Sunday Morning - Looking at the Disneyland Paris Brochure

Here is a picture of the kids looking at the Disneyland Paris catalogue that just came in the mail. I promised Terence and Mia that once they learned French at the Lycee Francais (French school) then they would be rewarded with a trip to Disney Paris (they actually think you cannot go unless you speak French). We are booked to stay there during their April school holiday. Before booking, I looked online to see if France, Belgium or the UK were on school break at the same time. When I found out they are not on break I booked Sunday - Wednesday avoiding any extra weekend people! Hopefully the weather will be good and there won't be long lines. Regardless, with our hotel room we get a VIP fastpass which allows us to jump up the front of any long lines.

Terence's comments when looking at the park's map was, 'Mama, I just can't stop looking at this. It looks so exciting.' This is a photo of him showing his sisters. Mia likes the look of Magic Kingdom - especially of the night photos of it with lights all over and fireworks in the sky. Terence is memorizing the map and asking lots of questions. He wants to know how many night-nights till we go. I'm going to have to count. Mia wants to look like all the princesses in the magazine. We better remember to pack her princess costumes!

They asked us what the Magic Kingdom is. I don't really remember if you can go inside or what it is other than a Disney landmark. So, I told them it is a place where you can go and have your dreams come true (the commercial's brainwashing has gotten to me as I am almost positive that is their slogan). Terence and Mia are so excited. She immediately shouted out that she dreamed of being 'a beautiful sparkly princess with a diamond on her crown and a sparkly magic wand'. Terence said his dream was to get 'Pokemon trading cards'. They are all over the playground at school and Curt searched high and low in London for them and had no luck finding any. Terence has lots of other trading cards including Yu-gi-oh but Pokemon are the 'in' thing right now!

It is now 9:12am on Sunday and all three of them are enjoying the children's show Lazytown on Nick Jr. Curt is playing tennis with Rav from 9-10am. This is the first time in... probably 7 years that he has played! I hope Rav has lots of patience as Curt is a great player but very out of practice. And I now have to go and make the kids a promised Dutch Baby (giant pancake souffle) for breakfast.

Ali's Newest Things

I wanted to take a few minutes to put down into words some of Ali's latest developments. First of all it is amazing to me that at 20 months of age she is already so nurturing. She has dollies (actually they are Mia's but Mia is not at all possessive) thay she likes to take care of. She covers them with blankets and feeds them. It goes a step further as I have noticed this last week since I've developed a cough. Every time I cough she pats my back. It is so funny and I will try to get it on video as it is so sweet. She also comforts Terence or Mia if they hurt themselves of if Mia is crying about something. She goes up and strokes their back trying to make them feel better. Terence who is rarely a huggy, kissy kid always puts up with Ali's kisses as she wants to pass out kisses often.

Her works are rather Hunglish - a mixture of Hungarian and English. She loves saying 'nem, nem, nem' which means 'no, no, no' in English. She calls Mickey a little made up word that is her version of Mickey. It sounds like 'Tsitsi'. She says 'Boo' for Blue which is pretty close. And often commands Blue to get the ball which sounds something like 'Boo! Bah!' Words that begin with 'B' seem to be easier for her as she also calls Terence the same nickname as Erika, our nanny, calls him, 'Boo-Boo'. It's confusing with when she actually is hurt as she also calls that a 'booboo' but the 'o' sound is a better different than when she calls for Terence. Other 'B' words are 'bahbah' for her bottle and 'baba' for her baby doll.

She's not really interested in making animal sounds other than fish. She looks at us like we have 3 heads when we go through the animal sounds.

She just crawled up on my lap so typing has become a huge challenge so I will finish this later.

Ali and Mia Drawing

All three kids love drawing. Here Mia is describing her picture while Ali works hard on her works of art.

Gum is the Trick to Making Friends

Every day I pick the kids up from school and they are STARVING! Every parent says that this is the case and I think it is partly because they eat lunch very early (11am for Mia's grade), they have no afternoon snack, half the time kids like Terence 'don't like it' so don't eat anything at lunch and my last idea is because they just work it off with all the physical and mental activity that school requires. Most days I take a snack to them so they can dig into it as soon as they see me. Other times we go and get a snack together. In the warmer months we go to the nearby ice cream kiosk and other times we drive out to Solymar on our way to get Ali and stop at the delicious German bakery. Terence always gets a Fahejes Csiga - 'Cinnamon Snail' is the exact translation but cinnamon roll is what we know this as in the US. The ones over here don't have all the melted sugar on it and are probably 1/2 the amount of dough. Mia always gets a Csokis Croissant - 'Chocolate Croissant' (not very German).

Today my plan was to hit the Solymar bakery with them on our way to Heidi Ovoda. Mia couldn't wait and was jumping up and down begging for something as we walked next door (where 1st grade and above is) to get Terence. I found a brand new pack of Strawberry Lime gum (new flavor I found in London last weekend) and gave her the entire pack. Before I knew it she was surrounded by a bunch of kids from her class who were also waiting to pick up big brothers / sisters. Emma, a little Belgian girl in Mia's class, was the first girl Mia gave a piece of gum to. I asked Mia to first ask Emma's mom if it were okay but she didn't get to it until Emma had already popped it in her mouth. Emma's mom, Benedicte, explained that it was her first experience with gum and she leaned over to explain to Emma that she shouldn't swallow it. Or at least this is what I guessed she said as my French is nil.

As Terence came out Emma had convinced her mom to let Mia go home with them for an after school playdate. Mia was very shy about receiving the invitation and looked up at me and said, 'but I'm afraid of dogs'. I reminded her that they didn't have dogs. I only remembered this from Emma's birthday party back in June. Benedicte heard this and repeated that they didn't have dogs and only a cat. Mia looked up at me with a worried expression and said, 'but mama, I'm afraid of cats'. Ridiculous! We have 3 dogs and 2 cats! Benedicte suggested that I drive her over and stay for a couple minutes until she was comfortable, which I did. Terence was upset that he didn't have a playdate but it all worked out because once we got over there Terence ignored Louisa who is in his class for the 2nd year in a row and played with Louisa and Emma's 8 year old brother Felix. They had the best time climbing fruit trees in their backyard. Fortunately, Benedicte invited both of them to stay while I ran off to get Ali from nursery.

After I picked up Ali I came home and dropped off the car and loaded Ali into her wagon. We walked the approximately half a km to Benedicte's home with Blue and got there just after 5pm. They were all having the best time and we agreed to have Emma (maybe Felix too) over next week. It'll be interesting as I seriously don't speak ANY French but kids just seem to understand...

Very exciting how a piece of gum can change the entire course of the day and maybe even the year. Mia and Terence have now befriended some great kids that they were possibly too shy to approach up until now.

My Newborn Terence

Trying to scan some of our favorite photos from BDC (Before Digital Camera) to keep better record of them. Found this one recently of me with Terence. He must have been a week old. It's funny how he was just looking at me trying to figure it all out. I always knew he was wise beyond his years. I remember feeling terrified as I had no idea how to care for a baby. Fortunately he was the easiest baby (until he learned to walk and run and run away and hide ... you get the point) and rarely ever cried. He also always woke only once a night for a feed. Even though it was a blessing for an inexperienced mom it made having a 'normal' baby after that much harder. Mia cried all night and slept all day until she was about 4 months old. Very different experiences. Glad that is all behind me as now we are on to bigger and better challenges. I always hear that bigger kids have bigger problems.

My Book Worm

Love these photos of Terence. He's such a book worm! The one on the right is in his own bed reading his new Richard Scarry book. Actually, he's not 'reading' yet but he's slowly recognizing words but he likes to look at the pictures and look for things to ask me the next night.

The photo on the left is him in February in his sister's bed. He actually likes this science book. I had to read it tonight again and I barely understand it. We read tonight about how a watch works and what the quartz chrystal does and then we read about colors. Very advanced for me but just right for him.

Bike Bruises

Check out Curt's arm. Another biking accident. He was riding up Andrassy to work on Friday when someone opened their car door after parallel parking. The driver didn't see Curt coming along the very clearly marked bike path and opened his door so quickly that Curt just rode right into the door. Curt was at least satisfied that he put a good dent into the car door.

Baseball Videos

These videos are really funny. They are from last night (Sunday) and it's of all three kids taking a turn up at bat during our little baseball practice. First is Terence then Mia in her underwear (she always seems to be running around in her underwear). Last is Ali who doesn't even swing but runs towards first - for a little while. Notice how Blue gets Terence out just before he gets home!

Family Day on Sunday

Everyone slept in a bit this morning. However, we all woke up starving and felt like a big breakfast. Curt suggested our favorite breakfast place - the Four Seasons. The kids love it because it is the only place in town you can get waffles, pancakes, and all the other traditional breakfast items. We really need an IHOP or something here!

After our huge breakfast of extra crispy bacon, fresh berries, fresh squeezed OJ, waffles, soft boiled eggs, bagels, English muffins and smoked salmon we decided to go for a long walk. First I have to mention that Terence decided to try soft boiled eggs today at breakfast time. Twice this week he has tried new foods that he turned out to really enjoy. Earlier in the week he finally tried a cheeseburger which he always insisted he didn't like. Sure enough, he tries it and gobbles it all down. Today he discovered he loves soft boiled eggs and most enjoyed dipping waffle pieces and bacon into it. He remembered Daisy and George's dad's method of chopping off the top of the egg. He copied Matt's egg approach perfectly. (Tracy if you are reading this notice the hat T is wearing. It's one that George left at our home and T loves it. He calls it George's hat and it is always the first one he grabs.)


We decided to walk over to one of our favorite Pest parks at Szabadsag ter near the US Embassy. Curt chose to drive the car over with Ali as he knew the kids would all be too tired to walk back to get our car. During my walk with Terence and Mia we came across a street festival near St Istvan Bazilika where they were invited to sit down and paint at one of the tables. Terence drew an alien with 3 heads, 4 arms and 4 legs and Mia drew a colorful abstract painting.

Book Time

Bestsellers bookstore was our second stop during our walk. Both Terence and Mia adore books but Terence especially is a huge bookworm. He was happy to find a Richard Scarry book that he doesn't have yet. Richard Scarry books are his favorite and today he got the Great Big Air Book. He was glued to it and walked the 3 blocks to the playground with his nose in it.

Gutted Budapest Building

It's typical to see buildings like this while walking through Pest. If I didn't know, I'd think this was a photo of Sarajevo from the mid-90s. Instead it's our home town where they gut out buildings, rubuild the inside then restore the original facade. This is to maintain the architecture and avoid too many new and different buildings from popping up and ruining the flow.

Playground time for Mia

Mia's going round and round on this silly chair that all the kids love to ride on.

Below she is jumping into the sand after climbing up to the top of the train. She's just learned to climb to the train's roof this summer. Nearby is our former employee, Tunde, and her son Viktor who we ran into at this playground. They live in an apartment nearby.

Video of playground time

Terence played so well with Ali today and kept her entertained during the playground visit. He got a star on his star chart for his exceptional behavior today. When he reaches 100 stars he will get a Wii video game by Nintendo. This is what was negotiated ahead of time. He now has about 20 some stars and tries hard every day to get more. The most he usually gets a day is about 2.

Cafe time

Enjoying their new books at the cafe.

Szabadsag ter

This is Szabadsag ter near the US Embassy where we often visit. The kids like the playground (as you can see from the above photos and videos) and we like the cafe that has great lemonades, milkshakes, coffees, etc.

Terence and Mia playing cards

Had to catch these two on video while they played a card game. The game's rules are basically made up by Terence but similar to War. The cards were a complimentary gift during one of our flights on Malev airlines. No one has been able to beat him at his game yet! Nor has anyone else been able to figure out the ever-changing rules.

We finished the day by hitting the newly opened fresh pasta and pizza restaurant called Vapiano. On the company's main website it lists that in November 2007 they will be opening in Dulles Town Center (I put this here for Lisa). It is a really cool new style restaurant that is perfect for Budapest. They have real olive trees growing in the centers of some of the tables. It is huge and there are fresh basil and rosemary plants everywhere. We had to pick up pasta to send John Heisler in the hospital, per his request. We also picked him up 2 slices of Death by Chocolate cake that the nurses told him he couldn't eat for another 6 months. We had no idea chocolate was off druing chemo. We also picked up our dinner - 2 small pizzas and 2 pasta varieties. The restaurant's concept is that you choose 1 of approximately 8 types of pasta (ie fusilli, penne, spaghetti, etc) and tell them the sauce and they toss it together in a wok type pan right in front of you. They hand out cards (similar to a credit card) upon entry that you have to hand each station when ordering. The registers are at the door so when you leave you just hand your card to them which totals your purchases for payment. It was very fun and different.

Thanks for reading. I'm going to go out and play soccer with the family as I am the only one that is now inside. The day (5.26pm) is still beautiful and sunny so I'm going out to enjoy it some more. Especially since I don't have to cook!