annika is growing up so quickly! - our finnish-indian family life in kerala 

She got a great teacher in her parents.

Like the boss of me that she is 😅❤

I have always loved my childhood home videos too :) I don't think everything or even necessarily a majority of events need to be filmed (my parents were very casual about it), but it's sure nice to have at least something capturing the movement and sound and all!

I also always had shorter hair as a child, I don't think it was really ever longer than chin length at most :) while my sister had long, thick, wavy hair..... until she decided to give herself a haircut at about age 4 :'D

They’re sponges for learning!

Maybe one day we can make our North American roadtrip dream come true! I'd love to tour the national parks, nature destinations and smaller, less touristy towns for a good while there, but I'm still waiting for my lottery jackpot :D So many of my most interactive subscribers here like yourself live either in the US or Canada and it'd be nice to do mini meetups too, to put faces to the usernames :)

Thank you for manifesting enough energy and motivation into me to be able to get this vlog out today! 😅🙏

Hopefully we’ll soon get quality time with the Finnish side too 😊 glad to hear you liked the haircut! I think Annika has such a cute little face that shouldnt be hidden behind her curls - in addition to practicality being a priority 😊

@@JohannaNorth I agree with you. Annika does have an angelic face. Trust me when I say I watch your videos for this little cherub ❤ Of course the overall experience too, Johanna. Keep going 😊

Kids are sponges for information and learning so better to offer them lots of opportunities for that! 😊

Thank you, i really appreciate such kind feedback when I’m struggling with working on the videos! ❤🙏

Thank you for always supporting us❤❤❤

I hope we wont reach those events any time soon after i just blink my eyes a few times! I’m not ready 😅❤

Wishing you a great week!

Our community play school has a minimum age requirement which Annika doesn't meet yet. And anyways, the language there will be English :) Annika does fully understand and speak Finnish too, but she often doesn't want to use it for efficiency reason, as here I'm the only person in addition to her who speaks and understands Finnish, but everyone (including me) will be able to understand her speaking English and Hindi :D

Even at thirty something, my mom still seems to often think that i’m her baby and not fully capable and independent grown woman with a baby of my own 😅❤

She keeps saying almost daily that she wants to go to school too 😊

Annika plays with her friends almost every day for a couple of hours :) That's where a lot of her good Hindi comes from, most of the other kids are a bit older than Annika and they all speak Hindi together. It's too cute to watch her actually learning games and playing with her peers!

She’s been very obsessed with going to the Moon recently too! We’re thinking of a career trajectory towards her being on Chandrayaan-18 one day when people land on the Moon again 😅❤

100000 years jail terms and (daily 50 rasgulla eating) for her (mom) for this hair cut. Annika, baby you dont know "what she did with ur hair".....

We finally got to attend some proper Onam festivities on Friday after 4 years here in Kerala 😅 we’ve of course always loved a good sadhya, but it was so good to finally see the cultural program like kathakali which Annika loved! Unfortunately i wont be able to share a video as filming was not allowed, but so happy about the experience. Happy onam! 🙏

@@JohannaNorth glad to hear that 😃

I wish she would flow into Finnish a bit more though, as she often refuses to and tries to speak even to me in Hindi 😅 hopefully some Finnish family quality time happening soon enough so she’ll have to use her Finnish skills more too 🤓

As long as you keep talking to her in Finnish I'm sure it's getting stored in there somewhere and will come up when the quality Finnish family time happens, which I'm sure will be equally beneficial for mama and baby❤️😊 maybe some Finnish cartoons would help. Love the haircut by the way, you're right her beautiful features definitely stand out without the hair covering them. 😍

We watch a lot of Finnish cartoons and read books too :) Annika understands everything in Finnish and does know how to speak it very well, she just chooses not to for efficiency as I'm the only person here who speaks Finnish, but also understand English and Hindi a bit :D

It helps a lot to have snacks and entertainment in front of her for the cut - i know those tricks dont work with lots of kids though 😅 we do love her curls too, but as long as she refuses to let us maintain those properly, we need to keep her hair short. It starts getting smelly and tangled into almost like dreadlocks pretty quickly without proper care 😬

Why cut her hair so short?

God bless Anika. Very Cute baby ..

From the April-May to this date she has also started speaking Hindi in longer, proper sentences. Last week on a video call to dadi and dadu, she was surprising even them by how good her Hindi is these days! 😊

@@JohannaNorth I'M so Happy for her sis ,can't wait to see her first day school and then who is the Master for Annika's hindi talks..??

Annika interacts with our maid and her friends in our community every day in Hindi :)

Pls don't impose your values on Annikas parent. You should mind your own business. Let them raise they want. Vinod parents are still.around to point it out if anything amiss. You don't have to take the role of nosey aunty

I think you are mis understanding. What I was saying is that I value and appreciate vinods ways as he is challenging Annika's boundaries and bringing her up in a way he sees fit. Good on him 👌 It will certainly benefit Annika for sure. What I was saying is that it is very different indeed from the EU way of raising kids. And between Johanna and Vinod.... Annika is being exposed to to a beautiful blend of cultures. I see the vlog through EU eyes and also Indian eyes. I am British Indian. Born and raised in the UK and lived in India for many years. So there's depth to my writings which Johanna understands as I have been in contact with Johanna for many years. I hope you understand now and I hope this gives clarification. Indian culture is far richer and deeper than my own British culture

@travellingyoginikas7682 I'm sure you're right to some extent, and there are some (mostly minor) cultural differences between mine and Vinod's approaches to parenting, and definitely there'd be more in general between Europe and India. But you're overanalysing the a few the situations on the video too, when it comes to Vinod's parenting. We hardly ever criticise Annika at this point (only for poor behaviour really) and BOTH give her mostly a lot of praise for putting effort into something or her learning something new, encourage and support her with any interests she shares with us. The conversation about spicy food on this video stems from real life, as Annika doesn't like chili or spicy food, but she wasn't earlier able to verbalise it or make out the difference between the sensation of hot (by the temperature) and spicy food. So we play lots of games all the time which help her understand and learn the words for situations like these :) Now (3 months after this video) Annika is also able to always tell us, if her food is too hot or too spicy, knows what to do in the situation and doesn't freak out as much as she used to! And we don't film or take Annika's photos, neither of us, if Annika tells us not to. When she tells me or Vinod to put the camera down, she wants both of our hands free and all eyes on her, the 100% focus on her and what she's doing :D She knows how to say if she doesn't want photos or video, or if she just wants us to put any item down that'd be taking attention away from her! I do agree about the safety standards though, especially when it comes to things like car seats, baby beds, strollers etc, but that difference is not solely about the safety though, but what is possible and practical in a place like India or a European country. I am also anxious every time Annika jumps off the table or Vinod throws her high in the air, but I think that's more of a mom thing than a cultural difference. Dads play rougher games with kids in Europe too. My dad used to do much more physically exciting stuff with us than my mom did. And overall I feel that parents in India are more scared of kids getting bruises or cuts. Other than for the safety standards maybe, I also don't think it's possible to treat European countries as one when it comes to the personal attitudes and culture. Finland is very different from most countries there, even from Sweden. If anything, I'd say in Finland you don't praise kids too much, because we're taught to not think too highly of ourselves and be very humble. In Finland it's better to think yourself as a bit of a loser than it is to be over-confident or arrogant :D I remember my mom literally telling me that I/one shouldn't call myself/oneself beautiful as it might sound arrogant.

@@JohannaNorth yes absolutely you cant treat Europe as one culture. For example. In the UK children start school at 4 years old but in Germany they start school at 7 years old. Also in the UK kids are under strict safety regimes and can only receive positive feedback in nursery schools otherwise the law will criticize the school. And I feel that feeds the society on how children should be treated. It all sounds good and well but it doesn't allow for the children to test their boundaries and develop their resilience. In fact some parents in the UK now practice 'unschooling.' So basically they allow their children to test their own boundaries and if they get hurt then they will learn from it. I have seen kids in India sitting on their door steps next to their mothers playing with sharp knives. At first I was mortified by that 😮 But now I realize that it's just the way things are in some parts of India. By what you are saying.... I think u and Vinod are SUPER parents ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ Namaste and Blessings Kas ♥️

I’ll probably get closer to the current timeline soon, but I most likely wont be posting videos from the same week even then other than maybe special occasions like holidays and birthdays 😊 editing takes a lot of work and i also prefer to post the videos slightly late (one month is my goal) for privacy reasons

When ever u upload the videos will be eagerly waiting for them

@@varshamakar4443i was sad to see RU-vid delete the stories option because that was my way of posting the more recent updates, but I’ll try my best to get the videos closer to current events in the next month or so 🙏

Se on joo tosi ihana! Saatiin mun vanhalta ystävältä Suomessa pari tosi ihanaa mekkoa, joita hänen tytöt oli käyttäneet, ja onneksi tämä mahtuu päälle vielä kun on niin söpö 😍

Annika wyjedzie do Europy z mamą w Indiach nie ma przyszłości.😃

She does speak Hindi super well, but lets not forget she is 50% Finnish still 😅

Sure, but she has beautifully embraced the Indian culture. Her connect with her grandparents is precious and that explains her natural / innate preferences.

​@@q23252she looks more European than Indian. ❤

Siiii ..le dejó muy mal el corte de pelo,además.

and she is so easy with all languages.. OMG