We started working on potty training Petra yesterday. We thought she was ready last summer, right around the time she turned two, so we bought all the potties and toilet-seat inserts and cute underpants and started making gentle suggestions that all this gear was much more fun and cool than wearing diapers. Of course, she… Read More It’s on!

Yesterday afternoon we made an impromptu trip to our favorite purveyor of electronics and household appliances. Among other things, we picked up a new fever thermometer, as I seemed to have misplaced our old one. Olof, seeming not to grasp that you can use any thermometer more or less anywhere on the body–and fearing, I… Read More Fun with graphics

Every year it amazes me how quickly the daylight comes back, so to speak, after the long, dark winter.  These days, just over a month after the spring equinox, it’s getting light around four in the morning, and not dark until nine o’clock at night.  When we eat dinner at six, it feels like it’s… Read More Seasons change

We’ve got two new toys here, the “network media tank” Popcorn Hour and the latest rage in health and fitness, Wii Fit. Don’t expect us to move away from the television for quite some time.

Olof’s sister just called and told us that Petra had popped over for a visit.  That’s right, she just walked over there all on her own. True, they do live only two houses over, and the largest part of the trip is through the neighbor’s yard, but there are also two streets to cross.  Small,… Read More Guess it’s time to start keeping the door locked.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered this fab little handbag from the the Hunger Site (have you clicked today?). It’s made by women in India from recycled plastic bags, so it’s both durable and eco-friendly, as well as cute as all get-out. It was shipped directly from India, apparently, because the packing material wrapped… Read More Juxtaposition

I do believe it’s safe to say that we’ve finally seen the last of winter, at least for a few months. We’ve had several days in a row now of clear, blue skies, and the snow is receding, if a bit slowly for my taste (we’ve still got a six-foot-high pile of snow in our… Read More Spring comes to northern Sweden