This afternoon Tage and Petra were doing the in-and-out, in-and-out thing through the front door and all the slamming was getting on my last nerve.  Just when I was getting ready to go out and yell at them, I heard Tage come in and call out excitedly to me.  He didn’t even pause to take off his shoes (a must-do in Sweden) before coming to where I was sitting in the office.

“Mom,” he said, “outside I saw an apple that looked like a heart, and I thought that you would like it.”

Because he wanted me to, I ate it all up, even though it was small and too green and very, very sour.  And I did like it.