I, Aapo, and Niilo visited my parents in Polvijärvi, North Carelia, during the previous weekend. I had some training business in the nearby town of Joensuu, and it was handy to bring in the boys and bunk at my parents house for the weekend. Everyone won: boys saw grandparents, grandparents saw boys, Sanna got some time of her own, and I could bond deeper with the boys with this special dad-sons excursion to the wilderness — or something along those lines.

We took a train from Helsinki to Joensuu, and had our seats in a children car — an excellent choice, I must say. Aapo and Niilo spent most of their time playing, reading, eating or watching DVDs. I fixed three issues in a customer project, and read a couple of Aapo’s comic books. As the train left in the morning on Saturday, we had plenty of time in Polvijärvi after my dad picked us up in Joensuu. Saturday evening and Sunday was spent playing in snow — there as a slide built by my dad — and just fooling around the house.

I boarded a bus on Monday morning and rode to Joensuu. Boys stayed in Polvijärvi. The training / seminar took six hours, and after that we had a family reunion in Joensuu — my parents and sons picked me up, and we headed to the airport. Apart the waiting time — that was kept hectic by Aapo — the flight was uneventful. Both Aapo and Niilo sat obediently on their seats throughout the flight, and behaved well also on Helsinki-Vantaa airport where Sanna was waiting for us.

The flight was the latest one leaving from Joensuu, and well beyond the normal sleeping hours. Maybe the boys were so tired that they didn’t have energy to argue and to do mischief. Or then the flight was so exciting experience, as I was not sitting with them but on the other side of the aisle.

All in all, the trip was way better than I though it would, especially as all practicalities were so smooth. Next trip is probably middle-April, hopefully my good luck continues…

Helsinki has been blessed with good winter this year. Typically, there is just sleet instead of snow on the ground, and everything is wet and dirty. Not this year; the amount of snow is staggering. For example, I cleaned the yard twice yesterday, and spent about 30 minutes each time pushing the snow from here to there. It is excellent exercise, but feels a bit worn already.

The national railways have had a lot of issues with the snow, and trains on time have been more exceptions than a rule lately. I’ll travel to Joensuu with the boys on Saturday, so hopefully they get their act together before that. People have been waiting several hours at the station for their train, and doing that with two and five year old guys would be torture. Well, that is to be seen on Saturday…

We (myself and Sanna, that is) have been pondering on various travel destinations, but haven’t been able to get into any conclusion yet.

The ideal place should be somewhere warm, be kid-friendly and specifically have good children pools, be located near enough, and have something else than just beach and sunshine. Some shopping possibilities or theme / water parks would be additional bonus.

There seem to be no such place. Dubai is a good candidate, but opulence is not the thing that we are looking for now. There are rumours of opening a new Legoland in Dubai during 2011, so we decided to skip it until that theme park is available.

Thailand and south-east Asia in general are good candidates, but the long flights — especially overnight — are cumbersome with the boys. Canary Islands are a tacky destination, but I’ve heard good feedback about them. Unfortunately, there are no direct non-charter flights from Helsinki. Miami would be nice, too, but we’ve been there recently.

How travelling can be so hard? Maybe we should just scrap all the ideas, and go to New York for a while.

We had spent a good and relaxing weekend in Stockholm almost a week and half ago… I’ve been so busy with my work that I haven’t got enough time to write anything about it to Nomadig.com. Finally, I’ve been able to squeeze a few minutes for Nomadig.

We flew to Stockholm on late Friday afternoon. For the first time, we didn’t take any toys for the boys to the plane, but instead spend the hour watching the scenery underneath. For some odd reason, SAS forgot to bribe them with airplane toys. The surprisingly uneventful flight continued with short train trip to Stockholm city proper, and then we took a taxi to the hotel.

Our hotel was located next to Humlegården park in a posh neighbourhood in downtown Stockholm. We managed to visit a few shops before they closed, and I found a pair of jeans that I’ve been searching for a loooong time.

The next day was dedicated to shopping. We visited several stores around the area, and kept the boys in bay with vague promises and threats of going or not going to a toy store at the end of the day. We found more stuff compared to the last visit to Stockholm — then we didn’t find any. Mostly items that are not available in Helsinki.

After an excellent lunch in a local sushi bar we walked a couple of kilometers to Moderna Museet to see a Dalí exhibition. It was surprisingly crowded, and we had some hardships to navigate with two strollers — boys were deftly sleeping throughout the whole trip.

Finally, the moment the boys were waiting for: visits to a video game store and a toy store. We found new Super Mario Bros game for Wii from the first store, and nothing from the second. This was rectified later in NK toy department that had Lego Star Wars sets on sale. The programme for the day ended in the hotel’s roof-top sauna that I visited with the boys.

Sunday was really short day in Stockholm. We woke up before seven, had breakfast, and left the hotel with a taxi to the railway station. The plane left Arlanda around ten o’clock, and we were back in Finland at noon. The rest of Sunday was surprisingly relaxing, as we hadn’t planned anything for the whole day.

As said in the last post, we spent the Christmas time with my parents in North Carelia. The decision to go there was a wise one. I haven’t such a relaxing holiday season for a while. We mostly spent time eating, playing games, and watching videos. The only minus was the cold weather; when it is -20C outside the house, you don’t want to spend too many minutes there.

Aapo got a big Lego pirate ship that he built (99% by himself — which is an achievement for a guy less than five years old) during the days after Christmas Eve. Niilo got a load of wooden groceries (and a few fake bottles of Pepsi Max…). Boys also got a couple of DVDs, and they watched the Chip & Dale disc at least five times during the holidays.

We arrived back to Espoo on Sunday evening, and I’ve been coding ever since. Such small luxuries of life…

I’ve finally started to feel that Christmas is coming. This seems to happen later and later every year, due to mounting pressures at work and general haste in life. I made enormous push during the past two weeks, and purchased all presents, wrappings, and other paraphernalia needed. Now I just need to wrap the presents, and hide them for a few days.

We’ll spend the holiday season in North Carelia, in my parents to be exact. Boys are eagerly waiting for the extended weekend with the grandparents, and I’m looking forward for a couple of days that are at least relatively peaceful and quiet.

Before that, however, there are still things to be done — I need to continue wrapping up the presents.

We had quite a wonderful time in London. The hotel was shock-middle London downtown, a couple hundred meters from Oxford Circus — and we were able to walk everywhere. This was a huge relief compared to the usual situation where one travels back and forth with the tube most of the day. I can whole-heartedly recommend No. 5 Maddox Street.

The programme was also relaxed. The business related stuff had their own time and place, but they didn’t spill over that much; only once or twice… Boys behaved extremely well for the most of the time — flying has never been this easy. Hopefully this is a continuing trend, and not an exception.

Saturday was the best day. The weather was nice, no business needs, a nice visit to Transportation Museum in Covent Garden, and a lot of small-scale shopping. Oxford and Regent Streets were closed from cars, and there were huge amount of people walking on the streets. I and Aapo made a long visit to Hamleys at the end of the day, and bought a pack of Legos, teddybear for Niilo, and some Thomas the Tank Engine railroad items.

Sanna is now on a business trip to the Netherlands, and I’m trying to be a single dad for two nights and one day. The first evening is now over, and boys are sleeping. Everything went better than I thought (or feared…), and hopefully everyone is able to enjoy a good night’s sleep.

It is surprisingly hard job to do parenting only by yourself. I’ve usually handled the morning routines from bed to kindergarten, and Sanna takes care of afternoons and evening meal. There is surprisingly many things to do when you fetch kids from a kindergarten; clothes must be checked for stains and tears, everything need to be cleaned, kids must be fed and entertained, and so on.

Fortunately they went to bed without too much trouble, and I am able to focus on some things of my own. Early bed time has a flipside of early waking up time, so I need to get some sleep before midnight…