Mom's passing

Mom passed away peacefully about 7:20 on Sunday, 5/17, in Dillon Mt, where she has been these last two years. Here is the obituary in the Wenatchee World : http://www.legacy.com/wenworld/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=127460803

Tudor

Tudor

and his dear parents, Otilia & Stefan

'

Tudor is the only cousin Emily and Jonathan haven't met yet. He lives in Romania and he is Emily's age but he is very different in some ways. He started to talk very early and by the time he was 2 years old, he knew 4 poems!!! Now at 2.5 years old he knows many more, and songs too. In Romania it is a (good!) habit that little kids learn poems from their parents or from preschool. It is a good thing, as it 'exercises' the child's memory at an early age, and it is amazing to see what a good memory a child can have at that age, and how easily he learns, almost with no effort.
Tudor is so funny and smart, that every time I talk with my sister she has lots of news about him.
A few months ago he asked "What does God mean?", and after some explainations, he looked up in the sky and said: "Why can't I see Him? Oh, I know, because there are clouds". He often asks questions and often finds the answers himself, and often talkes to himself like "Because I didn't obey what mama said, I fell down", ....other time he told daddy "Mama said 'don't touch this', and I did, so I cut myself"...
Some recent things: "Daddy, why do you keep telling me all day that you love me?" or ... after asking for water 3 times after going to bed at night, he tells mama: " I think I drove you crazy with my water"....... another time he goes in the kitchen and says " I think you cooked sauseges, it smells of sauseges". Or he asks mama: "are you chewing gum? You smell of chewing gum."

He knows how to make jokes and play tricks on others. One time he asked mama while she was in the kitchen "Did you get with your nose in a pot?" and then "I was joking, I like to joke with you, mama"

I am amazed to see a 2 year old thinking and talking so much, while Emily barely learns to make small sentences. The other cousin, Raul, of the same age, is somewhere in between Emily and Tudor. Of course we don't compare them and don't complain, since every child is different and learns things at different ages. All the cousins from Romania are very very special and we look forward to all of them to be together some day, hopefuly not before too long. We are so glad that Alex and Raul could visit us here last year, and we have such special memories of their time here. And pictures too, of course, we can't do without pictures at our house :-)

Back from Montana

We are safely home, back from Montana. We didn't take many pictures but here are some (about all). Jonathan fell asleep while auntie Angie was reading stories to him (and Emily).

On the way back, the kids behaved great, the best so far. Emily had an exception at the beginning of the trip, but after the first stop (of almost an hour), we had two little angels in the back seat, playing and laughing together. We had another 2 stops afterwards, of about half an hour each, and maybe this is what really helped on this one day trip of 12 hours alltogether.

Misc.

This is what I found when I came in the kitchen today.
I think it was Emily, she made a basket. Good signs for a good basket ball player... :-)

I thought the kids were playing with sand IN the sandbox. But what Emily was doing was a little different. She saw mama sweeping the sand from the deck after they were done playing, and now she dumped sand on the deck on purpose and then swept it.

Joyce was here in a very short visit, but got to see the kids and play a little with them.

She brought a cute little present for each one, a dolly and a car. Guess which is for who :-)

Here Emily thinks she likes Jonathan's present more.

Is the exchange ok, Jonathan?

This is the next day, when Jonathan had no other choice but play with the nice dolly, which he enjoyed for a while. In the meantime Emily LOVED to take the pieces of the truck apart and assemble them back, without anybody showing her how. She spent a lot of time doing this.

Jonathan wants it too... Hmm, what happens next? Not too hard to guess.

Fighting over the truck, but Emily knows how to keep it for herself.

Don't worry Auntie Joyce, they both enjoy both toys, and they will learn to take turns and not take toys from each other. We are still working on this.

Emily LOVES to read with Daddy or next to Daddy. But she likes to be as close to him as possible.

She loves to have her mother read to her too but .... who ever takes pictures of that?... haha!