Closing out 2020!

With the blink of an eye, literally, 2020 is over! While there is some light at the end of this crazy tunnel we are walking through, I still think we have to have patience to reach the end. 

 I last posted in the end of September, and Luke was just about to begin the adventure that is eating! I have loved every moment of his eating adventure and as they say in Portuguese he has a "good mouth". He loves almost everything we give him. He took a few days to get used to the concept of eating but after that it was full speed ahead. He started with bananas, avocados, yogurt, and then we went right into everything! We followed the method known as Baby Led Weaning, which is basically letting the baby feed themselves and trusting them to know when they are full, what they don't like, and not forcing them to eat anything. Everything was cut to the proper size and Luke would go in for the grab! When it is something like yogurt, you load the spoon, and hand the spoon off to Luke for him to aim it up. In the beginning it was tricky for him to grab things as his pincher grasp hadn't fully developed but he quickly improved and was grabbing everything off his plate! He has now eaten over 75 different foods and ingredients including all of the top allergens, and I think the only things he hasn't liked so far are broccoli and pickles. I have had lots of fun trying out new recipes to make things without sugar for him and incorporating as many fruits and veggies as possible.  

Photo above and below by Pedro Lopes Photography

We were able to make another trip to Soito to enjoy a long weekend in October and try to use up Joel's remaining holidays. Luke was very happy to visit his Avos. We went on beautiful walks.  I cycled behind Joel as he ran 15 km around the surrounding villages, and we had a nice time together.

 

 We also did a little overnight stay in a yurt and visited the historic and very very old village of Monsanto! It is absolutely beautiful and hard to imagine how old the things are. Somehow they were able to build homes, stores, and roads into the huge granite slabs. We climbed around the castle and Joel told me stories about when he visited with his school class when he was younger.  It was so beautiful and charming and there were hardly any other people since we got up early thanks to Mr. Luke, the alarm clock. 

 

The stay in the yurt was so unique and fun as well. There is literally nothing around but another yurt which was unoccupied. The owners are Scottish and so lovely and have done a great job with the place. They took a picture of us for their guestbook when they left. We also wrote in their guestbook notebook which reminded me of my parents ski condo, where they have a guestbook dating back to when they first bought the place! So cool to see what people have to say and where they have visited from. They run everything via solar panels and fix up everything themselves. They had a camping kitchen set up and the yurts are legit Mongolian yurts sent to Portugal. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Luke was a very good boy and the hosts loved him! 

A few weeks later we made another trip to Portimao. Due to covid there was a formula 1 race happening there and if you know Joel, you know it's his love and his passion! Unfortunately covid cases were creeping up again and we were unsure the event would still be open to the public until a few days before but we either way had to go and meet little Miss Lara, Luke's cousin! We had so much fun visiting Cristina and Ricardo and meeting Lara. She is such a sweetie and Luke just wanted to squeeze her little cheeks. It was the first time I was visiting Algarve outside of summer time, so I was a little shocked that it isn't always warm there! It was a little chilly in the mornings but the beautiful sun was still shining. 

I mentioned sleep training in my last post, which made me laugh now, because I would say that is very light sleep training. We did extinction sleep training in December because Luke's sleeping spiraled out of control. He was waking up 30 minutes after bed time, and sometimes we would be rocking him for a long time and the moment he hit that crib, no matter how sly we were he was wide awake again. From the middle of October things had just continually gotten worse and we were on our wits end and decided we really needed to do something about it because it just wasn't healthy for anyone. We downloaded a book on our kindle called Precious Little Sleep which saved us! We read through the applicable pages as fast as we could and started full extinction sleep training. He learned very quickly that we weren't going to come back in to save him. While it was a little hard to listen to him crying, it was less crying than what he was doing previously waking up all the time. He sleeps from 7pm-6/7am most nights with one feeding during the night. We lay him down in his bed, some nights he cries for a minute other nights he wiggles himself to get comfy and then is off to dreamland. And after sleep training his naps have also become very consistent. We have a regular schedule that he follows and it is so much easier to plan for the day and it's like he knows when it is time to sleep so he goes to sleep easily. He still takes two naps a day around 9am and 2pm, usually lasting 75-90 minutes! I wish we had done this much earlier as it saved our sanity!

Sadly in October, the covid cases were starting to increase and were at levels much higher than the first wave back when Luke was born. Portugal tried to help slow the spread by putting out rules like curfews on the weekend each morning after 1pm, and from 11pm-5am during the weekdays, no one should be out unless they were working. There were lots of other details to these rules like in restaurants near schools, there could only be groups of 4 together, and many others, but we went back into our own world of stay at home again to be safe and keep Luke safe as well. Joel started to work from home again most of the time, only working at Bosch for an afternoon or morning once in a while when necessary.They really tried to push for numbers to get better so we could have Christmas celebrations.Christmas celebrations happened but New Years had very strict rules, however the covid has since gone crazy and the health system in Portugal is in shock, ambulances are waiting outside of hospitals with no where to unload the patients, no beds available, patients transported from bigger cities to smaller ones where there are spaces available, etc.  As of Jan 15, we have started another lock down however schools are still in session, but most rules are similar to the first lock down. (restaurants, gyms, retail shopping centers are closed.)  Sadly it seems like people aren't taking it as seriously, when there is good weather the news channel shows the beach where everyone is out walking to get exercise and sunshine, and the streets are not empty like the last confinement.  I hope with the vaccine roll out we can get out of the rut and get the numbers better, all around the world. Fingers crossed. 

 Christmas Photos by Pedro Lopes Photography

Anyways back to Christmas, we had a great time celebrating with the Pereira family in Soito. The babies didn't wake each other up too much during the night and had fun opening their gifts. Luke loved playing with the paper and the boxes more than the toys! The weather was really chilly but sunny. Joel and I took Mel on lots of long walks and went on an extra long traditional Christmas walk with Pedro, her bestie. We returned home on Dec 26th and mostly were just at home because we couldn't leave our municipality, though we did enjoy one hike just a few miles from here. We did lots of cooking and bike rides with Mel and Luke. Joel didn't have to return to work until Jan 4. 

 

After Christmas is when Luke started to become very very interested in moving around and getting the toys around him. He loves to stand and hold onto furniture, he will dive bomb himself from sitting position to face first on the floor to get something and often bumps his nose and forehead on the floor. He loves walking around with help from Joel or I, and is slowly getting the hang of the walker!  I'm sure it won't be long until he is really all over the place!! 

There was no better way to spend 2020 in lock down, than with a sweet little bundle of Luke. He definitely made our year a great one despite everything happening outside of our little house. He kept us busy and distracted from the madness, and made it easy to stay home. I'm still so sad that we haven't been able to meet Grandma and Grandpa in America yet. Hopefully the day comes sooner rather than later. 

And just before we could say good bye to 2020, my maternal grandmother, Grandma Ryder passed away from Covid.  I am always inspired by her when I cook  something kitchen as she wrote an entire healthy cookbook herself, far far ahead of the healthy recipe days! I am so grateful she left us so much about her life from childhood in her journals and photography.  I have so many beautiful memories playing in my grandparents house as a child.  Next time we are able to have a small gathering of people I can't wait to play a game of Nertz in her honor. She was such an amazing lady and I am so lucky for all of our memories but happy she is no longer suffering and can be with my grandpa!  

Love and Safe Social Distanced Hugs from Portugal :) 

Nicole, Joel, Mel & Luke