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)

Alive and well in Portugal!

The past month has been an absolute whirlwind. There is so much to say about our new lives in Portugal that I barely know how to begin. We are doing well. After about a month in our new house with no furniture, all 9,000 lbs of our stuff (or should I say, 4,082 kgs) were delivered a few weeks ago. We have unpacked most of the boxes. Going overnight from a 2-BR flat to a 4-story house with a garden has been overwhelming but also very welcome.

Zoe has continued to break new ground at an alarming pace. In the car on the way to the airport to fly here, I felt her very first teeth breaking through. She was a trooper, and after two or three days forgave me for making her suffer through jet lag and teething simultaneously. Also on the plane, she started waving. First, it was only for the flight attendant, but within a few days of arriving in Lisbon (after the teething and jet lag wore off), she was waving at everyone. All. The. Time. She is a happy little thing and tries her best to charm the pants off of everyone she meets. I think her first words will probably be the Portuguese for, "Oh, what a beautiful little doll," which she hears dozens of times a day.



Owen seems very happy here. He loves his new school. He is in the nursery year of an international school that goes from 3-18. It is in English which has eased his transition. We had our first parent-teacher conference this week and his teachers are great and love all the same things about him that we do. He is learning a lot - most notably, football/soccer skills, which judging from his rapid improvement must be an important part of the curriculum! He is enjoying having some outdoor space to play in, and he and Daddy have been very creative at inventing new games:



In general, Owen talks less about Boston than we expected him to - the exception being that he still includes some friends from his old school when listing his classmates. The other day, though, he said he wanted to go to "Boston home." When we explained that we had moved and that meant we weren't going back, he said he was sad about "losing Boston." All we could do was give him a big hug and admit that we were sad about it, too.

First day of school!

Today was Owen's first day at his new school. He was very excited to meet his new friends. He doesn't even seem to mind wearing a uniform.

We are so proud of our big little boy!

On the move!

What an exciting time. After several stops we have all arrived at our new home in Portugal. And, Zoe is crawling. On our very last morning in our old apartment, she took off on her first independent excursion. Where did she go? To see her big brother. She is still crawling on her tummy, commando-style, but she's working very hard at getting up on her hands and knees. Look out, world!

No words

This is what Owen was typing on Mike's computer tonight while we ignored him and worked on moving stuff:

July, 2010

Zoe is 5 months old and is... eating some solid food, sitting up on her own for long stretches before toppling over, rolling over both ways, trying really hard to get up on her hands and knees to crawl, blowing raspberries ALL the time, getting used to people that aren't her mommy, and always ready for a wet sloppy kiss.




In other news, our entire lives have been boxed, wrapped, and shipped to Portugal.


Owen seems to understand and enjoyed checking out the REALLY BIG moving truck.




We are camping out for a while.

Feed me, Mommy!

Zoe seems to like chewing on a rice cereal-flavored spoon. She's done it two nights in a row now. She took to it immediately, with absolutely no drama. She just opens her mouth for a bite every time the spoon comes near her. So unlike her brother's first attempts! We're hoping that once she starts actually ingesting most of it, she will return to sleeping more than 3 hours at a time before waking for a feeding.

This week...

Zoe found her feet:

and Owen taught himself to play Kumbaya on the piano.

When we were in England at Granny and Grandpa's we taught Owen to play Ode to Joy. He loved it, and started experimenting with chords. So Mike taught him a few intervals, like major and minor thirds. And Owen experimented some more. A few days later we were shocked to realize that he wasn't playing random notes... he was playing Kumbaya. He had figured it out by ear. We asked him if he was playing Kumbaya and he just beamed at us. Needless to say, we beamed right back at him.

Greetings from England

Zoe's first 4 months

A picture a month, always in the same chair...