Kaija's Princess Party and Girls' Weekend

So last weekend all of my sisters, my mom and I got together in Texas for an extended girls weekend. I had a blast and it was a much needed break, thanks to my friends and Teem for taking care of the kids. We started with some shopping, then dinner followed by an evening at a dueling piano bar. It was amazing to watch those guys play and I couldn't believe they knew the words to the songs they played. Anyway, if anyone hasn't been to one, I highly recommend it. My poor sister, Holly got picked on a lot and she had to go up on the stage to do the hokey-pokey.
The second day was jam-packed with a whole lot of nothing (which was planned that way). We actually played a little tennis (some of us) and spent a good part of the day at the pool. I can't remember the last time I laid at the pool without any kids to constantly watch. That night we went to see Mama Mia. Overall, it was a perfect day. The last day we did a lot more shopping, yay. And we ended it at The Cheesecake Factory, yum. Thanks mom and sisters for the good memories.
The day before I had to leave for the girls' weekend, Kaija had a princess party and I even baked her cake. The girls were so fun and cute. It all went pretty smoothly. She wanted to be a mermaid-fairy princess, so she wore an Ariel costume and added wings and a crown and Voila! Instant mermaid-fairy princess. I'll attach some pictures of the pretty, pretty princesses.
This past weekend we went camping at Lake Roosevelt with some friends and had a marvelous time. Camping is fun when you have running water and flushing toilets (we had both).

A long overdue update

Once again, I've been a major slacker with my blog. The last few months have been crazy busy and summer is just nuts. Most recently we just went to Portland for a couple weeks to spend time with Teem's family. We spent 4th of July weekend camping with the fam. I had a great time with his sisters and the kids. Our days were spent berry picking (mmmm, so yummy), going to free movies, playing in a fountain downtown Vancouver and just hanging out.
Life with three kids, for me, is so much fun, but I've had a really hard time taking pictures, journaling and all that. My kids constantly make me laugh and I've failed to write down all of the funny things they say. Luukas' favorite phrase when he's excited about something is, "Holy, moly smokes!" And he always says it with gusto. Also, when he talks he pronounces his f''s as w's (super fast becomes 'super wast'). Kaija is still very much a princess, usually in her own world. She was coloring in church last week and humming to herself and singing her own made up songs, albeit a little loud. A few months ago she approached me looking very sad, almost teary. Here's the conversation:

Me: What's the matter?
Kaija: Mommy, I don't want to die.
Me: Sweetheart, you aren't going to die anytime soon. (and we had a short conversation about heaven and all that)
Kaija: (still on the verge of tears) But mom, I don't want to die because there are no dress-ups in heaven.
Me: (trying very hard not to laugh, since the comment caught me very off guard) Well, I'm sure Heavenly Father would have things in heaven that make us happy.
Kaija: Oh, okay. And off she went to play.

So that sums up Kaija pretty well. As far as Miia, she's a beast. At her 9-month appointment, she weighed 21 pounds. Her favorite thing is bath time, but it doesn't last very long because it's kind of like trying to keep hold of a slippery, squirmy fish. She literally flops all over the bath tub. She's crawling and eating EVERYTHING, especially sand, when she can sneak a handful. I know, gross, huh. Well, I'm going to do my best to stay more updated with my blog so some of you can get off my back. :)

Happy Birthday Luukas!

Last weekend we celebrated Luukas' 3rd birthday and I have yet to post anything. (Pictures will be coming). Teem's parents came in town and we went to our favorite breakfast place (Old European Breakfast House) for a birthday brunch, then that evening went bowling. Sunday night we celebrated with a nice Sunday dinner (flank steak terryaki...yumm...thanks Teem) with friends. Teem gave Luukas a slot car race track and he also got a spider-man bike. So the big man is three and is so proud to be a year older. Now he likes to eat things in threes (like grapes or crackers) to match his new age. Funny boy!
On a side note, I have to share a couple new recipes I found online that I love. One is a copycat recipe of Panera's Cream Cheese potato soup and the other one, a Glazed Salmon recipe, we tried tonight. Teem went to Seattle a couple weekends ago and brought back a bunch of yummy seafood that we froze and tonight we had a smorgasbord. Just thought I'd share these good finds.

Picture Perfect

Here's pictures as promised. I love the first one of Miia. Fat and Happy. That pretty much sums her up. The bottom ones are Vegas pictures. I was able to go to my college friend, Larissa's reception (and her new hubby Ignacio) while we were there. It was so nice to see her and to meet her man. Teem and Andy (Holly's husband) took the kids on a hike one afternoon and also to the hoover dam. And the adorable girl under the umbrella is Tessa, my niece. She has the cutest little voice I've ever heard.

Success (sort of)

We had the opportunity to spend a week with my sister, Holly, and her family in Las Vegas. They moved there in the summer, and finally finished building a house in November. It was nice to see her new place (totally jealous) and spend time with them. Kaija and her daughter Natalie even played without any major drama. (That's a miracle with any two girls being around each other for a week). We had a great adult evening out at the Cheesecake Factory (YUMMM) and Teem and I did an early anniversary celebration and saw Phantom at the venetian. We were hoping to get away from our freezing winter, but unfortunately it was pretty cold there, too. Despite that, we still enjoyed ourselves. So thanks Holly, for the good times.
The day after we got back, I decided to tackle the dreaded potty training for Luukas, who is approaching his 3rd birthday next month. He did great the first day but went about 15 times. So the next day I told him he could try holding it in a little longer so he didn't have to go so often. He took that advise to heart because he held it ALL DAY LONG. It was around 5 or 6 pm and he was in pain he had to go so bad, but he didn't want to get his underwear wet. I tried eveything, then finally I had him try to 'shoot' cheerios standing up. He went immediately and had a blast doing it. Now he thinks it' s a game every time. I'll have to work on weaning him from the cheerios. As a mom, I feel like I've accomplished something getting this far with potty training. It's all about the little things, right? At this point we are still having #2 issues. (He just won't go at all). So I'll take any pointers and tips that any of you may have. HELP ME PLEASE!
Miia has just started rice cereal and just smiles and kind of spits it right back out. But she sure is cute with her messy face. I'll get some pictures up soon. She really is a chunky monkey. You can't help but squish her and kiss her chubby cheeks. Luukas cheers up right away when she is around. He is quite fond of Miia and is always looking our for her.

It's been a while

I'll have to add pictures from the last 2 months sometime, but if I don't start small, I won't start at all. It has been a wonderful couple of months. We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with friends and family and we had a great time. We even drove and it wasn't too bad. (Thank you DVD player). Miia was an angel baby...slept most of the drive except to eat. We stayed with some friends from dental school, spent Thanksgiving at my Grandma Lowder's house, got to see some good Michigan friends, the Quinns, and I was fortunate to have a lunch date with some college friends (aka Divas) so thank you Cafe Rio. I love Utah because we get to see so many people when we go. Everyone seems to have a connection to that place.
December came and went so fast. We took a quick trip to Portland to see Teem's family a couple weeks before Christmas. When we got back, I decided to host an Ugly Sweater Party and we had a great time. There were definitely some uglies there. (Sweaters, not people) :) The monday before Christmas, we flew to Dallas to spend the holidays with my family. We survived the trip and my kids even got to sit first class on one of the legs. Long story short, Teem flys a lot so he and the kids got upgraded (there were only three seats left). Teem offered his seat and I gave him the choice to take all the kids to first class or be in coach alone. So, I got to sit in coach all alone. Wow, so much better than first class. I even slept for part of the flight.
Christmas was great! The kids enjoyed opening all the gifts, although Luukas was a little overwhelmed and Kaija asked at the end of the madness, "when do we get more presents?" I just looked at her and laughed. We were also blessed with a few fabulous warm park days. Kaija is already wondering when the snow is going to melt here so she can go to the park.
Speaking of snow, before we left Coeur d'Alene, we got record snowfall (I think around 3 1/2 feet). Then we came home to even more snow. My friends told me that even Walmart was closed for a couple days. Walmart? They never close. Teem had to dig his car out of mounds of snow so he could get to work the next day.
For New Year's Eve, we tagged along with my sister, Shelley to her friend's party. Thanks Mimi and Poppy for watching the kiddos. It was pretty fun because we did a white elephant exchange with a twist. All the wives brought something of great sentimental worth that belonged to her husband (without the husband knowing). The looks on the guys faces was priceless. It wasn't until about halfway through that they realized the joke was on them. (They were a little slow to catch on). One of the gifts was a box of very valuable baseball cards. My sister brought a picture of her husband with Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders that was on his "wall of fame". Another had a signed BYU helmet and seriously I think I saw tears in the guys eyes. I brought Teem's collectible star wars light saber (it was actually Luukas' that Teem gave him for Christmas, but Teem was rather attached to it). The funny thing was that the light saber was the first to be stolen and all these grown men looking at it with envy gave me a good chuckle. I decided they are all just oversized kids in disguise. Oh man, it was a hoot, so I'd highly recommend playing this version of a white elephant game.
Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas and holiday season for us. It's nice to be home but we are already planning another trip to Dallas to get to good weather.

Happy Halloween!

If you want to see any of the pictures better, just double-click on them. I need to explain one of them before I forget. The one in the middle set on the bottom left of Kaija and her shiny face had a story behind it. So Friday morning, I put a little blush and shimmery eye shadow on Kaija to enhance her princess look. That evening when we were getting ready for bed I asked her to go get her and Luukas' toothbrushes ready. We were busy chatting with family and I realized 10 minutes or so had passed by and still no Kaija. Shortly after she came out quietly with a look like, "I know, don't I look fabulous." I wasn't sure how to react. Should I be upset? Should I laugh? It took all I had to not show any emotion and I told Teem to grab the camera. The shiny eyeshadow what ALL OVER her face. The picture doesn't do it justice, but at least you get the idea. She put it on her cheeks, lips, all the way around her eyes and even her forehead. It was a little clumpy and a bit much, so we had a little make-up lesson about where exactly eye shadow is supposed to go. That's my little princess. So back to my original post.
I just love Coeur d'Alene in the fall. I only wish it would last longer before winter comes. We had a great weekend. Most of Teem's family (there were 16 of us at our house) came to stay with us for Halloween and Miia's baby blessing. Friday started with Kaija's preschool party. She was one of the last ones in the classroom and she walked in as if the party could now begin since she had graced everyone with her presence (princess mode). One of the parents even said, "wow, I guess the Queen has arrived." Then that afternoon we went with Teem's family to trick-or-treat downtown at the shops. It was crazy busy, but lots of fun . Luukas was a bit overwhelmed so he just shadowed kaija and mumbled a quiet thank you every now and then. We came back to the house to eat dinner then some of the group went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood which was lots of fun with all the old homes around here.
For anyone that knows Teem, you will not be surprised by his enthusiasm for this holiday. He and his staff dressed up for work. (That was the Orkin man costume). I couldn't even give him a goodbye kiss...he just looked like one of those guys you would never let into your home. But it was a good disguise. Then when he came home he changed into the other costume (bloody scary guy with two missing fingers). I don't remember what he called himself. The kids didn't seem to mind, but when we got back and he took his makeup off, Kaija said, "Daddy, your back."
On Saturday we went to a nice brunch at the Old European (yummmmmmy) then went for a walk to the park. We truly enjoyed our time with the fam, so thanks to all of you for coming. We spent both nights playing games and got a little wild with Pit. I forgot how much fun that game is. The kids had a blast with their cousins and Miia even let me sleep a little. My sister-in-law, Sanni, and I were pretty much just milk machines all weekend (she had a baby girl three weeks before me). Overall, things are going well and I'm truly enjoying this three child thing, so far. It's amazing what you can cope with when you get 5 hours or more of sleep.

Miia Kate has finally arrived

First of all, there were a lot of questions about how to say the name (since it is a Finnish spelling). It's pronounce like Mia, not Maya. I'm sure she'll get all variations of her name, but it goes with the Finnish heritage. Speaking of names, we were in the hospital two hours more than necessary because we didn't want to leave without a name. We were down to two again, both of which we liked, so we finally had our nurse take a poll of about 20 nurses and staff and that was our decision. It suites her, though. She looks like a Miia. Actually, she looks like a Kaija, but that one is already taken. :) Seriously, everything about her, except the nose, is 100% Kaija, which is a good thing in my book.
The labor and delivery went really well. I was induced on Monday morning and Miia was on her own timeline. I was only dilated to a three until 4pm, then everything happened within 2 hours. I literally pushed twice and she was out. (No tears, no pain...thank you epidural, and not a single stitch needed, yay) It was almost a pleasant experience, relatively speaking, of course.
Besides the sleep thing, everything is going well, thanks to my mom being in town. She's my lifesaver. I'm sure reality will sink in the day she leaves, but for now I am enjoying my precious little angel. I probably won't be very diligent in posting pictures regularly, but I'll do my best.

The things people say...

So I had to post this, because I know someone out there will appreciate it. First of all, what is it with people around really pregnant women that makes them think it's okay to say whatever they want about them?! So, I was getting gas at Costco yesterday and the guy behind me moved a little closer and said, "I know I don't need to point this out, put it looks like you've got some junk in your trunk." Then he chuckled and went back to his car. So, for my own self confidence, I'm going to assume he doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase, but if he did, why in the world would you tell an extremely pregnant woman she has a big booty on top of the enormous belly hanging out. I'm well aware my bum gets bigger when I'm pregnant. (I like to think of it as nature's way of keeping me from tipping forward). Anywho, I'm sort of laughing about the whole thing, but still, come on people, have a little courtesy.

Playing Catch-up...again

Here's some pictures from Kaija's birthday party (from about 3 weeks ago) and also Teem and the kids' trip to California. I figured, when baby comes, I'll have enough other stuff to blog about that I needed to get caught up quickly. Also, Kaija started pre-school last week and is loving it.

A week by myself

Only three weeks until D-day and I am all alone in my own house. My niece is getting baptized tomorrow, so Teem took Kaija and Luukas to LA to visit his sister. Since I cannot travel this far into my pregnancy, I had to stay home, which really hasn't been a bad thing. I've been nesting and taking care of all of my unfinished projects. It's a little weird and definitely quiet around here, but how often does an opportunity like this come along. I've been pampering myself with a massage, a haircut, a pedicure (tomorrow) and LOTS of shopping. Not that I am buying much, but I forgot how much fun it is to browse. Browsing is not a usual activity when you have kids. Tomorrow I've organized a girls night out to dinner and a movie. Overall it's been a good week, but I'll be glad to have my kids and hubby back. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I'll post pictures from the last couple of weeks. Kaija even had her birthday party that I haven't posted yet, but it's on my to-do list.

Another month flies by

I'm not proud of it, but I've come to the conclusion that I am not a summer blogger. Since my last post, we've done quite a bit, so I'll try to recap it briefly. We spend about 5 weeks with my parents in Texas and had a great time. I'm amazed how quickly the time went. At the end of our trip there, my dad planned a surprise party for my mom's 6oth bday so all the kids/grandkids came down and we stayed in a nice home on Lake Travis (in Austin) for a weekend. For various reasons, it ended up not being a surprise (except my mom didn't know my grandma was coming) but we still enjoyed our time together on the lake and the weather was nice and hot. Luukas even went tubing with Teem (if you could call coasting at 5 mph tubing). And the kids had a blast with their cousins. Unfortunately my mom and dad weren't out on the boats because my mom had carpal tunnel surgery and my dad had some skin cancer removed from his face. There's a classic picture to illustrate the pair of invalids (as they called themselves). On a more serious note, after my mom's heart attack (back in march) and my dad's recent skin cancer, I am just thankful to have them around and that both of them seem to be on the upswing of things. It really puts things in perspective when you think you might loose somebody, especially family. So we have counted and recounted our MANY blessings and took advantage of our time together, even if it wasn't as originally planned.
A couple days after returning from Texas, we had Teem's sister, Tarja and her family come stay with us. Then, the rest of his family joined us the next weekend back at Loon lake (again at his office manager's house). I'll post pictures of that when I get around to uploading the pics. We had a blast and Teem even learned to wakeboard. Go TEEM! We still have a few plans for these last couple weeks of summer, but I'm sad it's almost over. Where did the time go? At least that means this pregnancy is coming to an end soon...by the way, still no name there.

Pool Time...or something like that

So we are still in Texas at my parents house, and I'm pretty much melting in the heat. We've pretty much either find indoor activities or do something outside involving water. I was too lazy the other day to take my kids to the neighborhood pool, so we were just going to do sprinklers and squirt guns, but then my mom had a fabulous idea. She got out buckets for them to play with and Kaija decided it was her own private 'swimming pool'. Then we found some storage bins so they could at least sit down if they wanted to. I know, totally white trash, but they had fun and I couldn't miss the photo-op with that one. As a side note, Teem comes down in less than a week and we are soooo excited to see him. Yipppeee!

Trip to Finland

So it's taken me quite a while to get our trip posted with pictures and all. In case you didn't know the story, we were supposed to go to Finland last summer, but unfortunately, our passports arrived the day after we were supposed to leave, so we postponed until this summer. Teem was a missionary in Finland and has relatives there and he hasn't been back for 10 years. We really had a great time, despite the cool weather (for part of the trip). Here are some of the things we did (the map above shows where we went):

• Visited sights in Helsinki (churches and such, and some shopping)
• Silja cruise to Stockholm, Sweden (we'd like to go back again, since we only had 1/2 a day there)
• In Stockholm we saw the palace and spent most of our time in Old Town (pretty neat)
• We spent a day at the Helsinki Temple doing Teem's grandpa's work
• Took a short detour to Turku, kind of a tourist town on a river...probably my favorite city
• got to meet friends (Sinnika & Taru, Teem's companion - Jori Vuori, and Loretta)
• In Kajaani, saw some cool Castle ruins, an old church (see picture) and a historical home
  
• Spent a few days in Lappennranta with his Grandma (Isoaitti) and aunt, Marjatta (I hadn't met them before). We rode bikes, saw the annual sandcastle display, played at the lake, where they had the coolest wooden and metal slide that you rode into the water on a sled, and I even went to Sauna since they had one in their basement.
  
• Teem's cousin, Simo took us fishing, or I should say took Teem fishing while I sat and read my book, and I think Teem was using the world's longest fishing pole (see picture in slide show)
  
• We ate ice cream in almost every city we stopped in. It's delicious and super creamy and they have little ice cream stands all over in every city.
  

It was a whirlwind of a trip because we were constantly going to different places. It wasn't as hard as I thought getting used to the light. The sun is down for about 4 hours. I think in Kajaani (way up north) we were outside around 2am and it wasn't totally dark yet. Very bizarre but pretty cool. The food was really tasty, especially the yogurt, icecream, chocolate, strawberries, bread and pastries. Teem's aunt, Marjatta cooked some delicious food while we stayed with them and kept us well-fed all day long. I managed to learn about 5 finnish words while I was there. It's such a difficult language, but luckily a lot of people can speak English. I think Teem's highlight of the trip was the grocery cart when we went to the store in Lappennranta. Most of the carts in Finland have rotating wheels on all four wheels so you can spin them around. Then at the exit there was a declining 'moving sidewalk' (one of those escalator type things that's just a ramp) and the cart stayed in place without rolling down. I don't think I described that right, but Teem was so impressed he had to take a picture...it's in the slide show. Oh and we sat by an interesting fellow at church in Helsinki (I think he was a bum that just wanted something to do...there are lots of bums in Finland, but they all have apartments and everything, but they don't work because their government takes pretty good care of them). Anyway, after sacrament, he pulls out his alcoholic beverage and fills his sacrament cup to have 'seconds' then he pulls out some pictures to show Teem. It kept me entertained anyway, since I didn't know what was being said in the talk.
After the long flight home (I wouldn't recommend flying 6 months pregnant to anyone), it was so good to see the kids. I missed them a lot while we were gone, but my Mom (bless her heart...thank you) took good care of them. Good to be home, but it was a wonderful trip.

Let the summer vacations begin

We are leaving town tomorrow, first to Portland for my brother-in-law, Paul's graduation from Chiropractic School. Then Monday we fly out to Dallas to stay with my parents for a few weeks. While I'm there, Teem and I are flying to Finland for 10 days while my mom watches the kiddos. I'm pretty excited. So I might be missing in action from my blog, but somehow I know you will all get along just fine without me. Happy summer.

Going above and beyond

So for anyone that knows my husband, Teem, knows that when he does something (i.e. the igloo this past winter) he does it with passion. (or something like that). Needless to say, it keeps our lives interesting. For memorial weekend, we went down to Portland to be with his family. He told me ahead of time he already planned a Sunday dinner, so nobody had to worry it. Well, little did I know, he planned the largest Cajun-style feast north of Louisiana. It was quite the occasion, or should I say, "O-Cajun". (Sorry, I couldn't help myself). I didn't realize the extent of the planning until a fed-ex box arrived at his mom's house on Saturday afternoon. There was about 20 pounds of shrimp, crawdads and alligator meat. I tried one of everything and I must say, the alligator was actually tasty. I'm not a shrimp-lover, but all those who like shrimp said it was the best they'd had. (there's pictures of the dinner in the slide show above).
We had a great time over the weekend. We spent a day at a small lake that had a nice park. We also hiked Multnomah Falls (very pretty), and thanks to my brother-in-law Paul who carried Kaija about half way after her legs were 'so very tired'. We even had a thunderstorm one night which hardly ever happens in that area. It's almost always the annoying drizzle that lasts all day long, so that was fun. After noticing that the street around the corner had flooded, Teem and his two brothers-in-law decided to jump in his dad's canoe (a metal canoe) shortly after the thunderstorm. Not the brightest bunch, but they are still around to talk about their adventure.
For my birthday, again Teem went above and beyond. He came home with a giant box and I knew the minute I held it (it was quite light) what he had done. Eight boxes later I got my present which was a stunning pair of earrings. Thanks Teem, you're the best. Kaija and Luukas really enjoyed the opening process and the aftermath. Overall, the last couple of weeks have been wonderful. We are still working on a name for our little baby, but stay tuned b/c I might post a poll to get people's opinions.

The last two weeks

I haven't posted lately, because there hasn't been much to post. Here are a few highlights from the last couple weeks. We went with our friends, the Aspers to an indoor waterpark, since the weather this spring has been anything but warm. (with a couple good weekends here and there). The kids had a blast and Teem and I even got to go on a couple of water slides. Fun stuff!Teem went golfing at the Coeur d'Alene Resort and got a certificate of achievement for getting on the world-famous 'floating green'. Way to go Teem! Kaija and Luukas started swim lessons and have made some progress. By progress I mean now Kaija will blow bubbles and sort of put her face in the water. Luukas, however, seems fearless, which totally frightens me. We went on a preschool fieldtrip to the local firestation. Notice Kaija is the only one NOT wearing the fireman hat. That day she was a princess, and princesses don't wear hats of any sort. Last weekend our church had a father-son campout and Teem and Luukas had a great time. Kaija and I had a little girls night out, too. She called it our 'pretty night' and the boys had their 'handsome night'. The boys came back filthy and tired, but I think they had a great time. Oh yes, and Kaija had her first cavity. How in the heck does a dentist's kid get a cavity? She did fine until the drill came on. She really HATES loud noises. We survived, but I sure hope we can keep her cavity-free from now on.

It's a .....

GIRL! We had our ultrasound on Friday and are happy to say we are having a baby girl. As the ultrasound technician so eloquently put it: she had a hamburger bun, not a turtle between the legs. (she was quite the character) We are due on September 27th (not soon enough, but I'm sure it will come faster than we think). We are thrilled for the upcoming addition and I'm especially glad we don't have to try to agree on another boy name. I t was not easy with Luukas. So I guess Kaija was right all along. She was convinced she was getting a baby sister and Teem and I thought for sure it was a boy. We'll keep you posted and hope you all are doing well.

Another digital photobook

So I just finished Luukas' 2nd year photo album and thought I'd share it with anyone who wants to take a peek. GO HERE. I'm still learning a lot about the techniques and such, but compared to my first one, I've come a long way. To clear up any misunderstanding, I designed it online (and with photoshop) then printed it through a photobook company (this one is 'My Publisher') and you get an actual hard copy to put on your book shelf. I really recommend it to anyone who either doesn't paper scrapbook or like me, can't keep up with all the pictures. It's my newest hobby and I just can't say enough good about it. I know it's not as cute as a real scrapbook, but I'm all about practical these days. ENJOY!

What do Angelina and I have in common?

No, it's not our 120 pound beautiful bodies (I wish) or the hunky man by our sides (mine is a different hunky man), but yes....we are pregnant. I would have made the announcement sooner, but someone told me it would make the pregnancy go by faster if you waited to tell people. Not true, so I didn't want to wait any longer because we are really excited (and nervous) about this. We find out in about 3 weeks what we are having. I'm due in September, so I'm not quite half-way. Other than about a week of feeling yucky at the beginning, it has been an uneventful and almost pleasant pregnancy. I say almost, because I think that would be a contradiction-in-terms. Anyway, I had to share a couple funny Kaija stories related to this upcoming baby. First of all, she is totally convinced that it's a girl and she wants to name it 'sweetie heart'. A few weeks ago she said she would name it 'special' if it was a boy, but just yesterday I asked her again what we would name it if it was a boy and she just said, "it's not a boy, it's a girl." So either she knows something we don't know or she is going to be a disappointed little girl. Also, a couple weeks ago I was showing enthusiasm about something she did and I said, "Oh Baby!" Kaija looked at me a little perplexed and asked, "Mom, is that what you say when the baby comes out of your belly?" Well, she keeps us smiling around here. We'll keep you posted when we learn anything more about our little "Sweetie Heart Scarborough."