Recently in Junior Category

The following was related by Jennifer:

• Jennifer was dealing with a crying Simone while Magda was unsuccessfully trying to get her attention.
• So Magda addresses her sister with an empathetic "Simone, damn your tears!"
• Jennifer, horrified, tries to make Magda understand that using curse words is not appropriate for children.
• Magda, confused, asks what a curse word is.
• Jennifer elaborates.
• Magda, still confused, exclaims "but dam means 'to stop water from flowing'!"
• ...

Magda has really taken to reading and it's amazing to watch her evolution and progress from week to week.  She's known her letters for years and has been wanting us to "follow the words with our finger" when reading to her for a long time.  But she really only started to seriously try to read since beginning kindergarten this fall.

And then something clicked and she's started enjoying the process of making her way slowly through early-reader primers. And then it became more fluent.  A couple of weeks ago she was "bored" at Kat & Steve's Christening party and Kat's dad lend her a big-ol' Dr. Seuss book and, to her surprise, Magda made it through Green Eggs and Ham all on her own.  Now she often grabs a book and reads for pleasure.  Usually it's stuff that she's heard many times already, though she doesn't just recite from memory.  But often it's new early-reader books she gets from school or we pick up at the library.

Today, we picked up a couple of Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa books from the library.  She started reading one in the car and then walked from the car to the kitchen with her nose in the book barely paying attention to anything Jennifer was trying to ask her.  I can totally see my young self in her.

She also has started reading pretty much any environmental text that catches her eye - ads, posters, the panhandler signs at intersections, etc.  Sometimes she asks what some complex word means, but most often she just reads.  We were at Barnes & Nobles today, and while I was looking at some books and kind of ignoring her, I snapped at attention when I heard her haltingly read one of the many calendar titles on the shelf.  To my relief she didn't ask what a "Bitch" was - I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing that she didn't, but I'm going to pretend she thought it had something to do with dogs.  On the other hand, she didn't have any problems with the cursive typeface it was written in, so that's a good thing, right?

We had Magda's birthday party at Pease Park. Jennifer got her a cool Unicorn piñata and plenty of decorations. I made Magda's favorite meringue chocolate ice cream cake. I even scored some dry ice to keep it frozen - which was massive overkill, considering that the weather was so cold (we had way too much fun playing with it later at home, though).

Due to late planning, the flu going around and the unexpectedly cold weather, we ended up with a pretty small turnout, but that's not so bad. The kids had lots of fun running around the play scape and then whacking the heck out of the unicorn. It took forever to bust it open - and we didn't even use a blindfold.

And yes, Tiana was a hit, as was anything else fairy related. Oh well, 5 year olds will be 5 year olds.

This morning, still darkish around 7:30 I saw Magda coming out the dark dining room.When I asked her what she'd been up to, she excitedly told me that she colored the last piece in her birthday calendar.  Meaning tomorrow she turns 5.

She had been anticipating her birthday for a long time now, and coloring her caterpillar had become a cherished morning task.  Though some days she'd skip it so that she would get to color two circles the next.

Some parts of the wait have been fun, but other parts less so.  When in a store, she can be a little horror with "buy me this" or "buy me that".  Invariably I don't, but she doesn't appear to have noticed, or maybe she keeps hoping that this one time I'll change my mind.  I've been going the "thanks for letting me know what you like" and "maybe that's something you would like for your birthday" route.  Which, of course, made her change her spiel to "I want this for my birthday".  Argh!  I really wonder how exactly she imagines her birthday to be.

Of course, it doesn't help that she really, really, really wants and needs all the little-girl-crack that's out there that I hate.  How I loath the pushers Mattel and Disney.  But hey, it's a birthday, right?  We've made the mistake of making a healthy cake for her 1st birthday (she didn't care but I like my sweet stuff unhealthy).  So yeah, I'll go and get her the darn Tiana doll that she'd been obsessing about for months. Principles and all be damned!

Magda has now finished her second week of kindergarten and we have all enjoyed her experience so far.  While we had been very happy with our choice of school, we didn't know how she'd take to and whether there would be a recurrence of her separation issues from last spring. It turns out, we needn't have worried.

We helped her prepare by reading books about school and kindergarten and she got to work on her independence during our summer trip to the CR.  The weekend before school, there was a nice potluck picnic pool party with the entire school and Magda got to meet her teachers and a lot of the students.  And cousin K. was definitely showing enthusiasm about school, and if K. wants something, then Magda must want the same thing, mustn't she?

I decided not to tag along on the first school day in order to not make a big deal out of it.  According to Jfer, Magda was in tears when they were parting, but being on the teacher's lap and having her fairy doll (which I had finished the night before) made it easier.  When she came home, she talked about a couple of friends she had made.

The next day there were also some tears at parting, but apparently less intense and by Thursday, Magda's eyes were dry when school started.  When I talked with her late last week, she said she was said that next day wasn't a school day!  She doesn't talk too much about what they learn, though her favorite thing, so far, has been learning about platelets.

So school has been cool.  This week, I'll get to drop her off on Wednesday and Jfer will start volunteering as a lunch monitor once a week.

Part of the idea behind the grandma week is that parents get some time off while the kids are staying with their grand parents and cousins out in the country.  Since Magda has never really dealt all that well with separation (esp. this winter) we were looking forward to that part with some dreadful anticipation. Her away-time with G and Buelito in Ft. Worth this spring went well, but she can communicate with them and adores them both.

Magda tends to be drowned out in larger crowds. Dropping in on a bunch of boisterous cousins that know each other and speak a language she can't really communicate in was quite a tall order.  And doing this while being sick is didn't help, either.  But things turned out quite well.

Magda had been looking forward to seeing her Swiss cousin Aline, who, in her mind, is just the coolest thing in the world, though she really only knew her through pictures. As it turned out, Aline wasn't there wen we arrived at Staňkov because she was delayed by a bug of her own, but she did show up a day later - just as Magda was starting to get sick.

So the first couple of days, Magda spent around the house or on the porch, often napping, while the kids were doing their thing.  During Monday's treasure hunt, we had to carry her a good portion of the way because she fatigued so quickly.  By the time she got better, I was afraid that she had passed her chance to properly integrate.

But during the hike to Valdštejn she perked up and after lunch really wanted to walk hand in hand with Aline, but just didn't know how to approach her about it.  I suggested to simply ask her - helping her with how to say it, but she just couldn't.  Eventually she asked me whether "she could just take her hand without saying anything", and I assured her that would be cool, too.

And so she did.  She got her courage up, took Aline by hand, got a big smile in response and they spent the rest of the hike walking together.  The expression of happiness and delight on Magda's face was priceless.  Aline was really good about being there for Magda from the beginning, despite the fact that they couldn't really communicate, except through the cousins from Dallas.  And so Magda got to sit on her lap during our stops, walk with her and otherwise enjoy being a younger sister.

After that, Magda would join the kids on her own down at the pool at Čeperka, the village volunteer fire department hall/pub/community center, or to watch the girls playing basketball at the hoop on Čeperka's wall.

When it was time for us to leave on Wednesday, it seemed a bigger deal for Jfer and me than for her.  She gave us hugs and kisses and walked with grandma down to Čeperka to wave us off.  No big scene, tantrum or tears.

When we called that night to say goodnight, she was fine.  Although later we got a tearful (and not unexpected call) when it was her bed time, wanting us back, etc.  But she was good about hanging up and slept with her cousins Kačenka (speaking English) and Aline (bestest big cousin ever).  Next day when we called, she told us she "didn't want us to come back to pick her up, ever"!  She still had tears at bedtime, and waiting for us on the last day was hard, but overall, her three days and nights without us went way better than anticipated.

The first week of our vacation was the "grandma week" in Staňkov, which had started out as my mom and her sisters spending a week with their grand kids, but now includes grandpas and, for part of the week, some of the parents.

On Tuesday the grandmas had planned a trip to the Valdštejn castle (I always get a kick how the German names, e.g. Waldstein, have mutated to Czech orthography).  We drove to Nová Paka and then took a train to Turnov, with a train change in Stará Paka.  After visiting the WC at the Turnov station (prices are 5/4/1 KČ for using a stall/pissoir/sink, respectively, collected by the classical grumpy old toilet lady) we descended on a baker and then proceeded on our hike.

It started off with a 3K walk through the town (we could have taken another train to a better station) past a historical Jewish cemetery (now cowering under a new highway bridge).  We then followed the "green" trail and ascended up the ridge overlooking Turnov.  Because of Magda's pace, we were usually at the end of the group.  She's a slow walker in general and tends to get distracted and there were many new distracting things to see (She: "Ooh, what's that?"; Me: "that's called a pine cone") and she was still a bit week from her stomach bug.

Along the way we saw some weird carved statues and Jfer got to see someone using a scythe for the first time.  We eventually arrived at Valdštejn where we were going to have lunch in a restaurant.  It turned out that there was no restaurant (the grandmas had confused Valdštejn with some other castle) so we made do with some fast food (hot dogs, kielbasa, microwaved pizza) but no one really cared.

After lunch Magda picked up the pace and was often up front trying to get past Martin.  We enjoyed the cool sandstone formations (is there a place in the CR where there aren't sandstone formations?) and arrived at the Hrubá Skála castle for some ice cream and beverage.

And that was followed by a hike down to Sedminhorky where we got on the return train and, after two changes, arrived back at where we started.

During the day, the weather was mostly beautiful and everyone, including Magda, had a great time.  My back was a bit sore from lugging Simone in the backpack (Jennifer carried her the second half of the trip).

For Magda, the vacation didn't start to auspiciously.  On Saturday, the second day in Staňkov she complained about not wanting to eat (which she does pretty much all the time unless blueberry dumplings are on the menu) and laid down (we were all tired from the time change). 

During her rest she barfed on the sofa and, after we cleaned the cushions and gave her a bowl, just-in-case, later proceeded to barf on the other sofa!  She couldn't keep anything down for the next couple of days and became very intimate (and accurate!) with the pretty bowl we found her.

We initially didn't worry too much about it - she occasionally catches something and after a couple of days it's over, but when Martin went to a doctor on Monday for a persistent cough, and Magda was still chucking up, we tagged along.  I was curious how what a Czech pediatrician's office there looks like these days.

It was an interesting experience.  One of the neighbors in Staňkov recommended Dr. Roučka in Nová Paka, the nearest town (of almost 10,000 people).  The directions to his office were a little iffy, but we eventually found it: a two-room office in the admin building of some manufacturing plant, with street-side parking on a busy road.  We made it to his waiting room, which was a bit sparser, but not all too different, from a waiting room in the US.

In the CR, you don't make an appointment at a Dr's, but show up and get processed on a first-come basis.  The Dr. had some kid in his office, but no one else was in the waiting room (and thus didn't see Magda do her very last throwup).  By the time we left, a couple of patients had arrived, some tiny baby (wellness check?) and a kid with white ointment dots all over his face (chicken pox is going around).

Martin went in first and turned out to be OK (and Hanka prepared the Dr. for us).  Then I went in with Magda.  The Dr has a single room for office/examinations he shares with his nurse.  Both of them were very nice, friendly and helpful.  The Dr. had Magda lay down on his examination bed, palpated her abdomen, checked her throat, and said not to worry, that this was one of those things kids get (pretty much what we were expecting).  She wasn't too dehydrated yet, so he said to encourage fluids in small doses, but to not press eating until she feels like it herself.  As far as payment was concerned, he waived me off, saying not to worry about it.  Sweet!  So, compared to our Dr's office in Austin, the Czech office was very spartan.  It had the basic ped. equipment I remember from my childhood, but lacked the fancy gadgetry you see here in the US.  I do like having a real appointment system here better, but I don't think that Magda's care was any worse than it would have been here. And the price was right!

Along the way we learned that you're not supposed to give Coke to calm an upset stomach when vomiting (the caffeine is a diuretic) and that the standard Czech remedy of "warm sweet tea" isn't the best either, unless you use Glucose as a sweetener and don't use black tea.  We made Magda some glucose-sweetened fruit tea which she was good about drinking and keeping down.  On Tuesday morning we had to slow her down during breakfast because her hunger had returned and things were staying in her stomach (even the kielbasa at lunch - I now, bad parents!)

For the last couple of months, we've been playing the "hold-your-breath while driving past a cemetery" games.  It's something Jennifer started and Magda has recently really gotten into it and is starting to be quite aware of the cemeteries in the local area.

So the other day we're driving and Jfer and I are talking about funerals or something and mentioning someone getting buried at a cemetery.  And from the back seat Magda pipes up with an incredulous voice: "They do what at cemeteries!?!  Bury dead people?  That's crazy!"  Turns out we never mentioned what a cemetery is for -- beside holding your breath while you pass it, that is.

Today, Jennifer is with the kids in Wichita Falls, attending the funeral of a family friend.  This will be Magda's first funeral, and last night was an open-casket memorial service.  Apparently Magda wanted to go by the coffin a couple of times, mainly because she'd "never seen a real cowboy before" (the deceased had cattle and loved his horses and Magda's a big fan of Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa).  I'm sorry I'm missing her experience, but I anticipate there being quite a bit of death talk around the house in the coming weeks.

May turned out to be a busy travel month. Beside a trip to Ft. Worth we spend the Memorial weekend in Houston attending a couple of family parties and enjoying the local sights.

On Sunday, we rolled out of the house kind of late and spent some quality time admiring ducks and ducklings at some office complex off I10. The girls had a good time feeding them bread and chasing them around. Simone doesn't seem a big fan of crawling over grass and sand on her bare knees, but that doesn't really stop her.

On Monday, we visited the Cockrell Butterfly Center (if you go on a busy weekend, make sure to pre-order tickets online and then pick them up a will-call while laughing at the throngs waiting to buy tickets). They reversed the tour from last time we were there in 2003 but it's still as cool as ever and starts off with an impressive roach collection. We were looking for the cool iguana we admired last time, alas, he's no more, having plunged to his death from the waterfall!

Magda loved it when she could get a butterfly to crawl on her finger so that should could admire it from close up. Simone had a good time, too, trying to grab some insects, but without much success (it's not easy when mom keeps you away from them).