The 4th always makes us think about what it means to be an American - Me, by birth. My husband, by choice.

On a day to day basis, we typically don't think about what it really means to be Americans - why it is great to be 'free' and have our independence. However, with all the travel that we do to other countries, I find myself often on the defense for America. In the eyes of many people, especially in Europe, we are misunderstood and typically stereotyped. They don't seem to understand exactly how big, how diverse, and how interesting this country really is. They only know what they see from American foreign policy and TV, typically Fox news and Jerry Springer outtakes. Every trip abroad makes me feel like an ambassador to give people some insight into our amazing country.

Just the shear magnitude of the U.S. is impressive. To give it perspective, we need only to remember that all of Europe is just one time zone - while the mainland U.S. is four, not to mention Alaska and Hawaii. Europeans are amazed that so few of us have passports, but the truth is that we have a massive country filled with forests, desserts, mountains, and plains. We can experience Southern Hospitality, New England history, Western spirit, and everything in between without ever leaving our borders. The fact that we have managed to stay as one country of such diversity that bands together in time of need is, in fact, both impressive and amazing. We should be proud of where we have come in these few hundred years and we should take this day to share our pride with our children.

Guest Blogger: Georgina

As part of my job, I have to stay up on the trends in the juvenile products industry. This is easy for me as the mom of 4 children under the age of 5 as it is a natural part of my other job as "Mom". As any mom knows today, we are all looking at how to "green" our homes, our food, products for our children and well, basically how to make lifestyle changes that will not only be better for us and our children, but better for the planet.

I really started getting into these issues last year with the beginning of the Bisphenol-A controversy and comments from consumers who bought our products due to their great design and sustainability factors, only to evaluate how to take some of our products to the next level. As I started my due diligence I quickly discovered, like anything in the "greening" process, little changes can make a bit impact. From this, the Cariboo Earth Bassinet was conceived.

I started talking with our Cariboo manufacturer about what could be done to make the Cariboo bassinet more eco-friendly than it already was. The bassinet was already hand made from sustainable Radiata pine in a family-run business in New Zealand. So we added a water-based, biodegradable finish, a zero-emissions, formaldehyde free MDF bassinet support board, 100% unbleached cotton bassinet bag and sheet and an organic New Zealand wool bassinet pad. This product was the answer for the parent with a raised sense of eco-consciousness and for those looking for the most natural sleep environment for a newborn. We have been so pleased to offer this product as part of our Cariboo collection and the response from retailers and consumers has been wonderful. In fact, so wonderful that the newest models of ALL the Cariboo bassinets contain 100% cotton sheets and zero-emissions, formaldehyde free MDF bassinet support boards, and several models come with organic wool bassinet pads as well.

We are continuing down this path with all of our product lines, looking for little changes we can make to create products which appeal to parents who are concerned with environmental issues. All of our wooden high chairs are designed for years of use, are made from sustainable woods or from FSC managed sources, and all of our plastic tray covers are Bisphenol-A and phthalate-free. We made sure these chemicals were not part of our plastic components long before all of the current controversy over these chemicals, and we plan to continue down this road making products that are good for families and good for our planet.

I could write books on this topic, so this will definitely just be the first in a series of these going green comments. I would love to hear your comments. If you own any of our products and have ideas about how we can make them "greener" or products you would like to see in our brand collections let us know. Watching the trends and communicating with parents is how we continue to evolve our products and brands and how we will continue to provide families with "designs without compromise."

Today is arguably the biggest holiday of the year in Sweden. We are celebrating the longest day of the year with lots of dancing and 'cheer'. This is when the traditional May Poles are raised and children dance in folk costumes. Where we are, the sun will be up until about 10:30 p.m. and rises at 2 a.m. (and it never really gets dark in between).

Here is what Wikipedia has on Midsummer, with a section on Sweden about ¾ of the way down the page. www.en.wikipedia.org

Happy Midsummer to all!

I visited Svan's new offices in Halmstad last week. As you might expect, the offices are beautiful and functional with space for designing, exhibiting, building, and storing their great products. And it was especially great to meet the growing design team.

While the offices with their clean Swedish furniture and natural wood floors were very nice, my favorite part is always the workshop. We spent some time in the design area looking at the new products that are in development ... and there are many! You will see a number of new Anka and Svan products roll out over the coming year.

Unfortunately, I can't reveal any at the moment other than the Svan Crib that we previewed at ICFF. Here is a quick photo of the crib and some of its configurations. It is beautiful, but will not be on the market until sometime next year.

Also, so you can put a face with the name, here is a picture of Kjell  the chief designer at Svan and a few people from the design team. (He's the first one on the left.) Sorry it's fuzzy, I took it with my phone.

Greetings from Sweden! We are on our annual pilgrimage to our 'homeland' of Sweden. (Background: In case you did not know, Christer was born in Sweden and I am of 100% Swedish heritage.) We come here every year with two objectives in mind: first, for our children to experience Sweden in the summer and work on their language exposure and second, to meet with some of our manufacturers - mostly Svan and Vincent.

The idea behind SCI originally was that I would spend leisure time on these annual visits to Sweden, casually perusing stores to find little Scandinavian gems to include in the SCI collection. Business doesn't always go as planned and I have yet to really do this - we are too busy with the products that come to us directly.

But on this visit, I took a quick trip down to France to meet with a company that we hope to add to our collection later this year. I can not reveal details yet, but it is a good product range that supports a healthy and safe lifestyle with children. Well-worth the trip down there, especially the delicious croissants and other pastries!

More in the coming months...

We had a huge layover in Atlanta on our way to Sweden seven hours, with two small children. This would normally be the worst stumbling block you could have on such a long trip with children. So, I have to take some credit here for a small stroke of genius. Instead of sitting around with two restless children in an airport, we decided to hop on the train into downtown Atlanta and go to the world-famous Georgia Aquarium.

World-famous, for good reason! The aquarium was absolutely amazing. The kids had so much fun, and so did we. We all petted sharks, skates, and starfish. Okay, Kelly was too scared to pet the starfish but spent a long time with the sea anemones and learning how to say 'sea anemone' (pronounced an-m-n-e) from a very skilled student guide. We enjoyed a 6 MILLION gallon 'fish tank' containing thousands of fish, including huge speckled Whale Sharks, Bowmouth Guitarfish, Great Hammerhead Sharks, and so much more.

We saw the most amazing Leafy Sea Dragon, which seems to be a relation to the sea horse. It looks like a branch of leaves and is truly amazing to see. They also had penguins, otters, and much more. It took us about three hours to tour the entire place and see their 4-D movie, but we could have stayed there for another hour or two. If you are ever flying through Atlanta, you might consider a forced long layover. Seven hours was just perfect for the trains in and out, plus the three hours at the aquarium.

Best of all, the kids had a great time, then fell fast asleep as soon as the overnight flight to Sweden left the ground, sleeping through the entire flight. I am sure the nearby passengers were as happy as we were. Well planned, Mom!

What can I say about Father's Day? It is always a special day in our house because Kelly and Anton have an extra special father. Lucky us!

I think his dad must have set a great example, or there is something special about Swedish men (I am partial to them, you know). But I do believe Christer is one of the best dads and husbands in the world.

He is so loving with the kids and really looks forward to every moment he has with them. He is often up early making his Swedish pancakes that we all love, or rushing home from work to grill up a special dinner (yes, we love our family meals at the Berg house).

I just want to take this moment to thank him publicly for being such a special father and husband. Thank you, love!

And I hope you, too, have a wonderful Father's Day being celebrated or celebrating the one you love.

I know that genetics are set from the moment the embryo starts to emerge and grow, but parents usually don't see beyond the color of their baby's eyes and hair for the first several months. When my daughter Audrey turned two it was if she was touched on the head by Tinkerbell in the middle of the night and turned into a fairy princess. Now mind you, she did not live in a world of rainbows and unicorns, no she was growing up with an older brother fascinated by dinosaurs, pirates and dragons and a twin brother who loved Thomas the Tank Engine and monkeys, there was barely a doll or anything girly in the house, yet somehow she gravitated toward anything "princess". So we indulged, and rode the slippery slope to Disney "Princessland" and now, well let's just say I have my final proof that she is in fact a princess and yes, it was hardwired from birth.

I was showering the other day and Audrey came into the bathroom singing as if she was a princess from a Disney movie (it actually made me think of that scene from the movie Enchanted where the birds bring the towel to the princess as she steps from the shower). As I laughingly asked her if she had slept well, she continued singing her answers. Now mind you, she not only did she have on her Cinderella night gown, but she had adorned it with a Cinderella costume, a tiara and some other baubles. Which mind you, she puts this on upon waking almost every day and I have to enter into significant negotiations to have the princess garb removed for meals, outings and bike rides.

Audrey hosts tea parties and has her older brother accompany her to "the royal ball". She wears her "glass slippers" and dances "ballet". She loves shoes and jewelry and comments on "how lovely" someone looks. She cannot wait until her baby sister Sophia can join her to play "princess", and I am sure it will be as soon as Sophia can stand on her own. At ten months Sophia already gravitates toward anything with sparkles, beads, taffeta or pink. You see, she too is hardwired with the same "princess" genes. I am sure as soon as she can talk and sing I will be getting the Disney princess serenade in stereo. "Priceless" doesn't even begin to describe this.

** Brenda will be traveling for most of June so we are pleased to introduce Georgina Mollick to you all. Georgina is a product development/merchandising guru for Scandinavian Child and is the mother to four beautiful children.**

So how do I begin. . . Brenda and I have known each other for almost 8 years now. When we first met we were next door neighbors, and we quickly became good friends. We were at a similar stage in life, busy career women, just married and ready to start families. Brenda got a jump start on me, she delivered her first baby and started Scandinavian Child (yes - she gave birth to both her business and her first born on the same day) while I was working as a contract negotiator for a Fortune 250 Company. I loved watching her nurture and grow her business the way we were both nurturing our marriages and children (within 8 months of Brenda giving birth to Kelly I delivered my first, Max). I admired her ability to take the leap and do what she really wanted to do - bring great children's products from other countries to North America.

Time progressed and our families grew. Brenda was expecting Anton about the same time that I was expecting my twins (this is definitely the subject of a separate blog). Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately now that I have the benefit of hindsight - I was laid off from my job with the Fortune 250 Company at the same time Brenda needed some additional help with the company and thus, my entrée to Scandinavian Child began. Now, perhaps I need to fill in part of the story here. My background as a business attorney, who had spent the last several years specializing in intellectual property and business contracts didn't seem like a natural fit, but somehow it worked and I now do things that I never pictured myself doing from sales and marketing to product development in the juvenile products industry.

So let's get back to the babies. One boy born about 8 months after Brenda's first, a boy and a girl born a month and half before her second and progressing forward in time, a pleasant surprise baby girl born this past August. So by the time my youngest, Sophia was born, I had 4 children aged 4 and under. I was so pleased when Max turned 5 because the strange looks I got weren't quite as shocked as they had been when I had 4 children under the age of 4. (I feel that look on your face as you read this right now, don't worry, I'm used to it by now). At any rate, you get the picture, I'm a busy working mom with lots of young kids, a few more grey hairs and a few less hours of sleep than I deserve. However, despite the roller coaster I ride on daily, I wouldn't trade it for the world. There is nothing like your child's smile, hug or little voice and any mother knows just what I am speaking of, and I am fortunate enough to get to multiply this by four.

I don't claim to be "Super Mom" - just a mom with more than my fair share. So stay tuned for what will hopefully be a few gems of wisdom, interesting stories and hopefully something to encourage those who are doing the same job I am - the most important job in the world - being the best parent possible to their amazing and wonderful children.

I am often asked to write about the 'green' phenomenon and what my company does to be green. One part of our eco-friendly philosophy that seems to stump people is my firm belief that simply buying quality, multi-purpose products is the best way to be green, regardless of the materials a product may be made from.

For some reason, this message seems to get lost amongst all the talk about chemicals, sustainable materials, the definition of organic, etc. But what is more basic than buying one all-in-one product instead of two or three individual products? Or buying a product that is of high enough quality that it will be handed over to another user rather than tossed in the garbage?

This was the fundamental philosophy behind the Svan Chair (use as a high chair and as a booster seat) and it continues to be a feature throughout our collection.

Don't get me wrong, we always strive to carry products made from the most environmentally and child-friendly materials and processes possible, but shouldn't we give a 'hats off' to all the products that collectively cost less and create less trash than their single-use counterparts?

Just something to think about  it is a simple way to be green and save money as well!