A Friend who Aspires

This is a woman who I adore and respect in so many ways.  

I love being around Lotta. I have always loved being around her. When I walked into her house, she was making letut while her seven kids were playing around. The two youngest (2.5 and 1.5 years) were sitting by her next to the stove. You can just feel the happiness and love in the house. She is expecting her 8th baby in less than a month.  Jope starts his third year of med school five days after the due date in Helsinki, which is 1.5 hours away from their home. When I asked if anyone was coming to help her, she said "no, the older kids are great at helping".  It seems like having seven kids is not so hard, yet she doesnt do this by pretending that it is easy. It just seems natural to her. It is amazing. I will think of her when we are blessed with our third child.

I dont aspire to have her life.  We live in different ways, but I do aspire to have her beautiful perspective on life and a constant positive attitude. When they say that home is supposed to be a piece of heaven, I think she is exactly creating that in her home.

Being Called to Repent

Sunday was a bit of a rough day. And the previous statement is a bit of an understatement:) In the afternoon, I was letting the kids watch a movie so I could take a nap. Just an hour and they got watch a movie, which in our house hold is sort of a treat! Well, they just wouldn't keep quiet. yes they are only 4 and 2 but still. I really needed the nap. 

I asked few times for them to be quiet. Then Eerika ended up pulling a pillow from underneath Saku's head which meant that he slammed his head to the tile floor. And then he cried very loudly. And then I got very frustrated and I might have yelled at Eerika. 

After Saku stopped crying from the physical hurt of getting his head banged to the floor, he told me 

"We don't yell in our family unless there is a fire. I dont like it one bit".

I completely agree with you, my sweet son. 

I really am not a yeller. It happens very rarely. I might get frustrated but I do not yell much, but man, my tired brain was not rational. Yet Saku did really remind me that there should not be any yelling in our house. 

Jumping, Laughing and Cuddling

We started our adventure today by taking the bus to the city to go and visit the gym where Aino works. It was nice to get a little exclusive entrance for the kid's to go and jump on the trampoline, walk on the beams and be silly on the different mats. 

Anna and Risto also came and I got to snuggle with little girl while Risto and Aino entertained my kids. I joked that it is nice to have Aino take care of my kids so I can take care of little girl so Anna can get a little break. And really we were just talking about holding the little girl for 20 minutes or so, but I loved it. 

Saku was thrilled to take the ratikka back to Aino's place. Dad met us there for lunch and then we took the kids' to the park while Anna and Risto rested a bit. They have adjusted to being parents so well. I am in awe of it. However, I still feel like an extra nap or there is good for a new parents. Or really any parents:)

All of the jumping and playing made Eerika tired. She fell asleep in the stroller and continued to sleep at Aino's until she woke up when she needed to pee.

Dad enjoyed hanging out with little girl.

At first both of the kids were little afraid of Aino's dog. Luna makes a lot of noise when she breathes so when she gets excited, it sounds little scary for a kid. However, they warmed up to Luna and wouldnt leave the dog alone. 

There is a chance that Luna might get a GI distress after all the treats that Eerika and Saku fed her.

Somehow amidst the noise of four adults, two kids, a dog and a baby dad fell asleep. 

Aino täti spoiled the kids with some strawberry ice cream.

I might have taken a bite or two out of Eerika's ice cream.

An amazing Anna äiti

Tyllerö is such a  calm sweet baby. 

My little city kids taking the bus back home. They do so well with the buses and metros.

Light Nights in Finland

Saku has really gotten a kick out of the fact that we are on an opposite schedule of isi. When we wake up, he goes to be and vice versa. It has also been bit of a confusion why it is so light outside all the time. 

This was a picture of dad and my run at 8:30 on Saturday night. 

Newborn and Sleep Deprivation

No I didnt suddenly have a newborn though I wouldnt be against it.  We finally met Anna's little girl and we are sleep deprived from traveling and jet lag. I went five days with 3-4 hours of sleep each night and by Sunday I was totally feeling like a zombie. The other days were not too bad but Sunday broke me down. Thankfully I was able to sleep six hours last night, even if I was up by 3 am again. Saku finally slept uninterrupted through the night and Eerika was only up for two hours from 4 am to 6 am so  I am crossing my fingers that we will get on a semi regular schedule tonight.  I should mentioned that we all went to bed by 6:30 pm on Friday night. Eerika happened to wake up at 10 pm and was up for two hours before going back to sleep, so I was up with her and I could NOT go back to sleep that night. So when dad and Paula asked me, in the morning, when I woke up, I sadly had to say "10 pm last night". 

We have been able to enjoy the sweetness of Anna's baby. Because I am taking care of my own kids who have been jet lagged and little more cranky than usual, I haven't had a chance to hold little girl as much as I would like, but she did sleep on me on Saturday while Anna and Risto enjoyed a meal without worrying about holding her. You just forget how small newborn babies are. I loved every minute of it. I wish I could do more to help, so I am hoping to do more in the next few weeks.

I am not fresh in this picture after traveling 20+ hours and now sleep for 24+ hours, but I was happy to finally hold Anna's baby. 

Eerika was so happy to hold the baby.

Saku was excited to hold her too but he wasn't that comfortable when she was actually in his arms. 

Wacky schedule with fun stuff

A full day plus jet lag can make you feel pretty tired. I was lucky to haul two sleeping kids in a metro and then in a bus to get home from Anna's place. The metro was easy, but being in the bus was more tricky because there is only so much room for strollers and I only had one arm to maneuver things with since I was holding Eerika. Fortunately, a very kind Filipino lady helped me. 

Our day started with a shower/sitting in a bucket at 5 am. We had been up much earlier but at 5 am, I felt like we could start the day. 

We left the house around 6:30 to walk to the park. Saku was in a stroller and Eerika in our hiking backpack. People looked at me for extended time as I passed them. I must have looked strange.

We came home around 8:30 and had a snack of ruisleipa, yogurt and apple/pear. Then I made all of us take a nap. Saku woke up twice during our 2.5 hour nap to go to pee. I appreciated the fact that I didn't have to sleep in pee. Saku sleeps next to me until Troy gets here.

Right before noon, I woke the kids up, which was not a fun thing, and we headed to the bus stop. Saku kept sleeping in the stroller for a while, but once they were both alert and awake they enjoyed the bus ride. After the bus ride, we hopped on a metro and met up with Anna to go to a park nearby Anna's house. 

It was a really nice park. They even provided free lunch for kids, but we were about 45 minutes too late for the free lunch. It was raining just a bit, but Saku still wanted to swim. I had asked him at home if he wanted to swim and he had said "no". Fortunately, I didnt listen to him and brought his speedos anyways. He was in the water for 30 seconds and decided that he didnt want to swim. Same thing with Eerika.

We got dressed again and played for a good hour or so with different toys, which were all provided by the park. It was awesome. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining and warming us up so the we tried swimming again.

We ended up eating dinner at Anna's place. Well it was at 3:30 pm. But our sleeping and eating had been so off that it worked. The kids did not really eat anything except Berliinin munkki. Around 4:45, they started to fall apart so I headed home. Both kids cried when we left as they wanted to stay. Though I think they just wanted the opposite of what was going on. Within 5 minutes of leaving both of them were asleep. 

To say that my body was exhausted from carrying sleeping Eerika and pushing the stroller after a one hour trip is an understatement. We were all in bed by 6:30.

Of course now I have been up since 10 pm again after Eerika woke up, but I am just going with the flow. Saku has been sleeping continuously so I am claiming that a small victory. 

I still do not have a cute picture with Miss Tyllerö so that needs to be changed tomorrow when everyone is coming to Pajutie.

Our Second Day in Finland

It is 2:53 am and Miss E and I are playing. It is our second night in Finland so this is really not too surprising. In the dark, I heard  "äiti, I need a snack"`. I was hoping that it would be much later in the night since 2 am meant that I had only slept for three hours, but I was not surprised that it was so early. Eerika had slept a good seven hours during the day so I had hope but not expected that she would sleep through the night. 

I just read my blog post from two years ago when we did this for the first time with both of the kids. We took the exact same flight this time and we have been up on both nights, but I am getting a ton more sleep this time and have been so much less stressed out about everything. It is nice what a difference a good attitude and knowledge from past experience makes.  Also it helps that I have a two year old with me instead of a 4 month so I was not chronically already tired from having a small baby.

Yesterday's high lights

We slept from 9 am to 2 pm (myself) and 5 pm (the kids).

Saku got to experience the magic of recycling bottles here.

A little bit of fun in the mids of ordinary chores.

The kids got pick their own individual ice creams from the vast selection of ice cream cones and popsicles.

Both kids swam in the lake for the first time.

Eerika peed in the lake for the first time. She said she needed to go potty and we directed to her to the lake. She was pretty excited about peeing in the lake. Troy probably did not quite approve this way of parenting...

Eerika swam naked. True Finnish style. I felt so nostalgic as I watched my little girl play in the water. In the U.S, it would not be okay and while I am fine with that, the true Finn in me was happy to watch my naked little girl having fun in the water. She was naked because we werent prepared for swimming and I figured she would get colder if she got all of her clothes wet.

Saku went to sauna for the second time ever and sat on the highest bench and threw water on the rocks. Again, a true Finnish moment.

Aino cooked us a delicious meal and she played with us all day.