This month’s big event was of course our ski trip. It was a real gamble – Ingrid had never tried skiing before. She does like sports and snow and winter, and lots of activity in general, but three days of skiing could well have turned out to be too hard, too tiring, too boring, etc. But in the end we both enjoyed it. She did need a bit of pushing to get onto the bigger, slightly scary lifts, but once she was up, she was in her element, and flew down faster than I did.

It was a nice chance for me to spend time with Ingrid without having to share my attention between her and Adrian, which is normally the case when we are at home. Both of us appreciated that. And the same applies to this weekend’s walk around Judarn. Ingrid repeatedly noted that we couldn’t have done these things with Adrian: he would have tired and started complaining and wanted to be carried. So it’s also a chance for her to really feel like a big girl, doing big girl things.

Another big girl thing is that she now walks home on her own from school two or three days a week, on days when she doesn’t have any activities after school. It’s no challenge really, but she find does find it very boring. As usual, she wants company – having to do anything on her own is “almost as boring as just waiting” she said.

She says she likes to talk about her day on our way home, and misses that when I’m not there. By the time she gets home I’m already doing other things and then so does she, and somehow the right time for talking never happens. Our chat and cuddle time at night when she is going to bed is very important to her.

At school they currently study geometry in maths (basic shapes, measuring circumference) and the human body in science. Ingrid particularly likes the metaphor of having the body of a stone age human, with its cravings for sugar and fat.

Marbles season has begun at school. From one day to the next, suddenly every kid was bringing marbles to school. Ingrid is possessive and loss-averse about the marbles she has, and is most satisfied when she has won many and lost none. Then she proudly shows off all the marbles she has won.

She is discovering pop music. Melodifestivalen has been a fixture for the past six Saturday evenings. Favourites: Hello hi by Dolly Style, which is a sugary lolita-style tune; Groupie, which is not about what it sounds like but about taking a groupie instead of a selfie; and Make me la la la, performed by woman who is my age but dressed and styled to look more like a teenager.

Outside of Mello she likes Katy Perry (Roar, Dark Horse, Firework, Hot N Cold) and Ariana Grande (Break free).

I notice her taste in clothing moving towards mainstream tween fashion: tops and skirts more than dresses; plain colours (turquoise, violet, pink) instead of crazy patterns.

Favourite books: comics, Kalle Anka Pocket and Bamse. Wimpy Kid. I am coming to realize that even though she reads with great ease, she is not actually into books. This is totally alien to me and I have a hard time relating. If she wasn’t reading as fluently as she is, I’d have to make her read; now there is luckily no need. She enjoys listening to me or Eric read; I imagine she’ll be consuming audiobooks in her iPhone when she grows up.

Trending expressions: “ace!” (in English), possibly extended to “ace, man!”. Also, detta kan inte vara sant!, “this can’t be true”, for expressing mild disappointment, and vem bryr sig, “who cares”, by which she means “that’s OK, not a problem”.

She recently lost her eighth (I believe) baby tooth that had been loose for what felt like forever: several months I think. The new one doesn’t quite have enough space so it’s growing in a little crooked; I foresee braces in her future.