As Jakub is about to turn 2, his preference for toys are now more and more “boy-like.”

He just loves the bike.  Although here in the Czech Republic, it seems like having a bike is mandatory.  Every Czech kid has to have one.  The bike models change as they grow too.

Another machine that is clearly fascinating for him is the train.    On our last trip to Brno,  his dad and his grandpa took him and his cousins on a 1km miniature train ride.  They were beaming with joy.

Although he has been on a real train several times, nothing beats being on a toy train.

I guess seeing the machine in its entirety is better than being inside it

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But if there is one thing that I would like him to love, it is books.    I believe that it is a valuable legacy that can be cultivated at this tender age.  And since we are in a multi-cultural household, he has books in different languages.

Right now, majority of his books are in Czech rather than English.  There are only limited English titles that are available here and some of them are not appropriate for his age.  I’m glad that at his age, he doesn’t mind if I repeat the english stories over and over again.  But recently, my mom-in-law solved the problem.

This is a gift from his grandma – a dual language book!

This is the perfect book for this household.  We have a rule that whenever I talk to Jakub, I will only use English and whenever his dad talks to him, he will only use Czech.  If my parents talk to him, they will only speak Filipino.  That way, he can learn several languages at the same time.

It is funny though because at his age now he is mixing everything.  One day I was teaching him the ABC song and he sang it like this:  “A, B, C, D, už je tady….”  (already here).  Oh well.