My new suit

Thanks Bubby!!!

Halloween

My party at Montessori, Albania. Watch out, I'm the fiercest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever!!!!

14 Kids + 1 Bowling Alley + 30 Chocolate Cupcakes = A Great 4th Birthday Party!!!

I knocked down ALL the pins today!! Okay, maybe it was a little
easier because they had the gutter guards up. But, hey, I'm now an
expert at pinball bowling!! :-)

And all my friends were there (except for a few who were out of town
for the long weekend), and we had bowling tattoos, and pizza, and
juice, and balloons, and as much bowling as we wanted, and chocolate
cupcakes! And I got presents...really cool presents (thanks everyone!).

Even the end was really fun, because my 'big sisters' all took me to
go play video games.

My party was really fun, even though I cried a lot before it started
when I fell down and cut my chin. My mommies can't understand why I
keep cutting my face open. I just think it will give me some good
stories to tell about all my scars when I get bigger.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

I'm four!!! Yep, you read that right...I turned four today. And,
boy, I had a great day. Mommy made me a scone for morning snack.
The, I had lunch with both of my mommies, and I got to eat a really
big, yummy fish. After lunch, Mommy took me bowling to practice for
my bowling birthday party. I scored 65 (love those gutter
bumpers...they sure make bowling fun for kids like me)! After that I
got to go home and we had squid for dinner and brownies with sparkly
candles for dessert. And presents, oh the presents....that was the
best part!

But we didn't have dinner until after I got to play with the new
scooter that I got for my birthday! Check, me out...and watch out
when you're walking down the street...you never know when I might be
scooting along on my cool green Razor scooter.

Boogie Boy...

Don't think that I don't get to go out and party!! I'm a regular party boy. Check me out dancing last Friday night at the Marine House at the Embassy!

I. CAN. SWIM!!!!!!!!!

Hey world....look what I can do!!!!! :-) :-) :-)

my great Croatian vacation!!!

Boats (big boats, little boats, boats with cars on them, speed
boats), beautiful beaches, sand, rocks, beach toys, swimming, squid,
mussels, fish, juice, ice cream .... what more could I ask for? When
do we get to go back?!?

Sick Day at Home

I've been a little tired recently, but Lady Gaga video coming
soon....I promise! Maybe not until after I get back from the
Croatian Islands, though.... Too much sand, sun, sea, and blue water
would make it hard for anyone to blog!

from Children's Day (June 1)

These are from a little while ago, but I thought I'd put them up anyway. You don't mind, do you?

My preschool had a fun picnic to celebrate Children's Day at the botanical gardens. I got to play with my friends, eat lots of snacks, and run around. And then after school, my mommy's friend Sylvie gave me chocolate. Who could ask for more!?!

bubbles

Just a quick note to say hi...and to show you how much fun I had blowing bubbles with Jason. Also, my mommies keep talking about the Albanian national elections. I guess they are going to do some election observation tomorrow, instead of playing with me. How boring. 

These flags...a string of them were hanging over a street in Fushe Kruje. It's the Democratic Party flag...and the American flag (it's not backwards if you are driving from the other direction!) Only in Albania....

Fun with Jason!!!

Jason came to visit me, and we had a great time. My mommies kept
telling me that he was their friend...but I know the truth. He came
to visit me!!! These pictures are from the really fun day that we
spent at Plazh i Generalit (General's Beach).

I thought it was going to rain, because there was lots of thunder and
lightning while we were eating lunch. But by the time I finished my
fish (have I told you how much I LOVE fish), the day was beautiful!!
But the early morning weather scared everyone else off, and we had
the whole beautiful beach all to ourselves!!! Wow!

Still Silly!

Have I mentioned how much I love eggs? Real eggs, plastic eggs, chocolate eggs, books about eggs... I love all of them!

Silly!

Purim

Thanks to our Israeli friends, we got to have Purim in Albania on Tuesday!! And I wore my pirate costume and ate falafel and played a lot. Thanks for inviting us Hely!

a few of my favorite things...

My mommies think that Xheni is their friend. But I know that she is really my friend! Anyone who brings me a remote control car and lollipops and a little tiny flashlight can come over to my house any time she wants!


p.s. Xheni is pronounced 'Jenny' in case those of you who don't speak Albanian were wondering

still dancing!

Thought you'd like to see what I look like dancing to the same song today, nearly 2.5 years later! Still cute, don't you think?

Blast from the past...

My mommies were looking at old photos...they were trying to find photos of Albania but, of course, it's way more interesting to look at ME!! So, even though I'm a big boy now, here's one of my baby videos from October 22, 2006 (I was almost 14 months old).

faces in the park...

We went to the park last weekend. I made a lot of faces...







....and I made a new friend...


Life is good when you're three, it's sunny outside, and your mommies take you to the park.

Hanging out with Obama

We had a great time with Robin and Obama at the inauguration! Okay, we kind of froze to death, but we still had an amazing time with all of the happy, happy, happy people. And Mommy cried during his speech. She said that the tears froze to her cheeks, but she didn't even mind.

What a day... Somehow, even though I'm small, I'm still excited about Obama. Or maybe I'm just excited that I have a toy airplane that is 'Obama's plane!'

Dinner with Uncle Bryan

Uncle Bryan and Uncle Steve drove up on Sunday evening to visit me. It was great to see them...and great fun to give Uncle Bryan a Tirana, Albania, Marine Security Guard Detachment shirt. I had lots of fun playing with both of them. Tia TJ and Mimi Marina cooked us a great dinner...at least I think they did. It was past my bedtime, so Mommy and Mama fed me something early and made me go to bed! How unfair is that?!? I want to see Uncle Bryan and Steve again soon! Do you think they'll come to visit me in Albania?

Hanukah

Hanukah with my Bubby and my Grandpa Ron. I had lots and lots of fun with them!




And if you want, you can also see photos of me sledding with my Mimi and my Tia TJ at the Hanukah party at my uncle's house in Wrightwood. By the way, snow is COLD...I had no idea, so I wanted to make sure that you knew. Just looking out for you.... :-)

Aquarium!

I hear it's cold, cold, cold in Tirana. So I'm enjoying nice sunny days in Las Vegas and Long Beach. My vacation has been all about visiting with my Bubby and Grandpa Ron, Zadie and Grammy Suzanne, Heather and Becky, and lots of other fun friends. I've had a blast hiking, going to science museums, movies, beach playgrounds and sledding at my uncle's house in the mountains (maybe if I take a break from all of my adventures I'll post pictures for you). And today I got to go to a really cool museum and on a harbor cruise with my Mimi Marina and my Tia TJ. Oh yeah, my mommies came too, but they're not half as fun as my Mimi and TJ!

Writing my name

What I've been up to...

I know it's been a month...and, what a month it's been! We headed to Spain over Thankgiving. It was great...we froze to death but had a great time in Madrid, and then a train ride brought us to Barcelona for another five days of fun. Yep, we loved it so much last time we were there that we decided to go back! And you would think that I would have posted some photos from that trip by now...and maybe I would have if it hadn't been for that sudden emergency trip to Vienna just a couple days after we were back in Tirana!!

What's that? An emergency trip? Well, let's just start by saying that there's nothing like a dramatic exit from a party.... and, boy, was my exit dramatic!

It all started with fun and games...one of my friends had his birthday party at Blur, a big local indoor playground.





We played in the ball pit, bounced around in the bouncy houses, and generally had a wild time. That is, until I followed some of the bigger kids (meaning 4 and 5 year olds) who were jumping over the side of the bouncy house into the ball pit. As I told my mommies, I "forgot my foot" (meaning, I didn't make it all the way over the side) and slammed my face directly into the side of the ball pit.

A couple screams and a lot of blood later, my mommies were at my side, along with the nurse who was on-duty from the embassy, who fortunately for us, was also at the party with her kids. Long (LONG) story short, I had a pretty deep gash just on the side of my eye. Although my eye was fine (for which my mommies cannot express their gratitude frequently enough), the cut was too near the eye to do stitches without anaesthesia.

Since pediatric anaesthesia is risky in Albania, within two hours of the accident we were on a plane to Vienna via Ljubljana. (My mommies are also endlessly expressing their gratitude for making the last plane out of Tirana that could get us to Vienna...they actually had to hold the plane for us for 10 minutes...medical emergency of a child and all that....). By 8:30 that night we were in the hospital emergency room in Vienna and I was getting stitches. And, let's just be clear here...the medical equipment in Albania may be lacking, but at least the Albanians are nice to kids. The bedside manner of the Viennese doctors was, shall we say, lacking... And I let them know just how much I didn't like them by making sure to scream at them really, REALLY, loudly.

We spent a night in the hospital to make sure there were no ill-effects from the anaesthesia, and then had another day and night in Vienna before heading home. Unfortunately for mommy Mindy, absolutely NO shops were open in Vienna on Sunday, meaning that she had to wear blood-stained clothes for two days until we returned to Tirana. (Fortunately her shirt was brown, so the dried blood didn't show too much...) And fortunately for me, the English language movie theater was open and showing Madagascar 2! I had no idea that Alex the lion and Marti the zebra could speak English!!! I thought they only spoke Albanian....!


Obviously the injury didn't stop me from wanting to bounce off the ceilings the next morning!

And, thank goodness for the Vienna Christmas markets, or we would have been really hungry!!!



And, yes, in case you were worried, I'm fine, and the stitches came out yesterday morning. (Don't ask my mommies how that experience went...apparently they didn't enjoy the hour-and-a-half screaming wrestling match while they tried to keep me still...)

Life with a 3-year-old

Yep...I've got my mommies wrapped around my finger. Mouse ears (that I made but refused to wear for our class assembly at school) on my mama, Mickey mouse plate for dinner, carrot to snack on, dinosaur shirt....AND...full control of my mommy's computer!!!

Paris, oh Paris!

My mommy's birthday was on Monday... and if you ask her about it, she'll tell you that she got the two best presents in the world...

1) she got to go to Paris with ME!! (oh, yeah, Mama was there too, but you know that it is really all about me!)
and
2) Barack Obama won the election the next day!!

Okay, never mind that she might also tell you that she traveled with me by herself from Albania, and that when we landed in Paris I peed on her in the shuttle bus to the terminal, and then proceeded to scream hysterically for 45 minutes, throughout the terminal, on the bus to the hotel, in the hotel, and up until we got to our room. Mama was spared all the dramatics, as she was still at her conference in Lyon.

So, I put up lots of pictures for you to see of our trip...you can look at them on Kodak Gallery or on Facebook. (And no, you don't have to sign in to see the photos, and yes, it is the same album in both places.)

And for those of you who are too impatient to look there, here's a couple of my favorites!

Yom Kippur on Mt. Dajti

With no temple, and not much of a Jewish community, Yom Kippur looks a little different in Albania. We didn't work...and to atone for our sins (Sins, what sins?!? I don't sin!!), we went to the top of Mt. Dajti.






And, in case you were wondering, I LOVE the teleferik! (and I love that my video upload function is working again so that you can see more videos of how cute I am!)

I'm Baaaackkk....

I know, I know, I've been gone for a long time. But, you can't possibly be mad at me, can you? Back soon with all of the fun I've been having over the last month!

what i did this morning...

When I woke up this morning, I had a surprise waiting for me. A bicycle that is just my size was in the hallway! My mommies gave it to me for my birthday, and so this morning (before we went to the pool) I got to ride around my neighborhood. How fun is that?!!? And it's red, my favorite color! Watch out spanish guy (otherwise known as Samuel Sánchez)...in four years, maybe I'll be winning the olympic gold in the men's road race!

lazy summer days

Maybe you've been wondering what I've been doing most summer days....well, most of the time I play at the pool with my friends. I've just been so busy playing that I haven't had time to post any photos. So, let me fix that right now!! Here's me with my buddies Zev and Oscar...we had a great time at the pool today.

First day of school

Guess what? Yesterday was my first day at my new school, Tirana International. I'm in the 3-year-old class, and Miss Violeta is my teacher. She's lots of fun...in fact, my mommies told me that they sent me there because they like Miss Violeta so much.

Here's some photos... I especially like the ones with the strange, artsy colors because my mommy pressed the wrong button on the camera!

Mama, Miss Violeta, and ME!!

My box at school

1st day assembly

My classroom...and me!

Miss Violeta...she's the coolest because she helps me play baseketball!!

Oh, and watch this space... Coming up soon are pictures from my birthday party (it was on Wednesday morning)...


And.... ******News Flash from the mommies*****
Shhhh...don't tell Levi, but this is what he'll be getting on Sunday morning for his actual birthday!

yeah, i'm still cute...

So, I've been trying to post some videos for you. But apparently YouTube doesn't really how important it is that you see me being cute at the beach. So, you'll have to settle for more photos. The first ones are of me dressed up for my friend Dhurata's daughter's wedding cocktail. The last one is having dinner with my friends Sedjro and Elsie. They just arrived in Albania about two months ago...I think my mommies have a good time hanging out with their mommy, Lisa, and their daddy, Juste. And I have a great time playing with the two of them. Especially with Sedjro...he's just as wild and crazy as I am!