Ian's Second Birthday (His First Outside the U.S.)
Today Ian celebrated his second birthday. In Kraków.
He started the day with his baby sitter, Pani Wala, who baked him a cake and brought him a gift of a book about airplanes with text in both Polish and English. She and he played during the morning while Marysia and I went off to see an exhibit about Michelangelo and have lunch on the Rynek Główny (the enormous market square).
Once we returned and Ian had his nap it was time for presents. It turned out to be quite a railroad-centric birthday.
He received:
He did receive two gifts unrelated to transportation:
And to Ian's great joy, there is construction going on in the Rynek, with big dump trucks carting gravel and stones. Oh, he loves dump trucks. So, instead of going somewhere nice for dinner, we purchased "fish and chips" (that's what the menu said, in English) at North Fish and carried the greasy envelopes of fried goodness to a spot next to the construction activity.
Ian was in heaven.
We completed his birthday with lody (ice cream) that we licked while strolling the centuries-old ulicy (streets) of the old city.
And that's how one spends a second birthday in Kraków!
Ian sends thanks to everyone for the fabulous gifts.
Today we began life with a two year old...
He started the day with his baby sitter, Pani Wala, who baked him a cake and brought him a gift of a book about airplanes with text in both Polish and English. She and he played during the morning while Marysia and I went off to see an exhibit about Michelangelo and have lunch on the Rynek Główny (the enormous market square).
Once we returned and Ian had his nap it was time for presents. It turned out to be quite a railroad-centric birthday.
He received:
- A wooden train from Babcia (Galbraith), in the foreground above. It's sort of like a Lego train because you can take it apart and mess around with the individual pieces. He's holding three train parts in his hand in the photo.
- Several Thomas the Tank Engine train engines/cars from Mama and Dada -- directly in front of him.
- Four pieces of train track for #2.
- A book about trains -- to his left.
He did receive two gifts unrelated to transportation:
- A book about puffins from Poppa and Pennany. He enjoys looking at it at bedtime, even though the puffin is not a train.
- An orange t-shirt, trimmed with black, from Mama that has a cool, upside-down bat on it and the inscription: "Choć niektórzy się śmieją, patrzę w przyszłości z nadzieją" ("Although some may laugh, I look at the future with hope.")
And to Ian's great joy, there is construction going on in the Rynek, with big dump trucks carting gravel and stones. Oh, he loves dump trucks. So, instead of going somewhere nice for dinner, we purchased "fish and chips" (that's what the menu said, in English) at North Fish and carried the greasy envelopes of fried goodness to a spot next to the construction activity.
Ian was in heaven.
We completed his birthday with lody (ice cream) that we licked while strolling the centuries-old ulicy (streets) of the old city.
And that's how one spends a second birthday in Kraków!
Ian sends thanks to everyone for the fabulous gifts.
Today we began life with a two year old...