Mormor and Hammie

Ingela was up visiting for a couple days. Nalani is her first grandchild and she needs a Hammie fix every now and then. It has been nice having Ingela around as Lina is able to do things while Nalani hangs out with Mormor (aka grandma). Here a couple pic of Hammie and Mormor.

All tuckered out

Hammie models her new pants with a little help

Hammie and Daddy

Cutest Baby Ever

Back when she was one day old

Getting to know each other

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Hammie's Big Adventure

There has been a lot of firsts for little Nalani. Yesterday we took her to a restaurant for the first time. It was a festive occasion to celebrated Lina's birthday with Hakan, Tina, Ida, Anna and Peter in tow. Lina and I took turns eating while the other tried to cajole Hammie to sleep. No dice. Good food and good people apparently supersedes sleep. Good times.

Today was dubbed "Hammie's big adventure" as it was the first attempt to go out climbing with her. We actually chose a place with no developed climbing as the point was really just to get out in nature. It was a big day for Hammie as she got rained on, went off-roading in the baby carriage, had run-ins with ants and mosquitoes, breastfed outside (good job mom!), and helped discover chanterelle mushrooms. Quite a day.

I did manage to climb a little as I put up a cool problem I'm calling "Hammie's Big Adventure" and scouted some more potential climbing.

Hammie tucked into her off-road vehicle

Hammie and mom braving the rain and mosquitoes

Dad on the first assent of "Hammie's Big Adventure"

Our little hero all tuckered out

A chanterelle feast is our reward

Baby Pictures

Chillin' in the kitchen with mom

More chillin' with mom

"Hungry. Must eat shoulder"

Hammie and her best friend Piggy

Two little feet

The Quilt that Love Built

Lina and I have many people to thank for the love and support we've received throughout this whole baby experiment. Things have been made much easier by the advice and gifts of our friends and family. For starters, I think people knew of my minimalist philosophy (a person really only needs 1 change of clothes, max 2) and took pity on my poor baby girl, flooding us with bags of baby clothes. Before we knew it Hammie had a wardrobe the rivaled that of Paris Hilton, minus the heels and mini-skirts of course. Thanks to everyone that helped ensure our daughter is the best dressed kid around.
There were also many practical things that make our lives way easier (if someone is about to have a kid we have some recommendations) from the breastfeeding pillow and shirts to the baby carrier and carseat. Thanks for making mommy and daddy's lives way easier.

We also received what I refer to as "The Quilt that Love Built" (maybe that's a bit redundant as quilts are generally made with love). The women in my family (Grandmothers, Mom, Aunts, Cousins, Sisters,etc..) surreptitiously constructed little squares that were assembled into a quilt to help commemorate little Hammie's entrance into this world and keep her warm once she got here. When my mom presented us with the quilt Lina almost cried. The love that went into the quilt radiates from every square and we are eternally gratful for such a wonderful gift. It is so wonderful in fact that we are apprehensive to let Hammie use it since many of the squares are made with fabric that won't wash easily and pretty much anything that Hammie touches needs to be washed (some people say the same thing about me). So until Hammie learns to control her bowl movements and doesn't vomit up the majority her meals the quilt will hang near her bed.
Thank you sooooo much to all the wonderful women in my family for the heartwarming gift. I'd also like to thank my dad who also made a square, serving as the token male (meatball man rules!).

The Quilt that Love Built

Hammie samples the quilt. Seconds after this photo was taken she pooped.

Hammie, extremely grateful.

The Progression

At 1921 on July 25th, 2009 Nalani Joy Kearney, aka Hammie, was born at Mölndal Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden. She was 52 cm tall (20.5 in) and weighted 3.88 kg (8.55 lbs).
She is now 12 days old and the center of our universe. Here are some photos that show how far Hammie has come.

Litte Hammie

Growing belly

About to explode (one week overdue)

Hammie a few minutes old

Life is sweet

A blog for Hammie

With family and friends spread out across the world Lina and I decide that a blog dedicated to our daughter would be a great way to keep people posted and quell the heavy demand for baby pictures.
The first step was picking a name for our daughter and naming the blog similarly. Unfortunately my enthusiasm for Hammerstryke (aka Hammie) was only shared by my father so after much deliberation we settled on the next best thing, naming our child...

Nalani Joy Kearney

The process of picking the name took awhile as we wanted to get to know our little girl before christening her. Our favorite pre-birth girl name was Ellia but upon meeting our little bundle of joy we almost immediately decided it just didn't fit. It did take us 8 days to choose her name which I think is quite good considering Sweden gives you 3 months to decide. I of course called our daughter Hammie for the duration or her first week of life and now it has stuck. So while Nalani Joy Kearney is her name, I will continue to affectionately refer to my daughter as Hammie, beginning what is sure to be a lifetime of pig jokes and deep emotional scaring.

The name list the sat on our refrigerator until recently