Spring?

The weather has been very spring-like lately.  It is a nice change from the cold snow we have had all winter.  I was even happy to see rain this week as it meant it was warm enough to not be snowing and it was melting the snow on the ground.  Yesterday the sun was shining and I headed outside with only a vest.  Since we have been so busy Jason and I had been looking forward to an easy relaxing weekend but with the sun shining I had a hard time relaxing.  I kept feeling like I should be outside doing something to enjoy the beautiful weather.  Fortunately i have a good friend, Emily, who lives close by who called me to go for a walk.  It was great idea as it gave me something to do that was also very relaxing.  I headed out for a a few mile walk with my friend.  It was nice to be able to walk through the woods in the sunshine and just chat.  Since the weather was so nice we decided to head back to our house and have a cup of coffee while sitting on the patio.  It gives me hope for the coming spring and summer and all the fun we will have in our yard this year.  While Emily and I were chatting, Jason decided the day was too beautiful to waste too and he took the girls and Watson on a walk in the woods as well.  I dropped Emily off at home and headed to the grocery store to pick up a couple things I needed to make sushi.  When I got home I found Jason cutting limbs off a tree in our backyard.  I guess he was seeing the enjoyment of spring and summer in our future as well and wanted to clear a few branches from our view of the surrounding area that we have from our patio.

Ear Tubes

Last week we went to the doctor for Ali's control visit and Sofia's monthy ear tube check up.  Ali has had multiple ear infections lately and has now had about 8 ear infections over her life.  I knew the appointment was not going to be a simple control visit since she had been sick while we were in Austria.  I was right.  Ali apparently has a sinus infection.  She is now on antibiotics again.  The doctor told me that once this was cleared up we would need to discuss/schedule tubes for Ali.  We will see how that goes when we go to the doctor at her next control appointment.  The doctor then checked Sofia and I was surprised to learn that the tube in her right ear had already expelled itself from her eardrum and was just sitting in her ear canal.  The doctor removed the tube and check both ears and said they were both doing great and her ear drum fuction was very good.  On one hand I was happy for the expulsion since it meant I didn't have to worry about that ear for swimming or bathing.  On the other hand I am a little worried that it happened too fast and the ear infections will start again.  Last night Sofia came in our room in the middle of the night complaining of ear pain in her right ear.  I gave her some ibuprofen and she went back to sleep.  I'm waiting for the medicine to wear off this morning so I can see if her pain comes back.  If it does then off to the doctor we go again.

China

China? No we aren't going to China.  "China" was Ali's answer to her teacher's question, "Where were you born?".  She also continued to tell her that she used to have two dalmations but they died and that she does not have a dog now.  We know Ali lives in her own world a lot of the time and she randomly makes things up but I must admit I was a little surprised by this.  I usually just let Ali's imagination run wherever it take her but I decided to question her on this one since I wanted to make sure she knew where she was from.  So, Ali said she couldn't remember where she was born so we discussed that and now she knows and as far as the dogs go she said she was just joking.  So the upside is I think she knows that she is just making things up since at times we wondered if she even differentiated between fantasy and reality.

Austria

The girls had school break last week and we headed to Saalbach, Austria for a week of skiing with friends, Kelly and Michal and their two girls, Vivi and Michelle.  The trip started out as most trips.....mommy, my ear hurts...but this time it came from Ali instead of Sofia.  We debated taking Ali to to the doctor but in the end we decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go to the doctor since her ear hadn't been hurting long enough for the doctors to do anything about it if it was in fact becoming a true ear infection.  Once we mentioned the doctor, Ali decided that her ear was fine as well so we packed up the car and headed to Austria.  The drive was suppose to be five and a half hours but since it is school break week for the Germans, Dutch and Austrians the trip took us nine hours.  Luckily the kids travel well in the car so the journey wasn't too painful.  Once we reached Saalbach we stopped in quickly to the ski shop to pick up the kids rentals for the week and make sure their ski school was in order and then headed to our apartment. 

The first day of skiing started out questionable as the kids ski school seemed very disorganized and we couldn't figure out which group they should be in and none of the instructors seem to know either.  Once we got them situated, Jason and I headed for the slopes.  We came back early to check on the girls only to find that they really hadn't been doing any skiing and that the group they were in was really a kindergarten where they don't do much of anything.  This was incredibly frustrating so we tracked down someone from the ski school and finally figured out that the school really didn't have any group to brindge the gap between the kindergarten and already knowing how to ski.  They did give us our moeny back and only charged us half price for the rentals for the week so at least it wasn't a total waste.  We left that ski school and headed over to the ski school at our apartment.  The apartments we stayed at are owned by a dutch company.  Separate from the apartments, behind the reception building, the same company runs a ski school on a bunny slope.  We checked with them to see if they had any space and luckily they did so we signed the girls up.  This turned out to be a great decision.  On the bunny slope there were three classes.  The girls both started in the beginner group.  By noon, Sofia was pushed up to the next group and by the next day she was in the next group taking the rope tow up the entire hill and skiing down.  Her instructor, Lisa, was Dutch but spoke English well and Sofia loved her.  Ali missed her first day at this ski school since that initial ear pain turned into a fever.  She was fine the next day though and was eager to go to ski school.  Ali enjoyed school and really warmed to her instructors, Neils and Jan.  Jan was a super nice guy and really engaged Ali to the point that the next day when we arrived at ski school she asked. "Where's Jan?".  Ali didn't progress the way Sofia did though.  She just couldn't turn left.  On Thursday, the last day of ski school, the ski school holds races for each group where they award medals.  Everyone gets a medal but the top three get special medals and get to stand on a podium.  Ali, not being able to turn left, skiied her race with Neils holding her.  She came in eigth place out of eight but was still happy to get her medal.  Sofia was very excited about the race and as Lisa told me, "She is fast.".  She did a great job and placed second.  She was excited to stand on the podium and was quite proud of herself.  On Friday, Jason and I took to the girls to the big mountain and went up the bigger slope.  This was much bigger and steeper than the bunny hill near our apartment but they were ready for it.  Jason skiied with Sofia and they played follow the leader.  I took Ali and we tried many different ways to help her figure out skiing.  We eventually settled on me skiing backwards and Ali continually skiing to me.  This seemed to work and she actually started to get it and was making turns in both directions.  Sofia asked to switch so I headed down the hill with her and Jason worked with Ali.  By lunch time Ali was playing follow the leader as well and was very excited.  She was getting so frustrated when she wasn't putting it all together because basically she just wanted to ski fast and so was very happy to have finally put it all together.  After lunch we had a few more runs of follow the leader with the Sofia leading the way and then we headed back to the bunny hill near our apartment so the kids could ski with their friends, Vivi and Michelle.  Ali had progressed so much with her skiing that we let her lead the way in follow the leader.  The kids really had a great time skiing and made such amazing strides in the skiing abilities.  Here are videos of the girls skiing.  The video of Ali shows her race at the end of ski school.  Unfortunately I didn't take any videos the last day of Ali skiing so well.  The video of Sofia is from the middle of ski school.  She eventually mastered that hill and moved to the big slope on the mountain.

As I mentioned we went to Austria with our friends which made the trip even better.  We didn't really ski together (except I skiied with Michal the afternoon that Ali had a fever since Jason skiied the morning) but we spent our evening together.  This was perfect.  We would take turns making dinner and the kids would eat and then play in the bedroom leaving the adults to watch the Olympics, hang out and chat.  We ate at the restaurant one night but it was better to eat in as it gave the kids more space to play and we didn't have to worry about bothering others in the restaurant.  We went to the pool together one day after skiing but since the kids were always so wiped out after skiing they were happy to just play in the bath.  By the time we would head home from Kelly and Michal's after dinner, Ali would usually be asleep in my arms which was a true test of strength given there were 108 steps and a hill between our apartment and Kelly and Michal's apartment.  On days we had dinner at our apartment, Ali would be asleep by the time Kelly and Michal and the kids went home. By Friday night even Sofia was exhausted and she fell asleep in Jason's arms on the climb back up the hill.  We had very fun filled days and nights

Jason and I took one day off from skiing and went to Zell am See, a village close to Saalbach.  The village was very cute and the ski lifts were right in the center of town.  The views of the mountains from the lake were beautiful as well.  It was a nice relaxing day off from skiing.  Other than that one day, Jason and I did get to ski quite a bit on this vacation.  The thing that I found so interesting is that the skiing was so different here compared to in the States.  Not only are there a lot of gondolas or lifts with heated seats but there are not many black trails and it is mostly long groomed trails.  The day I skiied with Michal I was amazed at the difference.  I saw the opportunity to hit a couple little jumps but I seemed to be the only one on the trail doing so.  There wasn't even a smoothed line between the jumps which there would most assuredly be in the States.  I commented on this to Michal and he simpy said, "we just don't do that here.".  I was shocked.  The differences really stood out to me.  There were a couple mogul trails but noone was on them so I would hit the moguls and meet Michal at the bottom of the moguls section which wasn't very long.  The next day however I went across the road to the opposite mountain where there was a mogul trail that runs about 600 meters (2000ft) vertical.  Jason and I hit that mogul trail a few times and it was great.  The bumps were nice and again there was noone on the trail.  This felt like American skiing to me.  I could hit the lip at the edge of the trail between the groomed and moguls and get little jumps going and then head back into the bumps.  It was perfect!  My thighs, however, were burning.  Fortunately, there is a nice mid mountain restaurant. (the 2000ft vertical mogul trail ends at the midmountain restaurant).  We stopped and had lunch in glorious sunshine.  It was sunny and warm everyday that we skiied.  So warm in fact that by the end there were quite a few grassy patchs showing on the mountain.

Overall, despite Ali's fever, it was a fantastic vacation. The days were filled with excellent skiing and glorious sunshine and the evenings were spent having fun with friends.  It doesn't get mcuh better than that! You can view all the pictures from our trip HERE.

Back in Prague, ready for vacation

I have returned from my trip and am ready for some good family ski vacation time. I was asked on Thursday to fly to the U.S. for work, booked flights Friday afternoon and was in all day meetings Monday through Wednesday before flying out again Thursday. It was a very hectic, although productive, trip and I am now excited to go to Austria and spend a week relaxing and skiing.

Fun within the sickness

So last night Sofia came in and woke me up to tell me that her tummy was hurting.  This was not something I wanted to here since everytime she says this in the middle of the night it means vomit is coming.  Luckily she is becoming well versed in the ways of vomit and knows to make it to the toilet or get it in the bucket.  So my hours between 2am and 5:30am were spent with Sofia throwing up and having diahreah.  Not pleasant and exhaustion is not my forte.  I was deeply missing Jason last night.  After finally getting to sleep at 5:30 I just couldn't bare the thought of getting up at 7am to get Ali to school so I called it a sick day for all of us.  As is the usual case, Sofia was absolutely fine when she woke up in the morning.  It was as though the previous night hadn't happened except if you looked at me!  So we hung out at home today until Ali's doctor's appointment at 1:30.  We had her blood drawn so they can test it for Lyme.  After the doctor we headed for a snack in the baguette shop before Sofia's haircut and since we had time to kill we also stopped in a ski shop and picked up ski socks and balaclavas for the girls.  As I sit down tonight and think, "man what a crazy week and it is only Tuesday!", I have to also acknowledge that we have also had fun since Jason left. 

On Saturday after lunch I took the girls to Beckiland, an indoor playplace.  I figured it would be a good way to take their minds off Jason and it was exhaust them so it would be easy to put them to bed.  We met up with some friends there and the kids were off while I got to chat with my girlfirends.  It was the perfect afternoon.  The kids love Bekiland and it is nice that they are old enough that I don't really have to worry about them getting seriously injured.  Sofia even met a new friend that she brought over to meet me.  It is nice to see them being so sociable.  The both tried out the climbing wall and really loved it.  Ali climbed up so many times she had to put her socks back on since the wall was starting to hurt her toes.  On Sunday we had a relaxing day at home and went to church in the afternoon.  The kids love going to children's church and I'm glad we didn't miss it this week since there was an entire skit prepared for the kids and Adam and Eve came to children's church!  Even by the end when I picked them up they couldn't stop talking about it.  Even knowing the Eve was actually Miss Talitha (someone they already know from church) it didn't stop them from being amazed.  Ali just kept staring at Talitha (Eve) while I was trying to get her out the door.  It was very cute.  Sofia couldn't stop talking about the fact that she knew it was Miss Talitha and how fun it was to sing so many songs in Children's church. 

So, as I think about how much has happened the last two days (EEG, blood test, and vomit), I also try to keep in mind the fun we have also been having.

EEG

I brought Ali to the Neurologist today for an EEG becuase of her headaches.  I am happy to report that everything was normal on the EEG.  Ali was quite nervous going to the doctor and then seeing the boy before her with all the wires to his head didn't help her nervousness.  When it was her turn she clung to me but did allow the doctor to put the electrodes on her head without making a sound.  Ali is a bit like a deer in the headlights when she is scared. She stays completely still and doesn't make a sound.  After about the first ten minutes of the EEG though she relaxed a little and started talking.  By the end of the EEG she even let go of me so I could take her picture.

Ali's Haircut

After putting off getting haircuts for the kids I decided that Ali needed to have her hair cut. With her headaches happening and then her complaints that her pigtails were hurting her I decided to lighten her load. If my long thick hair was giving me headaches I reasoned maybe this was part of the problem for Ali. All of Ali's previous haircuts had been done at the barber shop. It was quick, convenient and cheap. They did not do a very good job though. Whenever I straighten Ali's hair I can see how uneven they cut it. I decided if I was going to have her given a real haircut I would need to go to a salon. I still did not want to part with a lot of money so I went to a czech salon where no English was spoken. I described to the girl what I wanted and she really did a great job. The haircut took almost an hour and Ali fell asleep for the last five to ten minutes of the cut. I had her hair cut shorter and layered and i am happy with how it turned out. She looks very cute and she seems to really like the haircut too.