V is getting a whole new perspective on things as she now has raised from floor-level

V is taking giant leaps right now - one day flipping over and the other day sitting sturdy on the floor all by herself without ANY support. Well....she can only do it for about 30-40 seconds, but still - I'M SO PROUD!

This is how happy V was after the back-to-belly accomplishment!

YES!!!! Finally she got it! Yesterday V reached another big milestone of the development curve - she flipped from back to belly all by herself. She's been working hard during the past weeks and been so close...... and now it happened!

Sunday night bath with mom in the hot tub! So much fun!!!

The bathing experience as gone from hell to heaven. Nowdays V really enjoys her baths and is splashing and playing in the water. The sessions almost require a rain coat!

Palm-Hanssons by the Christmas Tree at Justin and Andrea's.

The Monaghan's - Andrea, Justin and Abbey

On Saturday night Andrea & Justin had their Annual Christmas Party. It was so much fun and I'm really impressed with the set up of it. The food was great, the decorations breathtaking and the ambience friendly. They are such excellent hosts!

Jo creating a nice snowflake...

This was as close we got to Henke this time...inside his pants:-)

V and Kevin Weekes.... as seen she wasn't too happy sitting in his lap. She started crying the second I sat her down there. Guess it would have been different if she was 19:-). He was cool though and tried to cheer her up - without any luck.

Our friend Johanna invited us to the NHL Children Christmas Party on Saturday. It was a really nice arrangement and highly appreciated. They had arranged for us to see the NY Rangers' practice and also to come into the locker room to collect autographs and take pictures. Unfortunately the only remaining player in there was the NYR goalie Kevin Weekes. I had hoped to get a picture of V with Henke Lundqvist and Jaromir Jagr....By the way, The Leafs beat the Rangers with 9-2 that night!!! Anyway, the party was great and V got to meet Santa for the first time - not a success - she cried from the top of her lungs when it was her turn to get a gift.

Thursday means Swedish Church and sing-a-long session. Since it was Lucia on Wednesday we had a Lucia/Christmas theme this time, and that meant the children got to dress up!

Most of the GWB players at Ciros; Miko, Linda, Jasmine, Myself, Johanna, Allie and Tanja. Missing are our goalie Derek, also know as Swanee, Lourdes, Jess and Kim.

Jasmine and Tanja drinking the Ciros Floorball Special drink... I don't know exactly what it is, but it's a sweet martini.

On Wednesday I played floorball as usual. We lost.... again.... but afterwards we all headed to the official Floorball Social Scene Club, Ciros, for a beer and also to say Goodbye to Tanja and Jasmine, who were leaving and going back home to Switzerland. GWB sure will miss them - they were the #1 scorers of our team!

Smorgasbord à la Christmas style

Last Monday, SWEA Central had their Annual Christmas Party at Carin's house. It was the first time for me, and maybe even the last as I'm still not a member of SWEA. I'm sure SWEA is a nice organisation, I'm just not sure it is for me....

Everybody contributed to Julbordet, and I can't think of anything essential that was missing. Summary; Delicious - the first time eating Christmas food is just sooooo good!

V in her new PJ.... a suite to make daddy pride; a member of the All-city Baseball League!

M had such high expectations for V before he knew we were expecting a girl.... HE was supposed to be the first European/Swedish Professional Baseball player in the Major League :-)

All snuggled up in her Bugaboo... isn't the hat cute?

All liquids and bottles are extremly interesting now and an almost empty water bottle make an excellent toy!

Horse and carriage - adds to the charm

The lake had actually froze....but it looked a bit risky so this was as far as M was allowed to go onto the ice with V.

M and V outside the restaurant where we had late lunch/dinner

After suggestions from freinds, we packed ourselves in the car and went to Port Perry about 1,5 hours north east of Toronto. Port Perry is a cute little place with tons of handcraft-, interior design- and in Swedish so called "krims-krams"shops. It's located just by the lake and it possesses all the essential ingredients to obtain the Small Town charm

One of M's friends said that his daughter loved taking a shower and we thought we would try it out with V! It wasn't too bad - specially since dad and the duck could come along:-)

BIG MILESTONE!

V has now started to try some cereals and this picture is from the very first attempt.... I'm not quite sure she actually got anything down to the belly....as seen most of it is around her mouth, but overall I must say she did well! It sure was fun playing with the spoon:-)

Linda and Gabriella, all snuggled up in ther Baby Björnen outside LCBO ( The Canadian Systembolaget), and their all white Christmas decorations! I suddenly got the urge to buy Pitú Cacacha - Brasilian rum for the Caprinas - which I now slowly can start to enjoy again!

Christmas tree down by Yonge LCBO

Blue is apparently Toronto's official Christmas colour....all City decorations are blue! I'm not too crazy about it. I'm more traditional and prefer the warm white lights. But the more colours the better the North Americans seem to think, which shows outside their houses!

Linda and Gabriella. G is 6 weeks older than V and already a big girl!

Last Tuesday Linda and Gabriella went to Sweden for the Holidays. So, of course we had to get together on Monday to say good bye and Merry Christmas!

Linda and Jeff have moved down to Summerhill so we took the opportunity to scout the surroundings for nice coffee houses for future "fikor".

One happy girl in the sofa, almost sitting by herself (just a little help from some pillows). We went to the doctor's office on Friday and now she weighs 6.11 kg and is 66 cm tall.

Still tall and skinny....

We were out shopping for Christmas gifts yesterday and of course V got a little something. She totally took on to this pink flamingo, which now is her first favourite "gosedjur". The flamingo is called "Fluffe"....

Winter is approaching and this requires a warmer outfit. Yesterday we had a little bit of snow and about 2-3 degrees.

Found this supercute winter suite in the US when we visited Gary. She wore it yesterday when we were out for dinner and man, the amount of compliments she got - it's a good thing she doesn't understand, cause I think she would be very cocky.

Finally we have got V a very own Bumbo seat, and as shown it is very relaxing. V loves it, and I highly recommend it. It strengthens the muscles and allows the child to participate in a more active way.

I don't know if they are very big in Europe yet ... if not, I guess it's only a matter of time, and I have found the perfect gift for new parents back home:-)!

The skyline of Downtown Toronto. The Castle-looking building in the front (the Royal York Fairmont Hotel) is what used to be the highest building in Toronto til about 20-25 years ago when all the banks started to build their sky scrapes.

The CN Tower, the world's tallest building with it's 553 meters (at least that what they say on the CN Tower homepage...but I thought the tallest buildning was somewhere in Asia..). It has a spectacular view on a clear day, but as it costs you $25 to get to see it, I personally don't think it is worth it...but that's me!

Oh Canada

"O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,The True North strong and free!

From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

As V actually is a Canadian, I guess we have to learn the National Anthem lyrics...

If you remeber I made a joke about the Americans beeing very patriotic earlier on the blog - well the Canadians aren't much less proud over their country. Flags everywhere. This one belongs to the Royal York Fairmont Hotel, downtown Toronto.

The Harbourfront and the ferries going to the Toronto Islands during summertime. Still havn't managed to get there but I'm looking forward to bring Vendela out there for a pick-nick next summer.

Skål!

Brett ( Linda S's boyfriend and soon-to-be Swede) was very busy serving glögg-longing Swedes at the Glögg stand. Linda and Brett had prepared several hundreds of liters of glögg....and I don't think there were too much left.

An overview of the Swedish Christmas Fair

Last weekend the Toronto SWEA organzation had the annual Christmas Fair down at the Harbourfront Centre. This is the highligt of the year for SWEA and the place was packed with Swedes and you could find just about anything you might miss as a Swede in Canada... homebaked bread & cookies, herring, Shrimp cream cheese, Cloud berry jam, Marabou & Daim Chocolate, traditional Swedish Christmas decorations and more. The stuff were quite expensive and as we are going back to Sweden for Christmas we didn't buy anything except for two giant Marabou Chocolate bars....but if you been in Canada for some years and not going to Sweden for Christmas, I guess you are willing to spend a lot of dollars to get the "real" thing!

What a better way to celebrate M's 32nd birthday, than being on the beach in Cancun drinking an umbrella drink? Well.... I can't think of any! Unfortunately this was also the day we left for Toronto

again:-(

V in her new cap, bought at the below mentioned mall. Beside the cap, we didn't buy anything at all, which is remarkable beeing me, the girl with black belt in shopping:-)

Something esle muy romantico....

- the sunset at La Isla Shopping Mall

Mexican restaurant= Mariachi Band!

... they took requests, but I couldn't think of any song with spanish lyrics, so they played us

"algo romantico".

This is me and V at a Mexican restaurant (what a surprise to find that in Mexico:-))in the entertainment district downtown Cancun. This is actually the only meal we had outside the hotel zone, but since the Hotel offered excellent Italian, Argentinian and Japanese food, we didn't mind too much.You get very comfortable and practical when you travelling with a baby who needs to be in bed around a certain time...

V is looking very cocky as she is about to splash her feet into the giant pool - piece of cake for someone who just got used to a bathtub!

Hansson+Palm= Vendela

This can't be a good sign.... V is showing a little bit too much interest for the Corona:-)

A very relaxed V by the pool

A happy girl at the beach

A room with a view!

JW Marriott Resort & Spa from the front, quite a big place

The beach

The part of the Hotel pool where you could overlook the sea and the beach below. Doesn't look too bad, does it? I can tell you it is a pretty good place to relax and to have one or two Frozen Margarithas:-)

Travelling with a baby means a LOT more luggage. Magnus and I shared one suitcase, all the other stuff is for Vendela. The tip money to be paid to the shuttle driver, the bell boy at the Hotel etc. suddenly increased :-)

This was mainly how V spent the flight to Cancun... sleeping tight. Her blanket and her pacifier and she's all set!
On our way.....

We are just home from a week's vacation in Cancun, Mexico. Unfortunately the weather was not as nice as I had hoped for, but it was OK......nice temperatures, pending between 28-32 degrees and 2 sunny days out of 5. The remaining 3 were cloudy. We stayed at the JW Marriott Spa & Resort and if you're ever in Cancun, I'll recommend you to consider staying there.

The fligt to Mexico was like the dress rehearsal for our trip to Sweden with V - but there were no need to worry, she was so nice the whole trip. No crying or fuzzing what so ever!

She totally charmed all the flight attendant staff on board and the other passengers with her smiles and good behaviour. And of course we were very proud parents:-)