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.

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.

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!)

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...

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...

3 Minutes of Pure Fun

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

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.

Festa!

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

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.

Show on Google Maps

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.

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.