BRRaaa

May 21, 2018May 22, 2018 ~ au

Today Ada said R for zna first time:) The first word she managed to say with a proper R was (the swedish) “bra” (means good). She got so happy she terrorised us for an hour and a half rolling her R’s. She said Rrriba (means fish) and danced around telling happily that she wants to show her sister (PZ) what she has learned. But the most I loved was the expression of her face the moment she managed to pronounce it correctly. Priceless 🙂
This was the perfect ending after a day in the zoo.

The playground at the zoo. A little bit too high for my taste but it seems Ada likes it.

Igralište u zološkom vrtu. Malo previsoko za mene ali se Adi sviđa…

Danas je Ada uspijela reći R po prvi put. Prva riječ koju je uspijela čisto izgovoriti je bila švedska riječ “bra” koja znači dobro. Tako je bila sretna da nas je sat i po terorisala sa R. Rekla je rrriba i plesala je i pjevala i pričala kako će sve svojoj sestri PZ ispričati.
Ali najljepše mi je bilo vidjeti njezin pogled lica kad je prvi put uspijela reći R. Nezaboravno 🙂
Bio je to perfektan završetak nakon jednog dana provedenog u zološkom vrtu.Highlight of the day was the boat trip / Vrhunac danas je bila vožnja brodićem

Does she have eyes? / Ima li oči?

May 9, 2018May 9, 2018 ~ au

Driving the kids to the kindergarten we stopped at the traffic lights. Outside was an African black woman in exotic colorful clothes. You couldn’t miss her. Ada told me to look at her!
I wanted to hear what Ada saw and told her that I do not know whom to look at. I asked her what she sees expecting her to say a black woman.
Since yesterday Ada had a discussion about blindness the whole morning (no clue why but she comes up with weird themes sometimes) she told me, a little bit shocked, that the sees a woman with no eyes (?). I first didn’t get it but then I saw that the woman was looking down so her eyes looked closed when looking from our car. I had to explain to Ada the reason it looks like the woman doesn’t have eyes and then we continued discussing eyes. Ada’s questions where like does everyone have eyes? What if they don’t, and so on but the top question was “what will a person do if it doesn’t have a head? ”
Well, I have no answer to that one do I 😀

Ada asking questions / Ada postavlja pitanja

Na putu do vrtića zaustavili smo se na semaforu. Vani je stojala jedna afrička žena obućena u egzotičnoj jakih boja garderobi. Ne možeš je profulati i da hoćeš. Ada mi je rekla da je pogledam!
Htjela sam da čujem šta Ada vidi pa sam joj rekla da mi objasni. Pitala sam je šta vidi i očekivala san od nje da kaže crnu ženu.
S obzirom da je Ada od jučer razgovarala o slijepima (nema pojma zašto, ali ponekad započne malo čudne teme) rekla mi je, malo šokirana, da vidi ženu bez očiju (?). Prvo nisam shvatila šta misli, ali sam onda vidjela da žena gleda dole i da su joj oči izgledale zatvorene kad gledaš iz našeg auta. Objasnila sam Adi zašto to tako izgleda da nema očiju i onda smo nastavile razgovarati o očima. Adina pitanja su bila imaju li svi oči? Šta ako ne? I tako dalje, ali glavno pitanje je bilo “šta će osoba učiniti ako nema glavu”? Pa, na to pitanje baš i nemam neki odgovor zar ne 😀

Crikvenica

April 26, 2018April 26, 2018 ~ au

Since, Ensar was supposed to have two weeks off from work we decided to go to Crikvenica despite not being here in high season.
I was a little bit sceptical to going there in the beginning but the weather turned out to be fabulous making me wonder why there are so few tourists here.
Actually, I do not wonder I know (that would be another post though) but I can say this much, the weather during the day is around 23-25 degrees, sunshine and a little bit windy from time to time. It is absolutely perfect for taking walks, drinking coffee, wine and eating out. I find it perfect with kids also, because the sun is not too strong and one doesn’t have to keep the kids indoors from 12 to 15h (usually longer) as in high season in the summer.
Unfortunately, despite being here Adrian is not recovering and has quite a bad cough and fever. Thus, tomorrow we are going to the specialist clinic of respiratory diseases located here in Crikvenica to see that his cold is not going down to the lungs.
Today, while Ensar was showering Adrian and I was looking for his clothes Ada took a knife and wanted to cut the cucumber in pieces ending by cutting herself in the hand. That was her first cut and she got so scared she cried and cried and it was hard time to calm her down. Finally, after three stories she fell asleep.

Pošto je Ensar dobio slobodno dvije sedmice odlučili smo otići u Crikvenicu iako nije udarna sezona. Bila sam malo skeptična da idem na more u ovo doba ali ispalo je predobro. Vrijeme je fantastično, što me dovede da se pitam zašto nema već sada turista, ali ustvari znam već odgovor tog pitanja, ali to je za drugi post (ako ga ikad napišem).
Vrijeme je kao što sam rekla, fantastično. Između 23-25 stepeni, sunce i ponekad malo puše. Perfektno je za šetnje, pijuckanje kafa, vina i ručanja vani. Smatram da je perfektno i za djecu isto, jer sunce nije toliko jako da ih moraš zatvoriti između 12-15h (obično duže) kao što je slučaj ljeti.
Nažalost, iako smo ovdje Adrian se nije oporavio i fasovao je da gadno kašlje a i temperatura ga nije prošla. Zato sutra idemo u specialist klinici za respiratorijske bolesti pa ćemo vidjeti da kontrolišu Adriana da mu nije prehlada otišla na pluća.
Danas, dok je Ensar tuširao malog a ja tražila nešto da obuče Ada je iskoristila momenat da uzme nož za mazanje, i da isjecka krastavac. Nažalost nije joj dobro išlo tako da se prilično gadno posjekla i kad je vidjela krv prepala se pa smo imali problema da je smirimo i pripremimo za spavanje. Ali nakon tri pričice uspijela sam je smiriti i napokon je zaspala.

Nationality / Nacionalnost

March 23, 2018 ~ au

Sometimes one gets surprised how fabulous kids are. Me and Ensar where talking with Ada about a new girl in their kindergarden. We have heard she has an exotic name and thus asked Ada if the girl is turkish or arabic. Ada looked confused at us and said: She is just a little girl.
Me and Ensar looked at each other and where so fascinated. Ada has no concept of nationalities. For her there is no “turkish or arabic girl” there is just ” a girl”. I will do my best that it stays like that as long as possible.
This made me think of one of my favorit songs Imagine of John Lennon.

Ponekad se pravo začudim kako su djeca fantastična. Ensar i ja smo pričali sa Adom o jednoj novoj djevojčici u vrtiću. Pročitali smo da ima jedno, nama nepoznato, egzotično ime te smo je pitali ako je curica turkinja ili arapkinja. Ada nas je zbunjeno pogledala i rekla : Ona je samo djevojčica.
Ensar i ja smo se fascinirano pogledali. Ada nema nikakav koncept nacionaliteta. Za nju ne postoji turska ili arapska djevojčica. Za nju postoji samo djevojčica. Potrudiću se da tako što duže ostane.
To me podsjetilo na jednu od mojih omiljenih pjesama “Imagine” od John Lennona.

Dobel tobogganing / Sankanje u Dobelu

March 18, 2018 ~ au

Last night the snow started falling and when Ada saw it she immediately made us promise to go tobogganing with her today if there is any snow left. So in the morning she was excited about getting ready for tobogganing. We didn’t really find a place for it so we ended up in a small village called Dobel. They had the perfect hill for tobogganing beginners.

Sinoć kad je snijeg poćeo padati i kad ga Ada vidjela odmah nas je nagovorila da sutradan (danas) odemo na sankanje ako bude snijega. Tako da ujutru kad je ustala i vidjela da je čak više snijega nego sinoć sva se uzbudila zbog sankanja. Malo nam je potrajalo dok smo našli mjesto za sankanje, čak što više smo završili u nekom malom selu Dobel. Imali su perfektno brdašce za početnike sankanja.

First kiss / Prvi poljubac

February 17, 2018February 20, 2018 ~ au

Today, I melted when Adrian kissed me on purpose. He understood that I got very happy of his kisses so he kissed me a couple of times why laughing 🙂 Now he is sending me kisses the whole time. So cuuuute 😀
The time flies by so fast! It feels like yesterday that he was born and now he is walking and trying to talk. I just want to cuddle with him but already now he is enjoys more to walk around and explore the world. I guess I will have to “steal” the cuddle time when he expects it at least
.
I tako mene sin prvi put poljubi. I to me pravo cmoknuo. Ja sam se istooopila. Razumio je da meni bude drago i onda me posuo poljubcima dok se smijao 🙂 I sad kad zna kako slati poljubce salje mi puse citavo vrijeme. Preslatko 😀
Vrijeme tako brzo prolazi. Osjeca se kao da se jucer rodio a sad vec hoda i probava pricati. A ja bih se samo mazila sa njim ali vec nece nego radije hoda i izucava svijet. Sad cu morati “krasti” momente da se malo pomazimo kad najmanje ocekuje 🙂

Skating / Šlicuranje

January 25, 2018January 25, 2018 ~ au

Inspired as we (Ada) are from Frozen and the fact that Ada got skates from her auntie, she badly wanted to go skating last weekend..
Theoretically, I wanted it too BUT last time I had been skating is some 20 years ago. And I was not good in skating back then either. So my fear was to break my legs and make a disaster show in public instead of simply showing Ada how to skate.
Then I forced myself to come a little bit outside my comfort zone… and I loved it 🙂
I felt like the ice queen at least Ada looked at me like that. People around us probably saw a person more like Bambi on ice. Who cares though! We had fun 🙂
Our fan club / Naši navijači 🙂
Inspirisane kako jesmo (bolje reći kako je Ada inspirisana) od Ledene Kraljice i činjenica da je dobila šlicure od svoje tetke, htjela je da ide na šlicuranje prošlog vikenda..
Teoretski, sam i ja htjela ALI zadnji put kad sam se šlicurala je prije nekih 20 godina a ni tad nisam bila dobra u tome. Strah me zato bio da slomim noge i napravim neki mega haos među narodom umjesto da u miru pokažem Adi kako se šlicurati.
Natjerala sam sebe da izađem malo iz svoje komforne zone i mogu reći da sam uživala u tome.
Osajećala sam se kao Ledena Kraljica, tako me Ada gledala, iako je su ljudi oko nas najvjerovatnije gledale osobu koja liči na Bambi na ledu.
Ali koga briga. Bitno je da nam je bilo super 🙂

Pinocchio / Pinokio

January 23, 2018 ~ au

After the hard stomachflu I thought Ada should do something fun.
I couldn’t find tickets for Frozen (she LOVES it) but I found tickets for Pinocchio and I thought that should be fine. It was Adas first musical and I was not sure how she would take it. She decided how she wanted to dress and one could see how important that was for her.
We were a little bit late because the first thing she did coming out of the apartment was to step in a pond getting wet so I had to go back and get new boots.
After arriving to the hall we speeded up and she fell INTO a pond and got completely wet and really sad. Typical! I had to cover her with my jacket and during first act put her leggings on the radiators. Later she could again wear them.
How about Pinocchio? Ada loved the musical. It was made for children and many times children where laughing so much that I actually enjoyed that more than the musical 🙂
So next musical according to Ada is Frozen. I have to admit..I would also love to see it 🙂
Nakon stomačnog virusa smatrala sam da je Ada zaslužila nešto zanimljivo doživiti.
Nisam mogla naći karte za Ledenu Kraljicu (Ada je obožava) ali sam našla karte za Pinokia i smatrala sam da je to sasvim ok.
Bio je Adin prvi muzikal i nisam bila sigurna da li će joj se svidjeti. Odlučila je sama šta će obući i vidjelo se da joj je to bilo jako važno.
Malo som kasnile jer je je prva stvar koju je uradila kad smo izašle da uskoči u lokvu i morale smo se vratiti po nove čizme.
Kad smo stigle do sale požurile som i Ada je zapela i upala u lokvu. Helanke su joj skroz mokre bile pa sam ih morala skinuti. Tako tipično i tako je postala tužna. Riješile smo to tako da sam je pokrila svojom jaknom dok su se helanke na radijatoru sušile. Već ih je nakon prvog čina mogla obući.
A Pinokio? Adi se muzikal pravo svidio. Napravljen je baš za djecu i toliko su se smijala da ih je bio merak ih slušati. Ustvari to mi je veće zadovoljstvo činilo nego sam muzikal:)
Ada je sad izjasnila da je slijedeći muzikal na koji ćemo ići Ledena kraljica. A mogu reći da bih ga i ja voljela vidjeti 🙂

First step / Prvi Korak

December 16, 2017January 25, 2018 ~ au

We went to the city to buy a suitcase for our Sweden trip. We are leaving on Tuesday and just realised that we don’t have enough suitcases.
After a.while we got hungry and thought let’s go eat in Karstadt because there was also a place for kids to play.
And then it happened. Adrian ran after Ada. He took a couple of steps not getting that he actually had walked. And then came this special face when he undestood that what he has done. He got this amazing wow effect and wanted more.
I find it so fascinating that no matter how difficult it is the children are persistent. They really have the mindset persistence beats resistance. A mindset I would love them to keep when they grow up.

The room where the first steps where made/ Soba gdje je prve korake napravio

Otišli smo u grad da kupimo kofere za putovanje u Švedsku. Idemo u utorak i upravo smo primjetili da nam fali kofer.
Nakon nekog vremena u gradu smo ogladnili i odlučimo otići u Karstadt jer tamo ima mjesto za djecu da se igraju.
I u momentu se desi! Adrian potrča za Adom. Nekolika koraka je prešao a da nije ni skontao šta je uradio. I onda je onaj posebni izraz lica došao kad je shvatio veličinu njegovog uspjeha. Dobio je onaj posebni aha-efekat izraz i odmah je htio opet šetati.
Meni je to tako fascinantno kod djece da nebitno koliko je nešto teško oni uporno vježbaju. Stvarno imaju mentalitet “upornost pobijeđuje otpor“. To je način razmišljanja koji se ja nadam da će im ostati i kad odrastu.

First day in kindergarten / Prvi dan u jaslicama

October 4, 2017October 5, 2017 ~ au

For me, it was a big day today. My little boy went to kindergarten for the first time. It felt awkward because he is so little. Ada was 2,5 years when she started and was already speaking two languages. Adrian is not speaking any language and I fear that he will not be understood when he needs something. On the other hand he loves children so it should be fine 🙂
In kindergarten I react on the differences between the Swedish and German system. For example, here the induction takes 4-6 weeks! In Sweden it was a week at most (as far as I remember).
Another thing that caught my eyes is that in Sweden children eat some snack like half a banana or apple (or some other fruit) around 10h so that they don´t get too hungry until lunch. Here they got one mais curl as snack. Adrian doesn’t even like it so I am pretty sure that Adrian, that is used to eat much more, will loose some weight in the beginning before he gets used to it.
Danas je bio važan dan. Moj mali dječak je po prvi put išao u jaslice. Čudno se osjećalo jer je tako malen. Ada je ipak bila 2.5 godine kad je krenula i već je 2 jezika pričala dok Adrian ni jedan ne priča. Pitam se hoće li znati pokazati šta hoće,ali u drugu ruku voli djecu tako da bi mu trebalo biti fino.
U jaslicama sam primjetila neke razlike između Švedskog i Njemaćkog sistema. Recimo uškolavanje (ili kako se to zove) traje 4-6 sedmica. U Švedskoj ti niko živ ne bi išao u vrtić toliko vremena. Tamo je maksimalno sedmica- dvije (ako je ekstremni neki slučaj) i dijete odmah ostave same.
Druga velika razlika je da u Švedskoj jedu pola voća banane, jabuke ili nešto drugo oko 10h da ne pregladne do 12h. Ovdje dobiju jedan smoki, koji još na to Adrian baš i ne gotivi. Sigurna sam da će Adrian ispočetka smršati dok se ne uhoda.