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!