Gato

Before we had the perfect daughter, we had the perfect kitty. And before she was "Gato" she was "Nickel Kitty".

Nicki was originally a stray, and after she was hanging around outside our house for a while was brought in. She had no idea what she was in for.

She joined six Dobermans, two parrots, and a snake. And a kid almost ready to head out to college. Those were crazy times and quite a circus! The dogs would chase her around and when they finally caught her!... they'd do nothing. If she hadn't been chased for a while she'd saunter out into the living room and make sure they were still interested.

Nicki was also brought in pregnant. She had five kittens, the number that was the source of her name. With a snake named "Pennies" it made sense to have a cat named "Nickel". The girlfriend who named them both is now Mamãe.

Eventually the snake joined the kid at college. The parrots were gone. And many of the Dobermans died off, replaced with a Dachshund (that Mamãe also had a strong hand in naming) who was more than willing to fulfill the role of chaser.

After about 10 years the rest of the remaining circus went to live in Florida, and Nicki came to stay with us. The snake was gone, so she finally had a whole place of her own! And she definitely owned us.

If you never met Nicki, you missed out on something. She loved to be picked up and petted (as long as you were an adult!) and she could be manhandled about any which way you could imagine, with her only reaction being to purr.

Nicki was a great companion for Mamãe when she was pregnant. While on bed rest, Nicki would lay right on the belly and purr. Maybe this is why LS would squeal with delight whenever she saw her.

Over the past year, Nicki transitioned well to her new name - Gato. She knew this meant her, and would even come to be petted by LS (with a little coaxing). She realized she no longer owned the house, but she still owned us.

Gato would have been the best gentle cat to grow up with, though for LS they were born about 20 years too far apart for that. But at least she was there for the beginning.

In the end, Gato was too good of a kitty to be in pain. After about 3 years of kidney disease and being given fluids twice-weekly via needle the time came today to say goodbye. She loved the back porch, where she would spend all day laying in the sun, and today that's where it ended for her.

You were a great kitty Nicki, and we'll all miss you.

First Day of One

Hard as it might be to believe - brace yourself - LS is now one!

Of course, what was the likelihood that LS would not have a custom-made birthday hat for this occasion? Since you're looking at the picture here, you might have guessed it. We're lucky that LS doesn't mind wearing hats. Of course, Mamãe has been training her from an early age!

We had decided that we would follow a variant of a tradition from Papai's side of the family. Which was: on the first birthday, the child gets to put their hands in the cake. We decided instead that LS would get her own little birthday cake to do with what she may. This worked out fine - we all got to have cake and other desserts first while LS was having her afternoon nap!

LS started slowly, working her hands in what appeared to her to be this mound of glue we put in front of her. Once she was shown that there was something else below the frosting, and that it could be picked apart, she gathered steam. Soon she was digging in and taking bites with reckless abandon.

Of course, with each handful about as much fell back down onto the dress as went in her mouth! Mamãe (and Papai a little too) helped her out some of course. When it was done, it looked rather like a cake-grenade had gone off on the high-chair.

Later at night when she's normally sleeping she wondered why she wasn't so tired as she usually is. We have some ideas why that was!



Luckily the weather was nice and we all got to spend a great day with family, with the kids (plus Papai and Mr. Mac) getting to play outside in the leaves. We happen to have an unnatural number of rakes, so mostly every child got one to use. We were only one short, and a snow shovel served well to make up the difference. Lots of fun raking, but naturally unraking was the best part!

Since Sapo hadn't made an appearance here for a while, we wanted to get a picture of them together yesterday. This time Anna also wanted to get into the action. It turned into a big free-for-all on the changing table. We're not sure who won in the end.

Last Day of Zero

Today was a great day to be your last day of zero. Of course LS doesn't know, so I guess it's a surprise. Memére is up for the weekend and enjoying the little bit of time they get together. And LS is getting used to Memére not being in "the box" (when using Skype, she's known as "Memére in a box").

LS decided that she wanted to be a pile of leaves for Halloween. We pointed out that this might be impractical, and that once she got the costume on she might not be able to go anywhere. But some things you just have to learn yourself.

As it turned out, she was quite content to just lay there and look up at the sky. It had it all. Stark leafless branches against blue. Clouds pushed by quickly by an eager wind. The punctuation of an occasional falling leaf or bird. It was really the best day to be a pile of leaves looking up at the sky after all.



As a bonus, LS gets 4% more birthday tomorrow! She's lucky enough this year that her birthday falls on Daylight Savings. We're going to be sure to put 104% effort into having a good time!

Thanks for making this year great LS.

Swimming

LS took her first trip to the big pool this past Sunday. We were hoping she'd like it, and she seemed to have a great time. We're planning on getting to the pool regularly over the winter if we can. Both for some exercise and also just to get out of the house.

Luckily this pool is just in the next town over, and a very short drive.

Papai took the responsibility for handling LS in the locker room and getting her changed afterward. The plastic chairs with arms were pretty handy, althought LS did want to stand on them a little too much.

It's tough to be in an environment where you are trying to both maximize safety and cleanliness at the same time, while you're both wet and splippery and need to get changed. A pool locker room floor isn't exactly where you want to put someone whose main interest in life is putting everything in their mouth.

The experience felt somewhat like spinning plates on a pole while trying to get dressed. Getting one article on, then tending back to LS to make sure she was seated back safely in the chair. If you're not sure what I mean, it's like this old Atari game - Dishaster. Though, thankfully, without the background music.

Nice Fall Days

This past week we had some nice fall days. The leaves are pretty, and the weather isn't too cold yet.

LS got a couple chances to romp out in the leaves and had a good time of it.

You can probably tell by the look on her face that she doesn't know yet that these things have to be gathered, put in bags, and put out for someone to take away. It's all just fun and games at this point!

LS is only one week away from the big "1". Naturally, it's hard for us to believe. And just as naturally, LS couldn't care less... We're getting her ready though. She's been practicing putting one finger in the air. That way she can satisfy those curious adults who might be tempted to ask her just how old she is now.

You can see below that LS is pretty much ready to take on the world. Even preparing herself for that other Fall pastime - Football!

You don't want to find yourself on the business end of this 19 pound bullet!

Goings on

Just by keeping tabs on the blog you'd think that nothing was going on around here! Which couldn't be further from the truth naturally.

LS had a VERY exciting time last weekend, since we went up to Maine to visit with my sister and family. The exciting part was that they have a dog. And LS LOVES dogs. Like, scream-if-she-sees-a-dog loves dogs.

Luckily the dog in question is a very friendly one. Not calm, but gentle enough around babies. LS loved to stand near a piece of furniture and hang on while watching the dog run around.

The dogs name is Isabelle, often just referred to as "Izzy". On the second day LS had some successful attempts (when prompted) of trying to say Izzy. Which came out a few times more like "Zizzy".

You can see her during Papai's wrestling match with Izzy how enamored LS was with whole situation!



LS also has tooth #3 close to coming in. Left side front either has or is very close to breaking the skin. Actually, from her waking up cranky a few nights ago I think we have a pretty good idea of when it broke the skin! But it hasn't quite started to grow down yet. With a little over two weeks to go until the 1 year milestone we'll see if she crosses that threshold with 3 or 4 teeth! It would be nice to have an even bite for eating her first cake naturally.

LS has also started to excel at identifying body parts. Who knows what exciting careers that might lead to! So far, when prompted, she will properly point out where her "joelho" (knee) and "pé" (foot) are. She's had "lábios" (lips) for a while, although usually it causes her to do the whole twiddle-the-lips-while-humming thing rather than just pointing them out! Today she seemed to properly point out "naríz" (nose) for the first time when prompted, but usually before her hand gets there she decides playing with her lips will be more fun.

11

Today marked the end of LS's 11th month! She thought it was a lot like yesterday. She expects tomorrow to be more of the same too...

Stat check: 60

Degrees Fahrenheit of our downstairs this morning (15.5 deg C). The high today was expected to be in the low 50's, so (sigh) the heat has been turned on. Usually we try and make it to November. LS hasn't made it to the age of wearing shorts all year though. Soon. Very soon.

Here's LS four days ago, trying to come out the screen at you.



We'll try to have some Froggy pics and stats soon. There won't be any official stats until next year though - LS's next scheduled checkup with the Doc is in early January.