Happy Easter!!

This weekend we celebrated Easter as much as we could.  The whole holiday feel isn't quite there without family, or the traditional holiday festivities.  Fortunately, there was an Easter party yesterday morning where we were able to enjoy Easter more than we would have otherwise.  We had lots of good food, and there was an Easter egg hunt for the little and big kids.  Asher was able to "find" a couple eggs and enjoyed the sound it made when he shook them as the candy rattled around inside.  They even had the Easter Bunny there!!  Here are some pictures of the festivities :)

 

Asher loves Easter eggs!!



    

Ode to a Bouncy Chair

This post is dedicated to Michele, for being so kind, and for giving us the bouncy chair that has been such a blessing in our lives!

Yes, it has happened. 

Asher has finally grown out of his bouncy chair, and has made the transition to his crib.  But we shall never forget the bouncy chair and all that it has done for us.  All the trips it has taken, whether to a friends house, or across the country, or sea, it has always been there for us.  Oh no, our bouncy chair has not failed us.  So, to this we all say thank you and farewell old friend.  We will miss your springiness and squeakiness, and the long hours of bouncing you...oh wait, that part we won't miss...but for all you have done for us, I wrote a poem expressing our love and gratitude...


Ode to a Bouncy Chair

There once was a green bouncy chair,
Which was given by a friend who did care.
   For our babies did cry,
   And our nerves they did fry,
But this chair saved the last of our hair.

From this chair the magic did seep,
Sending our sweet babies off to a deep sleep.
   Us moms, we did sigh,
   When we ceased hearing them cry,
And our sanity we were able to keep.

Farewell, Adieu, Mirupafshim...

  

Goodbye my friend...until next time!

He Claps!

After weeks of intently watching his parents clap, Asher has finally figured it out!

He's growing up so quickly!!

Future Football Player

I don't know if Asher's attraction to footballs is an indicator of his future athletic prowess, but if so, Sean is going to be very happy :)  Whenever he sees the football around him, he always tries to go for it.  Since he doesn't really crawl yet, he flails about trying to get to the footballs.  Once he gets it though, he is one happy little boy!

  

I love his goofy smile :)

  

He's already practicing how to hold and throw the football :) I mean come on - does the second picture not remind you of a kid posing for a high school football picture! So serious! :)

Tara and Scott, this outfit is coming to you soon :)  He's just about grown out of it, even though it says it's 0-3 month!

Spring is here!!

One of the most wonderful surprises we experienced when coming to Albania was the weather.  It's spring here!!  The weather has been great, and Asher looooves being outside.  If he's crying uncontrollably, which has been less and less recently, we just walk outside and he stops! 

We have a playground right across from us, and we have found that he is a huge fan of the swings.  Whether it's him in the baby swing, or having him sit on my lap, he just relaxes and enjoys it.  He even fell asleep in the baby swing once.  It was really cute, unfortunately, no pics of that one.  But we do have some of him in the swing.  Sean had taken him outside and usually I have him leaning forward with his arm hooked so he won't fall out.  But this is what I came out too...

Hey, this works too!!  He looked like he was in a straight jacket, and his expression was showing his uncertainty about this new way of sitting.  After a little bit, he starting enjoying it more :)

 

 

Cavity Finder/Maker

One of the great things about living in another country is trying all the different kinds of food...good and bad.  Now, since we don't have our car yet, we haven't really gotten out to many restaurants.  Fortunately, we have several little markets and shops that are close by, where we are able to sample new foods.  Ok, so when I say new foods, I'm pretty much talking about the sugary, delicious  treats.  You know me and my sweet tooth!!  My personal favorite is the German chocolate, and of course there's Nutella everywhere.  Can't go wrong with that...

We've also tried a few other things that I guess could be considered their "baked goods".  We tried something that looked like baklava, but wasn't, haha, we were a little sad with that.  It was okay though.  The one that sticks out most in my memory is this one...

Sean brought it home one day when Asher was having a hard day, therefore mom was having a hard day too.  It looks like chocolate cake soaked in some kind of syrup/honey.  Very innocent looking.  I opened up the container, stabbed my fork in, and took a bite.  Let me tell you, my mouth felt like someone poured in pure, liquid sugar.  All my teeth were burning, and now I know where I have cavities in my mouth! Or maybe it burned holes in my teeth the moment I started chewing... I really don't know, but it was some seriously powerful, sugary, rich dessert.  Oh, and it was most definitely not chocolate cake!!  At least there is good quality, cheap, dental care here - seriously, there is. 

I'm a little worried because there are soo many options here that I feel I have to try.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be my New Zealand trip all over again, where we all gain 10lbs because we just HAD to try all the new kinds of candy.  I'll try and restrain myself and space it out so the results of my Krav Maga workouts don't go flying out the window, haha.

Albanians Love Babies

If there is one thing that is quite obvious when going around town with Asher, it's that Albanians LOVE babies.  And if your baby has blue eyes, watch out!  I've had old men coo and make funny noises and faces at Asher.  Women will come up and scrunch his chubby cheeks.  One of the drivers here wouldn't let me carry Asher's car seat to the door, and when we got there he started baby talking to Asher in Albanian and pretended to eat his little legs because he is just that cute :) 

The other day we went into a little shop to get some groceries.  The ladies working there all went crazy over Asher.  One wanted to hold him, and Asher was just basking in the attention, smiling at everyone and loving it!  On our way out of the shop, one of the ladies came running after us, trying to get our attention.  In her hand she had a little toy car and a toy baby doll.  She asked if Asher was a boy or a girl, and then gave him the toy car :)  They will definitely be seeing more of us there because of their kindness.




Thank you nice Albanian ladies!!

Now, some of you may think...Why did they ask if he is a boy or a girl?  He was wearing a very boy outfit, blue shirt, blue pants that screamed "I'm a boy".  This is what we found out at church on Sunday.  Kids are thrown in whatever is around.  No matter the gender.  Boys will be walking around in frilly pink sweaters, girls in more boy looking clothes.  They use what they have, hence the question I keep receiving about Asher's gender.  And no, I will not be following that cultural tradition :)


Here are just some other random pictures of Asher...

Asher while concentrating.  There's a sound that goes along with these pictures, kind of a grunting growl...we will have to get a video of it :)

A couple days ago I was in the kitchen, and Asher was quiet for awhile and when I checked him this is what I found...

I'm not sure how he got under the chair, because he isn't really pushing himself around much.

Asher's First Belly Laugh

This happened about a week before we left for Albania.  Asher had laughed a little bit, but this was the first time he did the full on belly laugh.  It was beautiful and we were able to catch it on film!!

Is he too big?

The other evening we put Asher in his bouncer, like usual, to bounce him to sleep for a nap.  After he fell asleep, and he adjusted his position, Sean and I both looked over and had the exact same thought...

We think he might be getting a little too big for his bouncer :)  Now, there was a blanket underneath him, but still it is probably time to start the transition to his crib for nap time.  The only problem is....YOU CAN'T BOUNCE HIM BACK TO SLEEP when he starts waking up before nap time is over.  I think I can handle him crying some before he falls asleep for his naps.  But nap time is a precious, sacred time for me, where I get stuff done around the house (because I have a house now...awesome :) ), and if he wakes up early, what am I going to do!?

I don't know what to do here - that bouncer has been my saving grace!!  How can I part with it now???

Unique Albanian Food

Our sponsor family, who are awesome in case you were wondering, took us on a grocery run to Conad, an Italian grocery store.  To shop here you almost have to know Italian - I wonder if I'll ever be able to learn Albanian with all of the Italian words everywhere.  Anyway, it was great to wander through and see what they actually sell there.  I was surprised that they had a lot of the things that we thought we couldn't get, just at a more expensive price for a much smaller quantity. 

As we were meandering through the aisles we saw the usual... chickens with head and feet attached, skinned rabbits, strange cuts of beef and unique sodas.  And then Kimberli tells me she found the baby aisle ("the baby aisle" is basically one set of vertical shelves).  Now I'm pretty excited to see what they have for Asher, but then as we were looking, this is what we found...

Yes, you are seeing correctly.  They label the type of food with a picture of what is in the food.  In this case... Horse and a cute little baby lamb.

I don't really know what to say other than I was shocked that this item was being fed to babies.  While we are adventurous in trying new foods in other countries, suffice it to say, we will not be allowing Asher to try this "new" Albania food, no matter how much he is smiling over it.  Kinda funny, kinda sad :)

Albania - Hurray!

I've definitely been off my blogging game in the past couple months, but for good reason!  That reason would be getting all organized and packed up for our move to Albania.  After a year and a half of waiting, the day has finally arrived.  While getting ready for this move, people kept asking if we were nervous, or excited, or any number of other emotions.  Well, we were excited then, and we are even more excited now.  It's been only a couple of days, but we are really happy to be here and are ready to start this new chapter in our lives.  And we have a house!!!  Woohoo!  We have room to spread out and live!

We had a relatively uneventful trip out here.  We were in New York for a couple days while Sean did some training.  Since we had time, we went to see some sites that we wouldn't have normally seen otherwise.  The first day we got there, we went up in the Empire State building.  Now before I go on, this picture below was pretty much how Asher was the entire two days we were there :)  Poor guy, I think he was feeling all the changes that were going on around him and this was just him reacting to them.

Ok, so picture this.  We get through the line to go to up to the Empire State building, pay the $25 per person, and then head up in the elevator.  At this time Asher is starting to get a little more fussy.  We try to calm him down, the people around him provide some entertainment, and then we make it to the top.  All the real views are outside, so we head out onto the balcony part.  It's crowded, Sean has Asher's stroller trying to get around the people, I have Asher who by this point is crying, and we really can't see much because there are no big gaps to fit us.  We then round the third side of the building with a frustrated dad because of the stupid stroller, a crying Asher, and me who is just not happy with the whole situation, and WHAM we are blasted with a incredibly strong wind that literally takes our breath away.  Cue Asher who starts screaming his head off.   And we are done.  50 dollars, barely 5 minutes at the top, and no pictures, we head back down trying to console our little boy.  This was day one in NY.

 

Asher asleep in Time Square on our way to the Empire State building!

 
Day two was not much better, hahaha.  Sean had really wanted to get to Ellis Island.  The only way to get there is to get the cruise ticket that includes the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  That sounds like fun, and Asher might like the boat ride... Who were we kidding :)

The crying started while we stood in the security line, and then continued on the boat for a bit.  Then he was good, and then we got off the boat at Liberty island, and the crying started again.  But we had a lull, and took some great pictures.  We had tickets to go up into the pedestal of the statue, but well, Asher wasn't having it and we didn't go in.  This was a good thing though because we would have missed the last boat to Ellis Island if we had stayed.  Thanks Asher for that bit of good luck.


Our boat ride to the Statue of Liberty

  

Liberty Island



Asher balancing the Statue of Liberty on his head
Way to go Asher!

         

He fell asleep on the way over to Ellis Island, so we had a good little while to enjoy the museum, and it was actually pretty great.  We really enjoyed it and wished we could have stayed longer, but Asher woke up and there wasn't a changing table in the bathroom.  I had to change him on the gross floor, and he kept wanting to roll off the changing pad. He wasn't thrilled that I kept putting him in the center of the pad and wouldn't let him turn over, and he voiced his displeasure over this - very loudly.  But we finally made it to the hotel and stayed there until we left for the airport the next day.



Ellis Island Museum

 

He finally crashed after two long days :)

Small miracles took place from then on out.  Both stays in the airport, 5 hours in JFK, 5 hours in Milan, were great!  Asher was content and happy most of the time.  And his "fussing" wasn't anything to worry about.  At one point he had been awake for 4 hours and happy pretty much the whole time...unheard of!!  We even made new friends because of Asher.  While sitting in JFK, a little girl, about 8 years old, came up and started talking and playing with Asher.  It wasn't until a good fifteen to twenty minutes later that her mother and grandmother came back from getting food to find her there :)  Instead of taking her away, they sat and joined in.  They were a very nice family from Iran visiting the east coast.  The girl told me all about a big party she had in Persia when she was last there.

We also made a friend with a little boy in the Milan airport.  He came up to us and started speaking to us in English, though it was not his first language.  After hearing our English, he brought his bag of toys over to us.  He then proceeded to take out each toy and had me name the action hero, car, or animal.  If I got it correct he told me what a good job I did and encouraged me through body language to name the next toy.  I'm assuming this is what his parents did when he was being taught English.  It was very cute and kept Asher entertained for a good 30 minutes.

There was only one small problem at the airport when we checked in.  Apparently, they sell infant tickets for the airline that was taking us fron Italy to Albania, and the government had purchased three adult tickets.  They wanted to give us money back cause infant tickets are less, and then there was something said that implied there wasn't enough room and he would have to sit on our lap... Finally, after 30 minutes of discussion, and after everyone else was loaded on the plane, they let us on.  And the plane was only about a quarter full... Really people? Really?

So here we are.  Safe and sound in beautiful Albania.  We have a lovely, spacious home, working plumbing,  lots of windows that let light into our home, and the people are kind and welcoming.  Sure we have to get our drinkable water from a filtered water tank in the garage, but can we really complain if that's our one "problem"?

We have lots more posts already in the process, so enjoy our adventures and thoughts from Albania!