Many New Posts

Enjoy. I have posted many new entries over the last 2 days. I'm catching up and still have a few more that I want to add but there's not enough time in the day. Curt and I are now a day behind as we were both down with a stomach bug yesterday. He was in really bad shape and spent the morning on the floor next to the toilet. I couldn't believe he actually took a day off work which he hasn't done in... probably forever! This is how I knew he was in bad shape. He slept for probably 36 hours! I think his body just collapsed after a month of going 100 mph. We had 3 conferences in a row in October and a conference consists of meetings from early in the morning to the early evening followed by dinner and an evening out. Then, we returned to a weekend in Slovakia and a new potential partner in town for 3 days (so more nights out after work). Add 3 kids and a household of hungry animals and it'll run anyone down! This is why Curt is so strict about riding his bike to and from work every day. Not only is it great physical exercise but it keeps him going mentally everyday. It's the only time of day that he doesn't have his mobile on his ear or his Blackberry going. I, too, have become mad about exercising. Always have been but in the past I've worked out 3 - 4 days per week but now I have to do it everyday. It's better than coffee! It boosts my energy level like 5 espressos. On top of it, I've hit an age in my life that I now work out to live longer not to look good. The latter is a plus. It must be working because in NY when we were near Rockefellar Center a young guy stopped us and opened up his conversation with, 'We are looking for some good looking people to come and sit in the front row of our audience...' Before he could finish, Curt and I bust into laughter. We both looked over our shoulders! He started again with, 'You are really good looking and we'd love for you to come and sit in our front row for tomorrow morning's Today Show'. How flattering is that?!

Anyhow, enjoy my newest blog entries and check back again soon as I'll be updating it again soon. Now, while the kids and Curt are all fed and watching Narnia next to the roaring fire, I'm going to go downstairs and work out (elliptical machine then weights and sit ups). Hope to hear from you all soon.

Mia is so Diplomatic

I noticed this about Mia a while ago. She's incredibly, naturally talented at not hurting people's feelings. If you ask her a question like, 'Who is a better cook?' She will say both of you or everyone. Or, 'Who is your best friend?' she'll reply with something like, 'I like everyone!'

Today she came home with the boys from Rozsakert after getting their flu shots and I offered her a piece of Apple Cake (my mom's recipe) that I had just pulled out of the oven about 15 minutes earlier. She was excited at the word 'cake'. She quickly came over but when she realized that my version of cake didn't have any chocolate on / in it her face looked less excited. I asked her again if I could cut her a slice. Instead of answering something like 'yuck' or 'i don't like it' she said, 'No thanks Mama. I want to save room for dinner so I will have a slice instead after dinner.' This is SO Curt! This is her way of telling me that the cake doesn't look good to her. It's amazing that at 4 years old she can be so thoughtful. She's always been like this as long as she could speak. She's so sweet.

CINDERELLA

On the same day Terence had Arnaud over for a play date, the girls decided to wash the floor. At first I gasped out in shock and was upset at the mess but then I took a breath and realized that they were actually doing a great job of cleaning the floor!! They were both on their hands and knees (not in these photos as Ali jumped up after being discovered) and scrubbing away. The floor was spotless after my 2 Cinderellas were done with their chore!

Nov 6 - Arnaud Comes to Play

Arnaud is in CP (1st grade) with Terence but is in a different class. Arnaud's personality is very similar to Terence's. This is the first time Arnaud came over for a playdate but Terence has been to Arnaud's before. He loved going to Arnaud's home because Arnaud is one of three boys. Terence always wishes for a brother. Here they are playing like 'boys' do... with swords! Arnaud is actually Belgian and speaks French and Flemish. His father is with the Belgian embassy and his mother just joined my Wednesday tennis group. She's excellent and we really enjoy having her in our group to keep the level up and make the 2 hour game a great work out! Before Budapest they lived in Saudi Arabia. Kathleen was making me laugh by saying that after she'd play tennis in Saudia Arabia she would just slip on her big robe-like burka over her tennis skirt and t-shirt and head home. She just had to be careful that her ankles didn't show. Could you imagine?

OUCCCHHHHHH

FLU SHOTS - boo hoo! Ali and I had our flu shots on Tuesday but Curt took Terence and Mia today for their flu shots after Terence's football and Mia's dance class. To be honest, Ali is the easiest of the bunch. I think the hardest thing for Terence and Mia is the idea of it and they get upset way before it's even time. Ali doesn't have a clue and cries for about 30 seconds until she sees a snack in front of her.

Here Terence and Mia are showing me their bandages and giving me their sad faces.

Here's a photo of Ali sleeping at nursery school. She sleeps on a mat on the floor now with about 10 other kids between the ages of 1 year and 2 1/2 years of age. There are a couple babies under 1 year there but they sleep in cribs like Ali used to.

Ali just saw this photo of herself on the screen and shouted out 'Mine'. She doesn't yet say 'me' but she says 'mine' when she sees herself. Her other new word is 'foo' and it means water or drink. It took me forever to figure this out as it's not Hungarian or English. It's Ali-language. She said it over the weekend and kept pointing at her mouth. Finally she grabbed my hand, pulled me over to the fridge and made me open it. She then pointed at a box of juice. I asked her, 'do you want something to drink?' and she nodded her big nod yes. I wasn't sure if 'foo' only meant drink until yesterday. I asked her where her duck was. She has this little yellow rubber duck that she loves. She carries it around and calls it 'Nana'. Not sure why as it looks nothing like her 'Nana' (Curt's mom). She didn't know where it was and looked at me and asked 'hol a nana?' (see my blog post from a couple days ago explaining her Hunglish language and you'll understand this better). I told her that I didn't know where her duck was but maybe it was in the bath - I was trying to get her towards the bath to join Mia anyway. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bathroom while repeating 'Nana. Foo. Nana. Foo.' In Ali language this means 'the duck is in the water'. Only I understand her. Curt has no idea and she gets very frustrated at trying to communicate with him. He just says 'that's nice Ali' or 'good girl' or 'really?' It's not much different with me now that I think about it... Just kidding!

It's rather unusual for Hungarians to send their kids to nursery school before the age of 2 years of age. A Hungarian woman gets 3 years maternity leave. Her job or at least another job of equal salary / rank must be kept open at her last place of registered employment. Her salary (not 100% the entire time) is paid out for all 3 years. We must have about 12 women out on maternity leave right now. We are responsible for their salary up to so many months then their socialized benefits (which we've paid into during their full time employment) kick in. The Hungarians population is decreasing drastically and it's normal for a Hungarian couple to have only 1 child. Many of them that I have met said that they usually have to make the choice of a home (other than with their families / parents) or a child or 2. The Hungarian government is coming up with many incentives for mothers like the 3 years paid maternity leave. If a Hungarian woman has 3 children, it is considered equal to a full time job and they are paid out a full time salary until, I believe, the children are all over 18 years of age. As of January 2006, the government passed another law that in addition to a monthly payment, a large lump sum would also be paid at the time of the child's birth. I'm not sure what the equation is as to how they figure this out but I know that I benefitted from this new law with Ali and got just under 3 million HUF in CASH via registered mail. Curt signed for it so I think I only saw half of it ;-) Still, it's a huge incentive! (No, I am not pregnant again!)


In addition to all of this, the Hungarians do not have to pay for nursery school or public school in their district. Heidi Ovoda where Ali goes is a private school so there are quite a few German children (they speak Hungarian mostly but all the teachers speak German and they teach about 15% of the time in German) and a lot of wealthy Hungarians. One of them being the most successful, wealthy in Hungary. Ali and their son, Norbi Jr. are inseparable! They hold hands everywhere they go. She calls him 'shoo-shoo'. I included a photo of him with Ali taken this summer at the pool when they went wth Marcsi, Brigi and their family. His father (also Norbi) has become famous by developing a Weight Watcher type program in Hungary where all his foods (sold at all grocery stores) have points and you add up points / day rather than calories or fat. He now is one of the 2 trainers on Hungary's show 'Biggest Loser'. Norbi and his wife (she's also a fitness guru) are huge celebrities here and everyone falls all over them. Then there is me who called Norbi's mom, Rita rather than Reka by accident one day. I wonder if she's aware that their fame in Hungary pretty much stays in Hungary? Nonetheless, their children (they also have a daughter, Lara, that is Mia's age) are adorable!

Ali just saw these photos of her 'Shoo-Shoo' come up on the screen and she shouted out 'Shoo-Shoo' and kissed the screen.

Here they are with Marcsi who owns and runs the school.

Here are some recent Ali videos. I love the one of her eating spaghetti. Kids and spaghetti are a funny thing!

Here Ali is playing with Mia's friend, Keira (almost 4 years old) and then Keira's big brother, Riley (12 yrs).

Terence is getting by at school. Curt and I were both talking today that if he were at an English speaking school (or possibly even at a Hungarian speaking school) he would be cruising with ease. It's only his second year at the French school and now being in the 1st grade it is tough. On Thursday and Friday after school he fell into a deep sleep in the car. He's mentally exhausted and finding it a huge challenge. Rather than getting a tutor to help him at home, the French school has offered for him to spend an extra hour after school on Mondays with his teacher. Additionally, I have him in a French after school activity on Tuesday and on a football team on Saturday mornings. This way he gets extra practice speaking French or at least being in a French environment. We've also started having more playdates with French speaking kids from his class / school. The weekend in Slovakia was also helpful as Bruno is Belgian so Terence spoke a bit of French with him and his children: Sophia, Matthias and Arnaud (well not really Arnaud as he's only Ali's age). I don't think the only challenge for him is the language but also the writing. They are learning to write in script (aka cursive) and it is not easy! I've scanned how the French curriculum writes their letters. A bit different than how I learned:



The other day Terence asked me, 'Mom, you know how we call letters the alphabet, what do we call numbers?' Good question! I told him there was no name other than the 'numerical system'. Am I right?
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Terence drew this picture below at school in October. He brought it home recently to show me. He named all of us and Dada was last. Guess which one he is? The one with the frown. Terence said he drew a frown on him because he seems so sad from working such long hours / days all the time. He also described Curt as having a 'square neck' - not sure what that means... Mia is the one with the big teeth because she smiles all the time.




Side note: Terence's feet right now are size 36 European this is about a size 3 US

Mia's version of school

On Thursday when I picked up Mia from school I noticed there was a medical evaluation test in her little book. She has a book that the teacher's put notes into for the parents (ie about upcoming field trips, school projects, etc). Whenever her book is in her little cubby hole I know it's because there's a note for me to look at. The notes are always in French but sometimes they are accompanied with a Hungarian version. Between the 2 I can usually work it out.

When I opened up her book I found her medical test results which mainly consisted of height (113.5 - she towers over all the kids at school), weight (20.5) and what I guess are things like blood pressure (I've included a copy below). I inquired about the doctor visiting her class today at school and she confirmed that the lady doctor did come and visit them at school today. Then she told me that the lady doctor gave her tummy massage and it tickled. She also said that it was the same lady doctor that was at the hospital where she was born. I asked Mia if the doctor remembered Mia as a baby and Mia said, 'yes, she remembered me when I came out of your tummy and I was a crying little baby'. Very funny. The doctor must also work at Telki and noticed that Mia was born there. Maybe she even recognized Mia's name.

Side note: Mia's shoe size is a 32 European right now; 13 1/2 - 1 US.

The Best Part About Our Weekend!

The best part about the weekend was on Sunday, Nov 4th, Mia learned how to ride a bike with NO training wheels! She's been a bit of a chicken about it so we didn't push it. Just like Terence, she knew when she'd be ready. I remember when we got home from 1 1/2 weeks in Egypt, Terence just decided that he wanted to ride on 2 wheels. And he did! With minimal effort! It was just after his 5th birthday.

Mia was the same. She was watching all the boys taking turns on Matthias' bike and said, 'Mom I want to ride the bike!' I reminded her that she didn't know how to ride a 2 wheeler and she said that she was ready to try. So we did! At first Curt had to hold on to her. It's not that she couldn't physically get it, it was more her flighty personality. She was spending more time looking around to see who was watching her than focusing on what she was actually doing.

After about 5 minutes of Curt holding onto the back of her jacket, she soared! We couldn't stop her. She just rode and rode and rode... faster and faster and faster. I love the photos as her mouth is wide open as she smiled and giggled the entire time! She was so proud of herself and even happier that her whole family and all her friends were out on the street watching her.

Weekend in Slovakia

Last weekend, the day after Curt and I returned from the US, we drove up to Katarina and Bruno's home in Slovakia. We drove in caravan with Kerry and Bill and their 3 kids. Katarina and Bruno moved back up to Slovakia due to Bruno's job last summer. They moved to the village where Katarina is from which is about 40 minutes outside of Bratislava (maybe more). They built a beautiful huge home that is perfect for entertaining and amusing 9 kids and 6 adults! Poor Katarina probably had to clean up after us for days! Hopefully not as we want to return again soon!

Our hosts


And their gorgeous home




The kids had such a great time playing outdoors all weekend. Such sweet, innocent fun in the fresh fall air. This is why we always love going to Bruno and Katarina's beautiful home.

Heading over to the village football field

This is why I call him 'monkey'.

Ali's always picking things up and showing them to me. She still speaks kind of Hunglish (a combination of Hungarian and English). For example, she always says 'Hol a Dada?' The first two words 'hol a' are Hungarian for 'where is' and then 'dada' is English. Her English has definitely increased drastically since our return.

All 9 of our kids. They all got along SO well.



My 1st jack-o-lantern. It's actually a first for both me and Mia!



Relaxing before dinner. First the girls.

Then the boys. These 2 (Bill and Curt) are good therapy for each other. Always talking business and new tax and labor laws.

Lots of games were played over the weekend. Here is Terence's Guitar Hero that we all played! It's a guitar video game that you have to strike the keys at just the right moment to play the guitar part for a song.

All of us watching and Curt emailing on his Blackberry.



BFFs! True best friends. Making silly fish faces.



More games. This time on the laptop. I think they were playing Club Penguin. One of Terence's favorite games. They all have a penguin that they register. Then they can earn and spend money on new things like a home, pets, etc. They can log on and meet in penguin land. Very funny game that they are all addicted to.



And another game with Bruno (in French).

Stuck at JFK

What a disaster it was on October 30th. We spent over 36 hours trying to get out of JFK.

We arrived with plenty of time to get on our 5:20pm flight, however, a security breech prevented us from boarding on time. We watched the departure change to 6pm then 7pm then 8pm then security made everyone evacuate the airport!



We were still holding onto our dozen donuts that we were taking home for breakfast for the kids. People were offering us $3 a donut but we were being optimistic about getting out of New York on the 30th!


Our flight was the first to be allowed back into the building to go back through security and directly to our plane at about 10ish.

After we all boarded the plane started to back away from the departure gate when the electricity went out (twice). The pilot started it back up quickly then apologized to all of us for the 'electrical anomaly'. I was so tired by this point that I started to doze off when he came back on to apologize about the firetrucks that have surrounded our plane in response to the black smoke (I assumed it was a result of the 'electrical anomaly'). He preceeded with hope about the error being corrected. Curt warned me not to take my shoes off. I later learned that he thought we were going to have to make a run for it. Fortunately we didn't have to run but we did have get back off the plane after about 4 hours of mechanical attempts. I'd much rather this scenario than flying that great distance across the ocean with an 'electrical anomaly'!

We were given a room at the flea bag motel (aka the Ramada Plaza) near the airport. There wasn't another Delta flight scheduled out of JFK to BUD for a couple of days but luckily they brought one in the next evening for all of us. We left the airport between 2 and 3am with our same seat assignment for the next evening at 5:20pm.

Eventually we started getting delirious from the drama and exhaustion. When they told us we couldn't get any of our luggage we just giggled. When the Ramada bus pulled up and the doors didn't open we just giggled. The icing on the cake was when a bus load of us packed like sardines pulled up to the hotel and the doors didn't open again, Curt shouted out, 'the Delta mechanics must have been here!' The whole bus burst out laughing - even the non-English speakers! It was even more funny when our breakfast voucher wasn't enough for the breakfast but only for toast and coffee. What an ordeal....

After security on the 31st, Curt hit the Life is Good (how ironic) store and bought a new outfit including boxers and socks! Maybe Delta will reimburse...



We arrived home on November 1st to three very happy kids (and three very happy dogs and one very hungry cat). It was good to be home again!