6 months old-1 month late!

Suvi was a star for her photo shoot.

She got this lamb from mummo and ukki from New Zealand! It is so soft-she just loves it.

She can obviously sit up now-and wave. She lifts her arms to us when she wants to get picked up. She cries if we don't!

I love this shot of her playing with her sleeve. What a grown up she looks like in this outfit!

Look at those cute toes!

Next up are our Christmas photos-I still have to schedule them! Hopefully we will get them out before next year!

Additional news, I left Suvi and Markku with mummo and Ukki for 3 nights this past weekend. It was my first time leaving Suvi and the longest I left Markku. I am not sure they really missed me-they did very well! Suvi almost slept through the night one night...but has yet to do it again! Mummo and Ukki had lots of fun. One time Mummo set Suvi down on the floor in the living room. She stepped out to the garage to throw away a poopy diaper-and when she came back Suvi was gone! She ran to their bedroom assuming my dad had her, but he was in the shower. She ran back and searched again-she had crawled away and hid between the couch and chair!

She made these really extravagant cupcakes with chocolate butterflies and sunflowers on top. Markku loved them so much he pretty much refused all other food! Grandparents!

We had fun too, but I missed them a lot. We stayed with our friends Neil and Liz in NJ. Ava, their daughter, is Heikki's goddaughter. We have only met her one other time when she was about 3 weeks old. Boy has she grown! She loved Heikki so much-Uncle Hicky she called him. She wanted him to do everything for her-something only reserved for mom usually. Poor Neil! It was quite cold there compared to Texas...my body was not accustomed to that weather. Markku thinks it is too cold to go out when it is less than 60 degrees. He would have been frozen. What if we still lived in Alaska?? He would never go outside!

I am off to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with Mummo, Ukki AND Isa for a change. Hopefully we will get a new camera soon so I can get you more photo updates.

Enough about Suvi...

So I started this blog just before Suvi was born. Poor Markku-his early days are not blogged. So, after I was looking through old photos, I decided to write one about his early days...he was a cutie! The above photo has always been one of my favorites.

This was his 20 week ultrasound Dec 21 2005

May 12,2006 Markku's birthday and his happy new parents!

Doesn't Heikki look so proud and happy to be a dad?!
Markku traveled lots as a baby. He went to Washington/Oregon, Alaska, Pennsylvania and NY all before he was 5 months old!

This is his first hike in the Alaska Wilderness (Sept 2006)

Traveling in style with Isa-in downtown Anchorage

Pastor Larry baptized him. We traveled all the way to Alaska for his baptism. I loved our church, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church and our Pastor (Larry Jorgenson).

His happy grandparents in Boerne, outside of San Antonio. The one with Ukki is his first football game. He fell asleep! He had to be held all the time-so we used the baby bjorn lots! And once again he was sleeping. If I didn't remember correctly, I would think he always slept! Look at this cute yawn:

But we used to try everything to get him to sleep through the night-even swaddling! Sound familiar-I guess my kids don't like sleeping!

Mummo Laukkanen and Markku-the perfect wedding date!

First concert in Zilker park-Blues on the green (July 2006) and first dance with a bride (cousin Katri Aug 2006)

First movie Pirates of the Caribbean (July 2006) and first airline flight (in the cockpit even-Aug 2006)

First train ride (Oregon Zoo in Portland)

I just always liked this photo. I wanted him to wear everything people gave us at least once. But cousin Katri sent these outfits too late (Markku was also a big boy) so I could barely squeeze him in this when it arrived. So we took a picture right away. She also made him this awesome hat he wore in Alaska to keep warm. Boy did we laugh at first since it was 100 degrees out when it arrived in the mail!


Snow?! In Texas? Fake snow in Boerne for their Christmas fair!

Ok I could keep going on and on...and maybe another day I will. It is great to relive these memories! I am too tired tonight and we are only 6 months into his life!!

Not just another week...

One more week is over. It was an exciting week with the election of our new president (Yeah!). Markku and Suvi of course do not understand the significance, but hopefully someday when they are in college that we can afford, because Heikki and I did not go broke paying taxes and health care premiums, they will be learning about life before Obama and how worried we all were...OK just me dreaming now but at least there is a chance for those things to happen. I am not unrealistic. I know it may take the entire 8 years or longer to enact the change Obama talks about. I just now have hope it can and will happen. Just like I hope Suvi will sleep through the night someday soon. (That is not me being sarcastic. Every night when I lay down to sleep, I think, it could be tonight! Then when I hear her stir and start to cry, I think, maybe it is 6 am already. I turn and peer at the alarm clock...darn! It is only 11 pm, or 1 am or 3 am or whatever other time comes before 6 am when Suvi inevitably wakes me up!) So how many of you are saying "What a sucker she is! Look how naive?!"? I can always hope (even more than ever now that Obama won!) that someday is at least one day closer!

6 months old, Halloween and sleepless nights! Oh my!

I sit by myself!

Swinging at our park! Weeeeeee!

Suvi was 6 months old on Oct 20. She is getting to be a very big girl...19.38 pounds, 27 inches tall which put her in 95% and 90 percentile. She is sitting up, really trying hard to crawl (she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth, pulls herself forward like she is crawling under barbed wire) and LOVES to bounce. She swings at the park and with help goes down the slide. She is eating 3 real meals a day now. She eats her rice cereal, bananas, peaches, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, apples. Markku has fed her real apples and veggie hot dogs as well-they didn't go far before I caught them and swiped her mouth clean! She is a happy content baby for the most part. Except at night....see below on sleepless nights.

Happy Halloween (see lollipop we used to bribe him?)

For Halloween, Markku was a bee and Suvi a ballerina. It took 3 parties (refused to get into costume) and bribing with lollipops to get Markku into the bee costume but he finally did it in time for trick or treating! Suvi is pretty easy to just put in her costume. She loved eating her tutu as well. Just to show how big she is, her tutu was sized at 18 months! Heikki was out of town for Halloween so mummo Frederick came up to celebrate!

Bouncing around to swan lake!

We put Suvi's tutu on Markku! He wouldn't wear the bee costume and in his leggings and shirt he looked like a male ballet dancer. He was actually kicking and screaming to get it off!

Sleepless nights are currently what is happening in our neck of the woods. As I type, Suvi is screaming her head off and resisting falling asleep. As soon as she dozes off, she jerks awake and starts screaming all over again. We started sleep training Ferber style about 12 days ago or so. The first few nights weren't too bad and I thought we were home free. But then Suvi started waking up more and more and not falling back to sleep on her own. Here was my night last Saturday:

8 pm : Suvi to bed. Fell asleep within 5 minutes of putting her to bed. Not bad...
9:15 pm: wake up, starts crying. Don't go in for 10 minutes as per Ferber...and have to get Markku out of tub, dried off, lotion on, teeth brushed, in PJs, read 2 books, and him to bed, all the while saying "hurry up, I have to go to baby! Shhh! Don't let baby know we are right here!"
9:35 pm: Suvi hysterical. Pat her on the back. She is shrieking and kicking her arms and legs.
9:37 pm: leave room almost in tears myself
9:55 pm: Suvi still shrieking. Go back in, rub her back, leave
10:05pm: still crying, getting quieter. Go in her room...starts shrieking again. Damn! leave room.
10:20pm: I think she is sleeping.
10:50 pm I am in bed.
11:50 pm: Suvi starts crying again. Leave her for 15 minutes this time...She is shrieking.
I go in and out of room every 20 minutes for 1 hour. Finally asleep again (it is 1 am).
2:00 am: awake and shrieking again. I am crying as well. Don't go in as it only seems to make her mad and I am delirious and tired.
3:15 am: I am awake and she is still crying-or if she stopped she is now awake and crying again. I am not sure as I am really tired. I go and nurse her as it is passed the 7 hours my doctor said to wait between night feedings.
3:40 am: She falls asleep in my arms but I am to wake her up so she sleeps better (are you *??!*!* kidding me????).
4:30 am: still crying.
5:00 am: still crying and I am up reading my Ferber book. It says if not working within 7 days (it is day 6 for us) then need to stop and reassess what sleeping problem is. (Yeah, no shit!). Read chapter on dependence on nursing to fall asleep. Ferber says that although a 6 month old does not need to eat at night, if they are accustomed to it it is cruel to stop cold turkey and should wean off. So first of all, Ferber who is known for being hard (many people think his methods are cruel) and letting babies cry it out, is saying that what I am doing is cruel! (I was listening to my pediatrician) Second of all, why didn't I read ALL the chapters before starting sleep training????
6 am: up for day....if you can call what we are doing as being awake!
So then I tried to gradually increase the time between night feedings. But she is still waking up every 2 hours. Now I am not to feed her and she gets hysterical and takes 1-2 hours to cry herself to sleep. But if I nurse her, then I am continuing her dependence right? Well, everyone needs sleep once in awhile. So I nurse her...Even if I nurse her now she wakes every 2 hours. Even if I let her sleep with me she wakes every 2 hours. Or worse, she wakes every hour. I hate night time right now. I think Suvi does too.

It is 9:45 pm and Suvi has cried herself to sleep (I have gone in once) after 1 hour. She went to bed at 8 pm and has already woken up once and cried for an hour! See how fun our nights are? Poor Markku. He sleeps in the room next to her. Heikki is miraculously gone 6 nights this week--how did he arrange that schedule??