Lady Surreal

Fortune

2011-12-21T00:02:00.002-05:00

Have shared way too little here over the last months, but this one couldn't wait.

Having lunch today with LS, she suddenly says: "What's 'He who hurries cannot walk with dignity'?"

We were stunned. That was her fortune from her fortune cookie the night before when we went out to eat. We read it to her at the time of course. We're guessing maybe we repeated it to her. We're not sure, but we must have for her to remember it, right? Given that it was 18 hours later.

Then we had to figure out how to explain the abstract concept of "dignity" to a 3 year old. I think the best we came up with was something like "holding yourself up with personal pride".

Talk about never knowing what a kid might repeat...

Spitting

2011-11-19T22:48:00.003-05:00

This is months old by now, but still, have to share for posterity. Amazing how many things there are to learn. Even spitting.

For the record, she's a pro at tooth-brushing time now...

3 Minutes of Pure Fun

2011-09-20T02:29:00.001-04:00

I dare you to watch this and not want to be almost-3 again.

Learning To Say It Better

2011-09-19T08:47:00.003-04:00

Yesterday LS and I went to the pool for the first time in a while. She did a good job, doing a few laps back and forth (she wears a "bubble" and is mostly upright with her face out of the water), pausing at the deep end each time to watch the kids at diving practice. While we were swimming she said: "I'm so happy to be at the pool!".

On the way home there's a particular stretch of road when we're almost home where LS usually asks about where Mamãe is, and whether she's at the studio or not (for which in Portuguese we use the word (taken from French) "atalier").

Usually when I saw "atalier" (ah-tah-lee-ay) I say it pretty quickly and the first "a" drops out. LS has remarked before about how Papai says "talier" while she and Mamãe say "atalier".

So yesterday when LS asked and I responded I was pretty deliberate about not dropping the first "a". Upon hearing this, LS said (in English): "Papai, you're learning to say it better!"

It's true, and I have a good teacher.

Festa!

2011-09-17T23:18:00.002-04:00

While in Portugal we shot some videos, but couldn't share them until now. These were from a few weeks ago while the town we were in was "em Festa". These were taken at the time before the party really starts each night, when the kids are there running around and the adults are just starting to mill around a little bit as they play some recorded music before the band starts. This first dance we think LS named "clip clop".

She was able to convince Papai to get in on the action too!

It was somewhat fun being there in town when the Festa was going on, although LS's bedtime dictated that we didn't take part in much. But it was nice seeing the decorations. The party starts each night around 10pm and goes until about 4am. The part that wasn't always so fun is they shoot off fireworks (that make a loud noise - nothing to see). Fireworks at 1am or 2am a mere few blocks away is quite a sound to hear. And one that LS wasn't always too happy about!

Maybe before long we'll visit during the Festa again and LS can participate a little better.

Heading Home

2011-09-11T21:47:00.004-04:00

Unfortunately didn't have much time to post anything while we were in Portugal. But with our leaving tomorrow, this picture seems appropriate.

We had such a nice time seeing family and friends, enjoying wonderful food and great company. Papai still worked some crazy hours, but we managed visits and some good times with everyone. Looking back over the pictures, a couple of my personal favorites.

And:

In this last one you can see how much LS likes to help Mamãe in the kitchen, where a good amount of time was spent this vacation.

Watch out US of A, LS is on her way back!

Other Side of the Pond

2011-09-05T19:45:00.002-04:00

LS is currently enjoying life on the other side of the Atlantic, visiting friends and family in Portugal. And, enjoying Pasteíes de Nata! Just had to share this moment.

Taken at our favorite local place to get them in Lourinhã: Café Central.

Show on Google Maps

I Did It!

2011-07-24T00:29:00.004-04:00

So said LS yesterday at the lake. It was a great moment, the kind of which there are probably precious too few in a lifetime. I think it was how she would've sounded if she could've talked when she first started taking steps for the first time.

In this case, it was her deciding to really put her face in the water for the first time. She pinched her nose, closed her mouth, and painfully slowly lowered her face in, just about to the eyes. When she stood back up she was absolutely beaming, her eyes absolutely lit up with joy, and squealed "I did it!". I hope I always remember what that looked like.

Since it's been so long saying anything here, I'll randomly throw in a video. This was about two weeks ago, an activity that we do very occasionally after taking down her outside baby swing for a normal one. A video is worth 1,000 words, so:

I'll throw in a last thing for the family in Portugal. Tonight at dinner we had melancia (watermelon) which can be a messy undertaking at her age. As we were walking into the house, LS was remarking at how much of the juice she had on her and said: "Eu estou toda melanciada" (translated basically as "I am all watermeloned". I asked "melanciada?" and says, "Sim, é uma palavra inventada" ("It's a made up word"). And a good one at that.

C-A-T

2011-04-19T00:32:00.004-04:00

I'll keep this much below the 1,000 words a picture's worth, because it probably says it all anyway. Last week LS and Mamãe were scoping out a possible pre-school (2 morning a week type thing) for next year. While there, LS got into some of the materials they have there, laid this out, and told Mamãe it was "cat".

We've been sounding out words for a little while now (cookies shaped like letters are a huge hit) so this isn't completely out of the blue, but I'm pretty sure it is the first case of LS arranging letters herself to spell out a word. And a pretty fun way to do it too.

Here's the artist with her work, looking fairly proud.

PS: I'll try to make the next post about an LS tantrum, just so you don't get the idea it's all sunshine and roses over here ;-)

Green Animals are not Mammals

2011-04-03T23:00:00.002-04:00

A great bit of wisdom from LS today. Recently there's been discussion about what mammals are and which animals are in fact mammals. On a car ride today LS posed the question of whether butterflies were mammals.

She then inquired as to whether frogs were mammals. Followed by an inquiry as to whether crocodiles were mammals. She then laid the following wisdom on us.

"Frogs are not mammals."
"Crocodiles are not mammals."
"Frogs are green."
"Crocodiles are also green."
"Green animals are not mammals."

I loved that didn't just skip to that last sentence, but she laid it all out there for us. Like she wanted us to check her work.

We had to agree with her, she pretty much seemed to nail it. Although Mamãe pointed out one loophole. Sloths have a moss-like algae that grows on their fur and make them appear green. Always an exception to every rule I guess.

Then and Now

2011-03-21T23:56:00.004-04:00

Two pictures in the same hat.

What a difference 819 days makes.

March Already?

2011-03-19T01:30:00.009-04:00

Well, February zipped right on by, and here we are right on past the Ides of March. If time would just slow down for a bit maybe we could catch up a little.

Obviously a lot has gone on in interim.

The last days of January and early days of February were spent in Florida, which was a great break away from the very snowy winter this year.

Memére let LS draw on the lion statues in her front yard, which was great fun. Washable marker of course - it was gone by the next day.

LS started out the trip sick, but one of the highlights for her was going to see the Manatees. Here she's wearing Mamãe's shirt because at the very end of the long drive there she got carsick - a first (and hopefully last!). It must have been all the excitement around going to see Manatees!

Happily we ended up extending our stay in Florida because there were two storms that hit right when we were supposed to be flying back. The extra days away were great. Here's what we came back to!

One of the treats that LS has had in store for us over the past month, progressively getting more often has been the rite of passage known as the tantrum. We're tempted to get some video. But of course we're always too focused on figuring out how to get it to stop! Truth be told, there have only been a few times that have been really bad, it's just that she's so normally easy-going that it takes us aback. It's a sign that she's starting to know what she wants and it's not always what we want. We've begun to be able to calm her out of them by talking her through it, so fingers crossed that continues.

Earlier this week we had a big milestone where the changing table ("mesa de mudar a fralda" as we've called it) has been retired. Here's before and after in the bathroom - big difference, the room seems huge now!

Later in the day I was feeling kind of sad about seeing the table gone. In particular we had a lot of fun she and I, as I would tease her while drying her off on the table after she had a bath.

Funny thing, the nostalgia was broken by the sound of her having a little bit of a tantrum (over what, I don't even know). But it was a good reminder that she's a moving target, that we can't keep these things forever. Importantly, that we have to enjoy the times while we have them, because she's moving on whether we like it or not. :-)

This has been long, I'll try to get better at capturing more frequent and smaller moments. Honest.

Swimming in a Winter Wonderland

2011-01-27T05:22:00.005-05:00

It's been a nice thing that we joined a local pool and have been able to do that during this winter of much snow. We've had a few snowstorms where pretty much the snow was up to LS's waste. It's probably a fine time to be 2.

This video is from almost a month ago. LS spent a lot of time with a bubble back then. This particular time getting the bubble she was a little concerned about the feel of the water in her swim diaper apparently. You can also see how quickly she could get around "water jogging".

Nowadays LS spends most of her time with a noodle. She's experimenting with getting her face wet more, or at least her chin. Once in a while she gets a mouthful, but hopefully she'll learn to spit it back out soon and not just drink it all.

Last week when we were done there happened to be a few other people in the locker room with kids to attend to so all the plastic chairs were taken up (usually LS gets dressed while seated on a plastic chair in order to keep things off the dirty floor). Our regular plan thwarted, we improvised for a bit. She didn't seem to mind. In fact now she won't stop asking for it each time.

Been a While

2011-01-07T00:24:00.002-05:00

It's been a while again since a post, so we might as well get some videos on. LS has enjoyed singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". This video was almost a month ago, and she's better at it now, but you gotta go with the original.

A few days after that we had our first snow of the season. Before even shoveling I went out to the garage, cut the old snow shovel down with a circular saw, and moved the handle down to the new end. It's still a tiny bit big for her, but it should last her this year and next. She has to earn her keep! I love this video because it has everything that the old Super-8's did. Lack of real sound and clarity. I think that quality does something good.

So here it is, her first snow shoveling experience.

8 Minutes Peeling a Clementine

2010-12-11T00:46:00.002-05:00

LS decided she wanted to put together an Avant-garde piece, tentatively titled "8 Minutes Peeling a Clementine".

Note, we don't actually expect anyone but the grandparents to watch it to the end, or even watch it at all.

A few days ago she started peeling her own clementines. It seemed cute enough to get some film of those little fingers in action. She had already peeled and eaten her own, so this one was peeled for Papai to eat.

Naturally she ad libs some topics along the way, including a dissertation on how big Papai is.

This is also LS's first piece with English subtitles.

Linguistic Gymnastics

2010-11-24T23:43:00.002-05:00

This happened a couple months back, but I've kept it in the back of my mind to write about when I had a chance.

LS and Mamãe were driving in the car, and LS says from the back "you is também".

This didn't seem to make sense at first, but LS repeated it and she seemed very intent on it as a fact. Not just some random playing with words.

It took Mamãe a few minutes, but she caught on to what was going on. When she relayed the story to me later on I didn't get it. Even on the first explanation I didn't quite catch on.

Here's how it plays out.

"you" is "tu" in Portuguese

"tu" sounds like "too" in English

"too" has the meaning "also"

"also" is "também" in Portuguese

So, "you" -> "tu" -> "too" -> "também".

Unlike losing something in the translation, this was kinda like adding something in the translation. Funny stuff learning is.

Catching Up

2010-11-23T21:39:00.004-05:00

There's so much to catch up on from the last month. Not like anything big like a birthday happened or anything. Oh wait! LS turned two. We got this photo on her birthday, along with Sapo. Since it had been a while since Sapo had gotten into a picture.

Turning two was a good deal of fun. Lots of family around for a party, Memére came up from Florida and stayed for a long weekend, and Avô came back with us for Portugal and was staying with us for a few weeks. Wow - what a full house!

The highlights of this month include a trip up to Maine to visit Aunt Diane and Uncle Ken. This came complete with LS's first time touching a working wood stove. We're pretty sure she believes us about the whole "it's hot" thing now. Judging from the screaming, crying, and blisters on her hand anyway. She's a trooper though, and was down for her nap within the hour. A little less than a week later there was no evidence that it even happened. And in the meantime she wore gauze and kept a sock on her hand for protection with no complaint. A couple weeks later (this past weekend) we went to the pool to swim and the dead skin finally came loose after all that soaking.

Another recent highlight was LS helping us take down Mamãe's show display after a 3-day show she had this past weekend. The second picture here is her at home after the first day of the show wearing the boots that Mamãe had just taken off.

But the best part was helping us put things away at the end. Part of the display is 36 mannequin heads that each get put in their own Styrofoam bag and packed into a box. LS served as the go-between in our assembly line. It worked like this.

LS would get a bag and give it to Mamãe

Mamãe would put a head in the bag and give it back

LS would bring the head to me to put in the box

LS would go get the next bag, etc.

We had an awesome rhythm going, it would've been great to have an extra pair of hands there just to record it!

We also had some great time in the pool this past weekend. Since Mamãe was at the show, Papai had full duty and swimming was a good thing to do. The first day LS was a little nervous (since we haven't swum since summer), but she started to get the feel for herself in the water and enjoyed having a bubble on and playing with those flotation noodles. The second day she got to the point that I didn't hold her at all and she could paddle herself around with her feet with the bubble on and holding the noodle (and without the noodle for short stretches). It was so cute that we went back a third day in a row just so Mamãe could see how she was doing.

The first day at the pool there were a bunch of kids there, and she decided to give one a name. She pointed to one kid who was swimming around and going underwater and told me (in Portuguese) that his name was "Oose". What a name! She even told Mamãe later on that Oose was at the pool.

You're too funny kid.

Heading Home!

2010-10-25T21:31:00.003-04:00

We're heading home tomorrow. It's really been a great couple weeks. LS got to enjoy time with so many of her friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, and her grandfather too. Too many good times to be able to recount and do it any justice. Hopefully during tomorrow's travels we'll be able to look as happy as we did here at the beginning of the trip!

A story from today definitely sums up how LS's Portuguese has progressed while we've been here. We went to have pizza for lunch today and at the restaurant there was a TV. Actually, this story also points out how we don't have a TV...

Suddenly LS points to the TV and says "Isso é um computador sem teclas". Which means "That is a computer without a keyboard". Too funny. She's used to seeing images on Youtube or Skype on Papai's computer, so that is her point of reference.

Well, ready or not U.S.A., here she comes. We'll miss you Portugal (but we'll be back)!

Janela (Window)

2010-10-16T20:57:00.003-04:00

The house in Portugal that is in Mamãe's Father's side of the family has a wonderful window, that LS is just perfect for. The exterior walls of the house are about a meter thick, an aspect that keeps the interior comfortable in the cooler weather as well as the hot summer.

The house is reportedly around 300 years old. Its thick walls also came in handy as fortification when the house quartered an officer in the Portuguese military when they were fighting off the invasion of Napoleon off the nearby coast.

LS provides the perfect guage to measure this window by. It makes me jealous for being the size that she is! I've always loved this window (which is in the dining room), and these pictures just make me love it more.

Do you think she's having a good time?

As an aside, it also amazes me that within these thick walls I get a multi-megabit mobile broadband signal in order to access the Internet. Oh the things this house has seen...

Our Little Terror

2010-10-08T21:23:00.002-04:00

We're at the beginning of a trip off to visit family in Portugal. Just had to share the fact that our little terror was made to take off her shoes before going through security. Yep, our 23 month old. I'm sure everyone feels a lot safer now. But anyway, we're through and waiting to take off. Having some fun roaming around the airport!

Passing a Milestone

2010-09-29T02:11:00.002-04:00

Today a bit of a milestone was hit. I'll quote the email I got from Mamãe on the matter:

I just turned around and saw [LS] with her pants and cuecas down, sitting herself on the potty. And she delivered! I was so startled and impressed that I cried.

You might guess that "cuecas" means underpants.

True to her genes, she also picked up a book and start leafing through it while she was seated.

The Big Slide

2010-09-24T23:25:00.002-04:00

A few weeks back LS used the big slide by herself. We're fans of letting her push the boundaries of what she can do on her own, and this one was no problem. This day was probably about the third day she was doing it, but this is the day we we actually had the camera.

The funny thing is that now, inexplicably, the last couple times we've gone she has decided that for some reason she doesn't want to go on "the big slide", as it's called.

I actually wish they had one of those really big metal ones that pick up speed like when I was a kid. It used to be a slide wasn't a slide unless you flew off the end of it. Oh well.

Tricycle

2010-09-23T02:13:00.002-04:00

LS's legs are just barely able to reach the pedals on the tricycle, so we haven't used it much. But this day a couple weeks ago we gave it a shot and she had a good time.

She seemed to particularly like getting her foot stuck when she was trying to dismount. Go figure.

Something to Say

2010-09-09T01:03:00.002-04:00

LS dropped some knowledge on Mamãe this evening. She said: "A chuxa branca não faz barulho e não parece uma borboleta." ("The white pacifier doesn't make noise and doesn't look like a butterfly").

This is in contrast to the *yellow* pacifier, which *does* squeak when she chews on it, and *does* look like a butterfly.

Adoro

2010-09-06T23:28:00.002-04:00

A great moment with LS today (among many every day of course). After LS got up from her afternoon nap and had her time on the potty I was holding her. And out of the blue she says "Eu Adoro Papai", which means "I adore Papai". It doesn't get much better than that.

Good a time as any to share this video from a few days ago. Mamãe decided to shoot some film of getting Papai up out of bed one morning. This particular morning LS took an interest in practicing the word "Mongolia". Did we mention she likes her world map? Note the effects our camera is still randomly adding to our videos. You should have to pay good money for that.

Á and Zó

2010-09-03T23:53:00.004-04:00

Meet "Á" and "Zó". LS has given her own names to something for the first time ("Á" is the one on the left). In English they'd be pronounced, roughly, "Ah" and "Zoh". Until recently these two little dolls (which are part of a hand-me-down Duplo set of blocks) were just referred to as "homenzinhos" ("little guys"). Maybe because one is obviously feminine LS decided they just had to have their own names. So now they do!

Their picture here is taken on what we call LS's "escrivaninha" ("desk"). It's really a little bench, but it has a nice slot for holding a couple books and it's the perfect size to put in front of the potty chair when LS is going about her business.

22!

2010-09-01T22:31:00.004-04:00

Today LS hit 22. Just 2 months to go until the big 2! It had been a while since we got a picture with Sapo, so for the occasion we brought him outside for a photo shoot. LS was very excited to have him up and out of his usual place in bed, she immediately started pointing things out to him when we got outside. "Folhas!" ("leaves") "Peixe!" ("fish", a small sculpture of a fish we have in the garden).

If you ask LS to smile, this is what you'll get. So don't try it if you can't handle the freight train of cute that will be coming your way.

As we can see, although it seems LS and Sapo started out the same size almost 2 years ago she now towers over him. And loves him. When she saw Papai bring him downstairs she was wide-eyed and whispered his name almost in reverent disbelief. Having Sapo outside of the bedroom is quite an event.

Other than that, we can report that potty training has gone well. Almost always dry diapers (which she's also happy to report as we take it off) and no "#2" other than in the potty or toilet for at least a few weeks. (Not the kind of status report I had ever imagined giving). She likes the little dance that we do to tell her she did a good job. And if she's around when either of us uses the bathroom she's sure to tell us we did a great job and to do a little dance for us too. We're all just so happy in the bathroom.

It also seems she'll know the whole world map before we know it. She loves pointing out where places are on her placemat. Latest favorites are Tazmania, Solomon Islands, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia. Funny crazy stuff.

A few days ago was the last day they were officially open at a local lake that we've enjoyed going to this year. They were in the process of removing the boundary ropes and putting everything else away while we were swimming. Obviously LS enjoyed being wrapped up in the towel afterward! We went back this evening and it was pretty nice to be there and just have the lake in front of us with no ropes.

El Camino

2010-08-21T10:47:00.003-04:00

Last week while driving we were behind a truck that was pulling a trailer which was actually the back-end of an old pickup truck. Mamãe remarked how from the back it kind of looked like an El Camino.

LS wanted to know what this word was, and it was explained that it was an old type of car. Of course, no English/Portuguese translation was possible or necessary.

Now, a week later, I'm spending the morning with LS and she's been saying "El Camino" for seemingly no reason.

Later I find her, undeterred by her inability to read, sitting down pulling out Mamãe's cookbooks, flipping their pages and saying "El Camino... Dicionário... El Camino... Dicionário..." over and over again.

Apparently she's determined to find out what this El Camino thing is, even if she has to flip through all the cookbooks in the house to find out!

Taste of Summer

2010-08-18T02:21:00.002-04:00

We love summer meals of corn-on-the-cob and bruschetta (especially now that our own tomatoes are coming in). LS is right there with us!

ABCs for Visavó

2010-08-13T00:34:00.002-04:00

A couple days ago, LS decided she wanted to give Visavó (great-grandmother) a fake call in order to sing her the ABC song. She didn't stop there though. She also wanted to get a couple of her stuffed buddies in on the action.

Spoons and Potties

2010-08-09T09:24:00.003-04:00

This past week LS made some good progress on a couple fronts.

One was using a spoon. Probably through "practicing" with her stuffed animals, it seemed to click one day for her how to keep the spoon level when feeding herself. She's not perfect at it by any means, but she is eating her morning cereal more or less by herself. Once in a while the spoon gets tipped just as she's getting it to her mouth (so close!) and she gets a milky goatee. This morning we got her sitting forward, which have been the last major ingredient for spoon success. Of course we're still at the stage of reminding her almost every bite on all the points of success: "Hold the neck of the spoon", "keep it level", "sit forward".

The other was the beginning of some potty training. Too complicated to go into all the details here, but it's a combination of keeping a close eye on her for the signs that she has to go and also her letting us know. The last few days we've been able to just use the diapers for naps, overnight, and when traveling outside the house. Of course, there have been a couple "accidents", a fair share of wet underwear, but lots of happy success too.

On the failure side of the spectrum, LS and Mamãe tried to go out to a (free) movie last Wednesday, but LS couldn't handle it. They're showing free movies at the theater in town every Wednesday and this was the first attempt (it was "Horton Hears a Who"). I wasn't there, but apparently the combination of the dark theater and the loud flashing opening scenes were too much for her. After a couple attempts to sit and watch it was called off. From what I understand, LS and Mamãe had a nice time at the Café in town instead.

Now Even Surrealer

2010-07-27T23:55:00.004-04:00

It's been almost a month between posts, and obviously things have just gotten more surreal around here! This picture (taken a few days ago at the beach) is thanks to our camera deciding that normal shots are just too boring. It's developed some type of problem that makes it lean to pink and also get streaky. Just too weird. So I guess we'll have to get a new camera soon! This one has lasted us about 6 or 7 years maybe, so it's done its job well enough.

Naturally a lot has gone on in the last month or so. Memére came for a long weekend to visit, which was very exciting. We also went to Maine for a weekend. Memére bought LS a new placemat which is a map of the whole world - very exciting! Now she no longer mistakes India for Florida.

She's taken to some songs, beyond our made-up ones. She can sing just about the whole "Row Your Boat" song. And a few days ago we started with the "ABC's" song (which she actually was calling the "ABCD's" at first). She can fill in some of it if you pause for her. And apparently "I" isn't distinguishable enough from "9" because part of the song usually goes "H9JK".

This is an early recording of the ABCD's a couple days after starting. Made all the more dramatic by our malfunctioning camera. It does have some sort of art house quality to it.

So much more to tell, hopefully we'll stay on top of it better.

A Message for Portugal after 2010 World Cup Loss

2010-06-30T12:39:00.002-04:00

LS wanted to pass along a special message to Portugal after yesterday's World Cup loss. It's a lesson that she has learned well in her short life so far (she turns 20 months tomorrow!).

That's right: "Não vale a pena chorar" ("it's not worth crying about" - the subject of a couple posts ago).

The one goal scored against Portugal in the tournament was one goal too many. Playing world #1 Brazil to a draw the game before followed by losing to world #2 Spain the next game 1-0 has to be cause for some respect. But still.

Now with the US and Portugal both out of it, we're left to root for Brazil purely on language terms. Although we'd kind of prefer more of an underdog.

Palavras!

2010-06-25T21:31:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, LS is fond of a game she calls "palavras!" ("words!").

This basically consists of making words up. Then laughing about it. Then exclaiming: Palavras!

Now, the never-before-seen footage.

States

2010-06-25T00:41:00.003-04:00

There's too much time between posts, but certainly no lack of cuteness going on over here. LS has really been having fun experimenting with words. She like to make words up now and laugh about it. And then exclaim: "Palavras!" - which in Portuguese means "Words!".

I decided to grab some outtakes of LS practicing with the States on her placemat after lunch the other day. She's also starting to pretend to sound words out. But you have to catch on when she is "reading" the word California but saying the word "Massachusetts!" Nice try kid! :-)

I also wanted to share this clip that was the day before Father's Day. I guess LS wanted to give me presents early, so she kept bringing me raspberries (frambuesas) from our bushes in back while I laid on the lawn. She probably made about half a dozen trips. Usually with just one but sometimes with a handful (struggling not to drop them). Thanks LS!

You see she's in her "gardening boots" which she just loves to wear when she's outside gardening with Mamãe. She knows more about the plants out there than Papai does!

It's Not Worth Crying About

2010-06-08T01:55:00.004-04:00

We tend to focus on the good stuff since it seems to be in the majority, but a few weeks ago LS really threw us for a loop. She suddenly decided that instead of falling asleep peacefully that she enjoyed being awake too much for that.

Nap times and bed time were suddenly occasions for crying and crying. She'd get herself so hysterical that you'd pretty much have to snap at her to snap her out of it (at least that was Papai's approach...). A couple times that's almost all it took. Once she came back to reality she could calm down and go to sleep.

We're pretty much past it now, and she mostly goes to sleep peacefully again. Sometimes she'll do some talking for a while, but the crying fits have definitely, and thankfully, subsided.

At the same time it really highlighted to us how lucky we are generally. Even during this time, it didn't create a problem with waking up in the middle of the night or getting up early. It pretty much meant about a half hour of crying (maybe more) during the time she should have been falling asleep. We're so glad that she doesn't make us sleep-deprived! (knock on wood)

During this time, LS got credit (from us) for saying her first sentence: "Não vale a pena chorar" which means "it's not worth crying about." It can also take on a meaning closer to "don't bother crying about it."

Like she would do previously (and still does) with "não choras" ("don't cry") she'll actually say this when she's in a situation where she might want to cry. It's really sweet to hear her in her crib when she's struggling to get to sleep and telling herself that it isn't worth crying about...

Last night at bedtime she decided to tack on a little extra to give it a little more zip. She decided to go with: "Papai disse, 'não vale a pena chorar'" - which means "Papai said, 'it's not worth crying about'". Too cute.

Driving Miss Surreal

2010-06-02T00:57:00.004-04:00

As fate would have it, this weekend found us in an assisted living facility. LS had a grand old time. She really loved that there were all these adults roaming around with things that could give her rides!

As you can see here, one woman in particular immediately offered her a ride, and she didn't hesitate to accept.

Later on, other women were slightly baffled by why she was coming up to them and tapping the seat of their walkers. (maybe it didn't help that she was asking in Portuguese: "Faz favor" (please) and "para cima" (up))

We got the sense that it would be best to put the two ends of the age spectrum together and everyone else just stay out of the way.

Unfortunately I didn't capture much video footage of these low-speed rides (picture the Seinfeld episode with the Lark chase scenes). But I did get this exchange:

I had to stop filming and step in before it came to blows (kidding!). LS tried out the ride on a wheelchair on the lap, but she didn't like it as much. There's just nothing compared to being out in the open, sitting on your own seat, the still air in your face as you progress almost imperceptibly down the hall. Nothing but you, the road, and your senior companion providing the power.

It really seemed like a great experience for all. So much so that we're seriously considering randomly stopping at a senior living facility near us without even knowing anyone there. Just popping in and visiting whoever happens to be there, and just seeing where it goes.

In all seriousness, if you have a young one, we highly recommend it. It seems like a situation with only winners on all sides.

Toponymy for Toddlers

2010-05-18T16:16:00.004-04:00

Cute moment from dinner last night. When we started to eat outside when the weather got warmer we needed a placemat for LS so that the majority of her food that found its way out of her plate wouldn't just fall through the metal mesh outdoor table onto the floor.

As it happened we had a US map placemat so that's what we've used.

Back in February when we were visiting Memére in Florida we told LS that we were from Massachusetts - and she does a passable job at trying to say it (pretty much "Massatuzits"). When we started using the placemat we figured we'd point out where Massachusetts was, as well as Florida.

Then we went to Maine so we had to point out Maine. For some symmetry and to make it easy I then clued her in on the whereabouts of California and Washington, as well as Texas since that's big and in the middle and where her plate usually is.

For random fun sometimes we'll ask her where these states are and she'll point them out. Early on she wouldn't get her finger quite over all the way to Washington and would land on Montana instead, so she ended up learning Montana also.

So, last night I asked her if she could put her finger on Texas. This was a little different wording than usual since we usually just ask her "where is Texas?" She looked around the map for a bit ("mapa" to her) and then put her finger on Texas.

I told her she was right and she grabbed her cup to take a drink of milk and I went about taking another bite of dinner. I wasn't fully paying attention at that point but I then heard LS say something about "copo" ("cup") and "Montana" as she proceeded to put her cup down on top of Montana.

Montana, "The Cupholder State".

When dinner's done and the plates are up off the table she also likes to put the placemat on her head and call it a hat - which I'm sure is even more fun.

Birthday Present

2010-05-12T02:01:00.003-04:00

A couple days ago Papai had a birthday, and got a great present. LS often comes in to the bedroom with Mamãe in the morning before I get up (being the later sleeper that I am). The great thing is that at LS's height she is barely taller than the mattress - so when she generally comes over to say "good morning" or often "levanta-te!" ("get up!") she is roughly at eye level (even a little lower!).

But it was a great birthday present for LS to come in and instead say "Happy Birthday Papai" (after some coaching from Mamãe naturally).

Hopefully it is seared into my memory well. It was very sweet.

We also got to spend the whole day together, which was great. We went for a long walk around the block after lunch (she walked half way then got a shoulder ride the rest of the way). Fun watching her explore the world around her.

Não Choras!

2010-05-04T01:01:00.001-04:00

LS had her 18 month checkup today. Yep, 18 already. 1/12th of the way to voting. The curse of this visit is that it was the first one where she could use words.

First, an introductory story.

There are a couple scenarios where we ask LS not to cry. The first is if she's fallen or startled and we just gently ask her not to cry ("não choras (shore-azh)") and that everything will be OK. She's really good about stopping and getting ahold of herself. And lately she'll even say "não choras" before we even have a chance to as she's gathering herself up.

The other scenario is if she's starting to whine to complain about something. This warrants a slightly stern "não choras", and again she generally calms herself and repeats it after us, or even says it before we have a chance to (she knows it's coming from Papai if he starts with "Querida.." ("darling..."))!

Fast forward to the Doctor's office.

The weighing was fine today for the first time. Maybe because we were able to explain to her that she just needed to sit there and she was OK with it. She's often stepping on the scale at home now anyway, so maybe it wasn't such a foreign concept this time.

She still doesn't like all the other stuff though, the stethescope, the peering into ears, and eyes and such. So this time around, when she starts to not like it and we're telling her it's ok, as she's stuggling to get away from it, she starts saying "não choras" - over and over again. At one point the Doctor has us lay her back to make it easier to see in her mouth (also made easy by her screaming with it wide open). At that point she's yelling "NÃO CHORAS! NÃO CHORAS! NÃO CHORAS!" It was somehow sad and sweet at the same time. One because mostly she wasn't crying - it's like she really was trying to not cry for us. And second because there she was, "using her words" as we often tell her to do ("querida, usa as palavras") and it wasn't doing any good.

At one point while she's trying to keep the Doctor at bay, trying to push him away with her hands she was also saying "não queres" over and over (which means "you don't want" - though she wanted to say "I don't want"; she's still getting the hang of saying "quero" in response to the question "queres?"). At a couple points there might have been a couple "não mais" ("no more") in there, but it was all a blur at that point.

We're sorry the words didn't work in your favor this time LS. We promise that usually they will. And we're proud of you for using them.

Once the Doctor was done the nurse then had to come in to administer some shots. LS was none to happy about those too, but it was fairly quick. And LS learned a new word today: "Band-Aid".

Stat check: 22 lbs 15.5 oz. Half an oz shy of 23 lbs. More than 4x what she was 18 months ago. Wow.

Little Helper

2010-04-30T23:20:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we went to Maine to visit LS's Aunt Diane. She had a great time, not least of which was due to playing outside with Isabelle the dog.

While we were there everyone pitched in to help out with some gardening, even LS. We think she probably had the job that was the most fun.

Once the job was done, she didn't mind the ride back either...

She did a great job. I don't think there was one stray leaf that got away.

Cardinality - Bonus Clip!

2010-04-23T00:51:00.002-04:00

Just realized we had earlier video, 2 weeks ago (April 8), earlier in LS's counting career. You can see that this dislike she has to 2 and 4 is deeply rooted. Luckily she got over her dislike of 6, 7, and 8. We hope with time she may come to embrace all numbers as special in their own way.

Cardinality

2010-04-22T23:56:00.004-04:00

LS has been dabbling in set theory and wisely chose the set of positive Integers as her starting point. Mamãe took this clip today of her practicing. One of the first times really trying to connect the act of counting with physical things. Peas of all things (Memére hates those!).

For some reason in English she is holding a grudge against 2 and 4.

You may notice that LS has a scrape along her cheek and under her eye, and a little bit of bruising. She proved to us yesterday that she's decidedly better at counting than she is at running with a stick in her hand. She'll learn though.

She was really a trooper about it. When she got upstairs a little while later she wanted to come around the desk and show me. Tough little girl. She's probably getting used to that eye getting the worst of things. That's about the third time that area has been bruised, cut, and usually both. Our little scarface.

Bicycle Built for 3

2010-04-09T01:20:00.006-04:00

This past Sunday (also Easter) was really great weather, so we decided to get the bike out. And, for the first time, for LS to give it a spin.

LS wasn't *too* happy about putting the helmet on at first. But after a little explanation she trusted that it would be worth it (and since that ride, she now asks for it!).

We had a good time taking a little ride. Since it was the opening weekend of our local ice-cream stand, we decided that would be a great place to ride the bike to! LS didn't mind getting a few licks of ice-cream. I'm sure this will become a regularly scheduled event during these warm weather months.

LS also had another first, at the ice-cream stand: first skinned knee (if you look reeeeeally close you might see it in the picture). Not much of one really, we're not talking about a serious flaying or anything. She thought about crying for a couple seconds, but with some encouragement she decided that she could take it. Whew! Plenty more of those to come over the years...

For the years before LS when Mamãe and Papai would ride this bike around we would often hear kids say something along the lines of "cool! two person bike!". Now it's at least 50% cooler, being a three person bike.

Looking forward to lots more riding this summer.

Silence is Golden

2010-04-07T02:08:00.002-04:00

It was Mamãe's idea that this video would be enhanced by leaving out the sound, and I have to agree.

I've always felt that silent family movies produced a special nostalgia. Heck, this video is barely 3 days old and I feel nostalgic watching it.

It always seems to me that those people in the movie are trying to communicate out to the future to me, but they can't. I think the missing audio really produces a particular feeling.

We can't communicate with those people from the past, and they can't communicate with us. Not having the audio prevents us from pretending otherwise.

It makes us not quite able to be in that moment. It's more like getting a secret glimpse that feels all the more fleeting.

I think it also forces us to concentrate on the visual aspect more. With the need for one of the senses removed, maybe the others are heightened slightly.

I'm sure experts of film know what is really going on here. Or maybe it's just my overactive imagination.

At any rate, this was LS this past Easter Sunday. She had a nice dress on that was a gift from her Tia Maria this past August. It was taken in the back yard at Avó and Grandpa's house.

Three minutes of beautiful silence.

Catching Up

2010-03-31T03:39:00.002-04:00

Way too much has happened to be able to catch up on everything LS has been up to - but we have to try don't we?

It's been a big few weeks since the last post. Walking had gotten much better, and sometimes seems on the verge of running. We'll say walking briskly.

LS's language has improved seemingly daily. It seems that she knows the English equivalent of just about everything she knows in Portuguese. Often she'll translate back and forth with you like she wants to practice. I guess that's what babies/toddlers to a lot of - practice.

There's been an interesting learning of concepts and putting words together. A couple weeks back LS was with Papai and she was sitting on the sanita (toilet). Suddenly she says "Calças" ("call-suhz" which means "pants"). I often repeat what she says, I guess to let her know that she's understood and as a prompt to see where she goes next. So I say "calças". Which she follows with "Não tenho" - which best translates to "I don't have any". This is a pretty keen observation for someone sitting on the toilet without their pants on! This pattern was repeated later in the day with "chapéu" ("hat") at a point in time when she wasn't wearing a hat...

We've had some birthdays in the family so LS has had some practice with "happy birthday". Early in the month we were trying for "happy birthday Uncle John". What we got was "hap birtday unc jah!" Kind of like it would sound if over a bad cell phone connection.

Later in the month she was a little clearer for "happy birthday Aria" though it was usually in the two pieces "happy birthday" and "Aria". But just today she was still saying it, and putting it all together as one phrase. We're hoping she'll really be ready in a couple weeks with her "happy birthday Aunt April".

Speaking of Aria, since playing with her at the birthday parties LS hasn't been able to get off the topic of Aria. A typical progression will be: "Nice. Aria. Borboleta ("butterfly"). Gato ("cat"). Miau ("meow"). Bola ("ball"). Amarela ("yellow")." This was the story of Aria. She's nice, particularly because she gave LS some butterfly wings (on her own birthday!). She also pretended to be a cat, naturally saying "meow". She also played with a ball. The ball was yellow.

Last week was a big week for many concepts associated with the song (and books we have of the same) "The Wheels on the Bus". Open and shut. Up and down. All the classics. LS particular enjoys the part of what the baby says "wah wah wah" and also when the driver cries "bump bump bump". At the end of each verse she'll finish up "town" for you too, though her timing leaves a little to be desired.

To finish things up, here's a video from just today with LS enjoying a new activity - jumping on a cushion. Such simple joys in life.

Walking Translator

2010-03-09T23:48:00.003-05:00

It's occurred to us lately that soon LS will be teaching us Portuguese back. At least two times recently, once to each of us, she reminded us what the Portuguese word for something is.

This could work out as a great tool! With her better recall, we just need to remember a word long enough to tell her a couple times. Then later, when *we* can't remember it, she'll be there to help us out! Yay! Our very own walking pocket translator.

Today it happened with Papai when we were looking at a book together. This book had a picture of a pail with a shovel next to it. So I'm going through the book with her mostly in Portuguese, and on this page I point to the pail: "balde". Then I point to the shovel and say: "shovel". A couple seconds later, LS pipes up with "pá" (pronounced "pah"). Admittedly, her pronunciation was a bit off, and I didn't quite get it at first. But after she said it a couple more times, I realized - she's telling me the translation. Wonderful!

She's actually gotten quite good at translating between the languages - providing words in both. One of her bedtime books mentions several animals and when Mamãe reads it in English, LS pipes in each time one is mentioned and gives the Portuguese translation.

The only time this language stuff is tricky is when you can't quite make out what she is saying. It could be Portuguese, it could be English, or it could be "practice". But, it's worth it.

Last week while eating dinner I asked LS: "Como é que se chama a maçã in English?" - which is "What do you call an apple in English?". After a few pensive moments she responds "Appel" (I spell it this way, because it is closer to how she says it!).

Next I ask her: "What do you call an apple em Português?" Another few pensive moments. Maybe she's thinking "he can't really be asking me that can he?". And then: "maçã!" (pronounced something like: muh-sanh)

Sim, muito bem querida!

A Spot of Tea

2010-02-24T02:02:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-14T15:44:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-02-05T14:29:00.003-05:00

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!

3 Minutes This Morning

2010-01-31T12:30:00.003-05:00

We caught some video of LS this morning. This, her last day of being less than 1.25 years old.

Scrambled eggs make for pretty good fork target practice. Feel the suspense build as she builds toward the critical moment. Will she? Won't she? You'll have to watch to find out!

Feel free to enjoy part II - an additional 3 minutes of raw footage, complete with experimental camera angles.

Almost Polite

2010-01-30T15:14:00.004-05:00

Some things LS says pretty clearly, and others I think she wants us to have to guess a little. The words that aren't clear, or sometimes a whole sentence, can be fun to try and figure out. For instance, right now "musca"* (which means house fly) and "mister" sound about the same. Also "sepato"* ("shoe") sounds like "be-za-too".

Like usual at this age we're trying to instill some politeness, so we started encouraging LS to say "faz favor" ("please") when she asks for something. This is really a slight contraction of "se faz favor" which means "if you please."

At this point she is only getting the first part out: "faz". Although this comes out nice and clear, the irony is that when said alone it is really the command form of "fazer" (to do) - so she's pretty much really saying "do it!"

*[Spelling mistakes above - "mosca" and "sapato". Hopefully LS learns more from Mãe than Pai]

Awe-sommme

2010-01-18T19:06:00.001-05:00

The last couple days it seemed like LS was really happy with life, because among the words she was practicing there was one that stood out in particular. Every once in a while she'd repeat it a few times.

"Awe-sommmmme. Awe-sommmme. Awe-sommmme."

Yeah, LS, we think you're pretty awesome too.

Well, today we figured out the truth. LS was actually trying to say "urso" - Portuguese for "bear" and (supposed to be) pronounced "oor'-soo".

Ah well - we still think this is all awesome.

Stat check: Back on Jan 7 LS had her 14 month checkup. Official stats: 19 lbz 10 oz, and 29.25" long. "Nossa grande pequena" as we sometimes call her - "Our big little girl".

Telafoammm

2010-01-15T11:50:00.002-05:00

LS has been making incredible progress lately. It's just amazing to see what little sponges children are.

A few weeks ago LS said her first real word conversationally that wasn't referring to someone (Mãe, Pai, Avó, Grandpa, Memére, Tia, etc.) - "mais", which means "more". She was sitting having her dinner with us and friends. And when we were a little too long getting her that next bite of food - there it was: "Mais?"

Since then, it just seems like a snowball of new words coming every day. She sure is trying! Most are Portguese, but she's getting English in there too. We made a list a couple nights ago, but we're not going to be able to keep up.

A couple days ago while on the changing table being tended to by Mamãe LS says: "Fome. mer?" Fome = hungry, and "mer" was an attempt at "comer" which means "eat" (she doesn't have the "C" sound down yet).

Yesterday was a good one. After getting her up from her afternoon nap and getting her on the changing table I called Mãe to let her know LS was up. A few minutes later LS pointed up toward the window, saying "Telafoam!" Yep, I had left the cell phone up on the window sill. She draws the "m" out, and had fun saying it over and over - "Telafoammmmm... Telafoammmmm..." The pronunciation actually isn't that far off because the Portguese pronunciation is more like "Telefun" anyway.

She had yet another surprise in store for us last night though. We've been letting her try her ability with spoons and forks. Generally the spoon for things that we can stick to it for her (like some mashed veggie) and the fork for things that we'll stick for her.

Suddenly she decides to put it all together; she harpoons herself some stuffing with her fork (she was having pork chops, stuffing, and broccolli with us) and puts it in her mouth!

She was so excited that when going to do it again she got a big chunk of stuffing on the fork, and just before getting it to her mouth shook the fork in excitement with a shriek of glee and the stuffing went flying several feet.

Oh how you make us smile LS.

renniD

2010-01-03T14:58:00.003-05:00

At LS's age, life is full of firsts. Some better than others of course.

Last night at dinner, LS had a look that said "Um, I think I just saw dinner again". This, of course, as dinner streamed out of her mouth for what seemed like a really. long. time.

We were eating over at our friends house, and luckily the feeding seat that she uses there has a tray. With a lip. A big one.

Our friends have kids of their own, and they immediately sprang into action into what seemed like a well-rehearsed protocol for a disaster recovery plan.

This came as we were pretty close to heading home anyway. Just after we adults got to have some dessert. LS, if you were holding out until the end - thanks, you're a trooper.

So, thus went LS's first vomiting. Yay.

After a quick cleanup and pack-up, we headed out for the 10 minute drive home.

About 5 minutes into the drive, I was looking in the rearview at LS and she gave me a look that said "Um, I think I just saw lunch again". Yep, another first. First vomit during a car ride. We didn't think there could have been much left after the first
eruption. We were wrong. Mamãe was able to clean her up some with the napkins from the glove compartment (and the hat LS had been wearing), but the poor thing had to ride the rest of the 5 minutes sitting in her newly discovered 6 hour-old lunch.

We got her in, took off her clothes in the tub, and decided to give her a quick bath, check her temperature, etc. Her temp was good, and the quick bath got the sticky inside-outs cleaned off.

An abbreviated night-time bed routine and she was tucked happily into bed.

For a half hour anyway. We heard her crying, and Mamãe got there first. And there was LS, on all fours, staring down and imploring her breakfast how it could have betrayed her like this - as it sat there where she had been laying moments earlier.

"The third time is a charm" is a saying that's supposed to mean something. Happily in this case it meant "LS is done vomiting".

Mamãe was well prepared for this final time. LS had been put in two-piece pajamas instead of one piece, and had been put to bed with a changing pad under where she lays her head.

Cleaned, changed, and put in bed a final time, LS then slept the rest of the night. Although she would moan from time to time, and she was checked on a half-dozen times or so (Papai stays up later at night anyway).

Thus ended LS's episode. For us there was laundry; airing the car out in windy 15 degree weather; taking the car seat out, cleaning it off, taking off it's cover, and washing that.

LS slept late, and her "morning" nap went until about 1:30pm (and only because we went in to get her and make sure her eating schedule didn't get too far off). She seems in fine spirits now.

She's not even complaining about the bland meals of oat cereal, crackers, bananas, and water. She probably, like us, is just happy that it stay on the inside where it belongs.

New Year, New Seat

2010-01-02T15:42:00.004-05:00

LS decided that she wanted to ring in the new year with a new car seat. And who could blame her given how big she's gotten.

She's still rear-facing, since the seat has a minimum height recommendation for forward-facing of 34 inches. 5 inches to go! (We'll get official stats next week when LS has her next Doctor appointment.)

We got a picture of one last time in the old seat here, but it's hard to appreciate how tight a fit it is when she's wearing a winter coat!

To serve as a bookend, here's a picture of LS's very first time in the original car seat. Ready to go home for the first time from the hospital!

In other exciting news, we've booked our first trip to FL to visit Memére next month. I'm sure it'll be a great mid-winter getaway, and everyone's looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T10:42:00.003-05:00

A handful of days before Christmas we managed to catch Santa out on a snowy day, doing some advanced scouting.

Although posted a day late - Merry Christmas from LS and family!

Bird - Bonus Clip!

2009-12-19T02:58:00.002-05:00

We did have a clip of LS on her first day (Dec 7) of saying "bird" after all.

And here it is:

Moments later, about half way through this next clip she apparently says her second English word: "burger".

It is unclear whether she was actually asking for a "bird burger".

Bird is the Word

2009-12-17T21:50:00.002-05:00

Last week LS said her first English word. Bird. It (Pássaro) was one of the first Portuguese words she recognized. We decided to start mixing in some English, especially the words that she already knows well in Portuguese. She's now on to "foot" and "knee" and a couple other things.

Of course, now learning words also means she can try to say them. Soon after recognizing the word, she was saying it. "Burrrd" We tried to get it on camera, but the camera draws her interest when it's near (we need a spy-cam!).

Papai immediately thought of this song when she was saying it. She'll even sing along a little if you sing it with her (alternating verses)!

Here's where I actually heard the song for the first time. Funny stuff.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184)

Tough Girl

2009-12-15T11:42:00.003-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving, LS had a tussle with a chair. It seems the chair didn't hold up its end of the bargain that it would serve as a support for LS standing.

The chair in question is a lightweight aluminum dining chair. LS tried to use it for help, but instead ended up falling backward, still holding onto it, and pulling it down on top of her. Afterward, she was laying there flat on her back holding the grill of the back of the chair like she was in jail.

This was LS's first major fall, so she was none too pleased. She got some good crying going. We were afraid she hit the back of her head, but there was nothing apparent there. But the swelling under the left eye started immediately.

She was back in fine spirits mere minutes later, which is when the first picture here was taken. The pictures don't really give justice to the swelling. On the second and third days the swelling under the eye was enough that LS's eyelashes were nowhere to be found - stuck beneath the folds of the swollen cheek.

The third day looked the worst, as the slight scrape along the area became scabbed and looked like it was a mean cut. But by the next day (4th picture) the scab was already gone.

The 5th picture is from 5 days after the fall - almost back to normal.

The final picture is an additional week later (and less than two weeks after the fall), long since doing fine.

The lesson in all this - when you are going to take down an opponent, better to fall down on top of them, than pull them down onto you!

You have much to learn young grasshopper.

Cover Girl

2009-12-05T11:26:00.003-05:00

It could only be so long before LS got discovered, yes?

Can you spot her? http://www.gogogiggle.com/

Hint: end of intro.

Note: This is a company started by someone Mamãe has worked with, and the photo came about during a stop in to visit. LS did it this once just for the experience. But she's been reading up on contract negotiation tactics in the meantime for when her next opportunity comes around.

And yes, she loved the socks! :-)

[updated: link to be a link]

Stairs - The Director's Cut

2009-12-04T23:29:00.003-05:00

LS wanted to release the long version of her epic journey up the stairs. Well, Ok, Memére asked to see it.

Follow the epic journey of a young girl as she struggles against the forces aligned against her (gravity). Cheer on as she strives against all odds to achieve the ultimate goal.

Enjoy this new Director's Cut Edition - complete with LS's running commentary on the more subtle plot points.

Up the stairs!

2009-12-03T01:30:00.002-05:00

Lots of things have been going on, and we'll hopefully catch up with them soon! Not a small part was LS turnng 13 (months)! We might just have to transition to half-years as the new milestones. This monthly thing is old hat for LS by now.

With at least one of her friends doing the same, we decided to give LS a shot at going up the stairs (over a week ago now). She's a big girl now, and they are carpeted afterall. She didn't do too bad this first time, but it did take a little over 6 minutes!

I decided to speed it up 12x to save everyone some viewing time, so it clocks in at just under 30 seconds! In parts it almost seems like everything around LS is sped up and she's just going normal speed. Maybe that's just the lesson she's trying to teach us.

She's definitely gotten a bit quicker since then. I even tried today to have her back her way down the stairs. That didn't go so well, as she kept trying to go back up. She must wonder why we can't make up our minds which way we want her to go.

Standing, Bathing, Having a Grand Ol' Time

2009-11-19T20:45:00.003-05:00

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.

Pointing Things Out

2009-11-18T21:33:00.002-05:00

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"

Gato

2009-11-06T15:33:00.002-05:00

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.

First Day of One

2009-11-02T20:48:00.005-05:00

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.

Last Day of Zero

2009-10-31T21:21:00.003-04:00

Today was a great day to be your last day of zero. Of course LS doesn't know, so I guess it's a surprise. Memére is up for the weekend and enjoying the little bit of time they get together. And LS is getting used to Memére not being in "the box" (when using Skype, she's known as "Memére in a box").

LS decided that she wanted to be a pile of leaves for Halloween. We pointed out that this might be impractical, and that once she got the costume on she might not be able to go anywhere. But some things you just have to learn yourself.

As it turned out, she was quite content to just lay there and look up at the sky. It had it all. Stark leafless branches against blue. Clouds pushed by quickly by an eager wind. The punctuation of an occasional falling leaf or bird. It was really the best day to be a pile of leaves looking up at the sky after all.

As a bonus, LS gets 4% more birthday tomorrow! She's lucky enough this year that her birthday falls on Daylight Savings. We're going to be sure to put 104% effort into having a good time!

Thanks for making this year great LS.

Swimming

2009-10-27T21:34:00.004-04:00

LS took her first trip to the big pool this past Sunday. We were hoping she'd like it, and she seemed to have a great time. We're planning on getting to the pool regularly over the winter if we can. Both for some exercise and also just to get out of the house.

Luckily this pool is just in the next town over, and a very short drive.

Papai took the responsibility for handling LS in the locker room and getting her changed afterward. The plastic chairs with arms were pretty handy, althought LS did want to stand on them a little too much.

It's tough to be in an environment where you are trying to both maximize safety and cleanliness at the same time, while you're both wet and splippery and need to get changed. A pool locker room floor isn't exactly where you want to put someone whose main interest in life is putting everything in their mouth.

The experience felt somewhat like spinning plates on a pole while trying to get dressed. Getting one article on, then tending back to LS to make sure she was seated back safely in the chair. If you're not sure what I mean, it's like this old Atari game - Dishaster. Though, thankfully, without the background music.

Nice Fall Days

2009-10-25T15:55:00.004-04:00

This past week we had some nice fall days. The leaves are pretty, and the weather isn't too cold yet.

LS got a couple chances to romp out in the leaves and had a good time of it.

You can probably tell by the look on her face that she doesn't know yet that these things have to be gathered, put in bags, and put out for someone to take away. It's all just fun and games at this point!

LS is only one week away from the big "1". Naturally, it's hard for us to believe. And just as naturally, LS couldn't care less... We're getting her ready though. She's been practicing putting one finger in the air. That way she can satisfy those curious adults who might be tempted to ask her just how old she is now.

You can see below that LS is pretty much ready to take on the world. Even preparing herself for that other Fall pastime - Football!

You don't want to find yourself on the business end of this 19 pound bullet!

Goings on

2009-10-16T20:39:00.002-04:00

Just by keeping tabs on the blog you'd think that nothing was going on around here! Which couldn't be further from the truth naturally.

LS had a VERY exciting time last weekend, since we went up to Maine to visit with my sister and family. The exciting part was that they have a dog. And LS LOVES dogs. Like, scream-if-she-sees-a-dog loves dogs.

Luckily the dog in question is a very friendly one. Not calm, but gentle enough around babies. LS loved to stand near a piece of furniture and hang on while watching the dog run around.

The dogs name is Isabelle, often just referred to as "Izzy". On the second day LS had some successful attempts (when prompted) of trying to say Izzy. Which came out a few times more like "Zizzy".

You can see her during Papai's wrestling match with Izzy how enamored LS was with whole situation!

LS also has tooth #3 close to coming in. Left side front either has or is very close to breaking the skin. Actually, from her waking up cranky a few nights ago I think we have a pretty good idea of when it broke the skin! But it hasn't quite started to grow down yet. With a little over two weeks to go until the 1 year milestone we'll see if she crosses that threshold with 3 or 4 teeth! It would be nice to have an even bite for eating her first cake naturally.

LS has also started to excel at identifying body parts. Who knows what exciting careers that might lead to! So far, when prompted, she will properly point out where her "joelho" (knee) and "pé" (foot) are. She's had "lábios" (lips) for a while, although usually it causes her to do the whole twiddle-the-lips-while-humming thing rather than just pointing them out! Today she seemed to properly point out "naríz" (nose) for the first time when prompted, but usually before her hand gets there she decides playing with her lips will be more fun.

11

2009-10-01T22:26:00.003-04:00

Today marked the end of LS's 11th month! She thought it was a lot like yesterday. She expects tomorrow to be more of the same too...

Stat check: 60

Degrees Fahrenheit of our downstairs this morning (15.5 deg C). The high today was expected to be in the low 50's, so (sigh) the heat has been turned on. Usually we try and make it to November. LS hasn't made it to the age of wearing shorts all year though. Soon. Very soon.

Here's LS four days ago, trying to come out the screen at you.

We'll try to have some Froggy pics and stats soon. There won't be any official stats until next year though - LS's next scheduled checkup with the Doc is in early January.

Word up

2009-09-27T21:17:00.005-04:00

Update: I've fixed the reference to the doll below to the proper "Raggedy Anne" instead of "Little Orphan Annie". As it is, we actually call her "Anna dos trapos" (Anne of the rags).

LS is getting the hang of language, despite our best efforts.

The week before last while in the kitchen I heard a pretty good "bah-nah-nyah" while Mamãe was feeding LS a banana. She couldn't quite repeat it, so we didn't know whether to give her full credit.

Later in the week she did a pretty good "Anna" (with Portuguese pronunciation!) as she looked at the doll in her room (Raggedy Anne) that she plays with when she gets up from naps (shown here after a big wet kiss). This one has been a little more reproducible than "banana" has been (of course, they are close enough that she might be wondering how these things are related).

We had some obvious word recognition lately as she learned how to respond to the Portuguese command "funga!" (pronounced more like "foonga!"). This might sound like an insult you might get from an old Italian man if you cut him off in traffic, but it actually is a form of a verb that means "to blow out your nose". It's great having one word for that! Of course, "blow it out your nose" also sounds like an insult, so I guess "funga!" can still be used that way. Feel free to use it, but expect to get a confused look if you say it to someone Portuguese.

With a little bit of teaching, LS knows to blow out her nose when you say "funga!" As she was getting a cold this really came in handy! Unfortunately, as both parents then got sick, we've gotten more practice with this word then we'd really like.

Earlier tonight it seemed there was a breakthrough in the "m" words. Up until now it seems that many things starting with "m" would blend together and mostly sound like "meh".

While skyping with Memére (pronounced like "meh-may") tonight, LS really got the "may" part out well several times. She did a good job getting out meh-may. Let's just say Memére was happy. The last couple visits with her great-grandmother and grandmother she's also approximated getting out "vuh-vuh" and "vuh" respectively. We're giving her until her first birthday (November) to get all the family names down pat.

Shortly afterward, Mamãe was putting the final touches on getting LS ready for bed and LS got out a good "mãe" (which sounds roughly like "my"). We'll see if this newfound ability sticks.

What'll be ironic is that we have few Portuguese speakers around, so she's pretty much going to sound like she's still babbling even if she spoke clearly! In fact, people probably think her parents have just been babbling for months now. Hmm, maybe we are.

Sanita

2009-09-10T17:48:00.004-04:00

I always thought that "Sanita" sounded like it would be a nice girl's name. Kind of like "Anita" with a nice soft "S" in front to make it flow smoothly.

Unfortunately, in Portuguese the word "sanita" means "toilet". If you ever meet a girl named Sanita, I'm sorry I spoiled it for you.

The last couple days LS has branched out into using the sanita. Naturally, we have a baby seat that fits over the regular seat and she has to be held. She doesn't actually tell us when she has to go or anything. But, if we know it's coming then we get her on the seat, and so far we're batting 1000.

Her changing table has been in the bathroom for months right across from the sanita - an accidental great convenience! And she's had months of trying to figure out what the heck her parents are doing with this crazy contraption.

I have to be honest that joy was not an emotion I particularly ever thought I'd associate with seeing someone on a "sanita".

Double Digits

2009-09-02T00:31:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since LS has hit double digits with anything. Tuesday it was official - 10 months. Yikes!

Stat Check: 2.11194 gallons (7.994 liters) - displacement when LS is placed in water.

As it happened, LS had her 10-month checkup exactly on her 10th monthiversary. All went well, and the Dr. said he didn't need to see her again until 14 months since she's progressing well. She jumped a percentile group since the last visit 4 months ago, so a growth-spurt of sorts apparently.

Two shots today, and handled them pretty well. Unfortunately, LS's big present today was a blood draw. Testing iron levels and for lead. When the Dr. said "venal draw" she actually cried. Surprised, he said it again. She cried again. Ugh.

We went up a floor to the lab, and after a short wait went in. She sat on dad's lap, and kept eyes locked on mom while the blood was drawn. She cried, but much less than we feared. We told her she did a great job and showed courage beyond her years. Uh, year. Eh, months.

Afterward in the car Mamãe told LS it was a good thing that her crocodile toy was in mom's pocket because otherwise it would have bitten those mean nurses for her. In better spirits by then, she laughed.

Boa Voyagem

2009-08-28T08:31:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-26T20:52:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-08-22T20:04:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-12T19:17:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-10T13:44:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-08-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-04T18:34:00.003-04:00

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.

Firsts

2009-07-31T22:11:00.005-04:00

Just about everything so far, of course, is a first for LS. But lately there have been some fun firsts.

A couple weeks ago LS had her first time in the pool, at Avó and Grandpa's house. She didn't seem as impressed with it as we were. We caught here her first moments getting in the water. So far we just got her used to the idea of being in some water. It'll have to be at least next time before we're swimming underwater with her...

After this first minute or so with Papai, LS spent a good amount of time playing in the water, mostly with Mamãe.

The week after that, LS had some more firsts. We went to the Cape for a couple days and she got to have (1) her first time away from home more than one night, and (2) her first time at the beach and ocean. Dad was also happy to have a first - having donuts for breakfast ON the beach. Mmmm.

Sometime in these last few weeks she also crossed the line of being on the outside longer than the inside. She must be getting used to it by now, no?

Pretty soon LS will be seeing the ocean from the other side of the Atlantic. She's curious if the waves start at the beaches there, since they seem to end at the beach here. In this picture she might be pondering just that:

Here we all are enjoying getting our feet in the water:

And finally, it seemed appropriate to strike a pose together:

Oh! Almost forgot another first. LS's first nap taken in Papai's arms while he walked up and down the beach... But at least she slept! And we didn't have to go home...

It won't be long before there are some more important firsts, and we'll try to update with some of it if we can. Among these:

First time going through security at the airport

First time waiting in line for a rental car at the Lisbon airport

First taste of Pasteís de Nata in the Old Country

And tomorrow yet another - first day as a 9-month-old.

A minute of time

2009-07-29T01:53:00.002-04:00

These pictures were taken a couple weeks back over the course of a little under a minute. Thought it might be fun to recreate a sort of photobooth feel like days of old. Ironic of course that a digital camera and software was used to that effect. I don't imagine those photobooths are in much demand these days, given that almost everyone always has a camera on them - even if only on their phone.

There's probably a pile of those photobooths somewhere next to the pile of buggy whips and VCRs.

Lingua Doida

2009-07-16T23:10:00.002-04:00

This post is more about Dad (Papai) then about LS. It just speaks to what LS is up against.

Speaking Portguese to LS is generally pretty easy. I like to say that I can speak well enough to fool an infant. Though sometimes I wonder. Mostly it isn't too bad, as you generally are saying a lot of the same things over and over again. Should I ever have occassion to say to someone in Portugal that it is time to change their diaper, they'll be impressed how authentic it sounds.

What I dislike the most is speaking too slowly, so sometimes I risk inaccuracy for speaking a little faster. Sometimes it doesn't work out.

Today there was a funny exchange. I took a bike ride during lunch, which takes me a little less than an hour. This was during the time that LS was being fed by Mamãe.

Upon my return I said to Mamãe, in Portuguese:

"She you ate well?"

I realized as soon as I said it that I mispoke, so I quickly corrected it:

"She I ate well?"

Gah! I realized right away that I had incorrectly corrected myself. Finally:

"She ate well?"

After which I muttered under my breath, in English. My consolation is that at least I didn't invoke any of the plural conjugations. Hitting all the singular cases is bad enough...

Oh, LS. How long before you are the one correcting me?

(For the record, she did eat well)

LS sees the Vet

2009-07-11T23:58:00.004-04:00

We took LS to the veterinarian this past Friday. Ok, well, she was along for the ride. We were really bringing the cat (gato), and since we both wanted to be there, LS was dragged along as well. LS is glad she gets a car seat and not put in a pet carrier.

The reaction to the "cute baby" at the vet's may be similar to the reaction you'd get bringing a cute puppy into the pediatricians office I imagine. Except for the part where they wouldn't let you bring the puppy past the front door...

When gato (Nicky) had her turn come mom, dad, gato, and LS all went into the exam room together. LS was pretty well behaved taking in the new surroundings. The vet tech was able to get gato's weight, take some information about her recent behaviors, etc. Then she left the room to fetch the vet.

As soon as the door to the exam room closed, mom and dad exchanged a knowing glance; both thinking the exact same thing.

The scale. The one moments earlier they used to weigh the cat. The scale that carried the marking: "Baby Scale".

Not that there was much time for mulling it over - but how could we not? Mom hit the "on" button and in a few seconds the scale set to zero. Dad moved quickly across the room to let LS lay in her momentary cradle, seeing visions of the odd moment it would be if the vet came in right then. Come on - settle, settle. There! we've got it.

LS was whisked away back in Papai's arm, successfully measured and content.

And so...

Stat Check: 16 pounds, 13 ounces. Wow! Given the presence of light clothing and a slightly more bulky diaper than she dons for her official weighings, we'll call it 16.5 pounds (7.5 kilos for LS's Eurofans).

A particularly successful visit to the vet's office.

And the cat's doing OK too. For those wondering, she's hangin' in there well for an 18 year-old (she can vote!). She lost a slight amount of weight compared to last year, and we may increase her fluid supplement to more than twice a week.

Cheerios

2009-07-07T23:41:00.002-04:00

Just about a week ago, LS hit the 8 month mark. She just takes it in stride at this point.

She heard from a friend of hers that he had started Cheerios, so she demanded we do the same. No teeth? No matter. A little chewing with the gums and they mush right up. Keep 'em coming.

Stat check: 16, and 25.75. Pounds and inches, respectively. "Nossa grande pequena" indeed.

Now, brash as she is, LS still knows she has to tackle these new things with care. So, she decided that as a first step she would practice picking up Cheerios and dropping them in her lap. Genius. That's Ok - keep it going; we've got a big box here.

LS then pulled the ol' "swat the Cheerio out of Mom's hand" gag. No matter how many times she told us this time she would really grab it, we kept falling for it.

It's hard to make out at normal speed, but seen here at 4X normal speed, parts of this are actually an intricate secret handshake.

Wigging out

2009-06-26T10:59:00.006-04:00

LS has been on "solid" food now for almost two months. We noticed not long afterward that her hair was getting thicker. This recently accelerated almost out of control, and you can tell by the look on her face that even she's a little freaked out about it.

For reasons of safety, we think soon we'll have to start putting a hair net on her any time she goes to bed.

Weirder still is when we tried to cut it, it just came back again. But different. And longer. This mirror shot captures her surprise.

And talk about unmanageable...

The Letter 'M'

2009-06-22T22:44:00.002-04:00

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'M'.

LS starting really pronouncing 'M' today. She's been mouthing it for a while, but today she put it all together. Pretty cute stuff.

We had a great Father's Day weekend. Filled with family and fun. LS performed admirably with various car travel and different sleeping arrangements (sleeping over Avó and Grandpa's house for the first time even!).

We're definitely glad she's a good and seemingly adaptable sleeper - and we're really hoping that carries over during the flights to and from Portugal later this summer! (fingers crossed) We're really hoping not to be the ones with the screaming baby everyone had to put up with on their transcontinental flight!

Here's LS showing off her 'M':

Popeye

2009-06-18T00:24:00.003-04:00

From LS's point of view, we've been going by the names Mamãe (muh-my') and Papai (puh-pie'), both playful forms of the names for mother and father in Portuguese.

When I hear Papai I often hear it as a funny pronunciation of Popeye, which if I'm going to live up to I'll have to "eats me spinach". Perhaps her friends will expect me to have a corn-cob pipe and call her "Swee'pea" too. I'm going to draw the line at getting a tattoo of an anchor on me for'ams though.

We took the picture below today. Uncanny resemblance.

Weekend visit

2009-06-15T23:03:00.003-04:00

Memere came for a visit for a long weekend - Friday night to Monday night. A good time was had by all.

On Sunday, Memere got LS all to herself so mom could sell some hats. The two had a good time together, and both were well behaved. :-) And of course, this was incredibly handy for mom and dad. Anytime Memere wants to take a 6 hour round-trip plane ride to do some babysitting, we're all for it!

The moment caught below was shortly before Memere left to go back home (really good laughing between 0:48 and 1:08! (followed by a great impersonation of a pterodactyl)).

Froggy Bonus Clip

2009-06-02T16:48:00.002-04:00

This was taken yesterday also, after the pictures. You can see how well the two get along.

0.5833333...

2009-06-01T22:30:00.006-04:00

LS is now 7/12 the way around the sun.

Stat check: 14.5 pounds - LS "unofficial" weight at 7 months ("Dad + LS - Dad" method)

If that's fairly accurate, it means she's gained about 1.5 pounds this month (she was 12 pounds 15 ounces at the six month checkup).

Here's LS showing off her look after enjoying one of her favorites - avacado! Taken yesterday, May 31.

We all thought this was a great occassion for an update with Froggy (or "Sapo" em Português). If you go back to the first post with the picture with Froggy here it is crazy to see the difference.

Here's the picture from today:

Using froggy as a constant for proper scaling, we were able to put together this composite comparing LS at 8 days old and 7 months old. What a difference a couple hundred days makes!

Mouthing Off

2009-05-31T23:17:00.002-04:00

LS developed a new trick today, which we captured on dad's camera phone (fresh off a fresh software update that added video capability). Video captured with a phone? What kind of world are we living in?

The new behavior in question was a sort of mouthing that seems like imitation talking with no sound.

I wasn't able to edit this video since the format off the phone was in one difficult to work with, but at least it's less than a minute total. The parts in question are particularly around 15 seconds and 28 seconds in. Beware - it is also preceded by screeching!

Roughly translated, it is probably something like: "Why are you pointing that phone at me?" The confusion on her face is evident.

Big day tomorrow, 7 months! Being half a year old is so last month.

Stat check: Dad + LS = 229 pounds. Unfortunately dad forgot to then weight without LS to figure the difference. Better data soon...

A busy couple days

2009-05-30T22:39:00.006-04:00

It's been a busy couple days for LS - and her parents!

Yesterday, LS took her first solo road trip with dad. We headed to Wellesley to visit LS's cousin before her graduation next week. LS can't make the graduation, so we figured she should go on this visit to see the campus!

She behaved very well, including a feeding in the college cafeteria. She gave quite a speech in the middle of her meal, getting the attention of most in the cafeteria. Even better, her dear cousin did her first baby bottle-feeding following the solid-food portion of the meal.

Today, mom had her first show to sell hats since LS hit the scene. It was a very lightly attended show, but she still sold 3 hats. We set up outside with a tent, and luckily it was a beautiful day - after having been a pretty rainy week.

LS had a baby-sitter for the morning while the show was set up. Her baby-sitter will soon have her speaking better Portuguese than her parents and we'll have to struggle to keep up!

Despite a day of shorter naps, LS did well. She's been eating really well, and growing of course.

It's pretty much a trend now that she sleeps through the night. Usually 7pm-7am or something along those lines. Many days she's taking 2 to 3 hour naps also. Giving mom extra time to get some work done! (And do things like make LS's food...)

After today's show, LS hung out while we packed up. Here she's learning the subtleties of flowers from mom.

It was a really beautiful day today. So after this she relaxed in the shade of the tent barefoot with a book while we finished packing. :-) Ahhhhh...

Swingin'

2009-05-24T23:14:00.002-04:00

LS had her first time in the swing today. It turned out to be a nicer weather weekend than expected. We also have a special treat today, as LS took her first turn with the camera. More on that later.

Here's LS in the swing, with the garden as a backdrop. Not a bad view for some springtime swinging.

After this, LS decided she wanted a turn behind the camera. She chose a fairly avant garde approach for her first filming. Specifically, she chose a style of progressively letting the camera slip through the leg-hole of the swing. Don't be surprised if you see this style get picked up by the big boys in a few years. It has shades of Blair Witch Project but more kinetic.

It provides a unique view into the infant swing experience. Her subtle narration style is also noteworthy. Breathy yet not overbearing. She's angling for a place at Cannes next year, with a working title of Glissement par le Trou de Jambe:

Too few

2009-05-21T00:50:00.004-04:00

Unfortunately the updates here have been few and far between. This doesn't mean that LS's life has gotten boring or anything. Although, she has taken quite an interest in napping now, particularly since starting on the solid food. 3.5 hours is longest so far!

There's been a request for pictures with Froggy - and we'll have one of those photo sessions soon. In the meantime, one thing we wanted to document was a new behavior LS started last week - though it's tailed off. She just decided that it was going to be fun to wrinkle up her nose and breathe loudly. Mom caught it on tape last week when it was a new thing.

You'll only waste 10 seconds of your life watching it...

LS is starting to roll over more now. At this point "more" means "a few times"... Though yesterday when Dad went to get her after her nap she was found stuck on her stomach. She didn't seem too happy about it, since it didn't seem she could get back onto her back from where she was. And she apparently had kicked her sock off trying!

She's definitely proud of the strength she's gaining - as you may detect in the picture below taken earlier today! Talk about a ham...

Half way around

2009-05-05T14:17:00.003-04:00

A few days ago, LS marked the half-way point of her first trip around the sun. What a voyage so far.

We somewhat arbitrarily picked this as the time to start feeding LS "solid" food. Although "solid" in this case is a misnomer, that could more accurately be described as "non-milk". Then again, a good portion of it is actually milk. So, hm, it's more like "milk with a little other stuff mashed in".

Anyway - to start out with we ground some brown rice, got out the camera, and got down to business!

LS was pretty shy about the experience at first, which you can see in the first video here. At the end of the video you can just imagine LS saying "please, why are they doing this to me?" as she peers longingly into the camera.

By a couple days later, LS was much more expert. This next video shows her with the hang of it. We get a nice extreme close-up at the end.

Hangin out

2009-04-25T22:11:00.002-04:00

Real Spring weather is finally upon us. Yesterday was up around 70, and today's high was around 90 apparently. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same.

Mom got to go to the studio to work on a hat while LS had a nap on Friday afternoon. She's been having pretty good naps here and there - not entirely consistently, but nice when they come. Some days she'll take a 2 hour nap, and one day even had two!

Anyway, when LS woke up yesterday afternoon she didn't cry - she just laid there and was apparently practicing here "words". Mostly "Ooo" and "Uuh", maybe an occassional "Agoo". That seems to be the vocabulary, with some different pitch variations thrown in to shake things up.

After 15 minutes or so, we called Mom to come home, and LS and dad went out and sat on the front steps to wait for her to come by.

It was a nice tranquil moment. LS sat on my lap there, taking in the Friday afternoon goings-on of the neighborhood. She watched the neighbor doing some chore or another for a while, no doubt amused that life should be anything other than getting carried around and looked after.

There were nice sounds to point out. A dog barking a few houses over ("O cão!"). Birds flying around ("Podes ouvir o pássaro?"). A bee buzzing around the bushes ("Abelha" - though not like the "abelha" LS has inside with the rattle in its tail!).

At one point LS looked up into the nearby trees, which are just starting to bud and are mostly branches against sky.

Oooo! ...Uuuh!

I agree.

Easter

2009-04-16T10:37:00.003-04:00

Well, we had a first this year. The Easter Bunny actually stopped by to visit. We even got it to stay long enough to get some pictures. We really wanted LS to meet the Easter Bunny, but we never managed to get them in the same room at the same time. Strangest thing.