Lumi: 5 Years, 9 Months

Summary
One of the biggest changes this month is an emphasis on being a big girl. She now sees this as a good thing -- and that it comes with privileges as well as responsibilities. She is eating better ("so I can grow bigger than Isä!"), which is a huge relief to us, and also she is more flexible with allowing Otso his toddler indulgences.

Also this month were a couple big milestones: she lost her first tooth and read her first book!

Social
She enjoys her friends, and thinks of them when they are not there.
We were impressed to hear her reserve special things for her guests (example: "I'd better not take the blue plate because Helmine is coming and she is the guest and she likes blue. I'll take the pink instead.")

Leisure
Favorite toys/activities: marbles, beads, random toys she gets in Kinder Eggs
She likes to sing, and when left to her own devices she comes up with lots of original lyrics. She can sing her way through hours of playtime.
She and her friends did a little puppet show for the parents on 9.10.
She is gradually getting more interested in longer books and isn't so dependent on the pictures. She still likes pictures, but seems to like the story too.
30.10 she and otso were fighting over doc mcstuffins toys so she used the stickers and scissors to make her own paper doll versions. She enjoyed the activity a lot, and also it was kind behavior toward her brother.

Learning
She has been practicing reading with the Bob books, but most of the time she was just looking at the pictures and guessing (correctly most of the time, because they aren't complicated) instead of reading the words. But on 5.10 we were looking at them and I pointed out what was happening, she said "but i can't help it -- the picture is right there!". We came up with the idea to hide the picture, and it made a huge difference -- she was reading! Not guessing, not just going from the memory of which words go with the pictures, but actually deciphering the words and letters on the page. It was great to see. She is starting to have a couple "sight" words (words she knows on sight without having to sound them out) -- "has" and "cat" and "and".
They made a volcano at barnehage and she was really interested.

Language
The week without Isä took a small toll on her Finnish.
She is starting to ask explicitly about the meaning of new words in English, in order to clarify things. This means that reading is sometimes interrupted, but also it means she is really getting a handle on the language.
She still skips the word "until" in English, like "how long is it my birthday?"

Food
She likes the various fish meals at barnehage : fish cakes, fish balls
We started a tradition of going to McDonald's after muskari. All the happy memories of the play area seem to be affecting her and now she will eat chicken nuggets without too much resistance (she still isn't interested in french fries but we get the carrots instead plus milk to drink).
27.10 she devoured a bunch of oven-roasted beets. she claimed that she wanted to eat all the beets in the world.
She has started requesting the "grown up" bowl or plate (ceramic instead of IKEA plastic).
She got to chop carrots during a barnehage outing to an organic farm and now she wants to help in the kitchen. On 2.11, she helped Isä chop the parsnip and carrots to roast in the oven.

Health
10.10 a wobbly tooth! Left lower incisor.
18.10 dentist visit. Lumi was very cooperative and seemed to enjoy the whole experience. The dentist said we should be using flouride tablets and also Lumi can start flossing.
20.10 the tooth came out! it was a big event for all her friends at barnehage and they excitedly showed the tooth to their own parents. 😃 The tooth fairy came that night and left 10 kr. Lumi used the little plastic box she got from the dentist.

Stats
size: She is moving out of size 110 (5T)! She is still quite skinny but her arms and legs are long enough that she needs a 116 in many brands. size 30 shoe.
height: 112 cm on 9.9
weight: 17.7 kg on 31.7 (but then 16.9 at the pool on 14.8)
favorite color: blue
favorite food: watermelon

Events
4-7.10 isä gone
9.10 toni & helmine & amalie over to play; suomi kerho
10-12.10 isä gone
14.10 helmine spent the night
15.10 muskari
18.10 dentist visit
20.10 otso's birthday, and the tooth came out!
22.10 muskari
25.10 K gone for the day
29.10 Halloween party -- she went as a witch
30.10 paint your own pottery -- she loved it!

Random
We have noticed that she enjoys little chats with strangers, especially the elderly. When we are out and about in town on the weekends, she sometimes asks why someone is doing something and we encourage her to ask them herself. She often does, especially if they are elderly, and then proudly translates back to us whatever the explanation was (for example, "what kind of bush are you planting?" "a bush with white flowers that will smell really nice next spring").
Sometimes people overhear our English dialog and since most Norwegians speak at least some English, they like to try their hand with Lumi. The reality is that we end up being approached often by drunks, probably because their inhibitions are lowered and they are feeling braver at testing their English. The result is that Lumi often gets into conversations with drunk old men. Naturally we stay alert, especially with the drunk ones, but happily most of the time the interaction is friendly and not threatening. And so we get to hear her questioning people like "why aren't you sitting at a table? why are you only drinking and not eating?"
So...in Lumi's world, drunks are approachable and friendly; the only people to be scared of are doctors and nurses (although to be fair we haven't been to a doctor or nurse in many months, and the dentist visit went smoothly for Lumi, so maybe next time we go to a checkup it will go very smoothly too).

31.10 at dinner she turned to me and said "do you know what you and i forgot today?" then she pulled the elastic of her pants down and said "my panties!"