Thanksgiving 2009

This holiday seems to be a big one for the Americans. We ate a lot of food and I probably ate more sweets and candy then food. We stayed with grammy and pabah so that worked out better for me. Mamma seems to be ok with me stuffing my face with candy at their house but not so much at our house. Here's me laying on the floor stuffed and happy!! Mamma and I stayed at grammy's house for an eternity. And then towards the end my cousins and some other people arrived. In this picture you can see my cousin Tess. We watched some of my Swedish DVDs like Alfons Aberg. She liked them too and didn't seem to have any difficulties understanding Swedish. I'm not sure why we celebrate Thanksgiving but I'm very certain that any holiday that includes candy and sweets is a good holiday and should be celebrated. Good thing I'm a good runner these days, and can burn lots of calories. The other day mamma had a hard time catching up to me as I was running fast and furious. Talk soon again!

Halloween 2009

Sorry for not writing sooner but time flies and mamma keeps me very busy. Pappa wants to relax, all the time and mamma wants to do something, all the time. I just want something in between but they don't seem to get that part, at all. Anyway, we celebrated Halloween with The Sotos. Mateo (in the picture) is one of my boyfriends and we kind of played all day. Then of course we went trick or treating and I ate this year more candy then last year. I didn't think that was possible but with much fuss they kept handing me one candy after another one. I especially loved the lollipop and lost the count after 4. Actually, this is kind of a funny story: towards the end of each lollipop I dropped it on the ground, only to be replaced with a new one from mamma or pappa because they felt bad. Well, they forget so fast how quick I am on my feet. I really love this event and hope Halloween will come, soon again. Oh boy...mamma is calling for me...what does she want now?!

I Went Back to Sweden

Well I've been back home for a while but I'm finally getting around to posting stuff about my trip to Sweden. My mom kept calling it "Svar-eeya" and I thought that was weird until I got there and EVERYBODY talked like her. I didn't care because I understood everything that everybody was saying.

There's no way I can describe everything we did on the trip, but let me tell you -- it was just like mom and dad said it would be. We rode on a tåg up to this huge building and then we rode on a flygplan for what seemed like six days. And when we got there we hung out with Stina and Pedr and Sonja and Sven.. and I remembered them from the last time I was here. They're all really nice and Sven is still cute..

On the trip we went to a park with all kinds of rides.. and I got to drive a car with Sonja and me! I thought we were too young to drive but I guess things are different in Sweden.



I also saw a museum that was supposed to be about Pippi Långstrump but I was more interested in the Mumin display!



We ate all kinds of great food and we took a drive up to a really nice area where for some reason they paint little horses.

The weird thing about going to Sweden is that when I was tired, it was NOT time to go to sleep. And when it was time to go to sleep, I was NOT tired.. and then it was just like that again when I got home.. very strange..

Vacation Week

So we just got back from an entire week away from my house in Baltimore. I'm not sure where I was but it was like a HUGE drive in the car just to get there. The house where we stayed was much bigger than my house -- it was so big that Grammy and Paba were there too, and so were all my cousins -- Laney, Colin, Junior, Kasey and Tess. And all of their parents too. There was a nice big lake to play in and a beach where I ran around naked all the time, until I got tired. And the weather was nice so I could play outside like every day. Totally fun.. I hope I get to go back there sometime.

And ever since that trip Mamma and Pappa have been talking about another trip that we'll be taking.. they just keep telling me that we're going to ride on a tåg and then a flygplan and then everybody we see is going to talk like Mamma. I'll believe it when I hear it!

-- Nina

Video of Me

So finally Pappa thinks he's figured out how to record me doing the silly things I do all day. Or maybe he hasn't. But this morning he drove me down to this park where these huge flygplans kept going by. I've seen them before but these ones were really close. I laughed every time one of them went by:



And that is how I became a YouTube sensation. I'm not sure I'm excited about having all kinds of videos of me running around, but Pappa seems pretty determined..

Later!

Nina

So I like to do all kinds of stuff.. I hate to be inside unless I'm watching Mumin or doing B. But those are subjects for future blog posts. Anyway, Pappa takes me to all kinds of crazy places during the morning. Then Anne-Marie takes me outside like the second she gets to my house in the afternoon. And then Mamma takes me to the pool or up to the park as soon as she gets home at night. So I'm very busy.

For example, last week Pappa took me to the zoo.. where I got to look at the baby elephant. I can even make the sound the elephant makes; everybody gets a kick out of it. Whatever..

But my favorite was the monkeys. Actually I'm not sure whether they're monkeys, chimpanzees, orangutans or baboons for that matter. And you won't be able to tell either because I'm only including this picture of me looking at them.. maybe next time we'll figure it out:

Another thing I do a lot is go to this big store will all kinds of books. Is BarnesandNoble one word? We can walk there from home, and I like to run close to the water for most of the trip because that freaks out Pappa. They've got a big tåg that I like to play with. What's a tåg? I don't understand why nobody understands what I'm saying. Get with it people! All I know is that there's all kinds of tracks and little things that go up and down the tracks and the best tåg's name is Thomas. But that's not even my favorite part of going to BarnesandNoble. They've also got this huge rulltrappa. I just go up, walk around, go down, walk around, go up, walk around, go down.. Pappa's always nervous but he needs to chill out. I'm not going to fall down the rulltrappa.

Memorial Day Weekend - Boston

Can I possibly be surrounded by anymore kids - I don't think so.  Mamma and I flew to Boston over the holiday weekend to visit some of our friends.  Pappa had to work so he stayed home.  I had so much fun; playing in the hot-tub, swimming in the pool, riding on a bike, playing soccer, eating lots of new and interesting foods like popsicle, cinnamon cereal and popcorn - who knew food could taste so good.  Sure I still love my beets, peas and avocado but this stuff tops my chart. Mamma doesn't think I can eat it all the time - only when we're on vacation - so hopefully we're going away soon again.  I'm now 17-months old and these days I'm very focused on learning how to run faster, mastering the skill of walking up and down the steps by myself and eating on my own.  The last part would be much easier if Mamma only let me handle the spoon more often.  It's a good thing I love her so much because sometimes she just drives me crazy.  Godnatt!!

Almost 16-months now

Oh boy the time flies by when I have fun.  It's been so much going on lately that I hardly find time to even nap lately.  I've gone from 2-3 naps per day to only 1 nap which kind of works out better for me because now I don't miss as much.  Hopefully pappa thinks so too.

Last time I wrote I had just celebrated my first birthday, Christmas and taken my first step.  Since then I've had sleep-over at grammy and pabah's place, been to Washington DC with friends, had visitors from Boston and celebrated Easter.  As you can tell life has been rather hectic.  

I've also learned to be more steady on my feet (can't get enough of those stairs, steps and ladders), can say a few words like mamma, pappa, Nina, bubbla and upp (remember I'm learning 2 languages).  Oh and I play a lot with my buddies Ethan and Mateo.   Overall it's just fun to be a toddler even though I miss the days when mamma carried me more.  

I'm walking now!

A couple of weeks ago mommy took me to the Aquarium with my friend Mateo. That turned out to be the best place ever because they have this rolling thing that mommy calls escalator, not with steps but flat, and I just thought that was the neatest thing ever.

Of course the sharks and the fishes were fun to look at but the escalator was much more up my alley. Mommy kept pushing me away from it and that's when I decided that I'll just walk to it myself, when she looks the other way. So off I went and boy, it was fun to be "on my own."

Sure enough mommy stopped me a bunch of times but I went for it over and over again, thinking she'll eventually get tired of stopping me. Well she won in the end but at least now I know how to walk and next time I hope to be much quicker then mommy.