Boa Voyagem

LS is back safely on US soil. The trip back was definitely better than the way there in terms of LS's mood.

We didn't make it easy for her. To start, she had to get up after 8 hours of sleep instead of her usual 12 hours. Then she was put through a voyage that took about 17 hours door to door, including two plane rides, passport check, customs check, and two trips through security. And she couldn't nap on the plane so well, only getting one nap of about 40 minutes the whole time.

Here she was at the beginning of the first plane ride (which was about 7 and a half hours) from Lisbon to Philadelphia. She was especially happy because she thought maybe she got to keep her own seat. But no, back to the laps.

The lowlight of the trip was 6 diaper changes and 2 wardrobe changes. Mamãe changed her 4 times on the flight to Philadephia, once right at the beginning, once right at the end, and a couple between (once requiring a change of outfit as well).

Mom again practiced her talents of using the bathroom while holding LS and wearing a backpack, but this time in an airplane bathroom. Really, at this point, I think she's showing off. Papai barely feels like he can successfully use the airplane bathroom without all that other stuff.

The need for perhaps the worst diaper change (and wardrobe change) was discovered while in Philadephia in the huge passport check area. Mamãe had to walk what seemed like half the airport to get to the nearest bathroom, and we didn't have another dry outfit in waiting...

We were lucky on three counts though: (1) LS was able to wear just a diaper and her jacket (the brown one in the picture) for a few minutes; (2) although the change took a long time, Papai's wait in the passport line was longer, so no time was lost; and (3) we had to get our luggage to re-check for the flight to Boston, so we were able to dig out another couple outfits before the next flight.

Papai got his chance to change LS on the flight to Boston. I couldn't stand up without hitting my head on the ceiling of the bathroom, but all in all it wasn't too bad. LS decided not to be too wiggly, which helped.

We think LS stole a lot of hearts on the plane rides. She seemed to make a game of it. Casting her eyes about and laughing and smiling, seeing how many she could bring into her circle. She definitely made a new friend of the young man from Mexico who sat next to us on the flight to Philadelphia. She laughed and smiled as she watched him intently as he ate, and the trap was set.

There was another first, of sorts, to finish off the trip. At the end of the plane ride to Philadelphia as we were waiting to get off the plane, LS stood for the first time assisting herself instead of being held. She stood on Papai's lap, with her hands up on the seat back in front of her, happy as could be. This wasn't too unexpected, since she's been found kneeling and holding the crib railing when we've gotten her from her recent naps.

At the end of the trip, it seemed that LS weathered it better than we did. We were wiped out, exhausted, and ready to collapse. LS was bright-eyed, smiling, and talkative. Ahh.. youth.

Homeward Bound

Tomorrow (well about 5 hours from now) starts the trip home. Hopefully LS will be OK with being home - she sure has come to like it here, as you can probably tell.

She's had no shortage of people fawning over her, so what's not to like?

Packing up for home always makes for a tough last day, but doing so around the schedule of an almost-10-month-old, as with everything else, is that much harder. It makes for some tired parents.

We're sure LS will miss everyone here in Portugal, and she'd look forward to coming back if she knew how to look forward to something. She'll learn.

Hopefully she'll get a good night's sleep, because she has to get up early. Instead of noon, she'll be getting up around 7am. We're hoping she'll sleep in the car on the way to the airport - at least that will help a little. But we don't expect the journey to be any fun.

We should be leaving around 7am, which is 2am back home. We should finally get home around 7pm local time - so probably about 17 hours of travel time. Wow, I shouldn't have just figured that out. That's a little depressing, and it starts in only 5 hours!

Off to finish packing!

Adeus Portugal - Até a próxima!

Oh the changes!

LS has definitely undergone many transformations while we've been on vacation. The first was the crawling. She's still not exactly setting speed records, but now she's of course a constant threat to go where you don't want her to go.

The second has been the teeth. Uh, tooth. It started coming in on the 14th. It broke through at 4am on Sunday, August 16th, local Portuguese time. This is based on her waking up screaming at that time. Checking later in the morning when she got up for real, there was definitely a razor sharp lower-right incisor evident!

The third thing has been a real marked increase in babbling and combining sounds together. It must be having so many people around that can actually speak the language that her parents are trying to speak to her! Once she gets going, she's going to be such a talker.

Yet a fourth thing that LS seemed to accomplish was waving. Of course it didn't please Mamãe that the first wave was to a stranger standing in line at the bank. This is how she repays all the times we waved to her. *sigh*

Finally, a fifth thing the last few days has been better attempts at clapping her hands together. It isn't really with her hands open, and one arm has more swing to it than the other, but she's getting there!

It seems like this vacation was quite a window in development that we hit, and she'll return a different child altogether.

She's also tasted new foods, like grilled sardinhas (sardines) and rabbit. The sardinha she didn't like so much, the rabbit no problem.

LS has actually woken up the last three nights in a row in the middle of the night (3:30am - 4am local time) screaming, and Papai thought he might have caught a glimpse of a second tooth below the gum coming in during the day today. But LS decided to be too wiggly to check for certain. We'll see if she can manage to get 2 teeth to come in during the trip. It would certainly explain all the screaming.

Chariots of Fire

We headed for Portugal knowing that it was likely that at least one, if not both, of two things would happen - LS would start to crawl, and LS would start to get some teeth.

She was showing signs even before we left, and it's been building steadily since. There was some action today that probably actually counts as crawling. No speed records have been broken yet. But now our eyes are wide open with the fear of knowing that soon we're going to be chasing her everywhere! Luckily we already bought European outlet covers.

Naturally, we tried to get a clip of her early success. This clip today ended up being the best that we had seen to that point.



Oh, and also, LS does seem to be drooling more than normal. So it's entirely possible that some time in the next 2+ weeks, the teeth are going to come too! Or maybe it's just from watching us eat tasty pastries all the time...

We went to the beach again today, and this time had batteries! Unfortunately there weren't nearly as many seagulls today. LS was happy to see a few though.

Ls also insisted that we take a picture of her with the sunset so she could prove that they were together. We think she just wanted to show off her profile.

Vuh-vuh-vuh

Yesterday we rushed down to the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean with LS, just after her afternoon nap (which ends at 8:30PM Portugal-time). We cut it close, but it's about a 3 minute drive, so we made it. Barely.

We got out along the walkway that's elevated somewhat from the beach, but not quite as high as the nearby cliffs. From there we saw the last half of the sunset. Very nice.

There's a common type of bird here in Portugal that seems to fly like dolphins swim. They dart here and there, gliding then swooping down with their wings tucked to their sides - always making progress by rising up and diving down. LS got a few looks at those and was delighted. But the best was yet to come.

Apparently at sunset the seagulls like to make their way up the coast northward. So soon after the sunset, and in the darkening sky, seagulls would come flying by in groups of three or four, left to right. Since we were elevated they weren't that far overhead. They were also flying into the wind, so their progress past us was nice and leisurely.

Now this delighted LS greatly. We would point them out and their name in Portuguese, "gaivota" (guy-voh'-tuh), and she would shriek in delight - kicking her legs and wiggling around in the process.

Unfortunately we had run out of batteries in the camera the day before, so no pictures or little movies.

As we would say gaivota, LS would then say, approximately, "vuh-vuh-vuh". Not bad!

We then went back to the car and took the 1 minute drive to a perch off a road along the tops of the cliffs. At that vantage point they were often about eye level and maybe twenty feet away, as they flew along the cliffs, above the crashing waves below, silhouetted against the post-sunset pink sky.

Vuh-vuh-vuh! Vuh-vuh-vuh!

Bem Vindo á Portugal!

Given that a picture is worth 1,000 words, Papai could have saved himself a lot of trouble here. We missed out on the perfect photo opportunitiy to illustrate the journey over to Portugal.

The missed picture: LS, in the car ride from the Lisbon airport to the final destination, slumped over in her car seat fast asleep. It was the epitome of a hesitant surrender to exhaustion.

The trip over could have been worse. We'll start by saying that.

The first leg of the flight, from Boston to Philadelphia, went very smoothly. No lines to get the ticket at Logan airport and no real line through security. And the flight itself was easy.

The second leg of the flight was a little more challenging. 7 hours from Philadelphia to Lisbon, starting about an hour after bed time. Not exactly being set up for success.

Too many details to cover, but the summary is that LS slept off-and-on, crying when she wasn't sleeping, and needing to be nursed back to sleep each time. Luckily Mamãe had the pacifier handy also. Papai tried to get a little sleep, Mamãe didn't get any.

Happily, if you have little kids, you get put into an expedited line through the passport check. This allowed LS to be changed and a bathroom stop made in the passport area bathroom, and we still got through before any of the non-kids-having passengers on our plane. Thanks LS!

Another picture opportunity of sorts was missed too, but this is for the best - especially since no one really saw it exactly. The feat - Mamãe using the airport bathroom; without touching the toilet, while holding LS, with a backpack on, in a stall barely big enough to turn around in. And even with the door closed.

There was no line at the car rental counter - sweet! The car seat was installed for us with no delay, and the car ride over was a breeze.

When we got to the house, LS's Avô (grandfather) was doing some final preparation in the house. Papai and Avô finished putting the crib together that is being borrowed from one of the cousins.

We weren't smart enough to get the camera out for LS and Avô's meeting. LS loved that Avô likes to whistle, sing, and dance. It was enough to get some smiles out of an exhausted little girl. His prediliction for whistling bird call imitations has earned him the nickname "Avô Pássaro" - which if you don't quite pronounce "Avô" right kind of rhymes (Ah-voo' Pah'-suh-roo).

Since arriving, LS has slept well. She's staying on US time, which means getting up at noon, naps during the afternoon, and bedtime is midnight. The use of shutters, which keeps a Portuguese room pitch black in the middle of a bright day, is very welcomed.

We've only gotten to about 500 words here, so you're only getting half the picture. But really, it was safer then crawling around to get a camera and taking a picture while speeding down a Portuguese highway.

Hanging with Memére

On Sunday after dinner, LS hung out with Memére. Even though they were actually about 1100 miles apart. Courtesy of Skype video naturally... Both were very pleased.