Light!

I don't like the darkness that characterizes Sweden in the fall, winter and early spring...

I don't like losing around 12 minutes of daylight per day between June 22 and December 21.

And I really don't like getting up when it is dark, going home when it is dark, buying groceries in the dark...

Cuz it's really dark here in the winter.... like really dark... like in December, it hardly gets past twilight, even at high noon.

But today, while I was getting ready for work, the sun burst onto the horizon. The picture doesn't do it justice, but here it is anyway. It made me forget, for a moment, how I dread the oncoming winter.

A dance and a lecture

Nicholas has always been a dancer, but I thought his newest addition to his repertoire deserved sharing.

Also, he's talking like a waterfall... I know that waterfalls don't talk, but you get the point. The only problem is that this language is one we haven't yet learned (i.e. it's not German, French, Danish, Swedish, Spanish or English, as far as we can tell). Still, I think it's amazingly cute, but I am a bit biased. Listen up!

Conversation with an evolution theorist

The experts say that today's children are those who will develop ground-breaking, currently unimaginable technologies and save our world in the future. They will grow up to become the new Einsteins, Gates and Friedmans. They will be respected for their findings, their research, their academic ingenuity.

I'm proud to say that I have give birth to three of these amazing creatures.

One of them, the middle one, is currently showing signs of becoming a scientist... the kind of scientist who will shake the very grounds of the scientific system.

Here is a recap of our conversation this morning over a breakfast of oatmeal and brown sugar. Please note that I was not yet fully awake, so, as you'll see, I wasn't very quick on the uptake. If you are wondering, the "we" in the following story refers to the human race.

Lucas: "Mom, what were we when we were dinosaurs?"

Me: "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

Lucas: "I said, what were we when we were dinosaurs?"

Me: "I'm sorry, honey. I don't really know what you mean."

Lucas: "Well, as you know, we were once tiny fish in the sea. Fish that could feel any -- I mean any -- movement in the water! Isn't that cool?! Like, we could feel a movement hundreds of miles away. That's how sensitive we were!"

Me: "We were?"

Lucas (rolling his eyes): "Of course! But what I want to know is -- what we were when we were dinosaurs!"

Me (I'm slowly catching on....): "Hmmm. I don't know. We'll have to look it up."

Lucas: "Well, I know one thing. There is NO WAY we could have moved from being monkeys to being humans if we weren't also dinosaurs way back then. We must have been some mad cool dinosaurs."

And he returned to eating his meal.

I'll have to look it up. Any ideas?

Romance in Edinburgh

Steen and I spent this weekend alone in Edinburgh. We left the three children in the safe, happy care of Steen's parents, boarded a plane and whisked ourselves away.

It was lovely...

Filled with scones and high tea...
with champagne...
laughter and long walks down cobblestone streets laden with history. Of course, we must not forget the whiskey...

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. So these are our phone-based photos of our weekend.