Luka's World

Back from Europe

2011-07-25T00:59:00.000-04:00

I just came back from Europe where I visited my grandparents. My mom went to Paris and then to Venice but (although tempting) I decided to skip those two beautiful cities and go with my dad straight to Belgrade (Serbia). When we arrived the temperature was over 90F! Then we went to Raca (a remote village in Southern Serbia) and spent a week there. Raca was great and much cooler than Belgrade. I saw many animals: dogs, cats, pigs, cows, and chickens. I eat tasty fruits (plums, pears, apples, watermelons and cherries – all organic) and had long walks with my grandpa. We were looking for wolves (my obsession) but couldn’t find any. However, we found several badger tunnels. We didn’t see any badgers since they were at lunch when we were checking the tunnels.

After Raca, we went back to Belgrade and reunited with mom. Belgrade was also nice. We went to many amusement parks – almost every day – and after so much joy I didn’t want to go back to the US. I wanted to stay and play with my grandma and grandpa and told my parent that they can go back to Washington without me. However, when they told me that they were going to miss me I told them that I would come with them. It was so hard to part with my grandparents. We all cried at the airport and I cried on the plane all the way to the US.

I want to hug you!

2011-06-25T01:11:00.002-04:00

Me in Providence in 2008

2011-05-08T00:40:00.002-04:00

Here are some pictures of me on Blackstone Boulevard one month before I left Providence - I was about 8 months old. Time flies ... I changed a lot but some things don't change ... I am still full of energy, love to smile and love to flirt!

Narragansett beach - Rhode Island

2011-05-07T01:06:00.005-04:00

Visit to Providence

2011-05-07T00:22:00.003-04:00

After more than two years I went back to Providence – the city in which I was born. I was very excited because I knew that I would get on a plane. I did fly to Europe many times but I was too young too appreciate flying. It was so great to go through the clouds and then even be above them.

One of the best parts of the trip was the visit to Tayo and Jeff. They have a beautiful house on the ocean. And of course, I enjoyed the beach tremendously!

With Jojo

2011-04-28T23:37:00.003-04:00

Today I spent an early evening with Jojo. We had so much fun - I love to play with her. We get along so well and it is so hard to leave her house ... My parents are concerned about me. They think that I am too sensitive and that I will be hopeless when one day I really fall in love. Well, I might change by then.

I love to hug

2011-04-26T00:51:00.003-04:00

This is something I got from my grandpa Voja - he also loves to hug. These pics are taken in my school with my teacher Miranda (I love her a lot).

My room

2011-04-15T00:14:00.000-04:00

Krkace

2011-03-18T23:45:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered it and it is so much fun. I like riding my daddy-horse, especially when he is running fast and spinning. I was thinking maybe I should try a “real” horse but it is so much easier to control my daddy-horse. Plus, it’s still cold outside and I can ride my daddy-horse inside.

Tata me je stavljao na krkace jos pre godinu dana ali tada jos nisam shavatao koliko je to dobra stvar. Dobro, ima tu I opasnosti … jednom sam se prikucao u zid kad je tata prosao ispod luka a ja nisam na vreme savio glavu, ali nije strasno. Malo me je bolela glavica I onda je sve proslo kad je tata opet poceo da trci.

Sleeping

2011-03-11T00:29:00.000-05:00

I am Luka Cheetah

2011-03-06T23:50:00.001-05:00

What is left and what is right?

2011-03-04T23:31:00.003-05:00

I still have a problem figuring out what is left and what is right. I just can’t get it. A boot is a boot, why should it matter which boot I put on which foot?

Jutarnja voznja

2011-02-03T00:25:00.000-05:00

Tata je sofer. On prvo ostavi mamu negde oko Dupont Circle-a a onda on I ja nastavimo ka Arlington-u gde je moje obaniste. I usput mi tako pricamo. Ja mnogo volim da pricam … Jutros sam video neke kioske pored puta I pitao sam tatu sta je to. Tata je rekao da tu prodaju “hot dogs” I da to nije dobra hrana. Ja sam ga onda pitao “a gde su kuce tata” I on je onda poceo da se smeje. Rekao mi je da sam u pravu da su “dogs” kuce ali da se “hot dogs” odnosi na hranu?

Onda smo videli jednu tetu kako trci u kratkim pantalonama (a temperatura je bila ispod nule) I tata je rekao “vidis sine ova teta je pobrkala godisnja doba. Ne treba da nosi kratke pantalone kad je ovako hladno”. Ja sam rekao, “da, moze da je bocne pcelica kad je u kratkim pantalonama”.

Vecernja procedura

2011-02-03T00:21:00.001-05:00

Evo kako se zavrsava dan. Tata me pokupi iz obdanista negde oko 5:30; onda ili idemo pravo kuci ili svratimo po mamu. Ja se uvek mnogo obradujem kad vidim tatu I ako se uciteljice ne zale na mene ja mu kazem “tata ja sam bio dobar I nisam nikoga tukao”. Tata se uvek malo brecne kad cuje ono “nisam nikoga tukao” ali sam je kriv jer mi on sam kaze da ne bijem decu. Znate kako je to ovde. No-contact interakcija. A ja volim fizicki kontakt – uglavnom grlim I ljubim ali se brzo iznerviram – Laki je nekad malo nervozan … narocito kad nece da me slusaju.

Inace, ja mnogo volim da jedem u kolima I I prva stvar koju pitam tatu je “a sta si mi doneo da jedem, tata?”. Onda on I ja malo pricamo I ja mu ponekad drzim ruku I kazem mu da sam ga se uzeleo. A on se potpuno raspilavi pa mu ja onda pustim ruku da se ne bi sudarili.

Kad je lepo vreme, mi cesto svratimo do zooloskog vrta da se pozdravimo sa nasim drugarima gorilama, krokodilima I slonovima. Gorile mnogo smrde.

Ja ne volim da spavam I pokusavam na sve nacine da ostanem budan sto duze. Na zalost, I ja sam opcinjen filmovima. Mnogo volim da gledam Elmo, Nemo, Pinocchio i Tigger movie. Volim I Spider Man ali mama I tata ga ne vole pa ga ne gledam bas cesto.
Ja volim da jedem uvece ali ne volim da jedem ujutro. U poslednje vreme sam poceo dosta da pijem. Nekad popijem I po tri flasice uvece – mislim na mleko. Jos uvek ga pijem iz moje stare flasice na cuclu. Znam, moracu da to uskoro promenim.

Obicno zaspim oko 10, mada pripreme pocinju mnogo ranije, nekad I dva sata ranije. Sta da kazem, volim noc – to mi je slaba tacka. A mama I tata sve pokusavaju I nista im ne uspeva. Prvo mi tata malo cita a onda ga posle jedno pola sata oteram I pozovem mamu. Onda mama cita i cita I cita … I onda I ona I ja zaspimo od umora.

Jutarnja procedura

2011-02-02T22:46:00.001-05:00

Evo kako pocinje moj dan. Obicno se budim oko 8am I treba mi puno vremena da se spremim i izadjem iz kuce. Prvo, tesko mi je da ustanem iz kreveta I prva stvar koju trazim je toplo mleko. Za to je uglavnom zaduzena mama – ona mi donosi mleko. Onda bi ja de se malo igram, recimo da slazem puzzles, a mama I tata uvek negde zure I teraju me da se obucem. Inace sto se tice oblacenja, veoma sam specifican. Volim da slazem boje (recimo ne volim da mesam plavu I braon) I ne samo to nego me nekad nervira kako se mama obuce pa je onda nateram da se presvuce. Dugmici me narocito iritiraju – ne znam zasto. A kod tate me recimo dugmici ne nerviraju. Interesantno. A onda se mama nervira zasto samo nju maltretiram.

Kad se malo osvestim, obicno se sjurim u dnevnu sobu – trpezariju – kuhinju I optrcim (onako u pidzami) nekoliko krugova. Ovih dana sam cheetah (ili sto bi mi rekli gepart) I ocekujem da me mama I tata zovu Luka Cheetah (ne ni Luka, ne ni Cheetah nego Luka Cheetah). Usput, ja sam skoro svakoga dana neka druga zivotinja. Elem, posle toga me tata tera da jedem I onda moram da sa njim napravim neki deal. Obicno me on pusti da gledam neki crtac (silju, paju patka I slicno) na You Tube-u dok ja jedem. Sta jedem? Pa kako kad. Volim “belo I zuto jaje” (to znaci kuvano jaje), a volim I jaje sa slaninicom. Inace slaninicu volim u svim oblicima - I przenu I “zivu”. Naravno, deljem I kobaju I suvo meso. A hleba nikad dosta. Izgleda da mi je to u genima. Ponekad (na mamino veliko iznenadjene – jer mama uopste ne doruckuje) trazim I supicu (recimo paprika’s!). Volim I hleb, puter I med ali se ponekad plasim da ce da dodju pcelice da me bocnu ako uzmem med (kao medu u Winnie the Pooh). A da, obozavam borovnice, I uglavno volim voce. Samo uvek pazim da ne jedem voce posle mleka jer ce onda da me boli pupa.

Skoro svakoga jutra pricam sa babom I dedom preko Skype-a. Ja im lepo ispricam sta se sve desilo prethodnog dana I usput im otpevam neku pesmicu. Inace baba je potpuno opcinjena sa mnom. Ona gleda mene dok ja gledam crtace.

Snesko

2011-01-27T01:00:00.003-05:00

We had a lot of snow the other day and I made “snesko belic”!

2011-01-22T00:34:00.000-05:00

Watching Pinocchio

2011-01-18T00:36:00.001-05:00

With Fiona

2011-01-18T00:08:00.000-05:00

As you can see, we do all kinds of things together.

Our Christmas tree

2011-01-15T00:23:00.002-05:00

It was great decorating it but then it just disappeared one day.

Amelie

2011-01-09T00:31:00.011-05:00

I finally met her. You know which Amelie I am talking about? The one that was the inspiration for my blog and the one that is in my “Friends” links - the one and only link (so far). Judging from her blog, I thought that she is a tough girl but she is actually very quiet and gentle. Very nice girl (unlike me). But, as my mom would say, precisely because of that, we should get along and we should spend more time together since we are different and can learn from each other (I guess she could have a beneficial influence on me). Well, I like her, and I think that she liked me. We hit it off immediately. I just took her hand and (to surprise of her parents) she followed me - the rest is a history. Just check out the photos if you don’t believe me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T10:29:00.001-05:00

This is the first time in my life I welcomed the New Year! I was up until 12:30! I went with my parents to their friends and there were so many kids there and we had so much fun. We were bouncing and trouncing all night long. It would be great to have a New Year every day!

My friends ...

2010-12-28T23:31:00.000-05:00

I love my friends Elijah, Alicia, and little Kiki. It’s so easy to play with them and so hard to stop playing and go home. I often cry when I have to leave. I cry so hard that my parents are not sure if it’s worth playing with them. They stayed once at my place for a sleepover and it was great!!! And when I go to their house I love to go to their hot tub.

Ice skating

2010-12-22T23:30:00.000-05:00

OK, I tried it and it didn’t really work. I don’t get it. You go in circles like you are in a prison, over and over and over … it was cold and to make it worse they played some annoying music.

Why are they forcing me to learn to walk on ice when I only recently learned to walk on the ground?

A new beginning

2010-12-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Can’t believe there were only 3 posts in 2010! Sorry for that, I got distracted … everything will become clear if you go to past posts (which will be created soon). Anyway, here we are now. Wow, it’s so hard to re-start the blog – I haven’t been writing for such a long time. Well, it will be a hodge-podge; I will be working on past and current events at the same time (all this will look fine for someone coming to the blog a year from now). So, either you go back to the future, or be patient.

I love bubbles!

2010-11-16T23:42:00.000-05:00

But its' also OK to play withouth bubbles

2010-11-15T00:16:00.000-05:00

Collecting leaves

2010-11-11T23:20:00.001-05:00

The swimming season is over. The swimming pool is closed and leaves are all over our back yard. I had a lot of fun collecting leaves but I had much more fun in the summer …

I am three years old!

2010-11-08T23:39:00.000-05:00

I am about 150 times older than I was on November 15, 2007 (one week after I was born) and over 1,000 times older than I was on November 9, 2007! Time flies. On November 7^th (one day before my birthday) I had a party in my house and invited my best friends Jo-Jo, Alicia, Elijah, and Kicky. We had so much fun, dancing, spinning,

and then we decided to go to my bed. Well, after a while we thought it would be even better if we all went into my crib (which I now use to store my toys).

I tried to celebrate my birthday at my school as well, on November 8, but it didn’t work. I brought a large cake so I can share it with all my friends. It was a special cake since we were not supposed to bring anything that contains chocolate and/or nuts. It was really hard to find a cake like that but then my teachers decided that we shouldn’t have even that cake since it contained milk and some kids were lactose intolerant! Can you believe this? What did we turn into? Politically correct and human-intolerant society.

Elijah and Alicia, aren't they great!

A trip to the pumpkin patch

2010-10-30T23:04:00.000-04:00

Today, I went with Jo-Jo to a farm to pick some pumpkins and play with animals. Well, our mothers had to come with us – you know they can’t let us go alone. They were OK at the farm but then in the car they were kind of boring, just talking and talking, so Jo-Jo and I fell asleep.

Safety first!

2010-08-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today we went to King’s Dominion – an amusement park in Virginia. What an experience. I didn’t bring a camera so no pictures this time. It’s probably better without photos for many reasons … When we entered the park, they searched us like we were entering a high security facility. What were they looking for? I am not really sure, but among other things they were looking for something really dangerous: cheese and meat, a main ingredient for a sandwich. Unfortunately, we did have both of those dangerous items since my parents prepared a lunch for me. The lady at the entrance said that they were so concerned about the spread of various diseases (e.g. E. Coli) that they now require that all the items that contain cheese/meat be "discarded". Weird, never heard of anything like that. I wasn’t planning to share my food with anyone. I thought that they went a bit too far with their concern about the health and contaminated food but it was OK, I just wanted to get in! And then after an hour or so, I got hungry and I realized that my food was gone – my father had to threw it away when we entered the park. We then bought some food but not only that it was overpriced (fries were $8) - it was awful! What a business model! Don’t allow people to bring they own food and then basically force them to buy junk food?! Well, this is not really new. I have experienced something similar at airports. These days we are not allowed to bring water on a plane but one day who knows, we might not be allowed to bring our clothes since you can hide all kinds of things in there. But once we go through a check point I am sure someone will be there to help us and sell us some underwear. Or, we should all be naked on a plane. Safety first!

No more diapers for me!

2010-07-30T22:28:00.000-04:00

This morning I told my dad that I don’t want to wear my diapers any more and that I want to go to daycare wearing my Mickey Mouse underwear. Well, that didn’t go without a fight but I prevailed AND there were no “accidents” in the daycare. Yes, no more diapers for me (at least not during the day – I still have to wear them at night).

Daddy’s bluff

2010-07-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

For a few days we didn’t have power and I couldn’t watch Elmo. My dad told me that when there is no power then there is not light and we can’t also watch TV and Elmo. Last night I wanted to watch Elmo and my dad told me that we can’t do it since there is no power again (and when there is not power …). I wasn’t sure that there was no power, so I took my moms hand, I drag her to my bedroom and asked her to turn the lights on. She was surprised that I asked her to do that but she did it. The lights came on. I went to my dad and told him, “Dad, the lights are on, there is power, let’s watch Elmo!”.

Mom is in Europe

2010-06-26T00:36:00.000-04:00

Mom is in Europe (June 23 – July 1) and I am alone with my dad. We are doing fine (I am fine but he is going nuts especially in the mornings). I am used to going to sleep with mom and getting up with her (I summon her to my bed when I get up) but these days my father suffices. We talk to her everyday over Skype so it’s not that bad.

I am in love again!

2010-05-31T20:44:00.002-04:00

I have a new girlfriend. Her name is Jo-Jo (don’t know her real name, I have to ask her). Well, what can I say – it was love at first sight. I think that we are very romantic, at least I feel that way when I am with her. You can tell from the pictures.

She is about two months younger than me but she is very articulate and tall for her age (that’s not why I am attracted to her although I like “smart girls”). It’s much simpler than that – we just enjoy each other’s company. We hug, hold hands, I give her flowers and she gives me beautiful smiles. Oh, life is so good …

Our swimming pool – grand opening

2010-05-31T11:45:00.001-04:00

Today was the first time we used our swimming pool! Yeah! The water was cold but not that bad – well it’s still May. Of course, it was cold for my dad but my mom is brave and she loves to swim. I am somewhere between two of them. I wasn’t swimming but I wasn’t completely ruling it out (like my dad). So I put my feet in the water and watched my mom swim. I told her: “you are like a dolphin!” (Tata, mama je k’o delfin!”)

Today was a nice day. We went for barbecue at Paul’s place (he is dad’s friend) in the Capitol Hill. I had a great cup cake over there. It was wild – red and blue! Look, I don’t care about politics. Yes, today is a Memorial Day but for me a cup cake is not about some hidden meanings and messages – it’s about a taste! I am a cookie monster and a cup cake is a sort of cookie for me. And as you know, C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me - and cookie, cookie, cookie is for ME!

And most importantly, today was a great day because Jo-Jo came to visit me! More about that in the next post.

Hey, got any grapes?

2010-05-13T23:20:00.000-04:00

Today I watched a great video on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtN1YnoL46Q&NR=1

and then went to school and I asked my teacher Ms. Charo “Hey, got any grapes – no I sell lemonade!” She was a little surprised and then my dad explained to her that this morning I watched a video and that since then I am constantly talking about grapes and lemonade. Well, he forgot to tell her that I also watched another great video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLu_UK_MpfA&feature=related

and that I am now trying to dance like the funny dog in that video. There are some pretty complicated moves (tapping both the belly and top of the head) but I will master them soon. I love to dance and to sing. Sometimes my parents want to punish me and they close me in my room but then I just start to sing and they go nuts.

I love classical music but also like “robot” music and some of the children songs. I have to say that I like watch pretty ladies (both my mom and my dad noticed that). For example, today my dad showed me a choo choo train for kids, a nice but a little boring video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms3eBRmF57U

but I told him that I would prefer to watch another video, the one with a pretty lady.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTGwBpigmKw&feature=related

What’s wrong with that?

Tata, kupi rep

2009-12-14T22:21:00.004-05:00

Veceras su tata i Luka pricali o kenguru i evo dela njigovog razgovora:
Tata: Ovo je kengur a ovo je kengurov rep.
Luka: I Luka ima rep.
Tata: Luka nema rep, samo zivotinje imaju rep.
Luka: Tata, kupi Luka rep.
Tata: Luka, rep se ne kupuje. Luka ne moze da ima rep.
Luka (placnim glasom): Tata kupi rep.

Pljeskavice ...

2009-09-19T23:28:00.000-04:00

Veceras sam pojeo celu pljeskavicu! Probudio sam se u ponoc strasno zedan … Uh sto volim pljeskavice ...

2009-09-19T23:26:00.001-04:00

I pooped in my pants today and for the first time I realized that that was not a good thing. Not that I was ashamed, but it just didn’t feel good … Now, regarding pooping business, I am still “not trained” (what a terrible expression – I am not a DOG!). Until last week, I used a potty but now I prefer to use a toilet bowl – it just feels better.

Merrifield Garden Center

2009-09-13T23:25:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite places is the Merrifield Garden Center. Where we live now, there are no really places for a nice stroll, no parks or playgrounds … I like to collect stones. I am so fascinated by them that I can’s stop picking them and filling my pockets. I also like to watch fish and water fountains and sculptures and flowers and trees and people and small trucks and everything … I love the Garden Center!