Isten Eltessen, Mateka - VIDEO FIXED

With my birthday coming up, I have already started receiving birthday presents from some of the throngs of adoring fans. Not surprisingly, I have received my birthday presents from both set of grandparents.

I got this lovely sandbox from Mama and Papa. I was able to combine three of my favorite things in there - small trucks, sand and big trucks.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5207027531970540098

Speaking of birthdays

Happy Birth to Isabella Barban. She was born last Saturday, May 24.

Csilla, You jealous yet? (I keep trying and trying to make her jealous, but she barely even notices my overtures)

Did I mention I like to run?

Az apam keeps trying to talk me into walking. Walking is OK, but it lacks a certain je ne sais qua.

That is why I prefer to do that other thing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7678274092590057803&hl=en

Flying is a Pain

I flew to Toronto yesterday and, boy, were my arms tired.

Seriously, I had to get up at 4am for my flight. That's even early for me. I put my csizma on before I realized I hadn't gotten dressed yet. Posting may be slightly less frequent/detailed the next few days as I acclimate to the bitter cold of the frozen tundra of Toronto.

That wasn't villam, that was Mate

Az anyam and az apam are getting their exercise. I've decided that much more fun than walking is futas. The best part of futas is that I can run anywhere - the playground, parking lots, the front yard by the street, at crosswalks on setak. One of my favorite, if uneventful, places to run is the allatkert.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2066109911958657498&hl=en


What's really cool at the allatkert is that I know where the animals are, so I can run and find them.




This is az apam's typical view of me at the allatkert as I run, run, run.

COUNTERSPACE

For years, az anyam used to complain about the lack of counterspace in our old house.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7129305166578521838&hl=en

Now I know what she was griping about. It's tough to make a classic like zsiros kenyer when you just don't have the room.

It's in the blood

Az apam in infamous for his singing ability, almost as much as Keresztpapa. Emi Neni has been known to be musically inclined. This talent has extended down to my generations with my cousins.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2987156528083855973

I have clearly benefited from all of this influence. With these mad skills I could be the next Kenny G or maybe even Zamfir.

New respect

Things are not always as they seem in this topsy-turvy, crazy, mixed-up world. I learned over the past weekend that botok are pretty good for throwing, not just kavicsok. Then on my walk I learned that kovek and kavicsok are not just for throwing. Next dogs and cats will be living together. Total chaos.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1856207950133739983&hl=en

Sometimes, they are buried in the ground and you can walk on them. Those kovek are boring. I'm still more interested in the throwing kind.

It's not just about the kavicsok

On Saturday, we went to the park. Az anyam and az apam wanted to go walking, which is all well and good.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3187263481382932643&hl=en

There were dogs and people and trees and rocks. I wasn't just interested in throwing kavicsok, after all, az anyam and az apam took me to this new park to try new stuff. So I threw botok too.

Older Women

I have been known to chase after older women, but now I'm going EXTREME. I've been seeing someone regularly now. She's old. Not like az anyam and az apam ancient, but close. She is still closer to my age than theirs.

Sophia's been coming over every Monday after school for a few weeks now. We play baseball and read and play baseball. It's truly magical.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=923562261975546627&hl=en

Fölszállott a páva a vármegye-házra, Sok szegény legénynek szabadulására

The other day I got into a bit of an argument with a páva. We both wanted to throw kavicsok into the same pocsolya. We had a bit of a staredown.

Then he trumped me with a wicked cool move of spreading his tailfeathers.

I tried to shake my tailfeathers, but I was no match for him. He won this round, but I'll be back. Oh yes, I'll be back. And then one day I'll be able to say, "A páva stared me down once. Once."

Getting the sports straight

I've finally gotten into my baseball groove and not trying to play hockey with the baseball equipment. I've gotten to be quite the batter. My moves and stance are rock solid.

My new issue is that my pitcher is too good. Az apam is ready to join the Indians' rotation. I can't hit his stuff. He is a bundle of athletic prowess. His agility and dexterity are matched only by his ability to know exactly where he needs to place every pitch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5891310888139545697

Maybe if I charged the mound.....

Mornings, Nothing more than mornings

Az apam used to think he was a morning person. Now he's more of a mourning person. I am not only getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 every morning, I do it with bundles and oodles of energy.

I wake up and want to charge into the day. Sometimes, I'll have had a chance to figure out what I want to do as soon as I get out of bed. Then when az anyam or az apam gets me out of bed, I have him put me down and I charge off to do what I had been pondering.

The other day I built huge towers with az anyam early in the morning. She even let me stand on a chair to stack the blocks.

Too many chefs

Sometimes you just try and try and try and try and can't get no respect. Auntie Emi was over this past weekend. I tried to help and she and az anyam started mocking me.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4390146050415421310&hl=en

I know! I was shocked and upset that they were calling me girls' names.

All I could do was work that much harder helping Emi Neni in the kitchen trying to prove that I'm a man.

Mate Shakespeare Strada

In alkalma of Anyák napja, I wrote a sonnet:

Let me not be silly and ignore,

How awesome az anyam is to me.

Even though she and I both may snore,

Her love and care means the world to me.

Sorry, iambic pentameter has never been one of my strong suits. I did at least manage one semi-literate quatrain.

u.i.-Check out the wicked cool tie-dyed tee shirt I got from Emi Neni.

Singing at the Dinner Table

I really enjoy having dinner with the family. I also enjoy having dinner without my family, but more so with them. Sometimes after dinner we sing some of my favorite songs and poems - The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, I had a Little Froggy, Freebird and Here is the Beehive.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3859721365658455766&hl=en

The problem is that by dinnertime I'm usually pretty ready for bed. Sometimes I just want to shut out the world and retreat into my own happy place.

Cooking and cleaning and counting

Apropos for a family that likes to eat, we spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Az anyam doesn't like this kitchen as much as in the old house, but we're still in it quite a bit.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8080328002573773607

As much as I like to help with the cooking, I've posted about that a billion times so today I'm going to post a bit about the aftermath - the clean-up. One of the first things I like to do is unload the dishwasher from the previous night's cooking. I have a particular, specialized technique for unloading the dishwasher - I take everything out and place it on the counter above where we put the silverware. It doesn't necessarily help things go any faster, but I don't mind.

TRUCK

Not only must you remember that I am a child, but that I am a boy. I really tend towards the stereotype. I do occasionally play with a doll or two - usually at the library where I like to place them into drawers. Mostly I stick to manly things like sports.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=929396514118956133&hl=en

I've recently expanded my masculine tendencies to include trucks. I really like trucks.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5145938003727713685&hl=en

I also really like to say the word "TRUCK." We rarely see trucks on the Merritt Parkway or the roads of Fairfield, so it's a special treat when we get to go on I95 and I get to point out "TRUCK" "Truck" "TRUCK." Az anyam and az apam think it's a special treat to go on I95 as well.

REMEMBER

Despite all of my fancy ball skills, my deftness with numbers and letters and my ability to get adults to do my bidding, I am still just a child. A pretty young child at that.

I still like to do kid type things and am amazed at some of the zaniness in the world. I am shocked and horrified by events in Darfur and rural China, by the tolerance for regimes like in Burma, by the trampling of voting rights of citizens of Florida and Michigan. Another example of my naïveté - I never knew about bubbles. They are wicked cool.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5868814424160867575&hl=en

Really makes me wonder what other things are out in that big world that I've never seen, experienced or known about.

The trouble with perceptions

Today's posting is a lesson on reality differing from perception.


You see me looking at the big Rube Goldberg contraption.

I'm looking, I'm testing, I'm figuring. You're thinking how cute that the little, innocent child is enthralled by the complex machine.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3045090612500353673&hl=en

What all y'all don't realize is that as I'm staring I'm plotting, formulating and getting inspiration for my plans for in essence a sophisticated heat beam which we call a 'laser.' This crazy children's museum apparatus was my inspiration for a plan to mount the lasers on the heads of sharks.

What does all that zoo attendance get me?

As you may have noticed, I go to the zoo a lot. The knowledge I have gained from these trips is irreplaceable. Where else would I learn to oink like a pig or mekk mekk like a kecske?


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7720925293273314954&hl=en

Outside from az anyam and az apam and a nagybacsik and nagynenik and everyone else. OK, so maybe I don't need the trips to the zoo to learn animal sounds. Maybe these trips aren't irreplaceable. Maybe there are better uses for my time than the zoo. I'll just go back to plotting the takeover of the world.

Oh, the things you can see

As I discussed yesterday, the zoo was even better combining stone throwing with the visit. The best surprise came as we were leaving. We were at the condor exhibit about to leave when we ran into one of my bestest friends, Ben, with his dad and aunt.


We were leaving because I was getting a bit tired. That tiredness I was feeling before I ran into Ben was nothing compared to how tired I was after running around with Ben by the zoo entrance for 30 minutes.