Dancing

Lumi is quite interested in snapping, and is learning how.

Otso's 10th Month

Summary

Otso is moving around with the military-style crawl. He smiles a lot, and is generally good-natured and happy to be alive. This month we saw the first time he was playing with his sister but also we saw how now this same sister regards him as a threat to her playtime.

Events
21.7 munkkiranta with Rouru family
22.7 drive to Saimaa
26.7 berry picking in the forest
28.7 drive to Helsinki
29.7 dinner party at Sami and Ilona's house
31.7 playgroup with other Finnish-American families
2.8 lunch at Michele and Janne's house
3.8 play date with Katya and Alexi
5.8 Linnanmäki: Otso rode the baby ferris wheel and balloon carousel
6.8 Flights back to Stavanger
7.8 pulled himself up to a standing position on isä

10.8 Suomi-Seura coffee social 

14.8 started night weaning

15.8 stayed home with Isä while Äiti and Lumi went to playgroup

17.8 Irene's family over for dinner

20.8 10 months old

Development
Otso is crawling faster but still sort of dragging himself with his arms (primarily left arm) and using his right foot to push a bit. He is not doing a proper crawl.

He has started waving, mostly as a friendly hello.

2.8 went from floor to sitting up by himself. 
he hasn't really mastered this skill yet, but he can do it when he is trying and not overly tired or frustrated. this means he can get from sitting to crawling and back to sitting.

7.8 pulled self up to standing using Isä's T-shirt

Toys/Games
Otso loves to play with Crocs, no matter how dirty they are.
He loves peek-a-boo and loves to pull things (sunglasses, hats, etc) off of his own head and that of others.

1.8 first time we saw Lumi and Otso shut themselves together in a room to play

Eating
He is eating more jarred baby food in Finland. The good news is that there is more variety here. He likes to chew on cucumbers and bread. He loves blueberry rahka.
He seems to have made the leap to chewing. He can now handle chunks in his food.
He still likes breastfeeding but he clearly wants and needs other foods for nourishment.
We gave him Lumi's old yellow sippy cup with the straw and he has been drinking a lot of water from it, much more than with the spout cup. The cup is a nice size for him and he can hold it himself.

Sleeping
In Finland we gave up trying to get him to sleep in a crib. And his nap schedule was more whenever it is convenient for everyone else instead of a real schedule.
At night he prefers to sleep on his belly. He has a hard time getting to sleep and will cry for around 30 minutes. We sit with him during this cry. I try to not nurse him to sleep, though we do nurse as part of the night routine.
Night routine: bath, diaper, pajamas, song, nursing breast
The last night in Finland and first couple nights at home Otso woke up at 3 or 4 in the morning almost hysterical. He was inconsolable.
Now that we are back at home, we are trying a new sleeping arrangement: the crib right next to äiti's bed, with one wall removed. And we are night weaning!

On the evening of 14.8, we started night weaning. I feed him in a chair before he goes to bed, then again in a chair the first time he wakes up after I go to bed (usually between 22:00 and 23:00), then not again until morning. In the morning, I wait until the first time he wakes up after 6:00, then get out of bed with him and feed him in a chair. The idea is that he isn't eating during the night, and he isn't eating while lying down in the bed. Why are we doing this? We don't want the breast to be a sleep crutch (which he had just started to do -- for example, nurse a tiny bit to relax whenever he woke up during the night), and we want both mother and baby to get more hours of uninterrupted sleep. The first couple nights it has been hard, and he whimpered a lot. I still slept with him and cuddled him; I just didn't offer a breast. But it seems like he is simultaneously getting a little bit of a cold, so hopefully once that goes away he will be sleeping more peacefully.

Health
3.8 fell face first out of the stroller on the playground. He got a mouthful of gravel and a couple cuts.

15.8 feverish and clearly cranky. He had the fever for a few days before it seemed to finally go away the morning of 18.8. His sleep hasn't returned to normal but it is better.

 
Stats
Clothes: size 86 (18 months) in most brands. 

Teeth: 2
Weight: 9.7 kg
Length: ?

Eating eggs

He was waving it around enthusiastically until it broke.

cousins

veera and otso are buddies.

Father and daughter in Nakkila

Lumi: 3 1/2 Years

It has been a good month. We had a good visit with Grandpa and Mama Dollie and have had a good trip in Finland. Lumi is loving having Kimmo home and not working.

Events
5.7 goodbye to Grandpa and Mama Dollie
7.7 playdate with Irene
8.7 flight to Helsinki
9.7 drive to Nakkila
11.7 beach in Harjavalta
12.7 mökki with Kari family
13.7 yyteri beach with Sami and Ilona
14.7 cousins arrive in Nakkila
16.7 farm at Koivuniemen Herra (MuuMaa)
17.7 stayed with Mummu and Maria and cousins while äiti and isä went out to a concert
20.7 drive to Helsinki
21.7 munkinranta with the Rouru family
22.7 drive to Saimaa
25.7 crayfish collecting with Heikki, taking muikku from the nets
26.7 berry picking in the forest
28.7 drive to Helsinki
29.7 dinner party at Sami and Ilona's house
31.7 playgroup with other Finnish-American families
2.8 lunch at Michele and Janne's house

Language
She is learning Norwegian words in preparation for barnehage.
She is having a language bath in Finland. She is comfortable speaking Finnish with most people but had a hard time remembering to do it with the Kari kids. Her Barcelona cousins are learning English in school so sometimes Lumi and Veera used English when they played together.

Learning
One new thing Lumi did with Mama Dollie was a shared story-telling. Mama Dollie would start a story and prompt Lumi to supply details (e.g. color of an object, names, etc). Then Lumi would join in with some actions (often "then they went home and went to bed"). It was great to hear the beginning of this kind of creative thought!

She had to share with the cousins (toys and the favorite basket or plate or whatever) in Nakkila and since she hasn't been in daycare, this was the first time she had to do it for consecutive days.

She just understood that stickers lose their stickiness.

She is repeating little phrases that she hears from TV, often in a sing-song way.

Toys, Games, what have you
I forgot to mention last month that she played by herself in the playroom on the train. She is having increasingly frequent displays of independence.
She loved Eeva Kari and got attached to her at the mökki.
She is watching Pikku Kakkonen and Angelina Ballerina while we are in Nakkila. She is quite obsessed with Angelina Ballerina. We bought the movie Frozen and she loves it.
We have been singing "I've been working on the railroad".
In Nakkila she played with Barbie dolls for the first time and really liked them, changing the clothes and such.
She LOVED swimming in Saimaa. We were blessed with warm weather so the water was warm and we went swimming multiple times a day. She went from being quite timid in the water to doggie paddling around with her floaties (gift from the Kari family) by herself.

1.8 she shut herself and Otso in a room and declared it the kids room. She is delighted to find that he will happily follow her around.

Food
Current interests: yogurt, cereal, berries (but don't try to put them on her ice cream or feel her wrath), cold hot dogs
She is very slowly branching out and trying some new foods. 
She has previously enjoyed puuro that Mummu makes but this time rejected it a few times.

Health
She got a cold for a few days starting on 4.7. It was mostly a runny nose.
She got lots of mosquito bites at the mökki. She had a mystery injury on the trampoline at the Kari house.
She has a really long tongue and can touch her nose with it and clean around her mouth with it and even lick her tears as they are streaming down her face.

Stats
size: 98 or 3T
height: 96 cm
weight: 12.9 kg

Random
10.7 took the play shovels with her to nap
11.7 after a big lunch she suggested having a "belly fight"

She is often walking around outside without shoes in Nakkila: on grass or gravel or in the forest. It is amazing to her wimpy mother.
15.7 in the middle of watching Angelina Ballerina she turned and said in a whiny voice "but I want to watch Angelina Ballerina!" Like someone was trying to make her leave.

16.7 on why she didn't want to hold a chicken: "I don't want to take it in my lap because it would eat me." (Note for the English speaking: in Finnish the expression for "in my lap" and "in my arms" is the same so Lumi often uses this incorrectly in English)

18.7 Elmo was having Maria guess the name of the flower maito-horsma and Lumi guessed "maito-mummu" and cracked up and everyone laughed at her joke.  It was a fairly new way to show her sense of humor.

23.7 vaari read to her before her nap but he fell asleep instead while Lumi got up and played.