I had such a fabulous Monday today! First I had lunch with my beautiful friend, Linda. We decided on an Indian restaurant and the food was really good. 

Then, after work, I had dinner with my closest colleagues to celebrate one of them turning 40. As a starter, we decided on oysters and some bubbly. For me, it was the first time I tried oysters since I was 12. Then, I really didn’t like the taste, but this time, I loved it! Will definitely order it again. Yum! 

We’re home from a lovely weekend with our friends Isabel and Jonathan. We were really lucky with the sunny weather too. Jonathan even took a dip in the lake (even though most of it was still covered in ice).  That was to take it a bit far in my opinion though. 

Sally, mum and I went to a farm today to look at some super cute lambs. We also bought meat and eggs produced at the farm. 

Isn’t Sally’s raincoat cute? I would like to have a yellow raincoat of my own. 

Sally is doing great at daycare. I was supposed to be there from 9am-2pm today, but at 10am they told me that I could go home because she was doing so good. At lunch I got a text from them saying that Sally had had lunch and that she was asleep. She slept for one hour straight! Part of my mommy heart is super proud and happy, the other part is wondering why she’s not crying for me.

The morning I had today. Oh my god! We were heading out to the library and I had just painted my nails and where finishing doing my make up. Then I heard Sally being very cheerful and babbling. And then I saw why. She had found a bottle of nailpolish, managed to take the cap of and had poured the polish all over the bathroom floor and over herself. I panicked. Like, do you wash her first, or the floor, or…what? While I was panicking, she happily stomped away with nailpolish on her feet, leaving marks all over the livingroom floor. I decided I had to clean her first. I sort of drenched her in nailpolishremover and then I gave her a bath. While she was in the bath I cleaned the bathroom floor. It took me 45 minutes to clean it all and the apartment still smells from nailpolish and nailpolish remover. Sigh! I wish I would have taken a photo of the mess, but sometimes it’s just not the right time for a photo. I hope your morning was a bit less stressful than this. LOL! 

It is so freakin cold right now. I’m sitting on my couch with knitted socks on, a heavy cardigan and a wool scarf and I’m still freezing. On top of that I have a freakin itchy cold sore. Yuck! 

On the plus side, I bought fancy chocolate for myself and my favourite music award show is on TV. And I finished next week’s spread in my planner. 

It’s -20°C here in Sweden today. It’s really beautiful with all the snow, but it’s kind of a shock to go from +30°C to -20°C in just a couple of days so I’m really missing The Gambia right now. Also, my husband is still there and I miss him so much! Luckily he will be home in a little over a week. 

I just love this photo I took from the Serrekunda market. So colorful! And look at that little baby on the back of his/her mother. So cute! 

A really scary thing happened today. A friend of mine was over with her baby boy who is the same age as Sally. We had tea and I cut up some grapes i quarters for Sally. She loves to eat with her hands now and small pieces of fruit is perfect for that. I asked my friend if she wanted some for her son and she said she could try and see if he liked them. He had a couple and seemed to like them. Then he took a couple of them and put in his mouth. All of a sudden my friend shouts “oh my god, he’s choking!” At first I didn’t think he really was, but then I could see he had trouble breathing. She turned him on his tummy and held his head down and pounded his back a couple of times. I remember thinking she was to gentle so I stepped in and pounded quite forcefully on his back with an open palm. The pieces of grape came flying out of his mouth. Thank God!! I was shaking afterwards and my friend was in shock. I’m so scared this would ever happen to Sally. I need to take a CPR class ASAP! 

Where do I begin to tell you about our trip to The Gambia? Everytime I’m there it’s so overwhelming and this time even more so since Sally was with us. Also my mum and sister came along with us for a week. The Gambia is so different from everything I know, yet I feel very much at home and I feel very welcomed there. Of course we spent a lot of time visiting family. I really have to step up when it comes to learning Mandinka because next time I want to be able to speak with all of them. Most people there speak English, but since Modou is with us the conversation always switches to Mandinka after the usual greeting phrases. 

Travelling with a toddler was of course challengeing. Keeping Sally from not putting cigarette buts in her mouth, not falling down stairs or not putting her fingers in poorly installed electrical outlets was taking a lot of energy, but also, I’m so proud of Sally because she was a true joy to travel with. Even though she didn’t really wanted to be held by strangers (which you can understand) she charmed everybody with her bright personality. 

I really wanted to blog during the trip but I couldn’t find a strong enough wifi. But here are some photos from our fantastic two weeks there. I wish I could go back soon. 

   
Me, Modou and Modou’s mum Rohey. 

 
Benechin – a Gambian rice dish. 

   
Sally and her cousin Kadi. 

 
Modou’s sister Mai in the background with her daughter Kadi. 

Modou and Sally with Modou’s aunt and mum. 

    
At Modou’s dad’s place. The blond woman is my sister. 

    
Sally with her granddad. 

 
Me and my sister with a bunch of Modou’s siblings.