~The TPUK are Back~
(or my secondary title: Vacation starts with 'V')

Affectionately known as "The Parental Unit Kempts", May's parents returned from their whirlwind tour of Europe's Alps countries: Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

We just looked through their digital pics ... we thought we'd share a few here:

Bill & Bev (and the Hofburg Imperial Palace) in Vienna, Austria


Some classic scenary from Venice, Italy...


The Arena in Verona, Italy

Bill and Bev have a ton of pictures, both digital and on film.
Suffice to say they had a great time and came back with stories that make us really want to explore.

later,
-jeff

she's Back, She's Back, SHE's Back!

Over the weekend, friends Armand & Sean left Prague, while Maylia and Ella returned.

This ends my 3 days of bachelor life and I'm back to family life.

This is a good thing, really...having Arm and Sean here for a few days, especially St. Patty's Day, was a lot of fun, but I can only handle so much Czech beer, sleeping in late and so little responsibility.

May's back and it's nice to share life with my best friend again.

Ella's back and it's nice to have every day different from the last.

But another woman joined our family over the weekend. A woman I had written off long ago to save my marriage. And even though Eric out in Vegas has gifted me this 'woman', she ended up sold at our last yard sale when leaving the US.

Confused yet?

What I didn't know is that, at that yard sale, Michelle and Jeff K bought her. That allowed Jeff K to mail her back. Here are pictures of all 3 women since last weekend.

May's back!

Ella's back (trying out this year's Halloween costume)

...and the woman of honor is back.

The beautiful coconut lady ("that ugly piece of %&$" to others).

As Eric knows & practices, nothing says respect & admiration like a place on the top shelf. (so, what's with the painting?)

Isn't she beautiful?

Thankfully, I'm the one who does the dusting, so there should be no "accidents" during chores.

Thank you again Eric for her in the first place. Thank you Jeff & Michelle for reuniting us.

p.s. Interestingly enough, I kept the original 0.50 price tag on her head. But I noticed Jeff insured for a full $1.00. Nice! I can't even utter the postage Jeff spent to ship her ...that's respect and admiration!

-Jeff

~happy st. patty's day!~

Armand and Sean, en route to Amsterdam, stopped in Prague for four days.


In between sightseeing, like checking out the John Lennon wall, we've been enjoying plenty of local and Irish beers, doing our part to celebrate.






The family is touring Vienna for the week. May's expected back Sunday and TPUK are continuing on to Italy and Switzerland. Sorry for the short post, but on our way out...

-jeff

THEY'RE HERE!!!!

YaYa and Baboo (what Ella calls my mom and dad) arrived Wednesday evening. We met them at the airport. I think for Ella it is like cartoon characters have come to life! She is so used to seeing them on the computer screen when we talk to them with the webcam...and here they are in real life!


I wanted to make sure they tasted the "ambience which is Prague" right away. (And no, I don't mean the beer this time.) So I dragged their tired bodies out to walk the Charles Bridge at night. I think it was worth it.


Thursday we took it easy in the morning. In the afternoon we walked to Wenceslas Square, visited the Franciscan Gardens and wound up at Old Town Square. It was a bit chilly so we had some svařak to warm up. (Remember svařak? That's Czech mulled wine. Yum!) I guess they liked it because we had some again today!

Yesterday (Friday) they attended Ella's music class. It was a gorgeous day so we went to the playground in Riegrovy Sady after that. Sometimes I had to take my jacket off because it was so warm outside! In the evening we visited the Žižkov TV Tower (see previous entries). This time we took the elevator up for a spectacular view of the city.


Today we met our realtor at our future flat so that Mom and Dad could see the place. (Looks like we'll be moving in September.) After that we had an excellent brunch at Fraktal, Ella's fave Prague eatery. We tried to burn it off with a walk through Letná Park to Prague Castle. Here are Mom and Dad, cups of svařak in hand, with one of the castle guards.


On top of all the sightseeing we've truly enjoyed the chance just be together and it's been really neat for Ella to spend some time with her YaYa and Baboo.


Happy Birthday, Aunt Bet!
Maylia

PS Had to add this sunset photo I took from our living room window earlier in the week.

BONUS ELLA PICS!



Thank goodness we haven't actually started potty training yet. But she's certainly getting her head around the idea! (Jeff's joke. Har! Har! Har!)




Ella sporting her new handmade robe from Grammy Parker.

NOTICE!!!!!

OUR BLOG HAS HAD ITS 1000th VISIT. CONGRATULATIONS, POUNDER!

Ma hlad, ma žižen, a jsem unavená....
I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, and I'm tired...

Actually, I'm just tired. Poor little Ella has bronchitis. The cough started Friday. Just a cough. No other symptoms. It got a little bit worse each day. Then from Monday morning to Monday night it got progressively worse until she was wheezing and hacking. Monday night was a long night. To be honest, I would say this feels like the longest week yet of our stay in Prague. There is the sick child, the lack of sleep, the self-inflicted quarantine because we don't want to spread germs, the rainy weather...the days are just DRAGGING! It seems extra slow because I am also so anxious and excited for my parents to arrive next Wednesday!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Sleep...another interesting development is that Ella finally learned how to stand up in her crib. I know this seems odd for a 19-month old, but you must remember that Ella never crawled. She has just started crawling in the past couple of weeks! Because of this she lagged in alot of related skills, such as climbing and getting up. Anyway, it is interesting when learning to stand up coincides with learning to talk. Now when I put her in her crib for a nap, she stands up and calls, "Moooommmmyyyyy". When this doesn't work, "Love you! Love you!". Then "Ow!". And finally, she just wails. So the bedtime/napping ritual has become more complex. Ah, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...but can also leave you with a killer headache. Today was the worst because we ran out of coffee! Ugh! There is a lot of very cheap, very bad coffee to be purchased at the grocery stores here. I actually had some in the freezer but refused to drink it. That, my friends, is bad. We really like a brand that I get at the local Bio (organic) store but it was sold out yesterday. They said it would be in this afternoon, but it wasn't. So at 3:30 pm I was desperately looking for my best bet at the local grocery store. At 4pm it tasted pretty good.

But what I actually planned to write about was going to the doctor. When we first arrived we were seeing a wonderful doctor referred to us by our landlord. Unfortunately, he doesn't accept the insurance we ended up getting (the most common insurance here). So, we've started shopping around a bit. I visited a pediatrician a month or so ago that some of my friends see. She is only a 10 minute walk away and speaks a bit of English. So, that's who I called Monday. The receptionist speaks only Czech and was telling me that the doctor doesn't speak English. I thought "Well, she doesn't speak MUCH English, but we get by....". And to the receptionist I said, "Ano. Rozumím." (Yes. I understand.) But, the truth is, I didn't understand. What she was really telling me was that the regular doctor is away and the one filling in for her doesn't speak English, AT ALL. Luckily I had practiced what I felt I needed to say, "Ona ma kašel. Nema rýmu. Nema horečku. Když ona spí, kašel je horši." (She has a cough. She doesn't have a runny nose. She doesn't have a fever. When she sleeps, the cough is worse.) The funny thing is that you can prepare all you like for what you want to say...and you may even be fully understood. But what do you do when the native speaker starts talking? Usually, I just smile and nod. But when it comes to your daughter's health and well-being, this may not be the most appropriate response. Somehow we got through it and basically understood each other. But, needless to say, I didn't ask alot of probing questions. I did, however, leave with some. I was concerned that an antibiotic may not be the right choice. Some internet research confirmed this.

Sharing my concerns with my mom friends resulted in Karen taking me to see her pediatrician with whom she speaks German. Every morning he has open hours where anyone can just drop in. It is a bit hard to get to...involves a walk and a tram...but it was worth it. Karen was so kind to take time out of her early morning to get me there and to make sure I could communicate properly. As it turns out, this doctor does speak some English, too! An xray confirmed the bronchitis diagnosis and we also got a new script with no antibiotic. I was feeling much better!

Oh, but I forgot another interesting thing about the first doctor...maybe it's common here, I can't say. When I got there, the waiting room was packed with sick kids and their moms. She sees well kids in the mornings and sick kids in the afternoons. Although I think this is a neat concept, I felt surrounded by germs! Then I started getting nervous when I noticed that a patient would leave the doctor's office and another would enter automatically...no names called, no number system...somehow everyone just knew when it was their turn. I figured out that although I had an appointment time it was really first come, first serve. Each patient kept track of who was in the room when they got there and who entered after them and then just saw the doctor when it was their turn. Luckily I figured this out after only two new people had entered. I quickly scanned the room and calculated when my turn would be. Whew!

Another interesting thing I should add about Czech doctors is that they don't make much money. They are actually the least-paid professionals in this country. Jeff says he has read that their monthly income is about equal to what we are paying in rent! It is common for them to work alot of overtime to make up for this. However, I've read that with entering the EU there are some tough new rules coming down that will not allow this anymore. It's really going to shake up the medical system over here. There will be a shortage of doctors and most likely some changes to pay will have to be made.

So that's my rambling. I'm off to bed.
Maylia

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