Yikes 4 months have gone past since I have written anything! But in the meantime, I have done a little blogging here as I transfer my Korean blogs over to this blog page. My mom had emailed my grandmother my Korean blog posts which I am forever grateful to not only see what she said back to my mom but also have a copy of those blogs. I had a page with blog.com and when you try to visit the site now it just says page not found. :O The bummer is a lot of photos can't transfer over, but at least I have the text. I have back dated them so you can find them in the 2011-2013 tabs! I am also amazed but so grateful that I had the time to write so many precious memories and funny stories there in the blog. I don't have such a vivid memory so it is great to bring back more details of my time there!
With Luke a lot more active the last few months, we have done park trips, playing outside in the grass, with his water table, or just pouring water buckets around the yard. He still loves to play with his cars, and now has a tricycle which he figured out in just a few days. Getting his tricycle also helped him understand that he could push himself around on his little red formula one car too! :) He often asks for help to get on one car and then asks to get on the other! He does a great job communicating what he wants using pointing and a few words. Some important ones like bye bye, when he is done with his food, or "more" and usually points to what he specifically wants more of and where it was on his plate. He is obsessed with the wild blackberries. When we go on walks with Mel, he knows the spots where there are berries and we always have to stop and pick some! When I tell him I can't find anymore, he says "bye bye berries". Ok, he is still working on berries but he makes the "bey" sound. He still loves to show everyone their "pe" or foot in Portuguese. He also uses pe to talk about shoes or socks! He will bring his shoes or socks over to us if they are sitting around and ask for help to put them on. He finally is getting close to outgrowing his first pair of walking shoes.
Food is completely random these days, and almost seems like it depends who is feeding him. He still isn't much of a meat fan, unless it is ground or very small. Everything else really depends on the day. One day he ate a huge bowl of quinoa! The next day he wouldn't have any. He is a berry boy through and through because any type of berry he will always scarf them down! If I had to pick one I think Blueberries would be his favorite.
Luke can climb on and safely get off our sofa now, the can climb the stairs at the park, and could entertain himself for hours just running around the backyard. He loves to twist lids of jars or tupperwares and take them off again. He isn't as great of a shopping companion as he used to be, because now he demands the food I am putting in the cart, instead of just holding the items. He loves to read books! We recently painted a little black house in his room for his reading corner and goes there and takes books down and requests to read them! It is so cute. He loves his sound button books and still loves to make car sounds. He isn't upset very often, but when he is, it is usually because he wants to play with something unsafe and we need to take it away. After that happens he is bummed for a minute but can easily be distracted with peak a boo, or pointing to his body parts. He is very confident in finding noses and belly button. And improving daily on eyes, mouth, ears, legs, arms.
He started daycare on September 1st and it has been a slow and painful process so far. The first two days he didn't cry when we dropped him off but when I picked him up, his eyes were all red and I could hear him crying from the pick up room. Because of covid we cannot enter the classroom, so you ring a bell near the entrance of the building and the teacher brings Luke out. The third morning he was crying when Joel dropped him off too and trying to cling on for dear life. So far he has only stayed about 3 hours max, and I know it is a huge adjustment for him, only being with mom and dad almost 100 percent of the time! Maybe we can thank covid for an extra harder transition into daycare? Anyways tomorrow, he will have lunch there. Fingers crossed every day is easier!
Outside of trips around Aveiro, we visited Portimao and caught up with Cousin Lara and family. On the way back we stopped in Alentejo at a beautiful water spot and hike. We went with Pedro Lopes to Cabreia Waterfall in Sever do Vouga for an afternoon hike and swim. It was the first time in Mel's life she actually swam... like didn't just stand and walk in the water. We were so excited and she seemed to enjoy it too, with her tail always wagging and she kept going back in for more. We also visited Soito for the wedding of one of Joel's elementary school classmates and it was also his birthday weekend. We took advantage of Joel's work from home and went on Thursday night and Luke and I cruised around Soito on Friday while Joel worked from his parents. The wedding was a lot of fun, as the Soito ones always are! Everyone sang to Joel and wished him a happy birthday, and even had a little special cake for him. :) We attended another wedding earlier in July for one of Joel's co workers in a beautiful chapel overlooking the douro and the reception was at a beautiful winery near the Douro river. The day involved a ton of driving but it was absolutely beautiful! I can't believe Joel had never taken me before! The wedding was a lot of fun, but because we had to get back to Luke we left around midnight and they hadn't even had the cake. They were only finishing the desserts as part of the dinner! Portuguese weddings can go... late!
We had two sets of visitors!! WOO. My cousin Mary Kate came to visit just a few days in late June. It was so great to catch up with her and hear more about her job and see her play with Luke! We went to all the usual tourist spots and tried to make sure she tried all the must try Portuguese dishes!!
Then my parents came in the end of July! Their visit flew by so quickly! I was giving some classes during the day while they took care of Luke and then the four of us (no Joel) visited a city called Viana Do Castelo. VDC was so charming and cute! Unfortunately we were missing their most famous festival by one weekend! But our airbnb was in the city center and we enjoyed walking around and trying out their famous Bolo Berlim. The chapel at the top of the hill was so pretty and the panorama views from the top were amazing! We found a little food truck selling crepes at the top and had a little picnic at the top. There was a cat in the picnic area and Luke was determined to befriend it but the cat wasn't so sure about Luke. It was the first time since Luke was maybe 4-5 months old that he actually slept in the stroller! He fell asleep in the car and kept sleeping until we got to the top of the funicular ride! We also visited Agueda and went to Pateira for game picnics twice. Once with several of our friends. My mom was named the Champion of the World in the game Molkky.
It was definitely an amazing summer, full of great memories together! :) We are thankful for the high vaccination rate in Portugal and slowly seeing the restrictions lifted and serious cases and deaths going down. Stay healthy and safe! Until next time!!
Nicole, Joel, Mel, Luke
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