Eerika's First Love

It should be noted that on Friday May 27th, Eerika fell in love with Luke. Luke came over for a play date and the kids happily played. When it was time to take Luke home, Eerika came to me  "guess what, Luke wants to marry me and I want to marry him too". Both of the kids are smiling at me and looking. So I happily respond, it would be awesome if you got married after your missions and going to college. Both also wanted to become doctors.  Just as we are about to step out of the door, I can hear Eerika whispering to Luke "do you really want to marry me" and he smiles and nods his head.  He also wrote down his phone number for Eerika and later Eerika said that she needs to keep the paper so she can call him as a teenager.  When we came home few hours later, the first thing she did was write  "Luke and Eerika fell in love" on the piece of paper where Luke had written his number.

We did reminder that she can't be kissing Luke until she is married. Troy said not until after her mission. And she cant really date him until she is 16. 

Let's hope that she will be this open about all of her crushes. 

Eerika's Last Day of Pre-K

We survived two weeks of sickness. We have never had anything like this.

Eerika had her last day of Pre-K today. She got to the leader and do show and tell. She took a treasure box that she had made with Grandma yesterday. She took Goldfish and marshmallows and fruit snacks. There is a girl, Piper, in her class who has a milk allergy. Last time Eerika wanted to be so conscious of Piper and wanted to make sure that she could have whatever the snack was. I made a mistake and made pumpkin cookies with milk. Eerika was so sad. SO this time, I made sure that there were original gold fish that don't have milk so she could have the same snack as everyone else. After the program at the school, Piper's mom came up to me and tearfully thanked me for including Piper in the snack. It was pretty awesome experience, not because it showed anything about me but just the reminder that little things make a difference.

Luke has been Eerika's most talked about friend. He is sort of a crazy kid, but he draws people to him. He loves to joke about hair and diapers; you know the typical boy stuff without being inappropriate.

I bought this dress for Eerika the day before her last day and I love it. Something about it's simplicity just compliments Eerika.  She also rocks the high bun look. 

Eerika enjoyed playing with Reagan at school. 

Mrs. Morton and Mrs. McDonald were so personally engaged with each student. This picture sums up Eerika's love for school, friends and her teachers. 

Troy was so sweet and wanted to share Eerika's last day. He ended up being five minutes late and missed Eerika's spotlight moment.  But the fact that he shows up for these types of events, shows his amazing dedication for his kids. I was too busy taking pictures and didn't quite listen carefully enough about the things Mrs. McDonald said about Eerika but I remember she mentioned how Eerika loved school, probably wished that she could do school during the summer, how she is very smart and ready for kindergarten. 

 

Eerika and Piper; I remember seeing an art work from Piper that was about Valentine's Day and I think it said something along the line s "Love is...playing with Eerika".

My precious ones

Troy is traveling to Baltimore. Ironically, I look forward to the kids going to bed and once they are in bed, I dont really do anything productive. But I have realized that about myself, I am not "to-do list" type of person, I don't feel more accomplished if I had worked all day at home doing different projects. I truly feel accomplished when I feel like I have been with my kids and connected with them. 

While I don't feel like I should be scrubbing our bath tubs at the end of the day, I dont also want to waste my time. And I find much joy in reading our blog and remembering the different things that happen to our family. 

I see these two every day but somehow today it really struck me to see these two brothers next to each other. They are 5 years apart but they are brothers and I think this will give them a bond for years to come. It is also crazy to think that Saku is almost 7.

Aleksi enjoys the trains. He loves putting the little guys in the trains just like he loves to put hats and helmets on lego guys. He has quite the excellent fine motor skills. 

Saku stayed home today from school since he had had fever yesterday. He was well enough to practice piano, do his homework, read books with me and finish his chore list from last week.  

Sometimes unstructured days can seem long, but I realized that I need to embrace these long days. It means more time to read, play games, for the kids to play together and just be together. We ended the day with a game of Go Fish and a Shopkins matching game. Eerika was a bit tired so she was tearful and neither one of the games was super successful. 

  

We were outside for about 5 minutes before the kids asked to go back. It was a bit windy and the kids got cold. It is crazy for the weather to be in the 40s in May, but I guess this is the reality of Spring in Colorado. 

I find Eerika's jacket, jeans and rain boots combo so adorable. We got the razors for free from someone in our neighborhood who had left them by their garage for anyone to pick up. I feel that this was a blessing as both of the kids like to ride them and their old ones were getting too trashed.

It had been raining in the afternoon so I asked if the kids wanted to go and jump in the puddles. There was no puddles and Aleksi wore Eerika's old Hello Kitty rain boots that were a bit too big for him and kept coming off. 

Eerika was ignoring Saku so he came outside and expressed his frustration. Fortunately this frustration only lasted about two minutes.

Aleksi loves being in the front yard. This picture shows how crowded our garage is. It is not well organized so it could be better if we put some energy into it, but we are really just excited for our 3 car garage. Aleksi also loves to jibber jabber while he plays which is shown here with his open mouth.

Aleksi likes to climb up on the trampoline and "jump" which is really him sort of skipping on it. He has a pretty good common sense not to go too close to the edge but it will be nicer to have a new trampoline with a net around it. 

A long week

I just got sucked into looking at pictures on instagram feed of a family who lost their little girl. I am not much a cryer when it comes to movies or books, but this is the second time that I have looked at an instagram feed of a family in this type of situation and I just want to cry. 

I just love our kids so much. And then I get tired after a week like this week and I feel guilty because I want few hours to myself while other parents have experienced the loss of a child. But I do have to give myself the permission to need a break so I can empathize and be patience and loving to them. I think that is what makes parenting so hard; it is an on-going job that wears you out no matter how much you love your kids. 

 Both Saku and Eerika are sick. They have fevers and they have literally slept most of the day. I don't remember this ever happening before. Saku doesnt ever nap, so the fact that he hasn't moved from the couch since 9 am is crazy. Eerika is a bit more perky and she actually ate some cereal, but even she just slept most of the day. We missed our last weekend of soccer games which was a total bummer since Saku has really enjoyed playing soccer and he has gotten very good at being midfielder and defending his goal.

Eerika has been so brave for the past four days since she got sick. She barely whines at all. In fact the only time she would was when Aleksi would jump on her while she was laying now. I think that is a good excuse to get a bit whiny. 

She didn't feel quite right on Wednesday but I took her to school anyway. She ended up falling asleep in class and has been sick since. She didn't have a fever yesterday but today it was back. 

Saku rocked his first week of doing his jobs. Today he didn't complete anything except piano since he was sick. I am proud of him. I can't wait to pay him after he completes his last job of vacuuming his room. Eerika missed many days because of her sickness but she rocked her sight word practice on Monday and Tuesday. 

Aleksi is doing fine. He loves being outside so I left Troy with the big kids and Aleksi and I did two exploration trips around the neighborhood. Aleksi loves being in the front yard and walked up and down the side walk. 

Aleksi learned another word. He now says "Go". He loves to say it. Our word count is up to four now: ball, yay and yeah and go.

Aleksi knows to put his shoes away to the shoe basket and he knows where to find his shoes. He signs "äiti" though it is his own version of the sign. He will now ask for me by signing "äiti" when I am not around.  Aleksi loves eating scrambled eggs, and sausage. He is weaned off from bottle!! He throws his tuttis at bed time which can be annoying because then he wont fall asleep without one. 

He continues to love dogs and balls. He goes to nursery and child watch at the Y without a problem. 

I ran 8.7 miles with Audra this morning and felt strong the whole time. We averaged 8:55 per mile. That is pretty good since we are talking the whole time. I have never had a running friend and I am super grateful to have someone that I can meet up with and run and get to know each other more. I feel like I have been able to reach out to more people since we moved here. I feel like I have found a social place that feels comfortable and where I feel like I am needed and people around me can rely on me. It feels really good. 

Cookie Thursday Picnic

We visit our house about once a week. Last week I had the fun idea of going there for a picnic for our Cookie Thursday. Saku and Aleksi find the basement creepy so they won't go and play there. The kids mostly just love playing in the dirt around the house. Saku loves finding random pieces of metal and whacking the ground with them. It is so fun to see the house with drywall. It is crazy to think that we will move in in two months. I really try not to think that somehow this house will magically make everything perfect but I am very excited for it. 

Also I should mention that while Troy is not a sweets person, he does love Cookie Thursdays. 

First week of Allowance

We started allowance with the kids this week. They each have a check list for each day and in order to get their money on Saturday, they will have to do all of their responsibilities each day. We decided that each kid would get their age in dollars; 10% goes to tithing, 50% to savings and rest they can spend. 

Saku is thriving with this. He is counting how much money he will have when he is 16 and he plans to buy a car. Eerika has completed her tasks but she needs a bit more direction. 

Let's see if we can keep this up.

Super Saturday

I attended a women's conference today and I found it very inspiring. I have felt a bit unsettled in my parenting. Somehow without a direction while we are doing many good things with our kids. 

Two of the classes that I attended got me fired up about being more intentional in my parenting and the way I teach our kids.

I also felt more committed to have planned FHEs and make sure I read the scriptures more. 

Lisa Johnson talked about the importance of communication and while I do think that Troy and I spend a lot of quality time with the kids, I needed to get this extra push to make sure that I am spending my time well with the kids and truly listening to them. 

So tonight, we gave them the special treat of falling asleep in our bed. They haven't been allowed to fall asleep there for a while because they were being too silly and loud last time they were falling asleep in our bed. As we laid in bed, I asked both kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Saku said "if things weren't dangerous in the world, I would want to be an Air Force pilot". Eerika responded "I want to be a mom, or maybe not because some people cant have kids".  Isi said he wanted to be a skier and a hockey player.

When I asked Saku what kind of girl he would want to marry, he first didn't know and then he said "I dont play with that many girls" but in the end he responded that he would like to marry "a nice girl".

Eerika answered that she wanted to marry Luke because "he is funny." 

Saku scored a goal in his game today. They won 4-2. Eerika seems a bit apathetic and also defeated in her soccer games. When the other team is better, she gives up. It is frustrating to watch because we feel like she has much athletic potential, but maybe she needs to mature more.

Aleksi didn't get a nap today but was such a happy boy all day long.  He enjoyed Chick-Fil-A, playing at the park, reading books with me and he went to sleep without a beep while holding three tuttis. 

Troy had cleaned the house while I was gone, which was a nice treat to come to after being so inspired spiritually.  I also ran 10 miles this morning which is the longest distance I have done in three years! My hips started feeling a bit tired, but I finished the 10 miles and felt good.