There is a lot of anger in Adrian now, and a lot of screaming. He is angry about a lot of things, and he knows it, and he lets it out with a screech. Or he shouts attans! (“darn” or “bother”) at the top of his voice – especially when some Lego construction falls apart. Or he tells me that då ska jag boxa på dig!, “I will box you!” but he is too kind a soul to ever do it.

One thing that is guaranteed to make him angry is if he cannot be first, especially when walking or cycling. It’s not so important for him to be the first one to get dinner or go out through the door – but when we’re cycling and Ingrid passes him he’s screaming with anger.

He cycles a lot on his balance bike and I think we’ve basically left the stroller era behind us. We put the stroller in the basement some weeks ago and haven’t used it since then.

The bike is still half transportation, half game for him. He is no longer going particularly fast. Instead he likes doing tricks on it: pushing off with both feet at the same time (instead of the normal running motion), or freezing his legs mid-stride, or moving his feet in circles as if he was pedalling, or only pushing with one leg. He also likes cycling really really close to the kerb, really challenging fate – but thus far he’s only fallen over the edge once.

The only real challenge is going downhill. The only way to brake on a balance bike is to put your feet on the ground and adjust the pressure so you gradually stop. Too much friction, or more pressure on one foot than the other, and you fall. Adrian has done that a few times (without any real damage) so now we try to avoid the hilly routes.

When there is the least bit of visible damage, like a tiny scab or scrape, he seems convinced that he is badly hurt. He absolutely needs a sticky plaster, and then he won’t use the hand or foot that has the plaster. But if we put a sock on to hide the plaster, the foot becomes usable again.

When he walks, he sometimes likes to step only on the paving stones and not their edges. And then he wants me to do the same and gets angry with me when I break the rules.

He had a rather radical haircut this month. For the umpteenth time this year both he and Ingrid got lice. And the bare mention of shampooing was enough to make him cry with distress: he dislikes it so badly. So we took the easy way out and cut his hair. First he got kind of a normal short haircut, but then he wouldn’t let us comb it for lice so out came the trimmer and Eric trimmed it all off. It is shockingly different from his old look but actually suits him surprisingly well.

He looks particularly sweet when he combines his minimal hair with a dress and his beloved new pink Crocs. He is yet to really discover gender-stereotypical clothing norms and among his favourite clothes are several really girly things that Ingrid has outgrown: a glittery violet Hello Kitty t-shirt, a red dress with white small hearts, and those glittery pink Crocs that he himself picked out at the shoe store. But he also loves his tiger tank top, monster socks and Lightning McQueen t-shirt.

The Crocs he calls Crocsina, with a creative triple plural form: the original English Crocs, plus the Estonian -id to get Crocsid (which is what I call them) and then the Swedish -na on top of it all.

Adrian plays with Lego a lot. Often he builds small, elaborate, spindly vehicles with wheels and sometimes with wings, too. And bridges. And occasionally just abstract things, like a very long blue stick with a window at the end.

He is way better at entertaining himself on his own than Ingrid is. He can just sit with his Lego and build things, talking and singing to himself.

A month ago Adrian gave up his dummy. For the first few weeks he found it a bit hard to go to sleep and said he missed the dummy. By now it’s ancient history, and he never mentions it at all.

Almost always he goes to bed together with Ingrid. And quite often he then falls asleep within minutes the bedtime story is done. He is a bit tired in the mornings and probably needs more sleep, really… but both kids are so much happier if they go to bed together that I don’t even try to get Adrian to sleep earlier.

He’s grumpy in the mornings and doesn’t like to be woken. We are experimenting with ways to distract him and get him away from that habit of grumpiness. Some mornings I read a bit for him before breakfast; other days Ingrid comes in and wakes him; some days we hand him a plate with apple slices before he even gets out of bed because food also seems to help.

Some evenings I help both kids get ready for sleep by talking them through a relaxation exercise. Other days I sing. Adrian is very used to falling asleep to music. When he wants to sleep during a car ride, he asks us to put on some music, and then he goes to sleep to some 1970s pop music from Vinyl 107. But for the past three Thursdays, on our way to Ingrid’s riding lessons, he’s fallen asleep with no music but with a half-eaten sandwich in his hand.

He is interested in what things are made of, and especially which things are breakable. “This bowl is made of glass and if it falls on wood it will break.” (Glass is a broad category that also includes all kinds of ceramics. Also, mugs and cups are glasses.)

He is strong, just like Ingrid. Once his friend Sigrid was here and we had dinner outside. Adrian climbed up over the armrest of the garden sofa without even thinking about it. Sigrid had to make an effort to pull herself up.

Likes:

• Poop jokes
• Pretending he’s a baby
• Wearing pyjamas
• Porridge, strawberry jam and Pauluns juices
• Collecting sticks and stones