Mighty MIio at 7 months

Miio turned seven months! He is a delightful and happy baby. He has two teeth and wears size three diaper. We finally went to the doctor and he is 17 lbs and 6 oz. I can't remember his length or head circumference. 

He sits on his own well and plays with toys. He does not crawl, but he will get on his knees and rock for a bit. I just dont think he gets much tummy time. He does move around in his crib a ton as he sleeps or as he is trying to settle him self down or when he is upset. 

He has a cold again with a nasty cough so last night was a rough one. BUT we have finally had some good nights when he would only be up once or twice. This is huge.  

He continues to nap three times on most days, but sometimes he only naps twice.  He continues to be very good napper and flexible. 

He prefers me. If he sees me, he wants me. 

We have started doing more baths as he will sit in the bath tub and even splash a bit.   

I was a bit annoyed that Saku crashed this "photoshoot" but then I realized what a blessing it is that the kids love Miio and want to be part of the excitement and taking care of him. 

Christmas Eve 2017

Christmas Eve was a happy one over here. We went to church in new Christmas outfits made by Grandma.  Aleksi's smiles are so precious and so is his four piece suit. Miio rocked his velvet pants and all boys, including Troy, had nice hair cuts. 

We had a delicious Christmas Even dinner with ham, salmon, pasteija and lihaliemi plus a big salad bar and rolls.  The kids had pasteija and then were ready to play and run around. Aleksi and Eerika played well and Eerika has made about 20 presents for everyone. It is nice to see her excitement about giving presents. 

Saku and Eerika are still up at 10:45 pm. They are very excited. They are sleeping in our room and we had the little Christmas tree all lit up. 

We opened pajamas tonight and read the nativity story. I shared my testimony of the realness of Jesus Christ. 

We facetimed with Grandpa to wish him happy birthday. 

We played Ticket to Ride Rails and Sails, which was quite the complex version of Ticket to Ride. Mio won the game.  We held babies while we played. Miio isn't feeling super great so he is a bit more needy and isn't eating very well. 

Aino is here

It is 10:55 and I have been up way too late for the past three or four days. I just wanted to write down few of my thoughts. 

Aino came on Tuesday night. I am so happy to have her. It is so easy to be with her. It is easy to take care of each other's kids. Poor Emil is sick which has been stressful on top of adjusting to jet lag. But Aino handles it all so well. Emil fell asleep on my chest the other night while Aino was eating dinner and it made me so happy to be able to help her out. I feels good to take care of her.

My kids have loved having Aino here. Aleksi keeps calling Emil "Miio's cousin". Miio and Emil squel at each other. Emil is almost walking. Miio just sits there but he is stable with his sitting. 

Wonder-movie Experience

While we were in Phoenix, we went to see Wonder in the theater. And of course, Grandma spoiled all the kids with their own slurpees and popcorn trays. The movie was so good and my kids seemed to understand it. It made me think of my own parenting and how to individualize things. Saku later made a comment to Troy how much he enjoyed the movie. I think I will want to watch it again with them once it comes on DVD.  Miio woke up right when the movie started so it made a bit less enjoyable as I had to keep him unhappy. However, he wasn't unhappy and we were all able to watch the movie so that's a win!

Vail and Beaver Creek Ski Trip

Saku and Eerika had some american airlines miles that were about to expire, so I found us a hotel in Avon, which is near Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts and we had an early ski trip for three days and two nights. In fact, it was such an early trip that there was barely any snow and only few runs were open. However, we had a fantastic trip. Yes the snow was not great, but we felt this sense of togetherness and adventure and it is quite priceless.

Saku and Eerika made thank you notes for the hotel and delivered them to the front desk.

Aleksi actually did some skiing and loved it. I should clarify that he loved it on the second day of skiing. The first day, he had a lot of tears because it was cold and skiing is hard. But the second day, he was all smiles and even joked with Troy "remember when I cried yesterday". 

Saku and Eerika are such good skiers. Saku received compliments for his helmet. Eerika skied a black diamond. I love Eerika's confidence on the slopes. I love that I saw Eerika struggle to ski on the flat part and I saw Saku push her along as he has poles and it is easier for him to move. Eerika is wearing Saku's snowsuit as both kids outgrew theirs, and I think she rocks it. 

We enjoyed freshly baked cookies at the lifts at 3 pm at Beaver Creek and then at 4 pm we were treated with smores. We got the fancy experience without paying for it.  

Our hotel room worked great as it had kitchen and we didn't have to eat out for most meals. The kids got to watch TV in the morning. We went to the hot tub. We played in the game room upstairs.

The only draw back was the fact that all the big kids had to sleep in one bed and Miio got cold at night in his pack-n-play so our second night of sleep was pretty crappy.  We ended up actually putting Miio in his car seat. Troy said it was an inspiration after he prayed.

Aleksi and I hung out at the Vail library on two different days to keep us warm. Aleksi also threw snowballs at a wall and just played in the snow for a good 30 minutes. Then we took the free bus around the Vail village to keep us warm and check out the sights. 

Our hotel was about 10 minutes bus ride away from the slopes. On the first full day, I went to wait at the bus stop and one bus stopped to ask where I was going, I informed him and he said I had missed the bus but he would take me to the right bus. He called on the radio to the other bus driver and that bus waited for me at the transfer station. It was so incredibly nice.

Miio was obviously a hit. We got many compliments for our cute family and Miio was happy in spite of the cold weather. 

The third day I was quite the sight as I had Miio sleeping his car seat, Aleksi and his skis to get to the mountain. 

I nursed Miio outside while others were drinking their beers. We ate our own lunch at the lodge and no one complained. We hung out by the fire to keep us warm.

We stopped at Cafe Rio to eat dinner on our way home and barely encountered any traffic. And we accidentally didn't get charged for one of our pork salads and when we mentioned it to them, they told us not to worry about it. It was awesome.

And then it was awesome to come home and not have kids sleeping in our room!

Aleksi quotes

"I hate pajamas" when it was time to go to bed tonight. The other day he was unhappy and we were driving by the fountain in our neighborhood and he said in a cranky voice "I hate fountains".

I came up with the idea of doing family costume of Snow White with Eerika as Snow white, Troy as the hunstman, I would be the wicked queen and the two little boys would be some of the dwarfs. Aleksi told me, he would be "the dork". 

When he is upset and you give him different options, he crankily answers "noffing."

He often tells me, "I love Miio". 

He loves to sing the spider man theme song. 

He loves to sing the ABCs. 

He likes to tell "I am three like Jaxon and Anders".  "I am bigger than Miio". 

He also loves to race you and yell "I win".

Miio at 6 months

Miio is six months today. If I had to use one word to describe him, I would choose DELICIOUS. He has the sweetest smiles and gives them all the time to everyone around him. He is so drooly. And he loves all the food we have given him so far. 

He can almost sit on his own. I sit straddled behind him and put a basket of toys in front of him and he can entertain himself for a while. He does like to fall back on my lap and give me a huge smile.  

He has two teeth. I believe he is our first baby to get his teeth so early. He loves to sink them into my fingers. 

He wears 6-9 month clothes and size three diapers. 

Miio hates the bottle when we have tried giving him formula. He did take some apple juice from it. We have not tried breastmilk yet.  It would be nice to have the flexibility of him taking the bottle so I could be gone for a feeding here or there. 

Aleksi is in Miio's face all the time. It is all out of love but sometimes I do need to tell him to back off as Miio is happier without someone right in his face. 

He takes two to three naps a day. He falls asleep on his own about 50% of the time, and the other half, he likes me to rub his back while he falls asleep. 

The sleeping through the night is still elusive dream. I keep hoping for it.  We are up twice on average night, once on a good night and three times on a crappy night.  He does not need to eat at night but sometimes it really is easier to feed him for 10 minutes and go right back to sleep. 

I keep thinking that sleep training is in our near future. However, he had a cold, and now we are traveling so it didn't seem to make sense to train before we settle down after Thanksgiving. But in reality, there is always something new going on with babies so I wonder if there will ever be a good time. 

Miio at 5 months

I am writing this as Miio is four days shy of 5 months. Things seems so much more manageable. 

He has gotten over the habit of waking up 45 minutes after he goes to sleep. This is such a blessing. This way all the kids can be in bed before he wakes up and usually I can just feed him and he goes back to sleep. He is still up twice a night, but I am pretty sure he only woke up once at 3:45 last night. If this is true, it is the longest he has slept.

I kind of hate that I always start with the update on sleep, but I have to be honest to say what a huge impact that has on everything.

He wears size two diapers during the day and size three at night. We still have poop coming out on most mornings. So I have a pile of pajamas that I wash once a week since they need some extra TLC to get to stains out. 

He rolls over all the time now, which means he has started sleeping on his tummy. I think this has helped him sleep better. He has a cold and still slept okay last night so I am hoping that once the cold is done, he will sleep better and better. 

He will roll over when he is laying on the ground  and "playing" . He doesnt love being on his tummy for extended period of time, though.  And he will also move around in circles as he moves his little body around. 

Miio eats every four hours or so. Sometimes I get a bit more flexible about it depending on the activities of the day. He is still nursing exclusively except for the one bottle of formula I tried last month.

He definitely likes me the best. He also likes it when Eerika rolls her "R"s.  He is very good at dealing with Aleksi's bugging. 

He takes three naps a day. He falls asleep so easily in his car seat with white noise. Makes our life so much easier. He also falls asleep on his for his naps. If he is super overtired and fussing a lot, I might nurse him to sleep to help him go down but this happens only once in a while. 

He takes tutti and loves to grind his gums on it. He can now also put it into his mouth, especially with the little elephant attached to it. Sometimes we can see him trying to get the tutti in his mouth by wiggling himself around the crib. 

He drools a lot, but for once, I am good at putting bibs on him. 

He is ticklish. He gives huge smiles when I kiss his neck or pretend to eat him. 

He likes to reach for his toes and hold them, and pull on his socks. 

People have commented that Miio has Troy's eyes. He barely has hair and his eyes are still blue. 

Growing Pains

Tonight Eerika and I had a good conversation about the difficulty of friendships and being who you are. She was sad because her friends had told her that they were bigger because their parents didn't come to their bedroom to sing a song and say a prayer with them. And a boy had called her "boyish girl" because she likes pokemon. Already at six, it is very hard to not want to try to fit in. She mentioned how she wanted to just say prayers by herself because she wanted to be big girl. And the other day, she wanted to be fashionable and cool with sunglasses so I talked to her about the importance of doing what YOU want to do and that is cool. 

I wish I could be better example of doing what I want to do and being who I want to be and not worry about what is cool. That is why I'm so grateful for friends like Starla, Heather, Missie and Natalie who always make me feel good about the person who I am. 

So I will be praying and trying to find answers to how to instill this confidence in Eerika that she will be proud to like Pokemon, do her own hair, want to dig at the playground and mud, sing Hamilton songs, loving writing notes and lists, not really liking barbies, dreaming of having a pet, climbing trees, wanting to play with friends all the time, truly striving to be kind at all times but having conflict of wanting to be right and in charge at the same time. 

It was a very sweet moment when Saku asked Eerika tonight "can I give you a hug" and then he said "you are awesome just the way you are". 

Our Sunday Bests

On  Saturday I took the kids to garage sales in Cordera. I was hoping to find a dresser for Miio. We showed up before 8 am when the sales started. We ended up at house of a family who used to be in our ward. Each kid found a fun toy there and I found bunch of clothes for 15 dollars. Three dresses, one skirt (picture below) and three shirts.  

I also got Eerika a new dress, tights and a denim jacket for five dollars. 

Morning snuggles with Saku and Miio. 

Eerika is back to wearing her glasses every day. She is determined to be herself. And it really is a wonderful thing. 

  "Your lips are so red" Eerika said:)

I was so tired on Sunday that we turned on a movie. Saku said "We shouldnt do that on the Sabbath" and I responded that Heavenly Father would understand the need for me to get a little break. 

We had the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. The kids spoke their parts clearly and Saku's solo was beautiful. Maelle's family came to watch it and Maelle stayed for Primary. 

Miio at 4 months

Honestly I was a bit worried about Miio reaching four months as each of my babies have hit a rough patch with sleep and Troy was going to be gone. 

Sure enough, Miio had the worst sleep for the first two weeks Troy was gone. I did transition him into the crib and maybe that changed things but there were nights when I was up almost every hour and cried at 2 am as I was worried how I would get through the next day.

Ironically, he also learned to fall asleep on his own. One day I just laid him down when he was making noise but not crying and fell asleep on his own. So now he falls asleep on his own regularly which has made my life so much easier. I can't figure out why he has a hard time staying asleep and sleeping well at night when he naps so well. 

I did finally start unswaddling him. I am not sure if it has made difference for good or for bad. 

He has started taking three naps and I try to space his feedings four hours apart. Scheduling is tricky with our evenings being very busy but he really does go along really well. 

He found his toes and started getting interested in toys. Missie gave us bunch of toys as I had somehow gotten rid of our old ones. 

Aleksi loves him. So much. He loves to lay on him and smother him and poke his nose. 

Last 2.5 weeks have been exhausting but Miio is truly a sweet ray of sunshine. Troy makes comments how content he is as we face time. It is crazy how much Miio has changed in the last few weeks. 

He poops every morning and has a blow out pretty much every morning. I even put him on size three diaper but somehow we are always leaking poop. He does well at Villa Kids which is nice. 

He loves to gnaw on things. He takes the tutti and it helps out a lot when he gets more tired. 

Miio seems to get this look on his face when I put the camera in front of him. Now he also tries to eat it.

Camping baby

Sometimes I leave his arms unswaddled but I am not committed to anything yet since our sleep has been so up and down at night. I actually woke him up from his nap so I could go to a gym class, but he had been sleeping for 2 + hours so I felt like it was okay.

It is so fun to see him grab things. He cant really hold on to things well yet but toys do entertain him for a while which is nice. 

Aleksi loves loves loves Miio. It is fun to have these two brothers at home together while Saku and Eerika are at school. Few people have made a comment on how Miio looks more like Troy than the other kids. 

As I look at these pictures of Miio, I feel so humbled and blessed to have him in our home. Yes I am way beyond exhausted right now and at 7 pm, I am so ready to be done being a parent but those eyes looking at me and the sweet smiles remind me what a blessing it is to be aiti.