Here she is, at about 18 weeks, relaxing in my tummy.

The Swedepina Posse will soon be three members strong.

After a series of blood tests, ultrasounds and even an amniocentesis, we can officially say we're having another girl.

Andreas is thrilled with the idea of being the father of three daughters. No, really, he actually is thrilled.

The girls, who "asked" us for a sister after finding out I was pregnant, couldn't be happier, too. Obsessed with the movie "Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses," they tell me we need just nine more girls now.

Me? It's no secret I hoped for a boy, a little Andreas. But in all honesty — and after all those above-mentioned, nerve-wracking tests — I'm just happy baby has all her fingers and toes, and is as healthy as can be.

I already love her so much and I can't wait to meet her.

And as my 5-year-old told me today after school: "Maybe the next one will be a boy."

Baby Arvman resting comfortably at almost 10 weeks. Baby is 12 weeks today. Yay!

What better place than our family blog to announce our growing family?

Andreas and I are so excited to finally share our happy news: I'm three months pregnant with Baby Arvman No. 3, due in August.

I found out early Christmas morning, when I took a pregnancy test. I wrapped up the pee stick and stuck it under the Christmas tree for Andreas. We've been celebrating ever since.

And now we want to celebrate with the rest of our family and friends.

Baby is healthy. Mommy is happy. Pregnancy is awesome.

Farfar and Farmor have the sweetest dog, Fanny, who our 4-year-old absolutely adores. One morning we saw our daughter reading a story to her. It was cute.

Racing around a park on her cousin's pedal-powered car.

Waiting for lunch at the Universeum. You can see that it was rainy outside. The nature and science center was a great place to spend a cloudy day.

I love reading all sorts of magazines. Here's a sampling of some Swedish ones.

I was happy to see they have Cheerios in Sweden.

Nordstan is a big mall in Gothenburg. It reminded me of Pearlridge Center.

One of my favorite purchases in Sweden: A blush-colored bag from H&M. Love!

When I returned to work after our vacation, I made sure to bring back some Swedish cookies in three yummy flavors: blueberry/vanilla, lemon/lime and chocolate.

P.S. You can check out all our Swedish posts, including last year's entries, in our blog's "Sweden" category.

We raced rubber duckies down a canal. We checked out boats at the docks. We exhausted ourselves at a playground.

It was a perfect, relaxing end to our Swedish summer.

A visit to Gothenburg would not be complete without a stop at IKEA — founded in Sweden in 1943. I've blogged about our trips there in the past; this was our third annual visit. Spending a kid-free day at the famous furniture superstore has become a relaxing "Date Day" tradition for me and Andreas, a chance to imagine our dream home and, of course, enjoy the yummy fare at IKEA's budget-friendly restaurant.

We went on a stormy day, so it was a nice way to spend a couple hours indoors.

First stop: Food. Andreas had Swedish meatballs and prinsesstårta (top), or princess cake — a cream-filled almond pastry. I had fläskfilé, or pork filet, and a slice of chocolate pie.

I always love a place with spacious, family-friendly restrooms.

Checking out their creative kiddie rooms is a must for us.

I couldn't resist buying these plush veggie and fruit baskets for my girls.

Andreas checking out the artwork. One of these days I'll actually buy that Swedish A-Z poster.

Our dream living room.

I love the idea of a humongous flat-screen TV right by the dining table.

We couldn't leave without buying a box of princess cakes ...

 

... or a bag of moose-shaped pasta.

Universeum's website says that its mission is to "positively affect children and young people's attitudes to science, technology and mathematics by experiences that create curiosity, increased understanding, confidence in the future and desire to move on to studies and careers in these fields."

Judging by how much fun our daughters had exploring, learning and playing throughout the museum, I'd say Universeum is doing a fine job meeting its mission.

Here are a few highlights from our excursion. (And apologies for the grainy photos, which were taken with my phone.)

Andreas with our (rain-covered) girls.

The section called "Water's Way" is a living model of the Swedish countryside, from north to south, and includes frogs, fish and birds.

"Deadly Beauties" houses cobras, mambas, monitor lizards and many other venomous animals from all over the world.

Our 3-year-old takes a break to study the Universeum map.

The "Aquatic Hall" has a Ray Tank, North Sea Aquarium and Ocean Tank with rays, corals and hundreds of fish.

Universeum's sharks are probably its most popular attractions.

The "Rainforest" is a living model of a South American rainforest where monkeys (like this one), birds and butterflies live free.

I thought this caiman was a little cutie.

In "Kaleido," kids can go on a space adventure among the stars and a space station, or go on a crime scene investigation. Our little one looked a little too happy to be in the back of a police car.

On Saturday, we celebrated Andreas' nephew's 4th birthday with a fun costume/masquerade party. A few days before the party, we went to the city to shop for costumes. We found a cute toy store called BR that sold Disney character get-ups. Our oldest opted for Sleeping Beauty and our youngest chose Tinkerbell.

Playing games at their cousin's birthday party.

On Sunday, we rode a train from Gothenburg to a town called Vänersborg to visit the girls' great-grandmother and to celebrate her 94th birthday. Vänersborg, an hour north of Gothenburg, is the town where Andreas grew up. After the train ride, we took a 20-minute walk from the station in Vänersborg to Andreas' aunt's house, where the family got together for a lunch celebration.

It's a quaint and quiet town, perfect for young families. Along the way, Andreas gave me a tour of his old stomping grounds, pointing out the music school where he learned how to play the piano as a child, the dentist's office where he got braces as a teen and the nightclub where he spent many drunken weekends as a college kid.

I took some pictures as we made our way from the train station in Gothenburg to his aunt's home in Vänersborg.

For the next several days, our home away from home will be Andreas' parents' place in an area called Sannegårdshamnen. Their home is a nice stroll away from a marina, with sweeping views of some of the city's oldest buildings across the harbor. The air here is crisp and seagulls are always squawking in the distance.

It's a lovely second home for us.