swedish class and we really get along. Nicke was the only non-chinese there. The BBQ was similar to the BBQs we have back in Singapore with many different varieties of BBQ meat….even BBQ chicken gizzard which I really missed.

In the evening, Nicke and I attended my classmates’ (also from Swedish class) party. They were largely from Russia, Iran and Poland. We could only conversed in simple basic Swedish and again, Nicke was the only Swede there.

Lastly, we attended Mats (Nicke’s Swede Friend) very Swedish birthday party. I was the only non-swede there. We got home at 1 am which was actually the first time in many years.

Now, i feel really old, tired and sleepy. I think my party days are really really behind me.

Photos taken by Linn

I must say that Po Po has been really really patient with Linn. I kept reminding my mother that she was alot stricter and less patient with me when I was a child. So I wonder if you get more patient as you get older.

I am hoping that Linn is going to catch up on her chinese with my mother. The only words I heard her muttered so far is ‘Bu Yao!” (Don’t want!)

The kids were very lucky to spend time with both grandmothers this weekend. We had a great time together!

On Friday, we drove to Koping to attend Gustav’s graduation from “Gymnasiet”. It was really great to be part of his family, coming together to celebrate this very special occasion. In Sweden, this marks the start of ádulthood and independence.

I can feel Joakim’s and Maria’s pride and joy for their son. I too shed some tears of joy during the event!

Gratis Gustav and enjoy your university life! We are very happy for you too!

My mother and I attended Jonathan’s graduation from his kindergarten last Wednesday. It was really nice. For the first time, Jonathan fully participated in a dance item and he followed the movements, co-ordination and completed the dance together with all his classmates. It really put a smile on my face! In the past, he would just run away and hide.

Here he is with his shadow teacher, Sabrina whom I think has worked really hard on Jonathan in the past 9 months. We owe Jonathan’s good progress to this wonderful lady.

The children love going to the farm. Their favourite for the day is the pony ride. It was fun guiding the ponies around the farm ourselves. I hope my mother liked it too.

Nicke has been working hard on Jonathan’s motor skills. We encouraged him to climb trees and do all kind of outdoor sports to improve his confidence and exposure to different activities. He is doing ok but still he needs a lot of pushing.

It has been 9 months since Jonathan met his shadow teacher, Sabrina. In a recent discussion, she described Jonathan as a ‘different’ boy since she first met him. Jonathan now speaks Swedish all the time and he is willing to play with other kids. We hope that he will continue to make good progress when he starts official school this August.

Last night, we were really proud of him as he slept alone in the tent outdoors all by himself. He loves camping and he was really excited. He slept soundly in his sleeping bag until the next morning.

No prizes for guessing what we will be eating alot this summer…

showing my mom the glorious swedish summer.

We have been disciplining our little one. We have been telling her if she continues to misbehave, she will not go with us to LegoLand next month. Nichlas and I will bring only Jonathan with us to LegoLand. Jonathan has been only talking about Legoland for the past 2 weeks and I think he is really looking forward to the trip.

But Linn continued to disobey and we finally told her that we have to exclude her from the trip. She whined a little bit but calmly said that if she cannot go to Legoland, she needs me to stay at home with her because she cannot be alone.

!!!

My mother and sister are finally here for a visit. It is so great to see them and specially my mother who has travelled all the way from Singapore on her own.

Bella and Linn having fun

My little girl’s first appearance in the school’s theatre and she played an ice cream princess. She was really excited and happy. We are so proud of her.

The kids love to go out into the forests. They do this all the time in their daycare and we sometimes do it during the weekends. Do I like it? It is beautiful but I am usually too busy looking out for the huge ants and other insects as we go along. Now that the warm weather is here, the insects are out in full force making up for lost times.

I think it is funny that Linn likes to ‘pause it’ when she cannot finish her food or want to take a break from something. For example, she cannot finish eating her sandwich in the morning and so, she will put her half eaten sandwich in the fridge saying that she wants to ‘pause it’ and come back later to eat it.

So pause it…till the next blog.

P/S: I do think this is Linn’s way of getting away with not finishing her food.

Tonight, i will have the house to myself. Nicke is camping with the kids in our garden. (No, i did not throw them out)

The first camping experience for the kids…I am sure they will sneak into the house in the middle of the night.

Ok…I admit defeat. It is really ‘a pain in the neck’ to paint the ceiling.

After numerous hours and several coats of paint, the ceiling is still ‘blotchy’. What a mess…there is paint everywhere! And my poor neck!

This is just the ceiling in our smallest room in the house…our first ceiling. We haven’t even started painting the walls.

Sigh. I think we will just bite the bullet and call in the professionals.

I cannot believe I took more than 200 pictures for just one trip.

Top 3 Highlights of the trip

1. The dinner at La Degustation (www.ladegustation.cz/en/ …think molecular gastronomy). It was out of this world.

2. Listening to an open air concert in Prague Castle

3. Reading in the Library

But throughout the trip, I keep playing the Mission Impossible Theme song in my head.

I used to think Paris is the most beautiful city in the world but now I know there is another city that is even more beautiful. Maybe some of you will disagree but Prague is just simply breathtaking. I love the architecture and what the city has to offer. The architecture, tourist attractions, the food and Thai massages at Singapore prices. 🙂
However, shopping is not so good. The weather was on our side…we have 5 days of sunshine and warm weather….and Chin Chien, you were right, the cobblestones were amazing. Almost the entire city is beautifully laid out on cobblestones!

We had a great time and it was really nice that Nicke and I can spend five days just reading, eating, sightseeing, admiring Prague without worrying about the kids. The kids were with my mother in law and she is super capable of handling them. In fact, her obedience camp is just the right antidote for bratty Linn. She has to abide to Grandma’s rules there. We called her one day and she said to me softly ‘Mummy, come back now and get me!!’. We were not allowed to speak to her after that..apparently, she cried for 2 hours after the phone call.

It was a wonderful trip but it was really nice to be with the kids again!