Aleksi 8 month edition

Aleksi is a delightful eight month old. He is full of silly one tooth smiles. He has chubby thighs. He loves to eat. He eats anything and everyone that you give him. I have tried to be good about giving him a big variety of things, in addition to the baby food, so he would get used to eating things like tomatoes that aren’t even my favorite. He still drools a lot, maybe not as much as he did before, but enough to need a bib or an outfit change each day.

He gets many comments for being so cute and smiley. I think he is adorable and he for sure is very happy. I wish I could be so positive with Saku and Eerika as I am with Aleksi. I wish I could always communicate with the same cheerfulness and patience as I do with Aleksi. I often sing "Aleksi on äitin kaveri" around the house and it has such a positive vibe to it. 

We finally went to see a dr. for his well child check up. He is whooping 19 lbs:) 

Aleksi doesn’t crawl yet. He sits well and he will reach for things, but he doesn’t get on his hands and knees. He doesn’t even do an army crawl; he does a “roll from tummy to his side and wiggle, back to tummy” move and that is how he gets from point A to point B if he wants to move few feet. He does do an adorable job of turning around while sitting. He can stand unassisted against chairs or couches, but can’t stand up and definitely is not stable. He is very different in this aspect than Saku and Eerika were. 

He has been swimming with us few times and doesn’t mind the cool water of the pool. This morning he felt sand for the first time in San Diego.

The one thing that has become harder is naps outside home. He can stay up much longer between naps and he is a trooper about not getting to fussy, but he does not take good naps in the car seat like he used to. We might get 45 minutes to an hour if we are lucky, but today he slept 10 minutes during church. So I did a lot of distracting, walking in the hallways and sweet talking to him. 

At home, he naps twice a day anywhere between 1.5 hours to 3 hours. It is very nice. He eats once a night at home, and when we are traveling, I just nurse him when he wakes up which is twice a night (between 7 pm and 7 am) usually. He is a boob baby. I know he doesn’t really need to eat at night but I honestly don’t mind it. I know he is getting a good 6-7 hours in a row on most nights before the first feed and I am ok with that. Sleep isn’t an emotional issue like it was four months ago. Thank goodness. 

Aleksi, you are so so loved. Words don’t do justice.

Legoland 2015

Last night as we were driving from Legoland back to the beach house, I admitted to Troy that sometimes I am a bit of a snob and I want to think that I am above American consumerism and capitalism. I want to think that our family is happy doing authentic family vacations in the nature or visiting historic and exciting cities. We are happy doing those things, but sometimes a day visit to a overpriced amusement park is pretty awesome too.

Since our kids love legos and because of their ages, we thought that Legoland would be the perfect place to go and check out.  Disneyland still sounds like it would be too much of everything for now. We were right about Legoland being a good fit. The rides were just the right size for our kids, the lines with two exceptions were manageable (10-15 minutes or less), Saku could do all the rides and Eerika was able to do all except the two big ones. 

Our only mistake was to not bring bathing suits as they had really fun splash pad areas. Saku and Eerika enjoyed them in their regular clothes, which meant that they had soggy socks and shoes for the rest of the day. 

 There is no such thing as a perfect day, but fortunately we only had two brief episodes of negative emotions. Eerika was not happy she was told that she couldn't have pizza for lunch and she also wanted to go and play with Cambree at one point. Saku was irritated by the long line for the Technic Rollercoaster and he also got hurt at a playground and wanted to go back to the beach house. But for the rest of the day, they were amazing. They were happy, they were resilient as we walked from place to place.  

Aleksi took two naps; one lasted about 15-20 minutes and another 20 minutes. He was amazing. We couldn't had had a smoother day when it came to his behavior. 

We tried the "famous" Granny's apple fries. They were good; though probably not six dollars worth of good. We had burgers for lunch and pizza for dinner. It was an All American experience:)

They had fun playgrounds and legos for the kids to play with while waiting in line.

Saku did ask me last night if we could go to Disneyland next. I am sure we will go one day, but for now, I am happy with our experience with Legoland. 

Even with our selfie stick, we only came back with one family picture..and it isn't even a great one!

Sometimes Aleksi just crabs the wrong thing at the wrong time!

Aleksi looked like a little train conductor with his new hat. Thanks Anna!

Eerika posed with Darth Vader; Saku didn't really care...

This kid is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! He barely slept all day and he was so content and happy. 

Waterslides with regular clothes on

Baby swing. Aleksi wasn't that impressed but my arms got a break and he wasn't in a stroller.

Waiting in line is much better when isi holds you! Even when you are four:)

I was a bit nervous how the kids would handle this ride; however, Legoland was smart and they had different levels of twisting depending on the kids' ages. 

SO brave!

isi did not mind doing rides with his boy:)

Volvo Driving School

We had to pump our way to stop the robber...I worked very hard:)

Conquering highs with this darling girl

LEGO movie basement set.

Aleksi's one and only ride-

Losing steam but still having fun

Sometimes this girl puts on this face just because she wants to.

Eerika doing a ride all by herself.

"Girl Legos" though she doesn't really care in real life whether it is for boys or girls

Waiting in line to get on the BIG kid rollercoaster

Waiting makes a bit loony

Few minutes of relaxation while a group was singing and dancing

She thinks it's fun to suck her thumb...

Eerika's rain coat

Eerika's driving school

Aleksi was happy to be exploring some dirt

Overprice pizza buffet taste delicious after 9 hours of walking and when kids eat for free

This was her response to "give me a normal happy smile".

Saku is 6!!

Saku this is what it looks like when you turn six. 

When you are six, you get very excited about your birthday. You wake up before anyone else and kick the floor as a sign that you are awake and ready for your breakfast in bed and presents tradition. 

Your sister gives you an awesome present: a slime factory.

Isi and äiti make you do a scavenger hunt with six clues. You end up finding 44 dollars (two 20 dollar bils and four one dollar bills). You feel rich! You are instructed to use that money for a new bike. 

You have pulla and chocolate milk for breakfast. 

You go and do tricks at the skateboard park, but only for a while because it is so hot.

You swim with bunch of your friends and have a great time. Will, Ethan and Curtis come to swim with you.  You have cookies and ice cream as a birthday cake. Your request for dinner was alfredo sauce with shells 

Father's Day 2015

We were in Avondale for Father's Day. We doubled up Father's Day and Saku's birthday celebration when we still can do weekend trip to Phoenix.

On Sunday, the Primary kids sang for Father's Day. Eerika went up with these strangers and sang with them. I don't know how much she actually sang as we hadn't been practicing those songs, but I loved her confidence and bravery for jumping into a situation like that. 

Troy received a SodaStream and Grandpa got a small droid to play with.

The kids enjoyed Troy reading poems to them. 

Saku got a new bike for his birthday. He has taken such a good care of it so far. He wanted to use his new towel as a bike cover to protect it from sun. 

He biked to the park in 90 degree weather and then went for a 1.5 mile ride with me, Saku biked and I ran.

The first thing he wanted to do this morning at 6:50 was to go biking in the back yard. 

I would say that this birthday present was the perfect one for him.

It is an 18 inch wheel one and he can go fast with it. 

Saku is officially a big boy!