I've had a thing about Atlanta for quite a while now, surfing every site about the place to figure out how it might be to live there, and as luck has it I know Brandon one of the School of Humans founders, his missus Trudy and their adorable baby girl @carysbarr who treated me to lunch in little five point during my long Atlanta layover. The hood was exactly as I had pictured it, but with better vintage stores (I almost scored an Elvira-dress, the only thing that stopped me was my sensible side knowing that I seldom get to prance around all decked out in rhinestone-covered gala dresses), and now I'm totally sold on the place and want to live there. I even got to peek at Brandon's house which is adorable and has a pink flamingo in the garden, how awesome is that? Now that Perle has learned to eat american food (on our Boston trip she basically survived on fruit alone), even she agrees: "Lets move here, it's summer all the time!"

I wish I had stayed longer actually, the south has a special place in my heart and Georgia works for me.

I figured that the hand-me-down mac, spruced up with a shiny new Hello Kitty Keyboard and Hello Kitty Mouse would be a hit, and indeed it was (she even held her hands over her mouth gasping 'oooh!' when she opened the keyboard box) - but the killer app was a surprise.

KidZui is her social internet for kids-favorite right now, she even sends me emails.

Yes, my four year old daughter sends me emails. How cool is that? Right now she's showing me my little ponies that she's dressed up, and I responded by emailing her this.

Look at that, she's being all shy and nervous. What is it about Santa that is so facinating for kids? What she asked santa for: "An upsie-daisy doll and a dolls bed". No computer? You're getting a computer girlfriend. A Hello Kitty Keyboard computer, but it's still a computer. ;)

Did you hear about the twitter-tempest in a teapot this weekend involving Motrin and mommybloggers? Seems Motrins latest ad campaignreleased on Saturday was too snarky for some who reckoned they were bashing "babywearing" moms causing a social media fail whale where a whole bunch of moms tweeted #motrinmoms to express their dislike in a trackable way, and in the end someone even posted a youtube video with a bunch of tweets in it see it here.
Motrin removed the ad. Even fellow Swede Kullin had to throw two öre in.

Now, I might be getting old or something but I couldn't muster up enough outrage to even care about that ad. That kinetic typography fad has been in everything from car ads to Obama ads by now and was cool *five years ago*(OK, so there's my art director outrage) but jumped the shark with bells on when Obama used in "vote for hope". Besides, there are much cooler ways of doing it - behold Typographics. Or Great scenes from TV and Film using only typography. Saul Bass' kinetic typography in North by Northwest is still numero uno in the flying fonts game. Are we done yet?

So here's me and Perle, in the hand-me-down family-heirloom Baby Björn that carried three other babies before her. You'll never catch me wearing my offspring in a sling though - and that's probably where the Motrin ad went wrong - it forgot nuances. It also forgot to mention anything about "safe to take when nursing" which pretty much screams "has no idea what is on target moms top of mind". Or maybe it just screams "not talking to me", which is why it failed to score any outrage because they clearly weren't talking to me. I'm of the old-school common sense logic breed: Your high heels hurt? Take the heels off. Baby sling putting a strain on left shoulder? Quit using it that way. Not a fan of the "we have a pill for that" school of thought. I bet they even have pills for that! They're called anti-pillefreifandom® and can not be mixed with alcohol.

Image reposted from the art of looking cool Sunday, June 18, 2006.

Malmöfestival means one thing for Perle - Henna Tattoos. This year she picked a roaring tiger.

This weekend we all took a little time off, and our wee family headed out to visit cousins and friends to frolic on beaches in Denmark. I turned off my computer, and Miklas prepared all the doors with oil before putting his tools down and coming with us. Our first time off since forever - just relaxing and reloading batteries.

Monday when he returned to work on the doors he finds that they are thrown about in the basement and all his tools are missing. Cordless electric drills, two different types of electric sanders (one round, and one for corners), his measuring tools, his chisel, his hammer. He can't do any work now since all the vital tools are missing, and we seriously can not afford new ones.

For a moment we think that someone has simply borrowed it. When our neighbor renovated their apartment, their hired handymen from Poland had borrowed a few items as per the neighbors instructions - without telling Miklas that they had. This annoyed Miklas, and I'm kicking myself for not telling him to always bring his tools in the house after that - but hindsight and twenty twenty you know. We're still hoping that someone simply borrowed them - or better yet it's a theif with a conscience - who will give us our tools back because honestly dear theif, we need them pretty damn bad.

Jag försöker lära Perle att hojta "DÅLIG REKLAM" när hon ser sådan. Hon gör det så fort den där larviga Lambi-tösen dyker upp i rutan. Men hur jag än förklarade att ordlekar inte är bra, tyckte Perle att den här grisen var söt och vinkade till den. "Fin ko" sa hon.

Another score from Stadmissionen - the surprise box.

As I was pining over mustard ashtrays and olive plates, Perle brought me a tin box with pretty fish and seahorses on it, I agreed to let her buy it. When we came home we discovered that it was full of beads and plastric strings, which made for long hours of eye-crossignly difficult concentration.

The end result was worn with pride and even slept in.

I didn't post much about our trip to Boston, guess I got caught up with work when I returned. I loved it, Perle disliked the food a lot but we did discover that she likes pepperoni pizza. Phew.

This was in a food court somewhere in the theatre district of Boston. I can't recall what we did that day. Probably shopping - Miklas scored like a bandit in every store we went to. Annoying!

Good thing Dabitch likes pizza too. ;)

I worried about which winter overalls to get since reports about really high doses of the EU banned compound nonylphenol have been discovered in practically every brand name overall in Sweden (test here), I didn't know which ones I dare buy. So I decided against overalls and went for hopefully poison-free thermo-pants and a heavily wool-lined army parka instead. Perle loves it, despite the fact that we skipped the bright pink probably poisoned overalls she pointed at first, and right as I took this shot she declared: "I'm a boy!"

We then went to Nesta for a snack and moms caffeine dose, when the waiter asked what Perle wanted to drink she replied "Cappuccino!", and so she got a little cup of steamed milk and acted all grown up, even reading the paper at the table. It's beginning to freak me out a little how much she looks like me at that age.

Right, so I no longer wear a cast, which is a tremendous relief because at some point that chafing of the cast hurt more than the finger. Plus it did nothing to deter idiots from running into me or pushing me or generally just hurt my already-in-pain arm. They should make casts in day-glo colors so that people know to stay the heck away from broken limbs.
See, I was shopping with Perle on a crowded Saturday, leaning my cast-arm on the stroller as it gets a little heavy to wave in the air like you just don't care all day, when someone who thought I wasn't walking fast enough literally shoved me out of the way. I had Perle walking beside me on the right, and a pram full of groceries when this happened - and if there's something that kicks me into instinct-only-gear it's when a bunch of people make a highway between me and my daughter. So I lean over to hold her hand with my right and yank the stroller with me with my cast-arm, just as someone from that highway of people tries to pass me on the left and pushes said arm or rather slams into my arm full-force. Reflex makes me bend my busted fingers around the handle in an effort to hold on to everything. Ouch. Not a good reflex.

I got me a new phone, The Sony Ericsson s500i - and shot this video with it. Perle was expecting a picture as she declares "smile, smile smiiiiiile - klick!"

When you see an 1100 pound pumpkin, you are obligated to pose. It's the law.

....and the obligatory, "wait we're not ready yet" shot.

So, Caff decides to get hitched in witchtown, a.k.a Salem MA and the wee witch loves every minute of it.

First, she's impossible to stop while the poor photographer tries to get wedding pictures.

Who can blame her tough? She's just discovered that the best part of dressing up is swinging the dress around. Swing swing!

Then she nicks Presh's purse

Some cheese...

And my "comfy" heels. (it's all relative).

No wonder she's tired. Good thing she can dance and sleep as longs as dad lends a shoulder.

Now I know what she gets up to while I'm sleeping. Stealing my headphones.

"what do these ear-widgets do?"

"aaah, noisy!!"