What Savya Wants

Letter: 109

Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #109, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.

To follow the series, you can subscribe here. A new NordLetter will land in your inbox every Sunday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read previous editions here. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed.

You can reach out to me by replying on this mail or adding a comment on this. I am also posting on Mastodon.

Ever since Savya was born, we have been going for our walks. Savya and I on all days, with Prerna along for most days. The walks are when we get to decompress. When alone, the walks are when I started listening to and still listen to audiobooks. I used to listed to podcasts before that. The walks are where Prerna and I talk.

Savya loves the walks as well. In May, while his pram had broken down and we were trying to find a replacement or a fix, he would often walk to the door in the evening and tell us to take him out, for the walk.

We did get a new pram for him eventually, and the walks resumed.

Not for long though. The pram is fine! Like many times in the past, Savya has found a thing that he wants to do. This time the thing that he wants to do, affects the walk.

What does Savya want?

He wants to walk. Basically.

He wants to push his pram, with nothing or no one in it. It does not matter if there’s a hike. It does not matter if we need to cross the road. It does not matter if there are cyclists coming along from either side.

He wants to push his pram, and no, he does not want your help steering or helping it up the hill. No, thank you!

This is a problem. I love rhythms and routines of things. I love my walk, which mostly follows [[202410140012 Why walk the same route everyday|a single route]].

My solution to him wanting to walk was this - I would tie him down using the safety belts and let him make noises for a bit. He would eventually settle down.

That worked, till it didn’t.

On Monday, we had just left our home, tying him to his pram. Savya started crying then. We walked a little, saw another parent with his daughter of a similar age going their own way. She, looking at Savya, Savya looking at her. Her father carrying an empty pram.

There was momentary peace then, before he started crying again.

And not just making noise. There were tears. There was snot running everywhere. I stopped, got around and was about to smack him in the head, when I thought - why?

I thought back to all the times I have felt irritated with Savya and I realised the frustration is in me. I don’t want to be late for the event or his daycare or wherever. Savya does not care about shopping. He is being dragged through different malls with nothing to do. Of course he will be irate.

I removed the belts, and put him down on the ground. The tears were gone immediately. He had his big laugh back on his face. I wiped his tears and snot away. And then, he was on his way.

He walked past the Meteorology building, then the incline down toward the Kumpula Botanical Garden, then down the incline toward the tram station. I picked him up here, because we had to cross the road. Prerna pushed the pram now. I put him down on the other side and he continued walking, pushing his pram. Finally, we reached Lidl, I had a package waiting for me there. So, I went and quickly picked it up.

By this time, I guess he had tired himself out. He asked to be picked up and carried. I said, no, do you want to sit in the pram. He said, no. And I said, OK. Continue walking. He did. For a little while.

Just as we were at the park/nature trail. He stopped got to the front and tried to get on the pram. I asked him again, do you want to sit. He said, pram!

I picked him up and put him in the pram.

He slept after five minutes maybe. I put the seat down and let him sleep. And then we continued our walk.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere. I don’t care for typing it out here. Not everything needs to.

This has become our routine now. He pushes the pram for the beginning of our walk. Then he gets tired and asks to be put in the pram. I do not get frustrated at all. Prerna does from time to time, like yesterday, while it rained. I did not. This is, after all, our routine now.

At it!

Oh, and while you’re still here. Here’s my desk now, courtesy of the package from AliExpress - the Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard themed deskmat + the ATK A9 Ultra mouse. I got two mouses - one for work, one for home. Both in white.

Desk mostly done now