Feeling it in the air

There is a nip in the air this morning marking the end of summer.  I know that makes most people sad but I love Autumn, it makes me anticipate all the new things on the horizon.  The summer has been so terrible anyway that I am sure it won't be missed too much.  It is difficult to miss what you never had.  I am looking forward to taking long autumn walks with the twins.  For the first time in my life I have the time to really appreciate the nature around me.  I watched summer move in, in what felt like slow motion.  It usually just explodes around me, one day bare trees, the next vibrant green, but this year I watched the buds form.  It was really magical and now I can watch my favourite season work its magic.  I am very much looking forward to seeing the trees around our cabin change.

The twins are doing great.  Eva has a fascination with my eye lashes, touching them makes her squeal with joy.  I get the same reaction if I touch them myself in front of her.  The strangest of things make our little Eva laugh, but getting one of her real belly laughs is one of the best things in the world.  She likes crawling under things too, under the tables and chairs.  But then she kind of gets herself stuck and needs to be saved, it is hilarious.

So as you can see, I have two very busy little girls :)

And a few more!

I could do this all day :)

A few more pics

Couldn't resist posting a few more, from our perfect day.  A true celebration of life:

Christening poem

Perfect Angels

By Paula Lindqvist

Thank you for sharing our twins' special day

A day that has always felt so far away

Like all things in life you just never know

What's there round the corner or how things will go

But we all dared to dream and those dreams have come true

Two beautiful babies with eyes shining blue

And two personalities that are worlds apart

It is hard to believe they had the same start

Emilia our warrior, red hot like the sun

We will never forget all the battles you've won

Your energy and drive just blows us away

Your life is a gift, so grab and it and play

And Eva our thinker, our sweet gentle soul

Whose premature start has not taken its toll

We will never be able to thank you enough

For being so calm when the going was tough

A year has gone by and the things we now know

Are that all bad things pass and small babies DO grow!

And to our two perfect angels the promise we make

Is to love and support you, each step that you take!

Mandy read this in the Church and she did such a great job!

This is just a lovely picture of Mandy that I had to post:

First birthday, Christening, crawling, talking

Here are some pictures from the Christening day.  It was lovely and the twins were so good; the perfect party princesses :)  I got all the pictures yesterday, and we have so many amazing ones.  Thank you so much Andreas.

Jens has been on holiday for the last month and during that time I haven't felt the urge to write anything here.  It gave me a chance to also take a break from the day to day, a break that I really needed.  Emilia and Eva are amazing little people, but there is no getting away from the fact that small babies are all consuming. My Mum and Dad were here for 8 days, which gave me even more of a break.  We spent the first part of the week planning and organising the Christening party and the last couple of days at the cabin. I love seeing my babies so happy and content with my Mum and Dad.

So the twins have had their first birthday, we woke up at the cabin which was perfect seen as that was their main present.  We also got them a little frog charm each for their pandora bracelets.  Even though they are big girls now, we will never forget when they were our little frogs who used to snuggle up on us. We celebrated their birthday at Hällunge, where Farfar and Farmor Lindqvist had organsied a shared party with Olivia who is now 5!  I cannot believe how big she is.

Both twins are crawling now, Emilia has been doing it for longer so has mastered the art a little better.  Eva is like a worm and seems to prefer going backwards.  Eva has started to baby talk too, and her favourite word is mamamamama :) So much is happening now!

Sitting up

Emilia is now sitting up so much better unaided.  Our Dr said that she was keeping an eye on her sitting progress as she though that she may need to see a physiotherapist at some point, but it is looking like that won't be needed.  The thing with Emilia is she doesn't want to sit up - BORING!  Why sit and play when you can roll around, holding two toys at the same time, whilst trying to suck your thumb, haha!  She is fab - I just love her energy so much.

So much so that yesterday I bought my babies a cage (Emilia cannot be trusted!! haha).  It is one of the play pens that can be used as a fire guard too, or for cornering off a section of the room.  But there is no getting away from the fact that as a play pen it looks like a steel cage.  We will be trying it out today :)

I forgot to write on Friday that whilst we were celebrating our cabin victory, Jens had Emilia up in the air in aeroplane position.  As a thank you to Jens for being the best Dad in the world, Emilia puked directly in his mouth.  BRILLIANT!

CABIN

After 3 days of stressful bidding (with me and my Mum video chatting constantly), our dream cabin is ours! HOORAY.  We sign for it on Monday.  It is the perfect first birthday present for Emilia and Eva :)

Here are some interior pictures:

And our lovely sunny deck. It feels like a luxury tree house (SO EXCITING!!).

The closest place to swim is about 500m away:

There is a cycle path really close by which leads into a big town, but the other way is another place to swim. There are some swings here for the baby girls to play on when they get tired of swimming in the beautiful lake.

But back to the real world.....  We had a hospital visit today for little Emilia at the lung department.  After the Dr listened to Emilia he concluded that her breathing is a little bit faster than it should be.  So he tested her with some medicine in gas form.  They put a mask on her and she had to breathe in the gas for a minute.  It was awful!  But as usual she just took it for the team.  About 5 seconds after she was back to her usual self, super active and wanting to do 3 things at once while I am left to pull myself together, after seeing my beautiful daughter in distress, for what must be the hundredth time.  10 minutes later he listened to her breathing again and thankfully there was no change; meaning we do not need to give her any medicine.  So now we just need to wait and see how she copes with the inevitible colds and coughs that await her in the future.  I am convinced that her incredible strength is going to see her through without any major problems.  Life is a garden and my baby girl is digging it (hehe!).  As is her twin sister Eva who is my little delight.  Me and Mandy decided today that she is the cutest thing in the world :)