Trick-or-Treat!

In true Prague fashion (for us), we were battling illness for Hallowe'en again this year. Luckily, it tempered our celebrations but did not completely knock us out of the festivities this year. Hallowe'en morning, Maylia and Mattias attended a Hallowe'en themed storytime, where Maylia helped entertain about 30 pirates, witches, princesses, and monsters with spooky stories and silly puppets. Here's Mattias in his goldfish costume that we're hoping he gets to go trick-or-treating in next year...

And sporting his super-cool Hallowe'en t-shirt courtesy of Grammy and Grampy (what he actually wore to the storytime).

After returning Mattias home for a nap, Maylia and Ella took off for a Hallowe'en themed birthday party for Ella's friend, Natalie.

We should also add that we warmed up for Hallowe'en by visiting a pumpkin farm and buying some pumpkins and squash. It was a very fun (and wet!) day with our friends Emily, Radek, Anna Lee, and Oliver.

And then Jeff and Ella attended a pumpkin carving party at our friends house (Valerie, Dan, Vinson, and Benjamin). Ella's jack-o-lantern is the second from left.

Health update: Monday (Nov 2), Jeff was to the doctor and learned he needed a round of antibiotics. Tuesday, Maylia returned to the doctor for a second round of antibiotics. Somehow, the children seem pretty healthy...knock on wood...not sure how...but we are so grateful! Hoping we'll all be healthy and back to our normal activities this coming week. Ella went to skolka 4 full days this week (8:30am to 3:30pm), since Mom was not much fun. And she also went to her drama class yesterday on her own (with her friend Natalie and Natalie's mom) - what a big girl! We're very proud of her!

Welcome to the World, Puran Ekya!

We are thrilled to announce the birth of Caesar and Sarita's baby boy. The little tiger arrived November 4th and all three of the Ekyas are doing very well. We're sure they are happy to have Sarita's mom, Anita, around to help. Either a very early riser or a night owl, Puran entered the world at 1:38 am, weighing in at 5lbs 11oz. It's cool that he shares his Lunar/Hindu calendar birthday with his dad. Puran is named after Caesar's father, and his name means "complete" in Sanskrit. Fitting, as we're sure Caesar and Sarita are feeling like their family is more complete with Puran in it. (For those that don't know, Ekya, Sarita and Caesar's chosen married name, means "unity" in Sanskrit. Cool, huh?)

Congratulations, Guys! Looking forward to meeting Puran on Skype sometime soon....

"Blanka go Boom Again"

Big apologies for so long a silence on the blog. We're all taking turns fighting the flu (just regular kind, no swine stuff).

There is something we've been meaning to write about...there are tunnels being dug under our house. And for several weeks now, we get reminders several times a day by the dynamite blasts.

Now, before you yell "Freeze Gopher!!", you should know these are not ordinary tunnels. This is on par with Boston's Big Dig, as Prague tries the same to alleviate congested traffic. The project is called Tunel Blanka (the "Blanka Tunnel") and is tunneling under the city center, the Vltava river, and Letna and Stromovka parks. When the Blanka Tunnel is finished, it will be 3.5 miles long (5502 meters). Construction started soon after we got here and, from the constant blasting, it seems they're making a lot of progress. Should be finished in mid to late 2011, so we're thinking we won't be enjoying it personally.

What we do enjoy is the constant reminders, from underground dynamite blasts which rock our building in a very real way, once even shattering our downstairs neighbor's bathroom mirror. (Mattias thinks it is thunder and says, "Uh oh, it's raining!", even when there is a sunny blue sky outside.)

If you visit the official Tunel Blanka website, you can read exactly why we're concerned. On the website listing the buildings most affected, you'll see our building is "directly affected" - meaning it's subject to the maximum projected fall of 35mm. That's 1.5" which doesn't sound like a lot, provided the whole building will fall evenly.

But, honestly, there's little reason to think a large area of the surface would just cave into the ground. After all, it has only happened twice since they started construction!

After these setbacks, it's no wonder why they're taking such precautions as building a wooden, catch-all skirt around our house and all the "directly affected" buildings around us. See pictures - the skirt is just in case parts of a building should break away. We're sure the 2" planks will keep any passerby below safe from falling walls.

Happy Birthday Sis

Today, my 'baby' sister Jeannine turned... no, I can't give the number. But we wish her a graceful transition to her new milestone.
Ugh...hard to believe, really. Not so long ago I was making her stuffed animals talk (esp. a Pekingese named Sam), getting Jeannine to laugh uncontrollably. Now, fast forward a few decades later, we're all grown up and laughing at life.
Jeannine's a pro expat, finishing some 8 years between Scotland and Saudi Arabia, as well as a personal heroine of ours.
Happy Birthday, Jeannine - we love you and wish you & Kari all the best for the move home.

-jeff & parkers

Dad & Gang Doing Fine

Maylia's away in Lisbon, Portugal with friends from back home Michelle and Erin for 4 days.

I would write "While the cat's away, ..." but the mice play fine even with the cat here.

Before she left, Maylia wasn't worried about dad and kids having plenty of play time. That part, Daddy does real good at. No, it was everything else, like planning meals and getting from commitment to commitment. Maylia is the more organized parent, so she, bless her heart, wrote out for Daddy a cheat-sheet and got all groceries ahead of time for meals planned out. But the real help was the schedule list complete with transportation tips. For example, Fridays are Ella's Palechek days. Palechek is Ella's get-together/drama class/puppet-show place. My Friday cheat-sheet starts with "Start leaving by 9am; hit sidewalk by 9:15am." Maylia even gives 3 alternate times for the wheelchair trams back home. (Wheelchair trams have big access doors for strollers). Cool.

May's gone from Thursday night to Monday night. I took Friday off from work, of course. Couldn't have Ella and Mattias fend for themselves, right? Right? We have hired help coming in for all day Monday, though I'll come home early.

Today we have a birthday party to go to. Tomorrow's open, so perhaps the aquarium

In short, we're doing okay.

Just before May left, she and Ella were treated to a ballet. Our friend Karen gave Maylia and Ella tickets to Swan Lake at the National Theater for their birthday. Last week, Maylia, Karen, Ella and her friend Sasha all went to beautiful National Theater. Talk about an experience for a couple 4 year olds, let alone adults. Sounds like Ella and Sasha really enjoyed themselves. Here are some pictures from that night.