Our last weekend in Slovakia

We had a pretty fun and a full weekend here in Slovakia.  On Friday we did little shopping and then mom and I decided to go to a park near our town.  It has a pretty steep hill and you can take a lift up to the top and just hike down which we did with Ani.  Anika loved being on the lift, so high up and it was the perfect weather for our little walk in the woods.  We spent almost the whole Saturday with Marcel and Elen and their 3 kids.  We went to the zoo in the morning which Anika just loved.  There was a dinosour park there with huge dinosaurs and some of them were moving, opening their mouths and making noises.  Ani was a bit scared and she would not go close to one of them no matter how hard I tried to show her it is fake.  She loved being with the kids all day and really liked playing with her cousin Hanka who is about 3 years old but is almost as tall as Ani.  We spent the rest of the day at their houe, playing, biking and stuff.  On Sunday Anika was excited to go to children"s church and her and Hanka were so cute afterwards, dancing together and hugging.  I"m sure they would become good friends if we were here longer.  We also went to visit my youngest brother Adam and his wife Slavka at their apartment because we won"t be able to see them before we go home.  They are the only couple with no kids yet so there will be more cousins one day. :)  They are also taking a trip to the states in August and will spend some time with us so that"s exciting.  Anika is becoming very much herself this last week, giggling with everyone, talking non-stop and just being very social.  It is so nice to see her change because when we first came she was pretty shy and I don"t blame her with so much of new things everywhere we went and with not knowing anyone besides me and my mom.  Now she is herself more and is having fun with everyone, especially all the kids.  It is a bit sad to see because it makes me think of how much we miss out on when our family is so far away but I have to be thankful for what I have, for the moments me and Ani have had with my family and to cherish that.  We still have 2 busy days ahead of visiting my friends and family and then Wednesday will be packing and relaxing and getting ready to leave very early on Thursday morning.

Making a traditional Slovak food

3 generations cooking together

Ani is excited to try it

another popular Slovak dish, Anika loved it

getting ready to get on the lift
the guys in front of us go up with the bikes and terrain bike down te hill

going up

looking down from our lift

at the zoo

baby leopards

baby tigers

all 4 kiddos

Hanka telling Ani the triceratops is not real

Hanka and Ani

Marcel, Elen and Tamarka

building structures

biking again

Adam and Slavka

Prague

Ani and I took a pretty long train ride to Prague (almost 4 hours) to go visit my brother Erik and his family for a couple of days.  It was a cold day the first day but we still managed to walk around the downtown, up to the palace and on the famous Charles bridge.  I could not believe that on a cold day like that, in the middle of the week, and off season the whole downtown was packed with tourists and locals.  I guess there is no time anymore where it doesn"t get crowded which is a bit sad.  But on the other hand, I was so impressed by the public transportation there.  Bratislava, the town where my parents live, is all right but man what a difference does a subway make.  You can  literarly get anywhere in Prague in a few minutes without a car and it is so nice.  We had Erik and Monika"s 2 boys with us, Tomas is 4 and Simon is 1 and a half.  We had 2 strollers with us because we knew Anika was going to be too tired to walk but in the end her and Tomas took turns sitting in strollers, taking naps in them or getting horsy rides.  But it was pretty funny when mid way during our walk thru town we stopped at a tiny park to feed Simon some food, and all of a sudden the 2 "very tired" kids had the energy of the world and were running nonstop from one end of the grass to another just to scare off the pigeons.  Ani and Tomas both got a kick out of that and I think it might have been Anika"s highlight of the day.  After that Ani and Tomas started playing a lot better together and they were playing so cute in their apartment.  You could hear they were both speaking their own language, playing hide ad seek and stuff but Anika would try to repeat some words after Tomas that she recognized.  It makes me a little sad we don"t have more time for the cousins to really get to know each other whenever we are here. But I hope one day when they are all older they can find some of the same interests and won"t ever be too cool to get to know each other.  I know it is pretty easy for most little kids to play together but you can"t order your teenagers to "play" together so I hope they can always enjoy each other and find some things in common.  Mom and I were talking how Anika is getting so much more adjusted here this week and she is more herself with everyone.  From what I remember the last time I was here and Kade was almost Anika"s age it was the same thing.  Around the 3rd week he finally started being himself and really enjoying everything and everyone.  Too bad it is so close before we have to leave but that"s how it is.

Here are some of the pictures of Prague, it really is a beautiful city and you could tour it for weeks but that"s not for little kids for sure.

on the train going to Prague

one of the views from Erik and Monika"s apartment

walking up to the castle

the view from the castle

watching a bride and groom dance in front of the castle

The famous Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge and the palace up on the hill

still Charles Bridge 

they sell puppets on every corner downtown

I guess the narrowest walkway in Europe

you could get a ride in these cars and tour the town that way

famous Orloj, a medieval astronomical clock

chasing pigeons

getting on the train back to Bratislava

Parenthood

It is very interesting to me to see the differences between parenthood here in Slovakia and in the US.  When you watch little kids here you realize kids are the same no matter where they live.  They fuss about food, have tantrums, love being with other kids, love chasing each other, love learning new things, and so on.  Since I am a stay at home mom it is just interesting to me to see how mothers here tackle their daily challenges.

There are no home daycares here so most women stay home for 3 years with their baby and more if they have another one before the 3 years are up.  The difference is almost all the kids go to preschool here when they turn 3 and it is all day every day, but it costs very little money unless it is some very fancy foreign language preschool or something.  In the US some kids go to preschool when they are 4 or 5 but it is not cheap most of the times and it is only half day 3 times a week.  Kindergarten is combined with preschool here and the difference is they don"t focus on reading or writing at all, unlike the US.  In a way I kind of like the idea of kids just learning by play because they learn to read in the 1st grade anyway.  I am not happy with American kindergartens and how much they are pushing for more and more curriculum these little kids have to get through before they go to 1st grade.  Kids have a lot more play time outside during the day here and even the whole mentality of people is that kids have to be outside and get enough physical activity and that is another sad thing about the US.  Of course, in everything there are exceptions and people who go against the flow.

But what is interesting to me is the difference in discipline, eating and stuff.  Of course not everyone is like this, but from the short time I"ve been here I heard many times moms say to their little preschoolers or toddlers  "listen to me or else you get a spanking!" when the kids were doing something they weren"t suposed to.  You just don"t hear that very much in the US.  You hear counting to 3, or a time out and even a spanking in the end but not saying it right off, "you are going to get it if you don"t listen". :)  I"m not saying either one is right, it is just interesting.  Another big difference I noticed is the food.  A lot of moms here stress a lot about what food their kids eat.  It has to be organic, home-made and they spend a lot of time during the day cooking meals for their families.  I know moms in the US can be like that as well, but I don"t know too many.

One new thing that has emerged over the last few years is moms talking to their children in English or German all the time.  It is very "in" right now and people look at it as some high class thing or something.  I understand the concept of it but at the same time it is a little funny to me to listen to moms at a playground talking to their kids in English with a very thick accent and using phrases that are from books and not really used in real life.  One time I watched this little boy about Kade"s age (7 or 8) who just met some foreign kids and he wanted to make friends so he started speaking English to them.  On one hand it is great he is able to talk to them but it makes me think if he is now going to keep that very thick accent that screams he is from Eastern Europe, which I assume he got from his parents talking in English.  So I am not sure if I have an oppinion about it.  I am sure our kids would love that they are able to talk to kids their age when they are here but at the same time I want our kids try speaking Slovak when they are here.  You can tell Anika is a lot more shy with kids here because she doesn"t speak the language but she is picking up so much and her and my mom can communicate very easily so that is great.  I know for sure that if our kids were able to spend a summer here they would pick up so much of the language and being here gave me a new determination to teach our kids more.  It is funny because when we are in town or at a playground now I try talking in Slovak or very quietly in English to Anika so people can"t tell because then they think I am one of those English teaching moms. :)  I can see that people look at Ani funny when they hear her talking in English because most kids her age even though are taught English at home only respond in Slovak because that is their native language.  I could just see moms looking at us a few times  thinking how did she make that little girl speak back to her in English so well because they can hear I am a Slovak. :)

And the last big difference I noticed so far is that stay home moms keep to themselves so much and can feel isolated.  Partly it is because it is not easy to get to town from some suburbs they live in, but it is strange to me they would not want to get out more and get together during the day, especially when their 3 year olds and up are in school all day and they mostly only have 1 baby/toddler at home.  Also a lot of them say how they get overwhelmed with being a mom yet they never trade babysitting with each other.  If one mom has to do something, she doesn"t ask her friends to watch the kids for a while.  They ask grandparents or no one.  On the opposite, from the friends I know in the US moms rely on their friends so much when it comes to watching their kids once in a while and they do the same for someone else.  It is just so natural and it helps moms so much.  Same thing goes for couples" dates or anything they want to do together alone.  They either have to ask one of their parents or family to babysit or they just don"t do anything alone and it is pretty sad to me.  Some people do get sitters but a lot of people can"t afford it.  It is almost like people here who start having families just accept their fate of being with their children all the time and feel guilty for wanting to do something without them so they wait until they are way older.  So after seeing this (and I know this is not the way everyone is) I feel so very thankful for the way my friends are.  I love that I have friends who were happy to take care of my boys during the day while I am gone.  When I told some people here about it they were shocked someone would watch my kids for the whole day just like that.  There aren"t too many moms I can ask for help because most women I know work full time, but that is why it is even stranger to me the women here in Slovakia don"t do that more for each other since most of them are home every day.

Most likely if I lived here for a while I would notice a lot more things that are different, some better and some worse, or else I would probably realize none of the things I noticed now are really the way I see them, but in the end it doesn"t matter.  What matters is if our kids grow up in a loving home, where they feel safe and for them to understand the importance of family.  I hope our family both here and in the US will always stay close and will take care of each other.  I am so thankful that in this day and age all our families are strong, staying together and that none of my nieces or nephews have to grow up in broken homes.  God has really blessed our families with so much.

A couple more pictures from the weekend that my sister-in-law took:

kids are racing and uncle Adam joins in on the fun

tired out from our outing
you can"t see it but Ani is getting a ride on a scooter in front of my brothers :)