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!