I know it's way too brief, but here it is anyhow...

These are some of the pictures we have to choose from for school pictures. I'm impressed by his jumping style!



I've been in Paris the past week, while Erik and Vigo have been in Berlin. Vigo's visit to Paris was a bit spoiled by another ear infection. The third one this year! We're going to talk to our doctor about this and maybe see a second doctor, too.

Otherwise, Vigo is doing great. He does miss his friends back in Somerville and wishes we could make another trip back there this year, but until Erik and I start making money again, that's not going to be possible. I just got a cheap, light, tent and we will spend all summer in Berlin with a few camping weekends thrown in. Hopefully a week in Dessau, too.

We just started reading the Harry Potter books, which are a lot better and more enjoyable than I expected them to be. We're also reading the Mistmantle Chronicles, which is super high drama and really nicely written.

Vigo and I recently went to see Swan Lake, which was danced by children. Some of the dancing was pretty, well, it was done by little kids... but the girl who danced the lead was beautiful. And the music was great as well. Vigo most loved the owl's entourage of bats.

The Marshmallow Test

I know it's been months since I've written anything of substance. This is going to be disappointingly short, I'll warn you right off.

Most of you have probably already heard about Walter Mischel's marshmallow test. If you haven't, here's a great show about it on Radiolab you can listen to.

The basic idea is that kids who manage to delay gratification do better later in life than kids who don't and the kids who manage to delay gratification do it by finding strategies for not thinking about temptation.

The other day Vigo and I were on a long walk and I told him that someone had done an experiment where they said to kids, "You could have one marshmallow now or two later." I asked him what he would do. He got very excited about the idea of marshmallows and he said, "Well, I wouldn't even have to think about it for even a minute. I would definitely choose to have two marshmallows later, because two marshmallows is better than just one."

Then I told him that the next part of the experiment was that the guys left the kids in the room all alone with the marshmallow for a really long time and waited to see what the kids would do. I asked him if he thought he would be able to hold out.

Vigo said he thought he could. I asked him how would he pull it off and he immediately replied, "I dunno. Maybe I would sit under the table."

Good answer!