Wander & Nest

Play is clearly so central to kids’ lives in Sweden, there are little playgrounds everywhere! We’ve only scratched the surface in our first month and have already seen some great and conveniently located play spots. The huge park in Gothenburg, called Slottsskogen, has an incredible playground with activities for all ages and even had little cars and bikes for kids to ride. It’s about a 15 min walk from our apartment and I’m sure it will be a main destination in the spring and summer.

Mara has really taken a liking to dresses, which is a real 180 from before. I think she likes wearing the tights underneath mostly. We’ll see if this evolves as the weather gets warmer and tights aren’t needed anymore. Some of her favorite play activities at home are remarkably similar to our normal activities… “working” on my keyboard with her headphones that are not connected to anything, doing laundry and ironing (ok we never iron but Mara loves this little set we found at a second hand shop), and putting her baby to bed with a story.

Mara got her first ever haircut in Gothenburg! We found a kids-only salon that was perfectly set up for a first haircut. Mara loved it so much and that only tough part was dragging her out of there. She’s been feeling very stylish with her new cut and some new outfits.

One of our favorite places we discovered is the World Culture Museum (Världkulturmuseet). We got annual passes because it was basically the same price as a single ticket, only about $17 USD per adult and of course free for Mara. We’ve been twice and have visited the two kid-friendly exhibits – Together and World of Games. One day there was even free a concert in the atrium that was so cute for kids. It’s a really amazing museum for all ages and is a place we’ll return to often.

Mara’s food preferences (pickiness) has not improved much unfortunately, but there have been a few small additions to the foods she’ll eat. All food is provided by daycare which is amazing…except the only thing Mara will eat is fruit. We’ve been trying everything we can think of to get her to eat real food, but this kid is so stubborn it’s just not happening. Staples now include fruit, rice cakes (new woo!) with peanut butter and Nutella, drinkable yogurt, and her beloved canned tomato soup with dried ramen sprinkled in. The other day Mara spotted dozos (rice crackers we discovered in Thailand) in the Asian store and that was so exciting for everyone, she happily hopped in her stroller so she could eats dozos on the go. And she just became interested in ice cream, she didn’t like that it was cold and creamy before 🙂 I was pretty proud of my technique to cut a mini magnum bar in half and stick it on a takeout fork. Mara ate the chocolate and some of the vanilla ice cream until it started tasting “too creamy” then she was done.

Looking back on pictures from the last couple of months, the change in Mara is wild. I guess the fruit and rice cakes are working. Just when did she get so big???