July 2011

We finally moved into our house. After a couple of months of finishing it up (and staying and Oma and Opa´s house), we now are adjusting to and adoring the new house! It has a great open living-, dining-room and kitchen place. The kids also love their (big) play room, which is on the 2nd floor, but with the gate closed and an open plan room, I can cook, read a book or work with an eye on the kidlets. They both have big rooms, with new curtains and furniture as well as big bathrooms (we made an oversized bathroom in Kaio´s room so I can bath them there... it has been hard to get them out of the shower!). They also LOVE the bath in our master bathroom! It has a sort hidromassage jets which they really enjoy! (we have now agreed we only take a bath in the bathtub on the weekends since they stay in there for 30+min and realy "fight" to get out!)
The kitchen has a "bar" style seating, where the kids can sit on the stools while I can cook.
Another great feature of the house (which we have not been able to use much since it has been raining a lot) is the garden. It is very big and we can´t wait to plant, install a play area for the kids and have a plastic pool for the summer! Overall it has been great to have such a big space for everyone. We do miss Vinny much more now, as we know he would love the space too!
Josefine has been talking a lot. She clearly understands both language and speaks a mixture of both when she talks. She is constantly looking at our mouths and tries to repeat the words. Today she said - BEAU...FUL (=beautiful). She also makes herself clear when she wants to eat something, when I offer her diferent options of snack she says "no" and shakes her head. When I finally say something she likes she says "YEAH" and nods her whole body. Her favourite activities during play time are:

• stacking blocks or putting small items in boxes
• "reading" - she can sit for a long period of time with comic (!!!) books or any other book that has images. I think she got this by watching Kaio, who can also spend hours with a book, just looking at the images
• stealing the toy Kaio is playing with and run away, laughing! (naughty naughty... but also very funny)
• Playing with dolls. Oma and daddy gave her dolls recently and she then grabs a spoon and feeds them, she also gets a blanky and put them to sleep.

Kaio continues to develop well and enjoys creating play situations. He can spend long periods of time with Jason pretending to be pirates on the couch. We also play "spaceship" in the car on our longer comutes home. The other day he pretended the couch was his room and he had a TV (little carton box) and was eating popcorn and drinking soda (all pretend) and then he took a nap... He has a great imagination. At school they say he is a boy that gets along with everyone and everyone likes him. He really likes music and english and loves the sport classes (they have gymnastics, soccer and capoeira) however he sometimes has a hard time adjusting to new situations (ex. if the teacher separates him and his friend because they are being disruptive during music class)
As always, it is dificult to pick the best pictures, as so many are just adorable and perfect, but here are my latest favourites:
- Kaio and Josefine admiring the new oven (and eating a snack and being very cute):
Josefine loves the waffeltjes Oma makes:
Kaio loves them too!!!!
Kaio and Josefine being adorable and eating waffletjes (Josefine loves to imitate her big brother):
At the mall where they allow kids to paint the wall... (let´s hope they don´t do the same at home):
'Someone' discovered the pantry:
Little piglet:
Kaio at the dinosaur expo. He is fascinated by them!
Josefine trying the new jacket she got from her cousin Ana Julia.. she is ready for the catwalk!

June 2011!

Kids are just amazing! Especially mine! Both Kaio and Josefine are such an amazing kidlets. They both have very diferent personalities and both are so much fun! Josefine has started the phase where she is demanding (want us to read a book for her, wants us to hold her hand, wants and apple.. and everything NOW). On the other hand, Kaio is started the phase where you can easily reason with him. Explain the situation, explain why we can´t or can do something etc. If he is not tired, he is very good in comprehending the situation. He continues to take the role of "big brother" really well and now that Josefine has started saying lots of words, he is constantly correcting her.
Kaio went to his first movie in the theater (that is without counting the big scream I took him to in London when he was a couple of weeks old). He went with Titio and Kazuê. They took him to McDonalds and made it a special afternoon! I was unsure how it would go, since sometimes he gets a bit afraid while wathcing cartoosn... but it was an awesome afternoon. All 3 loved it! Today, when I asked him if he wanted to go to the movies with me he said - "contigo e com o titio" (with you and titio!)
Josefine has been diagnosed with atopic dermatitis, which is the skin condition that we have been trying to deal with for several months. She now has to take daily antihistamines. It breaks my heart to see her cute little face with all kind of redness. On the other hand she has developed in an adorable toddler (oh, yeah, my baby is gone!) She has always been independent, but now she wants to eat by herself, talk and gets frustrated when we don´t understand her, has her opinion on what she wants to eat, wants to carry her own backpack to school, etc
Kaio and Josefine keep loving each other and are constantly hugging and kissing each other. As before, they sometimes dispute for a toy (and mostly Josefine wins) but I have been very careful to manage that well since she should now always think she gets everything because she is the youngest, but I think she has gotten that....
Below are some pics (it is so dificult to pic only a couple!):

Me and my beautiful and amazing kidlets!
Kids having fun and being silly together!
Both LOVE apples (and not nicely sliced and without the shell - they want their own big, full apple each!)
Miss Josefine wants to eat by herself! (and she LOVES her black beans! and yes, her hair is getting long!)

Kaio reading a book for Josefine. They are both really into books!

KAIO!

JOSEFINE!

At our new office, drawing (look at Kaio´s great design of a person - in that case it was "mamãe" and the other one he drew was "Kaio". He then explained to Josefine and daddy that they were travelling together!)

Trying out the new bar stools we purchased for the new house (and still in PJs)

Family Hall!

Josefine loves to "tackle" Kaio (and he never opposes to it).. and then they just lay there, giggling and having fun!
Kaio being silly
Enjoying the fireplace! (Josefine loves to extend her hands towards the fire and then rub them together - even when there is no fire;)
Building a tower together (which Josefine destroyed 2 secs later - which upset Kaio, but then I explained to him that he also loved to that when he was a toddler and he understood it!)