cousin gets married

Yesteday we attended my oldest cousin's wedding. He's my dad's brother's oldest son. The wedding was outside and it rained only during the ten minutes of the ceremony. People whispered it was raining happiness on them. The setting was quite unique: the top of the Dancing House, from where the views of the city are really something.

Below you can see the bride and groom (with bride's father) in front of the Dancing House and one of the beautiful views from the top. More pictures here.

Jonah writes!

Today, for the first time, Jonah sat down and began, with a noteworthy amount of attention span and intention, to learn and write down letters.

He had been drawing circles for a while now, but today he started writing x's and then I taught him A's and T's. Using chalk, he wrote them with a gusto and a surprising precision for a three-year-old. He tried writing J's too, but kept reversing them, which is natural for younger kids, I believe.

A few hours later Jonah actually remembered the letters he learned earlier, writing them down again on a fresh piece of paper with a pen. How exciting!

ol' college friends

It's amazing how much my friends from college resurface. One of them, a musician, musicologist and teacher, currently lives in a town three hours away from Prague, which I visited while my sister played there. Scott took me around, showing me some of the town's jewels, about which he knows so much more than I. Photos from that visit here.



(My friend Scott is the one on the left)

Another, a filmmaker, writer and sculptor, just came to visit Prague and we hung out for the first time in eight years. Fun times!



(My friend Oscar is on the left, his friend Charity on the right)

Jonah's aunt's visit

My sister was here on a concert tour for two weeks. She was very busy with work, but was able to sneak in a couple of visits with us. Like the good groupie that I am, I followed her for a couple of out-of-town concerts as well, one of those times with the whole family for maximum impact.

Jonah loved his time with his auntie, who, between shows, a live television interview and performance, a screening of a film she acted in, also managed to record her new album in the Czech Republic. The new album should be out in the fall. Yay!

Some photos (more here):

Mother's Day

Last month, Jonah's school held an event to celebrate Mother's Day. The kids did a demonstration of their morning yoga exercises and sang folk songs. Their Christmas performance was very similar, but at that time Jonah had only been in preschool a short time. He was still shy and didn't know much Czech, so it was hard to motivate him to participate in the group. This time, he not only participated, but actually enjoyed himself. At the end of the show, he brought me a flower and a card he made.

He's doing well in preschool. His teacher loves him and he loves her. She already told me she will miss him terribly when we move.

May quotes

I've been a little behind on my blogging here. Still, I have faithfully continued to write down interesting things Jonah says. Here are a few morsels from the month of May:

"I'm making metal armor, my wife."

"Mommy, don't worry. I'll always protect you."

"Smell me, 'cause I smell right, like the Boba Fetts that smell right."

More here.