It feels so good to be taken care of!

Today Corrye offered to watch Eerika after her play group while I went to the doctor. This meant that I dropped her off at their house at 8:30 for the play group. It lasted until 10:30 when other kids got picked up and then Eerika got to play with Amber until 3 when I got home from the doctor and picking up Saku. That is a long day to watch someone's kid. Eerika is easy going and she loves being with Amber so it is fairly "easy", but really taking care of your kid or anyone else's kid is never really easy. Yet Corrye genuinely did not think twice about it. And she is the one who offered to have Eerika stay at their house all morning/afternoon. What a great example of service and genuine friendship.

So Troy and I enjoyed a lunch date after the doctor's appointment.  It was so nice to just chat in the middle of the day while eating delicious sandwiches at Beyond Bread.

Even after my kid free morning/afternoon, this morning's crazy cleaning and last night's bad sleep (Saku woke up at 4:30sh with a bloody nose) plus Eerika's tiredness due to a missed nap left me with no energy by the time Troy got home at 6. Maybe the fact that I hadn't gained weight in the past two weeks, I felt psychologically such a craving for chocolate so Troy just took the kids to Roadrunner for a chocolate run. That man knows how to deliver when it really counts. 

The Business of Growing a Baby

I had forgotten how exhausting growing a baby can be. I am up about three times a night to pee, so my sleep gets interrupted. When I do my daily walk in the evening before going to bed, even if it is just a mile, the next morning I feel like I ran a marathon the day before. That is a bit dramatic, but my body is truly is tired the next morning.

However, everything is going perfectly right now. As much as we can tell without seeing Little Ninja. I am measuring right and his heart beat is strong. 

I have felt quite stressed out about gaining weight since July. I gained seven pounds over four weeks, which I had done with the other two pregnancies as well, but this time Dr. Farias mentioned it. I think she just wanted to make sure that she was aware of anything that I might have noticed, swelling etc. However, it made me feel very self conscious and I have made a huge attempt to walk every day. I would say that I have been overly concerned (or even overly scared) about it and there are nights when I am tired but I think  "I will just walk for 15 minutes". 

So there was a sense of satisfaction when the scale today showed that my weight gain is very good right now.  It is vain. But it is the honest truth. Just because you know you are supposed to gain all this weight, doesn't make it easier. 

When people around you tell you "you are all belly" and "you look good", it does make a difference, because I had forgotten how long pregnancy is and it is hard to give up your body for all those months.  Of course, it is never all belly and other areas expand as well because walking will only keep you so in shape. The changes are worth it and I am grateful to feel this little boy moving around. And when I sit on the floor and try to play legos and I just cant get comfortable, I feel so blessed to have that tightness in my belly and the wiggling all the time. 

But really who likes to be weighted every two weeks? 

Saku and the rest of the Family's World With Kindergarten

It almost seems silly to say how much our life has changed since Saku started school. 

Troy used to go to work early on many mornings, as in he would be at work by 6 am. Now he is Saku's morning ride and doesn't get to work until closer to 8:30 am. 

Eerika is obviously by herself at home with me. I think she finds this just fine and enjoys the time together with me. She doesn't get full on naps on most days, but she is okay with it. She obviously spends more time in the car as we drove 20 minutes to the school and then back. Again, she is flexible so this hasn't been an issue.

Instead of using my kids as an alarm clock, now I have a legitimate alarm clock that goes off at 5:55 am each morning. I get up and make breakfast for the boys while they get ready for school. I have also had the luxury of taking DAILY naps with Eerika. And then I get to be the enforcer of homework, which most days is not a bad role.

Of course, the most dramatic change has been for Saku. He gets up by 6:15 each morning, which is a huge change from the sleeping in rhythm that he had prior to school. He would easily sleep until 8:30 am. 

His circle of friends has changed a bit since he spends most of his day at school and we don't necessarily have time for play dates in the afternoon. He is friendly at school and is liked by his class mates. When he went back to school yesterday after a sick day, he received hugs and happy greetings from his class mates. 

His play time is shorter, but I think he is getting used to it and okay with it. He needs to read 15 minutes each day, which isn't any different from our regular days as we read plenty each day. He is also getting faster doing his homework and I can get him to do two or three pages earlier in the week so he doesn't have to do work later in the week as much. 

Bedtime is about 8 pm. I wonder if it should be even earlier, but I want to make sure that he gets enough to time to play and spend with Troy as well. He falls asleep very quickly.  I dont know if I have recorded this, but Saku is great about going to sleep. He never gets out of bed.

Saku is starting to use more Chinese words at home. He will ask us questions such as  "are you [insert a chinese word] or "can you [insert a chinese word]? 

Saku and Troy at Zane's Scooby Doo Mystery Birthday party

Saku had a blast at Bryant's birthday party. He is such a fish that two hours of swimming with cool toys and new friends was awesome.

Saku loves to play games. It is a big boy activity that he gets to do with Troy and I. He is getting better about losing and Troy and I are making sure that he loses enough to realize that it is part of life.

Last week we were blessed with a cooler afternoon, so we made a pit stop at the skate park by the school. Even if the cooler weather, we had bright red cheeks within half an hour so we headed home to enjoy air conditioning.

I think I am starting to adjust to school. Kindergarten is no joke:)

What you learn about your child when they go to school

Saku is the one going to school, but Troy and I are learning some things as well. Yesterday we received the first progress report. I will admit that I think that Saku is very bright boy and I would expect him to excel in school. And it doesn't help that many other adults comment on how smart he is as well. I also admit that I was a competitive student from early on, as in elementary school my teacher told me that "school wasn't a competition" as I would do extra homework...

So on his first progress report, Saku got "2" (approaches) on "knows all his alphabets" and I thought that this was off as he knows his alphabet. BUT I did not want to be the parent who freaks out about one little thing. Yet I felt a bit of concern whether the teacher was aware of Saku's abilities and I wanted to have an understanding of how he is tested. 

As Troy dropped Saku off this morning, he talked with Mrs. Bohnsack and she explained how Saku had mistaken lower case "b" to lower case "d" and called "p" a "q". And if the student misses one, then they are graded as a "2". Also she showed Troy how he had missed many of the sight words as he was tested with, such as "can, a, and," which really should be easy for him.  It is nice to have an understanding how things work, and it is also good to have an awareness that Saku gets intimated when he is put on the spot and needs to answer questions.  And we know that the teacher is aware of Saku and his abilities and she had also been surprised by the lack of reading of the sight words.

Selfishly, and also unselfishly for Saku's sake, I want others to see his abilities and I want him to succeed. And I am aware that one progress report in KINDERGARTEN does not define anything, but it was a good starting point to make sure that we help Saku figure out a way to show what he knows. 

The other things that we are learning about him at school is that he gets frequent nose bleeds and he falls over a lot. His teacher asked me he trips at home a lot. And the answer is that he doesn't. This is our child who learned to walk at 9 months and is very coordinated and nimble. We will try wearing his tennis shoes more to see if it is his sandals that bug him. He has also been to the nurse several times for random things. Some days it takes him few minutes to come out of the class room as he is giving his friends hugs as a good bye. 

It is a weird transition when you suddenly don't know what is going on with your kid all the time and need to explain random things or asks questions about other things. 

I am very happy with Saku's teachers and he likes them a lot so I feel good about his situation at school, but I sure would like to be a fly on the wall to know more about everything. Because a 5 year old can only tell you so much what is going on in the class room. 

He has made good friends at school and school is overall a positive experience him. Zane is his buddy and they seem to stick together during lunch and recess. He tends to not finish all his work in class and has had to stay inside for recess for few times. He is very meticulous about his work, as stated by his teacher, so he takes a long time to get things done. 

This week has been less emotional for him. I am very grateful for that. He does state "But I was gone all day" if Eerika seems to have get a preferential treatment with playing such as 10 minutes of playing time with me while Saku wants to play with me as well. 

He seems like to like the Chinese aspect. On Monday he was in the bathroom and asked me "are you [insert an incomprehensible word]? So I said  "what?" and this happened three times until I just asked him to come to the kitchen because I could not understand him. It turned out that he was asking me if I was a frog, by using the Chinese word for frog. So I literally could not understand him. He also suggested a Chinese name for Little Ninja and said that he could teach Little Ninja Chinese. 

I still wrestle with the question whether this Chinese and all day Kindergarten is the best thing, yet it does feel right so I just need to express my doubts and fears to Troy and enjoy this year as we are committed to it. 

Eerika's First Day of School

 We had plans to do joy school with Eerika this year. She has been participating in Saku's joy school for the past two years whenever I was the teacher, so she was ready for her own joy school. We started with possibly 12 students, which would have resulted in two groups. However, in the beginning of July we were down to two kids: Eerika and Brad.  So obviously joy school did not happen. Instead, we planned once a week "organized play group" where the mom in charge could do whatever she wanted with the kids.

Eerika's first day was at Brad's house. They are best of friends. Eerika plans on marrying him, so it was a very easy drop off for her. I had a doctor's appointment that day so she got to stay for an extra hour and took her lunch box with her, which made the whole day even more exciting.

When I taught few weeks later, our two hours consisted of reading two books, glueing circles to make them look like balloons and talking about how B is for balloon. We also had a snack, did the bean bag song and played puzzles. There was also plenty of free time play, which was quite loud with four three year-old boys and Eerika. 

The group is Eerika, Mitt, Carter, Zyon, Brad and Amber. But Amber was out of town that my week of "teaching". It was definitely more laid back than teaching joy school. And Eerika can totally point out a B and tell us what words start with a B so she, at least, learned something:)

Opposition in All Things

If yesterday hadn't been such a rough day emotionally, I probably would not have appreciated and marveled at how fabulous today was. 

Eerika got to feed the giraffes and enjoy a close encounter with an elephant. We treated my low iron levels with a delicious burger from Monkey Burger for lunch. It was so good and big that I couldn't eat dinner tonight. 

The kids played happily together from the moment that we got home. Saku had minimal amount of tiredness induced whining. Homework got done quickly. We read books like we used to when we had all the time in the world. The kids played in the rain. They sang together. They pretended together. We had a low key meal because Troy wasn't home and it was nice to not spend the time cooking or cleaning after dinner. We had time to build with legos. The kids brushed their teeth after I only asked once. Saku read part of our bed time story from Magic Tree House book.

As I sang to the kids, Eerika fell asleep first! And as I whispered a thank you in Saku's ear for the fabulous day. He said "thanks for being so kind today". The love in that room was so overwhelming. I am thankful for that. 

"Peace on Earth" is playing in their room as Saku wanted to listen to a song about Jesus as he fell asleep. And tonight there is peace in this house and gratitude.

Good thing Mondays like This only Come Few times a Year

I woke up this morning after a great night of sleep, though it was full of weird dreams, and happily rolled over to see Troy, who had also a great night of sleep. Little Ninja was already starting the day with lots of kicking which was fun. He especially likes to move around when I am on my side. At 6:05, it was time to get up so I weighted my side and happily noted that my weight gain under control. I got dressed and made Saku's lunch.

The morning routine of Saku's shower, eating breakfast and heading out of the door went smoothly until he asked if Eerika was going to joy school today. No, today wasn't Eerika's joy school day which made her sad. And the fact that Eerika got to stay home all day and play and Saku does not get to stay home made him sad. 

Saku and Troy loaded into Troy's new SWEET volvo and off they went. Saku had a very sad face as they drove off and we waved and said "I love you" and Eerika said "I love you more".

And the case of Mondays came. I felt a bit weak. Probably due to my low iron. I felt unmotivated. I felt lazy. And I felt bad that I was starting the week with such a "blah" attitude. 

We accomplished two loads of laundry. We painted our nails. Eerika painted mine; left one was quite impressive for a three year old and the right one was what you would expect. We read books in hopes that I would feel a bit better physically.

The fact that I suggested Peg+Cat to Eerika at 9:45 am shows that I was in a desperate need of something. I am not sure what it was. I read my book on the couch while she watched her show. It didn't really cure my situation. But I was able to continue the morning.

The rest of the morning was uneventful and I apologized to Eerika for being so tired today. She is such a happy girl and such a little trooper. We snuggled into our nap when the time came.

Saku got picked up. He had a "excellent day" as he joyfully proclaimed it. But on the way home, the whining and pickering started. It really has been an adjustment to the school schedule of Saku being gone. Then he needs his own space when he comes home. Eerika wants to play with him. Eerika can be a bit rough with her affection. Saku can be very sensitive with his reactions. He is tired and wants to play, but there is a bit of home work to be done.

So I listened to "Family is Of God" a lot as I prepared the dinner. Which took forever when you are boiling lasagna noodles. I am having lots of Braxton Hicks but the feeling of tiredness is gone. 

The fact that today was such a rough day really is a testament that most of my days are so great and I am so blessed that I don't have many of these days.  

Tonight's family home evening will be focused on family and how Heavenly Father wants to treat each other. 

It is an adjustment that the kids have just played happily upstairs for the past hour. It is a good thing. It shows that they are growing up. But it is an adjustment to not have my boy around all day. But at least Eerika tells me about 10 times a day that she loves me. I guess each kid is a "bit easier" at different stages and I am glad that Eerika has mostly smooth sailing while we are weathering the storms with Saku.

But he likes school so that is a victory and a blessing.

A Week in Wyoming

As we drove away from Snake River, Wyoming Saku cried for good 30 minutes. It was sniffling rather than wailing but it showed how sad he was about the fact that he wasn't going to river rafting the next day. And he could watch the videos of rafting for hours. He loves to talk about the different rapids and said that he wishes he had a time machine that would make him six and he could be back in Wyoming again rafting. 

For the past eight years Troy’s family has gone to Snake River, Wyoming to camp and raft down the river. We have come four years, including this year. There were years when we spent all of Troy’s vacation time in Finland or a year when Troy switched jobs right in the end of July.

Troy loves being in Wyoming and going down the river. For me, the rafting is like skiing. When I do it, I like it, but I don’t get super excited or feel the need to do it. And I have to say that I am scared of the possibility of falling into the river. Troy took two falls into the river and it was enough for me to feel slightly panicky. 

The positive side of going down the river is that you get soaking wet and you feel as if you had taken a shower, so the week without a shower didn't leave us too stinky.  And I did go down the river three times and even paddled once.  Saku did one "trial run" and two full runs down the river and he loved it and thankfully, he stayed in the raft each time. Eerika got to float down for 10 minutes, and though she didn't really get upset that that was all she got, she was aware that she didn't get to do the whole rafting thing. She was happy to play with Cambree at the camp site.

Troy went on two bike rides in the canyon 20+ miler and 30+ miler.  I love the fact that he has his bike and he gets the feeling of accomplishment of doing this hard bike rides. I had big plans of walking every day, but ended up only doing two walks. On the other hand, I ate about 4 cookies each day. And Troy’s family had a good cooking set up so we are eating delicious camping meals. I ate too much. Way too much. However, Troy graciously said to me “who cares if you gain 50 pounds, you will be back in shape and running marathons soon”.  I love that man.

We had a great size tent and the kids were awesome about sleeping, but I slept miserably. An air mattress and a big belly didn't  work well or the fact that I really needed to pee in the middle of the night but climbing out of a tent to pee is not fun. Fortunately we went to bed before 10 with the kids and slept until 7:30sh so I got more quantity sleep even if the quality was lacking.

After a week in the woods, we had to get cleaned up and we headed to California for Patrick's wedding. 

Out of Eerika's Mouth

“Do you want to call me princess because I am so beautiful”

“No I want to call you Eerika”

“Ok that’s fine”

As we were going on a walk in Wyoming, I said to Eerika "thanks for coming with us".

Eerika: "I know you didn't want to be by yourselves".

Troy and I had planned to go on a walk by ourselves, but miss Eerika woke up when  I woke up, so it ended up being a walk with the three of us.

After Eerika's nap, I always ask if she had good dreams.

Today she responded with "about ice cream and you".

Nurturing babies

Over the past three days, Eerika has literally become obsessed in taking care of her babies. We have changed diapers, thanks to two cloth diapers that she found in her closet. We have whispered so her baby could sleep. Eerika believes in co-sleeping and snuggles the baby for naps and during the night. We have listened the baby cry and Eerika has reminded us that isi doesn't like crying babies.

I have held the baby through few meals so Eerika could eat. This morning Miia said in the bumbo while Eerika ate and I read books to both of them.

Her baby has come to pick up Saku from school and was in a proper car seat. 

I am not sure where this sudden nurturing has come but it is pretty amazing to watch her take care of her baby. She might get over it in two more days, but for now, there is a little äiti in the house who takes a very good care of her baby. I also like the fact that is all her own doing. We haven't pushed any "girl toys" on her and have been happy when most of her days are spent battling bad guys, but there is a definite sweetness to this new found love of dolls and babies.

Waking up and ready to love her baby right away. Maybe I am modeling something right...

We started our morning with snuggles and books. All three of us.

This will be a common scene in our house in six months, so hopefully Eerika's baby will be willing to share with little ninja.

Satisfied smile after her baby was safely buckled up.

Concentrating while buckling her baby in the car seat.

25 weeks pregnant

I feel like I have been pregnant for a long time and I still have ways to go. People often ask me when I am due, and I feel a bit self-conscious when I say November because I feel like I am big already and I just wonder how much more I will grow. Of course I know how big I was with Saku and Eerika's pregnancy but who knows.

Now I am not upset that I am not. It just has been few years since I have done this much growing in the belly section so it surprises me that I can't see my toes anymore. However, I feel like I am being active and healthy so I guess I will just let the belly keep growing.

I feel great though. And it doesn't hurt that I have been able to start taking little 30 minute "girls' naps" with Eerika each day. I hope she continues to nap forever. And that little ninja will nap at the same time. I obviously haven't had a newborn in the house for a long time since I wish for such things as naps matching up.

Few months ago, Hilary generously let me borrow her maternity clothes. I opened the box and it was as if I walked into a maternity heaven. There were so many shirts and pants. So I haven't had to wear the same thing over and over again. 

I wore heels to church last Sunday. Maybe it is the pregnancy or maybe it is my new calling as a primary secretary and the fact I walk around for the last two hours of church but I decided that I can't wear heels anymore. My feet were hurting way too much by end of the church.

Blooming

Miss Eerika has really bloomed since Saku started school. Maybe it is the extra attention and time that she gets. Maybe it is the fact that she is big kid in the house now during the day and gets to choose most of our activities. 

She has become much more social. She is slower to warm up to people. But now I have watched her strike up a conversation with a random mom at the hot tub and playing games with a girl and her dad at the library.  It felt even better as I could hear the dad pronouncing her name correctly. 

I also feel that her vocabulary has expanded. Or maybe I just really listen to her more now that she is the only one talking to me during the day. 

So here is Eerika in a nut shell.

When you ask her how old she is, she will answer "three and a half".

She loves to go and pick up Saku from school. She also loves it when we have surprises for him after school such a trip to McDonalds for ice cream or a donut. 

She is a water monster. She is very close to swimming all on her own. She loves to swim. It is completely a different girl in the pool than she was in the beginning of the summer. 

She still naps daily, though she can skip it if needed. She is very adaptable girl. I can have her nap for 20 minutes and then wake her up and she will be just fine. Or she can nap for few hours and be even better.  Her nap routine is the same every day: one princess story and one knight story, then I make up a song and then sing real songs until she falls asleep. 

She wants to sleep on our floor every night. Bed time is a bit struggle. She doesn't cry or throw temper tantrums but she keeps getting out of bed and wanting to come to our bedroom. If I promise that she can sleep on our floor after we go to sleep, she usually settles down and "keeps her promise" as she says, which means that she stays in her room.

Her favorite friends are Amber, Brad, Ella and Julia. Yesterday she told Troy that "I wish that Amber, Ella and Julia were my sisters. I like them so much."

She HATES getting her hair done. This is probably the most contentious part of our day when I decide to fight that battle. Also washing or conditioning her hair in the shower is a cause for major tears!

We had her speech evaluated, very casually and unofficially, while we were in San Diego and the verdict was that her speech was fine. I haven't really worried much but I don't worry about those kind of things much so it was good to know that my "not worrying" had been the right thing.

Our days without Saku are very different yet much the same. We read books. We play bad and good guys. We go for a swim. 

Flattery at Bedtime

Since Eerika still naps, bed time has become a bit more challenging. She isn't quite ready for bed by 7:30 pm when we want to have the lights out for Saku. And at the moment, Saku's sleep is a priority with his long school days and his sensitive personality and need for sleep.

So on most nights, Eerika is up for a good hour after she goes to bed. She quietly rearranges things in their bedroom and ends up sleeping on the floor on most night. She prefers it over her on bed. 

Tonight Saku is snoring and Eerika is up. She came downstairs once and then sort of weepily explained to me that "I dont want to sleep with a boy like Saku, I want to sleep in the same room with a cute girl like you". The girl does have the brain to try to use flattery to get her way.

Last night as we arrived home from Phoenix at 9:30, I just wanted everyone, including Troy and myself, to fall asleep as promptly as possible so I let her sleep on our floor and she was asleep within minutes. And I have no problem with her coming to our room in the middle of the night but I do want to have my "own time" before my bedtime at 10 pm and I don't want her to be up that late.

She has been such a champion about Saku's school schedule and the fact that I often transfer her from the bed to the carseat and she keeps sleeping so she gets an hour or an hour and a half nap. 

Today was Saku's first full immersion day as we were out of town last week when the rest of the class started, when I asked how listening to Chinese all morning was he responded "tiring". 

I am in heaven sleeping in my own bed after a week of camping. This belly was just too big to be comfortable with.