Mommy's Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Mommy,
Happy Birthday to you.

Reese and I want to wish Mommy a wonderful 29th birthday. I've been very busy the past day or so baking my first birthday cake with homemade Swiss buttercream frosting. We each just had a large afternoon piece to mark the occasion. Let me say...yum, yum!! We've saved a couple of pieces for later and packed the rest to bring to the rink to be demolished by my teammates. It's our usual destination for most of the sweets we make because if we keep them here, they end up in our bellies. This year we're having a very low key celebration for Catie's birthday. After practice I'm going to make penne a la vodka + homemade bread and brussels (Catie's new favorite veggie!). Enclosed are a few pics of the making and baking of the cake. As you can see we had to test the cake to make sure it was picture worthy. Happy Birthday Mommy!

Scott & Reese

Someone's 5 months old!

Reese's 5 month birthday (we'll keep celebrating months till a year!), playoff hockey and of course more snow in Joensuu. That's generally what's been happening with us for the past couple of weeks. As this is a blog to inform everyone about Reese I'll start with her and move on to the other things later. Our little beaner is growing up too fast right before our eyes. If you miss a day you might miss a new milestone and definitely will miss a new special moment. She is sitting up mainly unassissted although she's still a little wobbly so we wrap the big boppy pillow around her so she doesn't tip over onto the hard floors! She still loves her bumbo seat but likes to be sitting on her own, free to explore her toys and books in front of her. She smiles a lot and laughs a lot but isn't as vocal as she was a month ago, I guess she's saving it for something special. We were experimenting with getting her out of her swaddle by putting her in a sleep sack and then wrapping her loosely and this seemed to be a good transition tool because as of about 5 days ago, she's been swaddle free for both night and nap time. She slept marvelously for the first full day and night without the swaddle, but it's sometimes a challenge for her (and us) because she's still getting used to having her arms free to roam. Catie has been on duty a lot because of all the games lately and sometimes Reese needs her Mommy in order to settle down so I found the perfect "mommy imitator" - Catie's day old shirt! I tried it in a pinch and it worked like a charm, although it felt weird putting a shirt over Reese's mouth and nose (very lightly of course!). It's usually like an instant sleeping pill...very funny to see. Now we've broken her of 2 things (swaddle and pinky finger for soothing) and introduced another (well worn shirt). That's how it goes when you're learning on the fly!

Reese had her 5 month check up and 2nd round of vaccinations with a local baby nurse on March 8th. She weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds even and 25 1/4 inches, both right at the 50th percentile for her age. Unlike her first round of vaccinations, she had a small but normal reaction that included a fever and body aches (we think!) which sent Catie into a small fit. Nothing a little baby tylenol couldn't fix in 2 doses and 24 hours though!

As for life in Joensuu for us, things are going well. We are up 2-0 in the best of 5 second round. The team has won 12 games in a row since the 1st game loss after I arrived. It was definitely good timing to join Jokipojat. We will try and wrap up another sweep tomorrow night at home. Wish us luck, although we shouldn't need any luck at this point. With that, looks like we'll be here at least 2 more weeks as long as we can finish off this round. It's been a long time since I've won a championship so it is an exciting prospect for me but also a lengthened year and more time in snowy Finland for Catie, which she isn't jumping up and down for! As I leave you, the skies are dark and it looks calm outside except for a few flakes of snow and the temperatures have returned to more manageable levels (0 to -10C) so things are looking up toward Spring...only 5 more feet of snow to melt now!

Scott (Daddy)

P.S. - By the time Catie was ready to post, we swept the our 2nd consecutive series with a 3-2 overtime win. We are off to the finals.

Snowy Joensuu

We keep hearing all this talk of warm, sunny weather back home and I must say, feeling a little jealous. I can assure you there is no such weather here. It has been a bit warmer than a couple weeks ago, although not a great feat when temps were -37C! We have taken Reese out a few times for a short walk here and there. She seems to be fascinated by her snowy surroundings which is a good thing since it looks like we will be here at least a few more weeks. Last night, Scott's team pulled off a win at home to secure a sweep in the first round of playoffs. This allows the team a well-deserved 6 day break until the next round starts. The break will be good for Scott since he's been sick the past few days. He is steering clear of Reesey as we don't want a sick baby on our hands if we can help it. We are anxiously (me more than ever) awaiting our return stateside. More to come on when that may be as playoffs continue.

Here are a few pics of snowy Joensuu (outside our apartment) and a couple random shots of Reese (including helping pack up all her clothes) for good measure!

4 months

Despite the lack of sleep at night lately (although it seems to be getting better slowly but surely) Reese is becoming more and more aware as the days pass. She is so much fun these days, and although sometimes we wish we could skip ahead to nights filled with more sleep, we don't want to miss these moments of new discovery either. She is full of smiles all the time and surprises us with her giggles more and more. She has rolled from her back to her belly a couple of times but still doesn't really grasp the concept. One thing she has most definitely mastered is putting anything and everything into her mouth. Anything that comes in close proximity to her mouth is fair game in her eyes! It's so hard to believe how fast our baby is growing up, already 4 months old!

Goodbye Sweden....Hello Finland!

It has been a crazy last few weeks for us, filled with lots of packing, traveling and moving. Once the decision to leave Sweden was final, we got down to business going through all of our stuff. We finished sorting, trashing and packing late the night before we were due to leave. Reese must have had an idea of the changes to come as she didn't sleep well that last night in Sweden. That, coupled with the fact that we stayed up until almost 3am packing, didn't allow much sleep for any of us. We had a taxi waiting the following morning to haul all 6 bags and us to the train station heading for Stockholm. As soon as we unloaded at the train station, we found out the train was delayed an hour which would have caused us to miss our flight. So we loaded back up into a taxi and headed for the airport. We realized after checking in, we wouldn't be able to gate check our stroller as we had hoped since it was such a short flight to Finland. We loaded Reese into the carrier and headed for our gate, only to arrive a minute after it closed causing us to miss the flight. We would take the next flight out, a few hours later. Since we had no stroller for Reese to sleep in, we had to make due with what we had as you can see in the pictures. Later that night, we finally made it to Finland to face yet another setback, our luggage did not arrive with us! Luckily, the team had arranged to have a car seat waiting at the airport for us.

Our time in Tampere was short-lived and after hearing the team would not be signing any other players, we packed up again and headed for Joensuu, Finland. We drove 5 hours across Finland to what we hoped would be our final stop for the remainder of the year. We spent a few nights in a hotel while our apartment was being prepared. I am happy to now report, we are finally feeling settled again in our apartment at last. Reese was a real trooper with all of the traveling, adjusting wherever we went. However, all the changes are finally catching up with her as she has not been sleeping well at night. We are hoping this is not a permanent change as she was sleeping through the night when we were in Sweden. Please cross your fingers for us, we all need to get some better sleep!

Scott's new team is now in 2nd place with 5 games remaining in the regular season. Play-offs start early March. We hope to have a better idea of when we will be returning home soon and will keep you all posted.

Here are a few pictures of our latest adventures!

Reese in action!!

Here's a compilation of a few videos we've taken over the last couple of months but haven' gotten around to posting. It's crazy how fast time goes by these days....but I guess better late than never. As you will see, Reese is growing and changing so much!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We have so much to be thankful for in 2010, obviously with the birth of little Reesey our lives have changed in so many ways since the turn of the last new year. Speaking of the turning of the new year, Catie, Reese and I had a pretty quiet New Year's celebration this year. We made a bunch of appetizers throughout the day, Catie had a couple of glasses of wine, I had a few beers, and we rang in the new year with the smallest bottle of champagne I could find at the System Bolaget (Sweden's answer to Canada's "Beer store"). We woke Reese up just in time for a quick countdown to 2010, toasted our new bundle of joy and quickly got her back to sleep without her missing a beat. I'm not sure she even really woke up!!

On that note, Reese has really turned a corner in the sleeping department over the past couple of weeks. She started by sleeping from 9pm - 7:30am with Catie or me having to go in and calm her once or twice a night, but without having to feed her. She has basically stuck to this new sleep routine for the past 7-8 days and the last 2 nights she has slept through the night without either of us having to go in at all. What a dream!! I had my first uninterrupted night of sleep last night in over 3 months!! I felt amazing this morning. We have tried to keep her on a better, more grown up schedule and really watch her sleep cues during the day and things couldn't be better (outside of one hiccup night where Catie was up with her about 8 times!!!). She has also made progressions on some other new milestones, as she is rolling over from belly to back with ease (whenever she feels like it!!) and starting to roll from her back to her side, guess she'll need some more coaxing to get to her belly. She is becoming more aware of her surroundings everyday. She is laughing and giggling and 'talking' more and more and grasping at her toys on her play mat. She will never be that tiny helpless baby we held a month ago...so many mixed emotions!

The weather here in Orebro has been FREEZING cold for the last month or more. It has gotten as low as -30C, which is -22F. Typically during the day it's been somewhere in the -10C to -20C range and there is lots of snow everywhere. It can be beautiful at times, when you forget about the bone chilling cold. We have tried to get Reese out for as many walks as possible, but as you can imagine it's not easy when you freeze after only 5 minutes!! Catie had her out for an hour long walk last week and had Reese bundled in about 3 or 4 blankets! Just another day in the great white north.

The year has absolutely flown by, as Reese just turned 3 months old. In only 2 short months we will be back stateside and many of you will get to meet Reese for the first time in person. We are very excited about our arrival back in Michigan and look forward to seeing all our friends and family once again. Until another blog entry, cheers from Sweden. Scott - Daddy