Best of Brazil: Art Classes

One of the coolest things about living here is that the kids have a chance to have art classes, in our home, each week from a real live artist (at least that's what he tells us. Just kidding, I've seen his work-he's legit). Both Margarita and Julio are artistically inclined (at least according to their proud mom) and I'm so happy they have this opportunity right now. It's not the cheapest activity they've ever been involved in, but I think it's worth it. I figure we probably won't have a lot of artists willing to come over to our house when we move back to the States. At least not for a price that we could afford. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong?

Here's some of their recent water colors:

They are working on a Revolutionary War theme right now. The above painting is Margarita's. The two below are Julio's.


This one's my favorite, I couldn't believe it when I walked in to check on them and Julio had cranked this baby out in under a half hour:

Cool huh?

And for those of you who have been wondering about my washing machine (I'm sure you've been losing sleep over it), of course the guy never showed up and of course they now don't have the part available until the end of next week and of course Carnaval is starting next week so there's no chance the thing will get fixed before sometime in March.

Guapo is seriously considering just buying a new one. It's that frustrating.

On the maid front-we're having a few issues but my house is SO clean. And she made scones this week. And, I'm pretty sure she ironed my sheets and pillowcases today. Awesome.

Have a great weekend and happy Valentine's day!

I'm Back. (Finally!)

Been a while, eh? Happy Belated Thanksgiving, I hope everyone had a great day.

We had Gaupo's brother, his wife and two of their four kids visit us for 8 days. We had a super time-I was sad to see them leave on Wednesday (it helped though, that we will see them in a few weeks!!!). We've had our parents visit and some of our single siblings, but we've never had any of the kids' cousins come to our house; it was a highlight of the year for my kids. We stayed so busy, I fell into bed every night exhausted!

We went to the beach:

Saw some sites:

Did some hiking (sadly, we did not see any monkeys while they were here :( ):

Ate (a LOT):

Had some funky sleeping arrangements for the 5 big kids:

The grown-ups went to "The City of Samba" one night where they give you a little taste of what Carnaval is like:

here's Guapo's very tall brother with two Carnaval people on stilts:

Margarita and her cousin, who are in the same grade, were inseparable-he even went to school two days with her which I think is pretty cool since he was on vacation. At night after we'd get the "little kids" to bed, they would stay up a little later reading:

(The grown-ups, on the other hand, stayed up watching our favorite episodes of "The Office". Good times, good times)

It was a great week, and we really appreciate the time and effort it took for them come to Brazil to visit us.

In Pedro News, the paint-in-the-hair trick was just the beginning of his "putting-gooey-stuff-in-his-hair" phase. Since then he has also put milky-cereal, yogurt and my personal favorite, vaseline in his hair. Any tips on how to get vaseline out of his hair? It's been 3 days and numerous baths and he is still totally greasy.

He has also started telling me "don't want to" when I try to get him dressed, and screaming "MINE!!!" when his (preceived or otherwise) belongings are touched by anyone. Aggggggh!!! 3 weeks until the dreaded 10 hour flight.

Not good.

The Best of Brazil-Attitude Towards Kids

Today the kids had an ice cream social at school to celebrate "Children's Day" which is on Sunday. I have seen advertisements for celebrations to be held all over the city-it's a big deal here.



Pedro likes to feel like one of the big kids now:



Children's Day is very indicative of one of my favorite things about Brazilian culture: Brazilians love kids! Seeing that I have 4 such creatures, I really appreciate this about Brazilians. When I lived in Small Town, one of my best friends was Brazilian and I had never met anyone who got so excited over kids that weren't her own. I thought she was just a super unique person, and come to find out, there's a whole country of people like her! (not to take anything away from her, she is a wonderful person!)

It was one of the first things I noticed when we moved here last year, how people gushed over Pedro. And having lived here a bit longer, I have seen so many more examples of it:

-Sometimes when I am out running with Pedro, a group of scary-looking-tough guys will be walking towards us and I get a little nervous because of all the street crime here. But, it never fails, as we get closer they all get big goofy grins on their faces and they wave and say hello to Pedro. I tell Guapo that Pedro is better protection than a dog in these parts!

-All stores have a special express line for people shopping with kids under 5. (during busy shopping hours I make sure I have Pedro with me, just so I can use this speedy line!)

-In the airport, when you arrive with kids, everyone ungrudgingly lets you go to the front of the immigration and customs lines. And, we have no fear of getting stopped in customs with our 18 bags and $1000's of dollars of merchandise (there is a $500 limit on new goods) as long as we have the kids with us. We push them up in front of us and they are our golden ticket with the customs agents.

-Places like malls and the larger grocery stores have, in addition to normal restrooms with changing tables, rooms designed just for changing diapers and nursing moms.

-Brazilians expect kids to act like kids, and so they are not at all shocked or annoyed to have kids running around screaming. Even when kids are misbehaving (like Pedro throwing a fit in the store because he wants down NOW!!!), they seem more amused by it than anything else.

-Some of the nicest restaurants have indoor play areas for kids (usually staffed with someone to keep an eye on them).

-Teachers are very loving and affectionate (and not in a creepy way) with their students. Every morning when I take the kids to school, I always see kids being greeted by their teachers with big hugs and kisses (again, not in a creepy way, it is part of the Brazilian culture to kiss when you greet someone-once on each cheek). The same thing happens at the end of the school day.


Brazilians just have a different outlook on kids that I find refreshing. They are very respectful of childhood- it's like they really get that children are only children for a brief time, and so they find them and their actions and their words enchanting (for lack of a better word). They nurture and care for their kids unlike any culture I have ever seen before.

I feel like living here has helped me to better appreciate and accept my kids for what they are-kids!-and not little people who should act like adults.

(Oh how I wish I could bottle it up and give it to all the people we will ever have to sit next to on long flights!)

So, give your kids an extra hug on Sunday in honor of Brazilian Children's Day!

Best of Brazil-Hanging Orchids

Here's a cool thing about the place we live. Our street is lined by huge, beautiful, tall trees. People hang these little half-pots of orchids on to these trees and they thrive. This amazes me because the orchids I have tried to raise here seem to die the second we cross the threshold of our apartment.















There are orchids everywhere which makes taking a stroll with Pedro just deligthful.

And, speaking of orchids and people like me who can't grow them, they actually have rent-an-orchid businesses here; you pay a monthly fee and pick the orchids you like and an orchid specialist will come and take care of them for you and when you get tired of those, you can switch them out for new ones-pretty cool huh?

Why It's Great to Have a Maid Who Cooks Dinner (Other Than the Obvious Benefit of Not Having to Do It Yourself)

Our maid cooks dinner for us 3-4 times a week. I personally love it-meal planning is not my favorite part about being a mom. I don't mind the actual cooking so much, it's just the "what are we going to have tonight?" that gets me down.

So, I really only have to plan 3 meals a week which is pretty much a cinch.

We do have several issues however with her cooking. They are as follows:

1) Carbohydrate Overload. Let me preface this by stating that I am not exaggerating. There have been nights when she has prepared all of the following:

• Rice and Beans (Brazilian staple)
• Pasta
• Mashed potatoes OR French fries

That's just how Brazilians eat here. A totally normal, acceptable, meal is lasagna and mashed potatoes. Strange, don't ya think?

I am not a very assertive person when it comes to maids. I rather clean my own toilets than have to tell someone she's doing a bad job at cleaning my toilets (sadly, this is not just an hypothetical). However, in this one area, I did bring it up because as Americans we just don't eat rice, spaghetti and french fries in the same sitting (at least we don't). I tried my hardest to explain, without making her feel bad of course, that although we just LOVE her food, we eat rice OR pasta OR potatoes, but never more than one at a time.

I have now mentioned it several times and it doesn't seem to be getting through. When she returned Monday after our vacation we had: rice and beans, and spaghetti.

Tuesday night I guess she made up for it by going totally Atkins on us. We had: ribs, salad, broccoli, green beans, and carrots (not the vegetable medley you may be picturing; they were all prepared, cooked, and served separately). No rice, beans, OR pasta that night. ???

2) Desserts. She makes desserts that are too yummy for their own good. Brazilian flan is even better than Mexican flan (Sorry BOFF). No further explanation necessary.

3) Garlic. This isn't really an "issue" so much as an FYI.

When you think of garlic where do you think of? Italy, right? You might want to add Brazil to the list. They use so much garlic here you wouldn't believe it. We go through at least 4 heads of garlic A WEEK (again, I am NOT exaggerating). When we arrived from Mexico last year I was going to write a post entitled, "Garlic: the New Chile". I never got around to it.

I love garlic, so I'm in heaven smelling it cooking in my kitchen especially when I don't have to peel it.

4) My Kids.

They LOATHE it when she cooks.

The moaning and groaning starts the second they sit down and doesn't end until they take their plates to the sink. "What! This again? Blah Blah, Blah Blah Blah Blah".

And herein lies the reason why it's great to have a maid cook: my kids now LOVE.MY.COOKING.

You'd think we were eating at their favorite restaurant what with the rave reviews I get. Juan Carlos actually looked at me tonight during dinner and said, "Thank you so much for making this mom, I love it." And Margarita said, "I could eat this every night!!!"

It is perfect conditioning for when we move back to the States and I become the sole provider of meals.

Bwahahaha!

Best of Big City, Brazil: Havaianas

Once upon a time I lived in a place called Small Town, Mexico.

Living in Small Town was, hmmmmm, how shall I put it?

Challenging. (am I right, or am I right, k-squared's mom?)

It was basically a small, icky, boring, oil town. When I found out we were leaving Small Town to move to Big City, Mexico, I did a dance of joy...and I realized that Small Town wasn't ALL bad, just mostly. So, being the positive person that I am, I started blogging about the "best of Small Town" and the "not so best of Small Town" to help me see the good (while at the same time being realistic). These posts can be found in March-June 2006.

Anyway, I'm going to start doing that here in Brazil; not because living here is anywhere near as bad as Small Town, but because I won't live here forever and I want to remember what it was like, both the positives and the negatives.

So, tonight I will start with a positive. Havaianas flip flops. I love them for several reasons.

1) Comfort.

These Brazilian flip flops are SO comfortable. I don't know why they are so much more comfortable than other flip-flops, they just are. There is no between-the-toes-discomfort that I have, at times, experienced with other flip flops.

2) Price.

The basic model costs around $10.00 USD, metallic ones will cost you a couple bucks more and the "dress" model (see below) costs around $17.00.

3) Availability.

They sell these shoes everywhere. Of course normal places like sporting goods stores and shoe stores have them, but they are also sold at newsstands (that they have on every block), drugstores, and IN THE GROCERY STORE.

Ok. Maybe, just maybe, this could have something to do with my high grocery bills. But really, I can buy either two pairs of shoes or one thing of maple syrup. Sorry kids-no waffles this weekend. (If I don't teach them about sacrifice-who will???)

Chronology of An Addiction

It all started with the basic white model with the cute little Brazilian flag:



Then, I upgraded to my first pair of metallic flip-flops (gold):



Then I realized I was wearing them way to much and that they weren't really dressy enough to wear out to dinner so I bought the dress version (silver):



I was really liking the metallic thing so I decided I needed some bronze:



I know, you're thinking they look just like the gold, but really, they are quite different from one another. See?:



And here's my most recent pair, purchased last Saturday while I tried, unsuccessfully, to find Guapo something for his birthday (isn't me being happy really the best gift I could give Guapo?):



And lest you think this shoe fetish is all about me, check out Pedro's latest pair:



You can bet that when I finally leave Brazil, I will have an a lifetime supply of flip-flops somewhere in my shipment.