Six days

The boys' bunk bed was sold today. Even though Jaakko helped carrying the pieces out of the house he was surprised that the bed was gone from his room. Poor boy, he has an ear infection. He described the pain as "I can feel my heartbeat in my ear". Painkillers before going to the doctor, antibiotics, still in pain, more painkillers, throwing up.... Finally fell asleep in our bed.
Oops, almost midnight, we're still moving stuff around in the house, vacuum cleaning spiders and dust.
Six days and about this time we're hopefully landing in Houston, Texas.
Almost exactly a year ago I came home late at night from a week long business trip in Switzerland. I was "attacked" by my husband immediately after walking into the house "I have this great idea for our next trip!!!!". And I wasn't excited. I wanted to stay at home, use the money for re-decorating the house, what about Risto's school, and I'd need to take extra vacation and I've travelled so much, I'd rather stay at home and besides I'm afraid of flying over the Atlantic. He kept whining about going to Costa Rica and actually ended up threatening to go with just Risto and I could stay at home and use my share of the money for re-decorating! Finally I gave in (and DH bought the tickets immediately!). And here we are now, moving to Costa Rica!

Silence

I'm not able to close my eyes from reality like this cat in Osaka, but now I'm able to put on noise cancelling headphones and listen to my mysic and not listen quarreling boys. It's just me and Andrea Bocelli echoing inside my head (yeah, lots of space there!). Seems like there is actually a void inside my head: this week I was asked how long I've been working at my current job. And I promptly answered: "For a year and a half.... since '98." She can count, too!

Osaka and Japan seem so far away, it's been actually a year and a half since we were there. I remember this dinner we had next to Osaka castle. I'm not afraid of trying new dishes, but I have to admit that I was a bit surprised when what I thought was fried onions was staring back at me! It was tasty and the little fishies were dead, but still it's disturbing to have your dinner stare at you.
This dude was hiding on the wooden gate at Tokyo Imperial Palace. He had a friend, too.

Long lost friend

Just like this old window frame that waited for years for my attention, another friend patiently waited for my attention for four years.

Our paths finally crossed last weekend. We lost touch about the time we moved into our house, I was pregnant with Jaakko and everyday life seemed to be a struggle time-wise. There are still only 24 hours a day (just in case you didn't know...), but maybe now I use my time more wisely (and the boys are older).

We shared good times, therapeutical in my opinion. For my friend it was more work. At times I felt that my friend was just stuck and stubborn, but I guess I was asking for too much. Now I know better, I know what my friend can achieve. There are physical limits to be considered, too.

We always overcame those stuck situations and managed to work together to achieve a smooth result. Our times together have always been quiet, with a calming humm, something different from the hectic hullabaloo.

But last weekend the self-denial ended. My life was wrinkly, I needed to get back in shape, smooth things. I wiped the dust off my dear friend who had sat quietly in the corner of our utility room. Plugged her in and started mangling the sheets.

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!

Mother of the Millennium

Christmas is a busy time, but I don't seem to have the brain capacity to cope with all this hullabaloo. If ever there is a "Mother of the Millennium" I won't rank very high:

Saturday. I was doing the grocery shopping with Clara (our au pair, more about her later!) when it dawned on me that Risto was supposed to be at a friend's birthday party that had already started! I quickly called Timppa and asked him if he could take Risto. He was not happy about dressing up three boys and driving Risto to the party. But DH was quick and I doubt Risto even realized that he turned up late! The icing on the cake was that the birthday present was with me in the shop...

Monday. Jaakko's Christmas party at day care. I realized that he was the only one not dressed in christmasy clothes, unless you call a bright lime green t-shirt with a chameleon on it christmasy. Nor did he wear a red Christmas gnome hat like all the other kids. Plus the battery of our camera died.

Tuesday. Tuomas' Christmas party. Clean clothes, 1 point for that. But several minus points for not charging the battery of the afore mentioned camera!! That was a real shame since this time Tuomas participated in the singing and dancing and wore a costume. At the spring party he was not co-operating. And I didn't get his happy face recorded... luckily another mother promised to send me some pictures and also handed her camera to me to take some pictures myself.

Tuesday continues. I went to work after the party (I'm still here.... um... working), but forgot to turn on the sound on my mobile phone. When I finally remembered to turn it on I had several un-answered calls: one from Jaakko's day care and three from DH. Oops! Luckily DH was running errands with Clara and was close to the day care when they called him (since I didn't answer) about Jaakko having an eye infection and needing a doctor. 26 minutes (yes twenty-six!!) after DH got the call from the day care he walked out of the doctor's office with a prescription for antibiotics. TWENTY-SIX... it has to be a world record!

Now Clara, our Christmas angel i.e. au pair, is at home with Jaakko fixing dinner for us. Yesterday she cleaned the whole house, made delicious lieb-küchen (probably mis-spelled it, but German gingerbread with almonds, orange and lemon zest and oh-so-delicious!!), chocolate cookies and just helped with everything. We all love her. Jaakko calls her Kala (fish) or Kaala (since it's too difficult for him to pronounce) and Tuomas after a couple of days of calling her "the German" now manages to call her Craala. Close enough! In just the few days that she's been with us (she arrived on Friday and already at the airport took the boys in control!) she has proven to be the answer to our prayers. Great with the kids, wonderful help in the kitchen and around the house and also great company for us adults. I'm off to a rock concert with her on Wednesday!

So everything is fine!

What else has happened?

1) Risto has now his own room, and he's very proud of it. And we've had the "this is my room and I'm the king here and nobody can come in if I don't want them to!" arguments. Before, the boys slept in one room and the spare bedroom was the play-room (now Tuomas' and Jaakko's room). Quite a few times Risto crept in the Jaakko's crib when they still slept in the same room.

2) Despite the hectic life, I managed to be creative. Our white walls scream for colour, but DH isn't interested in having orange walls and "real" art is pricey. So.... DIY! I bought canvases, mixed some acrylics, used child labour and ta-dah

Hand prints from left to right: Tuomas, Jaakko and Risto. I deliberately made them different shades, quite daring for an engineering mind that loves symmetry and harmony, but I knew I'd be ripping my hair off trying to get them the same colour. I'm happy with the result, my first acrylic paintings!

3) Jaakko still eats like a pig. How could he get yoghurt on his eyelashes...

4) DH backed into a car in the traffic lights just two hours ago. I had run to the grocery shop and the boys decided to drive around the block instead of waiting at the parking place. When I came outside, I didn't see the car, walked around and then saw our green Land Rover waiting in the traffic lights. DH saw me, switched into reverse so he could turn to the parking place, but didn't see the teeny-tiny little white car behind him. I couldn't wave my arms to tell him to stop, since my arms were full of groceries. "I looked, but I didn't see the car and I heard the parking radar beep and I took my foot off the gas pedal....." BUMP and I saw the hood of the teeny-tiny-little white car bend. Nobody was hurt, nobody was angry, I guess it was my fault since I didn't drop the groceries on the ground and wave DH to stop and I guess I shouldn't be blogging about this... but now I can quote DH "I didn't see it!" if I ever in a million-zillion years should do something sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid. Sorry, DH!