Life is Beautiful: Slovakia

So, after a few crazy days of celebrating and times with cousins our days slowed down a bit and I am able to sit down and at least put some pictures on here for you. Of course I have not been taking as many pictures as I should have but it's not easy. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the people, visit, laugh or cry without always reaching for my camera. But then I love seeing the pictures afterwards too so I pretty much want the best of both worlds. :)

Kason has had a chance to play with all his cousins the last few days and that's been so nice. Sometimes the the oldest boys Filip and Tomas were trying hard to say things to Kason in English while Kason did not care that none of the kids were understanding him and just kept talking to all of them in English. He kept telling the boys they really need to fly on the airplane and come see his house because he was going to show them all his toys and stuff. He is finally starting to talk some to my mom in Slovak because she doesn't speak English. She said I should just leave Kason here for a couple months so he would learn Slovak. While I know that would work for the language part, I'm not sure how he'd do without me and Ehren for so long.

On Tuesday my youngest brother Adam and his wife Slavka had their first baby - a beautiful red hair boy Emil. Mom and I went to see them in the hospital today and he is so adorable. I must say I am thankful for the American hospitals because here you can't even look at the baby from up close when you are visiting, only through a big glass window. I am so happy for them and so excited I was here when it hapened. We are hoping to see them all again in a few days when they get home.

Kason's first reaction to the big city was: "this town is very loud" :) Poor country boy has never been right in the middle of a city like this and even though you realize how much noisier it is, I didn't think about how different it must feel to Kason. There are buses, trolleybuses, trams and cars driving by my parents' apartment building almost all day and all night long so no wonder he says it is very loud. At the same time he is really excited to go places, see new things and ride a different public transportation he has never been on before. His favorite was going on a "little train" :) or tram. We also went to 3 huge malls this week and that was an experience for him. One of them was his favorite because they had a play area where you drop the kids off with slides, riding toys and even a wii. So of course he did not want to leave that place. I got some funny looks today from people because they heard me talking Slovak to someone and then Kason comes up to me yelling something in English. There are some moms here that speak English to their kids so they learn it early on but a lot of times those kids answer back in Slovak. And there's me today trying to speak Slovak to Kason in public and he's answering back in English. :) He's at least catching on quick to basics and I hope it will get more so when my parents come see us in May.

We still have fun things planned until it's time to go back home, some friends to visit with, me going skiing, going swimming and stuff so it will be a lot of fun. But we miss Ehren, Kade and Ani and I know they miss us too. Kason talks about them quite a bit and it's so sweet to hear him talk about his big brother or getting emotional when I mention Ani. Him and Ani are just really close and are each other's little buddies so I know it is hard on both of them to not share this time with each other. But I do think it is nice to have time apart like this because it makes us all really see how much people in our lives mean to us and makes us appreciate them so much more when we get back.

Here are some pictures of Kason's day with his cousins Filip, Hanka, Tamarka and baby Ester - kids of my brother Marcel and his wife Elen. He had so much fun there and when we came to pick him up he was his little showing off self even though the kids didn't understand most of it.