NEW YEAR

2014 started nice enough. A lot of sunshine and mild temperatures allowed us to spend a lot of time outside. Actually, on some days the sun was almost too bright. One trip was of course to the zoo, where Samu could visit his favorite animals. 

A few days into the new year, it started to get frigid. So cold, in fact, that schools remained closed in entire Minnesota. People said that with windchill temperatures between -40 and -50C, Minneapolis was colder than Mars. Be that as it may, it was way too cold to be outside. According to meteorologists, frostbite can occur within 3-6 minutes in these conditions. Needless to say, we stayed inside.

View from our bedroom to -45C outside. Yes, that is ice on the inside of our windows.

In order for him not to go stir crazy (and drive everyone else crazy), we planned a lot of activities for Samu.

 Sometimes with unintended results.

For the most part, the kids played very nicely and peacefully.

 But every now and then, cabin fever hit us badly, and then all we could do was run up and down the stairs, dance in the hallways, or jump on the big ball.

And sometimes watching music videos saved us.

Sofia stayed positive throughout the whole time. Amazing.

Marko baked an cooked to keep the apartment warm and the family happy.

New Year's Eve was spent in lovely company of Jenna and George. 

 2014 also brought some firsts.

First rice cereal: Sofia's first solid meal. She loved it. Interestingly, after that, she has not wanted to repeat the experience though.

First teeth: The poor girl is teething and trying to cope by putting everything in her mouth.

First puzzle: Samu built this 12-piece-jigsaw puzzle all by himself without any help from us whatsoever. This also included finding the right 12 pieces in a pile of parts from 4 different puzzles. 

 First face: Samu drew his first face! It's the one on the right. Not much different from Hanna's artwork on the left, right? 

All in all, we're having a good time, but we can't wait for warmer temps and outside time! Fingers crossed!