Birthday Celebrations

Everybody has a lifeplan. Mine was never very complicated; I wanted to travel a lot and have fun and make lots of friends while doing it. Then find a wonderful guy, get married and settle down somewhere nice. I had some timelines too, one was to have my first child at the age of 25. I was doing so well with my plan and then Melissa decided to be born two months prematurely, just few days before my 25th Birthday! So she was born 22nd of July and I celebrate my birthday on the 25th of July. Not that anything else mattered after seeing my perfect daughter for the first time.. You can plan all you like, but after having children everything will change and very little that mattered before even makes sense anymore!

We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it.
-Lauryn Hill

We've been very busy celebrating for the last week or so. First my best friend Minna, who also is Melissa's godmother came to visit. She is such a wonderful person and really managed to lift our spirits with her awsomeness! A true real life fairy godmother, we are so lucky to have her in our lives. Then we had a very awesome My Neighbor Totoro themed party for Melissa's 3rd Birthday. The whole day was really lovely and she loved the cakes I made. My Neigbor Totoro is her absolutely favourite movie ever, it's a Japanese anime movie about two little girls who meet a forest spirit called Totoro. It's very absurd but totally cute!! :) Thanks so much for everyone who helped us to celebrate and made her special day even more memorable. She still thinks it's her Birthday, my brother Markus is visiting us  at the moment, and she got even more presents today from her Nanna and Pappa (my parents). Melissa calls Markus "Eno", thats uncle in Finnish. She is very fond of him and we are really enjoying spending some quality time with him.
Melissa's treatment is soon coming to an end, we have two more months to go!! Then we can go and travel the world together, first stop Finland! I miss home like grazy, good thing I got a massive bag of Salmiakki as a birthday present!

Totoro Cake

Sootsprite cupcakes

We got her a bike for her birthday

Melli and godmother Minna

Braids & plaits

Melissa's hair is getting so long now and I'm able to braid it again! She looks sooo pretty with her hair braided and I'm very surprised how still she will stay for me to do her hair.

 

Favourite hangout

Hanging out in Cambridge always makes me happy! It's a very bubbly and friendly city and I love how you are all the time surrounded with different accents and languages. It's such a lovely and pretty city and every time I go, I notice or experience something different.
One great thing about Cambridge is all its superb restaurants! My husband treated us to a lovely meal at Jamie Oliver's restaurant "Jamie's Italian" and the food, service and decor were just wonderful! I also loved how child friendly they were. We will definately go again!

After a recent hospital stay we all have been feeling a bit blue, so it was refreshing to have a change of scenery and enjoy the buzz of our favourite hangout!

Snack time!

Broads

I spent a wonderful evening with my lovely friend Daniela at the Norfolk Broads yesterday. We went on a cruise on a Southern Comfort paddle boat. It was a really fun trip, I've never been on the broads before. We had some wine and a real good giggle!

Norfolk Broads

Me and Dani

“Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad”

Melissa has been blessed with the best Dad ever! It is so lovely to see how special bond Melissa has with Adam. We've been celebrating Father's day today by eating well and spending lovely family time together. Melissa helped me to bake a cake this morning and then she went and woke Daddy up to open his presents. Melissa had made him some lovely paintings and we also got him some Junior Mints, they are his favourite chocolate! Melissa also wanted to get him a pamper day at the McQueen and Co for Men in Cambridge. :D

Pégate

Pégate is Spanish and it means "get closer". There is a track at Zumba at the moment that I absolutely love! I started doing Zumba just before Christmas and I'm totally hooked. There's is no better mood booster than doing some serious booty shakin' to some great tunes! My Zumba instructor even did a Zumbathon fundraiser for Melissa and we made over £1000 for the Cancer Research UK!

I hope you enjoy this song!

Together is the best place to be

Happy 4th wedding anniversary to us! "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be"

It's my Name Day

Today it's my Name Day in Finland. I've always loved my name, thank you mom and dad for making an excellent choice! It has just enough unique spelling but it's still easy enough to pronounce for all my non Finnish friends.


"Finland is one of many countries in Europe which celebrates Name Days (called Nimipäivä in Finnish). A country having a tradition for celebrating Name Days normally dedicates a name or names (male and female) to every calendar day of the year. A person then celebrates a Name Day on the day in the calendar where his or her Christian Name Appears. " From finnguide.fi

My namesake

Hidden gem

Melissa and I recently spent a lovely day in Ely with my wonderful friend Amanda, her partner Stuart and their little girl Summer. Melissa and Summer are the bestest friends and it was lovely seeing them having a good time together. It was Melissa's first time on a train, so it was a very special trip indeed. The highlight of my day was when Amanda introduced me to a superb store at the Ely train station called Rosie & Dolly. The shop is filled with unique gifts, cards and deco stuff. They had everything from brand new italian designer items to retro and vintage collectables. They even had Moomin cards! (I love the Moomins) I treated myself to a gorgeous Italian handbag and a lovely scarf. I could have spent a whole afternoon there trying on their amazing vintage clothing, fair trade jewellery and beautiful hats. So the next time you go by the Ely train station make sure not to miss this hidden gem of stores!

 My new bag makes me happy!

Give Blood

Do something truly amazing and save someones life! It's national blood week 13-19th of June. http://www.blood.co.uk/  Find out when and where you can donate.

Thank you!

Melissa's room

I made this video of my daughters room after we re-decorated it. Melissa loves owls and I was so happy when I found the wall sticker. She really enjoys her room and  loves her big girl bed. The bedding and pillows are by Australian company called Kas Kids, they do adorable kids bedding.

One Day

I've just heard that one of my favourite books ever is going to be a movie! Yay!  One Day will be in theaters August this year and I can't wait to see it. Hopefully it will be even nearly as good as the original book. I would highly recommend reading the book before watching the movie.

"Live, love and eat!"

On the way to Cambridge, near Waterbeach, there is a restaurant called The Bridge. We must have driven past it hundreds of times thinking we should stop by there. Today we finally did. It was such a lovely experience. Food was super; I had organic salmon that was cooked to perfection. The Bridge sits on the banks of the River Cam and Melissa had a great time watching the boats and kayaks floating by. It made today's hospital visit easier, we actually managed to make a happy memory on a hospital day!

 The Bridge  is located in the Waterbeach village between Ely and Cambridge.

"Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun."

Flowers make me so happy! Especially pink peonies, they are so plush and delightful. I treated myself to a big bouguet of them and they boost my mood every time I walk past them. 

“Everything must have a beginning.”

This is my first post to my brand new blog. This blog will be filled with everything that makes me happy, inspires me or gives me hope. I will be talking a lot about my beautiful daughter Melissa, who will be 3 years old in July. She is my real life superhero, a true inspiration. Despite her young age she has been through an awful lot. She was born 8 weeks prematurely and shortly after diagnosed as being deaf. She has a hearing disorder called auditory neuropathy. Despite it she is doing great and can now hear pretty well. We thought that a hearing disorder was bad news, when, just after her first birthday, she got very poorly. We were given the worst news possible: "Melissa has cancer". She was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, a very rare cancer in childen. She started chemotherapy right away and is still receiving daily chemo. She has had many setbacks including Guillain Barre Syndrome that left her paralysed from head to toe. Doctors weren't able to give us much hope that she would ever be able to walk again, but she has surprised us all and has now learned to walk three times! She is a very gutsy little girl, and my husband, Adam, and I are extremely proud of her everyday!
This blog won't be a hospital appointment diary, it will be about happy things! I will be talking about my dreams, finding delight in simple things and things that make me laugh out loud. It will hopefully be some sort of therapy for me and hopefully will bring some joy for the readers too. Welcome to my happy place!

My supergirl Melissa