Crawling, Camping and Concerts

Annabel has learnt to crawl in the last two weeks, it has been coming for a while, but she is now confident enough not to moan about it everytime we don't pick her up. She is not hurtling around yet, but can get from place to place if the urge hits her. She still would prefer holding someone's hands and walking around, if that is offered. She has also gained two more teeth, so she is now the proud owner of six teeth. How our understanding of being rich change as we grow up...

We went camping on Friday night with Simon and Sini in Nuuksio park. It was Annabel's first campout, and she had a tremendous time. She was carried everywhere and got to sleep in a tent on her sheepskin and in a sleeping bag between mom and papa. She even extended her normal sleep time for the occasion. We were hoping to find some mushrooms and pick a couple of berries, but this year is not nearly as fertile as the previous, and not only did we not find many edible mushrooms, we also found almost no poisonous ones. Last year you almost had to be careful where to walk if you didn't want to step on a mushroom. We did find 5 kanterel mushrooms and one viinihapero, which is not really worth writing about, but I just did, so there. Other than a lack of success, the weekend was really pleasant, and reminded us of the value of getting into the wilds.

While in the wilds, I got an sms from Conrad, asking if I wanted to go to U2 (U-kakkonen, as it is said here). What a blessing. I had seen the posters go up, and had secretly desired going to see them, but the shows were sold out, so I had little hope. In the end we had fantastic seats, behind the stage, but very close and quite high up. The concert was really amazing, good music, a fantastic stage and 1% of the Finnish population in attendance. I was struck by the depth of their lyrics and songs again and again through the night. The members of the band are Christians, and somehow I could see that in the way they went about their job. It was a pleasure to see them live. Tracy had seen them in Cape Town so didn't feel too bad about missing out, but this was my first major concert since Depeche Mode in the 90's. I really enjoyed it.

Tracy has been well, and recently had her first article from her Honours degree published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. It is quite an important journal in the field and is a great honour. Of course she was helped, especially by Mark, who added some data to her originals, but still, her name is there as an author. We are settling in to our new house, and she has really managed to make it feel homely, even in the short time we have been here. The environment here is so much better than the previous place, and we already know the names of many of the little kiddies that run around here, and are slowly getting to know their parents. But I think we have met more people in two weeks than in our year in the previous place.

It has been a very busy two months, which is why the blog posts have been scarce. I attended two conferences back to back, actually a pre-conference and a conference, both on music education philosophy. During the conference, Guillermo from Costa Rica stayed with us, and it was really good to have him with us, even though we were both immersed in the conference and so we had little time for discussion. Directly after the conference Tracy and I helped to lead a confirmation camp for 6 days. It was quite intensive, with four adults leading and 2 teenagers who were being confirmed. I reckon they had the hardest time, since we had to take breaks to look after Annabel and cook. The camp took place at our pastor's summer cottage, on a lake in central Finland. The mosquitos were incredible, creating black swarms whenever we ventured too close to the edge of the lake. We rowed and sailed on the lake, which was blissfully mosquito free.We then had a week to recover and then took part in the annual midsummer retreat hosted by our church. I presented two workshops on singing and worship, and played all the music, so was very busy. Tracy was forced to look after Annabel single-handedly for most of the weekend. The program was really packed full, and I was finished by the end of it. Tracy really enjoyed it. Maybe we should swop duties next time.

A couple of days later we departed to Washington, D.C. to visit my parents. Both flights were relatively easy for Annabel, she was still small enough (just) to fit into the bassinet, and managed to sleep a lot of the time. It was a really fantastic visit, and after a couple of days, Annabel really enjoyed her grootouers. She even let us disappear a couple of times, once to have a salsa dancing lesson, which we truly enjoyed. We signed up for a group lesson, but were the only people there, so got an extended private lesson instead. We have been practicing a little in our lounge since then, and are continuing our lessons by watching YouTube videos. We spent a lot of time walking in museums, since it was exceptionally hot, and museums have aircon. We were there over the Independence Day celebrations, and got to watch the broadcast from the mall on TV and then saw the fireworks from our apartment roof. The fireworks were truly spectacular. The best part was seeing our parents, and allowing Annabel to spend time with them. She now recognises them on Skype when they call, and has long conversations with them using language that she hardly ever uses with us. She has also become a complete computer maniac as a result, and can hardly see a computer without wanting to touch it and talk to it. We'll have to find a way of taming that desire before it costs us a computer.

Since arriving back we packed up our house and moved to a new one - all in the space of just over a week. We had applied for a new place in January, and heard just before we left to Washington that there was an apartment available. We quickly went to look at it and had to decide the same day whether to take it and pay the deposit etc. Lots of friends praying helped us in our decision. So far we have been very happy, apart from the (slightly) longer travel times to our usual destinations. The flat has 2 bedrooms, and a larger living area, and also has easy access to a little park in the courtyard where Annabel can play in the sandpit and swing on the swings. A whole lot of friends helped us to move, and it went amazingly quickly, everything was out of the old place and into the new in less than 2 hours. What a blessing!We are still living with boxes everywhere, but have managed to clean the kitchen (it was disgustingly dirty) and have a more organized bedroom as of tonight. There is still a fair bit to be done - the previous tenants were not hot on the cleaning side of things. You can see some pics of the place here.

I am trying to get back to work, and have been cycling the 30 minutes to the office. I will be fit if the good weather continues for a month or two yet. Tracy has been enjoying the larger space, and has been working hard to make it homely. It is taking shape, and I think we can be very happy here. I had an extended discussion in Finnish with one of the little boys who live here while Annabel and I played in the sandpit. I am hoping we can also have those kinds of discussions with their parents at some stage. It would be good to be part of a community here, and it looks like it might be possible.

We have also had some other additions to the family. We are godparents to a friend of ours, Lynn, who was baptised at the midsummer retreat. She is a recent convert to Christianity, and has asked us to help her along in her new-found faith. We also became aunt, uncle and cousin to little Charlie, who was born to Shawn and Mel at the end of July. We are really happy about this, and cannot wait to meet the little guy. Hopefully he and Annabel will be good friends, and manage to spend time together.