Word up

Update: I've fixed the reference to the doll below to the proper "Raggedy Anne" instead of "Little Orphan Annie". As it is, we actually call her "Anna dos trapos" (Anne of the rags).

LS is getting the hang of language, despite our best efforts.

The week before last while in the kitchen I heard a pretty good "bah-nah-nyah" while Mamãe was feeding LS a banana. She couldn't quite repeat it, so we didn't know whether to give her full credit.

Later in the week she did a pretty good "Anna" (with Portuguese pronunciation!) as she looked at the doll in her room (Raggedy Anne) that she plays with when she gets up from naps (shown here after a big wet kiss). This one has been a little more reproducible than "banana" has been (of course, they are close enough that she might be wondering how these things are related).

We had some obvious word recognition lately as she learned how to respond to the Portuguese command "funga!" (pronounced more like "foonga!"). This might sound like an insult you might get from an old Italian man if you cut him off in traffic, but it actually is a form of a verb that means "to blow out your nose". It's great having one word for that! Of course, "blow it out your nose" also sounds like an insult, so I guess "funga!" can still be used that way. Feel free to use it, but expect to get a confused look if you say it to someone Portuguese.

With a little bit of teaching, LS knows to blow out her nose when you say "funga!" As she was getting a cold this really came in handy! Unfortunately, as both parents then got sick, we've gotten more practice with this word then we'd really like.

Earlier tonight it seemed there was a breakthrough in the "m" words. Up until now it seems that many things starting with "m" would blend together and mostly sound like "meh".

While skyping with Memére (pronounced like "meh-may") tonight, LS really got the "may" part out well several times. She did a good job getting out meh-may. Let's just say Memére was happy. The last couple visits with her great-grandmother and grandmother she's also approximated getting out "vuh-vuh" and "vuh" respectively. We're giving her until her first birthday (November) to get all the family names down pat.

Shortly afterward, Mamãe was putting the final touches on getting LS ready for bed and LS got out a good "mãe" (which sounds roughly like "my"). We'll see if this newfound ability sticks.

What'll be ironic is that we have few Portuguese speakers around, so she's pretty much going to sound like she's still babbling even if she spoke clearly! In fact, people probably think her parents have just been babbling for months now. Hmm, maybe we are.

Sanita

I always thought that "Sanita" sounded like it would be a nice girl's name. Kind of like "Anita" with a nice soft "S" in front to make it flow smoothly.

Unfortunately, in Portuguese the word "sanita" means "toilet". If you ever meet a girl named Sanita, I'm sorry I spoiled it for you.

The last couple days LS has branched out into using the sanita. Naturally, we have a baby seat that fits over the regular seat and she has to be held. She doesn't actually tell us when she has to go or anything. But, if we know it's coming then we get her on the seat, and so far we're batting 1000.

Her changing table has been in the bathroom for months right across from the sanita - an accidental great convenience! And she's had months of trying to figure out what the heck her parents are doing with this crazy contraption.

I have to be honest that joy was not an emotion I particularly ever thought I'd associate with seeing someone on a "sanita".

Double Digits

It's been a while since LS has hit double digits with anything. Tuesday it was official - 10 months. Yikes!

Stat Check: 2.11194 gallons (7.994 liters) - displacement when LS is placed in water.

As it happened, LS had her 10-month checkup exactly on her 10th monthiversary. All went well, and the Dr. said he didn't need to see her again until 14 months since she's progressing well. She jumped a percentile group since the last visit 4 months ago, so a growth-spurt of sorts apparently.

Two shots today, and handled them pretty well. Unfortunately, LS's big present today was a blood draw. Testing iron levels and for lead. When the Dr. said "venal draw" she actually cried. Surprised, he said it again. She cried again. Ugh.

We went up a floor to the lab, and after a short wait went in. She sat on dad's lap, and kept eyes locked on mom while the blood was drawn. She cried, but much less than we feared. We told her she did a great job and showed courage beyond her years. Uh, year. Eh, months.

Afterward in the car Mamãe told LS it was a good thing that her crocodile toy was in mom's pocket because otherwise it would have bitten those mean nurses for her. In better spirits by then, she laughed.

Boa Voyagem

LS is back safely on US soil. The trip back was definitely better than the way there in terms of LS's mood.

We didn't make it easy for her. To start, she had to get up after 8 hours of sleep instead of her usual 12 hours. Then she was put through a voyage that took about 17 hours door to door, including two plane rides, passport check, customs check, and two trips through security. And she couldn't nap on the plane so well, only getting one nap of about 40 minutes the whole time.

Here she was at the beginning of the first plane ride (which was about 7 and a half hours) from Lisbon to Philadelphia. She was especially happy because she thought maybe she got to keep her own seat. But no, back to the laps.

The lowlight of the trip was 6 diaper changes and 2 wardrobe changes. Mamãe changed her 4 times on the flight to Philadephia, once right at the beginning, once right at the end, and a couple between (once requiring a change of outfit as well).

Mom again practiced her talents of using the bathroom while holding LS and wearing a backpack, but this time in an airplane bathroom. Really, at this point, I think she's showing off. Papai barely feels like he can successfully use the airplane bathroom without all that other stuff.

The need for perhaps the worst diaper change (and wardrobe change) was discovered while in Philadephia in the huge passport check area. Mamãe had to walk what seemed like half the airport to get to the nearest bathroom, and we didn't have another dry outfit in waiting...

We were lucky on three counts though: (1) LS was able to wear just a diaper and her jacket (the brown one in the picture) for a few minutes; (2) although the change took a long time, Papai's wait in the passport line was longer, so no time was lost; and (3) we had to get our luggage to re-check for the flight to Boston, so we were able to dig out another couple outfits before the next flight.

Papai got his chance to change LS on the flight to Boston. I couldn't stand up without hitting my head on the ceiling of the bathroom, but all in all it wasn't too bad. LS decided not to be too wiggly, which helped.

We think LS stole a lot of hearts on the plane rides. She seemed to make a game of it. Casting her eyes about and laughing and smiling, seeing how many she could bring into her circle. She definitely made a new friend of the young man from Mexico who sat next to us on the flight to Philadelphia. She laughed and smiled as she watched him intently as he ate, and the trap was set.

There was another first, of sorts, to finish off the trip. At the end of the plane ride to Philadelphia as we were waiting to get off the plane, LS stood for the first time assisting herself instead of being held. She stood on Papai's lap, with her hands up on the seat back in front of her, happy as could be. This wasn't too unexpected, since she's been found kneeling and holding the crib railing when we've gotten her from her recent naps.

At the end of the trip, it seemed that LS weathered it better than we did. We were wiped out, exhausted, and ready to collapse. LS was bright-eyed, smiling, and talkative. Ahh.. youth.

Homeward Bound

Tomorrow (well about 5 hours from now) starts the trip home. Hopefully LS will be OK with being home - she sure has come to like it here, as you can probably tell.

She's had no shortage of people fawning over her, so what's not to like?

Packing up for home always makes for a tough last day, but doing so around the schedule of an almost-10-month-old, as with everything else, is that much harder. It makes for some tired parents.

We're sure LS will miss everyone here in Portugal, and she'd look forward to coming back if she knew how to look forward to something. She'll learn.

Hopefully she'll get a good night's sleep, because she has to get up early. Instead of noon, she'll be getting up around 7am. We're hoping she'll sleep in the car on the way to the airport - at least that will help a little. But we don't expect the journey to be any fun.

We should be leaving around 7am, which is 2am back home. We should finally get home around 7pm local time - so probably about 17 hours of travel time. Wow, I shouldn't have just figured that out. That's a little depressing, and it starts in only 5 hours!

Off to finish packing!

Adeus Portugal - Até a próxima!

Oh the changes!

LS has definitely undergone many transformations while we've been on vacation. The first was the crawling. She's still not exactly setting speed records, but now she's of course a constant threat to go where you don't want her to go.

The second has been the teeth. Uh, tooth. It started coming in on the 14th. It broke through at 4am on Sunday, August 16th, local Portuguese time. This is based on her waking up screaming at that time. Checking later in the morning when she got up for real, there was definitely a razor sharp lower-right incisor evident!

The third thing has been a real marked increase in babbling and combining sounds together. It must be having so many people around that can actually speak the language that her parents are trying to speak to her! Once she gets going, she's going to be such a talker.

Yet a fourth thing that LS seemed to accomplish was waving. Of course it didn't please Mamãe that the first wave was to a stranger standing in line at the bank. This is how she repays all the times we waved to her. *sigh*

Finally, a fifth thing the last few days has been better attempts at clapping her hands together. It isn't really with her hands open, and one arm has more swing to it than the other, but she's getting there!

It seems like this vacation was quite a window in development that we hit, and she'll return a different child altogether.

She's also tasted new foods, like grilled sardinhas (sardines) and rabbit. The sardinha she didn't like so much, the rabbit no problem.

LS has actually woken up the last three nights in a row in the middle of the night (3:30am - 4am local time) screaming, and Papai thought he might have caught a glimpse of a second tooth below the gum coming in during the day today. But LS decided to be too wiggly to check for certain. We'll see if she can manage to get 2 teeth to come in during the trip. It would certainly explain all the screaming.

Chariots of Fire

We headed for Portugal knowing that it was likely that at least one, if not both, of two things would happen - LS would start to crawl, and LS would start to get some teeth.

She was showing signs even before we left, and it's been building steadily since. There was some action today that probably actually counts as crawling. No speed records have been broken yet. But now our eyes are wide open with the fear of knowing that soon we're going to be chasing her everywhere! Luckily we already bought European outlet covers.

Naturally, we tried to get a clip of her early success. This clip today ended up being the best that we had seen to that point.



Oh, and also, LS does seem to be drooling more than normal. So it's entirely possible that some time in the next 2+ weeks, the teeth are going to come too! Or maybe it's just from watching us eat tasty pastries all the time...

We went to the beach again today, and this time had batteries! Unfortunately there weren't nearly as many seagulls today. LS was happy to see a few though.

Ls also insisted that we take a picture of her with the sunset so she could prove that they were together. We think she just wanted to show off her profile.