Baltic Adventures (Part 1)

You may remember in my last Life Lately update that I mentioned that when we were in Istanbul we received new visas so wouldn't have to leave the country again for a visa run. Of course, life on this side of the world is never like you expect it to be, and a month or so after we arrived back in the country the government revoked Shannon's work permit, therefore rendering our visas null and void. So another visa run was on the horizon.

Since we were just in Istanbul, a number of the families we know with children who live there were gone for the summer, and generally summer in Istanbul is hot, and I knew that an 8-hour bus ride to Tbilisi with a 14-month old was not going to be preferable, I begged Shannon to let us go north instead of south to apply for our visas. He agreed, so I started investigating.

We decided to go to Helsinki via Tallinn, since neither of us had been to Estonia, and while Shannon had technically been to Finland before, it was a very long time ago and he didn't really spend any time there. So we investigated the visa application process in Helsinki, made all our reservations, packed our bags, and headed on our way!


The five of us in Tallinn.

We flew to Tallinn, Estonia, arriving on a Saturday evening. We went through passport control, picked up our pack-n-play and one bag (umm, we packed for five people in one bag. I was majorly patting myself on the back for that one), and grabbed a taxi. We checked into the Old House Hostel (only 10 minutes from the airport and right in the middle of Old Town), got everyone in bed, and crashed for the night.

One of the lovely ironies of raising children is that no matter how tired they are, they rarely sleep in if they go to bed late. So we were all up at our normal time of around 7 a.m. We got everyone dressed, packed back up, ate a quick breakfast of instant oatmeal that I had brought with us, and headed out on the town.



From our hostel we headed out the door and turned left, then right to work our way up to Town Hall. On the way we passed Goodwin Steak House, where the girls couldn't resist snuggling up to the cow statue.








Lane and Noel absolutely loved all the cobblestone streets and small alleyways, all the "princess towers" and "castles" that they saw. It was fascinating to them.


Our first view of Town Hall.


A better view.


My guy and my girls.

Town Hall Square reminded me of all the town squares I've seen in Poland, Czech Republic, and other Eastern European countries.





We wound our way up to St. Nicholas' Church, which is also home to a museum.




Found it!

We walked down Harju street, checking out the gardens on our right while heading to St. John's Church.




St. Nicholas' Church from the...front? side?

We found St. John's Church and then, after checking the time, turned around and headed back to Town Hall Square.


St. John's Church



We knew that we didn't have a lot of time left, but wanted to go to the overlook, so we went hunting for it. We didn't realize that we passed up the best way to get to the top when we headed back to Town Hall Square, so we ended up doubling back, walking uphill the whole time.


But at least we got to check out St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral up close on the way!

And when we got to the top we were rewarded with some awesome views.









We looked around off a couple different lookout points and decided that we needed to head back to check out and head to the ferry port. We walked down a lot of steps, booked it back, gathered our stuff, and grabbed a taxi to the port. Even though it wasn't more than a kilometer or so away, we knew we'd have some very whiney girls if we tried to walk the whole way after our morning of sightseeing!



We got to the port, tried to get onto the boat but were told we actually had to go and get boarding cards (they didn't just want my print out of our reservation?). So I went to do that and then we hurried aboard the ship. We found a nook in the cafeteria where we stashed our things, we bought some lunch, and settled in for the 2.5-hour journey to Helsinki.









The bigger girls played in the play area most of the time, Raye took a little snooze in my arms, and we ventured up onto deck once or twice to see the sea and feel the wind. We pretty much just stayed put in the cafeteria because it was easy. And anyone traveling with small children knows that easy is always a bonus. Overall the ferry was an amazing way to travel, and other than having to lug our pack-n-play around, it was really easy. I think we'd do it again in a heartbeat...but maybe wait until we don't have to bring the pack-n-play. 

15 Months Old

At 15 months old Raye:

*says "oof oof" for a dog sound.
*loves to be outside. Just yesterday she brought me her sweatshirt, throwing it in my lap and grunting to go outside. She'll also bring you her shoes or your shoes, bring the girls their shoes, and so on, when she thinks it's time to go. When we're outside she is pretty content to walk around, chase birds, pick up rocks and sticks and pull up grass. When we're inside...she pretty much just wants to go outside. Or look out the window. But mostly to go outside.




Trying to be big like her sisters and climb up rocks.

*loves animals. I mean, there are not words to describe how much she loves them. If we're outside and she sees a bird or a squirrel she will chase them until she can't see them anymore, and if they're in a tree she'll stand at the bottom of the tree, looking up, and yelling/jabbering at them. If you pick her up she's content to just be at the bottom of the tree watching the bird/squirrel. She likes to pet dogs or cats, and she got to pet a sheep the other day and was in hog heaven.


Her face perfectly displays her excitement at being with the animals.

*says a few more things, although not consistently. We've heard her say "amen," "thank you," "I love you" (unfortunately for me only Shannon has heard that). And maybe some other things, too, but like I said, she's not consistent yet. She is very much a jabber-er and is constantly chattering, but we don't have any idea what she's saying.
*is a great eater. She especially loves most fruit, cooked carrots, and pizza.


4th of July outfit. Totally ridiculous, but I loved it.

*loves balls. She says "buh!" and just loves to have a ball in her hands. She doesn't really care about throwing them, but she loves to carry one around.
*loves to swing. There are lots of really great swings for babies / small children here in Finland so she's gotten to swing a lot and will sit there for 30 minutes at a time some days.



*will sit down when she comes inside and take her shoes off.
*knows where her belly button is and if you ask her where it is she will immediately lift up her shirt and start looking for it. If she sees your belly button she'll immediately start looking for hers, or sticking her finger in yours. If she hears "belly button" at all she'll start looking for hers, too. It's really cute.


Speaking of belly buttons. She loves to hang from this bar...usually she's grinning from ear to ear. 

*is very attached to her pacifier. We had already taken Noel's paci away by this point, but we just can't do it yet with Raye. While Noel only used hers at bed/nap time and if she was very upset or cranky, it seems to be the only thing that will help Raye calm down a lot of the time, as she is still quite the tantrum-thrower.
*is super sweet. She still has her moments (umm, almost any time she's told "no" about something or made to do something she doesn't want to do, like sit down in a chair), but overall she's very sweet and good-natured.

Antalya 2015

Well. I'm a bit behind on...life. But my "baby" is almost 15 months old, all the summer interns and tourists are gone, life is getting easier, and we have no plans to add more babies or more interns to the mix anytime soon, so...a catch-up post is in order!



When we had to leave the country in April to renew our visas, we decided to take a vacation first. And it was a real. vacation. I mean, the grandparents even came to visit!




And this is what you look like when the only flights out of the country leave at 3 a.m.



We went to Antalya, Turkey, and spent eight days on the beach. It was still April, so it wasn't hot at all (at least not hot enough to swim in the non-heated outdoor pools), but it was warm enough and a welcome break. The resort was all-inclusive, so all we had to worry about was making sure we made it to the restaurants during meal times and to the pool during its opening hours. We went swimming every day, most often twice a day, and let the girls eat dessert after every meal. They had a "slumber party" in Mimi and Papa's room a couple of times, and overall we just had a good, relaxing vacation.


Special kid drinks from the lobby bar.




Chocolate spread on their pancakes was definitely the highlight of breakfast every day!


Ice cream almost daily from the patisseries near the pools.

We only went down to the beach a couple of times. The water wasn't really warm enough to swim in, but there was a good playground nearby, so we went once to play in the sand and water and once or twice to play on the playground.




This girl would have totally gone swimming in the sea if Shannon or I had been willing to brave the cold water for her! She was all in!


But this one preferred the sand to the surf.





The pool(s) was definitely the girls' favorite part of the whole vacation. Lane got to brush up on her swimming skills from last summer and by the end of the week she was doing really well, even able to swim the length of the pool. Mimi and Papa also brought her some good goggles so she wasn't afraid of getting her face wet.





Noel, on the other hand, is still pretty much terrified of getting water in her face. It's kind of funny, because sometimes she'll jump right off the side and get her entire head under the water and wet, and other times she's scared to death of getting a splash of water on her cheek. But she's still just three so I guess she has some time. She enjoyed swimming with floaties or sitting on the steps. Papa Buck and Nona Lou sent them mermaids for the tub/pool, so they had a lot of fun playing with those in the water.





And little Miss Raye just got to enjoy being loved on by her grandparents, an endless supply of simit and pastries from the restaurants, and by the end of the week she was actually enjoying the pool, too!






Oh my gosh a baby in a bikini is just too cute!

We enjoyed just hanging out with Shannon's parents, leisurely eating and not having to worry about cleaning up or washing dishes afterwards, taking the girls around to the various pools, restaurants, nearby shops, playgrounds and beach, and so on. We just took it easy and actually relaxed (well, as much as is possible with young kids!) for a week, and it was a great break! It was our my third time to Antalya and Shannon and the bigger girls' second time, but it was our first time to go without having meetings to attend. And I have to say...I think we'll be back.


Mimi and Papa out for a walk with the bigger girls.




I think this is the only picture I have of the five of us from this vacation.

14 Months Old

I'm a little late, as usual. This month has been a fun one for Lil' Miss Raye. Her personality is just coming out more and more each day and it's just really fun.



At 14 months, Raye:

*can climb on anything. Ok, maybe not anything, but she can get onto our chairs, the table, the vacuum cleaner (today she got her foot stuck inside the spot where the canister sits while I was emptying it), the step stool, the girls' small table and chairs, and so on. She's fallen a lot this month and has gotten many small pops on the thigh for crawling on the table, trying to climb the bookshelf, and so on. It's exhausting. She's also walking well and although she's still a little wobbly, she doesn't usually fall down.



*absolutely loves her sisters. She will immediately walk to them in the mornings (she's usually up before they are) and give them open-mouthed kisses and a big hug. It's really, really sweet.
*can drink from a regular cup w/o help, is trying to use a spoon or fork but usually ends up eating with her hands, and loves coffee. Yup, coffee. And my CamelBak. Weirdo.



*has got a temper. She doesn't seem to go back immediately to doing stuff she's been told "NO!" about, but she sure does let you know she's unhappy. She'll cry for a minute about getting told "no!" or for getting a pop on her thigh, but then she switches to just whining/crying/screaming very loudly. Sometimes she'll stop if we give her her blankie, but other times she just wants to pitch a fit for awhile. I put her in her crib a lot of the time if it goes on too long.
*says "ooh ooh ah" or something similar for a monkey sound and "aaoooww" or something along those lines for a cat sound.



*loves animals. She gets so excited when she sees birds or a dog or a cat...she'll bounce up and down in excitement or just start jabbering up a storm...she loves to walk after them, chase them, touch them, and so on. The girl likes animals.
*has some new words: "BAH!" for boo!, something that sounds like "Ah do" (I do) for yes.



*can usually follow simple instructions like give the phone to mama, put your diaper in the trash, etc.
*can identify her belly, tongue, and teeth when asked where they are.
*is mostly in 12-month clothes but since her sisters were wearing 18-month clothes in the summer I pulled some of those out the other day and she's wearing them, too. All of her 9-month things have been put up.