Para todos aquellos mis amigos que conocen a "The Büttman", el  chico guapo, alto, y super sencillo que fue el "Best Man"de Hakan en nuestra boda.  Bueno, pues solo para recordarles quién es el famoso Mathias Büttner les incluyo una foto de nuestra boda.  A la izquierda esta la bella Adriana (mi madrina y amiga del alma), despues esta mi esposo el famoso Mr. Svensson o para aquellos que siguen su site… Adventure Dad. Despúes estoy Yo, y a mi lado esta "Bütti".  Ahora esta casado con Bärbel, una chica Alemana, igual que él, lindísima.  Bueno pues MUCHAS FELICIDADES A LOS DOS. Håkan tiene fotos de Hannah en su site.

7 Things I would like to do before I die:

1.- Watch Daniel Grow up, and know that he is happy doing whatever he chose to do in his life.

2.- Go to a Safari in Africa

3.- Visit Vietnam and Cambodia

4.- Start my own business and be successful at it.

5.- Make love with my husband on a white sand beach with a full moon. (somewhere in the caribbean, it has to be warm and nice)

6.-  Visit Yosemite and Yellowstone.

7.-  Live some years in Mexico with my family.

7 Things I can’t do

1. I can’t iron, I must have a defective gene or something. 

2. I can’t play any musical instrument

3. I can’t use a needle and thread successfully

4. I can’t buy cookies and not eat at least one before I reach my house, or the cash register, depending on hunger level

5. I can’t live without speaking to my mom at least once or twice a week.

6. I can’t bake bread or cookies, (except with my mom during Christmas)

7. I can’t go through a long period of time without exercise

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. A good loving person

2. A person willing to take chances, very secure of himself

3. A compassionate guy

4. Happy and outgoing

5. Good Dancer

6. Great Butt

7. Very Sensual

  7 Things I say most often

1. mi amor, mi vida, tesoro, mi cielo *to my son

2. Uy………..Que Frío!

3. Pinche Guey!

4. Fuck!

5. Vámonos!

6. Let’s talk about possibilities, bla bla bla

7. Baby, Babe, Bunny, Gorgeous, *to my husband 

7  celebrity crushes (this one is easy)

1. Mathew McConaughey

2. Pierce Brosman

3. Ricky Martin

4. Brad Pitt

5. Benjamin Bratt

6. Patrick Rafter

7. Michael Jordan 

Hoy amanecimos a -2 grados centígrados…. Que horror, tambien estaba chispeando, había hielo en las calles.  Y por si fuera poco, el sol no se veía por ningún lado.  Mis planes eran ir a comer con un amigo de una amiga, le traía un encargo….pero al final, no hice nada, me quedé limpiando la casa y tuve que cancelar porque no encontré el encargo por ninguna parte….. que pena!!! ni modo, ya lo estaré viendo despues. 

Temo que el clima ya será así el resto del año.  Ahora me toca guardar la ropa de verano que tengo en mis closets todavía.  Una vez más, casi sin haber sido usadas este año.  Ahora me toca sacar los sueters y pantalones de lana.  Las bufandas y los gorritos.  Me encantan esos accesorios, pueden ser bonitos y divertidos.  

Bueno, hora de  dormir. Mañana tenemos un "picnic" con su escuelita, que se cancelará en caso de que el clima siga como hoy. 

Yesterday it was my turn to take Daniel to his second swimming class in this course.  This is the second course he takes, the first one was ok, and toward the end of it he was very comfortable, but then it took about 5 months before we started on this one.  During that brake, while we were staying at a friends house in NY, he fell in the pool.  It must have been a lot more traumatic than we thought or I don’t really know what it is, but as soon as we start parking in the swimming place he starts getting very nervous.  Hakan told me that last week he cried nearly half the class, and the second half he was very happy.  He’s now almost 20 months, and the first swimming class he took was when he was a year old.  Apparently I was a bit late in introducing him to the water, because they start to become aware of what they are doing and they don’t just go with the flow…. anyway…

 I was getting scared myself, I don’t want to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to, but I also know that it is important that he learns to swim.  This courses are basically about playing with some toys in the pool, getting comfortable with the water, holding your breath and so on.   So I gave him my motherly speech.  I assured him that if he didn’t want to go in, then we were going back home.  But I was going to be with him the whole time, and that he could trust me.  There was no change….. His whole body was tense, he didn’t want to take off his coat or anything else……Then I went on about how it’s normal to be scared of the unknown, that we grown ups also get  very scared when we do something new. But the only way to loose this fear is by facing it and learning about the new thing that scares us.  Then we could decide if we liked it or not, and we could choose to do it again or not.  Well, thank god I was the only spanish speaking in the locker room, otherwise I would have felt silly saying all this things at loud.  In the back of my mind I was thinking…. what the fuck am I doing talking about this to poor Daniel, who can bearly say some words and he is clearly terrified about the whole thing. He was almost having difficulty breathing.  I’ve never seen him like that!!!  But somewhere in the middle of my speech his shoulders went down and his breathing became normal.  So when I finished I asked him if he wanted me to change him into his bathing suit, and he just lifted his right leg, so that I would take his shoe off. Well, I almost cried in that moment, I know it’s silly, but I was so proud of him.  I thought he was so brave!!! such a small child, and already making big decisions in his life.  It most have been very hard for him, but he did it… He put on his swim suit, and went in the water.  Sure enough the first 15 minutes he was on my neck, but then he relaxed and he was even laughing.  He was my big hero.

 I need to mention that since three days ago, our summer/fall is officially over, now we have WINTER termperatures.  Now it’s about 5 degrees Celsius, and the wind is blowing very nicely (it feels like needles all over your body).  I wasn’t sure of how to dress Daniel, this is always a little bit of a hassle.  How much is enough and how much is too much!.  Here in Sweden they have this outfits that go on top of your outfit (just like a snow outfit). And they have great performance,which means that they are flexible, not too bulky, water/snow repellant, and they keep the body heat at the same time as being breathdable, so that they won’t come out of it soaked.   In Sweden they are always engaging in extensive research about baby/kids products.  They actually take all the ones available in the market and test them against all possible scenarious and compare them against each other.  This one we chose in particular is made by a Finish company called Reima, and it was the best in test, but also the most expensive.  The cheapest of this brand is about 130 Us Dollars.  And no!, there are no sales,  maybe a  15 to 20% at the end of the season (if you are lucky).  But when it comes to your little one, you just don’t take chances.  Not with that, not with a good pair of boots and a good pair of gloves.  So at the end of the day, you end up paying about 200+ dollars to dress your little one properly for the season.

And it was sad but true,three days ago when I dropped Daniel at Daycare, all the kids playing outside were wearing this kind of outfits. So yesterday was my day with Daniel, I took him to the Theater with Esther and Camila. But I really didn’t know how to dress him, he was going to be inside most of the time, but he also likes to walk to and from the place…….  Well, I think I ended up putting too little clothes in the bottom, but fine on top. He did do some running around with Camila, but once inside the theater I think he was fine. 

I took him to the Theater  regardless of what everyone said, that he was too small (it was supposed to be for kids from 2.5 years) etc…. But Daniel did just fine,  he kept pointing at the scenario,  it was really cute and funny.  I think also that we were a bit lucky, but it went just fine!!

He conocido a una chica Venezolana, resulta que es mi vecina de edificio.  La conocí hace un par de meses pero no la ví en un mes, y ahora que se fueron las mexicanas a casa, me la encontré y casi la estaba persiguiendo para vernos.  Pues yo le había dado mi teléfono, pero nunca recibí llamada.  Asi es de que estaba dispuesta a ver como nos veíamos.  Su historia era que ella había intentado marcarme pero yo nunca contestaba…. en fin. El caso es que nos quedamos de ver y resulta que yo le había dado mi teléfono mal.  jaja.. TÍPICO.. Ella pensaba que no me había caído bien y por eso no le contestaba y yo pensaba que ella no me quería hablar.  Pero despues del malentendido, hemos hecho mancuerna increíblemente.  Ella esta casada con un chico simpatíquisimo, sueco-finlandés.  Y tienen una chiquita de 2 años y medio (CAMILA), que habla español y sueco.  Es muy divertido porque Daniel hace mancuerna con  Camila perfecto.   Se buscan mucho y nos hemos divertido mucho los cuatro.  Ella se acaba de mudar a Suecia, estaba en Finlandia y le ha encantado Suecia. Asi es de que le he estado enseñando muchos lugares nuevos en la ciudad y parques etc…. nos la hemos pasado explorando la ciudad, con unos días espectaculares.  Ella es quien me dio la idea del calendario y ahora tambien tenemos la idea de empezar a importar cosas de México para el próximo año, y empezar un negocio en una escala pequeña.  También le gusta mucho la fotografía asi es de que hemos hablado de tomar un curso de fotografía juntas, asi, si una no entiende algo, esperemos que la otra si lo entienda.. jajajaja. 

Me ha dado tanto gusto conocerla pues es como empezar una red latina en un lugar perfecto.  Yo siempre he dicho lo mismo, Suecia es el país perfecto, pero es dificíl entrar en la sociedad pues para eso son muy cerrados.  Casualmente hablando con una amiga sueca que juega tennis y es del sur de Suecia, me dijo lo mismo.  "Lo malo es que Estocolmo es muy dificil conocer a gente porque todos ya tienen sus grupos bien hechos desde jóvenes y no son muy abiertos a gente nueva".  El sueco tiene mucho miedo a lo nuevo y a lo diferente.  Todos comparten el mismo perfil, se visten igual, actúan igual etc….. mmmmmmmm, y esta fue una conversación hecha con una sueca.  En fin, despúes de conocer a Esther, la diferencia es aún mucho mas marcada, nos hablamos diario, nos vemos en el parque y vamos a casa de una o de la otra, no es necesario planear, que si el café en tu casa o en la mía.  Se siente a leguas el calor al entrar en una casa de un latino.  Pasa, el famoso dicho: "tu casa es mi casa" lo vivimos a leguas, eso es lo que me viene a la mente…. Hablamos en la mañana, y planeamos el día juntas.   No hay mayores complicaciones, es en realidad como en casa fuera de casa… jeje.