Saturday, October 22, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
A few of her favorite things
"Zoe has a strong personality," they tell us at her daycare. Needless to say, we are not strangers to strong personalities here in the Orglet household. Zoe seems to share a certain, shall we say, intensity, with her brother, and yet the objects of her affection are quite different.
Zoe loves giving kisses - especially to her brother during bath time. Zoe loves her piggy and her baby doll, both of which she has clearly named "Uh-oh!" for reasons we don't entirely understand. She loves to give them kisses, and to have them give kisses to each other. Zoe loves trains, and yells, "ooo! ooo!" (rhymes with "choo-choo," of course) whenever she sees one. When she plays with them, it generally involves giving them kisses.
Zoe loves food. She yells, "Tato! Tato!" whenever she sees a potato, orange, onion, or avocado, because they all fall into the category of "sort of round things that live in a bowl on the kitchen counter." She has noticed that we often blow on her food to cool it down. Now she blows on things to indicate her interest in eating them.
Zoe loves footwear, which she is now quite capable at removing and working hard on putting on by herself.
The recurring theme in Zoe's favorite activities is reciprocity. She absolutely adores giving us her favorite things (dolls, shoes, food, kisses), and then taking them back from us. Ad nauseam. This is accompanied by a constant refrain of "Da! Da!" ("give" in Portuguese).
Most of all, Zoe loves balls. If she sees one, she yells, with truly remarkable enthusiasm and volume, "BAAALL! BAAALL! BAAALL!" and doesn't stop until she has it in her possession. She hugs them, she kicks them, she drops them. Most of all, she loves rolling them back and forth with us, and taking them for walks.
Zoe loves giving kisses - especially to her brother during bath time. Zoe loves her piggy and her baby doll, both of which she has clearly named "Uh-oh!" for reasons we don't entirely understand. She loves to give them kisses, and to have them give kisses to each other. Zoe loves trains, and yells, "ooo! ooo!" (rhymes with "choo-choo," of course) whenever she sees one. When she plays with them, it generally involves giving them kisses.
Zoe loves food. She yells, "Tato! Tato!" whenever she sees a potato, orange, onion, or avocado, because they all fall into the category of "sort of round things that live in a bowl on the kitchen counter." She has noticed that we often blow on her food to cool it down. Now she blows on things to indicate her interest in eating them.
Zoe loves footwear, which she is now quite capable at removing and working hard on putting on by herself.
The recurring theme in Zoe's favorite activities is reciprocity. She absolutely adores giving us her favorite things (dolls, shoes, food, kisses), and then taking them back from us. Ad nauseam. This is accompanied by a constant refrain of "Da! Da!" ("give" in Portuguese).
Most of all, Zoe loves balls. If she sees one, she yells, with truly remarkable enthusiasm and volume, "BAAALL! BAAALL! BAAALL!" and doesn't stop until she has it in her possession. She hugs them, she kicks them, she drops them. Most of all, she loves rolling them back and forth with us, and taking them for walks.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
That Orglet look
It seems a week doesn't go by without someone declaring that Zoe is a "fotocópia" of Mike (and then asking me how to say fotocópia in English.) It's true that sometimes when I see her from a certain angle, Zoe looks just like Owen to me. And of course, people have always said that Owen resembles Mike. But I've been holding onto a glimmer of hope that some of my genes made it through this time...
... no?
 Mike |  Megan |
 Owen |  Zoe |
... no?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Owen's 4th Birthday
Happy, Happy!
We are so proud of our little guy.
For Owen's birthday we planned ahead (relatively speaking) and bought cupcakes the night before for him to take to school. He got to have one for breakfast on the big day!
We are so proud of our little guy.
For Owen's birthday we planned ahead (relatively speaking) and bought cupcakes the night before for him to take to school. He got to have one for breakfast on the big day!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Zoe's 1st Birthday
Zoe celebrated her first birthday on Friday! Her first year of life absolutely flew by. She spent an awful lot of it perched on my left hip while I went about the business of moving us to Portugal, but she seemed to be quite happy about it. She is a fun little thing, always ready for a big celebration or a big adventure.
For her birthday we gave her a baby doll, and she fell in love with it instantly.
Of course, she had to test it out a little first.
We also celebrated her birthday with a cupcake fest at the mall. (Yes, I realize I don't get full Mommy points for this, but not only is she a 2nd child, she also shares a birthday week with her big brother. We do what we can! And the cupcake fest was fun...)
For her birthday we gave her a baby doll, and she fell in love with it instantly.
Of course, she had to test it out a little first.
We also celebrated her birthday with a cupcake fest at the mall. (Yes, I realize I don't get full Mommy points for this, but not only is she a 2nd child, she also shares a birthday week with her big brother. We do what we can! And the cupcake fest was fun...)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A lazy Saturday morning
You know how before you have kids, you imagine that having them might involve lazy weekend mornings snuggling together in bed? But then it turns out that it doesn't? Well, today it did! And it was nice.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
What they're up to
As we start a new year and the Orglets approach their birthdays, we find ourselves reflecting on their recent accomplishments.
Zoe has been very communicative lately. She is starting to make lots of noises that sound like talking. She seems to be saying Mama and Dada discriminately, and lots of other things that may or may not be words in English and/or Portuguese. She understands much of what we say to her. The other day when I was dressing her I asked her to give me her socks, and she did. When I showed obvious pleasure that she understood, it made her so happy that she reached for her shoes and gave those to me, too. Now whenever I dress her she spends the whole time trying to hand me footwear.
She loves it when we sing songs with her, and she makes requests by getting our attention and making the hand movements for particular favorites, while making sweet little sounds that are clearly her attempts at singing them. She also stands by the piano and dances and says "bap bap bap" when she wants us to play music.
Recently Zoe has been enjoying playing with her shape sorter. She's very good at the circle. The other shapes are harder, so she asks for help. She'll try once or twice, then turn to one of us, and give us the shape to put through for her.
Owen and Zoe have some things in common, like a passion for music, and wonderful senses of humor. But they are also quite different. Zoe is a dabbler while Owen tends to be incredibly focused. Owen is (and always has been) very independent, while Zoe seeks constant interaction. Zoe seems to enjoy making the people around her happy as much as Owen enjoys doing math and spelling puzzles on Daddy's phone.
Owen loves letters, number, and patterns of any kind. His independence, ability to focus, and love of music and patterns are put to nearly perfect use at the piano. He is absolutely determined to figure out how to play it. If we ask him to play a song with simple melody that he has never seen played before, he will more often than not be able to work it out. And then a few minutes later he'll play it in a different key. So far we have failed to find a teacher willing to teach piano to a 3 year old, so we have taken to playing simple pieces while he watches, which he then practices on his own. Like this:
(In the clip he's playing the left hand arpeggios and the right hand melody of an Allegretto by Czerny. They're not aligned in time the way the music suggests, but then he's figured it out entirely on his own, without being taught, and without the benefit of being able to read music. And, of course, he's 3.)
Zoe has been very communicative lately. She is starting to make lots of noises that sound like talking. She seems to be saying Mama and Dada discriminately, and lots of other things that may or may not be words in English and/or Portuguese. She understands much of what we say to her. The other day when I was dressing her I asked her to give me her socks, and she did. When I showed obvious pleasure that she understood, it made her so happy that she reached for her shoes and gave those to me, too. Now whenever I dress her she spends the whole time trying to hand me footwear.
She loves it when we sing songs with her, and she makes requests by getting our attention and making the hand movements for particular favorites, while making sweet little sounds that are clearly her attempts at singing them. She also stands by the piano and dances and says "bap bap bap" when she wants us to play music.
Recently Zoe has been enjoying playing with her shape sorter. She's very good at the circle. The other shapes are harder, so she asks for help. She'll try once or twice, then turn to one of us, and give us the shape to put through for her.
Owen and Zoe have some things in common, like a passion for music, and wonderful senses of humor. But they are also quite different. Zoe is a dabbler while Owen tends to be incredibly focused. Owen is (and always has been) very independent, while Zoe seeks constant interaction. Zoe seems to enjoy making the people around her happy as much as Owen enjoys doing math and spelling puzzles on Daddy's phone.
Owen loves letters, number, and patterns of any kind. His independence, ability to focus, and love of music and patterns are put to nearly perfect use at the piano. He is absolutely determined to figure out how to play it. If we ask him to play a song with simple melody that he has never seen played before, he will more often than not be able to work it out. And then a few minutes later he'll play it in a different key. So far we have failed to find a teacher willing to teach piano to a 3 year old, so we have taken to playing simple pieces while he watches, which he then practices on his own. Like this:
(In the clip he's playing the left hand arpeggios and the right hand melody of an Allegretto by Czerny. They're not aligned in time the way the music suggests, but then he's figured it out entirely on his own, without being taught, and without the benefit of being able to read music. And, of course, he's 3.)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Happy New Year!
Sometimes at night when we're putting Owen to bed he helps us tell him the story of his day. On New Year's Eve, I put Owen to bed and told him the story of his year. What a year it was! When 2010 started, he was only 2 years old, and he didn't have a sister. In 2010, Zoe was born, and Owen turned 3. His school in Boston moved into a new, renovated space, and his teachers changed. We packed up all of our things, and moved to a new house in Portugal. Owen started a new school, with new teachers and friends. He learned how to jump, play songs on the piano, read a little, and do a little math. As I went through all of this, he listened VERY carefully. He kept wanting to talk about the part where we packed up all of our things into boxes and put them on the truck. I think he might remember that for a very long time.
This is how we were in 2010:
It was a year full of family, friends, and adventure, and we will all remember it for a very long time.
This is how we were in 2010:
It was a year full of family, friends, and adventure, and we will all remember it for a very long time.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Fall 2010
The Orglets have been busy...
playing at the local playground
and at home.
We went back to PA for a week for a family wedding
... and merriment
and squeezed in some trick-or-treating
and doughnuts
... and merriment!
And then we came back home to Portugal, bought the largest turkey the checkout girl at the supermarket had ever seen (it was only 16 lbs), and squeezed it into our little European oven for Thanksgiving.
(For more photos of the Orglets, check out our smugmug galleries)
playing at the local playground
and at home.
We went back to PA for a week for a family wedding
... and merriment
and squeezed in some trick-or-treating
and doughnuts
... and merriment!
And then we came back home to Portugal, bought the largest turkey the checkout girl at the supermarket had ever seen (it was only 16 lbs), and squeezed it into our little European oven for Thanksgiving.
(For more photos of the Orglets, check out our smugmug galleries)
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