Luana's birthday

On Sunday we celebrated Luana and Lucas' birthday in Sunday School. This is how the table looked like just before the kids came in :) First we did some crafting and then we ate.


This is Luana with the cake she decorated (with just a little help from grandma).
Luana was born at 6.15 pm after a lengthy day :) We went to the hospital at around 11 o'clock and I had hoped for a special room (and a possible water birth) in the same ward where Lucas was later borntwo years later but it was full. So we ended up in another ward and the labour was quite usual for a first baby I guess. It took some 15 hours all together and I had an epidural that allowed me to sleep for a few hours during the day.

Luana was born with the umbilical cord around her neck and she had inhaled a fair amount of liquid. We got to keep her just 15 minutes after she was born and then she was whisked away to the children's ward as she wasn't breathing as well as she should have and her oxygen intake wasn't good enough. We got to see her again soon after that but weren't able to hold her or cuddle her. She had to stay in the children's ward for two nights and I'd wake up every hour just to see where my baby was.

I had no help in breastfeeding and it was really difficult in the beginning as she was bottle-fed while she was in the children's ward. I was really decided on getting breasfeeding going and wanted to get rid of the bottle. My mother helped a lot and I finally got some of the nurses to help me too so I managed to start breastfeeding. She also developed an infection and had to be on antibiotics so we stayed in the hospital for five days. That wasn't too bad though as we had a family room where my husband could also stay (and we finally had Luana with us too).

She was such a calm baby; she'd sleep all night since she was born :) A lot of that calmness has disappeared with time though and now we have an amazing little princess full of energy. She loves drawing, dancing, playing hairdresser, riding her bike etc.

Big boy

Today is Lucas' third birthday. He was born around 1.30 am on August 3rd 2005. I had felt some contractions already on Aug 1st and as I felt them again the following night I didn't think anything would happen. After a long hot shower the contractions continued and I called my mum. She had agreed to stay with Luana and I said maybe she could come over while the buses were still running so she wouldn't have to take a taxi later on. She examined me at around 11 pm (she's a midwife) and I was 4 cm dilated. I called the hospital and they said it was best if I simply stayed at home especially since I wasn't really in any pain and I already had a midwife with me :) 15 minutes later I called them and said I couldn't take it anymore as the contractions had quickly increased and they said I could come over.

When we got to the hospital the warm water was already running in the tub and after the midwife examined me I took a shower and went in to the birthing pool. There were three labours going on at the same time and only one midwife on the ward so we were left by ourselves for most of the time. I was completely in my own world and enjoyed the warm water a lot. It was a lot harder for my husband who kept on ringing the bell for the midwife to come whenever I had a really strong contraction. When she got into the room the contraction was already gone and I told her I was just fine :)

It took just a few hours and Lucas was born in the warm water that had helped so much during the labour. I remember how big his mouth was - he looked quite different from his sister. After he was born we were left by ourselves again and I got to nurse him for a long time. It was absolutely divine being tucked in with my little baby and feeding him for the first time. This part was a lot different with Luana but I'll post about that on August 31st when it's her birthday.

And now three years later we have a big, wild, curious, funny boy who surprises us daily with his new skills, inventions and subbornness :) He speaks Finnish and Portuguese, loves cars and riding his bike, makes a lot of noise most of the time, laughs a lot, has strong will and isn't afraid of showing it. He's the cutest little boy and I thank God for allowing me to be his mama.

Garden party

We went to a lovely garden party last Saturday. I had three days off and it was such a nice break. It seems I only ever go to work and come home tired when it's almost time for the kids to go to bed. I still enjoy my work a lot but being a full time working mama just isn't my thing :)

My father and my stepmum had both turned 70 earlier this year and now it was time to celebrate that in the garden.

Next to their summer cottage there's an old inn (by old I mean some 200 years old) and we were allowed to use their old stables and the garden, too. Birches decorate the entrance to the stable.

This is the stable door. You really have to watch your head!

One of the stable windows from the outside.

During this week we've finally seen some sun and felt the warmth. The kids have gone swimming after the pre school with my mum and I've worked... Yesterday Luana learned to ride her bike without the two small extra wheels (whatever you call them...). She was so proud of herself! She is also learning how to dive and swim and she's really excited about that too. Lucas recently learned to pronounce the letter r the way it's pronounced in Finnish (by rolling it) and he's now happy to repeat anything with an r after me... porkkana, parkki, riisi, Pirre...

P.S. You can see a few more pictures from the garden party in my other blog.

Birthday party and Sunday School

This Sunday we were busy with things to do. First there was my friend's daughter's birthday. The kids love a good birthday party and were so excited to go. The little princess (now 5 years old) got lovely pressies and the party was really nice too. We gave her a domino game with little dalmatians instead of domino cards.


Luana has just found her little gift bag during the treasure hunt in the garden. The kids thought it was so exciting to look for hidden things.

From the party we went straight to church and had our "Brazilian" Sunday School. I told the kids a little bit about Brazil, gave them some fresh and dried fruits and some guava juice and we also talked about friendship and how God unites us even when we're miles apart.

My Sunday School kids from Brazil had drewn pictures to send to Finland and I put them all up on the wall together with the Brazilian flag. The Finnish kids thought it was interesting to see the pictures and a letter that one of the girls had written in Portuguese. They then drew pictures to send to Brazil. I'll send them to my husband who will take them to my Sunday School class there.

Good days

We've had such good news in the last couple of days. It seems so many things are coming together and even the small details are taken care of.

On Monday I got to know that my permanent visa has finally come through. I left my application at the local police station on Dec 15th 2006 (yes, that is 2006) so it took them well over a year to decide about my visa. Now I can open a bank account (or use my husband's account), get my Brazilian ID and all other documents and most importantly I finally get to apply for jobs!

Another excellent news was that my husband just got a "proper" job! He did an exam for the State transportation department (or something like that..., DETRAN in Portuguese) already quite some time ago. He came first in the exam but they didn't need anyone to work in our town at that time. Yesterday he was finally called to start working one month from now. We're so excited as this job has a lot of advantages to it. The days aren't that long so he'll still be able to work with computers in the evenings, the pay is reasonable, we'll get a good health insurance for the whole family and he's a state civil servant meaning he can't get fired (unless he commits some heinous crime of course) :)

Just to top it off hubby's brother's wife came to clean our house today and we received a big box of food from hubby's younger sister. I wonder what's next :)

We're still unsure about our planned holidays in Finland. I'd love to travel with the kids to stay there for a few months during the Northern hemisphere summer. It's just soooo expensive we're not sure if we'll be able to go now. But I'm confident that things will work out. If we can't travel now we'll get there some time later on. For now I'm just enjoying this day!

Easter desert

This was our desert yesterday. I had baked a kulitsa and made a pasha according to the Russian orthodox tradition. Kulitsa is a sweet bread similar to panettoni eaten in some countries during Christmas time. Pasha is a sweet desert made with quark, whipped cream, dried fruits, raisins, ground almond, sugar, eggs and butter. Basically the ingredients are mixed and the mixture is left in a wooden container in the fridge over night. The cyrillic letters XB appear on both kulitsa and pasha (you can't really see them in the picture) and they mean "Christ is risen".

Another birthday

This time it was my friend's daughter and Luana's classmate who turned 4 and held a party in the school together with another friend.
Here's the party table à la Brazil.

The princess cake.

Birthday girl with her parents.

My little ones in the party.

And finally Luana with her teacher.

Beautiful quilting

We just got another parcel from Finland. This was a surprise one from my step-mum and she sent us all sorts of goodies including notebooks and pencils for the kids, tea, salt licorice and some sweets for us all and then some wonderful quilted pieces she's made.

We received some of her art works for Christmas too and I've been meaning to post a picture of them for ages. Now I finally took all the beautiful things outside and took a few pictures of them. Isn't she incredibly talented!

The angel on the left is for hanging on the wall. Below it two Christmas decorations. The brown star is for the kitchen and the white piece behind it is a little bag you can hang on the wall and use for storing postcards or obviously anything you like. And the one on the right is for the dolls' bed.
Isn't this a delight!

Thank you!

I can't believe I just got my first ever award! And I even managed to display it on the sidebar (almost as amazing as the actual fact of having received it...).

Thank you so much Dawn!!!

Now I still have to figure out who to pass it on to. That'll have to wait a bit because I really need to hang some laundry, do the dishes and get some lunch done before my babes get back from school.

More Valentine's day

Valentine's day ended up as a nice family day for us. I usually do the crafting, painting, homeschooling etc. with the kids and hubby does the running around, playing, tickling and building stuff. However last night he suggested some crafting with the kids using natural ingredients. I was well impressed and the kids just loved it. The three of them sat by the backdoor and started building things with sticks, toothpicks, yarn etc.

They finally came up with a little swing. The kids loved it!

And Luana made what she called "the National Baptist" (our church is called Batista Nacional...) as well as that beautiful necklace.

Lucas was also a busy bee with important work involving sticks and toothpicks and requiring a lot of concentration.

And it all ended up with some delicious chocolate cake. The picture was taken when most of it was already eaten :)

Runeberg day

On February 5th we celebrated Finland's national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877). He's the author of several books and also the lyrics of the national anthemn. His wife used to make these little tarts and they're always eaten on Feb 5th. I made a simplified version I found on the internet and it goes like this:

150 g butter or margarine
1 ½ dl sugar
2 tbs syrup
1-2 tsp cinnamon and cloves (finely ground)
1-2 tsp cardamom (finely ground)
2 eggs
1 ½ dl milk or cream
80-100 g finely ground almonds
3 dl flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix well the margarine and the sugar. Beat in the eggs one by one. Mix together flour, baking powder and the spices and combine with the margarine mix. Add the milk and the almonds and mix. This amount made exactly 12 fairly large muffins using two silocone forms. Bake in 175 Celcius for about 25 minutes. While still warm poke a small round hole about 0,5 cm deep in the middle of each one. Let them cool. When cool fill the holes with raspberry marmalade (I used strawberry as we had that at home) and decorate with a ring of icing (caster sugar and water).

Wedding gift

Yesterday got better as hubby came home and cheered me up by just being himself. In the evening we had a very small (as in 6 guests and the bride and groom) wedding to attend and I prepared a small gift for the newlyweds.


I bought two mugs,some good local coffee and some nice herbal tea as well as chocolates, put them all in a box, wrapped it in silvery paper and decorated it with fabric-cardboard hearts. We made several of these hearts a few days ago with the princess. I actually got the idea from a blog but I can't remember where it was... Anyway you just take some cardboard and cover one side with different kinds of fabrics glued on. Then you use a heart shape and cut hearts out of the cardboard.

A message for the new year

Yesterday I heard a sermon that was really good for the beginning of a new year. No matter how the past year has been or what plans we have for 2008 this fits well.

We read from Numbers 13 about the spies sent to Canaan. When they came back they told that the land indeed flowed with milk and honey but that the people who lived there were strong and the cities fortified. Most of them got afraid and started to say it was not worth it trying to get in there because they wouldn't succeed anyway. Some like Caleb said they should go ahead.

The pastor said we can have two kinds of attitudes when we face difficulties. We can be cowards and say: "I am nothing, I won't be able to do anything" or we can be humble and say: "I am nothing, I won't be able to do anything but with my God I can do all things!" If we look back throughout our journey with God we can recognise that He hasn't let us down once.

A very encouraged New Year full of wonderful promises to everyone!

Peaceful Christmas

is what we've had and I wish the same for everyone else too!

Following the Finnish customs we already celebrated Christmas yesterday (24th). I spent most of the day cooking but in a nice leasurely way without stress. I made some Finnish Christmas yummy food and we had my parents-in-law over for dinner.

After dinner the kids got some presents and then we just sat there chatting away and the kids went about playing with their new things. They each got a new towel (which they were surprisingly excited about), Barbapapa placemats, books (about different kind of people for the girl and about children's songs with a CD for the boy) and then there was a red skirt for the girl and a superman cape for the boy made by grandma (now back in Finland). Their grandparents also gave them plastic mobile phones that make all kinds of horrid sounds (and really loud too). Something I wouldn't have picked for them but they haven't let them go since they received them so now I'm just waiting for the batteries to run out...

Husband also made the kids a sandbox in the front yard. It's something we've been talking about for ages and suddenly on December 24th he got the inspiration to make one. And it was done in some 15 minutes! We had an old wooden window that made a perfect lid for the sandbox; this way our dogs and stray cats won't make the sand dirty.

This morning has been mellow and nice. The kids are enjoying a bath in the paddling pool in the front yard and they will want to use their new towels when they get out of the water... We'll stuff ourselves with Christmas dinner leftovers for lunch and visit my in-laws in the afternoon. In the evening there's a Christmas special at church.

Long time no write

My summer holidays just started for real yesterday and life was a bit hectic last week. We had the graduation ceremony of the pre-schoolers and the fourth-graders at school and all teachers were preparing the decorations for the party all week long.

Friday evening we celebrated Finland's 90th independence day at home and cooked a Finnish meal for some relatives. We offered Carelian pies (rice porridge in a rye crust topped with a mixture of cooked and mashed eggs and margarine, picture below) as appetisers and they went down really well. The meal consisted of mashed potatoes, Carelian stew (pork and beef with some onion, leek and carrots), rosolli (a kind of salad made with cooked potatoes, beetroot, carrots and some pickled cucumber and apples, eaten on Chrimas) and just normal salad. Dessert was ginger bread, oat bisquits and a cake made with dried dates.

Saturday, then, was the graduation ceremony. I took my mum and the princess along thinking that both might enjoy the ceremony. My mum certainly did but the princess just wouldn't stay still for a moment. I had taken some things for her to eat, some small toys and a little notebook for her to draw but still she was really restless. It was tiring for my mum who had to stay at the table alone with her as I had to stay with the rest of the teachers ready to do whatever was needed to be done during the ceremony. However the ceremony itself was nice and the decorations were great :)

On Sunday we had a bbq lunch at the school celebrating the school's 15th aniversary. And then on Monday mum was off to Finland. She left in the afternoon by bus and flew to Brasília in order to stay one night with my friend over there. This evening she'll leave Brasília for Lisbon and will arrive in Finland on the 12th.

After Monday's teachers' meeting I'm now finally enjoying my summer holidays. I started teaching the kids some English at home as they (or the princess really) always keep asking me about vocabulary. I bought them their own special English notebooks which they received yesterday from their Christmas calendar and we had our first "lesson" yesterday. I'm using some pre-school material I have at home from school and I think it'll be fun to sit with them for a while every day and look at some things in English. I obviously won't force anything on them; I'm really only doing this because they seem interested.