Compared to last month, the flood of inte! (“not!”) has abated somewhat, although we still hear it quite a lot. Adrian can say Inte äta pannkakor! Jaaa! Pannkakor! in one breath. (“Not eat pancakes! YES! Pancakes!”). It seems like a reflex.

But in general he definitely is more positively disposed towards the word. He has learned to both nod and say Jaa! to agree with things. But he doesn’t always remember that option, so generally I interpret silence as assent, and I am usually right.

He can also say tycka om det (“[I] like this”) and uses it widely, for example tycka om det banan and tycka om det tiss (about bananas and boobs) and about Pippi, favourite books etc.

He constructs more complex sentences now, with more component parts. Jag vill inte äta, and också gå ut. In particular he’s learned to make sentences that describe what he is doing: jag sitter här, jag klättrar här, etc. He also comments on what others do: Ingrid ledsen (“Ingrid sad”) or pappa bakar (“pappa is baking”, when he felt the smell of freshly baked bread in the house) or tädi jookseb.

He asks questions. Probably the most common one is nonu gör?, “man doing?” (mixing Estonian and Swedish) which means “what is that man doing?”. Another frequent one is var är emme?, “where is emme?”. That one has now also developed into a primitive hide-and-seek: he crawls under the kitchen table and suggests that I ask “where is Adrian?”. I do that a few times and then he bursts out, här är Adrian!

He makes jokes. He points at my breast and tells me he will eat it; he points at a glass/my skirt/a fork/a pen and says “sandwich!” and laughs. He likes me to make the same kind of jokes – to call things with the wrong name, to joke about eating obviously non-edible things.

Speaking of eating, he has had some major eating phases this month, putting away 6 potatoes for dinner, or 4 large pancakes – more than what Ingrid eats. As usual, his appetite waxes and wanes, and some days he eats close to nothing. His is still quite conservative when it comes to food and will especially not touch any unknown vegetables, or any food where things are mixed together, such as casseroles or soups (apart from porridge). Although there was one week when he tested a fruit smoothie, and some soup, and a piece of roasted parsnip, and a bit of persimmon. There is hope for him yet, I guess.

Adrian is still very fond of music and often asks me or Eric to sing for him. He himself sings, too, and knows large chunks of many songs by heart – and sings them clearly enough that I can recognize the melody. He has definite favourites and often asks for specific songs – and vice versa, often asks me to skip other songs that I try to sing for him. All the Pippi songs are his absolute favourites: above all the main Pippi theme song but also Mors lilla lathund and Sjörövar-Fabbe. That last one we have on a CD, and that song has been playing for what feels like hours every day recently. Nevertheless the Pippi theme song is best of them all. He asks for it when he is bored, he asks for it when I change his nappy, he asks for it as a lullaby.

Because of Pippi he also likes pirates (because in one movie Pippi goes on a trip to rescue her father from pirates). Anything with a skull he calls a pirate (such as other kids’ socks and rubber boots). Likewise any man with a bushy beard is a pirate, such as the guy on the Turkish yogurt pots (who, by the way, is in fact a Greek).

Another favourite song is “Tingelingelinge tåget far”. This is a song where, at a specific place, you insert the name of a person – usually when singing for a child you use the child’s name. We (meaning I) sing it in endless variations: for each family member, for Adrian’s friends and for Ingrid’s friends, and so on. He also likes “Trollmor”, “Gumman i lådan”, “Jag hamrar och spikar”, “Lille katt” and many others.

He likes “bouncing” songs that involve me bouncing him on my knees – “Sõit, sõit linna” and “Prästens lilla kråka”. Ingrid has also rediscovered the joy of these songs and sometimes I end up bouncing both on my knees at the same time.

As for toys, he plays with the Brio train set quite often. He doesn’t usually build any tracks himself but will happily push his trains along when someone else puts down the tracks. But he can also play with the trains and other pieces on their own, without any tracks.

And sometimes he takes the two large crates of trains, tracks and accessories, happily exclaims jättemycket! (“a lot!”) and pours it all out on the floor. He seems to get some special sort of satisfaction out of that, and has tried the same with my sewing stuff (both my dressmakers’ pins, and my box of spare buttons).

He also plays with toy food, especially while I am preparing dinner, and often offers me food that he has “cooked”. Sometimes he offers me an empty pot, or even an empty hand, and says it’s sweetcorn (or whatever) – he can pretend that nothing is something, which I think is pretty advanced.

He can cut with scissors, with some effort. The kids’ scissors we have are a bit stiff so he needs to use both hands to open them, but can then close them using the proper grip. But I have to hold whatever he is cutting, because he can’t manage both. First he cut some ribbon, then he cut some paper; then he went around and wanted to cut just about everything (his trousers, a door handle, my thimble, and so on). So he only gets to use scissors under very close supervision.

He likes trains, and train rides to town. I don’t know which part he really likes most – the physical train or the fact that we’re taking the train. Or both. In any case he is really happy when we say we’re going on the train, and ecstatically shouts out “TRAIN!” when the train arrives at the platform.