Pictures

The other day I made a photo album of Josefine's first months (and pregnancy pics). It was such a dificult task. Just like with Kaio, we have taken SO MANY pictures of her! Here are some latest pictures:
1)Josie loves to stand. She does need support, however she is very sturdy on her legs!
2)Kaio having fun during the 'festa Junina' of his school
3)Kaio with some of his classmates
4)Josie sitting up nicely
5)Josie trying out a new hat!
6)In Bento Goncalves (the wine county here in Brazil)
7)Kaio having fun at the wineries
8)Josefine and I at sunset
9)Us with the gasometro (a landmark here in Port Alegre)
10)Kaio and I during a boat trip!

Check ups

This week we had Kaio's 2yr10month and Josefine's 7 month check up. They both are doing great!! They behaved very nicely while being weighed, measured, 'poked' and examined. Here are the stats:

- Kaio:
Weight: 12.4kg (27.4lbs)= which equals to the 9% (for boys of his age)
Height: 91.5cm (3') = which equals to the 25%

- Josefine:
Weight: 7.65kg (16.13lbs) = which equals to a little above the 50% (for 'girls' her age)
Height: 68cm (26'8")= which equals to almost the 75%

Josie is now well on her way to being weaned and the Dr. recommended starting her on beans (here in Brazil, black beans are served daily!), other meats, fruits and vegetables. We are also starting to give her some cookies. So far she has accepted everything well!

Josefine
mamamamama nanananana dadadadada - Josie has been babling a lot! She also screams, coos and makes all kind of noises. She is experimenting with her voice and it is adorable. She observes us, quietly, when we make a new noise and seems to be taking it all in.
She is doing really well at her swimming classes and is already going completely under water. She is all smiled during and afger the class!
We've started introducing food. She really likes her lunch soup (spinach, carrots, chuchu, meat and pumpkin.) as well as her fruit (mamao, pear, apple and orange) and chewing on cookies. It has also helped her sleep better and she is now only waking once a night for a feed!
Kaio
He is saying so much and seems to be picking up new words daily. He says full sentences and conjugates the verbs nicely. "quer brincar comigo?" (do you want to play with me?) "Este e' o meu barco, o barco do capitao gancho" (this is my boat, the boat of the capitain")(while sitting on the couch)"Eu estou com frio" (I am cold - after he comes out of his shower)"Hoje nao vamos lavar o cabelo" (today we are not going to wash our hair - he always tries to negotiate this when I say it is bath time!)
He also has become much more social. On friday, some good friends came for lunch, Kaio had never met them and he went over and kissed and hugged everyone! (5 months ago he would hide behind us and not get close!)
After we succesfully potty trained him using stickers (he would get the stickers if he used the potty) we started using the sticker scheme for his breakfast. He is so excited when he wakes up to go and play that it could sometimes take more then an hour for him to finish his bowl of cereal. So now we motivate him to finish his breakfast (fast) so he can get a sticker! It really works!

Memories...

Last night we got a babysitter (Oma) and went on a date! Although the intention is to 'disconnect' from everything and spend some Jason-Annelies time, we always end up talking about our wonderful kidlets and the journey of being parents!
Last night I was recalling the 2 unforgettable times I told Jason I was pregnant:
- Kaio: we had been trying for several months and Jason was totally not expecting anything when one weekday night he went to sit down for dinner and there was a present on his seat. He asked what the occasion was and I just told him to open it. I had bought a onsie and a bib with "I (heart) daddy" several months ago and I was finally able to give it to him. Jason's reaction was perfect he looked at it, looked at me and said "Are you pregnant, really?!" Followed by a big hug!
- Josefine: I had bought a t-shirt for Kaio that said "I am the big brother". I put it on Kaio and we waited for daddy to come home. Jason saw it instantly and asked again: "really?!" This was followed by a big family hug (which included the new big brother!)

Pictures

It's becoming harder and harder to choose the best pictures, they are all so darn cute and adorable!
1)Happy family
2)Kaio and Josie... just ADORABLE!!!
3)Lady in Red
4)Blond and blue eyed (and georgeous)baby!
5)First couple of bites of food (Kaio is attentively watching)
6)GOOOOOOL do Brazil (Brazil 3 X 1 Ivory Coast)
7)Kaio with Oma on the boat
8)Kaio with Titio
9)Kaio and a "Vinny"
10)Kaio helping with Josefine's bath!

Some Kaio cuteness:
- He grabs the phone (my mobile, a fake or toy phone) and says he is talking to titio ou titia. He talks to them saying "tudo bem contigo?" (Are you alright?) "Eu fui para escolinha hoje" (eu fui para a escolinha hoje), etc and sometimes e starts babbling in an imaginary language...
- He is learning a lot at school, 2 months ago they learned all about Indians (what they eat, how they dress and how they sit). Last week I sat down on the floor to play with him and crossed my legs, so he said "mamae senta como indio" (mommy sits like an Indian)
- He is a tattle tale - he comes and tells me "papai me bateu" (daddy hit me) - which is not true, but I think he expects me to tell Jason off because he was not allowed something... (At his school they motivate the kids to tell the teacher when a classmate hurts them, instead of hitting back)
- We discipline Kaio with giving him a warning and counting until 3 when he is not listening. We have heard him a couple of times him pretending to "discipline" somebody (imaginary). He says - "this is a warning! 1...2...3... voce nao te comporta" "Voce disse nao?! Vai para o teu quarto" (did you say 'no'?! Go to your room"
He sure is adorable and makes us giggle a lot!

Lobo mau!

Kaio came home form school very impressed by the story of the 'lobo mau' (bad wolf). Which is the story about the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf. We also took him to a children play that had a similar story (however the piglets were the 'evil' ones and the wolf was the good one!). He has been very impressed with this story and is constantly asking where the "lobo mau" is. When he is playing he says that he is the "lobo mau bonzinho" (the good bad wolf) and also makes up 'weapons' to chase the bad wolf away!
He ins now constantly asking us to tell him (made up) short stories. He asks - "conta a historia do menino" (tell the story about the boy) or about the police on the horse, etc. I have also started motivating him to tell us stories (to help his imagination a bit) and the other day he told the story about mommy drinking sparkling water (very cute, short made up story!)

6 months already?!

Josefine had her 6 month check last week! She is doing great. She weighs 7.4kg (=16.3lbs) and is 65cm tall. Continuing on the 50% of her weight and 75% for height. The pediatrician continues to be impressed with her, how smiley, sweet and easy going she is! (she smiled the entire check and did not fuss once!)
We started introducing some foods and so far her favourite is banana. (unfortunately it 'blocks' her and we've had some issues with that). She definitely does not like the carrot/potato soup I've made and she makes the funniest faces before spitting it all out again! We have also tried papaya (which she likes) and apple (also a favourite).
She is now able to sit by herself for aprox. 30secs but then she bends to one side and falls, which is something Kaio find hilarious and he keeps watching to see her lean to one side and almost fall (of course we are always there to catch her).
Kaio is only speaking portuguese now. He has perfect sentences and uses his words very well. Everyone is very impressed he learned it in 4 months! Jason has now made a point of only speaking enlgish to him (which he does understand without any problems) so we ensure he does not loose his English knowledge.
Kaio has been playing by himself very nicely. He makes up stories and finds diferente toys/items to play out his 'stories'. One day I started telling him a story about a police officer (a short, made up story that lasted 2 mins) and now he is constantly asking us - conta historia da policia no cavalo (tell the story of the police on the horse) or - policia na moto (police on the moto). We always tell something diferent and he absolutely loves it! (we take advantage of this interest and teach him some lessons, like - "the horsey ate all his food so he becomes big and strong." "The horsey and the police officer were very good friends and were nice to each other and did not hit each other" etc)
Both Kaio and Josefine started swimming classes. They both LOVE it. With Josie I started the 'bebe' class, which is the one I enter in the water with her and we do all sort of activities to make her comfortable with the water. She really loves to 'splash' and being in the water. The teacher was really impressed in how she adapted easily in the water and goes to the teachers' arms without any problems. BTW, she is absolutely ADORABLE in her little bathing suit (pictures to follow shortly)
Kaio started a proper swimming class (where I don't enter with him), this class is normally for children that are 3+years, but because we have Josie they allowed us to 'try' this class and would decide if he could join it. To start, Kaio was a bit shy and affraid of the new situation when we got to the changing room, and the teacher had warned he might not even get into the water on the first class to allow him to adapt to the new situation. However, after another teacher (there are 3) played and envolved him with some games, he went into the water and followed the entire class without a problem! I was SO proud of my little guy (he is by far the youngest) but did very well and all 3 teachers said he was more then ready to start the class!!! We went to get a nice sweet afterwards to celebrate his huge achievement! BTW, he is also absolutely adorable in his sunga (Speedo)!

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)

Funny hair!

I was looking at some old pictures of Kaio, and if it is for their hair, they do have the same genes! Josie is entering the phase where she is loosing the hair from the circumference from one ear to another and keeping a spot on the top and bottom.... Kaio had the same!
Kaio:

Josefine:

Rolling...

Josefine turned 4 months last friday.
She started attempting some roles yesterday at Oma's house and today she is rolling non stop. This morning I woke up with her crying because she had rolled on her belly and was 'stuck'. It's absolutely adorable, you just put her on her back and in no time she flips her legs to the side and now has mastered moving her hand also. Unfortunately the belly position is not her favourite, so after a couple of seconds she starts fussing because she is 'stuck'. I read back to when Kaio started rolling and he did the opposite, he used to love his tummy time and his first rolls were from the tummy to the back!
Josie continues to be a super happy baby. She also seems to be very social. She smiles easily to anyone and when she is a bit upset (when she is bored 'playing' with a toy), it just takes a couple of seconds of face to face time with her and she is happy again!
It's becoming very difficult to choose pictures to post, since they are all so adorable and priceless! Below is a nice selection of the last couple of weeks:
1)Happy girl
2)Kaio and his 'mana' (sister)
3)Big smile!
4)"I can be serious too!"
5)Still fascinated by her hands
6)Kaio and Daddy trying the first 'churrasco'! Yummie chicken hearts!
7)Kaio loves his sister - he constantly asks to hold her!
8)Big eyes! She does look like me in this pic
9)Kaio with Opa on his new boat. Kaio has been on several boat trips and he loves it!
10)Exploring the playmat together

Cousins in town

Lucas and Ana Julia came to Brazil to spend Easter with us. Kaio was very excited the days leading up to their arrival and although they had not seen each other for almost a year, when we went to pick them up at the airport, Kaio was super cute and hugged and kissed everyone immediately (no shy boy!). The days following he would wake up asking for his cousins - "Ucas and Tutu". They have had so much fun together, and although they don't speak the same langauge (Kaio speaks portuguese and english and they speak flemish) they do understand each other and really have a lot of fun! He is also very fond of his "tante Karo" (aunt Karo)
Juju also adores 'playing' with Josefine, it's like a little doll for her!
We received a very nice Easter box from grandma and granpa. Kaio's favourite item - a musical card. Grandma has indeed found something Kaio loves and he keeps all musical cards and gets them out to play and dance several times per month!
Here is a link to his latest card: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ8xUsxIOA4
Josefine is getting stronger by the day. She sits up nicely (with assistance) and is really getting big! She also continues to giggle, babble and explore with her hands. She is also "half rolling" (she rolls on her side). Both kids adore each other and when Josie hears Kaio's voice she smiles and Kaio always gives her hugs and kisses when he sees her. She 'tells' him stories and he loves to listen to her coo and see her kick around! People often ask me if he is jealous of her and I can truely say he has never expressed any jealousy our anger towards her! (touch wood it stays like that)