Our Little Monkey

Hammie is getting pretty good at imitating different animals.  One of her favorites is the monkey.

The Hammie Crane

When Chris was here in Sweden he invented an amazing device that eliminates the need to bend over when picking objects up off the ground.  His invention is pretty easy to work and comes in a compact size but it does require a fair degree of maintenance.  Here are a couple pictures of Chris demonstrating his "Hammie Crane" 

You carry the Hammie Crane just like a 6-pack

A closeup of the carrying mechanism

The Hammie Crane has two grippers that are capable to picking a variety of objects and has a built in sensor for detecting things with a high sugar content

The release mechanism is voice activated and can be set to either Swedish of English.

Riding in Style

Even though Hammie is fully capable of walking, her little legs make the going slow and she gets tuckered long before mom and dad.  Fortunately her parents double as pack-mules and she spends the lion's share of most hikes on her dad's shoulders.  Of course when we go bouldering our crash pads make a pretty cozy place for a little person.

Hammie always rides in style.  You can't beat the vantage point and it's the optimal position for applying encouraging whacks to her dad's head 

Rock Art

Hammie has been showing her artistic side.  Every time we go out climbing she grabs a piece of chalk and proceeds to draw on everything within arms reach.  This form of ephemeral art is really catching on as copycat artists are already emerging.

Anne takes art lessons from Hammie, the master of chalk.

Day Care

It has been a few weeks since Hammie started day care.  She adapted to this drastic change in her little life like a champion as her teachers saying it was the fastest adjustment they had seen.  She sometimes cries a little when we leave her but that's generally it.  I'm sure she's psyched to be hanging with people her own age instead of with her dad all the time.  

 The chaotic scene at day care

 Hammie on her first day did a lot of watching

 Lewis, one of Hammie's classmates, shows the new girl around

Our little champion

The Godfather

We have had the luxury of a two week visit from Little Chris.  During his stay we toured him around some climbing areas and had him sample Swedish cuisine but I think his favorite thing was being woken-up early by Hammie every morning.  Chris returned to the USA a few days ago and is sorely missed.  We look forward to the next trip.

Here are some pictures of Hammie and her Godfather.  

 Hammie give Chris "fika" lessons

 Hanging around the apartment

 Hammie can't believe what just happened in the book we've read to her 100 times.  Must be because Chris doesn't read Swedish.

 Chris really wanted to get Hammie a kitty.  While Hammie loved the idea Lina and I had to keep our eyes on Chris so a cat didn't "mysteriously" appear in our bags.  

From a Few Weekends Ago

Sorry about the lack of posting as of late.  I'll try to be more on top of it.

Here are a few pictures from a couple weekends ago when we drove down south for some bouldering at Kjugekull.

 Mormor shows Hammie some sweet shades

The weather wasn't as good as we wanted it to be so Ingela brought along a personal mini-heater to fight off the cold

 Going for a walk with Mom and Mormor

 Peeking over the shoulder

 We stayed one night at a castle and Hammie had her run of the place.

 Hammie really wants to get to that grass on the other side