muumipeikko in the morning

Otso: 30 Months

Summary
Otso is learning a lot -- chatting more and doing more and also being more dramatic when he is angry. When he agrees to something he says a chipper sing-song "okay!" and it mostly makes up for all kinds of horrible behavior.

Events
24.3 trip to the legevakt for lumi
26.3 barbeque with Maja and family
26-27.3 barnas båt cruise to denmark
28.3 easter egg hunt

9.4 dinner with Helena & family

10.4 suomikerho

14.4 gymnastics

Development
His speech is coming along. He also is starting to learn which color is which. Up until now, he has known the names of the colors, but he routinely mismatches them.

Language
A favorite thing is to pretend something is a wand, and wave it and say 'Zim zala bim!' But he can't say it properly so it's usually 'Sha la la la la bim! '

Toys/Games/Other
Favorite toys: balls

He isn't as into puzzles as he has been the previous few months.

He likes naming the Sesame Street characters in the books, and knows a lot of them. But he consistently calls Cookie Monster "Monster Cookie".
29.3 played a game where he threw his Minnie Mouse doll across the room, then said "oh no!" and ran over to lovingly pick her up and cuddle her. then he threw her again. :)
23.3 excited about watching Ice Age 2. he loves the squirrel and says "funny!" every time he is on the screen.
2.4 got Ice Age from the library. he is delighted.
he enjoys watching basketball tournament clips with äiti.
4.4 watched some of the ncaa final game with äiti in the middle of the night because he wouldn't sleep without her there. at 1:30 left in the game he started crying "watch the basketball! watch the basketball!" and i couldn't resist so i brought him in for the last few seconds.

Social

He has a new little buddy at barnehage.

Eating
Loves: milk, eggs, dried papaya
28.3 all of a sudden, neither kid is interested in eating cheerios
2.4 not to worry; he loves cheerios again

Sleeping
He still wants/needs a lot of assistance getting to sleep. He really wants äiti in there rubbing his back or being next to the crib. Most nights he goes to bed in his crib, then Kimmo wakes him to pee at 10 or 11, then he comes to our bed.

10.4 after a situation in the morning where we didn't respond quickly enough to his calls (and he peed on himself) we switched him to the "big boy" bed, which is an adult-size mattress on the floor under lumi's loft bed. we put the potty right near the bed, so he can get up to pee when he needs to.

Health
22.3 first night without diaper. woke up at midnight soaked in pee. :)
24.3 started night training in earnest. we wake him up to pee around 10 or 11pm, and then he is able to go back to sleep fairly quickly, and sleep through the whole night without a diaper.
27.3 one accident while we were on the boat, but we didn't need to revert to diapers (though we had brought along a couple as backup)
29.3 no diapers at barnehage during playtime.
2.4 fell ill in the evening, shaky and feverish
3.4 still a bit sick
4.4 still a bit sick in the morning, so he stayed home from barnehage
7.4 sick again (or still). Snotty, though, so it doesn't look like strep throat from his sister. We used diapers since he is so confused and had a couple accidents yesterday. This is just like lumi used to be: wetting her pants was one of the first indicators of having a cold.

8.4 better, but not 100%. we kept him home from barnehage again.

Stats
Clothes: size 98/104. Shoes: size 25.

Teeth: 17
Weight: 14.7 kg on 6.3
Height: 88 cm

Random
26.3 the kids were changing into pajamas and otso stuck his hand in lumi's 'coin slot '. He thought it was hilarious.

28.3 we hunted easter eggs in the morning at home, then re-hid and hunted them several times. otso got good at looking for eggs.

selfie sunday

at age 2, he has started enjoying the tutti (pacifier). the current theory is that he is teething.

Zim zala bim!

cucumber eyes

sick kid

otso wasn't feeling so good this weekend.

Lumi: 5 Years and 2 Months

Summary
The big events of the month were mostly centered around Easter (which is a 5-day weekend here in Norway). Also, she started reading! She had a couple of weeks of great progress sounding out words, and now she has taken a step back.

Events
6.3 swimming with helmina
13.3 suomi kerho
17.3 easter breakfast at barnehage with parents
19.3 sognsvann and pizza with Helena
24.3 trip to the legevakt and diagnosis

26.3 barbeque with Maja and family

26-27.3 barnas båt cruise to denmark

28.3 easter egg hunt

3.4 ride on the old tram, swim class

Language
She basically refuses to speak Finnish. Kimmo speaks Finnish to her, and she responds in English.
12.3 at the asian restaurant, she asked for "friendships" when she meant "shrimp chips"
We started a "letter of the day" project, just going through the alphabet and each day trying to find and talk about things that start with that letter. Lumi has really taken to this.
She is very frustrated about the C vs K sound in english, though, to the point where she will angrily respond "no!" if i tell her a word like "cat" begins with a C and not a K.
She has started saying "heart!" instead of something like "i love you" at the end of conversations.

Learning
7.3 she read her first words! she had memorized books before but now she was actually sounding the words out using the letters and putting them together. 
11.3 showered herself, with a bit of coaching from the sidelines
17.3 learned how to flex her biceps to show off her muscles.

Social
She seems mostly happy with her friends at barnehage.
18.3 maja came over to play
22.3 went to maja's house for dinner

Leisure
She loves her beads and My Little Pony.
13.3 she was very interested in the music teacher and her piano and ukulele.
23.3 watched Ice Age 2 mostly all the way through, even the scary part at the end. she thought most of the scenes with Sid were great. 

2.4 watched Ice Age and Sammy's Adventures, again through the scary parts

Food
16.3 cheerfully ate shrimp from the curry at dinner, plus informed us how much she loves "fiske boller" that she eats at barnehage.
19.3 refused to eat the pizza at helena's house, but happily helped helena's dad make pizza. afterward, she declared she is going to be a "pizza man" when she grows up (but still not eat it).

28.3 all of a sudden, neither kid is interested in eating cheerios

30.3 sampled marmalade and was very disappointed

Health
22.3 sore throat at night
23.3 stayed home with a fever + sore throat + rash
24.4 google + advice from dr. nikki said we should go to the doctor (and it had to be urgent care, since it is now easter holidays). lumi behaved abominably. she kicked and screamed and fought whenever people tried to touch or look at her (with the notable exception of when the doctor listened to her lungs and looked in her throat, which she had practiced with isä). they couldn't even take her blood pressure, despite several tries and the switch to the baby equipment because she was so insane. and we even had to be removed from the fun kids' waiting area because her screams were upsetting the other kids. 
anyway -- strep throat + rash = scarlet fever => penicillin

Stats
size: 110 (5T) in most clothes. 28 shoe.
height: 109 cm on 1.3
weight: 16.1 kg on 6.3

Random
13.3 to äiti : " When you sing your voice seems beautiful."

21.3 after watching the kids dump lemon pepper on salmon, rice, vegetables, and even bread, i said "you guys are junkies." and lumi responded "No! You're junkies!" then a few seconds later "What is that?"

26.3 in the cruise cabin tiny bathroom 'it's quite nice in here! '

28.3 we hunted easter eggs in the morning at home, then re-hid and hunted them several times. lumi got good at hiding eggs, and really enjoyed that aspect. she still isn't good at the idea of looking under things, but she showed promise.