Oh, Baby

I don't know why it is that Baby J is the only baby in our house who ever wears any clothes.

...They All Fall Down

This all seems a bit out of order with my postings on snow a few weeks ago, but this really is H's first autumn as well.  While we had 4 distinct seasons in southern Brazil, the vegetation was much different.  In addition, autumn and winter were not severe enough to cause an annual shedding of leaves.  I don't think she really believed me when I told her the leaves were all going to change colors and then fall off the trees.  Now that our backyard is completely blanketed by red, yellow, gold, and brown, I think she finally "gets" it.  On our daily drive to & from school along the big river, she loves to point out the "naked trees" and pretend that they are cold.  She loves that she can spot birds nests remaining behind when all the leaves are gone.  She likes windy days because they create a shower of leaves falling from the sky.  And apparently, Ring Around the Rosie is a lot more fun when 'they all fall down' onto a blanket of leaves.  Who knew.

Either way, I love this picture I snapped of her enjoying the beauty God created for us this fall. 

Monkey See

H is determined to be just like her big sister.  In fact, sometimes while the big kids are at school she asks me to call her by M's name.  She pretends she's in school and I am her teacher.  She pretends to go to choir practice and does "homework."  She'll even do M's chores if I let her. 

When M is home, H is busy mimicking about everything she does. These days H is repeating M's night time prayers almost verbatim....only where M says "...and thank you God for my whole family, especially my new baby sister J,"  H mistakenly repeats, "...and thank you God for my whole family, except for my new baby sister J."  

Neverland

This was all their idea.  I just pulled it together, with a little help from ebay.  They do make a cute bunch, don't you think? 

H reminded me Wendy is supposed to have 2 brothers.  I said let's not even go there....For now Capt'n Hook & Smee have their hands full corralling these scallywags.



Incase you need a Peter Pan refresher, introducing: Tinkerbell, Princess Tigerlily, Peter Pan and Wendy



What He's Reading Now

D loves to read, and I mean LOVES to read.  He's still reading a grade or two above his grade level.  His school has a goal of reading 1 million minutes this year.  It got me to thinking, I wonder how many minutes he reads himself in a year?  An hour or more a day is not uncommon, even now that he has an 8 hour school day.  He reads anywhere and everywhere...I've seen him reading while walking down the stairs.  He has a fabulous stash of books and he doesn't mind reading them over and over again.  And oh, how we love the convenience of the library now that we are back in The States.

It cracks me up how many different books he has his nose in at a time.  We do not own enough bookmarks for this kid.  He's taken to using (clean) klennexes...and I'm not kidding...to mark his pages.  Here is a recent stack of books he was reading.  He really does read them all, going back & forth between them on any given day.  It would make me crazy trying to follow so many plots, but it doesn't seem to phase him.


The Lego Star Wars Book, Mr. Poppers Penguins, How to Be a Ninja, How to Be a Pirate, Bunnicula, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Awesome Book of Bible Facts

Ups & Downs

H loves her baby sister.  In fact, she told me when she grows up, she's going to have 3 babies, all girls and she's going to name them all J.  I asked if she thought that might get confusing, but she's not convinced.

Because the kids' school is a 25 minute drive, H, baby J, and I spend a lot of time in the car together. And J cries for a lot of it.   Surprisingly, it doesn't really bother H.  She likes to sing her a song because it "calms her up."  When the crying ceases, H proudly announces that she "cheered her down."  I giggle inside.

Newborn Nirvana

There always comes a point right around the second month where I feel like I enter a sort of newborn nirvana.  She's smiling, she's cooing, she's sleeping through the night most nights.   I feel like I have it relatively together...We have dinner on the table every night at least! And besides, I still get to play the newborn card for an untidy house and extra pregnancy pounds.  Experience tells me this is a brief blip on the timeline of motherhood, but I intend to enjoy each warm, tender, cuddly moment. 

 

Here is my big two-month-old sweetie, checking in at 12 lbs 11.5 oz and almost 24" long!

Let It Snow...

 

It's snowing!  Big, fat, slow, beautiful, I-want-to-put-on-Christmas-music flakes.  It's been a few years since we've seen snow.  The kiddos have been anxious and excited about the coming of winter.  I rather thought we'd be waiting longer than October 22, but I'm not bothered by it.  I'm rather enjoying it myself.  There is chili in the crock pot, I brewed a pot of Starbucks (decaf), and a batch of pumpkin cream cheese muffins just came out of the oven.  Yes, it seems a rather perfect day.

Luckily, the flakes started to fall before school so we got to run out, however briefly, for a lick or a catch before heading off to school.  As the kids' godfather so astutely put it, it's a good day not to be an elementary school teacher.

They took just a moment to catch the first fat flakes.

This is, for all practical purposes, H's first snow.  She was only 4-5 months old for her first winter, and we've spent every winter since in sub-tropical Brazil.  So I was glad I didn't have to usher her off to a classroom today.  Instead we had a chilly sensory morning.
 

M told her you can eat snow if you can catch it with your tongue.  Here she is trying her best. 

I love the flakes on her eyelashes.  She told me the snow 'tickled her eyes.' 

I didn't actually think it was going to stick, but the ground is white and we made snowballs!  I guess I'm going to be spending nap time locating what very inadequate supply of snow gear we still have.  I have a feeling after school we'll be very busy enjoying snow for the first time, all over again.  

  

Once Upon a Birthday

You probably already know that our house is full of princesses.  A few weeks ago, one celebrated her royal 3rd birthday.

 

I can't imagine there could be a more joyful birthday than the third.  It's such a perfect age for "this day is all for you."

Time Flies

Baby J is already 6 weeks old.  Somewhere in between sleepless nights, a new school year and unequaled moments of joy, I snapped these shots of her at 1 month old...because they grow up too fast.  And she's no slacker, by 5 weeks she had already put on 3 pounds!

And Baby Makes Six

Meet Baby J, our newest addition:

Wheat Farmer in Training

I think he would have stayed all summer if we'd have let him.....

DaddyHealy let him drive the combine for the first time ever.  He was in heaven.

Many Faces of M

We've said she's going to be a model, or an actress, or maybe a super hero.  Any way you look at it, she knows what to do when you point a lens at her.  Here, totally unprompted, she changed pose for every click in the 90 second photo shoot I took in Grammy & Grandpapa's wheat field early July.  Look out Daddy.  Sixteen is right around the corner.

38 and Counting...

I'm now at week 38/40 in this pregnancy.  Baby is considered "full term" and according to the midwife, s/he is welcome to arrive at any time.  I, on the other hand, have asked him to hold on for another week or so, I still have a lot of unpacking, sorting, organizing and preparations I still
 need to do.  They never listen to me though. 

Not Quite There

With all we've had going on in the past 2 months, sometimes it's hard for me to imagine our whole family isn't quite adjusted to life in the States yet.  It's been a busy 2 months with visits to grandparents, wheat harvest, swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, and hitting our favorite hot spots and restaurants here on the Big River...not to mention unpacking, settling in, and the arrival of our shipment of household goods from Brazil.  Oh, and let's not forget the 2 rounds of the flu, sore throats, colds, and the rashes we've moved through since getting back...just catching up on American germs.  Then there is the basement construction/finishing project, sorting and downsizing our collection of miscellaneous "stuff" that we don't need, preparing for baby, preparing to start school....it's been busy, to say the least.  And so we carry on, assuming everyone is 100% in this new life we call "American." 

Sometimes it's hard to remember that one of us is really more Brazilian than American.  One of us
only remembers people, food, and places in Brazil.  And while it's been a fun "vacation" for her to experience all that the US has to offer, 8 weeks later, she's still ready to go back.  She asks me from time to time (as recently as yesterday), "When can we leave this house?"  Never jumping to conclusions, I ask where she's like to go (is this cabin fever or Brazil-sick?).  The answer is always the same...."To our red house."  Even though I already know, I ask why.  The answers vary but surround the theme "familiar."  She misses our toys there (most of which are already here and in play), she talks about our maid, she wants to go to a certain park, even though the parks here, at least in my adult mind, are far superior.  She wants Brazilian pizza, rice and beans, our favorite Saturday lunch spot.  She wants the life that was familiar and comfortable to her.

When DaddyHealy went back on a work trip a few weeks ago, she wanted to know when we were going.  M wants to go back too, but "not yet."  D thinks it'd be nice to visit again "some day."  It seems their ages reflect how much they remember from the States, which is tied to how much they are re acclimated, and willing to let go of our former life.  Daddy and I have our moments.  Being back in the town earlier this month made DaddyHealy a bit emotional over what will never again be a part of our life.  I miss the pace of life.  But we both spend a lot of time being grateful that we are, in the end, Americans, and are blessed to be able to live here in the comforts and liberties that go with being a United States citizen.

So, we wait.  We reflect on how excited, yet out of place we felt when first arriving in Brazil and imagine H is feeling some of that.  We know new school routines and a new baby will upset the flow once again in the coming weeks.  So we just snuggle more, remember together, look at pictures, talk about the future, make her rice and beans and pray.  I still believe without a doubt we've all been changed for the better by moving to Brazil, and I feel the same about coming home.  I know we'll be adjusted eventually, even if we're not quite there yet.      

Ten Feet

It seems we're all jumping in with both feet into our old lives here in the States.  I had envisioned a much quieter first few weeks back.  But, we arrived just at the beginning of the library summer reading program (guess who finished his chart in the first week and already claimed his prize).  Our library is one of the things we missed the most....especially with an avid young reader in our family.  And our library has an awesome summer reading program that goes way beyond a reading chart and t shirt.  We have prizes, cool prizes to choose from and activities galore (Marionette puppet show!  Lego building!  Lots of arts and crafts!).  We're having a hard time letting them pass without attending.

And unexpectedly our church is having a Vacation Bible School this week.  We'd seen some signs for VBS around town when we first got back, and my children have attended protestant VBS in the past and loved it.  At this age, the Jesus loves you and you should praise Him message is really all the same.  But it just seemed like more than we needed to take on this second week back.  Trust me, we could spend every morning grocery shopping and I'd still find things I need to restock in my kitchen. 

But when DaddyHealy came home from work with news that our own church was having a VBS, it just seemed like a good idea....getting involved in our own church, meeting future CCD classmates, getting reacquainted with the very involved grown-ups from our parish....And so we registered, and I (with H in tow) volunteered.  And so, our planned slow and quiet easing back into American culture has turned into something quite different.  But so worth it.  There is definitely something special about a Catholic VBS program.  They are walking through the sacraments, having adoration of the Blessed Sacrament explained at a junior level, exploring the lives of saints, and going to mass.  And that all comes with the expected singing, dancing, arts and crafts, Bible verses, snacks and fun and games of VBS.  What a bonus!  And I've enjoyed helping, sneaking in visits with old friends in between.  H, my tag along, has been surprisingly social and won the hearts of the kitchen staff, among others.  She also thinks she's big, and knows the song and dance routine as well as many of the VBSers.

I expected some parts of readjusting to be more difficult than they ended up being.  We're so used to hiring services (I realize I am going to have to clean the bathroom one of these days), but DaddyHelay spent the better part of Saturday (seemingly enjoying) working on the house and yard.  Maybe there is motivation and pride in it because it's our own.  But it was a beautiful day and he maximized it.  And I'm glad it was something he enjoyed.  He will have the hardest adjustment of us all.  He's still manager of his Brazilian team of employees for a few more months, but has a new job assignment here Stateside.  I heard him say he's not doing the jobs 50/50, it's more like 80/80.  You can imagine he's putting in a lot of hours keeping up with things down south and learning all he needs to know about what is going on here.  But he's a hard worker, and he makes each of his hours in the office count.  We're proud that we have such a talented and hardworking Daddy.  He has given our family so many amazing opportunities (like living abroad!), not to mention being a wonderful example of work ethic.  We're looking forward to helping him relax and enjoy his day this Sunday...that is after he finished singing with the choir at mass, since he's already been recruited back!

"Home"

We are "home," whatever that means.  An overly eventful trip landed us back in the States, and hard to believe we've been here a week now.  There is no normal for us now, but we are in the business of re-establishing our American selves in our country, town, neighborhood and house. 

Luckily, the readjustment hasn't been as difficult as I expected, thanks in no small part to some great friends who took the first steps in getting things ready for our return, down to a clean and dusted house and food in the fridge.

Since this was technically a "short term" assignment, we left all of our assets, house, car, etc here in the States and arriving back to a house we already own, already unpacked and ready for us to begin life was a wonderful blessing.  We spent the week reacclimating to American culture. 

You would be amazed how much one can spend on a single shopping trip to the grocery store.  We filled a cart so full we had to hand carry the last few items to the check out.  But then again, we are staring from scratch...salt, pepper, sugar, flour, and all that it takes to make a few meals, snacks and so on.  I told the kids I needed to fill the bottom of the cart with necessities, and then they could throw in the cart whatever they wanted (retaining my Veto power) and they were excited.  I was impressed.  They chose rice krispies, corn chex, string cheese, colby-jack cheese, hot dogs, go-gurt yogurt, fruit snacks, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, sweet cherries, celery, and juice boxes.  The only thing I really had to consider briefly was laffy taffy candy.  I was actually quite surprised.  I didn't expect there to be so many choices from the produce aisle.  While we all enjoyed the mangos, pineapples and passion fruits in Brazil, we desperately missed berries of all sorts.  I am trying to remember how I used to cook, what we used to eat, and trying to decide if that is something I want to go back to, or carry on with the simpler or more basic cooking I did in Brazil, where pre-made anything was unavailable, and all of the cooking started completely from scratch.  Honestly, the first 3 or 4 days eating here, we all had upset stomachs and heart burn!  I had no idea we had been eating so differently.

D seems to be in heaven.  He is home.  No doubt about it.  A place with peanut butter and toy tractors and his grandmas and the library.    M is trying to be as convinced.  Lots of neat stuff, but it still doesn't feel quite right to her. 

Our dear H still doesn't know what hit her.  She has asked a couple of times about "our red house" as we referred to our home in Horizontina.  I'm still not sure she's clear that this move is permanent.  Although it has its benefits.  The loads of toys we left behind are all brand new to her, who was just 12 months old when we left.  She is so excited to have a parque (park) in our back yard.  Swingsets are pretty much unheard of where we were living, so a timbertown with swings and slide, sand box and playhouse is indeed quite a park to her.  She keeps losing me in the house, which is rather large when I think of it from her perspective.  She struggles with the diet here.  We've done several restaurants and she has not been impressed by the lack of rice and beans.   So far we know she'll eat pancakes and macaroni and cheese.  We've found it's definitley easier to keep her fed from our own kitchen.

Momma and Daddy are often in awe.  The roads are soooo good.  Our house is sooo nice.  The hot water is so easy to get out of the faucet.  We can drink tap water.  Things are cheap.  Stores are open all the time.  On our flight back, I spoke to a man whose daughter had moved from Brazil  to the US 6 months ago, and he told me she was amazed at how easy and comfortable things are in the States.  I guess that's as good of a description of how we feel as I could make.  It is easy and comfortable to live here. 

We are missing some of the conveniences of life in Brazil as I took out our own garbage, vacuumed the house and weeded flower beds, all things we paid someone else to do for the past 20 months.  Lucky for me, the kids think everything from the drive through car wash to vacuuming and weeding are exciting new adventures.  And besides,  I could see a part of DaddyHealy coming alive again today as he worked outside for 10 hours washing siding, weed spraying, cutting trees and reassembling the children's outdoor playthings.

We've had interrupted sleep, lots of crying, more fighting and disobedience than normal, and other obvious signs of stress in some little ones.  But, we've already visited the library, and 30 minutes with a kid on your lap reading books, or pushing them in the swing in the back yard is just so magically reassuring to a little one.

There's a lot more to do, but we're beginning to put down roots again and make our house a home.

Good-Byes

Good-Byes are never easy.  Even when you are looking forward to what is on the other end, there are always things to leave behind.  We feel so mixed with emotions these days.  In the past week all but the smallest of the small ones has cried.  Publicly.  We've had 3 good-bye parties, lots of packing, late nights, excitement, stress, sleepless nights, and all around over-whelm.

The packers come tomorrow.  What little we've decided we actually need to bring home with us will be packed up and sent off to sit at the Brazilian dock for 1-3 weeks before ever leaving the country.  The rest has gone to friends, the orphanage, the church, our maid, or people in need in our community. 

We have proven to ourselves that it doesn't take a lot of stuff to make a house a home, and so we're bringing back even less than we brought.

Though our boxes and suitcases may be fewer, our hearts are larger and our memories are greater.  There are so many people we will miss.  There is a way of life, a calmness about Horizontina that will be hard to let go of.  There is a feeling of independence being here "on our own", and also a dependence on certain people who have largely impacted our lives.

We've had a lot of good-byes.  For me, the hardest was the good-bye between M and her teacher, one of the sweetest and most caring people I have met.  I am actually crying all over again right now as I write this.  It was the most heart breaking thing to pull M away on Friday afternoon, her last day of school.  I stayed there in her classroom for more than 20 minutes after class had ended because her teacher just wouldn't put her down.  They were hugging, cheek to cheek and both with such long faces it absolutely broke my heart.  I had another one of those " what have I done to my poor child" moments.  A lot like the ones when we first arrived and I left M crying at school because she didn't want to stay.  Ironic, isn't it?

It's not that I don't know going home is for the best.  I wouldn't consider anything else.  I know there is always good with bad and tears between the smiles.  I know we'll have some adjustments to make in the next several months.  While some moments will be exciting and joyful, others will be sad and difficult.  I'm glad it's summer vacation.  At least the little people can have some time readjusting before starting a whole different kind of school.

We have varying degrees of understanding here.  Of course the adults know what it means to go home forever, however we probably don't really know what kind of adjustment there will be even for grown adults.  D is ecstatic.  He remembers so much and he's so ready to get back to grandmas and grandpas, zoos and museums, familiar restaurants and peanut butter.  He's going to miss his friends though.  He came here at the age of just really developing close friends, and he had a small class in Horizontina, so a very tight knit group.  M is excited because D is excited, but I don't actually believe she remembers much.  We've been watching home movies, looking at pictures, and talking about "home" to make it real.  I see a tough adjustment for her, but that's just my perception.  H, dear sweet H, is pretty sure we're coming back here after our "trip" to the States.  I can't explain it well enough on a 2 year old level that we're never coming back....

...because probably, we never are.  Horizontina is not an easy place to get to, and aside from DaddyHealy (who already has return tickets for later this summer) the rest of us are unlikely to ever set foot in this town again, even if we do return to Brazil.  That's a sad thought for me.  Two years of our kids' lives we can't recreate for them....at least not by driving through town reminiscing and visiting with friends.

Permanence is hard to grasp at any age, let alone 2.  I know H will adjust and be fine.  She will eventually figure out how to survive on American food, and she will someday think of our house on the Big River as home.  They all will.  Until then, we plan to do a lot of extra cuddling and talking and listening and loving.  Maybe wiping some tears (theirs and our own) and enjoying all the wonderful things that being an American and living in the States can mean.

I'm sure I'll have more to say soon, once we are stateside. Tchau Brazil.

"Beautiful" Bonito

On our whirlwind vacation, we also included a precious few days in the Brazilian Pantanal in a town named Bonito, which means beautiful.  It was amazing.  We really only had 2 days there, and while we'd have loved to stay longer, our schedule just didn't allow it.  I am so so so glad our kids got the chance to see the really wild part of Brazil up close and personal.  This is as close to the Amazon as we were going to get, and we enjoyed pretty much every minute of it.  D, although he was sick for about half of our time there, told me Bonito was the absolute best thing we did in all of our time in Brazil.  I am so glad he feels that way, because I do too.

We stayed at a little farm/bed and breakfast called Hotel Cabanas.  We did indeed have a little cabana house nuzzled in the forest.  We left our window shades open at night because the first little ones to wake in the morning were entertained (and therefore quiet) by the wildlife still active in early dawn.  All around our room there were monkeys, cutias, macaws, bats, birds of all sorts, an emu, and more.  One morning I asked my kids if they think they'll ever meet another person who woke to such a show of wildlife as this.  Gratefully, they fully appreciated the rarity of this experience.

M watching a monkey cross the path at the hotel.

More monkey friends hanging out around the hotel.

I love this amazing tree...perfectly captured on film by DaddyHealy.

Everything in Bonito is privately owned.  The tours we took were all within private farms or at least the access to them was.  It was an interesting set up, and I love the signage guiding you along the way.  It was just very Brazilian to me.

I called M our lead elephant, because she really was the trail blazer.  We were told, in so many words, that Bonito is not really a family destination.  The travel company we used tried to talk us out of it, actually.  I am so glad we didn't listen.  We forged ahead, with difficulties at times, but we had a most amazing experience as a result.



My little explorer



60 Years of Cristo Rei

Although I haven't always been perfectly pleased with the children's school here, I am still grateful for the opportunity to have sent them here.  Cristo Rei (Christ the King) has been a large part of D & M's Brazil experience.  For the most part I have found it to be a very caring and loving place.  Even H (who does not attend the school) is called by name by the teachers, secretary, even the director.  Our children have found a home here and I am glad they will have this to remember as their first "real" school experience.

 

Recently, Cristo Rei celebrated 60 years of educating youth in Horizontina.  The children put on a program where M & class sang, D's class displayed a diorama of the school, the parish priest offered prayers of blessing and thanksgiving, and older students reenacted the history of the school.  I learned that day that Cristo Rei was originally founded by Catholic missionaries and was originally only for upper level (high school) education.  It has expanded now, accepting students from 3-4 months old (more of a day care) through high school.  I also realized anew how glad I am that my children are blessed with a school that can be overseen by a priest, anointed with holy water, and pray a novena all the while reflecting the same values at school that we try to present as foremost in our home.  To me, there is little as important as that.

 

 

M with her class and beloved Profe Marga.

 

D posing with his diorama of the school.

Bubbling Over

A while back we had one of those days when we just needed something new to do.  I dug out this pack of 25 bubble toys I had picked up once upon a time on summer clearance at Walmart. (I miss that store!)  We had a blast trying out all the different options, comparing results and mostly just enjoying time together, outside, in Brazil....something we know won't last for much longer.