No School Blues Here

Both of the kids love school. It is so nice. Of course there are mornings when Saku would rather sleep in, but after he gets out of bed, he is happy to go to school.

I also love that school doesn't start until 8:15. This means we dont even have to wake up until 7 am. Last year Saku and isi had to leave by 7:10 to get to school on time so this is a big chance for us. 

Saku's school does have a bell, which Mesquite didn't have last year, so it is very clean if you are late. We have started to use the drop off lane in the mornings but in the afternoon, we still bike/walk or at least park the car nearby the school and walk a bit. I refuse to sit through the crazy traffic of pick up lane. I might change my mind once the winter hits;)

Spontaneous Family Pictures

We have tried to be good about going out and exploring the nature around the Springs. On Sunday we checked out Fox Run Regional Park, which was about 20 minutes from our house. I had resurrected our nice camera few days before and took it with us. There were at least four other people doing official baby/maternity/senior pictures. Saku was the photographer for most of our pictures. That is how official we were. 

Sometimes you choose a picture because you like the way you look in it:)

Church clothes and flip flops.

Aleksi fell and hit his head right before this picture. But it also illustrates how he has felt in the past week with a cold and teething.

September Happenings

Happy findings about the Springs (we are local now and have to call it that): 

garbage man is so nice. He will pick up any extra trash that we set next to our garbage can and he will take our garbage can up on our driveway afterwards. Also the mail woman came to personally introduce herself to me the other day.

I was asked to teach in Relief Society last Sunday and to Troy and my surprise, I actually loved it. We still don't have callings. Troy was also asked to teach in Elder's Quorum, so he will be teaching this upcoming Sunday. Our ward is full of fast athletes, both cyclist and runners, so I emailed the RS and asked about running with people. Last Friday my alarm went off at 5:45 and I ran 5 miles with two of the girls in our ward. 

Aleksi has been miserable again with cough and runny nose. He was healthy for a week or two but tonight, I felt a little tooth coming through his upper gums. I don't remember teething being so miserable for the other two, but I am sure I have just forgotten. He can stand on his own and can take one or two shake steps and then he decides to just crawl. Or if he is in between Troy and I, he just falls into our arms (think of a trust fall). 

Eerika started a pre-K program at a local methodist preschool. She LOVES it. We do a carpool with three other families so each time she gets to ride with three of her friends. Four four-year olds make quite an entertaining company for those rides. Eerika is a bit of a one upper. She has learned to ride bike and loves to cruise around the neighborhood. 

Saku continues love to school. He is not a fan of Spanish, which he has each Friday. I think he just isn't used to learning a language in a "learning a second language model" as he has only done immersion with Chinese and obviously Finnish and English. He continues to love biking to school and especially from school as it is all downhill back home. 

Troy has been commuting to Denver. It makes his days long, BUT the upside is that he has every Friday off. So we have been doing fun family outings, or he has been doing longer bike rides. 

We have started to look at houses. Yes we have lived in our rental all 21 days. It is a bit disappointing how small the lots are here and how much they still cost if we want to stay in the neighborhood where we are renting. Troy isn't a fan of the neighborhood because the houses are so close together. But he is a fan of having such a happy wife:) I am loving being so close to everything. We have target 1.5 miles away from us, the school and church are mile away, and the grocery store is 2 miles away AND Costco is 10 minutes away. Plus the local library is amazing. 

I truly feel happy here. Eerika cried once about missing her friends. Saku has mentioned missing Tucson several times. Troy misses our old home, which sold on the day that we moved into our rental. Talk about a serious blessing and seeing God's hand in our life. 

SCHOOL.

I LiKE SCHOOL I LiKE My FRENDS.

I Bike to school.

Saku's first blog entry

Pre-K at Calvary for Miss E

Miss Eerika has started her Pre-K program at Calvary Preschool.  She really needed something that was her own and she has loved it.  We counted down the days. She went to the open house and met her teachers plus toured the school and had a cookie. S

She has her own little cubby and she gets to take a lunch box with her since her school hours are 9-1 pm on Mondays and Wednesday. She jumps out of bed and gets ready when I gently give her a nudge in the morning and say "are you ready for school".

She is a bit tired after she gets home and did fall asleep in the stroller last week and today I forced a quick 30 minute nap on her, but everything has been positive so far.

She also bravely bore her testimony at church on our first fast Sunday in the ward. 

Dear Saku-September edition

Dear Saku,

We are going through a transition period that I am not sure how to navigate. You are at school for seven hours each day and you tell me that you "love it".  You are happy to go there and you are happy when we pick you up. And then you get tired when we get home. You want your space, you want to play with Eerika but on your own terms, you want to go to the park and be with friends and you still need our snuggles and cuddles. I am not sure if I am giving you all that you need. I hope you don't feel neglected. There are some strong emotions going on with anger and frustration. Eerika, unfortunately, is still very good at pushing your buttons.

You are doing really well with academics. You read like a rockstar. There is very few words that you can't read. You do your math homework smoothly. You speed read through the sight words assigned. 

You have mastered bike riding and cruise home from school. It is nice to have all downhill. You have even learned to use the garage code so you have come home, as you make it there faster than I do, and gone in inside through the garage.

You miss your friends. It is not apparent all the time, but when you are tired, you express some degree of loneliness. I think this move is hardest on you. However, you have made friends with James who is in your class and lives up the street from us. 

You are so good at talking to adults. You made a friend with a sixty year old lady who was fishing at Palmer Lake and you spent a good half an hour chatting with her and she even let you fish with her. You also played disc golf with a random guy and gave him our life story. You politely "excuse me, can you help me?" talked to the librarian yesterday without any prompts from me. I hope you never lose the ability to make friends and learn from people around you. 

You have a hard time falling asleep so we have let you fall asleep in our bed for the past few nights. When I carry you back to your bed, I just cant believe how big you are. 

You are getting a bit goofier than before. I can't really explain it but I think the next few years will be interesting with your sense of humor and being a boy of certain age.

I love you. I do wish that you would be home a bit more. I will try to be more conscious of the attention and time that you need from me. 

Having your own bike lock is pretty awesome.

Paddle boarding at Palmer Lake up in Monument, Colorado area.

Reading definitely helps you to relax when life gets a bit too much.

You were a bird feeding expert at the zoo.

Adorable Aleksi

Aleksi is almost 11 months old. 

He is still not walking. This totally surprises me, but he does crawl fast so maybe he doesn't feel the need to walk?!

Isi taught him how to clap and give high five over the past weekend. 

He has taken few falls down the stairs. Fortunately, only one of them was a big one and Troy caught him as he tumbled down. However, he did bite his lip and as those facial cuts bleed so nicely, there was blood everywhere. He has figured out how to crawl down the stairs since the fall and turns to his tummy at the top of the stairs. It still isn't safe to let him do it on his own but we haven't bought a gate yet...

He can get quite frustrated with eating. He will try to swat the food off your hands. He prefers feeding himself finger foods. I think we are on our way of weaning him off nursing. 

He is back in his own room after two and half weeks of sleeping in the hotel bathroom and he sleeps great again. I have noticed that he does toss and turn, sit up and lay down and "play" in the pack-n-play but he seems content with this sleep routine. We don't have his crib set up because Troy's tools went missing during the move. 

Aleksi seems to be a bit more whiney around me. Troy reports that he is perfectly happy playing on his own until he hears my voice, after I get home from a run. 

Aleksi only has the two bottom teeth.  He has a good set of hair and I think we will need to figure out how to give him a hair cut soon so he doesn't have a mullet.

He prefers to be in Troy or my arms but he will give social smiles and reach out for people.