Hike | Patikkaretki

Easter Playtime

The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the past few days. We have even been outside in short sleeves with no jackets!

Bonus: Otso in Easter finery:

Otso's 6th Month

Summary

Otso is still a happy baby, and we all like him. He gives "hugs" by holding on to whomever is holding him. He is generally pretty cooperative in family life and doesn't require a lot of attention, but that is changing. Lately he seems to be even more social and will complain unless he gets to sit at the table with us when we are eating.

Events
26.3 roll over from back to front
30.3 played with Kati while parents took a sauna

13.4 first bath with big sister

19-20.4 trip to Kristiansand to the zoo

Play / Development
In the beginning of the month, we are seeing a lot of frantic playing. He is still one moment and then thrashing arms wildly the next moment when we show him a toy.
He can hold toys now, and can often be calmed with the offer of a toy when he is crying. He loves toys and plays like the ideal focus group child. He plays with a wider variety of toys than Lumi did, and especially seems to like crinkly toys.

Sometimes when I try to read a book to him, he gets so excited that he simply hits the book frantically with one arm.
He started out the month not babbling with consonant sounds; he just did variations on "eeeeee". Now he has a solid repertoire of "ba ba ba ba".
Often he sticks his index finger out. It is sometimes with the thumb, like a pretend gun.

Eating
He hadn't been so enthusiastic the last couple times we tried to feed him solids, so I backed off and he is now on just breast milk again.

I tried again with solids about midway through the month. I am trying to be more assertive about actually getting it into his mouth, and then he eats reasonably happily.

Sleeping
He sleeps mostly through the night when he is in bed with äiti, only doing the "dream feed" every hour starting at 2 or 3. However, sometimes he wakes up at 4 or 5 and wants to play.
The evening bed routine varies widely in success. Sometimes he can be nursed to sleep quickly and then I have to repeat every 45 minutes or so. Some nights, however, it takes a long time to nurse him to sleep and then he wakes up crying after maybe 10 minutes. Most nights we are using a disposable diaper.

On 9.4 we began a night routine starting with a bath at 7:00, then into the bedroom for diaper and pajamas and to bed. He still has a hard time actually going to sleep, but we are trying to keep it so that he doesn't leave the bedroom after the bath time. I nurse him and we rock him and we also put on the "Rock a Bye Baby" tunes for him.

Health
The little "bug bite" spot on his belly developed into a blister on the evening of 22.3. It looked big on the morning of 23.3, but then it drained some liquid. We are keeping a bandaid on it to prevent irritation from clothing rubbing against it. I took him to the helsestasjon on 25.3, where 2 nurses and a doctor took a look. They said to let it get air and keep antibiotic ointment on it, but if it doesn't get better in 2 days to call our doctor. So 28.3 I took him to the doctor. Our normal doctor had the day off, and another doctor tried to convince me it was chicken pox. I argued because it had been over a month and just this one spot. Another doctor agreed, then they sent us home with instructions to basically keep doing the same thing.
31.3 he had the second round of vaccines (5 months is Norway's time for this): tetanus, diptheria, whooping cough, polio, Hib, pneumococcus. That night he had a fever and wasn't feeling good at all.

The little spot on his belly has healed back to the bug bite thing, but it still doesn't look like the rest of his skin.

Stats
Clothes: a solid 80 (12 month) in a onesie ("body"). We have a couple size 86 and they don't seem too big. Depending on the brand, he can wear pants in 68, 74, or 80.

He is kicking a lot with his right leg, and consequently the thigh is noticeably trimmer on the right leg. We have to snap his diapers tighter on that side!

Play

Not entirely sure what's going on here.

Siblings in the bath

Last night Otso joined Lumi in the bathtub for the first time. Otso was delighted.

Pienet balettipyörähdykset

Sofa time

Don't let 'em fool ya

Lumi and a duck

Daily photo

Lumi: 3 Years and 2 Months

This month has been quite nice. Lumi is learning new expressions in language, and entertaining us with very adult-sounding constructions. She is mostly on an even keel and it seems tantrums are fewer. She is even quite loving with her baby brother.

Events
9.3 Finnish group coffee meeting
10.3 stroller flat tire; lumi had to walk home from downtown
12.3 the cast off the arm!
16.3 trip to Gausel farm
22.3 first Suomikoulu (Finnish school)
27.3 Dance Barnehage
30.3 sauna at Kati's house

Language
Lumi calls her brother "Motso"
She started saying "because" a lot, and will counter arguments with "yes, but" and then her explanation.
She has also started quoting her animals and dolls during play, like " 'I am going to the grocery store.' said the rabbit. " It is pretty amusing to hear it.
The Czech language seems to be almost, if not completely, gone. She doesn't seem to recognize even the most basic Czech words she used every day. Of course, we are not Czech speakers so maybe in other contexts with a proper accent she would respond.
She used to say "pajamas" properly I think, but now it is "jamamas". I love it. (update: gone by the end of the month. so sad!)
We are seeing more blending of Finnish and English, especially when she doesn't remember a word.

Learning
Her counting is getting consistent and she is showing beginning math skills. She likes to tell us how many there are of things, and also says things like "when isä comes back then there will be 2 grown-ups and 2 kids."
She is recognizing letters too. She knows L, M, K, O, and A. And she knows the number 3.
On 20.3 we were coloring and she noticed for the first time that I colored "between the lines" and she didn't. Then she said "Äiti! I am not good!" and it was very matter of fact; she wasn't upset.

Toys, Games, what have you
She likes her Doc McStuffins. She still loves Legos and playing with her various stuffed animals and dolls. Lately her interest in babies has waned to "yeah, that's another fun toy" though she still likes to assign our family roles (mother, father, big sister, baby) to new playthings.
She informed me that her favorite color is blue. Two days later she informed me that it is back to green.
We are making a conscious effort to learn the Barnehage songs and it is hilarious to watch her try "head shoulders shoulders knees and toes".
She enjoys finding objects in pictures and books, and also playing hide and seek.

Food
Her eating is quite erratic. Sometimes it seems she will barely eat, other times she will wolf down large quantities.
She often requests warm milk to drink.

Health
She picked up a cold on our way back to Norway and fought it for about a week.
We went to the hospital for an x-ray on 12.3 and they decided to take the cast off. Her left forearm is still curved but the doctors here and in Indianapolis assured us that it will straighten as she grows.
There is a chicken pox virus going around the playgroup circle, but so far she hasn't caught it.

Stats
size: 98 or 3T
on 27.3:
height: 93.5 cm
weight: 12.6 kg

Sleep
8.3 testing a no-nap schedule, with earlier bedtime.
11.3 trying instead to do a nap on weekdays but no nap on weekends. She seemed too tired and it really shortened family time in the evenings, which meant that Kimmo only got one very cranky hour with her each evening.

Random
Lumi watched a lot of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" in Florida, and when I was struggling to get a stuck toy out of a toy teacup, she suggested "Maybe we need a mouseketool!"
Quotes:
"I love my baby brother! "
While playing hide and seek:
Kimmo: "you need to count to 10."
Lumi: "1, 2, 10!"
After having been told there were no snacks available:
"I want something to chew on!"

Thinking inside the box