Water is for drinking and for fishies

While visiting my boys, my parents played a cruel trick on me. First they put on weird clothes, then they put weird clothes on me. Next we went to this building with a giant bathtub in it. Then they carried me into this giant bathtub which was full of cold water.



It was a low moment in our brief time together. I was not impressed.

It was mucho uncool.

Noah and Aiden and Eli, Oh My

I am starting to put together my posse for world domination. This weekend I met with my Canadian homeys - the brothers Devries.



We worked on all sorts of mission-critical tasks - playing with blocks, swimming (yuck), climbing over each other, etc. The most important task was to come up with a secret code and passwords. This task is more challenging than you might think. Good passwords are hard to keep track of. For example, here is some video of me saying this past weekend's top secret password (I can tell it to you since it is no longer valid):

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5070157580168969058

How do you transcribe that?

Cool, plastic toys stuck in the wall

Az anyam and az apam are soooooooooo kind and thoughtful. They have all sorts of cool toys and games for me. The latest toy they have for me is these cool plastic things they stuck in the wall all over the house.




http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5069948552700607314

I take the plastic things out of the wall and they put them back in as quickly as possible. It's a FANtastic game.

How to get away with anything

I found out the key to never getting into trouble. You have to have a certain, special skill set (a toolkit, if you will, per se) to be successful at it. You have to be insanely cute, like yours truly.

If you are doing something you shouldn't, like hypothetically/ theoretically/ possibly going into a drawer or cupboard you shouldn't be going in, when you get caught just look really cute by doing something adorable....like maybe, possibly sticking out your tongue and making cute gurgling noises.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5068474124787628834

It's working for Mumia Abu-Jamal. He is adorable.

Perfection

William Safire said, "Only in grammar can you be more than perfect." He also said, "Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care." But that is neither here nor there. Back to my original point - can a day be more than perfect? I thought this question would have no real answer, kinda like - is reality confined to what is in principle perceptible to the senses. Or - Where would we be without rhetorical questions? Then I thought about what my more than perfect day would be like...

Start the day by wearing nothing more than a diaper and socks...



Add in some drawers and cupboards to explore...


Throw in some good reading material....

And I'd have to say, that is a perfect day. More than perfec? If I could do this all while on a walk....that would be more than perfect.

Thank you, William Montgomery, wherever you are...

When I was in Cleveland, my boy Liam taught me some most wicked cool skills - stair climbing. Not the hamster wheel kind, but the actual up and down floors kind.

I picked up on the going up thing right away, but that was at Nagymama and Nagypapa's. They have carpeted stairs. Baby clothes and hardware stairs make for a slick climbing combination. I finally figure that out though:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7537124865795391212&hl=en

There is an upside to baby clothes and hardwood stairs - going down is not just easy, but fun:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=228075770177524592&hl=en

How to get people's attention....

Some days it feels like nobody pays attention to me. They may notice me and film me, but they won't accede to my requests. Like yesterday for az apam to stop filming me.

I've been researching ways to get them (the man and his peeps) to listen to me.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2889938624528127945&hl=en

I tried to emulate Nikita Khrushchev, but I can't reach my shoes when I'm at the dinner table. I just pound on the tray. It works. And az apam didn't film me doing it. It was az anyam.

Stop it with the camera, Apam

I've taken to working my groove. In this video you have to watch closely at the beginning to see me workin it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5066964250509556402

I have decided that I am sick having my picture taken and getting filmed. This video is the even that pushed me over the edge. I'm just standing around doing my thing and out of the corner of my eye I see az apam filming me. ENOUGH. I went after him and his camera. No MORE. I SAY STOP.

What is not to like about Nagymama and Nagypapa's house?

I love going to Nagymama and Nagypapa's house. There's always someone around to hold me, play with me, make silly faces, amuse me, etc. The one thing I don't like is....

the grass. It's not really grass. It's more like tiny daggers that shoot up into your feet. The "grass" is there to punish he who does not wear shoes. I had to use all the lessons learned from my Sensei and train the mind. The key is to stand on one leg and focus on the leg that is in the air.

Mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter. But they really need duller grass.

I want to rock and roll all night and party ever day

We went to the Rock Hall while in Cleveland. We got to see all sorts of dead people's clothes. We were in a Cleveland copy of the Louvre. It was awesome. I got more culture in those two hours than I did in the previous hour.


It ended up being more izgalom than I bargained for. I fell asleep in my stroller for the first time since the last time I did....

Good times, good friends and stairs

My good friend Liam, who I hadn't seen since Christmas, stayed over for a night. It was great to catch up with him. In particular since I can now sit up and make noises voluntarily - these skills make conversation/interaction a lot more interesting for both of us. He is from swanky Titusville, PA.

He showed me how to do something cool. It must be a Titusville thing. Check it out:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2910558117758808945

I am thankful I have friends to show me this kind of thing. Hopefully, soon I'll have some cousins to pass along these things to.

It was a fun wedding and an even better reception

Or so I was told....


I enjoyed Attila Bacsi and Ilona Neni's wedding ceremony. It was in a beautiful church - I really enjoyed the music and looking around. Fr. Phil spoke eloquently. I had a good time hanging with my parents' weird friends.





After the church I went home with Nagymama and Nagypapa. I think az apam was trying to protect the dowry he has set up with Ede Bacsi. There was a young lady there with some serious dance moves. She's older, but I don't know if I would have been able to resist moves like these:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/AIEskuvo/photo#5064470695160040402

Planes, trains and creepy people

I have so many things to tell you about my weekend in Cleveland and Attila Bacsi and Ilona Neni's wedding. I have flown ten times now and boy are my arms tired. But seriously, yesterday's flight back was the first time I stayed awake for the whole flight. Planes are cornucopia of distractions - lights on the ceiling, little things that blow on you in the ceiling, windows to look down upon all the people beneath me, etc.



Then az anyam read to me and fed me. I didn't really want to do either of those, though. So she stopped and I went back to fidgeting and trying to get to everything in the plane that I couldn't get to.

This flight had one special distraction. A creepy, scary guy sitting in our row...I thought they had lists of people like this to keep them off of planes.

The places to eat

The first time I tried eating in a place that was not a home was with az apam in December. That was as successful as a 1-legged popsi kicking contest. Since then I've matured significantly (actually I have just found that hunger frequently outweighs distraction) and started eating better in public.

Still not great, but better. Last weekend at the zoo (pictured above), I ate a chunk of my lunch. Yesterday, I ate some breakfast at the airport. It's gotten more complicated recently since I'm eating more chunks of real food and that requires more concentration than opening my mouth while food gets shoveled into it.

Anyone can create

Shakespeare, Michelangelo, God, az anyam and az apam, Steve Wozniak - they all created fantastic things. But really, if Mark Cuban could create something worth 5 billion dollars, can creating be that hard?


I've decided to try the less glorious path of destruction. I'm getting quite good at it. You should see what I can do to a bunch of broccoli. Or a stack of blocks.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5062652326265997650

You people are crazy

This weekend we drove from home to the zoo in a car. That is, we sat in a vehicle to go somewhere. This somewhere had live animals and tons of people to look at and be amused by. This is all relatively rational.


While at the zoo we partook in an activity that was mucho bizarro to say the least. Az anyam put me on a fake animal which went around and around in circles.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5062532105836415282

Not to be nihilistic (it's not even an ethos) about the whole thing, but we weren't going anywhere. We ended up back where we started. The animal wasn't real. What was up with that? I was pretty confused by the whole process.

I thought the exhibits were supposed to be interactive

We went to the zoo again over the weekend. Az anyam and az apam tend to be focused on the animals. I enjoy watching the other kids. One of the reasons is that the zoo pullsed a bit of a bait and switch on me.

They start me off with the groundhogs where you can totally get into the groundhog life and see them burrowing and scavenging for food.


Then I got to see the goats from uber-close. Az anyam fed and petted them a bit. I was a bit jealous - I thought I was the only she fed like that.




Then, when I finally got to a really interesting animal there were signs posted all over - "No feeding the alligators." "Do not touch the alligators."


I tried to get more into that exhibit, but Noooooooooooooo. Az anyam and az apam can be soooooooo boring sometimes.

Differences of Opinion

Every once in a while, I have a profound disagreement with my parents. I usually end up winning because I can scream louder and longer.

Friday, for example, I disagreed with az anyam's approach to the laundry. She thought the laundry belonged on the couch, neatly folded and placed in the laundry basket. I thought it more appropriate that the laundry be in a mound on the ground where I could play with it.

Mate Baba go "Walka walka"

The last few months have had a lot of changes in my life. I've started crawling. I'm playing with other kids all the time. I'm eating all sorts of exotic things like green foods. The thing I still love to do second-most is go walking and not wear a hat (my new favorite thing is to knock down towers az anyam builds out of blocks). Unfortunately, I usually end up doing my third-most favorite thing which is wearing a hat and going for a walk.

I have outgrown my baby bjorn which means I'm now always in the stroller. I have some commentary on the difference between walks in the stroller and the bjorn at this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5060648191446468754

Who is that finely-coifed young man?

The finely-coifed young man is I, Mate.

Az anyam gave me a haircut the other day. I like getting my hair and nails cut. Well, I don't like getting my hair and nails cut, but I do get the rare treat of watching television while I get my hair and nails cut. I get distracted from the fact that sharp utensils are being used to tear my body apart. You are probably asking yourself, "Self, why did Mate need a haircut? He was getting to look like uncle Piki bacsi from 1988." Alas, just like uncle Piki bacsi, the mullet has gotten old and out of fashion.

Is 28 older than dirt?

Isten Birthday and Happy Eltessen to Uncle Piki Bacsi.

He is not only my godfather and spiritual light in the dark cesspool of modern culture, but an inspiration and a role model.

Rub a dub dub

Some people enjoy laying in the bath tub and soaking. I'm more of an active bather. I have some great bath toys I play with. I like to play with the faucet and the tap, but I haven't yet developed the strength to turn them. Standing and playing with my parents is my new favorite pasttime.



http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5059565863982843986

And of course nothing is better than standing and warming up the tub after a nice long bath, which I've done two of the last three nights. Fortunately, there is no video of that just yet.

Feeding myself

I am quite the fan of eating. It took me a while to get into the whole non-breastfeeding feeding thing, but now I'm really into it. Lately I've even been feeding myself. I'll take the spoon and put it into my mouth. I prefer doing that when there's food on the spoon.


Frequently, I'll even get the right end of the spoon in my mouth. I think that's why I like peeled bananas so much. No matter which end I put in my mouth I still get some tasty banana.