Yesterday: the spring term started at Ingrid’s dance-and-play group.

This morning I went to the clinic (vårdcentral) in the morning to have someone look at my nose. Turns out that the sore nose, or rather the sore in my nose, was caused by a staph infection, not herpes (cold sores). I’m used to getting cold sores when I have a cold, so I had assumed this was one of them. But after 5 days I thought it wasn’t behaving quite “right”. So now I got a prescription for fucidin cream, and care instructions which are pretty much the opposite to what’s advised for cold sores. (Cold sores: don’t touch, don’t pick; my staph sore: try to get rid of the scab.)

Then a trip to town for a blood test, to check my thyroid function. The local clinic does those as well but apparently they’re not connected to the right IT systems. In order for the results to reach my gynecologist, I need to go to another place. I normally go to the clinic at Odenplan, because it’s closest to where I work, so to make things simple I did the same today. I’m always impressed by how good they are at what they do. They never complain about my veins, which the phlebotomists at Royal London Hospital usually did. Very skilled, very fast.

On my way home, when Adrian woke and wanted to nurse, I stopped at Stockholms Glasshus, which is an upmarket ice cream bar. Ice cream in January felt a bit odd, but it’s the only place I could think of where I would be guaranteed to find space for the stroller at lunchtime.

And even though I bought sorbet (raspberry and blackcurrant), Adrian had one of his screaming interludes about 4 hours later. Quite often at ice cream cafes they use the same spoon for all flavours and just quickly rinse it in a bucket of water inbetween servings. Can that trace amount of dairy ice cream have been enough to cause a reaction?

Totally knackered. By 5pm I felt that it would be nice to call it a day and not do anything more.

We had a busy day yesterday and another one today. Playgroup with Adrian, then a long walk while he napped, and otherwise trying to cope with his bored whining. That came on top of a bad night – Adrian woke to nurse at about 3.15 and then spent the next hour tossing and turning and grunting and almost-sleeping. In the end I picked him up and woke him, and then he got out whatever burp or fart was bother him, and then finally we could go back to sleep.

The same seems to be true for Adrian. He had one decent hour-long nap in the morning, then another one after playgroup. After that one he managed to stay awake for less than an hour and then slept for another 90 minutes. And finally a fourth 40-minute nap at around 6pm.

Adrian still has some lingering tummy troubles because of the goat’s milk I had for breakfast yesterday, and a bad cough, too. Woke me at about a quarter past 5 this morning to feed, and then couldn’t fall asleep again. Both of us tired and off-balance all day. Luckily both of us got a nice long nap in the bed before lunch.

For breakfast I tried goat’s milk in my porridge to see if Adrian tolerates it any better than cow’s milk. By the afternoon it was clear that the answer is no. Bummer.

Ingrid cycled to nursery since the roads were now clear of snow and ice after several days of above-zero temperatures.

Next I went to a local playgroup (öppna förskolan) with Adrian to see if that would alleviate his boredom and crankiness. It was a great hit, just what the doctor ordered. We got there at half past 10, just as they were doing some singing. Ten, maybe 12 mums and babies sitting in a circle on mattresses and blankets on the floor. Adrian sat and stared. When the singing was done, we stayed where we were and he went on looking at the people around him. He was even happy lying on his tummy on the floor, looking at the other babies doing the same, or sitting or crawling if they were a bit older. No older kids were around, since Wednesdays are baby days. Which makes it nice and safe for the little ones. Definitely going back next week again.

In the afternoon we went to the library where I read some books for Ingrid, and borrowed a few.

Brought home one of Ingrid’s friends for the afternoon. Lots of splashing in puddles on the way home. They painted a bit, and then played with sticky tape, putting bits of sticky tape all over themselves.

As always, when we’ve got other kids here, I make an effort to come up with a meal that they will eat. And as always, I fail. I pick something that Ingrid will bolt down, something that doesn’t have any challenging unusual ingredients, isn’t weird in any other way… Every time I think I’ve finally come up with something foolproof, but every time the guest ends up eating only the boiled potatoes on the side, or equivalent. Today I made “veggies on a stick”, grilled veggie skewers, with bell peppers, carrot, apple and zucchini. Ingrid squealed with delight. I mean, what child doesn’t like apples and peppers? Apparently there are such children.

The temperature was above zero again so the snow and ice are melting, the garden path is slippery as hell, and the streets are mostly clear of snow. Great for pushchair walks, so I took a long one. Ingrid went laughing and running and splashing through every puddle she could find on the way home, and said the slippery path was fun.

Some sort of snow-clearing vehicle has run over part of our hedge: the track of a very large wheel ends at a crushed bush.

Adrian pooped twice during the night and was awake for an hour afterwards both times. This becoming a bad habit – he’s had dirty nappies three nights in a row now, and each time it takes an hour for him to fall asleep again.

I had the alarm set for 8 to make sure we can get to the bi-weekly Estonian playgroup by 10. Ingrid was most cooperative all morning so we made it to the train station with time to spare. Playgroup went well; Ingrid is fond of the mums who lead the various activities and happily climbs into their lap when I’m busy nursing Adrian etc. Spare mums, so to say.

The streets in Gamla Stan (Old Town) were perilously slippery. The street leading up to the Estonian School, which is where the playgroup takes place, was the worst one: 10 metres of very steep slope, all covered with ice, and now with melt water running all over it. When I’d gotten most of the way down with the pushchair, at one point I felt that I’d either have to stay there, or slide down on my bottom. No matter where I tried to put my foot for the next step, I couldn’t get a grip. Luckily a couple of tourists were passing at the bottom of the slope, so I could lean forward and hand over the puschair to them. Then toddle up the hill again and help Ingrid get down. (Much easier without a pushchair.) Ingrid fell at least 4 times on the way to the tube station and was all wet by the time we got home.

The process of cooking dinner is becoming farcical. Peel two sweet potatoes. Pick up the toys that Adrian has swept to the floor from the table in front of him. Peel another sweet potato. Nurse, while reading a book for Ingrid. Chop the potatoes. Change nappy. And so on. I used to count with about 45 minutes for a normal dinner, from beginning to end. Now it’s about an hour and a half.

In the evening, Ingrid painted my face. They do face painting at preschool occasionally, and she loves it, so I bought a kit for us to use at home. She likes both to be the painter and to be painted. Today she made me a pumpkin, based on one of the ideas in the brochure that came with the kit. Her version looked way scarier.

Yesterday, after the daily post, I discovered that my ExpressCard card reader has stopped working, probably as a result of upgrading to OSX Snow Leopard. Annoying: I had to use my old SD card reader, which glacially slow, to download photos from the camera. Sent a support request to Belkin; hopefully there is a fix.

Adrian spent a lot of time fussing and whining again. Going out for a walk with the pushchair seems to be the best cure.

We took down the last Christmas decorations. I baked a pie for dinner, with Ingrid helping me make the dough.

Ingrid then went on to make “soup” out of water and flour. And she seemed to like the taste of it, for real. Then she asked me what else she could add. Salt and ketchup were added, and then she thought some physalis would fit nicely.

The usual stuff. Preschool, naps, feeds, supermarket. Plus fredagsmys in the afternoon. Today we had roasted cashews and peanuts, Japanese crackers, and fruit, and Disney animated shorts.

Ingrid did pushups with me, sort of. I don’t think she got the point of them.

Link of the day: Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising.

Morning: took the bus to Vällingby to go to H&M and Lindex, and swap some of the clothes that Adrian got for Christmas to larger sizes. We’re pretty well stocked with the sizes he has now. We liked the gift outfit but thought it would work better for a crawling baby, so I swapped size 68 for size 80 instead, which should work for an almost one-year-old.

Lots of fresh wet heavy snow, almost sleet, coming down all day. Getting around with the pram was HARD. But currently Adrian much prefers the pram to the sling when he is awake, so pram it is, even though it feels like it’s ploughing through the snow.

Two disappointments in Vällingby: Hemköp had no butternut squash (and it is the only supermarket within easy reach for me that normally does have it), and the nursing room is looking dingier and dingier every time. I’ve emailed them, asking them to at least clean up the sofa; we’ll see if anything happens.

When we got home I parked Adrian in the buggy in front of the garden stairs, and spent 10 minutes shovelling snow. Not that it made much difference, since there was a lot more coming down, but I knew I wasn’t going to get another chance until possibly late at night. He seemed to find it at least moderately entertaining since he did not complain even once.

Took the sled with me when fetching Ingrid home; she was happy for a chance to ride instead of walking.

Full chaos in the evening: dinner collided with Adrian’s bedtime again, and at the same time I also had to pick up Ingrid who was playing at a friend’s place. Apparently when I put him to bed for the night, Adrian thought it was just for a nap, so after 20 minutes or so he woke and had trouble getting back to sleep again. I was running up and down the stairs, shushing him and popping in the dummy, while trying to make some sort of meal for myself, and then ran (literally) to pick up Ingrid, and we ran home again, so Adrian wouldn’t have to lie there screaming his head off. In the end I had instant noodles with spinach and an egg for dinner, microwaved since it got cold before I got a chance to eat.

Link of the day: Defective Yeti tries to read Moby Dick. His experience seems to mirror mine, but his comments are much funnier.