Leila's First New Year

We flew to San Diego on Southwest, which, as many of you know is usually crowded. However, we were lucky enough to get 3 seats together (mostly because no one wanted to sit next to the small baby) so Leila was able to take a nap!

We stayed in a timeshare condo so that we'd have space for the whole family. That turned out to be convenient since it was very centrally-located and had a living room and kitchenette so we could entertain. Genoa came over to visit us and took this photo of Leila playing with Matt.

For New Year's Eve, we went out to dinner with our friends, Nicole and Billy, and then hung out at the condo. We put Leila to bed and watched the NYE countdown on television and had a champagne toast. It was mellow but probably the most exciting New Year's one can expect with a six-month-old baby!

On New Year's Day, we went to brunch with Matt's San Diego relatives at the 94th Aero Squadron. In this photo with Matt and Leila are Matt's cousin, Peter, and his youngest son, Pauli. Peter's wife, Alice, their other son, Alice's father and sister and Matt's Uncle Fritz were also there. It was fun introduce Leila to everyone and see how the boys have grown.

Look! I can eat my shoe! Can YOU do that??

After brunch, we caught up with our friends, the Addams'. We just walked around Balboa Park and enjoyed the cool but sunny weather. Susan and I were both taking photos with our respective cameras so we're not in this one. Then our camera battery died... :-(

After our quick visit to San Diego, we went back to Los Gatos for a day before flying back to Finland. The trip back to Finland was actually easier than the trip to California. We had a direct flight from San Francisco to Munich where we sat in bulkhead seats that had a baby bassinet for Leila. She got to sleep for a few hours, which gave us some time off and the ability to snooze a little, too. Then the flight from Munich to Helsinki wasn't full so we had an extra seat for her there. Yay, Lufthansa!

Leila's First Christmas, Part 2 (continued again)

Hopefully, you're not getting tired of seeing photos of Leila opening gifts (how could you?), but here are a couple more:

1. When we open presents at my parents', we collect the wrapping paper and ribbons into separate bags for recycling or reuse. Leila noticed one of the bags and the treasure trove of paper within and made a dive for it!

2. Here is her "haul" and the ensuing fun...

3. This is a fleecy winter outerwear suit that Leila received from her great-grandmother. We tried it on her to be sure it fit, and she just looked so darned cute that we had to take a picture!

And a couple non-Leila-centric photos (what a shock, eh?):

4. Matt, Leila and I went to lunch with some of my San Francisco Injury Center colleagues (clockwise from Matt- Lou, Peg and Diane). Not only did we get to introduce them to Leila and do some catching up, but we got to eat great Mexican food at the same time! ;-) Although we can get Tex-Mex food in Helsinki, we can't really get authentic Mexican (or not that we've found yet). The place we had lunch is El Metate in the Mission District, where Anna used to go regularly with people from work. It was one of the old standbys because of the excellent food at reasonable prices. Viva El Metate!

5. My sister Molly's birthday was during our stay, and we went out for sushi (one of her favorite foods) to celebrate. Instead of bringing her a traditional birthday cake for dessert, the chef made her a sushi "cake," complete with a candle! It looked impressive, and, according to Molly, it tasted great, too.

Leila's First Christmas, Part 2 (continued)

There was more gift-unwrapping fun to be had in California, too! Here are some photos of Leila in the midst of opening her presents there. 

In a couple photos, Leila is showcasing one of her current favorite pastimes. She loves to put things behind her head and then bring them back to the front again. We think that for her it's like a magic trick where she can make things disappear (from view anyway) and then make them reappear!

Leila's First Christmas, Part 2

We flew to California on December 21st to spend Christmas with my family. For some reason, we weren't very good about taking photos while we were there... Luckily, we did get some on Christmas morning.

Here are some from our traditional Christmas morning brunch:

1. & 2. Leila, sitting in the highchair I used as a child, with my dad (Papa) next to her.

3. My grandmother ("Mimi") holding Leila, with Matt in the background.

4. & 5. A couple of the better photos from our attempts to get a portrait of my grandmother, me and my daughter... Unfortunately, we didn't get one where all three of us were actually looking at the camera at the same time!

Leila's First Christmas, Part 1 (continued)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Leila LOVES anything made out of paper- wrapping paper, tissue paper, facial tissues, paper napkins, paper towels, and just plain ol' writing paper. (We joke that it's the Finn in her...since Finland is known for its paper industry.) Hence, the process of opening Christmas presents was thoroughly entertaining for Leila. So much so that she was sometimes more excited about the wrapping than the gift itself! 

Here are some photos of her opening gifts from her Finnish aunts and cousin. Notice the last one where she looks like she's saying, "Eh. A bib? That's not so exciting. I think I'll just keep the paper instead..."

More pikkujoulu photos...

Now here are my friends from Finnish class:

1. Line, who is from Norway

2. Rachel, who is from England

3. and Anna, who is from the US (Georgia), and her boyfriend, Lauri (who wasn't in our class but who was a great tutor!) NOTE: We got a kick out of the fact that both of the Americans in my class were named Anna!

I've also included here a couple of photos of Leila enjoying the party. She brought along her special guest, Hello Kitty, who is one of her best friends. Thanks, Aunt Nicole!

Leila's First Christmas, Part 1

Since we were traveling to CA for the holidays and would miss Christmas with our family and friends here, we hosted a "pikkujoulu" ("Little Christmas") party here in mid-December. Due to the short days in December, the "pikkujoulu" is a popular tradition in Finland. It seems that EVERYONE has one so that they can celebrate with all their friends before the real Christmas (which is usually spent with family) and so that they can make the darkness a little more tolerable.

For those of you who aren't aware, the winter days in Finland are quite short, especially leading up to the winter solstice on December 21 (the shortest day of the year). Around that time, the sun rose around 10:30 am and set around 3:30pm. Even in the middle of the day, though, the actual light isn't that bright. So it's more like dusk for those 6 or so hours of light. So you can see why Finns use the opportunity to create cheer- so they can keep going through that somewhat dreary period!

So here are some photos of our party. We had some of my friends from Finnish class, Matt's sisters and their significant others and our niece. So here are the family pics first...

Catch up!

Wow, so sorry for the long hiatus. Between preparing for the holidays, traveling to California, and trying to get back on schedule here in Finland, we've been busy over the last month. So I'll try to catch everyone up on the latest happenings here and in the US...

To start, here are a couple photos we took of Leila for a Christmas card. We weren't so good at getting them out, though. So, if you didn't get one, please don't take it personally! ;-)