Visit to the Midwife and other stuff

Isabella and I got ourselves to the midwife yesterday and we were able to find out that she is now getting so big! Although according to the charts, she is exactly average for her age. Good to know! Someone asked me the other day if she was 6 months old and when I said 10 months, they commented that she was quite small...maybe the world's population is getting bigger even at that age!?! So I assured that she is average which makes me happy. I have noticed that she has been growing out of her clothes at an alarming rate recently and that was in keeping with the information from the midwife that she has grown 5cm/2in in the past 2 months. So she is now 73cm/29in and 9.3kg/20lbs. Where did my tiny baby go???

And she has been trying things like apples...this apple in the photo came from my friend Tiina's mother's yard and they were very juicy and sweet.






She is still happy and laughing most of the time which is great. She is a real joy to be around. And quite a copycat (or copy monkey as they say in Finnish!)...as you can see in this photo with Taneli on my birthday.





These last two photos were taken today in the tiny 'park' next to our house. It was a lovely sunny day so Katriina and I took Isabella there for a swing...she really enjoyed it...and so did Isabella.





As you can see, I had left Katriina and Isabella alone earlier in the morning so Katriina decided to have a little fun with her hair...the motion of the swing didn't help much either! hahahaha










Story I forgot to tell...
And the last thing I want to tell you about is something that happened when my friend Riitta was visiting...we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and it was a buffet- all-you-can-eat...this is important...and when we arrived they insisted that we sit at a specific seat (even though it was open seating). So we sat where we were told. I must mention that all the workers there expect one waitress was Chinese...so you don't get the wrong impression of Finnish people. And once we were seated one woman came over to ask if Isabella would be eating...because as she said (in English) "she eat, she pay"...I assured her that she would not be eating from the Chinese food buffet...she was only 9 months old. She went away and then came back a minute or so later and said it again..."she eat, she pay". Again I said that she would not be eating. I was beginning to get a little annoyed. Why would a 9 month old baby be eating from this kind of buffet and really, how much could they charge for the 3 tablespoons of food she eats???? So Riitta goes to get her food, and then I go to get mine. By this time, Isabella has seen us eating and she wants to eat too..I don't blame her, it was also her lunch time. So I took out the food I had brought from home for her and I didn't even bother to ask for it to be warmed up...I didn't figure that they were that kind of restaurant! So out came the tupperware container and as I am feeding her, one of the guys comes over to the table and makes it obvious that he is checking out what was in the container...to make sure that it wasn't anything from the buffet!!!! What a cheek...I couldn't believe it and we certainly will never be eating there again.

Good Baby Bella

I can’t believe what a good baby I have sometimes! The past few days Isabella has been waking up a little early for my liking, so I have just faked sleeping (once she has woken me up) and eventually she gives up and goes back to sleep. Hardly a peep will come out of her. She is normally quite chatty in the morning but she never cries. So she just lies down and plays with her soother and talking to herself and then in about 10 mins or so, she is fast asleep again. Now when I say a little early, yesterday morning it was 5:10am and this morning was a little more reasonable at 6:10am. But I still couldn’t face getting up this morning at that time…and guess what…both Taneli and I got up before she did! She didn’t get up again until about 8:20am! So I think that I will continue with this tactic and we will see if she doesn’t start to sleep later without that little ‘get up’ time in the early hours.

What a Difference 6 Weeks Makes

About 6 weeks ago a doctor who had never seen Isabella before (and had only met her for about 5-10 mins that time) told me that he thought that she was ‘kind of lazy’. Well here we are 6 weeks on and so much has changed- not that I believed anything the doctor said because I saw how active Isabella was and how she was getting around. She is now sitting on her own, standing up on her own, pushing and pulling doors (even when you are trying to get through them), and she is even getting two more teeth! Talk about a lot for the past 6 weeks! She even crawled on her knees for a short while the day before yesterday instead of her soldier ground crawl (which she does with gusto and efficiency).So she must have taken his comments to heart and decided to show him!


She continues to enjoy using my computer- especially when I am trying to type something.



















We recently attended Jaana'a wedding at her home and the weather held out for most of it but let us down after the ceremony. But since a huge great tent was erected in the back yard- strung from tree to tree- we did not get wet...although it was a little chilly. So as usual, Isabella got tired and we had to go home quite early. No dancing for us!


And finally, Isabella and I met up with Riitta- a friend of mine from Rovaniemi. She just happened to be coming to Helsinki when we called!

Monday Morning Craziness

So last Monday, not yesterday...the one before that, when we arrived from France (at 2am) we all got to bed pretty sharp and the next morning Taneli's step-mom and brother Juho headed back to Tornio on a flight at 11:30. I drove them to the airport and since IKEA is only about 4-5km from the airport, I went there for breakfast with Isabella. Now, what I have noticed is that the breakfasts in IKEA are the one thing that reflects the host country. Here in Finland you get porridge, bread, a boiled egg, a slice of cheese and ham. Now that is definately what you get in the UK! No one would go. But anyway, I digress. So I peeled my egg (or should I use the verb shelled?) and then I fed Isabella some fruit with a spoon. When she is finished, I gave her the spoon to play with. She seemed fine during the short time we were at IKEA then we came home and by then it was her lunchtime. When I tried to feed her she was really fussy, which is not like her at all. So I gave up on the real food and went to the bottle. Even that was not working and then I noticed that she was rubbing her face and eyes quite badly. When I could pry her hands away, I saw that her hands and around her mouth were all read and under all the redness were white hives. The whites of her eyes were also very pink by now. Poor thing. No wonder she was fussy! Then she started to cry. At this point I tried calling just about everyone I could think of because I had no idea what to do or where to take her (I still don't really understand the hospital system here...some places have an ER and some don't seem to) but no one seemed to be answering. Finally I got in touch with the midwife and she suggested that I wait 30 mins because that is when I could make an appt with the Dr (to me this is crazy because she is having the reaction now, not in 30 mins or an hour!!!). Anyway, I got in touch with Taneli and told him so we met up at the local health station (where the Drs are). We got to see the nurse and then the Dr pretty quickly but by then, the reaction was beginning to die down (thank goodness). She gave us a prescription for some liquid antihistamine and we all went home fairly happy.

That was our first Monday back from France...nice.