Cute cute and CUTE!

I have mentioned several times how Kaio and Josefine just adore each other and it is so true and absolutely amazing! It fills my mother's heart with so much proud, happiness, joy and excitement/curiousity in how they will continue this relationship as they grow older.
A couple of cute moments:
- in the morning, Josie has been sleeping until later and Kaio is always immediately at her bed side to see her! This morning he was on the toilet and heard she had woken up, he went running, without any pants and a dirty 'bunda', to be next to her bed saying good morning and asking if she had slept well!
- Josie and Kaio face each other in the car (with an empty seat in the middle of them). Everytime we go somewhere we can hear the giggles and happy squeals from the back seat! Kaio smiles and talks to her and she responds immediately.
- He call her "querida" (sweetheart), "amiga" (friend) and "linda" (beautiful)! And she always responds with a smile!
- When strangers walk up to me to see Josefine, he proudly says to them - "minha mana" (my sister)
- When she cries he goes running to give her a toy or to say - "teu mano esta' aqui" (your brother is here)
We really hope that they continue being so fond of each other and grow up to be friends!

Kidisms...

Kaio has a bit of dificulties saying some letters, like F, S and K. One word he has alwasy said 'wrong' is silly. He says - tui. We think it is adorable, but recently we have been trying to help him pronounce some words better (specially now that he speaks 2 languages and, at times, it is dificult to understand him as we don't know which of them he is speaking in). So we started trying to making him say SSSSS, which he does, then we say: sssssssssss sily, he then says - ssssssssssss TUI! It is adorable! I remember when my brother was his age he had the same with Supermercado(supermarket), which he would pronounce as 'fumercado', so I would make him say ssssssssssss supermercado and he would say ssssssssss fumercado!
The other day we were talking about going home and making some food for Kaio a couple of moments before we had talked about a frog. Kaio then said - "comida do togy' (food for 'togy') We did not understand what he meant by togy, so we asked him if it was doggy or some other words, when he saw we did not understand him, he said - comida do sapo (food for the frog) which shows he knows both languages and knows how to use them!!! Clever boy!
Sometimes when Kaio wants to start a conversation or doesn't know what to talk about he says - "mommy/Oma/daddy, what are YOU doing?". It is one of the few 'sentences' he still says in english.
Some recent pics:
- Daddy and the kids at the end of the day - a bit of TV time. We were able to convince Kaio to look at the camera for 2 secs to say 'cheese'. Josie was mesmerized.
- Blue eyes baby doing push ups
- Kaio and Josie having fun together!
- On mother's day with Oma
- Smiley baby
- Oma and Opa with the kids

Mother's day!

Last weekend was mother's day and I can honestly say I am the happiest mommy on earth! I have such a great family and could not imagine a second of my life without any them!
Kaio and daddy prepared a nice breakfast and let me sleep until 8:30. Jason put together a nice album with several pictures from when I was pregnant with Kaio all the way until our trip to Argentina... Kaio was very interested in the album and seemed to know when he was in my belly or when Josie was in 'it' and which baby was Josefine and which one was him.
After that we went for a jog/rollerblade with the kids. Kaio and Josie in the pram, I was jogging and Jason rollerblading! It was by the river and we all enjoyed it!
For lunch we went to Oma for a nice barbeque! Jason and Opa did the cooking! We had some champagne, good chats and looked at pictures when we were young! We had a relaxing afternoon and finished the day chatting about our lovely children over a glass of wine! (while they were sounds asleep)

5 month check

Josefine had her 5 month check this week. She is doing really well! She weighs 6.9kg (15.2lbs) and is 65cm tall. Which is right on the 50% for weight and 75% for height. The paediatrician was also very impressed with all her abilities (turning over, grabbing objects, responding to noise, babbling, smiling, etc). The Dr. also believes she will keep her blue eyes! They are just beautiful and impressive.
Her sleeping pattern is still a bit off but it's getting better, the most important is that she is feeding really well.
Since she does not take the bottle (or pacifier) we have started giving her milk in a cup. We use the top of one of her bottles and give it slowly. So far, she has accepted it well and it makes me happy she is not 100% dependent on me (and my breast!)
Kaio still 'tests' us on several occasions. Sometimes he also 'tests' Josie's limits. Although he knows that he is in trouble when she cries with his 'tests'! Which does not happen often, since she is always so smiley and happy when she sees him. But overall he is getting better in listening and understanding the consequences of misbehaving (if we give him warnings he might loose his 1/2hr TV session before he goes to bed or spend some 'out' time in his room or not go to the park, etc). He continues very interested in helping us cook, clean up and other house chores!
Several of my friends are pregnant and it is funny that they consider me 'the baby expert'. They admire me/us in how well behaved Kaio and Josie are and are constantly asking me tips in how to educate and handle them... which on one side is funny to me but on the other hand, I do have two great kids and I am very proud of them!

Argentina

Last week we flew off again. This time we went to Argentina - Buenos Aires and Mendoza - for one week.
We left Kaio with Oma (the longest we were without Kaio! We really missed him!) and Josefine came with us as she is still exclusively breastfed.
Kaio loved staying with Oma because his cousins were still here and he just absolutely loves Oma and Opa. Every time I called to check how things were, Oma and Opa mentioned he barely asked where his mommy and daddy were! It makes me very glad he is independent and enjoys staying with Oma, but a tiny part of mine would like it if he missed me a bit more ;-)
The trip went really well and Josie behaved as a proper globe trotter! It is a pity she does not take the dummy since it would be helpful to pacify her sometimes. As always, she was very smiley to anyone that gave her attention!
When we arrived back, at the airport, the first person Kaio went to give a kiss and hug = JOSEFINE MAIA! (he does not call her Josie or Josefine, it is Josefine Maia or “mana” (which means sister)!
Josie has been mixing up her nights and day feeds. During the day, she is not much of an eater, but then at night she wakes every 2 or 3 hrs to feed! Luckily she does go back to sleep right after a feed, however it is tiring (for her and me) not having a long stretch of sleep! She also doesn't take long naps and usually has around 4 x 30min naps a day. She seems to be very sensitive to noises or movements and will easily wake up.
Kaio's Portuguese is coming along very nicely. He seems to be speaking more Portuguese and sometimes even mixes in some Flemish.
We completed 3 months of our sabbatical and are very happy with what we have accomplished so far! We are enjoying our kids, each other, Brazil, family and friends daily, we are travelling and starting to figure out what we want to do next!
1) Mommy and Josie at one of the beautiful parks in Mendoza
2) Josie "eating" her first breadstick... she just sucked on it!
3) Daddy and Josie at a parrilada lunch in Mendoza, it lasted for 2 hrs and she behaved amazingly well!
4) Visiting one of the oldest wineries in Mendoza
5) Mommy and happy Josefine (1)
6) Mommy and happy Josefine (2)