Top Ten List(s)

                    TOP TEN THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT TARTU
                                    (when I leave in a few weeks)

10. Chloe's school. (Above, a recent music lesson.) What it offers is perfect for her at this moment, and she is thriving there.
9. Kalev dark chocolate with cherries. Tender, delicious... a guilty pleasure hidden in my healthy pregnancy trail mix!
8. The variety of inexpensive muesli-type breakfast cereals. I wasn't a big muesli fan before coming here. Cold milk over cold grains... nah. Now I know how good it can get! Sweetened dried coconut, cashews, granola -- you can even get different kinds chocolate muesli, including one with chocolate granola and creamy white chocolate chunks that makes you feel like you just ate some mousse.
7. Some features of our kitchen design, like a convenient counter for cooking that can also be reached from the eating area -- and which Chloe can reach by standing on a chair -- and a hot, efficient oven that is an easy height to look into.
6. How affordable everything is. And that taxi drivers don't expect tips.
5. The Tartu Toy Museum Playspace. An airy, attractively designed wooden loft with arts and craft tables, a reading area with a comfy couch -- even if the books are in Estonian -- toys, blocks, trains, puppets, games, costumes, etc. Chloe has limitless fun here, as at Rüütli. (At right, she examines a jigsaw puzzle of Estonia in the museum itself, outside the play area.) I would have made it a tie with the Rüütli space (#4), but to get to this one you have to go through the real museum and up some stairs -- points off for making it more difficult to remove a recalcitrant toddler when it's time to go, especially when one is weighty with child.
4. The Rüütli Playspace. Ground floor only! Play kitchen and table set (high-quality, Scandinavian-style wood); indoor slides; Legos of all sizes (including shoebox-sized); a place to frolic amidst plastic balls; huge foam/vinyl blocks; hula hoops; countless tiny toys; a zillion high-quality jigsaw puzzles and memory games -- Ravensburger puzzle and game company, I love you! Clean carpet with warmed floors underneath. Drop-off afternoon babysitting in this child heaven at $3/hour. (No, that is not a typo!)
3. Having adjacent toddler playspaces conveniently available in places you need to drag your kid to, like cafeterias, cafés, and department stores.
2. Our bathroom. Cozy heated floors, attractive tiled walls, excellent shower, sunken bath, sauna. Its warmth makes it the best room for yoga! I read books to Chloe while she's in the bath; Chloe chats to us while we're bathing/dressing. Alan has tried the sauna twice so far and is a convert to its charms. (Google "Finnish sauna" for interesting information.) We have spent many quality family hours in this bathroom!
1. Alan, during the five weeks we'll be on separate continents.

     TOP FIVE THINGS I WON'T MISS ABOUT TARTU
5. How our dishwasher always blows a fuse in the middle of a wash cycle.
4. How extremely costly it is to call the US, and even the UK. Skype, here we come! (Now we know why it was invented in Estonia.)
3. Pushing a stroller through ice and slush. Try doing this while pregnant.
2. The February cold, for worsening children's risk of ear infection.
1. The February cold, just because it's cold.

     TOP FIVE THINGS I MISS ABOUT SWARTHMORE
5. That people speak a language I understand. Usually.
4. Grape Nuts. Yes, I constantly eat cereal. Cut me some slack, I'm pregnant! Corn Flakes are good, but give me Grape Nuts any day for a serious crunch and a nutritional whallop.
3. Access to English-language academic journals and fast, free interlibrary loan. OK, so I happen to be working on a book.
2. The "Wiggle Library," our family name for a nearby public library due to its excellent toddler story-and-song time.
1. My own bed.

                         - sac