Saku before school

I love how Saku looks when he wears his leather jacket. I don't dictate what my children wear, except for Aleksi who can't decide for himself, but it is nice when Saku is put together and looking nice when going to school.

These pictures show Saku pretty well. Happy to go to school. Hair a bit too long, especially around his ears. Loving to his brother. And showing his love of reading. There is even a peek of his dead tooth in the third picture. 

March Update

Overall these kids play so nicely together. Eerika and Aleksi happily share my attention during the school day and when Saku comes home, Eerika is usually so happy to play with him. There are some closed doors that make Aleksi unhappy when the big kids want to be left alone. Eerika and Saku are sleeping in Saku's room. Some nights they even share Saku's top bunk. I think this satisfies Eerika's desire for "chit chat" at bedtime and h

Saku is reading the Harry Potter series the second time. He does get reclusive when reading and we are trying to encourage him to find another series to read but he is pretty set on reading them again. He is currently on book #4. Just to reference that he read the first Harry Potter book for the first time right after Christmas. So he has read 10 Harry Potter books in two and half months. His reading skills are obviously off the charts so he gets taken out once a week for an advanced reading group. 

Saku will start soccer at the end of this month. He wasn't too happy when I told him that I had signed him up. He said he "had experienced soccer and wanted to try football". 

Aleksi is currently playing in the basement while I sit on the treadmill and watch him. He really likes playing in the basement for whatever reason. He has a snotty nose and a cough again. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries and continues to cry, I will check on him. I walk him, tucked him under a blanket and I ask him "would you like another song". Most of the time, he is happy to go back to sleep after this thirty second ordeal. We struggle with food throwing. He is more attached to his tutti, or he tends to have it in his mouth more. I am not as strict about making sure that he leaves it in his crib. Aleksi is overall very happy. He is obsessed with his toothbrush and toothpaste. He likes to practice handstands with Eerika. And he loves when he finds a friend who is willing to throw a ball with him. He remembers where to chocolate chips are and will ask for them. He doesnt like when he gets told no.

No words from Aleksi. He will say "mamama" in an urgent voice when he wants and needs something. However, he understands and processes so much. And he clearly communicates his preferences nonverbally.

Troy did his annual ski trip to Utah. He had very early travel on Friday and very late travel on Saturday coming home so he was a bit tired on Sunday. Aleksi wanted to give him some loves. Work has started to go much better for Troy in the Springs. He has many, many meetings with the companies that he works with and he has to wear more dressy clothes than he would like. He tends to enjoy the five dollar Taco Tuesday meal at Cafe Rio when he is up in Denver. In the evenings, he spends his time playing games like Ticket To Ride and Rummikub with the big kids or playing catch with Aleksi. We wind down with Madam Secretary, Bones or Dowton Abbey or discussing our next house features.

Eerika and Friends

Eerika has made new friends with Ivy and Sophie. They are twins and five months older than her, but will go to Kindergarten with her next year. So far, knock on wood, they play so nicely. We went on a hike with them to Red Rock Canyon a week ago and the girls loved exploring together. Sophie and Eerika would run fast while Ivy took her time hiking with Jess and I. We also had dinner with them that night since Troy was out of town and the girls were happy until the end of the day. 

The girls also came over for a day and the girls couldn't get enough of each other. They got to eat lunch and dinner together and do make overs and play pretend all day. Eerika actually cried when the girls went home; it was partly being tired but it shows how much she likes these new friends. 

Cookie Thursday

We have done a Cookie Thursday for two weeks now. We make cookies and invite friends over. I feel that this is a good way to be social and have something fun to look forward to right before the weekend.

Eerika loves helping out with cooking and baking. And she sure loves licking the beaters and taste testing the dough. Just like her äiti.

Once Aleksi sees chocolate chips, he is completely focused on them and keeps making noise until I give him some. And yes, without a fail, I give him some. 

Snack Time

We have not been much of a snacking family. We eat three meals a day unless I have the munchies, but my kids barely ask for snacks. However, this year we seem to do an afternoon snack. Saku is hungry after school, which means that everyone gets a snack.

This week Aleksi and I went to Sprouts and came home with a huge selection of good produce. We bought some grapes and they were absolutely delicious. The kids, especially Aleksi, ate them like they were candy.

Saku is still wearing his jacket as we only had half an hour between coming home from school and going to Eerika's gymnastics lesson.

Aleksi feeds himself most of the time. It is messy and Saku seems very concerned about how gross and messy he is.  Aleksi liked putting his grapes into his yogurt cup.

Yogurt covered little fingers on a toy car. 

Aleksi at 16 months

This kid is sixteen months old. No words. But zero worry from us. 

Aleksi loves balls. He will keep pointing to the basketball hoop during sacrament meeting. He will bring you balls and expect you to play catch with him.  He will use spoons or spatulas as hockey sticks to hit balls with. He also loves when Eerika plays with him with the popper and when Eerika pretends to get hurt.

He will freak out when we leave him with a baby sitter or at child watch (at the Y), but recovers within a minute or two and happily plays until we get back. Once we are back and he sees us, he runs to us so quickly just in case we would have plans to leave him again. 

He got another tooth last week. I have no idea how many he has in total. 

He learned to sign "stinky" this week. He will even tell us that he is stinky if he has been sitting in his poop for a while. 

He loves being outside as long as it is not too windy. 

We make it through about 30-45 minutes of sacrament meeting each week and then one of us in the hallway with him. Though he doesn't get to play there, but sit on our lap. He will fold his arms (two hands together in a fist) for a prayer. 

If I am using my phone while he feels I should be paying attention to him, he will keep swatting at the phone. He has started to watch shows on PBS kids on my phone. He will push the buttons a lot which drives the older kids crazy if they are trying to watch the show as well. He will sometimes sit down and watch a show on the TV on his own. He prefers to sit on my lap while doing it which defeats the purpose. 

He loves it when someone is chasing him and he loves running in circles through the kitchen.

He still gets sad when I leave him with Troy. Or sometimes even when I go upstairs without him. 

We continue to read books and he can point out a frog, a dog, a fish and a bird. Also airplane, garbage truck, school bus and a helicopter. 

He has been sleeping well for the past week-no cough and no teething. It has been amazing. 

He is more attached to his tutti than the other were or maybe I should say that I let him walk around with it more. I need to restrict tutti to stay in the crib and I need to wean him off his bottle. Some things just make my life a bit easier.

I Think They Like Each Other