Swedish Father's Day
No not a day only for Swedish fathers, but a "father's day" in Sweden.This year it was in danger of going by unnoticed - I didn't do any prompting (partly because it wasn't marked in the calendar.)The adverts surfaced a few days before and then on Saturday mum and Alice where going out "shopping" - mainly for sweets for Alice. But before going Alice asked my what I wanted for father's day. I said I didn't or mind.Then Alice saw "an opportunity and she took it" (a la "Flushed Away")A: Would you like an animal?Me: What sort of animal?A: A cat maybe?Me: No (laughing)A: A dog then?Me: NoA:

Confusing Animals
The other day we saw a neighbour who was out walking the dog. A big dog. We went over the talk and for Alice to pat the dog. In the meantime Emily kept saying, "Meow."Image by jACK TWO&nbs

Halloween
Alice has now got into the age where she's interested in the "traditions" associated with halloween.It started a couple of weeks ago when the big pumpkins started appearing in the shops. "Can we get one..." We'd never carved a pumpkin but thought "why not".When I was little we carved out swedes - but that's another story...On Friday Bollibompa (kids tv program) did a special on pumpkin carving, pies, halloween etc. Alice spotted two recipes on there and re-told them about how to make pumpkin crisps and roast the pumpkin seeds - sprinkle with salt and oil and put in the oven. I was impressed by the atte

Joke Telling
Alice told a joke the other day, which I thought was really impressive.It was one she'd heard on kids tv, but it illustrated a few development points.Being able to remember a storyRe-tell a story in a funny way - building-up to the punchlineDemonstrating a sense of humourIt make me chuckle. What was the joke?If was a Bellman joke:A Frenchman, Russian and Bellman were on a farm and wanted to see how long they could be in with the pigs.The Frenchman went into a pig sty and came out after a couple of minutes, "Aw, the p

The Pippi Obsession!
Emily's latest obsession is Pippi Långstrump (longstocking).Any Pippi mention or sighting usually triggers it - she will start bouncy up and down and saying "pippi" - this means she wants you to sing Pippi's song. The singing has to happen and then she bounces up and down in time to the song.She has one item of Pippi clothing (a top) and two pippi dolls (inheritted from Alice) - there are several Pippi DVD's and a couple of books that can also trigger the demand for singing.