Slumber

Mr. Lau fell asleep on the sofa. And then Lumi moved the cushions on top of him, yet he somehow stayed asleep.

Barnehage

We visited Lumi's new barnehage. Her group goes in the red door.

If this ain't happiness, baby, it'll do

Yesterday Otso discovered how to bounce himself in a Jumperoo. It might have been the best day of his life (so far).

satisfaction

the light is a bit weird, but this is the kind of happy/goofy cuteness we're dealing with around here. plus i like how the bib looks like a cape.

He ain't heavy; he's my brother

Lumi helped bring Otso to his bath.

Otso's 7th Month

Summary
Otso seems to be a sweet and good-natured person. He smiles a lot. He gets upset when Lumi is upset and sometimes cries when she yells.

Events
21.4 Easter Monday; Lumi got to eat Otso's chocolate
27.4 hike up to Lifjell. Otso slept most of the way in the baby carrier.
28.4 Six month control at the doctor - he is doing well!
4.5 hike with Gemma's family : Bru Kultursti 

16.5 switch to regular crib instead of co-sleeper crib

17.5 Norwegian National Day; went to watch the parades. Also Xaden's birthday party.

Play / Development
On 22.4 he learned to splash in the tub by kicking his legs. He laughed and laughed and drenched the bathroom.
He is doing a lot of back arching when he is lying on the floor. Usually when we place him on his back it is only a matter of time (20 seconds?) before he rolls over onto his front. Typically he goes toward his left side. Because of this (and because the cats like sleeping on the changing table) I mostly change his diaper on the floor.

He spends a lot of time on his belly on the floor. He likes to have a toy in his hands when he does this. However, he ends up accidentally pushing the toy away from himself. Then he cries, we come over and put the toy within reach again, and he is happy. Then it repeats.

Toys/Games
He won't sit still with a book. Usually he tries to chew on the book or hit it.
He likes anything crinkly, but seems to enjoy most toys.
He likes to be tossed in the air and caught. He likes when we pretend to drop him.

Eating
At the beginning of the month he is not so interested in food other than mother's milk. He will turn his head away when offered food, either by spoon or by hand. He is also not interested when we hand him food, like a slice of apple to gnaw on. He did enjoy gnawing on a chicken bone. Toward the end of the month he was more readily eating solids, and enjoying a little taste of whatever we're eating (licking a cucumber slice or an apple slice, for example).
He has eaten a carrot-parsnip puree and some applesauce, along with rice porridge. And little samples of banana or sweet potato or pear. We have tried one pasta-tomato-vegetable purée and Otso doesn't really like it, plus it's really messy so I don't think we'll try that again for a while.
We have been trying to get him to drink breastmilk from a bottle or sippy cup (so that it would give us the option to have a babysitter) but so far he has rejected it.

Sleeping
He shakes he head like he is saying "no" when he is tired.
On 25.4 he cried for 2 hours while we were trying to get him to go to sleep.
We have been having some success at the pick-up-put-down method in the big bed, and now we're trying to put him to sleep each night in the crib (and still co-sleeping later in the night). When he cries while he is trying to get to sleep, instead of nicely placing his head on my shoulder, he will flex his back and reach his hands out to grab my face. It isn't pleasant.

Health
We do minimal effort at elimination communication, but can usually get him to pee in the sink just after he wakes up. Usually he does 3 mini-pees instead of a steady stream.
We still can't tell his cries from the other. I remember that at this age we could generally identify Lumi's hunger cry vs. boredom cry vs. tired cry, but we are still mostly guessing with Otso. No doubt this is due to his being a second child and our attention is divided.

His poo is transitioning away from the newborn poo. It's still far from solid, but it is more cohesive now.

Stats
On 28.4, he was 8.66 kilos and 70 centimeters.
Clothes: a size 80 (12 month) in a onesie (bodysuit). We have a couple size 86 and they don't seem too big. His pants are an 80, but they tend to be a bit long.

In disposable diapers he is a size 4. We have hit the in-between stage where he is too big for the little cloth diapers but not long enough for the bigger sizes of cover. With Lumi we had a similar situation but then when she started walking her thighs trimmed down and all of a sudden the covers fit great again. So we are doing the same thing we did with Lumi; mainly we use the pocket diapers now.

Dentist appointment

No cavities!

2nd hike - Bru Rennesøy

Selfie

Reading

A rare moment when Otso seems to be actually looking at a book (instead of chewing on it or hitting it).

Lumi: 3 Years and 3 Months

Summary
Lumi is getting noticeably more independent this month, and not in a defiant way; she just can do more without help and likes to try. She is also often the first to bring her baby brother a toy when he is starting to cry.

Events
5.4 grilling steaks with the neighbors
8.4 visit to the orthopedist
9.4 Easter party at IMI barnehage
5.4 Suomi Koulu
11.4 Easter party at Hundvåg playgroup
13.4 coffee with Suomi group
17.4 play date at Gemma house
18.4 Gemma and family over for dinner
19.4-20.4 trip to Kristiansand zoo
27.4 first hike! she walked all the way up to Lifjell

1.5 playdate at Gemma's house

Language
She says "lellow" instead of "yellow".
She gets really frustrated when she says something and we can't understand. On 7.4, she asked me if the socks I was wearing were "lost" and I said no and she asked me again and again. I know she meant something else, but she couldn't use any other words. Often this is where bilingualism is a huge advantage, because we can ask what the word is in the other language and often we can figure it out even if there is mispronunciation in both languages. But in this case it is still a mystery.

LearningShe sees letters everywhere.
Places she has seen an L: in sliced bell pepper, her poop in the potty, in arrangements of toys, in olives
She is really learning her numbers as well, both in ability to count things and to recognize the characters. In Kristiansand after Kimmo told her that the room number we were looking for was 2-2-7, she was able to find it. She can pretty much handle 1-10 in English, though she is quicker in Finnish (except she says yksitoista instead of yhdeksän often)
She still loves to read, and lately has been memorizing nursery rhymes like "Humpty Dumpty" and "Little Miss Muffet".
She will now stop us when we skip a section in a book.

Toys, Games, what have you
One recent shift is interest in reading new books or watching new shows, things she hasn't seen before. So instead of requesting the same book or Peppa Pig episode every day, now she just as often wants something new to watch or read. Thank goodness the library has a good supply of kids DVD choices in Finnish and lots of kids books in English!
Lumi likes to tell us about things she will do when she gets "big".
She borrowed a children's song book from Gemma with buttons that she could push that sang the songs. She loved it and played with it until the batteries ran out.

She loves to sing and since we started practicing at home the songs we sing at playgroups, she seems much happier and confident at the playgroups. She especially likes the songs we sing at the Hundvåg playgroup, like "Wheels on the Bus" and "Grand Old Duke of York".

At the playgroups, Lumi is around kids of all different ages, and it's often hard to watch interactions. The bigger kids are sometimes aggressive and the little kids are often victims of aggression. 

Food
She hasn't eaten very well this month, but she has tried a couple new things. One thing we are quite happy about her eating is chicken drumsticks.

HealthStarting out the month with a runny nose.
We went for a follow up visit with an orthopedist about the arm on 8.4. He also seemed concerned about the curve and said we would check again in 6 months.

On the trip to Kristiansand I forgot to pack her tutti. She was upset and had a hard time falling asleep but she handled it better than we had expected. She cried for it many times but after several books she relaxed and slept. We had one wake up at 3 and then äiti slept with her for an hour or two until Otso woke up and needed comfort.

She has been gradually getting more and more independent. Often she goes to the potty completely by herself: pull pants down, pee, pour from little potty to big potty, pull up pants.

Stats
size: 98 or 3T; most of the 2T stuff really doesn't fit now.
height: 93.5 cm
weight: 12.6 kg

Random
On helping herself to more rice at the dinner table: "Hot rice for a hot girl!"

When both äiti and Lumi didn't want rice: "the ladies just want eggs!"

Frequent diagnosis when playing doctor: "one clean ear and one dirty ear, one clean eye and dirty eye"

Ä: "today is grandma's birthday. she is 64."
Lumi: "but I thought she was 3 months!"

After going too high on a climbing thing on the playground: "when I was scared I just licked my hand."

A new friend

Lumi met this cat on the way home and convinced it to come with us for some time.