Allergist

Sofia's hearing is still not very good. We have been back and forth to the ENT many times and have taken allergy medicine, antibiotics, and nose drops all in an attempt to clear her ears. Nothing has worked. Before they will discuss tubes though everything has to be looked at so today was our trip to the allergy/immunology doctor. Sofia had 20 pricks made in her forearm to test for allergies. It was not a pleasant process for her. I felt bad for her because I know it was painful. The upside is that she didn't have any allergic reaction. The downside of our visit was that they did not tell me in advance that Sofia couldn't eat before the immunology blood test so we need to go back again on Wednesday. After they take her blood on Wednesday, we will wait for the results and on Feb 6th I will call the doctor to find out if anything shows up on the blood test. I really can't imagine anything coming up but we shall see. After that it will be back to the ENT to see what the next steps are in helping Sofia to hear better.

What a beautiful day!

Maybe my bronchitis and truck accident was just a wonderful excuse to not run in the freezing temperatures in Prague. I went for a short run on Saturday with a slightly tight chest but all in all it felt pretty good. Today was my first run of distance (8 miles) since December and it was just beautiful! The temperature was about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) and the sun was shining and the sky was blue. I'm taking the sunny blue sky as a sign that my 2009 is only going up from here!

English - British - Czechglish

The kids are exposed to many different languages here which is great. We try to maintian a certain level of American English but have also accepted some British English into our home. Things like sweetie instead of candy has become standard. Today, however, Sofia said, "This is a great rubber." Before I burst out in adolescent humor I had to correct her and say, "yes, but we call it an eraser." She responded with, "yes, but some people call it a rubber." I had to agree with her that some people do call it a rubber but reiterated that we call it an eraser. (For those of you who don't know, in American English slang a rubber is a condom.) So there are some British English words we can accept and some we prefer not to use.
Another thing we also here is Czechglish, a blend of English and Czech. Sofia loves going to Czech school and learning Czech. When she is at Czech school her teacher calls her Sofinku and her teacher calls Ali, Alinku. This is normal in Czech. Sofia has taken those nicknames and applied them in English. Daddy has become Dadinku and her stuffed animal horse has become horsinku. It is funny and interesting how she is combining the two languages. It is hard to know how much Czech Sofia knows since she won't speak it with me very often but I know she must understand quite a bit since when I pick her up from Czech class I never hear a word of English being spoken. I don't push her to speak Czech and I am just enjoying hearing her Czechglish. I love the mutlicultural language she is developing... rubbers, sweeties, dadinku, horsinku and all.

Things go right....almost

Today Jason took the girls to school and I headed off to the foreign police to get my visa renewed. This is a relatively easy process for us since Jason's company takes care of a lot of the leg work. I showed up and met a lady who took me inside where I signed a few forms and then I was done. It was nice and easy.



I left there and decided I was going to get myself a strudel. A few years back I had watched a show that was done in Prague and during the show the woman bought a strudel that was suppose to be delicious. I had asked Jason to go there on his many trips to Prague but he never did. He always said it was too far out of the way. Well, after hounding him, we moved here and I realized he was right and after two years I had never made it over to get a strudel. Today was my day though and I had time so I decided to find the strudel shop. It was just a couple blocks away from the foreign police. It is really just a window that you step up to and buy your fresh strudel. I bought 2 apple strudels but on second thought I should have bought one apple and one cheese but that means I will just have to go back! He handed me the strudel which was about 10" long and it was still warm! I was very excited. I bit into it and there was real apple chunks not just apple mush. It was delicious! It was cheap too at only 42Kc ($2.20USD). I will have to make another trip over there soon to buy a cheese strudel. Now that I know exactly where it is, it isn't that far out of the way.

After purchasing my strudel I headed over to the ambulance company offices (the ambulance that took me to the hospital after the truck accident) to give them my insurance card. They apparently shouldn't haven't given me a bill but should have accepted my insurance card on the spot. But, it was easy enough to head to their offices. The lady at reception walked me down to the right person to speak with and he copied my insurance card, took the bill and I was done.

This is where the "almost" comes in....As I was walking back to the metro to give Jason a strudel I got a call from the kids school. Ali is sick. I had to go pick her up from school. (Jason will have to eat his strudel later.) I brought Ali home and let her watch movies. I was hoping she would fall asleep and so I was rubbing her head. Just as her eyes were closing and she appeared to dose off, the throw up came flying out of her mouth! On her, on me and on the couch. So, like I said, things are going right...almost! Let's hope we can contain Ali's illness to just one child and it doesn't spread throughout our house.

Back to normal...

Life in 2009 has been interesting to say the least but it finally appears to be returning to a normal rhythm. I still have bronchitis and a couple sore spots from getting hit by the truck but I have resumed most of my daily activities. I hope to resume running by Friday....that is my time limit for bronchitis so hopefully my body will cooperate! :)
I finally gave Watson a bath and a haircut which he desperately needed. We had kept putting it off since the groomer that we have used here never listens to what we want so we needed to find a new one. Finding a new groomer is difficult so Watson was looking pretty gray and shaggy. I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to groom him myself. I have to say, I did a pretty good job and I saved us $50. Now that I know I can do it maybe Watson will get bathed more frequently!
Yesterday I went shopping for ice skates. Ice Skates are another one of those things we didn't bring with us from the States that we should have brought. Oh well, I am actually happy that I was forced to buy new skates here b/c the skates I bought are so much nicer that my old skates. I'm looking forward to skating with some friends while the kids are in school. I also bought the same skates for Sofia so hopefully we can get a lot of skating in on the weekends. The nice thing about the skates I bought is that they are adjustable for size so they should fit Sofia for the next couple years. Ali's feet are too small and I can't find any skates that fit her so we will have to continue to rent skates for her.
Today I'm off to the insurance company to get reimbursed for prescriptions but also to find out how I'm suppose to pay the ambulance company since it is the first time we have received a bill for anything medical. The medic told us the insurance will pay it but I don't know if that means we pay it and the insurance reimburses us or if the insurance company will pay it directly. It is always interesting to go to the insurance office.

*Update - I went to insurance company and turns out the ambulance should have just taken my insurance info and not given me an invoice. I will head to the ambulance office next week. Another adventure!

Hit by Truck

Did you ever feel like you have been hit by a truck? Well, I now know what that feels like. Don't worry, I am fine. I just have some minor bumps and bruises. I was in town today and I was meeting Jason in front of a bank on a main shopping street. I was standing on the SIDEWALK looking in the direction from which Jason would come when from behind I was hit and thrown to the ground. I was stunned and looked back to see what the heck had hit me and saw a big delivery truck. I had a moment of panic when I thought the truck was moving but it stopped. I then just was in disbelief. I was doing a mental check of all body parts and a couple guys were surrounding me asking me if i was ok. Of course they were speaking to me in czech but apparently being hit by a truck knocks all ability to speak another language out of my brain. It was all I could do to say "I don't speak Czech" in English. Fortunately one of the men helping me spoke English and stayed with me until Jason arrived. We went in the ambulance to the hospital for exrays of my head and knee. Everything is fine and I'm now home. I'm sure advil will be my friend tomorrow but I am just grateful it wasn't worse than it was. I will now be very vigilant even on sidewalks. After starting 2009 with bronchitis and being hit by a truck I'm thinking the rest of the year should be looking up!

Bronchitis

Not much is going on here. The kids started back to school on Monday and are having a great time. I, on the other hand, am not having a great time. I started with a fever and cough over the weekend and has changed to bronchitis by today. It isn't fun and I haven't had much sleep. The upside is that I don't have to entertain the kids all day while I am sick. Jason pretty much does everything in the mornings and our friends have brought the kids home for me (accept yesterday when I thought I was better so I picked them up myself). The girls have been very good to leave me alone and have just played nicely together. Somehow they have finally reached the age that they understand mommy really doesn't feel well. I am looking forward to getting better with antibiotics so that we can start enjoying winter (and just so I don't feel so bad!).

Movie & Fireworks

Today we met up with some friends to see Madagascar 2. It was the first times the girls have ever been to a movie theater to see a movie. They were excited to go to the movie and to go to the movie with their friends, Vivi & Michelle. I decided to make it a full movie experience for them and bought them popcorn and a soda. They have had popcorn before but have never had there own soda. There have been times when I might have given them a sip of my soda so this was a big deal. I got them Fanta (which is what orange soda is called here) because Sofia has been asking for Fanta for a while since her friend Anna apparently loves Fanta. The girls did great in the movie and we only had to go to the potty once which wasn't surprising given the soda drinking that was happening. They were very sad to leave the theater but perked up when we told them we were going to see fireworks. On January 1st Prague puts on a huge firworks display from Letna Park so you can see the fireworks from all over the city. We hopped on a tram after the movie to get to a good viewing location and we were going to meet up with friends at the determined location. Our plans changed when our tram ended up taking a detour b/c of the fireworks. We were a little disspointed at first but then realized our good fortune. Our tram was empty (except for 2 other people) and heated and stopped in the middle of one of the bridges crossing the vlatva for a PERFECT viewing location. We couldn't have asked for better luck. The kids loved seeing their first fireworks display and we didn't have to worry about them being cold. Once the fireworks were over the tram continued on its way and we hopped off at the metro and came home. It all worked out great.

Happy New Year!

Usually Jason and I ring in the New Year at home enjoying Chinese food and going to bed before midnight but this year we decided to go to a friend's house. The girls don't have any concept of New Year's Eve but they were happy to have their babysitter here. We headed to the edge of Prague to our friend's house to celebrate. Luckily we were able to borrow a friend's car for the night otherwise we would have needed to take a taxi. We arrived at our friends house and had fun talking to our friends and meeting new people. There was even some major fireworks going off in their neighborhood so we stood outside for a little bit to watch. It is another difference between the States and Czech. In the States it is illegal in most states to buy fireworks but even in states that you can buy them you can't buy the huge colorful fireworks that you see on the 4th of July. Here you can buy those fireworks easily and legally. So, we enjoyed seeing the fireworks and then, being freezing cold, we went back inside. We watched the Czech tv station to see the happenings on Wenceslas Square and to watch the countdown to 2009. After watching that and ringing in the New Year we changed the channel and watch New Year's in London. It is strange to see the countdown twice. It was a fun night and I'm looking forward to 2009. Happy New Year everyone!!

Ice Skating

This afternoon Jason and I took the girls into town for ice skating. I was excited to get on skates again since I haven't skated in a while and I love it. I was also excited to introduce the girls to skating. They did really well. I was surprised that they were able to stand on the skates by themselves. They seemed to enjoy skating and learning to do it by themselves. After skating by themselves for a little bit I would take each of them around the rink at a higher speed. I would skate backwards and just hold them up so they could just let their skates sit on the ice. Since we just saw Disney Princess on ice I would also do little spins with them. It was nice to see them so happy. That ice rink is only there until Wednesday so I will have to look for another rink that I can bring them to so we can keep skating. If we do, I will have to buy some skates for all of us so that we can have skates that fit properly since that makes it easier to skate. Here are a couple videos of the girls skating.

Merry Christmas!

We have been enjoying our Christmas vacation. On Christmas Eve we went into Old Town Square to see the lights and look at the Christmas Market. We forgot that this was prague and everything closes Christmas Eve, including the Christmas Market. Czech's celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve so Old Town Square was very empty when we arrived but that was fine. It made it easier to enjoy all the lights and the beauty around us. On Christmas morning the girls woke up and we had a little breakfast and then started opening presents. Ali made me laugh because after every present she would ask if there were anymore. It was like she couldn't believe there were all these presents for her. After ripping through all the presents we had a very lazy day of playing with toys, eating and watching movies. This is the second year in a row that we have made a beef tenderloin with a blue cheese sauce for our Christmas meal and it was delicious. The day after Christmas (Boxing Day) we went to our friends house out of town. They had recently moved out of town and we hadn't seen them as much so it was great to visit them. Their new house was beautiful. We had fun hanging out and we went for a walk down to the river as well. It was very cold out so it was quite a refreshing walk. We ended up carrying Ali most of the way back but I didn't mind. I wasn't surprised she was cold since my hands and feet were frozen too. I think today we will head into town for some ice skating. I will post later about that.

The Spirit of Christmas

I love Christmas in Prague. Everything is so festive and it really feels like Christmas (although we could use snow to really make it perfect). Last year I gave a package of homemade cookies to our downstairs neighbor at Christmas since they, while they speak no English, have been so kind to us. This year, before I could get downstairs with their package of Christmas cookies, they came upstairs with a package of Czech Christmas cookies for us. It was so nice of them. I never expected them to give us cookies or to make the climb up to our apartment since they are older and it takes them a while to climb the stairs. Once again I find myself wondering how people can think the Czechs are cold people since they have been nothing but welcoming to us. This morning I took Watson out for his walk and I brought a bag of homemade cookies to our local lahudky (kind of like a delicatessen). The ladies in the lahudky have always been nice to me and I just wanted to give them a little something for Christmas. They were surprised when I came in and put the package on the counter and said "vesele vanoce" (Merry Christmas). I had to tell them that it was just American cookies. They were very happy and very thankful for my gift. I left the shop to head home and when I was partway down the road one of the ladies came running after me with two big chocolate Mikulases for me to give to the girls. Again, so nice and unexpected. The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Prague and I'm happy to be apart of it.

Disney on Ice

This morning Jason and I took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. It was a great show and the girls were mesmerized for the entire two hours. They didn't seem to care that the entire show was in Czech. They know the stories and characters so well and they are use to hearing Czech that I don't even think it occurred to them that they were listening to Czech. We of course bought the obligatory items..popcorn, rainbow ice in a princess cup, magic wand and tiara. It was all worth it to see the girls enjoy themselves so much. After we got home the girls went to there room and "skated" for quite a while. Here is the video that Jason took of the girls skating like the princesses.

Christmas Party

Last night Jason and I hosted our first party in Prague. This last week has been a mad dash to get everything ready for the party. Unfortunately the list was pretty long since we had put off a lot of things on our "to do" list. The party was a catalyst for the completion of many "to do" items. We had to buy new dishware and glassware since we had not replaced all of our broken things from when the kitchen cabinets fell off the wall last year. We had to clean the windows which we hadn't done since we moved here! We also finally hung pictures in the kitchen.

My friends were all great helps to me. One friend brought me to a wholesale dish/glassware store which was great. Since it is a wholesaler you have to have a business license to shop there which I don't possess so having a friend with one who is willing to go shopping with me was great. The prices were so much lower I saved a ton of money and now have new dishes. They were out of stock on many of the glasses I wanted but that was ok since other friends let me borrow their Makro card. Makro is a big box store similar to Costco but you have to have a business to be a member. I went to Makro and bought the rest of the glassware that I wanted as well as wine and other food/drink for the party. Again, because it is basically a wholesaler the prices are a lot cheaper so I was able to save money here as well. After acquiring all these wonderful new dishes and glasses I had to, of course, wash them all. It also required reoganizing the kitchen to have appropriate storage for everything. In the reorganizing we realized we needed another storage container so off to Ikea I went. Jason and I laughed about storage b/c whenever it seems like we can't fit more things in the apartment we somehow manage to get more organized and we can fit more things.

Anyway, I made a lot of cookies and then bagged them all and put them in gift bags with pretty ribbon to give to our guests as a little christmas present. I also made spring rolls, spinach puff pastry, BBQ pulled pork, chocolate cream pie, chocolate chip bread pudding with caramel sauce , and brownies. Store bought items filled in the rest of the food...shrimp cocktail, nuts, olives, chips, and cheese & crackers. We also served, wine, beer, soda, water but in addition we created 4 speciality drink cards with instruction on making a drink for those who wanted a christmas cocktail..holly-tini, christmas cosmopolitan, peppermint stick or for the non drinkers the Merry red dragon mocktail. There was plenty of food and drink for everyone and it was a great group of people. One of the things that is great about living here is the diverse group of people that we have in our lives. Last night we had friends from Scotland, England, Australia, Czech, Russia, Slovakia, Canada, United States, Poland and Serbia here celebrating with us. It was a great night.

I am looking forward to entertaining more often now and welcoming more of our friends into our home. I will post pics soon. I, unfortunately, didn't take many pictures last night so once my friend e-mails the pics she took I will post them.

Vienna

On Friday we collected our rental car and hit the road for Vienna. It should be about a 4 hour drive but it took us about 6 hours between the traffic leaving Prague, potty breaks and food breaks. It was a fairly easy drive though which was nice. As we left the Czech Republic you drive through a weird "in between" space between Austria and Czech where there are outlets and casinos and some sketchy looking flea markets. We had to laugh though since the outlets were called Freeport but we were definitely not in Maine! We continued our drive into Austria and made it to our hotel with little difficulty. We waited a little while in the car while Jason finished up a conference call and then headed into the hotel. The girls were excited to be staying in a hotel. Upon arrival our room was not ready but that was fine since they offered us free coffee and cakes while we waited. The girls enjoyed their hot chocolates and had fun drawing with the paper and pen the hotel staff gave them. We eventually headed up to our room and got ourselves sorted out while the girls jumped on their bed. We headed downstairs to the restaurant and ordered dinner. The girls were so tired that they didn't eat much. I finished my meal and left Jason to pay while I took the girls upstairs to get ready for bed. They were very tired but the excitement of a huge bed and sleeping in it together was a little too much for them and they didn't fall asleep right away. Such is life...I was excited about the big beds with down pillows, comforters etc that I couldn't really blame them for their excitement! Ali had a fitful night sleep which meant we all did but we got up in the morning and headed out of the hotel to do some sightseeing.

Our first order of business was to find breakfast. To our surprise there were not many places open in the morning at 8:30. We had to wait until about 9 for a few cafes to open. Needless to say we were all a bit grumpy until we had some food. After finding breakfast we headed out to St Stephens church which is a big church in the middle of the city. We looked at the church and let the girls run around in the pedestrian area and then continued on to the Christmas Market. The Vienna Christmas Market has a lot of fun things for kids. The market is essentially broken up into three parts. The middle part has all the stalls selling food, drinks, ornaments, hats, nativity scenes, etc. On the left and on the right were areas for kids. The right side had houses to go in and watch little puppet shows as well as pony rides. The kids loved the house with the hand puppets. They pressed the button to make the show start again many times. After leaving that house we moved on to the pony rides. Here is a video of the kids in the house with the hand puppets.

After all that excitement we headed back to the hotel for a nap. The girls were definitely tired. Sofia slept for 2 hours and Ali slept for 3 hours. It is unheard of for Sofia to sleep during the day so we decided to just let the girls sleep as long as they wanted. After a good nap we went to the pool. After going from hot tub to pool many times we decided it was time to head outside again and finish seeing the market. We were all excited to see all the Christmas lights as well. We walked along the inner ring until we reached the market. We started with the left side to see what else they had for kids. Unfortunately we couldn't go in any of he houses since they all closed up at 7pm but the girls did get to go on the carousel and a little train ride which they loved. It was hard to pry them away from the rides but we all needed food. We headed back into the crowded middle section and had hot drinks and sausages and then headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back and were ready for bed it was 10pm. Even with the long naps the girls were still tired. We all fell asleep very quickly. Before going to sleep however, we didn't want to wait for the cafes to open in the morning for breakfast so we splurged and ordered room service.

In the morning we woke and had a leisurely breakfast in our room and then packed and headed out to Schonbrunn Palace. We didn't have much time before we needed to be on the road back to Prague but I really wanted to see this palace. The pictures of it are so beautiful. We didn't have time to go inside but we went out back to the gardens and walked around for a little bit but it was very cold so our time was brief. We agreed though that we will need to go back to Schonbrunn in the summer so we can see all the flowers in bloom and enjoy walking around the grounds.

It was a whirlwind weekend but we did get to see a fair amount of the city and we are looking forward to going back again.

Decorating the tree

Our schedules have been so busy with Jason's work, the many school activities, and my girl's weekend away that we hadn't had any time to decorate the Christmas tree. It took a week for us to even move it off the patio and into a stand in the apartment. Last Thursday night was finally the night we had designated as the tree decorating night since we wanted to get it decorated before we went to Vienna. The girls were so excited to decorate the tree and wanted to immediately put the star on top. We had to explain that the star goes on last and that they would put it on together. After explaining that both girls were eager to get all the ornaments on the tree. Ali helped Jason put the lights on the tree and then the kids quickly whipped all the ornaments out of the box. We had to give them a little direction so that all the ornaments didn't end up in the same location but all in all they did a great job.

Nursery Nativity Play

Party & Plays

Today was a busy day. Jason and I brought the girls to school and dropped Sofia off at her class and then went to Ali's class for the nursery nativity play. Ali played an Angel in the play and had to say "Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to look for a place to stay." I wasn't sure how she would do during the play but she did great. She loved practicing her line at home and would yell it out. Since she can be a little shy sometimes I thought maybe she would just put her head down and mumble it but she didn't. She said her line loud and clear. I guess that is all part of Ali coming out of her shell. (I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but in the last few weeks Ali has really come out of her shell. She is very talkative at school now.) After the play the nursery class joined the reception class for games in the jidelna (cafeteria).

While the kids played games in the jidelna some of the moms and I prepared the Reception classroom for the Christmas party. The parents provided everything from plates, cups, and decorations to quiches, sausage rolls, cookies, cakes, vegetables and even a chocolate fountain. The kids were all very excited when they came into the class and saw all the food and decorations.

Visit to Santa

While I was in Nuremberg with my girlfriends, Jason had the kids all to himself. He had to pick up the girls a little early on Friday since Santa came to the kids' school. The school lets the nursery and reception classes out thirty minutes early so that they can get to Santa before the rest of the school. This is great because once the rest of the school is released the line for Santa is very long. I forgot to mention to Jason that Sofia also has ballet on Friday afternoons so he arrived to pick up the girls and Sofia was in her ballet class. Luckily the ballet teacher ended class early so that the kids could go see Santa. Once the girls got to Santa, Sofia forgot what she wanted to ask for and Ali froze up. I guess that is an improvement from last year! Maybe by next year they won't be so intimidated by Santa. After seeing Santa they headed to the bake sale in the high school for a couple treats and then home.

Girls Weekend

On Friday I headed to Nuremberg, Germany with my girlfriends for the weekend. This was my first weekend away from my children since they were born so I was VERY excited. The drive to Nuremberg was easy and uneventful. We found our apartment rental easily which was nice. I forgot to call the apartment owner when we were thirty minutes outside the city so we had to wait a little bit to get into our apartment but that was no big deal. I was happy to stand there with friends and not have children whining about having to wait. When we got into the apartment it was nice. It wasn't fancy or decorated in my style but it was clean and comfortable. We dropped our stuff off and headed into town. The train station was a 2 minute walk from our rental. We figured out the ticketing system (or at least we bought a ticket) which I was surprised did not have instructions in English. You are probably wondering why I would be surprised to not see English when I'm in a German speaking country. I was surprised because first, even the Czech train system has instruction in Czech and English and second, it is Germany and I have never had a problem speaking English while in Germany. It seems most people in Germany speak English very well. In any event, we bought a ticket and rode the 4 stops into town. Nuremberg is such a cute town! I really didn't know what to expect of Nuremberg since when I hear Nuremberg I think the Nuremberg trials and Nazis. The town was so cute though and there was tons of shopping. We spent the rest of Friday shopping and eating to our hearts content.

More friends showed up on Saturday morning and we headed back into town for more shopping and to go to the Christmas Market. The Christmas Market was our main reason for going to Nuremberg since it Germany's most famous Christmas market and over 2 million people a year go to it. The market was a lot of fun and was packed with people, even in the rain. I bought Nuremberg Prune men to put in the girls' stockings for Christmas. These are, apparently, one of the things that the Nuremberg market is known for. The prune men are made out of prunes, figs, and walnuts! After checking out all the stalls at the market and hitting a few more stores we had dinner and hot chocolate then headed back to our rental and hung out and chatted. We stayed up late and slept late this morning.

After getting all of our stuff together and loading everything in the car this morning we headed into town for brunch and to pick up a few last minute items. It was a great weekend and hopefully the first of many! Also, since it was raining and my hands were loaded down with shopping bags I didn't get too many pictures of the city itself. I guess I'll just have to go back again sometime soon.