Stockholm calling!

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Things have been a little quiet on the blog for a week but not without reason.  We have just been on our annual roadtrip back to Sweden.

Travelling here takes a LONG time, especially with a baby, a toddler and a bus that won't go above 50 miles per hour, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Each year we return to the little red sommarstuga (summer house) in Sweden to enjoy the warm summer months and live together with Farmor and Farfar (and Faster and her family too!).

I really love the summer house tradition in Sweden.  It is quite common for families to come together each summer to enjoy multigenerational living, the great outdoors and many many summer traditions that I hope to share with you. 

These types of houses are very common in the Swedish countryside and almost all families have some kind of access to a summer house, this of course is in sharp contrast to the English use of the word which conjures up images of well to do families holidaying in their posh second homes.

When I first came to Sweden I remember being extremely surprised by the climate and the fact that usually Swedish summers are warmer and drier than in the UK.   My mum struggles to comprehend this and I completely understand why when you look at a map and see how far north we are here, but I promise you mum it's warmer here than you think!

These photos were taken close to midnight the day we arrived and yet it's not dark!  That's because we are on the cusp of the summer solstice and tomorrow we will party all day to celebrate Midsommar - I'll be sure to tell you a lot more about this.

Worldwide watermelon

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Readers of this blog will know that I recently dabbled in a little melon-foolery when I created a hand carved watermelon shark for my nieces and nephews.

Well since that pivotal moment I just can't look at a melon without thinking about carving it and last week I indulged my dark side and took a knife to a sweet little water melon in the name of my love of all things global.

I carved a land and water globe by sketching freehand with a permanent marker and then using a sharp vegetable knife to carve out the sea area. it's not rocket science but it's a little tricky.

I accidentally sliced away a few Caribbean islands and the equator is sitting a little on the low side but I would go so far as to say that it is geographically more accurate than the Montessori land and water globe I bought from China.

Have you had a go at this yet?

Who needs a television?

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There really is no need for a TV in our house.

Henry (8.5 months) has a new 'thing' - he sneaks off when we are not looking and heads for the laundry room.  He goes inside then pushes the door closed behind him so he can be alone with the washing machine. 

He has certainly inherited his papa's calmness and contentment with being alone, and the love of electronic products is also an inherited trait from him. 

Isn't it funny how children are so fascinated by the washing machine?

Trains, trains and more trains

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This was a recent visit to a French tourist attraction showcasing the famous landmarks of France in  miniature but there was only one part of it that Freddy was interested in - the train network!

Can you imagine a better place to take a 29 month old boy?

Or a 40 year old man for that matter?

Just one question: how do we make one of these on our farm??

Japan Worldwide Culture Swap package

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As well as helping to organise the Worldwide Culture Swaps I love to take part (even though Freddy isn't yet 3 years old!), and I have to say that this package that I received from Japan is very very special to me.  

It was sent by a lovely blogger friend Lulu - you should check out her blog if you are interested in learning more about day to day Japanese culture.

I think that the reason I love it so much is that the package was absolutely full of things for me to enjoy as well as Freddy.  For example,  I have a real thing for rubber stamping so I was tickled pink to find some wonderful little transport stamps inside and Freddy is obsessed with trains so to find several high speed train related items was perfect for him!

For a complete list of what was sent please check out the full post on the new Worldwide Culture Swap site.

Lulu, thank you once again for your kind and thoughtful generosity!

[This post is shared with the wonderful Living Montessori Now]

IKEA undercover: Daim cake

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Sometimes Freddy gets so full of energy that he needs to go wild a little.  Most of the time we take him to the forest but for those times when we want there to be other children around, but not children that we necessarily have to see again (if you know what I mean), we have IKEA.

I'm sure that we are not the only people who use IKEA as a kind of free drop in play centre but it's just so handy.  Freddy especially likes playing in the little mock up children's bedrooms that they use to showcase the furniture and toys.

We usually just point him in the direction of those areas and then retreat to a distance far enough that it might not be immediately obvious he is ours but close enough that we can step in if things get ugly. 

But I digress. 

The point of the post is to say that we love IKEA food and the Daim cake is a favourite not least because it is egg free and dairy free (if you use dairy free butter and chocolate).

So as requested by Sandra on Facebook and as made by Rachel here is how to make the delicious Daim cake from IKEA.....

• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp sugar
• Handful peeled and chopped almonds
• 100 g or 1 cup milk chocolate

Mix everything except the chocolate and a few chopped almonds in a deep saucepan, preferably one with a thick bottom.
 
Cook on low heat until the mixture thickens. 

Spread the mixture on a greaseproof paper and leave to cool. 

Sprinkle on the almonds.

Melt the chocolate and spread on top of the crunchy almonds.

This is Rachel's attempt at it and I think it looks fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

Transitioning from 3 to 2 daytime naps

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You may say I'm a bit weird but I do like to try to keep track of sleeping times in our house. 

My husband and I started our parenting journey thinking that routine was a rude word and we went through nearly 15 months of highs and lows and never really knowing when anyone was going to sleep. 

We just could not cope.  We were like zombies hoping to get through the day just so that we could sleep.  So we made a plan and did three things that literally changed our lives:

1. We found out the cause of Freddy's severe eczema and so were able to remove the associated foods from our diets (resulting in much better sleep).
2. I started keeping records of Freddy's naps whenever things seemed to be going a bit haywire.
3. We started a routine.

I must point out that my idea of a routine is just a sequence of activities throughout the day - a rhythm dictated by the child and not a minute by minute scheduling.  You can see how we implemented it here.

The combination of these things allowed us to know when Freddy would probably be tired and get him sleeping then rather than when he became overtired and exhausted.

Where am I going with this?

Well I have been doing the same for Henry which allows me to show you how he went from 3 day time naps to 2. 

I wanted to show it because you can see that we did not smoothly go from 3 to 2 but instead had a nearly 2 week period starting at 7.5 months where there was not a lot of daytime sleep happening at all.  I was thinking are we giving up naps altogether?  Henry was miserable (and teething) throughout this whole period so it was tempting to think that this was just as a result of the teething pain.

The numbers across the top are time from 6am to 9pm and green squares are naps (rounded up or down to make it easy to record).

This is what happened:

• Henry was waking up earlier and earlier but going to bed later and later.
• All naps got shorter and were more difficult.
• Some days I had no idea when he was going to sleep.
• There were a few days where there was only about 30 minutes of napping all day.
• Although I haven't shown it here the nighttime wakings also became much more frequent.
• He eventually settled down to 2 naps (10.30am and 2.30pm) and although the early mornings continue the nights also start much earlier.

I'd love to hear your experiences with this too.

The best 2 hours of his life

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Freddy (28 months) has been waiting for this moment with great excitement ever since we bought him a wooden balance bike several months ago.

We knew he was ready to try the bike but we didn't appreciate that he would not be tall enough to use it.

But finally the day came last week (I'm sure it was after a growth spurt) when he could finally reach the floor whilst sitting on it.

That called for a celebration so we hot footed it into the forest to try it out.....

He got it straight away! It was as if the months of staring at it had somehow prepared him for this moment.

 He went up and down a hill over and over again pausing only to wade into a muddy puddle.

And then as quickly as it had started it was over.

Such a roller coaster of emotions on that day.

Here's a little video just before the bike broke....

Funky Swedish stamps

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Is it just me or are these the cutest stamps you have ever seen?

The stamps, from Sweden, came on an estate agent's letter and I have to say that I like their style.

Things are settling down a bit here now and I'm just trying to catch up with things.  I never feel bad about not posting everyday because this blog is for my family and not instead of them but I do feel bad when I don't reply to your comments, especially after you take the time to post them. 

We will have a post very soon from a lovely trained Montessori teacher so please leave a question for her in the comments for her to answer.  I have quite a collection now and some themes are emerging (especially discipline!) but ask away and I'm sure Charissa will do her best to answer as many as possible.