Are we having a White Christmas this year or not? My guess: NOT =(

Here are some pics of our Christmas preparations this year and of a glimpse of White Christmas...

Boys assembling the Christmas tree. And no, we do not have a real tree since I don't want to vacuum the pine spikes every day from all around the apartment...

Noel got fed up so daddy finished the job

Tree ready with lights and decorations <3

Noel's way of decorating: putting all similar decorations on the same branch <3

Same here - work of Noel

This year's gingerbread house - with spooky glowing eyed penguins hanging around in the yard

Leon getting ready for his nap in the trolley, with -2 degrees outside

2 days before Christmas we have a white yard. But most probably it will be a different case on Saturday =(

Finally the pics are ready!!!

Here are the photos which were taken in early October by the professional photographer.
Enjoy! =)

Bad Tigger attacking poor little innocent Leon!

Shots for a Xmas card

Here are some of the funniest shots we got when trying to get the boys to pose together for this year's Christmas card. The one we decided to go with remains a mystery - that is until the card hits your mailbox! =D

Shaken and stirred 

Kissie kiss kiss

What's happening there?? (Me goofing around, trying to get them to smile. I guess I shocked them instead though..)

Can we finish already? This is booooring!

Leon's smile

Finally some proof that Leon does smile every now and then =) And also proof that he keeps his head up for a little while before getting upset =)

Halloween

Friday was a day off for Noel from kindergarten, so the plan was to make some Halloween decorations. All week long he was asking when we'd start making the ghosts, scary pumpking, bats and spiders. On Friday, I said. What happened on Friday? I gave him a piece of paper with a pumpkin drawn on it and asked him to cut it along the lines. 2 minutes later the whole paper is in tiny little pieces on the table.. This is what happened with all the things he was suppose to cut, until he got bored and started playing with his toys. Here are anyways some pics of our Halloween.

Noel cutting a ghost:

Noel's outfit for kindergarten's Halloween party:

Outing day

We got plenty of fresh air today, spending almost 4 hours outdoors. There was a special outdoor activities days, organized by the city Espoo, where adults and kids had their own sporty activities available. Noel was loving it, although the weather today is quite cold - only about 5 degrees outside (but luckily very sunny and no rain)!

Noel on a bouncy ball (ie trying to stay on it):

Hot chocolate tastes good on a cold day:

Two tired boys:

The poop disaster........

What happened to our sweet little boy last Saturday, is still a mystery. Ok, he has been behaving rather bad lately, but I never would have expected him to do this... Here's how the story goes.

After lunch Noel was taken upstairs for a nap. He either sleeps or not, that's his choice, but he still needs to spend a little time in his room for calming down (which never happens..). He usually spends his time there jumping up and down, but never does anything REALLY bad. Except this time.. After spending some time in the room, he tells us that he needs to go poop. We tell him to go potty and to let us know when we can come and wipe. Couple of minutes later he informs us that there's nothing coming, so we tell him to go back to his room. Maybe 10 mins passes and it's really silent upstairs so daddy decides to go and check if he has fallen asleep. He opens the door and gets shocked! He orders me to come upstairs to take a look. And what do we see? A naked little boy with his hands and legs covered in poop. And the carpet, floor and bed covered with poop. And the smell!!! Phew!!!

It took me 2 hours to wash the floor (did it 3 times), change the sheets and to wash the carpet. And still it stank! While mopping the floor, Noel actually came to the door and asked nicely "What are you doing and why are you doing that, mummy?". Well guess! And he informed me that since it smells in the room, he doesn't want to sleep there anymore. Well, tough luck!

Here's the proof:

My little models =D

Friday morning was fun! The boys and I went over to Helsinki to a photo studio for one hour photo session. I was a bit worried how it would turn out since I was there alone, without hubby, but it actually went quite smoothly. I had brought a bag full of clothes with us, a couple of outfits for both boys, and the photographer then selected the best combinations from those for individual pics and for pics where the boys are together.
Noel's photo session was first and it was full of energy. The photographer told him to jump and run and he got some really nice shots. Both brothers were next shot on film together, first so that they lie next to each other on the ground and then so that Noel holds Leon in his lap. Nice ones! After that was little Leon's turn. He was stripped down and we did sort of Anne Geddes type photos so that he peaks behind my bare shoulder and then lies on my arm on his tummy and back. These photos will be done in black and white. And naturally, since there was no diaper on him, he peed on me.. Luckily I had an extra shirt with me, so I didn't need to leave the studio with just bra and jacket ;)

The photos will be ready in 2 weeks so we'll go over for a viewing session. It's gonna be difficult to select which ones to develop!!

A walk from hell - once again

Oh dear lord, what a walk it was again from the kindergarten to home today! I am seriously starting to lose my mind with Noel. He doesn't obey me AT ALL. Just after leaving from the kindergarten he was almost hit by a car, since he doesn't look at all while crossing a road, and doesn't listen to me if I tell him not to cross. He runs around on the car road without any care in the world. So, after the first yelling, the walk continued fairly smoothly, until.. we reach a playground which is halfway to home. There he started playing with another boy and again got worked up so much that when leaving from there, ONCE AGAIN ran to the car road and didn't listen to my orders at all. After giving him a talk (=a shout) he decided to go the other way (next to a car road) than me and Leon. I assumed that he'd turn around when realizing that I went the other way, as he usually does, but NO! HE JUST KEPT ON RUNNING AWAY FROM ME ON THE ROAD! At that point my nerves were in pieces and I basically dragged him back home. He naturally "walked" screaming and crying.
At home he was immediately put on the infamous penalty bench to sit on, while still screaming. I couldn't listen to it too long, so after calming myself down, I decided to give him a speech. I told him how dangerous it is to run to the road without watching and that he would get hurt very badly if he continued doing so. He nodded. Told him also that he HAS to start obeying me, otherwise I will be very mad all the time and he would have to spend too much time on the penalty bench, which is not fun for either of us. He nodded. I also took up the topic of this changed situation since he became a big brother. Told him that he should understand that I will have to now give attention to Leon more since he is just a baby. And that I would try my best to also give him alone-time with me, like go swimming together. He nodded. We made up, hugged and came back downstairs. I asked to him tell daddy, what we had just discussed and he replies 'I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYMORE'. Helloooooo! Seriously.... What to do, what to do...?

How does this work?!

I decided to start blogging about our life since I have nothing better to do and I'm anyways spending most of my days in front of the comp. Maybe this new "hobby" will get me a little less addicted to Facebook. Or not! =D

Now I'll just have to figure out how this whole thing works...