Markkuisms

More cute things Markku says:

1. Gas house (gas station)
2. Play house (park)
3. Too loud! (he says this if I am too loud when Suvi is sleeping or if he accidentally sets off one of his toys while she is sleeping). If I ask him to be a little quieter when Suvi is awake, or when he hears Suvi wake up he says "Ok, loud now!")
4. No please (instead of No thank you, of course!) What a polite child I have...
5. Go see more big houses now Mama?- He asks when we are going to look at houses!
6. Yes Mama (or mummo): if I ask him to do something or tell him to be a good boy while I am gone he replies with this! It is said very seriously.
7. Soup bowl: (superbowl!)

Markku's favorite new saying:
Me do! And may be preceded with a loud cry/wail/whine: Nooooooooo! Me do!

So many new feats!

It has been a month since my last post...we have been busy or sick or tired or all three! Here is an synopsis of our past month:

Markku has started calling me "mommy" instead of momma. It sounds so cute coming from him! Suvi has started saying "ma ma" a lot. Markku and I both noticed it on 2/5/09. We were getting Suvi out of the bath and she said "ma ma". Markku then said "Baby do mama!". Kiri heard Markku say " I love you" but I have not heard that yet (hmmm...).

Suvi got her first tooth (the bottom right one) on 2/4/09 and her second on 2/12/09 (bottom left one). She is teething like crazy-getting up multiple times at night and taking sporadic naps. Of course I rushed her into the ear doctor convinced she had another ear infection but it was just teething! She claps all the time and still has one of the cutest laughs ever.

Suvi is also standing all by herself for 10-15 seconds at a time. This started on 2/6/09. She is furniture walking s well and she falls constantly! I feel so bad for her-we have really hard floors (stained concrete).

Suvi started swim lessons in January. She LOVES them. She is going under water for about 2 seconds or so now. She is a natural. If she is fussy at night, I just put her in the tub and she is happy as a clam. She has even "gone under"in the bathtub for a second and comes up smiling! Her swim teacher is amazed at how happy she is through it all. She even tries to dive in when seated on the side of the pool.

Markku is saying new words every day now. He has finally become a true talker! Sometimes it seems crazy that I was so worried about his late talking as now I can get so overwhelmed at the constant chatterbox he has become. Some cute words/phrases:

Water house (Emler swim school)

Book house (library)

Sha sha - well, it's how he says Isa (dad in Finnish) but he says it for bicycle as well!

Ruff ruff help belly out back gu- His first really long sentence I heard was in reference to a book on a delivery truck driver named Tom- Ruff ruff help belly out back gu translates into : the dog helped carry the berries out of the back of the truck!

He goes to bed with at least one book and reads it to himself at night and often I go in in the morning and he is reading it to himself again. Especially if they are colorful truck books! (And in case you are wondering, he still has 1 fire truck, 1 bear, 1 Tillie dog, 1 allie cat, 1 baby horse, 1 mouse (an Australian critter my parents brought home and I cannot remember the name of it right now), 1 Toby train, 1 police car, 1 pillow and 7 baby blankets (yes 7! He keeps insisting on bringing more and more into his crib), and at least 1 cup of water which must be "full way top" every night ("no ice").

On the bad side, he is also pushing his sister a lot and taking toys from her. He pushes her off furniture and off his booster seat if she pulls up on that. We have been re-instituting "time out" and are almost up to 3 minutes in time out. But he does say sorry after-when will he remember BEFORE?! It is tough as Suvi cries/whines really loud when he does anything-so then we have her screaming, mommy yelling at Markku and then Markku crying as we walk to time out! It must sound horrible to my neighbors!

Last week we had Mummo Laukkanen and her fiance Bill here visiting. Markku loves it when they are here. He loves to be real loud with Bill and his mummo gives him all sorts of sweets to eat. They had fun hiking with Heikki at Enchanted Rock State Park-even Suvi loved to touch the big rocks! They built sand castles that resembled the big rocks and Markku still talks about the "big rocks!".

Markku is helping cook now. He breaks the egg shells into a bowl and mixes them up and pours them into the pan for me. He helped mummo Laukkanen make cheesecake and stared in fascination at the mixer going round and round! Then he licked the beaters clean! He runs and gets his stool anytime he sees me start to cook so he can help! It is lots of fun-but way more messy and takes a lot longer now. We made sugar cookies for Valentines day-but he just licked the frosting off and handed back the cookie for more!

We have decided it is time for us to buy a house again! I can't believe it has been almost 3 years since we left Alaska. Austin is too expensive for us-especially if Heikki leaves for another airline or gets furloughed etc. We are trying to downsize our spending and increase our savings-we don't ever want to be one of those people in foreclosure or bankruptcy! We have started looking in a town about 20 minutes south of Austin called Kyle. Markku loves to go into all the homes. He looks for all the kids rooms and tries to play with their toys or on their swing sets. He doesn't like it when they are empty or just full of adult stuff! He asked to "go bye-bye momma's car see big house" the other day!

This picture is from our fun "Little Lounge Lizards" disco dance party at a hip wharehouse district dance club in Austin. They have a shark tank under their dance floor. Markku and Suvi were entranced! As Heikki said, it is the closest I have been to a hip Austin night spot ever!

Suvi pulled herself up on the ottoman on Jan 4. She is now pulling up on anything she can-furniture, people, Tillie and even trying to walk from one thing to the next. She falls often, but doesn't seem to mind most of the time. She is still army crawling but she is FAST and kind of gets up on her knees.

She is eating finger foods herself-most get in her mouth. Her pincher grasp is really good and she can find even the smallest piece of dirt or a leaf, etc. on my floor. She even ate an apple slice the other day (I thought she would just gnaw on it like a teether, but she actually ate the whole slice and wanted more!)

She has another ear infection, her third where she has needed antibiotics. She has had several other episodes with fluid in her ears. Our pediatrician is sending us to the ENT doctor for a consult. Heikki and I are happy-we were ready to go after her first one! We loved Markku's tubes. Ironically, his have fallen out and we are now keeping our fingers crossed that he won't need anymore placed. So far so good with him.

Markku is talking more and more every day. He is trying to learn his alphabet as well, and "spells" words. He points to all the different letters and randomly calls out letters. Sometimes he even gets them right. We have these foam alphabet letters in the bathtub and one night he was saying the letters and got 5 correct! Tonight he got 2 correct, but most nights they are just random. He wants me to spell everything though. We are also counting everything as 2. He wants me to count everything and say the real number, but he just says "2,2,2,2,2,2!" Today we were leaving music class and I was trying to get some errands done. I figured if I went to the mall to do most of them, then I wouldn't have to get back into the car so many times. So I headed to the mall. when we turned into the parking lot, Markku says "Here it is. Mar go mall now." I was amazed that he knew where the mall is. We do not go often and the last time was before Christmas. He always tells me when we are near our house and can even tell me which way to turn-when in the car or in the stroller/walking, and he knows mummo's house as well. He knows Gymboree and swimming, but those are all places we go to every week. When we drive at night he tells all the neighs (deer) to stay away, go night-night in trees! I appreciate that and so far have only had 1 deer and 1 raccoon disobey him. Luckily we didn't hit either!

Markku and Elizabeth

We had 2 play days this month. The first with a friends little girl Elizabeth. IT took about an hour and then after lunch they played together very well. Markku wanted her to go wherever he did! It worked out great. His second was his friend Donovan's birthday. He played piano and drove in a 4 x 4.

I have some great movies of the pianist and 4x4in toddlers, but have yet to learn how to post them. I will try again tomorrow as it is late-and in case anyone is still wondering, Suvi is NOT sleeping through the night yet! We are worse than when she was an infant (she gets up about 5 times a night!), probably because of her ear infection. And now she can get mad, mad, mad!

Christmas and more!

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of you did as well. It actually was cold about 2 days before Christmas, so it felt more real to me. But then it got all Texasy again and went up to 80 degrees-what a rip off! The whole country is covered in snow and we can't even get a cold 50 degrees or anything! Here are some of our cold photos:

This is how they look when we went for a run! (Before the blanket went over them)

And this is the final product! Imagine if we still lived in Alaska!

But despite un-Christmas like weather, we had a truly wonderful day... But first we had to celebrate by getting a tree:

Our tree is from a Christmas tree farm in North Carolina!

Then we had a great Christmas brunch at my parents' clubhouse in Boerne. It was a fabulous brunch, balloon animals were made, and Santa was there. Markku would NOT sit on Santa's lap, but Suvi sure did! She loved him and all the attention she got. Markku barely held still for me to hold him on MY lap with me sitting next to Santa! Markku's balloon animal was a pink and purple butterfly-he picked it out (sorry Isa. He loves pink and butterflies, what can I say?!) Here are some photos of that beautiful day:

Look at that smile on her!

She loves her mummo (and the camera too! Is she a model or what?!)

Then we went to another town to visit a virtual winter wonderland (a water park in Texas-it is fake snow!) and all the Christmas lights-Markku loves the lights still!

Family photo and notice the fake snow on Suvi's head (soap bubbles!)

There were trains (Markku was hysterical leaving the red choo-choo. He had to be bribed with ice cream!) and here is an example of the light shows.

Now for Christmas morning:
Markku and Suvi actually slept late-until 8:15 am! We were at my mom's in Boerne and Santa found us there thankfully! Markku was sooo tired Christmas eve he went to bed when Suvi did and we didn't even have time to set out the cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer-or as Markku would say: "Ho Ho. Neigh, high in the sky." Which for those who do not understand, of course translates into: Ho Ho (Santa) is coming on a sleigh led by reindeer that flies high in the sky". You just can't beat the excitement of young children at Christmas! Suvi of course is too young to understand, but she sure got excited about all the wrapping paper, boxes and even some of the gifts.

Wow! A new loader! It even has real rubber tires and parts that move-virtually indestructible as well!

A new wagon that even Suvi is in love with! It has cup holders!

Suvi is eating a potato (play food). It proves she is Finnish. We had some doubts about Markku as he does not share her affinity toward the potato. This should make Mummo Laukkanen proud!

Suvi opening her presents with the help of Ukki

And the BEST present of all-Markku's new kitchen! (And an apron to match. He is shirtless as he had been getting dressed into his new PJ's that Kiri gave him-but he had previously opened the shirt way before Christmas, so it was in his suitcase, not the package. But he insisted on wearing the pants.

Suvi enjoys the presents so much!

And this is from before Christmas. His new favorite game is "Where did Markku go?" He hid under his crib for a good 5 minutes. A long time for a 2 year old!

And this adorable photo is the two kids in a bath for the first time together. They love taking baths!

So we have been busy, as I am sure many of you have been. Suvi is now 8 months old. She can army crawl all over-she is REALLY fast. She is trying to stand up on things-but is really shaky at this point. I am off to put Suvi back to bed-she is sick again and STILL not sleeping!

Yes!

So Markku's new thing is saying "Yes!". He says it for everything-even if he really means no! Want to play? Yes! Want to eat candy? Yes! Want to eat broccoli? Yes! (He won't eat that though!). It is really funny to listen to it all day.

He is starting to get frustrated when things don't go his way. I am discovering I really have to watch what I say and how I express frustration, anger, etc. as he does copy what I do (and what Heikki does). He yelled at Tillie the other day for having her head in the garbage (which was a good thing to stop her from doing that, but maybe not the exact way he followed through!) Poor Tillie gets the brunt of all of our frustrations! And boy does he get upset when Suvi wiggles over and steals his toys. "No baby! Argh! No!" But then if I gently remind him she only wants to play and can he give her something else to play with he does share his toys with her too. It is very cute....and her scream when he takes something away is not so nice, so I think it scares him into sharing as well!

He got to open some presents from his Mummo Laukkanen today (it said to open early on the package...). He was thrilled even to open Suvi's gifts. They were warm PJs that we need since we got snow over night last night and it will get even colder tonight! Thanks mummo! Who would think we would need them in Texas? Of course Markku hates the cold weather and runs back inside saying " Cold! House! House!"

More firsts....what a fun first year!

Well, since I want to use this blog as a memento of Suvi (and Markku's) year, I have to update you on some new stuff I saw today. She has been struggling to sit up from a laying down position for several weeks and I finally saw her do it today! I am not sure it was her first time, but it was the first time I noticed...it is amazing to watch how strong babies core muscles are! I wish I could say the same about me!

She is a crawling machine-but still an army crawl with attempts at getting up on all fours. I put her down on the carpet in the living room and in seconds flat she has followed me to the kitchen-across the cold concrete floors.

I was watching her play with Markku's toys while he was napping. She would pick up his balls and try to reach high above her head to the top of his ball tower to drop the ball in! It was amazing that she was cognizant of what Markku was doing just hours before, and wanted to repeat it.

We went back to Gymboree after 4 months off. Suvi had her first class-music. I enrolled Markku in music as well. It was fun, but unfortunately we were the only family there. They want us to try an earlier class, but it is during Suvi's nap time. We will see how that goes. She was a little overwhelmed by our loud instructor, but he is awesome. Markku really loved the DRUMS-and all other really loud instruments. He tried very hard to play them like the adults did. The triangle was probably the cutest of them all. Suvi just ate all the instruments.

Not so fun firsts...

We have had a most stressful week in the Laukkanen household. It started a week and a half ago with me up all night vomiting. Then all seemed quiet, until Tuesday night. Suvi vomited-projectile all over me while nursing her at bedtime. It was her first vomiting. Unfortunately it continued into Wednesday and early Thursday morning, then the horrible explosive diarrhea. I won't go into details, but we are doing lots of laundry here. I think the Colorado River authority will be investigating our water usage this month-with the laundry, baths and cleaning up we have been doing! Then on Thursday night Heikki started. I have never seen someone puke so much! Then inevitably, Markku. It was his first time vomiting as well. He was so perplexed by it! Too bad it started at night as we had to change bedsheets twice and use lots of other blankets and towels to help make cleaning up in middle of the night easier. After recovering from each vomit episode he would ask to go play! Then he would realize how tired he was and go back to bed. Suvi kept waking up whenever Markku did so I was up all night myself (Heikki was still recovering). Then on Saturday even though he still felt sick, Heikki went back to work (gee, I wonder if all the Suvi diaper changes had anything to do with that?!) So we are still in recovery mode with Suvi having vomited today and she is still refusing all solid food. I may have to make another trip to the doctor...
But I think they are better. Not sleeping on the right schedules yet or eating right, but we may be on the road to recovery. And that would be good as I am exhausted from not sleeping or napping for almost a week now! Now I am off to pay bills and catch up with household chores as I FINALLY got the kids to bed I think!