The sun is low enough in the mornings for candlelit breakfasts to make sense.

Adrian loves chocolate cake, and he loves raspberries, so for his birthday he wished for a chocolate and raspberry cake. We found a recipe for a fancy multi-layered chocolate cake with raspberry mousse. It took Eric and Adrian half the day to make it. Totally worth it, in my opinion: it was delicious.

The air fryer; Happy Socks with food motifs; a scout knife; Japanese sweets.

Birthday coming up tomorrow.

That giant, IKEA-wrapped gift at the bottom is an air fryer. Adrian and Eric both like kitchen machines – pasta maker, ice cream machine, dough kneader… Adrian has been talking about an air fryer for months now. I think it’s due to all the ads on YouTube. It’s a bit of an odd birthday present for an 11-year-old, and really a present to the whole family rather than just him, but I know for sure that he’s the one who’s going to be most excited about it.

All set up for Adrian’s remote parent-teacher meeting.

Remote meetings for everything feel so normal now. The other day I participated remotely in a meeting between Ingrid and her orthodontist. I’m sure schools will go back to IRL, face-to-face meetings. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that.

Årsjön and Bylsjön both had gangs of ducks who were all very used to being near people. They were pretty obviously expecting to be fed. After we washed up our breakfast dishes in the lake, some snacked on our porridge scrapings.

Adrian and I went on an overnight mini hike to Tyresta (Årsjön). This late in the season, the camping area wasn’t crowded at all. The trails on the other hand were full of people, 80% of whom seemed to be carrying baskets for picking mushrooms. Seems to be this year’s hot thing.

After a last-minute realization that Adrian’s feet have outgrown not just his everyday sneakers but also his gym shoes, and he has gym class tomorrow, we went shopping again.

Urgent shoe shopping for Adrian today. His old shoes (on the right, in case there is any uncertainty about that) are about two sizes too small and falling apart. Apparently he now has size 38 – the same as Ingrid who is 4 years older.

It’s an awkward combination of size and age. He’s ten going on eleven – still very much a kid. His tastes and habits are those of a kid. He needs durable shoes with flexible soles, made for running and playing – and for easy access. Especially at school they’re putting their shoes on and taking them off again all the time. He’s got no patience for tying laces. His shoes need velcro closure or some kind of elastic solution. Otherwise, as experience has shown, he simply leaves them so loosely tied that he can slip them on and off without doing anything. Which doesn’t exactly make for good fit.

There are “junior” shoes that go all the way up to size 38, but few go beyond that. Men’s shoes on the other hand mostly start at size 40. I’m not sure what is supposed to fill that gap or what we’ll do when he outgrows this pair. I don’t expect him to like laces much better in a year’s time.

Two guys, four screens.

Both are playing Genshin Impact. Adrian is supplementing the game with music on YouTube, Eric is looking up something or other.