The first of this season’s two gardening fairs in Stockholm. The Kista fair is early and relatively small, but it is more than enough to wake up the gardening part of my brain, to inspire and to get the creative juices moving. The fair in Älvsjö is a month from now and massive in comparison.

Today we went to a concert with Helen Sjöholm and Magnus Carlson, and Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester. They sang pop songs, mostly older ones, mostly moody and melancholy – Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, David Bowie etc.

Helen Sjöholm is one of my favourite Swedish artists – I love her voice and the way she sings. I had no idea who Magnus Carlson was (turns out he is quite well known) but Helen Sjöholm on her own would be enough for me.

The concert was nice, but no more than that. I had hoped for something better. I didn’t think the songs they performed really let her shine – the programme seemed to consist of songs that they liked, and that the audience would like, rather than songs that suited her voice and style best. I came there to listen to Helen Sjöholm, but got more enjoyment out of listening to Magnus Carlson.

And, like almost all concerts, the sound was too loud and unbalanced in my opinion.

I understand that most singers need amplification. But a symphonic orchestra should be able to fill a concert hall with sound without any amplification. Now Adrian was holding his hands over his ears and complaining the music was too loud, and I had to agree. It was not quite loud enough to hurt my ears, but definitely louder than I had expected. It had truly never crossed my mind that we would need to bring hearing protectors to a concert with a symphonic orchestra.

Adrian likes music and I had hoped he might actually enjoy this concert. Perhaps not as much as Eric and I, but some. He didn’t get a chance because he was too busy covering his ears.

I also wish the sound technicians prioritized the singers more. The song and the singer’s voice is what it is all about, to me. I want the song to soar, and the orchestra to back and accompany it. Most concerts amplify them to about equal “weight”.

If I was filthy rich and had nothing better to do with my money, I would pay for private concerts with my favourite singers – sound engineered to fit my taste and not to the needs of people with dull or damaged hearing!

No, we do not have chocolate sauce for breakfast on weekdays. But it does happen that the kids put it on their toast on weekend mornings. This photo is from the future, from Saturday.

I’m not even going to write about Legos but of course that is still his main interest.

Every few weeks he stays at home on a Wednesday to rest and play with his Legos. Wednesdays are his least favourite days at preschool because they spend extra time outside in the morning. He doesn’t like the rain clothes he has to wear in the current weather.

Lego Chima, his favourite line of Lego models, has been “retired” and replaced with Lego Nexo Knights. Those are also cool. Coolest of all is Star Wars, though. He hasn’t seen any of the real Star Wars movies, but he liked both the Clone Wars animated series and Lego Star Wars. He doesn’t always find those movies very interesting but they are somehow important to him anyway.

We bought a Lego Yoda figure and that one is now his favourite and gets to join in when he plays with the Chima and Ninjago figures, even though Yoda doesn’t fit the theme. And when the figures all go crazy and swap helmets or legs with each other, Yoda gets to keep his. Yoda is special.

Next after Star Wars and Legos come dinosaurs and sharks. When he needed new socks, ideally he wanted Star Wars socks, or dinosaurs. And his swim trunks have sharks on them of course.

When he tires of Legos and I still have work to do, he listens to music. He can put a song on repeat and listen to it for half an hour. He now has his own Sonos playlist so he has easy access to his favourite songs, which include Samir and Victor and their immortal tunes Bada nakna, Saxo-fucking-fon and Success. Also on the list are last year’s Melodifestivalen winner Heroes and this year’s finalist Kizunguzungu.

The next best thing after that is going out. “We haven’t had any fresh air today,” he tells me, and I cannot but agree. So we take a walk to the supermarket and run a few errands, and come home with renewed energy.

After pre-school of course the iPad beckons, and YouTube. He still plays quite a lot of Best Fiends but not so much Dragon City any more.

Random stuff:
He gets really dry, scaly skin on the backs of his hands this time of the year. It is warm enough outside that he can be without gloves or mittens, but cold enough so the air is dry and no good for the hands, especially when you’re playing with wet cold stuff. And I suspect he wipes his nose with the back of his hands, which makes it even worse. I slather on thick creams and salves every evening and they barely hold the dryness in check, but his skin probably heal fully until spring is here for real.

He really loves apples. “Apple boats” (apples cut into eights, core removed) is his favourite snack between meals. Our supermarket still sells Swedish apples (in March!) which is awesome, and we buy a lot of them.

Swim school is going well. As a side effect he has actually learned to like showers, which is pretty convenient, and he doesn’t even mind getting his hair wet any more.

Playing with Legos, of course.

Sports is taking up more space in Ingrid’s life again. After she quit riding in autumn, she wasn’t getting much exercise apart from sports class at school. Now she does disco dancing on Wednesdays and swims with me on Sundays, and tells me she wants to add another sport.

Perhaps it is a virtuous spiral – doing sports again reminds her how good it can feel, gives her more energy, etc. Or perhaps it’s partly due to me setting a good example by exercising regularly again.

She really enjoys the dancing. It suits her so well: there’s pop music, there’s dancing, there is a group of other kids – and there’s no competitive pressure. She practices at home between classes and talks excitedly about the end of term show they are already planning.

Swimming with me is not quite as much fun as disco but still good. She is taking it more and more seriously, setting goals for herself to swim this many lengths in the time we have.

Sports is one of her favourite subjects at school as well. Really she enjoys them all, but the best ones are sports, arts and woodworking. Theatre or film-making would come out tops if it was a subject.

She talks about making Youtube videos, mostly inspired by the Minecraft videos she watches, and is experimenting a bit with making movies on the Ipad.

Favourite reading materials: Kalle Anka of course; Svenska Dagbladet Junior (a newspaper for kids); Diary of a wimpy kid, fantasy-themed books.

Random stuff:
She doesn’t think she will have any kids, because they take too much time.
She forgets to brush her hair and is careless when she does brush, so every few days I grab her and brush out big tangles. She cares about what she wears but not so much about how she looks.
She organized the apps on her Ipad in colour order; then reorganized them alphabetically.
She has been fasting from sugary snacks during Lent. It’s not so difficult day-to-day but temptations such as cafés (or waffle houses on the ski slopes) make it hard, and she is counting down days to the end of the fast.

My post workout feet.

It bothers me that even though I wear sensible shoes and spend a lot of time barefeet, my feet are shoe-shaped and not foot-shaped.

I never wear shoes for working out, and I am very much the exception. Most people wear full trainers with thick soles and all that; some wear Vibram Five Fingers or something similar, but they all wear shoes. One day I thought that perhaps it wasn’t allowed and that’s why they all wore shoes, so I asked the staff at the front desk if bare feet were OK and they said there was no rule against it. So people like wearing shoes.

The only time I kind of wish my feet were more protected is when doing double kettlebell deadlifts, but when I stop to think I realize that a pair of trainers would make no real difference if I did drop a kettlebell on my toes.

You can also see my new tights! After a few months of Friskis & Svettis I invested in a new pair. I feel very sporty in them. My 20 year old sports bra and tank top are still going strong though!

Some days it feels like real spring is just around the corner. Then it recedes as the weather turns cold and windy again. I hunt for every tiniest sign of it.