Adrian is in a negative phase again, like he was around his birthday in September. It feels like he complains about everything all the time. It feels like I am always hearing “I don’t like doing this”, “I never get to” and “Why do I always have to”. He has no nice way of expressing dissatisfaction, he goes from zero straight to whining. It is tiring to be with him.

Maybe it is because he is tired. He has been saying that he wishes it was weekend all the time and he didn’t have to go to preschool. Perhaps his mood will improve with summer holidays.

And just like in September, he is quite clingy and does not want to be on his own at all. He wants to know what room I am in. When I go out, he must come; when I go in, he must go in. When we are out walking, he walks within two steps of me, ideally holding my hand all the time. When he does let go of my hand, he walks so close to me that I almost step on his feet.

Adrian has become interested in geography. We have been reading Världens djur, a book about animals, as our bedtime story. He likes the animals but also likes to hear about all the different places where they live. (The book is organised by habitat: the polar regions, desert, forest etc.) And while everything in that book is exciting, one of the most important facts about each animal is what part of the world it lives in. And for each place I mention, he asks if we could go there sometime. Can we go to Madagascar? And Antarctica? And the Middle East? And a desert? But maybe not a desert because there are scorpions there.

He also wants to go to a place where we can find dinosaur fossils. And to Japan, where there are ninjas! And robots! (Which we learned from the book of maps, Kartor.)

Pirates are also cool. He loved the pirate-themed sticker book I gave him and worked on it almost daily until it was all done.

He also likes reading about the Earth and its climate, things like earthquakes and tsunamis and hail.

He enjoys consciously breaking clothing rules. Mostly he is quite norm-conscious and usually wears jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt. (He doesn’t think twice about wearing a pink t-shirt, though, or wearing a dress to a party. Because dresses are pretty and comfortable.)

But now and again he comes up with something mildly crazy, such as going to preschool in pyjamas, or walking around at home with no trousers. He is very aware that what he is doing is slightly odd, and that’s what makes it fun.

He now likes baths, and has graduated from the small tub (which he barely fit into) to the large one that Ingrid uses. Well, what he likes is sitting in the bath. He is still not at all fond of actually washing himself. Washing hands is sort of OK, but not when I tell him he has to use soap as well. He also doesn’t like washing his neck and ears or wiping his nose, but he’d rather do it himself than let me scrub him. It’s a good thing he likes having his hair so short – I cannot imagine making him comb his hair every day.