9th Wedding Anniversary

Ever since we go married, we decided that we'll return to our wedding church every anniversary and have our picture taken. Not by some professional, but just someone passing by. It's nice to look at these photos, see the change in us, first just the two of us, then a baby, then a toddler + a baby, then a little boy+toddler+ baby and now two bigger boys and a toddler. I think we'll stop at that and just watch these three howler monkies grow.

Tuomas was not in the mood for a picture, so this is the result. Just as we are :-)

I'm off to Belgium on a businsess trip. For five days I don't have to worry about cooking, cleaning, just my teeth I have to brush and if somebody stands up at dinner and shouts "I need to go to the bathroom, number two coming!" I don't need to pay attention. Back in October with more pictures and news!

"Guess what animal?"

Tuomas loves this game. He usually starts with:"Guess what animal lives in the African sea?" It sounds a lot more fun with his very strong French "r"! The answer can be anything from whale, giraffe, lion, fox, hummingbird shark (they can grow up to 200 m long, did you know that?), woodpecker shark (slightly smaller than the hummingbird shark) to anything. And as you can see, it doesn't have to live in the sea. Also guesses about fauna of the French Sea are popular. And if I ask for a hint he usually blurts out the answer straight away. Fun game.

Last night we played it again driving back home. It was my turn:

M:"This animal has four legs and people drink its milk?"
T:"WOMAN!" (technically correct, but not the answer I was thinking about)
M:"Not quite, it's an animal." (well, humans _are_ animals not plants)
T:"MOTHER!" (lately I've acted like one, so not a surprising answer, I guess)
M:"No, this one has horns."
T:"RHINO!" (I'm using capitals since he shouts his answers)
M:"No, this animal lives in Finland."
T:"FOX!" (must have forgotten the initial clue)
M:"It says 'mooooooo' "
T:"COW!"

He is a smart kid :-)

Achievements

Friday, Tuomas, nurse's appointment: age 3.5 years, height 111 cm, only 7 cm taller than Risto at the same age.

Sunday, Risto, swimminghall: Risto wanted to go jumping from 3 m to the pool. I said there was a big sign saying that one had to be able to swim 25 m without any help in order to be allowed into the big pool. So, he swam the 25 m, climbed up to 3 meters and jumped. And swam back with a huge smile and did it 10 times more.....

Sunday, Jaakko, livingroom: he found my knitting and the big needles, apparently used the needles as drums sticks (DH saw him do it, but before he was able to react somebody screamed or something similar that took his attention and being a typical non-knitting male forgot about Jaakko and the "drumsticks"). So now a have the knitting with the loose stitches and the needles are nowhere to be found.
Risto drew me a picture on Friday to cheer me up. DH, himself and me with my hair standing up. The boxes around the knees (as if you'd need to ask.... like I did) are shorts, obviously. There's an orange flower and grass (oh, BTW, Tuomas and Jaakko are at the summer place, that's why you can't see them!), our car with what seems like four steering wheels, the paved parking place, our white house i.e. the faint white line encircling the four barred windows. The picture did make me happy. Our Bionicle Family.

Theological questions, once again

"Mom, why is it that God never dies, but people do. It's so unfair!!!"