It really is! This has been the longest winter I can remember. It looked like ice age for a while. When the calendar hinted that we could go out looking for the first flowers, it was still minus 10 degrees (Celsius) outside, freezing and windy! I was suddenly much more interested in weather broadcasts. I usually just look out the window, but the weather broadcast I got from looking out the window was always, "the winter is never going to end. Give up already.", so every morning I looked at one week weather broadcast on my phone to see if the weather will change any time soon. For weeks the weather broadcast said that winter will end next week and every time it was a false alarm. Three days before it was supposed to be getting warm, they changed the broadcast to "-3 to 0, possibly snowing" but now the spring is finally here! 
Yay!Not like I can really enjoy spring weather because lately I drive to work. And I work a lot. I am keeping busy with presentations, I organized a conference workshop on transgenic plants and I'm writing an article with other people. I like to work and I feel the happiest after a productive day at work and when I can spend time with kids who are in a good mood and behaving well. Like today - I am helping with a university plant course and I stayed in the lab quite long. Then I also went grocery shopping and made it home about an hour before children's bedtime. Today I actually looked forward to coming home and tucking them in - I mean, chasing them around the apartment to make sure they get into their pajamas and their teeth brushed and their story read.
Usually I dread those tasks that never seem to get resolved. It doesn't matter how many times I tuck them in, they still have to be tucked in the next day and each day after that until they're teenagers. Today when I came home, Liisa and Siiri were just so adorable and they did all the perfect things. Liisa was cute and ticklish, mischievously stole my hair band and hid it around her wrist. Siiri had a conversation with me, about kindergarten and how all the girls are pretty but none of the boys are pretty. She also managed to answer some complex math questions. I asked her, if she took a piece of dough and cut it in half and cut those pieces in three, how many pieces would she have, and she said, six. She'll be four years old in one month. Liisa and Siiri were having such a good time tonight so I didn't mind that they stayed up for an hour longer than the time we usually aim for. 
Liisa and Siiri are pretty fun company but they still need constant looking after. Siiri can manage with iPad for a couple of hours but Liisa can't be left alone for that long. Liisa has absolutely no sense of danger. Or rather, she notices danger, she giggles and runs toward it faster! She's 1,5 years old now and she climbs everywhere. One day I caught her (literally) climbing on top of a large armchair.
From the floor she wouldn't reach that high even with her hands stretched up but she wouldn't let such a small detail as danger of falling stop her from climbing as high as possible. Some time later I stopped her from "jumping" on the edge of the bed. She can't really jump but she likes to practice. She also likes to sit at the edge of things with her back towards the edge. Seems like an easy mistake to make, but the does it on purpose. She shifts closer to the edge and then peeks behind her if she still has room to spare and then looks away and tries again. Her wild eyes look high on adrenaline when she does such things. A few days ago I found her standing in a corner surrounded by a sofa and an armchair. The only way she could have got there is by sliding herself over the armrest of the armchair. Later she even demonstrated it by repeating it over and over again. The armrest is as high as Liisa's neck when she stands next to it.Liisa is making both me and Erkki very jumpy. Liisa is a fun toddler - giggling and joking around - but she's also a bit nuts. One time when we were on the big bed, Liisa stood up and ran for the edge. I tried to jump after her yelling, "Liisa! Stop! Gaaahhhh!!!", but she was having too much fun to notice me. Somehow, right before the edge, she dropped herself on her stomach, threw her feet over the edge, landed on her feet and kept on running, leaving me to cope with my adrenaline surge.
Another time she was sitting on a dining chair meant for grown-ups and then started rocking her legs over the edge. I warned her to be more careful, so she grabbed on to the side of the dining table, briefly stared at me with a defiant look in her eyes, slid her ass over the edge of the chair and landed on her feet and then her bottom thumped on the floor. She got up, mumbled enthusiastically and climbed on another dining chair. Liisa has much better dexterity than I expected at her age and she really needs it with all the crazy things she tries all the time. She doesn't fall nearly as often and I would have feared. Anyway it doesn't matter if it's a really careful kid like Siiri or an adrenaline junkie in diapers like Liisa, kids sometimes fall either way. Actually they fall about as often. Siiri was careful but rather clumsy, Liisa is dexterous but reckless.Liisa barely talks but she understands very well. And Siiri often makes an extra effort to understand her. Sometimes Siiri translates her distress to us: "Mom, Liisa wants to drink water" and then I ask Liisa, "Do you want to drink water?" and Liisa nods and says "Yes". More often, Siiri tells me what she wants Liisa to know: "Mom, I want Liisa to watch another cartoon on iPad." Sometimes I secretly catch them communicating with each other when they think no one is watching. Siiri talks and Liisa grunts.
But most of my time is spent at work. I have been too busy. I have a HUGE deadline in two weeks and I have been working as hard as my domestic obligations allow. It's a huge problem if I plan to write something and to read scientific articles but then I get only a few hours of sleep and I can barely stay awake. Speaking of barely staying awake... It's nearly midnight. I used to regularly stay awake until 3 am but now it's not even midnight and I can barely keep my eyes open.
Nighty night.
