Leftovers...

Last night Eevi and I had a discussion about who should get the best leftovers for lunch the next day.  The discussion boiled down to the following two choices: 1) the guy who is stuck at work with the lunch he brought as his only option, or 2) the lady who has access to a kitchen and refrigerator packed full of a variety of food?  To me it is a no brainer. :)

So this discussion came about last night as we were cleaning up from a delicious spinach and ham quiche that Eevi made.  She offered to let me take the quiche to work the next day for lunch, and I politely declined.  When I explained that reheated eggs did not seem that appealing to me, our discussion of who should get the good and bad leftovers ensued.  No agreeable conclusion was made.

So this morning I decided that I would be a nice guy and take the quiche with me to work so that Eevi wouldn't have to eat the leftovers that no one wanted.  Well, Eevi being the most amazing wife that she is just sent me the following email that I felt I had to share:

Subject: IMPORTANT
Body:
1. Please disgard the quiche.
2. Go to Jason's Deli
3. Pick up a sandwich
4. Enjoy the sandwich
5. Know that you are loved and appreciated by your wife.
6. Please respond to the email so the customer service knows that the email has been read.

Sincerely,

Make your husband happy corporation

Thank you Eevi for being so awesome!  And, please tell customer services that your client is quite satisfied.

In and Out

You know how you feel like you are doing awesome with life. Your kids are well behaved and adorable and you just feel like a rockstar and then something happens.

Sunday was a "hey, reality check" for me. We had to take Eerika out of sacrament meeting three times because she was throwing temper tantrums and Saku had to go to the bathroom twice and had one meltdown. Yes, Troy and I left the chapel six times. Yes, I bet people wondered what was up with our kids and what is wrong with us that we cant control them better.

Eerika ended up sleeping through sunday school and was great for the relief society hour.

Rest of the Sunday was great as everyone napped, eat delicious Orange Chicken and fried rice and chocolate cake with good friends.

I honestly do not ever judge parents whose kids are out of control, but it was a good reminder to be grateful for the moments when my kids are those well behaved kids rather than little circus animals.

Life is Sweet

Life is sweet.

It is literally sweet when your äiti lets you play in the sugar when she bakes. When the kids see the big bucket with a blue lid, they ran to the kitchen because they know that they can put their little fingers in the sugar and taste some sugar.

I love sweets and as terrible as it might sound, I love the excited face that Eerika gets when I ask if she wants a chocolate covered raisin. I guess it just makes me happy that we can share a simple love for chocolate and sweets. 

Miss Eerika

Eerika is so full of life. She makes noise all the time. She makes loud noises that make it sound as if she would be angry, but she really isn't most of the time. Her cry is loud and she can utilize it well if Saku makes her mad or she doesn't want to go to sleep. 

She bites. When she gets mad, she goes in for the kill. Few times, it has been her own shirt or a doll that she bites into. Once it was Saku's cheek. Needless to say, we have started time outs. Sometimes she also refuses to say "sorry" so we need to put her in a time out to remind her about the importance of apologizing. 

She refuses to use words. She can sign certain things but she doesn't like it. I feel responsible for not insisting that she uses words more or being more diligent with sign language. However, I am not really worried, it would just make life easier if our communication would progress from grunting and pointing to some words.

She sleeps through the night...in the pack-n-play in our guest room closet. She has a room of her own but sleeps better in the closet, so that is h sleeping quarter for now. She still takes two naps. I thought she was ready to just do one, but she gets too cranky so we stick to two naps on most days.

Most of the time, her hair is out of control and her face is dirty. What a wild child. But she has the most beautiful eyes. I feel like pictures never capture her beauty. 

She can point to her head, hair, nose, ears, fingers, belly button and toes. After I painted her toes for the first time, she kept pointing at them again and again. I think the pink color was quite a shock for her.

She loves her dolls. She kisses them, hugs them, wraps them in blanket sand carries them around the house. It is so adorable.

She loves Saku. She loves trying do whatever he is doing. Past few days, she has gotten really into giving him hugs, but he isn't really excited about the affection. 

She is a silly girl. She can tell when we think she is funny and she starts to perform. She also thinks she is quite cute and if we say that she is beautiful, she happily points herself. Oh and she can climb all the way to the top of a ladder by herself. And she thinks it is funny to jump into the hot tub. 

She loves being outside. She loves digging in the dirt. She loves our cheap 10 dollar stroller and despises sitting in the fancy stroller. Go figure. She wishes she could ride Saku's tricycle. 

While Eerika isn't cuddly, she likes to sit on your lap, give you hugs and climb all over you.

Saku was photographer as we played in the sun.

I really love this age. She is still innocent and sweet most of the time while we can play and have fun together. 

Spoiled

There are days that I feel spoiled to be a stay at home mom with these beautiful kids. And there are plenty of days when it is hard hard work, but let me tell you about today's awesomeness.

I woke up at 6 am and went for a six mile run. I came home to a hot breakfast cooked by my hubby. Eerika was up and enjoying all the attention she was getting from both parents. We ate breakfast together and woke Saku up because he gets upset if Troy leaves without saying bye.

Eerika and I took a shower while Saku played puzzles on the iPad. We got dressed, cleaned up the house a bit and got ready for our library story time.

We get to the library and Saku listens to all the stories and sings the songs. Eerika snuggles next to me the whole time. We check out 16 new books; four for me and one for Eerika and 11 for Saku.  The highlight is the fact that we found The Very Quiet Cricket, which Saku loves but I thought that there was no way that it would be available at this small library branch. 

Our lunch takes place at Old McDonald's where we consume an unhealthy cheese burger lunch with Dr. Pepper since it is Saku's favorite. 

A quick trip to Frys to pick up few necessities and we head home.

Eerika falls asleep in the car while Saku and I sing primary songs in Finnish.

Eerika keeps sleeping in her bed while Saku and I read through all of his new books.

A load of laundry is done at some point. 

We attempt to take a nap; Saku puts up enough fight that I decide that it is not a battle that I care enough about today.

Saku plays while I start making dinner. 

Eerika wakes up, and the kids play together outside without any major fights.

We leave to go swimming. Yes, we have started the swimming season here.

We spend two hours at the pool. Eerika and I spend more time in the hot tub while Saku swims around with his floaties and enjoys hanging out with his friend.

We come home and put dinner in the oven. Troy comes home and we eat dinner together. 

Both kids are tired so we decide to do an early bed time. 

There wasn't much about the day that I did for me. I didn't sit on my butt and surf the internet or watch TV. I didn't read my favorite book. I didn't eat a nice restaurant for lunch.
I was constantly doing something for the kids, except that cheeseburger for me, or something for our family. However, I feel spoiled that I get to set the schedule for our day. I get to choose the activities that we do. And I get to spend the time with these two beautiful children.

This day was Thursday March 29th, 2012. 

Mister Saku

Lately I have so enjoyed my children. Each day as Troy asks me how the day was, I feel like I can honestly say that it was a great one. Yes, the kids screamed at each other. Yes there was fighting. Yes we probably had few time outs. But the overall rhythm and feeling of the days has been great. I feel very content. 

I want to review some of the things that Saku has learned and done lately. 

Saku has entered into this stage where he plays with his friends very well. For a while, I was nervous about having friends over because Saku would have a tantrum each time someone else touched his toy.  He was a great kid at other people's houses since it was all new toys and they weren't his. We have overcome that stage and most of the time, he happily plays with his friends. It is so nice. Of course, now it is my miss Eerika who takes away toys and throws tantrums. Such is the life with multiple kids

Saku is also very fond of his friends and gets very excited when I inform him that we will hang out with his friends. 

He loves swimming. We have already done multiple trips to our community pool and Saku loves to play in the water. He doesn't even care if it is a cold day. He just wants to swim. 

. 

Saku stopped napping few months ago. However, in the past two weeks we have started to take naps every once in a while and I have to say that it is a glorious thing to have two kids napping at the same time. This isn't just for a selfish reason. Saku is a lot happier and obviously less tired, when he naps, by the time Troy gets home. So our evenings are much more enjoyable as a family. 

Saku loves to show us things and tell us things.  "Can I tell you something?" is a frequent phrase that we hear around here. It is used even more at night when he should be asleep. 

Yesterday he asked Troy if Troy could tell him about the website that Troy has been programming. His exact words were "can you tell me about the website"? And he patiently listened as Troy explained about it for a minute or so. 

Saku loves riding his tricycle. He is very fast. The hills around our neighborhood can make him tired and he has realized that he doesn't want to bike too far away from home because then he has to ride the same distance back.

No more tutti. It was a huge thing for us, yet it happened almost accidentally. One night, we just couldn't find his one tutti.We had refused to buy any more, so we either had the option of looking for it for hours or just deciding that tutti would be gone forever. He adjusted to it very quickly. Every now and then, he will put Eerika's tutti in his mouth and thinks that it is funny. 

Each morning the fact that isi has to go to work is a tragedy. One morning, Troy left to go to work without saying bye to Saku and he was so sad. So now Troy wakes him up, even if just very briefly, to say bye.

Saku is still emotional and very sensitive kid, but we have worked hard on using our words instead of crying and whining and we have made huge progress. I am proud of him.

Teach Me

Saku is constantly asking us to teach him things. Some of these include how to walk, or how to get on the potty, tasks that he obviously knows how to do already. 

Tonight he was beyond tired as he went to bed at 7 pm. As he cried (which is a frequent habit for this emotional man), he said "I need something to make me happy". I asked what it might be and he responded "I need a prayer for me". So we said a prayer and then he wanted another one. The spirit was so strong in his dark bedroom as I said a prayer of gratefulness for this little boy who fills my life with joy, who tests my patience to the maximum and who is my sweet friend. I kept whispering words to our Heavenly Father and kissing his forehead. 

He was about to fall asleep after the second prayer and sort of whispered "can you teach me?" I asked if he wanted me to teach him a song, and he said yes. So I sang Teach me to walk in light as he drifted off to sleep. 

It was a perfect way to end my day. 

Dear Saku, I will try to teach you so many things, but I think you are teaching me just as much. 

I love you.