Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Cabin

So the big cabin working weekend fell on what turned out to be mother's day weekend. The pile of people who were planning to be there fell away one by one, and in the end we had Terry and his dad throughout, stepbrother one day, and sister & brother in law one day. I had the kids so I stayed away until Monday. They got a ridiculous load of work done, though, framing, drywalling, painting, and caulking. The basement is now a real separate room, with a door and everything, and with all the "stuff" moved out it's got almost nothing that Zoltan could kill himself on, so it's now the rec-room-with-futon.

This weekend Terry went back up and lay the tile for the floor. It still needs one coat of paint everywhere and we need to install the baseboard heat and that should be about it. Little by little it's becoming a real cozy little place ... it will probably be finished in about 10 years, just in time for us to knock it down.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Do other 3 year olds talk like this?

Alex: Benjamin isn't my best friend anymore.
Me: What happened?
Alex: I asked him if I was the number one helper [at preschool] and he said no. So he's not my best friend. I still love him though.
Me: Do you still play with him?
Alex: Yes, I still love him and I still play with him, but he isn't my best friend.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Springtime in Piter

I think it got up to 15 or 16 today (Celsius), sunny ... absolutely lovely. And two children who think naps are for losers - at least Zoltan will grant us one, albeit too short. So what to do? Of course, go outside!

Terry and Zoltan left first, as it seemed at the time Alex might realize what a friend to her sleep really is. When Alex and I got to the playground, Terry looked at me and said "I had a great idea. How about one of us runs to the produkty across the street and we get a beer for me and a gin & tonic drink for you." (being Passover, I can't have beer) This is Russia, where a beautiful day outside must be enjoyed with alcohol in hand, so across the street Alex and I go. She was promised a juice box, as everyone else was getting a special treat.

The best part of the whole thing is when she and I were in the store looking at the non-beer options for me and after I make my selection I ask what I should get for daddy. "Get Daddy a beer." Good girl.

Friday, April 22, 2011

A day for the books

When Terry came home tonight I kissed him and told him I almost went for my passport today (as in, to leave him and the kids). Let's do a re-cap:

- Zoltan had my keys in the hole in the wall just below the 2 electrical outlets. How many seconds did we have before he bored of the hole and went for the outlet?
- Zoltan took the top rack off the silverware organizer. That one holds (among other things) the steak knives. When I got to him he had the cardboard cover off one knife and was putting the knife back inside.
- Zoltan refused to nap 3 times, and even refused to lay down in the stroller. He eventually took a pitiful 1h nap in the stroller almost entirely upright (there's zippered sides that let me recline him a bit)
- Due to said sleep deprivation he spent a lot of time screaming today, just in general.
- When getting ready to get Alex and I was setting up the stroller, he played in the fireplace in our foyer.
- Zoltan got hold of the metal 1 cup measuring cup and was banging it energetically on the kitchen table ... until he banged it on his fingers. Cue up the screaming.
- Zoltan managed to pull the completely full Brita pitcher off the countertop onto himself, drenching himself and the floor.
- Alex was her usual No-Nap self this afternoon, which also included a lot of screaming, tantruming, throwing things, pulling her brother, taking toys from him and other mischief.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cafe Gerbeaud

How is it possible that I forgot to write about Cafe Gerbeaud? It was one of the very few things I was adamant we get to while on our vacation, because of course I'm not missing out on world-renown chocolate. It's in the middle of everything so we passed it many times, but always as we were on our way somewhere, or during a meltdown, etc. We did finally get there our last full day in town and I have to say ... it's OK. Alex and I got the Valhrona chocolate cake and the menfolk got coffee drinks (I think). It is definitely not worth its own trip but it was a nice pit stop before getting on the subway - think stairs, no elevator - while Zoltan slept.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Ripped off

The flight home was super rough - on the long leg we were delayed 3/4 hour due to a jacka** who never boarded the plane but his luggage was on so they had to find and remove the luggage. Then it was ridiculously hot and a bit turbulent so Terry was just hanging on. Zoltan and I did laps and laps up and down the plane, making friends all along the way. It's a good thing the kid is so personable.

We finally land, get our luggage, and Terry goes to the taxi stand for our ride home, as always. The traffic is nightmarish, the kids both fall asleep but Z wakes after 40 minutes and screams the entire 15-20 additional minutes til we get home. And then ....

the driver tries to charge us 2500 rubles for the ride. In a sedan. That usually costs 800 rubles. The minivan we ordered to get us to the airport because I didn't know "station wagon" in Russian cost 1150. We had been awake since 5:30am, we were exhausted from the travel and drained from listening helplessly to the screaming, and we were DONE. So, stupidly, we gave him 2000 and sent him on his way.

I console myself with the knowledge that the whole trip was way under budget even though we all know that wasn't the point. Ah, home sweet home.

Last photos of budapest

Here are links to the last photos not linked in previous posts. You can all as get to the Budapest page with all the albums here.

Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow ....

... and we can stay all day, we're going to the zoo, the zoo, the zoo, how about you?

The Budapest zoo is walkable from our friend's apartment and of course kids and zoos go together like kids and candy so we decided it would be a good plan for our Wednesday. With the kids rising early on vacation (kak obuichna) we were at the entrance at opening time sharp, 9:00am. We figured we'd stay 2 hours or so, catch lunch somewhere, maybe play in the park a bit and try to get Alex a nap. Hahahahahaha.

This zoo is amazing. It's segmented into regions, so there's an Australia area, a Madagascar area, etc, etc. We ran into the petting zoo relatively early on. You climb a ladder to get over the fence where the very tame and friendly goats live. The kids were thrilled to pet them, as you can see. There's a sectioned off area where the goats can get away from people when it gets to be too much. Next to the goat area, but not for petting, is the guinea pig area. I have no earthly idea why we didn't get photos. Their outdoor space is a little mini village, with houses, cars, shops etc for them to run around and play in.

Another part Alex particularly liked was the animal hospital area, where we could see the sick/injured animals in their separate quarters. We were there so early the only human back there was the cleaner, but it looks like people can watch the vets take care of the animals.

The hippos live in a mosiac'd building (of course with access to outside too) and, as they are next to the elephants, there is a huge Ganesh at the entrance of the building.

Budapest really has its act together when it comes to playgrounds. The zoo had several places for kids to play, from the carved wooden insects to the ocean themed huge play area complete with a pirate ship (well, it has a gangplank), dolphins and a whale. There's even a zipline for older kids or kids whose parents hang on.

We loved the zoo so much we got Tshirts. We never get touristy stuff like that. And in the end we spent 6 hours there, only heading home because it was about to start raining.

Buda

Being geographically challenged, I never knew from minute to minute our first days in Budapest whether we were in Buda or Pest. Turns out everything is in Pest, and Buda is the old city. Terry had to explain it a few times, because the first time he just said the "Castle" was more of a complex than one big building and his explanations continued to expand until he finally described it as being like Mdina. Well if he'd only said that first!

We'd been debating the funicular and in the end, standing in front of it, we realized we'd have to pack up the stroller or split up and it wasn't worth the bother. So we walked up the hill. Several times on the way up we questioned that decision too but at that point there was nothing for it but to forge on.

We wandered the streets and saw the sights, which Terry will input with their photos as I don't remember the names of the buildings anymore. We definitely got to Fisherman's Bastion and took all the requisite photos from the vantage point. The adorable photos of Terry and Alex come from there, where we hid out during one of the many brief rain showers that day.

One pretty hilarious tidbit - the guy who cleans the square in front of the Matthias Church wears courtly attire (well, a tunic and breeches. The photos of him were all out of focus so Terry deleted them.) There was another courtly dressed guy with an eagle, you can see part of him in one photo but the ones that included the eagle were also, apparently, out of focus so they got cut too.

Budapest parks and playgrounds

The best playground I have ever seen in my entire life is in the City Park in Budapest. We only went into the one, although we could see 2 others from where we were. Here's a link to some photos. Alex lovey loved the huge slides and both kids rocked the sandbox. She didn't love the dragon that greets you when you enter but Z was unfazed.