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.

Swimming in a Winter Wonderland

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

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

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

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

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.