June Travels/Kesäkuun matkustelut

Florida was beautiful in June! We might be getting used to the heat and humidity a little, as it really wasn't as horrible as we had thought before. Confession: we've never stayed in Florida past the first days of June. But, as beautiful as it was, it was time for us to head north.




We packed the girls in the Mothership, and started our trip up.




We had four stops on our way up to Maine. The first one was a necessary boondocking stop in Florida as we had left pretty late on our departure day. The second stop was a fun surprise for Mei Mei - we met up with friends from our Florida church, and their little girl is one of Mei Mei's best friends! Although I'm not sure if she realized how strange it was to bump into them at a campground in Virginia....





Our third stop was to pick up our boys from Virginia! They had attended camp with a friend, and we all had a chance to visit a little.

It was good to have a full Mothership, again.

Although, we did have a little problem... Or two...





So our fourth stop was in Pennsylvania at our friends' house. Mr D got the generator working properly again by changing the oil, and our friends found someone to help the Captain with an issue with the Mothership headlights.




We made it to Maine while lupines were still blooming!

Happiness.

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Kesäkuussa ajoimme asuntoautolla Floridasta Maineen. Neljä pysäkkiä piti tehdä, eka vielä Floridassa myöhäisen lähdön takia, ja ihan nukuimme tien varressa. Toka oli Mei Meille kiva yllätys, tapasimme ystäviä Floridan kirkosta leirintäalueella Virginiassa. Heidän nuorimmaisensa on yksi Mei Mein parhaimmista ystävistä. En kyllä tiedä ymmärsikö Mei Mei kuinka outoa on tavata heidät toisessa oasvaltiossa leirintäalueella??

Kolmas pysäkki oli myös Virginiassa, haimme pojat ystävien luota heidän leirinsä jälkeen, ja neljäs pysäkki oli Pennsylvaniassa, kun Mothership-asuntoauto tarvitsi vähän hellää hoitoa taas. Lopulta pääsimme Maineen, ja lupiinit kukkivat vielä. Ihanuus!

Mei Mei Turns Three/Mei Mei on kolme-vuotias!

And now she is three. On her second birthday, Mei Mei was still in China. We had cake anyway. But it wasn't the same. Our hearts were yearning to be with our little girl, and each delay was so painful. And now, here she is. Beautiful, spunky, so full of life and joy. We are so blessed.



Happy Birthday, sweet one. You are so loved.



She loved her Peppa Pig gifts, and her Petite Feet ballet dvd (thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!). She is mesmerized by the dance instructor, and is so adorable as she tries to do the ballet moves. We have a little ballerina!



Good thing we've celebrated all week - on her actual birthday she decided to try using the potty, and stayed dry for most of the day (evening was another story). A very appropriate way to celebrate a 3-year birthday! In the bathroom;)

I had hoped to do an update on her cleft clinic visit, but I haven't gotten the report yet. We think we are now doing annual check-ups, but we'll see once we get the report. The surgeon said her palate looks good, and the speech pathologists said she should be able to make sounds now that she isn't making. She needs a full speech evaluation, and we'll be starting speech therapy in the fall. No surgeries in the near future, probably nothing for another three years, or so.

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Mei Mei on kolme-vuotias! Onneksi juhlimme koko viikon, sillä synttäripäivänsä neiti päätti viettää vessassa! Täällä on ollut hyvin hidasta kuivaksi oppiminen, mutta nyt onnisti, ja niinpä sitten harjoiteltiin koko päivä:)

Ihanaa oli viettää syntymäpäivä yhdessä. Ensimmäinen. Mielessä oli Pienin edelleen tuo paljon iloa ja hyvää mieltä jokaiselle ympärillään, hän on niin täynnä elämää. (Paitsi juuri päiväuniltaan heränneenä, heh.) Olemme onnekkaita ja siunattuja, kun saimme Mei Mein perheeseemme!

Halusin päivittää blogiin halkioklinikan uutisia, mutta edelleen odotan raporttia klinikalta. Kirurgin mielestä kitalaki näyttää loistavalta. Puheterapeuttien mukaan tiettyjen äänteiden pitäisi onnistua, mutta Mei Mei ei käytä niitä vielä. Syksyllä alkaa puheterapia. Tiedossa ei onneksi ole uusia leikkauksia, mahdollisesti seuraava(t) vasta noin kolmen vuoden kuluttua.

Armadillos/Vyötiäisiä!

One day last week on my way out of the house I saw two little armadillos on our lawn, but as soon as they noticed me, they scurried off to the bushes, and I didn't even get a picture.

But I knew they were around, so I was more ready the next time we saw them, just a few days ago.



Armed with my long lens for keeping a safe distance I zoomed in and kept clicking. At some point they noticed us, but must have realized we weren't going to bother them, so they kept digging for grubs and worms.



At first we thought there were only two of them, but a third one appeared, too. Adult armadillos grow to be about a size of a cat. These were definitely young ones.



They were so neat to watch. And of course we had to google Florida armadillos, and found out some extraordinary things.

Mama Armadillo gives birth to identical armadillos every time. Boom.

They are almost blind, but have a very keen sense of smell.

When threatened, not only can they roll into a tight ball, but they can jump straight up into air four or five feet. Yikes!

They are not native to Florida, but can be found almost anywhere, and they can be quite the pests, digging up the lawn.

Armadillos can carry - are you ready for this - leprosy....!!!!!! Yes, I had no idea. Pretty horrible. As much as we enjoyed watching our little visitors, they can go away now.

To read more, click here.

Another Life In Florida experience!

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Meillä oli taas erikoisia vierailijoita pihassa!! Vyötiäisiä. Täältä voi lukea lisää. Niin mielenkiintoista kun olikin seurata heitä, vyötiäiset levittävät lepraa, eli spitaalitautia. Riski on pieni, etenkin jos emme käsittele (tai kokkaa/syö! heh), eli en ole kovin huolissani, mutta saisivat kyllä löytää uuden asuinalueen, varsinkin kun sain nämä kuvat otettua, heh heh. Mielenkiintoista oli oppia, että vyötiäisemo saa aina neloset! Me ei nähty neljättä, eikä mammaa, ehkäpä he olivat viettämässä laatuaikaa kahdestaan ;-)

Elämää Floridassa!

Life In Florida/Elämää Floridassa

For a gal who grew up in Finland, and then lived in New England for years and years, life in Florida continues to delight and freak out surprise. For the most part I/we really enjoy seeing the wild life around us, and as homeschoolers we take these opportunities to find out more about what we see.

Having baby raccoons at our Fort Desoto campsite was such an exotic experience (if I find the post, I'll link it later), and we love spotting manatees (and swimming with them!), turtles and dolphins. Seeing the sick whale washed up in Madeira Beach was sobering, yet an interesting experience - first time for me to see a whale!

Seeing snakes on our second floor deck was not a delightful discovery, at all. There will be no pictures of those creatures on our blog (and not of big hairy eight-legged creatures either, thank you very much). And yes, there have been more than one snake. Shudder. But apparently they are the good kind, locals tell me.

Anyway, let's move on. I'd rather post a cute picture of Mei Mei on the deck.



A week ago Little Miss was collection recycling and trash from the garage, when something made her jump. She quickly got Mr A to help investigate (and when I heard the commotion I showed up with my camera and long lens - of course - I knew I probably wouldn't want to get too close to whatever was in the garage.)



It was a crab! And not a small one either. Little Miss and Mr A decided to rescue it. It took quite a bit of coaxing and work to catch this creature, but they did it!



I followed my two crazy, brave kids to the river where they had decided to release the crab.



Happy crab. Happy kids. Happy mama.

There will be a part two to this post - we got to see yet something new yesterday in our yard.

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Suomalaisena, joka asui vuosikausia Uudessa Englannissa (Usan koillisosaa), elämä täällä Floridassa jaksaa kiehtoa ja kauhistuttaa. Kaikenlaisia eksoottisia otuksia on tullut nähtyä, eilenkin jotain uutta, josta seuraavaksi tulee blogiin kuvia. Mutta tämä rapu löytyi autotallistamme viime viikolla, ja rohkeat Mr A ja Pikkuneiti kävivät sen pyydystämässä ja päästämäss vapaaksi. Hullut ja rohkeat:) Minä seurasin kameran ja pitkän objektiivin kanssa, heh:)

Goodbye, April/Hyvästit huhtikuulle!

April.

April brought finals for our four dual enrolled college students.

April brought a cross-town move, too. (Which is surprisingly a ton of work! And we aren't done, yet.)



So we are tired. Really tired. Fall asleep sitting up tired.

But only Mei Mei looks cute enough for photos when tired. (You're welcome.)


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Huhtikuu toi mukanaan teinien college kevätlukukauden päätöskokeet (joo, täällä loppui college lukukausi aikaisin - lukio ei vielä), sekä muuton kaupungin toiselle puolelle. Mikä on edelleen kesken. Täällä on aika väsynyttä porukkaa. Vain Mei Meistä on söpöjä kuvia väsyneenä:)

Daddy, Mei Mei, Mini & Mothership

Daddy had a great helper in giving the Mini Mothership (and the Mothership!) a bath the other day.




Washing vehicles is serious work!



Or is it? I think I saw a twinkle in the Captain's eyes....



All is well again.



Working together is so special.