Pretty girl

Sylvia is practicing her Smiley Faces

Spring WAS on the way

Hard to believe we had a Spring day recently, when we could have fika in the sun room. Now there is snow on the ground and it has been like a blizzard the past few hours. But here is proof that Spring WAS on its way!

Sisters and Friends

Every month that passes naturally means that Esther and Sylvia are getting a bit closer in development. It is fun to watch this take place, because it means that they play together a lot more and can actually entertain one another without one of us being right there to initiate or guide or guard their playtime together. They really do enjoy each other. They hardly ever get frustrated with each other. If there are any ouchies it is usually just an accident or a mistake and they get over it. Sometimes Bossy Esther gets frustrated when Usually Acquiescent Sylvia doesn't do exactly what she orders her to do in different games, but that is something that Bossy Esther is just learning to deal with in life in general. She is, after all, not The Boss of the Known World, and part of her life development is having to learn, understand, and implement that realization. For some kids I guess that happens faster or slower than for other kids, and Bossy Esther is on the slower side of that spectrum.

So these pictures are of their new thing to do together. They like to - when they are allowed - both squeeze onto Esther's high chair and share a sandwich together and giggle incessantly about it and make faces at each other, etc.

This is their "pretend to be mad" face.



Esther switched pre-schools in mid-January and I can't even tell you how proud I am of her. She made a HUGE enormous gigantic transition on so many levels (the two schools are SO different), but she made it more smoothly than we ever could have hoped for. A MAJOR answer to prayer given many factors I won't go into right now. What a relief for us, and what an awesome school for Esther. We are very pleased so far. And very very very proud. It has made her much more agreeable and content in general. She loves people, especially people her age, so this is just really meeting a lot of her needs that unfortunately weren't getting met before.


Sylvia is my sweet precious beautiful silly mischievous girl with the serene yet busy personality. She is always doing something, all the time. She doesn't like to sit still and she always likes to be investigating something. TV does not interest her AT ALL and she won't spend any time in front of it unless we are having Movie Night with Chips. Sylvia loves food. Almost all kinds of food. Especially junk food! But she likes real food too. She seems to be doing fine with Esther at another school. She has plenty of peers at her own school. But she is always VERY happy to see Esther in the afternoons!

Cutest Drummer Ever

We got to church early today because we were the ones setting up for fika. We were the first ones there for awhile. Sylvia sat at the drum set from 3 to 4, banging away, the last 15 minutes while the worship team was up there practicing! She loooooved it and zoned out.

And while she was doing that, Esther had a microphone (no sound on), singing while we were alone there, and then when the worship team was practicing she stayed up there with the microphone, swaying and enjoying herself! Crazy kids.

Another magical Christmas at the island

Excited to be at Farmor and Farfar’s house with both Fastrar (aunts).

Farfar’s divine photo skills

I personally never went through a princess phase. I see no end in sight for Esther’s princess phase.

Everybody in Sweden watches cartoons at 3 pm on Christmas Eve. This is Esther’s reaction.

Mrs. Claus came and delivered our Christmas presents. Esther isn’t sure what to think, since we have been discussing that Santa Claus is just pretend.

Opening presents.

Superstar Sylvia takes the stage.

Happy after opening all the presents.

Poser

Christmas Concert with Toddlers

Possibly the funniest thing that's happened all of 2011: Esther and Sylvia's Christmas Concert at their daycare.

Their daycare happens to only have young kids right now, even though it is supposed to be ages one through 5 1/2. Esther is the oldest by a whole year, which is why she is going to start at a new school with some peers after Christmas.

So that meant that what the daycare teachers had to work with for this particular concert was ten kids aged 1 1/2 to 2 1/2, plus Esther, who doesn't exactly think it is fun to sing for others in a concert type setting. (mostly she doesn't like it because she doesn't like being told what to do. If she had come up with the idea by herself, she would steal the show. That is just Esther).

So anyway, here we were, all the parents, sitting waiting for these young kids to come out and sing, sure it was just going to be the cutest thing ever. The door opens, the kids start to come out, and then the inevitable happens: one kid sees all these grown-ups staring at her and she starts WAILING. That starts off a chain reaction, and within, say, 15 seconds, at least eight other kids start WAILING. Meanwhile the teachers are all cheerfully singing the Christmas songs they have been practicing together for the past two weeks.

And, as Niklas and I predicted, the ONLY kid (out of the 11) to REALLY get into it and sing loudly and do ALL the hand motions is.......drumroll: SYLVIA THE SUPERSTAR! She stole the show! She loves to be on stage and if she could have, she would have held a microphone for effect. That's just Sylvia!

(I can't post photos containing any of the other kids, so just this one will have to do!)

Christmas Tree

Now that Esther's birthday festivities are over, we can decorate for Christmas!
So we bought a small fake tree (just works best that way at this time in our lives) and decorated it tonight.

Esther took these photos all by herself!!! (I look exhausted and zombie-like because of this stupid sickness I have had for the past few days) Somehow I will have to teach her to hold the camera level, but it is really big for her small hands.

Love my Esther-girl, who is FOUR!

(More photos below in the next post)

My sweet, precious girl turned four today. FOUR! Aaaaccckkkk! It’s so weird having kids. They grow up! Since when was that allowed?!?!?! And at the same time, it’s the coolest thing to watch them grow up! That must be one of the biggest paradoxes in life: wanting your kids to stay young because those young ages are just so great, but also looking forward to watching what and who they are becoming. So, no, I don’t seem to be dealing with it very well!!!

Poor Esther was miserably sick in the two days leading up to her birthday and to her party, so she couldn’t even really get excited about it. And on the day of her birthday she really seemed to have turned the corner, seeming full of energy and no fever. But the poor kid wasn’t quite herself for the actual party, which was a bummer.

Niklas was the master chef. He made meatballs that I turned into small mice on each kid’s plate! Chips for ears, raisins for eyes, a curly fry for the tail. I was supposed to put pretzel sticks in there as whiskers but I forgot. Then we made chocolate toast sandwiches in the shapes of giraffes. That was the lunch. Then we played a whole bunch of games, and I realized once again how much I like doing that sort of thing (leading kids in kids’ games and hanging out with young kids in general). I have a knack for it, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately I was starting to feel AWFUL a few hours before everyone arrived, but I forced myself through it, fever and all. And I know for sure they had fun!

Then they ate chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. Or I should say, one kid out of five ate theirs. These Swedish kids are just not used to really sweet sweets! I am proud of Sylvia, however, who ate her entire cupcake and could have eaten two more. Talk about a sweet tooth! Whoa!

After the party Esther did okay for awhile, then started feeling miserable again, poor kid. When I was getting her tucked in, she wanted to have a looooong conversation about the day and everything that happened, and she was just so cute sitting there talking to me about all kinds of stuff. When I got up to go downstairs, she said, “Mamma, could you talk to me a little bit more?” So we did. How could I resist?

I am so proud of my precious sweet Esther-girl. Mothering is incredibly difficult; harder than I ever ever ever thought it would be – and she is only four! But having Esther in my life is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. She is one of the coolest people on the planet and the times that she and I have together just the two of us are some of the greatest times I’ve ever experienced. I love having such a front row seat to what God is doing in her life, and I love the relationship she is cultivating – on her own – with Him. Today when I asked her what her favorite part of the day was, she said: Jesus! And when I asked her if she thought was going to get a lot of Christmas presents from her aunts, she said, “No Mamma! Jesus gets all the presents because it’s His birthday!” I just think that’s so cool.

Anyway, I’m just bragging on her. She is a great kid and I love her. And now she is FOUR!!!

Photos from Esther's 4th Birthday party

Birthday morning (she is in a My Little Pony phase)

Appetizers with South African flags (there were Rice Krispies Treats that none of the Swedish children would even touch!)

Can you see the mouse meatballs? (Swedish meatballs with a few condiments to make them look like mice)

Party thingies. These were a hit. They induced much giggling. Which is easy when there are six 2-4 year-olds at a party.

Birthday girl

Game leader despite my by-now really high fever. I thought I might keel over right then and there, I was so hot.

Four candles for the four year-old! But we forgot to sing Happy Birthday for her. Oh well. I am not Super Mom.

Party favors

Love my Esther-girl!