Matias's Little Helper

Ellen loves the dishwasher (and pulling stuff out of it), so I usually pluck her down in her highchair when I need to do dishes.  But Matias is a good sport about it and lets Ellen "help" him .  She loves it!

After all that kitchen work, Ellen was so tired that Matias has to push her around in her little cart.

Ellen's New Potty

Potty-training has semi-started at our home.  I figured this would be an easy, chill process, where I just stuck Ellen on the potty after her naps and let her hang out with a book or something.  But no... what happened was quite far from my plan.  Ellen hated sitting on the potty.  She started crying as soon as I sat her down on it and wanted to be picked up.  So instead of potty-training, we've just been getting used to the idea that the potty is not her enemy.  Ellen has this crazy-looking stuffed doll, so we've been letting her sit on it instead.  Today, following Lulu's example (yes, that's the doll's name and very ironic considering it means to pee in Austria), Ellen finally sat on the potty without crying, albeit with clothes on.

And she even "read" her book while on the potty.  Good girl!

Noteworthy Quote #34

"When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow."

-SHAUNA NIEQUIST

Angry Ellen

Usually when I try to take a picture of Ellen, she turns into a little monkey and moves around so much that I end up with a series of blurry and out-of-focus pictures, out of which maybe one or two good ones emerge (if I'm lucky).  Recently, while going through a series of such photos, I came across this and couldn't help laughing:

A slightly crazed Ellen looks like she's had enough and is getting ready to punch me!  If she could speak, I'm sure she'd be yelling, "No more pictures!"  Actually, I'm not sure what's really going on here because in the next picture she was smiling and trying to grab the camera.

Noteworthy Quote #33

"The doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught."

-HERMANN HESSE

Carl Larsson Date Day

Matias and I had a rare chance to enjoy a date day this weekend, so we decided to go see the Carl Larsson exhibit at Ateneum Art Museum.  But getting there was not so easy.  It had snowed all throughout the previous day and was still snowing when we took off.  We missed the bus going from nearby our home and since we weren't sure when the next one would come along (the timetables don't really work when there's so much snow), we trekked to a further away bus stop.  The normally short walk took forever as we stumbled through the banks of unplowed snow.

The center of Helsinki wasn't much better, but we somehow managed to get to restaurant Kappeli only fifteen minutes late of our reservation where we enjoyed their Carl Larsson menu and some drinks to warm us up after the walk.  I was feeling a bit tired from all the artic explorations it took to finally get to the museum, but the exhibition was worth the work, especially because they had a kid's section where you got to enter the world of Carl Larsson's paintings thanks to their large wall-size prints and appropriate props.

It was definitely a fun day:

Drowning in snow as soon as we took off.

Esplanadi was covered in snow as well.

At least Kappeli was lit and looked inviting.

Ateneum was decked out for the occasion.

Phidias didn't look too happy about all the snow.

Stepping into the world of his paintings...

I'm in a Carl Larsson painting!  Woohoo!

Kind of makes you want to live there, doesn't it?

A rowboat was waiting to take you away.

Kids could try on clothes from the time period.

We left our mark on the rug they were making there.

And saw a notable Carl Larsson quote to perfectly end the day.

Getting back home was not that easy either.  Our bus broke down after getting stuck in a snow bank, but luckily another one followed soon after and our busload of people had to climb out onto to the street and get into the new one.  But at least it made for some more memories!  Now, I just need to start reading the Carl Larsson book Matias got for me to get some decorating ideas from all of his beautiful interiors...

Winter Squirrel

Animals (that aren't on a leash) are such a rare site during the winter that I couldn't help but spy on this unsuspecting squirrel the other day while he ate some bird seed that had fallen to the ground and tried to unsuccessfully look for some more up in the tree.

I used the camera zoom to get a better view of him from the window and snapped a few shots in the process.  I would love to be able to hang a bird feeder somwhere near our windows as well, but unfortunately, there's no convenient place for one since we don't live on the first floor, so we'll just have to wait until spring to properly admire wildlife once more.