Mud Cakes for Anyone??

Saku loves drawing and eating crayons, so we opted to let him use pens instead. Saku is clean for about 5 minutes in the morning and then the constant hand washing, face wiping and clothes changing begins.

I chatted with Mio for few minutes on gmail's chat and being the good brother that he is, he asked "how's your day?" So I gave him a quick summary of the ordinary things that had happened so far. However, I think the beauty of life, especially with kids, is that ordinary things often become fun and exciting.

Today started off at 7 am (for me at least, Troy was up way before then). I went to get Saku and we ate breakfast: bananas, strawberries, delicious bread from Sunflower Market. After breakfast, I showered while Saku was entertained with some Baby Einstein. Baby Einstein is our official "shower entertainment".

Then we were off to see Dr. Farias and hear the delightful, fast heartbeat of the baby. Everything is going well. I am "finally gaining some weight" as Dr. Farias put it. And we have a ultrasound date in three weeks:)

I have adopted another job; I am Troy's school bus. In order to save time and money with parking, Saku and I take Troy to school every day. While Troy was getting smarter by the minute, we went to the Running Store and bought a running skirt with my birthday gift certificate and picked up a few things from Albertsons . It is great to see Troy in the middle of the day, but I do have a strong dislike for the crowds on U of A campus and navigating the car among all the pedestrians.

Our family portrait the other night--blurry picture, but happy family!

After school, Saku and I both took naps. Then it was time for some outside play. Apparently, it had rained while we were napping so the side of our house had an abundance of mud for Saku to play with.

It took a while to get all the mud off, but I think Saku would agree that it was so worth it.

In all honesty, I would be a little more excited if this baby is a girl. However, a life with a boy is so much fun that it really is a win-win situation:)

14 months!!

A quick update on our little rascal. Life has not slowed down in our home at all. As one of my friends perfectly put it "he keeps you on your toes all the time, huh?". Yes! He is so quick to run from place to place that I can't take my eyes off him for a second when we are in public. He has finally figured out how to climb on things, which obviously is another safety hazard. Fortunately, I have learned to be pretty laid back. It's funny how much you change as a mom as your baby grows. I used to worry about every little thing and now I can relax and enjoy motherhood so much more.

Saku still doesn't say words, but he signs a lot of them. His "vocabulary" consist of

-please, thank you, more, all done, help, dad, baby, sleep, water, milk and sometimes he even signs "friends".

He has acquired two molars on the top and two are coming in on the bottom.

He is still very attached to his binky. I'm not sure when he or we will be ready to give it up.

He can be smiling one minute and then for some very logical and rational reason, he starts looking like this...

and proceeds to act something like this.

Happy to be taking a shower. He is still as charming as ever. He loves to "perform" for people and has learned to notice when people think he is funny or cute.

While I love having a clean and organized home, I have never been obsessed over it. This is a fabulous thing since everything seems to find its way to the floor and different corners and rooms in the house. As long as my house looks "perfect" a few days a week, I am happy.

Saku is showing off his big boy skills of eating cheerios with milk on his own.

Saku is a great eater. He eats almost anything if he isn't too busy playing. He loves dipping french fries into ketchup. Yes, we are fabulous parents and let him eat them every once in a while.

As I said before, Saku barely ever sits still, but we wouldn't want him any other way, except on Sundays:)

Happy Six Months To Me!!

Yesterday marked the end of my six month probationary period at UMC aka I have worked there for six months. This is exciting for two reasons. First and foremost, now I can use my PTO. I have never had a job with paid time off. I can't wait to take my first vacation in September and get a pay check when I am NOT at work. Oh the small joys of life. Also, UMC has a rule that if you quit or are fired before six months is over, you are labeled as "non-rehireable", which obviously would not be a good label to have. There was a time period where I was seriously counting down days until I would reach the six month mark, because I thought that I would have to quit because of my physical and emotional condition at the moment. Fortunately, I survived it and I am doing well.

Last six months have been adventure. There were few months that I really struggled. The last month or so, I feel like I have finally become a nurse. Don't get me wrong. I was practicing perfectly safely before. I get along with most of my patients really well. I haven't had any problems, but for few months, you almost feel like you are playing a nurse even though you are qualified for the job. This past week, I had to go and work at another unit, which is a step down cardiac unit and I survived it. Strange unit, with strange people and different drugs and patient history and I got compliments from the manager for being such a competent new nurse. This is huge for me since I am always questioning my abilities as a nurse. Yeah, I am a little bit hard on myself.

Things I have loved about the last six months

-trip to New York and having Anna with us

-doing the Ragnar and sharing this experience with fabulous friends

-having dad stay with us and take care of Saku

-having Barb and Makayla stay with us and take care of Saku

-finding out that we will have another baby--and then finally being free of nausea after 12 weeks

-learning to trust myself as a nurse and gain more knowledge

-realizing that while I question my skills as a nurse, I am blessed with a knowledge and assurance that I am a good mom, so I don't stress over that

-new friendships that I have developed and an old friendships that have been strengthened

-trips to San Diego and Wyoming

-finding out that baby#2 will have at least three friends and a cousin born within a month or so of my due date

Things I wish I could have skipped

-being really down and sick for two months

-crying and driving Troy crazy with my worries and doubts about work

-Saku's new hobby of throwing lovely tempter tantrums. What should I do about them??

-working three nights in a row and going to church afterwards and feeling like I was dying a slow death

I am looking forward to the next six months. It will be Troy's last semester of school. I will most likely(99.9% sure) quit working and return to being home. It will be fall and winter time so Tucson will gain some of our love again. Being part of Amanda's wedding party with Christina and Megan. I have never been a bride's maid before. We will celebrate our 5 year anniversary and Troy's 30th birthday. I will gain 25+ pounds. Wait, I am not looking forward to that!

We asked Saku where the baby is and he ran excitedly to put his hands on my belly. Sorry, I know my shorts are kind of short.

First belly picture of this pregnancy. Saku and I ran two miles this morning. They were two slow miles, but as long as baby momma is running, I am happy:) I don't think I can keep running for that many more months, because we all know that this belly will be a big belly.

My belly at 16 weeks 2 days

What are your highs or lows of the past 6 months or the next 6 months to come? Is it a growing belly or shrinking belly? Traveling or finally able to stay home? Learning a new skill, starting a new job or training for something new? Share your excitement since it sure is makes life better to share our joys with friends.

Special thanks to my friends Camry, Camille, Lili, Kat, Lauren, Alia and Becky who watched Saku when I had to work during the day. Thanks to Starla for letting me vent about work. Thanks to our families for their support and prayers. Huge thank you to Troy for being so amazing, so loving and understanding.He always believes in me and supports me. Thanks to Saku for being so fun and adorable that staying up for hours doesn't as bad when he is my buddy. And thanks for everyone's supportive comments.

"The Gymnastics Dream"

For several years, I did gymnastics. I should probably say that I breathed, ate and slept gymnastics. It was pretty much a way of life in our home for several years. Anna started it two years before I did, then I joined and Aino did as well. My mom did some work for the club and the Finnish gymnastics federation, so really I am not being dramatic when I say that gymnastics ruled our life.

I wish I could say that these years of practicing 20 hours a week made a better, stronger person and that I learned valuable lessons in life. In reality, I did not like gymnastics very much. I was pretty good at it. All of us three girls at some point were part of the Finnish National Team, but I just never loved the sport. Fortunately, when I was doing a handstand on the high bar, I fell down and broke my left ankle's ligament. I had to have a surgery. We moved to U.S and I decided to change sports from gymnastics to track. This sounds simple, but it was quite the ordeal to leave the gymnastics world behind and start something new. And I loved track. It was my sport, but that's whole another story.

Every once in a while, I have dreams about gymnastics. The other night was one of them. I am at one of the competitions(as my current self, though I wasn't pregnant in a dream), I have some sparkly leotard one and I am supposed to start my beam exercise and I know that there is no way I can do anything on that high, skinny apparatus. In my dreams, I never end up doing the exercise, I just always wait for my turn in terror and think "this will be so bad. I will embarrass myself and probably kill myself if I try to do anything".

I hate these dreams, because they make me feel so restless. I wonder if they come when I am nervous about something else and the gymnastics represents the fears or insecurities that I have. I also have lots of dreams when I am being chased by bad people. I call these my "24 dreams" after the TV show. Again, the bad people never catch me, but I'm on the run, hiding and scared. Because of my wild imagination, I have to limit the TV shows and movies I watch; otherwise, I have terrible nightmares.

Do you have recurrent dreams?

Also I should say that I don't think gymnastics is a bad sport. For me, it was way too demanding emotionally and I just never could enjoy it.

Oh boy, life can be so fun

Saku has developed a new interest in cars. Before our trip to Wyoming and the multitude of trucks that he saw everywhere, he didn't care much about cars. He would play with his hot wheels, but didn't get excited about real cars. Well, yesterday we let him "drive" one of our cars and we created a monster. The boy loves to stand on the driver's seat and play with all the buttons and have his hands on the wheel. The favorite buttons so far are the emergency lights and the power lock button. If we go to the garage and don't let him drive, he starts crying as if we were physically hurting him.

Last week we were able to escape the heat for a week in Wyoming for an annual white water rafting trip down the Snake River. We flew to Salt Lake City and spent a night in North Odgen at Troy's aunt and uncle's house. Saku enjoyed visiting with their horse and chilling on the horse swing.

I was little nervous about camping for a week since Saku is so energetic and quick. I wondered how much of a vacation it would. We ended up having a great time. Saku couldn't get enough of the rocks, dirt, sticks and wide open spaces that he got to explore.

Troy went rafting every day. During one of the "runs" down the river, Troy, Trent, Kyle and Regina ended up doing some clift jumping.

As Troy was about to jump, a tourist group came by and the river guide joking told Troy "don't jump, you have a reason to live". Troy yelled back "My wife is pregnant" to which the guide responded "jump, man, jump".

We even took Saku down the river on a bigger boat that didn't go through the big rapids. It takes about two hours to go down the river, so I was nervous that he would get bored, which would equal temper tantrums. He actually did a good job. His favorite part was being dipped into the cold water. The water was probably in the mid fifties, but he loved it and kept asking for more.

Of course, the hat didnt stay on for very long, but he didn't get sun burned either:)

Our little family picture after we all survived the river experience. Troy got a major sunburn on left shoulder. Poor man was in pain for few days, but it didn't stop him from enjoying the rafting each day.

Saku and I were in the back of the boat to avoid getting too wet.

People pay big bucks to go rafting, so we feel very blessed to have Jen and her family's knowledge and rafts so we get to do this each year. Next year, we will have a two year old and a 6 month old, I wonder how that will be??

I have a small baby bump by now. I think it appeared around 17 weeks with Saku, so it's two weeks "earlier" this time. A week ago, I had this dream about being in labor and I knew that I was only 14 weeks along. The nurses were worried about the baby and I was aware of the fact, that nothing could be done for a 14 week fetus if he/she decided to come. Ironically, I was woken up by Saku's frantic crying and I ended up taking him to our bed to snuggle with me and as I cuddled him, I prayed to Heavenly Father that everything would go well with this baby. I haven't been worried about the pregnancy as I was with Saku and it doesn't occupy my thoughts like my first pregnancy did. However, that night I had this strong feeling of love for this child who is barely four inches long and weights few ounces.

Saku's First Kiss

Saku was lucky to be one of many babies born last year around the late spring and summer time. One of these beautiful babies was Lyla Rose. She was born about two months before Saku. She has become Saku's special friend and won a special spot in Troy and my heart.

Both of these kids are spunky and full of life. They were not the ideal sleepers, so it was wonderful to know that Camry understood the small victories and defeats of sleeping or not sleeping.

These pictures are from February when Camry watched Saku while I had to work during the day. I'm not sure what we would have done without her willingness to watch Saku and take such a good care of him. I never felt like she was baby sitting for me. I felt like she was genuinely taking care of Saku the way she takes care of Lyla, which was so comforting, because she is a loving and fun mom.

Saku planted a nice big kiss on Lyla's mouth two weeks ago. I asked him if he would give Lyla a kiss and the boy quickly ran over to her and gave a nice big sloppy kiss. Don't worry, I will not be encouraging kissing girls for too long, but right now it is just way too cute not to encourage!

And the best part about this friendship is the fact that Camry and my next babies will be 20 days apart (according to due dates), so we get to experience the wild ride of having two kids together.

Little Moments and Things that Make Happiness Happen

The last few weeks have been very good. I feel like I am back to living my life and enjoying it. For few months, I was just enduring it and that's not a way to live.

The nausea is gone. I am still tired, but not to the extent that I was when I worked three nights. I have been getting 9 hours of sleep on most nights when I'm at home. I use Saku as my alarm clock and this morning I woke up at 9 am!! And Saku hadn't even cried yet...we missed our movers-n-shakers class, but I dare to say that it was worth it.

We spent five days in San Diego and loved it. It was a much needed break to get away from the heat.

Saku had no fear when it came to the ocean. We would run towards the waves and try to chase seagulls that chilled on the beach.

One of Troy's best friends and his wife drove down from Huntington Beach to spend a day with us. Troy is a social guy, but usually my company is enough for him. However, I could just tell how much he loved spending a day with Matt. They did little surfing, talked boy stuff and enjoyed time with their wives and sons.

Happiness.

My cute boys chilling on a surf board.

Saku and Westin getting a bath to wash off all the sand that they had collected from the beach.

This is from 4th of July Weekend.It was my first Saturday off for months and we got to go and swim at Brian and Alia's. It felt magical to just relax and hang out on a Saturday. Yes, simple joys of life. Saku and Cameron were captured by Baby Einstein's magic for a while.

Since the nausea is gone, I've started to cook again. This will sound so 50s homemaker-ish, but I love the fact that after Monday and Tuesday's dinner, Troy said "this was amazing". I love doing new recipes that turn out delicious. There is a degree of satisfaction to know that your cooking is delicious.

I still have not figured out how to keep my house clean all the time. On Monday, I cleaned it and it looked so good and last night, I felt like a bomb had gone off. Anyone else have this issue?Fortunately, it's not a big enough issue for me and I'm not losing sleep because of it:) But I would like to have a clean house 99% of the time.

Also I have worked out few times this week and it has made me feel so much better. It is kind of difficult to get motivated to exercise when you know you will just get bigger as the pregnancy goes on, but at least, it should be easier for me to bounce back once this baby is here.

Lastly, few people have made comments about the fact that our kids will be so close together. "Are you sure that you are ready for that?" or "Are you sure you can handle it?" Of course, I'm not sure, but it's little late for that now and I would never make a comment to someone who decided to space their kids far apart. I'm not offended by the comments or mad, just amused that people just have to give their opinions about things. I believe I can a good mom even if it will require more work than if we waited another year.

Anyways, what have you been up to last few weeks?