Posted in Family, Minutiae, tagged colors, cooking, crafts, kids, kitchen, play, playdough on February 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I made playdough today. It was really pretty. See?
I made a valiant attempt to keep the colors from being irreversibly mixed.
I failed.
So Daddy had the brilliant idea of turning it into planets.
I suppose I knew that the colors wouldn’t stay separate forever. I just hoped it would be a little longer than an hour.
Posted in Family, tagged 10 months, Evelyn on February 22, 2011| 2 Comments »
Evelyn is our little dare devil. She LOVES to be thrown in the air, swung upside down, stand on my hands and do anything that sounds a little dangerous. She’s also reached the separation anxiety stage, though, so dangerous people are right out. Actually, any situation that doesn’t involve Mom is pretty much right out, although she will go to Ivan every once in a while. She wants to be held a lot lately and if she sees me leave the room we’re all in trouble. It’s kind of cute to watch her chase me around the house, though.
Evelyn is a pro at standing now. She can stand on her own for about as long as she wants and she can lower herself down to the ground with control and finesse. She’s started walking if you hold her hands, although she’s still a little awkward at it and can’t do it very well if you just hold one hand yet. Still, she’s getting pretty close to toddling around after her sister, which is exciting.
Speaking of her sister, Evelyn is pretty good at chasing Avery around too, and we discovered last week that if we put them in the tub together we get all sorts of giggly soggy messes. They splash and splash and giggle at each other. It’s hilarious. Evelyn splashes so hard she splashes water in her face and comes up gasping for a half a second before she dives in and splashes some more. Avery loves it and hates it when I finally wash Evelyn and take her out.
Evelyn is a lot like Avery in that she loves to be anywhere that is not home. She’s so much happier when we’re somewhere new with new and interesting things to look at and chew on. She loves the playgroup and rhyme time that we started going to for Avery, but go almost as much for Evelyn now, and church is usually a hit as well, because we usually spend an hour or so in the nursery before church while Ivan has meetings. It’s kind of a mixed blessing I guess. I know my kids will be pretty good while we’re out, but sometimes I wish they’d just be content to be home. I’m kind of a home body.
Posted in Food, Travel, tagged chocolate, chokolica, crowded, kurtoskalacs, lo kolbasz, mangalica, mangalica fesztival on February 6, 2011| 1 Comment »
We made a mistake yesterday in going to the Mangalica Festival at noon. There were far too many people for a comfortable festival going experience. Mangalica is a famous Hungarian breed (actually 3 breeds according to Wikipedia) of swine with curly hair. I wonder why everything here has long curly hair except the people: dogs, pigs, dogs, sheep…
The weather was very nice (compared to the last few weeks) which no doubt contributed to the congestion. Even so, the crowd was ridiculous—Hungarians take their pork seriously. It took us 3 hours to walk from one end to the other and back around to where we started. Had there been no people the trip would have been a leisurely half hour. With all the people however, the lawn was a muddy mess and the stroller kept getting in the way. We had difficulty getting over to the side of the path to look at something in a booth; we kept getting swept along by the crowd. It was pretty fun, but we’ll have to remember to come later in the afternoon next year.
Avery chickened out of riding a pony at the last minute again, and we chickened out of buying a Gulyás kettle. Other than that it was mostly food–we ate kürtőskalács (of course), had some milk, a bit of pizza, a turo rudi, and some Chocolitza.
That’s right, Chocolitza.
Chocolate flavored with rosemary or red chili peppers with bits of crunchy pig skin. It was actually much better than it sounds–which I realize is not saying much. Honestly, the worst part was psychological.
On a related food note, I recently bought some lo kolbasz. Kolbasz, as you may know is a type of sausage, and lo is a kind of animal which, to spare my siblings, I will make you look up yourselves. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it tasted like regular sausage, just a little spicier than usual.
Posted in Family, tagged Avery, Ballerina, music on February 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I got a pair of boots from a friend of ours that is moving soon and Avery wore them all day. They’re huge on her and have a bit of a heel, but she played ballerina in them anyway, complete with leaps and jumps. She didn’t injure herself in any way and actually fell down a lot less than I probably would have, so I was pretty proud of her.
Avery loves all things ballerina. She pretends to put on her “so pretty” ballerina shoes and makes her daddy play the “ballerina song” for her on repeat. Somehow Antonín Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dance 1” became the ballerina song and if you play anything else when she asks she’ll let you know that it’s not the ballerina song. I don’t know how I ended up with such a girly girl. I was always (still am) a tomboy and I’m a little nervous about this one when she hits teen and beyond age.
Other than the “ballerina song,” Avery really likes music in general. Ivan has a playlist set up for her in iTunes that she really likes and listens to nearly everyday. The list has mostly primary songs in Spanish (we don’t have the English versions), They Might Be Giants, Pomplamoose (look them up on youtube, they’re kind of fun) and some veggie tales. Her most recent favorites are “The Bloodmobile” (TMBG), “Barbara Manitee” (Veggie Tales), and the “sevens” song (I don’t know it’s real name, but it’s TMBG). And of course the “ballerina song” which had to be added recently.
The last week or two Avery has begun to notice and pay attention to emotional cues in other people. She’s begun asking me a lot if I’m happy and notices when I’m upset or angry. It’s kind of funny because when I’m mad she’ll ask me if I’m happy, which mostly just makes me frustrated. What are you supposed to say to a two year old that asks you if you’re happy when you’re fuming? I want to say “No! Go to your room!” but obviously that’s not very educational (or mature, I suppose). But it’s kind of cute to watch her awareness of others develop.
She’s also very into togetherness lately. She likes to include everyone in her plans. Today we went to playgroup and she said “I go to play group! And Mommy go to playgroup and Evelyn go to playgroup and Daddy go to playgroup!” with this very proud look on her face. She does the same thing when we all need coats. “I need my coat. And Evelyn needs her coat and you need your coat and Daddy needs his coat!” And she points at each of us as she says it. She likes to sit both her and Evelyn on my lap because then she acts like a baby and says “You have two babies!” We found both the girls matching pajamas recently and Avery was excited to have the same pajamas as Evelyn. So excited that she stuck her matchbox car in her mouth just like Evelyn was doing so that they would totally match.
Oh yeah, Avery has also in the last couple days finally conceded that Daddy is a boy. This is a big step. Daddy has been a girl for a long time. She’s still a little unsure though, and asks Daddy plenty of times a day “Are you a boy or a girl?” and always follows up his answer with “I’m a girl!” Today I asked her “Is Daddy a girl or a boy?” She said “Daddy’s a boy.” Pause. “Daddy’s a girl!” Pause. “Ask me again Daddy girl or boy.” Me: “Is Daddy a girl or a boy?” Avery: “Daddy’s a girl!” We’re working on it.
Raven 