Adrian in a bath, playing with a sieve – giving himself showers with it and trying to drink from it.

A Pokemon catching more Pokemons.

Nothing brings the kids together like inspecting, inventorying or evolving pokemons.

Best right now:

• Melodifestivalen and Sweden’s youngest master chef on TV
• Harry Potter, still
• Pokemons, still

Doing a lot of:

• Qixels. Sort of like perler beads, but instead of ironing them together, you brush them with water and they sort of melt together, so Adrian can do it all on his own. Plus, there is a 3D version which involves a “gadget” to make the layers align with each other, which is extra interesting.
• Reading. I brought more books from the library, but most “easy reading” books are frankly quite childish and boring, so Adrian has pretty much left those behind already. He’s now reading Maximus ring from the fantasy series Legenden om Örnfolket (“The legend of the Eagle People”), which has got some proper adventure in it.
• Talking. Especially at meal times. He can spend an hour “eating” dinner. Everybody else is long since done, we’ve cleaned up most of the kitchen, and he’s still at it.

Worst things ever:

• That there are no fun, cheap Lego sets to be found in the stores. The ones he likes are in the 1000+ krona range, which, I tell him, are OK for birthdays and Christmas but not for just buying.
• Having to shower. And then, once he’s actually in the shower, he can stay there for ages, playing with a wet washcloth and talking to himself.
• That he never gets any interesting letters or magazines like the rest of the family. But he’s not particularly interested in any of the magazines Ingrid gets. It’s the concept of getting mail that’s enticing.

When Adrian was in the shower today, he shouted to me – “won’t you take any pictures today?”

Any activity instantly becomes more interesting when he gets an audience.

The dance studio at Brommaplan has no wifi, so Adrian had to come up with an alternative activity while Ingrid is dancing. The place also has no sofas, and no comfortable chairs and tables – I don’t know what they expect parents to do. Fiddle with their phones, I guess, which is what most people do nowadays to make time pass.

Anyway, the one thing they have is a handful of foam squares with interlocking edges. They’re meant to be used as a kind of play mat, I believe, but with careful assembly they could also be coaxed into upright structures.

Adrian bought Qixels for his allowance some weeks ago. Now he wanted more, so all of his savings (plus some extra from me) went towards 3D Qixels and a device for building 3D models.

A fruit and a comic book: perfect afternoon relaxation.

Every time I tell Adrian that he needs to take a shower, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth. “Do I have to? But I don’t want to! Can you sit near the bathroom so I have some company?”

And as soon as he is in the shower, it’s like a switch is thrown. A trickle of warm water and a washcloth and his own company keep him entertained for a long time. He sits on the heated floor and plays and just sort of talks to himself. Not an awful lot of actual showering goes on in there, I suspect, but he does get some water on all body parts, and the bottom gets a nice long soaking.

We went skating.

Adrian is now often the one who first proposes we go skating. Last winter he wouldn’t even try – and now he loves it.

They have outings at school every Thursday, and this week’s outing was a trip to the skating field. Even though the kids got no actual instruction, just skated around, he must have gotten lots of practice – he is so much faster and more confident on the ice than he was last time we were here. Last time he was mostly stepping on his skates; now he is actually gliding.

Those cute penguin skates are Ingrid’s and not Adrian’s. She loves all things cute, and these penguins are just awesome.