Happy New Year from Canada

A belated Happy New Year from Montreal. The weather here is a lot cooler than Toronto. No problems keeping a bottle if water cold. Leave bottle in a parked car for a few hours and you will get yourself a decent size ice cube :)

Today we're going skiing and snow tobogganing. Wish us luck!

Early bird

This day got off to an early start, although not by choice. Hubby dearest has not quite adjusted himself to Canadian time and he decided that waking me would be a good idea.

We headed off to check out the Boxing Day sales and we actually managed to bag a little something for all of us :)

EY141

Greetings from Toronto! It may "only" be a 14 hour flight from the Middle East, but it does get interesting when you add an infant to the mix. An infant that feels that sleep is unnecessary because she much rather charm the socks of the flight attendants and our fellow passengers.

So we landed in Canada with bloodshot eyes and a broken suitcase. We also rubbed shoulders with some Saudi royals during the flight (my husband quite literally as he was sitting next to the young prince), but they were traveling so low key that we only realized as we were getting off the plane!

Twiddling my thumbs

Can't believe that with approximately 15 hours to go until our flight departs, I am actually packed and ready to go! I have a feeling I have forgotten something essential or that I will do something stupid and leave a whole suitcase behind...

I did have a helping hand when packing, our baby girl was more than happy to assist. I was happy that she hurled just outside the suitcase and not in it!

**********************

Ungefär 15 timmar tills flyget far å allt e packat och klart! Hoppas att jag nu har kommit ihåg allt och att vi int lämnar något efter oss när vi åker iväg till flygfältet.

Jag fick ju hjälp med packandet :) Som tur var spyttade min assistent just utanför kappsäcken!

Lists and lost

I am one of those people that loves writing lists! Shopping lists, to do lists, packing lists... Anything!

Especially when packing I find it extra helpful to have it all written down, I am notoriously unorganized when it comes to packing. Now that a baby is traveling with us, I'd hate to leave anything essential behind. We have another 2,5 days until we travel and I am proud to say that I am doing quite well with the packing.

I seem to have lost our digital fever thermometer though. I have looked everywhere, twice in most places. What with having been a bit sleep deprived last week, that thing could be anywhere. Luckily we have a spare so it's no biggie!

Anyone else out there who is as crazy as I am about writing lists?

A word on advise

I have no idea what she is trying to do here...

 As a first time mum I suppose it is quite natural that I am clueless about quite a few things, but there is always someone around to provide help and guidance. While any sort of advise from someone with at least a little bit more experience is much appreciated, it can also be a bit too much sometimes. It actually already starts during pregnancy with people offering their opinions (and warnings) about what to do or not to do. But let's not go there.

The best and worse of advisers are usually the grandparents of the baby. Our own parents seem to feel that any advise they give us should be meticulously adhered to. They probably think that they cannot be wrong, because, as they like to point out "you turned out okay, didn't you?"

People will give you advise on everything: how to dress, hold or carry the baby, when to feed, what to feed (especially when it comes to the introduction of solids), the list is endless. Some people might feel very strongly about something and they can get a bit too passionate trying to share their knowledge. It all gets even more confusing when people are giving conflicting advise.

Recently I have gotten a fair share of advise on the topic of starting solids. I chose to breastfeed our daughter exclusively for the first six months, something that seems incomprehensible by most people. I had my reasons for this choice, but I will not go into that now. The problem is that some people made me feel like I am depriving our daughter of something by delaying solids. The ideas that the baby must be given certain foods at a certain age, so that she gets enough energy, gets to taste yummy foods etc.

At approximately 6,5 months I feel that our daughter has had plenty of exposure to different foods, but how much she is eating is a whole different story. I hope I'll be able to tell you a bit more in detail about starting solids in another post, I have just used it as an example and I hope I haven't gotten too far off my original topic :)

My advise to the people giving advise (haha): share your experiences and what you know, but keep in mind that all babies and children are different, one solution might not work for everyone. Also all parents are different and there are sometimes different ways to get to the same goal. New research is being done all the time, hence what was the norm ten, fifteen or thirty years ago might not apply at all today.

My advise to those parents who get their fair share of other people's opinions, hints and tips: pick and choose. I believe that the baby's parents know the child the best, regardless of how inexperienced they may be, and sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling. Some of the advise you get will be priceless, other things might not feel right and then it's probably best to pass on that.

I am fortunate to have lots of friends and family around me that are very helpful and supportive, all of them in their different ways. I do like to point out that this post is in no way meant to criticize anyone. I am grateful for all the advise (past, present and future), but at the same time I hope that people will understand that sometimes I might opt to go a different way, my own way.

A wee tour of Scotland

When we visited London we also decided to do a quick tour of Scotland. It later turned out that our tour was far too short and we plan to go back for another visit! Scotland had us both mesmerized with it's beautiful landscape, tons of history and you have to love the Scottish people and their accent that is to die for!

Här kommer några till foton från vår snabba rundtur av Skottland. Det visade sej vara en alltför kort visit, så vi kommer definitivt att åka tillbaka dit. Där finns så mycket att uppleva, ett vackert landskap, massor av historia och dom vänliga skottarna som alltid har glimten i ögat. För att inte tala om den skotska brytningen!

Edinburgh

At The Elephant House, I guess you could call this the J.K. Rowling view
I J.K. Rowlings fotspår på The Elephant House.

Stirling Castle
Slottet i Stirling

Misty mountains
Dimhöljda berg

I could not believe my eyes when I first saw the snow capped mountains!
Snötäckta bergstoppar i början på November!

Sheep, loads of them - everywhere!
Massor av får, överallt!

St Andrews Cathedral
Ruinerna av av katedralen i St Andrews

The Old Course, St Andrews