Rainy sunset from my balcony

Atjoo!

On Thursday a little girl D's age came to see us with her mummy and then we also went to the sandpits to swim in the afternoon with another little girl and her mummy :). I can tell he enjoys meeting other kids, but it is better when there aren't so many at one time. He also enjoys being in the water and doesn't understand his body's signals. Even if he was shaking all over he was kicking and crying when I carried him to the towel and still tried to get back to the lovely water. It was too cold for me to swim, but he didn't mind!

On Friday we were invited to a summercottage by the sea. We were lucky with the weather, it had rained at home, but there it was sunny all day...but a bit of a cold wind. In the evening I had a sore throat and have been tired and sneezing ever since. D seems to be ok. Nice to see friends, but now I need to take it easy for a few days. The house needs a bit of looking after - since I've felt like socializing, something has had to take a step back, and that has been taking care of the house :(. Anyway, I feel good about having had the opportunity to meet people.


A bunch of young boys fired up their caravan, or something similar, on the other side of the river, opposite of our house the other night. Again I missed an opportunity to earn some money. We did watch the black smoke through the window, and I took the camera (D had just fallen asleep) and went down to the river to see what was going on, but the fire was behind the trees on the other side. When the worker died at the funfair, when we were there, the thought did cross my mind that I could take a picture of the place, but didn't want to make money out of other's misfortune. But this was different. My reactions are too slow :(. But it was nice to see the river in the evening.

D has started to fall asleep quite nicely, only takes about 15 minutes now. Like last night he slept 21-7.30! He did wake me up around 6 but when I pulled the blanket up on him, he continued sleeping. This is wonderful, if only it would last!!!!

Moving forward

We have moved into a new phase - I have stopped breastfeeding (Saturday was the last time) and yesterday, for the first time, someone else but me put D to sleep. It went amazingly well - he fell asleep in five minutes!!! I was at a tapasparty in the nearly town and received the message that all went well. Of course I was happy about it, but part of me was also a bit sad, he didn't miss mummy at all :(!!!! Anyway, now I know it's not a problem, so if I only find babysitters, I can be away later at night as well. It was great to see people and eat nice food - so great that I forgot about the time - tack Barbro för att jag kunde göra det :).

We love summer :)

Carpe diem

Sometimes I learn from previous mistakes - these past days I've managed to more or less take the day as it comes, not make plans, but see what happens and how I feel. Yesterday my mother wanted to go see if there are any blueberries in the woods. Not a lot, it turned out, and unfortunately it turned out she is really not in the shape for berrypicking anymore - fell flat on her back, but fortunately in a very soft spot and it wasn't too difficult to help her up.

D has began to fall asleep very nicely in
the evenings, unfortunately so have I (around 9 o´clock pm :(, which means I wake up at 6 am. But maybe I'll get into a better rhythm when I begin to trust that the bedtime isn't hours of activities with D. Jakobsdagar gick också väldigt bra, vis av byadagarnas misstag satte jag inga mål, fast jag väldigt gärna ville höra konserten på kvällen. Men tänkte kvällen före att om jag eller D blir för trötta, så far vi hem före. På morgonen gick vi på Gammaldagstorg - D på ryggen, jag har inhandlat "ryggsäck" åt honom (fick också min bärsjal såld! Tack Ulrika för alla tips!!!), se fotot i skogen. Efter det plockade jag fram vagnen, träffade på studiekompis vid lunchen (tänkte skriva "gammal" - men det är vi ju varkendera!! - fast det var en tid sen vi studerade i Åbo), inspekterade stadsträdgården och Aspegrens, samt promenerade till en väninnas för att lite vila före middag med vänner. Blev jättetrevlig dag!! Och konserten var jättebra! Nu tar jag det så lugnt så jag inte riktigt vill orka göra något här hemma - men det är ju semestertider. Så härliga dikesrenarna är, jag är glad att ingen nitisk vägverksanställd kommit på att meja ner alla sommarblommor än (senare: hann knappt skriva detta så kom en högljudd manick och mejade ner alla blommor :(. Och kanske jag småningom börjar se det fina i hemknutarna - brukar sucka över att skogen är för långt borta för en snabb promenad med vagnen, nu är jag så glad över min lilla åkerväg, som jag går fram och tillbaka längs med, ibland flera gånger om dagen.

Socialt!

Nu äntligen har jag bildbevis på att D går :). Denna vecka har han börjat gå också utomhus och han börjar få upp farten så småningom. Jag är glad, tycker att det är lättare att hitta på aktivititeter, till exempel på kvällen då jag själv är trött - vi kan gå på promenad runt huset, till exempel!

Vi blev bjudna på "poolparty" på tisdagen, hade en knapp timme på oss, men det var en fin timme!

I onsdags var vi på mamma-barn och hade gäster på eftermiddagen.

I går var vi till Ylihärmä - mommo skulle masseras. D tyckte det var så spännande att vara på promenad i regnet (med vagnen), så han ville inte alls sova. I går gav jag inga jordgubbar (jag lär mig...) och nu har han sovit rätt bra. Jag fick nog lyfta honom i min säng på morgonkvisten, men han somnade direkt om.

I dag är det gäster på kommande igen och i morgon hoppas jag att vi kan åka till Jakobstad och kolla in folket på Jakobsdagarna.

(Thanks Janet for the t-shirt - one of my guests on Wednesday was from Montana!)

Animal revolt

I saw a really touching documentary the other night. It was about the "gentle giants" - elephants - who are not so gentle anymore. Caretakers have been killed in zoos, circuses, and in India the conflict between locals and wild elephants is becoming more and more serious, with less space for the elephants and more people killed. And it is all our own fault. Now researchers have finally come to the conclusion that many elephants suffer from posttraumatic stress - one of the circuselephants who killed his caretaker had witnessed his mother being killed in Africa, before being skipped overseas. The facts that elephants are intelligent, familycentered and longlived should have taught us to treat them with respect a long time ago. And not only elephants. But they seem to be reaching their breakingpoint now, and we cannot ignore them. I can't help but think they are at the forefront - they are not the only animals suffering tremendously in various ways from human actions. For elephants the problems are mainly in poor countries, but the roots to the problems spread all over the world. And at the core is money and survival - again, the money being elsewhere, being distributed so lopsidedly over the world, so that so many people have to take desperate measures to make a living.

I looked through my album from my two winters in Sri Lanka, to see the photos of elephants I have (I'll include some later, can't start making noise now in the middle of the night, D might wake up). There is a note on one of the photos from a zoo: " a zoo is a place where animals can watch humans without being shot at". A witty sign, but unfortunately I think it is just there to make us feel better about keeping animals locked up.

Things have to change. Let's hope "Fire the grid" on the 17.7 helped a little. I tried to do my part, but D wouldn't quite cooperate. So no meditation, but instead being out in nature together with the most precious "thing" in my life (D) - appreciating the sun, the sky, the grass underneath, the summerflowers and grasses and butterflies on the sides of the path to the fields. I guess the message of 17.7 is that we have to remember and focus on the positive things in order to increase the positive energies and hope that when enough people do that, we will find ways to rescue what we still have.