rules to live by

We eat a lot of pancakes and waffles for breakfast. Like, 'for the past many months practically every day' kind a lot. The girls' favorite toppings are just butter, or butter and jam, though Leona has also gone for butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, and jam...all at once.

This also may partially explain why my pregnancy weight hasn't disappeared - until recently I ate the pancakes or waffles too, loaded with lots of delicious butter, sour cream, and jam.

Anyhow, the other day I heard from the dining table, as I was in the kitchen getting a waffle:

Leona to Eliana - "You can't just eat the jam with the [jam] spoon, because there are bacteria in your mouth. Use your finger instead."

Good thing we have her keeping everything legit :grin:

The girls really are so different. Leona lives by the rules. She want's to know why a rule is a rule, and once she knows, she follows it to a T. Sometimes the rules are just habits, unspoken and even un-realized by me. Like brushing my teeth before I leave the house, rather than 'in the morning' - these two events used to coincide, and it wasn't until Leona asked me where I was going one morning I decided to brush my teeth then, that I realized this.

For example, wash your hands when you come home. I told her once (or maybe a couple times) and she has done it consistently ever since, without me having to mention it first.

Or the whole 'you have to wash your hands after you go to the bathroom'. Why? Because there are bacteria on the toilet seat and lid, and when you wipe yourself sometimes bacteria can get on your hands. So when she was younger (when I still helped wipe her each time) she would either ask me to help lift the toilet lid or take some toilet paper and lift the lid with that - and then refuse to wash her hands when I asked her to, because she didn't get any bacteria on them. But if she did accidentally touch the toilet seat when sitting on the toilet, she would wash her hands after without me saying anything - even if I hadn't seen her touch the seat.

Her life is governed by these rules. She feels happy and in control when everything is consistent and following the rules that have been set out and explained.

Eliana also likes to know the rules, but more often than not it is because she wants to see if she can get away with not following them. Testing us for consistency.

[in the apple tree - driving up to the mountain to go skiing]

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sparkles galore

It started innocently enough. Two weeks ago or so we made a new batch of jello play dough, and in the process the girls rediscovered the fact that we have a huge stash of glitter.

Then two days ago Leona asked if they could use some of it, but she didn't know how they should use it, so I suggested they paint some pictures and then shake some glitter over their paintings. Because the glitter pours out quickly, I stood with them at first, holding Cedrik in my arms, and showed them how big, or rather small, the opening of the glitter boxes should be. Then I took the fussy boy to the bedroom to see if he would sleep.

[Leona's painting on the top, and Eliana's on the bottom]

The girls finished their paintings and then asked if they could add the glitter to their soap play (I have bought in tons of cheap hand soaps that they play with in the bath tub as well as in their kitchen play). I said sure, but just take a little glitter at a time, and keep the play in the bathroom.

I saw them running back and forth between the glitter stash at the kitchen table and the bathroom, chattering and organizing away, sometimes hearing an "oops" and "that's ok, we can just vacuum ['suge-suge' as Eliana says in Norwegian] it up later" every once in a while (as they also would go via the living room carrying the glitter).

[a random glitter pile on their trek from the kitchen to the bathroom via the living room]

After Cedrik had taken a short nap and I had had some peaceful relaxing time, he woke up and I was busy with his fussiness again. About 3-3.5 hours after they had started painting, they came to me and asked if I wanted to see.

[bird's eye view]

[close-up]

Ends up 'just a little at a time' didn't hold as long as I had hilariously assumed. Really should have known better when it's Eliana we're talking about. All four glitter boxes were empty. As were three-four hand soaps.

I dropped Cedrik off downstairs with my mom, pulled out the vacuum, and tried to salvage as much of the dry glitter as well as the glitter soap as I could, so that it could be used during play again at a later date. 

[far left the salvaged glitter, three remaining glitter boxes now full of glitter soap - as were two additional hand-soaps]

Next day it continued.

[day two, they found some bar soaps that they scraped with plastic knives and added the shavings to the mix]

[our new reality - post clean-up but pre vacuum day two]

Because of all the glitter on the floor in the play room, there is now some serious sparkle that has been walked out all over the house. Kind of pretty actually - hehe. Ugh.

[day three, just getting started]

[deep in the mix of things - cake, hot chocolate, whipped cream...tomorrow is Eliana's birthday apparently. adding to the mix today is cut up toilet paper rolls and other bits of paper]

Due to the increased complexity of the glitter soap mix, I'm not sure how many more days this is going to be able to last. Plus during each clean up loads of it gets washed down the sink. But they're loving it, which is the whole aim of having this stuff, right?

I mean, at first I was thinking shoot, all the glitter stash, at once~! But...seriously hours and hours and hours of busy play. That's what it's for, really. Pretty great to just be able to let them play their play.

(Well, ok, so I totally put restrictions on them. Water has to stay in the bathroom, and the glitter goop has to stay in the play room or in the bathroom.)

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official and public apology

I hereby offer Judge an official and public apology, for accusing him of being the cause of Leona's heavy accent when she speaks English.

I had said that I found her English to be very similar to his...but that was a lie. What I had actually felt, was that she had a heavy accent, heavier than Judge's even, but I attributed it to him.

And I had a light bulb moment. It reminded me suspiciously of the half Filipino half Welsh (?) girl who moved here last fall and started kindergarten around the same time as Leona, who is the same age as Leona, who hasn't gone to kindergarten before, and whose parents speak English mostly with her at home.

And seeing as Leona is influenced by her peers much, much, MUCH more than by us, it suddenly occurred to me that she was taking on the accent she heard the girl speak in.

So Judge, sorry I accused you as being the root of this head ache of mine, because I really do want her to be able to speak Norwegian and English and Mandarin as though they are all her native tongues - but I don't know how to influence her so that she doesn't speak with such a heavy accent. I am thinking maybe I should find some good kids' shows that the girls can watch online - like I found in Norwegian. Any suggestions?


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a few Leonaisms

Talking about the watermelon we are going to eat when we get home: "I like the red part best. It's so sweet! It's almost like juicemelon."

--

"It's been so long since I ate that I don't have any taste left in my mouth." (Her way of describing feeling hungry).

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"My hands are so cold that they feel dizzy." (Her explaining why she needs help to take her shoes off).

[Leona having written out 'Eliana' is renovating the letters (top) until they read 'Leona' (under)]

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updates

Leona - Four years and eleven months

Ok, this one actually only makes sense in Norwegian, so I'll write it out first and then explain it after:

The other day she was writing her name on something, and asked me "What comes after 'Owen' in our last name?" I told her that Owen is the entirety of our last name, there's nothing more after it. "No, I mean, I wrote the O already, what comes after?"

Why the misunderstanding? In Norwegian 'the O' is said "O'en", which is pronounced exactly like 'Owen' in Norwegian.

Leona is also still her ever protecting and caring big sister self. Yesterday when her and Eliana were watching something on the computer and it got - for them - a little scary, she automatically put her arm around Eliana's shoulders and pulled her close to her.


Eliana - Two years and nine months

[We got care packages from Taiwan a little while ago, and in it were tons of hair clips (amongst tons of other things), and the girls each wore their share of the loot. Here's Eliana after requesting some help from me]

They have started to love to play the "Pick a hand" game with their vitamins before they go to bed. First time Eliana tried it, she put the vitamin in one of her hands and came over to me with a big smile on her face, holding one hand behind her back and reaching the other closed fist towards me, asking me to pick a hand. She is starting to get a little better at it, but will still move the hand she's holding the vitamin in away from my line of picking if she finds I'm picking the right one.

A while ago we were driving, and the girls were playing a game where they would say "I'm an [inanimate, big object] , what are you?" For example, a house, a train, a mountain, etc. Then Eliana said to my mom "Mormor, you are downstairs." My mom answered that no, she was in the car. And I tried to explain that E was saying she was 'downstairs'. For E, downstairs is the same thing as a mountain, a house, etc. Took a few tries before I was able to clarify what she was saying.

She's still going strong on the completely diaper free living.


Cedrik - Nine months

He has been signing nurse for a long time now, though he has used it sometimes as a means to a desired end ... other than nursing I mean. For example, for me to hold him, or when he wants to eat or drink. All make sense. But at the same time it is obvious when he is signing it because he wants to actually nurse as well.

I've been generally not as proactive with the other signing yet, but trying to keep on track. Perhaps it has to do with having my focus split three-way? In any event, he did sign water for the first time the other day, which was more like a revving of a motorcycle.

Cutter cuteness is how animatedly excited he gets when, after he's been staring at the water glass signing nurse, I ask if he wants some water (including the sign for water) - he bounces up and down in his seat, banging his hands/fists onto the highchair tray, and squeals or grunts exuberantly.

This past week has been huge. He has started first squirming forward, then army crawling, and now even up on his hands and knees for short periods, he has sat himself up in an almost fully sitting position without anything else around him, as well as into sitting positions by pushing up on me, as well as up into standing (or leaning forward with just feet on ground) holding my arms or hands. So now he is mobile, and the whole house is is oyster. This both frees me up (he's not as needing my constant holding), as well as keeps me more busy (me having to watch out for all those little things I didn't notice on my floor-sweep). Overall it is wonderfully exciting.

almost three months into kindergarten

(Long post...and adjusted the size of text on the last post...sorry about the need for a magnifying glass)

Leona's been going to kindergarten for about 2.5 months now. For the most part I am super thankful - for her sake - that she gets to go. It seems like she enjoys being there - enjoys being with other kids, making friends, and getting to experience different things like visiting the old folks home and sing songs for them, bring them pictures they've made, and eat a snack with them, or visit e.g, the apple orchard of one of the kids to pick apples and then bring them back to kindergarten and bake an apple cake together, visit the fruit packaging plant, go on walks around the village leaving around 10am and coming back around 1 or 2pm, learning songs.

[two recent kindergarten outfits]

There are of course some things that are difficult, like experiencing rejection - yesterday Leona told me that one of the girls sometimes tells her she can't play with them. I will be asking the adults there how they deal with these kinds of things, but for now I first asked Leona how she felt when that happened ("almost a little sad"). I told her when I was little, when someone told me they didn't want to play with me I got pretty sad, that it didn't feel good at all. Leona got quite focused when she heard this - that I had experienced something similar, and she asked me a little bit about it. I told her I don't remember too much from when I was in kindergarten, except for that I had a few close friends and would play with them, and also liked to watch and do things on my own sometimes, but when I was a bigger kid there was a while there were some girls who sometimes were a little mean to me and didn't want to play with me sometimes.

I also asked her what she does when the girl says she can't play with them. She said she sometimes goes and plays with other stuff on her own, or goes and plays with someone else, and that she can say that yes, she can play with them, because everyone is allowed to play with everyone (so I am assuming this is what they teach in kindergarten).

I said that I think it is still important to respect the other kids. Maybe they are in the middle of a game that they are really into, and adding another person would kind of disrupt it, so they want to finish playing it first. Just like sometimes she is playing something at home by herself and doesn't want Eliana to play with her. So just because the other kid doesn't want to let her play, doesn't mean the kid doesn't like her, just like she still loves Eliana so much even though she doesn't want to play with her all the time.

I said what she does is great - goes and finds something else to do, or find another friend to play with. That I think those are wonderful solutions. And that it is ok to feel kind of sad about the other person saying she can't play with them too. Then maybe the next time they will be playing something where other kids can join easily.

I said sometimes it's harder for the kids than for the teachers. If a teacher is there playing with the kids, then all kids can join, because the teacher is really good at including and adjusting the game for everyone to feel welcome. Sometimes it's not as easy for all kids to do this.

I asked her how often this has happened, if it is just once in a while, or every time, or every day, but she said she doesn't quite remember. She also mentioned a couple days ago that this girl doesn't smile so much.

Anyhow, I'm going to talk with the teachers and ask them to keep an eye out regarding the situation, and how they deal with these types of issues. A problem, I think, is that the two girls it is regarding are the only two girls left in Innvik that went to Innvik kindergarten last year - the rest either are younger and in Utvik this year, or graduated and are in 1st grade, so the girls are extra 'tight'.

Of the 13 kids there this year, there are 7 four-year olds (2 girls from last year, 1 girl from Utvik...Leona's 3rd cousin..., a new girl, and Leona, and two boys, one from Utvik and one from Innvik last year), and 6 five-year olds (two boys who were both in Innvik last year, and four girls who were all in Utvik last year...one girl is half Chinese and speaks Mandarin).

So there is the social rejection issue, along with experiencing whispering (which can easily become a control-and-exclusion tool), which are both normal things she's gotta face in the world, so not a negative, per se, but issues I need to know how the kindergarten helps the kids deal with and control the situation so it doesn't escalate into something mean and negative.

Some items that I am not so comfortable with, however, are:

1. that Leona told me she was told by a teacher she didn't need to wipe her crotch after she peed. I am hoping this is just a misunderstanding and will ask them about it tomorrow, because hello craziness.

2. that they give the kids sugary things to eat several times a month - maybe once a week almost. Since she is as old as she is, I have decided to just accept it (once I wanted them to not give her the ice cream but they said they couldn't not give a kid ice cream if they wanted it, because they couldn't explain to the other kids why the kid couldn't eat it...so I had to decide whether I would keep her home due to an ice cream if I knew about it before hand, or just go with the flow).

But that they let the kids eat ice cream when it is under 10 degrees C outside, and they are going to be outside after that, in the cold and sometimes rain and wind...sure with good clothes on, but especially since Leona is easily cold like me, starting off cold from the inside is not the best way to stay warm and healthy, so it irks me, and I will be asking them to not let her eat ice cream if she is even a little sick or if it is cold outside, due to health reasons. They have to go with that, no? And if she was younger than four years old I'd want to ask them to rediscuss the sugar policy (in Norway the trend for kindergartens are to be sugar-free zones, but they told me here that they discussed the matter and decided on a very moderate policy).

3. that they take the kids on the bus to the neighboring village (Utvik) once a month to keep the connection with the kids there - and the 3 year olds take the bus once a month to Innvik to play here. I told them that she is not allowed to take the bus because she wouldn't be able to be in a car seat if she did, but that I will drive her and pick her up myself. That was when the kids just took the bus as-is. However, in October a policeman came for a car seat safety talk for the kindergarten parents (because the teachers have noticed a lot of parents don't get their kids to sit in a car seat when they pick them up), and one of the teachers asked about taking the kids on the bus without safety seats. He gave his opinion, and they started getting the kids to each carry their own booster seat after that. So it is improved, but in my opinion the booster seat doesn't get all the kids up to a safe height in terms of the seat belt across their neck vs. where it should be, and according to safety regulations kids under 15 kg shouldn't be just on a booster seat (Leona's just recently passed the 15 kg mark, but is still short). For me the kids' safety outweighs the benefits of letting the kids play together twice a month.

and last, 4. I need to talk to them a bit about the degree of sensitivity and empathy that Leona has, which I realized I haven't fully communicated to them yet. Like how she protected Eliana from the wasp and how stressed she gets if she feels Eliana is in danger when a car is coming (crying panicy for Eliana to quickly move out of the way, to come to her, even if Eliana is perhaps actually safe - that she's moved all the way to the side of the driveway, but since the driveway is quite narrow, it is true it would be way safer for a two year old not to be on the driveway at all when the car inches itself past). And they have these awesome, positive, 10-min long kids shows we let the girls watch, and we've been expanding their repertoire, but if it is a show where kids are mean (even slightly) to each other, or gets hurt, she doesn't want to watch it (and I don't want to let them watch it) - she is just barely willing to watch the one where the girl gets her ears pierced...the girl is first really nervous, but really wants to get them pierced, then gets them pierced and says that it stings - but doesn't cry or scream or anything - and then is happy in the end that she was able to go through with it.

Anyhow, in October there were two actresses/musicians that came and did a little performance for them. They started with one of the women playing a trumpet or something, and pretending the mouth piece got stuck to her nose, and when she pulled on it hard, her nose came off (a fake nose), and she acted like it really hurt. I guess it was supposed to be funny. Leona got so worried for the woman that she was seriously injured and had to get rushed to the hospital that she started crying loudly, and one of the teachers took her into the other room to play for the rest of the performance. For November, their theme was fairy tales, and they had chosen two, 'The pancake' and 'Ash-lad and the hungry troll'. They did lots of different activities - acting them out, playing games related to them, etc., and they watched a video of the latter.

Leona said she was a little scared the whole way through (the dad is kind of mean to his sons, there is a troll, it yells at the boys chopping wood that if they don't stop he will kill them, and then Ash-lad tricks the troll into killing himself by inviting the troll to a healthy eating competition, where Ash-lad pretends to stuff himself while he's actually stuffing a leather bag he tied onto his stomach, and he guts his 'stomach' open so he can continue eating, and invites the troll to do the same thing, ensuring the troll it doesn't hurt, so the troll guts himself, dies). Leona said luckily she was sitting between two of the girls so she was ok though she was scared (sidenote: one of the girls is the girl who sometimes tells Leona she can't play with them, so it does seem they get along regularly).

Lately Leona has started to cry in the mornings when she wakes up if Judge and Eliana aren't there, because she is scared to come down by herself...so I'm not sure if it has to do with any of the above or not. In any event, I hope that they can be very sensitive to her level of empathy and sensitivity. We don't have a TV at home, so she's not used to watching mean/picking-on-others/etc. crap-tv kid shows.


So, those are my complaints - the last one only half a complaint because maybe for most kids these scary things aren't scary, and trolls are a part of Norwegian culture, so it's me who dropped the ball there.

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the start of sounding out words and spelling words she doesn't know

Leona still loves to write stuff. Often asking how to write the names of those in kindergarten, making cards, and writing her and Eliana's names on their stuff. When she asked why someone played football a lot, I said it was because he liked to do it, just like she liked to read books and draw. "And write" she said.

And then suddenly the other day Leona began a next step, when she said in Norwegian : "Iiiin thes store...it begins with 'I'" (considering pronunciation of word and name of letter, it would be the equivalent of saying "IIiiice cream" in English), and today "ssssock...it begins with 's'". I think this has to do with how they teach writing in kindergarten, where they just do the sounds and not the names of the letters, while she knows their names, and so I think she has combined these methods.

In any event I find it pretty exciting.

[they have two work stations for scissor cutting, drawing, writing, and gluing, one in a little alcove off the kitchen - shown above - which is essentially their playroom and that has two sets of drawers for clothes. The bed to the right on the picture is going to be moved down above the garage and their white board n' chalk board stand and play kitchen will be moved in...or maybe the trampoline instead of the play kitchen. This space definitely needs some organizing and cleaning up. The other work station is in the living room.]

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birthday invitation

As mentioned, last Wednesday Leona received her first ever invitation to a birthday party - it was handed out at kindergarten to all the kids (no-one left behind kind of deal).

It was to be held at Mummidalen (the outdoor wilderness area that belongs to the kindergarten...at least I think it belongs to them. They use it once a week and keep it in shape), and was to last two hours on Saturday afternoon, with "good food and fun play," and the kids were asked to dress according to the weather.

Leona was excited! I was unsure what kind of gift we should bring (what is normal in terms of price range), but luckily we had something we needed to do in Stryn on Friday, so we looked around and found a cool looking airplane that was filled with bath bubble soap, that was only NOK40 - a totally acceptable cost in our opinion, as anything over NOK60 would be a bit much for us for a kid we don't really have a relationship with.

If we hadn't found that, I had thought me and Leona could make a parking garage out of toilet paper rolls for him.

I went to drop her off at the party, and she looked a little forlorn, so I asked the birthday boy's mom if it was ok if I stayed, and she said 'of course!' All in all there were about 13 kids - about 9-10 of the kids from kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds) plus the three youngest refugee boys in the village (6, 7, and 8 years old), and then the birthday boy's older brothers and three cousins.

I was very pleasantly surprised with the chillaxidness of the whole thing. The mom had not planned any games - just that the kids would play freely as they wanted (and the kids are familiar with the place so they jumped right in), and the food was hot dogs in buns, with desert being cake-muffins without frosting, Cheetos, and non-stop chocolates (like smarties/M&Ms) and gummy-cars. And juice without any added sugar as the drink.

And that was it. Simple, the kids enjoyed the food, watching the birthday boy open the presents, and enjoyed playing (Leona didn't play too much, mostly hung out at the table and munched on the snacks after the meal was done), and I got to help the mom serve the food, snacks, and simple clean-up (she was the only adult there, besides me), which she also appreciated.

This was thus also my first official kids party as a mom. I think we'll hold off as long as possible before we jump into one of these of our own though, and just stick with close family going forward like we have in the past, as I am not much of an acquaintance party person. But the option of just simple like this party was at Mummidalen makes it doable at least.

[Leona is standing in front of the boat in the middle of the picture, beside her best friend...as in bestest...closest...in kindergarten, a girl who I think is her fourth cousin but I'm not positive - the birthday boy is her third cousin though~~]

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pedal bike

About two years ago we bought Leona a push-bike, and with her careful nature it took er a long time to become comfortable on it. Now, though, she's been a master at it for quite a while, coasting along down long hills and running-pushing herself along. And since Eliana is big enough to ride it too, we figured Leona's ready for a pedal bike.

As it so happens, last Easter my cousin who has two boys a little older than Leona and Eliana said he had a pedal bike he could give Leona, and since then she's been waiting patiently for it, as has Eliana.

My uncle was supposed to come visit this summer and bring the bike along, but the visit got postponed and postponed and postponed, until this Friday when he called me and said he was coming for a short visit this weekend, arriving later that evening.

Leona was the most excited of all of us about his visit, saying 'maybe he will bring the bike...we don't know though...but maybe!'. Eliana had already taken over the push-bike pretty much, as I've mentioned before, so it wasn't as big a deal that he needed to come as it was for Leona ;)

The bike is pretty heavy, and actually quite small - about the same size as Leona's old bike. Should have seen the excited grin on Leona's face when she saw it leaning against the balcony door in the living room yesterday morning.

So after lunch I took the girls down to the road right below our house so Leona could try out her new wheels. The road has a very slight incline and almost no cars come or go - and if they do they don't drive fast and we can see them coming, and they can see us.

Realized the seat on the bike was a bit too low though, and we needed a tool to make it higher, which we didn't have with us. This made it really hard for Leona to get her feet on the pedals and to pedal. Despite this she was able to pedal for about 7 meters the second time she tried going doing the decline-direction!

After a couple more goes back and forth it was time for us to go to a birthday party for one of the boys in kindergarten. Leona's first official invitation to a birthday party. She was _excited_ (I told her there would probably be some candy and cake etc., and that she could eat however much she wanted of whatever was offered...).

This morning I adjusted the height of her seat, and Judge just took them down to ride again - and when I peeked down I saw her pedalling about 10 meters on the incline-direction!

She still has to sometimes use her push-bike method to get going or in between, but the balance is there already, and the pedaling is there from riding the tricycles in kindergarten, so after a few more tries and perhaps a few more fine-tunings of the seat-height I think she'll be flying.



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learning to write

I have seriously been loving watching Leona's learning process when it comes to writing letters (ok, ok, I seriously love watching when it comes to all aspects of everything of course, but today I am honing in on the writing).

She started holding the pen correctly pretty early on - below is her at 17 months old vs. 21.5 months old:

[notice her resting her cheek on her hand, and her elbow on thin air ;)]

I also remember the first time she asked me about letters and numbers (pointing to an 'Open' sign and a speed limit sign),

and how we would point out the letters in the book title of "Velg Selv" (You Choose). We also would name the letters in a an alphabet wooden block set that we sometimes play with, either her asking me or me asking her, and we would spell all our names with the blocks; and then there was the typewriter we found, of course.

She also started to make Ls with hama beads and other materials, sometimes on purpose other times by accident, and noticing letters in her environment (a twig that had an L shape, etc.).

Then she was really into writing, and had this pad of shopping-list paper that she would meticulously fill each line of from right to left with markings and circles - she said she wrote backwards because she didn't know how to write properly yet.

And then she started to write letter-letters. Asking how to write various letters - starting with her name.

I read a long while back an article about practicing letters in different ways affects your brain differently. They compared copying freehand to tracing to computer writing, and that copying freehand led to better memory of the letter. Because of this - and because for me, I want Leona learning to write to be completely Leona-led, balanced where I create the learning environment (alphabet blocks, books, writing stuff, other material that she can manipulate as she wants, paint, etc.) and open for teaching (name letters, write names, etc.) and then see if she is interested in continuing, and sometimes just sit back and wait for her to ask on her own accord.

Initially she would write her name with the letters scattered randomly around the page, and once in a while from right to left, or top to bottom, but little by little she began writing from left to right in a relatively straight line.

But as is so common with kids learning to write, many of her letters were - and are still - mirror image or upside-down. A friend of mine commented on this, how interesting it is that kids do this when they first start learning to write, and she was curious as to why they do it.

I thought about it, and I think that its because kids have been spending their whole lives learning that an orange is an orange, no matter its size or direction it is in. Same goes for everything else - a chair (and man are there a lot of different chairs!), a flower, etc. So for them, they are still in that mode. And so they write it the way that is easiest for them to write it to get it to have the correct shape - it is its shape that is important to them, not the direction.

But little by little, as Leona is getting better and better at writing the various letters and numbers, they are being turned the right way, one by one. So that means that she is becoming aware that they should be facing a certain way.

I make it a point not to tell her she writes or draws something incorrectly, because I want her to experience this process of learning and practicing and developing in her way - I want it to be lead by her, for it to come from her interest and desire to learn and explore and develop, and for it to be owned by her...for it to be her and where she's at now. I love watching how her mind works.

Sometimes she will say it is not quite right, however, and say it is because she can't write it the correct way yet, and I have always said that it's ok, that she is writing it her way, so now she finishes the conversation without my needing to say anything. I love it. I love that she is aware that it is not quite correct, but that she is ok with it, and confident that she will get it eventually.

She currently can write all the actual numbers, 0 through 9, but only write the integers 0 through 11 or 12 (while she can count to forty nine or something now, though sometimes she skips some numbers here and there) and 21 letters (the letters she hasn't learned to write yet are G, P, Q, U, V, X, Z, and Æ, though I think sometimes she will still forget some of the other more recently learned letters, like D, R, K, and F). She can recognize G and P, but hasn't tried writing them yet.

[1 through 10]

I noticed the teachers at the kindergarten use the letters' sounds rather than their names when asking or answering the childrens' questions about letters (for example there was a word/letter game, and Leona and a young girl ... her third cousin actually ... were playing with it, and the teacher asked Leona if she could find her letter or my letter, and rather than saying 'el' and 'jay' (in Norwegian though of course), she just did the sounds).

It makes a lot of sense to do it this way in Norwegian especially, since Norwegian is such a straight forward phonetically written language (for the most part), and so it probably helps the kids take the jump from writing individual letters and words to reading and writing words based on their sounds, not on rote memory (?).

I tried using this method and kind of sounding out some words for Leona when we were reading and discussing something once after that, but she just got annoyed and asked me to please stop. Hah. So I will keep doing it the way I have been, for now, and sometimes 'casually' add in their phonetical sound without overdoing it.

Exciting times.


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end of week 3 aka day 7

[I updated and added a few more pictures to the kindy outdoor play area post]

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I am sitting here at home writing this at almost 1pm, with a quiet house and just Cedrik on my lap. Eliana is in Stryn with Judge, and Leona - well, she is at kindergarten by herself.

[on our way to kindergarten today, Leona mentioned that the mountain has turned red...doesn't show super well in the picture, but yes, fall has arrived]

That is right, folks. The first week she made a new friend on Wednesday (her second day at kindergarten), which meant she had one girl she was not scared of (she said she was still a little scared of all the teachers and other kids).

The following Monday morning she first hung by my side, but one of the teachers was able to have her willingly and skippingly take her hand and go check something out together. Then later she had been riding a tricycle and fell over, and since I was nearest her I went over and started holding her (she was crying at first) and then one of the teachers came over, and after a short moment I let the teacher take over (she wasn't crying anymore) and pulled back to the bench-table I had been sitting at. Leona didn't call me back, and the teacher was able to talk to her a bit more about it and then take her hand and walk off to play. Huge step. Big achievement.

On the following Wednesday (week 2) the teacher mentioned to me that she's doing really good, as she had been independently playing with the kids almost the whole time, that it had progressed fast (though she was still not cool with me wanting to take a walk with Cedrik around the block). I told her, well, sure if you consider about a year and a half fast (as that is how long we've been going there for an hour or so one to two times a week). Ah, right [realization that it is truly a careful child we're talking about here].

After two weeks (but only four days) of her not being ok at all with the thought of being alone there even for a minute, I was wondering how long I was willing to continue like this. Judge and I had discussed that when it happened it would happen fast, like it has before, we were sure, so it was a question of if we were willing to spend as long as it would potentially take (I was pretty tired of it already, staying there trying to be away from her and out of the way from play, sometimes with a Cedrik who was restless).

A teacher had also asked me whether or not we were ok with her crying a little. I said that would just defeat the purpose, be counter productive, as it would make her not want to go at all. The reason she was unwilling to let me leave is that she did not feel safe with them, not that she necessarily was stuck with the idea that I had to stay with her at all times.

But this week there were suddenly huge changes. On Monday she first just ran off to play the moment we went outside after the inside-time in the morning, rather than hanging with me and Cedrik like she had the previous Monday, and later she agreed to me going for a walk with Cedrik while she was inside having lunch.

On Wednesday I went and sat at the school in the sun for an hour or so and read a book while Cedrik napped (she could have technically seen me if she had needed to) before heading back before lunch and telling her I was going to come back a while after lunch if she was ok with that. She was, and so I went to the store and stopped by my aunt. And she made another friend (but was still too scared of the adults to talk with them on her own accord). When I came to get her the teacher said she had been fine the whole time and hadn't asked for me - and this is something I know, as long as she feels safe, then she is happy and doesn't need me by her side.

And today. Today we agreed she would see how she felt when we arrived in the morning - if she felt ok with me going home and then coming back to get her in the afternoon. When we arrived and I asked her, she said "maybe," and I told her that it was her choice, she had to say clearly yes or no, and though I could see she was a little hesitant or scared, she took the courage to say yes.

So I spoke with one of the teachers with Leona, she told us about the plan for the day and I told her our agreement - that if Leona decided she needed me they would call me and I would come immediately, or if she started feeling sick (she got a soar throat yesterday and a bit of a runny nose).

And then home I went!

Now I am about to get ready to go pick her up. What a huge achievement for Leona. Seriously.

[taken on the way home. the sheep are back from their summer on the mountain]

Epilogue: She said she was a little scared this morning after I left, but that it was ok, and that she is still a little scared of the teachers, but that she made a few new friends. She also didn't want to leave when I came, so I went and read for half an hour at a table at the school, and then when she still didn't want to leave (she was playing in the mud kitchen with her first new friend) we agreed on five more minutes.

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comfort of our own home

Having now started to try out kindergarten, it just makes me even more aware of how comfortable it is when we don't have to go.

Let's take today as an example. The girls wake up and come down around 7am. I get up, E nurses, I do their hair as specified by them, put their breakfast on the table and they get busy eating and chatting. I go back to bed with C to try and sleep a little more (he's been sleeping really badly these past few days). He wakes up 30 min after he falls asleep. I bring him out so Judge can hang with him and head back to the bedroom for another try - the girls are drawing and L has opened all the envelopes she made yesterday (she said she 'went and checked her mail').

[Judge and I, and down the left hand side she's written her full name plus a few more letters before and after. I absolutely LOVE where she's at with her drawings. I mean I always do - love seeing her development. And the same goes for her writing. As mentioned before we are very along the lines of 'free learning', where we don't teach her how to draw, dance, paint, or write...in the sense that we don't sit down and say she's doing it wrong, nor show her how to do something unless she asks, e.g., asks us to write something for her so she can see what it looks like - though I did explain today how numbers and letters all have a specific direction they belong in when we are writing, as she writes a lot of stuff upsidedown (you can see here too how she writes the 4's and 3's upsidedown as well...they're in my 'body'). The upsidedown stuff is a part of her process though, I think, so I don't usually comment on it]

An hour later I wake up to muffled loud music and happy voices (I'm wearing earplugs). I come out and find Judge filming them dancing, with L's camera. They've been doing this for the last 15 minutes.

I find there's also been more drawing, painting, and some plastic bead activity as well.

[explaining who is who in this family portrait - clockwise it's L, C, E, Judge, and I]

They proceed to then peacefully and happily play with some tangram-ish things for about 30 minutes - first independently beside each other and then working together organizing them back into the box-thing they are kept in. And then they put it back and get a ludo game board and pieces to play with in their own way.

[first time she's really 'followed the rules' on these - except for the stackingof the red ones (which I love). Before she just organized them all over the board as she saw fit]

By now it is noon, and we get ready to head out (takes us half an hour to get everyone dressed and prepare a to-go lunch). We head over to the school with E riding L's bike. They play there on the swings and jungle gym, eat, watch the kids during recess, etc., and two hours later we wander home via the store.

After resting a bit Judge starts working on dinner while the girls eat some yogurt, C naps once, the girls play with water in the small sink and Leona practices writing numbers (she suddenly wrote 1 through 8 today, for the first time...half of the numbers are upside down), then they make beds on the kitchen floor, we eat dinner, and they continue their bed-organization-and-laying game in the living room.

After they shower and Judge takes them to sleep I will take C for a walk if it's not raining, and hopefully get to do some editing work tonight as I have a case to work on.

This is a rather typical day, substituting some of their indoor activities with soap play food making at their kitchen, play dough playing, playing in their 'school', playing outside around the house, etc., as well as some arguing and screaming, and often I am the only one to head out with them (especially if the weather isn't too great) - where Judge will then stay home and either rest, do some dinner prep, or study. And the excursion is sometimes to the playground and beach at the hotel, or to the fjord below us to throw rocks (and before that a visit to the kindergarten sometimes, but we have now been banned from just visiting, in order to protect the privacy of the kids there.

I love the organic and relaxed routine.

Compare this with heading to kindergarten, where I try to not rush Leona to get ready while at the same time getting us out the door before 8:45am (not easy when our morning routine is as slow and relaxed as it is), then hang out at kindergarten with her but try to avoid being near her so she can be with the teachers and kids, all the while either trying to help C sleep in the stroller, hold him when he wakes up, nurse him, taking him to pee, or trying to find out why he's still fussy, and trying to keep the kids from touching him and breathing on him (germs germs germs). All the kids and their energy and noise and sometimes their limit testing behavior (where not all the teachers are able to successfully uphold the limits) exhaust me. Add to that cold and some rain, and it's not exactly my preferred way to spend the morning and noon.

But seeing Leona laugh and play with the teachers and kids makes it all worth it. I hope. Not quite sure how long we should give her to feel safe with the teachers - safe enough for us to just drop her off and then come get her four-five hours later. The way kindergartens are set up (comparatively lots of kids, not a teacher that can be focused solely on being with her all the time so she can become comfortable with her) makes me question whether it will work this time around.

I guess after a couple more weeks we will evaluate the situation with the head teacher.

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barnevaderen

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am seriously in love with the kid hipwaders, or 'kidwaders' as they're called in Norwegian.

[L stomping gleefully, E not quite sure if she's ready to join]

[E decides she'll give it a try, but a wave (ripple) comes and scares her so she decides she's had enough]

[squatting down]

[stomping more]

 

At NOK400 per pop hey're not exactly cheap, but in terms of Norwegian prices, considering you get good quality rain pants and rain boots in one, they're not actually expensive at all. A regular rainset can cost NOK600-700 or so, plus boots, well, you get the picture.

 

What makes them seem so much more expensive for us, though, is we get the rain clothes at a huge discount from the local outdooors clothes outlet when they have their big annual sale - rain pants and rain jacket for a total of NOK100, but the kidwaders are just so worth it.

 

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1st day

It ended up being bit anti-climactic.

The night before, we prepped the changes of clothes she was going to leave at kindy and school (they get dropped off at school with the before-and-after school program kids) and her 'first day' outfit that she ensambled with the name-tags we had ordered in preparation for this day. This preparation brought about a sense of something special was about to happen, and I could tell she was getting more and more excited about the morrow. Eliana too - lining up all our shoes and emphatically saying whose was whose, much to Leona's annoyance as Leona wanted to have control of her own shoes herself.

The next morning Eliana woke up from a nightmare around 4am, and they didn't fall asleep again until about 6am, so they slept in pretty late (8:30 or so). After her breakfast of choice (oatmeal porridge), she got ready to head out, and I got to take my first ever "first day of school" photo of one of the kids:

[tights and shorts, turquoise comfortable t-shirt and sweater jacket, watch, four braids, a headband, her robot backpack with her cape inside, and her jacket]

 

After I took some photos I got an "Ok, I'm finished", and once Judge was outside and I was still standing ready so I could wave as they drove off, a "Why are you still here? Go inside." I said another goodbye and obliged.

 

It was a super windy day. They arrived at school around 9:30am, and the kids were all outside already. At 10:30am me and Eliana and Cedrik stopped by because we had to put a new 2nd hand high chair in the car, and I saw Leona with the reflective vest on, marking her as a kindy kid, heading to the jungle gym to climb. Then they all had to gather and walk over to the kindy.

 

When she came home, the excited smile from the morning was gone. I think she was a bit disappointed because they just played outside all day, so she didn't get to be inside and play (this is what we've hyped about, the benefit of starting kindy is she gets to play inside with the kids in the morning).

But she got to have lunch with them inside, and Judge sat out in the coat room to give her some solo experience. Overall the day was just as it usually is when we visit, just a lot longer and without Eliana her side-kick and best friend.

 

Her verdict: She didn't want to go back so much. Talking about it we found out it was because Judge had tried to encourage her to interact with the teachers when she said she was hungry and wanted to eat lunch. She wanted him to go ask for her, and he said she needed to ask or they could go home if she'd rather. She chose go home. Luckily while she was getting ready the teacher came and said lunch was ready, so she got to eat there with all the kids (this lunch is an annoyance to Judge, as it is just bread with various things to have on top...he doesn't think it is varied enough nor nutritious enough), and it was that pressure to do more than she was ready for that made her feel unsafe and scared to be there - plus she said there were too many kids (she's still scared of the boys because they are so rambunctious and in-her-face sometimes).

 

We discussed it with her and said that in the future we will help her when she feels she needs help, until she feels safe with the teachers, and it untied the knot in her (Judge felt awful afterward). We (Judge and I) discussed how we needed to focus on making her feel as safe as possible, try and help her love being there, so that she will want to be there, otherwise there's no point in all this. But at the same time we can't be there playing with her and helping her with what she wants help with all the time, as that's what I've been doing for the past year and a half almost. We need to be able to be in the background and let the teachers gently push her limits by making her feel safe first (one win yesterday was the teacher was able to give her a tour of where the other bathroom is inside, while Judge waited in the coat room, another win was she was on the swings and interacting with the teacher and two girls there).

 

I want to talk with the teacher, though, to make an action plan for how they can gain her trust and have her feel comfortable with them, so tomorrow I will be going with her (and taking Cedrik with us).

 

The teachers need to be really proactive with Leona, without being pushy or demanding. I'm thinking playing in the sand with her (building castles, eating and drinking stuff, etc.), reading stories to her (and other kids), maybe singing some songs - I'm sure they have lots of ideas as this is what they do professionally, get new kids to feel safe and trust them. She's just so good at playing on her own, or observing, and so content to sit at a table outside with other kids and write and draw and cut and fold (which is great that she gets some minor interactions with the other kids through this, though she doesn't join in their discussions yet) - but the key factor is she needs to feel safe with the teachers if we are to be able to leave her there for a few hours. Otherwise she can do these things for an hour and a bit when we just visit all together.

 

The whole experience made me question what we're doing - but I want to give it a couple weeks time. I am glad we are at home so she doesn't have to go full time, and I think that a few hours three times a week is enough (doesn't need to use up the full 20 free hours)...but I just don't know if it is enough for Leona to be able to find her way into a bigger group like this when the group is together about 7 hours a day 5 days a week. Not that the group plays together as a group, but rather a lot of small groups that are constantly changing, of course, and at least one of the girls is pretty good at engaging the calm outliers in play, but still.

 

This is almost giving me the kick in the ass that it seems I need to contact the family at the end of our road whose girl is 5 years old and whose mom is from China so they also speak Mandarin. Their playing together outside of kindy could also help Leona in kindy, as she'll have a friend to enter the group through.

 

Again, I think we just need to give it a few weeks and then re-evaluate it all.

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pre-first day update

Leona. 4 years 4 months and 19 days old. Tomorrow is her first day in kindergarten, and she oscillates between subdued excitement and not wanting to go - mostly it is on the excitement side though, luckily. She did ask, however, why boys and girls had to go to the same kindy, because she is scared of the boys. I told her that there is just one kindy and its good for all kids to be able to play together - and that once she gets to know them she won't be scared of them anymore, just like it was for her with the girl downstairs who was really in her space and who she was therefore scared of to begin with, but now is super ok with. She agreed this could very well happen.

This last week she's started to share some complicated logic and ask some amazing questions. The logic was related to the domino effect of house moving. My mom is moving downstairs at the end of the year, so the tenants have to move out - they've been struggling big time trying to find a new place. However, we recently heard that a family in the village just bought a house close to us and will be moving in next month, so when they move out of their current place the tenants downstairs can move in there and then my mom can move in downstairs, and then someone else can move into my mom's apartment in Tromsø, and the domino effect continues and continues and continues.

And then two days ago she asked how someone can be born when there were no people to give birth to them. Basically asking about the origin of the human species, where we come from. Wow. I was not ready for this question yet, and basically said that was an awesome question, a really hard one, and tried to explain evolution in a simple way and got totally stuck.

She's also been really generous with sharing her push-bike with Eliana. We told them a few months back that when my uncle comes he's bringing a new bike for Leona (from her second cousin who's outgrown it), and then the push-bike will be Eliana's. He was supposed to come in July but things came up and he's still pending. Yesterday Eliana started just borrowing Leona's bike - I thought she was actually too small still, but ends up she's not! And she told Leona emphatically that uncle Jarle is bringing her (Leona's) new bike - that this bike is hers (Eliana's).

[sooo content with life]

 

I also love how she still picks out her clothes, dresses herself, and has started doing her own hair even (usually four ponytails). How mismatched it most often is, and disheveled her hair becomes, and how happy she is with her look every time.

[crocks, socks, tights, shorts, shirt, sweater, necklace, four ponytails, headband, and cape because "I want to fly today"]

Their politeness is beyond amazing (unless they are over tired or overstimulated or or or). The other day both Judge and I were really tired in the morning, and I heard Eliana say she was hungry, and Leona said she'd get her breakfast - ended up getting her a bowl and spoon and the jar of peanut butter. They chatted and chatted and then Eliana said "takkematen" (takk for maten - thanks for the food), and Leona answered "velbekomme" (you're welcome). They say this after each and every meal and snack, as is custom in Norway. And then also often heard is thank you and I'm sorry and that's OK. And "Eliana, I'm getting angry" in an explanatory manner rather than getting all riled up...but only once so far, most of the time it is still the latter reaction (riled up), which it seems Eliana often elicits on purpose.

She's got her first job - to restock the TP in the bathroom when it runs low. She was excited about it to begin with, but after a while she told me she didn't want that job, she just wanted her job to be to work on her computer and telephone. I told her that wasn't an option - we need everyone to contribute at home. She suggested that her job be to help clean every day before bed (already something we do as a family) - I said that the TP restocking could be her and Eliana's job. She wasn't excited about it. But the next time it needed to be done, after she initially said she didn't want to do it, I told Eliana she could help, and when she saw Eliana was excited about it she jumped in and kind of took over the process. Hah.

She's been writing tons lately, and today she wrote her whole name for the first time in a straight line (usually she writes the letters all randomly around on the page). We've only worked on letter recognition and writing whenever she's shown interest, either on her own accord or interest when I point things out or ask her about things, and she's never done any tracing of letters because of an article I read a while back regarding how the brain works and learns using 'free-style' vs. tracing. Watching her develop is so exciting!

[I love the random directions of the letters]

 

She can write L E O N A I W J H S T, 1 3 0 8, and sometimes 2 and 5, can recognize more letters and numbers, and can count to 29 on some days (after which she continues on to twenty ten) and on other days to 16 or 17 before she skips a number. She knows what colors she needs to mix to get other colors, and enjoys looking at bugs and worms - dead bumble bees, flies, and live worms and caterpillars are all things she will pick up to look at closely, and she loves to organize her and Eliana (and Cedrik) in play, to read, to draw, to paint, to play with the girl downstairs, and climb and swing, knot things, put things in bags, backpacks, and bins, and all those things that she's always been enjoying.

[drawing station - from set-up to finish they played about 45 minutes]

 

And a huge development in the sleep department is that the last few times she's woken up at night sometimes and needed to come down to get water or go pee, she's said she doesn't need Judge to go back up with her (she's always needed someone with her for her to fall asleep - she's previously been scared to be alone...and Eliana hasn't counted until now). When I talked to her about it she said it's ok now as long as Eliana is already asleep - if she is awake it is too noisy and Eliana may want to come up and sleep on Leona's bed ;)

 

 

 

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pending kindy start

[excited about the sheep a bit back when we did an unplanned stop on top of Utvikfjellet to pick some bilberries]

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A couple weeks ago one of the teachers at the kindergarten* here printed out a memo for me when we were visiting. It was about a brand new regulation that 4 and 5 year olds of families that earn below a certain amount per annum can go to kindy for 20 core hours free per week. We earn well below the requisite amount.

*Reminder: Kindy here is from 1 through 5 years old. At our kindy the 1-2 year olds are one group, the 3-4 year olds another, and the 5 year olds are a group for themselves with 'pre-school' activities some of the time, but all the kids also have plenty of outdoor communal play time as a single big group.

(Correction: This is how they did it here until this year, where for this year the 1-3s are in the neighboring village while the 4-5s are in our village. We are waiting with baited breath to see what the verdict will be for next year, whether all the kids will be here, all the kids will be in the neighboring village, or if there will be enough kids to keep both kindies open + the latter option being the preferred one by everyone except the politicians).

When we got home I immediately called the lady who had signed the memo, to confirm that we were eligible (we are), and to try to find out what 'core hours' mean. She just said it was 20 hours.

What I figured out is that at our kindergarten we can only apply for full days (they do not have half-day price options at our kindy), and a full day constitutes 9 hours max, from 7am until 4pm (?), and thus we can get two days free. I think that is how it works for us at least.

So, after talking it over with Judge, and Leona, we applied for Wednesdays and Fridays, starting first Wednesday in September ... today ... as we weren't sure how long Judge's "2-3 weeks" of work would last (2, or 3, or maybe a bit longer?), and we need to be able to juggle someone (aka Judge) being with her in kindy and the other (aka me...due to C) being with the other two, until she's acclimatized.

We chose two days where they are not in their 'wilderness' area nor on their weekly excursion (once a month they are driven to the neighboring village so they can go on an excursion with the 3 year olds, the other three times they head out around the village here ... and once a month the 3 year olds come to our village to join the excursion here).

One of the days we chose is the 'pre-school' day for the 5 year olds, where they are at the school playing and having 'pre-school' activities from they arrive in the morning until around 1 or 1:30pm. This way it is only the four year olds together in the kindy, which I think can be good for Leona, having a really small group to have to relate to in the beginning.

I think to begin with, it is easier if she gets to be a part of the indoor routine both for consistency and ease of transition but also because winter is coming, along with it the cold and wet weather, and Leona is like me in that she gets cold toes easily no matter how good the socks and footwear are. Having to hang outside all day come rain or come shine isn't quite our deal. But if she later wants to switch days then of course that's a-ok!

An hour or so after we had initially discussed it with Leona, she came to me on the verge of tears saying she didn't want to go to kindy anyways, that she is scared. I assured her that we will only leave her there with the teachers and kids when she feels safe with the teachers, and if after trying it out for a while she doesn't want to start yet, then we can wait longer and try again when she is five. She agreed to this arrangement.

I think she is ready. Ready to experience new things and be with more and 'new' people (we've been with these kids and teachers about an hour two or so days a week for coming up on a year and a half, with a few months hiatus last winter and the month of summer breaks, but she does not really play with them so much yet, and only this spring did she start to play at all rather than stand and observe).

And because the social circle is so small in this village, it is important that she get to be integrated into it as there is no other social circles to be a part of - which is a major reason we are not considering unschooling/homeschooling. There is no rush on our part though. And she is also much more willing to interact with the kids now that she has chosen to speak Norwegian (much more being a relative term, comparatively to the none that was before).

A couple days after we had sent in the application we got back that Leona was put on the waiting list, and she could start when there was an opening or at the next main entrance time (after new years or something?)...what? They haven't had so few kids at the kindy here in the village in decades, because of the new split-kindy system (see note in italics above). So rather than the standard 24-25 kids here, there are only 11.5 right now (the 0.5 kid is another kid who only goes 2 days a week).

Mine and the teachers' assumption is that it has to do with staffing...they are topped up teacher-to-kid ratio at the moment (they are 2.5 teaching positions), so they need to hire on another assistant to come in those days Leona will be there (which should be easy-peasy as there are a lot of kindy assistants in the village that were working part-time last year that didn't get work this year).

The teachers mentioned that we were put on a waiting list to the new principle, and she said she would make a call to clarify, as they all want Leona to get to start asap, but I haven't heard anything back yet.

So we shall see. In any event I purchased name-tag stickers for clothes and possessions, with 'Owen' rather than 'Leona', as clothes will be handed down to Eliana and Cedrik, and no-one else has our last name here (nor Owen as a first name) so it won't be confused with anyone else, just to be prepared.




[this is the picture I selected for her name-stickers...picture courtasy of The Internet]


Kind of hard to imagine our relaxed mornings getting all switched up. Plan is to have her at kindy from 9am, and then me, E, and C can go on our excursion later, and hang at kindy a bit when they're playing outside, and then we all head home together, maybe around 1:30 or 2pm. We'll let Leona take the lead on the length of the days she wants to stay though. It's so awesome that we get these two days for free, so I don't feel like it's a waste of money if she's just there for a few hours in the mornings.

Yay Norway! (again).


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