The life of the Lindseys

Hoot hoot

2012-01-27T14:18:00.002Z

Just a quick hoot to say we are still here...even if I haven't blogged for a while.

So here's a quick list of news:

1. Henrik has started at school nursery and loves it. The funniest thing is when he comes home with a new word that he has heard but hasn't got a glue what it means...resent examples being bored (he knows it's something negative and used it when I asked him to take a toy upstairs to his room only leaving me in fits of giggles) and shocked and disappointed (a kid in reception had bit an other kid so the teachers took the opportunity to remonstrate biting and told the nursery kids how shocked and disappointed they were)

2. Allotment is looking pretty good. Little bit of weeding to do and some shed repairs and then we are ready for our second summer as allotmenteers

3. PhD is getting closer to the end. Three months of hard work and then it will be handed in...and I'll be waiting for my viva (oral examination)

4. Henrik is still asking why, why, why...two years on...latest why was 'Why did God create the world so big' - he is definitely a thinker and daddy's answer, because God wanted to did not seem to satisfy him

5. The curiosity also extend to signs of all shape and size - I know the signs from here to school and back by heart now

6. But we are moving onto car makes so there is light at the end of the tunnel...he remembers mini and volvo so far

7. My sister got me interested in pinterest - I am looking forwards to the summer holiday with no PhD and time at my hands to do crafts...

Rock pools

2011-08-30T14:50:00.003+01:00

We went to the beach yesterday with some friends. The weather was really blustery and their was chill in the air but we had fun. Henrik enjoyed drawing pictures on the wet sand with a stick. The tide was low so we explored the rock pools. We found an amazing little sponge, perfect round shape. But what we were really after was hermit crabs and we werent' disappointed. Henrik was fascinated by the claws peeping out of the shell.

Long time - no blog

2011-05-04T07:36:00.002+01:00

Well, this is scandalous, more than six months since the last blog! My apologies.

What has happened? Hmmm...we've got a cat called Bracken, burmese that we re-homed. We've got an allotment in January and have been busy building raised beds and doing lots of digging.

Last weekend was the annual scarecrow competition on the allotment, theme was the guests in the royal wedding. We made Prince Harry and won to much of my surprise. Henrik hasn't stopped saying 'mummy is the winner since'. The great prize was a commemorative royal wedding biscuit tin and box of chocolates - not bad, I thought it might have been just fame and glory or if I was lucky some seeds ;)

PhD is plodding on. In the midst of writing up so my daily target is writing 1000 words on the days I'm in uni. So it is starting to look like there will be light int he end of the tunnel. Maybe this time next year it will be all done and dusted if all goes to plan.

Birthday time again

2010-09-14T11:01:00.003+01:00

Time flies...I think I've started most of my recent blogs with that! But it really does. It is already September. It is already September 2010! This year has flown by. Apart from my sisters wedding in California it's been kind of 'plodding on' year so far with no big highlights but no big lowlights either. We've just been enjoying being a little family :)

It's Henrik's birthday today and he is 3. Officially a big boy. He keeps telling us he is a big boy. Very sweet and very true. He's moved up to the pre-school room in nursery and is enjoying it so far. Today they were off on an excursion to pick apples from someone's garden and then make apple crumble for pudding. I also made a patch of cupcakes for him to take in with him to celebrate his birthday so they are all going to be buzzing with sugar by the time they go home.

I'm working from home today (having a tea break right now). It's nice sitting in the study, reading and every now and then watching the word go by. The sun is shining and the apple tree across the road is full of red ruddy apples. Autumn time is definitely here.

And I guess it's time to get back to my reading :)

Hello hello

2010-06-02T16:39:00.002+01:00

The sun is shining. Henrik and I had a lovely morning on the beach wiht Rachel, Lily & Oscar. Only it was quite cloudy while we sat down and had our lunch...very chilly. But after we'd eaten we spent a jolly hour climbing around the rocks and rockpools on the beach. On the way home we stopped for ice cream on the sea front. It's fun living 5 minutes walk away from the beach :)

We are still diying in the kitchen. Last weekend we painted most of the walls white. Now we just need to finish painting the cupboards at the bottom and sort out the top cupboards and then paint them. So we are slowly getting there.

Henrik is chatting much more now. Very happily mixing finnish and english together. One night after we'd read his bedtime story we could hear him chatting to himself about a big big juna (train). He is still loving nursery as well which is good. He's made little friends there and when we drop him of or pick him up he points some of them out to us and tell their names to us.

We are off to the beach in the evening as well with the young people. The tide is high but hopefully it by the time we've munched a portion of chips it will have gone down enough for us to play some games and run around.

Time flies - still

2010-04-28T14:41:00.003+01:00

Time does fly, it's ages since I wrote in the blog last - I blame facebook. Anyway, here we go. So no posts in March. Disaster. I had my 30th. I had my 3rd annual assessment for my PhD progress. So lots of things happened. I passed my assessment and had a lovely birthday too. We did go to the theatre as well at some point since the last post, Oh, what a lovely war in the Northern Stage. It was brilliant. We were both just at awe of the talent the actors and actresses had.

My sister Eeva got married too so we've been across the Atlantic. Henrik is becoming a little globe trotter, twice in US in the last 8 months. The wedding was lovely and we had a great time spending time with Bailey and his family and getting to know them.

We've also started doing 'Loving your kids on purpose' course at church which has been good but very challenging to some people. I love it. It works on Henrik which is even better and it even works on me. It's all about teaching the child to manage their freedom and make good choices. You can buy the book on amazon and I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone with kids or without kids. Danny Silk is officially my new hero.

Anyway, I've got plenty of reading to do, I had a productive day at uni yesterday and found lots of good articles to read...now I just have to get on and read them all! Henrik is having his nap so I am planning to take advantage of the quiet moment, just after I've finished writing this :)

Kitchen progress

2010-02-11T09:03:00.002Z

The kitchen has been up in the air for the last little while. Since New Year David has bene fitting in new base cupboards and the last couple of weeks he has been mastering the art of cutting oak. Now all the worktops are cut and first two coats of oil are on. One more coat and then we can fix them on the base units and get the gas man to connect the cooker. The hob has been out of action since Friday last week so we've been just eating food that you can make just with oven so I'm looking forwards to having the hob back :)

But it is looking very good, then it's just the case of painting all the cupboard doors and tiling and then it's finally done!

New year

2010-02-01T21:46:00.003Z

Time has flown and I've managed to go through the whole of January without writing a one single blog...terrible! Well, where shall I start?

We've had snow. Lots of snow. Twice. Henrik loves it. Last weekend the weather forecast was for few odd snowflakes but much to our delight we had 12cm/4in of snow when we woke up on Saturday morning. 'Big snow' was Henrik's comment. So we phoned up the local outdoor shop the moment they opened and reserved a toboggan and went and picked it up an hour later (by which time he had sold all the 57 toboggans he had in store and said that he could have sold antoher 20). We spent a jolly morning toboggan and larking around in the snow with our brand new bright green toboggan.

Big is definitely the in word with our young sir. On Friday night we went to ikea to pick up some legs for a kitchen base cabinet/carcass, it was a clear night with a full moon so the commentry from the back seat was 'big moon' 'tahti' (star) 'big, big moon' 'tahti' for most of the drive there. He is into making planes and rockets out of stick-a-bricks at the moment and this mornings creation was a 'big, big, geen (green) rocket'.

Another cute thing Henrik says at the moment is 'jingle bang' - chitty chitty bang bang!!!

Anyway, this is a start for a new year, will be back soon. Most likely with some more cute words by Henrik...

Busy busy

2009-12-14T14:40:00.002Z

Everything has suddenly got really busy and I've hardly had time to sit down and check my emails - let alone write a blog! I've got lots of things to do for uni before Christmas so I am trying to work on those in the evenings whenever I can.

We went and got a christmas tree last weekend from Chopwell woods, half way there we realised we didn't have our wellies with us but it wasn't as muddy as last year so our shoes survived. It's funny to have the tree decorated and all before Christmas eve. We had people from church over for mulled wine and some christmas cakes etc yesterday so if it hadn't been for that I would have wanted to wait until next weekend before getting the tree but it was nice to have the tree for everyone to see.

Henrik loves pulling the baubles off the tree, I am yet to discover a successful technique in stopping him so at the moment all the fragile decorations are on the top branches and towards the bottom are the less fragile ones.

Some one brought along a box of chocolates yesterday and had some. His tastebuds have been awakened to the taste of good things now and this morning when I gave him his bowl of porridge he pushed it away saying 'more chocolate, more chocolate'...

Learning to say no

2009-10-30T07:32:00.002Z

Everything is no at the moment with Henrik.

"would you like a yogurt Henrik?" and the answer is "no" whilst he is climbing to his chair to be ready to eat it.

"would you like to go outside?" and again the answer is "no" whilst he is sitting on the bottom step trying to put his shoes on.

So it's all fun and games - you are wondering did he really mean no or was it a no because he just likes saying no!

He has also learnt to say Jack (the boy next door) this week and couple of other words. I keep being amazed by all these words he can say, mainly because I speak Finnish to him so I haven't even realised that he has heard the word he is saying, let alone learnt to say it.

One of Henrik's favourite books at the moment is Santtu kukkuu, he loves to have it read over and over again. Next time we are in Finland I'll have to get some more for him as he really likes the pictures in them - more than the story at the moment I think!

It's half term this week so I haven't had Rosie to look after and it's been funnily quiet - Henrik has had no one to squabble with about the doll's push chair or his trains. But next week is back to normal - busy and crazy but very enjoyable.

Birthday boy

2009-10-06T20:08:00.004+01:00

Henrik had his 2nd birthday the day after we got back from the US. We had a little party for him with just us and Jean (his nanny) on the actual date and then the following weekend we had couple of his little friends over for a party.

The first couple of presents he wasn't too sure what to do with them but by the end of the week he'd got to full swing of opening presents. He got very upset when he wasn't allowed to open a present that we'd got for Andy and Naomi as a good-luck-at-university-thank-you-for-all-the-babysitting-present...

And Henrik definitely approved of cake. Lots of it :) On his real birthday we had a little cake for him and he blew the candles out fine but when we had more people around he was not too sure about what to do as everyone was looking at him and in the end his friend Nathan helped him to blow the candles out.

Holiday snaps

2009-10-06T19:39:00.002+01:00

Here are some snaps from our trip to South Carolina. The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the time on the beach. Henrik absolutely loved it and it was easy entertainment for him as he could run, scream, splash and do whatever he wanted. We discovered that visiting cute little towns with cute little shops and coffee houses is not too popular with him or it's too much effort for us to keep him interested in the above so beach was definitely the place to be with no extra entertainment required!

We did do a one short little town visit to Georgetown, SC. But it was very brief, we had a lovely lunch in a little restaurant that had a huge fishtank by our table that kept Henrik amused :) And then we had a very very brief wander around and saw some signs telling us not to feed the alligators! We didn't see any though :(

So here we are on our stroll in Georgetown

Henrik chilling on the beach

Building a sandcastle with daddy

Feeding mummy a very sandy biscuit

A micalola falls in Georgia

Southern comforts and miracles

2009-09-15T21:50:00.002+01:00

We are back from the sunny South Carolina. We had lovely time catching up with friends, making some new ones and just chilling on the beach. We have tasted all sorts of southern delights ranging from grits for breakfast (a bit like semolina, only grainier, made with milk and butter), fried chicken, pancakes and bacon for breakfast and fried gruper (white fish). The weather was lovely and we spent most of our time on beach just chilling.

When we got back home we were faced with cold weather, dead battery in a car and poor Jean with trapped nerve in her shoulder and possibly having to have 6 weeks off...which in turn would have meant that I would have had to have 6 weeks off. I was so tired after flying over night, not sleeping & time difference that I didn't even have to energy to pray apart from saying to God that I couldn't see a way around, please help-type prayer. And it's all got resolved amazingly - my next door neighbors childminder has resigned leaving her in a pickle so we are going to help each other out, she is going to have Henrik two days a week and I am going to have her two two days a week - how great is that! Yay God!!!

Time flies

2009-08-28T22:34:00.002+01:00

Time does fly, it's the end of August already. Henrik will be two in two weeks from next Monday and David just had his 30th last Sunday! Can't believe Henrik is already two! I can't believe David is 30 either!!! We were 19 when we met...

We had a lovely weekend celebrating David's birthday. Ol(iver) and Becky & Amy came up for the weekend. On Saturday night we cooked a sea food paella on a bbq with lobster and everything. We also discovered that it is not good to put the lobster in too deep water...On Sunday we had everyone from church around for cakes and buns. I'd baked little bit everyday for the last couple of weeks so we had plenty of cakes which is good as we had 50+ people around. Lots of fun and lots of washing up - thank God for dishwashers :)

No no no - on development of speech

2009-08-15T13:43:00.003+01:00

One of Henrik's latest words is no. Everything is no...Would you like to go to bed? No, no, no! Digger is also an other useful word that has appeared in his vocabulary this week. One day he was pretending to be on the phone to someone and the only identifiable word in his 'conversation' was digger at very regular intervals. He is still calling ankka (duck) kakka (poo) which is not such an issue as no-one else usually understands him. Every now and then when we are walking about and he sees a bird he shouts out in very delighted manner kakka!!!

One of the funniest things is that when Henrik is just chatting away everyone thinks he is speaking in Finnish...but he is to their disappointment just chattering away in his own language :)

2009-07-28T16:26:00.002+01:00

My mind seems to be on break and I can't seem to even think of a title for this blog! Never mind. We've had the kitchen/dining room floor sanded over the last couple of days and the front room is looking like a bedsit with the dining table and fridge there. Hopefully tonight we can put stuff back into the room which should be good. Now we just need to get some lovely finnish rag rugs for the floor and I'll be all cosy :)

We had a lovely week in Finland. We've been back for a week or so and the weather hasn't been the best but at least we feel like we've had summer after having a nice sunny week in Finland. We spent sometime in the cottage with my parents and two of my sisters which was wonderful and then we were in Helsinki for rest of the time. We didn't actually do that much at all, just enjoyed the sunshine and sat in parks and watched Henrik run around.

Henrik loved going to Finland, airports, planes, trams, trains, boats, metros...what more could a little toddler ask for...oh and he had lots of blueberries and strawberries too - I think having my sisters pick blueberries for him was definitely one of his favourite parts of holiday!

Summer fun

2009-07-05T07:38:00.002+01:00

Well, we've finally had some summer weather. Hot, sunny and wonderful. Henrik loves teh water. We've had his tiny paddling pool in the garden for the last couple of days and he has spent long time watering the plants using the water from the paddling pool with the help of a little cup or just generally splashing about.

Where is the sun?

2009-06-20T19:23:00.002+01:00

It has been funny weather today. Mainly raining but then every now and then it clears up and makes you think it is going to be lovely for rest of the day but then the rain starts again. We've been a bit under the weather last couple of days. Henrik picked up tummy bug from somewhere and was sick Thursday night so we didn't get much sleep and are feeling very tired but have managed to resist getting the tummy bug so far.

We got a little kids brio train set for Henrik when we were in Liverpool. Henrik absolutely loves it. Nathan came to play with him on Thursday and we had an incident...before Henrik has been very happy for Nathan to play with any of his toys, even the ones Henrik was playing with but now he was not impressed. There are four carriages in the train set which would logically be two each but now Henrik wanted all of them! So it all ended in tears with Henrik throwing one of the carriages at Nathan and with superb aim manage to hit Nathan squarely on the head so we had Henrik crying because I'd told him that he can't throw toys at people and Nathan crying because he had just had a train land on his head. Nice relaxing afternoon playtime ;)

Here is one more picture from camping. Henrik playing on the beach at the last campsite where we stayed.

Thursday's thoughts

2009-06-11T11:39:00.003+01:00

There are still more camping photos to come. They just need some sorting first, we took 839 photos in a week! What can you say - it's so easy to snap away with digital cameras...But here are some pictures of ferns we took when we went for a walk in the Tay Forest. I love the unfurling ferns, they are so delicate and so pretty.

Henrik hasn't been sleeping well over the last couple of days. He goes to bed well but then at some point he wakes up and cries. He had temperature on Monday night but Tuesday night and last night there wasn't anything wrong with him he was just very restless. Last night he did actually sleep but woke up at 5am, not good when you have sleepy parents! He did come to our bed but didn't stay still for long. Now he is having a long morning nap to make up for the early wake up time.

David has ordered a shed and it's arriving tomorrow. That will make life much easier as we don't have that much storage space at the moment. All of David's tools are in boxes in the cupboard under the stairs and if he needs one tool he needs to take all of the boxes out of the cupboard! So all the little quick jobs that need doing are not actually that quick and little when you need to spend five minutes moving boxes to get the hammer out of the cupboard. The shed wont be put up until next week though as it is Olly's 30th birhtday celebrations this weekend which will keep us busy.

Camping photos 1

2009-06-09T10:01:00.002+01:00

Here are some pictures from the campsite in Perthshire were we stayed for three nights with Richard and Beth and the boys. The weatehr was overcast and cloudy and it rained every now and then but overall it was quite good. We went for couple of walks, explored Pitlochry and generally just chilled around. Henrik enjoyed throwing stones into the loch. The campsite was by Loch Tummel and it was nice and quiet.

Camping

2009-06-01T08:43:00.002+01:00

We are just back from week's camping in Scotland and we had a brilliant time. The weather wasn't that brilliant to start with but by the end of the week it was boiling hot. Henrik loved the sea. I'm off to uni now, school away day...walk by a river followed by a pub lunch, nice easy way back to real life :)

Summer's here

2009-05-20T16:36:00.002+01:00

Well, summer's nearly here...it's not hot but it is not cold but a sure sign of summer is being able to walk in the garden bare footed. Henrik had his first barefooted walk in the garden today and he loved it!

My 501st post

2009-05-08T08:17:00.002+01:00

I had somehow managed to miss that the fact that my last post was the 500th! Never mind.

Here some pics from the park yesterday. I met Paula and Nathan&Ilja in the park before their toddler music group. We had nice time, it was very windy but Henrik still enjoyed it.

Tatters

2009-05-01T13:45:00.002+01:00

I saw this on BBC news website today, definitely a potato overload!

Also I have discovered that I'm I have been in contact with a person who has been in contact with a person who has been in contact with a person with swine flue. The person with confirmed case of swine flue in Newcastle shares a house with some students and one my friends from work shares and office with a lecturer who has been teaching those students! It is a small world.

David's away in a conference with some of the men from church but Alison and her two sons have come up from Plymouth for gymnastics competition so we've got a full house. It's lovely to see them, the last time we saw them was a year ago when they last came up for the competition.

Ear infection and other fun things

2009-04-24T13:29:00.004+01:00

Time just seems to fly by and I don't get around to updating hte blog - oh dear. The powercord of the lap top is dead so we are using the desktop at the moment, which means I can't play on the computer whilst David is watching match of the day so consequently I don't update the blog as often as I should. Poor excuse I know!

Henrik has ear infection at the moment and the doctor gave him some antibiotics for it. He is slowly getting better. On Monday, the day we went to doctors, he just wanted to be held and cuddled all day and didn't really do much else than sleep on my lap. His got a nasty cough and some temperature too but he is on the mend.

We went to the Churchill playing fields the other night with him to see the new park and Henrik enjoyed it thoroughly. He was quite happy just wondering around and looking all the new slides and swings. He tried the slide couple of times but it was more fun climbing up and down the grassy bank than going down the slide. David and I had a good go on the see-saw and enjoyed ourselves too.

We've also been digging in the garden. When the lawn was put in, the lawnmen just pushed all the extra soil in the back corner so the flowerbed in the back corner is good 50cm higher than rest of the borders so we've been trying to level it with the others but I think it will take at least couple more trips to the tip with the soil before we are level...

Just a quick note

2009-04-17T10:40:00.003+01:00

David put some of the photos from our camping trip on flickr so go and have a look there if you got time.

Easter has been and gone, time seems to be flying by this spring, I still can't get over the fact that it is mid April! My chocolate fast for the lent is over but I haven't really missed chocolate at all which has been quite funny, but I have had some nevertheless :)

Dentdale

2009-04-09T14:17:00.002+01:00

Last weekend we went camping in Dent with Olly and Becky to test out Henrik's new sleeping back and of course to spend some time with them. The weather wasn't the warmest but at least it didn't rain. Saturday was the gloomy day but it was nice to be outdoors, we went to Askrigg and walked to Mill Gill Force, local waterfall, had lunch in a pub and just drove and wondered around various places.

Sunday the sun came out and it was really nice, still cold because of the wind but it was glorious. We went for a walk around Dent, up a fell, down a fell, along the river, across the river, and along the river again. Henrik was in fits of giggles throwing pebbles into the water with Becky.

The weather forecast for the Easter weekend is cold and miserable so I think we are staying home this weekend.

Camping in mind

2009-03-31T22:12:00.002+01:00

We are off camping in the Yorkshire dales with Olly and Becky in couple of days time. So we bought Henrik a sleeping bag to keep him warm in the English spring weather. He was very pleased with the sleeping bag, trying the zips and even putting the bunny to sleep in it. Hopefully it will be a success when we are camping and he'll sleep happily.

Henrik also had his first haircut on Sunday by Andrea at church, he looks very smart with the new haircut. You can see it slightly better in the bottom photo.

I've been enjoying my sewing machine David got me for my birthday. I made Henrik an apron and mended a pair of David's cycling trousers. It is really nice to have a sewing machine that works like dream and is all mine rather than borrowed :)

The great outdoors

2009-03-25T07:39:00.002Z

Henrik has discovered that he likes being outside. In the morning, pretty much the first thing he does when we come downstairs is to bring his shoes or wellies to me or stand by the back door with them! Last weekend he spent pretty much all of the weekend building mudpiles in the garden and pushing his little cart back and forth.

He is also starting to get very fascinated by the toilet. Yesterday morning I rescued his cuddly bunny from being drowned in the toilet. Thankfully he hasn't learnt to flush it yet...

Hungry caterpillar

2009-03-20T07:44:00.002Z

It's the google logo today. I like it :) Especially as the hungry caterpillar has been Henrik's reading favourite for a while.

My assistant

2009-03-16T21:14:00.003Z

Jean was poorly last week so I was working from home couple of days. Henrik was very keen to help me and quite a few of my papers now have little scribbles over them where he got hold of the pen whilst I wasn't looking. He is getting very fast at climbing on the chairs! Hopefully it's not too long and I can get him to do my writing for me :)

We had a lovely weekend with Martin and Victoria in Yorkshire. On Saturday morning I was helping Victoria to dig up some molehills for her vegetable pots whilst David was helping elsewhere. Henrik was not too sure about the uneven ground on the molehill field and thought it was safer to look at them whilst on his tummy.

On Sunday we went to church and Henrik was adored pretty much by the whole congregation, we thankfully had just about enough raisins to keep him quiet for the duration of the service. He was slightly disappointed at communion time when he wasn't given anything to eat when everyone else was...

My chocolate fast for the lent is going well but I did have a piece of chocolate cake on Saturday to celebrate my birthday, apart from that it is coming up to three weeks with no chocolate or biscuits and I'm surprised how easy it has been.

Sunday walk

2009-03-12T10:56:00.003Z

On Sunday before lunch we went for a quick wander in Holywell Dene with Hanna and Juho. Henrik is in a backcarrier for most of the walk but we usually let him walk for a little bit of the way. The problem is that he more often than not wants to go to exactly the opposite direction to everyone else!

Sightseeing

2009-03-10T20:04:00.003Z

Hanna and Juho (my sister and her hubbie) came for a long weekend this last weekend or for an extra long weekend really as it was from Wednesday to Friday. We had a lovely time with them. I was off uni all the time whilst they were here which was nice. It was really nice just to be able to spend some quality time with them as when we go to Finland it usually feels like bit of a whirlwind visit as there are so many people to see in such a short time.

One day Henrik and I went to Newcastle with them and we walked down to the Quayside, saw all the bridges, had a quick nose around a Yoko Ono exhibition that was on the Baltic after which they spent the afternoon shopping. Another day we went to Alnmouth and Alnwick, walked on the beach, had pub lunch and saw some pretty country side. The weather was lovely for pretty much all of the visit, blue sky, hardly any clouds and sun, what more could you ask. It was nice and crisp in the mornings but by midday the sun was actually quite warm - if you were sheltered from the wind!

On Saturday we went searching for Hadrian's wall. When we first moved up here, David and I tried to go for a walk by the wall, but only ended up walking alongside slightly raised bit of earth that was covered by grass and that you had to imagine to be the wall - mainly because our book of the Hadrian's wall walks told us that it was in fact piece of the 2000 year old wall rather than some old farmers stone wall that had disintegrated and disappeared into the landscape.

So I was determined to see a proper piece of the wall...and finally after about 40 minutes of driving we saw it. It was definitely the wall - it even had a sign by it telling us that it was. Hanna was more interested in taking some pics of the sheep that shared the field with the ancient piece of architecture than the wall itself!

Updates on Henrik, yesterday he learnt to climb on the kitchen chairs. Today he conquered the table!

Showing off

2009-03-06T07:52:00.003Z

Continuation to the photos below. Here is the actual moment when he got the cat's head on the toy, the fact that he forgot to put couple of the rings before the head didn't seem to slow him down. He is very good with this kind of toys, the funny thing is most of them have age recommendation of 18 months but his been able to stack them since he was about 11 months. Pure genius I would say...but I am extremely biased :)

Concentration

2009-03-06T07:38:00.002Z

Here are some serious concentration photos of Henrik playing with his toys. He sometimes gets very very serious and concentrates hard, this was one of the occasions, first playing with his car and then trying to get a wooden ring on a pole, very serious business!

Babble babble

2009-03-02T14:35:00.005Z

Henrik's vocabulary has increased from wuh-wuh, o-ou, hiya and byebye over the last week or so. He has three new words: juice, tyhjä and no-no-no.

When he starts to get hungry he comes to the kitchen and starts pointing to anything edible or drinkable in his sight and says juice over and over again.

And when he has finished eating or drinking, or when David or I have finished eating or drinking something he he says tyhjä (empty in finnish) and throws his arms up in the air in wonder where did it all go.

No-no-no is his new favourite and he seems to like the sound of it so he is sometimes saying no-no-no just for hte fun of it. Other times like nappy change he applies it very effectively. His no is also sounding very northern at the moment with no u-sound in the end of the word!

In the park

2009-02-19T13:20:00.003Z

Henrik and I went to the park this morning and he had a brilliant time playing. The slide is definitely his favourite, he could have spent hours sliding down. Unfortunately the steps are two high for him to climb up so I had to lift him up there and after 10 or 15 minutes I was too tired so we moved onto the see-saw which required a bit less effort on my part!

Henrik also really into metros/trains at the moment. If we walk from ours to Whitley Bay we cross a metro bridge and more often than not there is a metro going past when we are near it. He is starting to recognise the noise the metro makes before it is visible and he starts to get very excited. It is very sweet, he waves to it as it goes past.

Last Friday Henrik and I had lunch with the girls from work and took the metro into Newcastle. We also went and had a coffee with Katie from church. When we were having coffee (or tea and hot chocolate) there was a little girl sitting on the table next to us and Henrik gave her one of his big disarming smiles and the little girl ended up feeding most of her ice cream portion to Henrik who was very willing to eat it! On the way home Henrik had a treat as we sat on the first seat in the metro next to the driver, he got very excited by every metro which passed us.

Time seems to be flying by, it is nearly March! The evenings are starting to get lighter which is nice. It is nice to leave uni and it is still light. I had my second annual assessment for my PhD couple of weeks ago, hopefully I should hear soon how it went. I am doing more interviews at the moment so that's nice, something different to do :)

TED talk

2009-02-11T08:51:00.002Z

Olly showed this to us at the weekend. It's Rick Warren's (the author of the purpose driven life) talk in TED, a conference where the most influential people on earth come and share their ideas on how to make the world a better place for all of us. I love to hear him talk as it doesn't sound like he is talking to some high-flyers, he could be addressing any church anywhere in the world with this message!

Cadbury's...

2009-02-10T15:24:00.001Z

I find Cadbury's chocolate too sweet but this advert nearly makes up for the overly sweet chocolate!

Weekend fun

2009-02-08T18:14:00.003Z

Olly and Becky came up for the weekend and we had a very nice time doing nothing. Yesterday we went to the park and the highlight for Henrik was playing in the big puddle - forget the slides and the swings! We also had the tightest ever game of chinese chequers, Becky winning by one move.

We haven't seen much snow at all here over the last week, much to my disappointment the arctic conditions haven't made it to here in the north east. We've had a slight dusting but apart from that life has been going on here as usual. But I remain hopeful, there is always tomorrow.

Henrik baking korvapuusti

2009-02-04T21:04:00.000Z

Mums and toddlers

2009-02-04T20:50:00.003Z

I was at mums and toddlers first time for couple of months. Jean has changed the days she looks after Henrik and instead of Wednesday he is at hers on Thursday so I got to go to mums and toddlers today.

It was funny to see how much all the little ones had grown. There were three mums who were pregnant when I was there last time in November and they all had had their babies. Henrik wasn't one of the small ones anymore, he was in the majority, definitely a toddler rather than a baby!

Henrik and I baked some korvapuusti couple of days ago. Henrik was doing really well for a while, rolling out the dough very nicely but then he got a taste of the dough and after that all he wanted to do was to eat the dough! I did try to tell him that eating too much yeasty dough is not good for your tummy, but he was not worried.

I had my second annual assessment on Monday, which means I've been doing my PhD for 21 months now, it's gone quickly. I had to check and count the months when the email came through from the graduate school telling me it was time to arrange my next assessment, I felt like I'd just had the last one. I should get the report in couple of weeks time but I think I should have passed comfortably.

I spoke at church on Sunday which was quite fun. My passage was Ephesians 2:1-10, all about us being brought to life by God so I spoke about transformation and change. It was funny preparing because all I could think of was a song we used to sing in a Sunday school about us being saved through grace as a gift of God (silla armosta me olemme pelastetut, emme tekojemme kautta ettei kukaan kerskaisi...)

Marks and Spencer's have their two packets of cookies for £2 offer on again so we have nice biscuits in the office again :)

Little helper

2009-01-29T16:29:00.003Z

I was putting a load of washing on this morning, put all the clothes in the machine and thought that I'd better go and check if there were any washing left upstairs as there was some more room. When I came back from upstairs this is what I was faced with!!!

Puddles on the beach

2009-01-17T15:12:00.003Z

We went to the beach* this morning and had a lovely walk. Henrik loved the puddles and pools. He was not happy when we stopped him from exploring the ones that were too deep. It was quite blustery and he toppled over couple of times when the wind caught his waterproof suit and filled it up like a sail.

It's been really nice having relaxed weekend. Last weekend we had a lovely time in conference with Ivan and Isabel but by Sunday night we were exhausted after having 3 late nights in a row. So today the walk is pretty much the only thing we have done and the only thing we are planning to do :)

*our favourite, Druridge Bay about 30 minutes drive up the coast

Henrik and his car

2009-01-15T15:13:00.001Z

Little bear

2009-01-15T10:50:00.002Z

Henrik got the cutest little hat from my sisters for Christmas. Everyone who has seen it absolutely adores it, Henrik usually gets adored anyway but the hat has definitely added to his cuteness potential!

We went to the pharmacy this morning to pick up a prescription for some eye drops and Henrik was on full form, the lady behind the counter got the smiles, got his pretend shy action and waves.

We did go to the park as well but didn't stay long, it was cold and windy and we were the only ones there. Henrik loves the slide so he would have happily stayed there all day long but I started to get cold...

Now he is supposed to be going for his morning nap but I can hear him rattling the side of his cot!

Going potty

2009-01-08T21:53:00.003Z

We've been thinking of starting potty training with Henrik sometime in the spring so out of interest I had a look of what amazon has to offer on the potty front. To our amusement there quite a few products with names that tickled our sense of humour, my favourites were the piddle pad and toodle loo.

I did also discover that you can get a royal potty that has two different types of musical rewards and some reward stickers, or you can go for the deluxe fun-to-learn potty that you can learn not just going to the potty but songs and words! Slightly more on the economical line of potties is the musical car potty that plays variety of popular tunes, at £14.19 it is definitely a bargain!

But not to worry, I learnt to use the potty without musical rewards so the most likely potty Henrik is going to have a trustworthy (and of course Scandinavian) baby bjorn there is a deluxe model available on that one as well but I think we'll start with the box standard version which you can get from the good old john lewis.

The first stocking

2009-01-04T18:02:00.002Z

Henrik had his first stocking this year and it was a great success. He loved opening the little pressies and crunching up the wrapping paper. We opened rest of the presents in the afternoon and he loved that too, tearing the paper open and finding what was inside. He was so interested in the new toys that we saved some of the presents to be opened on the boxing day - not sure if we can do that next year!

Runny noses

2008-12-30T15:39:00.003Z

We went to the doctors yesterday. Poor Henrik has an eye infection and an ear infection. He is better today but not yet 100% but at least he had a little bit better night's sleep so we slept a bit better too. David hasn't be too well over the Christmas either but he seems to be on the mend now.

It's our anniversary today so we are going out for a meal :) provided Henrik is better so that we know he is not going to cause too much trouble for his babysitters. We went to the national glass centre in Sunderland this morning and had a nice time pottering around, watching them blow glass and see the exhibitions.

Crash and bang

2008-12-23T10:36:00.002Z

Last night we woke up at midnight to this huge bang. David's first thought was that the tv* had fallen of the wall. So off we went to investigate to find out the source of the great bang. It wasn't the tv, which we were pleased about but it was the mirror. The hook had just unbent itself and the mirror came down crashing and waking us up.
Miraculously the mirror didn't break! But it did break quite a few things on it's way down, a little robin figure now has no tail and pair of lovely glass tealight holder/candle sticks that Jersey grannie gave us couple of years ago for Christmas broke :( And my flowers got crushed too but the vase survived.
So there we were in the middle of the night in our pjs mopping up the water from the flowers and picking up broken pieces of glass wondering how amazing it was that the mirror came down in the middle of the night, not couple of hours earlier when it could have landed on Henrik or one of us!

* we bought a new tv this year instead of buying each other presents, so we've updated from the one we bought when we were students to the 21st century with a fancy flat screen that fits on the wall - very smart, but we've had to position the coffee table so that Henrik doesn't bang the screen

Christmas smells

2008-12-18T13:59:00.002Z

Paula and Nathan came over this morning and we had some fun baking ginger bread. The house smells all Christmassy now, cinnamon, ginger, cloves...The boys were pretty good, Henrik was more interested in eating the biscuit mixture and Nathan wanted to press lots of shapes out of the rolled out dough but he was more interested in pressing them out rather than making sure that the shape he was pressing did not overlap with another one!

After a while they got bored with making and moved on to playing with the toys. They are both on a funny stage at the moment where they are to really playing together - they don't even seem to notice each other, unless the other one has a toy they want.

I'll have to make a new mixture next week to make a gingerbread house as I run out but at least we have lots of gingerbreads to eat now.

Snowman

2008-12-15T08:38:00.003Z

Here are couple of pictures of Henrik exploring the first snow this year from couple of weeks ago. He was not too impressed by the snowman and started to cry when I tried to take a picture of him with the snowman!

Thought for the day

2008-12-12T08:31:00.004Z

The chief rabbi was doing the thought for the day on radio 4 this morning and I liked it:

Children grow to fill the place you create for them.

Not chocolate

2008-12-10T09:48:00.003Z

When I first read this headline I thought they were talking about chocolate...

Weekend fun

2008-12-09T12:48:00.002Z

David's parents came up for the weekend, they arrived on Friday afternoon and David took his dad on a tour around his work. On Saturday we went to Corbridge which was lovely, we had lunch in a pub and just wondered around. The weather was gorgeous, frosty and cold. We took Kinza up for a walk by the river Tyne in Corbridge.
Henrik had a field day with the Sunday paper. Before we noticed he had it all on the floor and he was throwing the bits around. It was very funny but yesterday I was trying to get him to leave the paper on the table and everytime I said no and he just threw it on the floor and giggled - he was definitely in a mischevious mood!
Other new developments is that we now have a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs to stop him going up. I did try to teach him to come down the stairs backwards but he was only interested in going up...

Winter wonderland

2008-12-04T09:24:00.002Z

It is snowing here. And the snow is actually settling for once. My plan is to build a snowman this afternoon with Henrik if it keeps snowing.

We've had quite tiring week. Henrik has been poorly, coughing and sniffing and occasional temperature but according to doctors there is nothing wrong with him. He actually slept through last night without any coughing fits which was a welcome change. I had to go to Stirling (in Scotland north east of Edinburg) on Tuesday for the research project I'm working on for couple of months and had to get up at 5am to catch a train there and didn't get back home until 8.30 so it was a long long day. And the funny thing was that there was more snow in Whitley Bay than in Scotland and it was colder here too!

But it's my 'day off' today so I've got tons of housework to catch up on so I better go and do some now...

Saturday morning

2008-12-01T20:30:00.000Z

Frosty morning

2008-11-28T07:55:00.002Z

It is the first frosty morning for a long time. It is like winter morning should be cold and clear. David didn't cycle to work this morning so he had to spend some time scraping the windows.

Henrik loves being outdoors so we'll make a quick trip to the park this morning. He is not so sure about walking on uneven surfaces yet and topples over regularly on the grass but it doesn't seem to deter him.

On diy front, David took a horrible old ugly cupboard away from the bathroom and has been plasteboarding and plastering the wall for the last couple of weekends.

I've been busy at uni which is nice. I'm doing my PhD 2.5 days a week and one day a week I'm working o a different research project which is nice as it gives a bit of variety to my week.

Henrik and I are off to town this morning to see if we can find an advent calendar and couple of presents. I'm hoping it wont be too busy but I think that might just be wishful thinking!

Back in toon

2008-11-24T12:38:00.002Z

We are back home after a lovely weekend in Liverpool with the Homans. We had really nice time with Olly and Becky and also managed to catch up with Heather and also to meet young Beniah West for the first time. On Sunday we attempted to go to the local park to try the steam railway they have for kiddie's there but unfortunately it wasn't open until couple of hours after we got there and weather permitting - it was hailing as we walked around the park so I guess it probably wasn't the best weather for it. Thankfully Henrik is too young to realise that he missed a trainride! So we had alltogether nice weekend.

The only other newsworthy item from the last couple of weeks is that Henrik is walking properly now, there is no stopping him! Outside he is still a bit wobbly but indoors he is fast.

New skill

2008-11-13T11:01:00.002Z

Henrik has learned to put the square block through the square hole on his sorter and it kept him amused nearly 20 minutes this morning! Very sweet :)

First steps

2008-11-12T20:51:00.003Z

Henrik has slowly been getting his courage together to take some steps on his own. Now he is quite comfortable with walking from the sofa to the coffee table and vice versa. Yesterday he took eight steps at Jeans. It's taken him a while to get this far, he's been up walking holding on to things since August but he's balance is pretty good now and if he doesn't realise he is walking he can actually walk for quite a while!

The lighting is not the best and there are some random videos at the bottom of it in the end but you see him taking couple of steps - very exciting :)

More of the wedding

2008-11-05T21:33:00.004Z

I don't seem to have time to sit down on the computer long enough to write anything let alone upload any photos! I guess both uni and Henrik are keeping me busy...But here are some more pics of the wedding finally. Henrik is suppose to be having his morning nap which he by the sounds of it is not, all I can hear is him banging the sides of the cot and dropping his dummy etc out of the cot but he has not started to cry yet so there is some hope for sleep.

The photos are pretty self explanatory...but doesn't Hanna look pretty!

Getting ready

2008-10-29T08:06:00.002Z

Here are few pics of us getting ready for the wedding:

Hanna having her make up done

Hellu doing Paivi's hair

Eppu and Paivi thought I needed a helping hand with getting ready

The finishing touches

Henrik despairing over how long it is taking for all the aunties and bridesmaids to get ready...

There and back again

2008-10-27T21:27:00.004Z

So we've been to Finland and back to celebrate my little sisters wedding. Henrik behaved really well on the plane, the air hostesses commented on how well he flew. All apart from one flight we had a spare seat between us for him which was a great help.

The change in Amsterdam on the way there was really good, we had quite a few hours to spare so we had a chance of using their baby rooms that have a little cots and shooting music for Henrik's afternoon nap. On the way back we were slightly delayed because of strong winds and didn't have any spare time, we just about managed to grap couple of sandwiches to take away on route from one gate to the other - it took us 30 minutes to get from the gate we arrived on to the gate we needed to be...and it was all in the same wing!

We didn't really have time to see that many people or do that many things but we still found time for coffee and korvapuustis. We managed to catch up with Janne and Marianna and see their newest arrival (and Nelly of course).

The wedding was really nice,it was really special to see Hanna get married. The couple of days leading up to it were slightly hectic but because of Henrik we weren't really able to help that much, I did so couple of hems on the bridesmaid's dresses. Hellu, my other sister, made Hanna's dress (as well as the bridesmaid's, my sister's and couple of the other girls' dresses) and it was beautiful. It was lovely to see lots of relatives we haven't seen for a long time.

Henrik also had his first sauna while we were in Finland. He seemed to enjoy it. From now on Hanna will be known as sauna-auntie as they have a sauna in their new flat.

We've got lots of pictures from the wedding so I'll need to upload them on the computer and post the best ones here when I've got time.

Quarries and what not

2008-10-12T21:19:00.004+01:00

It is Sunday again. The week has flown by. Last night we had a fundraiser at church for breast cancer breakthrough. We had a pampered chef- demonstration in style of tupperware parties and a raffle and some food. I won the main prize in the raffle which was pretty exciting, a nice little stoneware pampered chef dish.

We had a babysitter on Tuesday so I went to church worship night along side with David and it was brilliant. This morning was extended worship which we both really enjoyed. David shared a bit and got very excited about ephesians which was really nice, gave me the warm fuzzy feeling.

We did have an outing to Ladycross quarry yesterday which was quite fun. Our garden gets quite waterlogged so we've been thinking of doing some paving by the side of the house where it gets the soggiest and thought that we'd look into how much the local quarries would be for tiles in comparison to evil B&Q. We had a fun time, the man in the quarry showed us around, it was very muddy but we were well prepared with our wellies (we were going to take Moses out later).

It was really interesting to see the areas where they had stopped quarrying and were reinstating the area to nature. The quarry was located on a major route for bird migration and they had a 'sun dial' to show when a time for the different birds was to return and also a nice little seating area to watch the birds. The quarry was surrounded by forestry commission woods and we went out with Moses after the tour around the quarry. We (I) picked some mushrooms on the way but couldn't find them in my mushroom book so I didn't dear to use them. But after our quarry tour and a walk we stopped in a pub for lunch which was nice.

We've had a lovely time with the Browns this afternoon after church, just catching up. Henrik was fascinated by the boys and the boys were fascinated by him! But Henrik had a wonderful time being entertained by Joe.

Dinosaurs

2008-10-10T17:08:00.005+01:00

I found this fun fleece months ago when we were in Liverpool to see Olly & Becky and finally got my act together and turned it into a little jacket for Henrik.

LaUnDrY tRoUbLeS

2008-10-06T21:17:00.002+01:00

The washing machine retired on Friday morning. It refused to turn around. This is the second time it's happened, last time (in Plymouth 3+ years ago) the brushes were worn (or so the washing machine fixing guy told us) so we thought that was hopefully the case but were rather worried over the prospect of having to buy a new washing machine.

This one has served us very well, we bought it when we got married with some money we were given by David's grannie. We bought it second hand and we've had it for nearly 8 years so it has served us well. The washing machine fixing guy we found in yellow pages came over this afternoon and he fixed it in no time and the problem was the brushes again, apparently the most common thing to go wrong in the washing machine...

So I'm catching up on the laundry now, I did take some around to Alice's on Saturday and Jean's on Sunday so I'm not completely inundated with it but I've still got bit to do. A new washing machine would have been nice but having this one fixed was definitely better for our budget!

Oh dear

2008-10-03T22:37:00.002+01:00

Oh dear, the week is nearly gone and my blogging habit is definitely getting less and less frequent. Again, we've been busy. Hopefully next week will be a bit less hectic. The most exciting news is that we got cheap flights to Finland - prayer definitely works! But I'm off to bed now :)

Busy bees

2008-09-28T18:41:00.002+01:00

We've had a very busy and productive weekend sorting the garden out. We have been in the process of building a raised bed along one of the fences as our neighbours garden is higher than ours and the soil keeps falling in from their side to our side. We must have started it months ago, around the time when David finished the decking but then we've either been busy or the weather has been miserable or we've been too lazy or tired to do anything about it.

But it is finished now :) We've had brilliant weather and the garden is all ready for the winter now. The raised bed is done, I emptied the compost into it (my first 'home made' compost - very exciting) It's all weeded and David even managed to destroy his block of concrete that he has been hacking away all summer much to the delight of the neighbours on Sunday afternoons ;) And David even mowed the lawn.

Now I just need to get some plants to plant in it. I've got a bamboo that I've moved into it and a forsythia that we bought months ago in a garden centre sale. There are few self seeded foxgloves as well in varying shades of white and pink but apart from that there are plenty of room for more plants. It doesn't really get much sunlight as next doors fence shades it most of the day so we'll probably get lots of ferns that love the shade to go in there.

Henrik enjoyed the weekend as well. He spent a lot of time in the garden either walking around the decking holding onto the bench or sitting on a blanket in the lawn. He is getting more and more mobile but still likes to hold onto things while he is walking. This morning at church he was taking advantage of anyone who was standing close enough and moving from person to person holding onto their legs...he manage to startle quite a few of them - I guess you are not really expecting anyone to come and touch your knees when you are standing around drinking coffee!

Camping in the Lakes

2008-09-26T09:11:00.002+01:00

We had lovely time camping last weekend. We were a bit late leaving so we didn't arrive to the campsite until it was dark but managed to get the tent up with no hassles. Moses enjoyed his camping trip as well and behaved himself very well apart from occasional growls when someone walked passed too close to the tent in the night. We packed in a bit of a hurry and forgot our camping chairs, pillows and couple of other bits and bobs but it wasn't the end of the world.

On Saturday we had a little potter about Ambleside and then had pub lunch in Grasmere before tackling a mountain. We walked up to Alcock Tarn and skirted around the fells for couple of hours. The weather was gorgeous and walking up hill was hard work. Even Moses was tired after our walk!

Jazzy green stripes

2008-09-23T16:28:00.002+01:00

2008-09-18T20:37:00.002+01:00

The week has flown by. It is nearly weekend :) I've been working the first half of the week and Thursday and Friday are my days but I usually try to cram everything in them so I don't actually have time off, I'm just not at uni. Today I had doctors, house work and meeting up with couple of friends (separately) for coffee, tomorrow is ladies prayer group, more house work and getting ready for a weekend camping trip to the lakes. We'll be back on Sunday as we've got some friends coming around for lunch.

Henrik is scootering around the house holding onto furniture and getting quite adventurous in leaning from one piece of furniture to the next. Today he managed to empty the cupboard that has the flour and tins in it...twice...

Above is a picture of Paivi and Henrik from the summer. It is Paivi's 18th birthday on Saturday!!!!! It was so nice having her here for the summer and to spend some time together :)

1st birthday

2008-09-15T20:49:00.005+01:00

We celebrated Henrik's first birthday yesterday. It seems that the year has just flown by! He was not really interested in the presents itself but the ribbons on the parcels were fascinating...he got two pressies all the way from Finland and both had lots of ribbon on so he was very impressed.

Here is the first present of the day from David and I that we found in Dijon, again the little ribbons were very very fascinating and without helping hand from us he would have been playing with the ribbons all morning.

We had some people over from church and few other friends for cake and coffee in the afternoon which was really nice, the birthday boy didn't appreciate the significance of the occasion but seemed very pleased with all the people who were happy to hold on to his fingers and walk him around for much longer than mummy and daddy...

The cake

Singing happy birthday whilst Henrik is trying his best to get the berries of the cake

Picture of all three of us that Peter took

The last of the summer holiday pictures

2008-09-15T20:23:00.003+01:00

So here are the last pics of our wonderful camping trip. They are all from the last day when we went for a walk up a gorge and spent some time splashing about in the water. It was about 35 degrees so the cool mountain water was very refreshing after the walk. On the way back we decided to save the hassle of walking up and down and waded up the gorge instead, in hindsight the up and down option probably would have been quicker but you live and you learn!

One of the things that kept Henrik amused for hours was pretending to drive the car. So whenever on our long drives we stopped for nappy change, bottle, lunch or for any other reason we gave him couple of minutes behind the wheel and he was in 7th heaven. On the last day he sat on David's lap when we drove up the drive of the campsite to our tent and he could hardly contain himself from the excitement!!!

Second to last of the summer holiday photos

2008-09-15T20:12:00.003+01:00

One of David's early morning pics

Swimming in the lake near Veynes. Henrik learned to point during the holiday and much of our time was spent on trying to guess what he was pointing at...

Flying in the air...we managed to get a puncture to his little floatie thing in the car and tried to unsuccesfully fix it with some gaffer tape. The puncture was on the outer ring so we could still use the floatie but it needs to be fixed before we let Henrik loose with it in the swimming pool.

David and Henrik enjoying the lake

And still some more pics

2008-09-12T14:11:00.002+01:00

It's raining here so I'm cheering myself up by looking at some sunny holiday photos when I really should be baking buns for Henrik's birthday. But here are couple of pics from our hike up a mountain. We parked the car in Col de Carabes and walked through forrest and up along the ridge to the top of a mountain that I can't remember the name of and google is not being helpful in trying to find it but I think it was +1.5km high and sounded like rocks...

The walk was amazing. I have never ever seen so many butterflies in my life than we did there! It took us about 3 hours to walk there and back and it was boiling hot but once we were on the top the views were just incredible.

This photo is not actually from the top, still on the way tehre, but you can see the mountain we camped by on the left. There are green and yellow fields just by each other about half way across that mountain and that was were the campsite was, our tent is hiding just behind those trees :)

Me on the way down (hence big smile, no more uphill!)

The ridge we walked along is on the left.

David & Henrik, it was difficult to get them smiling at the same time...

Competition for Rudolph?

2008-09-09T16:14:00.004+01:00

Henrik is very determined in his quest for walking. He can walk all the way around the kitchen holding on the cabinets. He can also walk pretty much all the way around the front room by holding on to the sofas, coffee tables etc. This morning he managed to pull one of my pot plants over that I had thought there was no way of him reaching it. He still ikes to hold on to things with both hands so if you only offer him one hand for support he grapps hold of your trousers or holds on to the same finger with both of his little hands.

His little adventures sometimes end in trouble...most often he has just got to a point where he can't go any further but he can't go back the same way he came for one reason or another...this results in whining until we come and reposition him! Or even more serious - he falls over. Sometimes he doesn't even notice and just pulls himself up, other times the world ends and there is nothing you can do to stop him cry.

On Saturday night his nose was little bit red but not that much so we didn't think anything of it. When I went to pick him up on Sunday morning when he woke up he had a bright red nose! I first thought that I must have forgotten to wash his face properly and he still had some tomato sauce or somethign on his nose...but it didn't come off. It turned out to be a carpet burn. So the poor little lamb has a red nose from falling over, hopefully it will get better by Sunday, otherwise we'll have pictures of him trying ot blow the candle out on his 1st birthdaycake with shiny red nose...

And still more on the holiday

2008-09-09T15:56:00.003+01:00

So, haven't actually said that much about the holiday but you've seen the pictures!!!

We had a lovely time. Driving there took longet than expected but the good news is that we still talk to each other regardless of getting lost pretty much every single time when we tried to circumnavigate a bigger town or a city (the French don't have similar passion for building by-passes than the English do!)

The first day was long, we caught a ferry at 10 am which meant we had to be there at 9am which in turn meant driving around the M25 at rush hour and getting up at 5.30am...We had a brilliant fry up on the ferry and then drove for quite a few hours before stopping for lunch.

We didn't get to the the village of the first campsite until 10.30ish and it was dark. I was convinced we had found the campsite, it was by a lake, there was a gate, other tents and we had been following the signs from the village....David wasn't so convinced but we put the tent up anyway. In the morning it turned out that we'd been camping with a bunch of fishermen about 500 metres up the road from where the camsite was...so we moved the tent and camped on the proper campsite with nice warm showers and english style toalets for the next night.

Drive down to the alps was gorgeous. The weather was beautiful and the roads were empty. We stopped in Dijon for couple of hours and had a wonder around. We found a lovely little toyshop selling the most amazing wooden toys and got something little for Henrik for his first birthday.

The second campsite was much easier to find. We even managed to have dinner before it got dark! The French holiday season was pretty much over so the campsite was nice and quiet. We spent a brilliant 8 days just going for walks, swims and sightseeing whilst eating lots of nice pastries and bread.

We discovered lots of nice thigns you can cook on the trangia, before we left we'd bought a gas converter for it which made life so much easier and cooking so much quicker. One thing we didn't have with us was a coolbag* which meant we had to go to supermarket everyday so next year we'll have to remember that.

We had originally planned to go to somewhere else for three or so nights before coming back but the weather was so lovely and there was so much to do that we just stayed in one place for the whole time.

On the way back we took the motorway for quite a few times and that saved us lots of time. We stopped at the same campsite again than the first two nights and this time arrived when it was still nice and light...

We both really enjoyed our time away. It's the first time we've really taken a two week holiday and we'll definitely do it again. It was very nice feeling after the first week to think that you don't have to be back at work for anohter week yet! We also really like our new tent, it's so easy to put up and really nice to be in, and what's even better, Henrik had his own little room where we put his travel cot up for him and he slept really well.

*we hadn't realise that the campsite owners were happy to freeze the blocks for the coolbags whenever we needed

And couple of more pics

2008-09-05T08:35:00.002+01:00

I'm in the middlde of tidying up the house but thought I'd add these two pics before I forget so here we are - a random sunflower field near our campsite and some nice cakes from a market we went to in a small village up on the mountains. They did sell some sheep on the market but we settled for some macaroons.

And some more

2008-09-01T16:33:00.004+01:00

Our little camp and not so little tent

How to have a bath when you are camping

On a little wonder around in Orpierre

Splashing about in a gorge

The gorge where we splashed about

So here are some pics

2008-09-01T16:22:00.002+01:00

The lake by which we camped for the first couple of nights in Marcenay

Henrik and I trying out the swings

Morning porridge fed by very very sleepy looking mummy

On a walk with daddy

Testing out daddy & mummy's 'bedroom'

More to follow

2008-08-31T21:51:00.002+01:00

Just back from glorious two weeks camping in the Hautes Alpes region in France. We had brilliant time and lots of sunshine. We stayed at a brilliant campsite that we found from the best camping book ever. More to follow, especially photos...

Learning to be mobile

2008-08-13T09:01:00.002+01:00

For the last couple of days baba has been crawling in reverse. Yesterday he had his first day with Jean and he had celebrated it by crawling forwards on commando style. He is also getting very efficient in shuffling along the floor on his bum. He is fascinated by Moses' bowls and more than once he has manage to make his way to Moses' water bowl and started splashing about. He is getting very sturdy on his feet and often walks along with holding onto the frame with just one hand. He has also started to walk along things like sofa or side of the bed...we need to start clearing all the things we don't want himt o chew out of his reach...

I will walk

2008-08-08T21:21:00.003+01:00

Henrik is getting very determined to walk, he will not sit down if he can avoid it. His little play arch has been useful aid in the process, it saves our backs and gives him independence he likes...until he needs turning around as he has met a wall or got stuck under the table.

Henrik learned to clap by himself today...very sweet.

Mummy's masterpiece

2008-08-06T08:57:00.003+01:00

HEnrik has grown out of his grobag and I thought I'd try to make him a new one. I borrowed Paula's sewing machine and here's the result, not bad for the first time I don't think!

Milk time

2008-08-01T09:03:00.001+01:00

Baba enjoying his afternoon milk al fresco with daddy on his side

Carbon footprint

2008-07-29T09:25:00.004+01:00

Tap water is cool. Tap water is to thing to drink. For the last couple of years I've been reading Giles Coren's columns in Saturday Times. He has been on a mission against restaurants automatically offering bottled water rather than tap water ever since I started reading his reviews. However couple of months ago he changed his campaign to finding smiling service at restaurants as the rest of the world had caught on to the fact that tap water is good for the environment (and also the wallet*)

That's the funny thing in the world, you do something you have always done and then someone turns around and says it is environmentally friendly, it reduces your carbon footprint etc. Like growing your own vegetables, I like growing my own vegetables, they taste good and it is fun and now it is also the best way to reduce your carbon footprint! Obviously the only reason why I have strawberry plants in my garden...

* we have always asked for tap water as we like keeping our pennies but now it has the added bonus of being environmentally friendly...

Chasing bubbles

2008-07-27T21:23:00.003+01:00

We've had a lovely sunny/sea misty afternoon in the garden with some friends from church. The kids were amused by a bubble machine that Lily brought along. Moses showed of his agility skills my jumping after the bubbles. Henrik was content at looking at the bubbles from distance whereas Evie was crawling after them.

David spoke at church today which was brilliant - all about vegetarian lion suddenly realising that it is a carnivore after all...there was a lot more to it than that but that was the jest of it, frustration of wanting more of God and not knowing how to get it etc.

Park

2008-07-21T22:40:00.003+01:00

We have started weekly (weather and time provided) park outings with Rebekah & Evie. Here are some pics from couple of weeks ago that Paivi took. There are quite a few nice parks close by, this one is the newest of them in Whitley Bay on the sea front.

Baba in a pod

Evie and baba 'sharing' the same straw

Baba trying to walk

Lack of speed

2008-07-21T22:36:00.002+01:00

The internet has been misbehaving for the last couple of days. It has been very temperamental, slow or non existent. We are not really sure if the problem is with the wireless router or the internet connection. But it has had us tearing our hair out - bringing back memories from the days of dial up internet...

We had a busy weekend, David's work bbq on Friday, went to town on Saturday morning, on Sunday we had Evie's 1st birthday party and my work friends bbq in the evening. Tonight we have been exhausted after the weekend of socialising.

Rain or shine

2008-07-16T20:45:00.002+01:00

The summer has not officially yet started in England. We have had handful of lovely warm days since May. And lots of cold rainy ones. And lots more of cold rainy ones. My poor sister was hoping for a tan but so far there has been two days when it has been warm enough to wear shorts and one warm enough for bikinis.

But never mind. At least we haven't had to put the heating on yet so it is summer. It must be. I think the weather forecasters are scratching their heads as well. There was one day when bbc forecasted rain for the whole day and metcheck forecasted sunshine. I believed in metcheck and got soaked!

Camping, friends and beach

2008-07-06T14:59:00.005+01:00

Baba watching the goings on

Tug of war...Lily*

vs the rest of us...

It's been busy week/weekend. David went camping with Olly for the weekend in the Lakes. Paivi and I helped at choices fundraising day yesterday by face painting and baking some cakes. We had a nice relaxed evening eating pizza and watching friends.

Netta and Anssi came over on Friday and we had a lovely afternoon together wondering around town, going to the beach and BBQing.

On wednesday the youth club went to the beach and Paivi took the photos above then.

*plus the lifeboat men!

What time you call this?

2008-07-04T08:27:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we had a knock on our door at 10.15pm. David had been out with the guys from work so I just assumed it was him and went to open the door - I was wondering why he wasn't using his keys though...

It wasn't David, it was a Polish art student with a huge portfolio trying to sell some of her art! At quarter past 10 at night!

When I was younger I remember by parents saying you shouldn't really phone people especially if you don't know them after 9pm as they need their peaceful evening. I would say knocking on somebody's door trying to sell something at that time of the night is even less welcome than a late night phone call.

I was so taken back at her being behind my door that didn't know what to say to her...in the end i bloppered something about being a student and not having money (both which are true) and she disappeared to knock on our next door neighbours door.

Maybe it is different in Poland but in the Lindsey household we are usually counting sheep by 10.15pm.

Fun on the beach

2008-07-03T21:20:00.002+01:00

The youth club from church went to the beach yesterday and we went along. Henrik coped well with the late night very well. We had brilliant time playing rounders and football, having a sack race and a tug of war. After the festivities we all had chips, yammee...

After the chips we challenged the life boat men to tug of war. There must have been three times more of us than them but it was hard work, in the end we all toppled over each other and got covered in sand.

Paivi and I did very well in the rounders, it turns out that Finnish baseball prepares you well for rounders, we were both one of the best batters in our team. And our team won :)

Beach

2008-07-01T07:43:00.003+01:00

Henrik and I went to Druridge Bay (our favourite beach up here) couple of weekends ago with the resident aunties. The weather was arctic but we had a lovely walk. There were lots of jelly fish washed up on the beach. Henrik seemed to enjoy the excursion.

I've started the data collection for my Phd so I've been driving up and down the A19 to interview people in the south of the region. I am getting pretty good at aiming for the toll money collecting basket at the entrance of the Tyne tunnel, couple of more interviews and I can probably do it with my eyes closed...

Picnic in the park

2008-06-24T21:22:00.002+01:00

We went for a picnic in Jesmond Dene yesterday with Rachel & Ty + Lily + Oscar and Rebekah and Evie. We had a lovely time eating lots of nice food, looking at the animals at the pets corner and having a little walk by the river.

PPS.

2008-06-22T22:34:00.002+01:00

I have a new phone. I've finally given up on my ancient pay as you go phone and have got 100 any network anytime minutes and unlimited texts for £15/month and a very swanky new phone.

PS.

2008-06-22T22:31:00.002+01:00

One of my sisters is in California for the summer, helping on a ywam summer programme for young people. You can find out more about her adventures here - however it's only in Finnish at the moment.

Green, green, green

2008-06-22T22:07:00.002+01:00

Here is an other pic from a walk couple of weekends ago. Since that the weather has been pretty bad so we have not really been out. My sister has arrived so we have a full house. It's really nice to have her around. It's funny, last year it was just us two and Moses, now we are a household of five + dog! David spoke at church today which was brilliant. I really enjoyed listening to him get very excited about God and all things relating.
We've also been following the football, on the ladies part this has been more half hearted whereas David has been following it more seriously. Surprisingly my team are still in it, so if they win the next match I'll win at least £7. Wimbledon starts tomorrow so we've got couple of more weeks of sport coming up. (The rain coudl be explained by the fact that Wimbledon is starting tomorrow).

Highchair

2008-06-20T08:25:00.002+01:00

We are the proud owners of a red rinki highchair by seimi.