Exercising and Exersaucing

I personally don't partake in either, but both are fun to watch. 

Field Trip Photos and Updates

This has just been one of those weeks with  appointments and end of school craziness from morning until my head hits the pillow.

Highlights of the week include meeting with an architect to solve the myriad problems we have in the house.  He remarked that we are at the point where building from scratch is less expensive than updating and fixing everything.  We are starting with the essentials,  and waiting for the dreaded estimate to roll in.

Mooj needs braces, but continues cavity free.  So begins another season of orthodontics.   

Speaking of teeth, Seb's two top teeth are in now. 

Mooj has five more days of school,  and he has never been more ready to just move on. He has had some of these classmates for 12 years now.

Freddy appeared in my room last night holding The Wizard of Oz and asked if we could revisit  "a nice classic novel. "   I read chapters 1, 2, and 4 and he read chapter 3 aloud to me. My dad gave this book to Moojie so I particularly cherish reading it with Freddy. 

No post is complete without pictures so here follows a few Caroline took on her field trip in Lisbon yesterday. 

27 Weeks

This is now two weeks out of date, but I finally got this to upload right side up.

28 weeks

Seb's 27 week photo is yet to be posted. I have it all done and edited, but Blogger insists on automatically rotating it not just on it's side, but entirely upside down. Until I sort it out, here's our Seb at 28 weeks. 

His top tooth broke the gums on Saturday while we were away bringing his tooth total to three. 

Early Sunday Morning

Seb and I- the lone early birds- were awake with the Sun this morning.

I tiptoed down two long corridors with Seb clutching my shoulders, while the sound of his baby hiccups punctuated every fifth step or so.

We made it to the copa where I waited for strong coffee to finish brewing, and marveled at this cup full of fresh asparagus in the window.

In a house packed with people and seldom a moment of serenity, this simple morning ritual of going downstairs for coffee was bliss.

On a less reflective note, the blue trim on these windows will be my new obsession. I am madly cataloging things in our house that can be painted that color.

Balmy Quinta Days

Flash Back Friday

Today I'm revisiting Summer 2006. I'm in a Summer mood and always love a good flash back on Friday. 

This was taken on Moojie's 8th birthday, so Zita is 3 and a half and Freddy is 3 months. He looks about the size that Seb is now at 6.5 months. 

I wonder which child helped with the frosting. 

Freddy at 7 months. Seb now plays in this contraption known as an excersaucer every morning while I empty the dishwasher and make sandwiches. 

I don't know how old Freddy is here, but Sebby also loves the cheek-to-cheek squish. Who doesn't? It's one of the best parts of baby love.

Sweet little Zita. 

I know; I'm dying too at the site of Moojie as an 8 year old. We were apparently establishing the cheek-to-cheek squish from early on.

This was the year that he started jumping. He did his first jump when I was in the hospital having Freddy. As much as I'm embracing this new Rugby phase, I miss seeing Mooj up on a horse week after week. 

We went to Porto Covo that Summer when Freddy was 3  months. I don't want to say that I long for "the good ol' days" because the days are still so good to us, and golden beyond compare.

Perspective

Just when I think Sebby is soooo big, Mooj picks him up.
Much better- he's back to looking little again.

Rockin' it Popped

If one is going to sport madras plaid shorts, a popped collar is a given. Seb agrees.

Mornings

I remember everything about Moojie, Zita, and Freddy as babies. If I close my eyes, I can feel Moojie's round soft feet, Zita nestling into me like a kitten, and Freddy perched on my hip while I kept up with the other two.

 Things start to get fuzzy when I try to remember the minutiae of everyday routine. I hope I will always remember Zita and Freddy piling into our bed for a Seb cuddle while they wake up.

Seb is their strong morning coffee. 

Excuse the fuzzy picture. I couldn't leave it out. 

I'm still getting used to seeing Zita with earings 

Sebby Growing Up So Fast

Seb just had his check-up and weighs 21.5 lbs and is 29.5 inches tall.

Happy and heathy :-)

Amazon Goodies

As the years go by and more products become available in Portugal, there are very few things that I feel like I am missing. The bigger problem is price.  That's where my love of Amazon.co.uk comes in. 

I bought three Avent bottles for 9 euros on Amazon, they are 11.50 EACH in Portugal. How crazy is that? 

My suitcase is stocked when I come back from California with every kind of sunblock I can fit.  We aren't going home this year, so I investigated sunblock  on Amazon. These color spray bottles sell for between 15 to 17 euros here and were only 5 euros each on Amazon. I only wish I had ordered more.

 I got 6 baby spoons for 2.50 on Amazon, and they are over 3 euros each here. 

 Having Amazon at one's finger tips is by far one of the best quality of life boosters an ex-pat gal could ask for. 

Friday Photo Dump

I think Seb will graduate pretty quickly to feeding himself finger foods. 

Foods tried so far: 

Carrot

Pumpkin

Peas

Potato 

Apple

Pear

Baby yogurt 

Rice Ceareal ( to get gluten introduced while still breast feeding ) 

Avocado

With White Fang finished, Freddy chooses more often than not to read by himself instead of having me read to him. Normally,  I would celebrate that fact, but it just makes me sad that we are phasing out what i consider one of the best parts of motherhood. I might try to lure him back to me with a re-read Swiss Family Robinson. 

Seb gums and crumbles a teething cookie every car trip. I'm now accessorizing with soggy cookie crumbs and sour milk. Between sand and crumbs, the car is looking sparkly as can be. I think I could start a new blog called messymomcars.blogspot.com. We could submit photos and look at other messy cars   for validation purposes. 

Freddy is adroit enough on his bigger bicycle now to swerve among crowds and not peddle straight into the ocean.  That's a milestone I'm willing to embrace. 

Speaking of the ocean, we had the best waterside walk and sat here for ice cream on Pai's one day home last weekend. 

When he was safely on his way to Barcelona, I took Miss Zita to get her ears pierced. She's been begging since she could speak. 

She chose small and simple silver studs. 

Happy girl :-) 

Rice crispy treats were Freddy's request. If one is going to make anything in the kitchen,  it might as well be multicolored, right? 

Seb in one of his baby shower gifts. 

I fit two whole chickens in the slow cooker yesterday with copious chipotle sauce, garlic, onion, cilantro, and tomato. We ate it with lemony guac in tortillas, and I still have lots of chicken left over.