Operation mealtime...

Here are a few snapshots of Amélie's evil twin during meal times:

Favorite strategy: Put plate in front of face to prohibit any access to mouth:




Picky eating, part 1: Lasagna? Can't get enough of it mom!




Picky eating, part 2: lasagna? NO WAY, cheese? YUCK... Cereals? Sure mom, do you want some too?




Picky drinking... Milk in my chair? You must be kidding... At 4AM nothing is better than milk in the stroller (which she always refuses to go in otherwise):




Blackberries for dessert, that I like:




But I will sit still in my stroller for Cookies'n'Cream:

Amelie speaks, follow up!

Correction:

I naively assumed that "dhjoo" was some initial version of "shoe" (that is, Amelie was going for English). But Mrim corrected me in time, reminding me that it could be "chaussure" (shoe in French). I missed it this morning when catching up on some sleep (from being awake from 4-8AM) when Amelie said a complete version of "tautu", clearly demonstrating her mastery of French! Watch out Molière!

Amelie speaks!

It tool a while, but she finally starting speaking! That is, today!!!
And if you guessed she said "papa" or "mama" (more likely), you're wrong... she was toying with those words for a while a couple of months ago, but then nothing.

But today she convinced daddy-skeptical and said repeatedly: "mo, mo, mo". Did you guess? Elmooooooooooooooo!! And then to convince us further, when we got home from our weekly dinner out with her (well, not quite weekly), she kept saying "dhjoo, dhjoo". What could that be? She was looking for her shoes, which she wanted to put on! Funny that she spoke English, instead of French or Portuguese.

Maybe she will take a few more months to get going (with the 3-languages-at-the-same time thing), but maybe not!

Amelie speaks

This is Amelie again...

I don't know what happened, but I have been having some trouble sleeping through the night. So instead of waking up at close to 7 as I was for a couple of months, I went back to getting up at 5AM. Some days I wake up 4:55, others 4:57, but somehow I just know when it's close to 5AM and feel like waking up.

That's all fine and good, but mom and especially dad don't seem to like the idea... I'm not sure why, but they've been a bit cranky lately, less patient than usual. I asked some friends at day care and they told me that this is probably normal, something that will pass soon, that dad and mom will be back to normal again. I hope that happens soon!

Below is a picture just for you to see how I look these days. Beijo!

Record of inactivity...

Lucky me, I caught the longest time Amélie remained immobile so far:



We are still waiting for the next time she will stay stationary for that long again...

New vocabulary report!

Amélie is showing more and more that she understands what we are saying... Most of the time she chooses to ignore us, we are working on it...

Her vocabulary is also increasing... Here is its current size:

choochoo - she loves trains and repeats that choochoo word endlessly for us to play with the train.

ciao ciao (Italian bye bye) - she does more hand waving than saying ciao, and usually uses a mixture of bye and ciao, whatever is most rewarded in the given situation... Smart little monkey...

oh oh - total mastery these days, usually occurs with noticeable facial expression of surprise or inquiry... Something like, oh oh, am I going to get in trouble? Quick quick let's put on the cutest expression I have in my repertoire so that I can escape the consequences of the mess I just made...

And that's about it... But that doesn't mean that Amélie can't express herself well... She lets you know what she wants using lots of 'aaaaah' sounds and pointing gestures, and now she walks to her room when she is tired... She also throws full-blown tantrums... They generally include stomping, throwing herself on the floor and sometimes the oh so scary turning purple because she is holding her breath thingie.... We had a full-blown one tonight... Hold on to your hats, this one has temper...

Fortunately, she also learns cute things. For instance, she now gives kisses on the cheek (when we ask for one, and also spontaneously)... Truly special, due to both the loud 'mmmmwwooooaaaah' she says while kissing, and the amount of drool left on the kiss location after she is done...

Nouvelles du weekend...

Ce matin on est allées nous promener au marché de Bloomington. C'était sympa comme tout et on s'est bien amusées, Amélie a, comme d'hab, refusé d'aller dans sa poussette et m'a balladée d'un bout à l'autre du marché... Tout ça alors que Meredith (la fille de ma copine Kim) dormait paisiblement dans sa poussette... Y pas d'justice je vous le dis...

Après toutes ces aventures, Amélie a fait une bonne sieste à midi et était toute contente de se brosser les dents et de mettre son nouveau pyjama ce soir:



Pas de fièvre du samedi soir à l'horizon pour la chtite, elle était au lit à 19H!

Go Flamengo!

Flamengo, the soccer team of the Pessoa family won the championship!

To celebrate, our little one wore her Flamengo booties...



And of course, celebrated the victory with a good drink (of milk):



BRAVO campeão!!!

Thought of the day...

Happiness is good health, infinite patience, and a very short memory... Nuff said!

Teething...

These last two weeks, Amélie has been drooling like never before... A change of bib is required every couple of hours... As a result, I have been calling her Niagara Falls...

After careful and cautious examination (Putting our fingers in her mouth is risky... She really bites now), we have determined that she has 4 bottom teeth (including the incisors) and two upper premolars that are coming out at the same time... Fun times!!

Understandably, she has been more cranky... And she is trying to chew on everything... Her preferred soothing technique remains Elmo's songs... As we don't want her to stay too close to the TV, we have been teaching her to sit on a cushion while watching her favorite red furry friend... The cushion technique seems to work, but it's way less fun than sitting on papai's lap: