Trains, Cars and Trams

Myrna is fascinated with transportation of any kind: cars, trains, trams, boats, airplanes...

She loves going to the Transport Museum to ride the train
and certainly to play with the trains....
(note the hoarding of the trains). And I admit, I'm guilty of taking her to Polarn o. Pyret just so she could play with the trains there (while I glanced at the kid's clothes Sales Rack).

But what she really has been into is making "cars," "busses," and "trains" at home. For example, here is a car
You can tell it is a car because all the chairs are facing in the same direction. Turn a few 90 degrees and leave room for a stroller, and you've created a "bus." The bus is the most popular right now - Pig drives it while wearing a hat, next to him is a stool, where you place your bus pass (and make the appropriate beeping sound). There are buttons to ring when you want to get off - and if you ask Myrna which stop she gets off at, it is always "next stop." There certainly is room for Baby in her stroller (Baby also can ride the bus herself, as Myrna often leaves her alone - she certainly isn't mimicking any of our actions with that one). Many backpacks, purses and diaper bags come into play. And just to make it more ridiculous, Myrna likes to wear her hat, and keep it on (something she certainly doesn't do on a real bus)
The newest addition is "bus jacket," and if she is really lucky, she'll convince us to put baby in her slightly small snow suit from last winter.

So Many Photos

We had to upgrade our picasa storage space to start the New Year.... beware. Lots more pics from Belgium are in the new January album.

MB in BE: 2011 Edition

We took a post-Christmas holiday to Belgium. With the temperature around 50 degrees and the snow long since melted, it was a welcome break from the cold and snow of Stockholm. We spent two nights in the most wonderful Bed and Breakfast in Leuven, called Lodging at 8, and two nights in Brussels.

We were a little worried about finding stuff for Myrna to do, but she loved Leuven. There is a beautiful city library, complete with a large kids room full of toys, coloring and storytelling (free changing tables too - a big plus). We spent much time there.
But much more exciting was the Winter Festival boat rides.
Basically a carousel of boats, Myrna loved it! She asked for the boats regularly, and we had to concoct complicated detours to avoid glimpses of them if we didn't want to stop for another ride. In fact, if we got a little discombobulated about where we were, we could ask Myrna to take us to the boats. Curiously, she always pointed us in the right direction. Each ride was a Euro, and we wondered who was enjoying their Euro treats more? Myrna with her boats or Mom and Dad sipping on tasty Belgian beer while she napped.

She was taken with the beautiful breakfast too. Even though she didn't always eat much of it, she seemed to consider the visual presentation and wide variety of food on offer a real treat. (We don't usually light candles at our own breakfast table.) The egg cups were a particular favorite, though the chocolate penguin lollipop certainly wasn't a flop either.
There was also a cat about, and Myrna was very impressed with it. She saw it leap through its cat-door, and talked about it all day.

After two days in Leuven, we headed to Brussels. Myrna was already talking about the "airport" by then (a bit homesick), but we aimed to entertain her. It didn't hurt that everywhere we went, she was given treats - cookies at a cafe by the waiter, chocolate at Neuhaus (her parents certainly weren't given any tastes), even chocolates by the guy in front of us in a grocery checkout line.
She also got to tromp around the cobble-stone town center which, after a little drizzle, was rich with muddy puddles. I guess we wore her out, because that evening she soundly slept through a pick-up jam session at the Bier Circus.

Saturday, Chris started Myrna's dinosaur lessons at the Belgian Royal Institute for the Natural Sciences, home to a staggering number of nearly-complete iguanodons skeletons. Here's Myrna regarding a nest of fossilized dino eggs.
A few cones of pommes frites later, we were packing our bags and, early Sunday morning, enjoyed an uneventful trip back home, where Myrna was exceedingly glad to be reunited with Baby.

An Unsettling Exchange

Myrna, clenching her teeth and clutching frantically onto Kelly's neck: "Head off off off!"

Kelly: "You want to take my head off?"

Myrna: "Yes."

Kelly: "How are you going to take my head off?"

Myrna: "Scissors."

Myrna Ballerina

This morning Myrna wanted to wear a tutu. Seeing as we didn't have anything planned on this fine freshly snow-covered New Year's Day, I said "why not." Myrna got a tutu last Christmas, and I think has worn it twice. We squeezed the 6-9 month-sized tutu on her (she's tiny, but not that tiny), and she was ready to perform, all day long.


Sure, the long sleeves are now 3/4 length, and there was no way the snaps to the onesie bodice were getting snapped, but she didn't mind. She was too busy learning "Me and My Teddy Bear," my debut dance recital piece.


She wore the tutu the entire day, pairing it with leg warmers later in the afternoon (a fine choice), and she was always telling us about her "cute tutu."

Myrna's First Snow Angel

We finally convinced Myrna that making Snow Angels was fun, and she agreed. But what was even more fun was animating her by clicking the cursor button between two photos.

God Jul!

Although this was Myrna's third Christmas, one could argue that it really was her first. At least it was the first in which she might start to understand what was happening. We had a wonderful Christmas - of course white, small and peaceful (well, as peaceful as can be managed with a 2-year-old). Myrna awoke Christmas morning and, once in the living room, headed straight for the tree, just as she usually does (to "help" plug in the lights). Only this morning, there were presents under the tree. She immediately grabbed two of them, raced back down the hall to "show Dada." Returning to the tree, she was distracted by the new coffee set Santa had brought her.

She immediately started on the coffee service - not a bad idea at all, since it wasn't quite 8 a.m.

Another exciting surprise was the yellow building block we'd placed under the tree, after finding it under the couch the night before. She'd been searching for it with grave concern for several days. Worried that the block could become the highlight of the day, we soon commenced the unwrapping, Myrna helping everyone with their gifts (and, in turn, requiring help for her own too) in the unwrapping. Here she is with one of her Christmas presents, ready for an adventure.


After coating herself with blueberries at breakfast, we moved onto playing with the new presents. Her friend Lizzy had given her some playdough, and we all attempted to make some holiday sculptures.


Myrna even managed to model her parents' gifts - both dad's scarf and, here, mom's legwarmers. (She got her own pair today - I really don't like sharing that much.)


Besides coffee making, she also is perfecting her pasta with her new veggies. She even combines the two for her still life exercises.

God Jul! (that would be Swedish for Merry Christmas, though I have absolutely no idea how one pronounces it)

A Monday Walk In The Snow

From Myrna - December 2010

Monday morning, Myrna and I suited up and took a stroll around the neighborhood, with the stated goal of finding some ducks. This past month, we'd tried to do this a number of times, and failed. Virtually all water in Stockholm having thickened to concrete slabs of ice, the nearest duck community has been pushed an additional block from our building, where they must swim in perpetual circles to keep the water in motion and unfrozen. That added distance, combined with the cold, the icy pavement, and Myrna's intolerance for snow on the toes of her boots has ended previous duck hunts at about the halfway mark, Myrna carried home in tears, whimpering "cold" at pathetic intervals.

From Myrna - December 2010

But this time, as you can see, we made it. The ducks are doing well, but it looks like a rough business protecting their home and food supply from the elements. We saluted them, and then went on to check out the Christmas trees. All the courtyards to the (staggering number of) apartment buildings in this area feature their own holiday trees, and they're looking quite lovely under nature's glaze.

We also tried to go to the playground but, uh...

And then something rather surprising happened. Myrna quite deliberately led me back towards home, then right past our apartment and past the Nativity scene in the chapel window to... yup, the Konditori, pushing open the door and waltzing in like she ran the place. Which is kind of funny, because we'd only been twice before. So, okay, we bought a bulle. Myrna carted it home, hugging the bag, and shouting "treat!" and "home!" all the way back to our place.

There was some discussion of saving a bit for Mom. But that didn't pan out.

Meeting Santa

We've been enjoying pictures of many little ones meeting Santa this Christmas time. We found the one Santa in the city for Myrna to meet, at the big department store NK. We started by looking at the Christmas Windows, and we should have known we were in for a treat, as Myrna seemed quite unsure about them all. She actually asked to get back into her stroller - we weren't sure if she was cold or scared, but either way we weren't going to dawdle.


Once inside, she was much happier - pointing out all the Christmas trees. We wandered up to the kids floor, and had an hour before Santa would actually arrive. Myrna worked on a list for Santa, before she led us around the toy department, destroying any toys in her path.


Visiting Santa here was a bit different than in the states, as there was no photo session with Santa, just a haphazard line of kids and parents snapping photos. When Santa arrived, we were ready to go, but as soon as we were "next in line," Myrna started wailing, and there was no way she was getting anywhere near Santa.

What I love about this photo (other than all the kids staring at Myrna) is that you get to see Santa's ever so stylish threads, certainly not the same-old red suit. I do remember my sisters getting scared of Santa and crying, but we still managed to get that photo, and I have no idea how my Mom did that.

Myrna the Swedish Chef - Christmas Cookie Episode

We took our first foray into baking in Europe this weekend. For two-and-a-half years, I've skipped out on the baking, with the very valid excuse that American recipes don't translate. Sure, you can convert cups into metric, but there is the problem that flour and baking powder are ever so slightly different that straight conversions don't work (or so I've been told). But decorating cookies seemed like something Myrna would like, and we were getting a hankering for good old American Christmas sugar cookies (Pepparkakor are good, but you can only eat so many ginger snaps). Furthermore, we had lots of American-Swedish families that we wanted to get together. So Saturday, while Myrna napped, Chris and I rolled out dough and cut out sugar cookies (from a German recipe, just to keep things complicated).


First, I should point out that pigs are a big Christmas decoration. So we can all blame my Swedish heritage for my love of (Christmas) pigs. Any pack of Christmas cookie cutters you buy, includes a pig - isn't that just wonderful?


We had just taken the last batch out of the oven when Myrna woke up - so far so good. But then we started get messages from our Sunday guests, and all the kids were running temperatures. Needless to say, we were alone for the frosting, but we still had a ball. Myrna's first icing:


She's very concerned when icing gets on her fingers


After each successful icing, she announces "clap" and we are all to clap at her masterpiece


At first she was very careful with the sprinkles


On her second go, she dumped half the bottle on one cookie. It resulted in very right-side heavy sprinkled cookie, not unlike her recent paintings (and if you haven't read the recent review of her work, you are really missing out - it's far more clever than this account). She still made quite an effort to retrieve the bottle

And what batch of Christmas cookies wouldn't be complete with out a cookie ode to Piggy Wiggy?


We now have lots of Christmas cookies. Wish we could send boxes to you all, but I don't think the trip to them would be kind.