Sunny Day

Mr. Lau enjoys the sun with a nap atop the printer.

Joku kavelee/Someone is walking

Lumi took her first steps last night!  We'll try to get some footage soon.

Delicioso

Everyone is full after a delicious lunch in Toledo.  The guy on the left is Pablo.  Kimmo and Pablo hadn't seen each other for 12 years!

Ensimmäinen Syntymäpäivä!/First Birthday!

We were in Madrid for Lumi's first birthday, so we didn't have a party at home or bake a cake or any of the things you might normally do for such an event. Instead, we went to VIPS. VIPS seems pretty much like the Spanish version of Steak 'n' Shake. I was delighted with it on the day we arrived (Europe lacks diners and I miss them) but quickly grew to resent the fact that here we were in Spain, in Madrid no less, where normally you can eat like a queen for dirt cheap, yet we were stuck out in an isolated part of town and had a very limited choice of restaurants.
Anyway, Lumi's birthday coincided with the cold snap sweeping Europe. It wasn't 20 degrees below zero in Madrid of course, but it was pretty chilly and *very* windy, and I had just finished week 1 of my first co-teach and I was tired, so skipped the trip into town and just went to VIPS.
Lumi seemed to have no problem with this and was cheerful and interactive throughout dinner.

We ordered some chocolate cake for dessert. Here she is with a bib on, making faces:

Then the cake came. We put a little candle on top and sang to her. She was very excited about the candle and grabbed it as soon as we let her:

The cake, though, was not very appealing to her:

Fortunately, one of the wait staff (since Spanish people don't normally even consider starting dinner until at least 21:00 and we were at the restaurant by 19:00, we had almost the whole place to ourselves and thus the attention of many servers) brought her a balloon. She *loved* it and played with it all night:

Happy Birthday Lumi!