Baby bump

Today I'm 31+4 weeks. I've still got almost two full months to go before my due date. But I don't get how I'll be able to grow much more than this. Other people might not find me that big but when I look at myself I feel enormous! Bending down is become really hard and sleeping is not the most comfortable thing either. I can definitely not lay on my back anymore, my lungs get crushed.

But some magical way I presume I'll get even bigger. Time will tell, time will tell... :)

Luckily it's just my belly that has expanded so far. From the front you can hardly see the bump.

I can assure you though that Niels and me are getting one active kid it seems like. Sitting at work each time I look down my stomach has taken a new shape and Hilda is constantly playing the "knock, knock, who's there" game.

29th - Something you're listening to

I used to like this song but it's really getting over played now on the radio. Since we don't have tv at home yet we've started listening to the radio a lot. Especially in the mornings since our morning routine always used to involve watching Go'morgen Danmark, now we listen to some morning show on the radio instead.



But perhaps you don't listen to the radio much so enjoy!

28th - Money

I hardly carry around any cash anymore. I still used to do that a couple of years ago but now I'm basically just using those magical plastic cards you can buy anything with. I always try to have some coins in my wallet though because you never know when they might come handy. For example paying a wardrobe fee when going to concerts or doing massive grocery shopping and needin to use a shopping cart. I also happened to find 5 pounds in my wallet after my recent trip to London. I should one day when I've unpacked my travel wallet place it in there. There is SO much to still unpack and my energy levels are close to zero after work and home making dinner. I'm sure there will still be boxes laying around when Hilda arrives. It is after all only 60 days left. Yikes! :)

Moving in gift

Birna came over yesterday for a little quality tasting of my baked goods. Approved, but I'm sure that practice will make perfect so told her it wont be the last time.

But with her she brought a moving in gift. Apparently according some icelandic tradition you should bring bread and salt when first time visiting a new place. Bread represents not ever running our of food and salt is for flavoring the porridge. Did I get it right? 

Also got a little bonus, two kitchen cloths and this one fits perfectly hanging over our stove. Love it! Thank you Birna!

This picture is just a bit off... since u can see not-so-limber-me in the reflection. Super charming hahaha!

27th - Something you ate

I got a massive craving to bake today. So what better remedy than to actually bake! And this way I would also get the oven cleaned finally. Was baking some bagels in it last week when it started smelling a bit toxic. Bought some oven cleaning detergent and now it's sparkling.

I've become a bit too much of a sweet-tooth lately. It's pretty much the only craving I've gotten. So no weird cravings to share with you unfortunately. But to be able to eat some baked dessert with a good conscience I wanted to eat some healthy dinner instead. So we had a grilled chicken salad, used a total of 5 drops of oil in total to flavor the zucchini on the grill. Actually quite tasty considering how healthy it also probably was.
And to crown the dinner of, a little mudcake :). Good and unhealthy with some vanilla icecream on the side!

Cosy time at the office

As it's Monday I'm back at the office. Luckily it seems like it's going to be a fairly calm week. I'm starting to sleep quite abruptly lately which means I'm getting quite tired during the days. I'm having a hard time finding comfortable positions to sleep in and I wake up each time I need to turn around. And waking up also means most of the times a visit to the toilets. Two more months.... :). Then there will be other reasons why I'll be waking up in the nights!

I bought myself a new hyacinth last week and over the weekend it's started blooming. It's smells fantastic here upstairs at work!

I love fresh flowers and candles. Think I need to go and pick up a new bouquet of tulips on my way home. The ones I got from Kolla saw their last day yesterday.

26th - Night

This post is coming fairly late as the topic is night. I've been waiting for it to get really dark outside so I could get a night picture but... We're living in the city now so of course there are streetlights everywhere so our street never gets remotely dark. And I'm too tired to go for a walk to the lakes where it's presumably dark.

So had to rethink.

Then it hit me. For Hilda its pretty much all the time dark and (s)he has no clue wether its day or night. That's where this little fellow tiger comes in. When pulling its tail it plays a little lullaby tune. Each night when I go to bed I let it play a couple of times on my belly. I've heard that by either singing or playing the same tune each night before going to sleep can have a positive effect on the baby once it gets born. It can apparently remember the tune and get calmed down by it when it's time to sleep. I'm not sure if I entirely believe it but hey, no harm can come from trying. And if it actually will work then that's fantastic!

So nighty night from me an Hilda, it's time for a little lullaby!

24th - Inside your bathroom cabinet

EDIT: I wrote this post already last night but I don't know why it didn't get posted. So I just re-posted it now. Thanks for pointing it out Kolla.

Sorry for posting so late. But it's still the 24th! Just got home from a Ghost party. Ghost is Denmark's biggest vfx house, one of my works big rivalry. The party is just about now getting started, but I couldn't take it anymore. Everyone seemed to have a comment about my pregnancy. It's fine when it's people you know, but when the 30th stranger comes up to you with a joke it's starts to get a bit tiresome. "Oh, I didn't know you could bring kids to this party"! Politely I always smiled back and said I couldn't find a babysitter so had to bring it along. And people were worried that the music was too loud... etc. And also after standing for more than 4hours my back started to get really tired. Knowing that I have a nice new couch at home waiting for me got more and more tempting :).

But here's my "bathroom cabinet". Don't have an actual cabinet, not yet at least. So many things still missing from the apartment. But this is how it looks like right now, the one shelf we have.

25th - Green

Now our old apartment is totally empty which means our new apartment is absolutely filled with boxes and other stuff. You wouldn't believe how much stuff you can actually fit in to only 23m2. Our closet is three times bigger than our old one but somehow we dot have any problem filling it all up.

Also went for a quick trip to Ikea today, mainly to return the wrong shelves I had bought but also used the opportunity to pick up a few other things, eg. a big plant for the living room. Its starting to get more homie now and we're enjoying it more and more. A little green can do many wonders. So here's a few more sneak peeks of our living room, new sofa and something green. Still missing a big soft carpet, curtains, sofa pillows etc.

23rd - Your shoes

My shoes are quite uninteresting. Black ones with some salt stains from this winter. But when I take off my shoes that's when it gets more interesting like on a day like today!

Hello fishes!!

This was hilarious! Just got back from a fish spa together with Malin and I'm still laughing a bit. First time I've tried this Garra Rufa fish treatment but it won't be the last time. It both does wonders for your feet as well as becomes a laughing therapy session. I feel so relaxed now and can't stop touching my babybum soft feet. Not to mention laying on our new couch that arrived today! You'll get a picture of the couch another day ;).

Cool Chanel commercial

This commercial is really doing it for me. Now I really feel like going buying myself some nice fancy nailpolish and glam up my nails!

Hildas namnsdag!

If Hilda would get the name Hilda (which is very unlikely even though we've heard that many people have come to like it) it would be her nameday today. Im writing her since Hilda is more appropriate for someone female. Todays names in the Finnish calendar are Hilda, Hildur and Tuuli.

We've started to talk a bit about names but far from having come to a decision. If you have suggestions on names you like feel free to share. I don't think neither of us wants something really special just something simple that can easily work in both Danish and Swedish. Like Anna, but perhaps something a bit more uncommon. Or actually I don't know. Hard one...

22nd - Where you work

I work at the best place ever! I never thought I'd be this fortunate landing such a good job after my studies. I'll miss this place when I go on maternity leave. Fortunately I'm coming back here again!

For those if you who don't know or have forgotten, the company is called The Chimney Pot Copenhagen and I'm working as a junior compositor. I work mainly on commercials but now and then I get my fingers on some music videos and short movies.

21st - A fave photo of you

This is probably the hardest one of them all. I'm not a photogenic person at all and rather stand behind the camera than in front. There are very few photos where I think I actually look the way I look like in real life. I always manage to strike some weird face or blink and look half drunk.

So instead of wasting time and going through thousands of photos to see if there would be a single photo I could call "a fave photo" I decided to take a photo of me and Hilda instead. At least I'll look happy on such a photo. I'm so excited about our new home and our new life as a family.

20th - Handwriting

I hardly use pen and paper any more. Everything has become digital for me these days. The only paper I make notes on anymore are on post-its. Just like the one below, my today's shopping list.

Usually I use an app on my iPhone for making shopping list but some days, like today, it happens I just jot it down on paper. I think it's much handier having it on the phone when you can easily tick off items already in your basket, but somehow it feels more oldschool and correct to make a list on paper.

I almost re-wrote this list as I noticed today's theme. I wanted to make a "prettier" version to show off a nice handwriting but decided that I would present the raw truth. I realized that no matter how much I would try to make my handwriting better there are two things. One, since I don't practice this analog method of using paper and pen that often anymore my handwriting skills have degraded a lot. I can hardly write a readable script type anymore. Two, I always think my handwriting is ugly anyways.

If you're trying to figure out what's on my shopping list I can tell you this much. The top part are things that are on offer this week, therefore I know the price as well. The lower part is what we're having for dinner today, a chicken wok. Looking so much forward unpacking our kitchen utensils today and firing up the gas stove and try making a sizzling hot wok!

Sneak peek

The apartment is still quite the chaos but here's a little sneak peek of the tidiest corner. Dining table with my Banksy painting and some tulips Kolla brought. Is there anything better than fresh flowers!

The bed is in place as well and soon I'll crawl in to bed so I'll be fresh tomorrow after work to continue unpacking.

But all in all a VERY good weekend! Cant believe we've finally moved! Thank you Ole, Stinne and Kolla for helping out! I probably would have been bed-bound for the next couple of months if I had had to do it myself with Niels.

19th - Something you hate to do

It took me a really long time today to figure out what to post about. Couldn't really come up with something I hated right now. We did our final big move today and even though moving is not always the most fun thing but we were finally moving to Niels and mine new home sweet home. And there is definitely nothing I hate about that. But... Wonderful Kolla came by and helped build our closet to day and as we were nearing the end I noticed I had bought four shelves out of eight in the wrong color!! And then it came to me... I hate needing to return products to Ikea when you are on a roll building! Can't they label their packages a bit better!! A little sticker indicating what color it is, not just a little number series that indicates what item it is.

18th - Drink

I was planning on enjoying this Cloudy Ginger Beer I brought from London tonight to celebrate that we've moved in to our new place. But one, I'm too tired to enjoy it. Two, we didn't manage to move entirely today. It's been pouring down rain all day which isn't really optimal for moving a lot of cardboard boxes. So the big move will be tomorrow instead when they've promised a bit better weather. But we got some stuff moved today in Niels's dads car so were spending our first night at the new place.

Gonna clench my thirst with some Squash soda instead and shortly head to bed. Sooooo tired!

17th - Time

It's just past 8 in the evening and Niels and me are at our new place waiting for a truckload of Ikea stuff to arrive. Really didn't think this one trough... Went to Ikea myself today to shop for a closet and some other things. Though it would be ok since we would get free delivery (an offer that ended today) so I wouldn't need to carry anything. True... I don't have to carry anything home. But I do have to go and pick up everything (got help with the heaviest stuff thankfully) and then push around two overloaded trolleys in a packed and stressed ikea. The trolleys got so heavy with all the pieces for the closet that it only moved when you used your whole body weight to push it. On the positive note my body weight has grown recently but on the negative note I'm not allowed to put any strain on my back. Well as you've figured out I am back home now and waiting for the delivery to arrive. My back is a bit sore but I really tried not to strain it too much. Let's see if I still walk like an old lady tomorrow :)

Now I'm just enjoying some free movies on Voddler and some pizza and waiting for the stuff to arrive. They will be here the latest at 10.

16th - Something new

Assembled Hilda's new pram here the other day and it's more perfect than I remembered! Here it is posing in front of our new grey walls in our living room (which my mum kindly painted for us) on top of our new floors. New new new!

London visit

I went for a long weekend trip to London together with my sister and Morris last weekend. So here's some picture in case you're curious :).

I recently bought myself a new suitcase in an explosive green color to easily identify. And it sure is easy to see coming on the conveyer belt. I even managed to catch a glimpse of it as it was getting loaded on the plane. So I felt fairly certain it was arriving together with me.

The whole day in copenhagen had been grey and dull but as we took off and flew over the clouds I got to get a bit of suntherapy. I always think that views like these are so beautiful!

Both me and my sister and Morris flew with Norwegian at approximately the same time and both planes offered free wifi. It was quite surreal that we were able to sit and chat together and follow up on each others location. I was about 15min ahead of her in the air. We sent each other photos and recommendations of what they had to offer on their snack list.

The plane ride went past in no time!

A good start of the morning, getting ready for a big day of shopping!

I don't think I've ever seen snow in London before, but to my big surprise I woke up to a white London. This is a picture of Caritas backyard. Looks so strange seeing palmtrees covered in snow. It's almost like its photoshopped.

We spent the day at Westfield shopping mall. Same place I went shopping to when I was in London last spring for the royal wedding. I basically demanded that we would go back to Jamie's Italian (Jamie Olivers restaurant) so I once again could try the best olives in the world. And it was to no disappointment!

They taste so different from any other olives I've eaten. These are somehow sweeter in taste and almost a bit buttery. Mmm...

Marina ordered for lunch this really good pasta with chicken liver. I feel so stupid in many ways because I know I love chicken liver, but somehow now growing older and knowing what it really is I kinda can't get myself to make it or order it ever. But I got to taste some and it was as good as I remembered. Why am I having such a hard time with it? I have nothing against liverpaté...? Maybe I should just get my act together and give it a try.

Morris is having a Jamie's Burger. He's only sad because he was forced to pose without his pacifier.

Can you find Morris???

A little game he found hilarious and could keep on doing over and over and over again.

And aaah.... I also got my dosage of Boost!

Here taking the double decker in to town for another day of shopping.

A little better behaving Mickey posing with Marina and Morris in the Disney store

Morris did some shopping at the Disney store. And he was so proud of his bag. He had to hold on to the bag himself the rest of the day. Got a bit hard at times when it was getting dragged on the ground while he was sitting in his stroller. But with a shopping bag and good looking as that I would keep a strong hold to the bag as well. And not to mention the content in it. Cars.

Me, Carita and Morris

Lakka, my cousin, and Michelin-Milla. I look massive :) My jackets zipper decided to give up on me as soon as I had landed in London so the whole trip I had to use this fleecejacket Carita kindly gave me.

A pop-up mall. Quite the fun idea. It's a mini shopping mall consisting of individual stores in container boxes. The way I understood it was that they are there only temporary while the rest of the site is under construction.

So that was my trip to London in a nutshell of pictures. Already looking forward going there again. Think it'll have to be shortly after Hilda has arrived and we finally will now the gender as there were SO much cute clothing!

15th - Phone

What did we entertain ourselves with before we were all equipped with smartphones. I looked up what todays theme was, phone, when I for a second got puzzled of how I should take a picture of my phone as I use it as my camera. But while I was sitting in the metro I realized that almost everyone were sitting playing with their phones. You can see me taking the picture as a reflection in the window and even the woman next to me is sitting playing with her phone.

It's almost a bit sad how you can be amongst so many people but still feel completely alone. Not one friendly smile from anyone. I mean, how depressing is it actually looking around you and all you see are these types of faces. And I'm absolutely just the same. I like to fish up my phone from my pocket and play a game of solitaire or check todays news. I just hope I don't look as sad while I do so. I'm really looking forward moving next to some big parks where I can take long walks and hopefully interact with people with just a smile instead of being surrounded with faces staring at their phones.

14th - Heart

Happy valentines day everyone!

I'm celebrating tonight by going to a concert, Little Dragon, unfortunately without my valentine. But you could say I'm celebrating it the Finnish way instead, as friends day. I've already been for a coffee together with Kolla today and going for the concert together with Birna and Maggi. Wish I could have met each and everyone of my friends today. But to the rest of you, you're the best! I cherish every one of you! Thanks for being my friend!

And for you Niels, my dear valentine, I love you!

Hilda's baby stuff

I think we're getting pretty ready with Niels concerning all the new investments you need to make in order to welcome a new family member. Some of the last things needed I bought during my trip to London such as feeding bottles. From the very start I've been set on these particular feeding bottles. Imagine that you can even have an opinion on what type of bottle you want to use! I'm amazed myself. But for some reason I wanted these Tommee Tippee bottles and no others. So now Hilda has a set of them waiting.

I got a lot of other things in London as well such as some children's medicine I according to my sister needed because it's the best (called Calpol and apparently kids love it), some cream I absolutely needed to have according to every mother I've met recently etc. Feels so surreal shopping for all of these things as I still have yet to meet Hilda, but I'm sure I'll be happy to be well prepared with all these things when the day comes. After all I have no previous experience and all info is more than welcome! 

We've also already bought a pram/stroller. I was amazed how much there is actually to think about when you buy one and it's a complete jungle out there with every manufacturer stating that their product is the best. If I hadn't got the help from my sister I would probably still be confused over which one to buy. But after going to multiple stores touching and trying and discussing me and Niels came to a decision. We've invested in this Mutsy combi-stroller below. Isn't it chic! 

And there is so many more things than just the looks I like about it. I don't know how much it interests you non-mums reading this blog but to mention a few... When Hilda get's older I just buy the following seatpiece and switch. Don't need to buy a complete new stroller. The cot is really high up compared to many other stroller, which my back will thank me for. Super easy to fold together and becomes small and compact. Has this really great shopping basket accessory which will come handy for us since we don't have a car to transport baby and food in.

Can't wait to take Hilda out for a spin in it!