This and That

So...where we left off:
Paul returned safely from his awesome trip to Greece! The kids were so very excited to see him (me too!) and we all quickly returned to school/work routines more or less peacefully.

We are in our new apartment (same complex, different building). The apartment is larger and the style is more comfortable for us. The kids still share a room leavifng us with a play room, a room for the baby, and our bedroom. We ordered some new living room furniture and we're slowly starting to get things up on the walls. By the time the babe arrives we should have it more or less done.

Soph had a birthday! We celebrated her fourth birthday on January 31st Hawaiian style. She is very proud to be four and is already counting the days until she hits four and a half! She and Noah seem to be playing together more and more frequently and I am constantly amazed at the patience he (mostly) has for teaching her games like Uno or helping her with a puzzle. They've also gotten pretty good and combining their loves creating games like "Let's be pirates on a ship and you can bring your baby along". Most days they are a pretty good team!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today! The baby looked great-everything as it should be-and we determined it is definitely a GIRL! Noah and Sophie were a bit disappointed this morning-they had their hearts set on a little brother-but by this evening they seemed to be okay with a little sister. We think we have a name picked out-something that works well in English and Portuguese-but I think we'll test it out for a few weeks before revealing it!

We're off this week Carnaval. We decided to stay around this week (barring any last minute trips to the beach) and spend the time enjoying "Club Portal"-the pools, the restaurant, and the lack of traffic and crowds makes it a good option! This way we can spend a little extra on the baby's room and our apartment :)

Pictures of all the latest happenings coming tomorrow! The heat has worn me out for the day!

Perks of the job

So when we came to Sao Paulo, we figured we'd get a great international experience. Little did I know how international the experience would be.

At the end of last school year, I decided that the history portion of my Humanities class was a little bit shortchanged. Not that the curriculum is bad (it's not great...), but more to the point, it's pretty difficult to make 2000 year old history relevant sometimes. So I approached my principal about creating an international trip. The discussions started innocently enough (we were actually poolside at the club, sipping caiparinhas at the time), but culminated in a 9-day trip to Greece that I just returned from. For me, the trip was in many ways a dream-come-true. As a history guy, seeing sites that are more than 3500 years old... artifacts over 8000 years old... it was amazing. But it was so much more than I bargained for. While we didn't go island-hopping or visit the northern peninsulas of Greece, we did spend 8 days primarily in Athens and the Peloponnese. Sure, we headed up to Delphi and down to Cape Sounion for the Temple of Poseidon, but every stop along the way was an amazing, beautiful and rewarding experience. To be sure, Greece is among the most beautiful places I've ever been. As we all know, photos hardly do justice to beauty. But in this case, it's particularly true.
The Parthenon in Athens
With my fellow teachers in Delphi
In Corinth