Á and Zó

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.