Terence Turns 7

It was 7 years ago on March 29th at 5:10pm our first child was born at Telki Hospital outside of the beautiful capital city of Budapest, Hungary. I told Terence the story about this afternoon last night at bedtime and he giggled through it all. He loves listening to the story how he stormed into this world faster than anyone anticipated. He loved hearing about how Nana was there the whole time and how daddy had to stop at every bus stop while I had a contraction. I tried to explain a contraction but that wasn't so easy but somehow he still seemed to understand. He loved how I had to rush Nana out of the store earlier in the afternoon when I felt he was ready to be born. Then, I had to drive to our office where daddy was waiting. His face looking happy, worried, disorientated, yet confident all at the same time. What a night we will never forget. Thank you Curt and Pat for being there through it to hold my hand (and legs)! Thank you Pat for being strong. After Curt started losing consciousness I needed the support ;-) Thank you to Dr. Margaret, who has become our very dear friend, for delivering this incredible human being. I still remember how calm and cool you were and how comfortable you made me feel. And how funny you were, when you first saw Terence's face, commenting on how he has Curt's lips.

Happy Birthday to our Terence Reed Clements!

Enjoy the videos below from last night.

Book Recommendations

Two recent books I have read that I really, really enjoyed! Thanks Lisa for recommending Eat, Pray, Love. Thanks Kerry for lending me the book. It was fantastic. And, Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes had be glued. I read it in about 5 days which is really unusual for me as I have little time for reading. I would stay up late into the night as I couldn't put it down!

Terence Update

Terence is really an unique kid. I wonder if most parents think this way about their kids. He is our oldest child and he will turn 7 in 2 days. He's usually very easy going (like Curt). He's recently started showing a lot of interest in exercising. He sees me exercise often (we have a lot of equipment downstairs) and he also watches Lazy Town. I have never sat through an episode of Lazy Town but I am always nearby when they are watching it and know there is one character who is really in excellent physical shape. His name is Sportacus and he eats right and is very physically active. Additionally, I often talk about what vitamins are in foods and how our plates should be full of colors. We often even compete at dinnertime to see who has more colors on their plate. Terence has become very interested in how his body works, what muscles he has, what foods are best for him, etc, etc, etc. The funniest part about it is he really likes to exercise and he checks out his own muscles (mostly arms and thighs) in the mirror. He tells me about new exercises he has 'invented' (this is one of his most used words) and we try them out together. He cannot lift my dumbells / free weights yet but I found him a pair of light ones that he likes to use. I tell him he has to do them with me because I don't want him injuring himself. I think it is really funny to see him so into his health and fitness at such a young age. I hope it continues at a healthy pace. By the way, Curt and I are very, very careful never to use the word fat in our home so this is not a concern of theirs and we hope that it never becomes one - especially while they are young.

The other thing that pops into my head about Terence is his attire. He has never been like Mia about clothes but about 1 year ago he started preferring shirts and jackets with hoods. He likes to wear his hoods too. He'll wear other shirts (except with collars like golf shirts or button-downs) but he really likes the hooded ones. I've heard other mothers with sons around the same age say the same thing. Not sure where this sense of fashion comes from but think it's a funny quirk.Terence also refuses to wear flip flops. I've tried many times and he just refused. Before the invention of the amazing Crocs, it made beach vacations a bit difficult as he would only wear sneakers. The wildest thing about Terence is he has an European size 37 shoe. This is like a size 5 US! For a 6 year old this is huge!

Sportacus from Lazy Town

Great New Recipe

On Monday I tried a new recipe that I first watched Delia Smith (British chef) make on TV then I found it on the uktvfood.co.uk website. It was a huge hit and I will absolutely have to make this dish often. The large number of ingredients allows for many variations. When I made this Mexican Chicken Chilli (main ingredients include chicken thighs, beans, mozzarella, coriander, lime juice, etc), I modified it slightly. I excluded the Tobasco sauce and just served it on the side (mainly for Curt who likes food to be on fire). Also, I didn't use those small spicy green chillies but instead I used those long thin green semi-spicy (depending on the amount of seeds that go in with it) peppers so that it would be more kid friendly. I also cut the cheese and cream in half and doubled the coriander (aka cilantro). Lastly, I added chickpeas as we can never get enough chickpeas. The girls could probably eat nothing but chickpeas for dinner if I let them! Anyhow, the recipe was a huge hit. And, the best part was it tasted even better reheated the next day! Even Curt - who never eats left overs - enjoyed it a second time. I wish I made more so it could have lasted longer. Note to self: double recipe next time and add more green bell peppers.

Here is the direct link to the recipe on the UK TV Food website:

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/530117

More Easter Fun

We had the most incredible Easter lunch / dinner out at Etyek winery yesterday. The food and company was lots of fun. The kids all had so much fun running around. We were really lucky as there was a break in the weather and the kids spent most of the day running around outdoors without jackets. It's a bit crazy that this morning we woke up to a white lawn! It snowed just enough to cover everything last night.

I love this photo below of Terence and Liam. There are such great buddies. Like brothers. Mia and Ali couldn't get enough of baby Aiden. Their mom also had lots and lots of cuddles with the little guy.
The bunnies. Wonder what will be on their menu next week?

Hill jumping (our newest sport) with Chef James

The girls on their motorbikes!

Another Easter Egg Hunt

Counting out their loot.

In 1 1/2 hours we managed to get up (kids were our alarm clock at 7am; EB visited at about 4:30am), hunt out our Easter Eggs in the garden, find Easter baskets, dig through baskets, open up eggs (they are plastic with surprises inside), play an Egg Picking game (Terence won), make and eat pancakes. Phew... exhausting. But, absolutely loads of fun!

Kids are now relaxing with a movie and playing with some of their goodies. Curt is on the treadmill downstairs and I'm on the computer (obviously). At 12:45pm we head out to Etyek to the Haraszty Vallejo vineyard for a fun / food / wine filled afternoon with a bunch of friends. They will have baby bunnies, lots of games, more Easter Egg hunting, etc. The sky is gray now and we are hoping that it will not rain like it did yesterday morning.

If you haven't seen these bunnies rapping yet then check it out. Very funny.

http://i.flowgo.com/greetings/rapeasterbunny/rapeasterbunny.swf

Easter Egg Time

Mission Accomplished! The Eggs have been officially painted by the Clements 5! Enjoy the photos below of us in action.

P.S. Nana and Lisa - we'll need some more die kits for next year so if you are at the store and see them on sale please pick some up. Also, our plastic eggs (the ones that open up to put things inside) are diminishing. I think we must lose a couple every year to damage, dogs, back of closets, etc. We'd love a few bags more (maybe 30?) please.

P.P.S. Thanks Lisa for helping out the E.B. this year! Great selection of candies and toys from the US!! The kids will love their baskets filled with all this great stuff!

How do you get this stuff off your hands??

The Easter Bunny is coming!

This was the sky tonight at sunset from our upstairs balconies.

Terence woke up this morning and asked me how many more nights until the Easter Bunny visited us. I told him that the Easter Bunny was coming tonight (or tomorrow morning). He couldn't believe it was already upon us. Very exciting.

Yesterday was a very busy day with Terence and Mia's 1st swimming lesson with a new swim instructor at Petnehazy Club. Their new teacher's name is Miki and he's a great guy. He must be in his mid-20s. The kids did great and Mia surprised even herself at all that she could do. While they swam, Ali and I walked around and visited the horses excercising and grazing in the fields nearby. There's a barn for the horses as it's a riding club too. She loved the 'Posies' (she can't say Horsey).

Three other funny things Ali has been saying are: when you ask her how old she is she says '3'; when you ask her what color something is she always says 'Pink' first. The newest was this morning when I sneezed she said, "Dress You". I guess it does sound like "Bless You". Funny little thing. I was explaining to Papa (Curt's dad) the other day that she mixes up Hungarian and English and her own language so much. The other day she got a cup and was going to fill it up with water (she does this alone) and was having trouble getting up to the water so she handed me her cup and said, "Ebben Foo". It took me a minute but then dissected this and figured out that 'Ebben' in English means 'In this' and 'Foo' is what she has been calling 'water' for a while now. We have no idea why she calls it 'foo' but it's her thing. I always correct her and sound out slowly 'wah - t - er' but she replies 'foo - oo'. Who knows?

Yesterday, Curt ended up going into the office against our original plan. Too much is happening and after 2 weeks away he needed to get in there to check up on things. Poor guy flew ALL night long. Arrived at home around 7am then left the house to the office by about 9:30am. He thought he'd be home after school but called to say he'd only get home later, before we had to go back out for dinner. Then, he called me at 6:15pm to say he wouldn't be making it home at all and would have to meet me out. The kids were crushed but at least they had him all morning today and now tonight as we've canceled our evening plans to be with them.

The kids all had programs on this afternoon. Terence went to his Belgian friend, Arnaud's birthday party from 1 - 5:30pm. Actually he went to play at Tom and Lucas (twins) from 1-2:30pm then their mom took them over to the party. Mia and Ali went to Disney on Ice with sisters Brigi and Linda and their mom, Marcsi. Some of their friends like Lara and Keira also went. It's 6:30pm and we are expecting them to get dropped off any minute.

Tonight we are painting EASTER EGGS! I am so excited. We decided to hard boil them, paint them and play a game called Egg Picking tomorrow morning. Egg Picking is a game where you have to try and knock your egg with another's points or butts to see which one breaks. Then we switch sides and try again. Who ever has an egg that doesn't crack wins. I think the kids will have fun with this.



Must run as they all just arrived home!

Ali vs the Lipgloss

Don't be scared by this next photo. After I wrote my post yesterday about Ali never getting out of her own bed until one of us go up to get her, guess what happened?! After her afternoon nap yesterday, she found Mia's little purse on the nightstand next to the bed. Inside was one of Mia's lipglosses. It actually could have been one of mine as Mia steals mine and hides them around her room all the time! Anyhow, Ali decided to try applying the lipgloss to her... entire face and head!! It looks like she'd been gooped by one of the Ghostbusters! I was shocked and I think that is why she looks so sad here. She expected to be greeted with a positive response and when I said, "Oh Ali! What have you done?!" She just pouted. Couldn't believe it.... Oh, forgot to say that she came down the stairs (probably to show me her work) by herself after her nap and make-up session yesterday afternoon.

FYI - it took 3 shampoos until her hair no longer was sticky, greasy, gooey!

Home At Last

Curt arrived this morning shortly after 7am!

Mia actually woke up about 10 minutes before 7am offering to help me cook breakfast (they always get a hot breakfast - something my mom used to do for us and something I believe strongly in). She was funny when she woke up as she started to tell me about her dream. I'm trying to remember how it went. It was something like, "Mommy, I had a dream about beautiful hair styles." Then, her story jumped around a bit so don't think it's my bad memory but this is really how she explained her dream, "Mate from school and I had to pick out jewelry for Judit" (Judit is their Hungarian teacher and Mate is a French boy in her class) "I was a mermaid and so was Mate. We were swimming and had mermaid tails. I was the queen mermaid." She seemed very happy about her dream. I think this explains a lot about what goes on in Mia's head...

Terence woke up at about 7am which is very unusual as he is our child that is impossible to wake up in the morning. On weekends,when we have no morning programs, he can sleep until 10am. Curt and I always say he's like a teenager when it comes to sleep. He came down the stairs rubbing his eyes this morning asking if dad was home yet. I said he'd probably be home any minute. We had a long cuddle (he only cuddles now when he first wakes up or in bed when he's going to bed so I treasure these times) and I got the porridge going on the stove. Suddenly we heard all the dogs outside going nuts. We'd just let them out a little while earlier as they always want to go out and do their business first thing in the a.m. They weren't barking but whimpering. Especially Blue who sounds like a pig squealing when he is excited. The 3 of us (Ali was still asleep) all ran to the door and found Curt lugging in his heavy suitcases. 'DADA!!!' The kids were shouting and jumping up and down with excitement. The screams woke Ali who shouted from her bedroom 'Dada!?!?' Even though she's been in a bed since she was about 19 months old she still doesn't get out of it alone. She hollers out for someone (usually me) and waits for us to come up and get her.

Ali's nursery school is on break today, Monday and Tuesday so she gets to stay home but Terence and Mia had to go on their way to school. Curt handed out some presents (lots and lots of DVDs) and volunteered to drive them to school this morning. They knew he was going to take the day off of work so they were ok about saying good-bye knowing that they'd be seeing him again at 3pm. Ali, on the other hand, hasn't let Curt out of her site. He's now in the shower and she is in there jibber jabbering away to him.

It's 9am now and he will take a short nap so he can make it through the day. We actually have dinner plans tonight. Poor guy! And, tomorrow night! Then Sunday is Easter with friends. Another typical Clements weekend. Always non-stop!

After school we will take Terence and Mia to their first day of swimming lessons with their new instructor. They will be taking lessons together 2 days a week for the next 3 months. Terence took lessons all last summer and is a great swimmer. Mia, who has never taken lessons, is a natural fish (she even dreams about swimming!) and has been swimming bravely without arm bands since the age of 3. It will be interesting to see how she does with an instructor.

It's so nice to have my family back together again!

Wishing you and your family a very Hoppin' Easter!

Always Saying Good-Bye

Being an expat = lots of farewell parties!

However, the positive side to this is that we have friends EVERYWHERE now! Seriously, we have friends in Australia, Singapore, China, Thailand, U.A.E., Kuwait, Italy, Sweden, UK, Mexico, Panama, Hawaii, India, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Romania, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain, Slovakia, Belgium, Austria, Croatia, Greece, Poland, US (of course) and soon Switzerland.

Last night I went solo to our friends' leaving party. Faith and Charles will be moving with their 4 year old son, Isaac, and their new Bernese Mountain dog, Flo, to a town near Geneva at the end of March. Since all our weekends seem to be packed, packed, packed they had to have a little party on a Wednesday night. It was so fun!

Champagne and speeches at Four Seasons. Then, 2 limos with more champagne, sushi and Indian samosas for an hour around the city. Girls in one limo, boys in another. Last stop, Tom George for dinner. Farewell in style... Larkin-style!

Here is Charles and Faith

One More Night-Night

Until Curt returns! The kids are so excited it almost feels like Christmas Eve. They are upstairs all giggling and having trouble falling asleep. He called me a few hours ago saying he was getting ready to board. He was in Beijing for his 1 stop over back from Shanghai. The flight from Beijing to Budapest is direct on Hainan Air. It's a long one! I've been on it several times with Curt before.

It was midnight China time (6pm here) when he called and he lands tomorrow very early. He may even make it home before we leave for school (at 7:50am). He'll be so exhausted. He always sends me an email from his Blackberry upon boarding to warn me about possible air rage issues. He is so funny about traveling and getting more and more inpatient about travel issues as he gets older. All he wrote in this email was, "Getting on plane. One million chinese on board." There is nothing worse than a packed airplane during such a long journey!

Anyhow, we are all very much looking forward to his return after 2 long weeks!