Carlitos first step documentation

Posted on April 7, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Today is a big day Carlitos made his first step away from me.

He actually even did not recognize. He was holding a little car in his hands and suddenly he made 3 steps ahead without noticing that he is not holding me any more.

It was funny to see his surpriced face…………like ehhh what did I do? yeah I think I am not sure I should have done it. I am just 11 month old. Soooooo

Here is just short video which shows his later 1 step forward and later his attempt with the help of Edie.

Enjoy …………small step for the man but huge step for his development.

Tagged with: 11 months, baby, baby develpment, Carlitos, first step
Posted in Baby development

Edie is not baby any more he is big boy had 3 years Bday

Posted on April 7, 2012 by zlatavaskova — 5 Comments

3 years is a big day in once child life

And in Eduardo’s life this is a double truth. I can just say that by reaching his 3 years B-day his behavior, skills and all over abilities changed a lot and accelerated.

“Life is like a chocolate box, never knows which bombon you will take and taste.”

– Forest Gump

This post will be as you can see devoted mainly to Eduardo, though his brother Carlitos made improvements also. But Edie deserves to be on the first place in this post.

So Edie and his 3 years story, what is new, what have changed and might be a possible future scenario.

Edik passed his 3 years doctor check up and what came out of it?

His length is 98 cm and his weight was 13 kg.
His skills are mixed, he was able to say colours – half in czech and half in Spanish
His hearing is fine and his vision was only thing we had doubts about. Since he was not able to recognize by one eye the small pictures on the board – but soon we will go for another check up, so we will check his vision again.
His legs are still turning insight although all the specialist said that they are fine. Even though I do not think so. He is falling a lot , luckily it is not bothering him at all.

He is not a cry baby. If he hurts himself he is able to overcome it fast. Though he will be reminding everybody and showing all the people around that he has some scratch. But it is more funny than bothering.
He is very soft. He became very gentle……always if he can, and wants, he is asking for a kiss from me. It is sooooo sweet. Now I started to understand others moms even more, especially those which said “Enjoy now, later they will not want!”. So I am enjoying every little touch and kiss and caress from Edie a lot. Usually when we are lying in the bed and I am telling him story he is caressing my head and kissing me.
He also likes girls. He used to sit next to them, tries to caress their face and kiss them. I have never seen anything as sweet as these moments. Personally I am glad and happy that my love is transfered into his softness and that he is able to share his love with others too.

Which reminds me a fact, that he has his first girlfriend. though I think she choose him. He likes pinky things. And her name is Lucka and she is 4 years old. Edie was always attracted for older girls 🙂 She is nice and they enjoy to be walking hand in hand while going out in kindergarten. He did speak about her at home but I got to know from her mom, because she was speaking a lot about Edie at home. That he is now her Big friend 🙂

He still loves to help me with whatever I need to do. He is already able to cut finely meat ala”chinese style”, he is able to cut vegetable for salad, he is also used to be working with the mixer, sharp knifes and he knows very well how it hurts to be burn and cut but still he loves to help. I am happy and supportive for that.

He also got rid of the diapers definitely also at night. He once said that he does not want and since that time he does not have diapers. Though it does not mean that from time to time he does not have some accident in his bed, but everything can be cleaned and I respect his decision.

Regarding to his PC skills. He is perfectly able to watch and start faitytales on the laptop. He was thought by Carlos how to manipulate with the touch pad and now he can run one fairy tale by another one. Good for his independence, but bad for us. I am happy that he is still more interested in reading books and interaction rather than the PC.

And to make it special for Edie he created his special greeting ritual with me. Always when I am going out without him or he is just saying me good bye he makes following acts: he kisses me, then he does Eskimo kiss with our noses and after he puts his eye on my eye and blinks and then the other. In the end I have to inflate my cheeks and then he pushes them with his hands. That is our lovely ritual which can not be missed.

Eduardos Album and videos:

we also celebrated in Brno

Posted in Uncategorized

9 month report of Carlitos and Edie

Posted on February 18, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Benjamin Franklin once said: “Well done is better than well said”

so let me introduce you our past month from the view of Carlitos and Eduardo and their improvements

Carlitos:

Carlitos is growing rapidly with the smile on his face
He has 3 teeth bottom and before reaching 10 month, he started to grow 3 teeth up….so start to be big fun to breathfeed him. Every time we have our time, I can feel how many teeth more he got 🙂 But lovely. It will never come back
He is eating already 4 times per day. He has breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and also dinner, Rest of the time he has still his loved milk. He is very well eater, he is able to consume about 300 ml of food. Which is a lot. He started also with peaces, It is funny to see him how he is enjoying pasta, or roll……it is everywhere, but he is loving it. He loves to be trying new things and also new tastes. Which is great……I am looking forward the time when I will be cooking only one things for all of us. But luckily I have big helper Edie, who is cooking and preparing with me. Big Chef 🙂
Carlitos biggest toys: small balls in the playgrounds, football ball in our home. He is able to be chasing it for hours all around our home. In this sense his behavior seems for me like of grown up man, because they are able to be running after “something” until they will not get it 🙂 His another favorite game is to take stuff out of shelf and draws. Edie did it a bit, but Carlitos masters this. So we used to have in the end of the day on the ground everything what you can imagine. Boxes all around, clothes from the draws, he is resorting my pots in the kitchen……….and simply seems to be that he just prefers his own order rather than mine. Mom you have it wrong!
Carlitos is very social. Especially today I realize how lucky I am. We spend half of the day in the huge indoor kids playground place. And Edie he was running with the older kids in the big slides and tunnels and Carlitos was with smaller once crawling all around. He just called me while he was hungry or had “full diaper”. Otherwise he was making new friendships with other kids and adults. Nice I have time for coffee and nice cake 🙂
Since he likes music, he is reacting on it if I start to sing or play radio. And he is very social. So I felt to give him more chance to join some activity which will combine these two atributes. So we joined Yamaha Classes (see the video) in KMC (Cultural and Maternity center Knoflik) here close by of our home.
And last but not least thing, Carlitos is about to walk. He is standing on his own without help and we are just waiting for him to do the first step, so lets see.
Carlitos on the snow:

Eduardo

When I was thinking what everything has happened in his last month I am thinking more in stories, so in that case let me say you few:

snow time

Every time I am coming for him and picking him from kinder I hear: Nechci maminku, Nechci domu (I do not want mami, I do not want to go home). So I guess that he is happy in the kindergarden and that he is enjoying his time there. Already during the weekend I am usually listening, Let’s go and see our teacher! …..you know primarily I felt bad, that he does not like me, or that he does not like the time with me. But now I stopped to take it personally and I am more happy that he is enjoying there and that I do not have to be suffering while leaving him there.
Eduardo’s big friend is called Vojta Vomacka. They are very good friends. Vojta is few month older. He is born in September so from Edie it is 5 month. Though he is not any bigger by size. But he is a bit stronger and faster. The curious thing is that they are either playing nicely together or beating each other. With full passion. And even they beat each other in few minutes after they are best friends again and they want to be together playing.
Edie love aunties and their kids. He loves to spend time with our friends so what I feel is that we are much more start to make reunions with other families. Our nice friends are family Martinez with their two kids. Sabina age 3 and David age 6 month. So they have very small difference with our kids and also their couple is mixed. Father is from Colombia and mom is Czech close to Ostrava. We are sharing similar life style, I go with mom Hanicka to play tenis so we can keep fit as well 🙂 And Edie with Sabina and Carlitos with David are enjoying their time nicely as well.
I tested with Edie his joy from cooking. I took him for cooking lecture. It was more or less successful, He enjoyed to be mixing pudding and soft mixed drinks. But I had feeling that it is early for him to do some organized activities.

Edie is great observer. He loves to be watching other kids while they are doing some activity. For example, he was very nice during the performance of yamaha classes in theatre, he love theatre in general. The atmosphere is able to drag him and make him calm. While I asked him if he would like to attend these classes and be performing like other kids he said NO. So i has time. Same experience we got while going skating with him. When I asked him to try it with me, his answer was NO. But he was happy to be watching me and other kids skating. So I will be happy to find activity he will enjoy in the future. Seems to be for me that he will join activities while having friends involved as well.
Thought Edie proved to be fighter and persistent. I like that he is enjoying his bicycle and we are cycling even outside is lot of snow. He fall many times and also many times stood up. But still he wanted to keep going. So it looks for me that while he enjoyes some activity he is able to keep on. I think.
The less unconfortable think is that he is still fighting with Carlos. We do not know why but he prefers only momi. He is pushing him away if I am close by. He does not want to speak Spanish unless I start to speak too.Many times he is really not nice to him and I see Carlos be down by that. But only reason I think is that he does not have enough time spend with him and that Edie does not have that much opportunity to have fun and possibility to create strong connections with him. But who knows!?
Another trouble time is when Edie has his “agains everything time” Sometimes is in the morning, as my mom is saying “he woke up with his bottom up” sometimes is when he is tired or hungry. Or when he wants something and I do not want to give it to him or allow him to do something. Then he start to be fighting with us, saying NO for everything and be in opposition. While reaching this moment He is driving me crazy. And I have to say that now only once my nerves get big hit so he got punished. But after he was fine but my internal feeling was not nice. I know that I need to show him respect to me and that sometimes this is the way to tell him “that is enough” but it is hard. So once I speak about this moments with my friend. Which has same problems with her son. And she told me something what I started to apply and it works. You know Zlata:“When my son start to yell that he wants something or he tries to go agains wall, as we say. I just let him to prove that is not possible. I let him to yell out and I am just thinking that in that moment he feels worse than me and that this behavior is not against me. So at least it helps me to stay calm and not with the feelings I want to kill him NOW” And yeah I tried to think that way and it helped me to stay calm in the moments when I would already hit him to wake him up from his agony. And whole situation resulted in piece on both sides.

So what I have learned: As much as mom stay calm and cold head, the child calms down, eventually, and whole situation can be solved in piece without harming any of the sides. Contrary, if I let him to make my nerves explode, I get very angry. This anger is transmitted to the child and his anger multi plies itself and in the end all of us are crying. So just try my approach and you will see. Hopefully it will help you same way as it helped me.

Now we are already waiting and in few more days Edie will reach his 3 years Bday. So we are preparing celebration for his big day:)

We are also enjoying snow and we also celebrated st. Valentines, the love time for family 🙂

Tagged with: 3 years old child psychical development, 9 months, Baby development, kids fighting with parents, parenting tips, solution, trouble shooting
Posted in Baby development, Parenting

How Edie saved me from my own fears and pain

Posted on February 9, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

To my beloved son Edie, my savior

This post will be special because of two special reasons. The main player will be Eduardo and the second reason is that this will already touch his mental development.

So I was astonished by his behavior recent days and wanted to share with you.

First case study: I promised Edie to go to theatre with his nursery school group. And I was talking about it with him the whole previous week. Because I know how much he likes to be watching popets and movies and simply. He loves to be reading books and telling stories. So I put into my phone callendar the date and time of the meeting with the group. Not to forget about it.

And the day “D” we woke up quite early, we had breakfast and got dressed to be ready. And because I had in my mind that the meeting time is at 9:30 I was sure that we have plenty of time to reach that meeting place. Also Carlos stayed that day at home because I was supposed to have one business meeting later in the afternoon so for easier logistic purposes he was working from home, so I could leave also Carlitos at home with him. So great combination. I could calmly go only with Edie and enjoy being out for short time.

And then we went to the meeting place inside of the shopping mall. Outside was -10°C so it was a good reason to hide for us. Edie felt few times on the ground outside so he did not look any more that clean and ready for theater, but it did not matter that much for me. But then we were waiting 10 min, 20 min, 30 min…and still nobody else was coming. Then I thought lets check the meeting point on the website of the kinder through my phone. And by reading it…….sh..! I messed the time. I felt sooo sad. By my silly mistake Edie lost the theatre he enjoys. And curiously in that moment I realize what have happened. That we missed that I apologized to Edie. That I am sorry, that I am silly but I confused the time of meeting with the others.

And then it happened! When he saw my sad face, he looked at me with his big eyes and said. Mom it will be fine. Do not cry! (Even I was not, thought I was about to). He Carresed and touched my head and said:” you know lets go out and enjoy the snow”! It was amazing feeling. He showed so much empathy in his early age. He saw that I am sad and he made my day better. I was so happy from it and started to feel better. I just thought, THANK YOU EDIE

Second case study: I went for Edie to kinder and because there was in the same time our friend Vojta, we decided to go together with him, his mom Ana and Carlitos in the trolley out. There was a fresh new show fall so I decided that it will be nice time for Edie to enjoy the first snow. But I did not consider that I did not prepare myself enough for the coldness outside. There was about -12°C….. brrrr hell cold. But we were walking with Ana and Vojta, talking, Carlitos was sleeping in the trolley, so everything seemed to be fine. Until Carlitos woke up after one hour and started to cry of hunger. But I could not take him out easily to feed him, because breastfeeding in -12°C is nothing pleasant. So I decided and told Edie if we could go home because of Carlitos is crying of hunger and I would prefer to go home because I was freezing. My feet were getting hell cold same as my fingers.

So what happened on the way. Edie since he had bicycle in the snow he was slow, also on purpose, enjoying the ride. He was falling also on the ground because the road was slippery. So in the beginning I understood his snow game but after a while because of crying Carlitos and my freezing body I could not stand more. So I calmly came to Edie and with the pain in my eyes I explained him what is happening. That I am freezing, that my feet and fingers hurts and that Carlitos is crying because of hunger and also that is not good for him to be crying and breathing cold wind. And I asked him if he could speed up to reach our home faster!

And again I saw Edies gase, his big eyes turn to me. He first kissed me on my cheek, after caressed my head and started to go faster. He was falling on the ground many time, without crying even with the mouth full of snow he stood up and continued riding his bike. He was doing his best, even on the places where he used to have problem to ride his bike he was strong and coped with them and overcame them. I was basically running back home, since I did not feel my fingers already. I was promising myself to get new warm shoes. And Edie was really strong. I was proud of him. And again he showed his strong empathy for his mom and he was behaving as big strong boy. And I realized a that moment how much he has grown.

So few facts to consider:

Edie is 2 years and 11 month old
He is attending nursery school since he was 1,5 year old
He got his brother Carlitos when he was 2 years and 2 month old
And he is starting to communicate in Czech and Spanish in the same time. So it is not easy to for him to grasp the full meaning of the words.

So while having not full 3 years yet he is according to my feelings very nicely psychically shaped. I am surprised every day. There are moments when he is telling me “I do not want to go home with mom from the kinder. It costs us cry and discomfort but on the other hand if needed he shows how much he cares about me. And how much he loves me.

And in this special moments I am realizing the meaning of the sentence which said Eliska, the director of the Edie’s kindergarten

You as parent, you should never think that: 3 years of the kids age are like 2*1,5 year. And also 6 years old baby does not mean by its development double 3 years old. Always you have to consider the unique personality of every child, the environment which the baby is exposed to and also the personal characteristics of the child. And now I see, now I learn and now I accept.

Tagged with: 3 years old child psychical development, behavior child behavior, child mentality, mental development, Parenting
Posted in Baby development, Parenting, philosophy

8 month fairy tale and something more

Posted on January 19, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Here we go, put up your hands because Carlitos reached 8 months and many improvements

Since I am lately not managing to write the posts on time, I try to remind myself by pictures what have happened that time. Though this month was special just because it was Christmas time, because of our New year Eve party with Checo-Latinos friends, because we have spend our first Christmas as only our family and also because I ended my work in Skupiner.cz and focussed fully on Lyoness.

And in the meanwhile Carlitos was growing and unbelievable improving his skills

his weight is now 8,150 Kg and still growing
He is crawling perfectly
He started to sit on 24th of December, he probably decided that to keep checking the presents is good by sitting among them as one of them 🙂
He grown one more tooth, so now he has 3 of them,
He decided also to stood up and he is about to walk
He is still very smiley baby and he will always be as I see. He loves to be caressed by me, he loves to be carried too to see what is happening
He is not that kamikaze like Edie was, he is more careful and even though he loves to observe Edie jumping and making crazy stuff, he is rather sitting and being calm. If i try to through him into the air he looks scared.
Even since little they have such different personalities. Carlitos is calmer, but bigger pain cryer. Edie while punching himself cried always just a bit and then he contined playing. Carlitos not. He wants to be hugged, touched and maybe after a while he will stopped. He is we called it “Mr. Bolistka” 🙂
His favourite toys are Tupperware boxes which I have in the kitchen shelf prepared for him and also draws. He loves to be opening them and closing all over again and again. He also loves to be hitting the floor with something hard so that it can make loud sounds.
Now he is eating 3 meals per day, He is eating a lot, more than 300g vegetables and fruits, he likes mainly everything and he preferes things which I cook for him rather than can food. And no wonder 🙂
Regarding to a sleeping. He is able to fall a sleep on his own during the night. During the day he goes once maximum twice per day. In the morning just sometimes, usually he has nap after lunch. During night he is still waking me up 3 to 4 times. He want to know if we are there. I try to feed him only 2 after midnight and then in the morning. Though he is night bird. He is able to stay until late night. During the new Year party he was up until 10pm with the smile and keeping active.

Edie and his life path

Edik is a very nice boy, growing and improving many skills
He still drives us crazy because of his crying mode, always if he does not want something he starts to cry a lot but we try to be resistant
He loves kindergarden KMC Knoflik now, so I always hear from him that we have to go to see the teachers “deme za pani ucitel” and if I am picking him up he is alway welcoming me with words “I do not want mamy, I do not want to go home” every day the same story. So I start to think that I am a Herodes.
Edicek also started to communicate more and he loves to read books. Before going to bed we try to read him every night. It is demanding but I love his gase, his staring eyes which keeps sliding on my face and are ready to hear the stories which I am creating. He likes also singing but sometimes he just ssssss mum and puts the stay quiet sign on his face. So I respect that too.
He loves to read letters so I went with him through the ABC and by linking different words to the different syllables he will soon be able to recognize most of them.
Edi has already his characteristical behavioral patterns which are also sharing with me his teachers from kinder and it is given on our family behavior. For example if he shows affection he is licking another child od he tries to kiss him/her or he tries to go close enough to touch by noses.
Affection towards Carlitos is shown also by lickig his face, chewing his hands, riding him as horse, playing with him. Doing hide and seek. And in general I have to say that if Carlitos wants to cry Edie always tries to come with something silly to cheer him up. Carlitos sometimes has total laught attacts because of Edie which makes us laugh too.
Edik is also very attached to his grandfather Josef, my dad. Always if I mention his name he want to call him, to be with him and do silly stuff in general. Dad is also a great grandfather he is teaching Edie all the forbidden fun stuff, such as “plazit jazyk” , roll the stairs on the bicycle, jump over stuff, destroy something, eat tons of chocolate etc. Simply spoiling him as grandfather. I can also see how attached they are by the invisible connection.
Edie and his dad Carlos. They are very good friends. Edicek though has many times momities so only me can help him to go on toilet, to bath him, to feed him to read him books etc. There is nobody in the world and he does not want dad to do it for him. But if I am out of home they are the best friends. Playing together and he is following Carlos nicely. But if I am at home……..achhh momiiiii ONLY YOUUUUUUUU…..I think that most of the mothers understand.

And story is over, I mean this month story, the other ones are being written by every day and I am just sometimes sad that I can not share everyday moments, because if I am just observing how my angels are growing under my hands it is unbelievable. And I believe that one morning I will turn and I will be already a grandma which will be reading this lines with grand kids and just having fun about their fathers……….. 🙂

Tagged with: 8 months baby, Baby development, baby sitting, eating, kids improvements, Parenting, sleeping
Posted in Baby development, Parenting

Skiing with the kids, enjoying winter holiday

Posted on January 17, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Dear ski lovers, same as I am!

I try to teach that also to my kids. Thought the best learning is hands on learning, so by showing them that sport is fun and demonstrating on my own I believe that once they will love skiing the same as I do.

Nevertheless the question is now, winter is finally starting and I want to go to ski for one day or maybe a weekend with the whole family in a place close by Prague. So I did a quick search on different portals and which places appeared for these possibilities which I want to share with you now:

Tak nejblíž bude asi Chotouň, je to u Jílového u Prahy. Je to malá sjezdovka, jezdí tam hlavně rodiny s dětmi, ale pro ty je to super. Jsou tam dva vleky a dětský svah. My tam jezdíme rádi, je to blízko a ceny příznivé, můžeš si vybrat od hodiny do celého dne libovolně jak dlouho budeš lyžovat nebo mají bodovky.Tady najdeš podrobnosti: http://www.vlekychotoun.cz
Nebo Monínec: http://www.moninec.cz/, cca 72 Km from Prague
Nebo Ještěd, sice je to není zrovna u metropole, ale po rychlé silnici, z Prahy za hodinku. www.skijested.cz
z Prahy na Severák (Hrabětice, nad Janovem nad Nisou), přijde mi to pro děti z daleka nejlepší, co může být…školička, dětský park s koberci a kolotočem….za 1,2h tam jsme…jezdíme na den, i na víkend s ubytkem v Janově, 2km daleko. Parkoviště tam je zdarma. http://www.skijizerky.cz/ski-arealy/severak/
And for those who are still attached to the Austrian alps, there is also nice article with some tips how to enjoy close by Austrian Alps skying with some Czech advantages.
Padák v Příbrami http://www.skipribram.cz/
Skyareal Kozinec http://www.snowhill.cz/kozinec/kontakt?menu=1, cca 132 Km od Prahy

So let see if we will manage this or another weekend since Edie started to look sick today. But I believe that if we do not manage now we will manager later.

SPORTU ZDAR A LYŽOVÁNÍ ZVLÁŠTĚ

So once I will be happy to enjoy as this sporty mom with her sons 🙂 GOOD EXAMPLE

Tagged with: family winter holiday, skiing with kids, skying, skying close to Prague, Skying in Czech Republic, winter holiday
Posted in kids games, sport & activities

Failure is the biggest learning in our life

Posted on January 11, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Today I have failed, but I missed less than what I have learned

Curious connotation. I just have one of my daily meetings because of my Lyoness business. I know it already quite well I think, to be able to explain. But after Christmas time and new years celebration, more than one week gap, I feel that I need new practice in rhetorics 🙂

Do you know how does it feel if you fail? How many times we have to fail in our life in order to gain something big? How many times had to fail big inventors, sportmen and thinkers in order to bring and achieve something big in this world?

Just today I had my first after new years meeting and I failed in the explanation of the business. But with a smile I have learned many new things:

I know why I failed, in which part of my sales explanation.
I have learned a lot about the business I spoke with.
I created a nice connection with the owner, even we will not have further business together (yet 😉 )
And I have practiced and mastered my YES/NO answeres
I also mastered the preparation of the things I have to bring while having a business meeting in which I have to bring my child
I also improved my presentation skills related to time, I was effective so I was able to explain the whole idea in 18 min, because it was the time in which Carlitos was sleeping in the trolley

And in the end I have to remind myself how feels the failure….. in some ways it is sweet. It just means, you are fine, and you need to keep going and improving yourself. FAILURE IS GOOD, FILURE is the sister of the learning process, FAILURE is the most effective way of on hands learning.

And what STEVE JOBS said on Failure?

If you have never failed you have never lived

Tagged with: advice for failures, failing, failure, make failure, what is failure
Posted in Business, philosophy

Have it ALL, Family, Work and personal time? Possible or Impossible combination?

Posted on January 9, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

HOW TO HAVE IT ALL: Advice From 10 Rockstar Startup Executives Who Are Parents

Dear friends, I just want to share with you my curent thoughts which were described in the best way by Emily Hickey. I love what she said and I think that it is sooo much truth!

Keep reading and you will see 🙂

Emily Hickey, Hashable: “Meditating, my great husband, my great nanny, my naturally relatively mellow son, and keeping an eye on the soft factors of my work are my personal success factors.”

Emily Hickey, CMO of Hashable, mother

Her career:

Emily Hickey is chief marketing officer of Hashable. Before that the Stanford graduate was chief operating officer of PhotoShelter, cofounder of Yeah! Wireless, and VP of product management at Hot Jobs.

Her advice:

I think being a working parent at a startup is a pretty tall order… AKA it’s a total bruiser/ass-kicker! but its doable and you can ‘have it all’ if a few variables are right.

For one, you need not just a great and helpful spouse, but a great marriage. Nobody can be taking things too seriously, stuff can never get blown out of proportion, there can’t be a lot of resentment just below the surface, etc. Humor and lightness really have to be at the core of the family and you have to be psyched that you have a family and sort of constantly aware that you chose to do this and be pretty joyful about that choice. I actually think it’s sort of a trick to be enjoying your family at that level on a daily basis versus just being overwhelmed by logistics and lack of personal time.

Also, you need to love your job and your company. Not just be passionately committed to them, but really have warm relationships with the people you are building your company with and have great ‘soft’ factors at work. The work volume is always going to be intense and your daily feelings of success vs. illusion are always going to be fluctuating, so the bottom-line relationships just have to be great and enjoyable.

You also need to be a complete workaholic with a lot of energy. Most people at startups are definitely that, but throwing a kid into the mix means you have three hours of every weekday that you can’t work, which means you are staying up later to get things done, and then you don’t have a weekend to relax and catch up on stuff, so you have to find more energy internally… So the time sitting at your desk has to be really efficient and you have to be willing to crank late at night, without the possibility of sleeping in – ever – for the next 20 years.

You also need a great outside support system. For us that basically means an awesome, awesome nanny since our family is not local.

To sum it up, there’s nothing you can do at a startup to lessen the volume of work or smooth out the emotional cycles, and being a parent is completely consuming and erratic on top of that. So it’s basically a double startup! All you can do is make sure that at home and at work you have great ‘soft factors’ – otherwise you’ll be in nervous breakdown territory!

One thing I’ve personally spent a lot of time on in the past couple years is meditating and really working on that as a way to keep my mentality light. I would say meditating, my great husband, my great nanny, my naturally relatively mellow son, and keeping an eye on the soft factors of my work are my personal success factors… and I guess I probably drink a few more Bud Lights a week than I used to :).

And if you want to read more truth stories, keep reading here

Tagged with: fun, how to deal with, how to handel working and personal life, kids, Parenting, work
Posted in Parenting

2011 in review

Posted on January 3, 2012 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Posted in Uncategorized

Merry Christmas 2011!

Posted on December 24, 2011 by zlatavaskova — Leave a comment

Merry Christmas!

Veselé Vánoce!

Feliz Navidad!

Enjoy This Short Video, Just Click The image above

I hope that your time spend with your families will be as nice and calm as we had it with our darlings. And I hope that we will see each other also in the next year.

Love you all my dear friends and family.

On behalf of Botero Family

Zlata

Tagged with: Christmas, wish card, wishes
Posted in philosophy