The Lindholms

We interrupt this Advent . . .

2009-12-06T18:33:00.006+02:00

to bring you a special Independence Day celebration.

And below you can see a piece of art by BB, which he named "Pappa's Juice". (The top part's the straw and the bottom, the juice box)

Clearly, he was subconsciously aware of it being Independence Day and chose the colors accordingly.

Now, time for rice porridge and watching the President's Ball.

-Pappa&Mama

Pappa's coming of age

2009-12-02T20:05:00.007+02:00

A weeklong celebration of me coming out of my tweens has just ended. On Monday, Mama came home from a church board meeting and told me: "There's been a change of plan! You need to be on the bus downtown in 10 minutes! And take this bag!"

That's just the kind of dramatic event I like. When I got downtown, a gaggle of choirmates awaited me with a secret destination that turned out to be laser tag! I've never been before, but I've always wanted to go.

The first ten minutes, I spent getting shot (some friendly fire, too, I might add), but I soon got the hang of it. In the final points, well, let's just say I didn't finish last.

Despite work taking most of my days, we tried do something a little special every day. On the very day, I had a long day at work, but Mama got up at 5am to make a special breakfast.

That day, I took my whole family with me to work.

They decorated my blackboard (and walls, floor, door and everything else they could reach. Thank God it was just chalk!)

BB organized my desk while I taught the class (I didn't think it could get any messier. It could.)

Mama and the kids went home at LS's naptime, and the rest of my birthday was spent doing plain old work and attending a meeting after school. And when I came home...

...well, then we were so tired, we pretty much went to bed as soon as the kids did. It felt a little sad, since I'd been thinking about my 30th birthday for a long time.

Friday went along in pretty much the same thing, but on Saturday, Timo was coming for dinner, which is always nice.

He wasn't dressed up like this at the time. Instead, he came over and we started watching the children while Mama started dinner. It was like any other time. Then, LS had a stinky. Since Mama was busy I changed her and, since I'd seen that we only had two diapers left that morning, asked Mama if she had remembered to pick up diapers. She hadn't, she said.

Since it was going to take a while for the pulled pork bbq to get finished (one of my favorite dishes), Timo and I took the kids with us to the store to get diapers. Since we weren't in a hurry, we decided to walk.

When we came back... the house was full of pilgrims and Indians!

It was my first ever surprise party! And it might be my last, because Mama tells me it was a huge ordeal to set it up!

One Indian turned pilgrim!

The kids' table.

I felt compelled to quote, with some modification, my favorite book!
"First of all, I am immensely fond of you all! 30 years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable... er... Indians and pilgrims. I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!"

Thank you all for a wonderful surprise party, and to all who weren't there, for equally wonderful birthday wishes and presents!

-Pappa

Spooky Alphabet, etc.

2009-11-29T20:45:00.003+02:00

We've had LOTS going on. It was Pappa's birthday, his 30th if you remember, and basically the whole week went to that. But more of that later, I hope.
What I want to write about before I forget is that ever since Halloween, when the children really got into Jack-o-lanterns, they have been incorporating the word "jack-o-lantern" into everyday language -- just throwing the word in there, no matter what they are talking about.
One thing they do a lot is, when they sing the alphabet song, and they get to H, I, J, K, L-M-N-O-P, Q . . . , they go, "H, I, jack-o-lantern, P, Q . . ." But if you think about it, "J, K, L-M-N-O" does kind of sound like "jack-o-lantern". Say it out loud. It really does.
And then of course, they answer with "jack-o-lantern" to any kind of question:
--"Do you want raisins or apple?"
--"Jack-o-lantern!
-- "Would you like to wear blue socks or green?"
--"Jack-o-lantern!"
--"Who should we pray for tonight?" (bedtime prayers)
--"Jack-o-lantern!"

Mama

Weekend in the big city

2009-11-17T20:44:00.005+02:00

This past weekend was a bunch of things rolled into one.
First of all, Pappa had an all day meeting in Helsinki on Saturday. Also, his big 3-0 is coming up, so some of his family members gave him a surprise present -- that he and I would be staying at GLO for two nights without the children. We were taken out on the town on Friday night. Saturday night was another surprise, but not for us, for Pappa's oldest brother who turned the big 4-0 this fall. The theme was to dress elderly. I wasn't really looking forward to that, but I scrambled and put an outfit together, and I have to say that once I had my curlers in my hair and my knee-high stockings a bit rolled down, I got into character and had a really fun time with it. The party was in a cabin which felt out in the middle of nowhere, but it was close to Helsinki and beside the sea. The log fire really set the atmosphere (not to mention, kept us warm!).

About to leave the hotel

Three brothers

We took the train there and back, and enjoyed the "family car" complete with toys, books, and a slide. I really, really appreciate that.

Snack in a train on a train

Busy weekends always lead to tough beginnings of weeks. But it was fun and a real break from our normal routine.

Mama

Halloween 09

2009-11-04T20:32:00.003+02:00

Sorry about the delay -- see, we lost our camera awhile back, and have been relying on other people to take pictures for us. Our phone pictures have not been that swell. But we bought a new camera today finally!
Here are the finished masterpieces:

Mama

The big question

2009-10-29T20:05:00.002+02:00

Today, the question came earlier than I could've ever imagined when BB asked, "How can Mama get a new baby?"!!! I was so shocked, it took me a minute to try to think of something to say, but by the time I was about to speak (I don't even really know what I was going to say), BB had lost interest and moved on to other things. !!!
Meanwhile, I'm still sewing with only one day left (I don't remember that much from 7th grade home-ec with Ms. George (I know some of you will appreciate that), but I still have and am using my sewing kit from then! Now that I think about it, I was robbed. When I got to 8th grade, they started making everyone take shop!). And I was never that interested in sewing before now. Except when we made our own skirts that time at "Aunt Net"'s. :)
Ahh, memories!

Mama

Pumpkin Time

2009-10-25T12:29:00.003+02:00

Last week we bought a pumpkin. Not a big one, about 800 grams. I couldn't believe how far it stretched when it came to all the things we made from it, though.
I was first inspired by this recipe for pumpkin lattes (thanks, SE!). As far as I know, you can't buy canned pumpkin here in Finland except for if they have some special theme month or something at a grocery store. So, I've learned how to make my own. Nothing to it really.
So, other than the lattes, which turned out to be very good and very big (if you make these, you'll need a lot bigger cup or glass than a normal coffee cup), we toasted the seeds, made pumpkin pancakes (served them with a sprinkling of sugar and a dollop of whipped cream rather than syrup), pumpkin soup (the best I've tried -- I halved the recipe since I was just cooking for two), and yesterday, pumpkin muffins (I reduced the brown sugar a little and added oil).
Yesterday, I took BB down town to get material to make Halloween costumes. I've started sewing them (an experiment for me since I don't know that much about sewing), so we'll see how they turn out. Also, we got a bigger pumpkin to make our Jack-o-Lantern. That'll probably be tomorrow's activity. The lady at the market who sold us our pumpkin thought BB was so cute that she threw in a pie pumpkin for free. So, we can continue experimenting with pumpkin recipes this week!

Mama

Fall sestina

2009-10-11T12:29:00.009+02:00

It's time again for color
As Maple sheds his leaves
and seeds, they tumbling fall
and just then frozen dew drops
are disturbed by a whisper
of the north-west wind

It's chilly now, the wind
and makes our cheeks color
wings beat a silent whisper
as the summer's bird leaves
the temperature drops
at the end of fall

Birch lets a leaf fall
and it dances with the wind
the sun glints in silver drops
brightening every color
but it soon leaves
the world in a grey whisper

Birch and Maple whisper
about the coming fall
as summer leaves
with a cold wind
their plumage in full color
soon every feather drops

Who times these random drops?
In what language does he whisper?
How does he choose the color
of polychromatic fall?
Where does his mystic path wind
and twist now as he leaves?

In the trees the tired leaves
are splashed with heavy drops
and the ever colder wind
is not no more a whisper
but the roar of storm in fall
that paints the sky with violent color

Say farewell to color with the leaves
They fall among the icy drops
and summer is just a whisper in the wind

-Pappa

Three!

2009-09-13T17:15:00.008+02:00

The dirt cake!

Nice presents!

Milk carton dump truck craft (http://www.origamimommy.org/2009/07/recycled-milk-carton-truck-tutorial-.html)

Out for a spin

Devising a plan . . .

Berrypickin'

2009-08-23T07:50:00.002+02:00

It's been the time of year where many Finns spend hours upon hours in the woods picking berries and shrooms. Our kids are a bit too small yet to do it properly, but it was such a great year for berries that we took them out to see where berries come from, at least. We have a large wooded area just outside our house that was absolutely packed with blueberries.

LS went straight for them...

...and ate them straight from the bush!

BB picked a few and ate them. Hopefully, next year we'll actually go out and fill up a bucket or two for the freezer!

(Point of information: because of the old-as-a-rock Every Man's Right anyone in Finland is allowed to walk and pick berries and mushrooms and any non-endangered flowers on any uncultivated land not immediately next to someone's residence. Same goes for camping, although you need the landowner's permission to make a fire. See more here.)

There and back again

2009-08-15T20:29:00.013+03:00

We spent most of our summer in the United States. What a great trip! We had a family reunion, a wedding, and sadly, a funeral. We enjoyed the hot weather. We swam, ate watermelon, and even attended a Lutheran church to compare it to our services in Finland. We went to the zoo, the lake, and the mountains. We did a lot. Unfortunately, there were people I wanted to see who I didn't get to. But, we got to spend a lot of time with my family, and I loved it.
And now we're back. My mama and her mama came back with us and stayed for two weeks. It was great showing them our new house and our daily routine -- how we live. It also made the transition easier for me.
Pappa started work today, so it's my first day back to work, too, as nanny, cook, cleaner, and playmate for two adorable kiddos.
I will include some picture highlights from the summer to sign off for now.

Mama

Reuniting with a friend from the webcam

They really made use of this pool!

Looking at the reptiles, the snakes were LS's favorite!

Group shot

Loving that watermelon (in her mama's old bathing suit)!

What a duet!

Falls Park, Greenville

This year's tractor photo-shoot

Where does the water come from?

Dressed for the reunion, observing the progress on the sunroom,
still under construction

Sunny days . . .

2009-05-26T21:09:00.009+03:00

. . . have led to no blogging for awhile. Even after the children have gone to bed, I've been going outside to sit in the evening air with my book and check on our grass growing about once every five minutes. The highlight of these sunny days has been our first cookout of the year at our dear friends' house. Yes, we've had a good run with the nice weather, but this evening, a cold wind has blown in as an unfriendly reminder of our latitude.

see-sawing at Kupittaa

watching a dinosaur, I mean big-armed machine eat, I mean tear down a sausage factory

new sand in our sand box . . . it might be enough now

picnicking with our congregation's children's group

Mama

Talko (with a hidden name-that-quote)

2009-05-16T08:17:00.003+03:00

Yesterday we took part in our neighborhood's yard-talko. As the link tells, a talko, or talkoot, is a warge gathewing of mice... I mean, neighbors getting together to work on something.

We dug up and disposed of the old sand-box and put a new one in place, fixed the big old granny-swing and tidied up the yard. More than just working, it was also a chance to get to know our neighbors, as there was grilling after the work. Mama made everyone some potato salad (without mayonnaise, which was a new thing for the Finns).

Aside from finding out people's names, professions and social status, Pappa got to hear one of the old-timers tell about how things were in Åbo during the war (WWII). When the city was bombed, the children were taken to the bus station were they got to eat porridge until the danger had passed. After the war, when all food was rationed, he had bartered bicycle innertubes for butter, and collected masses of paper to get a small bag of candy from the grocer. No one really had real shoes, and what they used was made out of paper. The bright spots of those days were packages coming from relatives in America containing coffee, rice and chocolate.

We didn't take any pictures, I'm sorry to say.

-Pappa

Weekend at Sinappi

2009-05-14T19:36:00.005+03:00

Once again, we had the opportunity to take part in a family retreat organized by the Swedish congregation in Åbo (last year's post).

The weather was a bit colder and more wet and our children were a year older, but getting out of the house and having all meals cooked for you was just as wonderful as last time.

LS enjoyed the healthy, organic sea-food diet...

BB is properly geared for the windy weather...

...and he got to enjoy one of his favorite activities.

This year, Mama had time to stay for Mother's Day cake...

...before it was time to pack up...

...and head home.

But before this post is over, you can look at this video and compare it to last year's.

-Pappa

Book Worm

2009-05-06T21:24:00.003+03:00

I have always thought of children (myself included) going to bed with certain special stuffed animals or blankets - soft things. BB goes to bed with books. It's funny, it's nice if Spot and Kitty Cat are in the bed, but he doesn't always miss them if they're not. But, if one of his bedtime books (not always the same ones, but seem to rotate in weekly or monthly phases) has been left downstairs or something, we have to stop everything until it is found and brought to his bed. At the moment the essential books are the "yellow kammar book", The Little Engine That Could, and a book about a circle and a line and all the things they can make together, written in English and Somali (this last one is a library book, so hopefully he won't get too attached!).
The interesting thing is that although he enjoys reading them, and looks through the pages until his arms get tired and eyelids get too heavy, they seem to provide the same kind of comfort as, for example, my teddy bear gave me. He sometimes cuddles up to or leans on the books as he's falling asleep. Once, I made the mistake of moving them away before he was in deep sleep (they don't look very cozy to me!). He noticed they were gone, and we had a big problem on our hands!

It really shouldn't be surprising after the way he blew off his first Wappen for Pat the Bunny! Guess we have a little book worm on our hands. :)

Mama

May Day in pictures

2009-05-02T12:42:00.007+03:00

Doesn't it look like we just started dating?

PDA! Everybody down!

LS fell asleep in the stroller in the middle of the hubbub. For a while at least one of us could sit down.

The good weather brought out a few people.

Said an anonymous father about Mama's mortar board: "I've never seen anything like it..." He must not watch Sweet Valley High...

Queen Mama patrolling the perimeter. (Her comment on seeing this picture: "Do I really walk like that?" Yes, and we love her for it.)

Mama: "Are you supposed to throw rocks down the slide?"

Queen Mama is tough, but fair.

Back in the saddle again...

Denim jacket, graffiti... We got the 80s down to a tee! (And isn't this just the cutest shot of Mama?)

I'm awake...

Happy May everyone!

-Pappa

Wappen on the Balcony

2009-05-01T08:49:00.005+03:00

Having small children has really made our past few Wappens (1, 2, 3)a lot more low key than before, obviously. After a day of grocery shopping (since the stores are closed for May Day) and park going (the weather was great!), we spent the last few waking moments of Wappen (at least for two of us) on the balcony. We sort of had a bubble blowing contest with our teenage neighbor on her balcony (did that really happen?) and enjoyed the sun and the sounds of parties and playing all around.

Mama

Lyrics

2009-04-27T13:04:00.001+03:00

Mama: The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round all through the . . .
LS: ownnnnn!

Mama

On the air in Finland

2009-04-25T09:37:00.001+03:00

Seeing as we have quite a lot of people checking in on us from way over yonder, I thought it'd be nice to share some more of what is part of our every day here. I added a link box with three links to something that corresponds to American NPR. If the badguys of international copyright laws don't interfere (like they do with all commercial channels, so I can't link to them) you should be able to listen to these channels even Over There (wherever you are). All these channels play quite a lot of music, so it will not be all incomprehensible blabber to you.

Keep the time difference in mind, however, and if you listen between midnight and 6am Eastern European time you'll only hear night classical music (nothing wrong with that ofcourse).

Quick info about the listed channels:

Radio Vega - Finnish Public Radio in Swedish, meant for people over 30. This is also the channel that broadcasts Swedish church services, morning grace and all that.

Radio X3M - Youth Public Radio in Swedish.

ylex - The Finnish language (majority) youth public radio

Anything else that you are interested in? Cultural differences are in the things we all take for granted.

-Pappa

"The men up there don't like a lot of blabber"

2009-04-23T20:01:00.002+02:00

First one to cite that quote wins a prize (or at least a congratulatory hooray)!
I have often wanted to play Name-That-Quote on this blog, because ~~every now and then~~ most of the time I have random movie lines or theme songs or something like that running through my head, and they usually brings back good memories with friends, and at those moments I really miss those friends, and I want to share those memories right then, but they are sometimes on the other side of the world and usually asleep. I think this is the next best thing.

Mama

Some videos

2009-04-18T19:14:00.003+02:00

As the title promises:

Egg hunt

Some girl who lives in our house walking. Taken a while back now.

-Pappa

Virvon, varvon . . .

2009-04-07T12:27:00.008+02:00

It's that time of year again when little children dress up as witches (and cats!) and come trick-or-treating, I mean hexing, or something, and this year I was delighted to have so many come to our door!
Ever since I have been living in Finland, every year there has been some confusion over which day the witches were going to come. Now I think I've got it figured out. It started out as two different (but I guess related) traditions, the eastern (influenced by the Russian Orthodox) and western (influenced by Sweden). The eastern tradition originally didn't involve dressing up like witches, but just used pussy willow branches, which were linked with palm branches. So, it makes sense that Palm Sunday is the day for this activity. That's when the children go around here. Then, if I understand it correctly, the other tradition was more about the witches flying about during the time when Jesus was in the grave. The people who follow that tradition (mainly Swedish-speaking areas) go on the Saturday before Easter. (But somebody correct me if I'm wrong!)
Anyway, this past Sunday, we had our share of witches and such come by, and I was prepared with chocolate. We were paid with what made up a lovely bouquet of decorated branches, which is now sitting next to our Easter grass.

Mama

BB wins again!

2009-04-02T19:47:00.002+02:00

We went to the mall today, where they were having their version of "Crazy Days". They had a game where you stood on numbers, and they drew numbers for a variety of prizes. BB was standing on 11, and sure enough, they called "yksitoista"! He won a piece of silver jewelry of our choice from a certain store. Well, it wasn't that great, because the store was a SHOE store which also sold some pretty inexpensive accessories which were already marked 50% off (what a gimmick), but I did find some earbobs that I like (and we didn't buy anything else in the store despite the saleslady practically begging us to). But the point is, it was so much fun for him to win.
But this evening, alas, the poor boy threw up after his evening meal. We then put him to bed, and we are now hoping against hopes that it was just a one-time occurance. The rest of us had the stomach bug a couple of weeks ago, so now maybe it's his turn. I really, really, really, REALLY hope, in that case, that the rest of us are immune. I've had a stomach virus more times in the last four years that I've been working with children or having my own children than I've had in the rest of my entire life!

Mama

Morning (and Evening) Routine

2009-03-15T08:54:00.001+02:00

Party, etc.

2009-03-12T20:52:00.010+02:00

First of all, Happy Half Birthday, BB!

For LS's birthday, we carried on with our family tradition of celebrating at Hop Lop. This time LS got to explore the exciting playland, too.

"Watch out world, I'm one now, and I'm comin atchya!"

We had a really nice bunch of people over for LS's birthday party last weekend -- her three baby friends, a big sister friend, their parents (and our good friends) and her godparents (also our good friends, obviously). BB helped me prepare the food. He LOVES to help in the kitchen with everything from making pizza dough to emptying the dish washer. I have to say that especially with the cheese wafers we made for this party, he was especially hard working and diligent.

BB's first encounter with a Jello Jiggler

I chose this scene picture because if you look closely, you can see all six children present (although none of them that well, unfortunately).

When LS noticed the camera, she forgot all about the cupcake and the candle!

The peanut butter milkshakes were a favorite!

(For more pictures from the party, go here. Thanks, Mia!)

LS is definitely a big girl now. She loves to eat all by herself and does a pretty good job of it, too. She's walking more and more each day. She can say all kinds of words, but the most popular at the moment is "bread". She nods if we offer her something she wants and can shake her head to say no. She pats her mouth to say she's hungry (this has gotten BB to regress back to this stage!).
I guess it's expected of me to say that time has flown by and I can't believe she's one already, and this is true on one hand. But if I really think about it, it feels exactly like it's been a year since she made her early entrance into the world. It has been a long, hard, challenging, tiring, tough, joyful, tearful, wonderful, exciting, spectacular year. Yes it has.

Mama