Friday, January 18, 2013
Stumping For a Hitch
LS recently enjoyed her first real feature-length film, The Wizard of Oz. She first read a shortened pop-up book version with Mamãe a while back. Since watching the movie the first time, she's seen it a couple times since. Then she got the soundtrack to listen to. And most recently Mamãe has read the full-length book to her. Now they're on the second book of the series... Last weekend I grabbed her singing one of the songs she's recently enjoyed singing the most. Like all of us, she doesn't quite get all the lyrics right. All the better.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
No Bubble!
This story begins a week ago when LS and Papai took a trip to the pool after a few months away and LS decided to go to a bubble with only 2 of the pads (instead of the 3-pad variety she had last been using months before). It offered less buoyancy so it was a great move toward moving away from it.
During that swim LS decided to flip over on her back and start kicking away - she was going so fast! (at least given her size :-) We had the pool to ourselves and at the end of that day she ended up doing 4 full lengths of the pool on her back kicking. Her first 100 yard backstroke! On the last 2 lengths, I let her get all the way to the other end before sprinting to catch up with her. She was very excited about this all.
A few days later, with Memére in town visiting, we decided to go back to the pool and do it again and get to show off for Memére while we were at it. Before going we talked about her trying to use her arms too this time. The video below is one of her first attempts at that.
After that adventure, she couldn't wait to get back to the pool. Today (which is a few days after that last trip) we went again. This time I had told LS that I thought she could try with just 1 pad to the flotation bubble. Her face lit up! Another step toward really swimming.
When we went to the pool we got a single-pad bubble and put it on. Papai was a little nervous with this one, eager to see how much harder she would have to work and how she'd handle it. We were there at least half an hour, and she handled it great. Even getting dunked under water several times, but each time able to get onto her back and do some swimming (no arms with just a single bubble though). She did some dog paddle too. She was definitely excited.
But the best came at the end. When I took the bubble off as we were leaving I asked if she wanted to try and float while I held her hands. She said yes, and as I was putting the bubble down on the deck, she just started to float by herself. And there she was, floating on her back and kicking her feet, face absolutely glowing that she was doing it without a bubble.
She did some dog paddle, some more floating, pushing off the wall and dunking under, and managing to get enough breathing in while she was at it! We probably stayed an extra 5 minutes with her just swimming around without any bubble at all. It's impossible to convey how excited she was by it. She could not wait to get home and tell Mamãe. She was jumping up and down and absolutely delirious with her accomplishment.
Now she wants to go back to the pool tomorrow, and this time start without any bubble at all. Wow! Not a bad week's work.
During that swim LS decided to flip over on her back and start kicking away - she was going so fast! (at least given her size :-) We had the pool to ourselves and at the end of that day she ended up doing 4 full lengths of the pool on her back kicking. Her first 100 yard backstroke! On the last 2 lengths, I let her get all the way to the other end before sprinting to catch up with her. She was very excited about this all.
A few days later, with Memére in town visiting, we decided to go back to the pool and do it again and get to show off for Memére while we were at it. Before going we talked about her trying to use her arms too this time. The video below is one of her first attempts at that.
After that adventure, she couldn't wait to get back to the pool. Today (which is a few days after that last trip) we went again. This time I had told LS that I thought she could try with just 1 pad to the flotation bubble. Her face lit up! Another step toward really swimming.
When we went to the pool we got a single-pad bubble and put it on. Papai was a little nervous with this one, eager to see how much harder she would have to work and how she'd handle it. We were there at least half an hour, and she handled it great. Even getting dunked under water several times, but each time able to get onto her back and do some swimming (no arms with just a single bubble though). She did some dog paddle too. She was definitely excited.
But the best came at the end. When I took the bubble off as we were leaving I asked if she wanted to try and float while I held her hands. She said yes, and as I was putting the bubble down on the deck, she just started to float by herself. And there she was, floating on her back and kicking her feet, face absolutely glowing that she was doing it without a bubble.
She did some dog paddle, some more floating, pushing off the wall and dunking under, and managing to get enough breathing in while she was at it! We probably stayed an extra 5 minutes with her just swimming around without any bubble at all. It's impossible to convey how excited she was by it. She could not wait to get home and tell Mamãe. She was jumping up and down and absolutely delirious with her accomplishment.
Now she wants to go back to the pool tomorrow, and this time start without any bubble at all. Wow! Not a bad week's work.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Bike!
After such a hiatus, where to start? Probably with the most recent.
Last week while at a family get-together for Mothers Day, LS inherited a bike from a cousin who has outgrown in. This is the first video of LS riding a bike, with training wheels naturally.
What isn't shown here is that she was given one of those little 8 ounce bottles of water in the basket which shortly after the video here she insisted on taking out and drinking. Of course little legs get pretty thirsty on a 40 yard bike ride.
The bike is pinker than we'd choose, and we haven't exposed her to all the usual Disney princess stories, so to here her bike has pictures of "fairies" on it.
Today she got some more time on the bike and really got the hang of starting to pedal and steering and the like. No video yet of that, or the first two spills that she took. The first on the side of the driveway into the hasta and the second right on the driveway. She did a pretty good job of dusting herself and getting back on, although I think she found it pretty confusing to find herself laying out on the ground with a bike on top of her.
She got her first lesson in bike maintenance today, insisting that she take care of pumping the tires all by herself. She did a pretty good job too. (warning, she lets out a scream in the middle!)
What isn't shown here is that she was given one of those little 8 ounce bottles of water in the basket which shortly after the video here she insisted on taking out and drinking. Of course little legs get pretty thirsty on a 40 yard bike ride.
The bike is pinker than we'd choose, and we haven't exposed her to all the usual Disney princess stories, so to here her bike has pictures of "fairies" on it.
Today she got some more time on the bike and really got the hang of starting to pedal and steering and the like. No video yet of that, or the first two spills that she took. The first on the side of the driveway into the hasta and the second right on the driveway. She did a pretty good job of dusting herself and getting back on, although I think she found it pretty confusing to find herself laying out on the ground with a bike on top of her.
She got her first lesson in bike maintenance today, insisting that she take care of pumping the tires all by herself. She did a pretty good job too. (warning, she lets out a scream in the middle!)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Fortune
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...
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...
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Spitting
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...
For the record, she's a pro at tooth-brushing time now...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Learning To Say It Better
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.
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.
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