Time flies when you are having fun, but also when you have a baby… And not that much really changes when the baby becomes a toddler!

Nineteen months have gone by since the birth of our daughter and not a week has gone by without a thought “tomorrow I will write a new post”. But by the time tomorrow arrives, something has already happened; my mind has already traveled miles away from blogging, priorities have directed me into doing something else, or extreme fatigue has decided to pay a not-so-rare visit.

Having a child at 40+ is not a piece of cake. Lack of support network adds its own challenges. Time has never felt so precious and “did you sleep well?” has become a question associated with irony. I know there are things I could do differently in order to increase the amount of free time and to decrease the level of fatigue, but the reality is I want to make decisions that I am comfortable with, that I believe are the best in the long run. Have I made decisions that are thought to be typically French -no. Have I done things in the Finnish way -not really either.

Despite all this lack of this and that, life has been treating us well during these special months. Choupette (a nickname given to our daughter by a doctor –also known to be Karl Lagerfeld’s cat’s name lol) has embraced the world with open eyes and we have tried to shower her with love, wisdom, kindness, humility and patience. At the daycare where she goes part-time four times a week she eats four-course meals. Based on my latest calculations, she has already tasted nearly 20 types of French cheese. She has been to more restaurants than I did during the first ten years of my life. Choupette has already accumulated quite a bit of travel experience, too. Five trips to Finland, Sicily (https://pearlspotting.com/2015/09/16/palermo-with-a-baby/), island hopping in Greece, Liguria and Côte d’Azur (trips I would like to write about on day…), and this week she will discover Venice. In January she will travel to her first exotic destination: Sri Lanka. Elephants, Buddhist sites, beach and culinary discoveries are to be expected. Luckily she has been expanding her palate at Saravanaa Bhavan (https://pearlspotting.com/2013/10/31/my-love-affair-with-saravanaa-bhavan/) here in Paris!

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Just the tip of the iceberg, more to follow inch’allah! Meanwhile, please drop me a note to tell me how your life has been. Inside tips about Venice and Sri Lanka will be highly appreciated too.