Happy New Year

Happy New year!!!!

Fred and I have NEVER been as tired as we are now! Heidi has had gastro for a few days and Chloe has had wind and has been crying non-stop for hours at a time. Yep, the kids have not been the happiest kids around so mum and dad are contemplating selling both of them on eBay and move to the Republic Dominican!

We've had a nice little christmas break though and have been busy, trying to catch up with everyone. We spent christmas eve with some of our swedish friends - a last minute thing that came together nicely and was good fun.

On new years eve we were invited to Vicki and Mitch's house for a low key get-togheter. 3 other couples were there with their kids so Heidi had a blast as you can imagine. We didn't make it to midnight though.. Heidi didn't want to sleep their so at 11pm she was still up and Fred and I thought the responable thing to do was to get her home to go to bed.

Apart from this bad stint of crying kids, 2009 hasn't been all that bad. Moved into this house in January and have been enjoying it. It has been an awesome house, however moving into our own house and stay there for a looooong time is also very exciting.

Also, I guess little Chloe happend in 2009...whilst the in-laws where here. Getting help with Heidi and the house does the trick, hey? That and a bottle of wine ;)

I can assure you there wont be any pregnancies in 2010. This year will be the year of total relaxation and without any major changes tilting our lifebalance. Looking forward to Bali in April but that is as much we're going to move this year :)

Hope you had a great christmas break y'all!

xxx

The Drouinettes

I've been on my own with Heidi and Chloe for the past week and I think we've slowely gotten into a nice little routine. Im still quite soar after the surgery but Heidi has been quite the little helper so it's not too bad.

Chloe will be 6 weeks this week and thing have kind of fallen into place. I feel we have gotten to know each other and Im not entirely clueless as to what she wants when she cries. She has a bit of tummy aches sometimes and Fred and I always have to make sure to burp her a lot after feeds. If not, we always have a looong night ahead of us!

Chloe has started to be more alert and is a good sleeper. She's usually feeding once during the night but when she's asleep, she's the noisiest baby EVER! She's been sleeping in her 'nursery' (i.e our formal dining room) since she was born but we can still hear her! She makes these squeeling and gurgeling sounds and when we check on her she's fast asleep. I tried to keep the baby-monitor on in the beginning but I gave up. We hear her anyway.

Heidi is making great progress too and after my mum was here, Heidi is speaking more and is putting sentenses toghether. Fred is delighted having yet another girl yapping in his ear....and it's only going to get worse :) Heidi's new words from today is 'Dallas Cowboys' and 'Tony Romo'. Can you tell Fred watched the game today?

That's all for this time

Big kisses

xxx

PS. The jumpsuit Chloe is wearing in the pictures was a gift from my swedish friend Moa. And folks, she made it herself! Very talented and clever! Thanks again!!

Xmas with the Swedes and going back to the hospital

Last Saturday we celebrated St Lucia and swedish christmas.

The day started with Heidi serving gingerbread cookies in bed dressed as St Lucia. So cute!! The swedes and Heidi even sang the traditional St Lucia songs! You could really tell that Heidi was very focused, proud and felt very pretty when she walked into our bedroom with the tray of cookies and wearing the 'crown' and white gown. My mum had even organised a gown for little Chloe to wear but she was sleeping so she'll participate next year :)

Later that afternoon we cooked up a proper swedish smorgasboard of traditional christmas foods: meatballs, herring, janssons temptation, christmas ham and some other yummy things AND of course the christmas snaps. Unfortunatly I couldn't have any this year... nursing... bummer...

Then Santa came with the presents!!! Heidi was a bit nervious at first but then she helped Santa hand out the presents. She loved it!! It was really great to celebrate christmas surrounded by family this year. Really special!

And now for the 'drama of the week' segment instead of 'tantrum of the week'.

On Thursday I had to have emergency surgery - an umbilical hernia repair.

Basically when my bellybutton popped out when I was pregnant with Chloe it resulted in a tair in the abdominal tissue and now it had started to cause all sorts of problems and it had to be fixed. When I woke up after the surgery I was in a lot more pain than after the cesarean. Super painful! I had to stay over night in the hospital and now I have to take it easy and I can't lift anything or start exercising for 6 weeks! Very annoying but it had to be fixed.... Hopefully 2010 will be a 'smoother' year without any medical dramas, pregnancies, house deals, new jobs and new work visas....

Bye for now!!

Bisou

The recovering Drouins

Ps. Seems like 'Fidel Castro' likes to have his picture taken with Santa more than the kids do :))