Flipping the Bird

It has been a long weekend for me, as Thursday was a bank holiday and I took Friday off as well, so it was four days of chilling out, sneezing, coughing and barely able to breathe.

Spring allergies.

The weather has been nice though, so to finish the weekend, we went into the city where they have a food market this weekend, a couple trips to some parks for Smallsteps to play and a salad lunch and a piece of cake at a café that does a good range of gluten- and lactose- free foods. Two good weekends in a row is rare for us, but it has been just that.

Jump for joy!

Smallsteps got to be in the jumping castle by herself and had far more fun than if others were there. She is reserved when others are around, but she is far more experimental when she is alone and can do things in her own time. She had a ball and retried her "air cartwheel" which she attempted on the tiled floor at home a few weeks ago and landed on her chin, after the mat slipped out from under her feet.

I wasn't home, but I was told it nis a surprise I didn't hear the sound.

The city is nice when it is warm and we did our 10,000 steps easily. While there were busy sections we visited like the market, I was expecting more people to be around enjoying the weather and the hockey world championships, which are partially hosted here. There are a lot of international hockey jerseys roaming the streets, and big screens everywhere televising the games - yet still quiet. Perhaps people are enjoying the weather in nature instead.

Speaking of - I mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday, but I left a patch of forget-me-nots under the apple tree, because they are so pretty in the sunshine. The apple hasn't blossomed yet, but one of the cherry trees is in full form, and the pear tree should be up to speed tomorrow or the day after. I am really hoping it doesn't rain and destroy the flowers, as the pear tree looks fantastic in bloom. Weirdly though, the large cherry tree on the other side of the house looks like it hasn't realized that winter is over and barely has a bud on it. I hope it is okay, as it has never been this far behind in the time we have lived here.

But, while I was working, I looked out the window and saw a thrush (a bird - not a yeast infection) carrying a worm and as I followed it with my eyes, it went to a nest in one of our trees to feed its young. I only took a second to snap a shot, because the parents were not happy having me close to the nest, and one even took a swoop to clear me away. I didn't touch them of course.

It is in a weird position though, because it is only a few meters from the road and I would have thought it would have been too noisy and too much activity to even think about building a nest there.

Cute little fellas.

The nest is too high up for me to lift Smallsteps I think, but perhaps it will encourage her to read "The Best Nest" and "Are you my Mother" books, as she is starting to practice more in English now, as her Finnish reading skills are already pretty good and now she just needs to speed it up. English is always going to be her second mother tongue, but I want to ensure that it is indeed a mother tongue, and not just a second language.

It takes some extra work.

Many people don't have to think much about teaching a mother tongue to their kids, but because 90% of Smallsteps' life is in Finnish, I have to take additional care to ensure she is getting a broad enough range of vocabulary, accents and sources, so she can have a robust language set, even if at the lower end of the mother tongue spectrum. Though these days, going on how many kids are performing at school, she will be fine.

A couple more weeks and she will be on summer break until mid-August! She will go to a summer club this year, but I don't know how parents manage it, since even then, we don't have enough holidays to cover all the time off normally, unless we take our holidays so they don't overlap - which isn't going to happen. I guess many people use grandparents as sitters during the summer, but we don't have that option most of the time, due to their age - and our age.

Would have been easier if we had kids younger.

Not that we knew each other when we were that much younger to have children together, but sometimes I am "jealous" of young parents' who are our age now with kids moving out of home and off to university. We are well over a decade away from that - unless Smallsteps really does end up brilliant and Doogie Howser's it.