Guilt Trips & New House pics

We got the keys to the house today. I was able to take a few pictures (see below) before the camera died. Not too bad considering I hadn't charged it since before we sold the house. If everything falls our way we should be able to schedule delivery of our stuff for Thurs or Fri (early next week for sure).

After picking up Katie from school today, VJ, Katie & I went out to the new house to drop some stuff off. I had several "interesting" conversations with Katie. "Interesting" being defined in this case as my stopping and double checking that, yes, she is indeed still only 5 and how did she learn to give me a guilt trip and/or bust on me.

Conversation #1
Katie and VJ are talking in the back and Katie is telling him what a big boy he is and how he has a birthday coming up. She stops and says to me:
Katie: "So let me get this straight. He has no friends so it will just be the four of us at his party."
Me: "Uh..."
Katie: "Because he has no friends over here, right?"
VJ: "That will be so sad."
Me: "Uh..." I manage to convince them that we will still have fun at his party even if it's only the four of us. Crisis averted but a little guilt for me.

Conversation #2
Out of the blue, Katie says:
Katie: "Are you glad you have kids?"
Me: "What?!"
Katie: "I said, Are you glad you have kids?" She helpfully annunciates the words extra clearly since I am apparently having trouble understanding English.
Me: "Of course I am. I love you and VJ and Mommy and I are so glad we have kids. What makes you ask that?"
Katie: "I was just thinking about it."
Me: more stuff about how they are great and we love them
Katie: "Before you had me, you didn't have any kids."
Me: "That's right."
Katie: "Did you have fun?"
Me: "Well, mommy and I did different stuff for fun." and I prepared to continue on with how we didn't get to go to Chuck E. Cheese's and stuff like that to show how we have more fun now but she interrupts with:
Katie: "Because you didn't have anyone to yell at?"
What brought this guilt trip on? I hadn't yelled all afternoon. So I had to explain that sometimes we yell to teach them, especially if they are not being safe blah, blah, blah.

Now, I'm really looking for this ride to be over with but I have to stop at the grocery store and so I tell them this.

Conversation #3
Katie: "What do we have to get?"
Me: "Just beer."
Katie: "What, did you drink all the beer you bought yesterday?"
I glance back to make sure my mom wasn't hiding in the back seat doing the talking.
Me: "Well, your mother did drop one bottle and it broke."
Katie: "So you and mommy drank 3 bottles."
Me: "Yes." But we were in before curfew...what the hell? Why was my daughter channeling my mother?

Luckily, VJ fell asleep in the car after we left the store so I convinced Katie we had to be quiet so he could sleep.

Here are some pictures of the new house:

VJ's bedroom with Jungle Book mural.

There are three bedrooms at the top of the stairs. VJ's is on the right, ours in the middle and Katie's to the left (not pictured). Each room has it's own bathroom complete with shower stall (ours has a tub too).

Here's the view from Katie's room. You can see some of the other houses in our complex and how the woods are all around us. Our house is yellow, but otherwise looks just like these.

Snow

When we woke up this weekend we were greeted to the sight of our first snowfall in Hungary. The kids were very excited. Katie thought is was "so pretty!" VJ declared that "It's Christmas!" Unfortunately we did not get a chance to go play in the snow as it didn't stay around for too long. But don't worry, the kids had a blast going with us to ElectroWorld and MediaMarket comparing prices on washers, dryer and various household appliances.

The snow fall did prompt us into buying boots for Katie & VJ (& me too!) When we do get to play in the snow, we want to be prepared!

Much time was also spent on our new favorite toy: Lincoln Logs. Santa brought these for VJ, but everyone is enjoying them.

We also drove out to our new house, just to check out the drive and look around the neighborhood. Our complex backs up right against the woods and it looks like there are several walking trails where we can watch nature freaks walk as we drive by on the way to the mall (I mean let's not kid ourselves).

We get the keys to the house tomorrow and can begin moving some of the extra junk in the hotel over right away. Anna just got confirmation this morning that our sea shipment did arrive in Budapest on Friday and they are trying to wrap things up with customs to deliver it to the house by the end of this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

And now some pictures:
VJ staring out the window at the snow before Breakfast on Saturday:

View from our window:

Lincoln Logs Rule!

Ice Skating and the Lessons We Learned

The kids had a great time ice skating on Friday night. Every moment Katie spent skating was accompanied by an incredible sound track of oohs, ahs and screams, along with appropriate wind-milling of arms of course. VJ was a little reluctant to get on the ice at first, content to be held while one of us did the skating. Once I made him get on the ice and try (his feet touching the ice while one of us held him up and pushed) he had a blast and yelled for more every time I stopped for a break.

I forgot the camera, so no pictures to show.

Here's what we would do differently next time:
1. Arrive earlier - The kids & I got there at 5:15 and had to wait in line almost 45 minutes for skates. While a pain, this had a silver lining since Anna had an unexpected late afternoon meeting and did not get there until we were at the front of the line.
2. Do not even think about 1 parent going alone - After getting on the ice, I had no idea what I would have done with two kids by myself.
3. Parents don't need skates - what were we thinking? Anna and I being in skates only made things more difficult. It would have been much easier (and easier on my lower back) to hold the kids up and pull/push them along without having to make sure I didn't fall on my own ass.

Still in all, a very fun evening topped off with dinner & beers at TGI Fridays in the mall.

Updates

Just a few updates:
I've added a link on the right to our Kodak Gallery picture site. You can see all the pictures we take (not just the few I post here). I'm also slowing adding pictures from previous years (Christmas, visits to Troy, etc.).

Katie's kindergarten class is currently studying transportation. They had a field trip yesterday to the Children's Railway where they had a nice train ride through the woods. The first week in Feb they are going to the Transportation Museum. We continue to be very happy with her new school and she is having a great time there.

Tonight the school is sponsoring an ice skating party at the ice rink at the mall we go to (we didn't even know they had an ice rink). After we bought the tickets, we found out why we never knew it had a rink...it's on the ROOF! OUTSIDE! WE ARE GOING TO FREEZE! I'll post pictures of our frozen selves tomorrow.

We have signed the lease on our house (when I say "we" I mean Anna..but she says I can live there too) and get the keys next Tuesday. Our stuff should arrive in Budapest TODAY but will take the better part of a week to clear customs. The end of the hotel stay is in sight!

This Weekend

I won't bore you with everything we did this weekend. Mostly just checked out some new stores: Ikea, Kika (think Bed, Bath & Beyond, Linens & Things, 1/2 of Babies 'R Us, a furniture store and more all rolled up into one) and Tescos. Only two events are note worthy enough to write about:

Church on Saturday
We were able to find out that Sacred Heart Church has an English Mass on Saturdays at 5:00pm and it's only 1 subway stop away from the hotel. The church itself was beautiful...sort of like St. Patrick's in Troy but on a smaller scale.
Taken as a whole, the experience itself was...I hesitate to use the phrase "a nightmare" for fear of being struck by lightning...let's just say it was sub par. Read on.
Katie was wonderful. She did her best to be quiet and even semi-participated in mass which I think is good for a 5 yr old.
Let's talk about VJ. In his defense, the situation and setting really worked against him. If he behaved the same way at St. Laurence in Sugar Land, he would have received a solid "Good." 2 yr olds really can't be quiet for that long (we got there like 15 minutes before mass...mass itself lasted ~50-55 minutes). And the boy can not remember to whisper. In one sentence he will whisper and then the next he forgets and talks REALLY LOUD. He is also, what my mother would call, an "itch-ass." He can't stay still. At St. Laurence, with 1000+ people (including other kids) at mass, carpeting and cushioned kneelers none of the above would really be a problem. However at Sacred Heart where the church is much older (I gotta say at least 100+ yrs old), with old, warped, non-cushioned wooden benches that make huge amounts of noise against the non-carpeted wooden floor only like 50 people (no kids) any shenanigans, no matter how mild, really stand out.
But here's what really put the cherry on top of this experience: 5 minutes into mass I notice a smell. "Oh no", I think. Let me check...please no...yep that's VJ's diaper. Plus I got a weird look from the people behind us for sniffing my kids behind. Whatever.

Luckily, we got a line on a Church with an English Mass that's closer to where we will be living.

My first Hungarian Haircut
Some of you may know that I get my haircut on a strict 2 week schedule. Once we reach day 15 it's like crisis time. So you can imagine my anxiousness once 2 1/2 weeks had rolled by and I hadn't had a chance to visit the barber.

As luck would have it, while we were out and about Sunday we found a haircut place that didn't look too busy. While Anna took the kids shopping, I went in and got my haircut. The guy did not speak very much English but that shouldn't be a big problem, right?
The best I can say is that at least I learned some new Hungarian. Apparently "Zero on the sides and Four on top" means "Shave all my hair off" in Hungarian.

Let's just say that it doesn't look totally horrible and leave it at that.

Bank Account Challenges

Seems that in Europe, they don't have checking accounts, just bank accounts. Well, how do you write checks you ask. You don't. No checks. Apparently, everything is done through electronic transfers.

Now, I am a huge fan of not writing checks, but I liked the security of knowing I could. I feel like I am walking the tightrope without a net.

Other News:
Our seafreight shipment should arrive in Budapest terminal this week. But, then there is the dreaded customs. Early estimates are that this will take another week. Hopefully, luck will shine on us and allow us to get it delivered Feb 1 or 2 - right after our lease is effective. We will see.

Odds & Ends

Just a few Odd & Ends of note:

VJ's new thing is to "whistle" (please note the quotation marks). He doesn't actually whistle. He screeches. Imagine trying to have a conversation with a dolphin and you'll get an idea of what it sounds like. When we ask him to stop screeching, he tells us "No, I whistling!"

Katie definitely has my sense of humor. The bad part is, she's targets me in her efforts to be funny. For example, take last weekend when we were returning to the hotel from one of our practice runs to her school. As we were crossing the bridge over the Danube, I thought I would take the opportunity to teach the kids something. The conversation went as follows:
Me: "Did you guys know that Budapest is divided into two sides, the Buda side where Katie's school and our new house are and the Pest side were the hotel and Mommy's work is."
Katie: (without missing a beat) "Yes."
Me: "Really?" (I mean, I know she's smart but where had she picked this fact up already).
Katie: "No, of course not. Why are you listening to me?"
Anna and I laughed so hard I almost crashed the car.

VJ just likes to be contrary.
He & I were having a disagreement about something earlier this week (I can't even remember what). He said something was one way, and I explained that no, it wasn't. The conversation went like this:
VJ: "Yes it do."
Me: "No it doesn't."
VJ: "Yes it do."
Me: "No it doesn't."
VJ: "Yes it do."
Now at this point, I decided that I've banged my head against this wall long enough. Before moving on though, I felt that it was my parental duty to at least try and correct his grammar. So I say:
Me: "VJ, it's 'Yes it does.' "
To which he responds:
VJ: "No it don't."
That's when I realize, he doesn't really care about the issue at hand (whatever it was), he just wants to jerk me around by taking the opposite viewpoint. This theory was confirmed later in the week when I pulled a "Bugs Bunny" on him. We were having another one of our scintillating discussions that went something like this:
VJ: "Yes."
Me: "No."
VJ: "Yes."
Me: "No."
VJ: "Yes."
Me: "No."
I decide to test my theory on the next round.
VJ: "Yes."
Me: "Yes."
VJ: "No."
Success! I actually have tried this maneuver with Katie several times over the years, but she never fell for it. Which just proves that the boy is contrary.

Katie's new thing is an interest in time. Europe uses the 24 (military) clock and she's doing very well learning this new system. The bad part is that she is constantly asking what time is it. "What time is it Daddy?" "What time is it Daddy?" Argh! Sometimes, the first thing that pops into my head is "Half past the monkey's ass." (A little ditty from my youth on River Street). I haven't actually said it, but is it wrong that I even think it?

And to wrap things up, the blog has been a little light on pictures lately so here are a few from today:

I mentioned that a large part of the air shipment was their Christmas toys, but what does VJ like to play with? A string and 3 boxes. He says it's his "horsey."

Katie's was excited that Anna put her hair in braids today.

Here's VJ, staring at the TV this morning. I don't know where he gets this obsession with TV from (Anna's side, I'm sure).

Spicy Water

OK, so somehow or other, we have been able to keep our kids away from soda. I think early tastes of Diet Coke turned them off. Even occasional future tastes of Sprite and resulted in screwed up faces and responses like "That is yucky or too spicy." I think the bubbles are what make them think it is spicy.

Well, it seems that in Budapest, people like to drink mineral water, also know as fizzy water or water with gas (Vito thinks this is funny). Which I really like and no one else does, big surprise. So, then naturally, water without bubbles is called still water or water without gas.

Right, so we get to Budapest and everyone drinks bottled water - not quite sure why as the tap water is some of the best in Europe and is way better than Houston. Well, we decide to go to buy some water and without knowing any Hungarian, try to decipher which water is which. Still or fizzy. Right so, we know from experience (lunch at McDonalds) that the blue cap is fizzy water. Therefore the green cap must be still water.

We buy the green capped water. Once we get home, we break it open and pour some for the kids. VJ takes a sip and says, it's spicy. Katie is a bit more game and takes a sip and says yum, but then she has another and says it is not good.

Flashback to breakfast in NYC when we ordered fresh pressed apple juice for VJ and it comes out cloudy. VJ takes a sip, says yum. Then Katie states that it looks gross. VJ now thinks it is gross too and won't drink anymore.

Now I am thinking that the water is fine and they are just complaining, so I take a sip. And it is gross. It is slightly fizzy, but really just high mineral content. So, not good at all. Apparently, the bottle with the pink cap is the still water. And I am the one stuck drinking the rest of the green cap water. It has taken two weeks and I am still not through the 1.5 liter bottle.

So, tonight, while we were relaxing at the hotel after dinner, Katie proceeds to play restaurant, where she tells us what is on the menu and asks what we want to eat and drink. Well, Vito orders a sub and a Diet Coke. Katie proceeds to tell him that the restaurant does not have Diet Coke, only milk and still water.

I look at Vito and we laugh. Our kids are adjusting just fine!

Friday Assembly

The more we learn about Katie's new school, the more we like it.

Every Friday morning the whole school (remember, this campus is just Pre-K thru 2nd) attends assembly. It last like 20-30 minutes and parents are welcome. When VJ and I dropped Katie off today, her teacher reminded me of it. She had VJ come into class to play while I went ahead to the auditorium. VJ came in with the class, holding Katie's hand and sat with me.

They started off with everyone singing some song (I don't know the name). Then all the kids that had a birthday that week came down to the front and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to them.

Next, all the new students came down to the front and were introduced to the school by 2 of their classmates. Katie did very well and wasn't shy at all telling everyone she was from Houston, TX.

The school does a great job welcoming new students and families. Katie's teacher, Mrs. Juno, has gone out of her way to make VJ feel welcome. Students arrive between 8:00am & 8:30am when school "officially" starts. During this time they have free play in the class and Mrs. Juno has invited VJ to join in. He had a great time this morning.

Time Zones

Let's take a moment and review the concept of "Time Zones."

Here in Budapest, we are 6 hours ahead of New York (Eastern Time Zone) and 7 hours ahead of Houston (Central Time Zone). So for example, if it's 12:00pm in Houston, it's 1:00pm in New York and 7:00pm in Budapest.

Now, you are probably saying, "But Vito, we know this already." Ahh..."Not so" says I.

Specifically, this is for the person or persons that tried to call us last night at 1:34AM & then again at 2:36AM. Being sound asleep, we did not get to answer the phone in time either time so we have no idea who you are. Please review the above and, if necessary, get help to do the math. We'd love to hear from you but you REALLY don't want to talk to me at 2:30 in the morning.

Christmas in January

Our air shipment arrived this morning! A good bit of this shipment included most of the kids' Christmas presents. It'll be great to have some new toys to play with. I mean for the kids to play with, of course.

Even better from VJ's perspective is the fact that Katie is in school and he gets to play with whatever he wants (including her new keyboard) without any sharing or taking turns or other such nonsense.

Even, EVEN better from Dad's perspective is that the batteries on the annoying, incredibly loud fire truck Mrs. Claus picked out for VJ are dead. It's the little things that make life so special.

PB&J - Food of the Gods

Who would have thought that a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich could ever taste so good. But when it's the first thing that we've had that hasn't been hotel breakfast or from a restaurant since we got here...

After finally finding peanut butter this weekend, VJ & I went to the grocery store today and bought bread and some strawberry jelly. Luckily VJ & I prefer strawberry jelly (or jam or whatever it is) since grape jelly seems almost as hard to find as peanut butter.

VJ ate up his sandwich like he hadn't just had breakfast 3 hours ago. McDonald's and Burger King should be a once and a while treat not an almost every day thing.

Of course, having said that, it's off to BK for dinner tonight.

Set your TiVo

TiVo Alert!

I just wanted to remind everyone that Grey's Anatomy is on German Channel Pro 7 tonight at 22:10 (You all get that channel, right?).

Now granted, it's dubbed in German and it's an episode from over a year ago but still...it's part 2 of the episode with Christina Ricci and the guy from Early Edition.

God I hate the TV in the hotel. I pray that it gets better when we get into the house and we can get satellite. At least then I should be able to watch old episodes in English.

Lucky for me I've never watched much TV (but Anna is like a freak about it).

Second Day of School - Some Tears

We had some tears when I dropped Katie off for school today. Luckily, none of them were from her. She loved her first day of school and almost forgot to say goodbye to me when we got to her classroom. Her only concern this morning was when she found out that Anna was not going with us to drop her off. "Do you know how to get to my school by yourself, Daddy?" I was asked. Such confidence in me. The only thing better than this was when, after I had stalled the car for the Nth time this weekend, she asked Anna "How come you can't drive the car Mommy?" At least I can be proud that she gets her sarcasm from me.

But I digress. It was VJ who was crying outside Katie's classroom. "I want to take my coat off! I want to play! I want to go to Katie's school!" It was funny, but kinda sad too. So, to ease my guilt I took him back to the playground we found the other day and then on to McDonald's for lunch.

Weather - Ha Ha

Just a quick HA, HA to all of you who laughed and said we would freeze in Budapest. While we still fully expect that you will eventually turn out right...right now Budapest is much warmer than normal for Jan. And all of you in Troy & Houston are colder than us!

First Day of School

Katie started at her new school this morning. The only problem we had was when VJ dumped his orange juice all over himself at breakfast. I guess we should have expected it since, just like the practice runs we made to Katie's school over the weekend, VJ practiced this maneuver at breakfast yesterday morning as well.

We brought Katie up to her class and some of her classmates showed her around while Anna and I spoke to her new teacher, Mrs. Juno. Mrs. Juno took Katie's picture as well as a family picture of all four of us. VJ got to play while Anna & I talked to Mrs. Juno and was behaving so well that we left him there while we popped next door to the nurse's office. He was MAD when we came back for him when it was time to leave.

Here are some pictures from this morning. I will update later about how her first day went.

Weekend Wrap Up

Busy weekend.

Saturday
Saturday morning we walked to the Central Market Hall (Nagy Vásárcsarnok). There are many booths selling fresh produce, meats, breads, spirits as well as some clothes, linens & "touristy" stuff (t-shirts etc.). Very interesting morning. Here are some pictures:


In the afternoon we made a practice run out to Katie's school again. The first day of school is this Monday and I need to be sure I can get her there. Katie is beside herself with excitement and can not wait for Monday morning.

I can report that we did better than Thursday. Thursday we got TOTALLY lost and had to stop and ask some guy to point to where we were on our map. Saturday we only got a little sidetracked a couple of times and made the round trip from school to hotel in ~50 minutes.

We realized that one of our main problems was that we were applying Houston-distances to the map. Remember, just about all of Budapest would fit inside the 610 loop. When we would go to look for our turn, we would find out that we had already gone 4 streets past it!

Sunday
Rather than "Good Morning," Katie woke us up with "I start school tomorrow!" I think the fact that her school has a pool and they plan on swimming on Monday has helped ease the transition.
We made another practice run out to her school and I can happily report that we made no wrong turns and it only took 13 minutes (1 way).

From there we went straight across town to the Polus Center. Basically a large mall. They have a large supermarket (Tesco's Hypermarket) and for the first time was able to find some PEANUT BUTTER! It was totally expensive but what are you going to do.

We ended the day with dinner at the Bangkok Tai Restaurant. It was recommended in one of our Budapest Guide books and dinner was delicious.

That's it for now...got to get the kids ready for bed and make sure Katie's stuff is all together for school tomorrow.

A Little Site Seeing

The kids and I ventured out today for just a little bit of site seeing. We hopped on the subway and two stops later went looking for the American Embassy and the Hungarian Parliament building.

Even better from the kids perspective, before we found either of them we came across this park and had some fun:

The park was just down the block from the US Embassy. Here are the two pictures I took before the cop yelled "No Pictures!" at me.

And finally the Hungarian Parliament building. This is as close as we got since by this point Katie was complaining about how hungry she was so off to BK we went and then back on the subway to the hotel.

Idiot Southern Children

OK...so my kids are used to the warm weather of Texas. Neither one of them were really prepared for the cold weather in Budapest (of course the past two days have been unseasonably warm...it's like 60 today).

Growing up in New York, I guess I thought that all kids just knew how to put gloves on. My kids acted like we asked them to do Advanced Calculus. Some fingers were empty while others had company. You all know that my brother Frank is 12 years younger than me. Since my mom left for work so early, one of my jobs was to get him dressed for daycare and I just don't remember him having this many problems.

Anyway, we're getting better and you can see the results below:

AISB visit, Driving around Budapest

OK...so we had a 9:00am appt to visit Katie's new school, The American International School of Budapest (AISB). We planned on leaving the hotel at 8:00am to give us plenty of time to get there.

True to form, we did not actually get out of the parking garage until 8:30am. Now I should note that this is actually the first time either of us had driven in Budapest as the rental car was only dropped of yesterday afternoon. But no problem because it's not really too far and we have a map, right.

Suffice it to say that we missed the exit off the highway and got way off track. We had to back track through side streets. While the streets in Budapest are labeled VERY well, the Buda side of the city (where her school is and our house will be) is very hilly and the street planners had never heard of a straight line. On the up side, we found out where the Ikea is so there's something else off our list.

We got there at 9:12am and the principal took us on a tour of the school. Katie got introduced to her class and her new teacher & teacher asst. We saw the art room (twice a week), music class (twice a week), lunchroom, gym and, most importantly, the pool. They go swimming at least twice a week (it may have been three times). All in all it was a great visit and Katie is very excited about starting on Monday.

Anna was able to navigate us with no problems to her work where we dropped her off at 10am. I drove back to the hotel area in about 10 minutes. I was able to get us to within 5 meters of the parking garage entrance on the first try. Unfortunately, those 5 meters were down a one way street not going the way I needed. It took me another 50 - 60 minutes of driving (including two questionably illegal u-turns) to find the entrance to this tiny one way street.

Here is a map of Budapest showing the relative locations of Katie's school, our Hotel, Anna's office and our future home. If I measured correctly, Budapest, the 7th (?8th) largest city on the European Union would fit inside the 610 loop in Houston.

Guatamala!...WTF?

OK...so I planned to write more about Budapest but something came up. I just got off the phone with Anna. She's was just calling to say hi, and did the rental car get dropped off and oh, BTW, she has to go to Guatamala in February.

WTF?

OK...It's really not a big deal since it will only be for a week and we should be in our house by Feb 1st (ish) but I gotta say to ExxonMobil, wouldn't it have been more cost effective to ship her down there when we were still living in Texas? I'm not that great at Geography (certainly not as good as Hayden) but even a Geography-dummy like me can see that.

To my friends in NYS: if you listen closely for the screams, you will know when my mother has read this post.

Our Story So Far...

OK. So last June Anna had to go to the UK for the whole month on business. 3/4 of the way through she calls me and says that her boss called her and asked her to go to Budapest, Hungary for work. At first, I was kinda upset...I mean she was already gone for a month and how long would this trip be and when would she have to go?

That's when she explained that it was for 2+ years and it was to move the whole family over. Holy Cow! We had always talked about accepting a European assignment if it was offered but "always" was before we had kids. And Hungary was a little bit further East than I was originally hoping for.

Now, at this point, the only thing I knew about Hungary was that in Harry Potter, their dragon was the Hungarian Horntail...not very helpful info.

After some research and much discussion we decided that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

So...now it's January and here we are now living in the Marriott Executive Apartments in Budapest.

Well, that pretty much skipped past a bunch of stuff. As I get time I will fill in some of the blanks but pretty much everything has been great so far. We are getting to know a little more about Budapest everyday. We've gone house/apartment hunting and have found a great place to live and expect to move in on Feb 1st (assuming our stuff gets here in time).

Katie is VERY excited about starting at her new school on Monday. Tomorrow we are going out to the school (American International School of Budapest) to take a tour and wrap up some paperwork stuff).

That's it for now. Katie just reminded me that it's snack time and "What were we going to have?" I offered a bowl of pretzels and 1 cookie each. She countered with "How about an apple instead?" My kid turned down pretzels and a cookie for an apple. Are we great parents or what?