Watermelon juice

Lumi's New Year's Eve treat.
Lumin uuden vuoden herkku.

Waiting for the bus

It's dark out there on December mornings.

Lumi's favorite hobby | Lumin suosikkiharrastus

What can I say, she loves it. sometimes alone, sometimes with a teddybear, sometimes with pants and all the time when camera is on .. luckily also only when there is audience to support and cheer.

Toddler Bed

Lumi hates her toddler bed, but the cats appreciate it!

Working Together

happiness

there is so much pure joy in this photo that it's almost unbearable.

what we hear: "blah blah blah blah louku"

The daycare sent lyrics to Lumi's favorite song!

Skákal pes přes oves, přes zelenou louku,

šel za ním myslivec, péro na klobouku.

Pejsku náš, co děláš, žes tak vesel stále?

řek bych vám, nevím sám,

hop - a skákal dále!

(A dog was jumping through an oat field,

He was followed by a hunter with a feather on his hat.

Little dog, what do you do to keep yourself so happy?

If I knew I would tell you, and he continued jumping.)

Lumi and Nova

Lumi loved playing with Nova on her play mat.

Lumi's 22nd Month

Events
'Lantern walk' at Villa Luna in honor of St. Martin's day -- The kids made paper lanterns, put a tea light inside, then went for a walk in the woods.  Kimmo joined Lumi for this.
2 week trip in US -- 1 week in Indy (including Thanksgiving) with the Carpenters and Grandma. We went to the children's museum.  5 days in Florida with Grandpa and Mama Dollie.  We went to a polo match and swam in the "spool", and had a Christmas celebration. Then 2 days in NYC with Nikki and newly anointed "Uncle Dudu" and Nova.

Toilet training
She asked to go kakka and then went in the potty at daycare 6.11.2012. In the USA, we had a potty strike, then when we stopped pressuring her, she started using the potty again. We are using diapers at night and during plane trips. We had a few nap leaks so far, when she was napping in the car seat. She seems to have regressed a lot during this US trip. Most annoyingly, we have had a huge rebellion about going. Often (most often when she is tired or hungry) she feels when she needs to go, tells us, gets to the potty, gets her pants down, gets on the potty, and then starts complaining and insists on getting up. Then we leave the bathroom and she starts leaking.  This doesn't happen when anyone besides isä or äiti takes her; just with her parents. Then NYC was mostly a big success potty-wise.

Food
Breakfast is milk and a banana (or some other fruit), plus a bite of äiti's hard boiled egg.  Twice now she has decided to skip nursing in the morning in favor of a cup of milk.  We are down to just the morning nursing and then an occasional time during the day on weekends when she's feeling overwhelmed or tired but having trouble sleeping. On the trip, lumi seems to have mostly forgotten about nursing. I guess the disruption of our morning routine has had an effect!

Language
walnut = "walnip"

snake = "nake"

robot = "robop"
she is stringing together adjectives and nouns, like "big leaf".  she is also constructing the english possessive, like "lady's phone" (as she points to the lady on the bus talking on the phone). In the US, her English made big strides. At first, she was trying to speak to Sophie and Samari in Czech, but after a few days she switched to English.

Learning
She can count down from 4 to zero in English, and 2 - 4 in Finnish.  Often a jump starts with "kaksi, kolme" and then she leaps.

Behavior
lumi is lots of fun these days. she likes to sing and run and laugh.  she likes to sprint to the sofa and throw her torso on the cushions and lift up her feet. She loves jumping, both in grandpa and mama dollie's pool and over cracks in the sidewalk (and off of the sofa, and basically anywhere).

Toys/Books
Lumi has a pink rubber pony she likes to sit on and ride.  She still loves her bear Kartsa, and sleeps with him and Ernie and Pupu (the bunny).
Favorite books now include 'The Lady with the Alligator Purse'.
We read 2 books after bath and before bed: one naked, and one after pajamas (because she hates pajamas and loves books, this seems to get things going).  Lately she has insisted on taking whatever books we read to bed with her, so in the morning we find her cuddling her bear Kartsa and clutching books.

Health
We have been lucky that this was a healthy month.

Stats
clothes:  size 86 or 92. Lots of tights.
height - ?
weight - 24 lbs on the luggage scale at the airport.
teeth - 12
naps - 1 per day in afternoon

Random Funny Stuff
She sings "baa baa black sheep" as "yes sir, yes sir, baa baa baa"

Insta love

Uncle Troy took some nice pics of Lumi. And I love this one of us!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

Lumi and Kimmo practice archaeology.

Cousin lovin'

Lumi and Sophie cuddle on the sofa.

Lumi represents a new generation of Teradata employees

Underwear! | Alushousut.

potty training benefits you might also remember these family favorites from earlier blog post .. you might also remember these family favorites from earlier blog post ..

mmm...raw broccoli

bottle caps are awesome

Napping in public

We took these during Lumi's first diaper-free outing, which was a mopo ride to the cafe. She took a 30-minute nap right after the snack.

Taking care of Nova

Lumi feeds baby Nova with her bottle.

Lumi and the first snow | Lumi ja ensilumi

winter came 25th of Oct this year

Lumi's 21st Month

Events

Mummu and Anne came to visit, Lumi moved out of the crib to a stack of crib-size mattresses on the floor, Vaari came to visit.

Toilet training

We're practicing going to the potty not asking "do you need to go?" but telling her to go.  By the end of the month, she is averaging only 2 diapers per day at daycare (down from 5), because she pees in the potty most of the time.

When Vaari was in town, Lumi stayed home one day because she was a little sick.  After reading some advice from an elimination communication blog post titled "are we teaching our kids to pee on the floor?", we decided we should try to have her wear pants at home (also winter is upon us!), to help her feel why it is a problem if she pees anywhere she likes.  The day that Vaari watched her, the morning went well but then in the afternoon and evening she peed in her pants maybe 5 times.  Plus 4 poo occurrences, also in the pants.  During one of the clean-ups lumi cried so hard she threw up.

Food

We bought some formula when she was sick and not eating anything, because this was our scheme to get extra vitamins into her.  She seems to drink a lot more than she does with normal milk.  She is unsatisfied with staying in her own chair at the dinner table.  She still loves bananas and most fruit she comes across.  She happily eats oatmeal ("puuro") with lots of milk and raisins, and is currently insisting that each spoonful contain at least one raisin.  She also eats parts of Äiti's boiled egg in the morning.

Language

She sings Czech songs that Mirka taught her at day care.  She loves hearing the Itsy Bitsy Spider (and will join in enthusiastically for "wash!" when the rain washes the spider out) and the ABC song.  In mid-October, she started calling Kimmo "maminka" which is the Czech word for "mommy".  This month she spoke her first Czech sentence, which was "mommy comes" when Kimmo arrived to pick her up from day care.  She also her first English sentence, pointing out something in a book (something like "there is spider").  She is starting to see the point in adjectives.

Learning

Lumi loves listening to counting, and both Äiti and Isä count in the elevator when going up or down (we live on the 13th floor, so there is ample opportunity).  We count down from 5 at the end of her time outs (which are almost always because she threw a toy), and she can join in for 'four, three, two'.  While Vaari was here, her Finnish counting skills got a lot better, and she can say "kaksi, kolme, neljä"

Behavior

When she is tired or angry, Lumi likes to throw things (toys, books, etc).  She also has started hitting a little, but almost always it's just Äiti and no one else, which I guess she feels safe doing because she knows I will still love her.  She also started biting.  She has only bitten us on the skin a couple of times, but during a tantrum she will chomp down on my sweater, and one time on a wooden step!  She loves her Isä more than anyone in the world, though. 

Toys/Books

We let her play with some coins and she loves them.  She asks for her "money" or "raha" when she wakes up and then will count them and put them in boxes.  We make her leave them at home, so when she gets home from day care she often asks for them immediately.  Vaari made her an activity board with hinges and locks and magnets.

Favorite books now include "300 Sanat" and "Little Blue Truck".She loves any book with Elmo in it.  She loves the Muumi books too.  A

Health

She had a bit of a stuffy nose for a while this month, plus a light fever or two.

Stats

clothes: 92 pants, 86 shirts.  

height - ?

weight - ?

teeth - 12

naps - 1 per day in afternoon

bedtime - 19:30

Random Funny Stuff

Lumi likes to walk through the woods, especially with her father.  She insists on holding at least one leaf in each hand.

Two words that came this month are "fork" and "clock".  [Un]fortunately, there is a little pronunciation problem, and they sound like "fuck" and "cock".

Vaari

Lumi and Vaari horse around on the floor.

Lehti! Leaf!

Lumi's daycare is in a little forest, and when she walks through, she demands a leaf for each hand. They don't have to be especially big or pretty or colorful. She has been known to select half-rotted ones. But she will hold onto them, even through a nap.

Buried

This is a photo from back in September, but I hadn't posted it yet.

Halloween Party

Here is the story:

 We didn't think Lumi would tolerate much of a costume. So I found (at a local toy shop) wings and a head thing and tutu -- basically a fairy set up. I spent a while prepping her mentally (mentioning it the week before and day before, and talking about it the morning of the party, then putting on my own bee costume with a tutu, then producing hers). And then we packed it up and then all 3 of us walked to Villa Luna, her daycare place. But Kimmo and I didn't consider that a lot of the party would be outside. Finland doesn't celebrate Halloween, and I grew up in a warmer climate, so I didn't consider the necessity of a over-the-clothes costume.

 So when we arrived, all the other kids were dressed up, but Lumi had her snow pants and coat and hat on instead of her costume. It was chilly, so I put the tutu on over the snowsuit. But then one of Lumi's caregiver's daughters was there and she had a witch outfit with a crazy wig on, and she took the wig off and put it on Lumi. And it was a huge success!  Everyone was delighted. You have to remember that Lumi is practically bald, so it was disconcerting to see her with a lot of hair. Plus her little hat/pipo underneath kind of looked like a sweatband.

and...voilà!

Lumi and Äiti / Lumi ja Äiti

Lumi threw a tantrum and ran screaming through the middle of a very serious concentration camp museum. But instead of kicking us out, the sweet guards cooed at Lumi and gave her an apple!

Time for school / Kouluaika!

Lumi scored a cool retro dress.

Casual

Lumi loves the pockets of her snow pants.

Happy Halloween!

We carved pumpkins at the day care Halloween party!

New skill - Handling Money | Rahan käsittelyä

We thought that it was time for Lumi to learn how to hold three coins between her toes and then shake the leg.

bed / sänky

yesterday we transitioned lumi from her crib to a 3-deep pile of baby mattresses on the floor.  we plan to start proper potty training in a couple of weeks, and i read that you should try to transition to a non-crib bed before you do that.  plus i read that it's easier to transition to a non-crib bed if you do it before the kid realizes that getting up is an option.  and sure enough, last night she didn't seem to realize she could get in or out of the bed by herself, despite the fact that while we were setting it up, she was playing in there and climbing on/off the bed easily.  when we put her to bed, she stayed in bed.  and then this morning when she woke up she cried for äiti to come get her.  she is napping there right now.

obviously this won't last and she will figure it out soon.  but until then, we are enjoying it!

How to use a knife

Isä gave Lumi cutlery lessons at lunch today! Isä opettaa käyttämään veistä tänään!

The best pillow in the house / Paras tyyny kotona

reading time

isä ja lumi lukevat yhdessä.

Waiting by the Cathedral of St. Vitus | Odottelua pyhän Vituksen katedraalin vieressä

Mummu & Anne were visiting cathedral, but we decided to hang out outside this time

Lumi's 20th Month

I'm sorry about all the English, but I hope it's better than nothing! It was a good month with a lot of activities.

Events:
We started out with a visit from Grandma. On her 19th month birthday, we went to the zoo with Grandma and Lumi rode a pony! Then we took a weekend trip to Finland for the wedding of one of Kimmo's closest boyhood friends: Sami (to Ilona). This was momentous because Lumi spent the night in Nakkila with Mummu, and it was her first overnight with neither father nor mother. Then just last weekend we all went to Munich for Oktoberfest. It's not the greatest event for a toddler, but the point of going was to meet up with some old friends from the US, Mike and Matt (and Ian and Kate, both Peace Corps friends).

Potty training:
At home we try to keep Lumi pants-free so she can easily go to the potty whenever she feels the need to go. We also keep her little potty in the living room for the same reason. She gets most pee in the potty while at home, but still poop on floor most times. She knows enough to warn us with about 1 second lead time about poop by shouting 'pee!'. :) At daycare (and they have been very helpful and understand about this transition), she is often peeing in the potty, but poop in the diaper. Late in the month, she switched to yelling 'kakka!' right after she pees, and also having trouble remembering to go to the potty. This may be our fault for not asking frequently enough if she needs to go. And on 1 October she opened her own diaper -- one with snaps that is supposedly babyproof!

Food:
She loves berries, kidney beans, green peas, green beans, bananas, olives, cheese, and milk.

Language:
Lumi speaks Czech, English, and Finnish with a number of words in each. She seems to understand German (which she gets in smaller quantities at daycare) but doesn't really speak it. She is beginning to separate out the languages, although that could just be repetition and my imagination working together.

Health:
She had a cold with a high fever toward the end of the month. And her last incisor arrived during Oktoberfest.

Devil with a blue dress