20 March 2017

Otso: 3 Years, 5 Months

Summary
His development is more subtle these days. He still gets very angry and runs away to be by himself. But when he's happy he is a sweet boy who loves to snuggle.

Learning/Development
His comprehension of the little things is growing. He works hard to articulate to us descriptions like "the bad guys are wearing green" in a show.

Language
English is still the strongest, but lately he enjoys saying appropriate sentences in Norwegian and telling us "that's what we say in barnehage". And he made big leaps in Finnish with Vaari and Leena.

Toys/Games/Other
He enjoyed the "SuperLand" at the hotel in Sarpsborg. The first day, Lumi led him around the place, probably out of his comfort zone. But then next day he confidently enjoyed it on his own, and played a bit of mini golf with Isä. He also liked the nerf guns, which he calls "shooters" which somehow sounds nicer than "guns".
First shooting toy: a figure with a gun that shoots a plastic projectile (kind of like a dull dart?), from McDonalds.

Social
We overheard him playing with little dolls, making them crash and bump each other and then say " sorry! "
He likes to talk about his friends at barnehage. It's nice that he has a real social life now.
At suomikerho, he and Eino have a great time together. They play with cars and chase each other and scream with laughter.

Eating
Favorites: eggs, ice cream
He doesn't always eat as well as he used to, but then he'll go on a spree of being insatiable.

Sleeping
Some nights he is very proud about sleeping in his own bed all night like a big boy. Other nights he begs to sleep with us.

Health
He wants to pee "like Marvin" (ie standing up). Later in the month he has stopped this (thank goodness!).

Stats
Clothes: size 104/110. Shoes: size 28.

Teeth: 20
Weight: ?
Height: 99 cm on 2017-01-06

Events
22.2  playdate with Marvin
25—26.2 hotel in Sarpsborg
27.2 Isä's birthday
3.3 "fargefest" at barnehage
4.3 playdate with Oscar
8-13.5 Vaari & Leena visit!
10.3 Korketrekkeren sledding
12.3 Suomikerho
13.3 day home with Vaari and Leena
12-17.3 Isä gone for work trip

Random
6.3 He claimed that when he grows up he's going to get a bigger toothbrush. It will be black with green dots.

Making Faces


13 March 2017

grandparent time

the kids love having vaari to visit. this was one of the only still photos i got, because there was too much activity.

03 March 2017

Lumi: 6 Years, 1 Month

Summary
It feels like she is growing out of everything! All of a sudden the pants and sleeves are too short. Her urge to be independent is strong. The big events of the month were the Lankinen visit and chicken pox (vesirokko). She was surprisingly cheerful during the chicken pox.

Social
Her best friend is still Helmine.
We are getting a lot of attitude from her lately. She often speaks extremely rudely to us.

Leisure
4.2 we met friends at the ice rink. she made big progress in a couple hours: starting out unhappily hanging on to isä, then hanging on to the penguin, then more confident with the penguin, then finally daring herself to go further and further stints without holding on to anything.
18.2 ice skating with the cousins -- she still loves it!
19.2 sledding with the cousins
she pretended that February 15th was her stuffed animal's birthday, and she and all her friends made little presents for it. But then it had another birthday on 27.2 (which meant that Isä had to share the spotlight).

Learning
She was delighted to start spelling a few short words like "no" and "ei".

Language
English is still the strongest. She shows real hesitation sometimes now even when listening to Finnish.

Food
While she was sick she didn't eat much. But since her throat hurt she had a lot of soft sweet things : jello, ice cream, rice pudding. Later she started saying "I'm tired of eating sweet stuff."

Health
7.2 came home feeling not so great, chicken pox showed up before bed!
20.2 switch to bed on the floor (we sold the loft bed; she was complaining about it )
1.3 requested "grown up" toothpaste. we compromised on "big kid" paste which still has lower fluoride amount.

Stats
size: 116 (6 in US size), sometimes 122 (7 in US). She has long limbs and needs the extra length. size 30 or 31 shoe.
height: 117 cm on 2017-02-10
weight: ?
favorite color: "rainbow"

Events
4.2 ice skating
5.2 birthday party: the movie "Syng" with friends
7.2 chicken pox appearance
13.2 back to barnehage
17.2 last day of ski school
18-20.2 lankinen visit
22.2 playdate with Marvin
25—26.2 hotel in Sarpsborg
27.2 Isä's birthday
28.2 playdate with Emilia

Random
At the Sarpsborg hotel, there was a "barnedisko" for the kids to dance. When we noticed that the hotel mascot (a giant mouse)  would be there, we suggested to Lumi that she could dance with it. Her response : "that would be freaky."

In discussion about why people say "artiste", kimmo suggested that she could be an artist and listed several different ways to make art (painting, sculpture, etc). Lumi said, "making statues is easy. You make a volcano, explode it on people, and they become statues." we know that they made a model of a volcano at barnehage, but now we think there was some discussion about Pompeii. :)

bear in my sweater