Last Wednesday, we held a double celebration at home for the mother and son tandem, Tess & Vladi. It was their bon voyage party as they were set to leave the next day for a vacation in Philippines and also a late birthday party for Vladi who turned 5 last Sept. 20.

The birthday boy getting excited with the cake (made by me) as Caity watches.

The “usual suspects” showed up and as always, it was another noisy chattering of Pinays. The kids were overshadowed by adults huddled in the dining table but even with only four little creatures in the house, they still manage to upturn our place. They had fun sharing with Vladi’s toy gifts particularly those sports cars. They’re still quite young to enjoy psp games, which we don’t have anyway. hahaha  It was just nice to see them getting along with each other, even little Adie got to play with them too.

It was a holiday that day, being St. Wenceslas Day which I considered as our break for this week coz the weekend, M will be busy at work.  Dang! I wish there will be more holidays and free days to come!  Life seems to be turning into an endless stream of busyness.

We’ve been going places mostly the past weekends, and ignored some important things that we need to do, like shopping! Hahaha Well, it does sound interesting but actually we needed to replace Adie’s car seat as the boy is getting bigger, and another top priority on our shopping list is a stroller. We actually have 3 strollers crowding our small storage space, but out of these 3, none was suitable for that everyday trip to and from school – two were falling apart and one was too huge and heavy for me.

We were fortunate to have scored a discounted car seat (50%) on our first stop. What a steal! And I also found other treasures for the kids, shoes with big discounts! The stroller was a different story though.  It cost a little more than I expected we’ll spend for a stroller, but oh well, sometimes you have to pay more for comfort and quality.

Anyway, here are the cutesy pairs of shoes I bought for the kids:

A pair of dinosaur wellies (still a bit big), and Thomas the train shoes for Adie.

The wellies were about $5! Thomas the train were less $10.

A pink crocheted print tennis shoes for Caity.

A nice find coz I was really planning to buy her a new pair with velcro straps coz her Peppa Pig tennis shoes are difficult for her to tie on her own.

It took the whole day to shop for stuff, but at least we got all we wanted (and more).  Not bad at all considering that we have two active kids in tow. (:

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We recently bought Caity her FirstBike (yep, that’s the name of the bike!) which I hoped we had done sooner, like early Spring? Heh! Anyway, it’s not too late yet. Our main purpose was to get her to practice biking, and also for the fun of it. I found out later that there’s more good to it than those reasons. It helped her cover long distances without complaining of being tired; it spared her dad from carrying her on his shoulder or we didn’t need to place her in the stroller also when that happens. And she can easily catch up with our fast strides when we’re in a hurry (ex. almost late for school). And she doesn’t anymore take away Adie’s plastic bike! She just loves riding her bike. She rides on it to school and back. If she can ride it anywhere, she’d do that.

The first day she had her bike, she requested to go outside after her nap and she rode all around the neighborhood. I was a poor victim of both Adie and Caity who were zooming fast on their bikes while I was just keeping up with them with my legs. Ouch! Ouch! For the rest of the day, Caity kept saying, “I like my bike!” I like it so much!“. She was thanking us non-stop. And she was a proud owner too. We stopped in a playground and when she came out a little later, she was gushing with pride…”Mama, the boy was looking at my bike!” “Mama, the girl touched the rabbit. She likes it!“. (She was referring to her rabbit bell). Hahaha, sooo cute! I never thought a bike can bring this kind of happiness to her.

Adie can get too preoccupied when he plays. With deep concentration, he’d be sitting in one corner, getting his little hands busy with what he can find around him.

The night before our Austria trip, he got so engrossed putting together legos, he complained a lot when he stopped him for his bedtime.  It looks like his making a building. (:

Adie @ 18 months.

Then today, while I was in the kitchen doing chores, I heard a busy pitter patter of steps from the living room to our bedroom, which went back and forth. I couldn’t resist the urge to peek at what the little boy was up to. Well, well, well, look what he was doing.

Busy si Adie assembling his wooden toy train. He didn’t even notice or hear me, like he had ipod nano headphones on his ears!

I left him playing there and went back to my work.  Later, when all was quiet as Adie was napping, I noticed his toy train by the door.  I couldn’t help but smile.

Good job, Adie!

Oh, and here’s another of him playing with toblerone, lining them on the armrest some few months back.

Adie at 17 months.

Wow! When I see my kids create something, I easily get awed. (: And I truly think it deserves to be documented!

Now that Caity is at school every morning during weekdays, this gives me time to spend with Adie – yep, just me and my little boy. Adie is currently obsessed with his plastic motorbike and rides it like a racer.  I took him one morning after sending big sis to school for a ride around the neighborhood before his morning nap until he didn’t want to ride anymore and asked me to carry him.

My little explorer. picking stones and handing them to me.

I showed him to throw the stones inside the holes of the  concrete block. He enjoyed his improvised toy. (:

He stopped to rest in the bench.  Tired from all that biking and running, eh?

I’m loving these rare moments when I can shower him all my attention without him having to compete with his big sis.

We had a pleasant two days last weekend.  Summer decided to stick around (it should be coz according to the calendar, its still SUMMER!) and we took advantage of that.  It was a mix of fun, nature, relaxation and lots of sun!

Saturday
The family joined the Pohádkový Les in Butovice.  Both M and I were clueless what’s it all about.  M thought it was a walk in the forest where you pass by fairytale creatures/characters. We were looking for an activity outdoor coz of the nice weather and this one sounded interesting.

We had to pay an entrance fee of about $3 each except for little Adie.  As soon as we got inside the fenced area, all the fun stuff for the kids greeted us.  There were FREE pony rides, face painting, bouncy castles, painting, drawing, coloring, balloons, and lots of other free goodies (lollipops, bracelets, cookies) handed out to the kids as we walked along the street. Unfortunately our Caity was in a sour mood and didn’t want to participate in any of those.  She refused to have her faced painted, refused to have her picture taken with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, refused to color…. it was all NO for her. But she asked for a cotton candy which we had to pay. Geeez! I guess she doesn’t like free stuff. Haha!

It turned out that the kids have to do some challenges or obstacle games along the walk in the “forest”.  I thought it would be a quiet walk, enjoying nature but heh! it tired us out!  We had to follow the trail of the game, line up in queues, hike down then up under the heat of the sun.  Kafoy!!!  My tongue was sticking out after we successfully finished the challenge in about 3-4 hours!  It was too much of a walk for small kids.  M had to carry Caity on his shoulder at the middle of the game.  Unfortunately, Caity didn’t do the first challenge, so she didn’t get any prize at the end.  What was the prize, we had no idea.  Being able to finish it was enough for us.  Caity obliged to pose with Winnie the Pooh & Piglet later, but it was forced. She had a grumpy look! Anyway, she got to ride the pony on our way out, and that sealed her time there with happiness.

1. first challenge, bow & arrow. 2. caity picking coins from the bucket.
3. fishing (the woman looks like she’s wearing Cherokee scrubs). 4. lining up for Caity’s turn. Do you see Snow White?

The kids were still full of energy when we got home so we took them out with their bikes, and they enjoyed going on the sloped concrete ground right outside our home. If that wasn’t enough, Caity asked to go to the playground, where she had fun in the tunnel slide.  We went home past 7.  It was a long day but fun-filled.

Sunday

It was more relaxed.  After going to church and a little shopping, we went to the “beach” named Machovo Jezero (or translated in English, Macha Lake) .  Okay it was the closest you can call a beach in Czech Republic.  Macha Lake is actually a man-made lake which was developed into a beach with imported sand.  Many people flock there especially during warm days.  When we were there,  teenagers arrived in throngs and it was even getting late.  You can just imagine how crowded it is on peak times.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when we got there, not bad coz the sun wasn’t that painful on the skin anymore.  The kids slept along the way, their little bodies recharged for what was to come. As soon as they saw the sand and water, they just scrambled to it.  M and I had time to relax while watching them play.  He even fell asleep lying there in the sand.

You can tell the kids had an awesome time, right?

Thank you Lord for these beautiful moments spent with the family!

I’ll be posting more pics of Caity in her blog. (:

Thank God for another summer-day. It was about 29C today and since we’re holding on to summer as much as we can, we decided to hit the beach, errr lake (there’s no such thing as real beach in Czech Republic! You ask why? Yeah, why? ). But we sat there on the sandy ground, watching the kids play with water and sand while pretending we were in some tropical island. The kids had fun, we got to relax, so what?  It was our beach day.

We’re kinda settling down with our new routine with Caity going to school on weekdays. If M doesn’t have morning duty, he brings the girl to school and I (with my little sidekick, Adie) pick her up. When he has to report to work early, I bring Caity to school and pick her up too. Mornings, we’re always in the rush especially if it’s me who’ll take Caity to school coz aside from getting her ready, I also have to prepare Adie and myself.  When the weather is nice, Adie and I stop at the playground in the morning from school then we go home, I feed him breakfast and off he goes to take his morning nap.  I then have 2-2.5 hours of free time which I usually spend cleaning, tidying up the house, washing dishes or clothes, working online and blogging!  Ugh that doesn’t really qualify as free time, yeah?  But at least I don’t have to be at my kids’ mercy and it’s actually my choice what I would like to do.   I thought I’d be heartbroken when Caity isn’t around, but to my surprise, I am liking the fact that I can have a quiet time at home! My ala “point of care cart” work has been decreased. Thanks school (and teachers!).

Caity’s school ends after lunch time.  She can actually stay there until 3 or 3:30 pm after their nap time or the most at 5 pm, but for new students like her, the school don’t advise them to stay that long.  She naps at home after an hour of playing with Adie.

Oh, it’s all too surreal! Caity going to school that is…  that means our little girl is growing.  School being part of our lives seemed to have happened too soon! Yay!  I have to really get used to it.  And it has only been 4 days. (: