A little genius.

At least we think so. :P But all parents do, right? All parents think that their baby/child is the smartest, cutest, funniest, etc.. etc.. So I suppose that Fredrik and I should be no exception. :)

Leia's progress goes back and forth (with her sleeping). Just when we think she is getting better, things backtrack A LOT. We are almost going on 2 months now. The BVC is taking this very seriously and Leia's BVC nurse keeps in constant contact with us. She calls us regularly to see how Leia is doing and to see how Fredrik and I are coping as well.

Leia never reaches a -0- ground. She constantly has issues, the severity is based on how well we can all get past those issues each night. Like tonight, when she did one of her common behaviors of continuously sticking her finger in her eye when she is about to go into deep sleep.. Tonight, she didn't scream or complain when I pulled her finger away and she let me hold her hand instead. We rate Leia's progress with how she'll let us help her with her issues. And yes, when she is about to fall asleep, she will poke her eye with one of her fingers. No idea why.. :/ :) But she does it.

But like my post a long time ago - I don't want to get too much into things here, because then I will be continuously updating about an ongoing thing, and that is just tiring and stressful. BUT. The reason why I wrote all this was to mention her appointment. She has an appointment the 1st of September with a specialist pediatrician. She only rotates to Åmål once every 7 weeks, so that is why the appointment is so far away. The BVC nurse wanted Leia to see the specialist instead of Leia's normal pediatrician. So let's hope that either they can figure out what is going on with Leia or just tell us that it will take time for whatever is going on to pass.

Besides all of the nightly problems, Leia has been extremely happy. :) She is a normal almost 2 year old. She eats like crazy.. oh my goodness.. can the child eat. :D Her personality shines through more and more every day.

Her most favorite activity is to sing. :) As you can see from the videos. (I have some more to share.) Fredrik is determined that she is going to play soccer. She LOVES to have some kind of ball with her at all times. She loves to throw and kick. And she is really, really good too! She runs and kicks with the ball. She's been throwing overhand since she started handling a ball. I don't think she's ever thrown underhanded once.

She knows her numbers 1-10!
When we were in the US, she would start counting 1-10 on her own. :) (In Swedish.) She can even point out the numbers when she sees them. Eight is by far her favorite number. :) She knows the sequence of the numbers. After she sees a 7 and says 7, she will say 8, etc.. etc.. When walking around outside, she points out the numbers on license plates!

She also says the alphabet! In English.
She brought me a book one day, one that we had never looked at before. She sat on my lap and I went through each letter, pointing at them and saying them. Right after me, she would say the letter - perfectly. All the way from A to Z and even added on the Swedish å ä ö.

B - C - D - G - J :: she most usually says these in Swedish

M - N :: these are a little difficult, you have to prompt her a couple of times

U - V - W :: these are very difficult

Y :: possibly her favorite letter :))

When I say "K" she says "katt" (cat).
When I say "T" she says "tack" (thank you).
She really, really loves letters and numbers. She has already started now pointing out letters on things she sees. She will point at a letter and try to figure out which one it is. She will look at me to see if she said the right one. She very much wants to get it right.

When she sees a B, sometimes she will say "åtta" (8). :)) The same with S, she will say "två" (2). And sometimes with 3 she will say "C." So she is trying sooo very hard to figure all this out. :) Before the age of 2.

Her vocabulary doubles almost every day. Today she threw out the word "åka" for the first time (ride). She now says "ouch." She has also started normal sentences instead of just "Leia eat." She now says "Där är katt." (there is cat). With many variations: Där är mamma/pappa, etc..

So Fredrik and I are very, very excited for her. She is now finally able to start communicating better with us. She still gets incredibly frustrated, which is understandable.

She now says "pee pee" and "poo poo" (including pointing them out on her person) so we are hoping that helps with potty training. She also said "bajs" (poo) for the first time yesterday. She also said "tjej" (girl) today, and her two new favorite words are "tja" and "tjena" (both meaning 'hi').

Today when I changed her poopy diaper, she tried to pull her diaper down and at the same time she said "bajs." So she is getting there. :) It is taking her a little longer than others her age, but she'll catch up eventually. :)

Today Leia played a little with My, the daycare neighbor baby. :)) My's mom also complained about the daycare completely shutting down! And that we have to pay even though they are closed. So that made us happy. Good to know that others think that the system isn't exactly right.

Nils (the neighbor's grandson) was gone this weekend. :( But he'll be back on Tuesday! He had a birthday party to go to, which I don't think he really wanted to go to. :) He wanted to stay at Mormor's so that he could play with Leia. Ulla told me once that he begs his mom all the time to go stay with Mormor so that he can play with Leia. :))) So sweet.

I gave Ulla some printed out pictures of Nils, Leia and Nils' sister, Alice. Ulla loved them! She was a little worried at first that I didn't give her any pictures of Leia (only Nils and Alice). :)) But I had pictures of all 3 of them. She was SO happy to get them. :)

Some shopping tomorrow in Tocksförs!


Oooh..! And she jumps! With both feet off the ground at the same time. :))