.litera.

one thing nina likes more than watching videos of elmo or curious george and listening to the music of u2 or david crowder are books. she loves listening to people reading to her, she loves pretending to read, she loves scribbling, she loves everything associated with writing and reading. just the other day she recited the entire alphabet, just like that. i didn't even know she knew the entire alphabet, she in not even 2 ½ years old!

however, she may be arithmetically challenged. the other day when i asked her how much 1 + 1 is, she replied: christmas :) or, perhaps it is just too early for arithmetic quizzes.

.moments.

nina is growing like crazy! this is seen in lots of things, and i am documenting only two of them here. yesterday was the first time she allowed me to put accessories in her hair for longer than two minutes. this one lasted the whole morning:

posing with her first ever pony tails

i am cute and i know it!

she loves helping me with housework. i am aware that this one might not last too long, so i am really enjoying it for now. among her favorite things are vacuuming and washing the dishes. here is a picture of the vacuuming:

child labor? yeah :)

.laws.and.sausages.

the hungarian parliament was discussing a handful of amendments to the law of higher education last night. one of the amendments (44. §), as a result of nineteen months of work, was adding calvary chapel bible college europe to the list of accredited colleges in hungary. once the president of hungary signs these amendments (in a few weeks), it is going to be official - calvary chapel bible college europe will have an accredited bachelor of arts in theology degree.

being at the parliament was both exciting and boring. i think what the parliament needs are sound effects - once a law was voted on, they should have a jingle, or a random sound effect, something to spice things up.

a lawyer / politician friend once shared a quote with me about laws and lawmaking. some attribute the saying to otto von bismarck, others to john godfrey saxe and it says: the less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night. i agree, wholeheartedly.

.like.father.like....

nina is at the point in her development where she enjoys music more and more each day. she puts on impromptu dance shows if the music we are playing is rhythmic enough, she tries to "play" music by tapping on books, the floor, or the coffee table.

she also recognizes four musicians when she hears their music being played (in the car, at home, on the radio), and sometimes she even asks for one of these four musicians by name:

• bono bácsi (uncle bono) - this, of course, means that we have to start playing some u2
• crowder bácsi (uncle crowder) - meaning we have to put on the new david crowder band album
• diana néni (aunt diana) - a request for diana krall's christmas album
• marcsi - classical worship album from calvary chapel budapest, where her favorite musician friend (marcsi) plays the violin

if we manage to film one of her dance shows, we will post it here, of course.

.nina.quotes.

this will have to be in hungarian, sorry.

ma délelőtt nina a játékai között talált egy bohócorrot. miközben az orrára próbálgatta, és én éppen arra próbáltam rávenni, hogy hozzon döntést valamivel kapcsolatban, lazán odadobta: most nem tudok rád figyelni, anya :)

röviddel ezután kétségbeesetten rohant hozzám: anya, öltöztesd fel a babámat! én: te is fel tudod már öltöztetni, csináld meg te. mire nina: de én nem tudom, mert nekem kicsi a kezem! ilyen érvnek nehéz ellenállni ...

tegnap előbányászta egy melltartómat, és miközben a nyakába próbálta akasztani, azt ismételgette: hát, most nem igazán tudom hogy mit csinálok ...

nem unalmas az élet ... mit mondjak?

.afternoon.fun.

what to do when your wife is gone to work and you are babysitting your daughter, but you don't want to watch sesame street (or curious george, or bob the builder) for the 527th time?

my suggestion:

1. set up your tripod
2. mount your camera on it
3. set your camera to remote control
4. have your daughter sit in front of the camera
5. give her the camera remote control

the result? her very first self portrait :)

.srebrenica.

i know that it has been a shamefully long time since we last wrote a real post here. we have good reasons from that, and i hope to write about those soon.

i also know that we usually share funny and happy little thoughts here. however, today i feel the need to share about something more serious, and i hope that you, dear reader will not mind.

today is july 11th, 2009. exactly 14 years ago, in the small bosnian town of srebrenica, a brutal massacre was committed, when 8,000 (yes, eight thousand) boys and men of that town were murdered. here is a short summary (from wikipedia) of what happened that day.

The Srebrenica Massacre, also known as the Srebrenica Genocide, was the July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić during the Bosnian War. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica a UN-protected "safe area" but that did not prevent the massacre, even though 400 armed Dutch peacekeepers were present at the time.

The Srebrenica massacre is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II.

most of these men have never been found, although they keep discovering mass graves around the town and a group of experts has been working for years on identifying the remains. some of the identified remains will be re-buried today, as every year, since the massacre, the mothers, widows, sisters left behind hold a commemoration to remember their loved ones.

my brother and father were able to travel there today, and they will be there to pay their respects. i wish i could have gone with them, maybe another year.

today, please join me in prayer, that the women of that town, and all those in bosnia would find healing and reconciliation in christ, the only one who can give us hope.

.godzilla.

enjoy :)

.glory.to.god.

you know how there are those moments when you know for sure god touched you. the holy spirit does something in your heart, and you are touched and changed forever? well, one of those moments happened to me tonight.

i was attending the concert of the golgota gospel choir (from calvary chapel budapest) at the subotica (my hometown in serbia) city hall. upon arriving, shortly before the concert started i was already struck by seeing so many faces that i know from the budapest church. it was that whole thing of: wait ... they don't fit here, this person is out of place! and yet, it was so great to see them here.

the concert started, with the first song being one called glory to god. this was virtually all the lyrics. as I was listening, i was reminded of how 19 years ago, barely 25o feet from where i was standing tonight, i heard the gospel message for the first time in my life. and then a few months after that i gave my life to jesus. about a year after getting saved, i moved to budapest to go to college, towards the end of which the lord called me into the ministry. i was asked to help start a church in budapest. (it will be exactly fifteen years ago tomorrow.) this was calvary chapel budapest, the church that the choir came from tonight. as i watched them and listened to them sing glory to god i was remembering the one (yes, only one) person who was there for the very first bible study we had in a rented apartment. god has done so much since then!

and now, here they were, bringing the gospel, once again, back to my hometown. full circle. yes, i teared up. and more than that. and all i could think was: glory to god! i am so thankful he allowed me to be a part of his work!

.ponytail.

nina finally let us accessorize her hair :)

you can see more photos here.

.this.weekend.in.pictures.

we went to aquaworld on saturday - nina loves water and she loves slides, so it was double-fun for her :)

we spent some time on the playground this morning, before it started raining (again)

 

on the swing, all by herself :)

.hah.

here is an article to all the sceptics who made fun of me for lamenting my favorite cup when it got shattered into pieces a few weeks ago.

.tupaka.

many have asked whether nina is speaking yet (since she will be two years old in june). well, yes and no. let me explain - i promise, i am not going to ask you to define speech or define it for you :)

she repeats a galore (one of my favorite words - thank you gaelic folks for making it part of the english language) of words, but not too many full sentences yet. she has a vocabulary of about 200 words or so, and, of course, some of them need some deciphering. 

here is a short list of decipherables:

• tulipán (tulip) - tupaka
• étel (food) - nyamaka
• keksz (cakes) - kekszi
• dot néni (aunty dot) - doki
• jim bácsi (uncle jim) - jibaka
• orsi (our friend orsi) - otyi
• phil bácsi (uncle phil) - fika (also the word for booger in hungarian)
• dolgozni (to work) - dogó
• sajt (cheese) - saki
• gyümölcslé (fruit juice) - gyibike
• elmo (the furry red muppet) - ebi

stopping and smelling the tupaka :)

.amusement.

the following letter was recently sent by tesco (called fresh and easy in america) to a customer in oxford, england. enjoy :)

dear mrs. murray,

while we thank you for your valued custom and use of the tesco loyalty card, the manager of our store in banbury is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics. below is a list of offences over the past few months all verified by our surveillance cameras:

1. 06/15 - took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's trolleys when they weren't looking.
2. 07/22 - set all the alarm clocks in housewares to go off at five-minute intervals.
3. 07/07 - made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to feminine products aisle.
4. 08/14 - moved a 'caution - wet floor' sign to a carpeted area.
   
5. 09/15 - set up a tent in the outdoor clothing department and told shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring sausages and a gas stove.
6. 09/23 - when the deputy manager asked if she could help him, he began to cry and asked, 'yhy can't you people just leave me alone?'
7. 10/04 - looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, picked his nose, and ate it.
8. 11/10 - while appearing to be choosing kitchen knives in the housewares aisle asked an assistant if he knew where the antidepressants were.
9. 12/03 - darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the 'mission impossible' theme.
10. 12/06 - in the kitchenware aisle, practised the 'madonna look' using different size funnels.
11. 12/18 - hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed, yelled 'pick me! pick me!'
12. 12/21 - when an announcement came over the loud speaker, assumed the foetal position and screamed 'no! no! it's those voices again.'
13. 12/23 - went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited a while; then yelled, very loudly, 'there is no toilet paper in here.'

you see ladies, this is further proof that it is extremely dangerous to drag us along when going shopping :)

.sentences_mondatok.

so, this one will be bilingual for the grandparents' sake, and because of the topic. i do hope nobody minds and i hope you will still find it interesting, even if your hungarian may not be so fluent :)

nina is 20 months old today, and last night she spoke her second (the first one a few weeks ago) somewhat "real" sentence. she was drinking juice (which she absolutely adores) and in the middle of it, she happily announced:

"eszike,eszike gyibiki!" (meaning in "ninaese" hungarian: i am eating juice.)

of course arpi and i melted on the spot, as this was yet another proof to us that our daughter is in fact a genius like we suspected.

szóval, nina épp ma 2o hónapos, és tegnap este másodszor hallottunk tőle mondatnak nevezhető valamit. az első mondat pár hete volt, amikor edit lábán ülve kijelentette: "nina csücsi, ede". aki nem érti, hogy ez azt jelenti: "nina editen ül" - nos, sajnálom :)

a második mondat pedig tegnap vacsi közben hangzott el, gyümölcslét ivott éppen (aminek a bolondja), és egyszercsak boldogan kiáltott fel:

"eszike, eszike gyibiki!"

az "eszike" szó gyökerét ugye nem kell magyarázni, a "gyibiki"-ről pedig mi szülők tudjuk, hogy gyümölcslét jelent (régebben egyébként soha nem értettem, hogy a szülők hogyan érthetik meg a gyerekeik halandzsa beszédét.)

röviden ennyi. elolvadtunk, és ismét csak megerősítve láttuk abbéli meggyőződésünket, hogy a gyerekünk igenis zseni.

.lament.

in the eighth chapter of his brilliant novel nineteen eighty-four, george orwell writes about winston meeting an older man (he calles him a prole) in a bar and the man complaining about not being able to get the right amount of beer. ingsoc made the people switch from imperial to metric measurements, so beer was no longer sold by pint (british), but by litre or half-litre. the man was complaining about this, because, as he said, "a 'alf-litre ain't enough. it don't satisfy. and a 'ole litre's too much. it starts my bladder running."

i completely understand the above mentioned prole, i am the same way with coffee. one regular (9 fluid ounces) cup is not enough, but two cups are too much (for the same reason as mentioned by the prole above). for years i was in agony to find the adequate solution to my problem, and then starbucks came along and introduced me to their large (14 fluid ounces) mug. i would have been living happily ever after if there wasn't for an accident last year, during which my mug (due to it's rigidity) ended up in pieces. for a few months my agonizing continued, but then we visited vienna and i got a large mug at starbucks again. needles to say, as the attached picture accurately shows, my replacement mug was rendered unusable by brute force yesterday. what am i to do now - as there is no plan to be within 200 miles of a starbucks in the next few months?

my preciousssss

.early.addiction.

in this video you can see how nina turns into an addict to a toy within an hour

.more.snow.

inspecting the snowfall very intently

.this.weekend...

... nina found yet another way to accessorize her hair ...

... we went to kékestető (the highest "mountain" in hungary) to spend the weekend with calvary chapel eger at their retreat ...

... and nina confirmed to us one more time that we are soon to say good-bye to our armchairs and television privileges :)

.obscene.

during the past week or so, nina started talking more and more. for now, she makes up her own version of words she wants to use, and does so using a very simple method: as she is unable to pronounce most words perfectly at this point, she takes just the first syllable, omits the rest, and adds (k)i, (k)a or ga to it.

this is what it looks like:

• mandarin (tangerine in hungarian) - maga or magi
  
• banán (banana in hungarian) - baga
  
• dot néni (our friend dot) - doki
  
• cipő (shoe in hungarian) - cipi
  
• kutya (dog) - kutyi
  

but, something interesting happened this morning, as she and arpi were standing at the window admiring the frost-covered trees, and arpi pointed to the trees and said their hungarian name: fák. nina got very excited, and exclaimed: fakiiiii!

being a child of 19 months and thankfully not yet aware of the fact that this word is quite obscene in english, she has spent the last few minutes running around the house, yelling this lovely word out :)

what can we do? well ... we smile and nod.

.bedside.

nina inherited a "big-girl" bed from rebekah walsh last week and it instanly became her kigdom, she loves it very much.

.matrimony.

today we celebrated móni and jw being united in marriage. here are a few pictures (there are more pictures on facebook).

the bride

the bride, again

the bride and her bridesmaids

the groomsmen and the ring bearer

the bride and the groom

mary and nina on sugar high

a very tired bride

.tub.fun...

... or, should i call it art? nah, tub fun it is.

thank you dusty and norbi for the tub crayons :)

.devotion.

below is today's devotional in oswald chambers' my utmost for his highest. it really encouraged me.

look unto me, and be ye saved. isaiah (45:22)

do we expect god to come to us with his blessings and save us? he says - look unto me, and be saved. the great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on god, and it is his blessings that make it difficult. troubles nearly always make us look to god; his blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. the teaching of the sermon on the mount is, in effect - narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on jesus christ. "look unto me."

many of us have a mental conception of what a christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on god. there is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. "look unto me" and - not "you will be saved," but "you are saved." the very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on him. we get preoccupied and sulky with god, while all the time he is saying - "look up and be saved." the difficulties and trials - the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to god.

rouse yourself up and look to god. build your hope on him. no matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to him. "look unto me," and salvation is, the moment you look.

.things.

things that made me happy this past week (not in order of importance):

1. i won the weight-gain contest (i. e. the who will gain less over the holidays competition between arpi and me)! this means that i get to choose whatever i want as a reward ... hmm. that will be a tough one :)
   
2. arpi bought a special antenna and hooked it up on the roof, which makes it possible for us to watch two croatian television channels (hrt2 and rtl). we used to watch them while living in pécs (which is very close to the croatian border, so there was no problem with the reception), but as vajta is much further, it is only possible with this special antenna. during the past year-and-a-half, we have really missed hearing the language, and have noticed while at home for the holidays that our knowledge of the language has gotten pretty rusty - which is not a good thing, if we want to stay on top of it as we prepare to move to the balkans in a few years. so, hooray for some language practice!
   
3. the fact that more and more of nina's personality is coming out, it is so fun to watch! she has a sweet, cuddly personality, knows what she wants (this is the hard part), loves music (especially piano-based), loves to eat healthy things like broccoli and oatmeal, etc.
   
4. yesterday's pizza lunch with neil and anna. neil makes extremely good pizza, and we had a sweet time of fellowship over some of his amazing creations. oh, and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting as dessert. yum!
   
5. the grace god and my husband have shown me every day.