Pure cuteness

Magdalena's thought: Who needs to put on clothes when there are such interesting things to play with like diaper cream and a spit-up cloth? She wouldn't let me dress her because she wanted to play so much!


She's still quite the aqua loving girl as before. Sitting up in the tub makes bathtime all the more fun! (Daddy did the hair for this picture.)

Jaromer

This weekend we travelled to Jaromer to visit our friends Pavel and Lenka. They graciously hosted us in their flat. On Saterday morning we went bowling! I, of course, had the lowest score -- a pitiful 38 the first round and 78 the second. And, no, Readers, I am not ashamed to post my "shameful" scores because I'm not able to have any better ones since I bowl an average of once every 2 years! :) My dear husband bowled much better than I -- 178 one of the rounds! He's a natural sportsman.

Lenka and Pavel both really enjoyed playing with Magdalena. As you can see, she was equally keen on playing with them. Any time that Magdalena would start to fuss, Pavel would say, "Magdalenko, neplakej. Strejda Pavel je tady!" (Little Magdalena, don't cry. Uncle Paul is here!) Very sweet, and a bit indicative of the baby fever I'm pretty sure he has!

Tied down

Today we met Aunt Sunny at a local cafe for some girl time. Magdalena was feeling quite independant so I placed her in a chair of her own...but as it was wooden, she just slid right down. I tied her to the chair with the baby shawl to prevent any accidental falls!
Magdalena has recenlty taken to touching faces. She even does this periodically while I'm nursing her (holding onto my hair, putting her little fingers in my mouth or nose!).
In reference to the previous blog, Sunny was wearing short sleeves and flip-flops when we met and noted twice that she was cold. But, I believe her words were, "I'm in denial. This is August and it's supposed to be warm!" Even if she wasn't weather-appropriately clad, she was cute as ever. :)

The weather, it is a changin'

The past few days have been quite chilly -- below 65F! Good thing that Gigi sent Magdalena a new hooded sweater poncho...although something tells me that Auntie Bizbef had a hand in selecting this item! Magdalena was a bit unsure how to handle her arm and hand placement (first time wearing an item of clothing without sleeves), but it was okay in the end.

Raffi

In the package I mentioned in the last entry, Magdalena also received a Raffi CD! He was one of my favorite kids' song singers when I was little. So, carrying on the tradition, Gigi sent one for my little girl! Magdalena's first reaction was to check out the colorful picture on the cover, then to taste it. Her first reaction to the music, you ask? Laughter! Raffi has succeeded in entertaining yet another generation...

Mommy and Magdalena

We are working on getting Magdalena down to 2 naps a day. So, today we had some extra time between her sleep periods and took pictures of ourselves...well, I set the timer and held the camera while she tried to eat it!

We are wearing some new clothes that arrived on Friday in a package from Momma/Gigi. New shirts for us both (Petr got a new one too), and new socks too! Oh, what fun. :) Magdalena's shirt barely fits even though it's a size 9months! But, her socks fit very nicely with some growing room. Perfect!

All set and ready to go

Tuesday Magdalena sat up by her self for the first time! In the morning she sat on our bed for about 3 minutes while I dressed and straightened up the room. Then in the afternoon while our friend Zaneta was visiting, she sat on the floor for about 5 minutes! Here is a picture from yesterday of her playing while sitting up on her colorful blanket.

For about 2 weeks Magdalena has been getting on all fours and rocking back and forth, but not actually crawling anywhere. Today she crawled backwards! Ha! I thought it was very funny and oh so cute. Isn't she adorable?

My wish as reality

Those of you who have ever eaten my cookies know that they are always very thin (I've even made them in 3 different countries and it didn't help). Two nights ago I made some chocolate chip cookies and they weren't flat!! The main thing that I did differently was put the butter-sugar-egg mixture in the fridge for a few minutes while getting the baby to sleep...perhaps that did the trick. But, whatever it was, I'm a happy chica now...and so are my dinner guests from last night! :)

Why?

Why is it that I can play with Magdalena all day, but she'll still fuss (not always, but today wasn't so good since she wouldn't nap and I had a headache)...then when her Daddy gets home and plays with her and the exact same toys, she is perfectly content and will coo or sing to him forever? It's not fair! Well, at least during these times, they are both happy and I get to relax. :-)
Note: Magdalena now plays with Raggedy Ann, just like I did throughout my childhood. Ah, this is what true American traditions are made of.

My wish became reality

Well,

Today I was thinking that I will share with you something cool (maybe only for me). I believe that everybody has several dreams what they want to do (as I want sit in my chair and eat popcorn and watch movies for rest of my life ,get married with nice woman and have bunch of kids or have different crazy dreams).

I have few dreams in my life what I want to do and one nice wish is cool reality in my life right now. Who of you readers have work five minutes walking? Those who are lucky can answer ME and I am one of those :-)
On this picture you can see how far I am away from my house. These three buildings what you can see are my work place (now) and we live in cluster of yellow (beige) buildings.

I am more than happy and glad together where I have to work. It feel more like fun than work because I know that I am very close my family and able to be there super quick. Do you believe me that I am looking forward to see Rebekah and Magdalena during day(for lunch break). So that's all what I wanted to tell tonight and maybe different night I will share my others dream (If I should post all my dreams - I had to do that for several years I mean one dream per night). :-)

Don't forget to check our blog daily and you will see what's going on !!!
P.S.: Don't try to call on this phone number which is on the picture only if you want that this company will take a picture of your house from plane (Only in Czech Republic).

Potatoes and spinach

Yummy! Magdalena ate up her new cuisine. After one week of eating solids, she seems to be getting a bit of a better idea of what to do with this mushy stuff. : ) Since her first flavors were sweet (rice cereal, carrots with apples, and plain apples), she wasn't so keen on gobbling this up after only a few bites. So, I pulled a trick that my mom did with us girls -- alternated the green stuff with apples! She ate it all, save 2 bites!

Yesterday

Little Miss didn't want to take her morning nap, so she stayed up for nearly 6 hours from the time she awoke til she finally fell asleep for her first afternoon nap. Even after all of that elapsed time, she still fought sleep until the moment she was sound asleep. She went from SCREAMING to complete silence so quickly that I thought for sure Petr had picked her up!

In the afternoon, Aunt Sunny came to visit us so that I could maintain my sanity from a child who only slept 45 minutes after she finally fell asleep. Sunny took this picture of Magdalena enjoying her carrots-apple baby food. Yummy!

After Magdalena ate, Sunny and I snacked and talked a bit. Magdalena thinks her Aunt Sunny is very funny and always focuses her attention on Sunny. Here she is intently watching Sunny and chewing on her lil cloth at the same time.

6 months

Half a year ago on this day, Magdalena Rose was born! It doesn't seem possible that it has already/only been 6 months...it is so hard to imagine or remember life without her. :) She is such a joy to us both -- even if keeping up with her inexhaustable energy is quite difficult. I love picking her up after she's woken up from a nap. She smiles up at me so gleefully and snuggles up against me in the sweetest way ever! Petr loves playing with her in the morning before he goes to work. He buries them under the covers for a game or sings little songs to her.

Since the time she was born, Magdalena has gained 5kg/11lbs and grown 16cm/6in!

For Tereza

Tereza took this picture of us on the last afternoon we got to spend together before she headed back for the USA to attend college in Conneticut.

Thanks Tereza for emailing this pictures and for being such a good friend and helping with Magdalena this summer!

We love and miss you. Good luck in school.

Request

Dear Readers,

We are so excited to see so many dots on the map!! Thanks for logging in to check out what's happening with our family. To satiate our curiosity of who all is looking at the blog and where you're from, please post us a comment or send an email our way.

Thanks!
Rebekah and Petr

First tastes

...of baby food! Today Magdalena took her first bites of rice cereal. We were planning to wait until Tuesday (her half birthday) to give her some "big girl food," but since she seemed to do nothing but nurse today we thought perhaps she was wanting more sustanence.
Here is her first reaction to the white stuff Daddy was putting in her mouth on a red spoon ("Isn't this one of my toys?" she was probably thinking)! Not so enthusiastic...
until a few bites later when she decided that she liked it and would help out in the feeding process.

Playing with Blankie

This is what I saw today when I went to get Magdalena up from her morning nap! She was singing to her duckie as she played. Oh, too cute!

"Ah, the American"

Today, the first thing Magdalena's doctor said when we walked in the door for her 6 month check-up was "Ah, the American!" I'm pretty sure that I'm the only English speaking parent and that is why he remembers us so well at each visit.

Magdalena likes her pediatrician. He's friendly and funny, even though he does give her a shot during every appointment.

She now weighs 8.44kg/18.6lbs and is 67cm/26.8in long!

When I asked if I could take this picture, the doctor questioned, "Will you put me on TV?" I jokingly said, "Of course; gotta publicize Prague's best baby doctor." "Oh, what stations will you send it to?" He wanted to know. "Well, actually, I'll just send it to my mom!" He thought it quite funny that Momma would want a picture, but asked for me to email it to him too. : )

Pool party

Ann-marie and Brandon Verbrugge hosted the Project Antioch Sunday afternoon event this week. It was a big pool party! It was a super day for it and we all had so much fun. Magdalena enjoyed playing with Aunt Sunny as much as swimming in the pool for the first time!


Isn't she just too cute in the little swimsuit that Lydia let her borrow? It has ladybugs on it. In Czech when a little girl is called a beruska (ladybug), it means that she's adorable. This summer Magdalena has been called this by at least 3 people! Of course, we already knew she's cute as a button.
Petr also had a lot of fun with the pool experience. This was his first time in a private pool. So, this was the first time he got to play pool games, like water volleyball and Marco Polo!