We really love our patio, it was an especially nice surprise because we  really didn’t expect to have anything like this when we moved here. Benjamin loves going out the sliding doors, playing with his cars at the wooden deck, cleaning the patio with the broom… But quite soon, he also tries to run out of the gate to the common area and the playground. So you really can’t leave him there unattended even for a minute.

When the weather is good, the common playground is ful of Chinese kids with their nannies (ayi in Chinese) or sometimes with their parents or grand parents. It’s quite easy to tell  who’s the mom and who’s the ayi: all the moms are really well dressed, with high heels and skirts and perfect make-ups, except me. I’m really the only one with sports shoes and sports jacket.

When Benjamin is approaching the playgroud, practicly all the adults turn around and start waving at him, smiling and giggling and shouting something in Chinese. Yay, here comes the star of the playground. We have no idea, what they’re talking about, hopefully something nice. I don’t care, neither does Benjamin. He runs to the playground, climbs up, plays in the sand, comes down the slide and enjoys all the attention he gets.  Quite many parents speak some English, so they sometimes translate: so beautiful, blue eyes, so cute… How old is he? Where do you come from? Do you speak Chinese?

One thing that Benjamin really likes about the playground is the sandbox. He wants to bring all his cars and his beach toys with him, to make sand cakes, to play with his tractor and trucks in the white soft sand. It seems that usually the Chinese do not let their kids play in the sand (especially girls), they don’t like their kids get dirty. Since we started playing there, suddenly it’s filled with joyful and playful kids – and their nannies. Either Benjamin or our toys or both are attractive enough. Benjamin is happy to have many play mates and I think he even communicates with them. Is he already trilingual? He speaks Finnish, English and… Benjamese!