Take a hike...

Last Saturday, we went for a "little" hike outside the city limits with a bunch of Terry's friends from work. (Or I should say, our friends from Terry's work!) It was blistering hot sun out and we were pretty tuckered out by the time we got home, but the kids slept great that night so it was not all for naught! Oh, and the views were kinda cool too:Terry and I zoomed in on the photo above and actually found our apartment building. It's a little to the left of the lake. See it? The light green one. :-)

A little bit short of the final destination, I stopped with the kids under this tree for a water and snack break. This was pretty much the first shade we came to outside the city. Don't think for a minute that Valerie walked a single step of the way - Terry carried her all the way up, and all the way down. I had Gabriel in the Ergo and he slept for most of the way up.

Getting the hang of it!

The rest of the crew went on to check out some old underground military bunkers, relics of Hoxha's own little pocket of the cold war here.
Then Terry came back ahead of the others to walk home with us. On our way back down we got to see a turtle!
...and a little farmette with chickens.
It felt A-MA-ZING to get home, cool off, drink lots of water, and all take naps. As the saying goes, "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun" in Tirana in the summertime!

Before I forget...

Some cute things the kids have been doing.

Gabriel:

WALKING!!! (See video in previous post.) And climbing. EVERYTHING.

Yesterday I was making lunch and the kids were playing quietly in the living room. Perhaps TOO quietly. I turned around and saw that Gabriel was standing on the armrest of the couch! Apparently he had climbed up on some sofa cushions that were stacked on the floor, then up onto the couch, then the armrest and onto his feet. Scary!

Beginning to blow kisses, peekaboo expert, eating almost 100% table food with us, ever-louder babbling, and recently became very interested in books, finally! He especially likes pictures of animals and babies, and books with textures (like Feely Bugs, or That's Not My Dinosaur). He also enjoys playing with Valerie's baby doll (although he does try to bite its head sometimes).

Valerie:

She saw a couple Pink Panther clips on Youtube, and she has now adopted a new identity. If I say "Val-Val, do you want some milk?" She'll answer "Panther wants some milk." She calls me Mama Panther, Terry is Dada Panther, and Gabriel is Baby Panther. Except sometimes now she's Bird, and occasionally even Panther-Bird. She acts out portions of the video, like when the panther tries to kill the flea on its nose with a baseball bat (she uses a drinking straw, thankfully) or freeze it off its back with ice cream (she uses plastic toy ice cream, thankfully).

She likes to act out pictures from the big Richard Scarry Storybook Dictionary Anita brought for her. One recurring theme in the book is a pig eating pickles. I commented off-hand one day, "You've never had a pickle, but someday you will get to try one." So for days after that she'd say "someday Val-Val eat a pickle" (this was before the Panther persona). Finally I bought some pickles for her to try and she didn't like them, which I kind of expected, and I felt kind of bad because she was soooo excited when I got them out for her to try. But then she talked about it afterwards a lot, "Val-Val ate a pickle!" so it wasn't a total loss.

She also re-creates the picture of all different kinds of buildings with her blocks, making castles with post-it note flags, "brick" houses, barns, etc.

Today she helped me make cupcakes. Well, first she found the muffin tin I used to make carrot cake cupcakes for Gabriel's birthday, and she got super excited "Mama make cupcakes! Mama make cupcakes!" So I looked around for something to make them special and decided just to add some orange juice for flavor to the basic cake recipe my mom taught me when I was 12. Panther helped me dump in the ingredients and mix them together, and then while they were baking she ate a huge bowl of alphabet soup BY HERSELF, switching back and forth between right and left hands. This is huge for me because even though she CAN feed herself, she hates getting food on her face and so usually insists that I help her eat. But she was so fascinated by the tiny letters that she didn't once ask for my help. Yay! And I don't bake much (ever), so there's not much cooking I do that she can help with since everything else involves knives and heat. So it was really fun to do this together.

Siblings

Some absolutely golden moments that make everything worth it:

• One day I was singing a dance song and V wanted to dance with G but wasn't sure how, so I suggested she hold his hand. He was standing supporting himself with one hand, and she took the other, and did a little running dance step back and forth while he grinned from ear to ear! By the time I ran to get the camera she was done, but it was SO CUTE. You'll just have to use your imaginations.
• Another day G was standing unsupported and I suggested V give him a hug. She stood behind him and put her arms around his shoulders and they both smiled. It was beautiful. Again, same story with the camera, but someday I'll get a shot since she's done it a few times since then as well.
• They've been learning to play together like little puppies on our bed - rolling around, tickling each other's feet and hands, giggling and laughing.

Video of Gabriel Walking!

I took this video two days after G's birthday (July 9). He was a little tired, so that's why he seems kind of floppy when he sort of half-falls against the chair.

"Look out World Cup, here I come!"

(and here it is on youtube for those of you using an iTouch)

The View From Our Balcony

One of the things I enjoy about our new apartment is the view from the balcony. It's not the panoramic view of the city, hills, and mountains that we had from the old place, but it's a closer peek into a slice-of-life here in Tirana.

These two gentlemen play chess or dominoes together on a regular basis, next to a vacant grocery store.

Every day I can look down and see people making a living by scavenging through the dumpsters where we dispose of our household trash.

The kids both love watching the rain come down (though it hasn't in a while). They also like looking for dogs - both household pets being taken out for walks on leashes, and the many street dogs that patrol the area. Occasionally we spy a stray cat making a mad dash to hide under a car. And there are always people to see.

One day we watched a bride being escorted from her home with great fanfare - she looked absolutely jubilant.

One Year Old!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY GABRIEL TOBIAS!

We are so beyond blessed to have you in our lives, our beautiful and beloved son. You are a delight to everyone who knows you. You bring smiles and laughter into our hearts and home. When I hold you in my arms I feel like there isn't room in my chest for all the love I feel for you. I know that you will be a blessing to many people during your life. You are important to me beyond measure, and you have made our family complete. I can't wait to know you in five, ten, fifteen years as you grow up and show us all that you are capable of. I love you forever, your Mami

Time Lapse

Here's a look back through Gabriel's first year

(each photo taken on or near the 7th of that month)

(edited to add hyperlink from each month title to the corresponding milestone blog post):

June:

May:

April:

March:

February:

January:

December:

November:

October:

September:

August:

July:

brand new!

Can you believe he was so tiny and skinny and red? Where did this wee baby go? Where did this loving, laughing, funny, adorable little boy-child come from? What a blessing you are to us, beloved Gabriel!

Walking!

Gabriel is walking! Yesterday afternoon he started taking unsupported steps by himself and has been doing it off and on again since. He still likes to drop to comfortable, fast crawl, but by and large I'd say he's achieved this milestone - just days before his first birthday. Good job, little G!

(And of course, as is traditional with the second child, we managed to capture none of it on camera)

I could get addicted to this...

Oh this is too much fun!

Testing: Video

Let's see if this works: a short video of Gabriel laughing at S's fake sneezing. I also put it on Youtube here.

Little Updates

wrapping monkey in his towel post play-bath

Anyone know how to get a 3-year-old to take a nap already????

We've been doing a new thing this week; setting a timer at bedtime and naptime. I lie down with her until the timer goes off, then I leave the room. It's working great at bedtime - instead of fighting sleep and trying to play with me, she actually lies down and puts herself to sleep, like she's trying to fall asleep before the timer goes off (I set it for 20 minutes, though I plan to cut back over time). Naptime is another story. Right now she has been in bed for an hour and a half and is still shouting intermittently. I went in twice to check on her in case she had a diaper issue going on but she was fine. Just not SLEEPING.

And I reeeeeally wanted a nap, myself, today.

Oh well.

Gabriel's been up to some cute new things; he is an enthusiastic mimic and has started imitating hand motions with little songs - adorable! Also, mooing when he holds a toy cow. He really wants to feed himself with a spoon but it's hit-or-miss whether he'll actually get any food into his mouth. He also likes putting the spoon in MY mouth!

We've been trying out our Ergo since I think he's outgrown the Bjorn - he loves the Ergo! I think it's a lot more comfortable for both of us! I haven't figured out yet, however, how to get him on and off my back without help. So when I'm on my own I still use the ring sling.

Valerie and Gabriel have been playing together more which is awesome. They have crawling races down the hallway which both of them find hugely hilarious, laughing all the way. Valerie is learning to touch him gently, and likes to play with his feet and touch his hair.

She's been living in a world of imagination lately - clothespins tossed onto a blanket become beans growing in a jar; her stuffed animals get pretend baths, then the "tub" (any random object will do - a shoebox, a basket, a plastic bowl, a shoe) turns into a cable car, a boat, monkey bars at the playground...

I've night weaned Gabriel this week too, and while he still wakes up two or three times at night, I only give him water and then a quick cuddle and he's back to sleep again with no tears. I wonder what it will take, though, for him to sleep through the night? I'm just don't like not checking on him at all when he wakes up at night, not knowing if he might be cold, or hot, or thirsty, or poopy. So a little drink and a little cuddle it is (exactly one verse of "Like A River Glorious" in my arms, then into the crib). The exception is when he wakes up at around 5:00 a.m. (which is every single morning, no joke). Then I let him sort of grunt and fuss because usually he doesn't actually cry, until he goes back to sleep until 6 or 7. The only problem is that it's light out by that time and I have a hard time falling back asleep myself then.

We've had cooler temperatures this week which as been nice. I've heard August is really really hot so we'll see how we fare with that!

Boats

Wow, I really meant to post more last week! I got a kick of energy for doing dissertation work, and Valerie went on a nap strike, so those two factors together meant less blogging.

***

One of the really fun things about Ohrid was all the boats. I don't even have pictures of all the different kinds of boats we saw; this is the boat we took across the lake to Sveti Naum.

Valerie was completely thrilled watching people going for rides on the rowboats in the river near the monastery. She talked about it incessantly and started playing "boat" with her little bear in a basket, with spoons for oars. I will still find her lining up her stuffed animals in a shoe box, all leaning over the edge to look down into the pretend water to look at fish!

I don't have a picture of the smaller boat we went on for a tour around the water's edge, just 20 minutes along the shoreline, but thoroughly enjoyable as perhaps you can tell from my facial expression in this picture.

I developed a little obsession with photographing this boat, which we could see from the balcony of our hotel room. The colors of the water were just so beautiful, and the grapevine so iconic. Our hosts would sometimes breakfast underneath it.

This shot reminded me of a quote from The Princess Bride: "probably some local fisherman out for a cruise... at night... through eel-infested waters" (I did actually see an eel swimming through the water one day, and there were eels on some restaurant menus, but I don't think they were of the shrieking variety).

Castle

This is Car Samoil's castle overlooking the city of Ohrid. If you know me at all... I had a princess fetish since I was four years old and had a story book about Maid Maleen. In early elementary school I read every copy of Cinderella I could find. In high school my friends and I dressed up in medieval costumes and had a Tolkien club. In college, my friends and I dressed up in medieval costumes and called ourselves the Court of Logres.

Somehow, as my social conscience awoke more fully in my early 20s, I started to lose interest in this romanticized notion of medieval times and stories, but there's still a part of me that enjoys it (I have, after all, watched the extended Lord of the Rings DVD trilogy at least 7 times...) If nothing else, it's exciting to imagine what life was like when this castle was built, and to try to picture what the surrounding countryside might have looked like and what this edifice meant to the people who lived there. Old stuff is cool.

A little stuck

I hardly know what to post about since we've been doing so much the past few weeks - what would you like to hear more about? The kids? Our trips? Life in Tirana? My dissertation? My knitting? (Yes, I do have a project on the needles... suffering from second sock syndrome)

I will confess that I was in a bit of a doldrums since losing my wallet on the way to Vlora, but our time in Macedonia seems to have cured me - at least for the moment! Ohrid is absolutely beautiful, but at the same time being there reminded me of how much we've acclimated here in Tirana. It was disorienting to understand nothing of the language (Macedonian), and to have to keep calculating currency conversions in our heads. Every time we heard a snippet of Shqip in passing (apparently some 20% of Macedonians speak Albanian) it was like light bulbs going on - a sense of understanding and relief. In that sense it was nice to come home as well, at the end of our trip.

A Taste of Ohrid

moonrise over the lake (photo taken from our hotel balcony)

castle overlooking the old part of the city - just at the bottom of the picture you can see a bit of the old amphitheater as well (behind the solar panels!)

Just a few pictures - we took about 130 so this is just a tiny sample...

Gabriel (and Valerie) loved playing on the balcony of our hotel room overlooking the lake. Look who got his hair trimmed before we left!

G took a six out of eight naps in the sling. I got a good workout! (And yes, his legs are slathered in sunscreen!)

We took a short boat ride around the shore near the old part of the city (more pictures of that coming soon, I promise)

And of course, the castle! Very, very cool.

We took a longer boat ride to Sveti Naum and wore everybody out!

space holder

Some cute pics, sort of apropos of nothing.

We're leaving tomorrow morning for a family vacation at Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. It will be a new country for all four of us! I've been wanting to go there ever since I saw pictures a friend posted on Facebook about the time we were deciding where to go for Terry's sabbatical/leave.

So probably no new posts in the coming week but I'm sure lots of new pictures when we get back! I haven't even finished telling you about Vlora yet!

Well, I'll catch up someday - and if not, it's just blogging after all.

Have a great week everybody!

Offspring updates

Often, out of the blue, Valerie will look at me all seriously and say, "Saw Gabriel sitting in the high chair." Oh the trauma of sharing life with a younger sibling! (I say this with love, Rosanne and Anita!) She reminds me of the old lady in Cold Comfort Farm who "saw something nasty in the woodshed" when she was a little girl and never let anyone forget it; in fact, she used this phrase to browbeat people into doing whatever she wanted them to do. We got the high chair for Gabriel but I'd say Valerie uses it about 3x as often as he does. If he so much as touches it when she's in it, screaming banshees come flying out of the woodwork. Teaching her to share is probably our parenting challenge #1 these days.

On the other hand, sometimes apropos of nothing she will run over to Gabriel and throw a toy in his lap and say "Good job sharing with Gabriel!" so something, at least, is sinking in.

Valerie is also learning to spell! We use the alphabet cards Anita gave us, or the wooden blocks, or alphabet puzzle, or old-fashioned pen and paper, and I write words as she dictates. Then I'll ask her to identify which one says "Mama," which says "sun," etc. She knows Val-Val, mama, Dada, sun, and cat. And, randomly, hole. She can pick out the letters to spell Val, mama, and sun by herself!

::

Gabriel is so full of laughter! We should have named him Isaac maybe! He laughs and chortles when he gets the hiccups, one time so hard that he actually spit up. Fake-sneezing is another thing he finds hilarious.

He's also getting more and more interested in doing and exploring. It's pretty hard now to distract or divert him from something he wants to play with, which makes that whole "sharing" thing that much more urgent. Electrical outlets, plugs, appliances, drains... lovely baby toys, from his perspective!

He's learned to shake his head "no" and to wave hello and goodbye as well. And he's really good at peek-a-boo - yet another completely hilarious game as well! (I guess his propensity for laughter strikes me particularly because Valerie is so serious. Even when she's having a lot of fun she often doesn't even crack a smile. Although it is possible to make her helpless with laughter, you just have to hit it pitch-perfectly. Playing catch with a beanie baby monkey and failing to catch it every time is a good one.)

I may have to cut his hair after his birthday, since it's long enough to get in his eyes and I don't think I can get away with clipping it back like I used to Valerie's.

11 months!

Gabriel is 11 months old today! I feel like he is turning from a baby into a little boy right before my eyes. My brain is so foggy right now I can't even remember what I was going to write about this month. He's eating lots, getting quite heavy, and just on the verge of taking his first steps. He cut his seventh tooth while we were in Vlora. He's a total flirt - loves playing peek-a-boo with complete strangers everywhere we go and gets sad if people don't respond to him. People here think he looks very Asian. Sometimes I can't believe this gorgeous, bright-eyed little baby boy is mine. I'm so lucky to be your mama!

Vlora: Just a Taste!

Here are a few pictures of Vlora to whet your appetite - truly a seaside vacation city of merit. I'll post more pictures here in the coming week and on Facebook as well, but here's a small tasting to give you an idea of what it was like.

view from our hotel balcony (above: looking right; below: looking left)

Terry had a nine-day work trip there, and we went for about four days over the weekend (Thurs-Mon). He was off Saturday and Sunday so we had a chance to explore the surrounding area a bit. Crystalline azure seas, fresh fish, and not quite the start of vacation/tourist season yet.

walking to the shore from Orikum, south of Vlora

Terry comes back tonight and then is taking a few days off to rest at home before we go on vacation next week, so more travel coming soon.

Valerie standing on a deck chair throwing rocks into the sea

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to Dot and Vern!

(I took this picture during our Christmas 2009 celebration - the gift they are opening is an ultrasound picture of Gabriel which was how we told them we were expecting again!)

home again

Back from Vlora, very tired, but had to catch up on my social networks before going to bed!

I feel like a rock star not only for nursing Gabriel multiple times on the bus ride home, but also for successfully changing his poopy diaper on said bus! It *almost* makes up for losing my wallet on the bus ride out. Oh Tara, I had forgotten how completely sucky it feels to lose your wallet. I'm sorry I wasn't more sack-cloth-and-ashy when you told me about yours last week!!! I only had a debit card and my driver's license in it as far as plastic goes (I never use my credit card here so I stopped carrying it around - I don't use my license either but I always feel better having some form of ID on me), but I did have a big wad of cash. I think it fell out of my cargo pants pocket at some point during the trip, and in the maelstrom of Bjorn-backpack-bag of toys-toddler wrangling when we got off the bus, I didn't notice until we were in the taxi headed to the hotel. The driver took me back to the bus station right away but it was too late - it was gone, gone, gone.

Anyway, we did have a good time in Vlorë, of the beach variety, and I'll post some pictures soon. It still feels good to be home. The kids are wiped out and sleeping hard right now. I should be too!