Linus is a real character. He loves to throw things and find it terribly amusing. We don’t however. He loves balls too, and these two things combined means that the newly erected christmas tree is in danger. Every chance he gets he grabs the baubles (pumlor) off the tree and while running forward he does an over-arm throw as far as his little arm can carry it, then he runs after it, picks it up and throws it again. I am hoping he will get tired of them soon and leave them alone. He still doesn’t say many words, but probably more than we realise. He has added “this” to his vocabulary however. He is also very clear when he doesn’t like or doesn’t want things with a vigorous head shake. He absolutely adore his big sister and follows her wherever she goes and most of the time she likes the attention and likes to play with him too. Every morning that he wakes up before her he “calls out” for her and anxiously awaits her arrival. If he gets the chance he’ll happily make his way into her room, pushing open the door and plonking himself down ONTOP of her (she is currently going through a period of sleeping on the floor), sometimes he tries to lie down next to her and stares at her until she wakes up, then he shrieks with happiness when she does! A few times she has had day naps on the floor in the living room and he has nicely played around her only to stop every now and then and happily point at her and exclaiming “this!”.
Speaking of the christmas tree… so we set up the tree the other day, both Ava and Linus “helped”. Ava loved the process of hanging the ornaments on the tree and wanted them all to hang on the same branch, she especially liked to put the star on the top. “Kissmass Tee!”. The day after I bought some tinsel and even though it is very colourful (the tinsel is gold and pink), it does look christmassy and feels a bit more like December (at least at night when the lights are lit and it is dark outside).
Ava talks all the time as usual and now most people can actually understand her. She is getting more clear in her pronunciation but she is also speaking more and more English. I am also speaking more English to her as that is what comes naturally since she speaks to me in English. She does however speak more Swedish when we are at home or when we are around other Swedish speaking people.
Ava is currently very impressed with Tomten (Santa) and has spoken to him every chance she gets (in the shopping centres etc) and has told him she wants a bike that she will “peddle peddle”, a “pink bicycle”, a toy camera (which she got at the Playgroup Christmas party and was very impressed by his efficiency , and the past two days she has decided that she has to tell Santa that she wants a “pink skippin wope”.
She pretend plays a lot at the moment. She can be doing something and then all of a sudden she comes and tells you that she wants lunch (when she has just eaten), at first I didn’t get what she was doing and thought she was actually hungry, but quickly realised that if I pretended to cook her some food and serve her an imaginary plate she was very pleased. She also pretend plays “face painting” a lot lately and she wants me to sit down and she’ll ask me my favourite colour and tells me to close my eyes “cose eyes pease mummy”, then she pretend to paint my face and finishes it off with showing me the finished artwork in her pretend mirror. She also continues to have tea parties and likes to invite her toys and us as well. Linus only gets to have tea party with her if she is using the yellow cups (plastic ones). Dr is another thing she enjoys to play, and today the little people were in their school bus and it “tipped over” and all the little people had to go to the Dr, so she lined them up and they had to wait their turn.
Weather here in Perth is heating up. Today we had around 37 degrees and yesterday 39. I have been dreading spending this summer in Perth, but am slowly “warming up” to the idea. It will be nice for Ava to have her first Australian birthday, and we will make an effort to get down to the beach more often and hopefully do a lot of swimming. Luckily we have some very good friends with a pool that we might be able to hijack here and there ;)
Photos from The Loftus Playgroup Christmas Party. Ava got her much wanted camera and was absolutely stoked! Linus got a tube of some little people. He was very chuffed as well and insisted on carrying it around the rest of the party.
Ava got to hold bunnies and guinea pigs and was really gentle and happy to sit there for ages.
It was Linus’ first time in a petting zoo and he loved it! He loves animals, whenever he sees one, and I mean ANY animal, he freezes, he stands completely straight legged, bum out, pointing finger “there!” he says. He especially liked the little piglet… like mother like son :)
