The Clements Family Life: 1/31/10

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Happy Belated Birthday to Curt

On Tuesday, January 26th Curt had his mid-40 something birthday... We were in Dubai and at one of our company conference evenings. As his birthday falls on Australia day, we had (not for the first time) an Australian themed evening. The evenings event took place at the Meridien Village Terrace in Le Meridien Hotel in Dubai. It was an all you can eat bbq / buffet with an Australian theme - lots of lamb, seafood (I enjoyed all the sashimi, oysters, etc), pork (an unusual food item in the UAE), and also some unique items like kangaroo and ostrich.

With a crowd of 30 +, it is always hard to find a food type that satisfies everyone's taste but this did the job. Everyone was able to chose and taste whatever they wanted and have as much of it as they wished. We kept Curt's birthday low key as he had wished. Him and I had quite a few birthday toasts throughout the evening and figured out that this was his 13th birthday since we had met. Time sure does fly when you are having fun!!

As I had mentioned before, Curt stayed on in Dubai for about 5 more days after my return home. He arrived home Wednesday evening to a nice Thai Beef Curry followed by his favorite, Angel Food Cake. The kids and I wrapped up his presents and had a belated birthday party. I only took a few photos of the end of the evening. I really like how this first one turned out of all 3 kids standing by his side waiting patiently to help him blow out his birthday candles (only 12 - no significance other than that is what we had on hand).

Happy Birthday to the best hubby and daddy any family could wish for.... thanks for always making us laugh and bringing out the best in all of us....

Thursday, February 4, 2010

She's Bubblicious!

Thanks to Aunt Kerry, Ali's newest and most favorite t-shirt now is this super cool Bubblicious shirt. At least 3 times a week (depending on if it's clean and in her dresser drawer), she comes home and puts it on. Or, if it's weekend, she loves to get herself dressed and this is always the shirt du jour. She pairs it with one of Mia's long skirts that she has recently outgrown. I think she created a great ensemble and recently I captured it on film. Here she is... my little Bubblicious Girl! thanks Aunt Kerry. we love and miss you...

Ali Videos

In this first video I was trying to interview Ali but my camera's battery died during filming. Now that she's had a birthday, I wanted to capture her personality, likes, dislikes, etc. The battery is now charging and she's fast asleep, but I will try it again this week (if we get a minute alone).

About 2 weeks ago I captured her on video dancing. She dances all the time - always has... Mia dances all the time too. Terence used to but now he's too cool to dance. He thinks of it as a girly thing.

Ali is always experimenting with different styles of dancing. This is her newest style which looks like she's hula hooping (without the hula hoop). I especially love how her feet are planted and do not move... Then, she throws in an attempt to do a bit of a robot dance. Actually, the robot dance is probably the only style of dance you'll ever see T do...

Just a few from Dubai

I didn't take many photos on our recent trip to Dubai. Curt and I were not there for very long and we were sans kids. Fortunately our M.E. manager's wife had her camera and took a few that she just sent me. These were taken at one of company evenings out.

Above left: Curt and I with our Central Asian manager, Sean. Sean is Canadian and a bit of a comedian, hence, his unusual pose.

Above right: Ivana who had the camera. Not sure what my facial expression was about and not sure whose finger was in the lens but Ivana looks lovely.

Below: some of our relo team. 2 of the girls are from Serbia and the girl in the middle is Iranian. It was exciting to get to know all these people and be amongst such an international crew.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Terence-isms

Terence, who will be 9 years old on March 29th, is really into reading. I love that he enjoys it as much as I do and always have. When I was a child, I was always under my blankets in bed with a flashlight and a book. He's becoming similar.

His favorite series of books at the moment is the Horrid Henry collection. From what I understand, Henry is a bit of a menace with a wild imagination and always out on an adventure. Terence loves that each character in the stories has an adjective describing their personality. The adjective matches their name's first letter. For example, 'Perfect Peter' and 'Moody Margaret'.

He gets so absorbed in these books and even laughs out loud which I find so funny. While Curt is in Dubai this week, he and I have been staying up a little later reading every evening. Every so often he has to stop and discuss with me what he is reading. One of his comments last night was especially amusing.

His description of the chapter he was reading was about Horrid Henry's plan to punish parents who made their kids do good things like eat their vegetables, go to bed early, brush their teeth, go to school, etc. Horrid Henry's plan was to put a magic spell on the parents of the world and whenever they made their kids follow the rules they would be catapulted into a piranha filled lake. Terence laughed at Horrid Henry's plan and told me, "Mom, he's not very smart. He must not know that piranhas only eat dead things. They are predators not hunters." I was speechless. I knew he watched a show recently about this topic but found it amazing that he retained the information and then found an appropriate time to pass it on. All I said was, "Really?" He's always teaching me something!

The other great Terence-ism recently was when me and the kids got onto the topic of being able to live forever. We were sort of debating on whether it would be good or bad to live forever. Mia was saying that she wanted daddy to live forever (not sure why but this is what she said). T replied, "Come on..." this is often how he starts a debate. "Come on! Why would anyone want to live forever and see everyone around them that they know and love die?" I stayed silent and just listened to them hash it out. Mia then said, "Well, why hasn't Papa invented a way for people to live forever?" For those of you that don't know, our kids think their Papa (Curt's dad) is a genious who not only is a scientist / engineer but also has superpowers...

Terence replied to Mia's question with, "Papa can't just change someone's DNA" He made a few other comments on this topic that went way over my head. He left both Mia and I at a loss of words. Eventually, Mia and I both agreed with him that having the ability to live forever would not be so fantastic.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Ali's 4th Birthday Party

I'm finally getting around to Ali's 4th birthday party photos. We were lucky that her birthday fell on a Sunday so we had it on her actual birthday at our home. She only had a very select few that she invited and since they were mostly siblings we enjoyed having their entire families here. The party was from 12:00 noon - 3pm but most people stayed until about 6ish as we were having so much fun.

We played games like Pass-the-Parcel and Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey.

We had lots of decorations including helium balloons (which I am still finding around the house).

T and his good buddy, Tom, even found time to play on the computer.

lots of friends...

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, she wore her Superwoman costume for the party! That's my Ali. She always has to be a little different...

Back to Snowy Budapest

On Friday I was in Dubai (Curt and I went on Monday, Jan 25th) laying out by the swimming pool. Keep in mind that Friday is weekend in the United Arab Emirates. Their weekend is Friday and Saturday then back to work on Sunday. Curt and I enjoyed my last day in Dubai with a little relaxation and sunshine. And a fab Thai dinner. It's very rare that Curt and I get a dinner alone. Probably only about 5 times per year as we are either with the kids or friends. So, it was great to share our dishes and chat.

On Saturday morning I flew out of Dubai. My taxi arrived at the hotel at 7:30am. Curt was a sweetheart as he got up to walk me down to the taxi. The taxi drive from our hotel in the marina area of Dubai was only about 25 minutes. Since it was weekend, traffic was minimal. To see the distance we had to go, I've found a good map of Dubai below.

The Dubai Marina is just above the green blob and right below the palm on the left hand side. The Dubai airport is the big grey area on the right side. Traffic is often horrendous in Dubai as there are so many people and there are still not a lot of roads.

With online check in, it made my airport experience quick and painless. I enjoyed a hot latte macchiato and a fresh squeezed OJ before boarding my flight to Vienna. Sleep came almost immediately after we took off. I'm one of those lucky ones that have always been able to sleep on planes. After about an hour, I got to enjoy a few videos on my Emirates flight. I recommend one of the movies I watched to everyone. It's called The Invention of Lying. It helps that I think Ricky Gervais is hilarious ...

When we landed in Austria, I was relieved to see little snow on the ground. But, I quickly learned that Budapest had been dumped on. When I turned on my Blackberry, I had lots of text messages and emails from friends telling me to be careful driving. Fortunately I didn't hit any snow until just outside of Budapest. Curt called me a few times worried but when you learn how to drive at 15 years of age in Cleveland, Ohio, snow is second nature. Actually, my brothers probably let me practice driving in icy parking lots from about the age of 13!

It wasn't ice on the Budapest streets that were the problem but the amount of snow everywhere. Fortunately we have a pretty large SUV so I was able to drive over it but quite a few cars were stuck. I kept laughing to myself at the contrast of weather that I went from in just about 9 hours.

The kids were so excited I was home. And, I was also thrilled to be back home with them and the dogs (the cats never came to greet me ;-) Erika took great care of them while I was gone and fortunately we had lots of help from friends, too. Fortunately they were just as tired as I was so we were all fast asleep by about 9pm.

Today, we woke up to it snowing AGAIN! MORE snow. It's beautiful... and, not too cold which is even better. We had to venture out with the dogs and experience it.

I took these with my new camera that Curt generously gave to me for Christmas!

sitting on one of the snow drifts outside our home.

Below is what our home looks like under a blanket of fresh snow.

Look at ALL that snow. And they are not drifts!!

Below are a few views of our neighborhood. Check out the car that had been parked on the side of the street.

My three sweethearts

Kiraly loves the snow. I didn't get one of Greta as she is always sitting on my feet or right next to me... The other four are Blue who I think is just adorable. Especially with his black fur in the pure white snow.

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QUOTES OF THE DAY:

Today, July 1 2010 while driving through McD's drive through Terence and I got to talking about what a job at McD's would be like. I told him that my brother worked there and that was one of his first jobs. I explained how he was in charge of the french fries and used to come home with lots of grease burns. T told me that if he ever worked at McD's he wouldn't be able to work on the Big Mac assemblies as they would all end up disappearing. The Big Mac is his favorite!! He's not a french fry kind of guy, just a burger boy!

June 10, 2010. Ali has been a bit curious about dying lately. Fortunately, she doesn't remember anyone close to us that has died but she hears Mia and T sometimes talking about it. The other day, she came up to me very sad and said, "Mama, I don't want you to die." I told her that I don't want to die either and this is why I have to exercise and take care of myself so that I can stay alive and healthy longer. She nodded in agreement and then, while playing with my pink wallet on the table, she followed up with, "Mama, if you DO die, can I please have your wallet?" Glad she jumped back so quickly...

Today, May 24 2010, is a public holiday (Pentecost). Ali woke up - only at 9am - and since she had no idea of the time I reminded her that there was no school today. She smiled and said, "Yeah! I'm going to stay in my pjs ALL day". Later she asked me about the cat's birthday. I told her I did not know. She then asked me when Blue, our border collie's bday is. I told her it was in August. She smiled and said, "Let's have a birthday party for him. What kind of cake do you think we should make for his party?" We decided to make him a dog food cake! However, she is now trying to figure out if it is better to give him a cake with or without candles...

This Saturday morning (April 17, 2010) I am at home with Ali while Curt is doing the dance and football taxi service. My main responsibility is to work on our US visit travel schedule (flights, rental cars, hotels, etc.) It always takes a lot of coordination but it's all worth it as we love our summer returns to the US. Anyhow, I was telling Ali what I was doing and she asked me to remind her who we were going to see again. The main people I mentioned were Nana, Papa, Aunt Sally and Uncle Mike as these are the first people we will visit. I asked her what we should take to Nana for her birthday present. She thought for a second. Then, her eyes grew wide as she thought of a great idea. Her animated answer (she always uses lots of hand motions when talking - is that from me?) was, 'A nice hat, a scarf and if you have a dress that you out grow then we can take it for her!'. Funny little monkey... Don't worry Nana, I won't be bringing you any hand-me-downs! x o x o

Yesterday (Feb 24, 2010), while Ali went to visit her old nursery school, I took Terence and Mia for lunch before picking up T's new passport at the US embassy. There is this little cafe that I really love and they have great wraps, onion rings (I have a weakness for good onion rings), burgers, salads, smoothies, coffees, etc. Terence decided on a plain burger with onion rings and Mia decided on a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings. I got a smoothie and hoped for some bites of both of theirs... When the burgers arrived, they both lifted off the top bun and frowned. T grunted, "I asked for a plain burger. Not a burger with this sauce!" The sauce was sort of a 1000 island dressing type of tangy sauce. Mia pouted about this matter, too. I immediately got upset with them and told them not to judge it until they tried it. Then, I followed with, "you both need to become more adaptable." After a second of silence, Mia told me she was going to tell dad. I asked her to clarify and she told me that she was going to tell dad what I had said. Again, I asked her to clarify as I hadn't said anything rude or even a bad word (I sometimes have trouble with the latter). She then told me very angrily, "I'm going to tell dad that you want us to be adopted!" Adapted ... Adopted ... Pretty close!

During our ski trip to Schladming, Ali and I often spent some time together in the afternoon (after her morning ski school) drinking hot chocolate at the top in one of the restaurants. One afternoon she made a funny observation. Actually, she made 2 observations that went like this: "Ma!" she began. After I responded "yes", she asked me, "why are there some teenagers working here?" Before I had time to answer, she asked me another question. "And, why are there so many teenagers kissing?!" I looked around and there were 2 young couples nearby kissing... on the mouth! She was very interested. I answered to her that many teenagers worked when they were on break from school and regarding the teenagers that are kissing, they must love each other. She took this in and thought for a while. I told her that I'd like it if she also worked when she became a teenager and asked her what she thinks she'd like to do. The response has had us giggling for a few days. With little hesitation, she answered that she wanted to be a penguin when she was a teenager. I asked her where she would work as a teenager and who would pay her money. She thought for only a second and then answered, "the Four Seasons Hotel. They will pay me and I'll work there." I bit my tongue and asked her what she would do in the Four Seasons dressed as a penguin. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Ma! I would swim!" She said this with a slight roll of her eyes like I was born yesterday. What else would a penguin in the Four Seasons be doing???

Just yesterday (Sept 18, 2009) I heard Ali saying to Mia, "drink me". I had to turn around and see what they were talking about. Mia was holding Ali's cup while she sipped out of it. Ali must have thought 'drink me' was the way to ask to be fed (?) a drink. We do say 'feed me' but what do we say if it's a drink item and not a food item?

The other day (early June 2009) the girls were taking a bath together and Mia blurted out "Oh Man" about something. Ali thought she was referring to her as a 'man' and shouted back at Mia, "Me not a MAN, me a LADY!" For obvious reasons I have never called her a 'lady' but she's somehow picked the word up. Loved how she defended herself as being a lady...

Yesterday, March 31st 2009, Terence, Ali and I were sitting at the table and talking. Terence made a joke about going to jail. After Ali laughed, I asked her if she knew what 'jail' was. She answered 'yes'. So, I asked her if jail was a place for good guys or bad guys. She correctly answered 'bad guys'. Then, I asked her, "How does Brigi call 'jail'"? I know this is correct but this is the way Ali would understand me asking how would she say 'jail' in Hungarian. Brigi, by the way, is her Hungarian nursery school teacher who she has a very close relationship with. Her answer to my question, "How does Brigi call jail?" was "with a telephone".... Very clever she is...

This afternoon (Jan 28, 2009) Ali pulled out a DVD and asked, 'we watch this when dada come home?' I looked at it and said, 'Ali, that's not a good one for you. It's a little scary.' (it was Men in Black II). She had recognized it and was ready with her quick reply: 'Don't worry (pronounced woowwee) Mama. Me cover my one eye with a pillow (piwwow).'

On Ali's birthday (Jan 24, 2009) while we were driving to Aquaworld, I turned around and offered the kids a stick of gum. I guess normally I / we say a 'piece' of gum. Curt then followed up with a joke asking if any of them wanted a 'stick of dynamite'. The girls were a bit confused but T, without missing a beat, said 'we can't buy dynamite, only people like miners can buy sticks of dynamite.' This is something he got out of one of his books that he loves to read. I believe it's the Richard Scarry What do People do All Day book that he has practically memorized and still goes to bed reading it and examining all the detailed pictures every night.

This morning (Jan 27, 2009) when we were hunting for Ali's shoes for school she looked outside and said, 'Mama, it's raining'. I turned to look out the window she was looking out and replied, 'Ali, I don't see rain'. She then followed up with something in Hungarian that I didn't understand. When I asked her to repeat it she looked at me, switched back to English and said 'It starts snowing after Halloween'. Not sure what this meant, why she said it, how she even remembered what Halloween was as that was ages ago in her little lifetime. Very sweet.

Mia's newest line (as of this first week in Sept 2008) is "I'm having the worst day ever". She's also been saying, "I feel like an idiot". She tends to say the latter when she's feeling a bit shy or lost for words. The first one is usually after she falls, stubs her toes, gets hurt or drops something. I have no idea where either lines have come from. Very funny to hear a 5 year old talk like this...

Every summer we take our 3 kids back to the US to re-familiarize (I'm sure this isn't a word...) them with their American roots. They were born in Europe and have only lived in Hungary their entire lives. Terence, our 7 year old, knows he's American. However, sometimes when he's asked 'Are you English?' he answers 'yes'. I think I've finally gotten it through to him that just because he speaks English doesn't mean he is English. In America (and several other countries), English is spoken... He now gets it and corrects people if they guess he's English. You may think that they would recognize his American accent but I think this misunderstanding usually happens when he is speaking Hungarian or French.

Mia, on the other hand, thinks we are Hungarian. When we were talking about Hungary beating America for the gold medal in water polo, she shouted out 'Yeah, we won!'. We had to explain that Hungary won and not America and we are American. She answered something about us living in Hungary which makes us Hungarian. Needless to say, she is a work in progress.

Then there is Ali who is only 2 1/2 and is still trying to not mix up English with Hungarian in her speech so she has no idea where she's from but will in time.

Anyhow, going back to our trips to the US. Curt and I like to give them an all-American cultural experience whenever we are in the US which includes baseball games, summer camp, carnivals, dunking machines, donuts, bagels, catching lightning bugs, looking for Cardinals and Blue Jays, spotting alligators in the lakes in Kiawah and this year a rodeo and a demolition derby. In addition to introducing our American favorite pastimes to them, we also have to teach them how to talk about it. For example, when our plane was landing in Kansas City on July 4th 2008 we had a perfectly clear day and could see everything. Terence looked out the plane's window and in his loud voice shouted to me, "Look at that baseball court mom!" I could hear heads turning wondering why the American accented boy who should be in at least his 3rd or 4th year of little league just called it a baseball 'court'. Well, that was at the beginning of our US summer trip... ;-)

Tonight (July 11, 2008) on our way home from the Sedgwick state fair (hee haw), Ali shouted from the back seat, "Mama, home now! Me tired!" It was about 9:30pm so way past her bedtime. I told her that we were on our way home (or at least Nana and Papa's) and would be there soon. I followed up with something about daddy is driving as fast as he can. Then, she shouted, "Dada, faster!" She is so funny and so expressive. It's funny to hear her bark her commands. And, when she is tired, she tells us....

This morning (June 24, 2008) as Mia was changing from her PJs to her school clothes I noticed her PJs had several holes in them. I mentioned it to Mia and suggested that maybe we just toss them in the garbage as it was so torn and damaged (plus small on her) that it wouldn't be easy to repair. Mia nodded her head in agreement but then asked me to do one favor for her. She asked, "Mama, can you please just toss them after I go to school? If I'm not here, I won't see it and then I can't get sad."

One morning while we were near Notre Dame in Paris (May 29, 2008), a group of school kids walked by where we were sitting. I heard T say to Liam, "Don't they sound like the kids at the French school?" Gee, I wonder why? haha

Two nights ago (around March 27, 2008) while Terence was getting ready for bed he said, "Mama, you know what?" He always begins his stories like this. After I asked 'what?' he proceeded by telling me the sweetest thing. He said, "I really like being a kid". I have no idea where this came from or why it occured to him at this point but I think it was really sweet. I know earlier in the evening his stomach was hurting him a bit and I was nurturing and taking care of him. I think maybe that is why he decided that being a kid and having a mom (and dad) take care of him when he needed it was okay!

Mia woke up crying 2 mornings ago. She was actually whimpering. I gently stroked her back and kissed her face while whispering in her ear "Mia, you're dreaming. Wake up. It's okay. I'm here. It's mama and I'm here". I repeated these soothing words over and over until she half opened her eyes and started mumbling. I leaned in to try and hear her better. I asked her what was upsetting her. She then said a bit more clearly, "The Easter Bunny pulled my hair!" Oh no. Poor Mia. "Why did the Easter Bunny pull your hair?". "He came in through the bedroom door and pulled my hair while I was sleeping in bed!" I reassured her that the Easter Bunny would NEVER do such a thing. I explained how gentle and giving good ole EB is. However, this morning (2 days later) she asked me how many 'night-nights' until Easter. I told her it was 2 weeks away (aka about 14 night-nights away). She then looked relieved and then asked me if she could get her hair cut short!!

I've been wanting to add another funny Mia quote that occurred over our New Year's (Dec 2007/Jan 2008) ski holiday. One night when Mia was having trouble falling asleep she crawled in between Curt and I as we were still awake talking. She explained that she couldn't fall asleep so we told her she could stay in our bed until she did. She closed her eyes for a couple of minutes and then started smacking herself in the head with both hands. I asked her what she was doing and she replied that she couldn't get it to stop. Curt and I were confused and asked her to elaborate. She said, 'I can't get the voices in my head to stop'. It was so funny as I immediately knew it was her thinking that was in her head. Curt asked her what the 'voices' were saying and she said it sounded like 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'. Curt couldn't resist by saying that he knew the feeling!

Last week (January 10, 2008) Mia came with me to the Indian Embassy in Budapest to pick up Curt's and my passports with Indian visas. She always makes me laugh as she's full of questions but never discreet. One of those kids that have to announce to an entire room that she has to go to the bathroom - even though she's only talking to me. While at the Indian Embassy she looked around at this new environment taking everything in. She had so many questions, "Mommy, what's that for?" or "Why is that over there?" She then noticed two paintings. At about the same time as she noticed them one of the consulates sat down next to her and said 'hi'. She returned the gesture with a shy 'hi' and then turned back to me to ask me who those people are in that painting. I had no clue and didn't want to embarrass myself in front of this Indian embassy employee. So, I asked him if he could answer my daughter's question. He looked at her and said, "That's our president". So then I showed Mia the map of India and told her that was the country we were going to. She returned her attention to the man and the woman in the painting and asked who the woman was assuming it was the man who was the president (reminder - she's still not 5 years old). The nice man had to explain that it was the woman who was the president and the man was the prime minister. Then Mia had to ask why the president had the red dot on her forehead and the prime minister had the pretty blue scarf (turban) on his head. She then saw a statue of Ghandi and asked me who he was. I knew that answer but had trouble explaining in 5 year old language why he was so famous. On and on and on she went... She had all the employees listening and entertained as not only was she interested but she was extremely complimentary. Many kids would say, 'that's weird or strange' but Mia found it all interesting and beautiful. They loved that she thought the turban was pretty, the red dot looked nice on the president and in another very Indian photo the traditionally dressed Indian woman looked so pretty with her gold bangles, henna covered hands, and gold outfit. Phew, I was on the edge of my seat nervous she would say something that might not be so kind. Instead she left them all with a smile on their faces and a very proud mom!

Yesterday (Nov 23, 2007) Terence came up to me and said, "Mom, I know America is one of the newest countries in the world but which is the oldest?" I said, "I'm not really sure but what do you think?" This kid is too much. He replied, "I'm not sure either but I would guess China." Not sure if this is right or wrong but it amazes me that he can even come up with something that is a really good guess. Will google it tonight for sure! If anyone knows, please send me the answer.

Last night (Oct 19, 2007) Terence asked me the loaded question: Do we come back to earth after we die? We spent a long time after the girls went to bed talking about it. I explained how different people believed different things and what I believe is that we do. He then asked me if we'd still come back as a family. I realized he had tears in his eyes with worry that he'd have to be part of another family so I answered 'yes'.

Terence asked me the other day why so many ants were eating our tree. He asked how they got onto our property when we have a fence all around it.

In first grade Terence is working on days of the week and months of the year. I asked him to recite what he's learned in French. After he said the days of the week perfectly I asked if he knew them in English. He couldn't think of them but suddenly I heard Mia's voice without hesitation say, 'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... etc'

Ali's word of the day was purple yesterday. Okay, so it didn't really sound like purple but it did sound like 'poopoa'. We were both wearing purple shirts and I pointed it out to her. That's how she repeated it after me.

The Clements Family Life