19 Months Old

Another month has come and gone. So crazy how quick the time goes! Raye is now the same age that Lane was when we went to the Canary Islands. When we taught her how to sleep in a big-girl bed (WHAT were we thinking?!?!). When I was six-and-a-bit months pregnant with Noel. She's the same age that Noel was when we took our vacation to Cyprus and when I got lasik. Time flies, it's true.

At 19 months Raye:

*still doesn't really have those eye teeth. I think the top two have broken through the skin, but if so it just happened in the last day or two. She has a bottom one on its way, too.

*has learned how to pull our step stool into the kitchen. She likes to fish around in the silverware drawer (often putting things in her mouth and then putting them back, eww), touch all the dishes in the dish rack, see what kind of goodness is being mixed up on the counter tops. It's really cute and really annoying all at the same time, and who knows how many germs of hers we're all getting on our silverware.



*is still interested in the potty. We're hoping to officially train her later this month. She definitely knows how to do it. She just doesn't seem to understand that you're always supposed to do it. After she pees in the potty she starts chanting, "Wuh, wuh, wuh" which means "Raye, Raye, Raye" because it's how we start the "Potty Song" in our house. Then she wiggles her arms around to dance, and this girl can boogie. She's seriously got some moves and loves to dance.

*is saying some more words. Boots, bow, I'm sorry (I orry), water, more. Have I ever mentioned how she says "more"? It sounds like "moy," with her voice going up on the end. She also says, "ah-HA!" with her voice going up at the end. It's so cute. I've also tried to teach her how to sign "please" She pretty much just rubs her hands all over her belly.



*Speaking of her belly, when you take her shirt off she rubs her arms against her bare skin. It's pretty funny.

*is still in a bit of a temper tantrum stage. She knows what she wants and gets very upset if you get it wrong. Sometimes she pitches a fit just because we say "no" about something, but it's more common for her to pitch a fit because we don't understand her.

*really likes to build with Duplos or Mega Blocks. She's particularly fond of stacking all the same kind together, so she ends up with tall stacks of the same piece. She also likes to blow zerberts on your belly, and she's still pretty fascinated with belly buttons and will come lift up your shirt to peek at yours (and put her finger in it) regardless of who's around. And she likes to play dress-up, just like her sisters. She puts on their fake heels and everything and click-clacks around the house.



*loves to play in water. She'd be all over washing her hands but I'm not ready to keep up with her doing that yet. She can climb onto the toilet and likes to try to push the button, and she loves to run her hands or toothbrush under the running water, so I'm just afraid to let her discover that she could use the step stool for getting her hands wet...

*likes to draw or color. She especially wants to be doing whatever her sisters are doing. But she does like to make marks on paper and then bring me her paper and have me "ooh" and "aah" over it. She also likes to vacuum and gets quite mad when I want to do the "real" vacuuming first. She is all about pushing that thing around.



*says some animal sounds (new or not, I don't remember): oof-oof for dog, ee-ow for cat, a low growl for lion or tiger or bear, kuh-kuh for duck, a squeal for elephant, "sass" for snake. We're working on other animals: mouse, donkey, frog, etc.

*weighs 28 (twenty-eight!) pounds according to a friend's scale. This girl has got a belly on her! She's still in 18-month clothes, and can still wear her size 5 shoes, but she's usually wearing her size 6 boots these days since it's colder.

18 Months Old

My girlie is a big 'ol year-and-a-half. She's a hoot, too. At 18 months, Raye:

*is a jabber jaws. Her words are not nearly as clear as Noel's were at this age (nor does she say as many!), but she sure is trying to communicate. She says "more" and "buh-nuh" all the time. It's really too bad we can't figure out what "buh-nuh" means, since it doesn't mean banana (well, sometimes it might). She is also very good at nodding her head now and when we say, "say please," or, "say thank you," she usually just nods her head. She doesn't seem to understand that we want her to reproduce a word. Ah well. She also says shoes, apple, and...I'm drawing a blank. Something like "puh-duh" for potty.

*can put all the shapes into her shape sorter. And all the big shape pieces into her shapes puzzle.

*is very empathetic. If someone is crying or upset she'll give them a hug. She loves to give kisses at bedtime or when someone is leaving. Or if someone else is kissing someone, she wants in on the action. She's sweet.



*still has not gotten those stinkin' eye teeth. In general Raye is laid back and easy going and I can just tell that she's more irritable than usual. Just waiting on those teeth.

*is still interested in the potty and showing us that she needs to go sometimes. She goes through phases of being completely interested (going 4-5 times in a day) to being completely uninterested. I think we'll try to train her around Christmas/New Years when we have a little break in routine. I really just feel like she's too young. She can do it, I'm sure, but I worry about her communicating to us that she needs to go since she's not as verbal as Noel was when we trained her at 20 months old.



*gets very excited about a treat or M&M after going on the potty. When I mention a treat she kind of pants and goes "oh, oh, oh" with her mouth all smiley and open. So cute. She also does that when she's just excited in general, about going bye-bye, eating when she's hungry, and so on.

*is becoming interested in drawing with markers or crayons. She used to just want to put them in her mouth...she's actually put some marks on paper this month. She also likes play-doh.

*loves it when we dump all the blocks or legos out and they make a loud noise. She says, "OOOHHH!" She also likes to put legos or Mega Blocks together, most of the time she stacks the same kind of blocks together, but sometimes she'll try to add onto a structure. She's not as big on the regular wooden blocks, I think because we don't have as many of them and her sisters come and build with them, too, so she isn't left with many to stack. But she does enjoy them when she can have a minute of peace.



*loves to be chased, tickled, given zerberts, and so on. She loves for you to sing with her and kiss her neck, blow on her cheek, anything that shows that you've got all your attention on her.

*is into everything these days. She so wants to play with her sisters but of course she doesn't play the way they want her to, so they do everything they can to prevent her from playing with them. She's getting better at actually playing: stacking blocks, wanting clothes on or off a doll (speaking of dolls, she gives their baby that makes noise hugs when it "cries"), and so on. But she's also all toddler and quite a destroyer.

*is definitely an extrovert. She waves to everyone when we're out and about and will let people (usually she's more ok with men than women) pick her up. She might be a little more reserved with people in our home, but not much.

17 Months Old

17 months. Shannon and I are still in shock that Raye is as big as she is already. It really is true: the days are long but the years are short. And oh how long the days sometimes are!

Raye is:

*expressing lots of interest in the potty. She's peed in the potty a handful of times in the past week or two, and none of them were initiated by me. She's patted the front of her diaper area and I took her and she peed in the potty. I have been completely shocked each time but we're going with it! Maybe she'll be potty-trained by the end of the year!

*is yakking up a storm. She still babbles a lot but she has quite a few words, too. She started saying "Noel" (o-el) this month, which has been so fun for all the girls. She tries to say "Lane" but it just doesn't come out right. Other new words: shoes, James, apple, night-night, spoon (poo), water, flower, and surely others I'm forgetting.



*is in the "I want to do it myself but am not actually able to do it myself" stage. She wants to feed herself her food with her spoon or fork, but isn't very good at it yet. So she wants help, but then she gets mad. And the cycle continues. She wants to climb stairs by herself but she gets tired after ten or so of them and then needs help, but doesn't want it. But then decides she does.

*wants to play with her sisters so badly. But she doesn't play the way they want her to, so they do all they can for her to not play near them. We have nicknamed her "Raye the Destroyer," because she's best at destroying.

*isn't quite so picky about food this month, for which I am very grateful. She still loves fruit (grapes, especially) but is doing better this month at eating her veggies, eggs, chicken, and casserole-type dishes.

*is teething, I think. She's been quite cranky and clingy lately. She should be getting her eye teeth next, and I seem to recall all our kids having problems when they were coming in, so I think that's what's going on.



*still loves to be outside. She always wants to go bye-bye. She loves sticks and rocks and dirt and leaves. She likes to climb ladders and go down slides, but in general, she loves the outdoors.

*sleeps from 7:30 at night until 6 or 6:30ish in the morning, with a nap from 12-3, or thereabouts.

*still could care less about the television. She has no interest in watching anything the bigger girls watch, but would much rather play.

*gives the best snuggles at bedtime or nap time. She lays her head on your shoulder and just leaves it there while you sing to her. She never cries at bed or nap time and only very, very rarely wakes up in the middle of the night.

***It's been a month of not many pictures...too much craziness going on around here to bother with the camera much!***

Baltic Adventures (Part 2)

We arrived in Helsinki on a Sunday afternoon. After figuring out how to get a transportation pass we took a tram to the train station (but of course not before getting off at the wrong stop with all our luggage first!). We found our correct intracity train, took it to our stop, and was met there by the man in whose apartment we'd be staying. He took us to his place, showed us a few things like how to work the keys/locks, the washing machine, where clean sheets were, and so on, and then left us to get settled in. I ran to the store to pick up a few basics and threw together something for a meal (grilled cheese, maybe?). We got everyone fed and in bed and got a good night's sleep.


Starbucks! Quite the treat for us since there isn't one where we live!











Monday morning we all got up and headed into town to turn in our visa applications. And then we breathed a big sigh of relief. Shannon still had a lot of work to do so we spent most of our first week with him plugging away at the computer while I watched the girlies. The girls and I spent a lot of time at the local parks and we found a really great one nearby. In Finland there are a lot of playgrounds that have someone working at them in the mornings, kind of like a preschool teacher. They also have toys that are communal toys, and we saw this at almost every playground we visited. There were tricycles, buckets and shovels for the sandboxes, balls of every kind, and various other toys that are shared by the children of the community. It was such a blessing for our kids to have these things to play with!




The Church on the Rock. Worth checking out if you're a big fan of architecture or in the area, but not worth a special trip.





The Central Train Station.


View out of the SkyWheel.


The glass is tinted blue, so be prepared for all your photos to be tinted and to need a filter!


Senate Square.




Market Square.

So the girls and I spent a lot of time at the playgrounds and local parks. There was a forest right behind our apartment and it was beautiful. There are lots of paved paths for bikes and then other paths cutting through the forest that are more like hiking trails. Everything was so green and beautiful, and it reminded me strongly of home in Alaska, just without mountains. There were fireweed and wild roses just like in Alaska...the whole place even smelled like home. It was so nice for me, especially since we didn't go to Alaska when we were in the States last time, to get a little bit of feeling like I was at home.


No filter or editing on these...it really is this green.






When in Helsinki, if you climb things like this...


You're rewarded with views like this.




There was an observatory in Kaivopusto Park.



Other than Shannon working and the girls and I hanging at the parks, we took a day and went and did touristy stuff. We bought two Helsinki Cards, which I wouldn't recommend unless you either a) really like museums, or b) have children who would otherwise have to pay for things. We actually saved money since we would have had to pay for the bigger girls, but otherwise I'd say it's not worth the money. But. We rode the Finnair SkyWheel. We took a cruise down the canals. We ate yummy food down in Market Square. We took the ferry out to Suomenlinna Fortress, walked around the island, and checked out the submarine that's been turned into a museum. We also went to Linnanmaki, which is an amusement park. But the best part about it, at least for our little family with three kids five and under, was that there were ten rides for free. And you don't have to pay an entrance fee to get into the park, so we spent a few hours there, our girls rode all the rides, and we didn't pay a single euro. It was amazing.




I, the fish snob from Alaska, actually ate the salmon in Helsinki and enjoyed it!


At Suomenlinna Fortress.








Cruising in the canals around Helsinki.



After a week had passed we went to check on our visas and lo and behold, they were already ready! But they didn't start for another week, so we go to just hang out in Helsinki for another week. It was actually a quite needed break, since we headed straight from our crazy summer to leaving the country to a quite busy week with Shannon working all the time trying to catch up on computer work he'd let slide over the summer. So that additional week was very nice, almost like vacation (on a strict budget, since Finland is expensive!). We went back to the amusement park. We visited a farm that was free where the kids could run around and pet animals and play in the "kid-sized farmhouse." We went back to Market Square and wandered around a bit, had some Starbucks, got strawberries (long since out-of-season where we live!), and just enjoyed some family time. It was so nice.


Linnanmaki.




Learning how to wait in line.




Shannon really wanted to ride this roller coaster, so he did! You can buy a ticket for just one ride, which is a little ridiculous since the price is horrible that way, but it works out really well when you only want to do one thing!


He's the one in the back, right, top, with his arms in the air.







We thoroughly enjoyed Helsinki. It was a nice break from most of our other trips to Asian countries...this was Europe through and through. It's clean. Everyone speaks English (or very nearly everyone, anyway). Kids under age 7 travel free on public transportation, as do parents with a child in a stroller. There are elevators in the metro/train stations and sidewalks are stroller-friendly. There are great parks for children and lots of free things for young children to do. The only downside to Helsinki that we found is that it's quite expensive. We ate at home almost all of the time and still spent probably nearly double on food than we do here. And food is not cheap here! But overall we enjoyed it and have actually decided that we'll probably often head to Finland when we have to leave the country in the summer. So I'm already looking forward to next summer and a trip to somewhere new in Finland!

Two days before we planned on leaving we bought train tickets to St. Petersburg. The kids all traveled for free (this time. We learned on the train that technically they should have charged us for one of them...only one free child per adult!) so this was a very economical way to see a new city on the way home! (And it was much more enjoyable than airplane travel with a 1-year old!).