It's a matter of principles

I don't encourage stupidity. Thus, despite being asked not to just yet, I do touch the advent calendar. Several times a day, actually. What do they expect when they bring something like that out before December 1?

But I do look forward to Monday, when I will get some help in putting an ornament on the tree. As it is now, the ornaments tend to drop to the floor every time I try and it's exhausting to climb up and down to fetch them. Especially now that I'm running a substantial temperature.

Quarantine kid

As a courtesy to families who don't want chicken pox just before Christmas, I've been kept home from school all week. Now, I don't have any poxes yet, but I am anticipating them and apparently they are the most contagious a couple of days before they appear. Annoying decease, really! Do you realize how boring it is not to get to play with the other kids despite being fairly well?

Piece of cake

Oh, Puh-LEASE! Give me a challenge! This belly-to-back, back-to-belly thing is getting old already.There!See! Can I start on the next work book now?- Ok, here's a challenge for you, Antonia: Try to stay awake for longer than an hour at a time.
- Are you really sure you want me to try that? You know how I sound when I get tired...
- You've got a point. I'll think of something else.

Colorblind Christmas Elf or Baby Boss

I think I know why the Christmas elves are dressed the way they are, also when indoors: they probably too live in houses with substantial draught along the floor.Another thing I've been thinking about is that the size of my chair really doesn't match my position in this family. Adam and I should each have a huge leather piece behind an intimidating dark wooden desk. After all, this is Poland and hierarchies are upheld also by artefacts.

Snowface

My first ever snowman looked really good, with head, belly and base. Alas, mom got carried away with the facial decorations and managed to tip him over. The face on the base was an imperfect substitute, nothing more, nothing less.

In case you didn't know it already

Ducks don't live in houses, not even when it's winter. But they still don't freeze, because they have feathers and are fat from all the bread we're feeding them. As for us unfeathered creatures, we do live in houses and it's our age that decides whether or not we get fat or not from the bread we're baking.

I don't.
Others do.

The meeting point of our litterature tastes

The average story we're reading in this house definitely appeals more to Adam than to me. But then we have this animal book, which squeaks when you poke it. It says that it's recommended for 1-year-olds. Half-way between us. I like the sound and Adam likes that it lets him practice colors. A very constructive compromise, in other words.

Norton and Pitt did it better

Sometimes you have to check the durability of your parents' hearts. I did so with mom on Friday, by falling head first into a the corner of the swing platform at the playground. Mom passed the test, although just barely. My eye did as well, although just barely. At first I got this magnificent swelling over one eye and between the eyebrows. Then the swelling turned black and blue and further added to my fighter look. But now, just two days later, it's barely even visible. It just looks like a well-applied eye-shadow, not at all in line with the fight-club look that I'm seeking.

A seat without a view

I've gathered that grown-ups like big seats (provided that seat doesn't refer to their own behinds). For us kids it's the other way around. Our stroller has one large and easily reclinable seat in the front and one substantially smaller and not easily reclinable in the back. The latter is the popular one, of course. All snug and cozy. And since I have a more developed ability to convey messages beyond "hungry", "tired" and "in the need for a diaper-change" (plus I'm stronger and faster), I get to sit in the back every single time we're out and about these days.

Great strides towards the future

Last week, I think, or the week before, when mom and I were over at the Hedlunds for a morning tea and chat, I took the defining steps towards becoming a big child. I really wanted to play with Viktor and Filippa and in order to do so, I figured I'd level with them (again we're talking in the litteral sense of the word - Adam and I both tend to be very litteral in our way of expressing ourselves). With some assistance, I successfully did, and now I feel more or less like one of the one-and-a-half-year-olds. Actually maybe a bit more less than more. My legs are still substantially shorter.And when I was at it, I figured I could just as well take some time off from mom (they say that's what big kids do) and let the twins' mom Jennie watch me. Yup, I'm practically there, in the grow-up future.

Before dad starts respecting that I'm entitled to my own opinion...

... I'm a fan of Modo. And a big fan too, apparently. Adam used to be one as well, when he was around my age.

Time zone trouble

Warsaw is located very far east to be in the GMT-1 time zone. The implication is that it gets dark really early in the afternoon, despite the simultaneously southern (that's relative, of course!) location. And after dark, you're not supposed to be in the parks. And all the play grounds are... Tricky!

Yes, we can!

Mom and dad haven't said it in so many words, but we can still sense that November is not necessarily their month of choice. Now, how better address this than by initiating changes? Thus, today was my very first day in life with no nap, yet no afternoon crankiness.
AND Antonia has done her best to contribute to the silver lining by turning several times from belly to back.
AND we have successfully inaugurated the stroller in its double seat position.
AND the Americans started the month by (finally) showing that they could.
November rocks!

I don't mind the coming of age

I'm three months and a bit now. In other words, really very big. So big that I get to sit in the high chair.At the table with the rest of the family. (Which, by the way, is a lot more fun than being placed in a baby sitter at their feet!)And on Adam's lap when he watches Shrek.

Afternoon activity

I know you're not supposed to compare hands if you're superstitious. But fingers should be ok, right?

They call me the bookworm mechanic

My teachers have told mom and dad that my favourit activities at school - by far - are playing with cars and reading books. I see no reason to act in a way that makes them question that statement. At home, I read books and play with my tractors. And read books. And when I have a playdate, like with Simon yesterday, I introduce my friends to my books and tractors. And then I ask them, in a more or less courteous manner, NOT to touch the green Valtra.I play with Duplo as well. The Duplo tractor, to be more specific.I used to play a lot with the Duplo racing car, but then I parked it under the fridge and despite promises, no one has helped me get it out of there just yet.

Supper Sounds - Scream, Slurp, Snooze

There is a wide range of food related sounds. Let me introduce you to a selection of the most commonly used ones.
The scream: An intense sound, indicating that the service is unsatisfyingly slow. You may think that it also expresses a disapproval of the monotonous menue, but that's actually not the case.
The slurp: Actually not just one sound, but a combination of suckling, swallowing and grunting sounds, sometimes broken off by little exclamations of joy, that together indicate that food has been served and found to be of just the right taste and temperature. The snooze: A barely audiable sound (at least when it comes to me - I'm not a snoorer) that follows shortly after many meals. It's actually not uncommon that the snooze co-exists with the slurp. The ability to eat and sleep at the same time apparently disappears with age. Perhaps that's why attempts to do so at the dinner table are widely frowned upon - older folks simply don't know how to slurp-snooze gracefully.

Just to let them know they're loved

Grandma and Grandpa were the first people I met in life (apart from mom, dad and the hospital staff). Nonetheless, we're still in the process of getting to know one another. It's a process I really like and at the end of their stay, I awarded them with a long sequence of giggles and laughs. Because they're worth it!

Same, same, but different

Grandma and Grandpa have been here for a long weekend. Along with a suitcase full of diapers and tights in size 86/92, they brought with them some pretty chilly weather and loads of sun. Maybe that's how winter is in Sweden? Either way, I like this whole layered clothes thing that comes with the weather getting colder. It makes falling down a lot less painful than it were in the Philippines. Or in summer, for that matter. We spent the weekend the way we usually do: by going to the Odynca playground on Saturday.
Playing under the supervision of grandparents is of course a lot more fun than normal every-Satuday playing, so I wouldn't say same old same old, despite the same old activity.Also, we don't always go for Turkish lunch after the playground visit. But we should! Great food for everyone. Including Grandpa.And Antonia. And on Sunday, like always, we went fancy walking in Lazienki Park (pronounced Washinki, in case you're wondering, and no, mom and dad aren't making much progress with their Polish. None, to be more exact.).But despite the same old destination, this wasn't any Sunday walk. Grandpa was the one pushing the stroller and my attention was not on the squirrals, but rather on the colorful, and pretty friendly peacocks.

Trying the big-child thing at home

While Adam is off to school, getting those attractive-looking cuts in his face and baking play-dough teddies, I sometimes sit in a circle myself. Only my circle time is not quite as social his and as opposed to him, I don't love mine. It's lonely plus it forces me to sit when I don't feel like it.

Product of circle time

I totally look like a fighter (in the literal, two-year-old sence of the word). I'm not one, really. But thanks to a class mate of mine, I've secured the looks. And I have good hopes that the wound will develop into one of those cool facial scars! (My teachers are not equally excited, and now all parents are asked to carefully cut their kids' nails before sending them off to school.)

Yes, it's political. Yes, it may be childish.

I'm sure you've noticed the girlieness of my outfits in the blog so far. They're more or less the antithesis of the fairly strict norm for what kids should be wearing. At least in Sweden. At least if their parents want to show that they're aware and in favor of gender equality.
So what's the deal with that? I mean, mom and dad have always been advocates of gender equality before... Ok, they have to come out clear with this: the prettiness of the ensembles is not the only reason I go clad like this. It's also a criticism of the idea that equality between the sexes would require the elimination of smock and lace. It seems very 20th century to promote one single look or approach as the only right one. Having said this, they acknowledge that ignorant people may treat us differently depending on the clothes and that this may affect us. They haven't quite figured out how to counteract that yet. Plus, living in a country where kids are strictly gender dressed - and not as a pro-equality demonstration - and where mom has been told that it's a pity I wasn't the one to get the blond corkscrews, being a girl and all, they just may give up their resistance and adhere to Swedish unisex after all. Not yet, though. Not yet.

The cutest of the lot

Every house we pass on the way to school seems to have its own dog to guard it. They all tend to bark (happily?) when I climb the fences to greet them. Some get so loudly happy about my presence that I actually refrain from getting any closer. (This is the case with the grey beast next-doors, for example.) The dog on the pic, though, is a true favorit.

Torn between jealousy and love

Mom only has one lap for us to share and dad leaves for work too early to make up for the scarcity in the morning. That sucks, as I'm sure you understand. At least sometimes it does.At least for a while it does.