Wowsas! Oliver will turn 5 months in 9 days (that makes today September 17th, in case I can't finish this today or soon :P)I cannot believe how fast it has gone, on the other hand it also feels like Ollie has been with us forever. Time is weird like that, but most definitely it's a thief!
Let's go back a bit.. in late June, Luke finally headed back to school after a long break to spend time with his grandparents and waiting for everyone to pass the chicken pox around his class. Even though he didn't catch chicken pox, he did spend half of the month home sick with ear infection and another fever that went away on it's own. Luckily these two viruses weren't passed on to Oliver.
I was really nervous because around the time that Luke caught his first virus, he started becoming super playful and excited to be around Ollie. In my mind I thought we had to be screwed and here came Ollie's first virus, but somehow he managed to stay healthy.
We enjoyed some beach days and lots of summer festivals with friends and as a family.
During the month of August, Luke had no school but we savored our time with daddy working from home a lot! As many other people in the office were on holidays, it meant less in person meetings so lots of extra time with dad in the morning and in the evenings. Most mornings consisted of a very early morning walk with Mel, Ollie in the carrier and Luke riding his balance bike before the heat of the day arrived. I think it was definitely the hottest summer we have ever had since I arrived 6 years ago now. :O Not that the temperatures were super hot, we just didn't have breaks in the heat like we usually have, and it also seemed like more humidity than usual.
Anyways in the end of August we made a trip to Portimao to visit with our Algarve cousins. Lara & Luke had so much fun together. I loved to see them playing together and sometimes resolving their own battles, and learning from each other as well. For the first time, I got to visit the Eastern side of Algarve. We went to Monte Gordo beach, and the little boys and I did a little visit to Faro. I had my first ever two days of solo parenting because Joel had to go to Germany during our time in Algarve. Both boys behaved really well and it was the best two nights of sleep in Ollie's life. He went to sleep around 7pm and then only woke up once each night! That way I could do dinner and bed time with Luke easily. Then we drove to Faro and visited the Life sciences museum and walked around a little bit around the historic center but it was a super hot day. You can see in the photos Lukes face is bright red and he was all sweaty! We also enjoyed a pool day and a day at the amusement park, Zoomarine. We got Luke a life jacket and he loved being in the water. At zoomarine we watched the dolphin show, seal show and he loved just playing in the water. So we will have to go again next year!
Luke is really into reading books. Has recently moved upstairs into a big bed. (Ok carrying on this post, today is October 1st) At first we had him on a double mattress on the floor but he was rolling all over the place and waking up several times a night because he was stuck under the covers at the bottom of the bed. We made a trip to Ikea in Porto to see what other options were available for him. We found a twin bed with a mattress in a drawer that we can pull out when we have cousins or family over, etc. There is also a small storage drawer in the bottom. It is against the wall and has a rail as well. Since getting his new bed delivered, he has had really great nights of sleep. He also had his naps there for a while but maybe his napping days are over, or at least fading out. On normal days where he has a nap, he is in bed at 840pm or so, and wakes up like an alarm clock at 6am. 😝 On days where he naps, he has a nice long nap, sometimes over 2 hours long at home, but at school I believe they are shorter and less restorative for sure! When he doesn't nap, he does a pretty great job of having "quiet time" where he can play in his new room. he has puzzles, books, letter magnets, and other quiet toys. He has stayed at home the last week or so because it seems like he caught the chicken pox. I'm still not 100 percent convinced though a doctor said based on his symptoms it seemed to match the description, he never had a fever or anything else. He did have a small group of bumps on his belly the first day, the next day they spread all over his body and had little pus bubbles. But he was never really itchy and they did scab over but nothing like the pictures when you search images online. I guess the real test will be if he catches it "again". So far he is loving pre school and being with older kids. A few weeks ago he asked to go to school as soon as he woke up.
Some things Luke loves lately, is "reading" his books. He takes them off the book shelf one at a time, looks at all the pictures (doesn't miss a single page) and then makes a new book stack somewhere in the living room. He does this until his crazy leaning tower of pisa book stack falls over, then gets frustrated and asks for help to put them back into a stack. He still loves to arrange his cars. We draw different parking lots and tracks all over the house. In the backyard with chalk, on paper, on his new car track rug. But after they are parked he usually leaves them, unlike before where he would race them around the living room. He also has a wooden car ramp Joel made him that he can launch them from. He also loves to make food for us and eat in the restaurant. He speaks really well in both languages but we can't get him to say dolphin in either language! 🤣 he says golfin, which is a combo of dolphin + golfinho. He's so excited for Halloween.
Ok, our not so little Oliver! Besides those two nights where Joel was away, he hasn't been such a great sleeper, he wakes up a lot and at bed time he sometimes have what they call false starts, where he thinks bed time was just another nap. It's easy for me to see why we are struggling more with sleep with him, because he depends on Luke and his naps or sleep needs are often interrupted by picking up Luke from school, or taking Luke to school in the morning. And I'm sure, him not his own space to sleep until a month or so ago also didn't help matters at all. Ollie has been rolling stomach to back for some time, and can also roll back to belly as well. I think his ability to roll has also effected his sleep, as he tries to get comfy and ends up rolling over sometimes. We hope to move him all night to his own room soon. Right now he just starts his night there and usually around 11pm or so he comes to our room.
Ollie drools a ton! It feels like there are not enough bibs to contain it. :P He loves to babble, especially when brother isn't around and it's his time to shine. He recently discovered his legs and feet. He taps his hands on his legs, puts both legs up in the air and loves to grab stuff and put it straight into his mouth! He loves his binky as well. He can stick out his tongue. He is very forgiving of his brother when he plays too rough with him. Luke loves to push the limits playing with Ollie, always drumming a little bit too hard on his belly, or rolling just a little too close to him. Sometimes big brother will "read" books to Ollie and it's the sweetest. He doesn't ask to hold him very often, but once in a while he does and it's so cute until Luke wants to move suddenly and I need to catch Ollie.
Ok, in other non kiddo news, Joel got a promotion! He took over his bosses position. YAY so proud of him, as it's a position which involves several sides of the business versus just engineering like before. In the transition to the new position I was very overwhelmed because it was when my parents left, and Luke hadn't started back at school, yet Joel was also working a lot and arriving home later than usual. Things have definitely calmed down, but I think he is enjoying his new role!
We sold our single family home in Tempe, Arizona. With so many big costs going up (property management, labor, materials, etc) and no prospective tenant after the house being on the market for around 4 months, we decided that we would use that money to fund the new house we will hopefully buy here in Aveiro. Then when we move into our new house, we can use the money from the sale of our current house, to reinvest, but probably in Portugal this time. That way we can be closer. We wouldn't need an agent, Joel can repair the broken things himself, etc.
We will have our first airplane trip since June 2022 at the end of October to Morocco! We are really excited to have a proper holiday as the last time we were supposed to travel to Madeira was one year ago and Mel had her seizure. Speaking of Mel, she has not had any other epileptic episodes so we will now begin to slowly reduce her medication and hope that she continues without them. That is really great news as I think her medications have effected her a lot.
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