Alexander update

I know you are dying to hear the wonderful and adorable things Alexander has been doing lately, so here is an update.

1. He loves to clean. Any time I pull out the vacuum, and sometimes when I don't, he has to do it with me. Mostly he holds one of the attachments and runs it around on the ground.
2. He puts his dirty diapers in the trash. He has taken it upon himself to take the diaper off the bed, take it to the kitchen, and throw it away. The best part is he claps for himself and says, "yeah" everytime.
3. Prowrestly. Watch out Christian, when we get back Alexander will have some new moves for you because anytime I am on the bed or sitting on the coutch, he pushes me down on my stomach and sits on my back. I am teaching him how to say, "1-2-3 pinned".
4. Talking. His vocab has more than doubled in the last month. He says all kinds of things in English and Portuguese. His favorite Portuguese words are Até ja = see you in a minute or really soon. Then there is Por favor = please, Tchau = bye, Bom dia = good morning, and of course Olá.
5. Playing. His soccer skills are mad crazy. He can kick the ball while running. I bought him some blocks and he will sit and build and take down for 30 minutes or more at a time. No toy he has, has kept his attention for so long. Well except books. Today I told him to go get a toy from his toy drawer and he brought back both his books. He loves to read and be read to, we have such a smart little boy.

Okay that's enough bragging for now. I will let you know when he does something else so super special...

Time on my hands

The past few days I have had a little extra time on my hands at night. Instead of doing something constructive like, look for new recipes, or find some activities I can do with Alexander, I have spent the time updating my blog. I am sure you have noticed the new background and new title bar across the top. But make sure to look down the right hand side. I have added new blogs, links to some websites, and a video bar of slideshows and videos I have made. I hope these changes make it more fun to visit the blog! Any suggestions or comments as to other content you might like to see or read, let me know.

Looking Back

Have you ever looked back over your life? I mean really looked back! I was updating my blog tonight and found myself looking back in my archive at some pictures and video. The first six-eight months of Alexander's life were so hard. I was barley awake for any of it and just trying to survive the parts I was. Well, for the first time tonight I actually wished I could go back and relive the little things. His first smile, laugh, words, steps... I tired so hard to savor every moment of him with pictures, video and blogging. I knew it would go so fast and now looking back at those things I am filled with a sad joy. I wish I could hold those tiny little fingers and kiss those tiny little toes. The sound of a newborn cry still makes my heart skip a beat. The funny thing is, however, this does not make me want to have another baby. As I new child will be welcomed when/if he or she joins our family. This child will not be Alexander and those precious moments I spent with him will now only be relived through memories, and that tryly makes me sad.

The North Side

This past Sunday, we took a day trip to the north side of Madeira with most of the students in the MHCI program. Mary, one of the students, is from this part of the island and planned a wonderful tour of her world. It was amazing! Every place you looked was a photo opportunity. The entire day, I wished I was a good photographer, who had an eye for amazing stuff like this, but with my Costco point and shot camera, I couldn't do much.

God is amazing! The landscapes and views just made me think, "how creative He must be". This island is like no other place I have ever been. Sometimes when I am in the apartment most of the morning and then go out to the store to get something for dinner, I am amazed all over again. When my eyes see the Atlantic oceans on one side, and the tall mountains where terracotta roofs line the valleys I realize this really is a beautiful place.

Learning the City

We decided this morning to go out and explore downtown Funchal, aka the center. We have been down their several times, but we have heard about this market that happens every Saturday that is suppost to be a great place to get fruits, vegi's, flowers, baskets, wines, etc. I assumed it to be a lot like our Saturday market at home, just bigger and with better produce (than we had is Salem). I was right. It was in an open building with several halls and a second floor. I can't even begin to write about all the food, plants and crafts we saw. They were not any better or cheaper then our suppermarket by our apartment, but it was neat to see. I am thinking about having a very small garden on my back terrace and this was the first place I saw with seeds for planting. So once I check out some pots and soil, I might go back and get some. Following I have attached some pictures that Josh took while we were wondering through. Alexander, of coarse, had a great time running around and grabbing anything he could reach.

There are several of these "reibeiras" that run down from the mountains flowing into the ocean. They are actually very pretty.

These prices are euros per killogram. (For those who don't know a killogram is about 2.2 pounds) These are actually on the more spendy side because this market was more for tourists.

What it's like?

I have been getting a lot of questions about what it's like living here. Things I like and things that are not so much fun. In the interst of keeping this blog to a managable read I will do bullet points. (We all know me, I can go on for a loooonnnnggg time about things!)

Not the best...

Upstairs neighbors

Not sure how/what to cook

Don't know how to talk about anything but food in Portuguese

1000's of miles from my family and long time friends

Things I like...

The weather

The food (Fruit and vegi's are very cheep, and some meats)

The views

Our apartment is really nice

The people (we have made some life time friends)

The pace of life (it's a lot slower and more relaxed)

All and all, we like it here, especially compared to Pittsburgh.

Madeira or Bust!

This picture was taken at the airport in Madeira. It is pretty funny because when you get off or on any plane, no matter how big, you get on a bus and ride to the terminal. The airplanes sit in what I can only discribe as a parking lot. We had a very long trip. We left for the airport at 9:30 am Eastern time and our first flight left at 11:45 am. We flew to North Carolina where our flight was delayed so much that when we got to Newark we missed our connection to Lisbon. We were able to get our tickets transferedto another airline since it was not our fault and we ended up leaving Newark at 8:30 pm. We landed in Lisbon Portugal at 8:15 am with neither Josh or I being able to get any sleep on the plane. It took us a couple hours to get everything situated as US Airways lost three of our four check on items. And since we missed our connection to Lisbon they canceled our connection from Lisbon to Madeira so we had to be put on another flight from there. The best part about it was that they put us on an earlier flight so we ended up shortening our layover and getting her an hour earlier then planned. We got off the plane to blue skys and warm weather. Since we did not have a place to stay, we booked an apartment for a couple nights in a town just about 5-8 minutes from Funchal. It's a nice place but it would not work to stay in long term, for several reasons. Alexander gets the traveling toddler of the year award because he was amazing the entire time. He took one small nap on the second flight, but slept nearly the entire time we were flying over the atlantic. We brought a pillow for him to lay on so he was out cold and sleeping well. The adjustment has started. We were up late the day we got here because of the AMAZING fireworks they have. Yesterday we slept until 11:30 am, ate lunch, took a walk, took another nap, ate dinner, got locked out of our apartment, then once we got in we went to bed. I think it will be a few days before we are on schedule. I think that is about all I have for now. I will be posting pictures and video to facebook once I get my laptop battery charged.