The soft side

You wouldn't think so, but our little 'Tiny Tank' usually on full speed ahead, actually has a soft, worrying side to her as well.
Yesterday she was invited to our new neighbours house for their daughter's 9th birthday party. The birthday girl goes to the other international school, so Linnea wasn't quite sure who was going to be there that she knew.

While I was doing her hair, she was psyching herself up in the mirror:
- "Now Linnea, I know it's all ISB kids, but just be nice, smile, and say 'hi' to everyone!"
Bless her!

It was a disco party, so I helped her put together a cool outfit (because it was a 9th birthday party, so it was going to be a lot of "older" girls there), painted her nails with disco glitter nail polish, put her hair up nicely and added a bit of glitter to her cheeks as well.

When she came home after the party and I asked how it had been she was all happy and said:
- "It was nice, I really liked it! I made so many new friends!"
Good girl.

Look - Cover - Write - Check

Linnea has been going on all week about the homework they were going to get today, their first spelling homework. She's been all excited all week and very eager to get started with her spelling, she couldn't wait for today.

So this morning we were near total meltdown when she realized she had forgotten her blue book bag at home - because how would Mrs Harris be able to give her the homework if she had nowhere to put it?! What if she wouldn't get any now, that she didn't have her bag to carry it home in?!?

Mrs Harris was able to calm her down though, and promised Linnea would also get her spelling folder sent home today. Phew!

Guess who started as soon as she got home, before she even took her shoes off..? :)

Those numbers again...

The other night Linnea came into our bed a few times, and each time I took her back to her bed and tucked her in again. In the end I told her that she would be allowed to come into our room when her (digital) clock showed "Zero-Five...", but I said it in Swedish of course, "Noll-Fem".

I then went back to bed, only to be woken up again a few moments later when she was there by my side again tapping me hard to wake up, "whispering" "Mummy!". Annoyed as I got, I said with quite a stern voice "No Linnea, go back to your bed NOW!" to which she answered "But Mummy, I just need to know what number is noll..?"

Bless her, those numbers are all confusing...

Wrong reference frames

We are sitting in the car on the way home from the airport and Linnea and Mormor are playing a game where Linnea is trying to trick Mormor to look out the window:
- Titta Mormor, en apa! (=Look a monkey)

We explain to her there are no monkeys in Sweden, so she thinks for a bit and then says:
- Titta Mormor, en krokodil!

Bless her, we explain there are no crocodiles either. She tries with snake too in vain before thinking for a very long time, and then coming up with the fail-safe:
- Titta Mormor, ett träd! (= a tree)

Well there we go, common ground at last!

Already?

This is going to be a very long school holiday... Linnea asked me already today if it's school on Monday... Bless her! She said she already misses her friends!

Holes in the heritage

Even though he was only away for four days, Nathan kindly brought the kids presents back from Perth. New tooth brushes, new goggles and some toys.
I got a present too! This fun charm from Pandora, for my charm bracelet:



But I think it's lucky it's just about time for another Sweden visit because when I asked the kids what it was, Lucas thought: "A knight"; and Linnea's answer was: "A troll!"... Hm...

Her way

Linnea: - Can I have some [wader] please!

Lucas: - It's not [wader]! It's w-a-T-e-r!

Linnea: - It doesn't [madder]! ...

There you go.

I wish

The last two days I have been awake before the alarm, and yesterday when I got downstairs I got met by Linnea who was all ready and told me:

- Good Morning Mummy, I have had my breakfast, got dressed, brushed my teeth, AND I'm up to number 4 on the hop-scotch!

Needless to say, we were the first car in the car park at school and the kids got a looong playtime before the bell went! I wish every morning was like that!

The dreaded question

This morning on our way to school, we talked about our UK life and were placing in time when certain things had happened. At one stage, we were talking about something that had taken place when Linnea was in my tummy - and that sparked the dreaded question, from Lucas:
- But Mummy, how do babies get into mummies big tummies?

Ehm...
I didn't have time to start explaining before Linnea answered for me:
- Silly! It's when mummies eat a lot of food of course!

Lucas seemed happy with that explanation, so we have left it at that for the moment! :)

How to spot a real Star Wars

After the initial excitement, and for some, utter chock - over the impressive Star Wars visitors; the kids had many questions for them. Lucas was clever though and found out pretty quickly they weren't "real", because, as he said:
-"If you were real Storm Troopers, you would kill us!"

Linnea took another approach to prove her point. When the guys retired back into the guest room to get changed again, she quickly snuck past one of them into the room, and exclaimed:
-"Look! I told you! They ARE humans, they have shoes!"

Doctor's orders

Linnea has been quite snotty for about a week now, with a bit of cough and also some ear ache. I decided to take her to the Doctor today, just to make sure that her ear will handle the long flight back on Sunday.
Luckily her ear was just fine, a little bit of infection on the mend, but nothing that couldn't be helped without antibiotics.
Instead she got prescribed nose spray (which she is already on) and... chewing gum! For the plane!

Of course we had to go straight to the hospital kiosk and buy some, cause "The Doctor said!"

That 2...

It's been quite a while now we've been trying to get Linnea to sleep in her own bed, all night through. She keeps coming in to ours nearly every night in the middle of the night, and usually we just keep carry her back, over and over again...
Lately we've tried something new, we've told her that she is allowed to come and have a cuddle, but only after 5 o'clock. She has got her own clock in her room, and it's kind of been working ok.

The other night she came in, and it was only just 2 o'clock. We told her to come back at 5, and she said "But it is 5!". "No, it's 2, go to bed, come back later". So off she went only to return again half an hour later. I told Nathan "Poor thing, maybe she can't really make the difference between 2 and 5, they do look a bit alike, only mirrored?".
Well, turns out she can, because apparently she had grunted in his ear:

- "I hate that 2, it's SO annoying!"

Busted

We are probably on our last few Christmases trying to keep the illusion of Santa going for the kids. It's hard work making up believable stories and it's not really helping either when you give yourself away without thinking about it...
We had the following conversation with Linnea the other day when she was thinking about her list for Santa:

- I'm writing I want a kitten for Christmas! *Thinking*... No! Actually I want a dragon!
- That's nice Linnea, but where is Mummy and Daddy going to get a dragon from?
- Aaaahhh silly, you're not - Santa will bring it!

Hm. Yes. Of course he will... or maybe not.

A bit too early?

I would've thought there would still be some time before we would see Linnea scribble these kind of things:



(For those of you a bit lost, she has written "Linnea Bolten", like in Troy Bolton - the cute guy in the High School Musical movies...)

A different perspective

The other day we got another example of how different our kids are. Whereas Lucas likes things "as they are supposed to be", f.e when he builds a LEGO set he builds it and poses it all exactly like it is pictured on the box; he always follows instructions to a tee - Linnea often sees things differently.
The other day in the car, she was asking Lucas about maths:

- Whats six take away three?
- Equals three.
- Whats nine take away nine?
- Equals zero.
- Whats crocodile equals two?
- ???

Prinsesstårta

We had a special celebration today, for Mormor. We went to town and bought a cake, as a surprise, and talked a lot about this secret on the way home. We all agreed that we weren't going to tell Mormor anything about the cake. It was very exciting to have a secret!
So exciting that the first thing Linnea told Mormor was, that "We have a secret for you!!!"...

Well, finally, after a long wait, it was time to present the cake. Linnea gave Morfar a hand:



It was very exciting:



Mormor was under orders to blunda hennes ögon (=close her eyes):



And then we enjoyed the lovely Prinsesstårta, mmm:

The jungle kids in the winter wonderland

I don't blame the people in the train for looking at us strangely when the following conversation took place yesterday as we traveled up north through Sweden and saw more and more snow:

Linnea: - Mummy look! Snow!! Look! More snow!
Me: - Yes, it's nice, isn't it?
Lucas: - Why is there snow..?
Me: - Because it is winter.
Linnea: - What is winter?
Me - ... Well... :)

Mamma, do dej know...

Linnea's language is in a developing phase at the moment, and she has a lot to say these days! I hear the statement above 100 times a day, at least! (=Mummy, do you know...")
She still speaks a great amount of 'swenglish' but the funniest thing is that she says she is speaking Spanish... Well, Spanish... Swedish... it's all a bit confusing I guess, especially when she is talking about it. She is very proud of speaking several languages, as is Lucas who always counts in the Mandarin as well.

They other day, one of the library books she brought home had poems both in English and in Spanish in it. So I read some to the kids in Spanish as well, just for fun.
Lucas then asks me where in the world they speak Spanish - and Linnea promptly pipes up:
- "I know that! In Dora-land!" :)

The sensitive one

Grandma and Granddad's dog Kiwi died a few months back, and we hadn't told the kids about it yet. We wanted to wait until just before we went down, so it was a bit more fresh in their minds and maybe there wouldn't be so many questions for Grandma and Granddad like that. It was of course very sad and very hard for them, to say goodbye to such an old friend.

So today at dinnertime we told the kids that Kiwi-dog wont be there this time, because he had gone very, very old and had gone for a very long sleep.
Lucas immediately put two and two together and asked if he was dead, and if someone had buried him. Then he put his head in his hands and mumbled:
-"But he was so soft... I will miss him very much... He was so soft on his head..." very slowly and with a sad voice. No tears, just a very sad voice. He is such a sensitive little soul.

Linnea on the other hand exclaimed:
-"I won't!"

She receives sad news a bit more on the light side.

But Mummy!

I picked up Linnea from Kindy today, and whilst gathering all her belongings and emptying her tray, I asked her to go and get her lunchbox and water bottle.
She was already holding her hairband in one hand and a drawing in the other, so she looked at me, rolling her eyes, going:
- But Mummy! I only have TWO hands!!!

I wonder where she has picked that up from..?