Magdalena and the spoon

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Magdalena knows what a spoon is and what it's for...but still has a way to go before becoming a professional "self-feeder." The learning process is very cute and MESSY!

Ponytail

Magdalena's hair has gotten quite long...so long in fact that it goes into a real ponytail! Yesterday's weather was hot without any wind, so we stayed in the shade of the apartment during the heat of the day. But, we were still hot. Thus Magdalena's hair went up to help cool her off! She seemed to like it up. I liked it - she was just too cute with that lil 'tail bouncing as she played!

Boo-boo

The new pair of summer shoes we bought Magdalena are a bit too big evidently - they gave her a blister! It covers the entire pad of her big toe. Poor baby! We fixed it up with a Strawberry Shortcake band-aid, though a few minutes later she pulled it off.

Mother's Day

Hello all you dear mommies in our lives. We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating your irreplacable worth!

After church, where Jonathan gave a beautiful and heartfelt sermon on motherhood, we enjoyed a quiet lunch at home. Then Petr took care of Magdalena so I could nap - a blessed gift that seldom happens anymore! And to top off our celebration, Petr treated me to ice-cream. Magdalena enjoyed Petr's cone after he'd finished the ice-cream (she won't eat that cold stuff).


But she did fully relish the lollipop I gave her on our walk home. :)

Morning fun

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While I was making breakfast, Magdalena was having fun playing!

Zvikov castle

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Day trip to Písek

Písek is a southern Bohemian town that boasts the Czech Republic's oldest stone bridge and is the hometown of Petr's colleague Jirka. He and his daughter were staying in their cottage over the weekend and for the holiday and Jirka invited us to join them. So we traveled there yesterday for the day and saw some the lovely sites around the town.

One of the best "sites" was Karla, Jirka's 4 year-old daughter. She and her friend Magdalena (called Maida) quickly befriended our Magdalena. Sharing toys, the swing, and crawling on the bed together proved loads of fun!

For you Prague dwellers or vistors: do you recognise this river? It's our own Vltava! Bet you never thought that it could be so beautiful, huh? I know I sure didn't!


Jirka enjoyed being our "tour-guide" while we walked around the grounds of the Zvikov castle, a church, and through town.



Petr captured this picture just a split second before Magdalena bounded off the stone to run around the castle grounds some more. See the next post for a video of that!

Story from Sunday

On Sunday afternoon we decided to go on a little family walk. After getting Magdalena dressed, I told her to "go tell Daddy to put your red tennis shoes on you." She walked over to him in our entryway and said a couple of sentences to him in baby-ese. When he didn't respond appropriately with the shoes, she bent down next to the shoe rack and looked at her shoes on the bottom shelf...then pulled out her red tennis shoes and dropped them at Petr's feet!

Sunday morning worship

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Petr started playing the guitar for Project Antioch's worship team a few weeks back. Here is a sampling of him and Zora playing my favorite Christian Czech song this morning!

Post nap fun

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Magdalena awoke from her afternoon nap in such a good mood! She didn't want to immediately get out of her crib so, instead, we played for a while with tickling and giggling!

My birthday!

My family and friends ensured I had a stupendous quarter of a century birthday. I got so many text messages with birthday wishes, skype calls from my family in the States, and myspace comments and messages. Thank you everyone for pouring on the love today!!

Tonight Petr took me out for dinner and a movie. Thank so much, Dot, for babysitting!

Friendship

Magdalena has a new friend named Anna Lee. Her parents are also an American lady-Czech man couple like Magdalena's parents. :) We went to visit Anna Lee and her Mommy Emily on Wednesday. While we mommies talked, the girls had so much fun playing together. They made a mess of Anna Lee's toys, ate plenty of snacks, and spilled two glasses of water!

When it was time to go home, they gave each other lots of hugs and kisses. It was just too darling to not capture on camera!

Our 'bad adventure

Karlsbad, that is. Or Karlovy Vary in Czech! Petr and I went 2 years ago and enjoyed this spa city's beauty so much that we returned with Magdalena and Aunt Sunny yesterday. Here are a few pictures to give you a hint of what it's like there!

Lots of nasty tasting, but medicinal, natural hot springs. This one is called Libuse and is 62C.

Flowers everywhere in the town. We relaxed and ate a snack in this park where Sunny took a family photo for us.

Sidewalks throughout the town allowing leisurely strolls (even with a stroller!). Here we are with Sunny and "Purple Princess."

Colorful buildings all along the valley river and going up the mountains on either side.

A long collonade sheltering several of the hundreds of springs - Libuse (the spring pictured in the first photo) is housed here.

K. Vary park

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Chasing pigeons is so much fun! Magdalena had a blast chasing these birds several times within just a few minutes. If it weren't for the bread crumbs our neighbors were throwing the birds, I think they might have left us sooner!

Exploring Karlovy Vary

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Since yesterday was the Czech labor day, we took a trip to Karlovy Vary and Aunt Sunny accompanied us. Of all the beautiful sites we saw, Magdalena's favorite was the river. Every few steps she wanted to go back to the river side and peer through the fence to see it (and the fishies) below.

In this little video, Aunt Sunny is helping Magdalena go up the step and look down at the river.