I'm going to use this post to just write a brief update on each of the kids. I'd prefer to post photos of our recent ski trip but our desktop is again giving us problems. Yes, this is the new hard drive that I was bragging about in December. What on earth?! I'm still hopeful. Our IT dept has been working on it for 2 days so I'm expecting some great stuff!
Regardless, Ali is naturally changing the most every day. I was talking to a friend / colleague (Jon Harman) today and found myself feeling a bit sad when mentioning her upcoming 2nd birthday! Where does the time go? I still call her my baby. I remember when I was 20 my mom was still calling me her baby. I maybe the same!
She's an incredible kid. Funny, confident, social, self-sufficient, caring, etc. She still hits people on the back when coughing or sneezing. The other day while I was sitting on the sofa I sneezed. It took her about 3 minutes to climb up and get close enough to my back to give me a whack. It was a bit late but she was determined to help me out.
Just in the last week she's been obsessed with doing everything herself - without help. It's great but also frustrating as she cannot do everything herself. Mornings especially have been a bit of a struggle as she insists on trying to put on her own onsie, tights, etc. She shouts 'Mine!' It's not a clear 'mine' but more of a 'myn-g' sound. I try to help her - especially at times when she gets 2 legs in the same leg hole - but she refuses to let me. She does this when getting in and out of the car too. If you've been to visit you will know that my Land Rover is very tall and the floor of the backseat is not an easy climb. But she does it! She climbs all the way up into her car seat then screams 'Myn-g!' when I try to put on her seatbelt. She tries to do it herself. I've figured out that I need to allow at least 10-20 extra minutes for every task so she wears herself out and gives up trying. Then she's receptive to my help.
Her other newest thing is waving. She's known how to wave for a long time but she now waves at whatever makes her happy. Some examples are the bus at school and motorcycles. The bus that comes for some of the kids at the end of the day at the French school is a huge coach bus. It takes a load of kids to Budagyongy which is about 10 miles towards the river. I guess it's easier for a lot of parents / babysitters to pick up their kids. I'm going off on a tangent. It's a huge white bus and Ali loves it. She squeals when she sees it and stops (she cannot yet walk and wave) and waves. It's really funny. Everyone gets a kick out of watching her do this.
And yet another funny quirk she's developed is 2 kind of Hungarian expressions. Both are pretty hard to explain the meaning of. The first is something she picked up a few months ago. It is the word 'Nah'. It's said with a sort of sigh. I understand the meaning of it when listening to someone speak Hungarian but asked many Hungarians who are fluent English speakers for their translation. The closest English word is 'so'. An example of when she uses this word is after she's built something out of legos and she steps back and realizes she needs to add one more thing. It's usually upon finishing something or just about to finish something. Very funny... again. I think it's always funny when tiny little people imitate adult things.
The 2nd new word which is very new is 'Yay'. Not 'yeah' but 'yay'. I don't even know if this is a word - like 'nah' - but I'm trying to spell it the way it sounds. Now I'm trying to think about when she uses this. I think it's in place of 'oops'. She says it all the time.
The funniest part about her expressions is that she has so many unique words of her own. The other kids had a few at this age and also spoke what we call 'Hunglish' (mixing Hungarian and English words together) but she is mostly made up of her own lingo. She still calls birds 'nana', water 'fooh' , food 'nyum-nyum' and sometimes the dogs 'dum dum' (she may have gotten that from me). Don't get me wrong, she does know some real words like shoes, hat, Blue, nem (she says it in Hungarian rather than English), etc.
Last but not least, she's a huge help. She wants to help with everything. Setting the table, feeding the dogs, feeding the fish, picking up dirty clothes (I won't mention whose) and putting them in the hamper, etc. If you give her a damp cloth she will wipe down just about anything and everything. I think they all do that as I remember when Terence started doing it at this age and I thought it was so unique. Then, Mia did it too.
Oh, I almost forgot, Ali is desperately trying to learn how to count. She starts with her thumb for 1 like the Europeans and usually does it in Hungarian and gets to about 4. She's trying also to learn colors and says purple and blue (of course because of our dog's name being Blue) and green and red... Actually most but she doesn't always get them right. It's amazing how much she learns every day!
So much for my brief update on all 3 children. I will have to finish the others another time soon. It's 8pm and Curt just got home. He's still on his bike to and from work EVERY DAY! He's amazing! It's freezing and snowing and icy and he never misses a day. I've made one of his favorite meals: Coconut Chicken Curry with green beans and rice so I need to go receive my kiss! Dessert is zucchini bread which is another one of his favorites. I'm not always such a great wife but I have to brag while I can!
