H-a-p-p-y!

The title describes my overall feelings these days - oh yes, I am h-a-p-p-y! :)

We finally got to start with Juudit's new nanny last week, but due to several little reasons I didn't feel comfortable to leave her there in the end, so after two days we decided to look for a new place again... It could be I was overreacting, but when it comes to your own children, you just really have to trust your intuition or gut feeling, and you can't settle for a place or nanny you have doubts about.

Again, due to several reasons we decided to apply for a place in public daycare (it's a bit more expensive to us than hiring a private nanny, but on the other hand the places are supervised and the nannies are experienced and have degrees) - but we thought it would take a long time before we would get one close enough to our home, as the last years' baby boom has made it difficult to get a place in a public nursery. To our surprise we were called immediately and Juudit was offered a place that sounded really good! The place, a tiny nursery of 12 children and 3 nannies, is within a walking distance from us, but you can also take a bus there. The building is brand new and the nursery is run in a regular flat with a big yard - so it's very a "home like" environment. I know Juudit enjoys playing in a group nowadays, so I'm actually happy there will be several kids with different personalities she can interact with, but it's still not a huge nursery with dozens of children, which could be a little restless for a 2-year-old.

The only thing was that she could be there on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and we had just started music playschool classes on Mondays, and gym classes (with Juudit and her nan) on Tuesdays. But I was able to switch the music group from Monday to Thursday, and as the gym class is in the evening, the grandparents promised to pick her up from daycare on Tuesdays and take her to the gym class after that. If it seems it will be too tiresome for her to do both on the same day, we can always cancel the gym classes. Then the grandparents will take care of Juudit on Wednesdays, which leaves Thursdays for mummy-daughter time. :)

We were supposed to go and see the nursery, getting to know the nannies and other children, on Friday morning, but as I was down with a nasty stomach bug, the grandparents were taking care of Juudit that day and visited the nursery. They absolutely loved it, and I can't wait until tomorrow morning when I get to go and see it myself! I'm so extremely happy and relieved as this adventure finally seems to come to an end, and we have hopefully found a very good, long-term daycare place for our precious daughter - and I can stop being a SAHM (except on Thursdays!) and focus on my work assignments once again. Woo-hoo!

Hopefully I can also start blogging about some other things now that those daycare issues won't be constantly on my mind anymore...

Lately I've been fascinated by several different things, and here are a couple of them:

1) Garden planning. We have possibly found a buyer for this one bedroom flat Karlo owns and that we have been renting out these years. If we'll actually sell it, we'll have enough money for the renovations we've been wanting to do, but have had to forget for the moment, because we ran out of money. Our yard/garden is number one on my list, and I'm hopeful enough now to have started planning how I'd like it to be. We would/will hire a designer and other professionals to really do it, but it's still great fun to plan the basics myself. I would love to really get into gardening now that I actually have a garden, but for the moment it's just a very dull "clearing" with mostly grass growing on it (somewhere under the thick layer of snow...).

2) Tea. I have always (well since I was a teenager) been a pretty avid tea drinker, and I don't make coffee at home at all. That is very very odd in Finland, because we, as a nation, drink the most coffee in the world. Actually it was only a couple of years ago that I had my first cup of coffee (before that I could always score a point in the "I have never" drinking game, lol). Nowadays I do drink iced coffee drinks and I love going for a latte in a coffee shop (and think about getting an espresso machine for myself), but mostly I still drink tea. My regular is a cup of Earl Grey with milk. I haven't been a proper "tea snob", but I don't like it if I'm offered a tea bag and/or not piping hot water in a café. However, a little while ago I decided to order online a selection of very fine and different teas, and they arrived last week. I still haven't opened all the sample pouches yet, but there is not just very good Earl Grey, but also Darjeeling, Oolong, white and green tea, some with jasmine scent that I love etc. I have also studied how to brew a perfect cup of each, and now I'm loving my daily "tea moments" even more than before. Yay!

3) Cloth nappies. One of my alter egos is Lisa Simpson, and I like to be "ecologically aware". When I was pregnant with Juudit, it was obvious we would use cloth nappies instead of "normal" ones. Not only did it make me feel like a very good person (lol), but it turned out to be a great hobby, too! There are so many different kinds of cloth nappies it was great to learn about them, order them and discuss them with other people online. I know it sounds a little sad, but I tell you I'm not the only person that has become an enthusiast! :) Anyway, it turned out Juudit's skin was so sensitive it couldn't deal with the cloth nappies - even if it's usually the other way around. I thought I tried everything, but nothing worked and her rashes would heal only when we changed into plastic nappies. :( Nowadays I think I should've tried more than a couple of detergents, and used a lot less of them, as it was probably the remnants of the detergents that caused the rash in the end. But we stopped using the cloth nappies when Juudit was less than 6 months old. Now I'm hoping for better luck and have ordered Bumpie (we actually call him Tomas for now) tons of new diapers. And it's been great fun!

Then I have obviously been working and studying whenever I've found a moment in this SAHM life of mine... And also the pregnancy and Tomas are increasingly on my mind. It turned out the protein in my urine was caused by an infection, which was a relief, but this week my BP has been a little high and it has got me a little worried. However, this morning it was very low, so I'm confident again. My next checkup at the prenatal clinic will be next Thursday, and I hope everything will be okay.

Karlo in on a business trip in Canada now (from this Thursday to next Tuesday), so we've been a little lonely. The great thing has been that the grandparents have taken Juudit there a lot, and I've enjoyed this amazing quality time on my own! She spent the night there now, and she was also there all Friday because of my stomach bug. She'll be home in a couple of hours, and of course I miss her already... I still have time to go to sauna on my own to really enjoy the calmness and heat. I have been taking care of my duties, but also watching girly films, eating way too much junk and other comfort food, meditating, doing regressions, chatting using IM with foreign friends and sleeping in... It's been so much fun, but it wouldn't be if my everyday life was like that. :)

There are some interesting past life revelations to tell you about, but it will have to wait until next time.

I've also been a little melancholy as my granddad died on Thursday. There was actually nothing very sad about it, as he had been in a bad shape for a long time, and wanted to go himself. He was ready to leave that aching body behind. Also my grandma, his wife, died already 10 years ago, and there was no new girlfriend that he would've left behind alone and mourning. So even if it might sound harsh, I'm just happy for granddad that he got to leave. I wish him luck on his journey - and a pleasant next life after he's gotten some rest. Maybe we'll meet again one day - in this or some other life. :)

The funeral will be on February 13, so it means another trip back home then, which is cool. Maybe funerals are never "fun", but I look forward to the opportunity to meet the relatives and talk about granddad's life. It always feels good to say a proper goodbye, imo.

I've noticed that people close to you that pass, usually make an appearance in one way or the other to say goodbye. For example when my (other) grandma passed, I could feel her distinctive smell all around me the same night. As for grandad, I think he made the funniest appearance on Thursday night: I was going to bed, when I suddenly noticed a fly of all things walking on my wardrobe door next to me, and flying around a little. I was surprised to see it, as it's definitely not a normal sight in the middle of winter here! It was also funny that as it was flying, there was no sound coming out of it at all. At the same time I could hear Juudit in her room becoming restless, twisting and turning, saying something in her sleep. Then the fly disappeared - and I haven't seen it since - and Juudit calmed down.

A fly! Gotta love granddad's sense of humour! :D

Oh, because I blog so rarely, I'd have millions of things to say, but there's no time and it's not very convenient for the readers, either. So I'll stop here and try to blog more often with shorter entries from now on..

Have a lovely Sunday and/or beginning of the week everybody! I'm off to sauna now. :)

Mikaela