two weeks

+ stayed in a hotel with a fabulous view over the danube to gellert hill and the palace

+ let reese sleep in a big girl bed for the first time [twin mattress on the floor...she did pretty well...we only went in a couple of times to find her standing up with the cushions from the chair on her bed and the curtains wide open]

+ enjoyed the breakfast downstairs [we all know how much i like hotel breakfasts]

+ said goodbye to our dear friends in budapest

+ shopped the christmas market one more time

+ took matson to the beautiful st. stephen's basilica [probably my most favorite place in budapest...each time i go there i see something different...i've seen a bride walking down the isle, little hungarian girls practicing their flutes for a performance, another wedding party taking pictures outside on the front steps and this last time i saw mass]

+ doctored a sick reesey boo for a couple of days

+ watched lots of cartoons

+ packed up 8 checked baggage, 3 carry-ons, 2 carseats, 1 stroller and 2 kids

+ boarded a plane for the usa [well, first to amsterdam and then to houston]

+ LOVED business class on the plane

+ didn't sleep for 24 hours +. [we all did pretty well on the 11 hour flight...matson and i had two seats together while matt and reese were on the other side of the plane together...i held matson almost the entire time to keep him quiet...he didn't sleep much...reese slept only the last two hours...needless to say matt and i didn't sleep either]

+ arrived in houston at baggage claim to all of our luggage already on a cart waiting for us! [a wonderful perk of business class]

+ paid way too much for a hotel room by IAH where we got up at 4 a.m. on tuesday morning

+ drove to gram + papa's house

+ enjoyed lots of delicious home cooked meals [my mom's a great cook]

+ played outside on a rainy, foggy day





+ shopped at target three times already [and a few more places i've missed]

+ introduced matson to my brother, sister-in-law and cousin

+ got behind the wheel of a car again

+ enjoyed going out to dinner with all adults [my parents, me, matt, my brother and sister-in-law...a rarity these days...my aunt marsha and cousin nicole stayed with reese, matson and brody]



currently we are enjoying...


+ the conveniences of the usa

+ the warm weather [although a cold snap just blew through last night]

+ a little relaxation [i know it doesn't seem like we can have too much relaxing with two small children, but it's possible when both parents are around and the grandparents]

+ 107.1 kgsr [good ol' texas tunes]

+ cable tv

+ target [have i mentioned that yet???]

+ english




we are pretty much adjusted to the new time zone [i've been falling asleep on the couch at 9:30 each night because i'm still getting up in the middle of the night with matson baby...he is having a harder time, but it's getting better each night...reese and matt are good to go]

sopron, hungary

it's a smaller medieval town on the austrian border with a quaint town center. it was lovely. we enjoyed a modern accommodation with a living room and bedroom - quite essential when traveling with two little ones. we arrived on saturday afteroon. most of the stores were closed, but we got to walk around a bit, play in the town center around the water fountain, and find a good place to eat. when i planned this trip, i didn't realize that we'd be spending sunday here. everything is closed on sunday, including the breakfast that was supposed to be included with our room. :( we ended up finding a good little bakery where we got to try several different hungarian breads and pastries.

we spent the day strolling around the town, watching the locals and just relaxing. the sunday feel is definitely one of a slower pace. we needed it.



here's something random from our visit to sopron: the next morning at breakfast i learned something about myself - i like my eggs sunny-side up! with toast of course. :) i hadn't tried eggs like that in years and years so you can imagine i wasn't too thrilled when they turned up on my plate. i decided to try it and low and behold i loved them! i've been making them for breakfast a lot since this trip. yum!

a whole year

we've been in budapest for a whole year now! last september 16 we flew out of houston and landed in budapest on september 17. click on the link and see just how little reese was - wow! and we didn't even have little matson - a lot can change in a year. not much else to say, just wanted to note this monumental time.

strollers + graffiti

this is what we looked like strolling down the street for a while, but that stroller is just way too big and bulky for budapest - too heavy and awkward to pick up and it doesn't fit very easily through the narrow doorways here. so, matson graduated really early to the umbrella stroller...

much better. way easier to maneuver and pick up. the buggy board, which reese stands on, is now attached to the maclaren stroller. it's great. she hangs on and can see where we are going and we all get to our destination a lot faster.


unfortunately the graffiti you see in the first picture is typical budapest. i'm used to it, but i still hate it. the city is beautiful, but it could be so much nicer if the graffiti was gone. i guess the best way to escape the graffiti and the hustle + bustle of city life is to look up. you just have to remember to look up. the part of the city that has not been vandalized with graffiti are the upper parts of the buildings. the architecture is beautiful and sometimes you can get a vivid reminder of WWII when you see real bullet holes on the buildings. okay, back to reality. look back down - one of your kids is either crying or running off. ha! :)

szent istván day

{this may seem out of date, but i would still like to document it on my blog b/c it was a fun day.}





two wednesdays ago on august 20 we celebrated saint stephen's day. it's a national holiday honoring the first king of hungary. we started off the morning walking amidst the crowded river bank to the front of parliament to the bread festival. it was packed with booths selling bread, some making it, and activities for children.



we watched the red bull air race from our side of the river in the afternoon. it was really cool. we got to see the planes turn around at the end of the course and start their way back through. "smoke on!" that's what the announcer would say each time a plane started their run. we got a kick out of that.






the scene. there were several large screens like this one set up along the each bank of the river for an up close view. we liked it because we couldn't see the whole course.





topping the evening were the incredible fireworks! reese got to stay up past her bedtime and see fireworks for the first time. the loudness scared her at first, but we quickly turned it into a color game. budapest did it up right...there were 6 or 7 locations of fireworks. we had a great view of the ones going off of a boat in the river. we could also see them coming up over the parliament building - beautiful sight.

lake balaton

we took our first road trip in a car last weekend. we rented a little opel wagon, loaded both car seats and grandma in the backseat and drove a couple of hours to lake balaton. it's the largest fresh water lake in europe and it's beautiful. we stayed in balatonfüred on the north shore of the lake.

{please forgive the blurriness of this picture. it's the only one i got of all of us in the car.}

{reese and grandma playing in the water when we first arrived. before grandma could stop her, reese sat in the water in her clothes. so what do you do with wet clothes? take them off, of course!}

{when in europe, do as the europeans!}

{daddy + daughter}

{kick, kick, kick! reese loves the water!}


{matson and mom walked around along the lake enjoying the beautiful weather and the view.}


{matson was quite the popular guy at the hotel. everyone wanted to see him.}


{ice cream every day!}

tihany

saturday was a cool day so we decided to skip playing in the water and explore a little. we went to a small town called tihany which is on the hilltop on a peninsula in lake balaton. as you can see, the view is beautiful!

the four of us. you can see the fourth person's hand sticking out of the carrier. :)

not sure who this is a statue of (st. stephen maybe?), but a cool statue and view nonetheless.

money for the accordion player.

"dawgone it!" or "dog on it."
funny story...let's see if i can explain it...reese was walking along this little wall with matt by her side while i was off looking at a house with a thatched roof. neither of us were paying attention when all of a sudden we heard her say, "dawgone it!" what?! where'd she learn that?! what mom and dad didn't see was the dog walking on the wall. she actually said, "dog on it." ha! grandma watched the whole thing unfold because she saw the dog and knew what reese said while matt and i were dumbfounded thinking she said "dawgone it!" too funny!

abbey church

paprikahaus

sukoró

on our way back from the lake we broke up the trip with a little stop in sukoró. it's super small town on a hill with a great view overlooking lake velence...

sziget festival 2008

do you think matson will be think i'm crazy for taking him to an alanis morissette concert when he was just six weeks old? maybe, mabey not, but i'm sure he'll probably wonder who in the heck alanis morissette is. :) i haven't thought of her in a long time so i was surprised i remembered so many words from the jagged little pill album.


my friend, kelli, had an extra ticket to the sziget festival so matson and i joined her while matt, reese and grandma stayed at home. the sziget festival is a week long music festival on the island just north of margit sziget (margaret island) in the middle of the danube river. we took a boat ride over to the island after pulling out the baby card to get our armbands to get in the festival. the line was long and it was hot and the baby card got us to the front of the line. :) matson was great through the concert. it was very loud, but he slept the whole time. i got a ton of looks for having such a small baby there, but i felt validated when some guy walked by and said, "you're never too young to start." i wonder if matson will be a rocker?! :)

nyár a lánchídon

reese got an ice cream while i fed matson in the shade.

for our saturday afternoon outing we went down to the széchenyi lánchíd (széchenyi chain bridge) to check out the nyár a lánchídon (summer on the chain bridge). each summer the chain bridge (completed in 1849) is closed down to traffic on the weekends for a small festival. each end of the bridge has a stage set up with different genres of music each weekend. this weekend we enjoyed some jazz music on the buda side of the bridge at clark adam ter. we walked across the bridge, checked out the line of booths, watched the peoples, and then strolled back.

matson enjoyed the stroll too.

an afternoon complete with kisses from dad!

the hospital

several people have asked about having a baby in hungary so before i forget i'd better make a record of it. these are the differences i experienced between having reese at memorial hermann hospital in houston, texas and matson at telki hospital in telki, hungary.



1. this is telki hospital which is located seven kilometers outside budapest. so technically matson was born in telki, hungary, not budapest. it is a very quiet, peaceful place. i was the only delivery on saturday, june 28, 2008 and there were no other deliveries during our two night stay - very different from the approximate 96 maternity ward rooms that were full while we were at memorial hermann with reese.


2. i didn't have an IV during labor, delivery or afterwards. can we say all natural?!


3. the midwife, who was with me during labor and who actually delivered the baby while the doctor stepped off to the side (strange, i know. i'm not sure what the deal with this was), told me to each chocolate during labor. not sure what the sweetness/sugar does, but i took her up on it and ate some peanut m&ms! :)


4. i didn't get a hospital bracelet, but matson did (about 2 hours after he was born). there was no security chip in the bracelet like reese had at memorial hermann. no checking the mother's bracelet with the baby's bracelet. we kept matson in our room the entire time we were there, so there really wasn't a need to check the bracelet.


5. at memorial hermann there was a strict policy about the baby leaving the room. reese had to be in the bassinet, not held. at telki, the pediatrician visit was in another room so the nurse would come in to get matson and just walk down the hall with him. we, of course, went with him.


6. the rooms were like a hotel room - two single beds, two bedside tables, a table with two chairs, a closet, a bathroom (with shower only), a tv and a thermostat to control your own air. nice! i spent labor and delivery in another room and then moved to this room. no big patient bed or small chair for matt to sleep in. this room was by far much better than the one at memorial hermann.


6. no middle of the night interruptions. it's quite surprising just how much less the nurses come in your room. i only had my blood pressure and temperature taken twice a day and not at all during the night! i remember at memorial hermann the nurses coming it at all hours of the night.


7. we stayed two nights at the hospital which is the same as we did with reese, but we left a lot earlier than most hungarians. for a normal delivery in hungary without any complications the typical stay is 3-4 nights. for a cesarean section the typical stay is 7 days! yes, 7 days! and, it's not uncommon for hungarian women to check into the hospital early and wait for the baby to come. can you imagine?! no way.


8. checking out was interesting. the administrative lady came to visit us to get all the information for matson's birth certificate (which looks really cool, by the way) so we gave her all the pertinent information which included our passports and an officially translated copy of our marriage certificate by the hungarian government. after she came back with copies of everything and we were cleared by the obstetrician and pediatrician, we were free to leave. matt and i packed up our stuff, put matson in the carseat and walked out. matt carried the bags and i carried matson. there was no wheelchair escort out or anything like that. we even walked down the stairs b/c the elevator was taking too long! ha! we had to stop at the front desk to check out and pay before we left. yes, we paid the bill before leaving. (not to worry our insurance will pay us back 80% of it, but the whole stay only cost $3,200 which included delivery, meals, pediatrician, etc.) after checkout we called a taxi to come get us. i think it's funny that matson's first car ride was in a taxi. not many people can say that.


this is my hungarian doctor - dr. árpád kosztin.


overall our hospital experience in telki was good. since this was our second baby, we felt a bit more at ease with caring for a newborn. we weren't the typical first time parents jumping at every little squeak or grunt from our little guy. it was much smoother the second time around which, i think, made our stay at the hospital a little easier. actually, we sort of got bored since matson was sleeping the whole time. the television didn't work the first day and even after we got it working, there was only like one channel in english - the news of course. we had our computer so we were able to connect to the world. we had several friends come by to visit and we even had some visitors from the USA...

if you look closely you can see matt's dad on the screen. skype is such a beautiful thing! it felt really good to be able to share matson with our parents the day he was born even when they were on the other side of the world!

update

things are going quite well on our side of the world right now. i mean, who wouldn't be doing well with a gram who goes to the grocery store for me, is helping a TON with reese, cooking dinner and cleaning up afterwards?! it's a beautiful thing. i just know i'll hate it when she leaves.



matson is doing what babies do best...eating and sleeping. last night i actually got two four hour stretches of sleep with only a thirty minute interruption for eating! a huge thank you goes out to my sweet husband for staying up a little later with someone who wasn't quite ready to close his eyes. no crying, just wide-eyed. matson looks like he's getting bigger already. :( they grow up so fast, he's practically in kindergarten! ha. ha. just kidding.



reese continues to be super sweet with matson. each time she leaves the house or goes down to sleep she has to give matson hugs and kisses. the rest of us don't get love, just matson. as gram promised reese, she came bearing gifts. so far reese has received a doctor kit in which she loves listening to people's heartbeats, some pink glittery princess shoes, and some wooden pots and pans to complete her kitchen! i think she likes when gram comes. :)



my dad arrived in town on wednesday as scheduled, but no luggage - again. out of the five trips that either my mom or both parents have taken over here, only one time did their luggage show up with them. so frustrating. not to worry though, his luggage arrived the next day. tomorrow is my parents' 38th wedding anniversary (and my paw-paw's 87th birthday) so they are going out to eat at spoon, a restaurant on a boat on the danube river. matt and i haven't been there yet, but i've heard it's a really nice place to eat. they will get to enjoy sunset while dining. they are also looking at going to a tennis tournament on saturday and maybe visiting some smaller towns in hungary that are easily accessible by train. amidst all this they are enjoying time with two of their grandchildren.

gárdony

monday was a holiday in hungary so we got to enjoy another long weekend. marton, a colleague of matt's, invited us to his family's lake home in gárdony, so we headed southwest out of budapest. it's just a short 50 minute train ride away. reese loved the train! she pointed out all the other trains we passed. we had our own six seater room (we used reese to ward off any potential people coming in our cabin.) so it was a comfy ride. on the way back we enjoyed a brand new train less than 1 year old. it was super smooth and quiet and it had a/c! love it! :)


gárdony is located along the southern beaches of lake velence. as you can tell it was a beautiful day. we spent the whole day outside, mostly in the shade though trying to avoid sunburns. we walked down to the lake a couple of times. several people were sun bathing, but the water was a bit cold to get in. the highlight for reese and marton's 5 year old twin girls, blanca and dharma, was throwing rocks in the lake. matt couldn't find rocks fast enough for reese before they were in the lake again.



marton and dora were great hosts to us. we picked up lunch from a couple of the local stands and we tried another hungarian pastry for the first time. the lángos is something like a large round biegnet with sour cream and cheese or jellies and jams with powdered sugar on them. we shared the one with garlic, sour cream and cheese. it was good, but definitely not calorie-free. we also enjoyed a walk to the not-to-be-missed ice cream stand.



we hope to make it out there again - with our swimsuits next time!

"mas"

"mas" is what reese says for "merry christmas". the whole two words must be a little intimidating to say, so she just says the end. she does a much better job at saying "jesus". too cute!

our little reindeer!

we had a good christmas in budapest even though we were away from family and friends. we woke up christmas morning and i made a special pancake breakfast...a great treat for us these days! then reese got to open her presents. matt and i didn't get to open anything. we figured our trip to rome was a good gift for each other. reese had fun opening presents though...

hmmm, what's in here?

i like this! she got a winnie the pooh book with flaps to open and buttons that make noise! it's very cool.

nesting blocks. they are really cute. they have hungarian words on them.

the big gift...a wooden cradle that we bought in prague for her baby doll.

toys? who needs toys when you can have a wrapping paper hat?!

i think you need one too, mom.

our attempt to get a family christmas photo. this is the all natural picture still in our pj's after breakfast christmas morning.

in the afternoon we were invited to spend christmas with some missionary families from our church. it meant so much to us to be included. we were going to be at home on christmas day and for me and matt who are used to big family gatherings, we weren't really looking forward to just another day at home. we had great company, delicious food and sang christmas carols. it is our budapest christmas we will never forget!

merry christmas!