If I knew you were coming...

I've loved to cook for a long time. Unfortunately, for the most part, it's been pretend cooking. In my new kitchen. With Emi Neni. With Nagymama. In Vermont. While watching az anyam cook. With az anyam.


Az anyam is now letting me help her a bit with the actual cooking. It is wicked awesome fun. It's kind of like when I get to play with the water table and the sand box and frolic but cooler.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4448429621763962449&hl=en

Getting over football

The reason I have been working on my bowling is that with football season nearly over I am going to need some new hobbies. None of the things I've tried have been fully able to fill the hole in my heart left by the passing of the football season. So I just keep adding the sports.

I have to say, I've picked up basketball pretty darn quickly. I have moves like Jordan didn't have until he left UNC.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8696557856341574478&hl=en

Unfortunately az apam was filming this, but when I'm playing him 1-on-1 that juke gets him every time.

If I were to ever live in Parma

From what az apam has explained to me three things are certain in life:

1. Death
2. Taxes
3. At some point in my life I will be forced to wear rented shoes and roll a twelve pound reactive resin house ball 60 feet down a wooden lane in order to knock over ten 3lb 6oz hard maple pins.

Fortunately, Heather Neni got me a cool home bowling set. It's kind of like real bowling, but the pins are animals and make great projectiles.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7904623390759041131&hl=en

I still haven't figured out the details of the game, but I have learned the important thing - winning.

Better late than never

I haven't yet had the chance to discuss the Karacsonyi ajand from az anyam and az apam. They bought me a cop car. It caused az apam to scowl. No, not because it's a cop car, but because it contained some evil words - Some assembly required.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6743279023354344877&hl=en

Fortunately, for az apam, I was around to help assemble the kocsi. Fortunately, for me, az anyam was around to help me help az apam.

When the car was finally complete I got to enjoy it in almost perfect fashion but with a cookie instead of a donut and milk instead of a coffee.

There is no joy in Mudville

It's going to be a long, long, long, long weekend with no football at all. One can only watch so much "big game"* prognostication and pontification.


Az apam knew exactly what I needed - some good physical comedy at his expense. I hope you enjoy him getting popped in the face with a beach ball as much as I did.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3022070290281338367&hl=en

*The NFL has sent a cease-and-desist order on my use of the term that rhymes with Tuper Towl.

Neither Wind, Nor Rain, Nor Dark Of Night

A boy needs his exercise. Even though our new house is a bit bigger, it doesn't give me quite enough room to stretch my legs.

Despite the frigid weather and my recent debilitating injury, az anyam and az apam have been taking me outside for walks.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3158176885453749946&hl=en

I don't really mind the walks in the Lambeau Field-esque conditions, the clothing and the dressing are a bit much. My sneaky parents like to distract me while dressing me and draw my attention from the great opportunity to make their lives unnecessarily difficult.

A place for everything and parents put in their place

In the past, every few months I reached a whole new level of understanding about trivial matters like ceiling fans: http://matthewstrada.blogspot.com/2007/01/hey-i-remember-that-thing.html. Well, recently I came to a whole new level of understanding about big stuff.

It was one of those red pill/blue pill moments - more the Alice in Wonderland kind than the Matrix kind. Over the last two days I have realized az anyam and az apam aren't always listening to me and doing as I say. I had been accepting of their saying "no" or diverting my attention. Not anymore. I'm onto you people.

E.g., this morning az anyam had the audacity to try and change my diaper when I didn't feel like it. I clearly expressed my displeasure but she continued on her merry way.

This is utterly unacceptable and will not be tolerated. There will be consequences.

I am the other guy

Today's pictures are intentionally out of sequence. So that people don't become too scared or overwhelmed with anxiety, I'm showing a picture from Saturday so you can see how well I've recovered.

You know how after a fight, people will say, "You should have seen the other guy." In a brawl I had with the stairs, I was the other guy. The good news is that the stairs did not sustain any permanent damage and are expected to make a full recovery.

Right after "the incident" I was a bit shaken up. My eye getting a bit cut and swollen didn't stop me from doing the voodoo I do. This video is from the morning after when the swelling was at its worst.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2967668664120088193&hl=en

As you can see, I brushed off the pain and discomfort as if it were no more of a nuisance than the French army.

Even Steven

I have a good number of toys and books. Just look at the shelf in my play area. I'm finding that toys aren't always enough for me. Especially when there are things around that az anyam and az apam use.

For example, in the kitchen I help them load/unload the dishwasher. It's not fair that they get to play with my toys and I don't get to play with theirs. I've come to the same decision with lights. If they get to turn them off and on, so do I.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9017228740562312679&hl=en

What will I do on Sundays?

There are only three football games left in the season. This does not leave you with many more opportunities to watch me watch football.


Going into this weekend you can savor this juicy action:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1608595119582614894&hl=en

Even though the living room is a great place to try my latest Eli Manning moves, I should take more care to watch out for az anyam.

Moving forward you'll have to be content watching other videos from google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-295730351780211810&

Books is good

When taking a break from playing/watching football and playing/watching the kitchen I enjoy reading. What (you are probably asking yourself right now) does the future ruler of the world enjoy reading?

Anything and everything. Here I am early one morning reading liner notes from one of my favorite albums. It was a gift from Sandor for my birthday.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6151990444851928589&hl=en

Here I am reading a Halloween book despite that holiday being 9.5 months away.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3548723045129749450&hl=en

I really do love to read. Az anyam and/or az apam read to me every night before bed and sometimes before naps, but recently I've wanted to just go to sleep. While reading I really like pointing to my favorite things as they appear in the stories, especially the dogs which I call 'do', 'tya' or 'woofwoof'.

The next in a long, drowsy line

Az anyam is excellent at sleeping. Az apam not so excellent.

A nagypapam is an inspiration to us all. He is the daddy of the mack daddy when it comes to alvas.

The bacsik have picked up the slack az apam has given in the arena of sleep education.

For the first 18 months of my life I had issues sleeping. For the first half dozen months I couldn't fall asleep. Then I wouldn't sleep for more than a few hours. Most recently I had been getting up at inhumane, unhuman hours of the morning to attack the day. Much of this had to do with digestion and processing issues.

I don't know if it was hanging around people who had a true appreciation for sleep and sleeping in or if it was az anyam's revelation that maybe I needed more food to help me sleep longer, but I've been sleeping until 6 or 6:30 or even past 7 recently. The really amazing part is that everyone in the house seems happier now. I might just keep doing this.

Guess who's got two thumbs...

....weighs 26lb 11oz and is 35 1/2 inches tall....

THIS GUY.

That makes me about 50th percentile for weight and 120th percentile for height. I am well on my way to becoming a lean, mean football machine.

Christmas is only 343 days away

You may have heard we moved. My family has been getting set up in the new house. They have all of the furniture set up. Almost all of the boxes have been setup. Kis Gal Bacsi helped az apam get the rest of the stuff out of RJ Bacsi and Ruth Neni's garage on Saturday. (Special thanks to Kis Gal Bacsi, Ruth Neni and RJ Bacsi.) We now have a bunch of boxes in the living room, but the pile is decreasing.

I'm pretty comfortable in our new digs. Az anyam and az apam bought a new table for our kitchen. We eat there a lot, especially since the dining room was taken over by boxes.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3706110318581632662&hl=en

Az anyam and az apam were even letting me drink out of a nagyfiu pohar. That experiment was put on hold shortly thereafter. Not because I had difficult drinking from it (note my 1-handed technique in the video), but because the cup had difficulty staying upright while I ate my meals.

The Yin to my football Yang

I'm just a modern guy. Not only am I hardcore about football, but I also love my cooking. There's plenty of history on that - this Christmas, 14 months, 13.5 months, 13 months, 1 yr old, etc.

Thus, the other theme for Christmas gifts was cooking. Between Keresztmama and Julian Bacsi and Nagymama and Nagypapa, I received not only a kitchen, but a whole lot of play food and a microwave and a shopping cart and pots and pans.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5015334744178265280&hl=en

Pak Bacsi got to play with the cart first.

The tough part was that the kitchen arrived at the old house before the move, but I didn't get to play with it until we got back to CT and settled a bit in the new house. But now I'm playing with it, oh yes, I'm playing with it a ton.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3081333910892210121&hl=en

Playing the foolsball

There were some definite themes in the gifts I received this Christmas. People surprised me with how well they know my love of football.


I received a wicked Brady Quinn jersey from Pak Bacsi. I was hoping for Charlie Frye, who knew you'd have to pounce so quickly to get one?

I received several footballs - one from Peti Bacsi and Robi Bacsi, one from Balazs Bacsi and Zsuzsanna Neni and a thick, heavy leather one from Tony Bacsi. The one from Tony Bacsi has become the official outdoor football as the breakable goods in the house almost staged a walkout when I started throwing that ball around the house. Fortunately, the other ones I received are good indoor balls.

I played a lot of football when I was in Cleveland because I almost always had somebody to play with. I played some with Robi Bacsi, but we didn't get around to those tackling lessons. I'll have to teach him next time.

I played some with Pak Bacsi. Az erdoben Pak Bacsi.

I played with my cousins, Sari and Sandor, and with Robi Bacsi's evil twin brother, Salam.

And even with all these people around I sometimes played by myself:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3785772413451813310&hl=en

Helping around the house

My time in Cleveland was not just party, party, party, gifts, gifts, gifts, party, party, party. I tried to do my part and help out.


I went around the house watering the plants until I started drinking out of the watering can.

Then I helped Nagymama, Sari and Sandor bake some cookies. I did a really good job of having Nagymama hold me so I could oversee what was going on.

Sari was the star of the baking. She had all the right gear. How can I compete with a culinary artist decked out like this? I did pretty well eating the cookies.

It's a family affair

This is a transition posting. I'm going to almost seamlessly lead the conversation from my time in Toronto to my time in Cleveland. The theme for this transition is going to be family. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics with the big family in Toronto at the Kidpalooza Christmas.




Here I am with core Toronto family.


Here I am with almost core Cleveland family. We are just missing Julian Bacsi.

We then had a Mafia party at Nagymama and Nagypapa's house. This is the extended Cleveland+ family. For more on the Strada-Mafia get-together you can read my Keresztmama's posting.

"What? That's it? Harumph. Hardly seamless." Something like that is going through your head right now. Sorry about that. It's because I don't have that initial picture of Kidpalooza in Toronto. If I had that, it would have been awesome. I would have had this whole yin-yang complete circle of life thing going. But I didn't. So I don't.

Christmas with family and more family

Christmas Eve was a good time spent with tons of family. Az anyam has four cousins with a total of 12 kids among them. I was the youngest. I'm thinking of signing them up for my world domination plans.


Amanda tried to teach me how to play with Legos. As much as I enjoyed that, I'll stick with Logos. As Heraclitus said, "Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own." Or as Yoda said, "Try not. Do, or do not, there is no try. " Or as Lloyd Williams said, "Shama Lama Ding Dong." But that is neither here nor there.

The important thing I learned from this shindig was the importance of being able to climb stairs. Noah and Jacob were kind enough to help me. Just like before, I used meeting older kids as an inspiration to better learn stairs.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6543255202367180270&hl=en

Az anyam and az apam are no longer using gates on the stairs at home as I've learned how to climb up and down them with ease.

It's the most spectacular day of the year

Every once in a great while there is an event so amazing, razzle-dazzle, grand, histrionic, impressive, magnificent, marked, stunning, stupendous, marvelous, miraculous, prodigious, remarkable, sensational, splendid, striking, fabulous, thrilling, astonishing, astounding, breathtaking, daring, dramatic, eye-catching, fantastic and wondrous that it is worth putting the rest of the Christmas posts on hold for an extra day. We just had such an event.

No, it wasn't Chris Dodd and Joe Biden dropping from the presidential race. Really, who saw that coming? No, it wasn't the Lexus Sign and Drive event, although there were some dazzling deals at my tri-state Lexus dealership. It is this - I went to bed at 6:45 last night. I didn't wake up until 6:45 this morning. This staggering happening led to a very happy family. There are naturally no photos of this, so I'm including a picture of the happy family from Christmas.

Now we're cookin'

I'm a big fan of cooking. I love to play with az anyam's dishes. While in Canada I enjoyed playing with Mama's dishes. Now I also get to.....that'll be in a future post.


Christmas morning I got a double surprise. Not only did I get to have pancakes for breakfast, I also got to make the pancakes with Emi Neni.

Sidney who?

No, Pak Bacsi, this is not an Alias reference. It is a reference to a hack who plays for a team in Pittsburgh in a sport I will someday dominate.

Living in Connecticut I don't get the full Mate experience of being half-Canadian. I was fortunate enough to get some hockey equipment from Keresztpapa and Martha Neni for Christmas. Not only is hockey the national winter sport of Canada, it is the most popular spectator sport in Finland*. If it is good enough for the Grand Duchy of Finland, it sure is good enough for me.


I had to ease myself into the whole hockey thing. I'm used to using a Swiffer and a football, not a hockey stick.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6462120410665338046&hl=en

Then I moved on to a smaller ball.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4837454976162593621&hl=en

*At least according to some undocumented source on Wikipedia