A Reason to Celebrate! Today is Brandon's Big 3-0! He had been forewarned that in the Czech Republic he is expected to bring a "treat" to work on his birthday. This is also a common expectation on "Name Day" or "svatek". Every day of the year is someone's name day. As explained on the Prague foreigner's website: "The associations between the days and the names have arisen through many reasons, but primarily because the church held a festival for a saint of that name on that day. For instance, the church feast of Saint Michael was held on September 29th, and as a result the name day for Michael is on September 29th. In the Czech Republic, a person's nameday is treated with greater importance than someone's birthday, so be sure not to forget." So Brandon shares his birthday on September 6 with the Name Day for Boleslav. Unfortunately, Brandon's name doesn't make the Czech Name Day list. Lydia's equivalent (Lydie) is on Dec. 14th and I think I will take the liberty of TWO name days: Anna on July 26th and Marie on Sept 12th. Set your reminders now!

We are cramming 3 months of summer into the two weeks of beautiful weather that finally arrived in Prague! Today we visited another (more appropriate temperature) pool with more of our new friends. Here is Lucy with Lydia -- this is as close as I could catch them on camera! We enjoyed a morning of sun and lots of fun with Lucy's mom Shanna, Lucy, baby brother Clark, Shanna's babysitter Joy, Emily and Eloise.

Zlute Lazne (Yellow Spa)

Today we visited the Yellow Spa in Prague. We were invited to join in on this adventure by Mirka, one of the other new mothers in our church fellowship. She has a 3 month old boy, Krystof. So Lydia and I hopped into the car with our friends Emily & Eloise and went exploring! We had such a great time. The park was first established in 1910 but underwent an extensive renovation last year. There were so many things to do like sand volleyball, paddleboats, foosball, ping pong and some other Czech games that are new to me. We spent our time in the Children's Corner -- it had really cool climbing toys and great white sand. However, the biggest temptation for Lydia was the wading pool with a little water slide. Never mind that the water was FREEZING cold; this was no obstacle for Lydia's Body O' Steel! Since we had not come prepared for swimming, Lydia promptly put on her "Czech swimming suit" (i.e. nothin') and got busy wading. I was amazed that she could bear the cold temps of the water... I wasn't even willing to put my toes in! We had SO much fun with our friends and are planning more of these mini-adventures to kiddie-friendly places around Prague... hopefully in the future with some of Mirka's Czech friends.

Lydia dons her "Czech bathing suit" and willingly participates in the Xtreme Arctic Swim Challenge.

Lydia and her buddy Eloise enjoy the plentiful white sands of Zlute Lazne.

Failed Urinalysis

We have survived our week of "home detention" enduring Lydia's mystery illness. When Friday began with the 3rd day of high fever I decided it was time to see the doctor. The nurse doing the initial exam suggested we try to get a urine sample. Let's stop and ponder that for moment... Question: How does one collect a urine speciman from an 18-month old non-potty trained child? That's right! In the Czech Republic you remove your child's "nappy" (that's a diaper in American-English) and attempt to "catch" the urine with a itsy bitsy teeny-weeny plastic cup. Hah! Very funny.

I will give the nurse credit. She did fetch a potty chair as well. I jokingly said, "Hey, maybe I'll potty-train Lydia today!". Upon placement on the potty chair, Lydia began screaming and writhing as if being swarmed by killer bees. I think it caused enough mental anguish that I can safely say that she may not be able to LOOK at a potty chair before age 5 without breaking into a cold sweat.

Back to the urine collection: The nurse suggested I give Lydia water to encourage her to "go". Meanwhile, the nurse exits the room, leaving me to speed along the kidney functions of my diaperless, disagreeable daughter. Yep. Within seconds, Lydia desposited her urine sample on the floor. Guess Mommy's reflexes aren't as quick as the Czech mommies.

So one failed urine collection, a blood test for protein levels and TWO strep tests later (keep in mind Lydia gags on mashed potatoes. Just imagine what a strep test does to her!)... the doctor suggested she may have Roseola. It's a fairly common viral illness in children under 2 that presents itself with a sudden high fever of 103+ for 3-5 days, suddenly disappers and then a rash surfaces on the body lasting a few hours up to a few days. There is no treatment. The only thing to do was watch a wait for the fever to disappear and the rash to appear. On Saturday morning our suspicions were confirmed when Lydia woke up with no fever and by night the rash showed up. I had mentioned to Brandon that Lydia seemed especially sweet and agreeable during the period of fever. I read today in my Dr. Dobson's Baby Care book that one of the strange things about the illness is that "a child may seem to be in surprisingly good spirits" despite the high fever. We knew Lydia was feeling better today. Let's just say she was no longer in "surprisingly good spirits".

Thankfully the weather predicitions look great so we'll get another shot at the beautiful week we spent indoors last week...

This is what happens when you can't read the words on the frozen pizza box... You notice a "fishy" odor when the pizza is baking and discover you have purchased a tuna and onion pizza! (ok, maybe I just didn't take the time to TRY to read the box, but who would've ever thought TUNA?!?!?)

Oh Do You Know the Beverage Man?

My new Swedish neighbor, Ulf, has hooked me up! Ulf is new to the neighborhood but introduced me to a great connection he had from his former neighborhood. Every Thursday, Jan the Beverage Guy, comes to our neighborhood selling a van full of any liquid you can think of plus some paper products. And if he doesn't have it in his van, I just need to give him my request and he'll bring it next week. He calls me on Thursday morning to confirm my beverage needs and then delivers it INTO MY HOUSE around noon for NO CHARGE! This is quite a find since we buy a lot of 1.5L bottles of water in quantities of 12+ each week. Lugging all of that water and a toddler away from the grocery store can be not so fun. Jan admits that his prices per bottle are slightly higher than the grocery store. Usually 2 or 3 crowns per bottle -- which amounts to about 10 cents! Yeh, I think we'll keep Jan comin' (along with his orange juice, and Coke Light, and jemne perliva (water with light bubbles).

And if we're ever so inclined to venture out and try some flavored water with grapefruit, lemon, or black currants or maybe even some pear juice, I am quite confident that Jan will save the day!