What We're Up To - Daily Life Update

We've got some new things going on in our day-to-day lives that I thought I would share with you...by spending time reading this blog one can only assume you want to know about such things!

Today Ella stayed at skolka for a "full day". Up until now, we've dropped her off by 8:30 in the morning (all kids must be dropped off between 7 and 8:30am) and I've picked her up at 12:30, just after she finishes her lunch. As is typical of Czech skolkas, the children that are staying after lunch change into their pajamas, climb into their little beds, and sleep for about an hour. Many skolkas just have a mat or something for them to lie on, but Ella's actually has individual beds all set up in the part of the room usually used for big group activities. It is pretty cute to see them all lying there! Of course, some kids have a hard time sleeping. But, Ella said she did sleep and only complained that it was too short and that the teacher had to wake her up! This is amazing since Ella hasn't really napped in well over a year. After their nap they have a snack together and then it's playtime. Pick up time is between 3 and 4:30pm. Mattias and I picked Ella up at 3:30pm (a time that I knew two of her friend's moms would also be arriving). She was in great spirits and actually much easier to deal with than when I pick her up after lunch (she is usually very tired and crazy then). In fact, it was a struggle to get her to leave - she wanted to stay and play with her schoolmates as they were just headed outside. I managed to lure her to the 'road sign' playground right next to her school where she was thrilled to find other kids from her class there too, enjoying the gorgeous day (77F and sunny). All in all, a great success! Will she be staying for full days every day? Not likely. I'll take her lead on that one. But in October she's signed up to take a dance class through the skolka one afternoon each week, so she will at least stay there for that day.

Mattias is learning in leaps and bounds. He's speaking more and more each day. He puts together small sentences now (I want....) and has started using adjectives, like "big dog". Poor little guy woke up with a runny nose today. We're not looking forward to flu and cold season at all. He's starting to have some friends of his own. We have a weekly playdate with some other younger brothers (no big sisters allowed!). He and our downstairs neighbour, Adam, pay lots of attention to each other, pointing out to us Moms and Dads when they can hear the other one crying or yelling. And they're always so happy to see each other. But I'd say his closest friend so far is Marta, a girl born within weeks of him. Her older sister is in Ella's class and our two families have spent some time together. This week the two of them seemed to really get to know and like each other. Mattias is also very adept on his "motorka" (little motorbike) and we even use it instead of a stroller sometimes to go shopping or to the playground. He and I are also attending some toddler music classes together which is fun.

Jeff is still finding his work challenging and fulfilling. He got himself a bike while we were away and has been using that (although not as much as he did when he was "baching it"). He's also taken up tai chi. Second class tonight, so waiting to see how that goes. And he's getting involved with working against racial discrimination faced by the Romani people here in the Czech Republic...and I'm going along for the ride. (It's a very worthy cause - I'm sure there will be more on this in the future.)

And me, well, I'm finding life pretty exciting these days. Each week my schedule is beefing up a bit more, and by the first week of October, it'll look like this:

Monday mornings: Lead music class for toddlers (1.5 - 2.5 yrs)

Monday afternoons: Do research for S'Mac (Ivana, our new sitter with kids)

Tuesday - Open day

Wednesday morning - S'Mac (Ivana with kids)

Thursday morning - Boys playdate or attend music class with Mattias

Friday morning - Ella's drama class, Lead music class for 2.5 - 4 year olds

Fridays become a full day with socializing in our old neighborhood afterwards. On top of that I'm helping out with storytellings one Saturday a month. I'm also on the Board for Class Acts, the non-profit that runs the music classes and storytellings. My focus is fundraising and volunteers. In the winter, one of the teachers of the Thursday music class (separate from Class Acts) will be home in Australia for 3 months, so I may be helping out with that one, too. And I just found out today that Ella's skolka may need someone to teach an English class - another English-speaking mom suggested that maybe we could share it. We'll see where that goes. It's all very fun and exciting!

So now you know what we're up to...why not drop us a note and let us know what you're up to?

The dishes are calling my name (why did I ever teach them to do that?!?!)

Maylia

PS This is a whole lot of text. Better throw in a photo. Pirate tatoo artist was Zoe, 3 years.