I am communicating to Maia and Ivan mostly over the phone over the past few weeks. In spite of my frequent visits to Budapest and Emese's trips to Bulgaria with the kids during Christmas I feel very much disconnected from them. It is not a pleasant feeling. The phone communication with a three and a half years old is quite limiting - Maia still has not learned to tell about things that happened to her. She would rather answer questions - briefly and without much detail. "What did you do today", I ask. "Went to the kindergarten", she replies. "What did you do there"? "Played with the kids". But even these brief answers are very pleasant for me to listen to. Sometimes when she is excited about something she might take the initiative and tell about it: "Today there was a big snow", she reported yesterday. "And did you like it", I inquired. "Yes, I did", was the brief answer. Quite enjoyable for me.
Ivan is more talkative. He could go on and on for a few minutes. But his language no one understands yet. Sometimes he says something like "Pawaw", which i guess is my name. But then it is sometimes also "Vawvaw" - which is his word for any non-human creature. He loves using it and somehow expects his mom to try and explain that, for instance, "no, this is not a dog, this is a cat, it says myawoo". But he speaks much longer that in his Ivanish tongue. Most recently, I heard from Emese, he likes playing with a doll received as a new year's present in Bulgaria. The doll has the remarkable feature of singing a famous Bulgarian children's song: Mila Moya Mamo (my dear mother). Ivan now sings along with the doll, Emese said, and actually does it quite correctly, as I heard over the phone. Something to check with him when I get there this weekend.