We Are Fancy...Very Fancy

This weekend was busy! We definitely feel like we are in the home stretch of our first year-ready to head back home (June 10!) and visit with family and friends. And go to Target. Have I mentioned I have reoccurring dreams of Target? The home goods, the kids clothing, the stationary, the toys...I could go on and on. Anyway, this weekend was not typical for us-we DID NOT swim or go to the Club all weekend. The weather was beautiful, but we had other things on the agenda.
Saturday our school hosted a Culture Celebration with booths from around the world. I met Paul and the kids there after yoga and found them enjoying maple donuts from Canada and pretzels from Germany. There were rides and games for the kids, not to mention a Samba show that would make anyone blush. I am not kidding. The girls were dressed like they stepped off the beach and were dancing in six inch heels. As Noah exclaimed, "I can see their boom-booms!"It was one of those moments that distinctly screamed "We're not in the States anymore!". It was fun nonetheless!
Following the Culture Celebration we headed to a birthday party. The daughter of one of my friends from school was celebrating her first birthday so we headed across Sao Paulo to the party locale. The birthday girl's grandfather is the former governor of Sao Paulo so it was somewhat entertaining to spend the afternoon hanging out at the Governor's house. It is, at the very least, a fun fact to share with our family back home. The birthday party was the usual here-huge! A trampoline by the pool, enough rented toys to fill a play room, a ball pit, and, of course, monitors for the children! The kids had fun and left with more than enough sugar coursing through their little veins.
I have some more pictures to share from the birthday events of last week, but I've been too lazy to download them from the camera. Soon, though! Paul and Noah did have a fabulous time at the soccer game on Wednesday-luckily, Sao Paulo won. Noah informed me of this very important fact when he returned home at 1 a.m. early Thursday morning!

Five

Today Noah turns five. It is hard to believe that our baby who was just this a few years ago is now the sweet, loving little boy in our house.

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Noah is such a joy to have for a son. He's the first born child that tricks you into thinking you are amazing parents because for the most part he is polite, obedient, caring, smart, and friendly. The truth is HE is just that way. We are lucky to be his parents. Never mind that he hardly slept for the entire first year and cried and cried and cried. How quickly you forget!
I am totally loving this age. Noah is fully, sit-down-on-the-couch-with-a-book, reading. He likes to write in a journal and he loves to draw. He recently started attending kindergarten at school (meaning he gets to eat lunch, go to art, pe, music, and computer and stay until 3) and he loves it. He often makes "work" at home-creating hundreds charts, addition and subtraction problems, and rhyming games for Sophie.
Noah's taken well to Brazil and he can speak Portuguese well, and will claim futbal as his favorite sport and Sao Paulo Futbal Club his favorite team. Today Noah had a traditional Montessori birthday celebration at school. He walked around the "sun" five times and Paul and I had a chance to speak about Noah at each age. Noah was very proud and I am so, so happy that we are in a situation where we got to celebrate with him at school.
Noah has been total and utter joy for five years. I am so glad he's our little boy. Now, can he just STAY five? I don't really want him getting any older. It is all happening too fast!

Tales from a Sleepover

A four day weekend led to early birthday fun!

Seven children six and under for pizza and ice cream

I scream, you scream we all scream for "creame"


Finally, it was lights out

More Brazilian Everyday

There is mounting evidence that we are becoming more and more acclimated to the culture here in Sao Paulo:

• Paul is currently watching a football game (a.k.a soccer game) with several guys from work


• Noah and Sophie no longer duck and cover when the fireworks sound on Sunday afternoon


• Noah loves Guarana, a Brazilian soft drink


• Paul and I order caipirinhas more often than wine at restaurants


• I sometimes go for weeks without touching a load of laundry (thanks Katty!)


• We buy produce 2-3 times a week at the fruit market


• Most weekend plans involve a bathing suit


• Our Portuguese is functional (well, mine is almost there)


• We can order take out in Portuguese


• Sophie did this on Saturday:

Sophie had been begging to have her ears pierced since most of her friends do. It is common to pierce ears when little girls are born, so three years old was quite late by Brazilian standards. She didn't exactly love having it done (the first one went well, but there was a forty minute "intermission" between the first and second hole). In the end, she didn't shed a tear and she is very pleased to have them now. Sophie will tell you she's a mommy now that her ears are pierced! I think they're adorable, and Paul is coming around on the idea. Did I mention he wasn't in town? Just a little "surprise" we had waiting for Daddy. *Smile*

Fall in Brazil

Fall is absolutely gorgeous here. Despite the absence of changing colors and leaf piles, we are totally enjoying our first fall here in Sao Paulo. The mornings are cool-cool enough that we close most of our windows each night. By mid morning, we've opened our windows and the sun is starting to warm up the apartment. The afternoons are usually warm, but not hot, and by five o'clock it is starting to cool down. It is definitely crisp at night, and early last week more than one fleece jacket made an appearance. Most of the time though our weekends are still spent like this:

The water is chilly, but luckily one of the three outdoor pools is heated. It is definitely a different kind of fall, but totally beautiful just the same.

A Little Update

Paul left Tuesday morning for the Big 4 tournament near Campos do Jordao. I was very nervous about this trip-we are so lucky that Paul really doesn't travel for work. This is really the first time he's been gone for any length of time and I will be the first to admit I am totally spoiled by that. Our family spends most of our time together every day-if I need to see Paul at work I simply walk across the courtyard! This week, however, I've been left to negotiate dinner, bed times, parent conferences, and general day to day life solo. You know what? It has been great! Do I miss Paul? Absolutely. I'm counting down the hours until he comes back home! But, we've done okay. Kids are happy. I'm happy. We are so lucky to live in a community like this-we've had dinner invites every night, extra phone calls from friends, and plenty of people just checking in. Some friends even lent me Season One of "Project Runway"! Things are good. Of course, we'll be better come Saturday night when Paul returns-but really, no complaints. Even a massive city like Sao Paulo is quite small when you've got good company.

'Twas the Night Before Easter

Holidays without family are the most difficult days. Tomorrow, I'm sure, will have moments of loneliness but much of that, I hope, will be buffered by all the surprises that rolled in over the last few days. We (especially Noah and Sophie) received enough cards, PEZ dispensers, Easter candy, and Easter presents to bring some American normalcy to the holiday. Chocolate eggs, rather than baskets seem to be the norm here in Brazil. We enjoyed the chocolate eggs at school, but went for the basket here at home. When we packed our bags in August we didn't have any room for Easter baskets, so this year we went with a "family basket". I don't think the kids will mind either way! We have an egg hunt and brunch planned with friends tomorrow-a nice way to spend the day before Paul leaves for a softball trip for FIVE days on Tuesday!
Let's start with an Easter writing by Noah. I love that this boy can write! So. much. fun. I'll graciously provide a translation for those of you not trained in deciphering not quite five year old writing.

My Rabbit.
is Jumpin.
To The Ski.
I Love My Rabbit.
By Noah.

Easter dye sent by Grandma and Grandpa! Thanks!

Hard at work

The finished product

Here's the "family basket". More like the Noah and Sophie basket with some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for Paul!

Here's Where It Is Gets Tricky

Sophie knows most of her letters and she is beginning to know many of her letter sounds. Usually we spend some time every day putting her wooden letters on the refrigerator and thinking of words that start with that letter. This morning we were looking at S and thinking of all the words we knew that started with S. After Sophie, sand, Stella, etc...I pointed out that strawberries started with S too. Sophie replied, "Sssss, ssss, sss...morangos!" Morangos is strawberries in Portuguese. Right word, wrong language!
For the most part, Noah hasn't struggled with this too much. The "ch" sound makes the "sh" sound in Portuguese so occasionally we see that confusion show up in his writing but he's pretty clear about the rules of each language. It will be interesting to see if Sophie takes a little longer to sort out the differences between each language since she is more fluent, or if she develops a better understanding between the two languages but maybe at a slower rate. As a teacher of students who often speak more than two languages it is really interesting to see how these skills develop!

Guaruja

So we made it to the beach for the weekend. Guaruja. It's a decent-sized city just north of the more decent-sized Santos - old club home of Brazilian soccer hero Pele. Anyway, after searching all week for a nice pousada to spend the weekend - a pretty unsuccessful endeavor - Abby came across the not-so-pousada-sounding Strand Hotel. Ended up being perfect - right on the beach with a balcony suite. We only stayed one night, but that made for two beach days.

Anyway, the kids love the beach. It's always been obvious, but this particular beach is probably the most kid-friendly one we've ever been to. Sure, it helps that when you stroll onto a Brazilian beach, you're immediately met by an accommodating beach umbrella vendor...and waiter (we ordered shrimp, calamari and drinks while we were there). But the actual beach was great. We could walk out literally 200 feet and Noah could still stand on his own. Well, when the waves weren't knocking him down anyway. It's just such a long, gradual descent that it's so easy for the kids to play in the ocean. Sure, there are real waves. In fact, I saw a lot more surfers here than in Rio or anywhere else we've been on the Brazilian coast. This is definitely a beach that we'll come back to.

So now, a few sunburns later, we're relaxed and ready for another week.

April Fool's

So if you happened to visit the blog earlier today, you would have noticed Abby's April Fool's joke. She posted a random photo she found that showed a woman who looked bit like her in the background. In the foreground? A home pregnancy test....with a positive.

It was just a joke.

She is not pregnant. At least not that I know of. I would hope she'd tell me before she posts it on our blog on April Fool's Day.

So we're headed to the beach this weekend I think. It's looking like a beauty... 85 degrees and no chance of rain on the coast. We're trying to head to Guaruja - a beach just north of Santos about 1 1/2 hours away. Pretty easy to get to and a beautiful weekend. Something we've not done enough of here yet.

We'll let you know how it goes. Have a great week everybody!