February in one fell swoop

As Aaron pointed out, we've fallen a bit behind this month. But I'm using the excuse that February is such a short month to justify the measly number of posts. So we'll just settle for one mega-update.

Myrna is a chatterbox. She narrates everything, and it's our job to put the pieces together and figure out what she might be saying. Favorite words are "delicious" (like the lasagna I made from scratch last week), "disgusting" (thankfully not referring to food we serve her, but to Moose Brothers drinking out of the toilet) and "ridiculous" (referring to anything we do). She has picked up a few Swedish words (probably more than we know, but our Swedish vocabulary is limited to about 4 words). But more entertaining is the British English she's learning. She is fully aware that Lizzy has different words for things, and Myrna to add a twist to her daily routines by enjoying a snack of biscuits or riding in her pram or pushchair. Myrna knows I'm no fan of the word "nappy," but likes to remind me that "Lizzy calls a diaper 'nappy.'" Speaking of annoying reminders, every time Chris helps her into her coat he's warned, "not like at Elliot's house," referring to a one-time incident over a month ago when Chris caught her chin in the zipper.

After a "package" came from her Grandparents with a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD and a Percy train, we took a trip to Ikea, specifically to buy her some train tracks from Ikea's line of Biro knock-offs. She's spent the last week enthralled with the train set. It's kept her so busy that I think we even had two mornings without Charlie and Lola. I'm slow to learn about the curvature of the train tracks (I didn't grow up with any) and I'm really good at forming a closed loop, only to have one or two tracks not in the configuration. Pretty soon, we'll be turning this in to a good math problem.


The trains haven't replaced the blocks. Recently they have been cookies (baking paper was necessary for that one), sometimes they can be baby strollers, and then there's the usual "churches" and "houses." It's fun to see the world through her eyes - all her "houses" are clusters of vertical apartment buildings. As most kids, there are some things she picks up on and you wish she might just forget about. The other weekend we were coming home on the bus and Chris and I were amazed with the long line of people waiting outside the System Bolaget (Sweden's State-operated liquor store). It was 10 minutes to two on a Saturday, which meant there was only 10 minutes left to buy your beer and wine before Monday. Later that afternoon Myrna was playing with her blocks, lining them up as she often does and then declaring them to be a "System line." She frequently now wants help making a "System."


That's at least some of February in a nutshell. We might hit 30 degrees today, a pleasant surprise after a few weeks of single digit (F) degrees and a snow storm in which a foot of snow came overnight and shut the entire city down by canceling all the buses (though the subway still ran).

A Tour of Winter Sports

Yesterday we spent the day with our good friends Sam and Elliot, who made sure that we got a handful of winter sports checked off our "To Do in Stockholm" list. They recently moved to Bromma, just south-west of the city center, and the water way connecting them to Stockholm is one thick sheet of ice (see above photo). Myrna started with a sled ride to get to the skating track
As Elliot took a little snooze, Myrna got to try a few rounds of skiing.
She really enjoyed it - especially the sticks - and loved saying "Myrna skiing!!!"
Behind her, you can see the skating track. It is just a small part of the track that starts in Uppsala and ends in Stockholm, for a big race in a few weeks. (The race is 80 km long, about 50 miles). As it was a beautiful sunny weekend, there were lots of people out. It just happened that Chris and I have the same shoe size as Sam and his wife, so we got to try on some skates for a bit, and pretend to ice skate, while little kids skated circles around us. There, however, was no photographic evidence of such.

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.