not bad

After conferring with friends and relatives, it was decided that Marta would have to see a hairdresser to remedy the haircut she gave herself on Sunday evening (see below). I have to say that we are all quite pleased with her new look which brings to mind Pat Benatar circa 1983.

Haircuts can be quite cathartic, and I have to say we all feel very connected to Marta, who seems to be slightly less moody since her run in with the scissors. I'm proud to have such a cool daughter.

chicken princess

Marta cut her hair yesterday. I was driving home from the shopping center when Epp called to tell me about it, and to tell me it was "pretty bad". She basically cut the front part of her hair off. After weighing whether or not to keep the back long, we decided to take the rest off and let it grow back. She has an appointment at the hair cutters' at 3.30 pm. After that she will have a "boy's haircut." Marta told me she wanted to look like Snow White. Last night though she decided she looks like a "chicken princess."

birthday photos

Here are some photos from Marta's (belated) fourth birthday party.

Marta, Simona, and Ilona.

Jaan, trying to call someone.


Ott and Liisa



Mayhem.

first words

Kaarel and Anna

Yesterday, we had an open house birthday party here. It was crazy. In the end, around 25 people came, including many children, most of them under 5. There was Marta (4), Anna (6 mo.), Simona (9), Ilona (6 mo.), Brigita (~8), Minni (~1.5), Elise (~3), Jaan (~2), Liisa (3), Kaarel (3 mo.), Pärtel (10 mo.), Riinu (~3), Clara (~3), Kiki (10 mo.), Ellis (3 mo.), and Matilda (~2). I am not sure how old they all were, but there were a lot of 'em.

Anna already started to say her first Estonian word a long time ago. 'Emme' (mommy) is a very easy word for a crying baby to say in between hungry sobs. Yesterday, though, during the party, during which she was often asleep, on the floor interacting with other rug rats, being hand fed pieces of banana or avocado, Anna said her first English word.

I have a habit of picking her up and looking into her eyes and saying something like, "Let's go change your diaper, yes, yes?" And this time she looked at me, giggled, and squeaked back, "yes".

It was a very cute little squeak, and it was an unmistakable "yes" -- she definitely was trying to say that word. I tried to get her to do that later, but she didn't feel like saying anything. I was wondering, does that count as a first word, or do they have to use it repeatedly. What is the metric for first words? Well, in my book, Anna said her first English one yesterday.