Last week, Santa visited Elina’s office and met two bears.
Every year, Venla’s school puts on a winter concert. This year, Venla’s class sang Try Everything from the film Zootropolis. Well done, Venla!
Yesterday we went to Venla’s winter concert. Her class sang the sharing song with some dance moves thrown in. Well done, Venla!
I didn’t make a lot her events at daycare like sport days and father’s day breakfasts. I did make one and the food was not spectular. And her graduation, of course. But I felt I missed a lot of it because I was so busy working on the business so that, ironically, I would have time to do that kind of stuff. Now the business is successful and I do have time to do this stuff. And it feels great!
Venla recently completed her 21st junior parkrun, earning her the marathon wristband (21 x 2k = 42k). She didn’t look too impressed but I think she’s mostly there for the food trucks after the run.
I’ve never heard of anyone being held back at daycare, especially as it isn’t even a thing in the UK education system, but Venla is graduating.
Last year, we threw Venla a family party that she enjoyed. But what she really wanted was a party with her friends or a “real party” in her words. So, this year, I set a note in my calendar for two months before her birthday to arrange a party with her friends.
Then COVID happened and ended all hopes of that.
Luckily, her birthday fell on a weekday so she could go to daycare and have a party there before coming home to have a party with the three of us.
It seems only last year that Venla was a toddler. Now she is a three-year-old. We worked hard to prevent her from having any screen time for the first few years of her life. But now she’s discovered Peppa Pig and wants Peppa Pig everything. Which, thankfully, can be obtained for reasonable prices.
Venla is at the stage where she can go all day without a nap but is very cranky towards the end if she does. Sometimes she has one, sometimes she doesn’t. This means she often gets home from daycare very tried and sometimes has a nap out of sheer exhaustion.
For example, here is a nap she had while standing up.
Another time, I allowed her to have a 30-minute nap on the sofa. But then I needed here awake so she didn’t wake up too early the next morning. So, I picked her up and sat her next to the kitchen where I was making dinner. She went to sleep anyway.
Last weekend, Venla and I headed over to Cross Flatts park to do Parkrun. It’s pretty empty at 8:30am, when it’s six degrees, surprisingly, so Venla had the swing park all to herself. After that, we headed off to the start line in the buggy.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to run given I was still recovering from Hubble Bubble, but I felt good once I started. Until I pulled a muscle in my neck, at least.
Buggies go fast downhill and slow uphill. But I can’t have been too far off form because in the end I managed a 26:26, finishing a couple of minutes ahead of the next buggy. I don’t think I could do that at Woodhouse Moor where the super-runners smash out Olympic buggy times, but it felt good to steam home to victory.
It’s easy to believe that Venla is two years old already because who can really remember a time when she wasn’t around. It was a golden age where we did what we wanted and slept without interruption.
We did a little party for her on the weekend before and I think there was a ratio of 1:1 on cakes to guests. Which worked out very well for everyone involved.
We also took her out for ice cream on her actual birthday; just the three of us. Unfortunately, Kaspa’s offered their usual terrible service and forgot about Venla’s ice cream, so she threw a tantrum. The terrible twos have arrived in style.