A little bit about Hz

My memory is so bad, short-term as well as long. So if I don't write it down it'll most likely be forgotten. Although this time is quite testing at the moment, I still want to remember it and reflect if I get time! I do remember, though, a dear friend advising me when it was a similar time of chaos having been wreaked by young hands in the form of Biryani, to have patience. To expect that by they reach the age of three, some degree of sense emerges.
He will now play with toys in the way for which they were designed (puzzle pieces inserted into their correct holes, stacking the hoops, building towers with bricks). This is quite satisfying to see and we are moving on from the chewing, discarding, emptying, flinging, stages. Moving, not quite left.
Yesterday the boys were at LegoWorld again and as both littlies have got bad colds we did not go out. So it was a game of climbing up S's bunkbed to find his mobile and laser pen, switching on and off the computer which Biryani was trying to use, climbing up M's bunk bed and dangling his legs perilously over the edge, and emptying jugs of water all over himself and the bathroom floor. Not his fault of course, and now and again I will find him surreptitiously leafing through ladybird books. I also find later on, ripped pages scattered about, aah!
I have been sucked in to the Swedish system, I am at the limit now, it's daycare for you in August!!!!!!!
But seriously, it may be on the cards as we have to start some sort of business up soon to make ends meet. We shall see..........
So as the doctor put it, Hz is very 'motoric' and this is way ahead of the language skills. He says quite a few 'words' now, and some signs. He cutely pats his head if he wants to play the chasing game 'duck, duck, goose' that the kids found on the sesame street website. This morning I was woken by: 'Doo Doo (milk) more' in a very insistent voice.
And about the feeding/ sleep thing, which I feel cannot not be disentwined: At about 4 months he was sleeping well at night due to his thumb. The teeth came and I was the dummy. I thought, ok, let's wait until 6 months to do something about this night waking. Then it was wait until 8 months, then 1 year old, and for the last 5 or 6 months at least I have just accepted he won't sleep in a cot and it's going to be when he stops feeding (2 years old, islamically) that there's a chance of unbroken sleep. Of course it's not unbearable tiredness and he doesn't feed so much now, and there are nights where he sleeps through. But it's never the 7am to 7 pm that some children do and the others did (more like 9-7) , well that's according to my memory so this may, and quite likely, is innaccurate. This summer looks like being the end of having a baby in the house, which is, in a way, quite sad.

No excuses now?

Kind DH has got me a new laptop, mashaAllah. So no more waiting for the rest of them to get off the computer. I use the computer nowadays, like probably many others, for so many things: communication, paying bills, finding directions, recipes, even the kid's school has it's menu on their website (although usually not up to date). Nowadays whatever I think of to cook they seem to have had for lunch already.
Anyway, the photo software isn't installed yet so can't put any pictures, but to be honest, I think the snow pictures would be a bit tedious now.
Had a letter home about M's national tests which should start in March. These are not really anything to worry about, just a shame they have to spend so much time on them.
H's handwriting has dramatically improved, mashaAllah, as I could compare his writing in his school diary to this week's.
S's school for next academic year is still in the pipeline, having done a test for the bilingual class last week. The Swedish was pretty hard and the English v easy, so I'm wondering if it would be the right choice (if we get one), and maybe the international school would be more appropriate. Anyhow I hope to meet the teachers to help with the decision.
Biryani is still attending the childminder's and picking up a little Swedish, although as usual the ability to speak English ends up being a hindrance, as the other children like to try out their smattering of it with her. She continues to enjoy spelling and writing. She enthusiastically explained to her father that one of the Peter and Jane books had words (letters) missing so she had filled them in! These were the c level which are for filling in, but she thought they were books with misprints!
Hz, well life is indeed a lot easier now we have the kitchen safety gate, but we are still having difficulty figuring out how to prevent him from turning the computer on and off. Even though we can turn off the power supply from a distant source he has figured this out and now it is only the large cushion from the back of the sofa that stands between him and the red button. The problem is our phone relies on the router being on so to avoid the compter ending up in 'safe mode' from being switched rapidly on and off we end up with no phone line.
The slow journey of finding somewhere larger to live also seems to be getting gridlocked, with increasing restrictions on the number of people allowed to live in the possible flats we could be interested in being introduced.
Anyway! The last few days I've been moving things around the house in the vain hope that it will create more space (of course it doesn't really, unless you get rid of stuff).
And so not much of excitement has happened recently, but we have the half-term coming up, known as 'sportlov' where the children can try out various activities, We have LegoUniverse or is it World, LaserDome, swimming, squash, table tennis and origami mm ('med mera' means 'and more) to look forward to inshaAllah. I just look forward to the disappearance of the early morning rush, and really feel a bit overwhelmed over the amount and scope of things to do!!

We're not quite frogs...

but we can a get a feeling of how this popular character feels about the snow. I am still quite happy for the world around to be white, but from the local media, I sense people are tiring of the flaky white stuff. The children still build snowmen, throw snowballs and toboggan down the slopes, but you can sense the enthusiasm is waning. It will be nice to see some green grass and sense the different light that this produces, as does frog. However I still find white better than the usual grey/ brown of a south Swedish Winter.




and there is some variety, snow with cloud, or as above, snow with sunlight. Hz is a little unsure with his new boots and is actually wearing his gloves (that are normally cast aside). Not surprising as it's about -8C.


and it has also been snow plus wind, so some very deep drifts to, er, jump in. Face down.


and the boys made a large snowman with DH, and snowballed it down afterwards.


And some indoor fun, with clementine peel, DH producing these letters at the request of Biryani. Very Montessori, pat on back DH.

and having been ill, but still unwilling to just mope in bed, I got to work on the colouring pencils. I heard a story about a scholar who didn't like to waste time even when he had guests so would sharpen pencils while listening to them! The urge to draw and colour is always enhanced by freshly sharpened pencils, how frustrating to find the colour you want is blunt. I am now on the hunt for a posh sharpener automatic/ or crank the wheel-type as oh my fingers!