Magdalena and the little cow

Pretty hair

Whenever I open our little cabinet in the hall, Magdalena wants to play with her hair accessory container which is kept inside. A couple of days ago she decided that dumping the clips and pony-tail holders onto the floor wasn't enough entertainment. So, she brought me a handful of them and pointed to her head...over and over again. Each time I put a clip in her hair in the spot where she pointed. What you see in this picture are the lovely results! What you see on her bedroom floor is the results of her newly discovered game of upturning her toy bins and then scootching around in the bin as if it's a car. :)

Say "Cheese!"

Laura and Chris are celebrating their "30-something" birthdays and 10th anniversary this month, so to commemorate this special year they held a Wine and Cheese party at their apartment Saturday night. Heather, Barb, and Dot (L to R) are here with the lovely spread of gourmet cheeses - the Gouda with cumin was my absolute favorite ("like the gods playing with my taste buds" is how I described it to Dot)!

Here's the Gouda with Heather's beautiful hand cutting a wedge.

And here we are! We forgot to take a picture of ourselves (and the party hosts!!) before or during the party so our elevator mirror helped us out a bit on the way home. :)

Music practice

Saturday morning we went to the family center for Petr to practice songs for Sunday's worship. Magdalena ran around jumping, dancing, and riding the rocking horse. When I tried to get her on video dancing in the same room as Daddy, she decided to eat a crayon, run away, and basically do everything BUT what I wanted! So here you can see Petr practicing and Magdalena playing (listen carefully and you can hear Petr's guitar in the background).

Barum Rally and Sweet Feet

The Barum Rally takes place in Zlin - the biggest city near Petr's home village. This year Petr had another fan in the house to enjoy watching the races with! Magdalena sat in his lap for an hour watching the cars zoom around and pointing to each one saying "cah! cah!"


While they sat and watched I looked down and saw their feet and just had to snap a shot. They're so sweet!

Food!

My baby is growing up! She no longer uses her high chair - ever. Lunch and dinner she eats at the table. Breakfast is a different story, though. She likes taking her morning meal in the comfort of Mommy or Daddy's lap...or in a bowl in her bedroom where she can play with her toys while munching on Kix or cornflakes.
Magdalena's vocabulary is growing everyday. She now can name every food on this plate - corn ("kuku"), pea, carrot (I don't know how to phonetically spell how she says this but it's really cute!), and hot dog ("pahek" for "parek" in Czech).

Maysea and Aunt Dot

Magdalena has a new best friend - Maysea! She and Aunt Dot came over to visit us on Thursday and we played in the house for a bit, enjoying coffee and brownies, before heading outside for a walk.
The whole time we walked along the path in our neighborhood park, Magdalena held onto Maysea's leash. Maysea is such a good girl. She didn't run away or pull Magdalena over!! When we got back from our mini-excursion Magdalena gave Maysea uncountable hugs and Maysea just loved right back on my baby with kisses.
Of course, Dot and I had to take pictures of our "girls" which made Magdalena very curious what she looks like on camera. Aunt Dot satiated her interest with a peak at her digital camera screen. :)

The great meat debate

Last night Magdalena had fish sticks for dinner...only she insisted on calling them "chicky." I tried to convince her that it was fish to no avail. She even refused to try to say "fish". So, Petr spoke the truth in Czech into her little life. She listened intently, repeating the words for chicken and fish as her Daddy explained the difference. When he'd finished she emphatically said, "kuž - ne ryba." Which means "chicken - not fish" (although she didn't say chicken properly in Czech, it was close enough to be understood.) Her first "sentence" was an argument - can you believe that?? Only a year and a half but she's already got a mind of her own...

New hiding spot

Click to Play

I wish I'd been able to hide inside a wardrobe when I was a kid - it looks likes so much fun. Guess I'm too big now to join Magdalena, huh?

Sweetness

Magdalena has been in need of a trim for a while now, so I finally just did it. When we got ready to go to the post office yesterday, she looked too cute all dolled up in her shiny sweater and petaled hat (with her freshly trimmed bangs peeping out) accompanied by her doggies that I just had to snap this shot.

Our Olomouc adventure

We began with lunch at a cute Hospoda (pub) called Krtek (mole) which is perhaps this country's children's favorite cartoon character. He's on the wall pictured with Magdalena and her cousin Adelka. Both of the girls wanted to eat only French fries and corn for lunch. Not the best nourishment, but fulfilling...Then we walked to the zoo. It was the saddest zoo I've ever been to - all of the animals were in cement and metal cages with artificial greenery (and the poor bears had rotten veggies on their "table"). So, the only picture we've got from inside is this silly one of some rather cute Red Pandas. ;)

Magdalena found wholesome entertainment on our way home by reading my Avon catalog and munching on the remaining French fries from lunch. ahh, the simple life.

Playing with Matouš

Click to Play

Wednesday was our last play-date with Minna and Matouš before they returned to Finland yesterday. We got spoiled with there company which makes us miss them all the more now but we wouldn't trade one second with them in order to feel any less lonely. I love my friend dearly and, obviously, Magdalena is enamored. She even let Matouš push her on the swings without Mommy right with her...and giggled her head off with glee. Below is the only picture we got of ourselves during this visit - can you believe it? We were too busy talking...

Jackson Pollock?

Magdalena strew her blankets on the floor with such pizazz that I doubt anything Mr. Pollock created received such attention or focus.



Once the fabric was arranged, she precisely tossed the puppy in the center. My child has such artistic inclinations already I wonder if she'll rival old J. P. someday...

Hanka, Žaneta, and I (L to R) used to all be neighbors and met because Žaneta was our resident Avon lady. Now, she's moved but we three still keep in touch and get together for a bi-monthly "Ladies' Party." Wednesday evening we had pizza at a local restaurant to catch up on what's happening in our lives - Hanka's baby coming in October, Žaneta's new job and boyfriend, and my upcoming move to the good ole United States. It was loads of fun but also bittersweet since we've only got one more girls' night before I move...

Tea Baby

I thought that I was addicted to tea, but I've got nothing on this 24lb girl. She loves tea so much that she now asks for it by name daily - yesterday twice, actually. When I was preparing dinner for a friend who just had a baby I, of course, made sweet tea (no decent meal is complete without it). Magdalena assisted me by putting the tea bags in the water but didn't want to let go...to appease her I let her play with the Lipton tags from the bags. This made her content until we went bye-bye to deliver the food.

Egg-stremely weird

It seems there is a rash of egg oddities recently in Prague. Last night this looped yolk was inside one of the eggs I was cooking with...but an even stranger event happened to Laura a couple of days ago.

Letohradek Hvězda

"Little Summer Castle Star" is this building's name in English - much shorter in Czech, eh? But, I wanted you to know that it's called Star because that's the shape it was constructed in. Very cool. :) It was a hunting lodge for Ferdinand II and the location of the Battle of White Mountain. Now it's a lovely walking park with a wooden playground. The building houses a concert hall and a mini-museum of the battle.
It's a good thing this "water horse" is wooden because Magdalena rode him with wild abandonment, galloping through many an imaginary stream. She did NOT want Mommy helping her on this thing - only Daddy, please.

On the little wooden train it was time for Mommy to play too. Back and forth she walked, ran, and hopped many times till her little legs demanded some rest (and ice cream).

Why we love Stromovka

Magdalena can run, scream, and play with doggies as much as she wants. On Thursday we met up with Dot and Maysea, her black lab, in this wonderous park.
The weather was hot in the sunshine, but in the shade it was managable - especially when we put our feet and legs in the duck pond. Maysea swam around us and then shook out her fur getting me all wet!! Oh well. Not my favorite method of cooling off but it is efficient. :)
Dot snapped this picture of me and my sweet doll. By this time she was feeling pretty tired and not as happy as she was in the water but doesn't she still look so precious?

We love this park so much that we met our friends Pavlina and little Michele (The Czechtalians linked to our blog) the next day. Friday was much cooler thus we donned our jackets and didn't play in the water. But, nevertheless, we had so much fun visiting (and attempting to eat pebbles, sand, etc on Magdalena's part).

Saturday at the cottage

My dear friend Petra, who visits us every week to practice our language skills, invited us to her family cottage 2 weekends ago. We stayed all day and overnight on Saturday enjoying fresh air, good food, and of course great company. Magdalena had a blast playing with Karolina's dolls, even if she didn't know how to properly carry them. :)
I always cherish the weekends because of the extra time I can spend with my husband. Being in such beauty made it even more special.
Here am I with my baby and Karolina (Petra's daughter) with her "baby" Terezka. The puppy and Magdalena got along swimmingly. We hope to dog-sit this cute fluffball in a couple of weeks.
We share a love for all animls, but I definitely prefer kittens over doggies. Karolina doesn't hold this against me so we get along nicely too. Often Petra has to help us understand each other though since neither of us is fluent in the other's language.

Last, but not least, here I am with Petra. She's so beautiful and kind. On each of our visits she brings a fruit or sweet treat that she knows Magdalena and I like. Other than my Moravian family, she is singly responsible for my being able to speak Czech as well as I do - not perfectly by any means, but at least I can be understood (usually) and understand others pretty well. I will greatly miss her when we are living in America.