Beautiful Fall day...

Our first raking party at our new home proved to be less work than it looked. However, there was a lot of re-raking the same pile after all the "help" from Lussi.

tubby time

Our cousin Silo is a fish and loves to put his face in the water. He's so much fun to swim with!

I don't know!

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I am beginning to copy exact phrases and Da Da taught me this one. I also sing "bough bough baby" lullaby in my own way.

All by myself

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I do not like bottles or sippy cups and often demand to feed myself. The results are usually quite messy but I'm getting the hang of it.

No longer a baby...

Well it's hard to believe but Fia is acting more like a toddler than a baby. She communicates really well through almost words and some words. Most of her words are the first syllable. All Done is "ahh Daa" and more is "ma". She loves to say "hi Di" which we think is Hi Guys. She is full of expression and energy... walking from our front steps to the neighbors and back. But what am I going to do with that hair?

Playing dress up

I am so happy I have a new friend Maren. She has a dress up box just like me and so we run between houses and change costumes all day long. Our favorites are tinkerbell and our "marrying" dresses.

The stonedragons win again!

22 paddlers, 1 drummer, a dragon boat and 1/10 of a second. The race was too close to call, the photo finish camera was needed to show that the stonedragons won by a dragon nostril or to put it in layman's terms... Michael Phelps fingertips.

Dragon Boat race(part1)

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Dragon Boat race (part2)

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swimming with our cousins

We spent a couple of days with our cousins Hanna & Maggie. One day the lake was calm and warm and so we swam all day. Even Fia got in the water to swim. I loved making the long train boats with the inner tubes. We called it a train boat because we couldn't decide if it was a boat or a train.

surfing the net

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For about a year now, Lussi has been obsessed with two children's websites. I am amazed at how she surfs around to find stories & games that interest her. The most amazing thing to me is that she learned how to print and she will come running from the computer with some project she just printed off yelling " mama help me!" She learns all kinds of skills from identifying letters to math to art and the other day I walked in to check on her and she had her left hand placed on the computer in the way you would learn to type. She was playing a game that she found that teaches her the proper way to type. I was shocked... thinking back on my childhood, I learned to type in 10th grade! She is of a different generation, that is for sure.

I'm officially walking more on my feet than my knees.

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I can make sounds but not a lot of words.

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New friends

Mama's friends from the Olympic team came to visit. I had lots of fun with Antija and Henrik. Henrik and I liked playing pirate and princess. I set up the tea parties while he practiced his sword fighting. We also biked around on the sidewalks and ran around the house.

I'm walking... sort of

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Well I have taken after my big sister Lussi and have spent the last month knee walking. My Mama and Dada think it is caused by some quirky gene combination of the two of them because no Grandparents recall anyone else ever doing it. I never saw Lussi do it but it gets me to where I want to go. I do however walk like the rest of my household occassionally when I feel like it.

Giving kisses

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rockin & a rollin

Untitled from karasalmela on Vimeo. I love music and this is just an example of how I act when I hear it.

Sand, Sun & Fun

This was Sofia's first time at the beach. She has been in enough sand boxes to be over eating dry sand but the wet sand was a whole new experience and she began by shoveling it in by the fistful... yuck! By the end sand eating took second seat to crawling head first in to the waves. (Talk about a relaxing time at the beach... don't forget your toddler!)

Lussi's self portrait

For Silo (part 1)

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Watching the super cute Silo singing videos reminded us that we made one for you a while ago and forgot to post it for you so here it is super boy!