Tuesday was Tadhg's actual 2nd birthday. Tadhg marked the celebration with a fourth (and final) birthday party in his school with his schoolmates. Mom and dad were allowed to stay in school for the special occassion. Mom had made some special birthday cup cakes and the teachers organised birthday hats and decorations for the celebration. Tadhg's class sat around the table enjoying Tadhg's birthday cakes and Tadhg's teachers brought out a special birthday present for Tadhg (another truck!).
Tadhg was a bit nervous about returning to school after his long weekend away, but enjoyed the birthday hats and the lovely birthday present from his teachers. It has been a long celebration for Tadhg's birthday celebration with lots of parties so it was almost an anti-climax on the day itself. Mom and dad celebrated with some champagne at the actual time of Tadhg's birth and marvelled at how much their little guy has grown in the last 2 years.
Monday was Tadhg's last day in Dublin. In the morning he waved bye-bye to Uncle Eddie and Maria (and thanked them for putting Tadhg, mom and dad up for the weekend) and went into Dublin to meet his friends Jamie and Amelia and their mom. Jamie is a real little boy of 3 now and has started school as well and Amelia has grown into a real little toddler. Tadhg enjoyed visiting as Jamie and Amelia had loads of toys to play with.
In the evening Tadhg, mom and dad flew back to Prague. Tadhg was sleepy when they arrived in Prague and fell asleep in his buggy on the way home. Everyone was happy to get back home after a great weekend in Dublin. It's been a busy few months of travelling but now is the time to get fully into the schedule of school for Tadhg and new job for dad.
Tadhg flew to Dublin on Thursday night to spend the weekend with his Irish family and friends. It was a late flight so Tadhg slept for most of the journey and spend Thursday night in an airport hotel.
On Friday, Tadhg, mom and dad got up early and went for a swim in the ALSAA swimming pool close to the airport. Then, after a morning nap for Tadhg, they picked up a rental car and drove into Dublin to meet with Tadhg's old friend Lochlann, Loclann's new sister Keeley and their mom. After a quick visit with dad's friend Edel where Martin and Aoife showed Tadhg all their toys, they hi the road to Uncle Eddie's house in Celbridge.
Tadhg was happy to see his Uncle Eddie and Maria again and quickly settled in to his new surroundings. On Saturday morning, Tadhg's Irish grandparents came to visit. Tadhg showed his entertainer side to his Irish family and really enjoyed being the centre of attention. In the afternoon, Tadhg, mom and dad went to see Tadhg's friend Reuben and his dad. After another busy day of visiting Tadhg was happy to get back to Celbridge and his bed in preparation for his Irish borthday celebration.
Tadhg and dad took their last trip to the zoo before dad starts work and Tadhg stays full half-days at school. It was a beautiful end of summer, Prague day and Tadhg enjoyed taking the zoo train around the enclosures. At the first train stop, Tadhg went to see the gorillas before wandering around the cat enclosure and seeing the lions and tigers lounging after having lunch.
On the way out, Tadhg wandered into the Gharial (small Indian crocodiles) enclosure and was amazed to see the little crocodiles swimming around their large tank with turtles and fish.
It was a great day out and dad was happy to be able to spend quality time with his little man before starting work next week.
Tadhg's mom and dad registered Tadhg on the waiting list for a local play school a while ago and finally got the call when they were in Canada that Tadhg had a place at the school. As Tadhg's dad will be starting a new job on October 1st, Tadhg started school on Monday to get used to it.
Tadhg's first few days were planned to be for an hour or so to ease him in. On Monday morning, Tadhg put on his new school clothes and mom and dad walked him the short distance to the Happy Child school. After changing into his slippers, Tadhg went into the classroom and mom and dad said good-bye after getting the little guy settled. Mom and dad were sad to wish him farewell and thought about him the whole time he was there. He's such a little boy now!
After an hour, mom and dad rushed down to pick Tadhg up. When they went into the classroom, Tadhg was happily wandering around the room playing with toys while the other kids were sitting having their snack. The teachers said he was fine, so mom and dad were happy to take him home and hope he'll settle in quickly.
Tadhg got a present a trainset from Jake and Jake's mom at his birthday party on Friday. This is Tadhg's first ever trainset and he loves to build the tracks (with help from mom and dad) and push the choo choo around.
Mom and dad have been talking for some time about getting Tadhg's increasingly unruly hair cut, so on Saturday they finally decided to bring Tadhg to the hairdresser for the big cut. Mom's hairdresser, Mark, had been booked for the big event. Mom and dad had prepared by bringing a computer with lots of new Sesame Street videos on it to keep Tadhg distracted during the cutting.
Tadhg was happy to sit on mom's lap during the cutting and was engrossed in the videos during all the snips and cuts. He didn't cry or complain once so Mark was able to have a good go at Tadhg's hair. It was amazing to see how much hair came off and Tadhg looked like a real little boy at the end of it.
Mom and dad kept some of his first golden curls as a keepsake of their little baby.
Tadhg visited the recently opened model railway world in Andel on Thursday. Tadhg's two buddies Raphael and Jake (and their mum's) came along as well. Tadhg was wowed by the little trains, cars and trucks moving around the miniature towns. Tadhg (well mostly dad) thought it was cool the way the exhibit changed from day to night every 10 minutes with the room lights dimming and the train lights coming on.
Unfortunately the model railway world is still being built so only about 20% is currently on view. In 2010 they plan to have a scale model of the entire Czech Republic rail system which should be interesting. Tadhg (and his dad) will return to check out the extensions to the exhibit.
As Tadhg's birthday celebrations began almost a month early, Tadhg has many birthday cards to admire and enjoys sitting at the table reading the nice messages and pictures.
To end what has been an exceptional fortnight for flying, Tadhg flew back home to Prague on Sunday night/Monday morning. Tadhg was a great traveller once again and slept for most of the 7 and a half hour flight. He woke up just as the plane landed in Prague.
Tadhg was truly excited to be back in his own apartment and spent his first hour home going through his toy box and book shelves. Eventually he got a bit tired and had a long nap which meant mom and dad could have a nap too!
The 5 hour timezone change from the eastward journey was difficult to adjust to and Tadhg took quite a few days before he was back on schedule (which meant mom and dad took quite a few days as well). He does enjoy wearing his new pj's (a birthday present from Canada) and riding around in his cooler box blowing a whistle pretending its a choo-choo-train.
On Saturday, Tadhg invited everyone over to Auntie Kay's house to begin his second birthday celebrations. More birthday celebrations are planned for Tadhg's playgroup buddies in Prague, with his Irish family in Dublin and finally on the big day itself.
It was another beautiful day on the beach so Tadhg and his cousins made the most of the great weather playing in the garden, running along the beach and swimming in the lake.
Evening arrived and so did Tadhg's fire-engine themed birthday cake. Tadhg enjoyed blowing out his birthday candle so much that he had to repeat it numerous times saying "more" when the candle went out! Tadhg was starting to get sleepy after a busy day but still had time to open his first set of presents.
Yet again Tadhg had an action packed day and was quickly asleep when he finally got to bed.
On Tuesday morning, after a fun filled trip to Vancouver, it was finally time to fly back to Toronto to spend some time with Tadhg's Canadian family before the long flight back to Prague. Tadhg had a great weekend and enjoyed going to his first ever wedding!
Tadhg, mom and dad enjoyed some time wandering around the airport shops on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Tadhg especially liked the big, soft and cuddly Orca outside one of the shops (if only there was a bag big enough to take it home!).
Tadhg was a great traveller once again although he missed (or really mom and dad missed) the large, business class seats they had on the way over.
Tadhg's mom's friend, Bill, picked the gang up at the airport and took them on a tour of the church he is converting before hitting the road again to Auntie Kay's house. It was another long day of travelling and Tadhg was happy to get back to his comfy bed.
Tuesday was Tadhg's actual 2nd birthday. Tadhg marked the celebration with a fourth (and final) birthday party in his school with his schoolmates. Mom and dad were allowed to stay in school for the special occassion. Mom had made some special birthday cup cakes and the teachers organised birthday hats and decorations for the celebration. Tadhg's class sat around the table enjoying Tadhg's birthday cakes and Tadhg's teachers brought out a special birthday present for Tadhg (another truck!).
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