10th wedding anniversary

Our 10th wedding anniversary was way back in September, but  we did not have the chance to have our traditional wedding day picture taken until mid November. But after our trip to Japan, DH's to Scotland and a couple of colds, once again an innocent passer-by was stopped in front of our wedding church and asked to snap a picture of our happy family just as it is.

The end of November was a challenging one with all the boys having severe colds + ear infections, I was blessed with sinutitis.  We're all better now, waiting for Christmas (not a single preparation for the holiday made so far....) and still not knowing where we'll spend it.

Despite the depressing snowless, but wet and cold winter, we're all in good spirits.

Over and out.

Time, time, time

Unfortunately there is only 24 hours per day in my world, too. Wake up at 0620 (for some of you this might not sound too bad, but keep in mind that I used to wake up at 0730 the earliest and be at the office by 9 am), quick breakfast and out of the house by 0715, car+bus+metro+bus to work, work until it's time to pick up the small boys from day-care by 1700 (after 1h of commuting), cook dinner, spend time with the boys (play, if it's a good day; try to separate them from each other if it's a bad one), the boys in bed by 2100 (check Risto's homework before that), clean dinnertable, kitchen, laundry etc., talk to DH, sit brain dead in front of the telly, to bed by 2200 (hasn't happened too many times) in order to get enough of sleep. It you can find a time slot when I could blog (and edit some pictures), please tell me!!!

But what has happened... last weekend was interesting: one broken ceramic vase (wedding gift from Iceland), one broken ceramic mug (a really nice one from Norway) and one broken wine glass (Ikea, not a great loss) + one bleeding nose. Sounds bad, eh?!? Jaakko broke the vase when vacuum cleaning (hey, he'lll be 3 in a couple of weeks and should be able to do his share of housework), it way really my fault, I'd left it on a low window sill. The wine glass broke in the dishwasher and DH banged the mug accidentally on the kitchen counter. The only thing that wasn't accidental was Tuomas' nose bleed: Risto "rubbed" their noses against each other a bit too affectionatey ("no, I didn't mean to hurt him"... do you believe him?). Risto was misbehaving in so many ways that the TV remains shut for this week and he gets to walk to school and back every day. This gives him plenty of time to think about his behaviour. But the weekend wasn't a total disaster; MIL was over for dinner on Saturday (and when we sat down to eat I remembered that it was our 11th engagement anniversary) and we started getting the guest house ready for my sewing and knitting stuff!!!

Pictures... soon... I promise....

A new family member!!!

Ok, don't get excited. DH has just finally decided what our next car will be and told the boys Friday night:"Our new car arrives right after our trip to Japan.... or was it America.... oh, damn!" So, we're off to Osaka on Wednesday and then take the bullet train after one night to Tokyo. Unfortunately Lenny Kravitz turned ill and cancelled his concert. That was DH's plan for Friday! He did think about extending our stay until November (the concert will be held then), but then he remembered that he's going to Scotland beginning of October, so we must come back home.

Clara left yesterday, feels so strange.... I mean using the washing machine again!!! My friend told me to try to find some luxury in it, since I haven't done it in a looooooooooooooooong time. I'm afraid that the luxury will wear out pretty soon.

No pictures this time. Hopefully soon and a story about geo-caching!

Travelling

The boys are happy to play make believe travelling. They used to want to go to China all the time, mainly because I've told them that in China you're allowed to slurp your soup. But lately Tuomas and Jaakko want to go to Australia. Tuomas has actually several times whined about when are we finally going to Australia, as if he had been promised a trip next week.

Last week one morning just as I was ready to leave for work Jaakko woke up and crawled into our bed. DH and him hid under the covers (sorry, it was a space shuttle...), DH asked Jaakko where they should go to. "Australia" was his answer. But the his answer to DH's question about what would they do there was something that you'd never guess:"Eat sausage soup!" I forgot to tell him that slurping is not allowed there.

Wednesday will take me to Paris, again, for one night. Then Wednesday next week DH and I are off to XXX to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. My father will look after the boys for the 5 days we're away.

Pictured above are my sister's two boys and daughter with our boys.

A new life

Our life has really changed lately with Risto in school and me starting at a new job. Plus we (or I) cancelled our subscription to the main newspaper. Ever since I was a kid Helsingin Sanomat has been a major part of my morning routine. But now that I'm commuting to the other side of the greater Helsinki area, I have hardly the time to have breakfast let alone to read something. DH hasn't read the paper during the week for years. Weekends we've enjoyed our breakfast reading the paper, but then again our dear little angels make it difficult. So, I cancelled it. 

Commuting is a new thing for me. Getting up a lot earlier, catching the bus, sitting in the metro. People walk like ants, knowing their destination in a single line right after one another. Funny. The first week of commuting I was able to knit half a meter of a scarf.

Above you can see what my ex-colleagues gave me. I wear the jewellery  every day. The long one is actually a test specimen!

(Oh, our lives will change even more dramatically on Sunday when Clara, our au pair, goes back home to Germany!)

News flash

Oops, it's been two months since my last up-date. Here is a list of excuses:

1. I got a new camera in April and earlier this summer I started shooting in RAW. Which meant that the files were 12MB and our PC was too slow to work with them -> we have a brand new MAC now which a lot more capacity. Being new to the MAC world and RAW world I'm still in the learning process and I wanted to put piccies in the blog -> didn't blog at all.

2. I'm changing jobs and finally about a month ago (that long?!?!) I got the new contract signed and am starting in September. I didn't want to say anything about it until it was confirmed.

3. Summer vacation. No time to blog.

4. Risto started school last week. 

5. I'm pregnant..... oops, that's a lie ;-)

Summer vacation is over. We spent a lovely week at DH's Auntie P. Horses, dogs, swimming in the lake, excellent food and company. A couple of weekends at my parents' cottage, their 40th wedding anniversary. Risto chipped his front tooth the evening before midsummer (luckily his was over at our house and the friend's mother is a dentist), not a milk tooth but one of the only two permanent ones he has so far. The dentist was able to glue the chip back.  Risto bumped into Tuomas' hard head! 

Tuomas is in love with a girl at day care. He is sooooo in love, just as she is. It's so cute. Jaakko has grown a lot too and his temper tantrums are getting worse. Things are flying and his brothers have teeth marks on their backs. DH has a surprise for me. Our 10th wedding anniversary is in a month and he's taking me on an extended weekend trip, but I don't know where (just like our honeymoon!). But before that I'll start at my new job and Clara, our au pair, will go back to Germany. Hopefully (and soon!!!) pictures and more up-dates.

Difficult questions

Tuomas asked a difficult question yesterday:"Do angels get vaccinations?" followed by "do angels ever die?".

Risto is flying home tomorrow. He's feeling home sick every now and then, cried over the phone on Saturday. But my sister said that he's really enjoying his time there, so no worries. Yesterday he was worried that his plane would crash. I tried to convince him that it wouldn't happen.

Risto: "But planes do crash and people have died in plane crashes".
Me: "Yes, but it's highly unlikely". (Is there any point in explaining statistics to a six year old?)
Risto: "And what about the ship that sank, how many people died there?"
Me:"Which ship?"
Risto:"The one with four chimneys, that one!"
Me:"Titanic??!" (I don't remember telling him about the Titanic)
Risto:"Yeah, that one. How many people drowned?"
Me:"Oh, well, quite a few."
Risto:"How many people were saved?"
Me:"Very many people survived!!!! Oh, yes, many!" (This question was a relief!!!)

How do explain the death of hundreds of people? How do you explain the deaths caused by human cruelty, war? How do you explain the Holocaust? Would a vaccination help?

A new cousin

Our boys' cousin was finally born yesterday, a boy of 51 cm and 3,7 kg. Pictures hopefully soon.

Risto to Sweden

Risto is off to Sweden tomorrow. He'll be spending one week with my sister's family. DH is going on a business trip to Stockholm and Risto is flying with him, but flying back by himself. Exciting! Judging by the picture, I'm not the only mother gone crazy after 3 kids....

Past, present and future

A picture from the past. Not so distant past, but from last Easter we spent at my parents' summer place. We have a 4WD Land Rover and DH wanted to test it on snow, and I mean half a meter deep snow. This was a 10m stretch of road that was unplowed. Just look at the picture, do I need to tell you what happened?!?We got stuck with all the boys + Clara in the car. And since we don't carry a snow shovel with us we had to call my dad to bring one. He brought two and I guess the other one snapped in two. Well, after 20 minutes we were free to go. But DH swore that he'd try it again. Which he did on our way back home from the summer place. Again, car full of kids who eagerly want to help and our luggage, and DH determined to try it again from the other end of the road. My mom was almost hysterical with laughter when I called her 5 minutes after we had left:"We need a shovel...." I didn't dare to take a picture that time.

A picture from the present (picture it, ok?). Jaakko has been without a diaper for TWO DAYS. And no wet pants, either!!! Is the end of our 6.5 year diaper-infested life coming closer?

Future. Next week. No pictures yet, since the baby hasn't been born yet. My brother's first born is 13 days past the due date, so it should be next week that the boys get a new member for their football team!

More art from Risto

There was a fire across the street at the boys' daycare on Tuesday. Someone had set a heap of twigs and branches on fire. The flames were several meters high, charring a nearby pine tree up to 5 meters. Risto got really scared and started crying even though there was no apparent danger. The fire fighters came and put the fire down. Exciting and scary! For the past two days Risto has been drawing fire trucks.

Last night I asked him to draw a picture of our family. He was happy to do that since it meant that he could stay up later. Risto is onthe roof with his basketball, Tuomas has his football and Jaakko is holding a spade. DH has a lollipop (!) and I'm holding a flower. It's cute that DH and I are holding hands. My ears are not visible since my hair is so long. The smoke coming out of the chimney indicates that my parents are inside barbecueing sausages for us. Our Family!

Mother's Day

As you can see, we all go to the same hair dresser called Windy ;-) I had a lovely day: I slept late, Clara had made a cake for breakfast, I got cute drawings from the boys (Risto had made a Picassonian pencil drawing of a cargo ship with three heaps of coal...) and DH took care of breakfast, lunch and dinner. MIL was over for bbq lunch and I was in the flower beds killing weeds.

How many husbands does it take to change a lightbulb?

Ok, the answer is one, I'm happy with the one I have even though I had to take a picture of the historical time he changed a light bulb. As you can see it's pretty high up and impossible for me to change it.

But the morning when this picture was taken back in November, DH informed me in the morning that he had noticed the night before when he came to bed that the light bulb had burned. And to my surprise he walked to the basement to get the ladder and a light bulb and changed it right there and then. I was lucky enough to get a pictures of it!!!

But I guess this is a "once in a life time" thing, since a couple of months later our stair case was dark for over a week....

Comments

For some reason commenting is not possible. Trying to find out what I've changed in the settings...

Edit: should work now.

Sorrow

Risto wants a pet. Saturday night he started crying that he wants a hamster or a guinea pig. He really cried, tears rolling down his cheeks and his sorrow was so profound. I held him, trying desperately to comfort him, but knowing exactly that nothing could heal this pain inside him. "I want a hamster or a guinea pig, not a slimy frog or a lizard. I want something furry to hold and have it in my room and call it my own!".

I remember feeling the same way when I was a kid with an allergic mom and denied all furry animals. Now my son is in the same situation with an allergic dad.

Sleepless in Espoo

I escaped our testosterone filled bed at 05:36 AM. Are you asking why?!?!

Activity

Every time we go to the park it seems that our boys are the loudest ones, jumping, running, screaming, but IMHO taking the other children into consideration and playing with them, too. I think this picture of Tuomas taken on Monday night sums it up. The boys use the see-saw this way. I can picture a snow board fastened to his feet.

Easter

Skiing with Clara at my parents summer place. This crazy German skied wearing a skirt + swam in the lake (in the hole we sawed through the ice) and actually washed her hair standing in this icy water (and put some hair conditioner, too). Crazy!!!!

Picasso, part II

I guess that only as a mother I can see the beauty in this picture. Tuomas has drawn yet another picture of me, now with even more detail. Let me explain:

1. The line above my head is my hair.
2. The four vertical dots inside my head are my eyes and ears, and the fifth one is either my nose or my mouth. Tuomas wasn't sure about this.
3. The line on the left side of my head and the circle on the right are my shoulders.
4. I'm holding a bag on my right hand (which naturally is on the left in the picture).
5. Now this is the best part: The circle below my head is the combined breasts and belly button!
6. The line below this aforementioned breast-bellybutton combo is "not a penis, Mom, but the one you have".
7. The long vertical lines are self-explanatory.

Table and two chairs

We're selling this children's table and two chairs. I'm not sure about the table, but the chairs seem to be Aalto chairs. I think we're the third owners of this set, so they are not in perfect shape.Drop me a line if you're interested!

Edit: the table and chairs have found a new home at White Country.

Art

The boys have never been enthusiastic about painting or drawing. Only last fall did Risto's pictures evolve from mindless scribblings to something recognizable. And now he draws wonderful pictures!

So I was surprised on Monday night when Tuomas announced that he wanted to draw. After a couple of minutes he came to me, told me to close my eyes and handed me this:

"That's you, Mom!" I was biting my lip when I asked what the two dots under my head were, but surprisingly they had nothing to do with my breasts, they were my eyes, OF COURSE!!! But Tuomas apparently noticed something unorthodox in the location of the eyes since his next portrait of DH was a more conservative interpretation of the human body:

Then he drew a portrait of Clara (he's really warming up to Clara, saying "thank you" and "I'm sorry") and I asked if he could manage to draw some hair on her head. "No, because she's bald and angry!!!" *giggle-giggle-giggle* That portrait was followed by ones of my parents with hair. And this morning he drew me an airplane. Our Picasso!

Again in Paris

Last time I was in Paris in November I caught a terrible cold. Now I flew to Paris already with a terrible cold, but I'm hoping to leave it here and not take a new one back.

Our whole family has been quite ill during the past three weeks. First Risto and Tuomas were home with Clara for a week due to influenza. A challenge for everybody, but Tuomas was so sick that he was even able to smile to Clara and not just hate her. Since Jaakko got a shot against influenza back in December I hoped that he'd stay healthy, but he started coughing the following week and it was his turn to spend a couple of days home with Clara. She said that being home with just Jaakko was on the other hand easier (he had no one to fight with), but on the other hand more difficult since Jaakko demanded a lot of attention. DH sneezed every now and then and I started getting symptoms last Thursday (but went to the gym anyway, which resulted in the cold getting worse and muscle pain so bad that walking the stairs was more or less painful....yeah, not wise!). The night before flying to Paris Tuomas started crying around midnight and complained that his ears hurt. The pain killers worked for a couple of hours (he 'slept' in our bed, kicking the blanket, I climbed to his bunk bed), but around 5am he started crying (more like screaming) again and DH took him to the doctor. We knew the diagnose: ear infection. It was actually quite good that Tuomas stayed home with Clara again, but now just by himself. Clara said that they had a nice time, Tuomas was very cuddly and cute. Hopefully he'll stop hating her.

So now I'm in Paris, the Mecca of shopping... DH should be grateful that his wife is such a bad shopper. I can't find anything nice, even a 10% discount coupon to Printemps didn't help. I guess -10% isn't really enough of a discount when looking at handbags that are fastened with cables against theft. Well, I did find something nice for DH, but I simply won't spend €200 on a men's shirt (even though he definately is worth it!!) since I wasn't sure he'd like it. The boys will be disappointed that I won't bring them toys or something special, but in my opinion we have enough of toys and stuff and it is also important for them to learn about disappointment (ok, I've bought some goodies...).

Now I'm back in my room at the hotel after a quick meal at a sushi restaurant next door. My cold has not gone away, and I guess I miss the hullabaloo at home since I can't be in a quiet room all by myself (remind me of this when I complain about the noise at home...), the TV is on, something in French, I'm not even watching it. Soon I'll go to bed and continue knitting the hat I started working on the plane.

This time no pictures from Paris, since I left the camera at home. Au revoir!

Ylläs

Tuomas skiing.

Clara and the boys

So, you can only guess who has affected whom... Risto 6, Tuomas 4, Jaakko 2 and Clara 20-something. And their combined mental age?!?!

Education

As previously mentioned, Risto is eagerly waiting for school to start. Once when Risto was talking about going to school, Tuomas informed us that he’ll skip school and go straight to the army (and he wants DH to buy him a real gun…). Risto then corrected his brother:” You can’t go straight to the army. First you have to go to school, then to university, then to the library and after that you’ll go the army!”. Somebody should take our boys to the library before starting school…..

Yes, I'm alive!!

Can you call this a blog any longer, if I update every two months?!?!?

We're alive and kicking. Life goes on, nothing special has happened (no, I'm not pregnant even though it is that time of the year again! But our boys will be getting two more cousins this year!!!). This autumn that started in September/October hasn't turned into a winter and that seems to have sucked all the juices out of me. I don't know how I would've survived this winter if we hadn't Clara, our au pair, to help us. Even though she takes care of most of the laundry, cleaning and cooking, I don't have any energy left at nor after work :-(

Well, what has happened:

Risto turned six two days before Christmas and consideres himself so grown up. He is talking about starting school next August and is really looking forward to it. We have decided to put Risto into a Swedish speaking school that's only 2 km from our home. The best part is that two of his best friends will come to that school, too. And there are only 100 pupils. The nearest language immersion school was an institution of 600 pupils, so we decided against it.

Christmas came and went. We were nine around the table; our family, Clara, MIL, SIL and her hubby. When Santa came with his HUGE sack of presents, Tuomas was nowhere to be seen. I thought that he had hid himself, but SIL informed us that they were downstairs in the bathroom. When Tuomas finally came to the living room, he wasn't shy at all but informed Santa and his helper:"Well, you see, you know, 'cause I was in the toilet peeing and pooing, that's why I wasn't here!" Risto sang to Santa (but said that his helper had a fake beard) and Jaakko was suspicious of the dude in red. Jaakko reached a new milestone on the 27th: bye-bye to the pacifier. I lied and told him that it was given to the lion babies in Africa! Luckily he has his rag to comfort him and now he doesn't miss the plastic yucky thing at all.

The first week of January I was on a 4-day business trip and Clara was in charge of picking up the boys from day care. She did a great job even though our little angels (especially Tuomas) gave her a hard time, not obeying, running away, calling her names (I wasn't really proud when I heard that Tuomas had called her 'you shitty German'). When I came home Thursday evening I bumped into Clara in our yard. DH had come home already and she said that she had to go for a walk just to calm down.... I think they were all glad to have me back!

Tuomas turned 4 at the end of January. He's a big boy, 114 cm tall and 22 kg. Height estimate is still closer to 2m than 1,9m.

The first week of February took us all to Lapland to ski. DH and Clara drove our car and I flew with the boys. The first morning Risto was outside playing in the snow before 8 AM. The first day Risto and Tuomas had a down hill skiing lesson. Risto learned quickly, but Tuomas, being just four, wasn't too interested; he was happy just riding his sled down the hill. The next day Risto tried snow boarding (was quite good!), but decided that he liked skiing more. By the end of the week he was able to ski down from the top of the mountain! DH had booked me a snow boarding lesson, too. I wasn't really jumping up and down from excitement having snow boarded the last time almost 6 years ago and remembering it to be extremely painful for my knees, bum, elbows and head. And it didn't add to my excitement when DH realised that he had left my boots at home. I looked quite sour even in the ski shop when DH literally had to pay for his bad memory: new boots and a new board... But my instructor was absolutely great and now I'm really into snow boarding!!! I've actually dreamt about it. But the greatest thing was that I could snow board with Risto, we were both equally fast coming down(ok, I was a bit slower but I had to fasten the buckles every time coming off the ski lift.). Clara, DH and I took turns baby sitting Tuomas and Jaakko who enjoyed the play ground at the bottom of the slopes. We met a Welsh family at the play ground's camp-fire and I gave them a real surprise by speaking (fluent?!?!?) Welsh. That was fun!

My head is full of crafts and redecorating ideas. I'll just have to wait for the spring sun to get more energy.

I have loads of pictures to put on this blog. Patience, my dears, patience!

Over and out!