My trip to Sweden Part 2

Here it is, the second installment! To be honest, I don't know how many parts there will be. We'll just see how it goes.

This part is all about Emilia. Edd had told me that Emilia is like a different child out in Sweden, as she considers it her safe place and she's relaxed and happy-go-lucky. Honestly, I couldn't see the difference. I guess this means she's relaxed and happy-go-lucky all the time now. I hope this is the case. I never knew her when she lived with her mum, so never saw her feeling sad and scared and quiet. I'm glad about this as I don't know how I would feel about it. I get glimpses sometimes when she gets upset, but this rarely happens now.

This is one of my favourite pictures. It was taken after we landed and is Emilia running up to her grandparents. She was so excited to see them. If you ever needed proof of love in the world, it's right there.

First day excitement. See those shoes? They're mine. I've come to accept that Emilia will "borrow" my shoes for dressing up. I don't mind. It's rather sweet. The bike is her new bike in Sagen. She has a blue tricycle out there, but she's now banned from using it. Two reasons... 1. She's too tall for it now (she's nearly 4' tall! A giant in the world of 5 year olds!) 2. We've been encouraging her to ride on two wheels. She's learnt on the two wheelers at school, they're big heavy bikes with no brakes and are quite low to the ground. This is the next step. Has she learnt? Read on....

Success! She can ride her bike. And she rides it fast! I had to actually pedal properly to keep up with her! Edd has some better pictures on his phone of the little madam riding her bike, sticking her legs out and looking incredibly adorable. We both felt very proud of her, and her confidence is soaring with it.

Being a 5 year old must be great. Everything is an adventure. Life is full of asking questions. I think we lose that fearlessness as we get older. We don't ask why. We don't ask how. We just accept things are the way they are. Yet, a small child wants to know why things are in certain places, how things work, what's round the next corner, where does this path lead... Maybe the world would be a much more exciting place if we still thought the same way. These pictures are only of Emilia exploring a family friends garden, yet it was still an adventure.

As was meeting this frozen fish!

Yes, this is cute!



You're never too old to throw stones into water!

Now, this is some impressive photography on my part. But I look at it and think, one day, I'll make sure that she can reach the sky properly. I'm going to give this amazing little girl the best possible life.

 My eye mask....

 A trip to the river. There wasn't a lot for kids to do there, but we had a good time. Needless to say, in the heat and boredom, Emilia did get a bit stroppy. But what child wouldn't?! Once she got over her fear of the tiny fish in the river ( I think they were stickleback), she wanted to go in there all the time!

Redcurrant picking was great fun. And when you're 5 you get to be highly selective about which redcurrant makes it in to your pot. None of us were privy to the criteria for this selection process, but we were thankful for the help. We picked 10kg of redcurrants by the end of the afternoon, which is a lot!

We went on the row boat for an afternoon. Well, we did until the clouds came and we had to cut it a little short due to impending rain. Oddly enough, Emilia wasn't scared of this water! I even had a go at rowing, and Emilia kept telling me not to crash the boat like I did the car. She likes reminding me of that.

You see these two right here?

They're my world.