December Daily Day 4 - A Grinch day

This is the picture that fits best with this day. It began in the early hours of the morning - Szonja, my good sleeper, the baby I told everyone sleeps from 6 at night to 7 in the morning - awake! And noisy! And wiggly! And not interested in going back to sleep... OK, maybe from her point of view things were cool, in fact she was in a very good mood. After all she'd been asleep since 5:30 the night before. I love when she explores her voice: in the daytime. There's a book called night-time parenting or something like that. I'm not sure how well I did with this. She has always let me sleep through the night, so I've never been put to the test. And what's worse - coffee is out since the caffeine would just make her more awake. Oh, and also I got my flu shots on Thursday, and by the middle of last night my right arm felt like I'd been weightlifting, so breastfeeding while lying on my right side wasn't really happening. Also she kept squeezing and scratching my arm - ouch! Sorry Csaba, I was really grumpy this morning huh? Whiny, actually. Good thing he was willing to take over for half an hour while I went to lie on the couch. Not that 30 minutes really made much difference. She finally fell back asleep around 10, so I took the chance to nap, mentally noting that I would have to be up in an hour so we could make our appointment to have her hips rechecked at noon at the Budai Gyermek Korhaz. So when I woke up at 11:45 (!) I knew that the day hadn't improved much. We went out in the completely gray, no sign of snow, misty Budapest, missed one bus and rolled into the hospital an hour late. The doctor had to be called from her lunch break, YELLED AT ME!!!! and then checked her hips. I still can't get over the way she spoke to me... I'll try to start by not writing about it more than that. Let's just say I'm happy I didn't cry, and that yes I am probably overdramatizing every time I tell the story. Happy ending: Szonja's hips are fine and she doesn't have to wear the rugi bugyi anymore. Other happy ending for today: picked up my birthday box sent by my mom. Yay! She got me a locket, something that I have been wishing for ever since I was a little girl. Now I have two people whose pictures I can put inside! So I had a grinch day, but the evening was rather pleasant.
My good friend Bill came to visit - we don't get to meet as often as I like, even though he doesn't live so far away. He's busy being a teacher. By the way, tonight when I went out of the room to make tea I left Szonja with Bill and she started crying. Is it possible that she is already old enough to start having separation anxiety?
I know this is out of focus, but I love the expression on Csaba's face.

Bill is a super knitter, and he got me set up for practicing with my fancy merino wool silk hand spun in Uraguay yarn. I thought buying something nice would motivate me to actually learn how to knit. My plan is to make a hat for Szonja, then see what's left over after that. Maybe leg warmers.
Szonja thinks Csaba is so funny. For some reason she doesn't laugh like this for me. I read somewhere that for babies whose primary care giver is the mother the father, because he's not always around, provides the days excitement and surprise.

I want to remember from today this time when the three of us were together, getting Szonja ready for bed. Afterwards I was in the living room relaxing and Csaba was singing:

Falu végén van egy kút, van egy kút,
oda minden út befut,
összefutnak az utak,
azután tovább futnak,
jumá-ju-jum-má-jum.

Juhászlegény kesereg, kesereg,
kilenc juha elveszett,
mind a kilenc tarka volt,
selymes-arany gyapja volt,
jumá-ju-jum-má-jum.

Juhász, te ne keseregj, keseregj,
kilenc juhod megleled,
megtalálják az utat,
azután hozzád futnak,
jumá-ju-jum-má-jum.

This song is not originally Hungarian, maybe it's Romanian or Moldavian, and if you look it up it will come up mostly on communist websites. Csaba's grandpa knew the guy who translated it from the summer house that his family has in Horany, which was a sort of communist/jewish communal living place on Szentendre Island. The song says something like: at the edge of the village there's a well, where all the roads lead, where they come together, and then go on. / The shepherd is bitter, he lost 9 sheep, all 9 of them had silky golden wool. / Shepherd, don't be bitter ,you'll find them, they will find the way home back to you.


The box from my mom was also full of Halloween candy, which we have already been working hard on. It was fun tonight to tell candy stories - anyone remember Big League Chew? Best bubble bubble gum ever. I also told Csaba about how when we went to the bank drive-thru, when they had those tubes for putting checks and stuff in, if the teller saw that there were kids in the car they would send suckers through the tubes. Nice.

This video was taken in the middle of the night:

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For this day in the December scrapbook, since it was a grumpy day, I wanted to write about my favorite Christmas memories. Here are a few:

One Christmas we made lots of ornaments with my grandma. I must have been in about the 2nd grade. The one I remember the most clearly is a santa jack in the box. It was made from plastic mesh that we cross-stitched on, and glued a santa onto a little piece of cotton inside. This might have been the same Christmas that I got my cat Ziggi for Christmas. A cat was exactly what I'd asked Santa for at the mall that year. The biggest present under the tree that year was mine, and when I opened it I realized that it was a litter box. Then my mom let Ziggi into the room -he had a red ribbon tied around his neck.

My other favorite Christmas memory is waking up with my big brother Sean before everyone else. We used to go together to the tree, not touching anything or turning on any lights, only whispering. The presents always seemed to have multiplied in the night and there was a magic feeling that SANTA had been there. We tried to look around and see which presents were for who, though we never touched anything.

Another Christmas was spent with my dad and grandparents in Utah. I remember going Christmas shopping with my Grandma in stores that were so beautifully decorated. She was the kind of grandma who made divinity and other Christmas candy and had it laid out on the coffee table. That year we bought my dad an umbrella, but wrapped up a frilly purple one as a joke so when he opened he'd think that was the umbrella he got. Heh heh heh, weren't we so funny. I think it was that same year we made snowmen in a huge snow with my cousins from Las Vegas.

That reminds me of the Christmas we spent with my cousins in Las Vegas too. We all got Cabbage Patch dolls that year. I though Kristin and Kelly were super hip and cool, with their oversized sweaters and plans to trip up Santa with bells on doorknobs and things like that. They could sing and play Christmas carols on the piano, and I remember hearing Santa Claus is Coming to Town specifically.

Christmases in Kobuk are also memorable. The whole village in the church with you-would-not-believe how big of a mountain of presents. All the presents everyone was giving in the whole village basically. If someone had died in that year they gave some present for almost everyone. All the tags on all the presents were read aloud: To Deidre From you friend Eva or to so and so in memory of so and so. Everyone in the village also memorized poems to recite. Thinking back it's really incredible how a whole village would celebrate Christmas all together as a family like that. One of the Christmas-eves in Kobuk was very cold and clear, with incredible aurora, and Sean and Elia and me, maybe Cheryl and Todd and Hans had been sitting in big snow drifts, like we always did. Maybe sitting in the INCREDIBLE snow fort we made from a giant snow drift and when we all went home it was such a nice feeling, shouting out MERRY CHRISTMAS into the cold quiet air.

Ok, these Christmas memories could go on and on. But, Szonja could decide to wake up at 3 tomorrow morning and then I'll regret this time I spent on the computer. I'm going to try to think of a few more memories, I like this. As I write I think of more and more. I'm going to try and think of other traditions I like too. Hmmm, maybe someone could write in the comments your favorite Christmas memory?? Hmmm? Comments????