Saku's words of wisdom

Saku says so many silly, clever and ridiculous things each day. Some of them I remember even after weeks and some of them just slip out of my mind quickly.

Today's highlights

"Isi, you are a nice guy" as Saku and isi walked to the bathroom together.

"Use pretty words" after I had raised my voice at Eerika when she threw her plate on the floor.

"I don't like sorries" as in he doesn't like to say sorry.

Though this was nonverbal, it is still nice to remember. This afternoon, I went to play trains with him. I had just gotten an email so I told Saku that I would read this one email on my phone and then focus on him. About 10 seconds later, Saku climbs on my lap and gives me a kiss on my cheek. Yea, I did put the phone away immediately and we enjoyed some train play together. 

Silly face

Poor dry red cheeks.

Saku has found his first crush. The object of his affection is a five year old Vella who lives across from us. After I said to Saku " Isn't Eerika so pretty" he replied "yeah and Vella is pretty too". Every white car is Vella's car and he gets quite giddy when I tell him that we are going to play with her.  When I ask him why he likes to play with her, he answers "she is so pretty". Oh my sweet sensitive child. I have a feeling that I will be offering lots of hugs and support through many heartbreaks when he grows up. 

Strange Happenings

Last week Saku was battling a cold with a nasty cough and low temp fever. And he would sleep until 9:45 and 10:45. It was the weirdest thing. My kids are usually up by 7 am. Eerika and I would wake up around 7 am, have breakfast, play until 9 or so when she goes down for a nap. Then I would do my thing(aka clean, organize, read for a bit) until 10sh and she woke up and for two days, Saku was still sleeping at that point. 

So for few days, Eerika and I got to experience what life would be like if she was the only child. It was sort of fun to just spent the morning with her. Since Saku doesn't nap anymore, she barely ever gets alone time with me so I think it was good. And then when Saku woke up, we were all excited to see him!

Dear Saku,

You are quite remarkable. I haven't done an update on you for a while. And there is no way to summarize what you are doing and learning because it is so much.

You are potty trained. We have accidents, that seem to always take place right next to the toilet as you can't get your pants off quick enough, but we don't do diapers anymore during the day. I was little frustrated after today's accident and asked if you would like to wear diapers since you peed on the floor. You told me that you aren't a baby and babies wear diapers. Then you showed me a picture of yourself as a baby and told me that you wore diapers as a little baby. See what I mean when I say that you are remarkable.

You have such a wild imagination. We probably wouldn't need any toys as you like to pretend play all the time.  The treadmill becomes a rocket launcher, Eerika's closet is a school bus and our bed works are a pirate ship. I think you also have some nightmares as you wake up crying at night a lot.

You speak a lot and you speak clearly. And it is really all in English. You use words such as "actually" "either" and "few more" and in the right context. It blows me away. You also know how to count from five to one backwards. It is essential as we have many rockets that take off during the day. 

Here are few examples of our conversations

äiti: "Cameron is coming over today"

Saku: "Cameron is my best buddy and Brian is isi's buddy"

äiti: "go and tell isi that"

Saku:"Isi, Cameron is my best buddy, Brian is your buddy, Alia is äiti's buddy and Jackson is Eerika's buddy".

I think it is amazing that you paired our family with Cameron's family members in a "right order".

Grandma: "You have a bad cold"

Saku: "No, I have a bad cough"

Isi: "do you want to go and get your tutti?" (at bed time)

Saku: chuckles "I am not tall enough to get my tutti" (from the kitchen cabinet)

When I speak sternly (aka maybe sort of yell at you) and the apologize for that, you tell that I need to go to time out. If I am truly out of line, I do go to time out for a bit.

You are enjoying being the police when it comes to Eerika's activities.  "NO NO NO" is a frequent sound that I hear as you play together. And we are working hard on using a nicer tone of voice when talking to her. I wonder where you get the stern, sometimes obnoxious tone. You are great about apologizing but hopefully we can do more prevention.

Man do you love your isi. I am slightly envious of it, but I hope that you will eventually remember who carried you for nine months in her belly and delivered you into this world:) By the way, you love to hear the story how you were in my belly when you just a tiny little thing. 

I love you!

Love,
äiti

Saku playing "school bus"  in Eerika's closet.

Awesome smile after I surprised him inside the toy shed outside

Sugar and Spice

Dear Eerika

I had a dear friend in high school whose AIM screen name (you will never experience the magic of aol's instant messaging) was Sugar and Spice. You are sugar and spice. One moment, I tell you that I love you and you respond by giving kisses, which is a darling new development over the past weekend. And then I get startled as you scratch my face just seconds later.

You already know how to throw a great temper tantrum. You stomp in place and yell after you get denied a toy, treat or whatever it was that your heart desired. At grandma's house, I gave you a tricycle to play with, instead of the car that Saku was in, and you looked at it and pushed it hard enough to make it fall over. I am glad that I shared this moment with grandma because it was just too hilarious to witness on my own.

We went to the doctor for your one year appointment and you are growing beautifully. You are just over 20 pounds, which puts you in the 30th percentile and 30.8 inches tall, which puts on the 91st percentile curve. You did not enjoy the doctor's visit and unfortunately, the nurse was really slow with the shots so you kept crying for a quite a while. Next time, I will make sure that they don't take their sweet time while poking you multiple times.

We spent two nights at grandma and grandpa's as isi went to ski in Utah. You made grandma's weekend as you walked over to her and cuddled her. And let grandpa hug you without any protesting. I was happy that someone else got to see your sweet side and get a share of your love.

You just learned to sign "book" and when I asked you "missa kakka on?" (where is poo) after I suspected that you were stinky, you pointed to your diaper. You are a bright little girl. You still get comments about being a "cute boy" or "he is so cute", but I think you are absolutely girly and beautiful. Maybe it is the blue Sketchers that people focus on. I am sorry for not buying you pink ones and I am not sure that I will until you are the next size up.

I spend my Sundays in the hallway at church because you are just too busy. You love to run in the long hallways and people admire your agility. You know how to walk backwards and love to turn in circles when we play music or sing.

Eerika, I think you will absolutely rock our lives and take us on a quite the roller coaster ride as you get older. But I can assure you that I am thrilled to be your mother.

Love,

äiti

Bed Time

I love bed time. And it is not for the reason that the kids are going to sleep and I will have time to myself and with Troy. Though I do enjoy that as well.

While the kids are usually exhausted and tired at this point, they seem to get a dose of giddiness and happiness as we go upstairs to Eerika's room and do our bedtime routine.

Eerika tries to keep bringing books to us one after another. Saku enjoys reading the board books with Eerika.

We say our family prayer. We find a tutti for each kid. We all kiss Eerika good night.

Since Eerika likes to her space, we don't rock her to sleep or cuddle her. We say good night and turn off the light and put on the white noise machine. Most of the time, she goes right to sleep.

However, Saku loves hearing stories from us and cuddling us. So we take turns, though Troy is the preferred person at the moment, and tell Saku stories and sing songs to him. He would like us to stay with him all night-and most nights, he finds his way to our bed at some point. While I am not a fan of family bed, there is something sweet about him snuggling us during the night. Troy especially loves it. As long as he doesn't fall asleep in our bed, we are ok with it.

If Saku doesn't take a nap, he is asleep within minutes of a story or songs. If he does take a nap, it can get quite tricky.

There is a sense of joy when I know my kids are happily asleep. Some days I can look back at the day and be grateful how successfully things went. And other days, I am grateful that the next day brings another opportunity to be more a better mom to my little chicken nuggets.

The Book-Mobile

One of fun things about our new house is the fact that we are considered to be in a rural area. We have a ACE hardware, a gas station and an Italian restaurant nearby and then we have to drive about 10 miles to get to everything else. I really would like to have a grocery store closer because it would make life little ( or a lot) more convenient. However, that is a sacrifice that I am more than happy to make to be where we are.

However, the point of this "I love" post is the fabulous fact that the library bus or "a Book-Mobile" comes to our neck of the woods once a month. I reserve books online and pick them up from the bus. Saku loved getting on the bus and looking at the books. I loved that I only had to drive a mile to get our books.

And I love books. Oh, how I love it.

Many of the books in this pile might look familiar to a certain friend of mine. I might have pretty much copied their list of books from last year and reserved bunch of them.

The Month of Love

Today I am feeling very much under the weather. I have been wiping too many runny noses and now the sickness is catching up to me as well. I would like to just go under the blankets and sleep all day. Since that is not going to happen, I will write about a man who is pretty awesome because thinking about him will cheer me up. I write so much about the kids. I even write about myself and this man doesn't get that much attention on this blog. He certainly deserves it.

I really like my man. Yes, I love him but sometimes loving someone is easier than liking them. I really like him. Lately, he has really made me smile. He has made me laugh. He has made me miss him when he is at work and not just because I want his help around the house. I miss him as a person. He has supported me in my ambitions as a runner by watching the kids and mapping routes for me to run. He has been getting up at night when the kids wake up. He goes to work with a great attitude and comes home happy.

It almost feels as we are starting all over again. Let me explain. We moved into a new house. We have to make certain amount of new friends since we are far away from some of our old friends. We are learning new things. We have new goals for this year. We are both in love with our house, the surroundings and our kids. When you share so much happiness together-it really brings you together. I almost feel as we are in a honeymoon phase together-as a family. It is not as sexy as your real honeymoon because you don't get to just focus on each other, but it is nice.

I declare February the love month-one day is not enough to celebrate the wonderful people and things in my life. Plus I never get around to doing something awesome that one day anyways so this will give me more flexibility to focus on the awesomeness that I have been blessed with!