It's a shame

Hi from ne as well. I haven't written in our blog for a year. It's a shame. I guess I was too busy this year but this is not an excuse, I admit. Now I promise to myself that I'll be more persistent. OK, let me open the new season with this blog. I'll stop now as the sound of the keyboard is disturbing Andrej who is trying to sleep next to me:-)

Serbia: Gotta love it

Where else can the most wanted fugitive and war crime suspect lead a peaceful and inconspicuous life as an alternative medicine practitioner, for a good few years at least?

It is so perfectly absurd and Monty Python-esque that it even makes sense. While the most powerful military alliance in the world is looking for you in the most God-forsaken places all over Bosnia, you just grow a beard and moustache and, voila, go all zen in the middle of Belgrade.

You'd think plastic operations, hiding in caves or even bunkers, deep secrecy and all that--hmm, think again. All it takes is a bit of facial hair, an ugly pair of glasses and the look of an old hippy and no one would ever guess.

Apparently, no one ever asked him for references either.

Weekend in Slovakia

We spent a lovely weekend in Slovakia, in the hilly region close to the quite unremarkable town of Nova Bana. The fresh mountain air did wonders to my (otherwise nonexistant) appetite, so I ate enormous quantities of Slovak food which would, under any other circumstances, leave me completely cold. I mean, there is only so much fried and breaded meat you can have in two days even if you are not exactly a veggie fan.

But it was great to see Laura, Claudiu and Mara again, in a little bit different settings. The kids had great fun playing with the goat outside of the panzio--a great entertainer, the little fellow, and for free, too.

I am waiting for Claudiu to post more photos from the trip so that I can steal them; in the meantime, a picture of sleepy Mara and just-kind-of-standing-there Andrej.

(H)inta

Andrej's first word ever was hinta (swing), or, in his pronunciation, inta. He first uttered it when he was a bit over a year old. Now he is a year and a half, and his vocabulary increased at an amazing pace in the last two months. He is learning lots of words in Hungarian and Serbian at the same time, so now he knows that, when he wants me to swing him, he should say ljulja (Serbian for swing) rather than hinta.

The other day he showed me a rabbit in his little picture book and said: "Nyuszi." "OK, that is how Erika calls it, but Mummy says zeka," I told him. A few days later I showed him the same rabbit and asked him what it was. Sure enough, he says: "Zeka...mmm...nyuszi." So, yes, he is getting the same linguistic confusion as Boris did, but he just absorbes everything that comes his way. It will never cease to fascinate me.

Big bro and Lil' bro

While Boris was busy in the kindergarten, Andrej stayed at home with his babysitter, Erika. He just kept growing quietly and reaching all the important milestones without too much fuss. He turned out to be much tougher and less timid than Boris--on occasion, he would even "attack" Lance or Lia (Boris's two close friends) to try to defend his big brother. And overall, the brotherly relations have improved by leaps and bounds over the last year; now most of the time they play together and seem to like each other. We'll see how long that lasts.

Things we've been up to since that last blog post

Boris started a new kindergarten in September. This is him in the picture, wearing a bear mask for the Farsang party. The kids were all supposed to be wearing some kind of a costume but, as Boris has creatively challenged parents, I just dressed him all in brown and put a bear mask on his face, so he got to be the bear. His teacher Agi (in the picture) loved it. In the afternoon he, naturally, took the mask off so when our friend Juli came to pick up his daughter he noticed that Boris didn't have a costume. So when his wife asked him how Boris dressed for Farsang he just said: "Smart casual."