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.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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!

Sao Paulo Love

Here is a great article about our city!
Anyone want to come visit?

When in Rome

Fazenda Santo Antonio da Bela Vista

In my former life (read: last year) field trips consisted of yellow buses, exhaust fumes, rowdy children, hovering parents, and smelly lunches. No longer. There are definitely frustrating parts of teaching here, but field trips is not one of them! Traveling to Fazenda Santo Antonio da Bela Vista was hands down the best field trip experience I've had in my seven years of teaching. To start with we travel on buses like these:

These buses are air conditioned, plush, and spacious.
We also travel with these:These are monitors. Monitors are people hired to supervise and entertain groups of children. Monitors are very popular in Brasil-you find them in restaurants, hotels, stores, shopping malls, and on field trips! The company we work with organizes the buses, the schedule, the groups and supervise and entertain the children during the trip. For anyone who has ever organized a field trip (it is usually us teachers) you understand how helpful this is! Additionally, having the monitors negates the need for parent chaperones. As a parent, I sympathize how nice it is to spend the day with your child on a trip-but as a teacher, more people=more chaos. Traveling with just the students and just the monitors is so. much. better.
The coffee farm was great! It was beautiful and really interesting to see how coffee is traditionally harvested and roasted. Coffee was once the cornerstone of Brasil's economy so the trip was an important part of our students' understanding of Brasilian history.
Two other parts of this field trip that were totally unique to Brasil:

Bodyguards traveling with studentsand

Not one, but two stops by the police just to check that we had all the appropriate documentation for our students. These stops were about a half an hour each and made us arrive back to school very late!

Our day ended with a great lunch. Traditionally lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Brazil and a field trip is no exception. We (students included) were given a choice of spaghetti and meatballs, beans and rice, chicken, and salad. Notice the real silverware (knives!) and tablecloth on the table? I love how meals are treated like an event EVERY day-not a pit stop.
I really had a great day with the students-they learned quite a bit and I walked away with plenty of freshly roasted coffee. A total success!

We are happy to announce...

that after 7 months and 26 days in Brasil we finally have television!

Just in time to head home in a few months...

Noah Speaks!

I tried and tried to upload the video I had of Sophie nonchalantly explaining her picture in Portuguese, but I just couldn't make it happen. I did, however, manage to get this video of Noah impromptu (or, do this for Mommy and I'll read you TWO more books before bed!) video tonight. This just proves that children pick up languages faster than adults! It's right before bed, so he gets a little tired by the end!

Sunday in Sao Paulo

This video is from our living room window. Most Sundays, usually between 4 and 7, we hear some variation of this. Sao Paulo's football team is pretty good so we hear it quite a bit. I didn't grab the camera in time for "GGGGGGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!" but you get the idea!


Needless to say, with this kind of motivation, both Noah and Sophie playing football three days a week already!

Sometimes we have to leave Portal!

I love where we live. I'll be the first to admit that living at Portal do Morumbi is about as good as it gets. We have 4 pools, a restaurant, a gym, activities for the kids, tons of green space, 3 playgrounds, trails, etc...in a nutshell, we're spoiled rotten. Many weekends we haven't left Portal except to wander to the fruit market across the street and the grocery store, also across the street. There's no need to leave-sometimes, especially on warm sunny weekends, it is easy to stay put ordering cool drinks by the pool. Yesterday, however, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone in a big way.

It started for me with a run at USP. I headed out early with a group of other teachers, but ran alone with thousands of other runners and bikers. Afterwards, two other teachers and I headed to a yoga class conducted nearly exclusively in Portuguese. The instructor speaks English, but since we are the only gringos in the class she reserves her English for corrections and adjustments to poses. I felt like I got a great work out and practiced my Portuguese at the same time! When I returned from class we quickly fed the kids lunch and headed out to the IMAX theater on the other side of the city. It took us awhile to find the theater, but once we did we weren't disappointed-the kids loved the 3-D glasses, popcorn, Guarana (sweet drink), and we ALL got a Portuguese lesson. Our day concluded with a quick stop at PUC-THE place to buy little girl's (and some boys too) clothes in Brasil. I resisted the urge for seven long months, but finally gave in. I left with 2 outfits for Sophie and a new sunga for Noah! He wore his other one out, and doesn't like to wear "regular" bathing suits any more! Look out in June!

We had a great day! It is stressful to leave Portal and our comfort zone-very few people speak English in Sao Paulo-but every time we do it it gets just a little easier!

Sophie modeling her new clothes!

Sophie's New Look...

After months of fighting Sophie to comb her curls (that at times bordered on dreadlocks), she got her first haircut yesterday. She really loved the whole thing, especially the complimentary manicure. I can see we are going to have fun in a few years. Thankfully, today I see that despite the cut, she still has her curls!

Noah's Five Minutes of Fame

This time it is Noah who make an appearance on Graded's main page....look for the less than eager boy in a Batman costume. The costumes were for the preprimary school's Carnaval parade last week!

I have a feeling another will post will be coming shortly...I'm off to my first yoga class taught in Portuguese!

Carnaval Recap

I was a big fan of "Opposite Day" growing up-you know, a random day of the week was assigned the title "Opposite Day" and consequently we (highly intelligent first, second, and third graders) did the opposite of what we would have ordinarily done. Our Carnaval 2009 was like one giant opposite day. Brasilian after Brasilian (and the expats as well) headed to Rio, the beach, even Buenos Aires, but us? No-we headed to Campos do Jordao in the mountains. It was a great decision. We left Wednesday morning (after Carnaval was technically over) and made the 2.5 hour trip in 2.5 hours-that alone is a major accomplishment in this massive city. On a holiday? Amazing.
The hotel we stayed at was gorgeous and the grounds were filled with flowers and lavender. The hotel had a gigantic play room for kids (complete with a trampoline and ball pit), climbing structures, pool, and great common areas. The leaves had already started to change a bit and there was definitely a fall chill in the air. We broke out the sweaters and jeans and our swimsuits and shorts stayed packed. It was such a welcome change!
On Thursday we headed up to Parque Lenz where Noah and Sophie rode a zip line and played on the indoor playground. We hiked to a great view of the mountains and a waterfall. The weather was a bit wet, but it was still a great time.
On Friday we visited the adorable town of Capivari where we rode a train (more like a trolley) through the town of Campos do Jordao. It was a bit slow, but the kids were content with their Swiss chocolate lollipops. We went to the Baden Baden Brewery for dinner and enjoyed Capivari a little more.

This trip was great-I'd venture to say it has been my favorite so far. Less crowded and better weather than Rio. Cleaner and more kid friendly than Paraty. Just plain great.

There is much more to say, but it is Sunday night (after a full day of poolside lounging) and we have to work the ENTIRE month of March so I better rest up. Can you believe it? Four straight 5 day weeks? Hopefully these pictures will fill in the gaps!Our hotel
Noah on the "sky bike"

Sophie on the zip line
We made it to the top!

Noah was an awesome hiker-he led the way the entire time!

It almost felt like fall there...

The streets of Capivari

Someone totally loved the Swiss chocolate!

Our wonderful friends Peter and Leca-they joined us with their adorable baby Julia

At the Baden Baden Brewery in Capivari

Carnaval

So most of you probably know about Carnaval. It's an interesting celebration. It starts today - 4 days before Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent. Of course, Lent is a period of time when Catholics (and Brazil is a very Catholic country) abstain from something. Traditionally, it was meat that was given up. And that's where the word "carnaval" comes from: carnelevare, "to remove meat."

That's enough of that for now, but I just want to establish that this relatively solemn Christian occasion beginning on Wednesday is what sets the stage for the excesses and extravagance of Carnaval. I do recommend that you watch this video though, even if you are a Carnaval expert. The governor of California doesn't disappoint.

I kind of don't think that our Carnaval experience will be exactly like Arnold's. We're headed to the mountains rather than the beach. We're going to Campos do Jordao with our good friends Leca and Peter and their little girl Julia. We're staying at the Orotur Hotel for 4 days later this week. We'll update our stay there after we get back. Abby and I looked into heading to the beach for Carnaval last month, which would be the more traditional thing to do. Rio wasn't our target, but nonetheless it was nearly impossible to find a hotel that wasn't booked. The few crappy hotels that seemed to be left were outrageously expensive anyway. So, Campos here we come.

Hopefully we have our car back by then. Our car has had some transmission problems and is in the shop being fixed. Fortunatley, we've had it for 4 months and our warranty is good for 6 months. It'll be nice to get it back after Abby and I have had to ride to school with Noah on the kindergarten bus. It's a little crazy riding in with a bunch of 4 and 5 year-olds. They're a funny group, but the silliness level is a bit high for me at 7:30 in the morning.

Ok - so that's what's going on here. Above all, we're happy to have the week off too spend together and with friends. This is our last real break until June when we come home, so we're glad to be traveling and seeing more of the country.

Finally, a photo of Noah at school yesterday when they celebrated Carnaval with costumes and a little school parade. Noah decided to reuse his Halloween costume.

Coach Kasky

If you visit our school website www.graded.br and watch the pictures on the main page for a minute you will see Paul coaching the softball team during their game last week!

Edited to add...

I don't want to sound all whiney about Valentine's Day. Of course, it IS a Hallmark holiday. Who needs roses, chocolate, and a quiet conversation that isn't interrupted by spilt milk? Certainly not me. But, just in case we decide to celebrate next year, I've already got Paul's gift picked out...the snuggie! Shhh...don't tell. Who needs sushi when you can have a snuggie*?

Watch the infomercial-it is TOTALLY worth it!

Happy Valentine's Day

The calendar said it was February 14th so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume yesterday was Valentine's Day. The kids celebrated at school, but Brazil does not celebrate Valentine's Day until June 12th so we weren't bombarded by the usual cards, candy, and flowers abundantly displayed at the local grocery stores. It didn't feel like Valentine's Day-we ventured to Starbucks for coffee and muffins but I wasn't feeling very well and spent the rest of the day in bed. We couldn't score a babysitter for a dinner out, so Paul made omelets for himself and the kids. Maybe we'll try to celebrate on June 12th when we're in Austin with built in babysitters!

Valentine Girl!

Making valentines for friends....