Winter Saturday

Yesterday was nothing special, just a pretty average Saturday that felt nice and I happened to get the camera out.
We went ice-skating with our friends the Endlers who loaned us skates and a nice pink helmet for sir Smalls. He totally works the pink.

The bar contraption is to hold on to to learn balance. But he thought it was more fun to fall. So he kept slipping and falling, on purpose, over and over and over again. I didn't think it was as much fun so I sat him on it instead and we skated around like this.

Beautiful snowy day for xc skiing. I usually prefer to do the hills in the forest, but yesterday was cold enough to go out on the frozen-over Baltic Sea.

And finally, some indoor time playing with the Lego Duplo train set I got Smalls for Christmas. It took multiple orders off of ebay to amass this awesome collection, and each time we got more tracks and legos, Rob would be like - Oh, I guess we can save this one for Michael's birthday. And I would be like - No, actually, it's for me. I actually really enjoy doing this toy with him and have fun getting creative with new configurations. But thank you, thank you Ebay, or I would have had to get a side job to pay for all of this (who knew Lego is so ridiculously expensive, particularly the train sets?). 

p.s. Smalls does not have on pants because he is now officially potty trained. Hurray! Yes, most potty trained kids wear pants, but we went with this method and it worked out so, so great for us. Could do a whole other post on this. Thanks, Andrea, for posting the method on your blog - it sealed the deal for us.

 This sledding pic is from last week, but we've been doing lots of it so I had to throw it in.

We've both decided that Swedish winters are actually not so bad*. (Compared to other places with cold winter climates, that is, and not compared to California.) Because as long as it is going to be fairly cold, it's actually sort of nice to have the snow stick and be white and beautiful. It hasn't gotten above freezing for over two weeks and we've enjoyed it a lot - it's easier to run and bike on soft snow than stuff that melts and then refreezes and is icy and sloshy, not to mention all the fun of sledding and xc skiing right out the door. I even invented this awesome running contraption for the sled using a resistance band and a rope - I can go running and drag Michael in the sled behind me, even while using my arms and keeping decent running form. He loooves it and I get in a great workout. It's pretty awesome and I've gotten some looks from people, surely envious of my genius contraption.
*that's a lie I tell myself till June. It could be true if the coldness was confined to three winter months, instead of, like, half the year.