Magic!

Starla came for a visit. It was magical. This is how our five days together looked liked.

Olive Garden (without kids!!)

Looking at houses

Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Fudge (x3 nights)

Bananagrams

Chocolate Cake- out of this world!

Chocolate Chip Cookies-I ate about 20

Swimming

Talking

Laughing

Going Blond again

Girls' Night Out to see The Help

and

Saku and Eerika enjoying their Auntie Starla

After we dropped Starla off to the airport, Saku told me "lisää Starla" (more Starla) and I couldn't have agreed with him more.

My family is so blessed to have Starla in our lives.

We, Grossarth girls, don't get dressed up too often. Eerika wears cute clothes (thanks to multiple generous friends), but she hardly ever wears headbands because she pulls them off or I am just too lazy to put them on her. And most of the time, she just wears a onesie and her face has some remnants of breakfast/lunch/dinner. However, she can get away with it.

But there are moments when we get dressed up and girly and the results aren't too bad. Eerika has the most beautiful blue eyes, which really will be her best accessory for the rest of her life!

Look Out World-She is Coming

Troy keeps joking how Eerika better start crawling soon since Saku crawled at 7 months. In all seriousness, we don't care how fast or slowly she starts moving but she is getting very close to it. She has been doing the army crawl for the past week and now she gets on her hands and knees all the time and rocks a little bit. So there is a very good chance that she will be doing the real crawl around 7 months.

She is such a strong girl. I can't wait to see all the things she will accomplish!

Happy Baby Girl

Eerika likes to play peekaboo. She lets out a cute little giggle when you hide behind the bumper pads while she sits in her crib.

"Where did isi go?"

"oh, there he is"
"I am so happy to see you"
"aren't you having fun, too?"
Life sure is good when people are so happy to play with the cute baby girl.

She is also very strong. The other day I thought to myself, I'll just leave the side of the crib down when she sleeps because she is still so little and won't be going anywhere. And then we played in the crib and she started to pull herself up. So nope, I will not leave the side rail down.

"What are you guys doing on the floor?"

"I guess I'll just stand up to see"
"I like this view"

She fell shortly after this climb, but she sure is active and very mobile.

Loving Each Other

I must admit that during the first few weeks of Eerika's life, I wondered how I would survive having two kids so close in age. And it was little rough for a bit.

Now I am loving it. Of course, it is all not all fun and games. There are times when I have two screaming/crying children. I have to rescue Eerika from Saku's rough play and every once in a while, I have to rescue Saku when Eerika gets a good hold on his hair or wants to do a nice face grab. The only thing that I officially do not like about two kids is loading them into the car and unloading.

But as I watch them interact, I am so glad that they will have each other. While I can't each of them all my attention, I think they will learn things from each other that I wouldn't be able to teach them. I know there are other factors than just age difference that influence the relationship between siblings, but for now, I think these two will be great friends because they don't even know of a time when it was just one of them. Well for Eerika, there never was such time:)

Saku teaches Eerika about the coolness factor of wearing goggles when in the bath tub.

Eerika reminds Saku how fun it is to chew on bath toys

At times, they are just happy to be together. An older sibling is also an added benefit during the Eerika's separation anxiety stage and the fact that she likes to do this fake cry when we leave the room or walk by her without picking her up or playing with her, Saku's presence makes her comfortable.

Cute and silly together

Or just plain beautiful on her own

"äiti, we aren't doing anything suspicious"

"oh man, here we go again with him rolling on top of me"

Saku loves to roll on Eerika or try to sit on her while trying to be very discreet about it. Since Eerika barely ever makes a fuss about it, he can be quite successful.

Every day, with these two kids, is fun. Some days seem very long. Some seem like they just flew by. But without a question, every day I am blessed to be their äiti and witness the little miracles and adventures that are part of their childhoods.

And on mornings like this when it is 7:45 and they are still sleeping. I am extra energized to love them.

Believe in Yourself

Do you ever just fall in love again with your husband or feel this immeasurable feeling of gratitude for a friend that you've had for years?

This is how I feel lately.

I have been so grateful for the people around me who believe in ME. They look at me and they believe that I can do things that I am trying to do. They encourage me to try new things, reassure me that I am doing well at the things that I am doing and empathize with me when things go wrong.

In the past five + years, I have never doubted that Troy was the man that I needed to live the happiest life possible. Yet lately, I just look at him and I am filled with joy. This man is so good at supporting and believing in me. I have started running a lot lately and he keeps pushing me to run faster and longer. I think "I can't do this", he tells me to just try the pace and I actually run that fast. I love completing my work outs and reporting back to him. He gives me the "I told you so" but in this case, I can't be but happy that he is able to tell me that.

During my last week's shift, I made a mistake. It didn't harm the patient. The doctor didn't even care about it, BUT I made a mistake and it was making me feel really crappy. I started to wonder if I should even work. I wondered if I was competent enough. I started to worry if my co-workers take me seriously since I only work twice a month. So I called Starla. I knew that she would understand why I was feeling this way. And she did. She listened to me, let me vent and didn't belittle my feelings. She made me feel better and instilled confidence in my skills. Just like I knew she would.

If there is one place where Saku is pretty much guaranteed to be happy, it is at Cameron's house. He loves Cameron's toys and swimming and Cameron. Yet, there were about 10 minutes last Tuesday when both of my kids were crying. And I mean, full on crying and yelling as I was carrying them back inside from the swimming pool. Poor Eerika hadn't taken a nap all morning and was exhausted. Saku was upset about a toy that he just couldn't have. While I really was not that upset at the situation, no one wants to leave a play date with two screaming children. There is always a little piece of you that wonders "what do the other moms think of me and my kids?" Later that evening, I got an email from Alia saying that she thought that I handled the situation so well. Thanks to Alia for that. Moms can never get enough "job well done" since our job takes so much out of us and never really stops.

Because of these people and many more, I have more confidence in myself. There will be slow days of training, cranky patients and long hours, tempter tantrums and too many chores with no enough sleep and the list goes on and on. But I am grateful that I have so many things going on in my life and people who keep me going when I think about giving up or taking a break.

Eerika is six months! And I am loving her more than ever. I almost hate to write about how adorable, fun and lovable she is because words don't seem to do justice. She is full of smiles and fun little noises and she seems to have quite the big personality, yet so different from her brother.

She babbles and the babbling actually sounds like she is talking, which of course, she really isn't. And she loves to stick out her tongue and blow bubbles.

She still doesn't love the car seat but she is much better. She has even started to fall asleep there every once in a while.

Eerika at 6 months and Saku at 25 months

There are many days when my kids end up spending most of the day just in their diapers because I am too lazy to keep changing outfits.

She eats solids foods and she loves all and everything. She has figured out how to pick up the little cereal puff and likes to stuff her little face with them. She is a messy, oh so messy, eater.

Carrots are especially tricky to clean off.

She still wears size two diapers during the day and a size three at night. Her thighs are still nice and chubby, but I'm afraid that they are starting to get little thinner.

Eerika is ticklish. When I kiss her on her neck or on her tummy, she lets out this laugh that just makes my day. She also laughs when you tickle her around her thighs.

She is one tough cookie. She takes a lot of unintentional and intentional "beating" from Saku. If she actually does cry, I know she was hurting or got really scared.

She sits up on her own and has started to scoot around. She has a special Eerika move that she scoots on her back by pushing legs against the floor and lifting her butt. She also rolls around a lot more than Saku ever did. The girl knows how to get from place to place.

She is wearing the oh so stylish jeggings (thanks to Camille)

She can fit into nine months clothes and is in the 16 pound range. Her hair color is still undetermined but her eyes seem to stay blue.

We are down to two naps a day. It makes life little easier to only have two naps and it gives me a chance to spend one-on-one time with Saku and get some much needed time for myself when both kids are sleeping at the same time in the afternoon.

We don't do a night feed anymore; she does wake up once a night usually and cries for few minutes and then falls back to sleep. Oh it is wonderful to sleep multiple hours in a row. I think everyone has enjoyed a well rested mom.

When she wakes up, she usually talks to herself and we hear her on the baby monitor. When we go to get her, Saku and I say, "herätys prinsessa" (wake up, Princess) and she rolls over and gives us a huge smile. Then Saku usually likes to climb into the crib or pack-n-play and lay next to Eerika.

It is so cliche, but I can't even imagine our life without this little girl.