Ingrid in a blanket fort, practising blowing bubbles with gum. Just like when she learned to whistle, she is really set on figuring this out and practises frequently.

We tried to fly a kite. It did not go too well.



Frustration through elation to frustration again.

Ingrid is fascinated with words and expressions right now. She likes using big, complicated words and idioms. Things are not bad, they’re “katastrof!”. Things are not good, they are “fabulous” (yes, in English).

Du har min eviga tacksamhet (“you have my eternal gratitude”), o grymma värld (“oh cruel world”), ingen är den andre lik (“not one like the other”) etc.

Sometimes she gets them wrong, especially with words that sound similar or seem interchangeable. Kan du beslagta den här (instead of ta); godta utmaningen (instead of anta).

She pays attention to idiomatic expressions when we read, and proverbs too – and uses them when she can. Övning ger färdighet. Var sak på sin plats. She doesn’t really live by them, though!

She likes speaking English with a strong fake Swedish accent. She is shockingly good at English.

Picking out a splinter

Speaking of speaking, we’re working on her habit of being negative and contrarian. In conversation she often finds something to disagree with, almost automatically, out of habit. If someone says something that is not 100% factually correct, she feels like she must correct it. And if she disagrees with someone’s opinion, she must express it. It gets really tiresome.

But now she’s working on thinking before talking, which does not come easily to her, and especially thinking about whether it’s worth saying what she’s about to say. What she’s about to say may be correct, but does it actually benefit anybody?

She has discovered and understood the concept of bets. It took her a bit of time to understand what works and what doesn’t, to understand that a bet needs to be balanced and be acceptable to both parties. Now we have a bet going on: she bet me 30 kronor that she can be without sweets for two weeks. She’s on her way to win.

The highlight of Ingrid’s life right now is this weekend’s upcoming scout hike, and then the “spring hike” at the end of May, and then summer camp in August. They’re all overnight hikes/camps and she is excited by them all. Scouting is the perfect activity for her. There are activities, there are other kids, and there are exciting weekend events.

She likes receiving mail, and Kalle Anka day is the best day of the week. And Saturday is best because it’s weekend, and Friday is good as well. But she’s not so fond of Sundays because that means the weekend is almost over. She’s always living in the future, worrying about it or looking forward to it…

In the evenings, she plays Minecraft with her friend M while talking to her on Skype. And at night, after Adrian has gone to bed, she and I have been playing The Room together. We just finished part two, so maybe we’ll find some other game to take its place.

Tindra is NOT among Ingrid’s favourite ponies. She’s a bit of a nibbler in more ways than one: she tends to try and bite when groomed; she likes nibbling on hands and clothes to make contact; she is always stopping to take a bite of grass or a bush or a tree or something while riding in the forest. Ingrid finds the first scary, the second icky, and the third very frustrating.

We bought a Nintendo Wii, and Just Dance. Ingrid has spent several hours dancing today.

Skyping and playing Minecraft together with her friend M.

Ingrid flipping pancakes.

This month’s big event was of course our ski trip. It was a real gamble – Ingrid had never tried skiing before. She does like sports and snow and winter, and lots of activity in general, but three days of skiing could well have turned out to be too hard, too tiring, too boring, etc. But in the end we both enjoyed it. She did need a bit of pushing to get onto the bigger, slightly scary lifts, but once she was up, she was in her element, and flew down faster than I did.

It was a nice chance for me to spend time with Ingrid without having to share my attention between her and Adrian, which is normally the case when we are at home. Both of us appreciated that. And the same applies to this weekend’s walk around Judarn. Ingrid repeatedly noted that we couldn’t have done these things with Adrian: he would have tired and started complaining and wanted to be carried. So it’s also a chance for her to really feel like a big girl, doing big girl things.

Another big girl thing is that she now walks home on her own from school two or three days a week, on days when she doesn’t have any activities after school. It’s no challenge really, but she find does find it very boring. As usual, she wants company – having to do anything on her own is “almost as boring as just waiting” she said.

She says she likes to talk about her day on our way home, and misses that when I’m not there. By the time she gets home I’m already doing other things and then so does she, and somehow the right time for talking never happens. Our chat and cuddle time at night when she is going to bed is very important to her.

At school they currently study geometry in maths (basic shapes, measuring circumference) and the human body in science. Ingrid particularly likes the metaphor of having the body of a stone age human, with its cravings for sugar and fat.

Marbles season has begun at school. From one day to the next, suddenly every kid was bringing marbles to school. Ingrid is possessive and loss-averse about the marbles she has, and is most satisfied when she has won many and lost none. Then she proudly shows off all the marbles she has won.

She is discovering pop music. Melodifestivalen has been a fixture for the past six Saturday evenings. Favourites: Hello hi by Dolly Style, which is a sugary lolita-style tune; Groupie, which is not about what it sounds like but about taking a groupie instead of a selfie; and Make me la la la, performed by woman who is my age but dressed and styled to look more like a teenager.

Outside of Mello she likes Katy Perry (Roar, Dark Horse, Firework, Hot N Cold) and Ariana Grande (Break free).

I notice her taste in clothing moving towards mainstream tween fashion: tops and skirts more than dresses; plain colours (turquoise, violet, pink) instead of crazy patterns.

Favourite books: comics, Kalle Anka Pocket and Bamse. Wimpy Kid. I am coming to realize that even though she reads with great ease, she is not actually into books. This is totally alien to me and I have a hard time relating. If she wasn’t reading as fluently as she is, I’d have to make her read; now there is luckily no need. She enjoys listening to me or Eric read; I imagine she’ll be consuming audiobooks in her iPhone when she grows up.

Trending expressions: “ace!” (in English), possibly extended to “ace, man!”. Also, detta kan inte vara sant!, “this can’t be true”, for expressing mild disappointment, and vem bryr sig, “who cares”, by which she means “that’s OK, not a problem”.

She recently lost her eighth (I believe) baby tooth that had been loose for what felt like forever: several months I think. The new one doesn’t quite have enough space so it’s growing in a little crooked; I foresee braces in her future.

Eric and Adrian were away so it was just Ingrid and me today. We had a lovely sunny spring day so I wanted to get outdoors. We went to Judarskogen, a small nature reserve not far from here. Importantly, it’s reachable by public transport (Eric and Adrian took the car).

There is a lake, much of which was still under ice. In shadier parts that the sun doesn’t reach yet, the ice was more than thick enough to walk on.

Other parts could be broken if attacked sufficiently vigorously.

When we tired of the ice, there were rocks to climb.

We had a picnic lunch at the top of the largest rock we could find.

While we were sitting there, high above the path and the passers-by, we counted people. The ratio of men to women was about two to one.

Spring is here. The ground is neither icy nor soggy any more, and the evenings are light. For the first time this year, today’s riding lesson took place outside, in the woods. The riding school is situated right at the edge of a nature reserve so we all had a nice walk in the woods. Ingrid was tired already when I picked her up at school, so an undemanding walk was just the right thing for today.