Quite often mum is working late so it is only son and dad that do the before-bed-story time-routine together. We normally start with a Swedish picture book, or (as we have done recently) read a chapter from Pippi Långstrump, Pippi Longstocking, the famous and still very popular children’s books character created by Astrid Lindgren. (As …
Every night, our son is looking forward to bedtime. Not to sleep, but to hear me read books and tell stories. When we came back from Sweden I brought a suitcase full of Swedish children’s books, most of which I got when I was a child myself, so now we have a newly stocked library …
Suddenly Sunday evening the fever appeared, and in the morning there was nothing else for me to do than to take our little guy to see the doctor. Fortunately the weather was perfect for a walk and my boy lay half asleep in his pram. We had not used it for several months and I …
Our son is growing fast, although he lost some weight the last months thanks to all the illness he had to go through. But I am sure he will get it back soon since he has found his appetite again. At the three year checkup the other day, we saw that he is well above …
It has been a very unusual spring. My wife has a new job, our son has started kindergarten, and my parents from Sweden have come and left. Now summer is quickly approaching and a new normal is lying in front of me, although without me having any hint of what it will look like. Or …
It is amazing, the way small children see the world. And the way they express what they see. My son can take me from upset to wonder in a matter of a few words. We sit and have lunch and he decides that he wants to put anything that can fit into his cup with …
Being a Swedish husband and dad taking care of a two year old son in a little town in Kyushu, Japan, is as meaningful and happy a life as I could imagine. Sure, an everyday life of caring for a son and home from morning to bedtime has its challenging aspects, some a bit more …
It seems to be here – this year’s rainy season. Looking at the weather app on the phone, all I see is rain and thunder ten days ahead. I am sure it will be some blue sky in between the thunder clouds, but the oppressing humid heat will not go away and time has come to …
Our little family tries to surf in the rough sea of languages every day, the waves sometimes so violent that I fall of the surfing board and wash up on the shore all bruised. Especially so after a morning with my son at the playground. My wife and I speak Japanese and English, I speak …
Times are changing; when starting to write this I feel like this will probably be my shortest blog post so far. Why? Because of a recent triple punch on my stamina (catch up on another triple punch story here). It all started when my wife was going to Tokyo and left my son and me …
The slight shift in in temperature, required to make the air coming in from the sea feel soft instead of chilly, has come. The sun is warming the playgrounds from early morning, and suddenly we start to meet friends that we have not seen since autumn. It is like the children and their parents (for …
Coming home from our long morning walk (read here), it was high time to make lunch. Our 20 months old child is now capable of bypassing all child locks in our house; he easily enters the kitchen part of our living room, he easily opens the child locked kitchen drawer, he finds his way to …