Linnea is 3!!!!

Linnea turned 3 on July 5th (she refers to us as "the birthday girls" which I just love).  I thought I'd write a little update about her.

Dear Linnea,
My favorite birthday gift.   You made me a mama and I will be forever grateful for that.  You are funny, smart, spunky and you can be very reasonable (key word being can).  I love seeing you as a big sister to Stella Bella.  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you but my hope is that I don't wish it away too quickly.  I want to savor these moments because when I look back at pictures of you from a year or two ago I can't believe how quickly you are growing.

Love,
Your Mama



I interviewed Linnea for her birthday and here were her answers. I've also attached the video with some editing but it is still painfully long!

Birthday Interview

Year: 2018 Age: 3

(I added more correct answers in parenthesis) 

Do you have any nicknames? Janzen, Linnea (Nee-Nu and Nee-Uh)

What makes you happy? If you are hugging me and kissing me

What do you like to learn about? How the wind blows in a place

Who are your best friends? Alan, Emilie, Other Linnea (we have a neighbor in our building also named Linnea but now she is lovingly referred to as 'other Linnea' and "Other Linnea's Mama"), Ethan, Emma

What do you do really well? Jumping, I don't know

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with a ball

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Baby and Monkey

What do you want to be when you grow up? A grown-up name that starts with S (apparently we need to talk about this more) and then she said a Cohada and you can watch the video to see what a Cohada does.

What is your favorite thing to do? Read books

What is your favorite thing to do with Mama? Color, Look at the trees, all the fun things

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Climb on the spider web

What is your favorite thing to do with the family? Swim

My Favorites:

Food: Pasta, Rice (Peanut Butter)
Holiday: Easter
Book: ABC Book (Not sure which one she's referring to), Popcorn by Frank Ash
Toy: Train (saw it randomly on the floor - a better answer would be magnatiles, hot wheels, her baby)
Dessert: Ice Cream
Snack: Peanuts (almonds and a fruit stick)
Drink: Saft (flavored water that is then watered down)
Song: Blinka Lilla (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but the Swedish Version)
Animal: Baby
TV Show or Movie: I don't like the ripping part. (The scene in Cinderella when the stepsisters tear Cinderella's dress has made a lasting impression.) Mr. Rogers and Cinderella (the only tv show and movie she has seen).
Color: Purple ("When I was two I liked green but now that I'm three I like purple.")

What did you do on your birthday this year? Had an oven pancake for breakfast and opened a few presents, went to preschool to play with my friends, opened more presents after school.

What did you get for your birthday? a ride on horse (from Tim and Mona), a shoehorn and a watering can from Emma, big girl legos (with Joker in an ice cream truck which she hand-picked), a bike seat and helmet for baby, pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies), a car that flips over, paint with water toy, dinosaur stamp set, and a few books.

So here is what she is like as a 3-year-old:

We made a countdown chain for Linnea's birthday which was really fun.  Here we are on 'our' birthday morning taking off the last chain!

The birthday girls!  Linnea has referred to both of us several times as "the birthday girls".

On July 4th, Jake took the day off and we spent the day as a family at Skansen and we had a great time.

I LOVED this ride as a kid.  As soon as it started going I could not stop giggling.  It was awesome!

Most of the time she is easy going, reasonable, logical, funny, cute, happy, bilingual, a great climber and all around an awesome teammate.  We have definitely seen more "I am 3" moments where she tests the limits and boundaries but is usually pretty quick to turn things around after some think time.

She has started pretending to be a baby (probably for attention) and asks us to feed her, help her get dressed, wash her hands, go to the bathroom, etc and then other times she is incredibly insulted that we would even think about offering to help her do any of those things "I do it myself!"  You win some, you lose some.

She technically followed directions: to get dressed for school.  She just put her own 3-year-old spin on it!

We had a birthday party for Linnea with some friends.  We had a great time!

Linnea is a great climber.  Jake has been working with her on making a plan for her hands and feet as she climbs (which cracks me up because Jake is not a planner at all).  She is fearless for the most part but occasionally gets scared which I'm thankful for.

Whenever we turn on the vacuum she tells us "don't vacuum me up, mama".

She sleeps with her monkey (wubanub pacifier with the paci cut off) and usually baby with the shoes.  She also likes sleeping with soft baby without shoes, Yoda, the cat, Sally the car and ballerina elephant.  Recently we've been letting her read books to herself before she falls asleep for nap and bedtime and it has been great (and helped cut down on the stalling tactics).

Potty training has finally clicked! She hasn't had an accident in weeks.  Woohoo!  She's also getting pretty good at peeing outside which is great because Stockholm is seriously lacking in the free public toilet category (which makes zero sense to me).

Linnea hasn't met a rock or a stick she doesn't love.  The girl has at least one with her at all times.  She has learned she can't run with them in her hands so that usually means I'm carrying a rock or a stick while she runs.

Linnea loves riding tricycles at parks.  I also apparently like riding on toys.  This one reminded me of a toy I had growing up and it was super fun to ride on before I let the next person kid in line have a turn ;).

She bounces back quickly if she falls off of her scooter or while running.

Linnea loves Owl park and likes to climb up the slides.

She has been saying phrases like "You can stay here if you can be nice" (I wonder where she heard that from?) "Stella, don't worry, I am here to keep you safe" and when I hear those phrases I just smile and know that we aren't doing too bad.  The other day she said, "My daddy likes me even when I make bad choices".  Yes, he does sweet girl.

She often says "yeah, that happens sometimes" in reference to not napping, accidentally doing something, having an accident, etc.  Whenever we say "I need to ___________" she responds with "well do that then".

She walks into our room most mornings telling us that the blue light turned blue (the programmable light in her room letting her know she can get out of bed).  She loves going in to wake up Stella.

Linnea is a pretty big daddy's girl.  I mean, how could she not be.  He is teaching her how to climb, they build rocketships with Magna-Tiles, he takes her to school on his bike and she has him wrapped around her little finger.

For the most part, she listens so well which is why when she doesn't listen I get so frustrated.  It's developmentally appropriate but come on!  She also seems a lot more reasonable than most kids her age.  We can tell her "no you can't have/do ___________ because_____________" and usually she's understanding.

 These two are trouble but they sure are cute! 

When Linnea started going to preschool and Jake would get her dressed in the morning he started using "daddy's choice" and "Linnea's choice".  If she didn't pick her outfit within a minute or so then she would wear "daddy's choice".  This phrase has transferred over to other areas of our lives and it has been SO helpful!  She understands that some things are her choices and some are ours and she doesn't get to make all of the choices for our family.

Because we use public transportation to get everywhere she can direct us to most of our daily places (our apartment, the grocery store, parks, preschool, etc).  It is so neat to see her pick up on things like that.  The other day she said, "we don't have to take a bus to the green letter store" (which is the bigger grocery store that we go to on a regular basis).  She knows that if the bus or metro is crowded she has to stay in her stroller or if we aren't going to be on for very many stops she has to stay put.  But then when she asks, "Are we going a lot of stops?" that I know I should let her get out and sit next to me on the bus/metro.

We've been playing a few games with Linnea.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider Game and 4 in a Row.  I'd like to find a candy land game to play with her.

Every time she speaks Swedish with such confidence and ease I am just floored and jealous.  She has figured out now that most people on buses, the metro and at parks speak Swedish.  So if I tell her to ask them for something or to apologize she knows to do it in Swedish.  She likes to talk to people on the bus, in elevators, on the metro and in line at the grocery store.  This gets kind of awkward because it usually goes over my head pretty quickly.  Looks like I need to start working on my Swedish.

Rocketship building with Daddy

Linnea also blows us away with her English.  She uses words/phrases like: usually, supposed to, actually, the reason is, etc.  The other day she said "My stomach is full.  It is crowded in there.  There isn't enough room." There different ways to explain the same idea. We were impressed.  She still says fumb (thumb), fink time (think time), and Schrank (Frank).  The way she says daddy makes both of us smile.

Linnea goes to preschool every day from about 8:15-4:00.  She absolutely loves it.  They play outside once or twice per day walking to several of the nearby parks or to the water to watch the ducks or to the forest to climb on rocks and trees.  They have different themes throughout the year that the kids get to choose (light and sound, birds, ants, etc).  They color, paint, play games, sing songs including the Big Sing on Fridays when they also sing songs in English.  She naps most days at school and sleeps with Yoda or Ballerina Elephant.

Please note the amount of dirt on her face after a day at preschool.  I LOVE that she comes home dirty.  It means she was playing hard outside!

During the last two weeks of preschool, there weren't many kids so the teachers worked on several projects (painting, sawing, drilling, etc) to make the classroom feel fresh and new after the summer break.  Linnea liked watching and she also got to help sand and saw because Ms Rebecka might have a soft spot for her ;).

At home Linnea likes to play with Magna-Tiles, hot wheels cars, craft, play with baby (nursing her, let her have tummy time, etc) but her very favorite thing to do is to read books.  She LOVES books.  Her favorite book is Popcorn by Frank Ash but she also likes the Lola series (Lola at the Library, Lola Reads to Leo, Lola Plants a Garden).

Linnea has really been into playing with her baby recently and taking to on walks, to the park, etc.

She loves construction equipment.

We've been pretty strict about the no tv/screens rule.  It is just a slippery slope.  Jake's sister, Annie, gave me some great advice a while ago "One thing I have learned about parenting is that once we say yes to something one time, it makes it that much harder to say no the next time." I couldn't agree more.

Right before Stella was born we introduced Linnea to Mister Rogers.  I thought it would be nice to have something she could watch/do if I was overwhelmed with Stella or trying to feed her and just needed a break.  She watches 1-3 a week probably.  We started letting her watch them on Saturday or Sunday mornings during Stella's morning nap and then Jake and I would nap on the couch in the living room while Linnea watched an episode.  We've all enjoyed that new routine!  It is funny because Linnea likes to watch the same ones over and over again which works for us.  She also sometimes watches one if I'm on my own for dinner with both girls and need to cook without having someone right at my feet.

Linnea watched her first movie this month which was Cinderella. I have fond memories of watching Disney movies while growing up.  Watching them as an adult is interesting.  For example, the main message of Cinderella . . . all of her dreams came true when she married a prince.  What exactly were her dreams other than get away from her stepsisters?  We watched the movie in three 30 minute chunks over three days and it was fun.  Linnea didn't like the 'ripping the dress' part.  She talked about that scene a LOT.

While we were watching Cinderella a bird flew into our apartment through the balcony door and landed on the chair where I nurse Stella.  It hopped around on top of the chair for a bit while I tried to figure out what to do.  I picked up my phone to call Jake but it flew out before he answered.  Linnea spotted it as well.  I thought it was especially funny since it was the part in Cinderella where the birds and the mice help Cinderella get dressed and make her bed.

Linnea likes to say "When I was a baby then I usually ___________ (spit up, played with that toy, saw in the bouncy seat, etc)."

One of my favorite phrases of hers right now is, "I'd like you to do a favorite" which means I'd like you to do me a favor.

We love you, sweet girl!