First Motorka ride!

I got out Jakub's old motorka (Czech for little motorcycle - which all kids first learn to ride) today and let Sofia give it a try.  She loved it. :)  She can't put both feet flat on the ground at the same time, yet, but still she rocked back and forth while pushing herself forward and around the room.  Then she would get off alone and most of the time do it well.  She also liked to push it and carry it around the living room. :)  She was brave and not worried at all about being on it.  Just like Jakub used to be when he was her age, though he was 1/2 a year older when we first bought this and tried it with him.  I can't wait until she can ride it with confidence and we can go on some walks together outside with it.  This morning it was so pretty outside we did take a walk for about an hour.  She did well the whole time and I didn't have to carry her at all.  We wandered around our neighborhood and she enjoyed looking at and touching flowers and grass.  She also followed a lot of birds and dogs in hopes of catching up to them. :)  She can go pretty fast already and almost runs at times.  She's so sweet to watch.  Here are a few more things about her right now:

- She wears a size 4+ diaper and weighs about 12.5 - 13 kg.
- She has one pair of shoes, pink high-tops, and they are size 22cm.  I need to get her another pair as well as indoor house slippers, which is the appropriate thing for her to put on when we visit other homes, now that she walks so well everywhere.
- She still only has 2 bottom teeth, but clearly 6 others are on their way very soon and 2 have currently just come to the edge of the gums and have almost broken through.  We brush her 2 teeth at night with a little green tooth brush and she thinks it tickles so bad and laughs a lot.
- When she isn't having teething pain she sleeps through the night from about 730 or 8pm to 7-730am.  If she does wake up due to pain it's extremely hard to get her to stay in her own bed and not pick her up.  She's determined and will cry and cry, which we don't mind comforting her through, but at a certain point she starts to wake Jake and then it's hard to let him wake up on a school night, so then we end up rocking her back to sleep or taking her to our bed if she's really having a hard time. 
- She eats a lot of different things, but she definitely wants to smell first and slowly taste new things.  If she doesn't like it then she absolutely won't take another bite.  It's frustrating, but we're working through it.  Thankfully, she really does eat a lot of different things so it's not that bad.
- Her favorite foods right now are strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, carrots, cheese, bread, apples, oranges, bananas, and as of last night - lemons.  raw.  wow.
- Her favorite thing to do is probably to play with brother as she adores him.  She also would rather be outside walking around than play inside.  I'm happy about that.
- When she hears music or singing she starts to do an adorable little wiggle dance and bob her head. 
- She LOVES Daddy and can definitely say his name and call for him.  She still won't call for me, but does occasionally and randomly say Mama.  She also uses "mama" to ask for food. :)
- She gives 1000 hugs and kisses to me, Josh, and Jake throughout the day.  She loves to give affection and gives it so freely.  She is super, super sweet natured and I love it so much.

Ok, that's all for now.  I could go on forever about these kids.  They're awesome. :) 

Happy, Glorious Easter!

Once again it's been a while since I last blogged.  Life has been full, and mostly full of good, and for that we are blessed and grateful.  There's a lot to catch up on and it's overwhelming to try it all at once so, for now, I'll just share some about our Easter time this year. 

The week before Easter weekend Jakub was home from school with a fever and cough.  It wasn't anything terrible, but I didn't want him to go to school and get worse before our big 4-day retreat weekend with our church family from the Czech Republic and Slovakia (and a few from Holland and Austria).  We were unable to attend this annual retreat last year due to Sofia being so young still, so this year we really looked forward to getting back together with our friends and enjoying a nice time away to reflect upon and celebrate Jesus.  This year we had a wonderful guest speaker from the U.S., some nice Bible class times, discussion groups, and children's lessons.  Jakub and Sofia both did pretty well attending their groups and playing with friends.  Sofia didn't mind a bit being with "strangers" and other babies for her class time and I was so happy for her to have some new people to play with and interact with.  Jake did great as well, but occasionally got bored with the craft times and since he felt he owned the place (as he usually does in familiar places) he would often run off from class when he felt like it and go play out front on the playground area.  In general it wasn't too bad, but Josh and I struggled some with wanting him to learn to listen better to his teachers, talk to them first before running off, and to be more aware of the group around him and what everyone was doing together.  We had to remind ourselves, once again, that he's 4 and still has a lot to learn.  Though he played with his closest friend very well, she was 6 and of course new how to behave better or follow rules better.  I know we'll get there.  :)

The retreat was good for us in many, many ways. It was encouraging to hear the Bible lessons, taught on the Lord's Prayer, and be in discussion with others about them.  It was uplifting to worship and sing so often with so many other believers who were full of joy.  It was refreshing to be around so many other Moms, Dads, and kids who were striving to teach their young ones about life, about God, about Jesus, and just about being.  We shared many "mom" moments full of laughter, and some tears.  All of it was so good for me.  The only down-side for me, really, was that Sofia was teething (and still is as we're going to get about 6 teeth total in the next month) and didn't always sleep well at night.  Josh and I were totally wiped out from the poor sleep at night, but still made the best of several great days there.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures yet to show from the retreat.  One of our friends there took many of the weekend and will send them out to all of us soon. :)

I do have some pictures from our Moms' and Kids' class in Olomouc on the Wednesday before we left.  Our theme this semester is "family."  Each two weeks we learn about different members of the family, various good values we have in our families, and about love for those around us.  The two weeks prior to Easter happened to be babies, brothers, and sisters.  So we talked about baby Jesus as well as adult Jesus in parts of our lessons and shared some of the values Jesus taught us in our celebration of Him leading up to Easter.  I think it worked in well to the overall theme and I'm glad we got to share some of our faith with the families/kids in the group before Easter time.  I do have just a few pictures from that class time.

We also hosted our own Easter worship in Olomouc, but we did it one week prior to Easter as we would then be out of town in Slovakia.  Josh led the worship program focused heavily on Jesus and Joy this year.  Sometimes in the past we've struggled to truly express our joy and hope we have in Jesus for all that He did for us and for the resurrection and the miracle that it is.  This year we wanted those who would come, who are closest to us anyway, to see the joy and love we have for God and Jesus and everything that Easter time should represent.  And I was able to do the children's class as this year we had another family come with 2 children and so it was wonderful to celebrate with them.  We had a small program of singing and story time from the Bible, as well as some craft time and plenty of games to play.  Here are a few pictures of the kids:

That's mostly how our 2 weeks of Easter celebrations and programs went.  Thankfully the kids were in a mostly healthy spell for it all.  Thanks to God the programs were blessed and successful.  Our biggest hope is that God and Jesus remain on peoples minds when the programs are over.  I believe for some this is true more and more!

And just so I don't forget my mommy-fail Easter moment... after the 4 days away for Easter weekend we returned home Sunday night happy and completely worn out.  We did the typical bed-time routine of dinner, baths, and bed.  We all slept well that night, including Sofia!  On Monday morning we got up for school as usual... and as Jake and I were walking there together I noticed hardly anyone was out.  Odd for a Monday morning.  Odd for 750am.  We continued on and as we got closer to school I could see that no one was parking around or going to-and-from school.  Still we marched on and as we walked up to the school door it became very clear that school was closed.  Because it's Easter Monday.  Because that's a holiday here and nothing's open.  Yeah, I felt silly.  So we marched ourselves back home for a long and fun day as a family together.   That was needed anyway. :)