Olof and Lydia are upstairs assembling her new closet.  Her bedroom is directly above the office, and I can hear the muted sounds of them moving around up there, stepping this way and that and sliding the closet components against one another as they put them in place. Tage and  Petra are in the next… Read More Lull

Yesterday Lydia’s class embarked on their class trip, a sort of rite of passage for Swedish kids at the end of elementary school, junior high, and high school.  Apparently when they’re older, the kids often go abroad–at least they did when Olof was a kid, and he’s my only point of reference about this;  things… Read More Two went out, two came back

What’s that saying, again?  Pride goeth before a fall?  Um, yeah. So we went to Tage’s end-of-year barbecue at his school this evening and Petra totally peed her pants.  Like, soaked them.  It was only the extra pants in Tage’s cubby that saved us having either to leave embarrassingly early or to let our kid… Read More Humble pie

I was saying to Helena last night that I’m such a master at potty-training kids that I should write a book about it and make millions of dollars.  Too bad it would take only about half a page;  don’t guess anyone’d be lining up to give me a book contract for that. My loss is… Read More Every mommy blog needs at least one in-depth potty-training post.

Lydia’s been after me for a year or more to buy a closet for her room–free-standing, rather than built-in, being the norm here for closets–and last week I finally found one that we both agreed would suit her needs.  After a protracted period of emailing back and forth with the seller and nagging at my… Read More On to Plan B

We were getting ready to go to bed last night, and after Petra went pee, she took her Winnie the Pooh toilet-seat insert away and set it aside so I could go.  “You don’t fit on this,” she told me. “No,” I said, “that’s for little girls.” “It’s for little girls,” she agreed, then asked,… Read More Train of thought

I mentioned a few posts back that Lydia will be starting junior high next year, and I’ve gotten a few questions about what junior high looks like in Sweden.  As with most things, I’m sure it varies from place to place, but in our little town we have one school for all the kids from… Read More Movin’ on up