School Yard Drama, Sticker Drama, Muffin Mayhem and Bears with Giant Ears

The second week of school, Tipton had a little run-in on the playground. It was after school and Tipton had dashed out the door. I was a little slow following, because the hallway is so crowded that while Tipton can just duck underneath the grownups, I've got to wait until I can squeeze by them. Anyway, he was out "unattended" on the playground for all of five minutes. When I caught up with him, he had a bruise, scrape and knot on his forehead. When I asked him what happened he said that some kid had picked him up, flipped him upsidedown and dropped him on his head. I was just a little pissed. I had him take me to the boy that had done it. Turned out that the boy was in Fritids (the afterschool care program.) He was in the Swedish part of the school, in the SECOND GRADE. This kid was almost as tall as I am. And he flipped my son upside down and dropped him on his head. He could have broken Tipton's neck, or knocked him unconsciense. I looked around for a teacher. Found all of them on the OTHER side of the playground, talking. I marched over and showed them Tipton's forehead and explained that one of their students had dropped my son on his head. One of them went over and talked to the boy, who admitted doing it. That was it. The next day Dave went into work late so that we could talk to someone from the office at the school. We were informed that someone had spoken to the boys mother. That's it. That is the maximum "punishment" allowed in the Swedish school system.

Tipton is now taking Judo lessons, so that he can defend himself.


Lilli loves stickers. She is especially fond of the foamy stickers. They usually keep her occupied for at least 30 minutes. However, the other day she was not liking the foamy stickers so much.

She learned, the hard way, not to put stickers in her hair.

Recently I have been on a baking binge. Specifically, baking muffins. I am trying to find recipes for healthy muffins that I can give my kids for breakfast. The other day I found a recipe for banana muffins. Now my kids love my banana bread, but it isn't exactly what I'd call "healthy." So when I saw this recipe I knew we'd have to try it. So one weekend morning I decided we'd give it a try. The kids wanted to help, and it took me back to those times that my grandmother would sit me on her counter so that I could help her bake.

Great memories.

The weekend before last we took the kids to a Teddy Bear Symphony. The program is geared towards children, and they children are encouraged to bring their teddy bears (or whatever bedtime animal they're most fond of.) My kids sleep with a puppy and an elephant. There was one kid there with a giant stuffed hamster. As we walked up to the building we saw a mascott. I think it was supposed to be Bamse (the world's strongest bear.) It looked like a giant mouse without a tail. It shook hands with all the kids and with all the kids "bears." Lilli LOVED it. She kept talking about the "bear." She started stalking it. She would follow it around and point and say "Bear! Bear!" And then she'd laugh.

It was really cute. And kind of creepy.