Jani Penttinen

It's been six or seven weeks since my last update to Fei's book. As I'm writing this we're all in Sanya, in the island of Hainan in China. This is kind of like "Hawaii of China", a tropical island where the weather is always warm.

We're here basically to escape the winter of Zürich, or at least your mom and you are. I'm here just on a short visit as I couldn't handle being away from you for too long time! You've grown to be a really adorable little toddler, always on the move and full of energy and positive attitude!

The main reason why your mom wanted to bring you here is that there's really not much sunlight in the winter in either Switzerland or Finland. All kids eat vitamin-D as a supplement because of that, but nothing really beats the real natural sun. It's not just the vitamin, it's also the way it affects the overall well-being.

Another important difference here is that since it's really warm you can be almost naked at all times. Just shorts and a t-shirt, indoors and outdoors. This makes moving a lot easier, and boy you love to move! Your grandma is here too, and we're basically taking turns going for a walk with you as you can basically walk all day long.

Your very special attraction is walking up and down the stairs! You've learned to lift your leg up to reach even a high step, and that's just the best thing in the world! We still need to hold your hands as it would be quite a disaster if you lost your balance and came rolling down the stairs, but not for long I guess.

You can pretty much walk holding one hand on a stable surface now, though you still refuse to walk or stand on your own. I've tried letting both of your hands go and see what happens... basically you stand still for a few seconds, until you realize what's going on and then you just lower yourself to a sitting position... but whatever, take your time. You're not far from it and basically you already know all the little bits and pieces that are necessary. Just need to put it all together...


I'll be going back home the day after tomorrow. This coming weekend I will attend my grandma Elli's funeral, she passed away on Feb 8th. I'm glad you were able to meet her, even though you will obviously not remember her when you grow up. She was a very special person, good to the heart and would have loved to get to know you as you grow up.