A weird thing happened this afternoon. Lydia was over at her cousin’s house, two houses over, and when she came home she told me that two guys on bicycles (teenage boys, from the sound of it) had stopped her as she was walking home and asked her, in Swedish, if she spoke English. She said… Read More Candy from strangers …

The excitement never ends around here! Last night Lydia lost her first tooth, and she was delighted, mostly because she knew it meant money. At first I’d been going to give her 10 crowns (about a dollar), but then I realized there’s been quite a lot of inflation since I was a kid, so I… Read More Kid stuff

We had a bit of an adventure here last night. Lydia was coming out of the downstairs bathroom and Tage was sitting outside the door on the floor. In taking extreme caution not to shut his hand in the door, she herded him to the side and shut the door firmly, not noticing that he… Read More Isn’t it naptime yet?

According to Olof, Night Two of night-weaning went well and Tage slept from 11pm until 8:30am, waking only once. I’m hoping this continues and that we can go back soon to our normal sleeping arrangements. It might be easier to accomplish if we gave him a bottle, but since he’s never had a bottle I… Read More Sunday Morning, 11 A. M.

We’re working on night-weaning the babe, and toward that end Olof slept with him in the movie room last night. I can’t comment on how well it went for them, but it went extremely well for me and I got a good night’s sleep in I can’t remember how long. I’m not sure Olof is… Read More Saturday miscellaneous

I have been a mail-order-shopping fool lately! It’s so nice and easy just to sit here in my comfy chair and leaf through catalogs or browse around online and have it sent straight to my door in a couple of days. I just got done ordering a bunch of clothes and a fall jacket for… Read More Buy, buy, baby

I just heard a couple of hours ago that Anna Lindh died early this morning. Like almost everyone else in Sweden, I’m stunned and reeling. When we went to bed last night she was still in surgery, and we were still clinging to the belief that the stab wounds she sustained yesterday afternoon were “serious… Read More Unbelievable

We picked up the package with Tage’s new clothes yesterday afternoon, and it was a bit of a disappointment. I had ordered him seven pairs of pants and ten shirts, and although we got all the pants, we got only one of the shirts, along with a notification that all the rest were backordered and… Read More On delayed gratification …

I just ordered my new calendar online. I love William Wegman’s photography and have had his wall calendar every year for the past six or seven years. I used to buy it at Barnes and Noble the second or third week in January and get a 75% discount, but this year I decided to buy… Read More Man’s Best Friend

I know that I keep repeating myself, but I just cannot get over this weather! It’s so beautiful and warm out, almost like a second summer after all that rain and chilliness we had. I left for class this morning wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and when I came home an hour ago I changed… Read More Summertime Revisited