Jingle bells, jingle bells, glamma all the way!

A few weeks ago, we started hiring a babysitter a few hours once a week. Even though I feel a little guilty over this (I mean, I'm at home all day, why would I need someone else to take care of my baby?), watching Baby S laugh and play with her new friend (who has three times the energy I have btw) reassures me we both could benefit from a little time apart. I think it's good for her not to be attached to me all day long.

This week I I wanted to relax and do something for myself. So I booked a manicure. It was supposed to last 45 min, but after 1,5 hours only one hand was glamorous. The babysitter had other obligations, so I rushed home with my one hand mani, stuffed S in the stroller and walked back to the salon to get my other hand polished. S fell asleep on the way and did mom a huge favor by sleeping through the whole thing.

So mama got her bling on! What do you think? Pretty, ain't it?! It's from OPI's latest collection "Skyfall". Love it!

Lionel Richie loves me

..no, really.. he LOVES me! 

I'm talking punch drunk head over heels crazy in love! 

He showed up at my apt last night, drunk as a skunk, begging me to leave my husband for him.. (don't ask me how we know each other or how our worlds came to cross) And it's not the current Lionel Richie we're talking about, but the younger version.. this handsome stud showed up on my doorstep.. 

[Image from Wikipedia]

For some reason I let him in. He continued his sobbing and begging. And then he started singing (no, not "Hello", some romantic love song). It was bad. Seriously, if Lionel Richie shows up in your home and starts to serenade you, you'd expect it to be good. Like an angel just landed in my living room and opened it's mouth. Not like a cat that's being strangled. Just saying.

Anyway, this dream really took me by surprise. Wasn't aware I had young Lionel on my mind.

Snow!!

Yesterday it started snowing, look how beautiful our garden is now. Had to hurry up and snap some shots for it melted away!

I heart Mom and Dad

Since Prince Charming has been away in business this past week, I've had my wonderful parents come stay with me and baby S. Oh, how I love having them around, seeing them with my little girl and being able to show them some of my everyday life.

They arrived Saturday while P was still here. We picked them up at the airport (yes, I admit it was a relief to see that they a) made it to the airport in Gothenburg on time, b) got to take their bags on to the aircraft (stupid Wizzair and Ryanair for their idiotic rules concerning handbagage!) and c) weren't stopped by customs). I'm a worrier.. what can I say!? 

From the airport we went straight to the small village of Szentendre, where we enjoyed the classic goulash with beer, strolled around the souvenir shops and of course; went bananas at the christmas decoration shop! Love that place! I could literally spend hours and hours there, ooohing and aaahing over the glitz and glam. And finally I got to show it to Mom! 

Just gotta mention the dinner P cooked for us; wienerschnitzels so tender they melted in your mouth. And we topped it off with a bottle of the Amarone we bought on our trip to Italy this summer. Ahhh, la dolce vita! 

Sunday morning P, my dad and I went to the Széchenyi bath to soak. Not as shabby as it's rumour, I thought. It's a huge thermal bath, with both indoor and outdoor pools. We had a blast. They have a swirl pool, where they who enter it get swooshed around, lika a merry-go-round. I will never ever forget the image of my dad swishing by P and me, giving P a high five as he passed. He was like a teenager again. Heartwarming!

The rest of the week included shopping at the mall, a visit to the amazing Christmas fair at Vörösmarty Tér where we had some glühwein with high promille, taking baby S to the playground, having a delicious dinner at Café 57, checking out the Great Market hall and Vaci út with all it's souvenir shops, and a lot of window shopping for antiques...

When it was time for them to leave my heart broke... it was so hard to see them getting in to that taxi.. now I know how they feel every time S and I leave them. It got so quiet and empty here! Luckily we'll be together again in just a short month to celebrate Christmas.

Baby steps

Hi y'all! Why are parents so obsessed with getting their baby to walk!? Hey - I'm not saying I'm any better! I keep placing baby S on her feet, part begging, part threatening her in order to make her take those damned first steps.. I mean, the baby is eventually gonna walk. All by herself. All babies learn how to walk. Sooner or later. So what's the big fuss about? Three weeks ago baby S suddenly took five steps. Just like that. And never did it since. It was like she knew how bad we wanted it. Such a tease.. She would just look at me, begging her to walk, smile a mischievous smile and slowly sit down and start to crawl instead. Until yesterday. She just started walking towards daddy. Stepping up with confidence, 7, 8, 9, 10 steps. Maybe this was the breakthrough. And from now on we will never be able to fully relax again. What the heck were we thinking!?

Now I will go back to writing a wedding toast for one of my dearest friends who's getting married this Saturday. Hooray!!

Weekend in Vienna

My last post was kinda dull..  so today I'm gonna cover a more pleasant topic. VIENNA! Love love love this city! Since Monday was a national holiday here in Hungary, I packed up my little family and went across the border. Vienna is only a two hour drive from Budapest, so it's perfect for a weekend getaway. Such a beautiful city, and the shopping is to die for. Except the prices. Since I moved to Budapest I've become used to the lower prices here, and I find all other countries to be expensive.

We arrived in Vienna Saturday by lunchtime. We stayed at the same hotel as last time, a beautiful hotel with good location. After checking in we headed to the famous Figlmeuller to see if we would be so lucky as to get a table. No way José. The line went on for days.. But hey, we ended up getting us some of that schnitzel anyway, just at another resto. And then it was time for some serious SHOPPING. I always become a shopzilla when I know I don't have unlimited time for shopping. Poor P, I stress the living hell out of him, running from store to store, my eyes wide open and with a crazy look in my eyes.  To keep him sane and me happy, we usually split up. My darling man had his mind set on surprising me with a new wallet, a replacement for the beautiful one that got stolen. This would prove to be a difficult task. At one point, he snuck off to a tiny store on a backstreet. He had just asked the lady in the store for some assistance, when all of a sudden I stood outside of the store, staring through it's window with a hollow look in my eyes. At first I didn't even see him, I was focused on the nice bags in the store. But then I someone quite familiar standing there. So no wallet from that store. A few hours later he tried again, going back to buy a wallet that I had fallen in love with. This time he pulled it off, but upon leaving the store he saw me walking in! As I was walking around the store, looking at more bags, my hubby was hiding behind some shelves. When he finally made it to the exit, the alarm went off, and a security guard asked him to come back. Whispering, P asked the man for discretion.. Despite all this, I never noticed him, and was very surprised when he gave me the wallet! Such a darling, my P. I love surprises, especially thoughtful one's like this! My crazy day of shopping resulted in a fantastic pink purse! Love it!

We had dinner at this amazing thai restaurant called Patara. We had a tasting menu, so the tasty dishes just kept coming and coming.. yumm..

Sunday everything is closed in Vienna. I mean everything. But that gave us plenty of time to wander about and explore the city. We had brunch at Die Wäscherei. On the walk back to our hotel we stumbled upon a jazzperformance at a square, so we stopped and listened for a while. After kicking it back at the hotel we went out for dinner. Italian food at "Limes", so goooood! We said our salutes in some sparkling prosecco, mmmmm..

On Monday we went for some last minute shopping. I surprised P with a gift, and he surprised me with an early birthday gift from a very special jeweler...

Our weekend in Vienna was fantastic, can't wait to go again!

Thieving ladies

Long time no see! What happened..? Did I lose interest in blogging so soon!? No, I was pocket-picked, that's what happened.. There I was, roaming the mall like any good housewife should.. when a thief dressed up as a pretty lady kneeled down beside my stroller, carefully opened my purse (yes, I know it's stupid and naive to keep the purse under the stroller and expect people to leave it the hell alone) and took my iPhone and wallet. I saw her kneeling down but I didn't think much of it, since she appeared to be looking at some baby clothes on the wall. When I discovered what had happened, my first thought was "I must call P"! But I haven't memorised his number! So I rushed home, well, took the very slow Budapest bus home and then rushed the streets down to our house. I then called P on Skype to let him know what had happened. It didn't occur to me I should have stayed and report the matter to the security. P came home and together we went back to every store I'd been to.. and they were quite a few.. After that we went to the police to file a report. Even though I'm furious, I'm most of all grateful that nothing happened to baby S or me. Those are just material things and you can replace them. From now on I won't waste any more energy on the matter.
The thieving lady is not worth it.

I believe in..

.. making every day count. I really try to live by it. Then again, since one of my favourite things to do is chill out at home, making every day count comes easy to me. ;) Jokes aside, I've had a happening week! On Thursday for instance, I was at the playground with my friend Sandra and her adorable girls. We had coffee at my place afterwards. And on Friday we went to Margit Island for a great day by the pool! Baby S absolutely loves to go swimming in the pool. She tries to swim, kicking and waving her arms in a frenzy! So cute! Sunday we went to Sandra & Karsten for a BBQ, we had a great time! Yesterday I had the lovely ladies from our "playgroup" over for a coffee & chat with the kids. Great times! The older kids were running around the apt, chased by an "awful monster"(no, not me), the little ones were on the floor, playing and doing babystuff. We had some cake from the fantastic and famous bakery down my street, the"Daubner". Chocolate & blueberry soufflé on chocolate cake. YUMMIE! It's so nice to get together with this group of ladies, I really enjoy sipping coffee and talking about everything.

Also, I've been catching up with some of my dearest friends.. ever since I got pregnant I've been MIA, and I really feel bad about it. I just can't seem to find the time or the right moment to sit down and make those calls. There really are no excuses, but I hope they still like me enough to not call off our friendship, even though I suck at keeping in touch right now. Well, in the past few days I've talked to no less than four of those dear friends! I feel so good about this! Talking to them really gave me a much needed energy boost! One of my besties is getting married soon! So happy for her! And another one is expecting her third child in only a few weeks. So exciting!

Today I took S for a walk, and stopped by our mall to do some grocery shopping. After that we've been mostly doing everyday stuff.. oh, there's a knock on the door - hold on!

It was the german lady upstairs. I've been taking care of her cat while she was out of town, and now she had bought Selma a super cute swimsuit to thank me for the help. So sweet!

Morning glory

Lady S woke me up at 4.30 this morning. She's teething, poor thing.. After giving her the bottle and playing with her for about an hour, she did however go back to sleep. So this turned out to be a great (if maybe a bit early) morning after all.. Now I can enjoy my morning coffee and just relax.

I bought this pretty bouquet yesterday. They are dog-roses with mint! Smells amazing!

So if you're not up yet; wake up and smell the flowers! Or coffee.

Daily update

Alright.. since this blog is about me keeping a diary so I'll have some memories stored for when I get old.. I will make a daily update.. I always buy new diaries, thinking this time it will be different.. this time I will keep a journal of every single day.. write down small stuff  like the weather and important stuff like my baby's first steps.. and it always ends the same. I will write for a few days and then get bored and forget about it. And I'll feel bad for not writing. So, I thought that maybe a little pressure from the public is what I need.. If I can at least pretend that I have a few followers out there (hi Mom) who'd be disappointed if I went MIA, well then maybe I will keep it up.

Yesterday was a great Sunday. P and I were invited to our friends house for a BBQ. Nice red meat went right down my tummy.. yummm!! I can tell you, it's almost impossible to find good red meat here in Budapest. A nice juicy steak.. forget it Barbie! So we have desperately been trying to find a butcher somewhere who sells some tender meat and not just shoe soles, but no.. until one day, you hear about the Magical Meat Guy over at Mom park.. Like an urban legend amongst expats throughout Budapest. He exists thought. Apparently. P and I still haven't made the trip, but it's about time. I'm getting tired of all this pork and chicken.

Mama wants her some MEAT! Roaaarrr..

Right now, little S is sleeping. Mama is having coffee on the balcony, searching the internet for.. well, I don't know exactly.. Roaming for dresses for the upcoming wedding, random gifts for P, and oh yes - my latest addiction: japanese fabric! LOVE THEM!! Will I ever buy anything..? Probably not, but this is just like window shopping from home. I have nothing on my agenda today. Mondays are mostly about cleaning up after the weekend. Gonna have the girls come over for coffee & chat tomorrow, so I better make the mansion look presentable.

Have a great day y'all!