Box Fun

These 3 girls are BFFs. Keira, Mia and Ali all adore each other so much. In this photo they are nearing 4 1/2, 5 1/2 and 2 1/2 - all of them have January birthdays! Maybe that is part of their bond. Here they are playing some silly game where Mia's in a box which is her store. Not only is she the clerk / owner of the store but I think she's also the mommy. Being the oldest, I think she often directs the type of games they all play... I'm not sure for how much longer Keira and Ali are going to let her have her way but so far it seems to work.

4 more night-nights

... 'till Daddy gets home! Instead of Sunday, he will be home on Monday from his trip to China... The kids can't wait but are keeping very, very busy! Lots of birthday parties, play dates and sleep overs this week / weekend. On Saturday, they both have their extra-curriculum stuff (T has football / soccer and Mia has dance). During the week they have swimming lessons on Mondays and Fridays; Mia has music one day after school; T has 'sport' one day after school; T has French after school on Wednesdays then tennis... It's always busy and we all seem to have very little free time.

Tonight I said something to them about not always being perfect but before I finished, T interrupted and said, "Mom! You are perfect!" I was a bit stumped by his compliment as he's not that kind of kid. He really meant it and I was so flattered that I, of course, burst into tears. I kept them as hidden as possible but they both knew that I was touched. I just always try and be real with them by explaining that we have two rules in our house as parents: 1) to keep you safe and 2) teach you the rules. Sometimes it may all get confusing on how we are setting those rules but we are doing our best... Well, it's nice to know that they think we are... 'perfect'... that's a big thing to live up to!!

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ice cream.

There's a little ice cream shop a stone's throw away from the lycee de Francais (French School). Now that the weather has been getting warmer and nicer, we've been going there after school for a snack. One scoop is only 100 forint which is only about 50 cents (US) so I let them experiment. T and Mia are allowed 2 scoops but Ali can only have 1 scoop. The first few time in recent days, Ali has screamed for 'pink, pink, pink' ice cream. The only flavor in pink the guy sells is punch which also includes raisins. She does not like it. Today, I forced vanilla on her and what a hit! She was licking away and quietly loving every minute of it - except for the first few licks where she cupped her mouth after each lick shouting 'Cold!' Silly girl....

Here are some shots from today's experience after school.




Can you tell that Mia went for chocolate flavor? Terence usually picks unique flavors. The last few times he has selected green apple which has a bit of a sour twist.



Here we all are walking back to the car. Mia always assumes this pose when she sees me pulling out the camera. What is she like?



Whereas, Terence jumps into this pose! The difference between boys and girls...



And, little Ali is always a hand-holder. You have to love her and her sweetness!

Best and Worst

I love playing the game 'Best and Worst' - answering what was the best experience of your day and the worst experience of your day. It's funny to hear what the kids sometimes come up with when we do this at dinner time.

My post today is not to share one of their stories (well maybe indirectly) but to reveal my own personal best and worst. It was a very typical 'mom' day today. It started very difficultly after minimal sleep last night. Mia went to bed and fell asleep very early last night. But, when I went into check on them at 11pm she was stirring and woke to my movements. She told me her belly hurt. Mia, who I have written about before, seems to always plot out new ways to get out of bed. If she can crawl into bed with us then it's even a bigger bonus. I was a bit skeptical about her belly initially so I stayed with her for a little while. I could hear her tummy grumbling and making horrible noises. I knew the volcano was about to erupt so I did bring her down with me. After a drink of water and a bite of a muffin, the eruption began and continued every 1 - 2 hours all night long! She stayed in my bed and was wonderful at keeping it all controlled in a big plastic bowl that I had given her. I stayed awake all night with her to comfort her and make sure we didn't end up with it everywhere like we have in the past when one of them got sick. She acted like such a big girl and grabbed the bowl every time. I was there holding her hair back and rubbing her back. I felt horrible for her. Fortunately, this morning I managed to get a friend to take Terence to school as I just couldn't risk getting her in the car when she was so ill. Ali got picked up by Marcsi in the ovi (aka nursery school) bus. I stayed by Mia's side all morning! The vomiting ended by about 11am and she started keeping her water and ginger ale down. Then, we took a long nap together. Watching my little girl get sick for so long was definitely the worst of the day!

The best of the day is related to Terence. There are 2 things. The first one - that I had in my mind when starting this note - was when I experienced a moment with him that reminded me that there is still a little boy inside of him. He always acts so grown up - especially when Curt is away. It's almost like he feels he needs to step up to the plate and help me out a lot more. Every night we read them bedtime stories (in english, of course) and tonight I read for a very long time. First to Ali then again to Terence and Mia. After their books of choice I picked up this Mother Goose book that was a gift from ? Maybe Aunt Paula? Nana? I cannot remember and forgot to look for the inscription. It's been a while since we picked up this beautifully illustrated book. The rhymes brought so many memories back and I realized that I had heard most before (I actually read all of them this evening to T and M and there were well over 100).




When I got to the nursery rhyme "This little piggy went to the market; This little piggy stayed home; etc...", I had to hold onto their toes and squeeze each one as I went through the 5 piggies. Mia giggled but Terence squealed! Like a piggy! (haha) He absolutely loved it and kept begging, "Again!" like he was my 2 year old cuddle-bug again. It was so cute and after I tucked them in I had to repeat the piggy nursery rhymes while tickling his toes at least 15 times. He giggled just as hard every time! I love that!

The second best thing that just occurred to me when I started writing this post was Terence bringing home a birthday invitation from Margot. Margot is a girl at school that he's talked about. And believe me, Terence almost never talks about girls. He really, truly doesn't even notice them, associate with them or normally show interest in them. I've seen her once but usually she is gone by the time I get to the front door to get Terence. Since I have to pick Mia up next door at the Kindergarten first I'm always a bit later than most of the moms at the elementary school. I think Margot is usually gone by the time I get there.

Anyhow, for those of you that haven't heard the story, Margot is... well, how should I put it, Terence has said that he thinks she is pretty and maybe even called her his girlfriend once. I asked him if Margot has ever talked to him and he didn't really answer. As if her talking to him didn't seem to mean anything or define their 'relationship'. He doesn't talk about her often and I don't bring it up as I know it embarrasses him (so, if you are reading this, don't ask him about Margot!). Today, however, he showed me a birthday invitation from... Margot (for her 7th birthday party)!! He had the biggest, sweetest grin on his face! He was walking on cloud 9! We will go and buy her birthday present together tomorrow afternoon between his French (1:30 - 3pm) and tennis (5 - 6pm) lesson (Wednesdays they only have school from 8am - noon). First I will call Margot's mom in the morning and rsvp. I don't know if her parent's are Hungarian or French so I hope we can communicate easily.

Stormy Night

We're having a storm right now in Budapest. All the kids are fast asleep and fortunately the storm is far enough away that the thunder is not waking anyone up. However, our border collie, Blue, is going nuts. None of our pets like storms. Mickey, our cat, always gets weird (as cats do) and usually wants to go outside during storms. Greta, the oldest of our 3 dogs, is always right next to me anyway but sometimes has to curl up a bit closer usually laying on top of my feet. Kiraly, our 7 year old Bernese Mountain dog, usually hides in the basement or on the landing going down to the basement during storms. Then there is Blue who goes absolutely nuts!

None of our dogs are allowed on the sofas or chairs but Blue was begging, begging, begging - not to get up on the sofa with me but to crawl into my lap. He tried over and over again and just sat with his head in my lap shaking, whining and breathing heavily and quickly. Finally I let him up as he was driving me crazy and I couldn't keep him off of me.

It was like having a small child (that drools a lot) next to me. Fortunately I had the camera still connected to the computer right next to me and I was able to click these photos of our crazy Blue!




The entire time it took me to write this post he's shivered out of control next to me.

However, I'm thrilled that my garden is getting watered and all the plants I planted yesterday (I spent 2 hours digging and planting) are getting a good drink!

Sunday Fun

As I mentioned a few blog posts ago, Terence's buddy spent the night with us on Saturday night. He then stayed all day on Sunday until his parents came back from their weekend away and picked him up at 6pm. Here are some photos of our fun Sunday at a park nearby. Terence, Arnaud and Mia spent a lot of time exploring (with their picnic snacks). They had no idea that I was clicking away with my zoom lens. Actually my zoom lens helped me keep an eye on them as they were really far way...

We scored by hitting a little carnival at the park. It's not regularly there so it must be one of those traveling carnivals that move around all the time. The rides didn't live up to Disney standards but were still fun. They also had some games that all the kids ended up winning a prize after playing the fishing game where they fished out plastic fish.

"No! Me!"

This is what Ali screams when she wants to do something by herself. Actually, almost every time it's time to do anything she shouts out "No! Me!" as she wants to try everything herself (so different than our child #1 was when he was 2 years old). If she has trouble she comes up to me and says, "Mama, hepp peas" (Help Please). Currently these little pink Pumas are her favorite shoes. Curt got them for her in Shanghai last month. She calls them her 'Dada Pink Shoes' which sounds a bit more like 'dada pink shoos'.

She's not always so cute when trying to communicate. Currently her favorite phrase is 'Poopy Head'. She calls everyone a poopy head and we are hoping this phase is a short and quick one as she wakes up saying 'Hi Poopy Head' to all of us. It's really hard not to laugh!

Uncle Mike and Blossom

Read here about how Curt's Uncle Mike became the fortunate recipient of Blossom, his Golden Retriever guide dog. We just received this story today.

Back to School Tomorrow

After 1 1/2 weeks off for ... well, I guess it was a spring break... Terence and Mia are going back to school tomorrow. Terence actually fell asleep watching a movie in our bed at around 7pm. This is so unusual for him but we were at a bbq yesterday and there were 12 kids who spent most of the evening outdoors, playing hide and seek and soccer. Then, his Belgian friend, Arnaud, spent the night. They got to bed a little after 10pm but Arnaud is an early riser and woke T up at about 6:30am! We spent the entire day outdoors as it was a beautiful warm, sunny day. I guess it all caught up to Terence and wiped him out. I'm actually happy about this as I thought I'd have a bit of a difficult time getting him to bed early in preparation for tomorrow.

Mia, on the other hand, actually fell sleep for about an hour earlier today. She fell into a deep sleep on the sofa after she was scolded and put in a time-out for drawing all over a family photo of us. It's a big photo that was up on their bulletin board (along with a collection of other photos, cards, drawings, etc) and included the four of us while I was very pregnant with Ali. Mia decided it would be fun to give daddy hair, mommy a mustache and so on. I was very upset when I found what she had done and told her that it was graffiti (she knows what graffiti is and always points it out when she sees it usually commenting on how terrible it is that someone did graffiti) and disrespectful. She cried and felt horrible. When I was telling Curt on the phone when he called from China later in the afternoon I found myself sort of laughing about the whole thing. Fortunately, I have the photo saved on our computer so I can print out another copy. I'm still shocked she did this.

Since she dozed in the afternoon, she is having trouble falling asleep. Out of the 3 of them, she is the only one that gets out of bed with excuse after excuse: "I have to go pee", "I'm scared", "I can't sleep", etc., etc.

Ali always goes to bed easily. Sometimes she even asks to go to bed before her actual bedtime. It's great but she is a very early riser and is usually awake between 6:30-7am (ouch!)

I must go tuck them all in and make sure Mia is still in bed as it is after 9:30pm and if she doesn't get to sleep soon she will be a huge grouch tomorrow!!

Coordination

Curt and I went to a fantastic dinner party on Friday night at our friends' home. Sam was the chef (left) and she and her husband, Martin, were incredible hosts. There were 4 couples in total: the hosts; Curt and I; Joyce and Peter; and Henrietta and Peter. Henrietta and Peter are relatively new to Budapest but Joyce and Peter have been here for longer than Curt and I! We laughed about the early days. Especially when they knew me double BC (Before Curt and Before Children). Anyhow, Martin got this photo of Sam, Joyce and me with coordinating gray and black outfits. They just sent it to me via email. Thought it would be fun to share.

Terence Opens a Bank Account

The biggest 'saver' in our family is... drum roll... Terence. He finds creative ways to earn money (i.e. helping with chores) and has been saving his earned money, tooth fairy money and birthday money for a couple of years in his piggy bank. Recently, while at the bank, we learned that the minimum age to open a bank account is 6 years old. So, we explained the concept of a savings account and the idea of earning interest to Terence and he quickly scooped up his bills and coins and begged us to take him to the bank.

As of Friday, Terence has an official savings account which holds his very first deposit of 17,775 HUF. Based on Yahoo's currency calculator this equals US$111. Not bad! He is so thrilled. He even got to pick out the design for his first ATM card (he chose dolphins) which they will be posting to him in about 2 weeks. He'll be able to withdraw a maximum of 2,000HUF / day only. If he needs to withdraw more in one day then he and I need to go into the bank together to take the money out of his account.

The other exciting thing is that he will earn 1 point per month for every month that he deposits a minimum of 1,000HUF. After 3 months of doing this he will be eligible for several toys / presents from the bank. There are 3 levels of prizes: 3 points, 6 points and 9 points. Terence has spent many hours examining this menu and planning which things he will aim to get.

This first picture is him carrying his wad of money. He had about 8,000HUF in coins!! The cashier wasn't so thrilled about having to count these.

Here he is signing his signature. He can only write 'Terence' in script / cursive so this is all he put. The bank teller was very nice and whispered to me that his signature wasn't necessary but he was asking for it as he could see it made Terence feel a bit more important.