Happy birthday to me!

A rather belated post... I've been neglecting to obtain photos from other people, so the posts are becoming rather delayed... That's my excuse, anyway!

Thomas was away for work on September 5th, so I planned to celebrate it with a girls' night out. Unfortunately I didn't think of doing anything and it was suggested to me two days before the date, which meant that pretty much everyone was unavailable. Even so, I had a lovely date with Valeria and our daughters at the amazing Indian restaurant next door. No photos were taken, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

The following night Thomas invited me to a delightful Chinese restaurant called Mandarim (yes, that is how it's spelled) which lives beneath the Estoril Casino. We ate far too much, drank more than an elegant sufficiency of delectable champagne, and then ordered a tea each... thinking we were ordering just a cup each. As you can see in the photo, we each received a 4-person sized teapot!

I still can't figure out the settings on my phone, which I'll blame for the poor quality of the photo.

It was a thoroughly delightful, Margaux-free evening. :)

Muralitas

This isn't a post about us as a family but I just had to include it. If you were to come to Cascais at the moment you would be stunned by some stunning murals.

There are little red arrows on some of the cobblestone roads with MURALITAS stencilled into them, pointing the way to various works of art. I don't know who commissioned them, but they are in out-of-the way little alleys and they are simply gorgeous. And somewhere in each of them is written Cascais 2014.



I don't have a panorama setting so I tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to capture how this beautiful piece of art extends around a curved wall.

It's a depiction of the waves and beach themes of Cascais leading up to a parting of the seas, which looks like a zipper being opened by a butterfly. Continuing on is the iconic lighthouse of Farol and the accompanying gorgeous building (which might be a museum??) and then continues along the coastline in a 3D illusion. I love it!




Pardon my photography... There is a building right behind me, which prevented my from getting a shot of the entire wall.

The top photo is the knitter's profile (obviously) and the crest of her scarf. The bottom one encompasses her ball of wool and some more of her scarf in progress. Much better in real life...



This is one of my favourites which, like most of the others, it's when you get up close the detail becomes fascinating.

 

The Cascais Festival of Lights

From September 11-14 Thomas headed off to France by himself to participate in a course connecting himself to nature, leaving Margaux and I to guard the fort here. We were sad to see him go, but he needed some time to indulge himself... and it gave me the perfect opportunity to claim that fair's fair: if he's going to take a few days out of life here, then so am I! The plan is to visit Bron for a long weekend in November... let's see how it pans out.

For the moment, however, you're going to see a couple of photos of the Cascais Festival of Lights. They don't do the place justice, but then night-time photos taken on a camera rarely do!

So Margaux and I met up with Kari, Landon, and Finn, and from there explored the displays that Jardim Marechal Carmona and the marina had to offer. There were some beautiful projections onto buildings that incorporated the structures of the building - such as accommodating the windows and doors on the cultural centre. They were just beautiful.

The story of the history of Macau was one of the best on offer, I thought, and its accompanying music is what you can here in the video below. Please excuse the quality...

The intermittent rain was a dampener (haha) on the evening, but the boys were content under their umbrella while being pulled around in their wagon by Kari. She took the photo of us in front of the same display:

We headed through the garden and then down the road to the Praia de Cascais, where there were some people flying fish like kites, which was pretty cool!

We split ways eventually, with Kari and the boys heading back to meet up with James - who hadn't joined us for the festival because he spent the entire time we were there looking for a parking spot! - which Miss Maggie and I headed home.

Mums and Tots: The Bouncy Castle and Pirate Park

We've had a couple of very special Mums and Tots sessions recently, which Margaux has loved - as have I!

The first was at Leslie's house, where she had organised a bouncy castle! The kids all loved it. I wasn't sure how Maggie would go, but I thought that if I held her she might like it just a little bit - or at least not be too scared by it.

How wrong I was. She had an absolute ball! She was crawling as much as she could and craning her neck around trying to capture all the excitement from the other tots. She is an independent little thing, if ever I saw one.

Margaux really enjoyed the company of her new friend, Bertie, who is just a couple of months older than her. I love those photos... it's like they're discussing a strategy and then approaching the challenge head on.

 

 

 

 

And then today we had an extra Mums and Tots at Pirate Park! Margaux and I went there with Nicky and Will, and we met up with plenty of friends there... including Kari, Finn, and Landon. Margaux braved the swing - both encouraged and pushed by Finn. Sooo cute!

 

 

Swimming lessons (with photos!)

Miss Maggie has now had three swimming lessons, and is getting bolder with each one. She doesn't yet anticipate it with a smile, but at least last time she hardly cried at all!

As usual, Thomas and I each spent 15 minutes in the lesson with her. She's learning how to feel comfortable in the water, to experience a bouncing motion, to lie (while supported) on her front and her back, to concentrate on holding a ball, and last Saturday she experienced water being poured on her!

Unfortunately I only have photos of Margaux and me. I'll get some of Thomas soon...

What a little champion! Don't you just love her bathers and swimming cap???

Summertime, and the living is easy: an afternoon at the beach

The weather was so delightfully clement last weekend that we decided to head north towards one of the secluded beaches - or so we assumed! Every single beach or bay heading north from Guincho was absolutely PACKED!

We settled for Adraga Beach, which was absolutely gorgeous. I went to all the effort of packing bathing gear for us all, but the waves were quite rough and the water cold enough that we opted for a shaded area from which we could observe the other beachgoers...

Margaux wore a special dress and matching blue floral hot... so cute! Jean-Paul reckons it makes her look British. :)

Now we just have to brave the open water...

Baby-Led Weaning (BLW)

We've decided to go down the Baby-Led Weaning path, which has so far been very messy but mostly successful!

The idea is that from the age of 6 months, the baby doesn't eat puréed food - despite the fact that she doesn't have teeth. The baby eats what you eat, at the same time that you eat it. Hopefully this will make the baby more independent, give her access to a wider variety of tastes and textures, and encourage her to not be such a picky eater when she gets older.

The whole 'eating with your fingers' delights Margaux immensely, but the ratio of what goes into her mouth vs. what goes on the floor is about 50/50...

Foods that are sticky and have more grip are better for little fingers, so risotto and dhal are high up on the list. Margaux hasn't spat any particular food out yet, but I'm sure her tastes will become more refined as time progresses!

The first two photos in the top line are the before pictures and the ones directly below are the afters... of course she had a relatively tidy meal for this photo collage, however you can see a whole lot of rice, peas, and corn on the towel if you look carefully!

Of the others, in the top photo she's squeezing the juice out of a segment of orange, and at the bottom she's eating a different meal of rice... far more messy this time!

Summertime, and the living is easy: The Cascais Classic Car Show

The last weekend in August was filled with glorious weather... the perfect accompaniment to the annual Cascais Classic Car Show! Thomas, Maggie and I walked down to where it was being held, where we met up with Kari, James, Landon, and Finn.

I'm not really into modern-day cars all that much, but some of the old T-Model Fords and jalopies have me quite tickled. And even the modern ones in the parade were quite special, to be fair. The amount of dedication and love some people have to restoring and maintaining their cars is extraordinary!

In the display area we came upon the Eco Speedster, which sounds like a contradiction in terms but apparently lives up to its name. Thomas was quite taken with a blue Bugatti... I'm not sure what the appeal is.

These cars I find endearing. I don't know what it is exactly... Maybe the romance of it all, the history, the stories that go with them, the love and passion that's been invested in keeping them in perfect condition. Regardless, I find them gorgeous.

Speaking of gorgeous cars... these vintage ones are the best ever. I love them! My favourite car of the whole show (and there were a LOT to choose from!) is the little blue beast on the left. If you look carefully, you'll see a door handle just below the windscreen on the left side... that's right: you open the front of the car to get in. How cute is that! I don't know how they haven't continued in production until today.

Following the car show, we wandered into Old Cascais, where Margaux took full advantage of the comfort of the front pack and fell asleep. Just look at the incline of their heads... like father, like daughter. :) 

Commando crawling, and 'eating off a plate' Margaux style

I think it's begun good and proper... Margaux has finally started to use those little legs of hers to propel herself around! She's still floor-bound, but there is definitely a bit of a push to go with those arms.

She's mobile enough that she's wriggling everywhere and starting to test her strength by pulling over everything in her way... things could get interesting around here!

 

 

 

I'm thinking of investing in one of these to help with the housework - and hope that she doesn't have (or develop!) dust allergies...

 

 

 

We're also getting more adventurous with food. We had a very successful check-up with Dr Sandy yesterday. The new foods we can introduce are eggs; pasteurised, soft cheeses; tomatoes; and citrus - namely oranges and tangerines! It's also time to start with the meat, which I'm unfamiliar with preparing these days. We'll see how she goes...

We haven't gone down the Baby-Led Weaning path, but we're slightly heading in that direction. The idea of Miss Maggie eating chunkier food with her with her fingers rather than a spoon is very appealing to her, however her idea of 'eating off the plate' is rather more literal than I think the books expect:

I thought rice would be a good way to get into the Baby-Led Weaning... she didn't catch on that she was supposed to eat the rice, but I think she had fun with it!

Now, how do I say 'tangerine' in Portuguese..?