Clever

It's Monday night and Vera is having a bath. Before we went upstairs we measured her, she's 98,5 centimetres tall. As she's been to a few birthday parties recently, she has started to plan her own. It will be held in "her" house on the street and will feature a Peppa Pig cake, which I have to make! She's inviting a few friends from nursery, as well as Momma and Moffa and Ariane. And Santa. Santa is invited as he'll be bringing the presents. Clever huh?! This year he's bringing special bread sticks (!) We had some haloumi wraps with guacamole for dinner and Vera had some chicken and potatoes, carrots and homous. She's been intrigued by avocadoes in the fruit bowl, but to her guacamole was not a hit.Creme Fraiche though, or "special milk" as she called it, was very tasty. I also have a few herbs growing on the kitchen window sill and she's been fascinated by Mamma's special plants that you can eat. We've told her that you can only eat plants that mamma and dada say are ok otherwise you get a very sore tummy. Apart from that we had a very lovely weekend. Saturday was a beatiful day and although a little bit windy, it offered sunshine, blue skies and crisp, clear air. We headed over to the Longshaw estate, which is only 6 miles (about a 15 min drive) from our house. We walked around playing hide and seek amongst the trees and saying hello to the sheep and the ducks. Days like that are good for body and soul! I can feel how I'm craving fresh air and vitamin D and that all important light! On Sunday, we took it easy, did some painting, baking and some clearing up in the attic. Nice and relaxing!

weekend

Vera-isms

Vera is a great talker (like her mum!) and pretty much chats non stop. Her vocabulary is growing every day and yesterday she was looking at animals and managed to identify octopus, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, a crab with pincers, and, my personal favourite a "gravy fish", which looks like an octopus, according to Vera. She stumbles on some of the longer words (who doesn't) and other words, she's made her own version of, like "wachine", which is a washing machine - good abbreviation I think! And "toinuck", which is the toilet. She loves being outdoors and climbing but also loves being creative and drawing. At nursery they draw a lot and use glue, glitter, stamps etc so great for Vera to explore. She's recently started drawing more faces too, before it was mini mini circles but now resembling people. The majority on paper of course, but this one last night on the iPad for momma and moffa:

She also loves dancing and sometimes after dinner we have a boogie! Current favourites are "Five little monkeys" :, "Wind the Bobbin Up" and old Swedish favourites like "En Kulen natt", "Tänk om jag hade en liten apa", "I ett hus vid skogens slut" etc

Photos from Endcliffe Park

Full Circle

I remember this weekend almost exactly a year ago. My first visit to Sheffield and the whole city was covered in snow. We slid into the car park at the Kenwood Hall Hotel and more or less had to abandon the car there. We went for a walk in the snow, pushing the pram up steep hills and eventually ended up in a café called Ceres on the corner of Ecclesall Road and Sharrow Vale Road. Today, a year later, we were back in the same café, after a visit to the lovely Endcliffe park and time to reflect how much has changed in a year! I am starting to feel really settled, I have my Swedish friends, who I met up with last night for a bit of after work. Really lovely to be able to walk to the Prince of Wales pub, only 1km away, albeit uphill! It’s also small things, like having registered with a doctor’s surgery, dental practice, having found a good and trustworthy garage, a good hair dresser’s – all those things that make you feel at home. And this morning, bumping into some people we knew in the park, parents of a boy at Vera’s nursery. And, to top it all off, I’ve got a job! I’m so pleased and it is such a relief. For me it is the last piece in the jigsaw and part of putting some more roots down. I finish my current position on 24th March, on 25th March we fly to Sweden for a bit of a winter holiday and to see family and friends and then I start my new position on Monday 7th April. It is all coming together!

Affection

Vera has recently started to express her affections in words, which is very sweet. She comes over with a serious face and says “I like you mamma and I’ve missed you” and just recently “I love you mamma”. Makes you very warm inside! I’ve been away a fair bit of late both privately and with work. The fellow Swedes and I have started a book club and we’re reading Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk, which is set in Apartheid South Africa and a very interesting (but long! 700 pages) read. I’m so pleased we’ve started this as it gives me a focus and makes me make time for reading. Last Saturday I went down to London to celebrate Terese’s birthday,I enjoyed being in the big smoke and meeting up with old friends! I arrived back at 5:30pm on the Sunday night, and 12 hours later at 6am I set off to Cambridge again. After a long drive, we had three full days’ of workshops and dinners out. On Monday night I had Korean food at Little Seoul with my old and new boss and on Tuesday I managed not one but two dinners! I joined the project team for a work dinner at St John’s Chop House and had a nice starter and at 8:30pm I headed to Cau to meet my NCT friends for my steak main course! It was so lovely to see them all and catch up on the little ones! I arrived back home on Wednesday night and on Friday night Vera and I met Mark at Prezzo on Ecclesall Road for a start of the weekend treat in the form of pizza and pasta. This Saturday just gone, we braved IKEA in Nottingham. In hindsight, perhaps not our smartest idea to go on the first Saturday after pay day, the place was mobbed! But we manage to buy the things we were after, bathroom cabinet etc and get out of there alive! On Saturday night, it was time to go out again! This time experiencing the Sheffield night life with two fellow Swedes. I had been warned that it was a dress and high heels kind of affair, but nothing could have prepared me for what people (mainly women) were wearing (or not wearing in many cases)! I know that the further north you go in the UK this is the case, but I so wished I would have taken a few snaps to show you, the hair, the tight dresses and shorts, caked on make up and sky high heels! I felt like an old granny, but as I enjoy people watching, I had a field day! Yesterday, as the sun was shining, a rare occurrence these last couple of weeks, we headed to Graves Park to see the animals and play in the play ground. They sell animal feed there, so that you can buy a cup and feed some of the animals and Vera wanted some. She was very brave, feeding the cows, goats and sheep and loved every minute of it! Then she met her friend Rosa from nursery in the playground and they played for a bit before we headed home for lunch. In the afternoon, Mark out up a bathroom mirror and cabinet and a shelf downstairs and I cooked and baked some cinnamon buns. A chilled end to a very busy week! Vera’s sleeping is getting better and she stays in her own bed more. We’ve bought a groclock, which essentially is a toddler clock which shows the moon and stars during the night and the sun during the day (you set the times). That way, if she gets up in the night and sees the moon and the stars, she goes back to her own bed and if she sees the sun, she knows that it’s morning and ok to get up. Seems to work well so far, we’ll see how it goes!

Into February