This is one of the clear signs that I am stressed at work. I am writing this post at 2:30 in the morning, and I've been having a hard time staying in bed. Hay, bakit kaya? I thought watching Pulp Fiction would get my mind off work, but as soon as I crawled back to bed... so did the work issues.
I've been counting the days 'til our Christmas vacation. We're scheduled to fly to Manila on the 2nd week of December. We've booked our flights and fixed our itinerary (somehow) while in the Phils. I hope the weather will cooperate though. A visit to the beach during the cold winter days in Finland is probably the best stress buster I could have.
Arnolds' just launched the Spinny Cinnamon Rolls 3 weeks ago. I just learned about it from the English magazine I picked up from the mall while waiting for Jarno to get his haircut done. I made Jarno promise that we would go have meryenda at Arnolds' during the weekend. And since there is huge likelyhood that we will forget... I placed it on my phone's to do list (plus an alarm!)
I have been stressing about Janina's birthday party for the past two nights, and now it's finally over. There was a 95% attendance among the invitees, so we barely made everyone fit in the living room. It was good idea splitting the guests in batches (family first then the friends afterwards).
My mommy friends came with their hubbies and their babies, of course. So you could imagine, at the end of the party - the whole living room looked like a kindergarten room (or maybe even worse?). But honestly, I didnt mind at all cleaning up the place afterwards. I felt really really happy having arranged it that way. And Janina had a long nap before the guests started coming so she had a lot of energy to play with the kids and the adults.
The cooking was also a huge success. I got a lot of praises for my "langhap sarap" a.k.a Jollibee tasting spaghetti (Salamat sa Banana Ketchup!). And Joonas' Chocolate cake that he made for Janina was a huge hit as well. Also my always present cheese sticks were over in no time. But on the down side, the Spanish bread will need some more practice ;).
Anyway, I wouldn't have done it without Jarno looking after Janina most of the time in the morning and enduring his back pains. Plus, BIIIG thanks to Ian (who flew all the way from Denmark!) for helping decorate our home and Pene, my cooking assistant! You just made a wonderful little girl extremely happy!
It's never been this hectic before. There are three of us in the family celebrating our birthdays on the same week (me on the 25th, Janina's 1st bday on the 28th then Joonas' on the 30th). It actually took us some time to decide should we have separate parties and who should we invite in each event.
I actually celebrated my 30th birthday (even if I turned 31 today). You see, 30th bdays are huge here in Finland. And since last year, I was 17kilos heavier and was about to give birth any time soon, I saved the party for this year. And thanks to antibiotics, the party pushed through. I almost cancelled this one after catching a tummy flu from my last business trip. Like most of my friends said, everything turned out really fun! But I'll keep the details to myself and to those who witnessed one of the most embarrassing moments of my party life. To be honest, I think it must have been the wine + the fact that i just recovered from the tummy flu (Excuses, excuses).
Janina on the other hand will have hers on Sunday. First birthdays are not as huge here as in Manila. No lechon (roasted pork) and Jollibee parties here. It's more spent with just the close family and maybe some few friends. I'm having something in between though. I haven't seen my mommy friends and their babies for some time now, so it would be nice to see them again after some months and for the kids to play with each other. I'm sure we'll all be surprised how much they have grown. Here's Janina looking more like a little girl now.
On my last day in India, I thought I was spared of the tummy flu that most of my colleagues had when they travelled there. The offshore office was not that bad also, the toilets were clean enough, and they had toilet papers in every cubicle all the time (which wasn't the case when I was still working in Manila...). But then on the last day, I woke up with a strange feeling on my tummy. It wasn't painful, but just weird. It wasnt much of a problem in the beginning. Walking through the hallways and getting some fresh air were enough to get me through the day, actually.
Almost a week after, I'm still suffering from tummy pains. The doctor said that my tummy is most likely upset for being upset for almost a week already (pwede pala yun!). They haven't found any bacteria and my fever has not spiked more than 37.5C but I got 3 days leave from work because of the tummy pains.
Anyway, I'm really glad that Jarno and Janina have been healthy so far. During the 6 days I've been away, I missed out Janina's first walk without any one holding her. Good thing Jarno got in on video (thanks to the phone camera!)! She's soon turning one, so this is really a huge milestone for her. I'm still shreiking whenever I see her walking almost a couple of meters on her own!
Janina has been learning to speak more words nowadays. She's quite good at copying what people around her are saying, but Jarno and I came to the conclusion that among the words she's learned, there is only one word that she understands fully - heitä! ("throw" in Finnish). She's says this every time she plays ball with us or with the grand parents (well now whenever she throws anything). But now she's also learned to use her feet to play with the ball. I remember when I had my second ultrasound of her and I said that I have a football player in the family... well didn't I say it before?
It's been almost two months since my last post. My last post was our weekend at the summer cottage before I went back to work. Three weekends ago, I had my second attempt to catch another salmon. Unfortunately, my phone kept ringing because of work that I seem to be scaring the fishes away instead of luring them with Olavi's special fish meal. I have never even brought my laptop with me when going out of town during the weekend, but because work has been so busy, napilitan tuloy ako.
Until now I feel guilty about staying long hours in the office, and sometimes even continuing work from home. Jarno has been extremely understanding though... but whenever I think of how much less time I am spending with Janina, I can't help but regret having chosen to go back to the same project I was in before. And it's true what they say when you have a family - your priorities just change.
I have been contemplating about whether to take more responsibilities at work in the future. The offer is good and I have been waiting for this opportunity, but is it really worth it? :(
I must admit I have never fished before. This is actually the first time I have tried my hands on fishing for a huge fish and it's a lot of work, mind you. Jarno and I have been trying many times in a day, and I successfully fished one on the third day only. But look how huge the salmon I got. I think it is a more than a kilo. The salmon served as our main course for the day... fresh catch. Thanks to Olavi's four fish course meal, I couldn't have caught the salmon without them.
We also did our yearly farming activity quite early. And the usual, we planted some potatoes and onions. For three consecutive years we've been getting so much of potatoes and onions (almost a year supply) that I rarely go to the grocery to get them. Our strawberries (also we planted three years ago) have been surviving the winter months and now it's flowering very well. We're expecting honey strawberry's in no time.
Olavi's four fish course meal:
1. "normal" fish food 2. bread (dark and white), fed alternately 3. macaroni - which didn't seem to be a favorite 4. soft, sticky dough - this was really a great idea. The dough sticks to the hook well and salmons loved the bread taste. I tried this once and got the fish right away. Or maybe, I was just lucky.
The long planned mommies' outing finally realized last weekend. We went to Olavi's summer cottage at Hartola and enjoyed an all-filipino weekend - meaning we did nothing but cook Filipino food (except for Emily's nordic tomato and mozarella). We have been talking about what to cook, we actually ended up having a lot of ingredients with us. Here was our weekend menu.. just writing them down make me want to do this again!
Saturday Lunch : (kinain naming lahat ng nagkakamay / eaten with bare hands) Grilled Barbecue, Eggplant and Tomato Salad with Bagoong, Tomato and mozarella, Rice Snack : Bilo-bilo!!! Thank you meg for the amazing food... ang tagal ko ng di nakakain nito! Dinner : Pansit bihon
Sunday Breakfast : tuyo (courtesy of Pen) and sinangag (fried rice) lunch : barbecue (ulit!) and Pansit Bihon Snack : bilo-bilo (in short, tira-tira)
The weather was great, we had the chance to do some sun bathing. We also tried our hand on fishing and almost caught a salmon from the pond. If we were not screaming our hearts out, the fish would have stayed on the hook. Of course, we didn't leave the summer cottage without a taste of Finnish sauna plus the whipping ;).
It was a really fun-filled weekend. Great weather, great place (thanks to Olavi and Riitta who have prepared the place and made us feel like we were in a hotel), delicious food and hilarious company!
It's been a very busy week so far that I haven't had time to update my blog. Weekend was spent fishing and then mother's day came so it was family Tenni reunion once more. And then I was trying to finish my article about chiropractic before tomorrow's deadline. I still have to blog about my chiro treatments which were AMAZING.
But for now.... we just got the photos from the baby swimming! So who's the next Dyesabel???
Janina grooves to the sound of "Dangerous". This is her favorite for the month, following the success of last month's "Keep Bleeding" by Leona Lewis. Oh, and watch for her street dance move at 00:40.
We arrived almost midnight at Helsinki from the Tallinn cruise. It was a family trip and at the same time, a celebration for Olavi's 75th birthday. This was actually my first time to step foot on Tallinn ground. I was there two years ago with friends, but we stayed in the cruise ship cause I did not have a visa back then and the trip was just one night. And now that Estonia is officially part of the Shengen visa area, I didn't need any visa to enter the country.
Tallinn is a very unique place, considering it is only an hour and a half away from Helsinki by ferry. The old architecture has been well preserved and you can definitely feel a piece of the country's history while going around. We stayed mostly at Tallinn's old town, walking around and trying the exotic food. I especially liked the medieval restaurant, Olde Hansa which offered a meal close to "crispy pata".
The trip was fun, despite being a bit exhausting in the end. But it is during these occassions that I am glad I am a part of Jarno's family. Here are a few of the photos I got the chance to take.
Got an email from the Chief Ed of Helsinki Times today. This definitely made my day...
"In the 25 April-1 May issue of the Helsinki Times my vote for the best article would have to be "Buckle Up and Save Lives" It's articles like this that I feel are important as well as interesting because they deal with important everyday issues that have an impact on the well being of people, and in this case especially, the well being of children."
Too bad the article is still not posted on the net unlike the ones I've written from previous issues. But I must say that this is one of those stories I have written so quickly. I think it's because I can relate to the topic, being a parent myself. I have promised to write for one more issue of the paper, but it might actually be the last.
It's the first time after four years that we went to have a picnic at Kaivopuisto during Vappu day (Finnish labor day). We actually wasted about 30 minutes of our time looking for a parking space, so we opted to drive back home and walk all the way to the park. It wasn't a bad idea after all, since all the stuff we had fitted in Janina's pram's basket. This includes the outdoor grill, food, picnic mat and Janina's toys. Unfortunately, the weather was not as promising as in the morning when we got there at around 2 in the afternoon. It started to be cold and bit windy, but having the grill made up for day, anyway. We had some makkaras (Finnish sausage), corn and fresh fruits (courtesy of Pen and Felix) to celebrate the day.
I noticed that nowadays, there were a lot of booths selling grilled sausages and fries plus other ready made food all around the park. Something which were not there four years ago. Also, the atmosphere seemed more "decent". Meaning, less drunk, wasted people lying on the grass. I think I have seen more families and friends just having a picnic today compared last time. Or maybe the older ones are good enough to hide their hang-overs from the previous evening.
Just when we were eating, I realised that exactly a month from now, I will be going back to work. So I better make the most out of the coming days. Come to think of it, this month seems to be really jam-packed with events / trips. We're again leaving for Tallinn this weekend for Olavi's 75th birthday. Haven't been there ever, so I'm really looking forward to this one.
Me and my mommy friends decided to go on a field trip to Sweden last Tuesday. We spent a couple of nights in the ferry, stopping over Stockholm during Wednesday where we brought the babies to Junibacken. I'm glad Janina was pretty easy to handle during the trip, especially that this is the first time I actually went abroad with her alone. She also got used to having Jani (Meg's son) around, that they started to play with each other more than playing "against" each other :). I'm amazed how both the babies had almost the same sleeping rhythms that made things easier for me and Meg.
This isn't my first time to go to Stockholm, but having babies around made this one very different simply because it's "babies first" policy. I thought I would have been an expert already as I have travelled with her a lot abroad previously, but I spoke too soon. I guess you'll never stop learning these things until they get a lot lot older. For example, the length of time walking almost doubles because of the little ones and it gets much much warmer nowadays so those short stop overs are a must.
Overall, the trip went pretty well, tiring, but it turned out fun. So I'm sure this won't be the last field trip for the moms. Oh, and thanks to emily who organised the trip! More photos here.
Jarno and i promised we'd both get back in shape this year for summer's marathon. I actually started earlier than he did. Two and a half months after giving birth to Janina I joined ashtanga yoga classes. And then when Janina turned three months, we both started going to Baby gym. Now that the weather is getting better, we have decided to start jogging again and we actually managed to do it with Janina. Hands down to her great pram, which has proven its worth so far. And of course, thumbs up to our little baby who seems to like the "fast" paced stroll outside.
Still about sports, Janina did her first two dives in swim class last Thursday. I'm actually surprised how she has handled it well considering we have missed three classes in a row (both Jarno and Janina were sick then). The regular practices in the bath tub has helped. We pour a small bucket of water to her head several times while saying "dive" to her , like what the instructors have told us. I didn't get a video or photo since I was swimming with them. I will definitely be on bench next time to watch them and capture the moment again.
