Jani Penttinen

We had quite a summer - after countless of different ideas on where to go for a vacation, we ended up spending some time in Ticino and then the rest of the summer in Finland. The early summer in Switzerland was very cold and rainy, and at some point it seemed like the only sunny spot was Lugano. We rented a car and drove there for a few days, and it was nice. But then the temperatures started raising everywhere in Switzerland and pretty soon the heat was too much!

The initial idea was to go to Finland to escape the heat of the Swiss summer. Last year we spent the summer home, and weather was very hot. We don't have A/C in our apartment and your mom was pregnant with Yuer, so it was really quite uncomfortable. We made the decision to escape to Finland for July, as my experience is that the summer in Finland is usually quite nice and never too hot.

Talk about being wrong! This summer was the hottest in record in Finland, with the temperatures regularly at around 33-35 degrees Celsius. The special feature of the Finnish summer is that the sun almost doesn't set, so even in the middle of the night it's quite warm and light. Fortunately your grandparents have A/C in their house so the nights were tolerable and we were able to enjoy the summer.

A few times we ventured out to Helsinki, only to find out that the heat wave was too much to the hotels, which resulted in hot nights with semi-functional air conditioning. You didn't really enjoy the big city excursions, but you totally had a blast at the grandparents! They have a big yard and a lot of toys, and there's always someone around to play with you. Toddler life doesn't get much better than that!

I'm very happy you've been able to spend quite much time with your grandparents even though we live in another country. Some of my best memories from the childhood are from the time I spend at both of the grandparents', and I hope you to get the same experience.

After the summer holiday, you and I just spent another two weeks in Finland. I had some business to take care of and you spent the time with mummu and pappa - grandma and grandpa in Finnish. During the past two visits you've learned quite a bit of Finnish. It's interesting to see how you talk Finnish to the grandparents and English to me. At first you were a little lost, but it hasn't been many weeks and you're already able to fully communicate with the right language, with the right person.

Now we're back home in Rapperswil, facing a disappointing downside of Switzerland. Before the summer holidays we enrolled you to the d'Insle Montessori school in Zürich. We visited the school, spoke with the owner and were warmly welcomed. "See you in the autumn!" Yeah, right. When the promised materials didn't arrive I pinged them to ask about it. Their answer was short and blunt - "Unfortunately we can not offer you a place for your child".

No reason was given, but I can think of two possible ways. One is that someone with a fat wallet needed a place in the last minute and we were replaced. The other reason - and I think this is what happened - is that while we were checking the school your mom pointed out it was quite smelly there. The school was doing a renovation during the summer and her concern was if the place would be healthy for kids to stay in when the school starts. The owner pretty much dismissed the question as irrelevant, but her body language gave the impression that it was not acceptable to ask questions like that.

So, my son, you will not be starting at d'Insle Montessori School after all. And while the school seemed nice, the fact that they do now appear to allow any criticism from parents makes me think you're the winner here. I would not want my child in a place that doesn't respect kids or their parents.

Because they informed us so late (or in fact, did not inform until we asked what is taking so long) the application period for all the other schools was already over. Right now we are not sure what to do - the only day care center in Rapperswil is also full and the one in Jona that we've checked is recently renovated and I got headache from the paint smell after visiting there for just just half an hour. I don't want to put you in a place where I would personally not want to spend time in, so that is out of the question.

The long term plan is to move out of Switzerland to somewhere where quality day care and schooling is available, but that won't be possible until the spring. For the winter, we'll just have to improvise. We recently hired a helper who comes to our home several times a week to clean, cook and play with you, but that is not an ideal solution for your needs. You need more friends and activity than you can get from home, so we'll need to figure out something.

What's obvious is that you are a very smart kid. Your memory is quite phenomenal. You have probably hundreds of toy cars, and you remember every single one of them. Not only do you remember them, but you like to group them, and then when you see one of them you like to gather the rest of the group too, even if you didn't see them in many months (we usually keep most of your cars stored away and only give you a small subset at once... I hope you won't be angry at me when you read this! I'm sure you've already been wondering how some of the cars disappear and later appear again).