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!

The Viking Genes

A few people now have sent me this movie trailer because the 13-year-old Swedish boy in this movie reminds them of Vigo. Check it out. Vigo is cute when he's 13.

Funy Accents

This morning, as I was getting dressed, I was talking out loud to myself in a funny accent. In saunters Vigo, and says, "Why are you talking in a funny accent?

"I'm just talking to myself. I've heard you talk to yourself in a funny accent plenty of times before," I reply.

Then Vigo says, in his excellent British accent, "I don't talk in a funny accent. I talk in an English accent."

Our Visit to the US

We were in the US January 31st until February 8th, during Vigo's winter vacation. During out layover in Newark, Vigo got to try his first Shirley Temple. He was very impressed.



Back in Somerville, we borrowed our old car and drove up to Vermont, to stay for a few days with Justine, Michael, and Sienna. Erik and Vigo (and some days Micheal) went skiing and I hung out with Justine and Sienna at the house. Vigo had a half day of ski school and then went out on the slopes with Erik. Vigo was very proud to have come down his first real black diamond, only falling about five times, he told me.

All the time Vigo didn't spend out in the snow, he spent doting on Sienna, who was 8 months old at the time. He really found her fascinating and just showered her with attention. He was disappointed every time she went for a nap or to sleep for the night.




Vigo also did a little bit of shoveling, and got caught in an "avalanche."



After our time in Vermont, we spent almost a week in Somerville, visiting old friends. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun the whole time that I forgot to take any pictures. All I have are some cute shots from Photobooth, by Vigo and Shane.




Vigo was a little bit worried that our old next-door-neighbor Thomas, with whom he used to play pretty much every single day after school, might not recognize him. But he had nothing to worry about. He fell back in with all the old pals as if he had never been away. Loden and his mom Jen were so kind as to schedule Loden's birthday party to coincide with Vigo's visit, so he got to see almost all of his classmates.

We even managed to get out to Boston to have a nice long brunch with Derrick and Nina and Inka and Lumi. Vigo has always been very keen on little Inka, and she follows him around adoringly in return. The two of them at one point set up a tent around the feet of Lumi, who at the time was a little under 8 months old, and spent some time entertaining her peek-a-boo-style.

Our friends Judy and Dave let us invite some friends over to their house the Saturday before our departure, and this was one of the highlights of our visit. We just generally had a wonderful time during the entire vacation. It was nice to prove to Vigo that I wasn't lying when I said that we'd be back to visit and that he'd get to see all of his friends again.

More Winter News

Recently, Erik and I decided to visit Boston during Vigo's February school vacation. We'll spend the first part of the week in Vermont, skiing, and the second part seeing our friends. All of us are really excited about it.

Vigo's eyes can finally be seen again, since Vigo gave himself one of his famous haircuts last week. He's had lots of compliments on the cut from the other kids at school.



Our calm little winter solstice party went really nicely. Vigo and I made bite-sized bottle cap cookies by using a bottle cap for a cookie cutter.



We all dressed up and walked up to the top of the hill in the park, where we discovered a couple of other groups, who were getting little bonfires going.

Vigo is eagerly beginning to plan his own birthday party, which is more than a month away. I won't give out any details yet, though!

Vigo's German is starting to blossom since we got a TV. We let him watch some cartoons in the morning before school every day, now. He still enjoys Caillou as much as he did when he was three.

We had a really nice Christmas with Erik's older sister Iris in Dessau. Iris is Erik's father's daughter from a first marriage, so we also got to meet Iris's mother, Berbel. Berbel made a delicious herring and beet salad for the festivities along with what seemed like a bottomless supply of homemade cookies! Vigo didn't mind too much not having other kids to play with and spent hours and hours putting together his new Lego set. I had an especially great time on Christmas Eve, when Iris and I walked through the dark woods to the boat house on the river where some of her friends were having mulled wine around a fire outside.



Erik and Vigo and I made Dan and Iris each a board game about themselves. Vigo was very excited to give these presents and he said something really funny about them:
"We made your presents ourselves. But don't worry, they look very professional."

Here's the game of Iris. I forgot to get a photo of Dan's.



On Christmas Day, everyone except for Vigo and I went to the opera. The Show was Fidelio and the production was set in a WWII concentration camp. We figured if we took Vigo to see that for his first opera experience, we'd never get him inside an opera house again.

A week or so after Christmas, I took Vigo to see a special kid showing of Hansel and Gretel at the Deutche Oper here in Berlin. He got a little bit scared about the witch in the first part and kind of wanted to go home at intermission. Here's a picture of him worrying about the fates of poor Hansel and Gretel during the break:



Once the witch actually come on and wasn't just peeking out ominously from behind the trees, he was fine and he really loved the show. He's excited to go back. Our next show will be Swan Lake in February. Here are a couple pictures from the show we saw, including the witch. The singing in this show was just super, too.



We had a free ice skating rink near our apartment for the holidays, but unfortunately we only managed to go to it one time. We also got a couple of sledding nights in, even though I wasn't able to find a proper Berlin-style sled because all of the stores were completely sold out. Here's a picture of Vigo and one of his closest friends, Leander, at the skating rink, and sledding with another of his closest friends, Edward.



We're all still having a great time getting to know Berlin, but we're also very excited to be able to make a qick visit back to Somerville!

Winter Party

my movie