Aubry's First Conversation with Mommy

Aubry has sure had a lot of firsts that I have been wanting to record. But seeing as how I am not good at writing in her baby book, or scrap-booking or journaling, I thought I'd at least get it down on here. Firsts with little kids are always fun to watch (even the firsts that get them in trouble). Aubry has had many early firsts. She got her first teeth at 5 months and had a mouth full by the time she was 9 months. She started crawling at 9 months and about 2 and 1/2 weeks later at 10 months she began walking and she hasn't been still since. Her first birthday party was a luau where she swished around in her grass skirt. I've been trying to remember when exactly it was that she started dancing because it seems to me that she started dancing right out of the womb. She dances to everything - even TV commercials and sometimes when there's no music at all. We like to eat as well. She first started cereals at 5 months (while on furlough) and baby food fruits and veggies at 6 mo. Since we've had a full set of teeth for quite some time we've tried some things a little early. Believe it or not, Bree's favorite foods are yellow and red peppers, tomatoes, chicken or pretty much any kind of meat, yogurt, bananas grapes and soft cheese. She loves any kind of sauces like ketchup, ranch or mustard.

Her first words were Nalah (our dog), Aubry, Mama, Dada, and NO (probably in that order) and a little later Ara (for Ceara). For a while now the word Nalah was replaced by Puppy (her favorite word these past several months) but the word she used for everything (12 - 15 months) was Aubry - Aubry, Aubry, Aubry. She said her name all the time with every intonation possible and it was a multimeaning word or maybe it just meant everything and and every emotion and the way she said it changed her meanings. It was the cutest thing ever! She has been signing since before she could talk - the usual signs: please, more, thank you, all finished. Her all finished sign usually meant get me out of this darn chair now (because of the emotion that always went with this particular sign)! And we could say the words in english or portuguese and she would recognize and sign for both languages. At 19 months now her vocabulary is quite extensive - more in English than in Portuguese but she's learning both rather well. Bree has been using full sentences since furlough 15 and 1/2 months with phrases like "Ered it go?" (first heard by Papa) and "Air ih is!" Although my favorite story of her talking (because she's jibber jabbered since just a few months old) was just after she learned to walk. At 11 months old she came to our closed door knocking and hollering and it sounded just like, "Mama, Dada, memba me?" She is just now (19 months) starting to repeat pretty much everything we say. This morning she came to the bed and said, "Mommy em oo church." I questioned, "Matt she just said church?" and he replied, "She did because I just told her we're going to church." Speaking of church, Aubry is the one who makes us pray when we all sit down at the table now. As soon as Dad, Mom, and Heather all get to the table she grabbs for our hands and puts her head down. It's the sweetest thing you ever saw. She started this first when we got back from furlough (17 months).

Recently, we had a visit from My-Myee (Cindy, Mary's Mom) and Ashton (Mary's cousin). Even though their visit ended a week ago, Bree still calls their names throughout the house every so often. Yesterday, the door was closed that connects Aubry's room to the guest room and Aubry began pounding on the door calling, "Ashy! Ashy!" I said as I have several times this week, "Aubry, Ashy is not here." And Bree looked puzzled, "Ered eh go?" So I said slowly, "Ashy had to go home." So she replied matter of factly, "Ohhh! Ashy int home." This marked Aubry's first full conversation. Thanks Ashy! You two need to skype with her soon. She's gone potty since you left (19 months)! And although this is going to be a long process she's really interested. Keep enjoying your own firsts!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Well, they don't celebrate the day here. Not enough Irish people live in Salvador, but we celebrated our fourth year here with four leaf clovers and golf balls (fore!). Here are all of the team kids that were available for pictures that night. This was the best one of Aubry taken by intern Heather.

Pray with your neighbor today. That's what Patrick would have done.

March Catch Up

What an interesting couple of months it has been! In Icos news... we've been having more at church than usual these past few Sundays around 50 or 60 each week. This is a welcome change from the slowness of summer and carnival when we were only having 20 or 30 in January and February. The rise in attendance started with our welcome back breakfast (many had been traveling because of summer vacation and carnival). We also had a back to school party for the youth and gave away school materials as prizes. There were about 30 of us at the festa and the kids had a great time! English classes started back yesterday and many visitors came to service because of this. Our theology course starts next month. Our women's ministry starts back next week with after service lunch and Bible study. And we have an evangelism day next week to invite everyone to our big Anniversary service this year. It will be the 3rd anniversary of ICOS!

Not only is our church going back to a faster pace but we are too after having our whole household (Matt, Mary and Paisley, Aubry, our intern Heather who lives with us and our babysiter Tatiane) down and out for two weeks because of a terrible virus. It's good to be back to normal.

Team wise, we are happy to have the Porter's back from furlough. They were gone for 2 and a half months. Kelton turned 5 years old while they were gone and Samuel turned one year old on the day they got back. Both kids seem so much bigger! Samuel and Jackson are only a few weeks apart in age and we had a huge Brazilian 1st birthday party for him with a very colorful farm theme. Mary and Valerie being the team life coordinators threw a great St. Patrick's Day Team banquet this past Saturday night. We celebrated completing 4 years on the field together and thanked each other specifically for all of the hard work each teammate has done over the last year.

We had 4 (significant number) family visitors at our 4 year 4 leaf clover party! Cindy Sirmon (Mary's Mom) and Ashton (Mary's cousin) are here to help set up Aubry and Paisley's new rooms and see Salvador and the church work. Cindy and Ashton have a short week stay and much to do and see. They arrived on the same plane as the Porter's. Also arriving on the same day was Travis' sister and husband, Leah and Craig. These two brought some of the decorations for our banquet and plan to stay a month. They arrived just after Alicia's sister Michaela went back home. Ceara will miss her very much.

Happy St. Patty's Day to all! We will try to post some pictures once our visitors leave.