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Week 21 & 22 of 2024 (Year In Review)
I sometimes feel like laughing inside that I chose this year, this “last year of my maternity leave” year to do this blogging experiment. I suppose it’s because sometimes I feel like maternity leave feels a little bit floating and aimless a lot of the time, which means it always feels weird to write about, but I know, truly know that these are days I will look back on super nostalgically. As we get ready to celebrate our little Mouse who turns two in less than a week and I busy myself with gathering the presents (I am far too excited) and cake recipes together, I am definitely already feeling…
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Week 19 & 20 of 2024 (In Review)
I can’t complain about early May – my spring fatigue and illness were over and it was birthday week! My early May birthday fell on a Wednesday this year but we were still able to make a one night getaway trip to Cesky Krumlov – the obvious choice for a fairytale experience within a thirty-minute drive. The actual day was pretty overcast but still did all the things such as plenty of outdoor time, coffees, playgrounds for the little one, sushi for a celebration dinner — it’s always what I request. This year I treated myself to a stay at the Zamecka Apartments at the very foot of the castle…
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Week 16, 17 & 18 of 2024 (In Review) – Summer Trip Plans!
The last few weeks of April were odd ones for me as I was ill (the one-two punch of a flu followed by a cold) there was snow and just getting over the jarni unava (spring fatigue) I surely had at the beginning of the month. With the coming of May, it’s certainly all good now but the photo (above) perfectly illustrates the frustration and just overall meh feeling. Just trying to throw on purposely the weirdest winter coat I own to run out and do errands because who cares. You know the “idgaf” vibes. Between all of the illnesses I unknowingly went to Costa Coffee (in our town) for…
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Week 13, 14 & 15 of 2024 (In Review) – Easter & April Heatwave
The weeks have flown by and I dropped the ball a little bit, so reviewing the past three weeks: Easter week and the first gorgeous weeks of our current month, April. Truly hope to be on time in about a week from now bringing us current. Man, besides this cold snap Central Europe is undergoing at the moment, haven’t we been so spoiled this year? Easter week was generally uneventful and wholly relaxing – even more so than spring break. I was so pleased that it was our little one’s first time participating in Easter traditions like an Easter egg hunt around the living room on Easter Sunday and his…
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Week 11 & 12 of 2024 (In Review): Vienna
Happy Easter, friends! Last week was a continuation of all the good things from Week 10 as we took a little trip for a change of scenery to Vienna. We haven’t travelled anywhere since October and coming off of how magical Rome was last March, we wanted to have at least a little holiday on my last maternity leave year over spring break. Not having travelled since the little one was 16 months old and is now 21 months old was a great excuse in itself to do so. We want to raise a flexible and adaptable child who can sleep and be at other places without raising much of…
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Going to Rome With a Baby! Our Experience & Tips
Ciao, all! We had our first family vacation that was just the three of us last month. Sadly, Ferdie couldn’t come as we were headed to ROME, home to some of the best museums in the world and managing it with a dog plus a nine-month-old wasn’t the most relaxing-sounding thing. It was a wonderful trip! I’d been dreaming of returning to Italy for a long while now… and then the pandemic happened. As of last summer, things are running pretty normally in Italy and even though we couldn’t have our babymoon there as I wanted, it was so fun taking Baby M there and enjoying it as a family.…
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The Third Trimester & My Pregnancy Favorites
Happy summer, friends! We’ve been hanging out in South Bohemia as a new little family since our release from the hospital and it’s been such a nice slow time getting adjusted to the rhythms of life with a newborn. Our little one is already two months old now and I’ve been so lucky to have Alex off work until the start of the new school year and here at home. Thanks again for all the kind well wishes, messages and even gifts from some dear online friends. I never got to do a third trimester recap (clearly) – it was my shortest and unexpectedly toughest trimester, having been diagnosed with…
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Life Lately (Pregnancy) Update: Second Trimester
Happy May! This week I’ve entered the third trimester. With less than three months until our new baby joins us, things are starting to feel very real around here and I figured it was time for a bit of a life and pregnancy update. I was very lucky to spend the beginnings of my 2nd trimester at home this January and February as it was exam period during the height of the highest COVID spike we have seen yet in Czech Republic, and hide I duly did. Fortunately the situation has looked better and better, as we are no longer dark red on the map and cases are lower than…
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The Moments That Remind Me Why I’m Here
I’m on my way back from a lesson with a student (who is also my friend, gynecologist, etcetera, etcetera) where I’ve just successfully got her to use the present perfect unasked for the first time, and it’s a moody but refreshingly cool spring day. The clouds are sort of shifty characters and look like rain could spring forth from them at any minute. Without thinking much about it, other things on my mind, I cross the blue bridge across the river where one of my favorite spots in Budejovice is. I like it because it reminds me of the banks of the Seine in Paris. But you know, in southwestern…
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Babymoon in Moravia
Over Easter weekend we returned again to South Moravia… the Napa Valley of the Czech Republic, if I may say so myself. We wanted to go somewhere within the Czech Republic for ease of travel and my first thought was somewhere beautiful that knocks off one of my “to see places” on my Czech travel list. Easy to do with Southern Moravia, a region so unlike any other in the country – the terrain seems to have more in common with parts of Austria or Slovenia than the rest of the republic. You’ll see plant and animal species you don’t see elsewhere, castle ruins on hilltops, dramatic sweeping landscapes, wineries…
