How about Mason?

Muddiz and her husband have the crazy idea that all of the names in their family should start with the letter M. Their son is called Milton and now they need a name for baby no. 2 which is due in late June. So far their list of boys' names is short: Marvin, Melvin, Milo and Molgan. The list of girls' names is even shorter: Milla.

I think they can do better than that and decided to give them some help. So, here are names on M, some from our own list of baby names and some that I thought of last night:

BOYS' NAMES:

Magnus
Malcolm
Malte
Manuel
Marc
Marcel
Marco
Marek
Mario
Marius
Martin
Mason
Mats (x)
Matteo (x)
Mattias
Maurice
Maximilian
Melker
Mick
Mikael
Miles
Milo (xx)
Mio
Momo
Morgan
Moritz
Måns
Mårten

GIRLS' NAMES:

Maj
Maja (x)
Malin
Malou
Marie
Mart(h)a
Matilda (xx)
Meja (xx)
Melissa
Meri
Mikaela
Millie/Milly (x)
Mimmi
Mina
Minja (x)
Mira (xx)
Miranda
Moa
Molly
Mona
My
Märt(h)a

(The names marked with one or several asterisks are on our list and favourites - the more asterisks, the more popular (2 asterisks being the top score.))

I think this should give them plenty of options. And the only thing I ask in return is for them not to tell us which names they chose. Because the last thing I want is for our own name selection process to be complicated any further...

Beached whale diet

Yesterday I had what will undoubtedly go down in history as the world's smallest birthday party.
My friend Katie came over and we ate bacon-wrapped fillet of pork with cream cheese filling and curly fries on the side, followed by fruit sallad with yoghurt cream sauce. You know that the food was good when people lie on the couch like beached whales afterwards, unable to move or interact except for the occasional grunting noise.

We then got our party on by playing the Pop Culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. As Katie and I were equally knocked out by the food it was a close game. Finally finding a worthy opponent was good news after all of my other friends turned out to be completely oblivious of trends, celebrities and the like (sorry, but it's true!).

Passing out on food: Age factor 45
Playing board games: Age factor 60
Doing both and still having a great time: Ageless

Bad English

That is not "Bad English" as in the band from the late 80ies, but a concise summary of yesterday's final of the Eurovision Song Contest. As a German I lack any natural interest in the competition and looking at the songs and artists Germany usually sends to the event you will understand that it is a notion I share with many of my countrymen. Here in Sweden though, the ESC is a big thing with several national contests and massive media coverage. Living in this country you are faced with some tough options: you either accept that your respective other will be hogging the tv for many Saturdays and find yourself something else to do OR you try to get in touch with your inner Swede long enough to be able to sit through the event.

I opted for the latter and it was truly an interesting experience. 25 songs, most of them either performed in incomprehensible English or a foreign language. I have yet to decide what is worse. Either way you could barely understand a word of any of the songs (or of what the hosts said for that matter). Who sits for over 3 hours and watches something like that you ask? Muddiz of course. And even more shocking: she enjoyed it! While her husband fell asleep on our couch before the show even started, Muddiz would even have watched the horrible filler performances with which they "entertain" people during the voting for example if we'd let her. You think you know people....

I will apply for Swedish citizenship soon and if enduring what I endured last night does not earn me any brownie points with the Swedes then I don't know what will.

Stuntbabies

Yesterday morning I left Pontus with Muddiz because I needed to go and do some serious grocery shopping before Saturday's BBQ. This was the first time somebody outside the family took care of him and I could not possibly have picked a more suitable person....or could I?

I had barely made it through her door when a loud "DUNK" from upstairs announced that her son had woken up and made his way off the couch. And it was apparently not the first time that had happened. Of course one could think that there is some carelessness involved, but I have another theory: Muddiz is probably one of these pushy showbiz moms who wants Milton to become a world-famous stuntman and starts training him early.

Did I have any doubts to leave Pontus with her? Hell no! He has been so horribly cranky all week that the prospect of taking him with me on an intense shopping tour was actually more terrifying than that of him spending time alone with the mother of all stuntmen.

And I am happy to say that things worked out very well, probaby because Pontus did not come there unprepared. He too has special abilities, such as extreme pooping powers and an ultraforceful super spit-up, and with those he kept Muddiz busy until I returned.
Well done, boy wonder!

P.S.: Maybe I should get him a shirt that says "I survived Muddiz and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"....