The school week ends with an Estonian lesson for both Ingrid and Adrian. (It’s just them and one more kid, so it’s almost like a private lesson.) They sometimes grumble about having to do it, but I keep insisting. Currently they don’t seem to mind it too much. Still, they’re happy when the lesson ends, and the school day and school week with it, and they can go home and look forward to movie night.

Usually they walk home together after the lesson, because it’s the one day when they both finish at the same time. The lesson ends at four, which is late enough so there is no point in going to after school care (for Adrian) or The Club (for Ingrid) but nevertheless so early that I usually cannot be there in time to pick them up. Today was an exception since I was working from home.

Adrian still loves reading Bamse. Every morning, as soon as he is dressed and has come downstairs, he grabs a binder of old issues of Bamse comics and sets it on the kitchen table, before he goes looking for breakfast. Like a morning paper. In the evenings he’s been reading LasseMaja books (detective stories).

He enjoys watching Ingrid play Overwatch, and plays a bit himself. His fine motor skills and reaction speed are nowhere near Ingrid’s, so he stays in the training arena and skirmish mode or whatever it’s called, rather than playing against other human players. The best part is opening loot boxes, though.

Legos are, amazingly, losing their charm. It’s been a while since he built with them, or even spoke longingly of getting new models. Recently he’s been building with Plus Plus instead.

He likes comfy, soft hoodies and knitted sweaters. All other clothes are simply something to wear and he just grabs one from his chest of drawers, but the hoodies are important.

He has his winter hairdo, which simply means no haircuts, because it’s warmer this way. His hair passed a phase when it looked simply overgrown, and is now more wild, which actually looks kind of better to me. Or maybe I’m just getting used to it.

He has dry, rough skin during the cold, dry season and I put on lotion on his arms etc every other evening. The arms are easy, actually, but he also needs lotion on the backs of his thighs, and around his stomach and waist – sensitive areas where he is both a bit ticklish and really feels the coldness of my hands. It always leads to a lot of wriggling and squealing laughter.

First swimming lesson for this term. Adrian is super pleased that he has the same great teacher as last term. With her, he feels safe and confident and has fun, so he learns a lot.

Playing a new board game. A new variety of Carcassonne, with lots of new rules to learn.

I was supposed to take this week off, but the project I am working on has a very tight deadline and the only other developer working on it will be away on vacation for a week very soon, so I need to get caught up fast.

The kids were supposed to stay at home with Eric, but he also had a meeting to attend in the office this morning, so they came with me.

It was supposed to be a short and easy day – a quick train ride there, half a day of work, train back home. But there were massive disruptions in train traffic so instead of the usual 40 minutes it took us an hour and a half to get to the office. Wait for the train, give up, catch a bus, and then two subway lines.

The kids were pretty tired before we even got to the office.

He likes the bathing part but not the hair washing, as he reminds me every time.

Ingrid is knitting a scarf and I am making another attempt at the cardigan that failed a few years ago. So Adrian decided to try out knitting as well.

It is hard, because he doesn’t really understand how it works, how the yarn accumulates and makes up the knitting. So he is following rules but doesn’t understand why they work. It’s like when he was learning to tie simple overhand knots – he understood that the ends of the rope must cross each other and then one must come through, but it took him a good while to understand that the ends were not equal, that it mattered which one to bring through – that one makes a knot and the other has no effect.

Ingrid on the other hand actually understands knitting now. She can see if things look right or wrong. She knows which way to continue if she puts her work down in the middle of a row. She can notice a slipped stitch and even pick one up.

The annual Making of Lussebullar.

Eric enjoys making and kneading the dough.

Ingrid enjoys tasting the dough…

… and making plaited buns.

Adrian got the knack this year of rolling the dough “worms” that you need for making the traditional lussebulle shapes.

Plenty of buns were produced. Since we’re making them quite close to Christmas this year, and generally eating less sweet stuff than we used to, there’s no risk we’ll run out early.

Current favourite book series: Captain Underpants.

His English skills (mostly passive) have apparently advanced in leaps and bounds. Today he looked at a book I was reading and read the title out loud, pronouncing it better than most adult Swedes. (Zero Repeat Forever)

Current favourite franchises: most things related to Minecraft or Overwatch. He plays both games, but not much. Mostly he just likes the concepts and themes. He watches Ingrid play Overwatch, beads and draws Overwatch figures, reads books about Minecraft etc.

He likes hoodies.
He does not like haircuts, or washing his hair.

Making Christmas cards for friends and family. Last minute, as usual.