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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

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.

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I Did It!

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

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

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

Two pictures in the same hat.


What a difference 819 days makes.

March Already?

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.