More Daily Amelia-isms

1) While putting her to sleep at night she gets to cuddle on the rocking chair with me as long as she wants, but once she gets up it is time for bed. She keeps trying new tactics to get back up and cuddle again. The latest utterance, while getting misty eyed and lower-lip quivering "But mommy, I don't have any cuddle left in my tummy." Now who out there could say no to that?

2) Direct quote upon waking from her nap today, bed-headed, wearing only a diaper and a t-shirt and carrying a teddy bear: "Mommy, I want to go have a party." So off we go!

Salamanca

In June we finally made it to Salamanca, a trip we have been meaning to take for quite a while. It is a beautiful little Spanish town about a 3 hour drive from us. They are right on a river, making the town a great respite from the surrounding desert, and they have wonderful old university buildings and a beautiful cathedral. The huge square in the center of the old town functions as a social gathering point and is surrounded by restaurants and pedestrian areas. This coupled with the relaxed Spanish summer nights made for a great get-away. As usual, our little travelers were awesome and relished the 10pm dinners topped off with a stroll and an ice cream before retiring for the evening. Amelia was enthralled with our hotel room, and kept wanting to return there when we were done (ex)"ploring."

I'll take the High Road...

First, we should apologize for not writing in so long. We only have one excuse…it’s summer. When the sun shines every day and it doesn’t get dark until 21:30, we find that time speeds by a little more quickly. Of course if you don't buy that excuse, our other two excuses are named Amelia and Tristan, they keep us pretty busy! But we did want to tell you about our trip at the end of May.

This was Tristan’s second plane trip, after going to the US for Xmas. He was a champ and travels as easily as Amelia, who has probably spent more time on airplanes than she has on changing tables (okay, that might not be true). But traveling with the kids was actually easy and even exciting. Amelia had been counting down on a calendar for the last month, and was super excited. Tristan seemed pretty excited, too, but he usually is. After traveling all across the US, a 3-hour direct flight from Lisbon to Edinburgh is really like a walk in the park.

For those of you who haven’t been to Scotland, it’s a gorgeous country. The rolling hills, rugged coast, thickening fog and flowing scotch combine to make a relaxing vacation. Especially appealing were the un-refurbished castles that quickly take you back to the 13^th century. It’s remarkable how those Scots spent most of their time fighting one another, clan against clan, but I think the challenging landscape and challenging climate helped shape the rough-and-tumble culture.

We joined Karen and Kevin from Santa Barbara on this trip, and Liam and Julie came over from Portland. We had a remarkably comfortable home on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond for a week, not much swimming (though Liam and Dan confirmed the water was VERY cold), but some hiking, exploring, and we were known to pop into the nearby pub for a pint or an espresso when it was raining (daily) or when the power went out (we experienced a pretty rough storm). And to top it all off, our babysitter was two doors down the hallway and she didn’t even mind Amelia yelling “Hey Grandma!” all day long which was then followed by whatever command she felt like doing at that moment.

We hope you all are enjoying summer as much as we are. It’s much easier to entertain young children when you can be outside and let them run around and use up their energy. We’ll try to update again soon, including telling you about our recent sojourn to Salamanca, Spain and our upcoming summer holiday in Turkey which will be in August. For more pictures of our Scotland trip, click here. Até já…

Tristan's New Tricks

So the last two weeks have been quite busy for Tristan. He progressed from moving by slithering on his belly and pulling himself along with his arms while flailing his legs wildly behind him, so a full fledged crawl. In addition, he started pulling himself up on whatever he was able to crawl over to (the coffee table, our legs, a dog, etc.). So now he is truly able to explore the world and whatever he sets his sights on, which unfortunately so far seems to be the dogs' water bowl, the toilet brush, and anything that looks interesting to put in his mouth. He also seems to have developed a sixth sense, in that he is always able to anticipate the toy Amelia might want to play with next, and the instant he touches it she wants it. Amazing isn't it?

He figured out clapping just this last week or so as well, and he thinks it is really neat that he can start clapping at the dinner table and all of a sudden Amelia, Dan, and I are clapping along with him. He stops and starts and watches us follow along. Feel the power little man.

On the tooth front he went in a matter of days from four to six, with seven and eight on the cusp. I don't think he actually uses words yet, but I do wonder, since I hear a lot of ma ma ma ma when I come in the room, and he was giving us a lot of ba ba ba ba while playing with balls at Gymboree this week. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to decipher a definitive word.

We are off to Scotland tomorrow, Amelia is super excited to go on an airplane and see Grandma. Dan and I are super excited to have a live-in babysitter for a week! I'll get some new photos up of Tristan's new tricks and our travels when we return. Até já!

Little Minds at Work

Amelia has a couple of books where the main characters have a birthday, so lately she has been making cakes and then asking me to sing "Happy Birthday" (and the Portuguese equivalent). Yesterday she built a beautiful block cake and asked me to sing, and I obliged with rounds of "Parabéns a Você" and "Happy Birthday to Amelia."

When I was finished she said, "Now three for Mommy."

Having absolutely no idea what that meant, I questioned her: "Three what for Mommy? Three pieces of cake for me? Do you want me to sing Happy Birthday for Mommy?"

"Yes, three for Mommy."

Still confused I gave it a go and let out a weak "Happy Birthday to You" and was promptly interrupted.

"No, three."

"Three what, I don't understand?"

It went on like this for a while, until I finally got it, and correctly sang:

"Happy Birthday Three You,

Happy Birthday Three You,

Happy Birthday Dear Mommy,

Happy Birthday Three You."

Because as Amelia astutely observed, this is the proper encore after a round of "Happy Birthday Two You!"

The Noodle

As I was doing the dishes tonight, Amelia was playing along in her kitchen. She had some dried pasta and spaghetti noodles that she was cooking. I told her as soon as I was finished we were going upstairs to get ready for bed, so she put her things away and came over to me holding a spaghetti noodle.

"Can I take this one upstairs with me?" she asked.

"Of course" I responded, "You may bring that noodle upstairs to get ready for bed with you."

She looked at the noodle for another minute and then said "This one is beautiful!"

If only we all could find the beauty in a single noodle. Let's make that our goal for today.

Spring Update

So I know it has been awhile without any real news, but things here are going well. Spring has brought us some nice weather and lots of time outside. We've had our first visits to the beach for the year, set up the baby pool in the backyard, and spent a lot of time in the sandbox.

Now that Tristan can sit up he enjoys sitting in place and playing with various toys in his vicinity while occasionally laughing at his sister. When we place toys at a distance he can eventually get to them, but his crawling still leaves some coordination to be desired. All a work in progress. At this point in time he's about 3 months behind Amelia, who literally couldn't be held down. Tristan is still generally content to look around and enjoy his surroundings, and of course all of the activity of watching his sister. He also now got 4 teeth, working on 5, and is enjoying some of the new foods we are presenting him with (and others are of course flat out rejected).

The month of May will hopefully bring more sunshine and chances to explore the outdoors together. It will also bring a family vacation to Scotland to join Karen, Kevin, Liam and Julie. Amelia got the travel bug a little early in life and is now crossing days off the calendar until it is time to "get on airplane, with people and suitcases, and play blocks with Grandma!" That will be our next adventure to share with you.

For now, we have lots of new photos to share, just click here.