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!

Beach hash in Patok!!!

My mommies think that it's too hot to go hashing, so we've mostly been heading to the pool. But then I heard them talking about some beach hash on an island in a lagoon. And then, before I knew it, we were off on an adventure last Saturday! This wasn't much like any other hash I've been on...I mean, we still drove forever on really terrible roads. But then, instead of going for a hike, we went for a boat ride through a lagoon! And at the end of the boat ride, we landed on a beach that was just right for Sedjro and I to play on, because the water was only about 1.5 feet deep!




On the ride home, the guy who operated our little boat gave Sedjro and I fish to hold. He owned a restaurant and had been fishing for our dinner. He gave us the fish that were too small to cook!!


This is the view from the restaurant. I told my mommies I wanted them to take a picture of the "beautiful mountains!"



I also have some videos to show you, but my mommies are having technical difficulties getting them to upload. So, hopefully you'll get to see them soon in another post...

Being "2" going on "3"

The best part about being two is getting to go to birthday parties. Especially birthday parties where they tell me to dress up as a prince...but since I don't have any prince costumes, I dressed up as a pirate! The party was for two little twin girls who are turning three (they, of course, were princesses). They're just a month older than me...which means that I'm going to turn three soon also!!! And I'll get to have a birthday party and I'll get to blow out candles. How cool is that?




Why do people always want to make us all stand together and take pictures? Don't they know that we just want to run around and play or eat cake or cry?



It's okay though, I got to eat lots of cake and candy later!



And would you believe that I won a race? Yep, me. I was the fastest of the two year old crew. 'Course, I'm also the oldest of the two year old crew. Good thing I don't have to race the three year olds.... yet.....

Mirupafshim Preschool....

So, have I mentioned that my preschool is closed? I mean, not just closed 'cuz it's summer, but really closed. My mommy told me it was closed, but I didn't really understand until my mommy and I went to visit miss Elham, and she took us downstairs to show us the preschool rooms. All the toys were gone! And all the shelves, and posters, and chalkboards, and the tent and table and everything were all gone. She's turning it into a tea house, and there won't be any more preschool there, and all my friends will go to school somewhere else.

And my mommy has to find me a new preschool for next year. She's trying to decide between a new Montessori school that just opened near our house and the International School. I think that as long as they have toys and friends for me, I will be happy.

But since I loved my preschool, I wanted to say mirupafshim (goodbye) on my blog. And, of course, my mommy couldn't let preschool close without taking pictures and videos of me!! Bye bye preschool...thank you for lots of fun since I first came to Albania.





On the last day (June 20), we got to be blindfolded and play a game where we tried to find the candies. And my mommy even let me eat the candies!!!


And my mommy made me put up this video, too. It's one of her favorite songs that we sang at preschool....

Squid!!

My mommies grilled squid for me tonight. Yum!! I LOVE squid!

More please... :-)

Budapest

So, my mommies and I went to Budapest at the end of last month. We had a great time...and we had even more fun because our friend Bruna also stayed with us. Bruna, of course, loves me. In fact, Bruna says that "Loving Levi doesn't make you special...everyone loves Levi!"

Budapest was great because I got to go on an airplane to get there, and then I got to take trains, buses, boats, taxis, and even a funicular while we were there. How fun is that?!?!

And, oh yeah, it was really hot, so I also got to eat ice cream. :-)

My mama was a little sad because her wallet got stolen from a locker at the spa while she was getting a massage. But she seemed happier after the airline gave us money to make up for getting bumped from our flight on the way the way home. And my mommies even used some of the money to buy me toys in the Munich airport. (Note from the mommmies: we weren't so happy about getting home 10 hours later and having to detour through Germany...but 750 Euros cash in our pocket sure made us feel better about the whole thing!)