Travel Stories from Budapest

In the past I've kept a travel journal, but I'm too tired these days to do that - so I'm just going to blog a few cool things that have happened here in Budapest on this trip so far. For my own record so I can look back. For your enjoyment to read about. Just because I can type faster than I could ever write it all out by hand and I can type in the dark on a laptop while Jason and Brandon sleep. Because that's my free time.

Traveling 24 hours with an 18 month old:
We left home at 5:30am, got to the airport at 6am two hours early, flew to Seattle (3 hrs plus 3 hr layover) then to Amsterdam (10 hrs plus 2 hr layover) then to Budapest around noon - getting to the hotel around 130pm. With an 8 hour time difference that is a 24 hour trip. Mostly it was good. Because we were smart enough to trudge along a car seat to Europe. When Bran fell asleep right away on the 10 hr flight I was a moron and watched Frozen instead of sleeping immediately too... and then regretted it when he woke up after only 2 hours and stayed awake the next 6 hours of the flight... but they had lots of good movie choices so it wasn't too bad. It just meant I had to execute my mom super-power of being able to function on hardly any sleep. It also meant that on the change in Amsterdam Brandon was walking through the terminal and just spontaneously stopped to lay down on the floor of the airport. Gross, right? He did it 4 times. I gag a little thinking about it but what are you supposed to do? We got him up and kept going.

Meals:
Our first day we stopped by a little place to have a quick dinner near the hotel. They had gyros. When we bit into them... they were tacos. Shredded beef tacos. Delicious. But really... as Jason said... we flew 8000 miles to have tacos in Budapest?
Our second day we had Goulash for lunch - amazing. Brandon slept through the whole lunch in his stroller. It was his nap time *kind of* so no huge shock. But then at dinner that night he did it again - he got in the highchair looking awake and by the time the food came he was out cold, sleeping with his head on his arms on the table. Cute. Jetlagged and cute.
So lunch day 3... Brandon finally was awake for a restaurant meal (as opposed to the breakfast of cereal and bananas in our room)... and he went for it. Making friends with the entire wait staff, being a total ham. And he tried duck (loved it) for the first time. I did not mention anything about it being the Quack Quack type of duck. He also had a strawberry ice cream cone afterwards which was about 50% on his face, 50% in his mouth. Also loved it, especially being able to hold the cone himself.

Park:
We were on the Buda side up on the hill looking out at the view of Pest across the river and suddenly Brandon just started saying "weeee" over and over and pointing. And there, behind a wall with just a peek of it visible in spots - was a playground. Because "weeee" is the sound you make on a swing so that must be also what a swing is called now. So we went to the park and had a great time playing. Brandon loved all of the tiny rocks - so much that we found a couple in his diaper hours later.

Rock Star:
We were in this huge market - three levels of food, crafts, books, toys, meats, cheeses, cookies, fruits, paprika in every shape and flavor and size, dead sheep heads, you name it. Anyway walking through this market the women were just swooning over him. It was insane. They were coming out and talking to him, waving at him, playing peek-a-boo, coming out of their booths to see him, giving him stuff, etc... And he was working it - laughing, smiling, waving, and downright flirting with them. I have never seen anything like it. Rock star I tell you. He might be too young to remember this but I will never forget it.

Ponderings on a Monday Night

So it was an exciting weekend here at our house. Brandon turned 18 months, Jason turned 504 months (aka 42 years) and it rained a ton which was needed badly because we are in a drought, unlike the rest of the country that has been covered in wet snow for three month. Brandon also had four (yea) teeth break through this weekend - all four canines. Or eye teeth. Or meat-rippers. Whatever you want to call them. He was remarkably cool about it. A little touchy about food this last week but all things considered really not bad at all.

So exciting and relaxing weekend - teeth, birthdays, rain. It all got me thinking about how huge the changes are in Brandon since his first birthday just 6 months ago and I realized that it was a good time for me to take stock of his current vocabulary and jot it down in his baby book.  I also want to be able to answer the question at his 18 month well-baby visit and not seem like an idiot parent who has no idea what her kid can say and do... So I wrote down the list of words he can say (in his way) and was shocked when the list went over 70 and is still growing (as I think of more.) It's amazing. I am amazed at him. 

And while I was making this list I was watching the Bachelor "Women Tell All" episode. I know. It's brainless and fake but whatever - they travel to cool places and you get to watch people fight over someone they don't even want. During the filming these chicks were fighting and crying over this guy and now 2 months later they are talking about how they never liked him or wanted him. Wha??? Editors can't FORCE you to cry and sob over a guy. So this also got me thinking... where do I want my blog to go. Should it be brainless entertainment like this show? Funny, lighthearted, things like pedicures and truck balls and how when you cut a strawberry it turns somehow from a very small piece of fruit to a huge bunch of bites like magic? Or should I go the other way. Real conversation. Express my opinion on real things? Is the blog more "simply suzy" or more "suzy's view?"    

What part of Brandon's word list should I be like?  Fun words like monkey (mon-mo) and shoes (shooooos) and santa (tan-ta) or heart-warming words like Mary (ma-ee) and please (peas, along with the sign-language, just about melts you) or serious words like no (noooo with raised eyebrows) or all done (spoken correctly with the sign and a desperate look to please let him move on to the next thing especially if what he's currently doing is sitting on his potty.) Or maybe I can be like his whole list. A mix of everything. And growing more all the time.