Repeat After Me

The third thing that happened the very same day was that Milton jumped down from his dinner chair, walked up to me, raised his hands and wanted to sit on my lap. I looked at him and said
-"Milton, you must ask me to sit on my lap".

I said:
(Swedish)-"Säg, pappa, jag vill sitta i ditt knä"
(English)-"Say, daddy, I want to sit on your lap"

Milton smiled and kept raising his arms. I said again.
-"Milton, you will have to ask me, so say after me"

Jag (I)

vill (want to)

sitta (sit)

i (on *in*)

ditt (your)

knä (lap)

Milton kept smiling and repeated the words to the best of his abilities. That was the first time I´ve tried to make him repeat my words and he did it really well :) Mom said she hasn´t tried it before so this was his first time :)

Pink Exclusion

The second thing that happened today showing that Milton is learning was when we sat by the dinner table. I put three plastic cups with different colours infront of Milton. Green, pink and blue. We haven´t really talked to Milton about colours before so I didn´t really expect him to know which colour is which. It´s been more like, -"Look at the that red bus".

I asked him:

(Swedish)-"Milton, vilken mugg är blå ? Kan du se den blå muggen ?"
(English)-"Milton, which mug is blue ? Can you see the blue mug ?"
Milton looked at the cups, then at me. He looked like a question mark.
I then pointed to the blue mug and said:
(Swedish)-"Det här är den blåa muggen"
(English)-"This is the blue mug"

I then asked him:

(Swedish)-"Milton, vilken mugg är grön ? Kan du se den gröna muggen ?"
(English)-"Milton, which mug is green ? Can you see the green mug ?"
Milton looked at the cups, then at me. He looked like a question mark again.
I then pointed to the green mug and said:
(Swedish)-"Det här är den gröna muggen"
(English)-"This is the green mug"

Now it´s only the mug in the center left. The pink mug. So I asked him:
(Swedish)-"Milton, vilken mugg är då rosa ? Kan du se den rosa muggen ?"
(English)-"Milton, then which mug is pink ? Can you see the pink mug ?"

Milton pointed to the pink mug in the middle and said -"Där (there)"

I´m pretty sure he didn´t know that, that mug was the pink mug but it was the only one I hadn´t pointed at so he must have used the exclusion method.

He looked so proud and happy when he pointed at the pink mug and so was I :)

Milton Explains

Milton's been talking for some time as you probably now. I´ve tried to challange him with words, sentences and phrases so he can evolve. Now things have started to happen.

Today Milton and I stood by the door. On the floor laid a spoon from the day before. I had forgotten to take it to the kitchen from our walk the day before. I pointed to the spoon and said to Milton:

(swedish)-"Milton, kan du ta upp skeden och ge den till mamma?"
(english)-"Milton, can you pick up the spoon and give it to mom?"

Milton looked at the spoon, bent over and picked it up. He walk into the kitchen where mom was and said -"mamma (mom)". Mom turned around and looked at Milton. He then said:
-"pappa (dad), mamma (mom)" and held out the spoon.

I know he just used mom and dad but it was how he used them. I could see that he meant:
-"Mom ? Dad wanted me to give you this spoon"

In my eyes he was awesome. That was the first time I know Milton tried to explain something after something I´ve asked him to do.

Blood Pudding

I just noticed that I missed a new thing for Milton. I forgot to add his first meal of blood pudding. It happened on the 19th of september. For all you people out there, it´s a form of a cake made by blood and insides of mainly or only pigs (I think). It´s a typical old swedish dish. Other really old dishes he (and Denver) must try in the future is Pölsa and Surströmming. Well, back to the blood pudding. Mom hates it and hates the smell of it when it´s fried in the pan. I love it. It´s eaten with jam. I guess it could be served with something else on the side but we usually only have salads. Since blood pudding is lots and lots of blood the dish is very high in iron. Milton loved it and ate it all. Lucky for him he´s not muslim or he would have missed out on this dish... you know... since it´s pig and blood.

Back 2 Our Playground

Once we got back home from the city we stayed an hour or so in our playground. Maya and Milton ran around playing as usual. They haven´t really found each other yet. When Milton runs after Maya, she takes of like a rocket.. Maybe, Milton smells bad :) Milton wants to swing every time we go out. He has really taken a fancy to it. Denver sat on the playground bench looking cool. He wore his new sleeveless jacket I gave him. Doesn´t he look dashing ? :)

Mummi and Ukki came by with cousin Wilda for a while. They played for a short while before they went back home.

A Day With Maya

Today after breakfast mom went to the stables to work. Then after lunch the 3-boys met up with our neighbour, Fredrik, and his daughter, Maya. We went downtown for the day. Milton and Denver fell a sleep on our way to the lunch restaurant (we ate Sushi :) Of course Denver and Maya woke up while we were eating but luckily I can use the chinese sticks with one hand so I had Denver on one side and food on the other.

Milton slept maybe 2 hours so he even missed the change of guard parade. Every time the guards change at the castle they walk thru Stockholm. Denver saw it, but Milton has to wait until next time. Milton loves the escalator but Denver´s a beginner. He wasn´t afraid but he didn´t show any signs of excitement either. Denver did go on his first subway trip today but he looked like business as usual. Milton did wake up after a while but he was pretty calm the whole time downtown. He did have the strengh to give me a Cheers with his coco :)

Tooth Ache

The past days Milton has been drewling a lot... a lot. Now he has started to point to the back of his teeth while saying "aaoohh". I am guessing he´s teething again. I had a look to see what's what and it looked like some white things are pushing out.

Solution ? Smushing all his food to liquids :) He ate his beetroots like nothing but the rest he had to suck with a straw. For about three days now his apetite has been very low and he´s also got a fever. Still, he is very happy and active so I am not worried.

Maya And Milton

I was alone with Milton and we had an hour to kill before bedtime routine so I called my neighbour Fredrik and asked what he was doing. He was already outside with his daughter Maya so we went and joined them at a playground. Maya goes to daycare now so Milton don´t see her much anymore (he goes to open-daycare which is totally different). They ran around, falling, laughing and so on. Milton sat on a swing all by himself for the first time (with me, don´t know about mom). I was a bit nervous but he did really good.

Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike came by yesterday evening. He was on his way to my sister for the night. Today he´s flying to Germany and Octoberfest in Münich. He´ll be gone for three days with millions of tourists and thousand gallons of beer :) He goes every year and I should go again soon. I went -94 and loved it. A future trip for our little family perhaps ?

Beautiful Day @ Evinge

Today we went to a horse competition at Evinge. It was a great day. The sun caressed our skin while mom was riding. We were prepared for a long day but our horse showed signs of pain so we went back home after an hour. That was okay because the competition was on an island so we had to take the ferry twice to get there and twice to get back. Milton loved it. He saw small boats, big boats, houses, a castle, trailers, buses and much more. Denver was awake but since he can't sit up yet he missed most of it. Too bad, but summer will come back.. 2010.

Last Barbeque

It is true. We have to accept it. The summer is over so we got an invitation to Mummi for summers last barbeque. It was a total family get together. Six grownups and four small children. My favorite dish was of course present, chicken.

The kids played and laughed.. well not Denver but give him some time and he´ll probably take over the whole group. Atleast he´s awake now :) Before he was always sleeping.

Family Day At The Stable

Since I work and train and mom rides, when I´m at home it´s good to do things together sometimes. Time together is less time lost. Of course I brought the new camera so I could try it out outside and my 40D since it´s all fixed up and returned to daddy :)

Milton´s is so much older now. He tries to communicate with words and movements. He´s developed a will and he practise it often. Luckily he is still easy to confuse. Just change the subject and give him a task or something to think about and he´s calm again. I just love that he understands more and more of what I say.