Updated Pictures

We have finally uploaded the last years worth of pictures to our smugmug gallery.  You can now view pictures from our daily life over the last year as well as pictures from Spain, Slovakia, Belgium, France and Austria.  I'm still working on captioning all the photos but at least we have started!

School Show videos

Jason figured out how to compress the videos for the school show, Peter Pan.  Here is Ali as an angel and Sofia as a pirate.

Sofia swimming

I know I keep posting about Sofia's swimming but she is really doing a great job.  She swam the back stroke for the length of the pool last week with the small floatey between her legs.  She could not do this at all at the beginning of the year since holding the floatey between your thighs really makes the swim about your upper body strength and floating ability and not just kicking your legs.

Ali's Surgery

We went back to Motol Hospital today.  It is probably one of my least favorite things to do but when you have kids with ear infections there is no other option.  As you know Sofia had a lot of ear infections and had her adenoids removed and tubes put in her ears.  Well, once Sofia was better we realized that Ali also had ear problems, they just weren't as bad as Sofia's.  Compared to a lot of children though Ali had a lot of ear infections (about 8-9).  Anyway, she started to get them more often and her nose was constantly running.  I noticed her hearing was not very good.  After many trips to the ENT (ORL it is called here) the doctor decided that Ali also needed to have her adenoids out.  She didn't think that Ali needed tubes yet but that she did need to have her ear drums pooped and all the fluid removed from behind the drum.  The decision was made last week to have the surgery and luckily for us another child cancelled and Ali was able to take the spot.  If she had not gotten that spot she would not have been able to have it done until September.  The reason for that makes no sense since the doctor told me they don't do the surgeries in the summer becuase of the sun and bleeding???  I just decided to ignore that little tidbit of wisdom and just be happy we were able to get in quickly.  Yesterday we went into the hospital for all the pre-op paperwork and checkups.  It took us 3 hours to get everything completed.  This time does not include bloodwork since we had the bloodwork done on Tuesday.  It was exhausting but just the prelude to today. 

Today we arrived at the hospital at 7:15am.  Oddly enough it was completely different than our visit there for Sofia's surgery.  I don't know if it is based on age or that Sofia had tubes put in and Ali didn't but this time we did not get our own room.  We were in a room with three other children.  Ali was the third child to go in for surgery which meant she saw the first two kids come back with a needle in their hands and starting to cry and moan while coming out of the anesthesia.  I tried to distract her from the other children but I found it difficult since the cries of children coming out of anesthesia is heartbreaking.  I have now heard it three times with my own children and it is not any easier.  I was happy when they gave Ali her "happy" medicine becuase it made her not mind the children around her and she didn't worry when they rolled her away from me.  They rolled her back in after the surgery (pictured above) and she went through the process of breaking through the anesthesia.  She came out of it quicker than Sofia did which I assume is becuase she didn't have as much of it since she wasn't under for nearly as long.  Her throat hurt a lot though (like Sofia) since they do have to put the tube down her throat (intubate).  Even in her pain she kept saying she wanted to go home.  Once she was alert enough to talk I told her she needed to drink water.  She drank a little and told me shw wanted to go home.  I had to tell her that she needed to pee before they would allow her to leave.  I assumed it would take her a while to have to pee but I was wrong.  As soon as I told her the requirement she said, "I think I have to pee."  I didn't think it was true but I brought her to the toilet anyway.  Apparently she was determined to get out of there becuase she peed immediately!  After that we waited for the doctor to come around for the final check and we headed home.  Now we are home and Ali is eating soft foods...ice cream, yogurt and pudding so far...and watching movies.  We go back next week for her checkup.  Hopefully everything will be fine and my trips to Motol will begin to wind down.

Kisses

Yesterday Ali kept going around making these silly noises until finally I asked her what they were.  She told me they were kisses.  I had to ask where she learned to kiss like that.  She then proceeded to tell me how different kids in her class kiss differently.  I don't know if it is true or if she is just making it up but it was funny.  Here is a video of her showing me how her friend , Nils, kisses.

80's Disco

On Saturday night Jason and I headed over to our friends house for dinner before going to an 80's Disco party.  Since we were dressed up like high school none of us wanted to venture out to a restaurant so eating in was really the only option!   It was funny to dress like we were in high school.  Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult for me to find clothes to wear since the 80's style is currently in fashion again with the younger generation (man that makes me sound old!).  After putting my make up on and fixing my hair the kids announced that I looked crazy.  That seemed sufficient praise since the style of high school was definitely crazy!  I must admit that doing my hair up in 80's style was surprisingly easy...I guess old habits never go away.  This picture doesn't do our outfits justice though since you can't see my double colored scrunched socks and Jason's pegged pants.  We had to laugh whenever we looked at each other.  We had a really fun night albeit a painful Sunday.  We can dress like high school and party like college but unfortunately I recover like I'm thirty-five!

Peter Pan

On Friday night the girls performed in their school show of Peter Pan.  They were both very excited to be in the show.  All the kids in Sofia's class were pirates and all the kids in Ali's class were angels.  They both practiced their parts a lot at home before the show so Jason and I were excited to see how it would all go in the actual performance.  They both did great!  Sofia was a little more reserved in the performance than she was at home but she did a great job.  Ali missed a couple cues during the show when she was busy looking for us.  She at least found her friend Matous' mom and waved to her.  That seemed to calm her down a bit and made her more focused.  They were both happy and proud of themselves as were we. 

The showed ended late and the girls were tired after so much work.  We headed home but on the way we stopped for an ice cream.  I think the sugar gave them just enough energy to make it all the way home before falling asleep! We have video of both of them in the show but we need to compress the video in order to upload it.  Once that is done I will post it here.  In the meantime, here are a couple pictures we took during the show.

Family Mini Marathon/ Mother's Day

Yesterday was the Prague International Marathon (PIM).  We did not run the marathon but we did run in the Family mini marathon (4.2K) which is put on by PIM and it started fifteen minutes after the start of the marathon from Old Town Square.  The kids have been excited to run the race ever since they ran it last year.  I was curiuos to see how they would run it this year since the girls ran it so differently last year.  Their technique stayed the same this year.  Sofia running fast and slowing down and running fast and slowing down etc., and Ali keeping a relatively even pace the entire race.  I stayed with Ali and Jason stayed with Sofia.  Ali was excited to start the race and once we passed the start line she took off going around people to get out of the crowd.  Once we were out of the crowd I had to remind her a couple times to not go too fast but overall she kept her own pace.  She would at times run next to me or in front of me until her friend Cianna caught up to us and then they ran together.  It was nice to see them run together since they laughed the whole way while still running. 

Ali never stopped to walk, except when she was taking a quick drink, and managed to finish the race in 29:42 which is an average pace of 12:24 minutes per mile.  I am absolutely amazed that Ali's little legs can carry her that far at that pace.  She truly enjoyed her time running as well and I have told her that occassionally if she wants to go for a run on the weekend I will go for a short run with her.  Jason and Sofia finished a little bit after us along with her friends Annalee and Oliver and their dad, Radek.  I left Ali with Cianna and her mom, Elizabeth, and ran back down the road to see if I could see Sofia running.  Luckily I did and I managed to get a few pictures of her coming down to the finish.  The kids were all so happy to get their medals at the finish line.  I was happy for them as well since it was quite an accomplishment.  I couldn't have asked for more than two happy healthy kids to run with on Mother's Day!

After the race we headed to our friend's house for lunch.  The kids were very excited to play with their friends, Annalee and Oliver, and we enjoyed time to relax and have lunch with our friends.  After having a lazy afternoon we finally headed home and did some yard work, although nothing to strenuous for me...it was mother's day after all!

Octopus

On Friday I needed to stop at the Greek shop to pick up a couple things. I forgot to go before I picked the girls up from school so to make them less inclined to whine I told them we could get olives and they could have them as part of there dinner. They were very excited about this since the greek shop does have very good olives. Once we were there and I picked up the few things I needed Soifa asked , "Can we get octopus?" My response, "Really!?" Then when she said yes I remembered to put on the appropriate motherly face of encouraging my children to try new and different things. I asked the man in the shop if I needed to cook it or if she could just eat it as it was in the deli case. He told me it was already cooked and ready to eat so I bought a piece for Sofia. We got home and I cut off a small piece for Ali and a small piece for Sofia. Ali was not a fan but Sofia LOVED it. She asked if she could have the rest of it so I let her. Here is a picture of her eating the octopus.

Swimming update

I did manage to bring my camera to Sofia's swim lesson today so here is a video of her swimming the backstroke.  She did quite well once she figured out moving the arms backwards rather than forwards.

Mother's Day Breakfast

Today I went to Ali's class for a Mother's Day Breakfast.  It was very sweet.  The entire class sang three songs for us.  They made placemats and cards as well as a paper flower which was all placed where we were suppose to sit.  Ali was very excited to have me there and to perform the songs she had been practicing.  Once the songs were over the children brought out the raspberry muffins that they had made to serve to the moms.  Ali and I shared our muffin and her water.  Unfortunately my camera was left at home this morning so I will have to wait for my friends to send me copies of the pictures that they took.  When I get some pictures I will post it here.  Here is a video that my friend Inge took. (Thanks Inge!!)

Bike Riding

I can now firmly say that Ali can ride her bike without training wheels.  She can start going all by herself and ride down hills and over bumps and stay on her bike.  She actually enjoys riding over bumps although it does make me nervous.  Jason took the girls down to the path through the woods on Saturday while I went to the grocery store.  The girls had a lot of fun and Jason told me that next time he will have to bring his bike since Ali was doing so well that he had to jog to keep up with her.  On Sunday we decided to all go for a bike ride together.  Actually I went for a longer bike ride and met up with Jason and the girls at their turn around point.  I couldn't believe how well Ali was riding her bike.  I rode my bike next to her for a while.  There is no more walking next to Ali.  She pumps those little legs like crazy so she can go fast!  Sofia is also doing great on her new bike.  I was talking to Jason after the ride saying how funny it is that Sofia gets down so low when she is riding.  He told me that Sofia said she goes so low so that she can go faster.  I'm not sure where she learned about wind resistencebut at least I know her leaning down so much is intentional.  Who knew we would have two speed demons on our hands! It was our first real family bike ride.  I'm looking forward to more family bike rides this summer.  I think we will get Ali a bigger bike soon though so that she doesn't have to work so hard to go fast.