A dress from Bente

Farmor and farfar's very close friends, Bente & Gert, gave Maya this dress for Christmas. Bente is obviously a master seamstress as she made this outfit herself, with a matching ball which Maya loves to play with. We forgot to take pictures of Maya in this dress but finally got around to doing so. Get well soon Bente, we are all thinking of you.





We are not quite sure what Maya is doing here... stretching? or maybe trying to push the wall out of the way?

Horses and cats

Farfar and Maya went to check out the horses that are on summer break and left free to roam the meadows. Maya was probably less intimated by them than Lukas the dog. However, Lukas made a lasting impression so now whenever we show a picture of a dog Maya says "Woff, Woff" with great emphasis.











Maya and her loyal friend Felix taking a nap. Felix stuck closely to Maya most of the time and curled up next to her during nap time every day.

Wedding & Maya party!

My dear parents organized a party for us while we were in Sweden. It was a combination of a wedding party for us and a welcome-to-the-world party for Maya. It was a very nice event with lots of family and friends. It was great to see family that we normally wouldn't have time to go visit. I really enjoyed seeing aunts, uncles and my cousins and their kids which I haven't seen for years.

Due to the very unreliable Swedish summer weather my parents had arranged for a big party tent. The crew came out and had it up in no time. During our 3,5 week stay in Sweden it only rained one afternoon.....and of course it was the afternoon of the party so the tent was definately worth it.



After a few hours of work by the decoration crew the tent was done with both Swedish and Chinese decorations:



Filled with family and friends:



Maya eating cake with her godmother Xinran:



Three little Maya/Maja's from the Cedergren clan:



My dear parents with Xinran:



Thank you mamma & pappa for the wonderful party! We had a great time!

Faster Malin

Faster (aunt in Swedish) Malin and Maya hanging out in Sweden:



Maya absolutely adored her faster Malin. I really hope they get to spend a lot of time together in the future. I know they will be wonderful friends.

More animals

I know, we are actually back home in California right now but I'm behind on the postings so for the sake of the blog we'll continue with Sweden.

We took Maya to a really nice zoo with only Swedish animals called Skanes Djurpark. She got to see and touch so many animals and had a great time there.

Apart from petting cows and sheep she got to pet rabbits, guinea pigs etc and see seals, bears, lynxes, wolves and so on :





Lotta, my cousins wife/girlfriend training Knut the seal:


Farmor, mom and Maya checking out the lynx:

Maya's wooden truck.

Farfar built Maya a big wooden truck that she absolutely loves. It's perfect height for her to hold on to while walking around and she pushes the huge truck back and forth across the kitchen floor tirelessly.

Another favorite; Felix the cat. He gracefully agrees to be pushed around in the truck bed for hours.





Maya and her proud farfar playing with the truck that farfar built her:

Out for a walk with farmor

The weather has been great our whole trip and Maya is spending a lot of time outdoors with farmor and farfar.



View over the pond when Maya and farmor takes their walk.

Tractor driver

Maya got to play with the small tractor.....

First steps

Maya has started taking her first few steps here in Sweden. Yesterday and today she's been able to take a step or two of her own.

Farm animals

Maya has been busy getting to know a bunch of animals. Much better to see, touch, feel, smell and hear them in real life, rather than just look at pictures in a book.

Feeding the pigs:


Checking out the geese:


Helping prepare the ducks that godfather Johan came by to give Maya:


Checking out some sheep at Skanes Djurpark:


Petting calves at Skanes Djurpark:

Cats and dogs

Maya has been very busy playing with all the animals at my parents place. It's like a mini petting zoo.

One of the cats, Felix, is the nicest cat I've ever seen. He lets Maya pet him, climb over him, sit on him, pull on him etc and just keeps coming back to her. They both really seem to enjoy each others company.





The dog Lukas on the other hand is still a bit scary. She pets him but is very careful around him as he is rather large. She is excited to see him and greats him with a "woof, woof" when he comes by:

Gammelfarmor

Maya got a chance to visit her gammelfarmor (great grandma). Gammelfarmor was very tired but once we took her out in the sun she perked up and started saying hej, hej, hej to little Maya and reached out to hold her. They got a few nice moments of contact and it was very nice to see four generations of our family all together. We'll go see her at least weekly and spend some time with her.

First meal with farmor

Maya quickly settled in and adore her farmor, farfar and faster Malin.

Since dad was very naive and thought Maya would instantly like Swedish Välling (which she of course hates with a passion) we didn't bring enough American formula to last us the whole stay. After a few days of panicked experimentation we've now settled on an increased solid food intake and a Swedish version of formula that we found. It took a few tries and we now have every size of bottle nipples that the store has to accomodate the thickness of the formula and Maya's speed of eating.

On our way over

Finally able to post some pictures. Had to buy a new memory card reader for my parents as someone had spilled coffee on the computer and destroyed the built in reader....

Maya checking out the suitcase:


Arrived in Amsterdam and waiting for our next flight to Copenhagen: