Lumi: 4 Years

Summary
Lumi is clever and fun. She clearly shows a gift with languages, and continues to impress all the teachers and parents at barnehage with her Norwegian skills. She struggles with shyness (and we are still struggling with her stubborn streak). This month we celebrated her 4th birthday, and also started a parent-child gymnastics class. She is more independent every day.

Events
8.1 first gymnastics class
11.1 Diego's birthday party
17.1 Stavanger Oilers hockey game

18.1-22.1 Kimmo gone on a work trip

18.1 playground and lunch with gemma and family, dinner upstairs

25.1 playdate with victoria and family in vålandsparken

30.1 buttoned her own cardigan

1.2 birthday party!

2.2 birthday present from grandma -- a bike!

3.2. 4th birthday

Language
She still wants to speak English with strangers, and answers "a little bit" when someone asks if she speaks Norwegian. But at barnehage everyone says that she speaks Norwegian and is doing just fine.
She knows the word "slideshow" thanks to a Berenstain Bears book but still is apparently foggy on the meaning: she started sliding down a bar and called it a "slide show".

Learning
She seems to subtly understand more these days, and more puzzle pieces in her world are falling into place. It's hard to say concretely what specifically makes more sense to her, but she often "explains" things to us now, and it's clear that she is verifying how things work. For example, now she says "I don't have to take a bath today because I took one yesterday." Before now she "knew" it because we said it, but now she kind of understands that the system is to take a bath every other day.

30.1 buttoned her own cardigan. one button wasn't matched up, but it was a pretty good job.

There are also little tasks she is getting better with -- brushing teeth, getting dressed, pouring drinks. She still needs/wants help most of the time, but she is proud of herself when she can do something alone.

Social
She is still timid but quite friendly when she feels comfortable. We try to heavily prep for any social situation, so that the transition from stranger to friend is faster, so that she can start enjoying herself.

Lumi's friend from barnehage (Victoria) is in the same gymnastics class. They both seem really excited about it and like to be near each other. What's interesting is that this girl has Norwegian parents but she used to speak English because she lived in Australia. Now she doesn't speak English but still seems to understand it.

We had playdate with Victoria's family and both girls are really quite alike: shy but stubborn. They are both goofy too.

1.2 we had lumi's birthday party on sunday afternoon. it was rainbow-themed. if it turns out that she is gay, we're going to have some wonderful rainbow-filled photos to share and claim we always knew. :) we had ribbon sticks (better in äiti's imagination than in execution), a rainbow cake (like this one, only less professional-looking), rainbow flags and garland, and balloons of different colors. of course, what ended up happening is a free for all on our toys. it was a lot of fun and at the end of the day we all felt very happy to have such wonderful local friends even though we have only lived here a short time. little diego's (1 year) mother said she thinks he was the best day of his life.

Toys, Games, what have you
Lumi has been playing a lot with her barbies. Barbie is the mom and Doc McStuffins is the big sister and the little girl is the baby. Mostly Doc is the center of attention.

30.1 Now the Lego fireman is the little brother.

She also likes her Lego Friends set that she got for Christmas. Lego Friends is the Lego line marketed toward girls. All the characters have names, and there is kind of a story, which is appealing. Lumi has the character named Olivia, who is an animal rescuer. It is hilarious to Kimmo and me that she takes Olivia's brown fluffy hair and puts it on the little Lego men (making them look vaguely like redneck men with mullets) and takes the blue baseball cap and puts it on Olivia.

1.2 lumi received many wonderful gifts at her party. a doc mcstuffins doctor bag, a barbie, a game, a puzzle, a my little pony, and more. 

2.2 there is another girl at barnehage with the same birthday and today she came in with an Elsa barbie that she had received for her birthday. and lumi immediately looked crushed because she didn't have one.

2.2 birthday present from grandma: first bike! it has 12 inch wheels and training wheels.

Food
She has been eating less this January. Previously for breakfast she would eat a bowl of Cheerios and milk, then follow that with a portion of eggs. But now most days she just has eggs and isn't interested in Cheerios. She now prefers fried or "flat" eggs over other formats.
17.1 she tasted and liked cream cheese. I promised to let her sample bagels and cream cheese in the US.

Health
She isn't sleeping well as of 19.1 and comes to sleep with äiti and isä at night.

25.1 last night after a talk, she is trying to sleep in her own bed again

She has been wetting her pants a lot at barnehage. It hasn't happened at home, but it has happened several times in the last month. Is it a UTI? Or stress? Or is she having too much fun? 27.1 there was a bag of wet clothes waiting for us. but the worst thing is that kimmo found her with her pants totally soaked. the adults hadn't even noticed.

Stats
size: 104 (4T) in most clothes, 27 shoe
height: 101 cm
weight: 14.8 kg on 21.12