BROKEN LEG!

Hey Guys, and as you can tell by the title, I have had a slight accident. I must admit that it may not be broken but unfortunately, as I am still looking for work, I am not currently covered by the healthcare system to check it out. To be honest it might be me being a little dramatic as always but next week I will be insured and we'll see whats going on.

As you may have read in my previous blogs, I have signed for a football team called FK Libez. Since Novemeber I have trained real hard to lose all my baby weight (hehe) and started to gain a little more muscle again. When we had our second pre-season friendly last week, I unfortunately had an accident where I collided with the goalkeeper and my leg folded underneath me. Since then I have had Doctor Jitka Hirst Klapova look after me!

To say the least, I have been going mad here! My day consists of sitting on the sofa with my leg in the air and to be honest, there is only so much Czech television and FIFA in one day I can handle. I then thought to myself, well why not update my blog, as the whole purpose is an online diary.

Apart from that, I have had a couple of interviews and I'm sure I will be in work sometime soon. Well that's enough about me! Max is doing real well, he is really active now and just wants to play all day. He now knows little games such as pass the toy (where he passes the toy to me and then I pass it  back), he loves peek-a-boo and his favourite game is to chase our dog (Mia) around the house. They are becoming best friends.

He's also going through around 3 dribble cloths a day which means he is cutting more teeth. It will more than likely be his top two but who knows?! Jitka is also doing well and has also started writing articles on fashion. I will leave a link on the bottom in case anybody would like to check it out. I wish I could comment more but my fashion knowledge is pretty poor....Jitka is in charge of pretty much everything when it comes to fashion.

We also added a new member to the family....meet Diego the Siamese Fighting Fish also known as Bettas. It was my birthday present from Jitka and I absolutely love him! He has got a twenty gallon tank so he should be happy in there. And yes, he is called Diego because of the mighty Diego Costa who plays for Chelsea (Jitka did not approve). We just need to wait a few days before we can add some other fish.

So to wrap up, keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully I will announce some good news. Thank you for reading and I will leave the link below to Jitka's fashion article (it is written in Czech but it can be translated).

Bye guys!

Jitka's Article

http://dvehlavy.cz/moda/historie-mikiny-a-trochu-inspirace

EIGHT MONTH UPDATE!

Hey Guys, and welcome to my update on Max. I believe I did my last update when he was only six months old, so I have quite a bit to tell you about.

First of all I cannot believe how fast Max is growing up! Eight months ago and our lives were about to change forever. I must admit, I wasn't scared at all which came as a surprise because I usually tend to freak out at things as huge as this. I just knew it was the right time.

So Max has gone from "commando crawling" to now moving on his knees. One of us always has to keep an eye on him as he loves to play with everything which isn't his toys. If he's not going after the cables, he's heading for the dog bowl or if it's not the dog bowl, he tries to pull the bin over....I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

When we were in England last week my dad taught him how to stand! He was extremely wobbly to begin with but over the past week or so he really is being more stable. He can also crawl over to his play pen or the sofa and pull himself up. His face of excitement is the best because you can see he is extremely pleased with himself.

Normally you would think he has learnt enough at the moment but no, he is trying his hardest to talk. As one wise person on Jeremy Kyle once said, he's "smacking his gums together" but I'm sure he wasn't using it in the same context. They are not quite words yet but I think he will be asking what he wants for breakfast sometime soon.

And to top it all off, he has two "nearly fully" grown bottom teeth. When being first time parents I wasn't sure whether he was teething or not, so when the first two popped out it was a sigh of relief. And I must say, that when he smiles, he looks like a rabbit (only joking) he looks adorable! Now the first ones have popped out I'm sure the rest will follow.

That's all of the milestones he has achieved so far and I must admit that he seems to be a very happy and healthy baby. I will look forward to giving you another update this time next month. I am now going to get ready for my first pre-season football match today. So have a great day and I'll see you soon. I hope you enjoy the videos.

Bye Guys.

ENGLAND BABY!

Hey Guys, so I know its been a while since my last blog update, but I have been rather busy visiting family and friends back at home. I also spent the first two weeks on my own without Jitka and Max for the first time, so it meant that I had nobody to take decent pictures for me. Jitka once asked me to take a picture of her and I somehow cut her head out of the photo.....so my photography skills aren't the best! So I apologize if the photos are not up to standard on this blog.

WEEK ONE

It's Friday 9th January at 13:00 and I have arrived back to the lovely town of Cambridge. As I got on the bus to my parents house, the first thing that crossed my mind was "WHAT!? A day rider is £4.00?!? Before I left it cost £3.80....bloody cheek". So after I got ripped off (hehe) I had made it back home.

First day back and I was home alone so I decided to have a bit of me time.....and I didn't mean that! I sat down with a coffee and caught up with all the amazing English television I was missing. To be honest I really enjoyed it because although watching The Simpsons in Czech is funny to begin with, after a few days the novelty does wear off.

So as the week progresses I made plans to see my brother. Nothing beats a couple of beers while kicking ass on FIFA. As the night progressed and more alcohol was being consumed, I couldn't help but order a Doner Kebab....it just had to be done. And that was a great way to cap off my first week back.

WEEK TWO

After a very relaxing first week, we can now turn to week two where things got a bit more eventful. It started on the Friday night where me and my parents got very music happy and were playing youtube until the early hours of the morning. And it was at two am when I realized that I needed to be awake at seven to go suit fitting.

So Saturday morning came and I was pleasantly surprised as I was feeling "not too bad". It was the car journey that made things more challenging. But we arrived for my Brothers suit fitting and all went very smooth. First one down and one more to go. For the second fitting I arrived promptly and up we went for the second fitting, this was for my best friend Tom's wedding.

We were greeted by two lovely ladies and I have to say, I think they were week at the knees. We had such a laugh and they didn't want us to leave.....they have another client downstairs waiting as we took so long, and they were happy for him to wait. I believe they said "Keep him downstairs, he won't be half as fun as these chaps". I think we made their morning. After all of the suit fitting fun I spent the night at Tom's house where he cooked an amazing Spaghetti Bolognese and again started to play some Playstation.

Sunday then arrived and I went to see another one of my best friends, and what was supposed to be a two hour visit, shortly turned into three, then four and...well I'm sure you can guess whats coming next. I got home at 1 am but had an amazing time!

On Tuesday I went to visit my Sister and nieces. It had been a while since I last saw them so I was really looking forward it. I want to give a big shout out to Gwen as well, as I've heard a lot about you but never met until last week. I have to say, you're a pretty cool mum. We then went out for a meal and made back in time for Eastenders and all that other rubbish.....sorry Melissa but I hate soaps (hehe). But apart from that I really had a time seeing you all.

WEEK THREE

After a few days off Saturday came round and Jitka was flying with Max. To be honest I couldn't wait! Two weeks without my family is definitely long enough. When we met Jitka at the airport, I was greeted with the hugest of smiles from Max....I was sure he missed me as much as I missed Max and Jitka.

As the week went on Max started crawling for the first time on his knees, and before we knew it, he started standing!! When I left two weeks prior he was only crawling commando, and in the space of a few days Max had learnt a lot. 

Week three was a quiet week for us as I unfortunately got a throat infection which led to us cancelling a few plans. So I will take the time to apologize on my blog if you're reading. But apart from that, we had a great time. It was amazing to be back and want to thank my parents for making it a great visit!

So now as I am back in Czech I will update my blog more regularly and I look forward to posting more great achievements from Max. Now I have to go prepare for a big day tomorrow as I have a trial day at a Kindergarten School. Wish me luck :)

See you soon!

NEW YEARS TOOTH!

Hey Guys, another huge milestone and yesterday was the 31st December. Max officially has got his first tooth, what a way to end the year! Over the past few weeks Max has had disrupted sleep to say the least and we were constantly blaming it on teething. He had disrupted sleep patterns, red cheeks and goes through around three dribble clothes a day so after say a couple of weeks, you tend to doubt yourself and begin to think it could be something else. That's when we noticed his first tooth and knew all of the hard work Max has done has paid off.

How amazing is it that it's popped right out on New Year's Eve.....I think he just times these things too perfectly. We took Max to have his six month check-up and he seems to be doing very well and is healthy. The baby doctor (she was actually a fully grown woman not a baby) also said that he is developing at a very fast pace, he is coming up to seven months and can already sit, crawl and roll over so I'm kind of expecting him to ask me what he wants for breakfast tomorrow. So as you can guess we are extremely proud of him.

What should we do to celebrate this massive milestone? Well it's New Year's Eve......so me and Jitka had a couple of hours off while our grandparents looked after Max. I know he is developing at a fast pace but I'm pretty sure he is still too young for a glass of bubbly (hehe).

Yesterday we went to the local Fireman's Depot and had a gathering with close friends for a couple of beverages and nibbles. And we had an amazing time! It wasn't like our usual get together from England, with golden coated smoked salmon and spending it with our two best friends, it was more of a karaoke situation and drinking games and we had a great time.

So I hope you guys enjoyed your night, whatever it was you did, and I will give a blog update over the next couple of days and who knows, maybe Max will be walking and talking...... 

Bye Guys

TWO CHRISTMAS'S!

Hey Guys, I hope you had a great Christmas and that you have plenty planned for the New Year. We had a great time and have spent the last week or so celebrating (hence why I have not been blogging). This year was slightly different to most as I am spending this year in Czech and we get to celebrate twice as a family for the first time. As you can imagine we were pretty excited.

First Christmas Day

Here we are on the 24th December and it's Christmas day! Well if you are from the Czech Republic or Slovakia it is (I'm sure there are other countries as well but I'm not sure). So we were woken up nice an early by our little snapper and had our hopes high for a snowy Christmas. As I put the kettle on I looked outside only to see darkness....of course it's 5 am! But as the daylight began to appear, so did the sun which obviously meant no snow.

As the morning progressed all three of us went downstairs to spend the day with my family in-law, and first on the menu was "Vanocka". It is a sweet bread and I can only compare it to a hot cross bun.....very delicious. And as we sat there eating our breakfast with a coffee we watched a Czech adaptation of Cinderella. I couldn't understand a word but wanted to stay within the Czech tradition.

So around mid-afternoon we then moved on to our second meal of the day which was "Kuba". This dish is basically rice with forest mushrooms, simple but tasty and tasted even better with a beer next me. After our lunch we then went on our way to visit Jitka's Grandmother and family. 

This then leads us to the amazing dinner we had as a lot of you know is "Kapr a bramborovy salat" which translates to Carp with Potato Salad. This was accompanied with a glass of wine and money under the plate. Yes I said money under the plate! It is meant to bring you luck in the future with finances, and as I am unemployed I need all the luck I can get, so I had extra (hehe).

Now for the best bit...the presents. After the meal at around 6 - 7 pm we exchanged gifts and I couldn't have been happier. Max got spoiled, like most kids on their first Christmas, and wouldn't let go of his new caterpillar toy. Again he didn't really know what was going on but he behaved extremely well and seemed really happy.

After present opening and a few drinks I decided I had to go to bed as the next day was going to be a long day. So Jitka and her family sat up and watched another movie called Pelisky while I was fast asleep with Max.

Second Christmas Day

It's 5 am again and it's Christmas! Well as I am native English, today was my Christmas.... And how about kicking the day off with pre-heating the oven.....yes you heard me, I was about to cook my first Christmas Dinner ever! Over the last twenty six years the only contribution I have made was eating it. 

So I roped Jitka into helping as two heads is better than one! And I can now sympathize with every single one of you who cooks this meal....it really is stressful but rewarding. Well as the Turkey was cooking on a slow heat I thought that it's definitely time for a bit of Buble (Michael Buble) while eating some mince pies (which I will try and burn off during the new year).

Dancing away while opening my first lager, I was in the greatest mood of all year. Max was playing with his new toys while Jitka's other family members visited us as a surprise. It was nice because it felt like I was at home, even though I was missing my family. As we were cooking the meal, we then found out we were catering for two extra persons, no worries.....I started feeling more relaxed as time went on (mainly because of the alcohol) and it was then when I then realized that no body has eaten this meal before, so there fore have nothing to compare it to. All the nerves had then disappeared.

So around three o'clock it was all prepared and served and I have to say that it was the definitely the best Christmas dinner I have cooked! I know it was the first but we have to keep the standard now as everyone is coming back for more next year. We couldn't have been happier.

After dinner things started to get a little wild as we started to play frustration ( the board game) and after a few more drinks, me and Jitka's brother carried on the festivities watching music on YouTube until late in the night (my parents would have been proud). It really was an awesome couple of days.

Wow that was a big blog! My head is frazzled. We had an amazing week or so and as now New Years Eve is approaching, I have decided to tone it down for a few days. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and will have an amazing new year. Thank you for taking the time to read and the blogging will be back to it's usual timely fashion and enjoy the photos.

Bye Guys!

CRAWLING FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Hey Guys, and welcome to my update. It's going to be just a short one but it's an important blog to record. Here we are again with the second big milestone of Max's life. I blogged a couple of weeks ago when he started to sit unaided but now he's crawling! I must admit, he's not crawling with ease but he is definitely moving forward. It's funny I say forward because over the past few days he has only managed to push himself backwards.

Someone once said to me that if you experience a few rough days with him crying etc, it means that he is ready to unleash a huge milestone in his life. To be honest I think it makes sense as we have always been relating it to teething, but as there is still no teeth, he has learnt a lot.

He is so close to saying his first words as well....he says "hello, dadda and mama" but I'm sure he doesn't understand what he is actually saying, but he definitely has these words down to a tee.

Anyway, we are off to Prague again today and I will update my blog with today's events. We are shopping for Max.....so excited!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Bye Guys

WINTER GRILL!

Hey Guys, and again welcome to my blog update. So here we are again on another Sunday and it just seems that time is flying by extremely quickly. Max is almost seven months and I have been living in Czech now for almost five months! It has been a hectic five months but I wouldn't change it for anything. It really does feel like "years" since I attempted putting up IKEA furniture on our first month here.

Well, we are now finally starting to settle properly and I'm starting to experience living the Czech way, which leads us to today's blog update. 

Today we started the same as usual with Max waking up 6 am and he now does this "cute thing" where he screams his head off until you pick him up from his cot....very cute indeed (you definitely do not get any lye ins with this little munchkin). So, at 8 am I made my way to play 5 a-side football as per usual, which we won 8-5 (*cough* *cough*) and after we went on our way.

After twenty minutes of walking we made it to our destination....if it weren't for Mia the dog, we would have made it in fifteen....she really has to sniff EVERYTHING! Normally we would have walked to the forest but we had a slight scare of rain and decided to set up camp a little closer. To be honest I wasn't bothered, as long as I had my sausage I was happy....haha.

We (Jitka's dad) lit the fire, drank some beer and rum with tea and all gathered round the fire to enjoy our feast. It is a tradition that a lot Czech villagers do and I really do enjoy everything about it. I mean what's not to like? Sitting round a fire, eating meat and drinking beer with no noise or persons in sight...it's pretty amazing.

This time Max was finally awake for an outing and seemed to enjoy what he could understand. The only problem with him being awake was that he kept knocking his hat over his eyes and tended to screech a little. But apart from that he was as good as gold.

After around one hour we made our way home and here I am now, blogging about our day with you all. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and enjoy the photos. See you next time.

Bye guys.