white light

All this violence around little boys must be good for something.
Sigge on top of a little mountain. All dressed up for the cold.
The rest of a castle never built in Haga - Vik and a friend. Notice the sword.

November has been very warm and flowers are starting to come out again. The sun is so low at this time of the year and it gives a very peculiar light. The sky is clear and high. It goes dark at 4 pm. The children are fine.Life goes on as usual and we are settled. Strange to write and strange to feel. Went with Viktor to a kiddies party and it is good to see he ended up in a good group of kids at school. The biggest obstacles are to hang our paintings and plan for book-shelves and little things around the house.

The benefits of a big sister in the house

Viktor is very into his nail polish. When the school organised a pyjama party he insisted on weraing a nightie and Cara said she would thump anyone bothering her brother for wearing a girl's nightie. No thumping was necessary - it is very much a non-issue with little boys in dresses here. Same goes for Marcus and I am happy that these boys are given the possibility to play with jewelry and dresses and dolls. But more than the political correctness and I just love these pictures and I love all the little interactions that take place between all members of our house-hold. I found Marcus like this one day and have no idea who put on the neck-lace on his head.

I have been away for a conference in Innsbruck, Austria. It was good to sleep undisturbed for a few nights, I had time to think and work and talk about my work and I feel much less tired now which is good. I came home to the sad news of my Godfather's death - farbror Sven lived to be 97 years old and died peacefully and painless. But it is becoming clear that my parents' circle of friends are slowly disappearing - oncle Arne Bakken and tante Sigi and farbror Sven and many more - it is sad as I learnt a lot from the oldies and it makes me feel a little lonely in the world, like an umbrella of experienced people is disintegrating slowly above me. Will go and see tant Dagmar, my Godmother, later this week and tell her how important farbror Sven has been in my choice of career, he was my role model of an eccentric free-spirited professor at Karolinska at a time when there was still space for eccentric free-spirited professors in the scientific community. Ramling. Will go and read my book instead!

Halloween 2011

Flying monkey was tired and hesitant towards the green version of me. But heroic stayed up four hours past bedtime to take part in the party.
Love love love ambra's parties
My children! Such little sweet-hearts.

Cara becomes this creepy quiet character - did the same last year.
But most of all she finds a quiet corner and reads magazines whilst the older generation parties.
Too tired and too individualist to repeat 2010 family-theme. I tried to sell the Wizard of Oz theme for a long time. Cara refused to share her vampire theme. Viktor likes Darth Vader. Martin likes lycra (note the bird eating brain through the helmet). I often feel like the wicked witch of the west and brought Marcus as a flying monkey.

weaning is getting different with time.

We try. We make all the politically correct mashes and mixtures, we add no salt. We use only organic fruit and vegs. (Ekolådan rocks). We use only organic cold pressed rapeseed oil. The boy takes a spoon or two, swallows politely and then keep his mouth firmly shut. Friendly but firm is his strategy. Then he stretches out his arms towards our food and grunts. If we don't get it fast enough he shouts but usually Cara or Viktor has managed to sneak some proper food into his mouth long before he gets frantic. Our organic baby mashes usually ends up in the bin. Instead Siggis feeds on spetzle, gulash, pasta with tomato sauce, brownies, fish, rice, whatever the rest of us eats. There might be a survival potential in only eating what others eat. I guess our food tastes more and is of more interesting texture. I feel a little guilty breaking all the recommendations but Sigge decided to wean the South-American way - and who am I to stop him? As long as the majority of his food still consists of porridge, breast-milk and gruel I guess the odd meal won't kill him. It is just a matter of months before we'd let him share our food anyway. And it is fun to see another strong personality develop!

We are back!

still tired but in recovery. Hot chocolate on a fine day in Haga helps!

Another few days without new infections and with undisturbed sleep and we will be just fine. Had another glorious autumn week-end - Martin's sister was visiting and Stockholm decided to show a pretty face. Mid-term break is coming up and it will be good - Viktor is tired and Cara just wants to sit inside and read. I am busy trying to find a way to work more efficiently. Rather than taking time-consuming jumbo-mumbo courses or getting a mentor or join the new national sport of getting a coach I talk to people and ask how they do. Pretty much wherever I can find them, yesterday at the first party in Viktor's class where it is striking that everyone is suffering over the immediate availability through mail and phones. I need to find a space to concentrate on the more important and diffuse aspects of my job than the day-to-day tasks. Which will be a great topic for next weeks developmental meeting with my boss. Now I will start my usual Sunday night work session...

trying to catch three kids smiling is hard

christmas card might be interesting.

Autumn week

The rain is pouring down. I have a brutal migraine. Autumn is here. As beautiful as some days are, as depressing are others. Life distilled. Above pictures of my darlings and sweethearts.