Come back!

I really enjoyed that my family came to visit us, and though I know it was financially not so easy for them this time I am so happy that they managed to solve it somehow. It was so good to have them around, that now after 5 days that they have gone home I am about to get used to the silence they left behind. (as much silence two boys can have around them...)

It especially worked out that they managed to be here for Beji's birthday and even though we couldn't really travel around to visit places we still managed to fill our days.
We have been at a veteran car show at Middleton Hall, been at Dog and Doublet next to the canal, the boys went fishing to Kingsbury Park, we had a miniature train ride on Benji's birthday party (typically in rain being in England) they walked around the river and flown a kite when the weather permitted.

They are really missed, I even had to teach Benji what does it mean to miss someone, as he said he will go with them.
Now at night when I ask him if he misses them, he just imitates a cry and say "yes, look Im crying" :-)

Yesterday he was also really cute. Before going to bed he came to show me how he can blow a kiss. He said he sends that to Nagyi, then we blew one for Dina and one for Papi.
I asked him what about Csoda? (our dog in Hungary whom is his imaginary pal nowadays too)
He smiled and blew a kiss to Csoda too out the window. Then he said we have to send one to Mosoly the cat too.
I told him that Oh, thats really nice of him, Nagyi and Papi must be really happy now.
But he interrupted, lifted his little pointing finger and in a telling of voice he said:
"No, wait, there is another cat!"
That is right, there WAS another one, Saffi, who unfortunately died while we were at home last time, and hoped Benji did not notice it and won't remember of her next time, but obviously he did, so we couldn't help but send another kiss to Saffi as well...

George, the monkey has visited us.

Though it was about 3 weeks ago, I just didn't have time to pen it down, but now my parents are here!:
I think this idea is so sweet that I had to write it down in case someone else reads it and would like to do something similar.

One day Benji came home from nursery with a monkey, its little basket and a booklet which belonged to him.
I wasn't sure what it is, so I opened the little notebook to read that the monkey is George and the kids from nursery take turns to look after him. It said that in the basket there is a banana to feed him with a little toothbrush and towel to help him clean his teeth and face.
After turning the pages I saw that little monkey had a really good time so far. From February 2012 he visited quite a few kids, he has been to library, church, bicycling, baked cakes and he has even been to skiing and Portugal. He didn't have much time to get bored thats for sure.
I really liked reading it as I could see Benji's friends from nursery and could have a little peek into their lives. And now I know how his "best friends" Harry, Jamie and Freddie look like.

We also showed George our house, our fishes, washed his teeth (ok, not every day, and have to admit he sometimes ate frankfurters and not his banana...sssh), we also took him to the local library, to Kingsbury lake and playground, he slept with Benji every night and got introduced to all of his soft toys.
I was a little worried that he will find it difficult to give him back, but we read his little his little booklet again again (he wanted to, it was enough for me to read it once) about what he has done with his friends, and once I developed the photos we cut them out and sticked them to the book together (I have put a little story behind it once he has gone to bed). And the day after they read it together in nursery. I think he knew what is going to happen and it wasn't a problem at all to let George go.

Accidentally that weekend when George was with us, my friend who lives in Taiwan has visited us (we used to lived together at Elaine's a good 10 years ago) with her family, it was really good to see them live not just on Facebook, the kids got on really well (her husband is English and his son was born two weeks after Benji, and he is also called Benjamin). Benji said his friends is "other Benji" now.
It is such a shame that probably we will not see them again for another few years, I think our families would get on well if we lived closer to eachother.

The 3 years old!

I couldn't wait for this birthday as this was the first one he could really understand now.
He was counting back for days how many he has to sleep for his birthday and he knew that he is 3 years old, and there will be 3 candles on his cake.
When I asked him what kind of cake he would like he mostly answered "one with candies", so it was sure that there will be Smarties on the top of it, and because he like Túró Rudi (Hungarian sweet with cottage cheese), we decided that it will be made out of sweet cottage cheese. And since my parents were here for his birthday they supplied plenty of Túró Rudis in case his cake didn't happen in the way we planned it. (in the end he only ate the Smarties from the top of it though its not the fault of the cake...)
On Saturday he was so tired after playing (or more like watching in his case as he is not so brave to participate) football in the morning, that we decided better to give the parents after his afternoon sleep.
He woke up, we lined up all his presents on the table including his new bike, I put a Happy Birthday song on, we started to sing, but he became too shy that he started crying hanging onto my leg. Great....
Took about 10 minutes until he decided that he actually wants to open a present. (I have never seen a kid not wanting to open presents!)
I don't know what this new shyness about, but I hope he didn't burst into tears in nursery when they celebrated him today. Or he wont do next weekend when we planned another celebration with his friends and Zander.
He got a letter from me in which I summarized his 3rd years, so I won't put that here as well, and also that is only important for Him and me only. I will give these letters to him one day when he understands.
Also He and everyone else knows the fact that I love him very very much and I am proud that He is My Son!!!

The day after we celebrated Father's day, Benji had to sing Happy Birthday to Richard, as according to him it was Daddy Day, and he is so right!

Potty issues

I was planning to write this post for a long time, if we need to "potty train" or just wait until kids are ready. But I was kept postponing and postponing until Benji has started to use the toilet himself. So I can now draw the conclusion that no, there is no need to potty "train", when they are ready they loose the nappy in a week.

We didn't do anything either, apart from before bathtime asking him if he wants to sit on the potty or not. Sometimes he wanted to, sometimes he wasn't interested. We only needed to be strong and fight off the pressure of our environment like "Oh, is he still wearing nappies?!" or "My daughter is using the potty since she was 1.5" or "Shouldn't you make him sit on the potty every morning so he gets used to it"?
No, not really I thought, I knew he won't do his GCSEs in nappies..

And here we came: about 3 weeks ago the Nursery told us if the day after we want to bring Benji in pants and some extra clothes as for the last three days he was asking the staff when he wanted to use the potty or the toilet. First I was a bit scared as at home he never did tell us when he needed to use the toilet, but I thought lets be it!
The day after we took him in only in his pants, and he came home dry, only one accident! After this he started to say at home too when he needed it, and asked for the lots of "Good Boy" stickers which the nursery has given him every time he told them he needed the loo.
So in a week he become potty "trained". Even at night he doesn't need a nappy, but I still put it on him just in case, and until I buy a waterproof sheet onto the mattress.

I have now a very big and clever boy! So proud of him!

And my little one also, who in the last week at last pushed his first tooth through. Actually two of them, one up and one right under it. He even learnt how to scratch them together. eeeek
And he is so cute as he laughs with his two little mini teeth, I love him!