Lumi: 4 Years and 9 Months

Summary
Highlights of the month include starting swim class and visit from the neighbors and from mummu. She is also gaining more understanding of the world and how it works.

Events
3.10 birthday shopping for otso 
4.10 suomi kerho
9.10 Barnehage trip to frogner park 
10.10 Helmina and Amalie over for cake 
11.10 playdate with Toni, swim class
14.10 playdate with Helmina -- she went home from barnehage with her.
15.10 "høst fest" at barnehage -- parents invited for soup
17.10 swimming with Eino
18.10 birthday cake in frogner park with pedro and toni, swim class
20.10 otso's birthday
23-25.10 visit from neighbors

30.10 - 2.11 visit from mummu

1.11 suomi kerho, swim class

Language
She is increasingly comfortable in Norwegian. The Oslo language is different from the Stavanger language, but she has it under control, it seems. She is starting to sing more in Norwegian, and she still loves to chat with strangers.
When discussing the word "mice", she pointed out that the is also "mais", the "little yellow ones we eat." it took me a while to understand it was a Norwegian word.

Learning
She is practicing writing letters a lot. It's fun, and she wants to recognize words. We're trying to go slow and not push her (in the hopes that we don't scare her away from reading).
She is delighted by the idea that our ceiling is our neighbors' floor, and that our floor is our neighbors' ceiling. :)

Social
She enjoys her friends from barnehage. Current favorites are Helmina, Emilia, and Maja.
She went home from barnehage with Helmina. She loved it and it sounds like she wants to go often now. They pretended to be Elsa and Anna from Frozen and generally had a great time.

She really can't stand hearing crying. She yelled at us for not giving Otso the candy he wanted (because he was crying) and was very frustrated that our neighbors wouldn't give Clemence something she wanted either (because she was crying). in the case of Clémence, she gave her the item and said "I'm not going to let her cry!".

Leisure
She loves riding her bike, but is still learning how to start. She is nervous and asks that someone hold her steady while she starts pedaling. She has trouble getting the pedal in the right place, and fears toppling over before she gets enough speed.
11.10 she figured out how to start pedaling and now gets angry if you try to help.

We started swim class this month. There isn't too much instruction but it's fun to be in the water.

1.11 big progress in swim class. i had a chat with her before the class that she really needs to try what the teacher says to do. so when the teacher started having the kids do a "knee dive", and lumi said no, i reminded her that we need to try. she didn't want the teacher to touch her, and this teacher was great after i explained that. the teacher moved further out into the pool and simply told us what we should do. and lumi started with a bit of a jump into my arms and avoiding her face going in the water (some kids were also at this level but some kids dived gracefully and swam underwater for a meter to their parents). the teacher praised her and she was proud. but the funny thing is that after lumi trusted that the teacher wasn't going to touch her, all she wanted was to interact with her! she kept trying and trying to jump/dive better than the last time, and each time she wanted to tell the teacher what she did ("i went on my knee!" "i went under the water!"). i was proud of her for pushing through her fear and making the effort, and she was proud of herself. she also used swim goggles (present from mummu, who was also there watching, which was even more of an inspiration i think) and eventually put her face under the water quite willingly. and as if that wasn't enough, lumi doggy-paddled her longest distance yet -- something like 3 meters. previously she had "swam" about a meter but it could be mistaken for simply pushing off one wall in the water. but this time it was in the deep end and she kept herself up and moving forward. 

Food
6.10 told us she wanted to buy her own butter, so she could eat it all herself (though she said she would share with friends at barnehage). she claimed she liked butter better than she likes ice cream.
12.10 she was thrilled because i gave her a packet of margarine.
14.10 i was really pleased that Helmina's mom reported that Lumi ate well at their house.

Health
The swim class is tiring her out, but she loves it, so we will stick with it for now. Otherwise, she has been impressively healthy. We are crossing our fingers that she stays that way!

Stats
size: 110 (5T) in most clothes. 28 shoe. She is skinny but getting taller.
height: 106.5 cm on 26.9
weight: 15.1 kg at airport on 26.7

Random
4.10 announced she wanted money to "buy things". I believe the toy store trip (for her brother's birthday present) had quite an effect, and that she hadn't realized there were so many toys to be had.

4.10 first time we took the bike out on a busy sidewalk. She shouted at the first people who were blocking her way "move to the side!" they were startled but then they smiled and laughed when they saw it was a little girl.

12.10 lumi informed me that i am "the meanest one in this house". 

15.10 she requested that i trim her bangs because they were "too long" and i think it annoyed her. she still wants to grow the rest of her hair long, but i trimmed the bangs.

NRK (the national broadcasting company) does a campaign every year for kids and here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0cNb52lHg
the kids love it and practice the routine together.

19.10 she said she wanted to sleep in "the bed with my name on it." so we put her in the bedroom with Otso. Then she told us that when she sleeps in the guest room she wakes up but with Otso there she just goes back to sleep. We hope that's true.

26.10 she got some leftover Polar bread from Otso. I said he was a nice little brother, and she replied "he wasn't nice. He just didn't want it."

Her favorite thing downtown is any busker playing an accordion. She always says the music is "beautiful." and I have been giving her 1 kr to give to any musician who she listens to for any length of time. 31.10 she took her own wallet (with all her Norwegian currency, in total about 8 kr)  and she gave to three different accordion players.

1.11 Otso hit isä and isä calmly reprimanded him. Lumi apparently felt Isä wasn't mad enough so she said "minä olen raskas!"  we think it was a direct translation from Norwegian to say that she was strict.