Downtown (April 29)

Today we decided to go to downtown Ostrava. We had a good day. We rode the tram, saw the sights and ate some authentic Czech food. And Jarek got a free Kofola glass which I think made this whole trip worth it for him.

I love Europe! In the US you never get a free pair of pants with your magazine.

Max is taking this trip in stride. He spends a lot of time in his stroller, but as you can see he doesen't seem to mind it at all. I love when he is so relaxed he puts his hands behind his head. And then when he is ready to see the sights he kicks his feet up on the rail. What a trooper.

Max and Jarek on the train to downtown.
This is the square downtown. I love the colored buildings. I also love the coblestone roads (although they certainly weren't made with strollers in mind).


We wanted to eat out in an official restaurant so I asked the lady at the visitor's center what she recommended. (First I asked her in Czech if she spoke English. Luckily she did because that is pretty much the extent of my Czech.)
Jarek fell in love with this glass. He asked the waitress where he could buy one and she said he could just take that one. I don't know if I have ever seen him happier.
Nozdravi! (Cheers!)

My dinner.
Our desert. The waitress asked if we each wanted our own and of course we did. She didn't tell us that they came two to a plate. Oh well, its not like we are in downtown Ostrava everyday so we ate them all anyway.
And this is a paprazi shot of the "authentic" Czech apperal.

Just some things I liked.................

Max and Jarek on the train home.

Visiting Grandma and Pram Envy (April 28)

I love this picture!
This is Max at Labuznik, the trendy little child friendly bakery with free wi-fi.

We had a great day today. We visited with Jarek's grandma. Its his mom's mom and she is such a sweet, great lady. When we got there she was cleaning her plant. You can't really tell from the picture but the plant is as tall as she is. She said it used to be just a little plant but before winter she moved it to a bigger pot and now it is as big as she is.
Jarek's cousin and her daughter Tereza live with his grandma. Tereza was instantly in love with Max. She gave him that little stuffed giraffe he is holding in the picture and doted on him the whole time we were there.
Max loved his great grandma! She was so good at interacting with him and he smiled and giggled in response.

This is his face watching her.

She made us cake! It is a cake Jarek remembers her making for special occasions
when he was a kid. It was delicious. And, she gave us the recipe.

When a recipe comes out of your grandma's house and looks like this
you know it is going to be good.

I wanted to know more about her life and I thought it would be a nice opportunity for Jarek to learn some of his family history. I asked him to ask her what year she was born (1936) and that was all it took - out came the pictures. And there were some really cool pictures. We learned that she was quite a looker in her young days and she bleached her hair blond. We learned that she had 3 sisters and 6 brothers. We learned that her dad was a blacksmith. We also learned that he spent about 18 months in a concentration camp, but we don't know why. She said that neighbors were watching him and reported him other than that she said she didn't want to talk about it. We also learned that her husband was killed in a auto-train accident 43 years ago. Very sad.



This certainly wasn't the coolest picture she showed us, but I thought it was a funny picture of Jarek's younger and awkward teenage days. She let us take some of the cooler pictures so we can scan them and make a copy for ourselves.

And here they are, 4 generations (sadly with one missing). I think its really cool that Max was able to meet his great grandma.


On a different subject, I have always loved prams. I really wanted to get one but we priced them and they are expensive! So we got a hand-me down stroller instead. Its very nice and we love it. And we do the American thing and attach the car seat to it. They don't do that here. And they think it is the weirdest thing. I have been doing a lot of walking here and I get so envious when I see all the other mom's with their fancy European prams. And I get lots of weird looks when they see my giant contraption of a car seat attached to a stroller. I have pram envy. Below is a picture of Romana's pram next to our stroller just to give an idea of what I am talking about.


Max decided to help us out and save us the looks we get having the car seat attached to the stroller. He decided that he was too big for his car seat. After sitting up like this for about 20 minutes on our walk we decided that the car seat must go. I can't even imagine the stomach muscles that must use to sit like that in a moving stoller.

He loved sitting in the stroller like a big kid!

When we got back to the house Romana was visiting with her two girls. It was fun to spend some time with them. I'm a little jealous of how she can just walk to her parents so the kids can spend a couple of hours with grandma.

Karolina thought it would be fun if Max had a turn in the swing.
So with babicka's help Max had his first swing.

What a nice day! I am really loving my time here.

The game

And now is when we play the game, "Guess Who Lives In This House":

A little girl.

A lady.

Max!

Happy Name Day Jaroslav (April 27)

In the Czech Republic everyday of the year has a name associated with it and the day with your name is your name day. Today was Jaroslav's name day. Jarek's dad is also named Jaroslav and Max's middle name is Jaroslav so it was a festive day in the house with lots of handshaking and wishing of a happy name day. Jarek's step-mom brought him some delicious candy. We went for a walk and met up with his brother and his girlfriend and her family. On our walk we stopped by the store. We had a good time in the candy isle and Jarek bought about 5 of his favorite candy bars that they don't have in the states. European chocolate = Yum!

Jarek's parents live in the orange building, on the second floor. They have lived there since he was six months old. He says the building used to be gray like the other ones but for some reason their building was painted orange and the other ones were not.


Below are pictures of Jarek's old school. He attended this school from Kindergarten through grade 8. He says it used to be gray also. He says all the buildings used to be gray. Now they are colorful, which I love.

Max chilin in the stroller. He was tired of facing backwards so we switched his chair to face forward. He thinks he is such a big boy now. My water bottle is his new favorite toy. He eventually fell asleep holding it.

Jarek's brother Petr and his girlfriend Jana and her family invited us to the pub. People congregate at the pub after work and before they head home. They even had a sandbox and play area for the kids. How sweet. Jana's sister teaches english and they thought it would be nice if I had someone to talk to so they invited her to come along.

Jarek was reminded of one of his favorite drinks - Kofola. It is a soda that is sort of like Dr Pepper. Its actually quite tasty, and I don't even really like soda. Jarek thinks we should import it to the US. Hmmmmm..........

Here is my baby, chillin' at the pub.

Jarek's brother Petr is the one in the blue BYU hat. That gave me a good chuckle, seeing him wear that hat as he drank beer after beer. Jana is holding Max and her dad is on the other side of Petr. Across from Jarek is her sister "Kate" who speaks english and her husband is the curly hair guy. Their 13 year old son Andrew is between them but you can't see him in the picture. Jana's two boys were there but they were off playing soccer in the field and Jana's mom joined us later. We were there for hours and at least 6 rounds of beer. But it was fun. They were concerned that American's don't drink alcohol since Jarek and I weren't drinking but we assured them that American's drink plenty of alcohol, we just don't for religious reasons.

Tomas loves to play this game were he bumps heads with Max.

Max seems to enjoy playing as well.

They also like to play peek-a-boo.

This is a dessert Jarek remembers from his childhood. Its called an indianek. We headed to the bakery after the pub to get one. Jana's dad bought it for him since it was his name day. Yum! We each had one and Jarek says it was just as good as he remembered it.

It was a good day. And its been nice seeing Jarek in his natural habitat.

Random Pictures (April 25 - April 26)

A few more pictures from Easter:

Tomas and Karolina playing with Max.

Jarek's dad's cousin and her husband live upstairs in their building. Jarek's dad wanted to show Max to them so we went for a visit (and the boys took their sticks).

Drink anyone?

We went for a little walk to the store to buy Max some food. I just thought these houses looked cool. I love the colors of their houses here, mostly orange, yellow and green.


When we decided to come to the Czech Republic at the time we did I told Jarek I was excited we would be there for Easter because I loved how they had lots of pretty eggs and hung eggs from trees. He said that they didn't do that here, so imagine my delight when we entered his parents house and I saw these things:





Jarek's parents have a dog. I was a little unsure how I felt about this, but Max loves Blacky (that's really the dog's name). He giggles so much every time he sees her and he loves to pet her and especially loves when she licks him. He also loves to tug at her hair so luckily Blacky is a patient dog.

On Tuesday we went for a walk down the street by Jarek's parent's house. We saw the sights and found a book store.




Jarek worked at this store right after high school and until he went on his mission. He even made the sign. We stopped in for a visit with his old boss.