"Bike" by Maisie Jean

Summer is here! Summer is here! To celebrate one of her favorite activities, Maisie wrote (and illustrated) a poem...

bike

evry one likes bikes.
evry one flys fast too on thar
bikes but it gos to home
and it leads you some where
new.
by Maisie Jean.

Ella update

The last post was almost all Maisie, so I figured I'd share some Ella pics, too!

I love this one - I think she looks a LOT like her cousin Nika.

Aaron took this one a day or two ago, as she was getting ready to go to school.

Ella really loves school, and she's doing really well. We didn't have conferences this quarter, thanks to all the days cancelled for cold weather - the school district decided to hold classes those days instead - but her teacher sent us a really sweet email. She said that Ella's "just been a rockstar" in their classroom, and her love for learning and for life bring smiles to all her teachers. It was a lovely note, and made us very happy.

Grandma Liisa taught her to eat Oreos this way

She did say that Ella tends to get chatty during lessons and will forget to raise her hand before speaking, which wasn't a surprise to us. Ella is very, very verbal - she talks a LOT! She also seems to process things through talking about them. She's talked through movies, plays, and orchestra performances, narrating the whole experience to whoever is sitting next to her. It's exceptionally cute, and a fun little window into how she's experiencing what she's watching.

She does have her stubborn moments... Ella is frankly one of the most stubborn people I've met. (Some apples don't fall far from the tree, I guess!) When she digs her heels in about something, woe unto you if you're trying to get her to budge. Aaron and I have to pick our battles pretty carefully, because when she's made up her mind, trying to get her to go against her decision is not a fun experience!

Truer words were never worn on a shirt

But even with the stubborn moments and tantrums, Ella brings us joy every day. She's smart, funny, and generally a wonderful person to have around. We're so lucky to have her in our lives!

Folk dancing at Urban Expedition: Finland!

A few weeks ago we were at Suomi-koulu when a woman came up to me and said, "You're Maisie's mom, right?" When I said I was, she said "Great. Just so you know, there's an extra practice on Thursday night, so we'll be ready for the performance on Sunday..." Wait, what? "Oh," she said, "Didn't Maisie tell you that she said she wanted to perform with the dance group?" Ha ha what?

Suomi-koulu isn't just about language - they also learn about Finnish culture as well, and folk dancing is part of that. Maisie loves dancing, and has been really enjoying the Finnish dance lessons in class. I knew that some Suomi-koulu students did folk dance performances at various events along with Kisarit, the adult dance group, but it was always something that was presented as for older kids. (2nd grade and up) Maisie's not quite there, but she's been working really hard at it and really wanted to perform, so the group decided they'd let her in! She just somehow forgot to mention to me and she'd signed up for the performing group. :)

So on Sunday, we headed over to the Landmark Center so she could perform at Urban Expedition: Finland!

The Urban Expedition series is a neat series that the Landmark Center hosts. Once a month they host a free series of activities and events that are centered around the culture of a specific country. Cambodia, Senegal, and Brazil are still coming up if you want to go check it out - it was a lot of fun! In addition to the performances, there was food, crafts, and even LIVE ANIMALS.

The north lobby had a "petting zoo" with two year-old reindeer, and an arctic fox that didn't really look like it wanted to be petted.

Gramma Liisa had made Maisie a beautiful costume in a fancy Finnish style - a beautiful full skirt, and a black vest with gorgeous silver buttons. Unfortunately... we didn't know that they weren't wearing fancy dress costumes! Instead, they were performing peasant-style dances in Karelian work clothes-type of costumes. Fortunately, they'd found an outfit for Maisie to approximate the pinafore type of dress. Add an apron and a headscarf, and she was all set to go!

There dancing was last, so we sat through a few other performances and things first. Ella's favorite, I think, was the language lesson from two Salolampi counselors. They taught the audience a Finnish song (Pienet Sammakot), and then taught us all to count to six in Finnish. Ella was very impatient, though - they were repeating yksi, yksi (one, one) and Ella would yell out KAKSI!!! (TWO!!!) I think they were only going to go to viisi (5), but when they got there she wouldn't stop yelling out KUUSI!!!!! (6!!!!!) so they went to kuusi. It was hilarious! And, if I had any doubts that she's actually learning some Finnish at Suomi-koulu, they've been laid to rest.

After the other programs, the children's group did three dances. The first, Tikkuristi, is almost like a game... you do a dance around sticks, and try not to step on or knock your sticks.

The music gets faster and faster... the last person left is the 'winner' of the dance.

Maisie LOVES Tikkuristi dancing! She practices at home with scarves on the floor. It's awesome to see how hard she's working at it.

Tikkuristi was followed by Seni, a threshing dance, and they ended with Helsingin matka, a dance about a trip to Helsinki.

Maisie was by far the youngest and smallest person in the dance group, but she did a GREAT job. She really kept up with the older kids and adults, she knew all the steps, she stayed focused, and she had a LOT of fun. I was so proud of her, I thought I was going to absolutely explode with it!

The program ended with an audience participatory dance called Svetit Mesjats. Even Dylan and Auntie Laura got in on the fun!

It was a super fun, and very Finnish, afternoon. I feel so fortunate to have found this great community through Suomi-koulu!

The countdown is on...

38 weeks and one day down...

six days to go! I don't remember if I updated our delivery (c-section) date here, so now you know: next Saturday, June 20 is the day! I can. not. wait. I couldn't be more excited to meet our new little girl - and, to be honest, not to be pregnant any more!

These last few weeks have been slow for us - Aaron and I have been kind of hunkering down, getting ready for the new baby and not really doing too much or going much of anywhere. Consequently, we don't have a lot of pictures to post, or interesting things to blog about...


Maisie is going through a major princess phase right now, which you may have figured out from her deep love of her princess skirt. Here, she is wearing a beautiful princess hat. Doesn't she make a lovely princess?

Fortunately, other people are doing interesting things for us to write about. Yesterday our friend Emi turned 1! We celebrated with her by swimming and then having cupcakes (which Maisie calls "pupcakes") at Lake Nokomis (or, as Maisie says, "Komis Lake").

Obligatory hilarious first birthday cake picture:

I love this picture because Emi looks SO SERIOUS as she sits in her cake. I also love that she's holding a fork - maybe purely decorative, given that she's clearly been using her hands to eat! Anyway, this picture cracks me up.

We had a good time swimming in the lake, even though the water was pretty cold. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people there, including many little kids who stared open-mouthed at my belly, which amused me. Only one child actually asked me "You got a baby in your tummy?" Hee.

Random cute picture of Maisie from this morning:

The way Maisie's speech is developing is so interesting. She has trouble with sounds in compound words that she can say just fine on their own. She can say "cup" and "cake" just fine, but together it's always "pupcake." My favorite though is "swim" and "suit" - no problem separately, but when combined, form "swimpoop." Much hilarity ensues every time we talk about going to the pool. Daddy, you got your swimpoop?

Memorial Day

Catching up on some pictures here... on Memorial Day, our friends Jason and Rebecca (and their daughter Sophia) hosted a barbecue. At Sophia's insistence, they put up their tent in the backyard for the kids to play in.

It was a huge hit! Maisie, Sophia, and the other kids there had a blast running in, around, and through the tent.

As you can see, Maisie wore her rainbow dress and her princess skirt to the barbecue. It's so cute - when she sees this picture (it's currently the wallpaper on our desktop computer at home) she always says "I love my rainbow dress! I love my princess skirt!" and then asks to go back to "Fia's party" to play in the tent some more.

Conversations with Maisie

Maisie's language skills are exploding, and every day she surprises us with new words in new combinations. Today, for instance, we were at my mom's house. We asked Maisie if she wanted to go home to play with our kitties (my mom's cats aren't too playful). She replied, "Go home play my kitty!" Okay! She's only recently begun stringing together five-word sentences so this was great!

She still comes out with some stumpers, though. Yesterday Aaron and I were in the living room, and Maisie was playing in her room. We heard some somewhat alarming thumpy noises. So like the lazy parents we are, instead of getting up to see what was going on, Aaron said "Maisie? What are you doing?" She said, "Door!" He said, "I need you to tell me what you're doing in a sentence." She replied, "Nine ten sandwich."

Uh, okay. (It turns out she was pulling books off her bookshelf...)

Unrelated cute pic of Maisie curling up to read one of those books. Because that story was too funny not to share, and every post needs a pic.

And, what's better on a snowy January day than curling up with a good book?

Happy mother's day!

This is my second mother's day with Maisie! We had a really nice day. But first I have to tell you about yesterday, because there's a great picture from yesterday that I want to share.

We went over to Bethany's (and baby Trixie's) house yesterday to visit and to look through some books and DVDs that Bethany was getting rid of. On the way back, we stopped by the co-op to pick up some groceries. While we were there we got a big chocolate chip cookie that the three of us shared.

You wouldn't think that someone could get covered in chocolate from a chocolate chip cookie, but Maisie managed! When Aaron took this picture, she had finished her portion and was asking for (verbally and signing) "more." It looks like you've actually had enough, Maisie!

Today was lovely, as I said. Maisie and I went to the zoo with my mom, and we had a really nice time.

Maisie especially enjoyed the birds and the fish at the zoo. Then when we got home, we spent some time outside, popping dandelions out of the yard and kicking a ball around and generally having fun.

All in all, I can't imagine a better mother's day!

Happy mother's day to all the mamas out there!

Winter's last gasp

Sorry, Maisie, it's not quite time for planting yet...

Although Spring has truly Sprung most places, here in the twin cities we still have snow on the ground thanks to a huge snowstorm on Monday. Already by Wednesday there's not much left - the high temps have been in the forties yesterday and today, so most of the roads and sidewalks are pretty clear. (And that's without even shoveling!)

But there's still some snow on the ground, especially in shady places like our yard.

The neat thing about this weather is that we can go play outside and run around in the snow without having to get too bundled up, because it's 42 degrees out!

But hopefully, this snowstorm really was this winter's swan song, and spring is on its way. It's been a long winter, and we can't wait to play outside some more. Maisie loves being outside - whenever we ask if she wants to go out, she runs for the door and says OUTS! OUTS!

We are really looking forward to this summer, and all the exploring we'll get to do now that Maisie is mobile and so interested in everything.

16 months!

Maisie is 16 months old! As you can see, she's a very happy girl, especially when she is playing with her dolls.

She is really in to dolls these days, and always seems to be carrying one or another around by its hair. In this picture she is holding the dolly that her Auntie Clare gave her for Christmas, and another that she got from her Grandma Jalonen is on the couch next to her!

Maisie comes out with a new word just about every day. This weekend she said a few words for the first time: doll (natch!), toast, Gramma, Dylan... and NO! That last one has reappeared more than once since then. I guess it's a preview of things to come as we head towards age two.