We have a preschooler

March 25, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

When we lived in South Carolina, there was a drop in daycare. When I was pregnant with Leo, we dropped Sofia off at the daycare to go tour the hospital where Leo was going to be born. We missed Sofia so much, but when we went to pick her back up she didn’t want to leave. She went back a few times before the pandemic hit. She always loved it.

There have been times we have been walking around Portugal and have passed a school. You can always hear the kids playing. Sofia notices them, and has been asking to go to school for a while now.

In Portugal school is free, though you can pay for private school or an international school. We have always wanted Sofia to go to public school. She is young enough that language won’t be a problem because she will learn Portuguese so quickly. School is not required until the age of 6. From my understanding there aren’t many free preschools. People with lower income have priority, so most people have to pay for preschool.

The regular school year starts in September and I think it runs until June. I don’t think preschool follows this schedule because we are starting Sofia in April. We looked on google and found a preschool near us that gets good reviews. We contacted them on Facebook and set up a tour/meeting.

We were hoping that we could send Sofia part time. Technically we could I guess, but it’s set up for full time. You pay the monthly fee and it doesn’t matter if she goes for 1 day or 25- the cost is the same. They charge 275 euro per month. It costs is 235 to sign her up. That fee is the application fee and uniform fee. She will have a super cute uniform of a blue polo shirt, a blue hat, and a blue apron. The uniforms are color coded by age group, so when the age groups mix it’s easy to quickly figure out who belongs to what group.

If Leo were to enroll as well, there is a sibling discount and it would have cost 505 euro per month for the two of them. The cost includes snacks and lunch. I’m not ready to send both of my babies off to school quite yet, so Leo will stay home for now.

Sofia will be in the age 3-5 group. Most of the students are 3, so she will fit right in. The school is open from 8AM-7PM. It’s nice because we can mostly drop off and pick up when we want. Morning activities start at 9:30, so we need to drop her off by then. Afternoon snack is at 2PM, so we will probably pick her up after snack time.

Registration was easy enough. They had a few forms to fill out with some basic info about Sofia and us. It did take me an hour or two with google translate to fill them out. The school requires a copy of Sofia’s NIF paperwork, our lease, her vaccine records (in English is okay), and the 235 euro fee. Also copies of all our resident cards. That’s it. She will start in April, after we get back from Aveiro.

Sofia will need to bring a sheet and blanket for nap time (they have cots to sleep on), a hand towel for the bathroom, and a water bottle. Sofia has decided to really start potty training the past few weeks and she is doing great. She saw the bathroom at the school and asked to use it. She loved the kid sized toilets and sinks and she can’t wait to use them again.

Sofia will be the only American in her class, but there is a British student, a Ukrainian one, and a few Brazilians. They start teaching English in preschool and are excited to have another English speaker in the class. They said that she will be a great fit for their group.

She is so excited and is going to have so much fun. We are going to miss her so much. I can’t believe she is going to be gone so much! At the same time, she has been driving us a bit crazy. She really wants to be out socializing and learning all the time. We have a few weeks until she starts, so we’re really going to enjoy them.

Finances and our travel plans

March 14, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to write a post about finances, but I haven’t been tracking them as much as I should be. I know how helpful finance posts were for us when we were thinking about moving here, so I’ll try to put a few numbers out there.

Our apartment is €700 per month. No bills are included in that price. We have a T3 (3 bedroom) with 2 bathrooms, a huge balcony, and an enclosed 1 car garage. I don’t know the energy rating but it must be an A or B. We don’t have to run the heater. Here are some pictures. We still haven’t finished unpacking, so excuse the mess. Also, we have two toddlers and a dog. And I’m just kind of a cluttery person. So there will always be a mess, no matter how much Kyle tries to clean, lol.

Our patio with awesome sun exposure for drying our clothes

Our electric & gas bill is combined and has been around 100 euro per month. Like I said, we don’t run the heaters. We do run 4 dehumidifiers- a small one in each bedroom and a larger one in the living room. We haven’t gotten a full water bill yet. Our only water bill so far was for 6 euro but was only for 1 week of service back in January. I read somewhere that people pay the water bill for 2 months, so we really should be getting another one any day now.

Our health insurance is 150 euro per month for the 4 of us. Kyle and I are 39, and we have two toddlers. Our insurance is through Medis. Our cellphone/internet/cable is around 65 euro for two phone lines. It’s not unlimited data on the phones. I forget what it is, but we haven’t gone over our data yet.

Food is the one thing I don’t want to talk about, lol. We eat out waaaaaayyyy too much. Multiple times a week, but not every day anymore. We must spend a few hundred a week on food. When we get tired and burnt out, cooking is one of the first things to go. Luckily groceries are cheaper than we’re used to. So is eating out, though it still really adds up. We have been doing better lately, but eating out too much is something that we still struggle with.

We’re leaving for Lisbon in two days. We will only be there for 3 days, but I’m really excited to go back. We haven’t been to Lisbon since we first moved to Portugal. I may have gone a little travel crazy and planned a bunch of trips. In less than 3 weeks we are going to Aveiro for 5 days, and then in May we are going to Porto and Braga for a week. It’s so hard to be by all of these places I read about for years. I’m ready to go see them!

Ukraine news break (Coimbra part 1)

March 3, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Right now we’re on the bus leaving Leiria. We’re finally headed to Coimbra. The train schedule between Leiria and Coimbra isn’t ideal, so we decided to try the bus instead. It costs a lot more and isn’t quite as fun as the train. The train has bathrooms and we’re free to move around a bit more. But the bus will get us there too.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine I have been glued to the news. Probably to an unhealthy degree. Well, okay, it has definitely been unhealthy. There has been plenty of conflict in my lifetime, but this feels different. I’m not entirely sure why. Part of it is because, for the first time in my life, I am living on a continent where war is taking place. It’s still so far away, but not as far away as if I lived in the US. That part is kind of surreal.

Maybe it’s because I have kids now, and it’s so much easier to imagine the terror people must feel knowing their kids are in danger. I know how lucky Kyle and I are. We had the means and the freedom to leave our country to start somewhere else. It’s also a choice that we chose- it was not forced upon us. And if we had to flee Portugal for some reason, we have the means to do so. So many people didn’t have the means to leave Ukraine. I get stressed out just watching the news. I can’t imagine how stressful their lives have become. All in the span of a week.

And what about the ones who were able to flee? Many of them are without their husbands or family members, as so many stayed behind to fight. How do they just start over? How do they handle the stress of not knowing if they will ever see their loved one again? How do they go from a dual parent household to just one? How do they handle the sudden loss of income? I can’t imagine how hard this must be for those who are personally involved. There is so much death and it is so senseless. I hope there can be peace soon, but it just doesn’t seem likely. It seems like there is going to be a lot more senseless death.

Anyway, there is part one of my blog post. I’m ready to take a break from the news for the day. I’m excited to finally see Coimbra. I’ll finish part two tonight on the train ride home, or tomorrow if I’m too tired.

Leiria Castle and Leo turns 2!

February 7, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Today is Leo’s birthday! Somehow he is already two years old. For his birthday we decided to take a trip to Leiria castle. It’s about time- we always see the castle in the background. It sits up on a hill and is visible from most of the city. It has a really cool elevator that goes up and down the hill to the castle. Unfortunately, it was broken when we tried to take it up. There was a guy stuck in there, and Kyle and I were able to pry the doors open and get him out. He was really grateful. He was much calmer than I would have been stuck in an elevator.

We walked up to the castle. It was a lot of steps and hills that we hadn’t counted on, but I got some great pictures I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. We were also reminded, yet again, of how helpful Portuguese people are. Kyle was carrying a stroller and a backpack, and I was carrying a stroller and holding Leo’s hand. A man came up and asked if we needed help, and then held Sofia’s hand as she walked up the stairs. She got a kick out of it.

I’m not sure what I was expecting of the castle, but it was more amazing than I expected. First, it was cheap! 2.10 per adult, and the kids are free. The views were amazing. I feel like that should have been obvious since it sits on top of a hill, but I guess I never imagined what the views would look like. The kids walked around the entire grounds and got pretty tired. Luckily the elevator was working by the time we went back down. It was a really cool ride down. I can’t wait to go again and ride the elevator up the hill.

From there we walked downtown, to our favorite burger place. Leo’s favorite meal is a cheeseburger. The birds there were insane. They would dive down onto the table and steal our food. We would try swatting at them to scare them away, but some of them weren’t scared at all and actually ended up getting swatted. I have never seen birds as courageous and annoying as these ones. It wasn’t just our table either, they were attacking anyone with anything edible on the table.

One bird swooped down and grabbed Leo’s burger. It fell on the ground and they all swarmed and it was over. We just got up and let them win. There were too many of them and they were everywhere. Sofia started crying. We let her chase the birds and she got over it. She loves chasing birds. The restaurant was awesome and cooked us a new burger for Leo and packaged it to go for us. They apologized profusely, which is really sweet, but also so unnecessary because it’s not their fault that the birds there are some kind of weird burger loving kamikaze birds. They make the best burgers and fries in town, and I guess the birds know this. Next time we will eat inside.

Next up was our favorite ice cream place. Sofia loves their boba smoothies, and I love their coffee. They called it an iced coffee, but it’s really a shot of espresso mixed with vanilla ice cream, and topped with candy. It’s amazing. When it heats up I’m going to walk down there all the time for those things. After that we headed home and Leo got to open some presents. It was a great day and the weather was perfect. It was Leo’s birthday, but it ended up being pretty much my ideal day. Maybe I’ll pick all of this stuff for my birthday too 😃

Almost 3 months in

January 14, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Next week marks three months in Portugal. I spent well over a year dreaming about this, and I still can’t believe we have been here for three months already. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to enjoy it as much as we want.

Since Christmas I have been battling something. For a few days it felt like a mild cold, but then I had a few brutal days of body aches with a fever, and I spent most of my time on the couch. A week or so later I started to feel better, but still not quite at 100%. A few days later the body aches came back along with a sore throat. Now the body aches and sore throat are gone, but I have a runny nose and cough. The symptoms seem to change every few days. It’s kind of bizarre.

Kyle has been sick, but his symptoms have been milder (although that might be changing today). He took a Covid test and it came back negative. I really can’t imagine what else it could be though…it’s not a cold and it’s not like any flu I have ever had. I got the flu vaccine right before we moved, and I got the Covid vaccine last year. I can’t imagine what this would have been like for me without any vaccines. I would have been pretty worried. Luckily the kids seem to just have a runny nose and they are a little more tired than normal.

Being sick has definitely made me miss a few things from the states. I would kill for some NyQuil. Unfortunately whatever I have has brought on a case of insomnia and I’m not sleeping enough. NyQuil always suppressed the symptoms and knocks me out. I also miss soup! Obviously soup exists in Portugal, I just haven’t found it quite yet. I need to learn to cook some, but I don’t even have the energy to go to the grocery store at the moment.

Entertaining themselves while we recuperate at home

We got our residence permits! The last hurdle after the SEF appointment is waiting to see if the cards arrive. Sometimes they don’t, and you have to go back to the SEF office to pick them up. Obviously we don’t want to make that trip again right now. Before our cards arrived I noticed that Leo’s address was not completely right on the receipt they gave us. They got the address right, but the apartment wrong. My card, Sofia’s card, and Kyle’s card all showed up right around New Years. I was worried that Leo’s might have gotten returned, but luckily it showed up a few days later. I have never really thought about beyond our SEF appointment. I still can’t believe we’re at this point!

We have a bunch of things that we have kind of started, but have also put on the back burner. We’re trying to get our SNS number, which allows us access into the public health system. We don’t plan on using it much, but we still need the number. We can’t get a Covid booster until we get our number. Normally you just go into your local health center to get the SNS number (with your NIF number and resident permit), but since Covid some offices just want you to email the documents. We’ve had a hard time with the email- so far most of the email address we are given have been undeliverable.

Kyle made an appointment with a doctor for a checkup. As part of the driver’s license exchange we need to have a physical done and the doctor needs to give us a letter saying we are fit to drive. Hopefully Kyle can get that at his appointment, and then I need to make an appointment as well.

We made pretty good progress on unpacking our boxes, but that has been moved to the back burner too. We have about 10 half unpacked boxes in various rooms throughout the house. I can’t wait to get them unpacked and put away.

There is a school in Caldas da Rainha that a lot of people on the expat boards recommend for learning Portuguese. It’s called the Carvela School. I would love to go to in person classes, but I can’t imagine taking a 45 minute train ride each way and also being in class for hours at a time. It’s just too much time. Luckily they offer an online class. I contacted them and got put on a wait list. They just contacted me and I’m good to go, starting February 8. They’re going to be kind of intense. 2 days per week, 2.5 hours per lesson for 8 weeks. Only 3-4 students in the class. It will be hard, but I’m excited.

I really want to learn Portuguese. I keep saying that I’m going to watch YouTube videos or practice on my app. I always mean to, but then life just flies by and now we’re 3 months in and I barely know any Portuguese. I can’t even count to 10. I need some accountability.

After living in Portugal for 5 years, we will be eligible for citizenship. A requirement for citizenship is having a certain level of proficiency in Portuguese. This class counts towards that requirement, so by taking this class I’m already working on the citizenship requirements!

As soon as we all feel better we are going to take a trip to Coimbra. It’s only an hour away on the train and we really think it’s going to be a good fit for us. We’re excited to go check it out! We’re excited to check out more of Portugal! Hopefully soon…until then, I’m back to my Manifest binge. I discovered the show a few days ago and I love it so far.

Feliz Natal

December 25, 2021August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Merry Christmas from Portugal! We actually aren’t doing anything to celebrate today, which makes me kind of sad, but things have been so hectic lately. The kids have so many toys (some haven’t even been unpacked yet!) that adding to the pile seems like too much right now. My goal was to be in Portugal for Christmas and we did that, so it’s still a pretty exciting Christmas. The job that I quit in October recently took away our paid holidays, so if I stayed I would be working today. Spending the day watching movies with my family (in Portugal!) is a much better way to spend the day.

During the week I was finally able to organize our kitchen. It had been a complete mess, but now it’s organized and functional. We had been ordering takeout pretty much every day. Since everything is closed today, the timing is perfect! I got a bunch of groceries yesterday and now we have some food for the next few days. I keep trying to adopt the European way of grocery shopping, but I haven’t yet. I always buy way too much food and then have a hard time getting it all home.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Christmas lights and Covid Restrictions

December 3, 2021August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

On December 1, Portugal initiated additional Covid measures. To eat inside, go to a gym, or go inside some places, you need to provide a negative Covid test, or a EU vaccination card with QR code. Unfortunately our American vaccination cards are useless, and we can’t get an EU card since we’re not residents yet. We’re okay with ordering takeout or eating outside, so we figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. But a EU vaccine card is required for the Christmas village downtown.

We went to see the Christmas lights in Leiria a few nights ago. They’re beautiful and they’re all over downtown. It was a lot of fun walking around looking at everything. There is a carousel and train outside. We got free pictures with Santa. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had. They created a huge tent filled with activities like ice skating, sledding, and other fun stuff. when we went the activities in the tent weren’t really set up. We went again last night and they now require the EU vaccine card to go in the tent.

One thing I really wanted to do was go to Obidos to see the town and their famous Christmas Village. I wonder if they are going to require the vaccine card. We don’t mind doing a Covid test, but we have no idea how that works. They have self tests at the pharmacy for cheap, so we’re not sure if we just buy some and then take them in front of people when they are required. I’ve heard they are good for 72 hours but I’m not sure how if it’s a self-test. No one would know when we took it. Anyway, we’re headed back towards Lisbon in a few weeks for our SEF appointment, so I think we have to skip Obidos this year. I’m disappointed but we will be here for years and maybe next year will be easier.

Our SEF appointments are in a few weeks in Setubal. We just booked an Airbnb for 3 nights there. I’m excited to go back to Lisbon and to see Setubal. Setubal is on a lot of lists for good places for expats to live, so I’m looking forward to seeing it myself. I already miss Lisbon and welcome a chance to go back. Especially during Christmas! I’m very excited to see some of the lights there. I guess we should buy some Covid tests just in case…we plan to take buses and trains to Setubal and throughout the area. I don’t think we need a negative test for those, but better safe than sorry.

We are getting our apartment settled. We still don’t have much furniture, but a lot is coming next week. We finally caught up on laundry and we got a kid’s table yesterday, so we’re making progress. The maintenance guy was over a few times this week and now our apartment is in good condition.

We’re mostly ready for our SEF appointment. Our landlord gave us the registered lease, which was my biggest concern when we were looking for an apartment. Landlords are required by law to register the lease with the tax authorities. Many don’t because they don’t want to pay taxes on rent. In order to get residency we need a registered lease, so I’m glad that our landlord did that and made it so easy. The last big step is to get health insurance. Unfortunately I can’t just buy online. I had to fill out a little bit of information and then the insurance company is supposed to call me to go over everything. So, we’ll see how that goes.

Overall we’re settling in pretty well. Furniture is coming really soon. Hopefully we will have our residency cards by the end of the month (ish). December is cold, but a beautiful time throughout the country with all of the Christmas lights. Things are good right now.

Settling into Leiria

November 27, 2021August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

It has been a rough week or so, but things are starting to settle down and get better. Earlier this week we left Sintra and came to Leiria. We stayed for 3 nights at a hotel right by our new apartment. That was a tough transition because there was so little space. We rented two hotel rooms, but it was still a tight squeeze and we missed having a kitchen and refrigerator. We moved into our apartment a few days ago. Before we did so, we were able to buy mattresses for everyone. That’s all the furniture we have at the moment.

Things went wrong with the apartment pretty much immediately. Kyle noticed that there was no hot water. He contacted the landlord and she told him to just turn on the water heater. He tried for 2 hours, but it wouldn’t work. He called her again and she agreed to come over. After some time she figured out that the gas line outside of the apartment had not been connected.

At that point we had hot water, which was great, but we still couldn’t get the radiators to work. They use hot water to heat the house. That first night was pretty bad because the house was freezing. We all bundled up as much as we could, but we were still cold. At bedtime we realized that none of the bedroom doors close, which sounds super trivial but matters to me since we have such young kids and don’t want them wandering the house alone right now. At 3 in the morning Leo found his way into our room. Poor guy was probably freezing.

At that point, Kyle went to try the radiators again and he noticed that the water heater was pouring water out. He called the landlord and she told him how to shut the water off. So then we were freezing and had no water. And Leo wouldn’t go back to sleep.

I think that leads to yesterday. I was super grumpy and hated everything. I hated the apartment, I hated Leiria. I was just exhausted and frustrated. The day before yesterday we had a few frustrating encounters and some people were rude to us. People told us it was a fluke and that people in Leiria are usually nice, but I was still feeling weird about those interactions. So back to yesterday- we decided that a fun day was in order, so we put off shopping and trying to furnish our apartment.

We went to downtown Leiria and spent the day walking around. They have the Christmas stuff all set up and it just adds to the charm. When we first got to Leiria I really missed the charm and beauty of Sintra and Lisbon. Well, downtown Leiria is charming. I like it there. Our apartment is a bit further than I want, but once we settle in it won’t be such a big deal.

One of our last stops yesterday was an ice cream/ coffee shop. They have some of the best coffee I have ever had. They also have boba ball smoothies that Sofia loves. It’s nice that anywhere we go now is somewhere we can go over and over again.

While we were out we signed up for phone/internet/cable. We got a Black Friday deal for 61 euro per month, which makes me really happy. We were paying $150 just for two phones in the US. We also have fiber optic internet, which is awesome.

Last night when we got home the cable/internet people showed up at the same time as the maintenance guy and another guy to fix our water heater. So it was pretty busy in the house for a while, lol. At the end of it all we got hot water, working radiators, doors that close, and internet. Our TVs were delivered too, so at least we have TV now. It’s amazing how much life improves with some hot water, heat, and TV. I’m feeling a lot more optimistic today.

Trying to get furniture has been a challenge. Our cards get declined when we try to make big purchases. We have daily limits but we’re not sure what they are. Our cards get declined when we try to make online purchases. I know banks here take security seriously, which isn’t a problem as long as you’re not trying to furnish a house. I think we are going to have to try making smaller purchases to get stuff. Hopefully, we can get some furniture in this week. For now, it’s just nice having a kitchen and showers back.

We are completely out of clothes, so we’re trying to catch up on laundry. Until now we have been using laundromats, but we have a huge patio and a drying wrack now, so we’re finally doing our laundry the European way. Our patio doesn’t get sun until afternoon, so I don’t think we will have clean/dry clothes for a while. A day at home sounds perfect right now though. Fingers crossed that we can get some furniture in here this week!

Cascais day trip and we got the apartment!

November 9, 2021August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Today we decided to take a day trip to Cascais to distract ourselves. A few hours after we got there we found out that we got the apartment! We are so excited and relieved. I’ll be even more excited when we get the signed lease in our hands, but the landlord told us that the apartment is ours, so we’re focusing on that. There is a lot we don’t know about our apartment, so we are very excited to get there to see it and find out the answers to our questions. I have no idea if there is a dishwasher or a washing machine in there. I do know that it has a huge living room, a huge patio, and a bathtub, so those things are awesome.

The shipping company (from shipping our pallets) needs to have an address for us by November 12. We weren’t quite sure what we were going to do about that if we didn’t get the apartment, but now we don’t even have to worry about that. And now with a Portuguese address, we can go ahead and get private health insurance, which is the other thing we need to do for our residency appointment. And we can go to the bank to change our address, and then maybe they can mail me another bank card. There is a branch right up the street from us in Sintra.

Cascais was, of course, absolutely gorgeous. I have seen videos of it and knew I would love it. People say that you don’t really need to know Portuguese in Lisbon and Sintra, and that is true to a degree, but we found it to be even more true in Cascais. There is a lot of English spoken there. We had some really good fish and chips for lunch. Things were expensive in Cascais, but all of the food we got was really good.

We walked down the promenade for a bit, and then we turned around and walked back down a busy road back into town. We walked around some of the shops for a bit. We went to two different beaches and got some gelato. The first part of our trip was more of a distraction, but the second part was a lot of fun since we felt pretty relieved and happy. There is some beautiful artwork that we see for sale in Sintra and I really wanted to get some of it, but I don’t want to lug it around if we don’t know where we’re going. Now that we know we have an apartment I can go buy some! My favorite ones are pictures of doors. I know how strange that sounds. I never used to be into doors, but I have seen so many beautiful ones in Portugal and I love them. So I am going to have framed pictures of doors in my new apartment, lol.

As soon as we find out our move-in date we are going to arrange some things and then we’re heading up to the Silver Coast! We have absolutely loved our time in Lisbon and Sintra, but we are very excited to get to know our new home and hometown.

Fingers Crossed…

November 7, 2021August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

We found our perfect apartment. It’s a T3 with 2 bathrooms. Huge living room, it’s on the ground floor, 10 minutes walking from town, and it’s beautiful. Great price and the owners are looking for someone to sign a longer lease. There is a small garage, which we hadn’t even been looking for, but now we want it because it would be perfect for bike storage. The problem is that the apartment is in huge demand. I’m not sure how many other people want it, but I know the owner has numerous showings.

The process so far has been a learning experience and different than anything we have done so far. We hired a company to help us find an apartment, and they met with the owner and toured the apartment. They told us how important family is to the owner and that they want a family with kids living there. We definitely fit that bill. They told me to call the owner to tell her a little about the family and then to follow up with an email, so we did exactly that. We put a lot of emphasis on how great the apartment is for our kids and how much we want to raise them there. We didn’t even have to embellish at all, we really do love it and we want to live there so much. The owner said that she will choose someone and let us know of her decision by Wednesday. So now we wait. We have no idea how it’s going to go.

In the meantime, we’re trying to stay busy and distract ourselves. Today we went to the Cascais mall. I swear we do more than go to malls all the time, lol. We started going to malls a lot more once Sofia was born because it’s a win for everyone. We can walk around and exercise no matter the weather. There is food, usually a playground, and if the kids want to walk around we don’t have to worry about cars. I was very proud because we took the bus from Sintra to Cascais. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was our first time and it was a bit intimidating. In case you ever want to take the bus around here, you have to flag them down, they don’t automatically stop.

The mall is big and has a nice playground with slides and a ball pit. Sofia and Leo had a blast. The mall has a Toys R Us, which was really fun to see. The US ones went out of business a few years ago. When I was pregnant with Sofia we went to their going out of business sale and stocked up. This Toys R Us also had a playground, so Sofia and Leo got tons of playground time today.

Later this week we want to go to Cascais. We went to the mall today, but didn’t actually see the city. Fingers crossed that we get good news about the apartment soon…