SKYNI

Jonathan loves sharks…he can identify various species of sharks which leaves me clueless. He can stare at the aquarium for hours and not be bored.

Ok…i cannot compete with Linn’s amazing photos. They were outstanding.

But here are some of Jon’s photos

Linns Iceland’s trip!

This year, the Walls have a rather different Easter Break.

I had to go to Munich for work and took the opportunity to bring Jonathan with me as it was the Easter break. School was closed and the timing could not be better.

Nicke and Linn had other plans and they had planned a one week adventure in Iceland. Jonathan and I were not invited as they felt it was not for city dwellers. More on that later.

Jon was really well behaved during the 5 days stay. He enjoyed his own SPA pool at the hotel for 2 days and we then moved into the city. We ate street food and visited his favourite tourist sites / the Aquarium and the Zoo. He was so happy and it was really quality time spent together.

Jonathan is growing up so fast and it is nice to catch up with his growth and find out his interests, thoughts and views. During this trip, I realised that he can be quite independent and is learning to be more sociable. He does approach strangers and talk to them. He is really a sweet boy and very very obedient. Of course there are times when he gets upset when his requests are rejected. But my heart just melts when he kisses me and tells me that he loves me.

I have been to Munich over 20 times in the past 3 years but this must be my best trip so far.

The Walls could not go back to Singapore for Chinese New Year this year. I really missed not spending this with my family and close friends.

But such is life as the school holidays did not co-incide with the Chinese New Year.

so i can only wish all a wonderful new year and not think about the wonderful festivities back home.

Linn has been bugging me for the past 2 years about getting her ear lobes pierced. I have been reluctant largely because she is too young. Plus, I don’t see many places providing this service in Stockholm. I thought i need to go to a tattoo piercing shop to get this done.

So when I had the chance last week and saw a shop that provides this service, I surprised her by asking her if she wanted to do it on the spot.

She did not have much time to consider (or getting cold feet) and now, she is extremely proud of her pierced ear lobes. It was priceless seeing her grinned from ear to ear. She glanced at the mirror every moment she can and I can see how happy she was. I am just glad to be there with her, allowing her to choose her first earring, and holding her hands when they did the piercing.

I love doing these girly things with my daughter.

If only she likes shopping.

It has been a few months since i blogged. I must admit that i have forgotten about the blogg and I keep telling myself that i should. These memories are precious to me and i look at the kids now and feel that they have grown so much in the last couple of years.

The winter has been kind to us. The snow came a little late and it would have been great to have a nice white Christmas. But you can’t get everything.

The kids love to play in the snow and I cannot say the same about me. I am still very much hiding at home trying to keep warm. I am glad that my kids are not like me. Kudos to Nicke who forces them up to build snowmen and another fun snow activities.

Linn had a first piano recital sometime in December last year…..a really short one. But we are very happy for her and she did well.

I decided not to be the tiger mom and just let her try out piano classes with the school. Hopefully she will sustain her interest.

It was the Autumn break and I brought the kids to Copenhagen to see the Halloween festivities at Tivoli.

The 5 hours train ride from Stockholm to Copenhagen went very well…and many thanks to WIFI and Netflix. The kids were happy and arrived at Copenhagen central station well rested. We chose to stay at a Hostel/ Hotel/ B&B/Apartment called Urban House. It is great on the pocket, very kids friendly, no fuss, the location is just next to Tivoli and the Central Train Station.

We had four great days visiting The Blue Planet (spectacular Aquarium and even better than the ones in Singapore in my opinion), Han Christian Anderson Story Museum, The Experimental Museum and of course we visited Tivoli twice. Must say that for the second oldest amusement park in the work, it is very well maintained, with very good rides, magical and very beautiful. I really liked the Halloween theme and the kids found it very cool. Even Jon did not complain so much…although the crowd did get to him at times.

We went to the LEGO store EVERY DAY for the 4 days we were there. Jon loved it and if he has a choice, he will choose to live there.

All in all, a great wonderful trip.

Dear Jon

For your birthday, I wish you happiness, love and lots of joy and laughter…

We love you so much.

Big hugs and kiss,
Daddy, Mummy and Linn

Feels a little like Chinese New Year…He gets 2 days of celebration. On Sunday, we celebrated with the family.

Busy weekend for the family. Most importantly, birthday boy was happy with the presents.

We spent the entire weekend celebrating Jon’s birthday.

On Saturday, we had his classmates over for Halloween birthday party. Jonathan was really happy and was very glad to see his school teacher as well. Åsa has helped Jonathan a lot in motivating him to draw and write. We are glad that he is enjoying school and like his classmates.

Linn was the party planner…she even decided on the activities and the candies that they will eat. Mummy just had fun making the Halloween candy. It was great!!!

Linn started to show interest in learning how to play the piano. She signed up for piano classes in school but her way of learning is really not the same way as how I was taught.

I decided that she should learn it HER way as my way is ‘not fun’ for her. Learning should be fun and I know what it is like to be forced to learn in a certain way.
I am not sure if her interest will last long but it is best to let her decide. After all, there is no point forcing her to continue if she loses her interest.

But she is really interested in scouts activities, learning about the nature and being out in the forest. She liked it so much that she will go to scouts camp even if she is in pain.

Jonathan is only interested in staying at home to play his donald duck video games and building his LEGO empire. It is hard to get him motivated to do anything physical. We really have to push him to do any outdoor activities.
We stopped motorcross as we saw that his interest was waning. We tried almost everything… atheletics, swimming, ice hockey, skating and even Wii games and Dance Central!!!

If any of you have any good suggestions, we will be most interested to hear them.

Perhaps, this is another trait he got from his mother?

Mångkamps dagen is a day when school kids get to dress up in costume and they can basically run around the school, play sports for the entire day. There are no school lessons on this day.

This year, Linn was assigned to be a pirate. We could not find any ready made Pirate girl outfit at the store and had to made do with what we can find at home.

It was fun.

Nicke found us a cave house in Ola with a beautiful view and sunsets. It was really nice …and it comes with a family of stray cats to keep the children busy.

Highlight of the trip – Private boat, personal chef, free flow of drinks, swimming in the sea, collect volcanic rocks…beautiful views and good sun.