Dear Elzora,
Things are going very well. You had a PERFECT day at preschool yesterday and you are there again this morning. I can't wait to pick you up!! It's a little bit cold and snowy but I always look forward to the walk to go pick up my little baby girl.
It's hard to believe that the new baby is due to arrive in just 11 days. As I may have said before you will stay with Farfar and Farmor while we are in Borås at the hospital. I was thinking it might be nice to write down your schedule for them and I decided that some day you might enjoy reading about your daily schedule when you were just 17 months old.
Elzora's Schedule on Non-Ladybug Days 6am- 8am: Depending on when you fell asleep you wake up between these times. We eat some breakfast together and start our day. You love yogurt, toast, eggs, cereal, fruit, berries and red bell peppers. Sometimes you have some water but on the weekends I give you a little OJ and you are very good at saying the word JUICE! You love juice and the red milk, but the nurse says it is always best with water, and we know it's good for you.
10am: Unless we are leaving the house, I give you your välling as a mellanmål (between meal food or snack) around this time. I like to hold you on my lap but sometimes you like to be on your own and just kick back and watch some Sesame Street or another children's show.
10:30 Get dressed!! Unless we have an appointment or an outing planned we don't get dressed right away, and once in a while we have our pajama days where we get dressed about 5 minutes before pappa comes home from work. Mommy loves these days.
11:30 Fruit Snack
12:00 Nap!! You used to sleep for just an hour, but you've been sleeping for about 2 hours in the afternoon since starting at daycare. Quite often you sleep outside in your stroller. You have been doing this since your were little and it is what the other Scandinavian people do. It is supposed to help with your immunity. You never get sick, so it must be a good thing.
2:00 Lunch!! We always have fun at lunch. You love pasta, avocado, turkish yogurt, paj with olives, feta and tomato, salmon, broccoli, peas and soup. Since mamma is a vegetarian you don't eat a lot of meat at lunch when you are with me but you eat all kinds of other things at school, with daddy at dinner and with Farmor and Farfar.
4:00 Fika! You usually have a little cracker or a cookie and I have a cup of coffee. It's also when we watch reruns of America's Next Top Model. I know you love it because you try to turn off the TV about a million times during the program. Sorry!!
5:30-8pm: During this time we have dinner with pappa and just enjoy being together as a family. You and pappa have a dance party in your room and you start acting pretty goofy as you get tired... we all do! Sometimes you are not in a very good mood in the evening and it is a little tough because mamma and pappa are a little tired, but you are so kind and you just want to play.
8-9pm: Vitamins, Välling, Teeth Brushing, Pajamas and Sleep. We start our evening ritual at this time and I think we all look forward to it. We get our cozy clothes on and watch some TV. You generally fall asleep on daddy and then you go into your bed and sleep all night. I would love to read to you every night, but you prefer to read books on your own right now so that you can turn the pages as fast as you want. I am definitely looking forward to being able to read you all of the beautiful books in your growing Swedish-English library.
9-? Mamma and pappa stay up too late but we enjoy our time together and usually talk about you.
Elzora's Schedule on Ladybug Days: Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday
5:50
Mamma gets up and prepares välling, clothes and packs Elzora a piece of fruit.
6-7am: Eat välling, watch Dora and Wonder Pets and get dressed for school.
7am: Pappa takes Elzora to preschool on the way to work.
11:45 Mamma picks up Elzora after she has eaten lunch.
11:45-2pm: Elzora sleeps.
2:30 Snack time
3:00 Bathtime!! Your very favorite thing in the world is to take a bath. After you are finished playing I take you out and give you a nice massage. You really like this part of the day. You also love wearing your little pink robe. Sometimes you won't take it off and I have to put it on over your clothes.
The rest of the day is the same as the non-ladybug days. Sometimes on Friday and Monday we go to the open preschool at the Family Center. We will go a little bit more often when mommy has the baby, so that you can play with the other kids.
I love our schedule Elzora and I love you.
See you in 1 hour.
Love,
Mommy
PS Sometimes we don't follow the schedule on the weekends, but we I think we all enjoy having a routine. Especially when we can all take a nap together!!
PSS The picture is of the drawing you did the other day on the wall of your bedroom while mamma was in the kitchen!
