Ethnic doll - moving forward

I finally found strength and motivation to cut the hat and maybe I will manage to attach it today. What a promising beginning of a new year if I managed to finish the doll :)

I sewed the hair some weeks ago, wanted to have some cute pictures with Teodor "helping" but somehow they didn't work out as I imagined...This is exactly a picture one is "proud" to show to the public :)

Looking back at 2015

1. Of course, it was Teodor who went through the most significant change. No longer a baby, but a toddler with so many abilities and skills :-)

From this...

To this...

Incredible how children change in one year.

2. We showed interest in buying two houses:

This one was sold to a couple who showed interest before us. We are still sorry we didn't manage to get it. 

This one seemed too expensive for the amount of plastic which was inside, not to mention the second floor was not ready at all. And we actually didn't like the place, too many new houses and too little of privacy.

3. I got pregnant again.

4. I've been learning how to be a housewife. I try to improve my cooking and baking skills and try to be more consistent with cleaning.

5. Also the relationship with the dad improved significantly over the last year (I guess the process of healing the relationship is more of less finished)

6. We started our own business, have one sale already :) 

7. The dad found himself in the woodwork and he started not only make toys for Teodor, but also our furniture. 

8. I found my internet soul-mate thanks to MK.

Charlie seems to remain more or less the same, only he's more on Orijen than raw meat. He also started to sleep more.

The same mess-maker :-)

There are big expectations from 2016:

• Teodor might start talking and people might start understanding him. 
• We're going to meet our baby girl and I'm really curious how it will go with two children.
• Because it seems impossible to buy a normal house for a normal price, we made a decision to save up for some land during the next year. 
• We want to make our shop start selling and have several marketing ideas in our heads.
• We might slightly re-do our living room, so it would be a better play-space for two children and a storage space for our shop. 

Štědrej večer nastal aneb o tom, jak jsme se měli o Vánocích

Svátky byly fajn. Proběhly celkem lenivě, neb jsme s Téčkem stále nachlazení, venku bylo hnusně, ale obecně dopadly líp než jsem čekala.

23. prosince nám tatínek koupil 160cm stromeček. Jen se někde stala chyba a stromek máme skoro ke stropu :) Náš první kupovaný stromek a velká spokojenost, konečně pořádnej košatej strom, ne koště :-)

Ovšem s revoluční velikostí a košatostí jsme narazili na dva problémy: neměli jsme dostatek ozdob a světla byla krátká. Poznámka: ta čínka na stromku je na zajištění stability, aby stromek nespadl na psa (blbec ho okusuje) nebo na dítě (to ho zase odstrojuje, případně z něj obírá jehličí). 

Tatínek tedy večer vyrazil do nejbližšího hobby shopu, aby se vrátil s prázdnou. Prej maj to, co měli loni, a to přece kupovat nebude :)

Večer je tatínek několikrát upozorněn, že se ráno půjdem podívat na vánoční trhy (a hlavně soby) do Starého města, takže ať nezkouší vstát v 11. Ráno 24. prosince zvládáme odjet autobusem v 9:08, neb krakéně vstalo někdy kolem 6. Dítěti byl sob ukázán v knížce a na otázku, zda chce soba vidět, kroutil hlavou, nicméně jsme ho nebrali vážně a koukání na soba mu vnutili.

Jo, sobi se mu nelíbili. Ani náhodou. Tak třeba příští rok :-)

Trhy taky nic moc. Takže dopolední kulturní program jsme celkem rychle skončili a vyrazili do OC podívat se po ozdobách, sáčcích do vysavače a chlap mi byl shánět telefon.

Jednou z nevýhod multi-kulti partnerství nastává při rozhodování, co se bude jíst ke štědrovečerní večeři a kdy že budem rozbalovat dárky. Nakonec tatínek udělal bramborový salát a usmažili jsme si filé. (Jo, stromek jsme dozdobili někdy před večeří). Dítě bylo večer už tak přetažený, že jsme rozhodli, že dárky rozbalíme až další den, že jemu to je stejně jedno, tatínek se nedočkavostí na své dárky neklepal a já telefon už dostala (tím, že ho koupil na poslední chvíli, nechtělo se mu s ním balit - ještě že nejsem cíťa, jinak by to bylo na rozvod :))
Poznámka: První pokus o vánočku skončil v koši.

Večerní fotka, dárky ho nezajímaly, max. tak na to, aby si na ně stoupal, takže jsme ani nebyli motivovaní je rozbalovat v ten "správný" den.

25. prosince ve 2 ráno se batole ve 2 ráno probudilo a chtělo koukat na stromeček. Respekt ze stromku se proměnil na fascinaci. A tímto dnem taky začala další série nocí, kdy prostě několik hodin nespíme. Pokud nespí tatínek, je mu dítě přenecháno, pokud spí, mám ho na starosti já.

2. pokus o vánočku, mnohem úspěšnější :)

K rozbalování dárků jsme se dostali odpoledne, poté co se ukázalo, že fakt spát nebude. T. našel pod stromečkem obrovský plastový auto s dalšíma 4 na palubě (jak se takovýmu autu říká?) a růžovoučký kočárek. Není to nic z toho, co jsem si původně plánovala, ale Lego dostal už někdy v listopadu, na třídící mističky od Grimm's nám přijde malej, ministroje od CAT taky už dostal a na houpací prkno nemáme prostor. Rozhodla jsem se (tatínkovi to je jedno, kočárek teda vydejchává), že k Vánocům mu budem kupovat hračky, ze kterých bude mít upřímnou radost a hlavně! který by za běžných okolností nedostal. Ne, fakt bych mu běžně nekoupila obrovskej plastovej krám, co hraje a bliká...Dítě se těma dvěma dárkama zabavilo na celý odpoledne (byl teda trochu v útlumu z toho poledního nespaní).

Dělání řad je nejoblíbenější zábava, např. udělá řadu aut a pak jí posunuje. Kočárek do řady občas taky přidá :-) A nebo je dělá z kreslících bločků.

26. prosince jsme nedělali více méně nic, na mě padla únava z ponocování...V 8 večer dorazilo příbuzenstvo, vzbudilo Téčko, které pak odmítalo usnout. Nakonec souhlasil s uspáním v kočárku. Od tý doby je uspáván na přání v kočárku a na nosítko se konečně začalo prášit. Mé líné těhotenské já se tetelí blahem :)

27. prosince vzal tatínek dítě a psa na několikakilometrovou procházku do lesa. Všichni si to užili, takže spokojenost veliká (já se zatím prospala). Doufám, že v létě vezme chlap batole stanovat :-) 

No a tím svátky skončili a jsme zase zpátky v realitě všedního dne. 

The day when he didn't nap

A friend of mine whom I haven't seen in months (always something was more important) asked me yesterday if they could come today, I agreed. When I found him fully awake at 5:30, I thought we might have been waking up for real, but somehow we managed to fall back asleep and I found him playing with his cars in the living room little bit after 9. We should have woken up at 5:30. There was no time to go for a walk with Charlie. There was so little time for cleaning. It was obvious he won't fall asleep at 12...

At about 10am, the cleaning marathon started...I think I did pretty well, Teodor was playing on his own not sabotaging my work, so no complaints there. I put the sled horizontally instead of vertically because I didn't want it to fall on my friend's daughter. Teodor is aware of the danger living in our apartment, so I am not worried about him...the sled made the best toy of the day, he was playing with his car and train on it for dozens of minutes.

The first try to make him sleep happened around 12:30, I vacuum cleaned with him on my back, I cleaned the kitchen and NOTHING. Let him play a bit, fed him and tried it one hour later (friend was running late). NOTHING. So I decided to try what would happen if he had no daynap...I've been thinking about it for already some time anyway because he wakes up late, takes his naps late, goes to bed late...

At 2pm (an hour later than agreed) the friend came. Her daughter has grown up so much since we've last seen each other (she is one month younger than Teodor). It went perfectly fine with Teodor, I was afraid he will be hysteric but when he hid his cars, he was fine with her using his toys. I realized how much toddlers can be different and how much freak I am about the system in his toys.

The girl was trashing our living room. Not that Teodor wouldn't trash it like ever but the thing was, she was mixing up stuff, you know, when Teodor turns the box upside down, he doesn't transport pieces all around, doesn't hide them anywhere, he usually starts to play with it. And then he goes and turns another box upside down...so we have several piles in the living room. We never look for keys, credit cards or generally anything. Everything has its own space and Teodor respects that. He often cleans after himself...you know, when he's done drawing, he puts the block crayon back to its place, he puts lego back, even sometimes the memory pairs...I was thinking how much the system makes sense for children and that they love to follow it. 

This is an older picture of Teodor playing with his Lego - he takes the blocks from the box and when he doesn't need them any more, he puts them back. 

Friend's daughter is, on the other hand, so much better at eating on her own. Each child has something, but I am really glad he is quite organized.

We took our usual walk outside with Charlie, again, the routine kicked in, so Teodor refused to go home after the ride (he also refused to go other way than we go usually), he insisted on going to the playground because we always go to the playground after the walk. 

Teodor seemed to be totally fine without the nap till 6pm. He fell asleep immediately after being given the breast, but was fully awake an hour later. 

We baked some gingerbread, I made broth for tomorrow's sauce (which I planned to make on Sunday :) and then it took me half an hour in Tula + breastfeeding to make him finally fall asleep at 10pm. So we're waking up late tomorrow again. 

Another slow days

Our days have been pretty lazy lately as Teodor still has a cold, we don't go out very often as the weather is not very toddler-with-a-cold friendly. I tried a few times, but he doesn't seem to enjoy it outside that much.

He spends most of his days playing with his cars, drawing and reading books. He also plays with his train, builds towers out of wooden blocks or Lego, sometimes he does something more "educational", but mostly he plays like a usual toddle :) He re-discovered the joy of helping his mother, so I have a little helper always following me...he's getting better even when helping with baking/cooking, thank goodness. It's still messy, but I can see some progress there :)

After making gingerbread dough yesterday evening

He discovered the joy of lining up...it started with making bird lines even though I don't think he understand the concept of generalization like that he was choosing only birds, he was just choosing pictures he liked, in my opinion...

And then it came...he started lining up his cars. Fun which seems to occupy him for hours...if only he was not constantly commenting on it "br(m) br(m) br(m)"

He is now making more complicated lines, a train line and car line :)

I also noticed he has a memory like an elephant. After two readings of his new flip flap book, he remembers what hides everywhere. He also can recognize about 20 types of birds, pretty amazing, huh? I thought he recognizes them only in the particular picture(s) because we read the book a lot but yesterday we came across a page he has never seen before and he did recognize the bird there. He can say about 10 syllables, has 1 word, which is understandable for a usual Czech person, but he's quite an ornithologist and generally zoologist. When I'm thinking about it, I can say that it's really parents who shape their children's interest because I do enjoy biology and remember quite a lot still.

I also noticed he can recognize animals according to their shape in his book. I decided to make an experiment today...

...I took his magnetic fish and we did "Find me a..fish/turtle/..." It was fun, he cheated a bit, but wanted to do it all over again and again... :)

I tried variation with memory game, but he didn't enjoy it that much.

Last thing I want to write about are our nights. When my mother left, for 4 nights he woke up in the middle of the night, went to play to the living room...I think he saw the light (dad was dying during the day, but awake at night) and decided to follow it. I slept through most of these trips, so I didn't care that much, but it established a habit of us waking up late. The fifth night I closed the door and since there have been no trips outside of bed. He is able to hold his pee all night long till 5-6am and then starts the drama - will he fall asleep again? He usually hands me Tula carrier and in an hour he is back to sleep. I would never dreamed of babywearing him in Tula this late in pregnancy, but somehow it works. The last two nights we both have some kind of annoying cough, neither of us sleep well, but we wake up around or after 8...even 9:30 has happened. Unbelievable.

Pre-Christmas time

It's been going totally different direction than planned, but I guess it's ok if December feels like any other month, definitely cannot say I feel the Christmas spirit.

At the beginning of this month, my mother was here, we had some great plans with the dad but I started to feel not very well two days after she arrived, so it was the best for me to do nothing, otherwise my uterus was hurting a lot. I guess it was stress because when she left, I started to feel ok again. It was probably her who infected us with the cold, meaning the dad felt like a crap for 4 days and was coughing and not feeling that well for another 3 days - unluckily for me, the cold lasted most of his holidays, so my plans about how effective we will be that week went to hell. Not to mention Teodor had a runny nose at the same time as his dad was dying of cough. Then the dad got better, Teodor caught his cough and I caught both. Perfect. This is what everyone needs just before Christmas

Christmas baking - Czechs are obsessed with having a lot of different types of Christmas sweets, so I wanted to try something more than gingerbread this year. I kind of hoped my mother would bake it for me, the first sweets she made, we had a few days later as a late evening snack with the dad :) The other sweets she made were not good. I tried to make some on my own, but it just didn't work out. Well, later I figured out the trick, but realized the dough doesn't make me feel good, so why to torture myself with making it again if we can have only gingerbread, right? I love gingerbread, so actually I don't feel bad for not having more types of Christmas sweets. I would be a total looser in Czech :-)

We haven't done any Christmas decorations or cleaning. Maybe next year I will try to make something with Teodor, this year he is still too young and most importantly, he doesn't care about crafts. Or maybe it's just me not wanting to go through it with him :) 

I find it extremely difficult to create Christmas atmosphere because I don't have a memory of Christmas spirit when I was a child...I remember looking forward to opening my presents, but that was it. I didn't care about the lights, about baking...My parents were very down-to-earth people, my dad used to say he was looking forward to the time when we (me+brother) are grown-up, so they wouldn't have to celebrate it - well, my brother is now 32 years old and they still celebrate Christmas, give each other presents...I don't think my parents do particularly enjoy that but anything for my brother, right? :)

Another issue I have with Christmas is that it's a Christian holiday and since I'm not religious, I feel like it's pretentious..plus it is not the most important Christian holiday even though there is definitely more emphasis on it than on Easter. 

The thing is that I would like Teodor see Christmas as a magical time...I mean December in Estonia sucks, it's dark, rainy, cold (it might be different feeling if there would be snow)...so little bit of Christmas cheer might be good, so I'm thinking hard how to make it happen in order to be natural for us parents who have no emotional connection to the holidays... I am not sure if I even want him to believe that some fairy-tale person is bringing gifts in contrast I really do enjoy seeing all of the fairies/elves/etc in Waldorf group...The good thing is that he's still quite young and I have a year to figure it out properly...Can you imagine he's going to be almost 3 next Christmas? 

We're getting our Christmas tree hopefully at the beginning of the next week, we will decorate it on 24th, we want to go to see the reindeer in the Old Town on the same day, hopefully we will be all healthy by then and we will start eating gingerbread :) (I'm making another box today together with Teodor) We will probably follow the atheistic Russian tradition and will give presents on New Year's Eve. I don't care about the date when we will give/get presents, only decorating the Christmas tree on 24th is important to me. And the permission to eat Christmas sweets. We might eat fish on that day as a traditional Czech dinner, but I'm not stuck on that...I don't like fish much and definitely do not enjoy potato salad. 

Ethnic doll

My next doll takes more time than I anticipated. It's becoming tiresome because it's either a thread or wool for hair or something else missing, which means I have to take numerous trips to the city, not to mention it takes ages to find the right colours, in additions to the problem that a lot of material isn't made out of natural fibers. Not to mention I have changed what kind of doll it will be several times. 

Eyes and mouth are made out of natural dyed woolen thread made in Estonia. The cotton thread seemed to be too shiny. 

Hair should be made out of wool.

You can totally see the final product, right? :)

Anyway, I decided to write this post to keep myself motivated to finish the doll...

Jak jsme s Téčkem pekli perníčky

Ukázalo se, že babička nemá s batolátkem nekonečnou trpělivost, ostatně se jí nedivím, Teodor je stále víc záškodník než pomocník, takže jsme se do perníčků museli pustit spolu. Babička se ztratila do města, tatínek jel nakupovat, takže nebyla jiná možnost než překročit svůj vlastní stín a dát se do toho.

První plech šel skvěle, Teodor si hrál v obýváku s vláčkem a očividně jsem mu nechyběla. No, on mě taky ne :) Když jsem začínala druhej, mládě si vzpomnělo, že má taky mámu a že by určitě ocenila pomoc. Poučen z předchozího pečení s babičkou, šel rovnou po vykrajovátkách a jál se je obtiskovat (princip vykrajování jde mimo něj) do mýho těsta. Hm, takže znova vyválet a dát mu vlastní placičku. Ale co to? Dítě vlastní placičku ignoruje a chce dál obtiskávat na tu mojí (asi se mu zdálo, že na tý svojí má málo prostoru pro kreativitu?), hlavou se mi honí kdejaká poučka, ale nic, co by se zdálo jako efektivní strategie, jak dítě přesvědčit, že tohle je maminky a on má svoje. Nakonec asi uznal, že máma bude furt opakovat to samý (tohle je maminky, támhle má Teodorek vlastní...), dokud to nevzdá, takže v rámci Moudřejší ustoupí začal obtiskávat do svýho těsta.

Na Modrém koníkovi jsem si přečetla, že je lepší těsto pomazávat vajíčkem až po upečení, zdálo se mi to dost rozumný, takže jsem se to rozhodla vyzkoušet. Vyjednávání se synem o tom, kde si bude obtiskovat mě tak rozptýlilo, že jsem na nějaký vajíčko úplně zapomněla. Takže šup namazat, u toho hlídat batole, aby si hledělo vlastní placičky, a pak dát to skoro právě vytažené na chvíli zapíct do trouby.

Plech číslo 3: Dítě si hledí vlastní placičky, ALE potřebuje moje vykrajovátka, takže jakékoli mám v ruce, tak zrovna to potřebuje. Naštěstí chápe princip kus za kus, takže mám čím vykrajovat. 

Plech číslo 4: Dítě začíná syslit vykrajovátka a nechce je dát. Po nějaké době to vzdává a odchází. 

Přetahovaná o hvězdičku, prase jsem se ani nepokoušela od něj získat.

Závěrem bych chtěla vyjádřit obdiv všem, kdo s malejma batolatama pečou dobrovolně a často. Já z toho byla tak vyřízená...musela jsem pracovat rychle, sledovat troubu, myslet na vajíčka, sledovat dítě...Jo a perníčky jsou letos výborný :-) 

First trip to a playroom

Teodor is an active toddler who loves to jump, climb, etc., generally discover what his body can do, so his grandmother thought it would be a great idea to take him to a playroom in a shopping centre, so he could use up his energy there. I was a bit reluctant to the idea as he is not a big fan of places which look like a kindergarten and or where other kids try to interact with him plus I thought it's a bit pointless for a toddler, but she wanted to visit such a place, so why the heck not to give it a try.

When we came, he started screaming, not really a surprise, but the grandmother wanted to chicken out...but I refused and we went into the baby area instead...and I showed him a car which was in a toy box there. The scream instantly disappeared.

The cars were an instant success, he spent the whole hour playing with the three ugly plastic cars and sliding down the slide...things he could do at home and for free :-)

I'm always reading about toddlers having a short attention span...probably it depends on activity, he spent more than one hour (we bought an extra hour) doing two things: playing with cars and sliding. I tried to lure him to the trampoline, but he jumped on the floor instead. Another thing I noticed, there were only a few other kids (I didn't want to go there in a peak hour, so we went on Monday afternoon) and none of them found any activity, which would totally absorb them like the cars and slides did absorb Teodor. I was just wondering what is the point of taking children to such places...ok, trampolines or jungle gyms are cool...but still, for how long can they entertain a child? Or maybe this playroom was just too small?

Even though it was nice, I'm not planning to visit such a place any time soon...

Not so fairy-tale grandmother

Today it was another turn of baking Czech Christmas sweets. The first ones are already gone, these ones are supposed to stay. Anyway, I try to rest as much as possible because I'm not feeling well (nerves? lack of magnesium?), so I send Teodor to help my mother to bake the sweets. 

As he is getting used to her, he's becoming more himself, so he was helping the same way he would be helping me...flour everywhere, nuts on the floor, toddler ruining my work...you get the picture...

I thought his grandmother would be cool with that, that's what grandmothers are for, no? But she was sending him away, to me...which was annoying. Point? Teodor doesn't have a abnormally patient grandmother and I'm sad about it.

He's definitely getting play-doh baking set for Christmas. He really enjoys pressing the shapes against the dough.

Not-so-secret ingredients to being a wonderful parent

I've been thinking about these three qualities of a wonderful parent already for some time: love, respect and patience. There are probably more and these are not the only ones, but I consider them as the most important. You know, when your tot decides to take his motorbike up the stairs on his own, it takes him a while to figure out how to do it and then he is slow and noisy...and you don't bring his effort down by taking the motorbike for him or by having some discouraging comments and you patiently wait until he's done.

 

Well, I mostly don't have problem with respecting and waiting for him patiently when he has some "inovative" ideas, but what I'm struggling with is him helping with cooking. And that's what this post should be about.

My mother is visiting and today I told her that Teodor would help her baking. When she agreed, I gloated, I could see Teodor being instantly covered in flour, sugar, etc...Well, it didn't go the way I expected...

...Teodor was actually doing what he was supposed to do, my mother was very patient with him...this is how I imagined him having a good time with his grandmother not by being constantly tested (What is this? What sounds does a cow make? etc.). This was the first time I felt like he had the "right" granny and I was happy for him. Then I was thinking why I can't be this patient with him. Does it come with age? Is it because I am so annoyed by the cleaning afterwards...? Didn't come up with any answer, but was thinking how much children benefit from adult's patience. Children are slower, clumsier, less experienced and giving them space helps them to build self-confidence, independence and experiencing the world by themselves is probably the most valuable lesson (he hasn't tried to bring the motorbike up since) they can get (definitely more effective than explaining and explaining). 

Anyway, I think Teodor and his grandmother are going to bake more in the following week to get some quality time and I will get some quiet time :) (I can't stand the testing happening behind my back) And I'm going to reflect on myself and try to be more patient with him and let him help me more often. 

This was never meant to be a philosophical post even though the title suggests that...sorry, if you expected to read some smart thoughts; today's baking afternoon was kinda of a practical example of my theoretical thoughts on the topic, which I have never shared with you,...maybe once I will...