).I don't even know how stuff at home gets done with me spending so much time elsewhere. It used to be so much more difficult. Laundry keeps piling up but I ignore it as long as I can and I do it in as little time as possible. We do dishes when we're running out of clean ones, and nowadays we often discover it after it has already happened. I don't even find the time to have weekly entire-apartment Roomba marathons, so I just run Roomba in critical areas when it feels appropriate and when I can find the opportunity. I even bake a little but I don't even plan it much because that would require commitment. In stead I try last minute recipes. I'd try almost anything that doesn't require ingredients that I don't have. Basically I shifted my values a bit and I stopped wasting all my energy on worrying about stupid things like weekly cleanings.
I mean, sometimes it wasn't even all that dusty. And now sometimes there's dust on the TV and there's fingerprints all over the glass table in our living room and so what? When it crosses my tolerance level, I deal with it. When Erkki beats me to it, he deals with it. Often though, our adorable babysitter wipes the table and takes the dishes out of the dishwasher. I'm still learning the art of spontaneity. Yesterday I found out about a stand-up comedy show in Tartu Vilde pub. Since me and Erkki wanted to go together we had to go on the same evening, even though the show was repeated in the following evening. I talked to our nanny and I so saw stand-up comedy in Tartu for the second time.
...and this is certainly worthy of it's own paragraph (probably worth even an entire post but I have other things I want to share as well)... but stand-up comedy IS SO COOL!!!
Especially this group that has been going around in Estonia, well, at least in Tallinn and Tartu. Some stand-up comedy that's very popular on the Internet doesn't even come close to the quality of Tartu Comedy Festival. If you hear they're performing in your area, do yourself a favor and go check them out!Meanwhile Siiri is getting more adorable every week.
For instance, she loves playing hide and seek and she has one favorite hiding spot. When she wants to play, she drops all her toys, walks straight to her hiding spot behind an armchair and stands very still. I pretend not to notice and I say, "Siiri? Siiri... Where did you go? Siiri..." and she stays put. When she hears me walking around the room looking for her she can't always resist loud giggling. Actually it's more like little shrieks of joy from knowing she's so well hidden that I can't find her. Not much talent for being a catburgler but cute nonetheless. When she feels like it, she steps out of her hiding spot with a wide grin, as if to say, "HERE I am!".Even potty training is going well and it's surprisingly effortless. I thought there would be lots of drama but nope. She says when she wants to go and sometimes she doesn't and it's all good. No pressure before kindergarten. She has lost nearly all interest in the letters of the alphabet and she is already forgetting most of them. For a little while she recognized quite many but now when she sees written text somewhere, she randomly points at letters and says, "aaaaaa uuuuuuuu oooooooo aaaaaaa äääääää".
Remember I told you Siiri got a stuffed toy, puppy dog, for bedtime. However, she doesn't notice it and she keeps it in the foot of her crib. Except, as it turns out, she DOES notice it. One time I used puppy to distract Siiri while getting her in her bedtime clothing and I forgot to put it back in her bed until I had already closed the door and it was too late. An hour later me and Erkki heard the bay monitor turn on. "woof. woof. Woof-woof."
(actually Siiri said "auh auh-auh auh-auh-auh" which is the sound that dogs make in Estonia). And then quiet until Siiri started asking for something to drink. I used this chance to return puppy to its usual spot while I gave Siiri some water. Minutes later we heard puppy being rattled (yes, it's also a rattle) and Siiri contently playing and saying, "woof. woof-woof". It's secret friendship - the next evening when I offered Siiri the toy puppy, she tossed it in the foot of her bed and completely ignored it.Siiri is now 1 year, 4 months and 2 days old and she can run and climb on beds. Fortunately she's even better at climbing OFF beds safely. We keep making pictures of her and she is getting more and more of an attention seeker. She loves grown-ups but unfortunately she is afraid of children her age. Babysitter thinks it might be because they're so unpredictable. Siiri feels unsafe with anyone under 10 years of age. In a way, it makes sense - when she was little, she had a few scares when children near her acted unpredictably, screamed and ran right by her. She doesn't realize that she's not much different from those children herself anymore.
It's quite amazing that children are like programmed to be so similar. Don't get me wrong, every child is unique and bla-bla-bla... But why does Siiri call out "woof-woof!" when she sees a dog, even though me and Erkki have always replied, "yes, it's a dog. DOG.". Why does Siiri love playing hide-and-seek and why does she get super excited when I play along? And most of all, as Siiri does not have any brothers or sisters and has never seen children aged 2-5 years put to bed at night, then how does she know to do the following: When she gets out of her diaper, she swiftly crawls away, climbs off the bed, runs a few steps away and stops at the door. Then she turns around with a wild look in her eyes, lets out a small laugh and then TAKES OFF as fast as she can!
I catch her, get some diapers on her and then spend the next 20 minutes asking her, "are you ready to get into your night clothing now?". It's such a stereotypical scenario, isn't it? If Siiri hasn't seen other children do it, then how does she know to do it? I have no answer. I don't think anyone has an answer to that one.Anyway, I often think, "OOOH!
I want to write about this in my blog! I'll probably get a chance to do it tomorrow" and before I realize it's 2 weeks later and I think, "maybe I'll have a spare moment tomorrow.". I haven't given up on the blog, simply, my grasp of time has given up on me. I'm hoping not to get too caught up in work but it's too easy to get hooked, especially when it's team work and I can see that my efforts are useful to someone. Way more useful than scheduled home-cleanings just for the sake of being "a good housewife". OH I've missed being part of something bigger than dishes or laundry. I still want more kids even though I've seen other people being much better suited for "baby time" than I'll ever be. I hope I'll be better at answering Siiri's why-questions. Can't wait. 
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