Another year has passed

So... we have arrived at New year's Eve again. 2014 has come to an end. I don't know if I'm happy or sad or indifferent. Maybe all at the same time. This has been an important year for me and D as we finally took the step and got married. The only witnesses were our closest family members so it was a small and intimate wedding - just as we wanted it to be.

Professionally it was a tough year for me as the year didn't start off in the best way, with my team members not being quite supportive of me being their new Team Leader. I found my way and have finished the year with a happy and productive team with a good reputation, but it was tough and there were times when my family life had to suffer. For 2015 I hope I can get a batter balance between work and life outside of work and still succeed.

My little K has grown up to become an active little toddler that understands three languages: Swedish, Spanish and English. He doesn't speak well yet but knows many important words.

I'm sure 2015 will be a good year - as long as we make it good.

Things I hope I never forget - but might

There are so many things about little K that I adore. So many funny little things he does that just cracks me up. I take for granted that I will remember them because they are a natural part of our lives, but i know myself - I will probably forget the odd thing here and there. I don't want to forget anything! These are ten things he is doing right now at 21 months:

1. He says "putt" when he farts and then laughs with me - It is for Prutt in Swedish. I don't care if people think it's rude or bad manners - it's funny!
2. He says "Mmm!" when he eats something he likes - just like mum and dad
3. If he spills, he wants to clean up his own mess with a paper towel - such a good boy!
4. He calls all cars and trucks "Nee noo" because we taught him that the fire truck says "nee noo, nee noo" - He took that as all cars are Nee noo's
5. He loves dancing to music - especially music with a powerful base. Eros Ramazotti is also a favourite
6. He always wants to share food. If he can feed you directly - even better!
7. Spices are fun! He will ask me to take down spices from the shelf and then he smells them and lets me and D smell them as well. Everyone has to smell them!
8. His favourite food is Spaghetti Bolognese made by daddy. He also likes our vegetable Paella made in our Thermomix
9. He strokes my cheek when I say "snäll" which means kind in Swedish
10. He knows how to imitate someone who is hysterical. I just say "hysterisk" and he starts waving and shouting hysterically - it's so funny!

The below pictures are from our holidays in Salento, South of Italy a couple of weeks ago.

My August

August went by in two seconds. Lovely month with two trips to Sweden. One longer in the beginning and a shorter weekend one in the end. The first trip was really special because David's family came - his parents, sister, sister's partner and son. We also had amazing weather the whole week. Over 30 degrees every day which is unheard of for that long in summer time. But the best thing of all is that we were all gathered in Stockholm - my family and D's family - for our wedding. Me and D got married in the City Hall in Stockholm on August 2nd. That date is a decade after we first met in Dublin.

After the wedding we all went to Häringe slott which is an old manor house turned hotel. We had the wedding reception there with our families - we were ten people in total. We then stayed at the hotel for 2 nights enjoying the pool, sea, floating sauna, canoes and tennis courts around there. We had an amazing time together.

July is here

We are now in the first week of July! I can't believe how quickly summer came.

We have already had a week of holidays in June, when we went to Mallorca and myself and D went on a 3 day romantic getaway to the lovely island of Formentera. I was really  nervous about leaving our little K behind - not for his sake but for mine. I had never spent a single night away from him. I almost cried when I kissed him goodbye, but after a few hours I was fine. Me and D had a lovely time in Formentera with the pristine beaches and the amazing food. We ate fish every day! Meanwhile, K was having a ball with his aunties going to the beach and the swimming pool. He loved it. He even learned to dive with his head under the water and just kept saying "mas! mas!"(="more! more!") in Spanish. A little dolphin is what he turned into :-)

Now we are in the month  of July and hoping for better weather so we can go to the parks and play with K. Fingers x-ed we get some proper good weather soon!

Selfie

We had a long weekend as the first Monday in May is a bank holiday. So needed. It's been a good few busy weeks at work and at home so we just needed some good family time. We took K took the swimming pool since it's been a while since we last took him. He didn't remember what to do and didn't like it at all at first. After about 10 minutes he started relaxing a bit more and enjoyed splashing around for a bit chasing daddy with me holding him and helping him chase. I'm happy he finally enjoyed it as we'll soon be going to Majorca and there we'll hopefully be able to swim some more with him in the sea.

Another thing we did, that we haven't done in a while is go out for dinner just me and D. We have just had date nights in Spain when the grandparents can babysit. Now we found a babysitter in London who lives close to where we live. Brilliant! So me and D went out on a date. We went to a restaurant that I chose - Arbutus in SoHo with a Michelin star. Food was amazing and we had  great time. K had gone to sleep well with the babysitter. He understood that it wasn't like every other night as someone new was there, but he seemed to have accepted it. Hopefully we can do this more often now, that we can leave K with the babysitter. A big step for all of us!

K is walking

The feeling when you see your child take his first steps... Incredible. You feel happy, proud...amazed. He's now walking everywhere exploring, poking, examining all kinds of things. The ground, holes in the wall, dog hairs, flowers... No discrimination in what gets examined - disgusting or not. This is the time when we as parents get to do a lot of running and yelling - "no, don't put that in your mouth!", "don't touch that!", "stop licking the seats in the tube!" and "don't stick your hands in the toilet!" - in order to try and stop certain undesirable events from occurring. It's fun but quite tiring! Gotta go and put my runners on - to keep up with the little one. Heels? Forget it!

Happy first birthday K!

2 days ago my little boy turned one year old. I can't believe a whole has gone by since he was born. The feeling when I held him in my arms for the first time. Incredible, wonderful, beautiful... All the great adjectives you can think of - that. I still feel like the luckiest woman alive, having such a great family ❤❤❤.

K didn't notice his birthday was different from other days, I think. I banged a cake for him and brought it to his nursery. Hopefully he liked it. We also received so many greetings from our friends and extended family. It made me really happy. Just warms my heart to know that there is so much love out there for my son who is just a year old. Amazing.

The Beatles are right:

All you need is love

Merry Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas eve. We celebrated Christmas in London with my family and some friends. It was lovely to have everyone at our new home to celebrate K's first Christmas. K's baby friend L was there with her friends and she gave him lots of kisses and cuddles. It was so funny to watch!

Father's day

Two days ago it was Father's day in Sweden. I don't like Swedish father's day anymore. It reminds me too much of dad. It is still hard. I don't know if I will ever get used to it. I miss him so much and it still feels like he should be here with us. It is still hard. But life goes on...whether we want to or not.

Back to work

Summer finally ended and we managed to squeeze in so many things right at the end of it: Christening of a friend's daughter in Istanbul, hen party and stag do in London two consecutive weekends, visitors from Spain and Sweden, wedding in Czech republic and K's christening in Mallorca.

The day after coming home, it was time for K to start settling in at nursery. I had been dreading this day for a long time and tried not to think about it too much. But the day came and he actually seemed to enjoy being there. It was such a huge relief to see him playing with a musical toy and enjoying himself while I was leaving the first day. The rest of the week went in a similar fashion. I can only say "thank god" for that because the following week I was back at work.

That brings us up to this week. It was a good week at work. I jumped right into a new role at work which is being the team leader of the team I used to work in. It felt good to come back in that way. I didn't worry too much about K which was good, and I quickly got back into the swing of things. I feel slightly overwhelmed about all the things I need to get done before Christmas though... But so far so good!

 K after landing in London coming from Mallorca

After K's first swin in the sea

 Grandma came over to cuddle with her grandchild

The hen party that I organised. Here after makeovers at Chanel 

 We also drove karts!

Mr.Frequent flyer on the plane from Istanbul His first tooth on its way out here but we didn't discover until the following day