Study study study

I just can't stop studying. 

It's so interesting. When you are in school and you are required to study, you don't like it. It's necessary evil and you want to be out of school. Well at least I was like this.

I wanted to continue to study eventually, but wasn't accepted to the school, so I went to work. I didn't even think of trying to get back to school until I was 25. I started again and was quite good, but I met my hubby and all changed. I moved countries and my school didn't support external students much, so I didn't finish.

But then something changed. I decided to work on my career and wanted to build knowledge. So I started to study in Ireland and finished my courses there. The first ones where linked to my job. Facility management, project management and auto cad. All required in my work and possibly helping me to get better position....Well it didn't happen due to company changes, after that maternity leave, then another one, etc. Life find it's own way to go and this wasn't meant for me.

I started to study other subjects like holistic healing and other interesting courses. Even when we moved out of Ireland, I continued to look for some courses and when I started to think about getting a photography course I got one for free from online academy I attended before a few times.

While on this course I got a free membership and what I didn't expect I found a few more courses I wanted to do with them. Well a few is nearly 10 at the moment :D

And what happened during one course I really wanted to finish before my membership was up????
They gave us great offer, no one like me would refuse. So that's it, I'm in lifetime education program and finishing sports nutrition now. 

It's helping me with my workout groups and page as well. It is just incredible what life will bring to you when you ask for it the right way. I feel so motivated, so empowered and excited about it all.

So lets continue with my life......I have other lessons to attend :)

No Excuses

It's busy again.

I just completed the photography course and I'm glad my studying is over for now. I have soooo much stuff to do lately.

After Alex was born I joined the No Excuse Mom Facebook page. I love this page, so much motivation, support and health tips. After we moved I was looking for members of No Excuse Mom (NEM) groups somewhere nearby, but there was no group.

So the reason behind my busyness is the fact that I'm starting the No Excuse Mom group here in Slovakia. Our Facebook group covers Czech Republic as well, so I'm hoping there will be some workout groups in the future too.

For those who never heard about No Excuse Mom here is a short description I borrowed from the official NEM program.

No Excuse Moms is a supportive group of women who prioritize health. It was created by Maria Kang and led by a team of volunteers including our online admins, regional managers, local leaders and NEM experts. We don’t believe in quick fad diets, the newest workout craze or abiding by any specific diet rule. We believe in: DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU, just don’t stop working.To order the No More Excuses Diet Book please click here.

All of us are at different fitness levels. Some of us are marathon runners, others have a goal to run a 5k. Some are fitness competitors, others have a goal to lose 100lbs. Some like to follow a Paleo diet, are gluten intolerant, can’t consume lactose, or are addicted to wine and chocolate. Regardless of your goal, ALL of us are women who understand how tough it is to prioritize health in the midst or work, school, family and events. Even deeper – it’s tough to follow through when you’re stressed, depressed, anxious or unmotivated.

That’s why we are all here.

My workout groups are starting next week. One on Wednesday another on Thursday, so I'm really busy with setting up the exercise plans, translating documents etc. I'm so looking forward to meet other local moms. 

I hope they will enjoy fitness and healthy lifestyle as I do.

That's it for now, I have to finish Jessie's birthday cake as his big day is just behind a corner ;)

Busy busy busy

Oh yeah, even I have no time sometimes. 

It was so busy these past two months, that I didn't have time to sit down and do something relaxing for myself like writing here.

We went to see my family and sort out some legal issues, which after a stressful month are done. 

Kids had one day stomach flu which affected nearly whole family, even I had it and believe me it was no fun and I'm an adult. Poor kids. :( We were glad that it was just a day, in Jessie's case three days.

I finally finished another online course which I didn't have time to do before and there was a time limit set for me. It's done now, but it was a very time consuming as I had to catch up on all the lessons. 

Alex also decided it was time to test our bedtime routine again, so I didn't have even evenings free. It settled down and the bedtime is at 8:30pm which gives me 30 minutes for the bedtime story and Alex is most of the time fast asleep by 9pm. There are some odd days when she tries to stay up, but we decided that if she comes to the living room, she could be there, but without our attention. Of course we watch her a little bit, but there is no communications and we pretend to do our stuff. This usually works and she falls asleep on the spot, so we move her to her bed. All is in normal the following day.

Jessie is sleeping better too. Usually up around 5am, but most of the nights not waking up after midnight. If he's not teething of course. When the time's right and my hubby won't be studying again, we will do the sleep training with him, so he stays in his cot by 7am at least. Wishful thinking, but it can be done ;) We know.

Jessie's going to be one soon and I'll have to get his present done. Another crocheted toy. I hope I'll finish it soon. I started before Christmas.....

I'll try to make more time for myself and my writing again as I need it to relax a little bit. I still have some parenting books to read and I'll write reviews on them here as well and yet another course starting next Monday. This time photography :D 

Alex's English is improving and she loves all her movies. She started to play puzzles and it's amazing how fast is she picking up what needs to go where.

I started to worry a little bit that she's not brushing her teeth much. She wasn't interested and liked to play with the electric toothbrush, but the battery's dead. So I was thinking what to do. As she started to play puzzles on tablet as well which teach her the words in English as well I downloaded a few apps for her. She adores cats and I had one app already. She got pretty upset when the cat had to go to bed and she couldn't play with it, so I decided to download another one. Guess what....the cat has to get her teeth brushed. Surprise!!!! Alex is now brushing her own teeth after breakfast and dinner and she would even often if I asked her to. I let her to do it herself, then I do a little bit and she finishes the job. Great fun and all done.

Jessie is walking around furniture. He tries to climb up on a bed, but it didn't work out yet. We had a two months of very laud screaming in the house, because he stood up and couldn't get back to the floor. Finally he got how to bend his knees and return back to the ground, so less screaming here and much more laughter. 

There is still some sibling rivalry and jealousy, but we are working on it and I'll write much more later.

So I hope to write some more soon.

Just a few weeks until Alex's 2nd birthday

Alex's 2nd birthday is coming soon. I already checked some tasty recipes for her 2nd cake. I am really excited to bake it this year. If it will be nice and tasty, I'll share the recipe here with you. But because I didn't make it yet, I'll wait.

She will get another cake from her grandma, also home made. 

We have the gifts already sorted. Including the Santa's ones. We contacted the head elf ;) 

Alex is getting big and more communicative. She's not shy, it takes her 5 minutes to get use to somebody new. And how she talks now, it's amazing. She's making sentences with 3-4 words and they make sense 90% of time. :D

She loves reading books, playing with stuffed animals and exercising. She can recognise some letters, so there is a few presents which should help her learn even more. 

I can't wait to give her those. 

She found one of them by mistake in our wardrobe. I wasn't pleased with that, but it was my fault, I didn't hide it well. She was so excited to see it and wanted to open it, but she couldn't open the plastic bag. So she looked at it for a few minutes, turned it from one side to another and when she went to bed, I put it back to the wardrobe to a higher shelf. The following morning she didn't even remembered she found something new. 

So I hope she'll be excited to get it in a few weeks, but it won't be the only present we have for her. There is one more which should make her happy too.

The time goes by so fast, that it feels like yesterday when Alex was born and now she's nearly two and Jessie is 7,5 months already.

Sick family

Our little growing family was sick. Just a few days ago we got better. It started with the kids. Alex and Jessie had head cold, I had sore throat and my hubby too.

I wanted them to get better soon as we were invited to a family reunion. 

Alex and Jessie had really bad sniffles, probably sore throat as well and little cough. As it looked quite bad after 3 days, no improvements, we took them to the doctor. Both got some drops, vitamins etc. We were lucky as they had fever only once.

We had only 3 more days for them to get well, so we could go to see the family. I didn't care much about myself, but was concerned with them. If they would have fever or really bad cough, we wouldn't go, but luck was on our side.

By Saturday, the day of the visit, they were fine. Still had a little sniffles, but nothing big. Just Jessie slept really bad during the night. Alex was fine, she returned to whole night sleep and didn't even get blocked nose, but Jessie is still sleeping very light. He will wake up a lot, much more than before. 

Last night was a little better. Even though he woke up a few times, he settled himself back to sleep and after I fed him, he slept for a few more hours.

I still breastfeed him, but he takes only one feed during the night and that's around 5-6am.

I wish he would sleep better and longer, but he's still small. He didn't take his first sickness well. It really stressed him a lot. He's still getting over it, so it's easier for me to take him to our bed when he wakes during the night, so I don't need to get up. My hubby moved out of the room/bed when we got sick and still didn't return as he's studying now and has webinars until late night/early morning.

We are also expecting to get a new bed and move ourselves to different room. I will then start to train Jessie to get better sleep. 

As he slept longer last night, he was much happier today and had only one longer day nap. I didn't mind that. He was really nice. Alex was a different story. But not all days are happy days for everyone. 

She started well, but towards the evening got more tired and made a little trouble here and there.

Jessie is teething as well, so this could cause the sleep problems too, who knows.

We are not perfect and I was getting upset faster than usual too. The tiredness and lack of sleep affects everyone. 

I feel stressed sometimes, but I get better when I get some me time. During the weeks it's usually my workout time. I got use to the exercising again, that I really miss it during my days off :D

Alex is singing

Alex is nearly 2 years old and I thought it was time to teach her some songs. Well nursery rhymes etc. She managed already a name of one song she likes and when I ask her what to sing, she's able to tell me what should be the song about. Like song about bunny, horse or something else. I was singing for her and little Jessie often, but didn't teach her any of the songs properly.

I picked a song I was sure she would know how to say most of the words in it. And I sang it a few times myself.

Then I started to sing and waited at the end of each verse for her to say the word herself. It took her only 3 repeats of the song and she was able to finish each sentence herself. 

I was so happy. So the next day we sang this song at least 5 times and I started with another one. Alex got it within a few minutes. So I thought, she might be listening to me when I sing and I started to sing all the songs for kids I knew and waited a while for her to fill out the gaps or say the words with me.

She helped me sing nearly every song I tried. It's 6 or 8 songs I sing often because these are the baby ones that are easy to remember and follow. 

I'm really proud that she remembers these.

I made a small movie how she sings and send it to my family. 

My mum wasn't able to open the video so I helped her while I was on the phone with her. I was a little bit disappointed with her reaction. She said Alex should be singing these all by herself. I'm not really sure when kids starting to sing alone but I don't care. I think Alex is very bright and she learns really really fast. She picks new words every day, not just one a day. 

She's using 2-3 words sentences sometimes and is able to ask us for anything she wants. She's even saying "please" and if she's in a good humour "thank you" as well. 

Most of the words she's using at the moment are in Czech or Slovak, but I was surprised she came to our bed one morning with her Happy Hippo (hand puppet) and asked me in English: How are you?

I replied to her and she repeated Thank you in English as well, and is using it sometimes too.

I know it's not much, but she understands 3 languages. That's great I think. 

We are practising everyday now and she's getting better, but I think it will take time to get her to sing a whole song and sing it in a correct tune. But nothing will stop us now :D