They wear me out!!!

I've heard that some women fantasize being in bed with more than 1 male. I should be lucky then, sharing my bed at least with 2 every night, Sunday mornings with 4. But these males just wear me out!!! Last night Risto ran (yes, he was in a hurry) to our bed. The thunder had scared him. He's like a windmill when he sleeps. You'll never know if you're hit with an arm or a leg. More often he sneaks to our bed that you don't even notice him until you're hit in the face with a heel.

Tuomas, on the other hand (you have also five fingers...hah-hah), comes quietly to my side of the bed, tells me he needs to go to the bathroom, goes to the bathroom (usually doesn't flush...) and comes back and snuggles. I call him my "kainalo kananen" which translates (without the alliteration, of course) as a little armpit chicken, well a chicken that snuggles under your arm. I guess he won't like that nick name when he's a bit older. Last three nights our chicken has turned into an angry rooster, screaming for half an hour usually after midnight. And when I mean screaming I mean SCREAMING. I'm surprised his brothers don't wake up. Last night I had to take him downstairs to calm down. He's usually half asleep and it takes him a while to wake up and then a longer while to stop screaming. And the reason for this? Last night he said that his leg/foot hurt and he needed to go to the bathroom. Should I also let my family and half the neighbourhood know when I need to go to the bathroom.... But this leads to the fact that I'm dead tired. Going to bed after 11PM, reading for a while, calming down screaming boys in the middle of the night, sleeping restlessly and waking up at 6:30 AM latest, going to work, picking the boys up, cooking "Don't put asparagus in the pie!!! I won't eat that!!!! SCREAMING", brushing teeth, cleaning the kitchen, sitting down for a nano-second, laundry, going to bed around 11PM, reading for a while, being punched between the ribs by a five year old but strong knee, waking up 5 AM to hear the 5 year old knee and rest of the body play with Legos...... Luckily I have DH to carry the load with me!!! How do single moms do it! I have the chance (yeah, lucky me) to be a single mom today and tomorrow since DH is on a business trip. Have pity on me.....

Spring party

Tuomas' group at the day care had their party yesterday morning. We had been warned beforehand by the teachers that Tuomas had refused any co-operation. He didn't want to dance, let alone wear somekind of a "stupid" outfit. He's very outgoing but in new situations very shy. It was a shock to him to see so many people in the room they had practiced for their spring party.Tuomas did a 180 and his teacher had to persuade him to sit on the bench next to the "fairies".

"I don't like this one bit". His face lightened up when he finally saw us. But he didn't dance nor sing. Good for you, Tuomas, for having a will of your own!

Last Saturday was in Risto's opinion "the best day of my world". I cut his hair. Or actually shaved it from the sides..... he looks like a leukemia patient, but he just loves his new style. It'll grow back. I remembered that he has his spring party today, but only after having shaved half of his head. Oh well! Tuomas had fun watching "cut from there, Mom!" but very clearly expressed that he did not want the same style.
Our punk rocker.

Risto's spring party. Risto is in a Swedish language immersion group, so all the songs they sang were in Swedish. Risto is the one holding the yellow man. Half of Risto's group are pre-schoolers who're leaving the day care for school. I was holding back my tears when their teacher held a speech to them, saying good-bye, wishing them good luck in school and life, too. Risto will be in that position in a year and I doubt I'll be able to hold back my tears then.

Flowers

I finally planted some flowers. The huge pots are actually plastic, believe me or not! Both have pink Mårbacka pelargoniums and ivy.

This one is right next to our front door. I'm betting that before Midsummer Tuomas has ripped it to pieces in one of his tantrums "I'll break it with a hammer and tear it down and smash it into pieces and...and... and...." . The cast iron dog has a brush on its back to be used to clean your shoes (hardly ever used for that purpose). When I bought it a couple of years back I asked Risto what should we name it. "Rainbow" was his answer. Hmm.... it's not that colourful.

This welcomes our guests and gives the neighbours something to bump into when they drive past in their cars. BTW, our house number is easy to remember: we're 5 and "A" as in ape house! Welcome!
I planted a white and a blue clematis next to the apple tree. Hopefully they'll climb up quickly to make the poor tree look better. I moved two lavenders next to the clematis to give them some sort of shade.

Apple blossoms are so beautiful.
I don't like this plant (vuorenkilpi in Finnish, I guess, and I'm too lazy to look up the English/Latin name). It's one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, but the rest of the summer all you get is the big, green, waxy leaves. It's not my favourite, but I guess the flowers are quite beautiful when looked at close range.

Lost skills

When was the last time you did a summersault, threw a cartwheel or did a handstand?

I tried to do a summersault last summer. I started with the mental part "put your chin to your chest, curl your back and make yourself into a soft ball and let it roll" and landed flat on my back. It hurt!!! Besides it made me feel dizzy.

Risto is quite good at summersaults. I told him that he could try doing a cartwheel, since he's so good at summersault. Of course I had to show him how to do it "now lift your legs straight high up into the air" I said before doing somekind of a weird combination of a summersault/cartwheel/something. I couldn't get my legs up!!! And I felt dizzy again!

The same thing happened with the handstand, but I finally (after about 15 tries) managed to get my legs up. But I played it safe and did it against the wall. But felt dizzy again and like an elephant.

Looks easy. Chin to your chest and GO!

I could do this just a couple of years back... or was it decades. I honestly think I should practice this with the boys this summer. It can't be that difficult!!!!

Risto doing (or trying to do) a handstand against the wall. I his opinion it was too easy, so he didn't do it properly.

"But hey, Mom! This is more difficult to do this way when you climb up the wall and do the handstand this way!" Yeah, right. Lately he's been testing my motherhood by calling me stupid everytime I refuse to do things his way, mostly refusing to buy stuff. "No, I won't subscribe to Donald Duck magazine now. The previous ones are mostly ripped or stuffed into the book shelf. And no, I won't buy you a skate board either. Too dangerous for you and especially for you little brothers. No, trampoline is out of the question." "Stupid mom!" he tells me. Actually it's been Tuomas who's been more keen on getting a trampoline:"Mom, I give you two choices. Either buy a trampoline or something we can climb on!". Wow, I have a choice!!!!!

One Red Dot

Joanne and Eric, our American grandparents, gave us this wonderful book a few years back. Like it says on the cover, it's a pop-up book for children of all ages. It's almost hypnotic. The idea is to find one red dot on each page.

On the back cover it warns that it's not suitable for children under 3. It is quite tempting to rip the pop-ups.
Three burning baskets.... and one red dot!
One perplexing puzzle box... and one red dot.

This book gave me an idea for our home. Each room should have one red dot. Something that draws your attention in a positive way, not like an acne spot. It started in the living room after Christmas. The room looked colourless and dull after we took the Christmas tree out. It needed something green! We had a long discussion, DH and I, about the red pot, but I managed to convince him of the color choice. He did admit that it looks good. But the poor palm tree doesn't. This picture was taken a month ago and now the poor thing looks even worse. Somehow thinking about watering it doesn't help....

One red dot in our living room.

The next red dot was placed in the kitchen. We asked a carpenter near Auntie P to build us a shelf for our cook books and stuff. I wanted it to be bright red (surprise, surprise), but this time DH said a very firm "no". It's easier to move a flower pot (or accidentally break it) if you don't like it, but a shelf screwed to the wall is another thing. Besides it was me who put it up. So, this blue shelf is the red dot of our kitchen.

You've probably seen those black board walls in magazines with menus, names of wines, herbs written on them in beautiful handwriting. This is far from it.

The idea for my (oops, our) next red dot I got from the blogosphere and DH kindly ordered it from here. This time it's red.
I think it looks great next to the stairs. I wish I would remember to obey the command!
This chair was also bought from the carpenter near Auntie P's. We didn't exactly need another chair, but it was sooooo comfortable that I wanted it. DH said it out loud before I even had the chance to open my mouth:"If you're thinking of painting it red, forget it!" But I want it to be "a red dot", something that draws your attention. I'm picturing lime green or pale pink (totally not my colour!). What do you say?