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!
Mar 11, 2008
Mar 5, 2008
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?!?!
Mar 3, 2008
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…..
Feb 19, 2008
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!
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!
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