News letter 2004



This year has been a calm and quiet one. No new children have announced their arrival, we have not moved or changed jobs, we have not even made any spectacular repairs on the house. The boys grow like weeds and we enjoy life.

In the beginning of the year, on January 14th, the authorities decided that we finally had to give our baby boy a name. We decided that he was a Johan Olof, and he seems to live happily with that. We have continued to share the parental leave, something which has caused us both to be thouroughly spoiled. We are both groaning when we once in a while have to work a full day.

In the beginning of March Axel started a verbal explosion. Before that he hardly spoke at all and after that he has never stoped talking. He speaks a very personilized version of Swedish which makes it difficult for our boarder Mary from USA. The Swedish-classes she is taking doesn’t teach Axel-Swedish, and Axel’s English is not quite sufficient yet. Johan tries non-verbal communication instead (big smiles), and he usually gets his way with Mary.



During this exceptionally rainy summer we made a car trip up north in Sweden. We travelled as far as 500 kilometers, which is approximately 300 miles. Considering that Sweden is approximately 2000 kilometers from South to North, 500 is not that far. Further north there are just polar bears, mosquitos and trees, so it’s not really any good going any further. The kids enjoyed going in the car as it meant one parent’s undivided attention and lots of biscuits.

Our garage project did not really take off this year either. In January we were still convinced that we would build in the summer. In May we were still hoping but in June we decided that a winter without garage was not that bad, and what is the use of a garage anyway. We have regretted that more than once this winter, and this summer we are going to build a garage. We are very convinced that it will happen. Well, we do at least have a beautiful garden rocket. It even has a door with a window now. It has silver fins and a huge antenna. Hmm, maybe we can park the car in the rocket!

 

This summers largest project was to convince the large stones that comprise our front steps that they should not keep moving away from each other, but rather that they should stay straight and proud together. As each stone was about 500 Lb, they were a bit on the heavy side. We are lucky enough to have friends though, and one of them has a little tractor. Rune managed to take the steps apart in 13 minutes. Then Cacke, Richard, Jonas and Axel spent weeks laying a new foundation for the stones. After that Rune came with his tractor again and helped us rebuild the whole thing. The result of all those weeks of labour is not very visible, but we can actually use the steps without risking hospital visits or funerals.



   

As for the rest of the house we have a new couch, a newly sanded floor (at least in some places) and newly painted doors indoors. The fishes that were painted everywhere on the walls are now hidden behind wallpaper and panels. Now we are waiting for the new outer doors. We were told that they would be ready for us in December. They just forgot to tell us which year.

Axel is now a big boy who uses the computer without problems and he is very good at putting his car tracks together. Johan walks and smiles and keeps charming us. He enjoys life totally. So do we after 10 years of sharing each others life.


 

Kersti & Cacke 

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Last update: Jan. 25, 2005