Started painting Ingrid’s fort while Adrian was napping. Almost all of the outside now has a first coat of paint – the inside and the bottom remain to do, plus a second coat. Ingrid picked the colour herself in the hardware store last week – this (fuchsia/magenta?) is her favourite colour.

Playgroup with Adrian. He loved it, as usual. The staff commented on how happy he always is, and I told them, “you should see him at home”. It struck me again what a contrast that is compared to how he is at home with just the two of us. He wants company and action. I on the other hand want peace and quiet at least during some part of the day.

Went to the library with Ingrid after preschool.

Ingrid’s foot was still hurting but much better today. She limps but not as much as before. Still, when we went to town for some urgent gift shopping, she got to sit in a stroller. Luxury. Adrian didn’t like the stroller as much as on Thursday so he spent most of the time in a sling.

Bought a book about working with colour in interiors – we will need to make some decisions about colour in our new rooms pretty soon.

Adrian is happier again; the worst of the teething seems to be behind us for now. He is actually interested in eating again.

I’ve given up trying to get him to sit on my back in a wrap so now I’ve brought out one of the mei tais. This has worked better because he will inevitably end up in a reasonable position even when he fights me while I’m getting him in place. He had a good nap on my back yesterday, and another one today.

Scrubbed the horizontal surfaces of Ingrid’s fort so we can start painting it some day soon.

Did a GTD review for the first time in many weeks.

Ingrid still tottering around, supporting herself on the heel of her left foot. Called the clinic, they said that as long as it isn’t broken there isn’t much they can do, so no point going there.

Lovely weather today, really warm and sunny, so I wanted to get out of the house – both Ingrid and Adrian would be really bored if they had to sit at home all day. I hesitated for a long while, since Ingrid’s not being able to walk properly would make things tricky. But then I dug out the Urban Jungle buggy, and the kiddy board, and we went out anyway. Worked pretty well: both kids alternated sitting in the buggy; when Ingrid rode in the buggy I had Adrian in a sling, and when Adrian rode, Ingrid stood on the kiddy board. Adrian accepted the buggy well enough when he was awake but didn’t like it for falling asleep – it’s forward facing only and he likes to be able to see me.

We went to IKEA since it’s easy to get to, not so crowded on a weekday, reasonably fun for Ingrid, and even marginally useful. Bought a rope ladder (to be hung either from the cherry tree or from Ingrid’s fort), some toy food for Ingrid (ice cream cones and a birthday cake, pretty nicely done), a soap dish, a soap dispenser. Then to a bike shop nearby where we got a basket for Ingrid’s bike. Pink of course.

Brought out a picnic blanket and we all spent some time in the sunny garden when we got home. Ingrid got bored pretty soon and went inside to watch a movie on the iPad; Adrian tasted moss and dry grass.

Adrian is still crying a fair amount because of teething. The two front teeth at the top are on the way, I can see them through the gums but not yet feel them. Gave him paracetamol in the morning and that kept him happy for a good six hours. Now I’m thinking about how much paracetamol is OK in such a situation. If he had a high fever I’d just follow the instructions, 4 times a day until he gets better. But teething? It’s not as major as a high fever, but it makes him unhappy. Once day is OK, even several days in a row. Twice? Getting iffy. Three times – too much in my opinion. Luckily the teething pain comes and goes in about half-hour intervals, so he’s not unhappy all the time and it is possible to actually prepare a dinner and get other such stuff done.

Yesterday: sent Ingrid and my mum off to town, to a puppet show. Today she had J’s birthday party to go to. And Adrian has been taking some of his naps in the bed (!) so Eric and I have had some peaceful hours with just one kid to take care of.

Yesterday I tried two small spoonfuls of sour cream with my waffles (with roe and red onion). That was more milk than Adrian could cope with. Not all-out screaming but still about 15 minutes of crying with distinct signs of stomach discomfort.

Adrian has been generally unhappy this weekend: low-level unhappiness pretty much all the time. He has a runny nose for the n^th week in a row. For two days now he’s been gassy, and pooping a little bit with every fart, so now his bottom looks red and tender. Today he got a slight fever, too. And finally I also discovered he’s getting another tooth. No wonder he’s not content.

Interestingly his 3rd tooth is not one of the incisors, but his top left canine.

A very windy day, it’s been hard to walk straight at times. I’ve been reading in the news now about trees falling and roofs being blown off. We’ve had nothing so severe here. Well, the roof of the bird feeder did blow off, twice, and Adrian was woken from one of his naps when he got a massive blast of wind straight in his face.

I’ve started weaning Adrian off the dummy, for his night sleep at least. Some nights it’s not a problem but other times he wakes every 40 minutes because he loses the damn dummy. So now I’m putting an end to that. Today was the second evening without a dummy and it is working pretty well. He responds well to Tracy Hogg’s “shush pat” approach, and to lullabies. He was most angry with me this evening when I turned him onto his tummy after nursing and then did not give him his dummy – he realized straight away that I was going to repeat yesterday’s routine. But 6 minutes later he was fast asleep, and he hasn’t woken in the two and a half hours since then.

After one of the really nice dinners at the restaurant Rustico in Maspalomas, I realized it had tasted so great because the fish was swimming in a little puddle of melted butter. Oops. I steeled myself for a bout of serious crying from Adrian – and it never came. Looks like a little bit of butter is OK. Perhaps his intolerance is improving.

When we were back home again, I took a deep breath and experimented with a bit of parmesan on my pasta one evening. Still no problem.

So now I’m thinking. If Adrian can tolerate a limited amount of milk protein, what should I eat? What gives me most bang for the buck, so to say? The most taste for the least amount of milk protein? Butter is a good bet I guess, because it’s mostly fat and should not have much protein at all. And it tastes SO much better than the milk-free spread. What else?

Decided yesterday that there will be no more long naps for me together with Adrian, since I came to realize that those naps probably contribute to the bad night sleep. We probably had a vicious circle here: he sleeps badly at night -> both of us tired in the morning -> we take a long nap together -> he gets too much sleep during the day -> he sleeps badly at night. Bye-bye naps. I will probably get less sleep in total but hopefully of a higher quality.

I am also trying to improve the quality of my sleep by not using the computer after 10pm. As you see it is not going very well yet (it is 22:15 already) but I promise I will turn it off after this post.

Instead of napping with him, I managed to get Adrian to sleep in a back carry in a sling – twice! The first time I couldn’t contort myself enough to get a dummy into his mouth so he slept restlessly and woke a bit too early. The second time went better. My previous attempts have failed but this time I tried a different type of back carry (the rucksack carry instead of the wrap cross carry, for the sling geeks among you) and it seemed to work better.

Bought new spring shoes for myself (delightfully comfy Hush Puppies) – the previous pair had a worn-out piece of lining that was giving me blisters.

Decided that I will start taking Omega-3 supplements, and bought some, since there seems to be a consensus among scientists about their usefulness. (I also plan to take vitamin D during the winter months, but have decided to skip it for now.) I still don’t believe in routine consumption of multivitamins since I believe my diet is sufficiently varied already. I’m also already taking calcium while I’m living dairy-free because of Adrian’s allergy, and glucosamine, which in my experience helps me avoid “clicking” joints.

A trip to the supermarket in the morning, Ingrid cycling.

Next, a trip to town, primarily to shop for materials for some Easter crafts. We came home with plastic eggs of two kinds, coloured feathers, egg paint based on food colouring, and assorted other craftsy stuff that I suddenly realized we needed: paint, more narrow paintbrushes, some pre-stretched canvases, etc. On the way to the crafts store we stopped by a bookshop where we bought some children’s books.

Lunch at Pyttirian in Kungshallarna. Ingrid specifically asked for pasta bolognese and then hardly touched it; next time I’m choosing a restaurant based on my taste, and ordering meatless food for her so that I can eat what she leaves. (Now I left the restaurant still hungry – I need almost double servings of most food. No wonder Adrian is growing well.) Adrian happily gnawed on crispbread.

Adrian unhappy and crying a lot. I spent much of the afternoon carrying him around, and ploughing through my backlog of minor newspapers (local papers, Vi i villa, Eesti päevaleht etc). He is sleeping badly again and woke, I think, about once an hour during the night. Already he’s woken three times since he went to bed tonight, about 3 hours ago.

In the afternoon I looked for information about wardrobes, the kind that can be built into a wall. Sliding doors seem to be all the rage but we actually want the old-fashioned sort. The “bodies” will likely come from IKEA but it turns out you can buy doors that fit IKEA wardrobes from other, independent manufacturers.

Ingrid has been complaining so much and so loudly about having to walk, especially the last day or two, that we changed our plans for today. No visit to the beach, no Palmitos Park, we’ll just hang at the hotel again. Eric took a walk with Adrian to see the dunes, though.

Another dinner at the Restaurant Rustico: grilled bacalao. I’m a bit sad that I never got to try their desserts – just like the past two dinners, we’ve taken turns walking around with Adrian, and I’ve hurried back to the hotel to put him to bed as soon as I’ve finished the main course. Even so he’s been crying because it’s past bedtime, and at night he wants to sleep lying in a bed, in the dark, not in the sling.