Lumi: 5 Years, 11 Months

Summary

The big thing this month was the Christmas season. Lumi loves Christmas : the songs, the cookies, the decorations, the lights, and of course Joulupukki and Santa Claus. We are lucky to have a secular Barnehage that enjoys all the cultural aspects of the season without forcing the religious aspect on the kids.

Social

She missed her friends while we were in the US, and seems happy to be with them.

She was delighted that she got to lead the Lucia "parade" in the barnehage. The reason given was that she won't get to experience another Norwegian Lucia day because she is moving to Finland. All the kids wore white with a red sash and carried an electric candle, but the leader of the parade got to wear the crown of candles.

In London, she is playing mostly with Elsa, though they argue.

Leisure

She loves anything Paw Patrol.
Our Christmas calendar this year is building a Lego set, and adding stick-on googly eyes to the Christmas monster. Each day we alternate who gets to build Legos and who sticks on the eye. Last year Lumi was jealous of the eye sticker, but this year both kids are most interested in the Lego set.
She really likes the girl or woman characters in anything. It's sad for me to see women so underrepresented in pop culture, but it's heartbreaking as a mother. For example, we have been listening to the Muppets and John Denver's Christmas album. I loved that album as a kid and I enjoy it now. But it's a sausage fest: there is just Miss Piggy (and Janice, but you never see her anyway). So Lumi isn't into it. And though it's fair to ask her to look beyond gender to identify with a puppet, it's also fair to ask the makers of the puppets to do better.

Learning

8.12 at barnehage, they worked on "calculations", both addition and subtraction. she does it on her fingers, but is quick and confident! this is the first school-style work she has done at barnehage; it seems like she is ready for school.

Language

There is a set of brothers in her muskari class who misbehave quite a bit. We discussed it with her a little and she told us "and they speak Norwegian at muskari! You're supposed to speak finnish at muskari!"

Food

She still has a limited palate, but is getting braver.
For Christmas she resisted for a long time before trying anything. Eventually she gathered courage to taste the turkey and then loved it. We got fish and chips, and she only at the fish without breading. She really did not want Pasi's gallette soup, but when she tried it she found the giant pasta shells delightful.
30.12 after much back and forth, she tried the lentil soup we made at home and she declared it "the best soup".
For Christmas, she got a kids' cookbook. On 31.12 she made her first recipe: mustikkapiirakka. It was great (really tasty!) and she was very proud of it. Then on 1.1 she made her first savory recipe (a tomato-based pasta sauce with bacon in it) and she really hated the taste. So...she is fixated on baking for a while.

Health

She had a rough time re-adjusting to the schedule here in Oslo. She missed a lot of sleep on the red-eye flight back home, and then of course it doesn't get light here until 9:00, so there were many mornings she was sleeping way past her normal time and then having a hard time going to sleep at night. Normally she is wonderfully cooperative at bedtime, and this was a big backslide.
15.12 lost her second tooth (lower right incisor) but she didn't notice until after snack. it could have fallen out somewhere or she could have swallowed it. she was very distraught (and her teachers helped her look for a long time). but after some advice from other parents, we wrote a nice note to the tooth fairy asking for a coin anyway.
17.12 she felt ill and told us she didn't want to eat anything sweet. then in the evening she vomited on the living room rug.

Stats

size: 116 (6 in US size). She has long limbs and needs the extra length. size 30 shoe.
height: 112 cm on 9.9
weight: 18.2 kg on 19.11 at airport
favorite color: "rainbow"

Events

4.12 arrival home to Oslo
10.12 muskari, decorated cookies with Eino
11.12 christmas market downtown with Helmine (& family): ferris wheel and carousel
13.12 Lucia day
15.12 lost second tooth!
17.12 visit Nelli
18.12 visit Helena's new baby
21.12 solsnufest at barnehage
23.12 fly to London
24.12 Christmas eve, joulupukki
25.12 Christmas
26.12 shopping in London
29.12 fly home to oslo

Random

She thinks the first day of Christmas gift is a " palm tree in a pear tree ".

She was watching birds fly over the park and said " there is a pile of birds flying together! "

Flying into Heathrow and looking at the English countryside, she said " it looks like new york city. "

For Christmas, she was disappointed to get "only things that I need!" instead of toys. She was cheered a bit by the yo-yo and ballet shoes in the stocking on Christmas morning.