The Culveys… Czeching In - Aug 2006

Ok, This time we have an excuse for taking so long to update you, and that is 2 KIDS!!! Yes as you all know Kai arrived in April and changed our lives once again. Before we get in to that though, lets start at the beginning of the year.

As usual January was absolutely freezing with lots of snow so getting around was a bit crazy. Thankfully towards the end of the month the roads were clear and we headed over to Switzerland to see Saada, Ben & Yasmin in Zug. The drive down was pretty good, India was great and amused herself with books and drawing throughout the 10 hour drive. We were met with a surprise and that was warm weather! Not what you expect in Switzerland in January.

It was great seeing the Thurleys again and India had a great time with Yassy, in particular dancing to Madonna, and the musical phone box in Lucerne was classic! As Lyra was heavily pregnant and Saada was in the club too we didn’t attempt to ski, but did manage a morning sledging that was great fun.

All too soon though it was time to hit the road again and head back to the frozen land of Prague. Only for a few days though as it was time for Princess India to celebrate her 2nd birthday! It was off to England for a party just like last year. Everyone gathered at Heyford Village hall and we were even entertained by a clown! Many thanks to everyone who made the journey to see us we all had a great day and India loved her presents!

Our lasting memory will always be the kids all crowded around the cakes, eyes popping out of their heads desperate to get their hands on them! We must say a great big thanks to Sue Heard for the amazing

Nemo cake, and to Grandma Peck for the lovely (and extremely popular) fairy cakes!

March came and and we celebrated an insignificant ‘mid thirties’ birthday for myself with a slap up meal at Cowboys Steak House in Prague, special thanks must go to Brendan for accidentally spend £200 on a bottle of wine for me ( those exchange rates can be tricky!!) but we all enjoyed it immensely!!

As we entered into April, the tension was mounting! Especially for Lyra’s clothes! Our little unborn boy was growing alarmingly large!! Lyra was really finding life hard work, but in true Lyra fashion she didn’t slow down at all, in fact the week before the birth we took ownership of the apartment in Prague and spent most of the week rushing between the bank and the Notary!!

Saturday the 8th arrived, this was the day of the C-Section! It was a really weird experience compared to India’s birth, very relaxed and civilized. We trundled down to the hospital for 9am, made ourselves comfortable, then we wandered up to the delivery room / operating room. Lyra had her epidural, I took a seat, the surgeons crowded around, and in a matter of minutes out came our Big Boy Kai!!!

12:45 pm, 4.4 kg (9.68lbs), 51cm long, a bit purple but otherwise he was just perfect!

Lyra needed 5 days in hospital to recover and was in alot of pain following the C-section. Just to add to her troubles she trapped a nerve in her back and was regularly short of breath with pain.

Kai on the hand was doing great, feeding well from the boob and putting on weight like nobody’s business!!

We introduced India to Kai after a couple of days and she instantly fell in love with him! She was so gentle and loving it brought a tear to your eye. There was none of the jealousy we expected she was just wonderful.

It was only a matter of weeks later, and a matter of hours after we got Kai’s passport and it was off to the UK to introduce Kai to Great Grannie! It was great to see the two of them together. 4 generations apart (88 years) age difference, a memorable moment for sure.

The trip also included a day out at Longleat safari park with Nanny & Grumpy, and Grandad Peck who came down from Northampton. It was a fabulous day out India was completely beside herself with excitement, we spent so long with the Giraffe’s and Zebra’s that once we got on to the other parts of the park she was out cold! She then slept through the rest of the park!! Luckily she woke up in time to go through the petting zoo and India’s highlight, the narrow gauge railway, to this day she is sure she met Thomas the tank engine!!!!

Still, after all that excitement, there was more to come as we flew to Majorca for 2 weeks at the Marriott resort. We were joined by Chris for the first week and Abi and Kiera flew out for the 2nd. We all had a fab time, especially around the spa pool (the water was about 35C!), we couldn’t keep India out of the pool and by the end of the holiday she was swimming ion her own with her armbands!!

Once back home, work was really busy for me as my final 2 DC’s were approaching go live. The weather went crazy, temperatures hit 40C and stayed there for two months! Even at night it was about 28C!! Needless to say there was a long stream of BBQ’s and Pool party’s.

We also welcomed Steph, then Grandad & Grandma Peck for fleeting visits. Then we pulled on the leather trousers and took a trip down to Bratislava to see Depeche Mode perform an amazing stadium gig, they’re oldies but still bloody great!! To top off the month I went to see Spain thrash the Ukraine in Leipzig, a great day with all the hospitality, the only problem was our driver didn’t have a clue, so we missed the first half as we were flying around Eastern Germany looking for the ground, then on the way back he crashed the minibus!!

Towards the end of June we flew out to Bulgaria to check out are investment in St Vlas, the apartments (yes Mum, that’s plural) were almost completed and we are really happy with them. Prices seem to be on the rise and we at last saw the resort in peak season which was really great, much more family biased than we had expected.

A gathering occurred in July when James Blunt played at Prague Castle. We had Chris and Kate from the UK, Abi was due to come but thanks to Easyjet she never made after they cancelled the flight!! Even without Abi, it was a great night, we went with a rabble of about 14 people. it was a great fun night, perfect weather, picturesque setting, plenty of beer (once we’d queued for 2hrs), good music, only one thing wasn’t perfect....we couldn’t see the man!! The venue was less than perfect for the number of people there so we ended up listening but not seeing him!!

India has developed a passion for cars over the last year and her dreams came true when Disney released ‘Cars’ the movie, we took her to the cinema for the first time to see it and she loved it!!!! She is Lightening McQueen!! She says the cinema was ‘a bit scary’ but is now completely obsessed with the movie, the DVD cannot come out quick enough!! 

One reason for the gap in communication is that our PC had a meltdown, which was the perfect excuse to switch to the much desired (by me) iMac!! The only problem we found was that I had bought such a big one that we couldn’t get it on a plane in hand luggage! Only one alternative, drive to the UK and pick it up! Ly and I drove through the night to reach Northampton in 18hrs! We filled the car up with Mac’s, hostess trolley’s, wine, and a few toys, said hi to couple of people then hit the road again and drove back in 15hrs straight!

Following hot on our heals from the UK was Ali, Rich, and the kids. A week with the boys was like heaven for India and they had a ball. Much time was spent in the pool, eating far too much, and hugging the ever growing Kai!!

So there you go that brings us up to date. Kai is starting his journey into the world of real food, India is talking endlessly and getting to grips with the ‘big toilet’ as she says goodbye to nappies, Tan is preparing to start working with our great friends Anna & Harry as they have recently had twin girls, Fien & Tess (Congratulations!!). So with Christopher and Noa too she is going to have her hands full! Lyra is working hard to get back to her peak fitness, and preparing to have her hernia sorted (back to hospital again!). For me, I am finishing off the opening plan of my DC’s and looking for a new adventure. We should know real soon so we’ll keep you posted!!

Sorry it was such a long one and we’ll do our best to update you more often now we are posting to the web in this our very own weblog!!

Take care, come and visit soon or it’s going to be too late!!

Lots of love,

Dan, Ly, India, Kai, and of course the basement dweller Tan!