Do all boys love Lego?

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Thought this parenting journey I have been trying to avoid the lure of brands and TV characters in favour of toys and activities that we make ourselves or are 'educational' in that they are open ended in their design.  I hope this doesn't sound pompous or self righteous but I just hate the amount of advertisements that children are exposed to on a daily basis and I do anything I can to reduce it to as little as possible.

I'm happy therefore to say that when Freddy sees a batman t shirt or a plain red one he has no preference and I don't waste money.  I hope this can last a while longer too :)

I also don't subscribe to the 'pink for girls' and 'blue for boys' approach to clothing and toys - something that I find extremely prevalent in the UK and France but thankfully not so in Sweden.  But that's a whole other post there.

Anyway what I wanted to talk about is Lego. On the one hand it goes against our love of natural materials but on the other it's amazing just how much Freddy (3 years) loves it! It's almost like when he got to 30 months old a chip was activated inside his head which made him just love building things with the stuff.

It's wonderful to watch him sitting with his papa and building all number of different vehicles and here he is playing with his cousin.  It seems to be such a universally loved toy that crosses the generation gaps like few other.

 

So lego.....you can stay!

le bonhomme de neige

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It's that time of year when a flurry of northern hemisphere bloggers unite in a display of family oriented snow activities and I'm no exception. Today Freddy (3) and Henry (16 months) made a snowman in front of the house:

I love that the snowman looks like he's looking up towards the sky and smiling - like he's saying thank you for the snow.

Having this much snow in Paris isn’t really that usual but the roads and public transport system are coping admirably. Schools are not closed because of sub zero temperatures but instead because of strikes against educational reforms.

Winter gear

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In one of my previous posts Caru asked to know a bit more about what the boys wear in the snow so here's a little run down just for fun.  Oh and as always I do not benefit in any form for any publicity of product!

The fleece under layer is like a fleecy onesie with a zip for quick on and off and poppers to open up the leg area.  Can you see that the cuffs around the legs and arms are extra long?  That's so that they actually last for more than a few months;  when it's big for the child they are folded over and as they grow you just fold less and less.

The waterproof and windproof 'overalls' are worn over the top along with a 'fuskolle' which is a turtleneck jumper minus the jumper:  you can see it in the top left of the picture.  I had never heard of a fuskolle before my husband introduced me to them but OMG they are brilliant.  Why wear a scarf when you can just slip on a bit cut out from a woolly jumper?  Genius those Swedes.

The rest is pretty self explanatory really - furry windproof hat that actually covers the ears too, waterproof snug snow boots and gloves that have zips down to the fingers so that you can get little fingers into the right places.

The Swedes have a wonderful expression which is "there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothes".  So true.

In case you want to know where we bought our clothes from here is a link.

Did I mention everything works?

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It's about time the Swedish tourist board started recognising my efforts to spread the word about how great Sweden is.  Whilst I wait for my key to the city to be delivered I thought I'd post about the amazing snow clearing operation that happens every day like clockwork outside the apartment block where we are ta the moment.

Twice a day a plethora of snow moving vehicles arrive to make sure that there is no reason that people can't get to work.

Here's the evening shift arriving to scrape the snow and sand from the road.  Sand is put down on these residential roads rather than salt which I found strange but clearly it works.

 The snow ploughs scrape the snow into huge piles that line the streets.

And of course the boys are more than happy to just watch this going on all day.

Then just as the piles get a bit big a lorry magically arrives to take away the snow.  It all happens like with military precision.  Apparently all this snow used to just be tipped into the sea but it's considered not environmentally sound any more so it's just taken somewhere on land where it can melt.  These piles of snow can last well into the spring and children sometimes hollow them out to make little dens (which is a bit dangerous if they are at the side of the road).

Snow is also cleared regularly from the roofs so that it doesn't fall onto pedestrians.

Apartments have attics in Sweden

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I'm aware that I'm in danger of turning this blog into a travel blog rather than about my family but I just find so many things about Sweden that it seam appropriate to share them.

Like this for example:  Farfar said he had to look for the Christmas tree foot in the attic (bearing in mind that he lives in an apartment and not the top floor either).  I was thinking that he surely had to be loosing his marbles but no, it seams that in the land where everything works and nothing is just just to maximise profits or minimise costs it is not uncommon for flats to have attic space allocated in the building.

The boys were very excited to leave the apartment without all their snow gear on.  These blue all in ones that you see them wearing often are the fleece under layer for their snow suits and they pretty much live in them rather than 'normal' clothes.

It gave Henry (15 months) an opportunity to practice his stair climbing.

Farfar showed us the way to the top floor where the attics space is. 

If this were England the attic space would be considered potential habitable space and 6 or 7 flats would be squeezed into the area.

Another example of this is that Farmor and Farfar's utility cupboard in the flat is bigger than the 3rd bedroom of our old house in England.  It's funny what we end up accepting as ok when we don't know any better.

Handmade Christmas

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Remember last year when I had loads of time on my hands?  Me neither but somehow I manged to make most of my gifts and I thought I would give you a little reminder of them!

Salt dough gift tags
I use a simple recipe of 1 cup salt, 1 cup warm water and 2 cups flour.  Letter stamps are used to write on them before baking.

Homemade Marmalade
This was a staple gift for neighbours last year.

I used glass storage jars from IKEA and made salt dough gift tags which say 'mar-mal-ade'  on them.  If you cook salt dough for a short time at a high temperature that turn a lovely brown colour (yes that's right - brown not burnt).

The jar is then finished off with an orange sparkly ribbon.

Rainbow Scarf
If something stays in one place for a long time in my house there is a real risk that I will crochet a cover for it such is the extent of my love for this craft.  It's so easy to learn and great if you are impatient and need to be able to produce things in hours rather than weeks (or years in the case of my yellow knitted jumper).

This beautiful rainbow scarf is took me two evening to make and I chose lovely bright colours in a soft organic yarn.

Natural teething rings
When you have a toddler and a baby you inevitably get to know a lot of other toddlers and babies so I have been making a lot of different gifts.  Here is my favourite gift to give a baby.....a yarn covered teething ring.  You can buy them here!

These rings make wonderful 'first toys' for babies as they are learning to grasp at around 3 months and then can be used as teething rings when needed.  I made these with high quality 100% cotton yarn and natural untreated wood.

Skumtomtens

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After my post about Swedish schools I received an email from Sarah in Maine asking if I could post a picture of a Skumtomten.

Here you go Sarah!

And if you feel the need you can also visit the manufacturers website for these little foamy Tomtens where you will discover an interactive advent calender counting down to Christmas day.  You can click on each day and see the Tomten in a different place like on a train or in a bowl of crayfish.   I particularly like these ones.....

Pea soup and pancakes

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'Pea soup and pancakes' is a meal eaten across Sweden, and other Nordic countries, every Thursday evening.   Allegedly the tradition arose from a Swedish Prime Minister in the 1880's who served pea soup and pancakes each week to a group of friends who came round to play bridge.  A King also died in the 1570's from eating a bowl of poisoned pea soup.

The soup is made from yellow peas, onions, pork pieces and stock and is cooked for a few hours until it becomes really mushy.  It is usually served with the mustard and worlds strongest vinegar [antifreeze].

The dessert is almost always pancakes served with lingon sylt (that's the same jam stuff they give you at IKEA when you buy the meatball meal) but it''s not really dessert but rather part of the meal.

We are currently going through a phase of trying to eat only homemade food without any refined sugars so we knocked up the jam by mixing boiled lingon berries with honey.  It worked really well!

For those of you thinking that pancakes should only be eaten with sugar and lemon; I know, I know but it tastes really good this way too :).

Henry certainly loved the pancakes!

Farmor's snow angel

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One of the best thing about the boy's grandparents is that they are not afraid to enjoy themselves in burst on spontaneity!

Exhibit A: Farmor's snow angel...

Freddy didn't want to be left out so Farfar helped him do his very first snow angel too.  Poor little thing didn't have any gloves on but Farfar insisted that the angel wings should extend to the end of his fingertips; you're a stickler for tradition Farfar!