Rough times

I have had both my nieces over here for few days. Yesterday we went to visit my friend who had just last week received two cats. She also has a boy who is the same age as my nieces. The day started a bit slow as one woke up at six and the other after seven. The other one did not have a good day at all. Just complaining every other little thing. I was so surprised that we even got to my friends home.

Luckily there she cheered up and all three played together. There were some tantrums over there as well but the kids sorted them out themselves. When it was time to leave it was more rough for the other one who hadn't had any tantrums yet. She really liked to be there and wanted to go again soon. Luckily the ride back was much more calm. Well they sang this song called Silkkii (the chorus part) in chorus for the entire trip back home. There were some doubt how the words really go, but they had fun.

They both had a fun day and evening (the tantrums were more rough on me than on them) and both went to bed quite easily. Too easily. After few minutes I went to check upon them. Well other one  (with the tantrums) were drawing and other one was trying to sleep. I told that now it is time to sleep and took the papers and pens away. Then the one who tried to sleep asked if she could sleep in another room. Of course I said yes, because she also said she had a headache. Oh, boy. That's when the other one started to cry.

So I spent an hour (at least) calming her down and making the other one sleep in the same room. I had to pretend to be asleep between them (on the floor). Oh, boy the amount of the crying. Well I did notice that she was tired and this is why she was crying. I just assured to her that my other niece will be sleeping there as well and hold her pretty much the entire time. In the end it was easier to pretend to be asleep. She did test me, poking once in a while and checking if my eyes were open. But I kept my cool and did not open my eyes untill I was farely sure she was asleep.

This morning they both woke up at their own time and are now watching Tom and Jerry.

I noticed that...

-My rice has little bugs in it. I noticed it when I was boiling it up. What buggles me a bit is that it was supposedly in air thigh box. Oh, well one thing that I don't have to worry about eating or storaging.

-My DVD player has learned a new game. It is called push open, and it will open and close right away. Luckily it won't continue that very long. It is very annoying though. Also one more thing that I don't have to storage. I think I will donate it to anyone who wants it or through it away.

-Few days ago I noticed that there was two little girls drawing on my floor. I did not know the second one. I am hesitant to take small children in, if I do not know them, but as they were clearly playing and had fun, I didn't dare to say no. I just have to note, that she was younger than my niece. (No parents to be found anywhere)

-I am really tired already, and can't wait till another hour has passed so that I can say to my nieces that it is time to go to bed. They are playing at the moment so I have a moment of peace, but it is just for a moment.

-I am pretty sure that I have forgotten tons of things that I needed to do. My mind is just so occupied at the moment. So Sorry if I have forgotten something that I have promised to do!

Then it is time for updates:
Wall in my bedroom: Painted
Police station: Passport renewed
Police station: Fingerprinted (it was so funny, when they didn't first understand what I wanted. They asked who wants my fingerprints. The guy who took them told me that he had done this once earlier for similar occation.)

Hmm, I think you are otherwise up-to-date on my plans and life. But now I don't hear any voices, so it is time to go check what the two are up to.

Entertainment

On Friday evening my aunt arrived with her husband and a child who they look after once a month. This was really nice surprise for my niece (although I did let it slip earlier so that she would be expecting them)(preventing her headaches). My niece and the boy really clicked and started to play right away. Even though it was really late, we let them play just for a little while.

On Saturday morning they played a bit more, because the fun park where we decided to go opened at noon. So we had to spent the time between six am to noon at my place. Then we went to Tykkimäki, which is a family fun park, mostly for children not so much for adults. As the boy was so little he needed an adult to company him on some rides. This did not slow them down at all. I did two rides: Ferris Wheel and a frog ride (you would pedal on a circuit about four meters above the ground). Luckly there were also a play ground and a hoplop type of a place where the two could spend the rest of their energy. I am happy to say that when we left no one was crying "why do we have to leave". Also the only persons to get some sun burn were the adults. 

On Sunday I let my niece watch a bit more TV than normally. Just because she woke up before six and the boy slept till eight. He would have slept even longer if my aunt hadn't woken him up. So my niece watched the tv a bit before he woke up, so that she wouldn't make too much noise. Then she watched again with the boy. They also spent quite some time outside this morning too. My aunt et al left for home before noon, after which my niece called her mother to fill her in about her travels. She said as a good bye "I'm going out to see if there are any friends there". As it has been promised that there will be thunder, I first wondered if we should go for a swim or not. But because the sun started to shine, I decided that we should go. So after having watched a movie (while I did the laundry) we left for the beach. It is not a big beach and it is really trouble some to get a parking space. I was lucky and was able to get a space near the lake. 

I do have to admit that I did not swim. There was so many kids in the water that I did not see it very pleasent. I was able to let my niece go by herself as she had been to a swimming school earlier. Also she had a swimming ring to help her. I was not far away and I was all prepared to go in, if she asked me to. We had a snack with us at the beach. Now she is doing the dishes (washing, rinsing and putting them to dry). I have offered to help many times but she refused my help. 

Oh, my favourite quote so far: "there is something similar with you and my mom?!"

Pic update again

I confess I did take the first pic while driving, but there were no other traffic, so I dared to do so. I just had to take a picture of the things that scared me during the winter time.

Windmills

Also I wanted to show you how well the plant I took to my sister is doing. It really likes the space in my opinion. You can't even tell that it is missing from my bench as the other plants took over really fast. I think it is too crowded still in my flower bench, but that's not my problem anymore. It is the next occupants problem.

The moon lily (or something like that) is doing well

My niece wanted something to do, so I obliged and gave her task to pick the weeds out of cracks of the stones and water the plants. She really enjoyed doing it. What am I going to make her do tomorrow??

My niece watered the flowers and picked the weeds

I have these chalks that are used to draw on the street. Luckily I have a piece of street in front of me, so my niece was able to draw. She told me that this is a worm that is in jail. The ceiling looks like a cloud so that the worm will be happy to stay in the jail.

It is a worm in jail

I asked my niece if she wanted me to make her soup or should we buy some from the store. She wanted me to do some for her. I put some red currant for flavour and black currant so that it wouldn't be all red.

Strawberry-currant soup

For dinner we BBQ:ed some, but unfortunately my niece wasn't too hungry. She had found a friend from the playground...

BBQ

My salad is doing fine! I just need to cover it up a bit because the sun is burning quite a lot here.

Salad is doing fine :)

Oh, yeah the friend my niece found is here now. They are drawing together. My niece showed her my apartment :)) The wall we painted, in the yard the flowers she watered. No pic of the wall, sorry, you'll just have to trust me.

Babysitting and working

Not an easy task to combine. Luckily next year, my sister will have a proper day care if she has a summer job. It wasn't possible for this year. But I am happy to say that there hasn't been many problems that we haven't been able to solve. Somehow it is quite nice that my niece will be able to travel the same way as we did. Especially when we know that this is not very permanent thing, and that my niece really wants to do the travelling.

So the trouble is that instead of palying by herself, she wants to chat with me. This is not possible all the time as I am working at the same time. Sometimes I need to say to her that I can't talk now, I have to work. Usually after 10 minutes she comes back to me and asks if I have done working yet. :) I have tried to explain that my work is time related, so I will have to work the time I have been given. Of course as I work from home, I am able to take break when ever I want and have longer ones as well. This just means that I will need to do the time in at some other point. I usually try to do the day's work in that one day. Sometimes I do a bit extra during the weekend so that I can have some time off during the week.

I have been on a lookout for another job for few years now. I have sent out applications to the ones I find interesting. So far I haven't been able to get into an interview. Oh, well I am not that worried at the moment as this job gives me now chance to live abroad once again. I can't wait! No luck with lotto last weekend, so I can't just quit. Better luck next time, when ever that will be.

Now my niece is vacuuming, because that is one of the best things to do that she knows. :) I hope this will be as easy when we go to my place for few weeks.