Tuesday 16 October 2012

Lydias birthday...one more time!

Are you tired of looking at photos of our kids?  
If you answered yes, go read the weather instead!
Otherwise, here is the final glimpse of Lydias birthday...

Sweden has a sweet tradition of breakfast in bed.  But her little bunkbed would've been a bit tight, so we had breakfast on the floor next to her bed, and she looooved it!

 If you ask Lydia today what the best part of her birthday was, or what was the best present, she will say without a doubt, "I got to eat a pink donut!!"  (Ok, don't go telling me we deprive our kids, but this is the first donut she has maybe ever eaten).
 
What was a hit in terms of presents?  Puzzles have been great stimulators, little toy cars are well used, and a few American learning DVD's that are finally age appropriate were really enjoyed. 
We love you Lydia!

Sunday 14 October 2012

7Months, Markus!

The little milestones for my kids is really a great joy for me to keep up with. 
And our happy baby Markus has just passed 7 months!
Among his list of abilities, he has now added: 

Crawling in reverse, which often ends up in him getting stuck in a corner or something...(Lydia keeps laying down in front of him and saying, "come on, crawl to me," at which point he crawls in reverse directly AWAY from her....ha. 

On a side note, Lydia and Markus are pretty good at amusing one another, which is fun.

Making the typical baby sounds, babababa, gagaga, bububub, and a fun "hey" kind of sound as well as "oh yeah"....I know I am just imagining he is saying that, but it is funny.

Rolling over, sitting up decently, into a relatively babywise schedule including around 9 hours of sleep a night,  and having a personality that is so happy and fun.  I gotta say, second babies seem to be much more content than firstborns...

And already having 5 teeth! (2 bottom teeth arrived more than a month ago, and three top teeth are popping up as we speak).

Weighs almost 9,5 kilos / 21 pounds. (That is a big difference from Lydia at that age...lets just say Markus is a ravenous eater!)

We love you Markus!




Friday 12 October 2012

Happy Birthday, Lydia!

This blog is gonna be a bit overfull of photos, 
but what better way for you to enjoy Lydia's birthday party with us, right? 

We had a treasure hunt with Daniel's family!  
Fortunately his siblings are good at playing along and having fun...

Stops along the treasure hunt included: 

1. Blowing a milk carton boat across the kiddie pool to get the next clue....

2.  Decorating a little cake and then letting Lydia judge which one was "best"

3. Paint up each other with face paint! 
(although some people got a bit bombarded by more than one "decorator")

And some were just really cute like Lydia's cousin here...

There was also an optional hat/mask addition...

Since then, Lydia has asked me several times to go play face painting. :) 

4. See who can make the silliest team picture...







A few more stops on the treasure hunt included digging in the sandbox for buried treasure, finding balloons in the apple tree to blow up and decorate the house, paper airplane flying competition, and pushing each other around in a little go-kart contraption...

All of that was followed by a sweet party and dinner! Farmor did a sweet train cake, Markus slept through half of the party, and we had a fun time....Happy Birthday Lydia!


(This little doctors kit was one of Lydia's favorite gifts...thanks Auntie Linda!)





Thursday 4 October 2012

Herren är min starkhet


Let's take a look at another hymn from our church's songbook...  do you start to see a theme here?  

The focus of worship should be just what the word worship implies:  it's all about God, and not about us!

And even better, this is a direct citation of the Bible....Psalm 118:14,   "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation"

This is a bit of an old fashioned version of the song, but we truly enjoy having this song in our worship book!





E                       A
Herren är min starkhet
                E H    E
Och min lovsång
E                        A
Herren är min starkhet
                E H  E
Och min lovsång
E                            A
Han blev mig till frälsning
H                           A      E
Han blev mig till frälsning
E                         A
Herren är min starkhet
                E  H  E
Och min lovsång.

Nu kan vi kolla på en till lovsång från våran kyrkans sånghäfte. Börja du ser ett tema här?

Fokusen av lovsånger ska bli just vad ordet betyder: Det är Gud som är viktig och inte oss!

Och även bättre, den sång citerar direkt från Psaltaren 118:14. 

Musik klippen är ett gammal version av sången, men vi gillar den lovsång i häftet!

Tuesday 2 October 2012

mcdonalds, the Swedish version....

What do little kids like for a birthday treat?  McDonalds comes to mind as an obvious answer!  (especially when they rarely get to go there!)

So we packed up and drove out to the nearest McDonalds for a birthday dinner for Lydia. She just turned 3, (I can hardly believe it!)

Carefully unpacking her first ever happy meal.
Even Markus is intoxicated by the french fries there...

Let's just say that in America it is common to go out to restaurants and fast food, anywhere from once a week to daily.

That is not the case in Sweden here.   Let's look at some differences.

1.  Cost.  Swedish McDonalds costs about double what the American prices are, Starbucks is also approximately double the cost (and you thought your latte was expensive in the states!)  Just to restate my point, a value meal at McDonalds in Sweden starts at around 10 dollars and goes up.

2.  Recycling?  You are expected to take apart your trash and throw it into these different recyclable compartments: ice/liquids, food leftovers, paper, straws, and so on.  But apparently, according to people who work at McDonalds in Sweden, this is all just a show, and all the trash gets thrown together into one bag in the end!!
  

3.  A microwave, for warming up baby food brought from home?  Yup, that is a standard issue at Swedish McDonalds.  Don't want to get the kiddies started on fattening McDonalds food too early. :)

4.  Want to charge your electric car?  Yup, McDonald's offers that too.

Let's just say that this is a whole different experience.  But it was fun to celebrate Lydia's birthday there!

Vad gillar småbarn för ett födelsedags restaurang besök?  McDonalds är en av första svararna!  Speciellt när de går sällan dar!

Vi slängde oss i bilen och körde ut till McDonalds på fredag för Lydias födelsedag firande.  Hon har just fyllt tre, kan du tro!?

I USA är det vanligt att gå ut på restaurang eller snabbmat mellan en gång i veckan till en gång per dagen!  Så är det INTE i Sverige.  Låt oss kolla på lite skillnader. 

1.  Kostnaden.  Svensk McDonalds kostar runt dubbel vad det kostar i USA.  Starbucks (i Göteborgs centralstationen) är också runt dubbel.  

2.  återvinning?  Du ska inte bara slänga alla skräp i ett stor hål, utan dela upp allting.  Det är nästan otänkbart i USA att göra så.  Men enligt de som jobbar dar, så de brukar slänga allting i samma smutspåse på slutet av dagen!

3.  Mikrovågsugnen?  Ja, det är klart man kan varma bebis mat har!  Du vill inte att barnen börja äta den hemska onyttiga mcdonalds mat för tidigt, eller hur? 

4.  Vill du ladda din el-bil? Ja, visa McDonalds i sverige också har det!
Låt oss säga att det är ett helt olika upplevelse för mig, men det var roligt att fira Lydia har!

Systematic Theology, Chapter 39

*Just a reminder that this study of Wayne Grudem's book, Systematic Theology, is not by any means me teaching, but rather a simple sum...