Creeping independence

I think you know you've reached a milestone when they attempt to wipe their own bottom - or popka - as it's known in our household. Fortunately, Gregor called me to finish the job off before he flushed.

To other things water, you may have heard the populations of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth were inches away from the most devastating North Sea floods since 1953 a couple of weeks ago. Well in the end it all came to nothing. I don't even know if that tidal surge that we were all anticipating surged further down and submerged any low-lying land in Holland or Germany? Such an island nation, and I have no time to read the Economist any longer. Such an island national.

Anyway, I don't mean there was no surge. We got a bit more high tide than usual at our spot on the beach.

And Misha went out with Gregor (who is in the habit of wearing his rescue helmet nowadays). In the distance you'll see the wind turbine, lovingly dubbed Gulliver. (According to our aptly named local politician, Bob Blizzard, Lowestoft is the UK's windiest town) To the right is an accommodation block being built for a rig off Qatar. I will try and get a photo of it being transported away once it's done.

Otherwise, November has been quiet and lullish before the storm that is December and Christmas. Gregor has had a mild bout of croup this past week and hasn't been to playgroup. I vowed they wouldn't watch much TV, but this week CBeebies has been a godsend. As a result, we are firmly into a crazy Icelandic programme called Lazytown, didactic in it's messages and absolutely riveting for toddlers. Interestingly, Alastair's favourite is the baddie, Robbie Rotten.

Charlotte and Nick (last seen here in the summer) came up at the weekend for a walk and an Indian takeaway once the boys had gone to bed. They always get the vegetable vindaloo (Nick's with extra chillis), Nick also likes his chot poti, Charlotte the brinjal bhaji, Misha the lamb madras and me something bhuna, usually, and a peshwari nan. Such creatures of habit. The food, as usual, was very good and this, for us, is quite an event and we realise we don't get out much nowadays. Actually, I don't jest. We don't have babysitters on hand: my sisters, a cousin and an aunt all live an hour away so we can't really ask them to come over for an evening. That's why my plan is to get the boys used to staying at other people's places. Next week Gregor is going for his second sleepover. This time at Charlotte's. If all goes well, we'll ask a willing sister to have both him and Alastair for the night next time, possibly over Christmas when the older cousins are off from school, although Pauline (sister) thinks Alastair is not going to be as relaxed as G. We'll see.

Otherwise, we visited the boys' new nursery that they will start in mid-January. It's attached to the school that they will go to in 2009. It's a walk away and we were quite impressed. It's friendly, spacious and light and Alastair will the get one-to-one support he needs. He'll still have one morning at his current playgroup so the transition is not quite as abrupt.

Going home

One of the excitements of Prague for the boys is the different modes of transport they can go on. At home we either walk or go by car.

Undaunted by the metro, we went on the green line this time.

And on the way home something really fantastic.....

the easyjet steward asked if Gregor wanted to sit in the cockpit before we took off. Here is the pilot explaining how the plane starts without a key.

The girls

Another lunchtime was inevitably at Šípek's. Unfortunately, at the last minute Hana had to rush off to the regions somewhere, so we didn't get to see her. And before I got my camera out Alena had gone back to the office, but left us with some wise words about Alastair's speech before she departed. The words are ringing in my head still: if he doesn't need to speak, he won't. It's so true, and I am trying to undo our habits and rephrase questions and really try and get him to make more effort to talk, and stop doing it for him. Already we've seen some improvement and he said "s" for the first time last week.

Anyway, as long as he got cuddles, he wasn't really bothered.

Ivana and Jana were both on hand for that. Everyone noted how much better Alastair's eating was and the mushroom soup we had was excellent.

Here is Adi getting help with his lovely tractor jigsaw he was given. Already a favourite.

And Kate was great in occupying Gregor for a good while, first with his flag and map puzzle, and then phoning the fire brigade to come and rescue us. After our Thai food, we popped over the road to meet Lucie (another ex-colleague) and her daughter Emma. They live in Turkey but were in Prague for a visit.

It's hard to imagine that this time last year Alastair couldn't eat. Emma was taking it all in and quite impressed by Alastair's show-off chocolate muffin skills.

A short walk to let our food go down in a sensible way - on the see-saw. Shortly after we got on the tram the heavens opened. Stomach contents remained intact, however.

Bulov

We had a lunch date with the boys' big brother Bulov at Grossetto in namesti miru. Bulov was there before us and I'd asked him to get two kids' seats, if possible. The lady asked how old they were. He said 5. She said they wouldn't need them if they were 5. He said he wasn't sure how old they were. She looked unimpressed, assuming he was the father!

The boys didn't care a jot. Here's Alastair sharing one of his jokes with Bulov.

They were all happy to see one another and each trying hard for Bulov's attention.

Then, just to keep the lady wondering, Bulov asked if he could push the pram.

A final cuddle and na shledanou till next time.

Kampa

Kampa is beautiful at any time of year, but particularly autumn. We were fascinated by this new edition to the view - a huge chair, slightly obscuring the National Theatre in the background.

This was all flooded a few years ago.

Alastair was happy to have the opportunity for some open space to stretch his little legs.

Once he got going there was no stopping him.

Just as well since his pram was being used for other things.

We didn't walk over Charles Bridge this trip. Seemed like too much hard work in the cold.

Downtown Smíchov

It's a short walk from H&K's flat to the centre of Smíchov from where you can get trams and metros to the peripheries of Prague. Although it is so familiar, it's such a different view than I have become used to. I wonder how the boys registered it all in their deep subconscious.

For me, the abrupt lines of urban living intruded boldly, reaching out and shepherding our path whether we liked it or not.

Pipes stretched up and along, leading nowhere.

Our great game with Gregor was to try and interpret the signs.

His favourite thing at home at the moment is to spot "Danger of Death" signs, currently being posted on every lamp post, it seems, and then have me explain why. Here is the Czech equivalent.

Finally something a little more appropriate.

Even Alastair enjoyed tow-truck pulling away the car for parking in the wrong place!

Vrchlického revisited

In early November myself and the boys took a short trip to Prague. Howard and Kathleen were kind enough to loan us their flat while they were in Zagreb. Shame we couldn't see them, but we were glad of the touches - James' stairgate, in particular - that have been added since our last trip in summer. The boys settled in immediately and soon finished the colouring books K had left for them. Alastair discovered Howard's piano, though I didn't know what the agreement was with the neighbours so we only "played" it a few times. He also loved listening to some of Howard's music collection and stomping on the wooden floors. Gregor, on the other hand, was surprisingly quieter and showed great potential in couch potato-ness.

Here they are enjoying a Fireman Sam dvd.

And on the stairs, ready to brave the chilly outside.

A view of Strahov stadium from the balcony. Amazing how much space there still is to cram in more apartments on that hillside.

Since it got dark by 4, it was easy to convince the boys that bedtime was nigh. We got into a little ritual of letting off steam on the balcony first, though.


And on the last night, Zuzana came to visit.

Another first for us: a pillow fight! Judging from the giggles and shrieks coming from the boys I think that Zuzana has inflicted similar torture on her (grand)children. I shall endeavour to emulate such examples.

Particularly when it knocked them out so nicely.

Will & Allie

During half-term Allie and Will came to stay. The boys were at playgroup in the morning so I mobilised the new labour force to do some food preparation.

Here they are demonstrating their impressive knife techniques for the lamb stew.

We usually play some sort of game when they are here. Now that they are both better than me at Backgammon and Yahtzee, I thought it wise to start them off on a new one - Othello.

Halloween coincided with their visit and they arrived armed with pumpkins and sweets galore. Here they are hollowing them out. Misha (mis) understood the idea - that the sweets were for the trick or treaters - and preferred to not open the door but scoff them himself.

Playgroup again. This time the workforce knocked up pizzas for lunch.

Here's Alastair with his corn and mushroom special. Allie and Will liked the chorizio one best.

Wasn't much left of any by the end.