Lumi Reads

OK, it's not really reading.

Lumi checked this book out from the library a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed having Grandma read it to her. And now she likes to "read" it to us. I put the text of the pages in as subtitles so you can follow along.

Juhannus

We had beautiful weather on Saturday and managed to do some hedge trimming.

Otso's 8th Month

Summary

Otso is moving around now, and is still a happy, sweet kid. 

Events
20.5 dinner at the neighbors'
22.5 first Tippy Toes playgroup
28.5 Gausel Farm with a bunch of other parents and kids
1.6 barbeque at Gemma's house
6.6 visit to Trollskogen ("troll forest")
8.6 "creep" across the floor
9.6 grandma arrived!
11.6 hike up Dalsnuten
12.6 first tooth

13.6 second tooth

14.6 Vaulen beach

15.6 Fjord cruise

17.6 dinner with inger

18.6 grandma left

Play / Development
On 22.5, it was clear that he can rotate himself around if he is on his belly, and he does it deliberately, in search of toys. He can also push himself backward with his hands, though it doesn't seem deliberate.
On 27.5 we saw that he can sit comfortably by himself for a few minutes without support.
On 8.6 we saw him move himself deliberately forward across the floor (in pursuit of a cardboard box!). he isn't fast, and it's more "commando" style: dragging himself by his arms, while kicking joyfully.

Toys/Games
He likes to investigate most new things. Lumi is starting to see how this might get really annoying for her.
He isn't so into crinkly toys anymore.
He pulls hair.
Toys he likes: Sophie Giraffe, duplo legos, kitchen utensils (spatula, wooden spoons)

On 23.5 he played in a jumperoo toy and discovered how to bounce himself. He loved it.

Eating
20.5 first time with prune puree and he happily ate it
21.5 first time with yogurt
23.5 i made my first homemade baby food: chicken breast, sweet potato, apple, onion. he likes it.
26.5 first time with another homemade purée: banana and blueberry (with a resulting enormous poo the following morning)
1.6 first pouch food: chicken and rice

We let him taste watermelon and he loves it. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to chew yet. So we tried the mesh feeder on 6.6. Success! Also great with chunks of banana. And pears.

On 8.6 he was playing with a cup in the bath and he started scooping up water and drinking it.

On 26.5 I found something gold and shiny in his poo diaper. I separated it and rinsed it a little and thought the pattern looked familiar. And then I found the Golden Book that he was playing with yesterday on the floor, and noticed that part of the binding is missing. Oops. On the plus side, we have a good estimate of Otso's GI tract time: about 15 hours.

Sleeping
Bedtime is 18:30. We do a bath, then pajamas, then nursing, then crib.

Health
On 20.5 we went to the doctor again about his little skin problem on his belly. It isn't worse, but it isn't better and I would like to see a specialist. The way it works in Norway is that you have to go through your own doctor to get to a specialist. So we went back and talked to our regular doctor and he prescribed topical cortisone for 2 weeks to see if it's the anti-inflammatory will help. He said that after 2 weeks if it isn't better then we will look at a dermatologist.
And I learned in the last couple of weeks that we don't pay for children's health care (except in taxes, of course): doctor and dentist are free until age 18, and even kids prescriptions are free.
7.6 first sunburn. :( we were outside for a long time and his arms got red.

After 2 weeks, the skin problem looks better but not healed. Smaller. Less red. Also the cortisone seems to be really drying out his skin on that side of the belly. I stopped putting it on and am just moisturizing with coconut oil.

Stats
Clothes: a snug size 80 (12 month) in a onesie (bodysuit). His pants are also an 80, but they tend to be a bit long.
On 10.6 he weighed in at 9.11 kg.
Teeth: 2 (right lower central incisor eruption on 12.6, left lower central incisor eruption on 13.6)

Random
When Kimmo called to make the doctor appointment, the receptionist informed him that they didn't have Otso's name (just like in Finland, families often don't reveal the name until the kid is several months old so it's perfectly normal to only list a baby's social security number or even just the mother's name and the birth date). Kimmo was spelling "Vuori" for them and said "V as in victor", and then it turned out that they entered his name as Viktor Vuori. This was already propagated forward to the pharmacy (because in Norway when you get a prescription it is automatically sent to every pharmacy in the county, which is nice because there is no paper you have to tote around and no mystery about the amount or directions).

Teeth

You can see the two lower incisors when he smiles.

Sibling hugs

Grandma and Otso

4 statues | 4 patsasta

Baby's first selfie

Another special milestone.

Sunny day

The weather was gorgeous yesterday and we went downtown to walk about. There were multiple events: musikkfest, a corvette display, a local market, and probably other things. But the highlight for me was watching a bluegrass band play at a cafe.

Not quite a steady sitter yet

I was taking a picture right when he fell.

Lumi: 3 years and 4 months

Summary
It has been a good month. Lumi has been maturing in a lot of small ways and she is not really a baby anymore. The biggest event this month was giving up the tutti (pacifier).

Events
4.5 hike with Gemma's family : Bru Kultursti
8.5 first Roald Dahl book, "The Enormous Crocodile"
15.5 Visit to the dentist; first time in Norway. Dentist said we should be brushing twice a day and that she needs to stop using the pacifier.
16.5 First night of no-tutti.
17.5 Norwegian National Day; went to watch the parades. Also Xaden's birthday party.
20.5 crêpes with the neighbors for dinner
22.5 first Tippy Toes playgroup
26.5 Visited future barnehage, Lasse Liten. She will be in the Hvitveis class ("wood anemone")
28.5 Gausel Farm with a bunch of other parents and kids
29.5 hung tutti on the tutti tree in Mosvatnet - "I am not a baby now. I am a big girl."
1.6 barbeque at Gemma's house

Language
She is still learning little new phrases here and there.
On 11.5 she parroted the word "obviously" back to me, using it correctly.
She is on a kick now of inventing her own "language", which is mostly her saying some nonsense sound and saying "that means ___ in my language".

Learning
Currently she loves to count and will count most anything. She is doing great at recognizing the numbers in signs. We have also been practicing 2-digit numbers on pages in books. Counting to 10 in both Finnish and English is consistent, and now she is working on going to 20.
We visited her new barnehage and though I think she will be fine after a couple weeks in a Norwegian language bath, the director agreed that she would probably be more comfortable if we can spend some time learning some common words. So now we have a summer assignment!
30.5 she wrote "Lumi" on paper without help!

Toys, Games, what have you
She is still enjoying hide-and-seek. Lately she likes to play with toy cars.
On 8.5 we got some longer books from the library, like Roald Dahl's "The Enormous Crocodile". It's really nice to read something with a plot. I am trying to read these longer books and then talk about the plot after, and help her understand it.
She has informed me that she doesn't really like arts and crafts. I am delighted that she can make this kind of statement, because now that I think about it, it's probably true, and the fact that she can reflect about her own tendencies is great. I'm embarrassed that i didn't notice it (I had been assuming that all kids like art projects and now that I think about it, she hasn't ever gotten into it much). And I'm also delighted because it's something I had felt quite guilty about not doing enough of since she has been home with me and now I feel relieved that I wasn't depriving her of something she loved.
We played her first board game, "The Great Race".
She loves singing and loves to sing when we are out walking. Current favorites are "Wheels on the Bus" and "Mary had a little lamb". She is starting to experiment with her own verses of "wheels on the bus". Some make no sense but others are pretty funny (e.g. "The trees on the bus say 'I want to grow'... ")
As a reward for really giving up the pacifier, we got her the Lego Duplo ice cream set.

At the barnehage visit, she really didn't want to leave and then we had some delay on the playground. She started playing with some girls on the playground (me: so happy to see that!) and soon threw sand on them (me: so mortified to see that!). they left because of that, and we talked about it later and i pointed out that people don't want to play with people who throw sand. hopefully she learned the lesson.

Food
She enjoyed drinking the bottles of breastmilk that Otso has rejected. We had been in a good streak of experimentation but lately it seems we are back to picky eating.
And I suppose it had to happen sooner or later: on 13.5 she informed me that she doesn't like brown spots on her bananas.
On 22.5 she joined me in having rice cakes with peanut butter. I have been encouraging peanut butter for some time but she hadn't tried it yet. She seemed to like it, and has asked for it again.

Health
At the dentist, we got some good news (no cavities!) and some instructions: brush twice a day and lose the tutti. We have been wanting her to brush in the morning too but each night she protests and it is a miserable experience, so we selfishly haven't wanted to push the morning brushing. She still hates it and doesn't have any interest in using toothpaste (which we don't force either). And we have been looking for a good time to lose the tutti, so we jumped at this opportunity to blame it on a third party. We waited a day until Kimmo was home. The first night she cried for a long time and resisted going to sleep. We tried to help her relax and the only thing she really responded to was scratching and gently rubbing her head. The next couple days we skipped naps (usual weekend protocol) but the following Monday she seemed to nap as usual. These first couple of nights she has had some trouble falling asleep but seemed to sleep better for the rest of the night.

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

Random
On 3.5 while we were playing doctor I listed "my hair hurts" as one of my symptoms. She suggested that the problem was my hair touching my ears, and fixed it with a barrette.

On 7.5 she learned that I don't like some of her books, and spent the rest of the day going to the bookshelf to ask "which ones do you like, äiti?"

She loves to sing songs, and on 11.5 discovered that she can sing certain ones with her eyes closed. She is pretty proud of that.

On 12.5:
A: It's grandpa's birthday next week. Should we make him a card?"
L: Yes. Maybe a birthday card!

On 26.5, Lumi woke me up in the middle of the night crying because she had taken her pajama pants off and couldn't get them back on.

Sitting on a tractor

Taking the soccer ball for a ride

Beach snuggle

Goodbye tutti, goodbye baby Lumi

Lumi has been without her tutti for almost 2 weeks now, and on Thursday we hung it on the "tutti tree", where kids from Stavanger come to say goodbye to their babyhood. Our friends Filippo, Amy, Gemma, and Diego were with us for the little ceremony. I cried a little. I have been so proud of Lumi during this transition. It wasn't easy for her, and I would say this is the first thing she has accomplished where she had been fully aware of the battle, and it was something she had control of, rather than something that happened to her.