Merry Christmas!

I realize as I get ready to write this "Merry Christmas" post that there's a lot of catching up to do... and I'll save that for another post or I'll never write one in the first place.  Here, and now, I'm simply going to write a little about our Christmas time this year.

 

We've had a wonderful family Christmas in Olomouc this year.  It was, of course, hard not to be with our family in the U.S., but it was as good as it gets here.  The few days leading up to Christmas were filled with some relaxation, some movies, walks in the 50F sunshine, kicking balls outside, making Christmas crafts, having friends over, doing lots of shopping and wrapping, managing a date with Josh while the kids spent the night with Madison (and time with Conor, Alyssa, and Robert), and making a ton of traditional holiday foods and sweets.  It felt very special this year and most importantly, intentional about the time together, time with friends, and time reflecting on Jesus and his birth, life, and sacrifice for us.  We also had some wonderful Christmas programs at work and they went very well.  I am thankful for it all and for my home and family to spend it with.  God has greatly blessed me and graced me.

The kids did great Christmas morning and started it off by sleeping to their usual 8am.  I know, we're super blessed in this way as parents. :)  We then exchanged gifts together and had a lot of fun doing so.  Jakub was much more aware and eager than Sofia, so he helped her with hers as well.  One of his favorite gifts was a new hot-wheels car, of course!  And we've been playing a lot of snakes and ladders!  He also really loved a Lego set a friend gave him and spent most of 2 days working on it until it was complete.  Sofia got a small kitchen supplies set for cooking with that she really liked (Jake picked it out) and then a new Barney doll (her favorite character to watch and sing with) and a new stroller to push her baby in.  The stroller now pushes Barney, though.

And at this moment I must take the time to point out, before I forget, that Sofia loves Barney so much that anything with the color purple must be called "Barney purple" and anything green is "Baby Bop green."  Yellow is occasionally "B.J. yellow." So far it's more sweet than annoying, and mostly I just love that she knows so many colors on her own and wants to point them out.  She also knows pink, orange, brown, black, white, blue, and red.

The kids also got some new books they love to read, and I am so happy and proud that they will read with me any time I offer.  I love books!  Right now we're reading Curious George, Berenstein Bears, and some Classics like Goodnight Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Leo the Late Bloomer.

Ok, off to bed.  More Christmas, New Years, and catching up to come soon I hope.

Oh, and one last thing- one of my favorite images in my head from Christmas.  I made a traditional dinner and set the table very nicely with our wedding dishes, candles, a Christmas arrangement, etc.  And for dinner Jakub prayed very nicely and longer than normal, which is just always touching... to hear your child pray.  Then, during one moment while eating dinner, we were all kind of quiet and I noticed Sofia was mumbling to my right, so I turn to look at her and she has her head bowed and hands intertwined and she was praying.  When we caught her she looked up and smiled, then laughed, and went about eating.  It was awesome.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you and your families!  God bless you each day!!

Happy Birthday Jakub!

Happy Birthday Dear Jakub!  You are FINALLY (in your own words) 5 today.  The big boy number you've been so excited to turn.  You've been asking me "how many days until..." your birthday since I first had to say 62 days.  

 

You woke this morning excitedly and came rushing into the living room in the dark, with your eyes literally half-closed, and saying "it's my birthday!"  You were so excited, but not even fully awake yet.  Daddy and I had decorated your place at the table for breakfast the night before.  We made you birthday sign, and had a cup of cereal waiting with a candle in it.  You opened just 3 of the many (though you don't know about them all yet) gifts we and your family have for you.  You got Superman pajamas, a Curious George book, and a connector-building set that lets you build a tractor.  You loved all of it and said "I thought I would get something with superman, I wanted pajamas.."  It was really sweet and those were from your Grandma and Papa.  I was also really excited about your new book and looked forward all day to reading it with you before bed- which we just did! :) 

You had a great day at school today and seemed really happy when I picked you up this afternoon.  You also had singing class today and you said you did so well in it and listened to the teacher and everything she said.  I was very happy to hear that since you've recently been in some trouble in that class for not listening well and trying to distract the other kids into playing instead of listening and singing.  You said it's because you already know all of the songs well (and you do) and you don't know why you have to keep practicing.  You and I are both working on patience through this process.  You can be so stubborn!!  But you love to sing and you are very talented so I hope Daddy and I can help you find your way through this learning process and you won't give up on the class or the teacher.  You seemed really happy with it today and sang many songs to me this afternoon.  I love to hear you sing!!  Especially in Czech!  God has gifted you so much already in life. 

Your Daddy, little Sister and I love you so much!  Your laugh is infectious, you're full of interesting questions and ideas for having fun, you're also full of a never-ending energy that I can barely keep up with, and you can be so incredibly thoughtful and sweet when you notice someone sad or in need around you.  I'm so thankful to have had 5 years with you already, and I hope for 50+ more together.  We love you to the moon and back (and you say "no, to God and back!") a thousand, million, "fillion" times.

Almost 5!

 

Not the best quality picture I realize,  but one of the most recent I have on my Kindle.  I need to take a few more of this boy!  He had his 5-year old (he will be in another week) health check-up at the doctor today and I'm sincerely thankful and happy to say that everything appears to be good.  He's a healthy boy!  I was also happy to see that our healthcare here is becoming more modern, or at least his pediatrician is, and they did several tests on their own that I was ready to ask for or fight for - and I didn't have to!  Here, they often don't run tests unless a problem presents or there is a concern.  They don't always act in a preventative manner, or at least they don't over-act, which sometimes I'm happy about, and sometimes I'm frustrated and want to know more or do more.  All of that to say that today we had a great visit and I was very pleased.

Jakub did a great job and even followed their directions well in Czech and responded well in Czech.  He weighed 22kg, which is 48lbs.  He measured 121 cm, which is 4 feet tall (88% and 98% according to American percentile charts for 5 year old boys). He passed vision and hearing exams.  His urine tests were without problems.  His blood pressure was 91/48 and his heart rate was 98.  He also received his DTP vaccination and was brave through getting it.   We ordered flu shots for him and Sofia and they will come in 2 weeks.  They don't like to give those to children here, but this year I talked them into it and wanted to try. Jakub has had the flu the past 2 years, and then Josh gets it, and it's been hard on the family.  This year I wanted to try the flu shot and see if it helps protect them better.

Jakub's school is amazing.  I know I've said that before, but I just love it and his teachers.  They are always doing so much to teach the children, to be creative with them, and to involve us parents.  In these pictures you can see Josh and Jakub are making an apple strudel together.  His teachers had an Apple Fall Festival for us and there were lots of different activities and crafts to do and make with real apples.  Making homemade strudel was awesome.  I also especially loved painting with sliced apples.  And one thing I really appreciated at the beginning of the event was the teachers having us all sit around in a circle together and share our names, where we are from, and something about ourselves.  It was good to connect with the other parents and know them better.  God really answered our prayers when we were accepted to this school.  

Here he is with his classmates out on a walk and enjoying the fall leaves.  Jakub is the one in the middle with the black hat and grey/green jacket.  (His teachers are good to take pictures of each event, and random days, and load them on the school website so we can have them).

Jakub is in the white shirt just to the right of the teacher as you look at her.  They had a week full of learning about exercising, why it's important, general health, and learning to do a lot of different exercises and stretches.  And the teachers get in there with the groups and do it all with them.  It's great!  Jakub loves to stretch, run, and do anything active.  I'm glad they want to teach children about this as part of their curriculum.  It's so important!

And lastly, the school's Halloween Party.  A first this year for them.  The children all had to wear black and orange clothes and the teachers made each of them a spider hat and turned them into spiders when they arrived.  One girl's mother ordered that beautiful cake at the top.  The day was full of carving pumpkins, doing various games, exercising, and dancing.  They had so much fun!

That's all for now.  I'll write more about Jake when I post about him turning 5 and the various birthday activities we have planned. ;)  I can't believe it's almost 5 years since he was born!!

It's Fall!

We have been enjoying some beautiful fall weather here lately with days still warm enough to play outside without a hat on and gorgeous blue-skied, sunny afternoons.  The trees are all turning colors and some are already losing their leaves.  Everyone around us has been taking advantage of the last "good" days as well before winter hits and there have been a lot of activities going on and some fun crafts to do as well.  Just yesterday we went to an afternoon event at Jakub's pre-school called "jablečkovani."  I'll have pictures of it to upload later.  We enjoyed lots of activities and crafts to do with apples- including making an apple tree with paper apples, using apples as stamps to paint with, and making home-made apple strudle for the children to enjoy the next day (today!) for their snack.  It was a lot of fun and I'll write more about it when the pictures come in.

Here are some pictures of a craft Sofia and I did together after taking our morning walk.  She liked collecting the leaves and loved even more painting with her hands!  She was very patient for the whole project and very proud of the results.

We also have a beautiful rose-hip bush near our home and so we couldn't resist picking one of the last nice-looking buds before they are all gone.  Czechs enjoy this flavor of tea very much so they pick them from these local bushes and dry them at home to keep for the winter.  Sofia just likes permission to pick anything "pretty," so she was happy to bring these things home today for our project. :)

Here are a few more things going on around here lately:

We are enjoying some of the gifts Grandma sent us from the U.S. recently with some visitors who came to see us from Arkansas.  They are from our church in Fayetteville, and elder and his wife, who oversee and support our work here in Olomouc.  We had a blessed and wonderful visit with them, and they were kind enough to bring us a suitcase full of things from Josh's parents, who go to church with them and know them well.  Sofia and Jakub LOVE goldfish crackers- you can see Sofia thought they were finger-lickin' good. :)

Sofia loves bath time, as long as brother isn't in it.  Neither one thinks they have enough space when the other is there.  She recently has been learning, by herself, to put her face in the water and hold her breath.  You can see some picks of her trying, which she thinks is hilarious.  And of course I had to take a picture of her curls because I love them so much and don't know if they will stay or not.  I had similar ones and they are forever gone.  And she likes to like the water off of her toes.  Gross. ;)  And so adorable all at the same time.

Some other things she's doing now at 20 months:
- Repeating any word we ask her to and saying plenty on her own, not always clearly.
- LOVING to dance, especially with Barney and Baby Bop.
- Hopping around and trying to skip
- Practicing using the kid potty, but not regularly yet and with plenty of accidents
- Starting to eat at the table in a booster sometimes
- Going to bed well on her own (has been for quiet a while) and without much fuss or crying when we leave, if any
- Learning to be less picky with foods again and eat more if we eat it as well
- Trying to count to three and repeats after us well up to ten
- LOVES to play with and blow in her own bubbles
- Likes to play with other kids, especially girls, but gets really quiet while doing so.  Can be pretty social when she warms up and isn't afraid to play with others, but doesn't like to hear them cry and asks me why and wants to give them something to feel better, which is so sweet and tender-hearted
- Fights with brother like a big girl sometimes, gets mad if he won't let her do something alone
- Is very independent and wants to try things alone, won't let us help, and yells "no" at us sometimes if we try to help or have to do it for her
- Gives the best spontaneous hugs and kisses

And one last great picture to end with of both kids:

 

Sweet good-bye kisses before brother goes to school.  She calls him Bubo right now (boo-bow), which is her way of trying to say Kubo (koo-bow), the way Czechs call him.  So cute! :)

Let's Celebrate!

We're so cheesy-happy in this picture, which we took yesterday, because Sofia had just successfully used her kid toilet for the first time. :)  She has been showing interest in this for a couple, or maybe even few, weeks now, but I had not taken the time to help her except to let her sit on it with her diaper on any time she asked.  However, yesterday, I realized we had nothing to really do that morning except be at home together and it was time to give it a try and give her this attention she's been wanting.  So after 30 minutes or so of running around playing and talking about what to do, she then suddenly got wide-eyed, ran over to it and sat down, and within a few seconds was using it.  She had the biggest grin on her face afterward.  It was so sweet!  I took a ton of pictures with our still camera, and this one with the kindle.  It was a good start to this process and even though it's round two for us as parents, it's still just as enjoyable watching her go through her milestones and achievements as it was the first time with Jakub.  And it's also a joy to see how proud Jakub is of her when he founds out good news like this.  He hugged her and congratulated her as well.  So much love!!

And today there's another reason to celebrate as it's my Mom's birthday. :)  I wish I was there to celebrate with her, but hopefully some day in the future we'll share many more birthdays in person.  Today in Olomouc it's exactly her favorite kind of day outside, which makes me really happy to experience on her birthday.  It's gorgeous outside with blue skies, crisp cool air, and trees half-way turned in fall colors.  Thank you God for a good day on my Mom's birthday.  I love you, Mom (Nana).  Happy Birthday!

První den školky!!

Monday, September 1st Jakub started back to pre-school.  They start back to school later here, than in the U.S., but that's because they typically attend school until the last day of June.

Jakub was pretty nervous about going back to school this year.  I didn't know this until we were away at our vacation place one week prior to school starting back again.  Of course we were chatting with him every once in a while about school to get prepared for the idea, and then one night at bed time I went to check on him and found him teary-eyed and nervous that his friends were not going to want to play with him or they would make fun of him.  I think he meant because of him speaking Czech or not understanding each other.  It broke my heart to see him worry over these things.  We did our best to reassure him, to talk about the wonderful things he would get to see, do, and learn, and then we prayed with him and encouraged him that God would watch over him and help him with everything.

Well, the first day has already come and gone and he did fantastic!  He was slightly nervous but also very excited to go the first day.  He was so sweet that morning getting ready and then when I got to school and then when we got there we were changing into his indoor pants and house shoes and he started to put one pair of pants over another.  He laughed and then said "uhh, I don't want anyone to see how nervous I am." :)  It was so cute and again I just reassured him that everyone felt a little nervous inside and also excited to see each other.  After that he was more confident and after giving me and Sofia a sweet little hug and kiss he confidently walked into the classroom and said "Dobry den!" to his teacher and friends.  It was good to see so many familiar faces and to know he has the same teachers he has always had so far and that they love him and are very good to him.

The first week has been a success so far.  He's been sweet, kind, and as far as I know well behaved at school.  He's gone to school well each morning and had good stories to tell us in the afternoons.  He's definitely more tired in the evenings, but that's normal! 

Here's a picture of Jakub with one of his teachers.  Please pray with us for him, his friends, and his teachers that they will all have a blessed school year.  Thank you!

Family Vacation August 2014 - Part 1

After a very full, very blessed, work period over the last 6 months, with the peak of work being in the months of June and July, our family decided to get away in August for some family time.  For this vacation we decided to take it slowly, focus on family life and the simple things, and get away somewhere quiet.  Josh found us a "chalupa," or small cottage, in the hillside of northern Czech Republic.  The village was called Svobodne Hermanice.  The nearest, larger city was about 20 minutes away by car- Opava.   It was a beautiful village and our chalupa was nice with a lovely yard outside.  That was the thing I looked forward to the most, the yard.... and no internet access.  I wanted very much to just play with the children, explore, have the freedom to be outside and run and play and do things we typically can't do living in the city and in an apartment building. 

The kids enjoyed various new experiences and challenges at our cottage.  They also enjoyed more freedom than before with this area being private and having a fence and gate around the entire area.  Sofia loved running and exploring unhindered.  Jakub learned to make fires both outside and in for the grill and fireplace.  

Here Jakub's helping cook our dinner - grilled chicken legs.  He was so happy learning so many new things this week.  He also learned a lot about outdoor life and nature.  On day one he was very concerned about the bees and would scream and run away.  By mid-week he ignored them and by the end he would stand still if they were on him and then let them fly away again.  He said he was "brave." :)

Jakub also learned to jump rope.  I enjoyed so much teaching him different sports activities, or just doing them alongside him.  It was refreshing to be outside often and to be active together.  He was extremely proud that he learned and with Josh and I turning the rope he would jump in the middle of it up to 7 times before stopping. My favorite was doing it together as I threw the rope over both of us.

 

I can't remember why she was so serious.  Still cute, though. :)  One of the favorite events was blowing bubbles each day.  Sofia learned to blow alone and they both loved to chase them as we blew bubbles for them.  Sofia loved it so much she learned in one day to say "bubble" to let us know she was ready to do it again. :)  

That's all for part 1.  I've got to get to bed.  Tomorrow is the first day of school and we have to get up early with Jakub to get ready.  He's a little nervous, and a lot excited, and I'm both alongside him.  I'm praying for a good school year, for good friends at school, for patient and loving teachers, and for lots of new things learned. I look forward, for him, to all of the things this year can bring.  I hope it will be a blessing to him and that he will do well.  I'm so thankful he will once again have the same 2 lovely teachers he had last year.  They have been wonderful to him and to our family and I gain a lot of comfort by him being with them again.  I think he will, too.  Please pray with me for him, his classmates, and his teachers.  

A few things I want to remember about our vacation before I go:

1.  It was extremely cold in the evenings, and sometimes all day with the rain, and the fireplace was our source of heat.  The kids slept in fleece pajamas and punčochy in August.  Crazy.

2.  Both kids wet the bed the first night and I had to do a lot of laundry by hand in the sinks.  Reminded me to be grateful for modern technology and the ability to own a washing machine.

3.  There was a radio in the kitchen and Jakub loved to turn it on while we were cooking and have dance parties with Sofia.

4.  I can still hear Sofia standing at the front door and "counting" (un, uh, ee, uhn, uhh) while we all ran around the yard hiding.  She loved to look for us and find us.  She would squeal and dance when she spotted us.

5.  Teaching Jakub to jump rope and him feeling so proud and accomplished after learning.  

6.  Sofia learning to say Bubble so she could repeatedly ask for us to go outside and blow them.

7.  Watching Jakub be brave and ask to sleep downstairs alone in a new place just so he could experience sleeping on the top of a bunk bed.  He did it and loved it- all week.  So sweet.

Ok, more later.  Off to bed.  Good night!