Oliver Paul Kiely

So the man is here. Or has been here for about 9 weeks or so. And he is gorgeous. And he is big. And he doesn't sleep. So there we are. Mummy is tired. But very happy. But sometimes very angry. Because she is tired. One morning last week my husband's first words were: Morning darling. What are you today? An angel or a witch?
4 kids is chaotic to say the least. But wonderful of course. One day when life was getting on top of me (or rather the kids were getting on top of me...literally), i had to stop and think to myself, that you can always regret not having another child, but you can never regret that you did have one. Which is true, right? For those of you out there who are always saying, wouldn't it be nice with another baby, or i would love another one, but it's so much work to go back to baby stage...you will always keep saying that until the end of time...but I won't, because I can't. But I can say though, that there will NEVER be another one after Oliver...or I know, never say never, right...ha, ha, ha.
On a more serious note, some people have made jokes about Jon needing to do something down there to stop having more babies...his answer to this was...quite seriously...that if something ever happened to your children (think Thailand tsunami...) how would you feel if you knew that you could never have another one...anyway, just wanted to share that with you people, cause I think he is right...and I kind of love him very much for saying that.
Maybe I am getting all soft, because Jon is now in Irak...bodyguards and all, bullet proof vest...oh my God. Will be home tonight though...don't think he even told his mum.
The kids are loving Oliver. Emma thinks it would be better if she only had Oliver, not the other two that just drives here crazy. I reminded her that Oliver will one day be 3 and 7..and then she fainted...no not really.
Isabelle loves caring for Oliver like a doll. She tries to pick him up and carry him around even though she is not allowed. James is both jealous and interested. The first few weeks he loved being around Oliver, then when he realised Oliver was here to stay, he said to me: Mum, I don't want Oliver to stay in my house anymore...hmm, kind of hard..the other day he said: Mum why do you always have to carry Oliver? So the last few weeks James have been pretty hard work, trying to get my attention in all kinds of naught ways...
And then Mariam kindly pointed out to me that I am getting grey hairs at the back of my head. Great! I asked Jon if this was true and he obviously said, NO, of course not. They are blond. He would say anything to stop me from spending money. (on a hairdo for example) Jon, do I look fat in this? NOOO, you always look beautiful. Jon', is this dress nice? Yes, it's amazing! When I pointed out that I 'd worn that dress about 50 times, he said - really?! The next day he told me I should get a new dress, bless him. I didn't though, still need to lose a few kilos...but new shoes I bought. You can never have enough shoes, right?! Whoever said that women love shoes and handbags, was right....so weird. When it comes to me at least. Not that I have that many, but I always crave them. Maybe because Jon can never see the point in having more then one...unless it is running shoes,,,ha, ha, not being very fair to my husband today, am I...
Right, so today's blog was supposed to be about Oliver...I lost the plot for a while... :) Happens regularly these days....Let the pictures speak for themselves...

See you!

 Oliver 2 days old in City Hospital, Dubai. After 48h in intensive care (water in lungs), he could finally move to my room.

 A very proud brother!

 Like big brother, like little brother...so cute!

 Oliver took Mormor and Morfar to Dubai mall for lunch.

 After daddy Jonathon read a story to all the kids, both Oliver and james were asleep.

Finally Oliver is smiling and chatting. He is so lovely and we all adore him!

Birthdays and gorgeous weather

Last week consisted of organizing birthday presents, party and outdoor activities. Emma was of course thrilled to get her Samsung Galaxy S III mini, thanks to parents and grandparents. She had 6 girlfriends coming over at night to have a pizza/movie party and they had a lot of fun. I think all the sugar made them slightly hyper so it was good to have them all watching a film after an hour of madness. Imagine that with Eddie Murphy - good choice, thinks mummy. James and Isabelle wanted to join the party, and especially James kissed all the girls and gave hugs to anyone who was interested. Loving the attention, of course. Oh dear...

On Jonathon's birthday we went to a new biking park and had a picnic with some friends. Amazing weather and a great day in general. At night, me and Jon finally went to see Life of Pi, one of the best novels ever written and I loved to see it filmed. Not the same as the book of course, and not as great as the book, but still an amazing watch.
The next day, we went to the beach for another amazing day in the outdoors. Water was actually cold, but just playing in the sand was fantastic. The kids had so much fun. The only downside, was all the tourist buses that brought loads of tourists to take pictures of Burj al Arab. And they all wanted to take pictures of our kids...actually not funny at all. Won't be going there again on Saturdays.

Saturday night ended in disaster as James cut of a wire to one of the computers with a pair of scissors and caused an electric explosion that blew out the electricity upstairs....and yes, could have killed him. Again, he was extremely lucky...I was in chock all night. Emma and Isabelle never did things like this...

Christmas and New Year

Before Christmas (forgot to post it):
So it's that wonderful time of the year again. And we are trying to get into the christmas spirit, even here. We've had some heavy rain and some cold days (16 degrees in morning...) so it feels a little bit more like winter this year. More than anything we are looking forward to going home this year. Home to a white christmas, we hope. Isabelle's supercalifragelistic excited and can't stop asking about what we will do in Sweden, who will come for christmas and what she will get from santa. If she is a good girl, I comment. Which she isn't always. We've had a few bad moments these last two weeks and I'm never entirely sure what triggers her bad tempers: hunger, tiredness, sugar, who knows...It could just be the fact that we are travelling soon, making chnages in her life. Today, she had her winter concert at school, looking like an angel on stage in gold and black glitter, so pretty we almost cried. Wow, it's hard to be a parent sometimes. That's why we are having another one...we like a good challenge Jon and me...Seriously, I think it will be good for Isabelle not to be the middle child anymore.
Emma is really into school this year and have some great new friends. She is happy and content most of the time. Her dancing skills are improving enormously and the musical theatre classes are definitely helping her confidence. First audition she cried of nervousness and I was the hate object. Last class before xmas she was doing her second audition in front of class and teacher and seemed to have no problems with it. (who said parents live through their children...)
James is still very happy at nursery and never stops growing. He is tall and very slim. Has an abundance of energy but never eats. Well of course he does, but not as well as his mummy would like him to. End

Christmas in Sweden was amazing, with lots of snow and darkness...I had a hard time walking outside though, which was annoying. But the kids had fun and went sledding, built snow castles and snow men with their uncles and cousins. James enjoyed the snow for a few days, then he kind of had enough. Think he missed going out in his shorts whenever he feels like it. He did enjoy Junibacken though, very much. And so did Isabelle, even though she has been there like 10 times before. She tried to teach James about all the Swedish characters that he doesn't know so well. His favourite is Findus and Pettsson, and Pippi Langstrump. I have noticed that his Swedish really needs some work, so I try to show him Swedish films and read him Swedish books all the time now. I have to face it, his first language is not Swedish...
JAmes is now officially a BIG BOY, since he threw his dummies (pacifiers) in the bin this weekend. The bribe was a pirate costume and so far it works! He even takes his sward to bed at night - as a substitute, bless him.

It was great to come back from Sweden and have vistiors waiting for us! The Sohlberg family from Täby stayed with us for 3 days (and 3 in a hotel) and we had a great time. Emma was so happy to have oldest friend Hanna here and we hardly saw them at all. Talk about pre-teenagers...dancing, makeup, clothes, shopping, youtube, Twilight, etc....what is a mother to do...On Thurday Emma is turning the big 10!!! She is having a movie/pizza night with some girlfriends, which is great. The problem will come when they have to choose the film to watch... it certainly will not be Cinderella. And of course, all she wants for her birthday is a phone...

Lucia at Swedish school in Dubai

Yearly Christmas turkey with the neighbours.

Emma preparing for Christmas concert in School.

Yes, we finally made our very own gingerbread house!

Isabelle gets her present from Santa.

James enjoying the snow with uncle Fredrik.