Soaring, flying...

Do you have High School musical stuck on your brain now too?

"...there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach"

Well, that's not what I want to tell you about today. I want to tell you about my little fairy. E put her fairy wings on H earlier today and it looked really cute so I let her keep them on. They didn't seem to bother her. I had every intention to take a picture before they came off, but that didn't happen. Something else happened though. My baby went flying through the air. No, you didn't read it wrong. 

 I was sitting on the armrest of our couch, talking to my husband on the phone about something landlord related (we have an apartment available for rent btw, just thought I'd throw that out there) and just as we hung up I looked up into the playroom and saw E holding H by the armpits high up in the air. Well, holding might not be the right term here. I'm sure she was holding onto her at first and then started swinging her. But when I looked up H was in the air for two seconds, then landed on her back with a bump.  And a thump. Then came the tears and the running mamma. While picking up my crying fairy from the floor I had the stern mamma look on my face, calmly, but very firmly, telling E she better go to her room right now! 

 H calmed down as soon as I picked her up. She was ok. E on the other hand was crying in her room. I knew she didn't throw her sister up in the air to purposely hurt her so I found something to distract H with (snack food) and then headed to E's room for a talk. We sat down and I asked her what just happened. I expected to hear something along the lines with "I was swinging her and dropped her" to which I would've explained why she is under no circumstances to try to swing her ever again. I mean, c'mon, we have a 'no carry H rule'. I would think swinging her would be included in that rule. Maybe I need to specify every possible carrying situation. Anyways, that's not what E told me.

"I just wanted her to fly."

I couldn't keep it together. I started laughing so hard that even though I turned away and covered my mouth there was no hiding it. My whole body was shaking. New rule in our house. Never, ever make H fly. Never thought of that one before.

Heartfelt

We were making Thank You cards the other day, E and I, and she was pretending to write on a piece of paper. 

"I'm writing a thank you card to Jesus", she said. And then she told me what she wrote. It was so sweet I have to share it with you.

 

At first I was a little confused and asked her what she meant. What will work?

"Our hearts!" 

Duh!

Four, 4, IV, Fyra

E turned four years old a couple of days ago. Can you believe it? She's four! We went to an indoor play place today and before I had a chance to put H down E had thrown her boots in two different direction and taken off to play, still wearing her coat, hat and mittens. She was so excited! Last year she would play, mostly without me there, but she needed help with some things, like the big tunnel slide. This time she played with her friends without needing me at all. She still wanted me to join a couple of times, but she didn't need me. Big difference.

She has the sweetest little voice. In fact, right now, as I'm writing this, she's singing Away in a Manger in her room, while playing with a nativity set. It's the most beautiful sound ever! 

I think I've told you before that her attitude has gotten a lot better. It's still a struggle, but I think I can see an end to the wretched three's. In fact, today she's had a great attitude all day. She didn't even put up a fight when it was time to leave the play place. Knowing her that's a miracle! 

She just realized the right words to Jingle Bells halfway through this Christmas season. That one almost makes me a little sad because I've loved listening to Tinkerbell, tinker all the way for a couple of seasons now. I will miss that.

She loves preschool. Academically I think she would be ready for Kindergarten in the fall (in fact her teachers actually told me that she is way above preschool three level academically, if I may brag a little) but she still has another year of preschool left since she's got such a late birthday. And socially she needs it. She still wanders off in the middle of lessons to just twirl around or look at things more interesting to her. So although she has the knowledge of a school kid, she still doesn't act like one. I'm happy she gets to be just a kid for another year.

Her favorite show at the moment is Animal Mechanicals on Hubub. They had an Animal Mechanical Marathon today and I DVR'd it all. 

She loves her little sister to pieces, but since H is walking and getting in her way more often she tries to discipline her too much. 

She's a great helper, when she feels like it. She loves to help in the kitchen and I try to plan some menu items that she can easily help with.

She has asked Jesus into her heart!!! I still struggle with that one a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited, but how much can she really understand? I guess she understands all she needs to understand at 4 years old. She still remembers when it happened and she talks about it on a regular basis. I guess time will tell how well she grasped it. (Just want to let you know too, that this is something she did on her own, without being asked to.)

She LOVES to dance. So much that we signed her up for tap/ballet starting in January. It was a birthday gift from us and all of her grandparents. I think she will love it!

If you ask her what her favorite food is she will tell you it's soup. For her birthday she requested orange soup (butternut squash) with croutons. She eats pretty much everything and will tell you how delicious it is.With her sweet, little voice.

When she has a bad attitude we ask her to drop it. She will shake her head and tell us she dropped it. Now if she would only leave it on the floor...

Gardening is something that can really capture her attention. In fact, for Christmas, we bought a bin, put some sand in it and added some sunflower seeds and some fake flowers. She started planting right away and we had to remind her several times that she had more presents to open. 

E and H update

Well, snot is dripping and the germs are flying everywhere with all the coughing that's going on around here. My girls have a serious cold. It better go away soon! We're running out of tissues, again.

H is really good at both crawling and cruising by now and she has even been taking a couple of steps on her own here and there. But I missed her first steps. She was standing by the coffee table and E called her name and she took 2 steps towards her. Hubby told me. I didn't want to miss that. I don't want to miss any firsts. But I'm glad C got to see it. He misses some firsts since he's the breadwinner around here. Still, couldn't she have waited until I was done in the bathroom? (Sorry, was that TMI? Oh well, I know you go there too.)

H has a new favorite game. She plays "tittut" with us. That's Swedish for peekaboo. There's your language lesson for today. I'm sure you'll find it useful someday. She grabs the blanket (or pants if she's getting her diaper changed), pulls it over her face, waits for me to ask "var är H?" (no I'm not translating it, one lesson is enough) and then she pulls it off and smiles when we say tittut. Sometimes it even sound like she's saying tittut. That would be a funny first word. Although she babbles mamamamamamama sometimes too.

On to E... We have struggled for the past 2 years now. You know, with the terrible two's and the wretched three's. And then the other day, about a week ago I could see in her face how she was focusing on trying to do the right thing and instead of arguing she turned to me and said, ok mamma, and did what I asked her to do. The rest of the day was like that and I was so proud of her. But normally after a good day follows a day of struggles. I'm pleased to report that we've had a great week! Could it be that she's getting closer to be four? Is that promise really true, that it gets better by the time they turn four? I've been clinging to it and it seems to be true. Sure, we still have some arguing, defiance etc going on here and there, but I did not ask for her to turn into a door mat so I don't mind seeing that strong will of hers now and then. 

I also have a couple of "she said" things that need to be told but they'll have to wait because I have to peeeee. Yep, there's that potty talk again. I'm not apologizing this time. No time. Really have to go!!!!!

She did and she said

H finally started crawling, but she's not a fan at all. She would much rather grab you by the hands and walk around with you. She doesn't care that it's killing your back. And neither do you since she's so cute. Well at least you don't care for the first two minutes, then your back tells you to care and you put her down and she screams. That's right. That content little baby has an opinion all of a sudden.
She realized today that she doesn't really need you to walk around. Cruising around the coffee table works too, but it's still pretty slow.

E has a few funny things she says from time to time that I don't think I've mentioned before. (Please forgive me if I have.)
In the fall she occasionally enjoys some apple Chris.
When she cooks she follows a reciPete.
Before she brushes her hair it's full of nuts.

"She said" through Facebook

I've posted a lot of fb statuses lately of all the adorable things E says and does and wanted to share them here.

• E: What's today?
  Me: It's Saturday.
  E: Saturday is candy day. I get candy after lunch.
  Me: Yes you do.
  E: Can I have breakfast AND lunch now?

• E: what are we going to cook?
  Me: We're going to cook you some soup.
  E: cook me?! But I don't want to be in a pot.

• Oh the faith of a little child: She wanted to pray that God would take my cold away and when she was done she looked at me and said "your cold is gone now Mamma". Gotta love her :)

• conclusion made by E after a life long observation of our family:
  "boys get hot coffee, girls get hot tea"

• I love listening to E as she tells me what she learned in Sunday school. Today she told me about Joseph and his special coat that got mud on it. :) And after she was done she said : Mamma, I'm glad we had this talk together.

• ‎"Everybody needs flowers."

• Me: Drop the attitude.
  E: (shook her head down) I dropped it on my foot, mamma.

• I put H down for a nap and promised E that as soon as H fell asleep we could go outside. I then got the monitor from our bedroom, unplugged it, put in batteries, turned it on and heard big sister singing "go to sleep, go to sleep" to little sister. So sweet, but it had the opposite effect.

• E's in the tub drawing a picture of our family. "That's you, mamma,
  holding H. And that's you daddy, fixing something."

• my planned lunch: one wasa cracker with hummus and one with a boiled egg and kalles kaviar. I had both spreads on the crackers and was waiting for my egg when E decided to turn my crackers into a sandwich. If you know what kalles kaviar is you know how gross that is. But what do you say when she smiles and thinks she's a great helper?

• making lemony asparagus pasta for dinner. While I was trimming the asparagus E said: "ooh, bamboo!"

• served butternut squash soup with homemade croutons and afterwards E said: "That was delicious lunch, mamma! It was so yummy!"

• Just read from the Jesus storybook Bible about Adam and Eve to E. She said: "They have to listen to Jesus and the snake has to stop eating the bananas." =)

• my oldest daughter is a sticky mess. "Mamma, I like nipple cream!"

"I made a note book just like you"

Did you see
my
post
over
on
my
other
blog?
Well,
E watched me as I put it together
and decided
she
was going
to
be
just
like
mamma.
So here's her note book...

Nice boobs!

Background info:
Every now and then when we're in the pool E wants to hold on to me and sometimes that means holding on to my bikini top. I always have to remind her not to pull on it and explain why.

Today's conversation as we're getting ready for the pool:
E: I don't wanna show my boobs.
Me: What?
E: I don't wanna show my boobs.
Me: Ok, let's put the swimsuit on then.

E: I'm hiding my boobs. You're hiding your boobs too. (pokes at them) Wow! That's pretty big boobs! I've got tiny boobs. (lifts up her top) See?

As I'm changing she walks in to the bedroom.
E: Ooh! That's nice boobs!

Sunday School through the eyes of a 3½ year old

A couple of weeks ago E asked me this question: "Mamma, can we put H in a basket and put her in the river and I can be a princess?" I guess they'd been talking about Moses at Sunday school.

Yesterday E wanted to play Sunday school at home. She read me a story after showing me how I had to sit. Then we had to stand up to sing songs. Then we got to play a little. It was structured play, not free play. =)

This morning we went through the sheet she got home from church. I asked her the questions on it. Here's how it went down:
-What is God like?
-"God likes Jesus."
-How did God help Moses and his people escape?
-"He helped them so they could walk between the waves. I colored the waves blue."
-When can you ask God to help you?
-"When it's raining. Then I can walk."

Twirly Girl

E loves to dance. Every day she dresses up in her tutu and twirls around. She actually came up to me yesterday and told me that daddy was taking her to ballet school at church. Not really sure where that came from.

Today I was reading the latest entry of this blog and they have a contest where you can win a Prima Princessa DVD. That would be such a great present for my little ballerina. I hope I win. =)

If you have a little dancer at home you should check it out. Just follow my links.

What were you thinking?

Do you ever feel like asking God that question? What were you thinking? I do every time I see a bug. I know, I know. Birds need to eat. I've heard that answer plenty of times. But he's GOD. He decided what the birds needed to eat. He could've picked something else. This morning as E and I went out to the pool I spotted a bug that made me ask that question over and over again. I don't think I've stopped asking it yet. I normally try to hide my fear of bugs in front of E because I don't want to transfer such a silly fear over to her if I can help it. There was no hiding it today! I had to explain to her that mamma was afraid of that bug. I called C and he told me to kill it. Why didn't I think of that. (Read that with a sarcastic tone, please.) His exact words when my voice was trembling on the other end trying to explain to him what the bug could do to me if I tried that was "it's just a bug". Well this bug wasn't just a bug. But it was sitting on the ladder that goes in the pool and I had promised my three year old that we were going to go swimming so I had to face my fear. I took the thing we clean up leaves with and was very thankful it was sitting on the end of a very long stick. I slowly moved it closer to the bug and prayed out loud for God to help me do this. I squeezed the bug between the thing I was holding (sorry, the word has slipped my mind) and the ladder. It wiggled, trying to get free. I stood there for a long time and the thing wouldn't die! It finally almost succeeded so I pushed it into the water where if floated around. Do you think the thing would drown? Of course not! So after watching it float around the pool about 5 times I had to rescue it so we could go for a swim. I threw it in the bushes. The whole time we were swimming I kept expecting it to fly back and hurt me just because I hurt it. You can only imagine my fear every time a leaf touched me. And my swim suit has all these strings to tie that float around in the water and keep touching me. Made me jump several times. And then a little bug actually bit my neck. I'm sure he was a friend of the nasty, big bug.

I must mention that as the bug was floating around in our pool I asked out loud "what is that?" to which E replied "It's a bug, mamma" with her cute little voice. "I know it's a bug, sweetie. I just don't know what kind it is", I said. She answered "It's a big one". =)

So what kind of bug was it? I have no idea. It looked like a mix between a cockroach and a moth (it had ginormous wings) and it was as big as my hand. I snapped a couple of pics with my phone, but it's not a great camera and I didn't dare to get too close so I don't know if you can tell either. I'll post them anyways...

She loves oatmeal!

I introduced H to solids today. First she nursed, both sides, and then I gave her one tablespoon of oatmeal mixed with two tablespoons of breastmilk. I couldn't keep up with her and she barely got messy. She was definitely ready for this. It took less than five minutes for her to finish it all. Here are before and after pics of her mouth. =)

Happy Birthday!

C is away on another business trip. When he went two weeks ago E was doing great. This time she's more of a challenge. Especially today. This was definitely a day of discipline. But it was also a day of fun. Yesterday she asked me for a birthday party and I though she meant a pretend one so I said ok and sat down on the floor ready to play pretend. She was pretty upset when she realized I wasn't going to drive her to the "birthday house" (church fellowship hall). I promised her that if it rained today we would make a birthday cake. And since it rained we made a gooey coconut chocolate cake. And then I remembered that H doesn't appreciate it when I eat chocolate. Oh, well... We also played a birthday memory game, hiding those little birthday cake candle holders that look like flowers under party hats and matching them up just like a memory game. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound very exciting, but E enjoyed it.

H has been eating a lot for the past two days, waking up crying for food. I don't know if it's a growth spurt or if she needs solid food. She is 5 months old and that's when I started E on solids, but I really wanted to wait another month. We'll see how things go for a few more days. We've been out and about so much these past few days too so her sleeping schedule is a little bit off. That could be it too. We finally had a day at home today and she slept great for her first two naps. The third one she woke up early from and wanted to eat. Not sure if she woke from hunger though or just because someone (not me or E) was being loud.

Tonight, after I put the girls to bed I finally had some time to put together a bunch of things I need to ship to different people around the world. Hopefully we can make it to the post office tomorrow and hopefully they'll accept my boxes. I just used E's old shoe boxes, covered up the top with a piece of white paper from the printer where I wrote the address, but I didn't cover the rest of the box. It should still be ok, right? If they say something maybe I can argue that recycling is good for the environment =)

Playground happenings

We tried a new playground today. It was an older playground but it was still nice. There was a ton of shade, but a little buggy. I definitely want to go there again. Here are a few things that happened there:

• I was pushing E on a swing and she fell off backwards. She hit the ground scraping her lower back and she bumped her head pretty bad too. Poor girl!
• E wanted to go down a slide. The boys wanted to be helpful and make her ride a really cool one so they kept adding lots of dirt all over the slide and on her feet. She wasn't too happy about that. The boys couldn't understand why. So I told them she doesn't like dirt. She's a girl. Then D said: "Only boys like dirt." =)
• We were the last ones to get to the playground today and we were also the last ones to leave. E was playing on a toy and when she got off it she said she was going to go play with her friends. Then she just stopped and looked around. Everyone was gone. She started to cry. But we played on the stage coach together and she was happy again.

These were just a few things that stood out to me today. She had her bath and is laying on the couch drinking almond milk and watching Boz now. H is sleeping but I should wake her up to feed her. First I'm going to snuggle with E for a few minutes though.
(Oh, they just prayed on the show and she prayed along with them. So precious!)

May 26th so far

We had so much fun outside today, E and I. We played with her water table and got soaked. It started out with us spraying water at each other, but the new water guns sucked! So then we started throwing water at each other and it ended with me putting her in the water table. She loved it! She called it "a great, little pool". I can't wait for C to open up the real pool.
We try to get out during H's first nap since it's a long one and it's not too hot out yet. Yesterday we swept the car port, drew with chalk and made a new hopscotch. Yesterday's snack was watermelon and today we made a fruit salad of apples, pears, mandarin oranges, raisins and craisins.

E had pb&j for lunch today, with green beans. I made myself a Wasa cracker with hummus and put Kalles Kaviar on another cracker. I boiled an egg to slice and put on top of that cracker. But before the egg was done my helpful little E put the two crackers together and made me a sandwich. If you don't know what Kalles kaviar is I'll tell you, it's a salty pastelike spread made from fish eggs and it comes in a tube. I use it instead of salt on eggs. Not the best thing to combine with hummus.

We are on our third day without daddy. We miss him and can't wait for him to get back in a couple of days but so far we're doing great. I would have to say that the hardest thing is bedtime. And not the kids bedtime, but mine. It's so hard to go to bed alone!

Last night E woke up a few times. I think she was hot. We have to put in her a/c soon. Then she woke up at 6:30. Way too early even if she sleeps great. She came into the bedroom, grabbed my robe, put it on the floor and fell asleep on top of it and slept there for over an hour.

H is doing great. We're trying to move her to a 3 naps a day instead of 4 and we're starting to get there. Her morning nap is longer which is great for when we're home playing outside. We can just bring the monitor with us and stay outside a little bit longer. It's a bit more challenging on days we have to leave the house. Her second nap is usually the shortest one and the third one is pretty long.

One more thing before I sign out... Grattis på födelsedagen, Östen!

A little update

I haven't blogged in awhile, just in case you haven't noticed. I haven't had much time to blog, and to be honest I haven't really felt like it either. But right now C is shaving and taking a shower and I'm waiting to take a shower too, so I have a few minutes to spare.

My mom and A came to visit. It was great to have them here. C and E picked them up at the airport and when E saw my mom she let go of daddy's hand, ran up to her, gave her a big hug and said: "Mormor, I'm so happy to see you!" How sweet is that?! My mom still talks about it and it makes me tear up every time she does. What a great memory for her.
I wish we could visit more often, but it's expensive and the time difference is very hard to deal with when you have little kids. Hopefully it will get easier as they get older.

Last night E woke up crying for me. I went into her room and asked what was wrong. She said she got scared. (I think she had a nightmare.) And then she asked: "Mamma, you pray for me?" So I crawled into bed with her, prayed and she went back to sleep.

Oh, I hear the shower curtain. My turn! =)

She said...

E wanted a snack. I asked if she wanted pears.
"Yes. They're good for you. And they're tasty too."

We were brushing our teeth this morning. Earlier she had spilled OJ on her pj shirt so she had taken it off. As she was looking at herself in the mirror she said:
"Look, mamma! I have boobs."
Me: "Well, you have nipples."
E: "No! I don't have nipples! I have boobs!"

Short but sweet

E woke up about 15 minutes ago. She opened her door and asked:
"What are you doing in the libingroom?" (Yes, her v's sound like b's.)
I told her I'm reading my Bible. She immediately got her Bible out. "This is my Bible." And then she sat down in her bed with her Bible for about ten minutes. She's now sitting on the couch reading about Daniel and the lions to H.

3 more things from my list...

In about a month my mom and A will be here. I'm so excited!

E has been doing really well with H, but after she was born she started to have more accidents. So we started to use a potty chart again and she is now doing really well.

I went to the Children's Place with no intention of buying anything. I just had some time to spend. But I ended up buying matching Easter outfits for the girls. My plan was to buy a dress for E and let H use one of E's old dresses, but when I saw these dresses I just had to buy them. They are the same colors as the Swedish flag. How could I resist?

A very sweet "She said"

I should really be in bed right now since I need all the sleep I can get but I wanted to share something here.
We had put E to bed but she wasn't asleep yet. We put up a gate by her door so she can open her door but still not get out and she was standing there calling for me, saying she was sad. I wasn't sure if she really was sad or if she just didn't want to go to bed. I was nursing H so I couldn't go check on her so I told her she still had to go to bed. She then said:
"But I'm sad. Pray and ask that I get happy?"
How sweet is that?! C went in and prayed with her and after that she went to sleep. I love her!