Photography by Inara

I feel it's high time for some updates. 

Beginning with Inara:

This last week she's been a bit under the weather with a cough and a fever and she's getting a ton of new teeth, so her mood has sometimes been on the sour side. Even though she's still pretty easy going most of the time, she's also started testing us more. Needless to say, some of her favorites things to say right now are "no", "not" and "don't want to." On the other hand, she is also full of affection, saying "pat", "hug" and "kiss" both before she does it to us and when we do it to her. 

She started putting her thoughts into sentences like "Mamma berries there, Inara berries cup" when she wanted her blueberries in a cup instead of on a plate like I had mine. She's also able to recall and partially retell events of the day, like going to the store and getting bananas, eating soup for lunch or, like today, running daddy's toes over with her car, giving him a big bonk and also (strangely) making him laugh. 

She knows all the names of her classmates (and the the easier two of the teachers names) and likes pointing them out both in real life and in the school picture. They say at preschool that she acts a lot more like a child who has siblings than an only child, not budging and not letting anyone push her around (that's my girl!). I'm pretty sure she has no idea about the new baby, but we've talked about it and when I ask where the baby is, she points either to her own belly or mine. 

Andrew is still taking Swedish classes part time, but has graduated out of the "Swedish for immigrants" course and is now taking "Swedish as a second language." He feels his Swedish is progressing, but perhaps not as fast as he would like. Part of the reason is that everyone sees talking to him as a great opportunity to practice their English. He's also still working part time at the university and actually got to teach six hours of finance to the masters students, something he's hoping to do again. 

When it comes to me, my job's still pretty good even though I miss Inara when I'm there. Other than that, I feel sick most of the time and life is pretty much a party overall. It's actually not that bad, considering spring's around the corner and the people mentioned above.