can i get up from the table?

unfortunately, we see this a lot. lumi eats two bits of food and then asks to get up, even though the household rule is that we wait until everyone finishes.

Balaclava

Lately this guy loves his balaclava. He calls it "baba" and he gets quite agitated if we try to make him go outside without it. It's a nice soft merino wool.

Play time

Lately Mauva has been playing the role of "Buddy" (suomeksi: Kamu) from Dinosaur Train.

Otso's 19th Month

Summary
Otso had a couple of colds this month, but has overall been in good spirits. He has started to be the aggressor sometimes in interactions (e.g. we have seen him proactively push Lumi when she is somewhere he doesn't want her to be). He is talking a lot more and we can understand a lot of what he says. Also, he can understand a lot of what we say.

Events
21.4 Nikki, Dave, Nova leave
27-28.4 sick
28.4 barnehage dugnad (spring cleaning)
1-3.5 holiday weekend near Haugasund with neighbors
6.5 sick, apparently hand foot and mouth
7.5 stayed home sick again

8-15.5 - scotland (shared a room with mama dollie!)
8.5 fly to aberdeen and pick up grandpa and mama Dollie and drive to nethy bridge
9.5 funicular up mountain
10.5 Balmoral castle
11.5 loch ness tour
12.5 stayed with grandpa and mama Dollie while the parents went for a tour

13.5 steam train ride

14.5 more little towns

15.5 Deans of Huntly cookie factory, flight home to Stavanger

16.5 Xaden's birthday party

17.5 17 May parade, bbq at Gemma's house

Development
27.4 learned to blow his nose! he still doesn't get much volume, but he knows to try when we hold a cloth or kleenex up to his nose.

Language
He can say a lot of words now. He speaks mostly in English and Norwegian so far, but understands Finnish when Kimmo speaks to him. He says "mamma" instead of "äiti".
21.4 lumi enticed Otso to the sofa by getting in his face and saying "nursing!"

19.5 otso said "äini" or something, so he definitely knows "äiti" even if he says "mamma" more frequently.

Social
Lately he seems quite happy at barnehage. The teachers say he is more comfortable and assertive. His group recently divided themselves most days into the "green" group and the "yellow" group. The yellow group has the younger kids, ranging from 1.5 years to 2.5 years. Otso is the youngest, but it doesn't seem quite so severe now. The other kids in his group are all very sweet kids and he is excited to see them in the morning. 

When he was sick and in Scotland he got very attached to äiti.

Toys/Games
He likes: jumping from the ottoman to the sofa with his sister
He doesn't like: diaper changes
23.4 played with toy stroller for the first time

Eating
favorite foods: he seems to like most foods. we had great success with indian butter chicken.
22.4 had a small cup of milk with dinner. using a regular open cup is new, and so is milk consumption (although i think maybe he has been drinking milk sometimes at barnehage)
27.4 skipped evening nursing
28.4 skipped morning nursing and afternoon nursing, so we only did evening
30.4 first time getting to lick the whisk after we made rahka.
4.5 skipped morning nursing

when he was sick he nursed often and requested it even more than that.

Sleeping
bedtime is 7:00, wake up at 6:30.
He is in the parents' bed sleeping with äiti more than is ideal, but usually I am too lazy to stand at his crib and soothe him multiple times during the night, so I just bring him in bed with me. We have switched to the summer weight sleep sack. He was complaining a lot when we put the sleep sack on, so we tried a few nights to wear a wool overall/suit. Then he complained about that too so we figured he's just complaining about having to go to bed so now we just deal with the complaints.

Health
a tiny bit of progress on the potty front: while lumi was peeing on the toilet for her before-bed pee, otso sat (fully clothed) on the little potty.
26.4 listless and snotty and coughing. and in the evening we found a sore in his mouth. Diego has Hand Foot and Mouth disease so it looks like Otso has it too.
27.4 much more chipper this morning, but he stayed home from barnehage nonetheless.
His poo is very soft and messy every day, which is annoying. I had hoped that by now he would have more solid poop that would be easier to clean up.
6.5 he had a fever at mid-morning so we fetched him from barnehage. then he developed a rash on his chin and buttocks. all signs point to Hand Foot and Mouth disease.
9.5 still sick though now it seems to have morphed into a cold with a bad cough. The rashes are drying up except for a sore on the lip inside his mouth but he is sniffing and unhappy and coughing.
10.5 better but still whiny

15.5 can identify pee and when someone is peeing

Stats
Clothes: size 92 (2T) in most things.

Teeth: 9
Weight: 12.1 kg on 8.5
Length: 80 cm on 19.1

Random
23.4 in the morning, we dress the kids in the living room. then we hand lumi her pajamas and she brings them to her room to put on her bed so they are ready for the next night. this morning after lumi left with her pajamas in hand, otso picked up his pajamas and took them toward the bedrooms. the pants fell on the way, but he put his pajama shirt on lumi's bed. it was very cute.

Funny Faces

Lumi and Mama Dollie goofing off.

Weekend Trip

Kimmo and the kids atop a WW2 bunker.

Lumi: 4 Years and 3 Months

Summary

Lumi is fun and seems to enjoy herself. We still don't quite understand what is going on socially at barnehage, but with us and our friends she is mostly happy.

Events
4.4 drive from st. George to the villages
6.4 haircut
8.4 shopping with mama Dollie, evening dinner party
11-12.4 flights home to Stavanger
17.4-21.4 Tantie Nikki, Uncle Dave, and Nova visit (19.4 trip to Lindoy, 20.4 kept her home from barnehage for a "girls day")
27.4 Gemma's birthday party

28.4 barnehage dugnad (spring cleaning)
1-3.5 holiday weekend near Haugasund with neighbors

Language
She did really great in the US with her English, and having Isä there the whole time meant that her Finnish didn't suffer.
23.4 "no I amn't!"

Learning
24.4 she all of a sudden "got" addition. it was so cool to see. we were counting things in a picture, and i pointed out that there were 5 on one side and 5 on the other and 5 plus 5 makes 10, and then how 5 fingers on one hand and 5 fingers on the other makes for 10. and then you could almost see the lightbulb turn on. she counted out 4 and 4 and then informed me that 4 plus 4 is 8. i grabbed a piece of paper and wrote those down for her:
5 + 5 = 10
4 + 4 = 8
and then i went to the other room to get something for otso (we were getting dressed for the day) and she shouted at me "äiti, 3 plus 3 is 6!"
so then i dropped everything and we wrote that down, and also 2+2 and 1+1. we practiced the rest of the morning.

Social
One of her close friends from barnehage moved away this month.
Her first day back at barnehage after a 2 week break was great and she was all smiles at the end of the day.
She had a great time with Nova. 

Some days (especially Monday mornings), the dropoff at barnehage is miserable. 

Leisure
favorite toys: Spot It game (a gift from grandma)
She likes to pretend to be a baby squirrel or a baby fox or a baby dog.
She loves Dino Juna (Dinosaur Train in English) and now the roles of the various characters are assigned to us. She likes to be Tiinu ("Tiny" in English).

Food
She still doesn't eat a lot. Often it seems like laziness, as she will double her intake if äiti/isä is helping to feed her.

Health
12.4 we moved Otso's crib into Lumi's room for them to share a sleeping space.
13.4 we moved the crib to isä and äiti's room because the crying was too much (they are both still jet lagged). we plan to move it back after our friends visit.
23.4 poop in pants during the day at barnehage

1.5 she came down with a fever in the afternoon and was shaking and very hot by evening. we were at a rental cottage and didn't have children's pain reliever and she didn't want to try half an adult pill or a baby suppository, so she just slept for the afternoon and evening. and then in the morning she woke up like nothing had happened.

Stats
size: 104 (4T) in most clothes (though some 4T shorts slide off her hips and some 110 stuff fits her great), 27 shoe
height: 103 cm on 20.4
weight: 15.1 kg on 23.3

Random
Lumi did great on the 3 flights it took to get back to Stavanger, but had a meltdown when we strapped her into the car seat.

16.4 good gymnastics class! she voluntarily went on the thing that rolls you to do a back flip and asked nicely for my help. she also went on the balance beam not holding onto my hand.

28.4 at the barnehage spring cleaning, she had a sweet bun that she had placed on a picnic table while she was playing. then a seagull came and snatched it. she burst into tears and sobbed for a while, while the grownups all tried not to laugh.