In the Zoo

In May 20, we decided to go to the Zoo with the boys. The day looked sunny and nice - so why not show an elephant, a seal, an ice-bear and a lion to the boys? We went with our triplets-buggy, because without it, the boys would have run to 3 different directions.
I had to teach Erik how to be NOT disturbed by the attention we are getting when we go with the triplets-buggy. The tip is very easy: "Don't make eye contact with anyone and just keep on walking." This way, people usually do not have enough courage to come to touch our boys or disturb our normal day-out with the boys. Of course we got a lot of comments, but when you once accept it and don't let yourself disturbed by everyone who walks by, it is just fine.
I think the boys liked animals quite a lot. Unfortunately Tallinn Zoo is very large - area-wise - but didn't have many animals in the cages, yet. Maybe it was still too cold? But at least the boys saw most of the animals we hoped they'll see - an elephant, seal and an ice-bear. We missed a lion though.
It was a nice day. :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is in the nicest time of the year. This year, the day was absolutely nice, too. I was able to stay in my garden the whole day - thanks to Erik and the boys who gave me a free morning. It was the best Mother's Day gift. :) I was treating all my flowers... giving them the same love I've given to my boys throughout the year.
Tulips are in full blooms right now. Forsythias as well. Narcissuses and hyacints are finishing. Early peonies and bleeding hearts are almost there. Spirae nipponica Snowmound and Grefsheim Spirea will follow together with lilacs... just lovely!
Here I am, with my 3 precious boys:

And here is my 4th precious boy, riding on a motorcycle competition on Mother's Day:

Here, you can see a cake baked for my own mom, for his 65th birthday as well as for Mother's Day (it's not made by myself; however it's a very special cake as it's something from Muhu island):

Spring is nice!

Spring comes, although slowly (today morning, it was all white again...). We try to spend as much time outside as possible. When it's weekend, and I'm at home, we spend outside at least 4 hours - 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. The boys always find something to do outside and are always excited, when I say the magical sentence "Lets go outside now"!

Meeting friends

Lately, we have been quite active meeting our boys' friends. Our boys have both older and younger friends.

GLEN is our neighbour boy who we see the most. He comes to play in our house or in our garden and boys are very used to him. He's like another brother. :) He's 8 months older than our boys; still is bigger and wiser, but soon we won't notice the age difference.

MÄRTEN is another boy who our boys have met quite often. He is the son of my friend Marju and they live just 6 kms from us. Märten came to visit us during Easter. He is 1 year old, very developed for his age (started to walk at the age of 8 months) and a serious guy. I'm sure that very soon they start to play together more actively.

MÄRT and MIHKEL - they are nice boys from Pärnu, my friend Eda's two sons. Märt is 5 and Mihkel is 2,5. Just yesterday, we went to Märt's birthday. We have been travelling together during summer-time and we visit each other during birthdays.

MATHIAS, LUKAS, TOBIAS - 3 triplet boys. I have been talking to their mom Kadri since they were born, but only now we managed to meet them in reality: on Friday, we drove to visit them. They are 7 months old, so still a little bit too young for our boys to play with, but our boys were quite curious to see them and touched them very softly! :)

ERICH, HINDRIK, ASTRA - triplets, too. They were born 3 months later than our boys. I just visited them 1,5 weeks ago, but was alone (as I went to their place directly from work). Hopefully soon, they will come to visit us and play in the garden, like last summer.

LOVIISA, LISANN, KARL JOHANN - triplets, too! :) They are 3 years old living quite close to us in Laagri. Last time, we met them during their birthday, some months ago. When it gets warmer, we must meet them again!

Vision

Last week, I became a visioner. You may wonder what do I mean. Very easy explanation: my vision is clear now. I think it's one of the loveliest dreams of a short-sighted person to wake up one morning and see everthing... perfectly! Nowadays, it's possible and I decided to do it. I decided to get my vision back. After 18 years of glasses and stronger and stronger lenses, I can finally see without them. It made me think why I waited for so long to do it. It's so good to see! It's so good to wear sunglasses! It's so good to swim and do spa-procedures without glasses. It's so good to do sports without glasses! Yes - many many advantages.
BUT are there any disadvantages? There is one, what I have thought a lot lately (when I considered whether to go through the laser operation or not). Glasses are a part of me. Glasses are somehow my "safety zone". Every week, I need to stand in front of people to give lectures for several hours. They all look at me, they all pay attention to how I look, what jokes I make, what wisdom I speak. Those people may be old and young. Men and women. Smart and not so smart. Some I see regularly, some I see the whole semester, some I meet only once. With some, I get a good atmopshere quickly, with others, it takes some more time
Glasses are always good to have when you stand in front of the auditorium. It gives you a certain "invisible" wall. You need to open up when you talk to people, but glasses help to have a bit of privacy.
Now, standing in front of class - without glasses - feels like being naked. Maybe with time, I get used to it. Maybe I start to feel comfortable. But if not, then... don't be surprised when you see me wearing glasses again, in front of auditorium. But then they are just for my safety zone, not for my clear vision! :)

About Spring... hmmm I was wrong?

April is finally here! During the weekend, the boys tried gumboots and we all thought it's really time to prepare for Spring now. We have thought to put away the winter clothes and bring out spring ones. But well... April is obviously a tricky month: today morning, we woke up and saw we are back in the winter-weather. All was covered with snow.

So the boys and I took sledges out again and we had a nice ride around the village. I hope this is the last time when winter comes back! C'mon - it's APRIL!

Spring...

 

Spring is definitely on its way! The last days have been quite winter-like, but today - finally - we have sunshine again (+ a strong wind) and it marks the official start of Spring. We have really longed for warmer weather with boys. They can now walk well outside, but they don't like to walk in the snow or on ice. So now, when the snow slowly melts, it gives much more opportunities for us to go out and have something interesting to do.
Fred is the one who adores being outside and searching every corner of our garden. He never wants to come back inside, it's always with loads of cry. Sten, on the other hand (at least right now, when he is cranky because of teething), likes to stay outside for 10 minutes and then prefers to sit on my lap or whine when I don't take him on my lap. Ralf is somewhere in the middle. He doesn't whine much, but he is not such a curious boy outside as Fred is.
During last weekend, we went to the local playground for the first time. My mom was with me and the boys, too, otherwise it would have been too complicated to look after 3 little boys who run in 3 different direction... There was still a bit too much snow, but the boys enjoyed some of the attraction quite a lot. We are definitely going back there as soon as it gets warmer and snow has melted away.
Spring, please arrive quicker! :)