Cute at Dinner

We went out to dinner last night, and Maya was so cute sitting on her daddy's lap drinking her milk, I couldn't help but take some photos. (They're with my phone, and Maya doesn't hold as still as she should, but I think the cuteness comes through.)

Professor Pink-Eye

Maya's had pink-eye the last couple of days, so she's been coming to work with me. Today she gave me a little lecture, but needed the white board (and she'll make a great professor, since at one point, she was writing with one hand and erasing with the other...):

Whew. Our new look.

If you've been checking in regularly over the past several days, you'll have noticed that we've been in flux. Sorry if all of the changing gave you some kind of vertigo. I decided to change the layout/template for our blog. But once I got into it, it became difficult to find one I LOVED. And then Tim found a layout he was really excited about; he's decided he likes a layout that has these thumbnails of the actual posts that you click on to get the longer versions (which seems to be especially nice when there are a lot of photos). But the template he found I couldn't get to work completely, and the xml code was very mucky. So we finally crafted our own modeled on a previous one. Let us know what you think.

You'll also notice a change in photos; they're bigger INSIDE the post, but you can no longer click on them to see large versions. We can always switch back, but I think I like the new way, especially with the thumbnail approach which makes it unnecessary to load more than one post's-worth at a time.

Child Safety

I was recently having a conversation with my parents about whether kids were less "safe" today than when I was growing up. I posed the question and the quick response from everyone else in the room was a very assertive "yes." I found it terribly hard to believe. Of course everyone knows that kids are more likely to be injured in an automobile than they are to be abducted or "lost" while walking alone on the street. But are there really more "creeps" out there waiting to prey on my kid? When she's old enough to walk to school, will it still be safe for her to do so? Will she be able to play outside? Ride her bike to the park? Walk to the pool to swim in the summer? Go to her friends' houses to play?

Why do these things sound so ridiculously unsafe? In trying to find statistics about the safety of this world for Maya, I happened upon this article reporting on an interview with the author of Free Range Kids, which I think I'll have to read now. In looking that book up on Amazon, I found this quote in one of the reviews:

"If there's a common theme in every chapter, it's that we want our kids to trust and love the community, without paranoia the media is trying to inject us with. We became parents because we felt the world offers enough positives to outweigh the negatives."

What a great sentiment.

Don't get me wrong; I know Maya's only two, and we won't be sending her anywhere on her own any time soon. But she's already got herself an independent streak that's just so beautiful; we'll have to figure out how to foster it safely.

Someday I'll probably also rant on about the new drive to squelch our kids' competitive natures completely by removing from their lives anything that might make them feel bad about themselves...

Lisbon: Saturday

Saturday, we slept in to rest up a bit, then headed out to Belem, a suburb of Lisbon. We took the "modern tram" (an electric bus). Our first stop was the Jerónimos Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and home to some impressive architecture. Here's our approach and some photos of the exterior:





Visiting the inside revolved around walking the cloisters and ducking inside the church (since it was Saint Anthony's day, there was a steady stream of weddings in the church):






After visiting the monastery, we headed into Belem proper for a quick lunch then across the train tracks to the Monument to the Discoveries, which commemorates Henry the Navigator:




We ventured up to the top of the tower for these great views:



There was also a plaza in front of the monument with a map of the world overlaid with the routes of famous Portuguese explorers. Tim captured us playing on the map:


Just down the waterfront was the Tower of Belem, built, at least in part, to defend the monastery. Jamie and Tim ventured inside, while Maya and I "rested" in the adjacent park:



On the way back towards the tram stop, we stopped off at a playground:


and at a famous pastry shop:


When we got back to Lisbon proper, Jamie and I decided the afternoon called for a tram ride back up the hill towards the hotel (Jamie still hadn't been on the old-fashioned tram that Lisbon's famous for), while Tim wanted to duck inside the Se Cathedral for some pictures of the famous rose window. It turns out none of us were successful. Since it was Saint Anthony's day, there were massive celebrations, including this procession that ended at the Se (which happens to sit right on the tram tracks). So Tim couldn't get inside, and the tram wasn't running. But it may have been worth it:



We ate dinner right alongside the tram tracks as well; Jamie shook her fist at every passing tram.

For our Saturday trip in EveryTrail, click here.

Lisbon: Friday

Friday, we started out in the center of the city to see most of the sites there that we have only glanced so far. We walked down a new way from the hotel, so we saw some new views:


Down at the Praca Comercia, there were some cute benches with built in shade for Maya and I to rest on while Tim took pictures:


From there, we headed up Rua Augusta to the Elevador Santa Justa for some more views.

The line seemed to be taking forever, and it was Austin-hot, so we skipped along to the next site, Igreja de Sao Domingos.

From here, we walked (not surprisingly) uphill towards the Convento do Carmo. On the way, we past the restaurant where we ate dinner Thursday night; here's the view we had:

Unfortunately, the convent was closed for a private event, so we just looked around the outside, where festival preparations were well underway:



We walked a little further uphill to Casa do Ferreira das Tabuletas, whose facade is covered in trompe l'oeil painted tile (azulejos).

Up the hill (and around some construction) was Igreja de Sao Roque, which was quite ornate inside, despite it's unassuming exterior. The interior was assembled in Rome, blessed by the pope, disassembled, transported to Lisbon, and reassembled here:


Another few steps up the hill was the Miradoro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara (by the way, Miradoro just means "place for vista"):


We tried to take the tram down the hill (I know, it seems ridiculous), but the tram driver wouldn't break our 20 euro note. So we walked:

We stopped at the Confeitaria Nacional for a quick snack:

Then we grabbed a train up to the university where the conference was going on. I wanted to catch Jamie's talk in her workshop. In the meantime, Maya took a (very short) nap, and Tim wandered around the area:

Our last stop on our tour was back at the Sao Vicente de Fora, where we had stopped earlier in the week, but it was closing. Stuff there dates from the 13th century; this sign referring to something from the 16th century labels it "new":

There were lots of interesting rooms, tombs, and tileworks all throughout this building. The church itself was closed for restoration:







We headed back to the hotel for some rest before trying to see some of the festival events in the evening.
After a tasty dinner of roasted chicken, we got in the mix to watch some of the parade:


Jamie was excited about buying a beer from the street stand, so she picked one up for Tim (but it wasn't as exciting as she had hoped because it was a little too established of a beer stand...):

We saw a little bit of the parade, but it was literally 10 minutes between each successive "act" of the parade, so us girls got tired and went back to the hotel. After helping us get home (we're not inept, but someone has to carry Maya up the countless stairs), Tim headed back out. He went up to where the parade was starting, passing some sardines on the grill:

Here are some photos of the crowds and the parade:












Click here for the group walk to dinner and the festival in EveryTrail.