We'll cover a couple things here.
First topic - LS got up and stood for the first time today. It was seen a couple times anyway. Still not walking - but in the words of Scooby: "Ruht-roh!"
She has stood up while holding on to a couch, gate, or wall for a while now. And will sometimes let go for a couple seconds before she realizes what she's doing. But this was middle-of-the-floor get-up-from-a-seated-position type stuff. The standing itself only lasted about 3 seconds before she fell back to sitting mind you. But I think we all know where this is headed pretty soon...
Tonight was a bath night for LS, and it just so happened that I had my fancy phone-with-video-recording handy so I decided to get some clips. Oh, baths used to be so fun. I remember fitting into bath tubs. Somewhere around 30 years ago.
Here are two clips. The first one LS is just splashing around.
In this next one, LS is having fun with the water draining out of the tub. At the end of this one, LS explains how the lever for the drain works. Or something.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pointing Things Out
It seems right after her 1st birthday, LS really took an interest in pointing things out. It's funny how sometimes learning seems to accelerate.
She loves just pointing to things of course, and we oblige by telling her what the thing she's pointing at is. But what is more exciting is when we ask her where something is and she points to it.
Later in her birthday week I was leafing through one of her books with her as she sat on the sanita (toilet). Thus starts many years of sitting on the sanita and reading. Mamãe will show her the pictures in Papai's copies of The Economist which she takes great delight in.
But this day we were going through a book of hers with pictures of babies doing various things. When we got one page that has pictures of about 10 babies doing different things I figured I would give her a little test.
Onde está a bebé que está beber água no copo? (Where is the baby that's drinking water from a cup?)
She took about 5 long seconds scanning back and forth over both pages. Then... Bang! The decision made, she quickly points her finger right into the picture of the baby drinking from the cup. Nice! (Muito bem querida, muito bem!)
I didn't want my happiness to be based on a fluke naturally, so I decided she had to get two correct to pass. :-)
Onde está a bebé que está tomar banho? (Where is the baby that's taking a bath?)
She scans again. This time maybe 4 seconds. Then... Bang! Right on the picture of the baby in the little bath tub. Extra dessert for you tonight kid.
Of course, now she must imagine life is one big test. Whenever we're reading a book:
Where's the moon?
Where's the stars?
Where's the bird?
Where's the bee?
Where's the horse?
And of course, she can't away from it in real life either:
Where's the ball?
Where's the balloon?
Where's your ear?
Where's your knee?
Where's your foot?
Where's the hat?
Luckily she hasn't yet learned to say: "The same place it was last time you asked. Are you stupid?" She may be thinking it. But at least she can't say it!
My feeling when she first pointed out the water-drinking baby was more than just that she got what I was asking. It was also that she got it and it was asked in what I'm claiming is Portuguese. That this little experiment is taking hold - that she isn't condemned to not understanding anything.
This seems to be the perfect time for her to really get sign language too, as she's quickly adopted this too. We're only using eat, cup, and more (Queres comer? Copo? Mais?). Of course, her favorite method of indicating what she wants is still to point to it, but she's getting it.
Tonight, as dinner time was approaching, Mamãe asked LS: O que é que tu queres? (What do you want?) and LS responded by signing for "eat". Extra dessert for you tonight kid.
We may actually be on the brink of some words too. We're starting to hear some pronunciation that's somewhat understandable for more things.
pêra (pih'-ruh), which means "pear", kind of comes out as one syllable: "pra"
Likewise for bala (ball'-uh), which is "ball", kind of comes out as one syllable also: "bla"
She loves just pointing to things of course, and we oblige by telling her what the thing she's pointing at is. But what is more exciting is when we ask her where something is and she points to it.
Later in her birthday week I was leafing through one of her books with her as she sat on the sanita (toilet). Thus starts many years of sitting on the sanita and reading. Mamãe will show her the pictures in Papai's copies of The Economist which she takes great delight in.
But this day we were going through a book of hers with pictures of babies doing various things. When we got one page that has pictures of about 10 babies doing different things I figured I would give her a little test.
Onde está a bebé que está beber água no copo? (Where is the baby that's drinking water from a cup?)
She took about 5 long seconds scanning back and forth over both pages. Then... Bang! The decision made, she quickly points her finger right into the picture of the baby drinking from the cup. Nice! (Muito bem querida, muito bem!)
I didn't want my happiness to be based on a fluke naturally, so I decided she had to get two correct to pass. :-)
Onde está a bebé que está tomar banho? (Where is the baby that's taking a bath?)
She scans again. This time maybe 4 seconds. Then... Bang! Right on the picture of the baby in the little bath tub. Extra dessert for you tonight kid.
Of course, now she must imagine life is one big test. Whenever we're reading a book:
Where's the moon?
Where's the stars?
Where's the bird?
Where's the bee?
Where's the horse?
And of course, she can't away from it in real life either:
Where's the ball?
Where's the balloon?
Where's your ear?
Where's your knee?
Where's your foot?
Where's the hat?
Luckily she hasn't yet learned to say: "The same place it was last time you asked. Are you stupid?" She may be thinking it. But at least she can't say it!
My feeling when she first pointed out the water-drinking baby was more than just that she got what I was asking. It was also that she got it and it was asked in what I'm claiming is Portuguese. That this little experiment is taking hold - that she isn't condemned to not understanding anything.
This seems to be the perfect time for her to really get sign language too, as she's quickly adopted this too. We're only using eat, cup, and more (Queres comer? Copo? Mais?). Of course, her favorite method of indicating what she wants is still to point to it, but she's getting it.
Tonight, as dinner time was approaching, Mamãe asked LS: O que é que tu queres? (What do you want?) and LS responded by signing for "eat". Extra dessert for you tonight kid.
We may actually be on the brink of some words too. We're starting to hear some pronunciation that's somewhat understandable for more things.
pêra (pih'-ruh), which means "pear", kind of comes out as one syllable: "pra"
Likewise for bala (ball'-uh), which is "ball", kind of comes out as one syllable also: "bla"
Friday, November 6, 2009
Gato
Before we had the perfect daughter, we had the perfect kitty. And before she was "Gato" she was "Nickel Kitty".
Nicki was originally a stray, and after she was hanging around outside our house for a while was brought in. She had no idea what she was in for.
She joined six Dobermans, two parrots, and a snake. And a kid almost ready to head out to college. Those were crazy times and quite a circus! The dogs would chase her around and when they finally caught her!... they'd do nothing. If she hadn't been chased for a while she'd saunter out into the living room and make sure they were still interested.
Nicki was also brought in pregnant. She had five kittens, the number that was the source of her name. With a snake named "Pennies" it made sense to have a cat named "Nickel". The girlfriend who named them both is now Mamãe.
Eventually the snake joined the kid at college. The parrots were gone. And many of the Dobermans died off, replaced with a Dachshund (that Mamãe also had a strong hand in naming) who was more than willing to fulfill the role of chaser.
After about 10 years the rest of the remaining circus went to live in Florida, and Nicki came to stay with us. The snake was gone, so she finally had a whole place of her own! And she definitely owned us.
If you never met Nicki, you missed out on something. She loved to be picked up and petted (as long as you were an adult!) and she could be manhandled about any which way you could imagine, with her only reaction being to purr.
Nicki was a great companion for Mamãe when she was pregnant. While on bed rest, Nicki would lay right on the belly and purr. Maybe this is why LS would squeal with delight whenever she saw her.
Over the past year, Nicki transitioned well to her new name - Gato. She knew this meant her, and would even come to be petted by LS (with a little coaxing). She realized she no longer owned the house, but she still owned us.
Gato would have been the best gentle cat to grow up with, though for LS they were born about 20 years too far apart for that. But at least she was there for the beginning.
In the end, Gato was too good of a kitty to be in pain. After about 3 years of kidney disease and being given fluids twice-weekly via needle the time came today to say goodbye. She loved the back porch, where she would spend all day laying in the sun, and today that's where it ended for her.
You were a great kitty Nicki, and we'll all miss you.
Nicki was originally a stray, and after she was hanging around outside our house for a while was brought in. She had no idea what she was in for.
She joined six Dobermans, two parrots, and a snake. And a kid almost ready to head out to college. Those were crazy times and quite a circus! The dogs would chase her around and when they finally caught her!... they'd do nothing. If she hadn't been chased for a while she'd saunter out into the living room and make sure they were still interested.
Nicki was also brought in pregnant. She had five kittens, the number that was the source of her name. With a snake named "Pennies" it made sense to have a cat named "Nickel". The girlfriend who named them both is now Mamãe.
Eventually the snake joined the kid at college. The parrots were gone. And many of the Dobermans died off, replaced with a Dachshund (that Mamãe also had a strong hand in naming) who was more than willing to fulfill the role of chaser.
After about 10 years the rest of the remaining circus went to live in Florida, and Nicki came to stay with us. The snake was gone, so she finally had a whole place of her own! And she definitely owned us.
If you never met Nicki, you missed out on something. She loved to be picked up and petted (as long as you were an adult!) and she could be manhandled about any which way you could imagine, with her only reaction being to purr.
Nicki was a great companion for Mamãe when she was pregnant. While on bed rest, Nicki would lay right on the belly and purr. Maybe this is why LS would squeal with delight whenever she saw her.
Over the past year, Nicki transitioned well to her new name - Gato. She knew this meant her, and would even come to be petted by LS (with a little coaxing). She realized she no longer owned the house, but she still owned us.Gato would have been the best gentle cat to grow up with, though for LS they were born about 20 years too far apart for that. But at least she was there for the beginning.
In the end, Gato was too good of a kitty to be in pain. After about 3 years of kidney disease and being given fluids twice-weekly via needle the time came today to say goodbye. She loved the back porch, where she would spend all day laying in the sun, and today that's where it ended for her.
You were a great kitty Nicki, and we'll all miss you.
Monday, November 2, 2009
First Day of One
Hard as it might be to believe - brace yourself - LS is now one!Of course, what was the likelihood that LS would not have a custom-made birthday hat for this occasion? Since you're looking at the picture here, you might have guessed it. We're lucky that LS doesn't mind wearing hats. Of course, Mamãe has been training her from an early age!
We had decided that we would follow a variant of a tradition from Papai's side of the family. Which was: on the first birthday, the child gets to put their hands in the cake. We decided instead that LS would get her own little birthday cake to do with what she may. This worked out fine - we all got to have cake and other desserts first while LS was having her afternoon nap!
LS started slowly, working her hands in what appeared to her to be this mound of glue we put in front of her. Once she was shown that there was something else below the frosting, and that it could be picked apart, she gathered steam. Soon she was digging in and taking bites with reckless abandon.Of course, with each handful about as much fell back down onto the dress as went in her mouth! Mamãe (and Papai a little too) helped her out some of course. When it was done, it looked rather like a cake-grenade had gone off on the high-chair.
Later at night when she's normally sleeping she wondered why she wasn't so tired as she usually is. We have some ideas why that was!
Luckily the weather was nice and we all got to spend a great day with family, with the kids (plus Papai and Mr. Mac) getting to play outside in the leaves. We happen to have an unnatural number of rakes, so mostly every child got one to use. We were only one short, and a snow shovel served well to make up the difference. Lots of fun raking, but naturally unraking was the best part!
Since Sapo hadn't made an appearance here for a while, we wanted to get a picture of them together yesterday. This time Anna also wanted to get into the action. It turned into a big free-for-all on the changing table. We're not sure who won in the end.
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