Paula & Iines & Vilma & Otso: November 2008

It was a short winter

After 24 hours of heavy snowing the streets looked like this

It was bit of challenge to operate the pram in those conditions. However it only took another day to get rid of all that snow. So we're back in square one.

On Thursday Marko popped in for coffee before heading back to Beijing. It was good to catch up with the latest news and hear how Heidi and Marko have settled to this quite a different world after their time in Sydney. Marko seemed to enjoy the changed roles in their family giving him bit more freedom and wife making the money.

Yesterday we had our monthly going-out-together-without-Iines night thanks to Heta and Hannu who fearlessly faced as well as gloriously overcame the challenge of putting Iines to sleep. This time we went to the cinema and watched Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona... Nice film full of breathtaking sceneries and beautiful people for the taste of both sexes. Afterwards we had dinner at the russian restaurant Kasakka in Kruununhaka and of course we enjoyed delicious Russian classics, blinis together with Russki Standart.

BTW while writing this entry Iines just rolled over (from back to tummy) on her own for the first time.

Winter

It pretty much arrived overnight.

Hakaniemi Market Place

Standard view to Kallio Church

Earlier this week - Back to the roots

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google

Well the title explains it all... pretty cool.

Experiences

Last weekend was very exciting for Iines. She visited our summer house for the first time as well as on Sunday night we started baby swimming in Kamppi (after more than a months queueing). The main reason for the trip to the countryside this late in the autumn was winter preparations i.e. lifting rowing boat and pier from the lake and emptying the dry toilet. Anna's and Pekka's participation has already become a tradition. Relaxing weekend was full of good food and sauna. Iines also saw her first snow... definately the last weekend this year to go there.

What else? Our freight from Sydney arrived last Monday. Paula's bench and our chairs are now shining in our living room. Also a variety of Iines' toys are back at home, especially Jari the giraffe.

This week Iines started eating solid food, she's already big girl. First item in her diet expansion is something very Finnish ... potatos!

The second event of Hakaniemi Poker Series was held few weeks ago. Sami took the title this time, beating Otso in heads up. Paula was the bubble girl finishing 4th. The idea of this series is to play a monthly tournament at our place, first Thursday of every month ... yes like young finns in Sydney.

Let's finish this entry with few miscellaneous shots.