June highlights

June was a long and rainy month in Budapest. We stayed close to home this month. Parker finished his 3rd grade school year with several special school activities and then started his summer exploring Budapest with Lindsey and Ms. Andrea. This month they visited the Transportation museum and Natural History museum, hiked to the highest point in Budapest, traveled downtown to watch Hungarian folk dancing, had a fun day at the Budapest Zoo and playhouse, took a boat tour on the Danube, rode the children's train, taught Lindsey how to catch bugs and visited many playgrounds around Budapest. Parker spent one week at the AISB summer camp -- this seemed to consist mainly of swimming and dodgeball! During Parker's week at AISB Ms. Andrea arranged for Lindsey to spend a couple days at the Montessori school where she used to teach. I think she really enjoyed being around the other children. At home, we've been relaxing and hanging out with friends -- we ventured out to the Decathalon to buy a bike with baby seat, to Mammut for shopping and Subway and had our first outdoor dining experience in Budapest watching the trams.

Parker tidbits -

• wanting to call Allison everyday...at 7am her time...he says "it's not too early Mom, she wants to get up"
• earning a new gag in toontown
  
• writing in his journal about all his adventures this summer
  
• hasn't worn a collared shirt all month!
  
• fixing the phone for me so I could do a work meeting from home...I joked he was my new tech support and he said "I'm taking Dad's job so I should get a bigger allowance"
• "how much longer til Camp California?" repeat, repeat
  
• learning his way around public transport
  
  

Lindsey tidbits -

• opening her mouth wide so Andrea could blow (to cool down) the food already in her mouth!!!
• pointing to her ear at night to get a headphone (sometimes she does it in her sleep too)
• telling us "stories"
  
• letting us chase the fishy in her mouth with the toothbrush
• talking in her sleep - things she says most often are "pumpkin bread" "more money" "milk" "Parker" "chocolate" and "Ray-Ray"
  
• telling us a story (and acting it out) about playing with the dog in Vienna and throwing him the ball and him licking her hand. This was about 4 weeks later and she just thought of it out of the blue!
• carrying her money (hungarin coins), asking for more whenever she sees it. Several times she's woken in her sleep crying for mooooney, unable to get her to stop, I've given her the money. Each time she's closed her fist on it and fallen to sleep almost instantly.
  
• going potty
• claiming everything, especially if it's Parker's. She says "Lindsey's ......" "Lindsey's food, Lindsey's toy, Lindsey's drink, etc". Sometimes Parker will spar with her - then we get to hear 10 mins of "no, Parker's, no, Lindsey's, no, Parker's, no Lindsey's...." until they collapse in laughter or Parker tackles her.
  
• asking for her favorite songs and then interrupting me to demand a different one
  
• loving public transport - she can sit for an hour watching the traffic, trams, buses and especially taxis. She calls them "Mama taxi".
• wanting to fill her hair with many pretty clips and bows
  
  

Lindsey - June 2009

Lindsey visiting Montessori school

lunching at Montessori

Parker and LRae at highest point in Budapest

the view

Playground

Bug-catcher Master and Bug-catcher Apprentice

Riding Children's train

Jip lining together

Boat tour of Danube

Trying out bike in Decathalon

Yes, they were riding in the store! Kids were playing on bikes, scooters, with balls, ping pong and even jumping on trampolines outside. We stayed a couple hours, it was such a fun place.