Wishing and hoping....and eating and talking

As all my adoring fans know, I'm a fan of eating. I have found there is more to meals than just eating. The other day I showed you that I've learned to dance and eat.


One of the things az anyam and az apam like to do is sit around the table and talk after a meal. They talk too much, so I've started putting in my two cents.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1203948161176052055&hl=en

I'm not allowed to cook, but I can make some mean music

I'm not allowed play on the range or get into the oven, but that doesn't stop me from practicing.


I'm thinking of someday having my own cooking show.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5081067794885113570

I will be the dancing chef. Making music while I cook. Tapping tunes and stirring my bum while stirring the sauce.

Watch out world

I've wanted to take the world by the horns since I was born. I've tried and tried and tried. I've learned amidst all this effort, that it's easier on two legs....not as opposed to four legs, but as opposed to crawling around.

I've been using toys and the wall to walk quite a bit, but I've also been taking a few steps to az anyam and az apam.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5080521324721206978

A few more days and nothing in the world should be stored lower than 3 feet up or else it's mine.

Dinner Music

I am a big fan of music. But not just a fan, I like to get involved whether it be by shaking my fish maracas or my tailfeather.


To my surprise the other day during dinner I heard the sweet, sweet melodies of Joe Jackson wafting through the air. How could I not move with the music?

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5079778796885137442

What is on the other side of the door?

Life is zany. Sometimes you're on the wrong side of a closed door. Sometimes you're on the right side of a closed door. Sometimes you are just on a side of a closed door. Sometimes literally. Sometimes figuratively. I was all six this past week.



Fortunately, Papa was around to put it all into perspective:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5079780794044930098

Numero Three Hundredo

This post is Number 300! Coincidentally, if you add the ages of my nagypapak together you get 300 as well. To celebrate this milestone and the recent Fathers' Day celebration, today's posting will highlight them.

This is az apam's dad. He likes taking me for walks, discussing politics and teaching math.

This is az anyam's daddy. He likes taking me for walks, discussing politics and teaching science.

These are the dads of az anyam and az apam. They like taking me for walks, discussing politics and teaching math and science.

With the tangential Fathers' Day connection, I should mention my Keresztpapa. He's weird.

Next week we'll be back to focusing on me.

Birthdays are good, gifts are better

A question for the ages is whether 'tis better to give than it is to receive. Jesus said it was. So I guess it must be true.



http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5078472502062100962


The one problem is that fish maracas weren't around to be received 2000 years ago.

I don't get girls

Naturally, I mean that in the sense of not understanding them. I am currently in Toronto and have been here for a few days. I came for Kati Neni and Zsolt Bacsi's wedding. It was a frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

It was a great hair day. I was feeling good. I was looking good. Check out az anyam - she was looking good.
The best part was getting to hang with my menyasszony.

Of course hanging with her family was a little weird. Or maybe it's just that they're a little weird....but the weirdest thing is....

We had a magical time together. I thought we really connected. This is all that she had to say about it:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5078115637524443602

I didn't understand that. Did you? Are all girls like this? Are they all so abstruse?

Is being meticulous and orderly an issue?

I'd like to take you back to another time and place....a week ago at our house. I received my birthday present from az anyam and az apam. Orderliness is next to Godliness, so when I took the ribbon off my present I had to find an appropriate place to put it.

And, well, the most appropriate place I could find was back on the gift. So I tried to put the ribbon back on the present. For some reason az anyam and az apam thought this was amusing. If anyone would understand, I would have expected it to be them:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5077746897402212738

Birthday cake, take #2

I got to eat a chunk of a full-sized cake while visiting Mama and Papa this weekend. The interesting thing was that regular cake is very similar to cupcake, at least in the way it smears and sticks to my face.


As much as I like rubbing food all over my face, it is kind of a drag when I have to wash it off. I now make such large messes with the food that rongyok aren't enough - I have to clean up in the sink.

What do you do after you eat cake?

I had all this great cupcake. And then I realized, now what?

I ate a bunch. I didn't know what to do next. I fed az apam a bunch of cake. There was still a bunch of cake on my hands and on the tray. I found the perfect place to put it - I rubbed it all over my face to store it for later:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5076097483931660610

How does one celebrate the birthday of the future leader of the world?

This may sound like a koan, grasshopper. But it's not. There is an answer.


With cake? Noooooooo.


With cupcake? Kinda.


With uber-yummy cupcake baked with love and sugar by az anyam? Oh yeah.




It was soooooooooo tasty. My birthday dinner consisted of breaded chicken and pasta with tomato sauce. I enjoy sucking the tomato sauce off the pasta. I also enjoy smearing the tomato sauce on my face. I think there were some vegetables in there somewhere as well.

And of course there is video of my maiden cupcake eating experience:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3227453044197134101&hl=en

Birthdays is good

There will be all sorts of birthday footage over the next week or so - brace yourself.

I like this birthday thing. I hope I get to do it again soon.

The presents were cool. This time I didn't just play with the wrapping paper and boxes, although they were fun as well.

I found the combination of the gifts and the boxes they came in were perfect. Here is some video of me playing with a gift from my Keresztmama and Julian Bacsi - it is the perfect blend of toy and container.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5075528297685725442

What you don't see in the video is that later on, we got really crazy and nutty and I moved some of the blocks back from the big box into the smaller one.

Happy Birthday to Me

I was born about 365 days ago. It has been quite a year. I've grown a ton, learned a boatload and gotten really good at eating and sleeping and talking.

My first birthday is an important milestone because I get to do all sorts of things for the first time - face forward in my car seat, eat pork, go drinking in bars, eat nuts and eat cake. There is one task I am hoping that reaching my first birthday will have helped me with. Something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am counting on this wisdom having seeped into my skull through the mystical power of first birthdayness.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5075151903931773154

I want to get the stupid star shape through the star slot on the shape sorter.

Fathers are good

For me to laugh at.

Every once in a while, I need a good laugh. Not a "Haha - that was an amusing anecdote you just imparted laugh," but a good laugh at someone's expense. This weekend was one of those days.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5074118985771921586

Fortunately, az apam was around for me to laugh at. It's funny that nothing is funnier than a man who thinks he's funny when he's not funny being funny when he's not trying to be funny.

Beautiful homes, gorgeous beaches, picturesque plazas

Yeah, Cape May had all that quaint garbage. We walked through, around, in it all day for two days solid. Even our hotel was dainty and quaint and all that.

After a few days of the shore life it was nice to get back to reality and have lunch with some of New Jersey's finest citizens at the Grover Cleveland service area on the Garden State Parkway.

New Jersey Nem Fujj, Cause I love the beaches

It rained and was miserable all day Sunday, so I had to play inside and on the hotel room's porch.

I got to play on the beach Monday and Tuesday. To az anyam's shock I actually enjoyed playing in the sand. No, I really liked playing in the sand. Unfortunately, az apam was using the camera to take pictures of trailer parks, so we don't have any footage of that.

Not only did I like the sand, I really liked the waves. Not being in the waves - that's just crazy - the water was mad freezing, but watching them was a lot of fun.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5073293823770112098

New Jersey Really Isn't that Bad

Especially if you're into smog and powerlines and smokestacks and other signs of industrial development.

We had a great time after we got through the greater Newark area and then once the rain stopped. The beach was gorgeous and I really enjoyed playing in the sand.

Then az apam tried to take me boating, but the thing didn't move very well in the sand. I wonder if they use boats differently in other states.

On the road again

I am going to be in New Jersey Monday and Tuesday of next week.

I don't think they have the Internet there, so I probably will not have another post until Wednesday.

Have you got what it takes?

The other day I talked about enlisting Aiden and Noah into my army. First I had to see if they were fit to serve under me. The first part of the testing was mental (to be discussed next week) and the second was physical.

I tested their abilities in the two areas most important to aspiring world dominators under the age of five.

1. Can they sit on each other?

2. Can they run and up and down the hallway like a couple of airplanes?

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5071064784183128082