Step By Step!

About a month ago, I had Chris get some New Kids on the Block, just so I could have Step by Step for Myrna's first steps (that and to relive my junior high years). Myrna has taken a step or two totally on her own a few times now - though I don't think Chris and I have seen the same steps, and they have not been documented. She has been having fun with her little wagon and on Christmas Eve she was looking so cute, we had quite a bit of fun with the video camera. On Christmas Day, when she was napping, we spent that quality alone time uploading, editing and blogging (see below for her Christmas Eve dinner and her December album for more festive photos).



Big apologies to those in Germany - as this video is blocked there due to copyright issues (though not anywhere else - very odd).

Squash All Beef!

We've come full circle on Myrna's tastes. At the beginning of the summer, squash was the first food that Myrna emphatically and consistently rejected. Be it puréed butternut from a jar or baked zucchini from the garden, squash in all its forms was her sworn enemy.

Nowadays, though, it's a rare food that our growing girl turns down. For dinner last night we topped a pizza with butternut squash and chèvre cheese, and set a plate of cubed squash aside for Myrn. We had to refill it midway through the meal.

Christingle Carols

Sunday afternoon we visited St. Peter & St. Sigfrid's for the Children's Christingle Carols - a simple and imaginative telling of the Christmas story for (English speaking) kids with Christmas Carols. Myrna was interested in sitting on our laps for about 5 minutes before she was crawling down the aisle - a great preview of our cross Atlantic journey in a few weeks. The service ended with each kid getting a Christingle (bonus points to anyone who knows what this is)
After the service she got to meet her first Father Christmas (the church definitely has more British English than American). She wasn't quite sure what to make of it
As Myrna nodded off on the bus, we thought we could fit in a quick shopping trip. Unfortunately the Swedish H&M equivalent of "Santa Baby" foiled our plans, and we could only convince her to be civil for a moment. I did, however, manage to get a new hat and mittens, and am now a proud owner of legwarmers.

Playing in the Snow!

We headed outside Saturday morning for some snow playing. Myrna had been out once earlier this week with her dad, but since there were no pics of that outing, we had to do another. We were outside for about as long as it took to bundle her on up, but I think she found it amusing.

The snow had started falling again just as we got inside, so we timed our play time just perfectly. The foot of snow we have hasn't slowed down the city much at all. Parents are more likely to be pulling their kids in sleds, but we're not ready to trade in our stroller for a sled quite yet. We do, though, have a new snow plow:

There's no doubt that we'll be having a beautiful White Christmas! More pictures of playing in the snow and playing indoors are on Myrna's December Picasa Page.

The First Snow

All weekend the weather report kept predicting snowfall during the night. We did have a few flurries, but there was never anything on the ground in the morning. Today, though, we woke up to a beautiful dusting, followed by snowfall all morning. Myrna even got a chance to play in the snow (though by the time she and Chris got out, the snowfall had stopped). After slipping and sliding to the bus stop this morning, I'm now totally over the snow.

On a completely unrelated subject. If you were wondering what you should do with those Apple stickers that come with your mac....

Myrna's new toy box, that looks just like her dad's red-covered MacBook! One of two things will happen - she'll find that she loves the toy box more than her dad's laptop, or more likely, she'll think that anything with the Apple logo is hers.

UPDATE: A day later, we've got quite a bit more than a dusting.

Celebrations

It's been three straight days of partying and celebrating here in Stockholm. The festivities started Wednesday night with the First Annual KTH Math Dept Dessert Contest. Myrna helped Chris and I judge eleven gourmet desserts and entertain my colleagues, whom she hadn't yet met. After a shy start, the award-winning Zebra cake put a smile on her face and sugar through her veins, and by the end of the night she was flirting with everyone. She did miss out on tasting the top prize, as there was a bit of whiskey in it (though that might have countered the sugar nicely....) We sadly forgot our camera, so the chocolate-faced Myrna with a spoon in each hand went undocumented.

Thursday the town was in high gear for the Nobel Prize Awards ceremony. The extravagent red-carpet affair, documented extensively in the newspapers probably didn't even enter the news radar of the US, who was busy reporting only on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, which is the one not awarded in Stockholm, but rather Oslo. I sadly didn't manage to swing a ticket.

Friday morning just after 6 am, Myrna and I headed to KTH for the St Lucia Ceremony. December 13 (St Lucia Day) falls on a Sunday, so all the (morning) celebrations were held on Friday. We joined at least a hundred people at the university library for morning treats; Myrna helped me eat a St Lucia roll and shoved finger-fulls of raisins out of my Glögg and into her mouth. As the choir processed through the library, we managed to suddenly be sitting in the front row for their 20 minute show. Myrna, who had yet to fall back asleep, was particularly mesmerized by the singing and candles. Unfortunately, capturing her expression on camera was completely out of the realm. We got back home at about the time I would be leaving for work - but after breakfast it was off to Ikea for us to pick up some Christmas decorations and play with the toys.

Steppin' on Up

Pig took a big step yesterday and offered to soothe little Myrna by acting as a cuddle replacement for her mother. We're all so proud.
Quite a big difference from last year

End of November Stats

November has ended and the stats are in: 17.5 = number of hours of sunlight in Stockholm in all of November. This is uncommon, though, making it one of the "gloomiest" Novembers - but we were none the wiser, and didn't notice it much. (I'm squinting as I write this - sun is streaming into my office and I don't dare close the blinds to miss out on it.)

In other news, Myrna saw her first Swedish nurse. Her full physical (with shots) will be in a few weeks, but we did get an update on her stats:
Weight = 8.45 kg (18.6 lbs); Height = 74 cm (29.1 in); Head Circumference = 45 cm (17.7").

So, she's steadily growing and moving ever so slightly up in the percentile chart (around the 50th in height and head, and hovering just over the 10th in weight). For those of you that like charts, see below (and click on it for a larger view).