A Spot of Tea

Over the weekend we all had a cold (LS still does a little, Mamãe even more so). This at least gave LS an opportunity to try something new.

LS took great interest in this hot drink that we were drinking, so we decided to give some to her. Wow, did she like it! After these initial tastes, we've also occasionally given her some in her own cup. She asks for it by name!

In Portuguese the word for tea is "chá" - pretty much pronounced like "shah". We introduced her quickly to the English word also, which of course is just as easy and comes out just as well.

You can catch some other Portuguese words in there if you know what you're listening for. She's getting better with her "faz favor" ("please") too. If you hear something that's "pee-shah-doh" that's her way of saying "chapéu" ("sha-poh'"), which means "hat" (since there were pictures of hats on the mug with the tea!).



At the end there she's thinking the camera is a telephone, not like you can really tell the difference these days. And I'm sure less-so by the time she's ready to use either one.

5 Days (and 5 clips) in FL

This past week we spent 5 days in Florida visiting Memére. Everyone was very pleased! To the FL natives, the weather was "cold". But we found shorts and t-shirts to be just fine (ok, the mornings really were cold...).

LS was starting to attempt some walking before we left, so we knew this trip would be when it happened. It was in Portugal when she started to crawl, so there must be something about being away from home that makes you want to stretch your legs!

In this case we had a secret weapon though, named Reesa. She's a little dog (Dachshund) that loves to lick faces. We knew that would get LS on her feet trying to escape! This also had the added benefit of teaching LS another phrase in English: "No faces!"

In this first clip, shot our first day there, LS gets a lick from Reesa and lets her know "no faces".



As you can see in this next clip, such incidents got LS on her feet and walking. Later that night she had several attempts, one of the last of which was the longest at about 9 steps. This is the best clip of catching her in action.



In this next clip, LS is making good friends with the dogs, especially Reesa. Between the two dogs plus a cat, LS was just having a ball.



And finally, LS put it all together - walking *while* playing with the dog! The stuffed bear is Reesa's, but she didn't mind sharing it for a little play time.



LS also learned some new phrases. She improved on saying "I love you", and especially had fun saying "I see you!" back and forth with Memére playing hide-and-seek. She also did a respectable job with "precious", which was Memére's pet name for her. In this last clip, LS answers the question "who's precious?" once and for all. Like there was any doubt.

What Goes Up...

She's been doing it great for probably a couple months now, but we finally took the opportunity to get some footage of LS making her way down the stairs. It seems like she'll be walking soon, so we thought we should get this stuff while we can!