Miia-Milla-Manda

   Yesterday me and Emma took a day-trip to Estonia! The trip went so well, we had so much fun and I was proud of Emma for being on her best behaviour. I was so nervous before the trip, travelling with a baby can just be so unpredictable! I packed everything the day before, and even though we didn't need the change of clothes or any toys, with kid's it's just better to pack too much than too little.

   For once we actually took advantage of the 10e cruise coupons they give out at Alepa. The offer is only for mon-fri day-cruises but if you have the chance you should definatly go! Best 10e I've spent in a long time. Also, under 5 year olds go free! The boat weighed anchor at 8:00 and arrived in Tallinn at 11:00. We had breakfast on the boat. I definatly do not recommend to feed a baby near a table of grannys, because their "awwwhhh what a cutey" will keep the kid from paying attention to the feeding! There was a small play area for children, but there were a couple boys playing so I went in with Emma to make sure she wasn't hurt. There was a ball pit (pallomeri), which I first figured Emma would be too small for, but since it was very shallow I decided to place her in it. She was in heaven! She went crawling around all wild, thinking there were just so many balls to choose from to play with :) Another funny thing that happened, was when an hour into the trip you could see Silja and Viking Line boats coming back from Sweden, so I showed Emma saying "look there are the boats coming back home from Sweden, there's Viking and there's Silja" and she screamed all excited! Of course she thought it was her "aunt" Silja, who she admirers. I havn't even mentioned her name that many times and she knows it already. Babies know more than you realize.

Ekaa kertaa pallomeressä :')

   When looking up "Tallinn with kids" on google, there weren't so many hits. There were options of a children's museum and puppet museum, but Emma is still so young I don't think she would enjoy sitting in a stroller and looking at windows. There was also a Miia-Milla-Manda museum for children. There the children could touch and play with everything on display, so I thought that'd be perfect for Emma. For once I wouldn't have to pull her away from everything. In Tallinn I got a bit confused which direction to take the tram in, but tried my luck and apparently picked the right one. Frankly, I wouldn't classify the place as a museum. It was more of a big play place with 5 rooms, all with different themes. They suggested it for children from 3-11 years but Emma being 10months also had a great time. If in Tallinn with children, I definatly recommend Miia-Milla-Manda. They also had a café and changing facilities, so taking care of babies is not a hastle there. The best part was the price! Emma went free, so all we paid was my ticket, which was 2,56e! WHAT!? In Finland they would price it anywhere from 8-12e.Nothing makes you happier than inexpensive stuff.

My number 1

Kuskina

Nothing cooler than a mushroom with a tv inside!

   Tallinn seemed pretty child friendly. Luckily the bus and tram we took didn't have stairs, so getting the stroller in wasn't hard. I hear not all restaurants have feeding chairs or changing tables, so we didn't go eat anywhere (not that we had any time anyways). Living in Finland has spoilled me when it comes to being out with a small child. I really respect Finland for being so child-friendly. All restaurants (except maybe some ghetto kebab places outside the center) have feeding chairs. All malls and big stores have changing tables in the bathrooms and taking public transportation is free when pushing a stroller. Not to mention you can breastfeed anywhere you want, or atleast I breastfeed anywhere I want :D

   On the way back Emma started getting a bit tired, but I expected that. I was so happy that she behaved so well, and had a fun trip. We even saw Teuvo Oinas! Didn't actually know who he was before the trip, but a couple people went to ask him for his picture so guess he's pretty known (among old people).

Day Overview:
Amount of pilttis: 3,5
Amount of diapers: 5
"Friends" made: 3
Mood: happy and excited



   

  

Little bit of this and that

I've really wanted to come and write here more often, but I honestly don't know what people want to read. The answer "write about Emma" IS VARY VAGUE, so some ideas would be nice. Right now I'm trying to write, but Lil'E keeps trying to climb up my leg crying for my attention. Naturally, I just ignore her and hope she'll go away and play with her toys. I know that sounds cruel, but it's not like I'll take her onto my lap every time she wants me to.

Today Emma has been a bit sick. She's thrown up about 4 times; and thrown up A LOT. It's so sad to watch her be sick and cry because it hurts her stomach. I really hope I managed to comfort her enough. She's also had diarrhea a few times, even though she hasn't eaten anything. At least she's drinking a lot of water, so she stays hydrated. There's no fever and she seems just as alert, so it shouldn't be too serious. It's really worrying, but I have a feeling she got some bacteria due to the fact she sticks everything in her mouth. I hope it's over by tomorrow.

Emma has been growing so much lately! Ok, not length wise, but she's learning new things. I swear she's already trying to say "äiti" (mom in finnish). Although her version of it is more like "äidi", but she's getting there! It honestly melts my heart :') But even just as cute is when she stands on my lap and wraps her arms around me, like if she were giving me a hug <3 I also like watching her when she stands against our cuboards (especially the bathroom one) and her eyes glow and sparkle when she realizes she's managed to open the doors again :D It's just so fun for her to rummage through the drawers. Amazingly I don't mind putting all the stuff back into place, or at least not yet I don't.

I would like to show off some of the new additions to our household!

First of all I HAD to get this for Emma, it's such a classic toy. Unfortunatly Emma doesn't really use it yet, but maybe once she learns to walk it'll be more in use.

Brio pushy thing :P

Princess Emma's Thrown

I bought Emma a potty! I think parents usually start potty training children at around 18months but I didn't think there'd be any harm if I put Emma to sit there once in a while. The thing is, we have such a small sink that it gets very hard/annoying to wash Emma's golden bum, therefore I figured I can sit her on the potty after her meals if in any luck she'll poopy there instead of her diaper.( I'm sure that was nice for everyone to read :P ) She sits there very nicely, and we read her Moomin bath book together. It's a lot of fun, honestly. So far she's made little peepee in her potty. THE CUTEST PEEPEE IN THE WORLD. It's so hilarious how you can be so proud of someone's peeing.








Last but not least, I bought Emma a new stroller! I thought we could use a new one, a lighter one, that would be easy to use on trips or during the summer. At first I looked at one stroller that was on sale, 79e, real good price. But instead I decided to spend 50e more because...wait for it...these ones have a cup holder!! It's so sad how something so useless can be so appealing to spenders.
We've brought the stroller up to our appartment and we've been breaking them in. I tell Emma we need to practice using them so we're prepared when we use them in Rhodos (April 2012). :)

Fever

   Today Emma woke up crying at 8:00; unlike usually, she didn't stop crying. She didn't want to play, she didn't want to feed, go back to sleep or have a poopy diaper. I concluded that it was digestion pain or maybe teething. Eventually I got her to feed and she fell back asleep. When we later woke up, she cried again, and spent most of the morning whining. She ate breakfast but took only a spoonful of lunch. I thought that a bit wierd so I measured her temperature. Now, babies have a fever if their temperature is over 38°C. We have a pacifier thermometer, which is handy even though it takes a few minutes (thank you Laura!), and that shows -0.5°C of the actual body temperature. The thermometer showed 37.7°, so Emma had a fever of 38.2°C. 0.2°C fever for a mom who's never had a sick kid before = PANIC PANIC PANIC. I was so worried! Poor Emma, no wonder she was so upset and uncomfortable. I didn't really know what to dress her in, I didn't want her to be cold, but I didn't want her to overheat either. So she spent a while naked, which is anyways recommended for feverish babies to help their body temperature drop. We spent most of the day in bed reading books, singing and feeding. I gave her lots of milk so she would stay hydrated. I didn't want to give her aspirin (for babies) unless the fever got past 39°C - I don't really like the idea of taking medicine unless it's really necessary. Before bed her temperature was 38°C, so I'm guessing over night it'll go away completely. 

Other than the fever Emma has been doing great! I've noticed that she knows when something is hidden behind something else. Small infants think items disappear when they are covered, but now when I try to hide my phone under a blanket on the sofa/bed she knows to go looking for it underneath the blanket. Also she turns the pages when we're reading a book together, what a smartypants <3 She just keeps getting cuter every day, the way she interacts with me and recognizes all sorts of things: songs, words etc. She knows tisu means tits/milk, ei means no, and her name ofcourse. She also likes the song "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly", at the moment it's her favorite.


Day overview:
Amount of Pilttis (baby food): 3
Amount of diapers: 6 (3 poops, so not fair since she didn't even eat much!!)
Mood: uncomfortable 

she stands so tall :)

So vain :D

PS - I like to take Emma to places so she can look and wander around, thing is I've run out of ideas where to take her. If I take her to town or malls I end up shopping and spending money, so if anyone could come up with places for us to spend a day wound be nice. Nothing expensive. We sometimes go to these family cafes but they've gotten a bit boring. We've already planned to go to the zoo next week, so an activity like that would be fun. Any ideas welcome!

Sea life

Yesterday I took Emma to Sea life to explore the underwater worlds- from a distance. There were fish from many a seas. One of my favorites was a fish from Central/South America. The board on the wall said it has been known to jump out of the water and even catch monkeys from the trees. Intense. Emma seemed to be most fascinated by colourful fish. It was so cute seeing her all amazed, staring at the aquariums.

Emma avec some piranas

 

 That black and white fish that looks like an eel, was poppin' its body out a cave, so freaky. Emma liked watching the fish that's swimming above her head.

 We waited by the shark pool to see the sharks being fed. They knew exactly when their feeding was and starting anxiously swimming in small, fast circles. I expected them to drop a big chunk of meat in the water and see them rip it up with their powerful jaws. Sadly, that didn't happen. They gave the sharks individually a piece of fish with a giant fork (?!!?). Not exciting at all.

   Nonetheles, the jelly-fish area was nice to look at, since the pools changed colour. Emma was a bit scared though, so we left quickly.

We compared Emma's octupus to a real one - not much resemblance.

Capt. Calamary and cousin.

 Towards the end Emma got a bit restless. Maybe because the last section was for native Finnish fish, and they all were so similar looking. Nevertheless, it was a cute trip; it's very fun spending time out with Emma :)

Playtime

   Now that Emma is older she's so much more fun to play with. She explores and learns new things all the time. Although, some games mommy doesn't really approve. I think her favorite game is "What can I taste next?" I know some kids stick everything in their mouth, but I think Emma is obsessed! I mean she goes around with her mouth open, a predator look in her eyes looking like she's ready to attack. She chews on metal poles, toilet seats and the end of the hose that brings the dirty water out of our washing machine..very sanitary. Sometimes she lies on her stomach - arms and legs spread out on the floor, chewing on the end of my boots. She looks so ridiculous :D

Emma helping out with chores

   Whenever we're somewhere with less people around, I let her crawl around on the floor. No joke, if she had a leash on it would feel exactly like walking a dog.

    Angelina Jolie mentioned a qoute in her book: "you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation". I've realized that's really true, and it's so much more fun spending time with someone if you get to explore your imagination. I try to spend as much time as possible playing with Emma, but honestly it would be a lot more fun if she would understand what I say. I try building obstacle courses, tents and other games for us, but she doesn't seem to care for them (or maybe just not yet...).

Our little jungle :)

Money money money

Somehow I feel like I need to vent this out, and maybe, someone will read this and learn not to bring the topic up.
When Emma (Lil'E) was born, I figured money wouldn't be an issue. I thought so, because in Finland you're under the impression that the government helps you with finances when times are tough. It's true, but sometimes that money just isn't enough. Anyways, I hoped once Emma was a few months old we could move to our own place and not need to cram into my mom's apartment. My hopes were quickly crushed once I started calculating our expenses. Many people ask how much money we get from the Finnish government (Kela). We qualify for max 759e. Awesome. Now if we were to pay rent we'd qualify for the government to pay some of it, but i'd still end up paying about 200e. After that theres electricity, water, insurance, phone, internet, buscard (when school starts), gym (contract ends in november), maybe daycare (30e), diapers, cleaning & sanitary products (50e), Emma's food (200e), Emma's clothes (50e). That makes roughly 628e. So 759-200-628= -69. Wohoo I have NEGATIVE 69e to buy myself food every month. It's quite the feeling knowing I wont be able to afford healthcare, going for coffee, going out, going to the movies or even taking my kid to the zoo.
So when you decide to question my comment "we can't afford to move out" better keep it to yourself. You think I don't want to give Emma her own room? Or furnish a home to our likings? It makes me feel like such a failure of a mother because I can't give us our own home.

Beauty Procedures

 Ear piercing
 
   I've been thinking Emma could get her ears pierced. In Costa Rica all baby girls get theirs pierced at birth; since Emma doesn't look Hispanic, I figured that way people would notice she's not just Finnish. Down side is, people in Finland consider piercing a baby's ears some form of child abuse. It's bad enough people immediately assume young mom = bad mom, but now they'd have something to 'prove their point'. Also I was thinking it might hurt her or she might get her ears infected, but naturally I'd take them out if I see they're getting very red. Anyways, if the procedure hurts her, its not like she'll remember it in a couple hours :P
   My dad thinks it's a good idea and maybe this way he'll stop calling her "boy face" (such a nice grandpa). I keep thinking that the longer I wait, the more it'll hurt her to get them so any opinions are welcome to speed up my decision. It being such an huge dilema and whatnot -__- .


Some funny moments this week:

Emma decided to splash around in the dog's water bowl at my dad's place. Not only did she get herself all wet and made the hugest puddle on the carpet, but once I undressed her and re-filled the dog bowl, she rushed right back to it!!!

  ....and again emptied it all over the floor :D But it was the cutest thing to watch her have fun!















Thought Emma was choking so I hung her upside down to see if whatever she swallowed would fall out...

I don't think there was anything there, but atleast Emma had fun hanging like a bat. Cool "yay! let's party" expression :D