No longer a baby

When I started this blog I wanted to post everything that my daughter had been doing growing up. One thing led to another and I got busy with life. Things were just all over the place and I was all over the place. Moving from one part of Europe to another and back again. Who knows, I might move once more. My little one has been amazing through it all. Our lives, according to some self righteous people, do not seem stable. I agree that this is not the best way to raise a child, always on the move but I believe the experience she gains from this is the best gift she can ever have.

In a hotel in Cricklewood when we first moved to UK

One thing's for sure, she's brought more content and more meaning in my life than I could ever imagine. I try to do my very best for her to guide her through life. I believe that learning through experience is a wonderful gift any parent could give to their child. I love you my little soldier! Thank you for giving me a chance to experience life with you, here's to many more years to come and lots of milestones to achieve and hurdles to cross. You'll never be alone in your journey to growing up. Love Mama and Daddy!

It's okay to cry...Kids are a joy but they can also be hardwork

As much as I hate to admit, even I have bad moments. I dream of a perfect child that never answers back, that doesn't go on and on and on about why he/she can't have something, obedient, yada yada and all things sweet and dandy.The truth is, kids will test your patience time in time out. That is the part of growing up and some kids are worse going through their 'terrible 2's' (why would anyone name it that? It's terrible 1-2-3-4-5-6-7......) They come and go in phases and each time a new mischievous bright idea pops up and they test your patience. For those out there thinking why do I'm using such horrible words to describe children is because, to me the term worse depends on your level of tolerance. For you some kid may seem barbaric but for their parents it's everyday life and they have to deal with them differently. I admire the kind of patience they have for I'm a fire breathing dragon when it comes to badly behave kids.

My two girls

I admit I do get soft with my own child and putting discipline at home is toughest especially when you're a working mum and time is against you (for eg. you're preparing your child and you would normally have 30 mins before you have to leave for work to be in time for a meeting, you kid throws a tantrum and decides they aren't going to daycare or school today so they go mess up, soil themselves, come up with any excuse they can find to avoid it) then you have a tendency to give in. I make no excuses for my child if I'm late I warn in advance that if someone needs me to be in before 9 there is a 50% chance I won't be able to make it, I simply have to put discipline first. So I try to set my meetings as late as possible to give myself ample time to get to the office just so I don't have to face grime looks (I still get them even if they were warned) explaining to everyone how horrible kids can be sometimes.

Then comes questions, what if you don't have a flexible work schedule, you simply have to be there and say open up the store, drive a forklift, be there for a performance, set up your restaurant or many things that have strict opening times. Yes, now this is one thing I have thought about myself, what if scenarios like this were to be part of my life, how do I tackle with this? I honestly don't know. I would probably break down. I can't take credit for raising my daughter, without help from my dear hubby I wouldn't be able to go on work trips let alone do longer days. It's still compromise from both ends but it makes juggling with work and childcare a bit more bearable.

All I can say is being a parent is anyway a tough job, I'm used to a flexible lifestyle but with a child there is no room for flexibility in my lifestyle anymore...So I lose the me time altogether. Lunch breaks and coffee breaks are me times these days that I take myself out of the wheel and try to reclaim some sanity. If someone asked me would I do it all over again if I had a glimpse of my future? The answer is yes! Would I like to have another child? The answer is also yes! What about a third? Well, I've always thought I'd be a mother of 5 or more, but I have too much to juggle with 1 as it is and having the second child would definitely fill up all my free times that I'm going to put a stop at 2. So as I said...if you feel the need to cry, just let it out. You've done a good job and kids don't know how to appreciate it at a young age. I feel rewarded anyways at the end of the day because I made it through yet another rat race! :)

Baby to Toddler

I'm logging down the words my little fella uses.

English-> Finnish -> Babytalk

Hammer->Vasara->Kapuka
Rubberboots-> kumisaapat-> mOmpuli
Hairbands-> Hiuksetpanta ->PimPamPompula or PimpulaPompula
Ice cream - Läskiä(fats) xD

Long time no see...

Life as a working mother, cooking, cleaning and so on has left me little time to update this blog. However my little girl's progress has been exceptional. She's eating lots and have been moving quite alot too. We were recently in U.K. for holiday and now we have returned to our normal routine (if you can call it normal) It takes the baby a bit more time to adjust to coming back to reality compared to adults. So that means a week of sleepless nights. I'm looking forward to having sleepless nights again in February after our trip from Portugal. Let's see how it goes.

Alyssa @ Fat Harry's Fish and Chips - Isle of Wight, UK

Alyssa has started daycare in the newly built one just down the road. That means no more driving km and km away to send and pick her up. The only problem is that we are within viewing range from the daycare and she can see if I happen to come home to clean up and cook. It would give the daycare givers a bit harder time. So far I have been rather sneaky but she is starting to recognize our cars.

I'll run down a back in time update on her growth later today. She's been changing in the way she eats and what she eats. I can't say that it's easier because she's no longer wanting to eat baby food (according to my hubby, 'Who would?') Honestly, they aren't all that bad. It was one of the things I ate during my pregnancy with Alyssa as the portions were small enough and since I couldn't hold my food for the first trimester, I needed some sort of sustenance. I'd say it served me well.

Sleep and sleep patterns

Not much has changed for Alyssa over the pass few months. She was still sleeping relatively well. She started to learn to paddle on her tummy when we were in our trip to visit grandma in Asia. When we got back home she continued to progress. The progress was slow compared to other children and it seemed to have worried the nurse at the health clinic. To be honest it worried me a little but then I thought over on what other parents have been saying about their kids, it calmed me down a little. A week after that incident she started to crawl on her own although very clumsily.

Today 23rd July, she has caught up with most of her milestones. She started dancing a week ago and we manage to catch that on video! Then she started to wave goodbye, show hand signals if she doesn't want her food anymore, bobbing her head for approval and shaking it for disapproval. She also responds to claps on television. For example when the Ellen DeGeneres Show starts and audience are clapping, she'll join in the fun and turns to smile at me for approval or praise :). It's quite refreshing to see how she's growing and am thankful for such a sweet girl (although she can be quite a handful every now and then, what baby isn't? ;-)).

Alyssa still enjoys her naps although it's getting less each day but they can range from 0-3 times a day and each could last from 30 mins -3 hours even! She sleeps well in the night if it's not too hot or too cold. She does wake up and yelp if she is out of the blankey and wants to be covered. It happens once in a while so it's not such a biggy.

7 1/2 months and travelling!

Alyssa is going to be travelling for the second time on an airplane! The first time went relatively well for her but for me, it was a tad too much of an adventure. Alyssa drinks the most difficult to explain stuff in the world, in Finnish it's called 'velli' it's sorta watery (or milky) porridge. I don't really know if there is anything remotely the same in English except oat smoothie O.o or corn smoothie. There are two brands that I know off that make this in Finland. One is Semper the other is Nuticia's Muksu. We use the Muksu mostly because of the variety.


On the development side. Alyssa hasn't been very keen in turning to her tummy as she feels stuck whenever she does that and doesn't remember how to turn back. She's been lifting her butt after visiting our friend's (ex-neighbor) daughter Emilíana since she was showing Alyssa how to crawl. It was hilarious to watch Alyssa as she would be flat on the soft blanket that we put on the floor for her to lie on looking rather poofed. Otherwise she's great at sitting already...She doesn't need much of support but she gets tired easily and can fall over as her balance is still off.


As of 13th of February 2010, we were adviced to put toothpaste on her toothbrush (just a light wipe of it) and brush her teeth. Today she's shown that she's capable of spitting out the toothpaste and if we introduce water to her she'd spit everything out. We would praise Alyssa so she would learn that this is the right thing to do after brushing teeth.

All in all she hasn't reached certain milestones but we are proud of what she can do at this point. As I learnt from talking to many different parents and hearing their experiences that no two babies are the same. Of course there is always a reason to doubt if something is wrong. It's best to consult a professional if you suspect something wrong but most of the time these professionals may give you more reason to be concern than to wipe them away. It's only natural for a parent to be concern of the wellbeing of their child.