A bit of a mixed bag of photos this week from me – some of Little O and some of the things I have seen. It has been a strange week really. Husband is coming to the end of his intense working period, which means he will finally be able to take some leave, for which I am incredibly grateful. Baby E’s first four weeks have not been the easiest, but I just glad that it was like this with him and not with Little O. I cannot imagine how I would have coped being largely on my own for four weeks with a first baby!
Day 44:
Photo © English Mamma
I’m trying to psych myself up to filling in this form to apply for Baby E’s Swedish passport. We have a slot booked at the police station to hand the forms over and get his photo taken on 5 March. So there is only so much procrastinating that I can do. (And then there is the joy of the British passport application after this…)
Day 45:
Photo © English Mamma
Not sure that they should really be recommending that people do this. (Although it has worked out well for Husband and I!) I got my Valentine’s wish today. I phoned Husband as he was on his way home and begged to know, over the sounds of a screaming Baby E and wailing Little O, when he would be home. He was two minutes away but planning a detour to buy me flowers. The flowers idea got shelved and he walked in the door two minutes later to rescue us – the perfect Valentine’s gift!
Day 46:
Photo © English Mamma
On Wednesday, I finally found the time to print out, write and post the thank you cards for Baby E’s gifts. I know I really should have done this sooner, but people will forgive me won’t they? After all, life can be a little, shall we say hectic, with a toddler and a newborn.
Day 47:
Photo © English Mamma
About an hour before I was due to pick Little O up from preschool, I had a call from them to say that he had a fever of 38 degrees and please could I collect him a little earlier. I bundled Baby E up in his snowsuit, into the stroller and jumped on the bus. By the time I got there, it was only half an hour before I would normally have collected him and it was snack time. We already knew that Little O loves his food but I really found out just how much. Despite a fever, he sat and ate three sandwiches and drank two cups of milk, while I waited for him, sweating in my winter coat. Two other little boys also had fevers and were awaiting collection; they both flopped their heads down on the table and one sobbed quietly. Not Little O – by the time he decided that he was ready to go home (at the time I would normally have collected him anyway), he also decided that he was well enough to run round and round the cloakroom seven times… Not too feverish then! Given how well he seemed, I took him to the hairdressers for a long-overdue haircut, as you might or might not be able to see in this photo.
Day 48:
Photo © English Mamma
One of Little O’s more unconventional sleeping positions!
Day 49:
Photo © English Mamma
As part of the toddler tantrums that have started recently (poor thing, he gets so incredibly frustrated that he cannot make us understand him), Little O is also showing his willpower. And this is what Little O was determined to wear yesterday afternoon. The fire engine/police car vest was something that he had grabbed in H&M and refused to let go of. We then had a little to-do at the till when, after explaining 12 or so times that he’d have to let go of it so I could pay for it, I had to wrestle it from him for an interminable 30 seconds while the girl scanned it and removed the security tag. I had not realised until yesterday just how loud Little O could scream. (He woke this morning and brought the same outfit to Husband to have put on him. Oh joy…)
Day 50:
Photo © English Mamma
Little O loves to return Baby E’s little pink elephant rattle to him if he has dropped it. It is moments like these that I cherish, when I see Little O being so gentle with his baby brother.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Take a look over at The Boy and Me’s site and see what she and others have chosen as their favourites of the week:
In brief: English, living in Sweden, with my Swedish/Hungarian husband and our sons, Little O and Baby E, and trying to juggle all the different aspects of my new life - the me I was before, the me I am now and the me that I would like to be (which I imagine fondly as some ideal combination of the first two...). 
