The Making of ...

Timur is crazy about Dinosaurs. It's difficult to say how much of it is my influence. I'm crazy about dinosaurs and other stuff from the past, and you cannot help but turn your children on to the same passions that drive you. I hope it's not just me, I like authenticity in people, even if they're very young. Most of our Timur's Dinosaur craze was effected by the BBC's extraordinary and beautiful series "Walking with Dinosaurs". The first time we watched it together was over 6 months ago. He was instantly fascinated. I had a short ethical discussion with myself on the risks of exposing such a young child to the sometimes cruel imagery of Jurassic predators catching and eating their prey. Timur seemed untouched by the violence, not at all afraid, all fascination. I figured this is all natural, nothing Timur is not exposed to when he is on the farm in Hungary or inspecting a small dead rodent our cat Max left on the balcony. So we indulged our love of those huge fearsome reptiles.



It became addictive, as Timur would demand as the first thing after breakfast 'dino kijkes': dino watching. Now the entire "Walking with Dinosaurs" series is only six episodes, so after only a few weeks you're watching re-runs. Timur seemed not to mind at all, and continuing to watch it with him gave me a chance to learn all the dinosaur names I didn't know yet, in addition to the names of their mammallian contemporaries. After the last episode, which ends with a tremendous meteor hitting planet earth 65 million years ago, the video contains a "The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs" segment. I remember Timur getting annoyed when this would come on. He did not want to be confronted with all these humans, all this science and explanation. We never got to watch the whole "Making of ..." because Timur would first complain then loose interest. He wanted to see the dinosaurs, that's it.

Now something has changed. They say that children develop in spurts, a period of seeming stability followed by great leaps forward. He is certainly showing such leaps in his language ability, starting to make complex sentences (making subject predicate combinations, uninflected still) in both Hungarian and Dutch. Yesterday we were watching the Dinosaurs again as part of our evening program. Timur continued to suggest something like 'onth-phon', and I really wanted to know what he meant. So we were scanning throught the episodes. When we came to the "Making of ..." part Timur's attention focused. He was interested, he seemed to understand the part about the skeleton, and the story of the paleontologist digging out bones from a hill in Montana. He seems to have developed an ability understand different levels of looking at something. There is the story of the Dinos, which is beautiful and fun. Then there is the story of how they made the story of the Dinos, which is informative and fun. This difference in conceptual level is something that he grasps now, and he can enjoy. He learned how to switch between conceptual levels. What an important step to make.



In the end I also realized the meaning of 'onth-phon'. The last episode of "Walking with Beasts" is about a herd of mammoth migrating, so I figured the association is with 'olifant', dutch for elephant. Timur smiled broadly when I sent the images of the mammoths to our TV screen. Papa understood what he meant.

visit to Hungary

We went to Hungary in the middle of January to visit the Hungarian family, since we missed them at Christmas. We took Wizzair from Eindhoven and flew into Budapest, then took a train to Szeged, where we stayed the first 4 days. Our mission was to visit our Hungarian grandparents, however we hardly saw either the oma or the opa. Both of them were working even on Saturday. Since we missed the goal of our mission, we tried to fill our time by visiting friends and going to the swimming pool.

A rózsaszínű csoda: Wizzair!

First we saw the Balogh family with 4! kids: Panna, Ábel, Illés and Mirkó, the 4 month old new-comer. Unfortunately, mama did not have a camera with her, so no pics of this event were made. We saw however, some nice tales on slides and the kids played a little together. It is amazing to see how big the difference is between a 2 year old and a 4 year old. But kids are the same everywhere. They love to play and enjoy company. At least these kids did.

Mandulatündér tükörben

The next day we went to the Bocsor family. Mandula and Timur played and ate together and they took even a bath. They both seemed to have fun. Timur, revealing his real Hungarian blood, joined the collective kolbász-eating, which resulted in filled bellies. All in all, it seems that Timur and Mandula can get along well together.

Levesevés

Kolbászevés

Fürdőzők
(de ne kérdezd, hogy a képek címei miért magyarul vannak)

Then came Friday, and we went to the swimming pool, since Timur enjoys water quite a lot. The Thermal was empty and we had a good time playing with a ball and swimming from one side to the other of the pool. We had finally dinner together with our Nagymama, who made chicken with mashed potatoes and the good old "befőtt" (homemade canned fruit). I can hardly remember when I ate last time befőtt. We also bought some children DVDs and filled the time with watching the Little Mole (Kisvakond) and Kukori és kotkoda. Well, kokonda as Timur calls this series of stories of a hardworking hen and a lazy, deadbeat rooster.

Pisti came to Szeged on Saturday and we were planning to visit the Nagypapa. But he called very early in the morning that he had no time to meet us. Oh, great! We had all the time in the world again. The boys, Timur and Pisti, went to sleep and slept couple of hours. I was making pancakes, Timur's all time favourite. The evening passed quietly.

Konyhaszekrényen

On Sunday the nagymama wanted to relax, so we left for Budapest to meet more people. We made another unsuccessful trial on the way to see our Nagypapa in Hódmezővásárhely. We arrived in the evening at Zsuzsa and Bubu's place, where we were welcomed with delicious dinner. We spent 1,5 days with the duo. The boys, Bubu and Timur are nearly of the same age and they seemed to get along well. Of course, there were some disagreements at times. Bubu seems to be a relaxed kid, and Timur is filled with vibrant energy, fortunately not all the time. It was good to see the 2 kids together all day. Timur enjoyed Bubu's company and vice versa. Plea

kicsit homályos mama Zsuzsa és a 2 pizsamás lurkó

két kis manó répával és tűzoltóautóval

After getting on the airplane again, Timur was looking forward to come home, but we made a detour and stopped in Eindhoven. Timur was restless in Eindhoven and he hardly waited to see his father again. He had to wait another day before that could happen. We stayed at Szilvi and Johan's place, who are very calm and friendly people. Timur lost his patience couple of times. Or was I who lost her patience?

Bubu és Timur könyvet nézegetnek.
Bubu nyugalma hatással van Timurra.