Vaccinations

Vaccination (latin: vacca—cow) is so named because the first vaccine was derived from a pathogen affecting cows... And this weekend our baby got two jabs and a oral vaccination against rota-virus.. Halle was worried that our baby would get autism or something from the jabs and I will elaborate on my opinion here...

When a large population like.. Finnish children are vaccinated against pathogens such as tetanus, polio, Hib-b, which can cause potentially lethal diseases there is something called herd protection.. means that as most of the population is immune to a pathogen, it is likely that a person who is not immunized will be safe due to the fact that the pathogen cannot survive in the population. This does not mean that one cannot get this disease in the population which has been immunized against it, but the likelihood of getting ill is rather small.
Now taking this into account leaving your own child without these vaccinations you rely on the rest of the "world around you" to be immunized.. that is rather foolish in this day and age of global travel. Also you weaken the herd protection from those who have not taken the shots.. I feel that it is not ethical to deprive your child of this protection available for them by the government here in Finland.
Now are they safe???!!?>? with vaccinations the "associated" diseases are such as autism and MS and what not.. all diseases we don't even know why and what triggers them into "action" It is easy to see why the companies coming up with new vaccines rather have them administered to older kids... so the "association" between their new vaccine and the disease is not "established"...
Are they really needed?? One of my friend told me that the pig flu only kills the weak... and that medical companies are just trying to make money... I suppose he thought that he was one of the strong... wrong again.. even this year in Finland one under 20 year old man was nearly killed by pig flu. It dessimated his lung tissue so badly he only survived with lung transplant...
I am not saying the medical companies are not benefiting from vaccine sales, but the protection they provide is very valuable and rather a responsibility of those who can have them than unnecessary risk to take...

P 

Out with the sun today

The winter's cold claw still holds on to Oulu city and all of its inhabitants, but the sun is getting higher and staying with us longer about 5min longer every day. The time will continue grow with increasing speed and so will the warmth of the summer! Today we went out for some shopping with all the other Oulu residents at Saturday afternoon in the center of the city.

As you can see the blinding ball of fire was out with us.
Weather forecast for this coming week is bleak... temperatures around -20C are supposed to keep us wrapping our selves in wool and feathers and lamb skins for warmth. One last exam is coming for this Spring spurt of exams in my school, but then things are going to wind down for a bit. Not that there is any freetime from school as patient work keeps going all spring.

Ok yes, that is our baby again, the sun was out and I decided to snap a few photos of him lying on our couch, the eyes look very blue, but you never know.. perhaps they will turn brown later...

Most of the time his eyes were shut or he was squinting to avoid the strange bright light shining into our apartment in the middle of the day. He is really getting into this talking business, as I stood in front of our kitchen window and held him and told him about outside and snow.. the whole time he was talking back at me in the cutest baby-talk... I keep laughing at his talking as it is so lovely sounding until it turns into I need milk real cry... Still no news from our benefactors as weather we got the grant for FL trip or no... keep praying about it.
All the best to everybody!

H&P 

Bird in hand is better with bus ride home!

This was our first weekend at Peregrines Great-Great-Aunt's where we spent Sat-Sunday helping out Elli with her chores and clearing snow out of the way. She had made small path to the bird feeder which I decided to make larger and so after an hour of serious clearing I looked back at my work.. Happy with myself I noticed something black underneath the feeder... Oh it must be a dead bird I thought to myself and went promptly to the bird to inspect it. As my hand was about to scoop up the little bird it's head came out underneath its wing.. It had been sleeping, I froze and awaited for the bird to freak out... but nothing came, the little birdy jumped on my hand and looked like "give me some!" and I tried to peel a sunflower seed with my one free hand, and managed to break the frozen shell and crumple out some bits of "juicy" insides on my other hand. I brought it near the bird all the while talking to the Finnish bird in Finnish... as if the little creature would be reassured by my "here is some food for you little bird". It promptly jumped on the hand and pecked my nails... It was obviously not interested in my sunflower seed offering..
Halle told me, by making the international camera sign from inside the house, to take a photo.. so here we are..

Here is the little fella.. holding on to the peanut it found and ate as I snapped some photos..
And yes on the way home I talked with the bus driver and he eventually after asking about the baby and I suppose remembering his own time as a new dad and coping with a small child gave us a special ride from the bus station to almost to our front door, saying "you were going to walk with a 2,5month old baby all the way home!?" I told him it's the student way of life and thanked him muchly.

The weekend was lovely and we had good time, Elli was happy to see the little boy and now we are ready for next weeks adventures!

P &H