Little Miss Catnap

Our darling daughter turned two months yesterday. We "celebrated" by going to the doctor for her immunizations. She did not cry for long, but her cry was loud. Can't be nice getting a jab in each thigh. But 10 minutes later it was all forgotten and she was fast asleep.

In other news, she has taken up the habit of catnapping during the day. None of her daytime naps are any longer than one hour, you could almost set the watch according to her sleep pattern! But she sleeps well at night, thank God for that, so I'm not too concerned about her daytime naps.

But why is it called catnapping, from my experience cats can sleep for hours on end!!!

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Igår fyllde vår älskade lilla dotter två månader. Det "firades" med ett besök hos läkaren för vaccinering. Det blev en spruta i vardera låret, och en ljudlig protest från vår lilla flicka. Men 10 minuter senare sov hon.

På tal om sömn så har hon lagt sej an vanan att sova korta, entimmes tupplurar på dagen. Man kan nästan ställa klockan enligt henne, hon vaknar så gott som alltid efter exakt en timme. Men hon sover bra på nätterna så jag försöker att inte stressa så mycket över hennes sovvanor dagtid...

From London with love

My husband spent the past week in London and he brought home such a cute souvenir; a red phone booth piggybank!

It's the perfect souvenir, it's not just going to collect dust, it actually serves a purpose as well. I don't like buying souvenirs that are just going to sit on a shelf and be of no use at all!

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Min man tillbringade den senaste veckan i London. Med sej hem hämtade han möjligtvis den perfekta souveniren, en liten sparbössa i form av en telefonkiosk.

Jag anser den vara perfekt för den har någon sorts funktion, det är inte bara en prydnadsgrej som kommer att samla damm. Fast visst kommer den att bli dammig, damm har vi gott om här i sandlådan!

Bukra inshallah

The efficient Scandinavians get frustrated when dealing with the less than timely attitude that exists in other cultures. The mañana mentality. It can be done tomorrow. The Arabic equivalent would be "Bukra, inshallah" - Tomorrow, God willing.

Tonight I will apply that attitude and not care about the fact that my bedroom looks like a complete mess and that there are dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. It will all be fixed, tomorrow inshallah!

Very Important Princess

Dethär är nyheter som man inte hör ett knyst av här i Saudiarabien http://yle.fi/uutiset/saudiprinsessa_yritti_paeta_6_miljoonan_euron_hotellilaskuaan/6149712
Saudiarabiens kungligheter avnjuter något av diplomatisk frihet i sitt eget hemland och många av dem utnyttjar sin status i olika sammanhang, bland annat för att få prioritet vid sjukhusvistelser, tex. kan de kräva att få sina små åkommor åtgärdade på bekostnad av en annan patienst livshotande tillstånd. Ni kan läsa mer om det på Blue Abayas blogg här (på engelska).


Dethär når inte över nyhetströskeln i Saudiarabien, dels för att ingen vågar kritisera en medlem av den kungliga familjen, dels för att det inte anses vara något utöver det vanliga.

Recently the Finnish Broadcasting Company published an article on their web site telling the story about the Saudi princess that had escaped an upscale Parisian hotel without paying the bill. A bill that amounted to 6 million euros no less.

This does not surprise me at all as the Saudi royal family has a very special status in their home country, something that most of them do not shy away from using - and abusing. It even goes so far that at the local hospitals they will insist on priority treatment for minor ailments at the cost of other patients' lives! You can read more about that on Blue Abaya's blog post about it here.

Any of this does not reach the news over here in Saudi Arabia. Partly because nobody dares to critisise the royal family, partly because this type of behaviour is nothing out of the ordinary...

Everything and anything

You know the saying everything but the kitchen sink? Well, this shop sells everything AND a kitchen sink as well...

Dagens Tom Tvärtom

Slängde den lilla etiketten i muggen, medan jag lät tepåsen ligga på utsidan... Det blir inte någon Earl Grey på det viset! Dethär efter att ha sovit 8 timmar i natt (nej, inte i ett sträck).

Trevlig helg!

When making tea it helps if you put the tea bag IN the mug right? Rather than putting the little lable in, while you leave the tea bag on the outside. I did sleep 8 hours last night and this is how I function!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Seeking baby whisperer cum photographer

We are in the process of applying for our daughter's passport.  Of course we need a photo to be taken of her. But the requirements from the Australian passport office?! Nothing short of a mission impossible. There are the obvious requirements, child needs to be awake, the background should be plain and light in colour. But there's more, the child should look straight ahead, with open eyes and a closed mouth. We can manage two out of these three requirements at any given time, but not all three at the same time.

Clearly whoever came up with these rules does not have any children of their own. According to my online research most post offices in Australia refuse to take passport photos of infants and children (in Australia passport applications are handled by the post office - go figure). Even many photographers will not take passport photos of infants/young children, because the requirements make it very hard to get a photo that is approved.

Hence many parents with a decent camera resort to taking the photos themselves. This is also what me and my husband attempted. Unfortunately a week, four photography sessions and 500+ photos later we still haven't managed to take a photo that we are confident is just right.

Is there anyone that has any handy hints on how to get good photos of an infant or how best to get the baby to cooperate during the photo session? any suggestions will be hugely appreciated!!!