Guardar Valéria

Valéria sings the clean up song in Portuguese. 

If you don’t know the clean up song, it goes like this:

“Clean up! Clean up! Everybody, everywhere! clean up! Clean up! Everybody do your share!”

I made a Portuguese version of it and taught it to my girls when it’s tome to put things away. 

So every time I tell them to put something away, Valeria starts singing the clean up song and putting things away. 

No poopies Valeria

Whenever Dean asks Valeria if she’s pooped she replies - “no poopies!” And walks away. 

Of course that’s not true. 

Colors, Numbers, Shapes, Letters - Alexandra- July 2018

Alexandra knows her stuff is green, and even though some times they both use each other’s stuff, Alexandra gets very upset if you willingly or mistakenly gives her Valeria’s stuff. “Alexandra verde!”

Alexandra knows all the colors. 

She also knows several shapes. In both languages. She came up with the word pizza for the quarter circle. 

By November 2017 she could also count to 12 by sheer repetition, and now she actually counts things. 

She also recognizes the letters A and L. I haven’t really done a great job with letters yet. 

Azul! - Valeria- May 2018

By the time we traveled to cape cod Valeria had learned one color - Azul!!!!!!!

That’s bc we differentiate her possessions from her sister’s using blue and green. She knows her stuff is blue. 

So she saw a blue bag hanging from an LLBean store and went - “Azuuuuuuul!”

Now, July 2018, she is finally getting several colors right. Though she still gets them wrong at times. 

Words - Valeria- July 2018

Some of Valeria’s words:

Boo-boo (stress on the last syllable) - pacifier.

Cati (chocolate)  (alexandra used to say Côti, then it evolved to alati)

Kiki (kitty)

Êta - borbuleta (butterfly) (Alexandra used to say buleta)

The other ball - Valeria- July 2018

About two weeks ago she came asking me for a ball. I thought it was the blow up ball out in the sun. So there I went to pick up the ball. As I’m standing at the door to the sunroom, she starts crying as if I can’t possibly understand what she’s trying to say. I look to her puzzled, and asked you don’t want me to get the ball? She kept on crying as if saying can’t you possibly understand what I’m saying. OK then where is the ball? She held my hand, Walked me over to the fridge, and pointed it to the floor. It turned out she wanted the bouncing ball they had fallen under the fridge.

Faster speech development- Valeria - July 2018

Valeria seems to have a very different speech development pattern than Alexandra.

Alexandra still uses the word Colidas to refer to anything that writes. Valeria this past week held up a pencil and said, “Lápis”. 

Valeria also uses verbs a lot more frequently. Of course, very much vowel dominant.

She says “ah-eeh” for “sair”. She uses the verb “ah-bee” (abre - open) as a wild card. She repeats verbs we say, positive or negative forms, to get her mind across. Example:

Bega (pega) when she needs me to get something for her.

When she doesn’t know the correct word for what she wants she basically plays a guessing game game that goes like this:

We say the word we think she wants and she says “no no no”

We say the right word, she repeats it with a beam on her face.

It happened this morning. There several toys in the pack’n’play she was trying to climb. I kept showing each toy to her and saying its name. “Você quer os anéis?” (Do you want the ring tower?). Valeria “no no no no no”

Until I gave up offering toys, as there were none left. “Você quer entrar?”

“Entá! Qué entá!”

Other verbs she uses is “botar” (put on / put in), sobe (go up)

Other nouns: eite (leite), fanche (elefante), patchu (pato), coio (colo), boia (bola, she used to say bó)

Show it to me - Alexandra - July 2018

This past week Alexandra turned a picture to the phone to show it to someone she was facetiming with.

Sentences and main ideas - Alexandra - July 2018

She also has main idea and key words down. Her sentences are still very broken, but she gets the main idea across using the key words. Hope that transfers to school when she’ll be asked to do reading comp exercises.

Her sentences are getting more complete though, at a very fast speed. Yesterday, after coloring some objects on a page, she said, “Mãe, olha o que eu fiz!”

Prepositions - Alexandra - July 2018

Alexandra has a very interesting use of prepositions. In any language her prepositions are always “na”.

Positive answer - Alexandra - July 2018

She finally gave a positive answer on her own today, without being prompted.

I asked if she wanted something, and she responded using the verb: “Qué!” She still needs prompting. When she needs to give a positive answer, she just stands there expecting you to understand that, yes, she wants something. And many times you can see that she’s trying to figure out the correct words to use. She has a lot easier time with the negative answer.

Dancers - April 2018

My two girls definitely love dancing. Just before Alexandra turned 2.5 I started looking at dance classes for her. 

We got her to watch Shirley temple videos and she was pretty fascinated so we tried to get her into tap. 

A place in Winsted was the only place that took kids her age and that late in the school year and at a time I could drive her. 

She loved her lessons. 

On recital day she did her own thing.

Quite literally the youngest dancer in the school, she ignored what everyone was doing and started twirling. When she got dizzy, she sat down. 

Valéria has some awesome moves too. 

Alexandra used to dance to NCIS theme song and to the soap opera “eita mundo bom” theme song. 

Valeria dances to Scarborough Fair, the theme song from “Deus salve o rei”.

She steps and lifts her body on tiptoe and circles around with her arms up in the air. 

She’ll definitely need dance lessons as well. 

Curly hair- Valeria - July 2018

Her hair is clearly following the same pattern her suster’s did. Started up straight,  started curling in the back, then slowly moving to the front. 

Tell on her - Valeria - January 2018

We had just arrived home from Brazil. I wanted to sit down in the couch and relax a little. 

The girls on the other hand want to run around. 

Alexandra started to show her gift for being a teaser as she took much pleasure into taking some toy from Valeria and running and laughing. 

So I’m just sitting there with my phone registering those moments I so cherish which is is them running around. In comes Alexandra - laughing with a toy in her hands. In comes Valeria - stomping, mean faced; points at Alexandra saying some kind of gibberish. 

Yup, she was telling on sister. 

Thumb stuck - Valeria- July 2018

Valeria was trying to get outside, Alexandra ngbwith sister. Dad was trying to close the door. Valeria’s thumb got in the way. 

It looked real bad when he showed it to me while she screamed in his arms. But we touched and observed it and it didn’t seem broken. 

She wouldn’t stop crying. 

I took her, asked Dean to go get her milk with Tylenol in it. 

As I’m giving her the bottle, as she finally stopped crying uncontrollably, she started talking to me (“gibberish gibberish gibberish”) and showing me her thumb and breaking out into weeping again. Poor baby. Yup, I’m sure she was telling on daddy. 

Trick to stop something - May 2018

So if I need the girls to let go of something bc it’s time to stop and change activities or go home, the secret is “say goodbye to _____.”

They do it very gladly. Sometimes not so gladly. Sometimes with a crying voice. But they let go of the stuff they’re playing with and come to whatever next thing they have to. 

O que é isso? - Alexandra- July 2018

Yesterday she cane to the window of my room. 

Her new line is :

- Mamãe , que é isso?

She asked it. I said “it’s trash, honey.”

She kept in examining the contents of my window. 

“Formiguinha quebada!”

TMI- Alexandra - July 3018

At Walmart, I walked in the restroom to change their diapers, but first I had to use the toilet myself. I closed the door to the stall, leaving them in the cart right in front of it, where I could see them through the gap of the door. 

Then as s lady comes out of a stall, she goes - Mommy going poopoos. 

——

Música - Alexandra - July 2018

“Mamãe, música!” She requested sitting on my lap on the exercise bike whose electronic part haven worked in ages. 

I told her the bike didn’t play any music, so she said “Não, mamãe, música na boca.”

——

Roller coaster at @ 6Flags

We took the girls to 6 flags and there were some very mild rides which both girls liked, such as krazy kars (which follow in a rail like a train), the same version of it, but on a tall Jeep, airplane, helicopter, giant wheel, safari... and there was a baby rollercoaster and a Viking ship, which Alexandra loved! She raised her arms and laughed... Valeria cried. On the ship, I really thought she’d be fine, but as I held her chest, I could feel the exact moment her heart started to beat faster and I knew what was going on. Next, I heard a loud desperate cry. 

Falls - Valeria- June 2018

Valeria is a lot tinier than her sister. And a lot louder. When she can’t get what she wants exactly how she wants, she cries. But also she falls a lot. And she cries.

When Alexandra falls she basically gets up, shaved off the dust and keeps going. Valeria cries. 

She tries to copy Alexandra and falls. Or she gets trampled over by big sister and falls. She falls a lot. And then good luck getting her to try again. Or not. 

Last week we were at the playground and she kept climbing the ladder up to the top level. I usually stayed right below her in case she slipped. Never did once. The two times I wasn’t standing below her, she  slipped. The first time I was close enough and she held in to the bar as I ran over. 

The second time I’d called them over to have a snack. Alexandra came; Valeria, as always, ignored me. As I sat on the ground to open Alexandra’s yogurt, Valeria slipped and fell from the very top of the ladder onto the metal floor of the first level. Of course! As soon as I wasn’t near her she gets in trouble. 

Repeating words and phrases - July 2018

They can both repeat what we say. 

So we use that to model the correct speech skills. 

The difference is that Alexandra tries to repeat every word and does it somewhat accurately. Valeria can reproduce most vowel sounds or final syllables. 

Yesterday my mom asked her to repeat “tia Inaja”. “Ah-ah”. “Tou usando a camisa que vc me deu.” “Minho meu”

Intonation and verbs - Alexandra - April 2018

Alexandra never repeated intonation until about 3 months ago. Every time we asked her to repeat something she’d repeat it as if asking.  

Example (and the following is done in Portuguese):

Whoever wants ice cream say “Eeeeeu!!!!!!”

Valéria-  “Eeeeeu!!!!!!”

Alexandra-  “Eeu?????”

She started using verbs out of sheer desperation. I was trying to get her to do something and she finally started screaming “não quer”!

Directions- Valeria- June 2018

This week Valeria surprised me with her ability to follow directions. 

She’s never been known as the child who listens. Typically she hears your request to come or go or stop and looks at you defiantly and continues exactly the way she pleases. Especially when it comes to diaper changing or when she’s mad. 

Alexandra was the very opposite. Always following directions even when she was crying to show her disapproval of what you wanted her to do. 

But this week she surprised us all. 

1-asking for nap. 

Valeria laid in bed and asked for milk “êti”. It was around nap time but I hadn’t noticed that. Alexandra had asked for yogurt, so I figured they both wanted different snacks. 

So out to the kitchen I went. “Let’s go, girls! Let’s get snacks. Êti for Valéria and yogurt for Alexandra.”

Alexandra gladly followed me while Valeria angrily repeated “êti” from bed. And as I insisted on it, she started crying (her default mode). 

Eventually she got up from bed, walked to the kitchen in a very upset manner, took the bottle from my hand and walked right back into bed. As if thinking, can’t this woman possibly figure out what I’m trying to do here?

When I realized what she was doing, I went into the room, closed the shades, covered her, walked out and closed the door. 

Eisode 2- back on the table. 

Valeria has this thing she does when she’s upset she knocks everything off the table or whatever she’s near. 

She did just that some day this week and all the magazines, newspapers, books and letters from the coffee table ended up on the floor. 

I scolded her and told her she was to pick it all up and not leave that spot until she’d put everything back on the table. And I was good by to change her sister’s diaper. So I left with Alexandra to the bedroom. 

A little later here walks Valeria in. 

A bit worried I went to the living room after getting Alexandra changed, and sure enough every piece of paper good was back on that table. 

Episode 3 - let’s change your diaper. 

Again Alexandra is the one who goes to the changing station even under protest. Valeria, at the mention of the word change, runs as far as possible from the bedroom. 

This week one day I smelled something foul and checked her. Yup. “Let’s go change your diaper.”

She ran. I walked after her only to find her climbing onto the changing station. 

Episode 4 - clean up. 

I sing the clean up song in Portuguese. She sings it too. 

Several weeks ago I was giving both girls a bath in the basin. I decided to take Alexandra out first. I told Valeria I’d come back to pick her up. 

While I dried and dressed Alexandra, I heard the song. “Guadá! Guadá!” When I got back in the bathroom every tub toy was put away and she had stepped out of the shower. 

Signs

Sign language. I wasn’t sure how important or how to do it. But I knew I wanted to lower the amount of crying out of lack of a way to communicate. 

So we picked a few signs. 

People frequently asked me if she could already sign please and thank you. And I’d think to myself “all I want is that she convey her need”. 

Alexandra signed milk very clearly at just past 1. And she signed “more” for everything she wanted. 

We corrected her. Today she still signs more when she wants more, even though she also uses words. 

Valeria started following Alexandra’s “more” sign several months ago, but she did it by touching her finger to the palm of the other hand and repeating the word “qué!”

Now she does it perfectly and uses whenever she wants something. We haven’t corrected her like we did Alexandra. So she signs more and says the word of what she wants. 

It really makes me wish I’d taught them other signs. It’s so fun to see them sign. 

More words - Valeria - June 2018

Valeria has several dozen words that’s she says well and another load of words that we wish they’d never be said well bc they are so darn cute. 

She said Mamãe a lot sooner than Alexandra did. Alexandra took 15 months to say it and 18 to call me by that name. Valeria might have done it soon after or just before 1. And has used to address me ever since. 

Directions - Alexandra- July 2018

Alexandra can give messages in her own little way. You tell her to go in the kitchen and tell vovó x, y and z, she repeats what you say and then proceeds to the kitchen to give vovó the message using not necessarily the same words but the same idea. 

She can also follow directions of several steps. I asked her to go down the stairs, get something from grandma and bring it back up. She went down and waited for something even though she had no clue what something was. 

She gets to the kitty door and calls vovó upstairs when I ask her to call vovó to lunch. 

Make yourself understood - Alexandra - May 2018

I think she gets Ps and Bs confused. However she tries her best to make herself understood. 

She put sunshades on and kept saying Bôco, bôco. 

I couldn’t figure it out, so she tried Falfa! Falfa!

Bôco? Falfa? What is that?

“Oinc! Oinc!”

Oh! Dear! Porco! Alfafa from the cartoon Luna is s pig that wears sunshades. 

Today she couldn’t get me to understand what she wanted to say, so when my mom called I told her to tell grandma what she was saying. 

With a sigh, she started “Vó!” Wheels turning. Then she added as many words as could gather to describe her intentions. 

Talk about your day - Alexandra - July 2018

Today Alexandra was very excited telling Dad on the phone what she did throughout the day. 

Of course she says it in her own way, using words that somehow describe whatever it is she’s trying to say. 

She’s getting better and better at making real sentences with the correct grammatical structure. But her use of prepositions and conjunctions. 

Also love her way of saying “gibberish gibberish Grandpa’s truck green gibberish gibberish gibberish”. 

Yes! Uh-hum

Valeria says “uh-him when she wants to give a positive answer to a y/n question. 

Last week I asked her if she wanted something I’d given Alexandra and she replied with a teenage-like attitude, hand on waist, “uh-hum!”

Alexandra to this day doesn’t have a word or sound for “yes”. 

Words - Valeria- June 2018

She’s historical when it comes to words. 

We watched Finding Dori and they both loved Dori, so we have bought plush Dori  and Nemo at the dollar store. 

Valeria calls it Oh-wii and Emo. 

Valeria does a lot of last syllables or just st cutting off the first consonant. Ah-woo for carro. 

She also loves singing along - the very last syllable of each verse. She does it with Jesus Loves Me (in both languages), and today did it with the Alexandra song. 

However she has words like “Saussie” for sausage. And she has plenty of full words. 

Cocó is chicken. Kiki is cat. Bubu is for pacifier. For more she signs. 

Água is perfect. Abi (abre) was one of her firsts. She can say Alexandra in a very cute way. “Axanda” I  think. 

Mamãe and daddy are the cutest things when coming out of her mouth

Faces - Valeria - June 2018

So Valeria has such amazing facial expressions! More than Alexandra ever had. 

Alexandra was always one of two things - smiling or focused/bewildered. 

Valeria has intense feelings showing. She frowns and shows anger or disapproval at you when you do something against her will. 

She makes a concerned face and says some gibberish either with her arms wide open or a pat on your back as if comforting you. 

When she is happy she will give you the most fantastic truthful smile. 

Puzzles - Alexandra- June 2018

Alexandra has been into puzzles for a couple of months now. 

Mom and I got her small 12-piecers with Minnie Mouse themes. 

And everyday I showed her a little bit how to solve them. 

“Here’s a part of her ear, can you find the other part?”

Eventually she wanted to try matching the pieces without help. It was very fun to watch her trying to figure out what went with what. And this past week she solved all 4 puzzles we got her - one at a time then eventually 3 at the same time - without any help. 

13 months later

I know I have not written anything in 13 months. Life got busy beyond what I could handle - I felt like was drowning most of the time; the app I used to type my blogs got buggy and wouldn’t work anymore, and I couldn’t find the time to look for one that worked; my computer time was reduced to when the girls were asleep or somehow accounted for and I wasn’t falling asleep, so usually I prioritized things like bill pay and other budget needs, which means I never really opened blogger; finally, I was in a dark place in my personal life ... well, still am, but this blog isn’t about my personal life. These were all the excuses that made me stay away from writing about my girls and keep travk of milestones. That does upset me greatly, but I was in survival mode and just hoping to make through the day keeping everyone alive and well. 

I enjoyed each second of every moment, don’t get me wrong. I just didn’t register them in writing with dates, the way I should have. 

So I’ll try to make up for it now as I review old videos and photos. 

Alexandra is 2yrs 8 mos. Valeria is 1yr 7 mo. 

Alexandra and Valeria are both developing beautifully and do not cease to amaze us with new skills they seem to acquire almost by the minute. 

Every new accomplishment is a little bittersweet. We cheer with the newly-acquired skill, but know that means some other cuteness is gone forever. 

See it’s a funny thing that we all wish those moments lasted forever, but if they did we’d all be wondering what’s wrong with our children. “They’re not developing!”

Anyway, this is it for explaining. Next few posts will be about the events themselves.