Development
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The old development with pictures is here...

20.03.2007
I forgot this page so I guess I have plenty to say.

Anna Björk. Her language is doing well while I think she talks more icelandic than swedish now. Except when she is singing and I have discovered her singing lots of songs we have not trained though she has hear me sing. The other day I told her we was going to bake panncakes and she started to sing the song about panncakes. She has surprised with many songs I did not think she knew. She reads lots of books in Swedish and she is always watching movies in Swedish. She understands everything I say and I am always speaking Swedish with her. We haven't work anything in quiting diapers while I know we should have. It will come.

Karin Inga. Is learning to walk. She takes further steps every day and she has been practicing in rising on her feet. She talkes da da and has an extremly great will. She becomes very pissed off if she is not getting that she wants. She is also fighting with her sister and grabs all the stuff she can from Anna Björk.

Report 13.10.2006
Anna Björk – Her language is developing rapidly and she says more often 2 words together, like "pappa bil" (dad went with the car) while it can also be "kicki bil" which means this is kickis car.

Yesterday she came and said "bajsa" (shit) and I asked her if she had done something in her diaper. Ususally she answers yes or no while this time she said once more "bajsa" while she grabed my hand and brought me to the toilet. She had understood the meaning of going on the toilet! After this sequense she wants to try the toilet many times a day. Today I bought a special child-seat and she loved it! Now she can go on the toilet without loosing her balance.

Karin Inga – Her head is almost 100% stabilised and she can lift it very high when she is lying on her stomach. She "talks" her baby talking a lot

Report 08.05.2006
Anna Björk – Her vocabulary has increased a lot lately. She can say; momo (grandmother) mofa (grandfather) Kicki (Kristin) Nanna (anna) Titti (her little sister) baa (bath) djuse (juice) kooo (I have done it in my diaper) ihaa (horse) ohohhoo (dog) kiii (cat) titta (look) sko (shoe) hoa (hat) oj! (wow)

Anna Björk is a very active child and her tricks makes you laugh - yes I know it is forbidden but this girls makes you smile once in a while. Today she put all the shampoo into the bath and it is always something she is up to. She is not afraid for anything; jumps into the water with a big splash, talking to strangers, going horseback riding and feeding the horses.

Karin Inga - or Titti all calls her - has started to smile and when you are talks to her she "talks back" Her eyes are fixed and she likes watching things in front of her. She is a very calm baby while she often has troubles with stomach ace in the evening. Some evenings she can scream for hours.

Anna Björk
Report 21.02.2006
Anna Björk was not particulary satisfied to get a younger sister, at least in the beginning. She did not now how to react neither behave. She cried a lot and went actually very mad that she did not have fully attention any more. A week has past and its getting better and better though. She has named her sister to "titti". She has also increased her word vocabulary and says now "krakkar" which is children in icelandic. She definately understands the joy of reading and we read both magazines and books together.

Report 06.02.2006
She learns lots of things at her day nanny. Things we realize by coincidence she knows. Yesterday she showed us one thing - how strong she was. A friend of us came for dinner and she asked Anna Björk if she knew how strong she was. Anna Björk knew exactly what she meant and squeezed her hands as strong as she could. Both B and I stared at her and started to laugh.

She has become more alert and aware in her language. If you ask her how the horse, dog and cat sounds she answers you correctly in her way. It is also possible to ask her to do things, both in Icelandic and Swedish.

Today when we came home she took her out door clothes off by herself. She needed some help in end of the zipper while rest of it she took off all. I have not taught her this so it must be her day nanny.

Development report 02.02.2006
I have not been updating development for a long time, which is a bit of a shame. Lots of things have of course been happening with Anna Björk why I now will write a small report of latest news.

Changes in behaviour:
At the moment she has reached her first obstinate age. It was difficult to face our own little sweetie getting this bad behaviour by screaming and shouting when something was not as she wanted it to be. It was even worse when we realized we had separate opinions how to handle this new situation. I thought it should be wise to put her into her bed for calming down and talk to her when she had quite screaming. B wasn't so sure and tried to calm her down by talking while she was screaming. I have tried the bed "punishment" for some time and I can see a change. May be this stage is turning off.

She has always been very easy to put to sleep. We laid her down, put the light down and walked out. This is not possible any more. It all started with lots of nightmares' in middle of the night however it was ok to put our hand on her back and she turned to sleep again. It did not work after a while and she had to sleep in our bed. It got even worse and she refused to fall a sleep if not none of us was lying next to her. I read bedtime stories for her at the moment and she can fall asleep in rather good time. This week she has been sleeping in her bed all night. I hope this stage is also getting better. Of course this is a bit time consuming for you as a parent while I see this as a development too. I am reading in Swedish for her. She hears more Icelandic than Swedish during the day so it is great I can spend some time in language learning for her before sleep.

Talking:
She does not speak very many words yet and she mixes the languages widely. "Titta" (Swedish word for look) "datt" (it fell in Icelandic) ihhhi (horse) howhow (dog) aaahhh (to be good) while she surprised me today after her evening dinner she had spaghetti Bolognese and she had been a good girl eating it all by herself. Of course some spaghetti had gone on her skirt and when she saw this she said in English "oh shit" I stared at her and then I started to laugh. She has probably heard us saying this. It is time to be more careful in what we are saying...

Interests:
She loves bathing and swimming. It is probably the most fun she knows when we are going to the swimming pool. She show no frightens at all and she jumps out in the water and do not bother if her head is going under the water.

She shows great interests in books. We - and others - have given her books in both Icelandic and Swedish and she is reading them all every day. It is special interesting to read while she is eating. Eating process has become much better and the other children at her day care have taught her how to eat properly however it still is lacking as soon as she is getting ill. She can eat properly with her own spoon.

After bathing and swimming she loves dancing and music. She cannot stand still while any music is on the telly, radio or CD. She sings along when she recognise any music. We also sing a lot together like Imse wimse spider and then she does all moments with her hands and arms.

Partying. Even though she is only a bit over 1,5 years she loves parties. Then she is copying all grown ups and walk around and talks to all people surrounding her. She can then be awake until very late in the night.

Drawing. She likes drawing very much and she uses as many colours she can get. It does not have any symbols yet however she is drawing over all paper.

Awareness:
She knows where her nose, mouth, ears, hair and bellybutton are and if you ask her how big she is she reaches her arms high up in the air. She understands almost everything in Icelandic and Swedish and you can tell her things like, put it there, go and pick this up etc. She loves helping in the kitchen and bringing plates and glasses to the table is every day work for her now.

She uses her hands and she can put things into boxes without any troubles. She can clean up her things when she has thrown it all over the floor.

She is climbing everywhere, she can open ladders, doors you name it. All dangerous stuff like cleaning material is put on safe places.