Bananas in Pajamas

We bought Myrna some new pjs when we were in Seattle, but it wasn't until last week that it was cool enough to wear them to bed. We were happy to see that they still fit, and have provided Myrna with lots of fun hearing the skid-free rubber feet squeak as she walks.
Here she is at our pre-8 am photo shoot, carefully navigating down the stairs without hands. The last of the July photos are on her July Album.

A Long Weekend in Köln

We spent last weekend in the sun and heat visiting Köln. We definitely got a little nostalgic for all our favorite German treats. We stayed close by to Kaffeebaum (which was not on summer holiday) and made our way through the coffee selections. Even Myrna enjoyed herself there, as Anna gave her a creamsicle (after which clever Myrna led us back behind the counter to find another). Here's Myrna enjoying a glass of bubbly water after some ice cream in the Altstadt.

Other favorites included plum cake, only just barely in season. Here's Myrna asleep and oblivious as we enjoy some cake.

Other nap-time treats were enjoyed at Päffgen Brauerei. Remember when our blog looked like this?


We also had some new treats, now that we had a toddler in tow. We'd always seen the fountain on the Rhein, but hadn't ever used it before. It was a huge hit!

Myrna also reminded us of the many uses of staircases in art galleries while we were at our friend Noa's exhibition.

One of Myrna's new things lately is sharing and giving gifts. When we go the park, other day-care-acclimated parents marvel at Myrna's friendly overtures of shovels and sticks to other children. And that sounds all cute and such, but Sunday she "gifted" someone with a dead fly. This all went down when we were at a video shoot for our friend Latanya's music video.

But they say you can't go home again, and of course a lot of things in Köln had changed. We couldn't get any Belgian beer, due to the closure of the gourmet Belgian supermarket chain. Other favorite restaurants had changed management. Even the English school I used to teach in had moved. Things change... Returning to Stockholm, though, the baby ducklings in the pond behind our building were just as tiny and fuzzy as we'd left them, and we were glad that at least things didn't change that fast.

4th of July

I've never been one for big 4th of July celebrations, and I don't think I ever attended one of the enormous fireworks shows until I was taking a bunch of math campers. But, we got invited to the American Club of Sweden's 4th of July Picnic, so we thought we'd jump right on into the celebration. It also didn't hurt that we're in the midst of a sunny and hot run of weather, so after a morning cup of coffee at Drop, we headed just north of the city to Lidingö to hit the beach. This was Myrna's first beach trip, but as a beach is a giant sandbox, she was as happy as a clam.
Her favorite activity was running into the water to fill a bucket, which she would bring ashore and dump on herself.
The breeze from the sea kept us nice and cool (though we'll see if we all got tricked into sunburns despite the sunscreen).

We had fun playing with our toddler clan and meeting people who, get this, don't have kids (or at least not toddlers). No fireworks for us though - seeing as it doesn't get dark here until way too late.

More pictures from the weekend and the beach are on Myrna's July Picasa Page - and see below (the previous post) for Chris's account of hiking with four toddlers.

Tyresta National Park

From Myrna - July 2010

Despite my best intentions, at bottom I'm a creature of routine. When we moved to Stockholm I vowed museums, beaches, field trips. Instead, Myrna rarely gets further from home than the nearest playground. At least I can take comfort in the fact that the story's the same with plenty of other parents.

So when a friend had the initiative to propose a light stroller-hike through the Tyresta National Park (about 20km outside of Stockholm), the idea caught on quick. Myrna and I headed out around 8am on Friday, and before long we'd assembled a four-stroller caravan of dads and toddlers. The excursion wasn't without hiccups. My research on transportation was less rigorous than, say, Kelly's might've been, and we all missed a connecting bus that only ran once an hour. We also didn't plan for the problem of loading four strollers onto a single bus. And I lost a book I was in the middle of reading. But eventually we were walking through the woods on a gorgeous sunny day. We played on a see-saw, inspected a dragonfly, found a corkscrew ramp, checked out Lamborghini tractors, and petted a couple ponies. The kids ran around, traded snacks, and napped in shifts; the dads talked soccer, big game safaris, and global economics. It was an altogether nice time. For some reason, though, I only took my camera out once.