Smallsteps is broken - she isn't the only one.
We have just completed Day 1 of "Daddy-Daughter weekend adventure" in Helsinki and I am tired!!
Sure it wasn't the earliest of mornings, but we have had a bit of travelling to get here. We took the train, because it was easier and with the petrol prices, cheaper too - but it was a lot of fun and allowed us time to chat about all kinds of things and play some Eye Spy along the way.
This is her second train trip and the first was back in 2018 when 
Once in Helsinki, the first of which was a mission to find a place where Smallsteps could eat.
One of the problems of being in a city where we haven't taken her out before is, it is hard to find a place that can cater for kids and allow for her allergies. After trying a few places, we ended up with sushi in a shopping mall, and she was happy enough - it is her current favorite. She wouldn't even try it until a few weeks ago, but now she is there ripping into raw salmon like she is Gollum.
And speaking of fish - today's adventure was to go to an aquarium, which I knew she would both like, and also get bored of pretty fast too. I know kids that can spend hours in these kinds of places - Smallsteps was done after less than one - but we stayed a bit longer and told stories about the fish.
This aquarium is quite small and I think it could have had some more thought put into the displays, but overall, it was okay. There were heaps of people there which surprised me a bit, but Helsinki is a much larger city than where we are from and it gets far more tourism.
My favorites were probably the jellyfish, as I find them so serene and calming. If I had a very large fancy house, I might put them in a tank on display. Perhaps it is because they have no brain nor heart that I feel an affinity for them.
Damn. The effort it took to get Smallsteps into that bubble! She is good at many things, but when it comes to unfamiliar physical challenges, she is not very brave at all. We try to encourage her, but if given the option, she will choose not to. I think that I was the same as a kid and I remember times that I didn't do something, but later secretly regretted that I didn't. I don't want that fate for her.
Independence comes with costs and one of those things is being able to face fears and overcome that desire to shy away from discomfort. A lot of people want to be independent, but if they can't be uncomfortable, they will likely always find themselves reliant on others to take care of what they are too afraid to.
Starfish can grow back limbs and in some cases their body too and while humans can't do this physically, I think there is a psychological aspect to this too. I think what drives a lot of our fears is our attachment to "who we are" where if we try something and fail, it reflects on our ego, or if we change and do what we didn't do earlier, we are no longer the same person.
All change is uncomfortable and while we fear the negative, the positive is too. If we overvalue the sense of discomfort change brings - we mistakenly lump the positive and negative together, protecting us on one side, but also holding us back on the other. If we are so scared to fail we don't try, we can also never succeed.
This picture and scene reminds me of a painting of my dad's that he did when he moved with us to the Australian tropics. He was scared of water, but loved the ocean wonderlands of the great barrier reef, so would use photos we took on disposable underwater cameras as references for some paintings.
And of course, an aquarium trip isn't complete without finding Nemo, and I am hoping that Smallsteps will finally sit down and watch the movie with me. When it comes to what she watches, she isn't very brave either, but her exposure is so limited that I put that down to our parenting methods. It is funny, she can read and write well for her age, do math to a couple years above and speaks two languages fluently - but can't turn on the TV.
I made sure that the hotel has a pool and we went for a swim before eating dinner. This was probably the best bit of the day and will probably be the highlight of the trip, so we will go a few more times while we are here. Because her hair was wet and it is still cold outside, we decided to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant, which is never my first choice - but with a kid, acceptable.
As you can see, Finnish design is pretty industrial.
After the pool, the second highlight is likely to be the bath in the hotel room, the other thing that I booked. She has a baby bath that she is far too large for but doesn't want to retire, but other than that we only have a shower at home. One day, we will put a bath in when we renovate the sauna area, but it will have to wait a year or ten for the massive amount of money required.
And well, the hotel room itself is basic and clean and while they try to jazz it up with some color, it is not going to win any rewards. I am also pretty sure that I will be staying here again come May, where there is a company sales meeting in Helsinki. That will be a different kind of trip I am sure, but I am presenting every day of the kick off, so there won't be too much partying for me.
I was falling asleep in the chair prior to writing this, but now I am awake again. As I have said before, writing energizes me and now I feel like I could flow into another post straight away. I might still, but I also know that Smallsteps is likely to be up again at 6am or before and I can't palm her off to her mother. Well, the reason for the trip away was to give time to my wife for her birthday, so she will get to sleep in and have a holiday and mine will have to wait until July or so.
This trip has been a lot of fun so far though - so I don't mind :)
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
