On Cute Little Kids

Little kids here are the cutest thing ever. Especially toddlers. First of all, they all have giant shiny blue eyes, rosy pink cheeks, and tufts of white-blond hair that stick out from under their ridiculous amounts of snow clothing. They have bright-colored hats in every shape imaginable, bright-colored onesie snowsuits, bright-colored mittens usually bigger than their heads, and giant boots that anchor them to the ground despite the slippery ice and snow.

We’ve run across a few notables, including two little girls in hot-pink, matching snowsuits racing each other home down the icy sidewalk the other day. Elizabeth got her hands on an especially cute one yesterday riding home on the bus; the toddler in question was sitting next to his father, jabbering away to a stranger nearby in cute high-pitched Finnish. The bus was packed, and while the dad was struggling to get down the stairs with both toddler and stroller, Elizabeth leaned over and plucked the kid off the stairs, and deposited him on the ground next to her (the dad responded with a kiitos and a grin.)

Tonight was a particularly good night for cute-Finnish-kid sightings. We tagged along with Laura to a Christian youth service – it actually turned out to be a bit more like a rock concert (which was awesome) with a sermon in the middle. There was a family sitting near us with a handful (maybe 5?) of little kids running around, doing cute things like dancing to the music and not-so-cute things like screeching to the music. Other than that, we really enjoyed the music, and Elizabeth was actually familiar with one of the songs (though they were singing it in Finnish.)