Best Buds

On most days when I ask Saku what he wants to do, he mentions his friend Cameron. He also talks about Alia and Brian's motorcycle very frequently. Saku and Cameron make a good match since Cameron is little less intense than Saku is.

Cameron came over for a morning and the boys had a great time. They played in the mud. Cameron laughed at Saku's ridiculous behavior of spitting juice on his bed. They enjoyed 15 minutes of Baby Einstein when everyone needed a short moment to calm down. They devoured two plates of Pastaroni each.

Cam sucks on his fingers and Saku chews on his.

Cameron being adorable!

Cameron started to give a hug to Saku without any prompting from us.

Saku was obviously very focused on the TV since Cameron's wrestling moves didn't phase him.

Saku wore this hat for 2 minutes and then used it to scoop up some water and mud.

I'm glad Saku has a buddy like Cameron.

Magic!

Starla came for a visit. It was magical. This is how our five days together looked liked.

Olive Garden (without kids!!)

Looking at houses

Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Fudge (x3 nights)

Bananagrams

Chocolate Cake- out of this world!

Chocolate Chip Cookies-I ate about 20

Swimming

Talking

Laughing

Going Blond again

Girls' Night Out to see The Help

and

Saku and Eerika enjoying their Auntie Starla

After we dropped Starla off to the airport, Saku told me "lisää Starla" (more Starla) and I couldn't have agreed with him more.

My family is so blessed to have Starla in our lives.

We, Grossarth girls, don't get dressed up too often. Eerika wears cute clothes (thanks to multiple generous friends), but she hardly ever wears headbands because she pulls them off or I am just too lazy to put them on her. And most of the time, she just wears a onesie and her face has some remnants of breakfast/lunch/dinner. However, she can get away with it.

But there are moments when we get dressed up and girly and the results aren't too bad. Eerika has the most beautiful blue eyes, which really will be her best accessory for the rest of her life!

Look Out World-She is Coming

Troy keeps joking how Eerika better start crawling soon since Saku crawled at 7 months. In all seriousness, we don't care how fast or slowly she starts moving but she is getting very close to it. She has been doing the army crawl for the past week and now she gets on her hands and knees all the time and rocks a little bit. So there is a very good chance that she will be doing the real crawl around 7 months.

She is such a strong girl. I can't wait to see all the things she will accomplish!

Happy Baby Girl

Eerika likes to play peekaboo. She lets out a cute little giggle when you hide behind the bumper pads while she sits in her crib.

"Where did isi go?"

"oh, there he is"
"I am so happy to see you"
"aren't you having fun, too?"
Life sure is good when people are so happy to play with the cute baby girl.

She is also very strong. The other day I thought to myself, I'll just leave the side of the crib down when she sleeps because she is still so little and won't be going anywhere. And then we played in the crib and she started to pull herself up. So nope, I will not leave the side rail down.

"What are you guys doing on the floor?"

"I guess I'll just stand up to see"
"I like this view"

She fell shortly after this climb, but she sure is active and very mobile.

Loving Each Other

I must admit that during the first few weeks of Eerika's life, I wondered how I would survive having two kids so close in age. And it was little rough for a bit.

Now I am loving it. Of course, it is all not all fun and games. There are times when I have two screaming/crying children. I have to rescue Eerika from Saku's rough play and every once in a while, I have to rescue Saku when Eerika gets a good hold on his hair or wants to do a nice face grab. The only thing that I officially do not like about two kids is loading them into the car and unloading.

But as I watch them interact, I am so glad that they will have each other. While I can't each of them all my attention, I think they will learn things from each other that I wouldn't be able to teach them. I know there are other factors than just age difference that influence the relationship between siblings, but for now, I think these two will be great friends because they don't even know of a time when it was just one of them. Well for Eerika, there never was such time:)

Saku teaches Eerika about the coolness factor of wearing goggles when in the bath tub.

Eerika reminds Saku how fun it is to chew on bath toys

At times, they are just happy to be together. An older sibling is also an added benefit during the Eerika's separation anxiety stage and the fact that she likes to do this fake cry when we leave the room or walk by her without picking her up or playing with her, Saku's presence makes her comfortable.

Cute and silly together

Or just plain beautiful on her own

"äiti, we aren't doing anything suspicious"

"oh man, here we go again with him rolling on top of me"

Saku loves to roll on Eerika or try to sit on her while trying to be very discreet about it. Since Eerika barely ever makes a fuss about it, he can be quite successful.

Every day, with these two kids, is fun. Some days seem very long. Some seem like they just flew by. But without a question, every day I am blessed to be their äiti and witness the little miracles and adventures that are part of their childhoods.

And on mornings like this when it is 7:45 and they are still sleeping. I am extra energized to love them.

Believe in Yourself

Do you ever just fall in love again with your husband or feel this immeasurable feeling of gratitude for a friend that you've had for years?

This is how I feel lately.

I have been so grateful for the people around me who believe in ME. They look at me and they believe that I can do things that I am trying to do. They encourage me to try new things, reassure me that I am doing well at the things that I am doing and empathize with me when things go wrong.

In the past five + years, I have never doubted that Troy was the man that I needed to live the happiest life possible. Yet lately, I just look at him and I am filled with joy. This man is so good at supporting and believing in me. I have started running a lot lately and he keeps pushing me to run faster and longer. I think "I can't do this", he tells me to just try the pace and I actually run that fast. I love completing my work outs and reporting back to him. He gives me the "I told you so" but in this case, I can't be but happy that he is able to tell me that.

During my last week's shift, I made a mistake. It didn't harm the patient. The doctor didn't even care about it, BUT I made a mistake and it was making me feel really crappy. I started to wonder if I should even work. I wondered if I was competent enough. I started to worry if my co-workers take me seriously since I only work twice a month. So I called Starla. I knew that she would understand why I was feeling this way. And she did. She listened to me, let me vent and didn't belittle my feelings. She made me feel better and instilled confidence in my skills. Just like I knew she would.

If there is one place where Saku is pretty much guaranteed to be happy, it is at Cameron's house. He loves Cameron's toys and swimming and Cameron. Yet, there were about 10 minutes last Tuesday when both of my kids were crying. And I mean, full on crying and yelling as I was carrying them back inside from the swimming pool. Poor Eerika hadn't taken a nap all morning and was exhausted. Saku was upset about a toy that he just couldn't have. While I really was not that upset at the situation, no one wants to leave a play date with two screaming children. There is always a little piece of you that wonders "what do the other moms think of me and my kids?" Later that evening, I got an email from Alia saying that she thought that I handled the situation so well. Thanks to Alia for that. Moms can never get enough "job well done" since our job takes so much out of us and never really stops.

Because of these people and many more, I have more confidence in myself. There will be slow days of training, cranky patients and long hours, tempter tantrums and too many chores with no enough sleep and the list goes on and on. But I am grateful that I have so many things going on in my life and people who keep me going when I think about giving up or taking a break.