18 November, 2009

Paul wrote this a month ago, but it is better than nothing!! I'm finally starting to feel human again, so I will get some posts up....but for now, here's a short update!


Ok, so it's been almost a month since our last post. That's not good. But really, life's been moving along at a pretty normal pace lately, so I guess we just haven't felt the need to share so much.

Ok, I lied. Life is not moving along normally. Since our beach weekend, the following events have occurred:

1) I went to Nosso Recanto for the second time - the mountain camp retreat where the Brazilian international private schools all go to play their season-ending tournaments. It's really what we gear up for all year long. For our sports fans out there, I'll tell you how the tourney went for my boys basketball team. It was an 8-team tournament that was divided into two 4-team brackets. We had a round-robin within the bracket and went 2-1, losing only to the gigantic St. Paul's Lions. It was a nine point loss, but in many ways it was closer than that.

As the #2 seed, we had to play the undefeated #1 seed from the other bracket - Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro. We beat them by a few in a very close game.

That victory put us in the final against... that same St. Paul's Team that beat us before. Well, they beat us again. It was a bit of a disappointment, as we'd beaten them during the regular season and really felt like we could win the championship. But they have a 6'5" big guy who just dominated inside and we didn't have an answer for that. So we came home with 2nd place.

2) We signed a lease to move into a new apartment in less than two weeks. When we moved the kids into separate rooms a few months ago, we lost the playroom in our relatively small 3-bedroom apartment. Coupled with the fact that it's been colder and rainier this year than it was last year, keeping us inside a bit more and infecting us with a bit of cabin fever, we decided that we needed more space. So we're moving up the hill in the same complex (Portal do Morumbi) into a building with larger, 4-bedroom apartments. We'll be going from less than 1500 square feet to over 2100. This will definitely be more comfortable for us.

3) If moving into a new apartment in December of our 2nd year wasn't enough of an indication, we've decided to stay in Sao Paulo and at Escola Graduada for another year. The intial contract was for two years, but now we can go year-to-year. There are so many good reasons to stay here at this point. It's a great place to live for the kids.... they have a nanny and a gigantic park as their backyard. They can take swimming lessons, soccer class (Noah), ballet (Sophie) and play with their friends all day every day. After school, of course. The kids are getting a top-notch education. Abby and I have excellent jobs where we feel appreciated and valued (most of the time, anyway). Not to mention...

4) We're having another one.

No, not another caipirinha (although that's generally not a bad idea). Abby's pregnant! #3. The last one.

She's been to the doctor and we've seen it on ultrasound. We're obviously very excited and can't wait to meet the new little one. The only question now is whether or not we find out what we're having. Abby says yes, I say no. We found out with both Noah and Sophie ahead of time. The only experience we haven't had is not finding out. Abby's approaching this very practically and just wants to be able to shop in the States. But seriously... it's much more fun to wait and see, right?

So there you have it. We haven't posted anything in almost a month because, let's face it, Abby is the primary poster around here. And frankly, she's felt too sick to sit in front of a computer screen and write. She's been much more nauseous and throw-uppy with this one. Gross for me, but really unpleasant and uncomfortable for her. So while your tendency might be to feel sorry for me.... ok, not at all. But you should send her an email or give her a call and make her feel better.

Now we're getting ready to head off to Buenos Aires for a 4-day holiday (as they say in this part of the world. Or do they?). We're excited to get out of Sao Paulo for a few days and make some memories as a family. We'll let you know how it goes once we get back. Hopefully not a month after we get back.