Eerika is six months! And I am loving her more than ever. I almost hate to write about how adorable, fun and lovable she is because words don't seem to do justice. She is full of smiles and fun little noises and she seems to have quite the big personality, yet so different from her brother.

She babbles and the babbling actually sounds like she is talking, which of course, she really isn't. And she loves to stick out her tongue and blow bubbles.

She still doesn't love the car seat but she is much better. She has even started to fall asleep there every once in a while.

Eerika at 6 months and Saku at 25 months

There are many days when my kids end up spending most of the day just in their diapers because I am too lazy to keep changing outfits.

She eats solids foods and she loves all and everything. She has figured out how to pick up the little cereal puff and likes to stuff her little face with them. She is a messy, oh so messy, eater.

Carrots are especially tricky to clean off.

She still wears size two diapers during the day and a size three at night. Her thighs are still nice and chubby, but I'm afraid that they are starting to get little thinner.

Eerika is ticklish. When I kiss her on her neck or on her tummy, she lets out this laugh that just makes my day. She also laughs when you tickle her around her thighs.

She is one tough cookie. She takes a lot of unintentional and intentional "beating" from Saku. If she actually does cry, I know she was hurting or got really scared.

She sits up on her own and has started to scoot around. She has a special Eerika move that she scoots on her back by pushing legs against the floor and lifting her butt. She also rolls around a lot more than Saku ever did. The girl knows how to get from place to place.

She is wearing the oh so stylish jeggings (thanks to Camille)

She can fit into nine months clothes and is in the 16 pound range. Her hair color is still undetermined but her eyes seem to stay blue.

We are down to two naps a day. It makes life little easier to only have two naps and it gives me a chance to spend one-on-one time with Saku and get some much needed time for myself when both kids are sleeping at the same time in the afternoon.

We don't do a night feed anymore; she does wake up once a night usually and cries for few minutes and then falls back to sleep. Oh it is wonderful to sleep multiple hours in a row. I think everyone has enjoyed a well rested mom.

When she wakes up, she usually talks to herself and we hear her on the baby monitor. When we go to get her, Saku and I say, "herätys prinsessa" (wake up, Princess) and she rolls over and gives us a huge smile. Then Saku usually likes to climb into the crib or pack-n-play and lay next to Eerika.

It is so cliche, but I can't even imagine our life without this little girl.

Saku-the little wizard with words

Saku is absolutely hilarious nowadays. So here are few instances to record that have left us laughing, and amazed.

The other day, we went to our park and saw a girl with a puppy. She came up to Saku and asked if he would like to pet the puppy. Saku likes to introduce us when he meets new people. So he promptly pointed at me and said "mommy", which was little strange since he always calls me äiti. Then he pointed at Troy and said "ummm.... hmmmm... Troy". Nope, not isi or even dad or daddy, just Troy. Troy said it made him feel like he was my boyfriend and not the husband or the father.

Saku recognizes my running clothes and tells us "äiti juoksee". Mom runs. It makes me happy to know that he is aware of my running routine. And nothing makes me feel better than hearing him cheer for me "go äiti".

Today I got dressed after my afternoon workout and Saku was watching Yo Gabba Gabba on the bed. He looked up and said "ohh äiti on kaunis". (mom is beautiful". Needless to say I felt like million bucks and gave him a huge hug and a kiss.

Saku is fascinated with poop. After a diaper change, he noticed how much poop there was. He first said "iso kakka" (big poop), then "norsu kakka" (elephant poop) and then "Shamu kakka" (as in the killer whale Shamu poop.) I was amazed that he knew to compare the size and accurately went bigger and bigger with his comparisons.

At Brian and Alia's house, Troy was going to show Brian's motorcycle to Saku since Saku is obsessed and in love with motorcycles. They were on the way to the garage when Troy checked if he would want to sit on the motorcycle and Saku said "yes" and then few seconds later said "never mind" and turned around to get back to playing with Cameron.

As we left Camille's house last Friday, I opened the passenger window on Saku's side so he could say and wave good bye to Trevor and Haley. Saku liked it so much that we ended up flipping an U so he could wave and yell goodbye again. It makes me very happy to see him liking his friend and getting attached to them in a two year old way.

Few months ago, we would joke around with Saku and say "guess what?" "chicken butt", but he never really caught onto it. Then randomly few days ago, he asked me "guess what?" and when I said "what?", he answered "chicken butt".

He can also finish the sentences for I am a child of God and the BYU fight song.

I know every parent feels this way, but we sure feel like our boy is a very intelligent and funny.

Saku, thanks for making our daily lives so fun and interesting.

Job vs. Career

I have had many jobs in the past 1o years; gymnastics coach, care giver, secretary, retail, janitor, cheese factory janitor, and patient care technician.

For a few months, I kind of felt like I started my career as a registered nurse. I worked full time, and then part-time. I enjoyed it, but it was too hard to balance everything and everyone's needs. Now I work about twice a month. It is nice to keep up my skills and get some extra money. And the adult conversation doesn't hurt either.

For now, being a nurse is a job. And being a mom is my career. This is the way it should be.

No matter where you work, you have crappy days at work. Or days when you really have to work hard to enjoy your day and make the best out of it. When this happens at the hospital, I know I just have to get through the 12 hours and I will get to go home. When I have a rough day at home, it is more difficult. It is hard because I love my little kids. I want what is best for them. I want to just love them and be happy with them all day long, but it just isn't reality. And this isn't a sob story about the difficulties of being a stay at home mom. There are times when you forget how difficult life can be and while I want to remember the good times, I also want to remember the little struggles so I can look back and say to myself "you can do hard things".

Today is one of those tough days.

When I got home from my 4 mile run, Troy informed me that it would probably be a long day with Saku. And there have been a good amount of those moments so far.

When Saku was younger, I was really strict about how much TV he would watch. To be honest, it made me feel like a lazy mom to let him just watch TV when I felt that I should have been playing with him. On most days, Saku still doesn't watch TV, but today PBS kids (on the iPad) saved my sanity. I have learned to be more flexible my ideals so my daily reality can be little easier and better for everyone.

It does help that these two kids are so adorable and beautiful.

I can't believe Saku actually put his arm around her.

Eerika has finally reached the age of six months where I feel like life gets easier. She really gets so much more beautiful and fun each day.

One nice thing about "working at home" is that I get to choose when I get a "bonus" or a "pay raise". Tonight's bonus will be a skinny cow ice cream sandwich when the kids are in bed and Troy is giving me a foot rub. (Troy, hope you read this on time)

Pure Awesomeness

Saku started his Sunday by reading the comics.

Saku wore his nice Sunday suit for the first time on Sunday. I must say he was very handsome. And it was funny to see how he liked the fact that we kept saying how good looking he was.

When we got home, he decided that he wanted to listen to my jogging headphones.

He wore them backwards, which made it look like he had a retainer on.

And then it was imperative that he brushed his teeth at the same time.

Do you ever wish that you could do these ridiculous things and still look adorable and cute instead of "what is wrong with you??"

My Monday

Mondays can be so blah. I know there are people who embrace the chance to start a new week, but I usually wish that we could have few more Saturday and Sundays so Troy would be home with us. I just really enjoy my husband and obviously parenting is easier when there are two of us to take care of the kids and entertain them.

However, yesterday was great. Saku had slept in his big boy bed and we woke up to his noises in the kitchen. When Troy walked there, Saku was cutting my coupon inserts with scissors. And he was really excited since he obviously doesn't get to play with scissors unsupervised.

The kids played happily while I cleaned the kitchen after breakfast.

Saku showing me where he got hurt. He is slightly (read: extremely) sensitive child.

Heather and the kids came over in the morning. James and Saku have a rough time playing together, but yesterday, they had a great time. It was such a relief since I love Heather. She is my first friend here in Tucson and our friendship has truly made my life better. She is one seriously busy mom with James (3 years) and Ella and Julia (16 months). Our play dates are busy with five kids three years old and under.

The boys worked on puzzles for a while.

While the girls chilled on the floor. Eerika sits well on her own now.

Every once in a while she does fall back so a pillow is always a good thing to have behind her.

Look at those cheeks!

I think Eerika was happy to have Ella and Julia there. While the girls are a lot more advanced than she is, they would sit around with her and play with toys.

Beautiful Heather with two unhappy(at the time) girls

In the evening, Alia, Brian and Cameron came over for dinner and FHE. Cameron and Saku play really well together, which makes it a lot more relaxing time for everyone. For dinner, I tried out a new recipe called "Pollo Asado" by the pioneer woman and I must say that it was delicious. Alia provided a great lesson on obedience. Saku actually listened. I think he was happy to have a different type of lesson than what we usually do. We had bought two small chairs from DI and we call them our "FHE chairs". I'm hoping that Saku will learn to sit quietly and listen for a short periods of time this way.

Alia read book about Noah and Saku enjoyed pointing out the different animals. Cameron was distracted by Saku's car book. But at least everyone was content:)

It was a great way to start the new week--I also did a great work out during the kids' nap time so I was all around a happy woman by the end of the night.

If every day would be like this..

Yesterday, we had an amazing monsoon. It rained like crazy, which cooled the air. I told Troy that I wouldn't mind living in Tucson if it rained every evening during the summer months. I can always dream.

Saku played in the water and mud and was in heaven.

He put on his rain boots and I got an adorable picture of his naked bum.

Eerika chilled on the patio with me and ate some puff snacks

I love this little face.

She is getting little more hair and it is a whole lot darker than Saku's ever was.

Happy Fourth of July!

Fourth of July was a fun one this year. I worked the night before so I slept few hours in the morning. While the kids napped, Troy and I made a delicious potato salad and watched few episodes of Prison Break. I had hoped to have enough energy to run few miles before heading over to the Tucker's and consuming tons of delicious food. However, I was way too tired to do that so I opted to cuddling with the handsome hubby instead.

Camille&Birch and Katie&Dan came over as well. It was a house full of kids and most of the time, they played well together and had a blast. In the evening it started to rain, so we got to enjoy some cooler weather. The kids swam in a kiddie pool and ran in the mud.

Camry and Jesse had bought some firecrackers and Saku thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Eerika's signature "I'm so happy to see you face"

Naked boy+lots of water and mud=perfection

I'm grateful to have such great friends that make celebrations so fun.