Beach Vacation

This past week we spent in Seagrove/Seaside Florida for our beach vacation. We enjoyed the sand, the ocean, the pool. Girls had a great time. Chris' family joined us as well. Faith and Ruth came from Washington. Unfortunatelly I do not have any pictures of Erfon but there are some pictures of Jonathan-Faith's now fiancee:)
There is tons of pictures here so be ready:)

Washington trip

Late August we went on a very short trip to Washington state visiting Grandma Sue, aunt Faith & Pam and going to Ruth's wedding. we had a great time and wish we could have stayed a bit longer. Emma just loved playing each day in the barn and seeing the animals. A very big hit with emma also was grandma sue's iPhone and some of it's fun games:) We can not forget Saddie, Faith's little dog that was very loved by both Emma and Nora. we stayed at uncle John's house and he has a bunch of animals and things that were of interest to the kids. he also has only one real eye so Emma calls him the one eye man:)This was our opportunity to see chris' grandma too. Emma could not say great grandma and just called her Great Mother. In Anacortes there is a big croatian community so we were able to have a lunch in croatian restaurant one day and I was able to speak croatian a bit with some croatians. IT was all together a nice trip and we were thankful we could go. Below are the pictures from the trip. We do not have many pictures from the wedding. When we get some of the professional pics we may post some of those. The wedding was nice even though we all froze-winds on the island were brutal.

Week 2 - beach and then back in Sisak

Week two we went to beach in zadar-or should i say diklo for those who know better:) We had a good time. Beach with 2 kids has a totally new meaning for chris and I. It's fun and all but there is no more laying on the beach reading our books or things or that sort. It is go go go all the time. And ocassional screaming and fighting of the 3 year old cousins-in spite of their big love for each other. It's that time of their life where everything is MIne Mine and Mine only. But they sure had fun too. They could not do anything apart. Zadar is one of my favorite towns on Croatian Coast. My best friend from college lives there and i often would spend my summers in the area. we got a chance to visit with him and see his 6 months old daughter Lori. And also see his awesome apartment. We went back to Sisak a day early because our last day on the beach was bad weather and rain. That was great because it gave us extra time to spend in sisak with the nighbor kids-Dora, Tamara, Maja, Matija...Emma had a blast just being outside all the time and there was always a bunch of other kids there to play with. Nora loved it also.
We will miss being there even though it is nice to be home again.

In Sisak - week one of our trip to Croatia

Finally i am posting some pics from our trip to Croatia. we have been home for almost 2 weeks but i just did not have much tie to do this. as you can see i am posting pictures from our first week while in Sisak and there is 150 pictures in this slideshow. I picked and picked but these are all the one to capture all the important moments. I have pit captions under the pics so you can more easily follow.
First week we were in Sisak and spent with mom and dad and mateja's fam. my uncle from berlin came to visit also because we celebrated my dad's 60th b-day. It was fun to see everyone and especially Stric Blaz from germany. I learned some of his story from growing up in an orphanage and also learned some stuff about dad. It was crazy with the kids but looking back at photos we had a good time and kids had a blast! My parents did too:
I will post week 2 tomorrow hopefully:)

New York City

This past weekend Chris and I went to visit our friends Patrick & Rachel (for those of you who do not know them - Patrick and Chris went to Law School together, and they were also part of our small group) and celebrate our belated 5^th anniversary in New York City. This has been the first time that we left somewhere for an overnight stay and left Emma with grandparents for a long weekend. I was hesitant in a way because I was not sure how will it be to leave Emma for 3 nights. But Conways agreed to keep her for the whole weekend so we decided to go for it. We had a great time sightseeing, hanging out with friends, going to a Broadway show, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, walking and shopping at SOHO and Fifth Avenue, visiting the Immigrants island (Ellis Island)- Chris thought that was a sight to see since I am an immigrant even though I was barely walking at that pointJ- and so on. I absolutely LOVE New York City. It reminds me so much of life in Europe. Walking places, taking public transportation, common areas everywhere, people all around, grocery store (or your favorite Starbucks) right around the block…..I loved the freedom of not having to worry about the car and parking. I love how Chris was able to walk to the store in the morning and get us some nice goodies for breakfast. We were so blessed with great weather and Flemings being our tour guides. It was so much fun to see them and just hang out. We stayed up late each night and it all reminded me of life before Emma. In spite of all the fun we did miss her and talked about her every day some. We did not want to be boring Flemings with Emma stories but we had a few to share.

We are so glad we were able to do this but happy to be back home and see how excited little Emma was to see us. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

And a few more

In order of appearance: Ana (after college roomate), Jasmina holding Emma in her lap (friend from Crusade), my uncle and cousin Stevo, Mateja's best friend and our neighbor Vedrana and her mom, and last but not least my best friend Melita (this is her 2nd appearance on our blog-haha)

Fun with Grandpa

Emma and Grandpa had a special bond from day one. She was not at all confused with who he is or shy to be held by him. I am not sure what is it with my dad but kids just love the guy. Mia is simply crazy for him and i see emma was very fond of him as well. I am sure if we stayed there much longer grandma and mom would not be much fun anymore:)
In the evening, when everybody would leave and before emma would go to sleep, she just loved laying on the couch with grandpa and touching his face, chewing on his nose, pulling his hair (the little hair he still has) and during the day she just had so much fun playing with his watch and looking at his tatoos.

More of Croatian friends

With Bib, Lara & Hana
With my cousin Tiho and his wife Milena and 3 daughters Petra, Iva and Tihana. Mateja and I were Tihana's age when Petra was born. Wow!
With Stipe and his mom Ivana
With Mia's Godmother Anita
Emma with Vedrana (who is expecting a little girl mid January) and Mateja&Mia

Better late then never

With Dunja & teta Paca- life long friends
With college friend Ina
With my aunt
With grandma's friend Marina (little earlier Emma was cracking up at Marina-apparently she find her very funny)
With Mateja in-laws Slava & Drago (proud grandparents of little Mia)


ok I admit. I have been back from Croatia for a week now and still did not post some pictures from our trip.I am a slacker. Or maybe just busy. Anyway here they are.All for your pleasure:)

Visiting family Tounec

Masa holding Emma in her german look:)
Masa, Vlatko and Emma

Emma was fascinated with the little baby.
Big vs. small
Masa and I with our little girls

My friend Masa(Masha) and her husband Vlatko had a little girl Anja beginning of November. She was just 3 weeks old when Emma, our friend Melita and I came to visit. Anja was sleeping our whole visit(couple of hours long). I told Masa to enjoy those times as i remember Emma sleeping all days and now those days are just part of memories:) Emma of course was moving, talking, investigating the whole time. She particularly enjoying being held and talked to by Vlatko. She even pied on herself so we had to take her tights off and leave her in her dress with some socks-people would started thinking she was German with that fashion sense:)
We had a great time. This was my first time to visit Masa in her new condo so it was nice to see it in person and not just on pictures. Thanks Melita for driving me and Emma.
Anyway, CONGRATS new parents!!!!!!

Time in Croatia

Can't believe how time flies. We are heading back tomorrow. There is sadness because our time here is finished and we will not be back for a while, yet there is joy that we can be back with Chris and enjoy our little family together. We have seen so many people in such a short time. It was very busy and almost each night mom and i would be exhausted and falling off our feet but i would often tell Emma that she is a special one to know that so many people have joy in seeing her and how many love her. There is so many children in the world who are abandoned and not cared for and to receive so much love is even though busy just amazing.
With all the people coming in and out of the house Emma developed a cold and we had to go and visit the doctor. She had so much flem that Monday night she had a major case of vomitting. Of course this was her first time doing that and i little bit freakish experience for me but she (like most unpleasant things that hit her) she handle it with such ease. The next day she continued to have a bad caugh and i figured with us traveling later in the week (and also to get the worried grandparents off my back) we went to visit the doctor. Now this is only possible in Croatia, where life is financially hard , but people still live in friendly terms and not just for profit. Mateja called her pediatrician and explained the situation. She allowed us to come and bring Emma, examined her and prescribed her some medicine on Mia's name so we can get them in the pharmacy with no extra chanrge but only co-pay. She also did not even charged mateja co-pay for the visit. She considered it a favor. I immidiately thought of insurance stuff and extremely high prices of medical care in America. We for sure were grateful that Croatia is still a little socialistic
So many people brought so many gifts for emma that we are traveling back with the full 2 bags. I am excited about all the books she gor so we can read in croatian (when she gets a little bit bigger- all she wants to do now is eat the books), CD with music as Emma just loves music and singing and dancing, lots of cute clothes for older days....
I need to run now.Hoping our last day will be spend in peace with Mateja's family and my folks. Like i said earlier there is sadness to leave but joy that we can see Chris again. I know our next trip will be different as emma will be bigger and there will not be nursing and pumping and other little baby tricks, but i learned that I am not doing this kind of trip again without Chris. I may be patetic in a way but we can not do without him.
I guess i'll see you all Atlantans soon!!!!!

With friends

Emma has met lots of new friends in the last week. People have been coming each day excited to meet her finally. She is such a social one and smiles and plays with everyone. You can hear comments like "wow, she is so nice", "look at her she smiles at everyone", " Wow, emma is very active, she looks like she will jump out of your arms"...Mainly impressive comments. I have to say that i have been impressed myself with my little one at how she is handling all the visitors, all the new faces, everyone wanting to hold her...God really did create her accordingly:)
We have enjoyed our first week in Sisak. After first 3 days of adjusting to the new time (again very impressed it took her only 3 days), we are enjoying taking cold walks, going to town, seeing cousins and friends... Here are some pictures of Emma with her uncle, with marija, with melita, neighbor nikolina and teta biba

Two cousins

Here are two cousins together. Mia is 7 months and Emma is 5 months old

Travel pictures

Here are some pictures to show you all how happy emma was during her travels. She enjoyed her nice bed as well. Thank you Lord Jesus for providing that for us!

We made it to Croatia!

Emma and I made it to Croatia safely. I wanted to write a little about the flight and give report of Praise to the Lord for how wonderful that was. We left home at around 2pm on Thursday and chris drove us to the airport. We were kind of bummed because we knew emma did not get a bassinet seat on the flight and i was to hold her in my lap the whole flight. For those of you who are not sure how long the flight is we go for 9 hours to Germany and then another 1 ½ to Croatia. People often told me to just make sure that i have something for her to drink or chew on while the plane takes off and for landing. So i was prepared for the worst and with my previous travel experience i knew od screaming babies during those times. I was nervous and prayed earnestly that Emma will be ok with all this.

Our first Divine surprise came when we sat on the full flight and realized that there are 2 additional free seats right by us (we were sitting in the middle where there are 4 seats). For those who have experience with international travel you must know that those flights are ALWAYS full. This was amazing. Emma was able to sleep, i had soem extra room for all the stuff i had and my pump and mom had her own seat to enjoy as well. Emma did amazing on the both flights. She did not cry at all during our travel, was eating with no problem, sleeping when she neded...We really had no problem at all. God really blessed us with so much more then i ever thought (i hope that the same will be true when i am coming back all by myself).
Having my mom there also was very helpful as she was able to play with emma if i needed to go to the bathroom, or pump for her to eat, or just simply do anything.

We have been in Croatia now since Friday (3 days) and thinsg are getting better with Emma adjusting to the time change. The first afternoon/night was rough as she was very confused about whet is hapening, in a totally new enviroment, with new faces. She cried for a full hour (which she never does) from how tired she was and confused. Mom and i cried with her. It was a sad sad sight. She went to sleep at 2.30am (which was her regular sleeping time in Atlanta 8.30pm). She did not wake up once after she slept and i woke her up that next morning at 10am so she can slowly start adjusting to the time. She does real good during the day and then at night she starts getting a little fussy. The 2nd night she was in bed at 12 so i realized she is slowly moving towards the european time. I had to wake her up at 7,30 in the morning so she can start getting even more adjuted (she usually wakes up at 6.30 in Atlanta).
The 3rd night she was sleeping already at 11pm (with a 30 minute crying introduction (mom and i did not cry this time)-have no clue why as the previous night she did not cry) and woke up at 7.30 in the morning. So even with this we see how God is adjusting her to the new time.

We have not had an overwhelming amount of visitors yet. People have been calling us but have waited to storm in for emma to adjust better. We had about one a day. It is fun to see how excited people are to meet emma in person. She has been checking them all out, sometimes smiling and then a minute later crying and back...But she is doing good with new visitors. This morning my mom's friends came and she was laughing so hard for them-they did not know they were so funny
With all that again i find it amazing how emma has never cried for my dad or mateja. She has accepted them and always loves to be held by them and talk to them from the moment she saw them at the airport. It is like she knows they are related.
She and Mia are just looking at each other, but it seems like they are still confused as to who the other peson is. It is interesting to watch.

I think this si long enough and hopefully gives you all a picture of the last few days. We had our laughs and our cries but all together it has been enjoyable. I miss chris a lot and have decided never to do this type of without him. I need his calmness to balance my passion.
I hope i find some more time again to write about our croatian adventures.

Pictures from our trip to Paris

Click on a picture to see a larger view