To be a kid again

Earlier this week I went to purchase some groceries to prepare a picnic with Beli and when I was walking towards the store I heard giggles in the distance, I looked around and saw a group of kids nearby playing on a small grassy hill. I took a closer look and noticed they were sliding down the hill all five or six of them, with large pieces of cardboard.
I saw in amazement as another kid went skating down the same hill. I was so surprised and happy, I guess I'm not used to seeing children playing outdoors, using their imagination and having fun.

This brought back memories from my own childhood when my Mom would tell my sisters and I "go play outside with the other kids in the neighborhood." I guess we were too noisy and she couldn't watch her soap opera. But in all honesty, I prefer being outdoors than sitting indoors playing video games.

What about you, do you have special memories playing with the neighborhood kids?

How one corn kernel went missing

I'm sure you've heard plenty of stories from parents talking about it. You know, about how their children place objects up their nose. Well this weekend, it happened to us while we were visiting Hubby's grandparents in Bribir. I guess you can say it was the chicken's fault.

The incident occurred when Beli was outside feeding the chickens with Great-grandpa. Afterwards she walked inside with several pieces of corn kernels in her hand. I guess this should have been my first clue that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let her hold the kernels. She started throwing some on the floor and then she sat to watch the world cup.

After a few minutes she runs to me asking, "donde esta kukurus?" I replied, "where is the corn kernel? you threw it on the floor." She repeated her question then she started whimpering. Hubby came over to see what was the matter, he was questioning her in Croatian, and I followed in Spanish.

Beli: "mami, donde esta kukurus?"

Hubby: "Beli did you put it in your mouth?"

Me: "Esta en la boca as I pointed to my mouth, oido (ear)... nariz (nose)?"

Beli repeated each body part as I continued with my inquisition, then I asked about the nose, her reply was different, she answered, "No, nariz!" BINGO... The kernel was up her nose.

We thought what were the chances we would find a doctor, much less a clinic open in the small town of Skradin. We got ready anyways to drive into town but Great-grandma was in a state of nerves mumbling, " how could this be possible." She then turned to me and pointed to her stomach and said, "It hurts." We remained calm and reassured her that it was fine. These things happen and toddlers do this sort of thing all the time. Then I remembered that I had a pair of tweezers in my purse and hubby had a flashlight in his car glove compartment. Hubby said he could see the kernel with the light, we felt comfortable enough to remove it. After we pulled the kernel out we showed it to Beli and she grabbed it and threw it as far as possible. "Think she learned her lesson?" I hope so.

We decided not to tell Hubby's parents, why worry them over this. I will remind you that she is the only granddaughter so I wasn't sure how my Mother-in-law would react. By the end of the day when we were driving home Beli was asking grandma, "donde esta kukurus?" and she answered herself by pointing and saying " nose!" Since grandma was unaware of the episode she scolded Beli, "the corn is for the chickens and you don't put in your nose, nor in your mouth." Hubby and I only looked at each other but said nothing.



The next day my Mother-in-law called to say she had heard about the episode and asked, "is that why Beli kept telling me about her nose and the corn kernel?" Hubby turned to me and said "how did she find out, did you blog about this?" I replied, "of course not." But I do wonder, "how did she found out," she doesn't even know I have a blog. Maybe it was Great-grandma? Any guesses as to why kids do this sort of thing? Placing objects in their nose. I asked both of my sisters and they both replied, "my boys never did that!"

Lessons learned: Is moving overseas a Good idea?

Today I found an article titled: Is Moving Overseas a Bad Idea? and as I read the author's eleven reasons of why it was a bad idea, I wondered about the choices I made and was inspired to write this post, to tell you my reasons for disagreeing with what most of the article had to say. (Note: you can click here to read the article in its entirety and to avoid confusion, the first statement is directly from the article and the second is my opinion.)
1. You may stay longer than planned: The longer you stay the more life at home will go on without you. You will miss the small and big family events. Your friends will develop routines that don’t include you. Making time for your phone calls will become more of an effort for them.

I will admit that returning to the Midwest for a family visit after a year of living in Croatia was more difficult to adjust than I thought. I knew my family had busy schedules and routines to follow. I tried to be flexible, yet there were moments when I felt like an inconvenience. For example, having transportation available was a major struggle, maybe because I'm the type of person that has a difficult time asking for help. You might say, "couldn't you rent a car?" I guess I could have, but life is not always that simple or is it? Alright, as you might have guessed, I mainly agree with this first statement, now on to the second one.

2. It is more difficult to raise children without family and friends nearby.

Since my husband's family live in town and are only minutes away, I would have to disagree with this statement. My in-laws are wonderful grandparents and baby-sitters. And if I need additional moral support, my Mom and sisters are only a phone call away!
3. Cultural Isolation: You will not have a shared history with anyone, except your partner if you have one and then only if he or she is from your home country. You won’t understand the in-jokes at dinner parties, you won’t know the good places to go for buying wardrobe basics, or the best grocery stores for the widest selection or the places to avoid at holidays or that shops close for half a day in the middle of the week.

I would argue, "what about the new experiences you are having in your new country, isn't that worth some value, remember my frog incidence and the rooster story?" You see, we can all have in-jokes. So go on, share them with your acquaintances! And about the good places to go shopping, "couldn't you ask your neighbors, co-workers, friends?"

4. Culture Shock: It’s hideous. And it is not just for new expats—even after living somewhere five or 10 years you will still experience culture shock. Everyone gets culture shock. You will not be an exception no matter how open minded you think you are, no matter how much you think you want to live in another country.

Hideous...Really? Scary, maybe but hideous? Repulsive? I would have to disagree and I would be lying if I told you that I haven't experienced culture shock, but that is part of growing up, of being open-minded you either embrace your new country and its culture or you find it repulsive and spend your days counting the minutes until you return home. Life is full of choices. So what will it be? For me, I made the choice to live in a foreign country with hubby and allow Beli the opportunity to know her other side of the family plus I'm enjoying my time as a stay-at-home Mom.
5. Homesickness: This will hit when you’ve just returned from a visit home, or when you’ve had a bad night sleep with a new baby or when you’re sick of the weather, or when you see a family get together and you know your family are getting together without you. Or it will hit when your washing machine breaks down and you have no idea how to navigate the little nuances of repairman culture in the host country. How could that be difficult, you ask? (Here all the seasoned expats have a knowing chuckle…)

Yes there have been times when I'm homesick and wonder why couldn't we live in the same country? But for the most part, I feel blessed and very lucky to have two loving families, even if they are oceans apart. Who would have imagined that one day I would be living overseas. I tell you, life works in mysterious ways.

So I chose to only discuss 5 of the 11 reasons because the other six I felt could apply to any situation in life and not necessary to moving overseas. I'm also interested in what other expats have to say about these statements. Do you agree or disagree? And what about the family and friends left behind, what are your thoughts, "is moving overseas a good or bad idea?"

A day at the Park

The day after the party the weather was on our favor and we spent it at the park with the kids. Beli was ready to join her primos at the playground. Let's go!

Grandma running after her grandchildren.

After the park, we went home and had an ice cream party. Who wants a banana split?

Making Lemonade With Your Kids

It has been raining consecutively for several days in Split, Croatia but I won't complain as my family and friends back in the States are under a cloud of below zero temperatures. So when the Sun came out on Saturday and not a single rain drop in sight, I told myself, "LET'S GO OUTSIDE!" Our daughter needed to have some fun...and Mommy too!

We drove to Rogoznica, Croatia about an hour 's drive from Split to visit my husband's aunt and cousin. Lora who is 5, was waiting anxiously for Beli. She put on her hat of "older sister" and took great care that Beli wouldn't go into the puddles of water on the sidewalk.

Then I suggested: How about if we do some fun activities kids?

Here is what we did!



We posed for pictures. Ok more like she was telling me how to stand like a ballerina. She kept telling me, "like this, you put THIS foot out, your right not your LEFT! Can you see why I am just smiling?


We played with Rex , a big, sweet and gentle German-Sheppard. I can tell she is going to be an animal person. She is not afraid of any animals.

And last but not least we hand-picked lemons.

I was in lemon heaven, if there is such a thing! The lemons smelled wonderful! We didn't let the kids pick any because the branches were thorny. To my surprise as this was the first time I was up and close with a lemon tree. I walked away with a few cuts. But this was just a small price to pay for having organic lemons in your lemonade!

And the best part about our day? Our kids took great joy in "sniffing" every single lemon. I guess to see which one smelled better?

Recipe for making home-made lemonade?

We had no 'real' recipe to speak of but rather we just kept squeezing the lemons and adding water and LOTS of sugar until it tasted just perfect.

After drinking glasses and glasses of fresh-squeezed lemonade we said our good-byes and promised to come back for more lemons and lemonade!