Driving bebe

I've mentioned we have an Aygo. Perfect city car, we go with it everywhere. A friend commented that a car means independence and I am here to tell you what the car means to me as a new mum.

I was driving all through my pregnancy and even joking I'll end up driving myself to the maternity. At the time, I was working 45km away from my home and so if labour started early, I had 45 minutes of driving to my maternity of choice or 15 minutes to the closest one. Many were surprised I wasn't carpooling any more but I felt free and wanted to be able to leave fast if any contractions so I preferred to drive by myself. I continued driving for errands during my maternity leave, I was even driving the night before my son was born.

Because I had a c section, I was afraid the safety belt would bother me and I would be unable to drive. This made me sad, I knew I would be home with my son only and I wanted to be able to use the car if necessary. I also wanted the freedom a car gives me.

I was surprised to find that adjusting the seat was different then when my big belly helped - knew how far I had to be from the wheel because the belly stopped me - but other then that, the belt didn't bother me at all. So I drove the car about 2 weeks after my son was born and I think it helped against the baby blues: wind in my hair and the possibility of going anywhere meant that life was moving forward ok even with a baby. The big football match that day meant no free parking space around the city centre and a 20 minute walk in the rain for me: I should have taken the tram instead.

Life part 2 started, now with a kid and I enjoy putting him in his baby car seat and taking him for rides to visit friend or shop or whatever. Mobility is so important for us, we don't have to stay inside all day long, we can go anywhere. As winter approaches, my husband will take the car to work instead of the bike as he does now. I will miss the car but the trams and buses are a good alternative even if they don't takes exactly where we need. We just have to put an extra layer of clothes on us to keep warm. But this is another discussion: who to dress your baby for trips outside?

Breastfeeding in public

My post is inspired by this from A cup of Jo and a discussion I had with a friend before I gave birth. My asked me what my opinion was about breastfeeding in public and I said the jury was still out on this one.

The fact is, before I had to breast feed, I considered it as a private affair between mother and child. The only women I saw feeding their kids in public wore gipsy women in Romania. I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of nursing your baby while others watched, even after reading about this on several blogs and seeing mothers do it in CZ. And not just gipsy mothers.

And then I had my baby and he was hungry all the time so my choice was to give up any form of public life such as dinner with the family or nurse him in the living room. I am not so prude any more but I still retreat in a corner, discreetly. I think that my baby deserves my attention and care and that is why it's called nursing. But I still like to eaves drop on conversations.Besides, being able to breastfeed in public spaces such as in the car or Ikea's cafeteria (they have a special corner for this) means that I am more free to move. And this is excellent, we can take him on trips and have fun as a family.

By the way, the picture is from the post I mentioned earlier on Joanna's blog. I totally see myself in the way she is dressed.

Autumn Baby

As Autumn is getting closer to saying it's final word, here are some pics from the neighbourhood I walk around with my son. The side walk was covered in crunchy leaves, just the way I like them, the weather was nice and quite warm for this time of the year. Too bad my pictures are not so good. This area is full of houses from the 30's, I day dream all the time of having even the smallest one.

The park in the second picture is a big round place in an intersection and it is always full. I crossed there Ukrainians and Slovaks and heard some English once.

The other day a squirrel crosses my path and once, I saw a small hawk. My son will be lucky ti grow up with squirrels for neighbours.

Yellow nursery ideas

Right now the nursery is a nook in our bedroom. Our first idea was to have our bedroom as nursery and keep the yellow colour of the walls. We had to keep it simple because moving and building while at the same time pregnant is not easy so we kept that bedroom to ourselves and junior will be moved to his own bedroom later. His future room is under the roof, has a low ceiling, grey, green and yellow flower wallpaper (we are not going to tear down) and blue window shades.

With these colours in mind, I started searching on pinterest and other sites for inspiration. His bed is white, like in the first picture and the window shades are a similar blue.

I like the warmth in this nursery, even if the wood is an old fashioned colour. I know my son would love a balloon mobile as well.

Very modern nursery and I just adore the light as it is filtered by that window. I don't have the space for an arm chair like that but I like the colour. Also, gender neutral and warm.

This one is more girlie but could still pass for a boy's nursery. I want to keep things gender neutral and not too childish because the room will double as a guest room. We'll have two beds installed which my dad will build around already existing mattresses. The pink pouf is a nice touch, I have to think of something similar for my son's room, to give a splash of colour.

All pictures are from my pinterest account and Appartment Therapy.

Cooking men

Haha, I donot want to talk about cannibals but about men who cook, they are so rare, aren't they? While my mum was here, helping me cope with the first weeks of being a mum, my dad was home alone. Grown men are like babies sometimes, we were worried he would starve to death or worse but instead he would give us daily reports of his culinary endeavours.Quiche, omelette, steak, some frozen pizza and of course eating out at friend's. My dad did ok but then, he surprised us with pictures of this chicken broth he cooked on his own. Looks good :)

My dad's speciality is barbecue but he always prepared some delicious easy meals in a very creative way. I have very fond memories of salty butter on fresh bread, the best fried eggs and potatoes with feta cheese. Not to mention the omelette and the barbecue. Still, it's basic stuff, survival food and he prepares it methodically.

Now this is my husband's cooking you see below. I am blessed with talented men. During my pregnancy he tried to cook the fish in the sushi. Not such a great success, raw salmon is much better but the gesture was sweet. After the pregnancy, I can finally enjoy my husband's sushi's, better then in most restaurants in town.

My husband loves cooking, maybe the French in him but he is the master baker in the family and makes great sponge cakes. We sometimes cook together and it's a nice synergy, blending two culinary cultures. He is a very creative chef, sometimes this is too much for me and we tend to clash on things such as leek in ciulama (the horror) or raw duck breast in sushi. But I have to admit that most of his culinary inventions are tasty (not fond of the duck sushi).

What about the men in your lives? Do they cook for pleasure or need?

aygo Baby

I haven't written about travelling in a while because well, I haven't travelled in a while. Life, more exactly pregnancy, moving to a new place, having a baby, etc, they all got in the way of my passion for taking to the road. We are slowly getting into a routine which will make it easier to get away even with a small child so I am looking forward to our first road trip to France this weekend.

The picture above is of the trunk of our car with a push chair chassis neatly folded inside, leaving space inside the micro trunk to put some luggage. You can see my husband's arm in the background as he is attaching the baby car seat/ cosy. Because we may be new parents but we are also proving that our new life fits inside our old car, the mini Toyota Aygo.

Some of our friends told us we cling to the past and that we should grow up and buy a more family friendly car but we stick to the Aygo for now because we don't need a bigger one. We chose the push chair and accessories to fit inside the car and to be easily manoeuvrable in town. And it works for us. Life slowed down a notch and yet we are still active as we want to discover the world with our baby and have new adventures.

Wishing you all a great and safe weekend!

PS. This is post n°138. Just saying.

Monochrome flower arrangement

Hello and a very good week to you! I will spend my week at home with my baby. We are going to play and do some shopping and cooking. This week we will also start baby swimming lessons. Very excited!

I want to share with you some photos of a flower arrangement I made inspired by this post from Apartment Therapy. I bought the flowers they had in the grocery store (the same store I bought the wedding arrangement flowers) just like the post said.

The choice wasn't great, just roses and lilies. I picked up shades of burgundy, the other choice was yellow lilies but the roses were only in white or pinkish hues. I striped the flower stems of  leaves and made a random arrangement, trying to keep in mind that the lilies will bloom.

The second picture is the bouquet on the table the next day; we had guests over for the weekend. I hope it will inspire you for your next dinner party.

Giving birth in the Czech Republic

My baby is already 8 weeks old and growing so fast. I haven't had a lot of time for myself since he was born so that's a good excuse for forgetting about this blog. I'm here now to tell you that while never the best day in a woman's life, giving birth is soon behind you when you look at that little bundle of joy.

I gave birth through an emergency C section in a hospital in the Czech Republic. C section was not on my birth plan but my boy decided to go out on his own terms. Nevertheless, the experience was not so awful and this is in part thanks to the health system here. Although not perfect, the nurses hold too much power in my opinion and you can barely get to see your doctor without the nurse being in the middle, the care we received was excellent.

Initially, I was supposed to give birth in a modern birth room, complete with bed, adaptable birth table, bathtub, shower, all the latest in the field. In the end, it happened in a very modern OR. If you are curious, you can see pictures here and a 3D view, here.

We've been living and working in this country for a few years so we have Czech health insurance which paid for everything related to the birth and care of the baby and to my care as well. All we had to pay was the stay in the hospital, a mere 20 euros for 5 days plus 20 more euros per day for the single room. I was alone in my room, only sharing a bathroom with another lady. The standard is 2-3 ladies in one room which isn't half bad either but this was better because I freak out in hospitals and I was able to get some rest.

The nurses here were divided in nurses for the baby and nurses for the mother. The ones for the baby give you all the training you need to care for your little one: washing, changing, feeding, giving medicine, etc. They were patient with me but they did not speak English, maybe they do in Prague, in one of the big hospitals but not here. I managed all right and now that I am not so stressed any more, I think I am doing a good job. At least the nurse who came for the visit at home said so.

Expect to read a lot more baby talk here because this little baby took over everything in my life.

Nursery ideas for Little Prince

I have a newborn little boy and although I have been thinking long and hard about how to design his nursery, the best idea I had so far was to put his crib in a nook in our bedroom. For me it is much easier to sneak out of bed and check on him if he is sleeping in the same room. And he doesn't care where he sleeps or if the wall paper matches his bed sheets. So the crib stays in the room for now and we'll see for his own place in a few months.

My original idea for his room was inspired by nature and the book the Little Prince, of which we have an extensive collection of copies in several languages. I have kept the theme in the crib, there is the Little Prince sleeping bag, bed bumper and blanket and fox mobile. I wasn't going for the whole matchy matchy thing, they were mostly gifts from the family who knows our interests but I now like his crib very much.

The nursery below was featured on Apartment therapy website and is totally coming out of the Saint-Exupery book.

What do you think? Is it too much? Would you go for a theme or just choose a colour for the nursery?

Cucumber soupe-creme

Do you know that feeling when you open the fridge and realize you bought 3 times more than you need of something? In my case it was cucumber: I had about 5 large ones and only needed a couple. Luckily I remembered my mother in law makes a cucumber cream soup that my husband loves and I thought I would give it a try although I was afraid I would not like it personally.

Here is what you need for 2 servings: 1 1/2 kg cucumbers, peeled and cut in small cubes, onion or even better shallots, sour cream if you want, coriander, tabasco sauce and smoked or marinated salmon.

Cook the onions and cucumbers in a heated pot with some olive oil. Add a bit of powder soup base like Delikat then blend as much or less as you want, to get the right texture for you. You can also add some bread and sour cream to make it smoother. Season with the coriander and tabasco, serve cold or warm with salmon.