Pumpkin waffles with maple syrup and whipped cream. Try it; you’ll like it.

After asking me last night if it was okay, Lydia brought her friend, Sandra, home with her after school today. Olof and I had made plans earlier to go to take the kids to town for dinner, but Sandra told me that her mom was going to pick her up around five, so all systems… Read More Earning my “good mother” stripes

Just past six o’clock this morning, Olof and I were wakened by nightmare-induced yelling from Petra, who sleeps in the room next to ours. “No, no, no!” she yelled. “No, Tage! No!” We called out to try to wake her, but when that didn’t work Olof got up and brought her to our bed. I… Read More Mine!

In the fall, Tage will be starting the Swedish equivalent of kindergarten, so he’ll be leaving his pre-school. This was to be expected, obviously, but we’ve encountered a little problem in the fact that he’s the only kid his age at his pre-school, so there won’t be anybody he knows at his “new” school when… Read More Looking ahead

This late stage of pregnancy always gets me to thinking about whether or not this particular pregnancy will be my last.  For the last several years I’ve been saying that four kids was my ideal, and while I still think it’s a nice number, the possibility of there being a number five has been sneaking… Read More Rumination

Seriously, are there any parents who thinks it’s a good thing when restaurants hand out balloons to their kids?  Honestly?

I got a nice surprise when Olof brought in the mail yesterday, a present from my friend, Sue, in Canada. Isn’t it the cutest? (Man, I wish I could knit!)

While he was digging through some old files this afternoon, Olof came up with this picture of himself, taken eight or nine years ago, when he lived in Stockholm. It’s the first picture I ever saw of him, but I hadn’t seen it in so long that I’d nearly forgotten about it. You know, it… Read More Nostalgia

I am 37 weeks pregnant today.  For any of you not up to speed on pregnancy dating, on this magic day I am considered to have reached “full term.”  The baby could, in theory, come any time, and no time — not even an hour from now — would be at all too soon for… Read More Benchmark

Tage’s best friend from pre-school walked home with him this afternoon and she stayed a little while to play. In the midst of all the picture-taking, I felt obliged to dig out my camera as well.