Fun with Cousins

Jason's brother, Graham, arrived on Friday with his wife, Beth, and children, Alex, Justin and Kiera. We haven't seen them since March so it was great to visit with them. The kids are at a really good age and they play so well together. They spent a lot of time running around in the yard as well as making crafts. We all went into town to check out the Christmas markets. We had fun eating our way through old town square...trdlo, palacinky, ham, hot wine, hot chocolate. We also made a trip up to Prague Castle. The kids love going up to the castle but we have been so many times we only go when we have guests. They were a bit dissappointed on our last trip when Grammie and Grandpa were here since their favorite room in the castle had been renovated and made so that they could not dance their way across the "ballroom". This trip with their cousins did not dissappoint though. They were excited to go in the cathedral and show off their favorite stained glass windows. It is fun to see them so excited to share their world with their cousins.

Lars' birthday

On Friday afternoon I brought Sofia to Lars' birthday party. Lars is the little boy that Sofia is "in love" with and is going to marry so this was a party Sofia was not going to miss. Inge, Lars' mom always has great parties. She has crafts for the kids to do and activities to keep them entertained. She lets the other parents sit and have tea or coffee while she and Romke (her husband) make sure the kids all have a blast. This party was no different. The kids had a scavenger hunt in the yard and then played a game throwing a ball at bottles to see how many they could knock down. When that was finished she had the kids inside for a painting craft. After that it was cake and presents. It is amazing how quickly the time went by and the kids all had so much fun.

Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe this is our third Thanksgiving in Prague. As we did the last two years we went to the annual Davis Thanksgiving. The last two years we made a turkey but this year we, instead, made TWO turkeys. Jason did most of the turkey making which was great since it gave me time to get the house cleaned. Anyway, we made our turkeys and then headed over to our friends house. The kids really have a great time playing with their friends. They all sit together and when they are done they are off and running. This year I spent more time in the kitchen helping out so I didn't have as much time to chat with friends but it did make me feel like I was keeping true to my mom's family. My mom and her sisters always do the dishes together so it felt ok to be following in their footstpes. Fortunuately I was able to keep my singing (a required part of doing dishes for my mom and aunts) to myself so people didn't think I was crazy! It was another fun thanksgiving surrounded by our Prague family.

Ear Tube Surgery

Yesterday Sofia had tubes (grommets) put in her ears. We arrived at the hospital at the required time of 7am. Then Sofia and I waited in her room for two and a half hours. As unlikely as it sounds this did have an upside. It made me very frustrated which took my attention off my nervousness! Anyway, after the long wait the nurse came in and gave Sofia some syrup to drink that would halp calm her down. She was doing surprisingly well though. I think having already been through the syrup and gas when she had her adenoids out helped. I wasn't expected much from the syrup since when she had the syrup for her adenoids it didn't seem to do anything. This time was different. They must have given her a high dosage. At first there was no change but within thirty minutes she started to laugh randomly. Then she started saying things like, "you have three eyes" and "I can't lift my head it is glued to the pillow", all of these comments were followed up with pure giggles. I kept trying to get her to just relax and go to sleep but she couldn't stop the giggles. She had me laughing even when I was trying to be serious. This lasted about fifteen minutes and then the nurses came in and wheeled her out of the room. It was very weird to watch her be taken away. Quite a powerless feeling. I just prayed that my baby would come back to me better than ever. They had told me she would be back between thirty minutes to an hour and that I should go get some coffee or something. I made my way to the cafeteria only to find out that it was closed. I then went and waited in the lobby until it was time to head back upstairs. Since it took me so long to find my way through the maze of the hospital I started to rush because I didn't want Sofia to be in her room all alone. I arrived at her toom expecting her to be there but she wasn't. I thought it strange but sat down to wait. As it past the hour mark I started to really worry. I had just given myself another five minutes to wait before I tracked down the nurse to find out if something was wrong when at about an hour and ten minutes after they took her they wheeled her back into her room. She still had her eyes closed which also surprised me. When she had her adenoids out she was in the surgery for twenty-five minutes and was fully awake by one hour. After speaking with many people who had tubes in their kids ears I assumed it would be the same this time. I was wrong. It took about another 45 minutes for Sofia to work her way out of the anesthesia induced crying. If you have watched your children come out of anesthesia you know what I mean...it is a very particular sounding cry. Once she broke free of this then we had a lot of coughing up of mucus and blood which wasn't very pleasant and was quite painful for her since her throat was already so sore. Then she finally went to sleep. She was exhausted. While she slept she had an IV drip of saline (I think) and two doses of antibiotics. The surgeon finally came in to tell us about the surgery. She did speak English but it wasn't great. When she started with, "I have something to tell you.", Jason and I had our hearts in our throats. It isn't as bad as we imagined but it does mean more doctor visits. She told us that she put the tubes in and removed her adenoids again (apparently they had grown back). She also said that when they went in to her left ear the fluid behind her ear drum wasn't really fluid but rather a thick glue that was difficult to get out of her ear. With that removed they also found a cyst called a Cholesteatoma. It is a cyst caused by a long standing retraction pocket of the eardrum into the middle ear. It can be a serious condition that if left untreated can cause deafness and facial parylisis. So, they removed the cyst. Because she had the cyst though she will need to be checked regularly to make sure the cyst does not come back. I'm not sure what regularly means so hopefully it isn't a weekly check. If the tubes are able to work properly and keep her ear drained then hopefully she won't have any new cysts form. This did explain the extended time she spent in the operating room and why is took her all day and night to really be herself again. She is home with me today to rest and I think she will be back at school tomorrow. Her hearing is already much better and will take some time for her to adjust to. She can hear me when I whisper now which is amazing. She also complained about Ali moving around too much last night and waking her up. I can't believe she is hearing the creaking of Ali's bed!

You're It!

The girls have really started to enjoy playing outdoor games with us. We play tag, freeze tag, hide & seek, and chase hide & seek. Jason played with them last week and they all had a really great time. Today we played as a family. The kids are surprisingly fast. I actually had to pick up my pace and not just pretend to run. I remember being a kid and not wanting to be the one that was "it". The girls haven't learned that dislike yet and they both want to be "it" so they can be the one chasing rather than being chased. It is also funny playing hide & seek with Watson around. He obviously doesn't understand the concept and always gives away our (mine and Jason's) hiding places. During chase Watson also likes to play but just ends up blocking our path...maybe he does know what he is doing and he is helping the kids catch us! :)

Heat

We held out as long as possible but today we finally turned the heat on. We realized we needed to give in and turn it on when I was on the phone the other night. I was talking to my friend and she asked me if I was getting a cold. I realized that it was so cold in our house that even with a sweatshirt and blanket on my nose was running! Oh well, we made it to Nov 21st. I think that is the longest we have ever gone. (Granted we did have help from the woodstove.)

Tubes

So today I brought Sofia in to the doctor for her control appointment. She is free from cough, ear pain and runny nose. I assumed, therefore, that it would be a quick check up and we would be out the door. There is, of course, nothing quick about Motol hospital. Parking took me 20 minutes then we waited another 15 to check in and then another hour to see the doctor. My waiting was all for the good though. Sofia saw the doctor and the doctor said she looked good and so she performed the tympanomtry test on her ears. Of course, the test came back with bad results. Sofia lives with constent fluid in her middle ear. Anyway, the test came back so bad that the doctor decided we needed to have the tubes put in sooner than January 5th. She offered me Nov 23rd. I took it since I want to get Sofia hearing better as quick as possible and I want to avoid more ear infections. Accepting this date means I will have a busy few days. Tomorrow I have to bring Sofia in for blood work. Friday we have to go meet with the surgeon who will be doing the surgery and I have to pick up the blood test results. Monday we go in early for the surgery. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that Sofia will come home from the hospital the same day with a new way of hearing the world.

Boarding up for Winter

Today I got the house boarded up for winter. Well, not our house, but our neighbor's house. Sofia, Ali and I had taken Watson out for a short walk when our neighbor (the one who didn't use to like us) said hello and then said she needed some help. She doesn't speak any English so the conversation was restricted to my limited Czech. I sent the girls back to Mary and I helped her get a number of wooden shutters out of their basement to put on their windows. Hers is a summer cottage so they will be away for the winter and board up all the windows. After getting those out I thought I was done but then she offered coffee, which I didnt feel I should say no to. We sat for a bit and tried, with a struggle through language, which included a few drawings, to talk about why I moved with the family to Prague, what I do here, what we like about the Czech Republic, etc. She also asked me to help watch their house over the winter and call if anything happens to it during any storms.

Only after finishing coffee and concluding that we would now be friends and she would try to learn a few English words while I continued to try to learn Czech, we moved on to putting all the shutters on the windows. She directed where I should go and I put them up. This process was briefly interupted with a discussion of how much she dislikes the trees in our yard that drop pine needles all over her lawn and make it impossible to grow gross and she suggested we cut them down. As we're only renting the house I repeatedly suggested she talk to the owners until she realized I wasn't going to be cutting right away and we went back to finishing the shutters. Once I finished getting the shutters on she was very grateful made a reference to me being like Rambo and we said bye for the winter. I suppose in the Spring I'll be helping take the shutters down.

Marriage Plans

Last year Sofia told us she was going to marry a boy in her class. He was pretty quickly replaced by her friend, Lars. We didn't think much about it. Jason and I joked that we approved of Lars since he is a nice boy with a nice family. Well, we didn't think any more about it. A few weeks ago however the girls and I were driving home and Sofia told me again that she was going to marry Lars. I played along and said, "ok but why are you marrying him?". She quickly replied with, "because I love him and we kiss.". I was a little surprised by the kissing aspect so I questioned her on it only to be told, "we only kiss when the teachers aren't looking.". I was floored. I didn't know whether I should crack up with laughter or reprimand her. I decided to just ignore it and tell Jason. We both decided to not say anything since we didn't want to make a big deal out of it since it is harmless. Well, today on the way to school we had the following conversation,
Sofia: "We will move back to America when I'm in high school right?"
Me: "Yes"
Sofia: "Well, then I will get Lars' number today so that when I'm an adult I can call him then I can go to wherever he is and we can get married and then a few days later we can have a baby."

Jason and I did everything we could to not burst out in laughter. My entire body was shaking with laughter. We were both a bit shocked but at least we know she isn't planning to do anything until she is an adult.

Busy busy busy

It has definitely been a busy weekend. I think when I am busy I tend to pile it on and make myself even busier. After a busy day yesterday with the birthday party and fireworks I continued to be busy through today. I could have relaxed this morning but instead I decided to start a fire, make the kids french toast, write some on the blog, and make a loaf of bread for the first time. While making the bread I also made two separate lunches, one for the girls and one for Jason. Jason was sick last night so I made him a basic soup with rice. I knew that wouldn't work for the girls so I made them pasta. After doing that I got myself ready and dressed for church. I had to be there early today since this was one of my weeks to sing (which I really enjoy). After church I rushed out the door and to the grocery store. I needed to buy the ingredients to make sauce tonight so that tomorrow I could whip up two lasagnas. One for our family and one for another family from the kids school whose mother is very sick. Now, the sauce is made and the kids lunches are packed for tomorrow. I only have to put the sauce in the refridgerator and I'm off to bed. I guess what Sofia said is true, "Daddy goes to work, Ali and I go to school, and mommy does all the other stuff. " Well, I filled my weekend with that "other stuff". It may have been busy but it was also filled with fun times!

Birthday party and fireworks

Today I brought Sofia to a birthday party for her friend Anna. I orignially thought I would just drop her off but once inside I started chatting with my friends and we all enjoyed watching the kids play. My friend Suzanne, Anna's mom, is amazing with birthday parties. This party had a horse them and she had everything put together. There was a horse centerpiece on the table along with carrots and celery sticks for the horses to eat. There was a table for coloring in pictures of horses. She had games ready for the kids to play like musical chairs but instead of chairs for the kids to sit in they passed along a pony riding stick and whoever was holding trhe pony when the music stopped was out of the game. She made it fun for the kids to be out since once you were out you got a prize. The grand finale of the party was the horse pinata. The pinata was so nice it was a shame to smash it for the candy. The kids all had so much fun.

After the party, Sofia and I headed home to get Jason and Ali and to change into warm outside clothes since we were off to the school fireworks night. We did not go the last two years to the fireworks since the girls were afraid of the loud noises. This year they were both very excited to go. After running around the play yard with their friends and having hotdogs and drinks the girls went inside the school for a small puppet show. It was a nice chance for them to warm up a bit. After the puppet show we were back outside and ready for the fireworks. They were amazing and VERY loud. I'm glad we didn't go before since I can only imagine the tears that would have happened. This year however Sofia loved it and Ali loved it as well but only if she was on my lap with me covering her ears. As I sat there looking up at the fireworks I had to admit that fireworks are, indeed, very cool. I haven't seen a display of fireworks like that in some time and I have never been that close to fireworks (even when we went to the wedding in Slovakia they weren't that close). It was a fun night.

Riding the bus

The school provided a bus that goes from the early years school to the primary school so that parents don't have to drive to both locations in the morning. All week Sofia insisted on me driving her to school until Friday. On friday we got the the early years school just before the bus was leaving. I decided to give it another try and asked her if she wanted to go on the bus. I also told her that her friend Lucy was on the bus. She decided to give it a try. It went great! She really enjoyed the bus ride. Apparently the teacher on the bus has the children looking for different items outside. On Friday they were looking for runners/joggers and people walking dogs and on Monday Sofia tells us they will be looking for people riding bikes. It is good to know it went well and she enjoyed it.

Ali's thumb

So, day two at the new school building and Ali had her thumb closed in a door. I showed up to pick her up and she had a band aid on her thumb and was crying. I took her home and convinced her to let me take the band aid off so that I could look at it. It was quite swollen and black and blue. She also couldn't move her thumb. I had a feeling it was broken but I hoped it wasn't. We decided to wait until morning and see how her thumb looked. Well, in the morning it still didn't look good so I dropped Sofia off at school and Ali and I headed to the hospital. After three and a half hours we left the hospital with the diagnosis of a hairline fracture and her thumb all bandaged up. We will have to go back to the hospital every week for the next few weeks for them to check her thumb and redo the bandage it.

Ali's new school building

Back in February, the girls school announced that they would be opening a new campus for the early years program. At the time we were not happy about this decision. We didn't want to disrupt Ali's school by moving her to a new building for a year. We liked having Sofia and Ali in the same school. It helped with drop off and pick up but it also gave them comfort to know their sister was just down the hall and that they would see each other at outside playtime. I know they didn't necessarily play together all the time but just the sisterly "hi" in passing was really great for them. There was a lot of discussion and angst but at the end of the day we agreed to move Ali to the new location. Mainly becuase the teachers that Sofia had for Recpetion would be at the new location and we wanted Ali to have those same teachers. The new school year started in September but the new site was not completed so Ali started in the same location as Sofia which I was happy about. The new building is now complete and Ali has transitioned to the new building. She seems to really enjoy it and is happy to go. Sofia had a more difficult time with it since she was sad that she wouldn't see Ali during school. After the first couple of days though Sofia has stopped voicing any sadness over the change. I know she is still feeling it a bit though since she has the option to ride a bus from the new location to her school location with her friends but she is insitent upon me driving her. I think she is trying to claim her attention time. I'm hoping soon she will accept the new situation and things will go back to normal.

Halloween

Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in the Czech Republic but it seems every year more amd more Czechs are enjoying the fun of Halloween. Finding halloween decorations is getting easier every year and the options for trick or treating are growing. This year our halloween was full. Our first stop was a birthday party for my friends daughter. While it was a birthday party it was still halloween themed and the kids were excited to eat candy corn and play with their friends. We had to leave that party to go to a halloween party at our friends Emily & Radek's house. The girls were excited to go to a halloween party and see there friend Annalee. There was a lot of people at the party and Emily had organized games for the kids to play. After game playing we headed outside for trick or treating. Every child was given a latern to carry along the road. I was a little worried about the laterns since they were paper laterns with real candles inside but the kids seemed to manage them well (only one or two laterns went up in flames!) It was interesting to see this years trick or treating since the group we were with were mainly Czech or of a Czech mix (Czech/American, Czech/Australian etc) family and all the houses we went to were Czech. Unlike in the States, here, the kids had to work for there treats. At every house they had to sing a song. I was happy that our girls actually knew some of the songs and could sing along or as Ali put it, "Skakal Pes, that's too easy!". After trick or treating we headed back to our friends house for more food and fun. The kids all lined up to hit a pinata. The girls were right in there filling up their bags with candy from the pinata. After all the candy had been grabbed the kids played with the confetti that had been inside the pinata. Sofia was the one exception. She was much more interested in her candy. She found a place to sit and just started downing the candy. By the time we noticed she had already had six pieces of candy! Oh well, what is halloween for if not for gorging on candy?? We packed the kids up and headed home without complaint. I think they were just too tired to even complain. We got them ready for bed and all set with the babysitter and then headed out to another party. Jason and I had fun dressed up as a Spanish Lady and Zoro. We had a fun night. I think next year we will not attempt to attend 3 parties in one day though. We are both exhausted today. The kids were tired as well but since they kept getting influxes of sugar they kept going until an early bedtime.