Eelis is a Star with the Girls

  

Minea and Merikukka with their Mums



Fanni

I have always believed that every day you have the chance to learn something new, and today I learned several new things. The first of these was that taking a good photograph of five babies at the same time is not easy!  I discovered this as I was trying to capture Minttu with her four new friends at our baby club this morning. Whilst I was trying to get the shot, the four other Mums were behind me trying to shout various things to try and get the five of them to look at the camera at the same time. It didn't work.

  

Minttu

My little one, Minttu, is now six months old.  She has no teeth yet and has somehow developed a very calm and peaceful outlook on life. I still have no idea where she gets that from.  As soon as I arrived here in Somero I registered her with the baby clinic (neuvola) and was very pleased to be invited to join the relevant baby club.  The idea is a very simple one. Every few months a new baby club is set up at the clinic, so mothers with babies of the same age can get to know each other. The group is invited to meet twice at the clinic after which meetings are held in each other's homes.



Merikukka, Minea, Minttu, Fanni and Eelis discuss the elections

 

Our group is made up of Maikku with her son Eelis, Jenni and her daughter Fanni, Taija with Merikukka and Teija who is Mum to Minea. We talk about all the obvious things such as sleepless nights, teething troubles and other baby issues...but much more than that, the club provides the chance to have a chat to another adult, which can sometimes be a real luxury when you are the parent of small children. 


 The babies of course have much more in-depth discussions about issues such as the quality of their respective parenting and whether they should be in a strict routine or not. Today they spoke very intensely about the forthcoming elections and which candidate would best represent the interests of babies in Somero, but I promised not to divulge how they are planning to vote.  

Eelis smiling..the only boy amidst four baby girls!



Quite seriously, this is a very simple idea but the benefits are potentially huge, both for the Mums as well as the children themselves. Certainly Eelis has got off to a great start in life...only six months old and already surrounded by girls.