Halloween, AWC-style

Since Halloween is widely celebrated in the US and is a fun day for kids, the women in the American Women's Club don't want the American kids here in Finland to miss out just because they're here. (Some Finns have started celebrating Halloween, but it's more geared towards costume parties for grown ups than for kids...) So the Club has put on a Halloween party every year for as long as anyone can remember. It's a big, elaborate bash, and it requires many people to pull it together. So I helped as much as I could with a small baby and had a lot of fun in the process!

We made tons of decorations to make the venue look festive and created game stations and trick-or-treat stations for the kids. There was even a "bat cave" that kids could crawl through. Even though Leila was too small to partake in the activities, I (and she, too) enjoyed watching all the bigger kids having fun. 

First of all, the coolest part was that every kid and the majority of parents there were in costume. Some people had made costumes, and others had store-bought ones either from costume shops in Finland or ones that relatives in the US had sent them. Spiderman seemed to be especially popular... 

The evening started out with a potluck dinner. There was an interesting mix of some classic American-style dishes as well as some very Finnish dishes and a few international ones. So we had fun sampling a variety of foods.

After dinner, the games started. There was a ring toss (tossing rings onto a broomstick), a "pin the smile on the pumpkin," a bean bag toss (into the mouth of a ghost cutout), a relay game (carrying a styrofoam eyeball on a spoon) and a couple others. The kids got prizes for playing the games, which they enjoyed immensely!

Lastly, there were 6 trick-or-treat stations. The kids got to go around to different conference rooms and closets and knock on the doors to get candy. They seemed to have fun with this, even though it was an artificially created arrangement. I think they were just glad to have the opportunity to go trick-or-treating period.

So here are a few photos of us at the party. (In the third one, you can see some of the game stations behind us.) Leila and I went as a kitten and mama cat. Leila's cat ears ended up being a bit too big in proportion to her head so a few people thought she was supposed to be a mouse. In any case, many people told us how cute Leila was, and one little girl kept coming around to find us to say hi and play with Leila. I thought we looked pretty good considering that I only had a couple hours during a nap time to make our costumes!  

Leila is five months old...well, almost!

Since Leila just had a well-baby visit with the doctor, we decided to post her latest stats a little ahead of her 5-month birthday (which is only a week away). She now weighs 6.2 kg (about 13.6 lbs) and is 64 cm tall (about 25.2 inches).

She's in good health and has been gaining weight well, although she is still below average weight for her age. According to the charts, she was 20% below average for weight when she was born. Now she's *only* 7% below average so it seems she's at least catching up a little.

We're not absolutely sure, but we think Leila has started teething. She's gnawing on anything and everything she can get her hands on and is constantly drooling. She seems to particularly like Daddy's fingers... These photos give new meaning to the phrase, "Finger lickin' good!"

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...and Buses!

As many of you know, Leila has had quite the jet-set lifestyle during her short time on the planet. She's already been on three plane flights, on a long drive from State College to New York, and in all forms of public transit. However, on Tuesday, I added another type of trip to the list- on a long-distance, regional bus. 

Although the networking I've been doing with the American Women's Club, especially the Mothers' Network, has been great, it's more difficult than I thought to get together with people. It turns out, to my dismay, that most of the women with kids live in the suburbs. So, to get together with them, I have to trek out to the 'burbs. The transportation options here are good, but sometimes getting out to these parts of the greater Helsinki area is not as straightforward or fast as one might hope. Plus, it's difficult to lug a baby all the way across town, especially if she's due for a feeding, a nap, a diaper change or some other necessity.

I wanted to get together with my friend, Amy, who lives about an hour outside Helsinki. She's been driving to the city pretty often lately and was lamenting about the cost of gas (sorry, Americans, if you think gas is expensive THERE, you should see the prices here!!). So I offered to visit her, which meant taking a regional bus. 

These buses are of the Greyhound/Trailways sort, rather than the local transit sort so this was a new experience for me and Leila. On a local bus, I can just wheel Leila on in her stroller, and she can hang out there for the whole ride. The regional buses have only seats and no room for strollers (except in the hold below). So I had to take her in the baby carrier (a la Baby Bjorn) and leave the stroller at home! (Oh, and we don't get to ride the regional buses for free- darn!)

Since the bus we were taking was nearly empty, I decided to take up the last row, where there are 5 seats across. That way, I had plenty of space for myself, the diaper bag, my own bag of stuff and Leila. This worked out well because there was even room for Leila to take a nap during the journey. I just molded my coat into a little bed for her on the seat, and she snoozed away for most of the trip (see photo)! So that went much better than I expected...

Amy picked us up at the bus station in Lohja, and we put Leila in Amy's daughter's infant car seat. After playing at Amy's all day, we did the whole trip in reverse. It went pretty well that way, too, with the exception of the crazy bus driver (who weaved in and out of the lanes and braked too abruptly).

The benefit of living outside the city, as with most suburbs vs. cities, is that you can get more space and more natural surroundings. Although it was raining off and on that day, hopefully you can appreciate the beautiful views from Amy's living room. The village she lives in is quite lovely, and there are lots of trees and a lake nearby. So it was well worth the trek to get there, and it was a really nice visit with Amy.

Who knows which mode of transportation will be next- camels?

This week's balcony photos

As you can see, many more leaves have changed color since last week! Here are some of the same views as in the post below so you can compare. In any case, the view is STILL lovely (maybe even nicer!).

Balcony views

Here are some of the views from our balcony, which faces directly towards the park. When standing on the balcony and looking from right to left (the photos are in order), you'll see the building next door that was in the previous photos from the side windows. Then there are two shots of a larger playground (which you can't see well because of the big tree right outside) and an old brick tower (also behind the tree). Then there's some grassy space and pathways that meander through the rest of the park.

By the way, I've tried to figure out what the tower was/is for, but no one I've asked so far seems to know. I've also looked on the internet but haven't found anything in English... The park is named for the Sinebrychoff family because they had their home next to the park (the yellow building at the bottom of the hill, which is now an art museum) and their brewery nearby. So the tower could have had some function when the brewery was operating. (Any of you Finns reading this know the answer??) In any case, the tower is a symbol/landmark for our neighborhood.

Fall foliage from our apartment windows

I'm really enjoying the fall weather here. So far, the temperatures have been tolerable. Maybe a little cooler than October weather in PA (more like November) but not as bad as I expected. (However, I'm sure I'll change my mind once winter hits!)

Now that we finally got most of our boxes unpacked so I can actually step out onto our balcony and get close enough to all the windows of our apartment to take photos, I thought I'd post some. I took these last week, and already more of the leaves on the trees have changed color. (If I have a chance to take some more, I'll post those, too.) However, this will give you an idea of how they look as well as show you the lovely views we have. Thanks to being in the last building adjacent to the park and facing the park side, we get to enjoy the views and the late afternoon sunshine as well. I'm sure I'll be appreciating THAT in winter when there are so few hours of sun...

So these are the views from the side windows. When looking towards the park, you can see the building next to ours (which I think is identical to ours on the outside) and the lower half of the park. When looking towards the center of the city (the other direction), we see rooftops. In the second one of those photos, you may also notice the thermometer hanging outside the window (on the right), which has been handy in determining how much one needs to wear to go out! Down below us on that side is a small playground for the apartment building residents.

Coming up will be the photos from the balcony side of the apartment...

Leila is four months old!

Time sure is flying by... I can't believe that Leila is four months old already. Although she still seems small to us, she has grown quite a bit- more than double her birthweight! At Leila's last well-baby visit on September 30, she was 5.725 kg (about 12.5 pounds) and 62 cm tall (about 24.5 inches). Her head circumference has increased by 5 cm (almost 2 inches), too!

Here are some of the latest pictures. In these, the people she's with are her dad, her aunt Paula and her cousin Veronika, respectively. Also, at this stage, Leila is really enjoying grabbing things and trying to shove them in her mouth, even if the things are WAY too big to fit!