This is my belly:

I love being tickled:
I also love to tickle myself:
and a little bit more....

But when I had enough - I do mean ENOUGH!!!!

Agosto - 2011

I am so sad I have only been able to update the blog once a month. There are so many great stories and almost daily I think - "oh, I need to put that in the blog!!" but then busy life takes over and I don´t get the time for it.
This blog, besides being a way to tell our kids story to everyone interested, I also invision printing it and making a book for my kids. I see them reading it when they are older, to their kids.. my grandchildren... So, I am going to keep it up (maybe only once a month, but I really want this!)
It has been a long winter. Very cold, rainy and humid. Kaio has had some coughing but has not needed any medical attention. Little Josefine, on the other hand, has been very sick. From stomatitis (mouth infection where she had painful blisters) to bronchitis and even a yeast infection! At one point I was giving her 7 diferent medicines. She has been a trooper and it´s amazing how well she takes her medicines.
Josefine:
Besides the many doctor visits she has been developing really well. She is a very happy little girl, she loves to roll around on the ground with her brother and giggle (Kaio also loves it), she also plays by herself really well. She looks up to her brother and imitates him. She eats really well although does not eat as healthy as her brother. She wants to eat by herself, which she is doing really well. (although we always need to change her cloths after a meal) Josefine is running, loves to take baths, says many words (in both English and Portugues), loves music (and sings along to a couple of songs), likes to dance and give hugs and kisses. She is very opinionated and when she wants something it is dificult to make her change her mind. She is sleeping well but still likes her bottle of milk at 6am! She is doing really well at school and loves her carers and classmates. Josefine gets bright red cheeks when she is hot. She is starting to show interest in using the potty (not sure if I am looking fwd to the potty training!) Josefine continues to be a bit above the average for her height and weight. Her hair is getting long and we can make several piggy tails! (which looks ADORABLE!) She likes to draw and have us draw "happy faces", "birds", "cars" for her. She ADORES to read and on our trip back and fort to our house she reads books and is opinionated about which book she wants. She says "pokoto" when she sees a horse, she "mamarelo" (=amarelo=yellow) when she points at any color, "uptaires" (when she wants to go upstairs)! She loves to hug and say - "abraço" which always needs to be followed by "Beijo" (kiss)
Kaio:
Is such a sweet boy. Can be very shy in certain (new) situations. Can run fast, jump and loves any kind of physical activities. Kaio likes books and can look at them for hours. He can also create his own game and play, by himself, for hours! He is speaking really well and we are currently working on his "Rs". He likes to sing along and does a great job in both english and portugues. He continues to test his limits but he accepts well he can loose his TV if he doesn´t listen. He really likes going to school and talk about his friends when he comes home. He loves to watch TV and can completely disconect when he is watching a movie. Kaio eats healthy (he always eats his vegetables or fruit before anything else) but takes forever to finish. He normally takes more then double the time to eat the same amount of food then Josefine! (he already said he does not like and does not want to play the "who finishes first" game anymore)He likes to help me when I clean or cook (and does a great job at it). He helps his sister with activities and when she doesn´t say the words correctly. Kaio´s drawings are very nice and he can draw people (with big alien eyes), aurplanes, houses, etc. He continues to hug and kiss people he loves and also says nice things like - you are the love of my life, you are my princess, etc He continues asking the explanation about everything and anything - Why is it raining? Why is the sky blue? Why is that dog small? Why does mommy go to school? Why can´t Josefine use the toilet? (we have been very creative with our answers).

The other day, I gave both kids a comic book for the ride to school. They both read nicely their books (as they LOVE to). After 15mins they were both done and were starting to get bored and complaining a bit... suddenly Josefine says - "Ô" (which is like - hey). She Kaio´s attention, extended her book to him, they exchanged books and were both very happy with their new reading material!

As you can see, the kids are developing really well and are just amazing! We have lot´s of moments of laughter and joy. They surprise us daily with how smart, loving, funny and adorable they can be! We have moments of "less fun" when they are tired or testing their limits, but that is just part of the "ride"!

- "Yes, my hair is long and I like to draw.. anywhere...!"
- "I love to give hugs"
- Caretas!
- "I might not eat fast other food, but give me chocolate mousse and I can finish it in seconds"
- Cute!
- Very flexible
- "ME TOO!!!"
- At the museum!

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!)

We have been busy!

"É MEU!"

This week, Kaio was playing with a toy and Josefine went over and grabbed it from his hands to which he said - "É MEU!" (it´s mine!) To which, she said "É MEU" back and not letting go of the toy! Which seems pure imitation but we laughed a lot since she said "é meu" it perfectly. And yesterday when we were in the store, she was holding on to the receipt, when I grabbed it from her she looked at me and said - "É MEU!!" showing she clearly understands the meaning.
Kaio has English classes at school and it is adorable how he comes home saying - "flor é flower" "sim é yes" "carro é car", etc and he repeats it several times, which is probably what they do at school. So he comes home and says:
flor é flower flor é flower flor é flower flor é flower flor é flower flor é flower flor é flower...
Josefine has been trying to feed herself and she has been very succesful at it.

Love love love

It always brings so much joy to my heart, body and life when I see how spontaneously Kaio wants to hug and kiss his sister and then, out of nowhere, she just walks up to him and hugs him. Just at random times of the day! Of course, there are moments that both of them want to play with the same toy or want to sit on my lap (without the other one also being there, although my lap has space for both) but overall they are just so adorable with each other.
Josefine is overall very independent and has a strong will, however she also loves to imitate Kaio. He sometimes does not understand why (he is, still, constantly saying "por que" this or that) Josefine wants to do the things he does. But he continues taking on the role of big brother very well and helps Josefine, shows her how to do things, corrects when she says something wrong.
Now that we live a bit further away, I spend more time with them in the car. Somedays they are not in the best mood and it becomes a LONG drive, but most of the time we sing, laugh and have fun!
Josefine is talking a lot in both English and Portuguese. She really pays attention on the words we say and tries to repeat them. It is adorable and we laugh a lot, specially Kaio, who thinks it is very funny the way she says things wrong - but she doesn´t mind and laughs with us!
Kaio continues being a sweet boy and now he has the habit of very fast, after a misunderstanding, ask forgeviness! (to me, daddy or Josefine). He has english class at school and is really getting that there are 2 languages he understands and when we listen to music he knows when the songs are english or in portuguese (and then he starts questioning what they are singing about....).
We continue living at Oma and Opa´s house, but we are getting VERY excited to move into our new home! Today when we went to look at the instalment of the curtains (Kaio is getting the Grêmio blue curtains) he asked - "Quando nos vamos dormir na casa nova?" (when are we going to live in our new home?) and I said that it would be very soon, he replied - "eu quero agora" (I want it now). Josefine, every time we go to the house, loves the stairs (we have not installed the gates yet) and loves to walk around. We will probably move in a couple of weeks and it will be AWESOME!
On another note - Josefine has had an alergy we have been able to control a bit latetly. She has had it for 2 months and we have tried several medicines. The dermatologist has not been able to identify what is causing the reactions (she has red blots on her face, scalp and hands which itch and just look aweful) but she is much better and we hope she will "grow out of it".
Some older pics (I just "found" on my camera):

And another move...

Last weekend we moved from our flat to Oma and Opa´s house. We will be staying here until our house is ready (Oma and Opa are spending a couple of months in Belgium and allowed us to stay in their house!) The kids are LOVING it! Besides the amount of space, fun toys and diferent activities, they have been sleeping very well. (it is very silent and peaceful!) Josefine is even sleeping from 8 to 8 without waking up for a bottle at 6am. I also think they are sleeping so well because it is starting to cool off and with the warm and cozy PJs grandma brought from the US, they want to spend more time in their bed ;-)
We are also getting excited about our new house, which will have a big garden, play room, both kids have their own big room and lot´s of space! Kaio and I have started doing some fun arts and crafts to decorate the new house! He is really enjoying all the coloring, cutting and planning!
Besides Josefine´s allergy, she is doing really well. She repeats EVERYTHING we say! One of the funiest once is when I catch her making mess (throwing papers on the floor or the contents of her glass of water) I say - JOSEFINE! and she replies "Gunça" (=bagunça =mess) It´s also cute to see Kaio trying to correct her. When she says "mão" (=pão=bread) he says - "filha, é PPPPão" (=daughter, it´s BBBBread)

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF... VVVVVVVVVVv

Kaio had a major linguistic breakthrough! He can now say the F and V. It had become a "joke" with my dad and brother. They would ask if Kaio wanted a fruta (=fruit) and he would say - "sim, quero uma puta" (=hooker) because he couldn´t say the f. After he realized they were joking around, he would say - "sim, quero uma maça". (yes, I would like an apple)
Yesterday he was telling us a story about an "artore" (which should be arvore=tree) and I explained that I understood him but he had to try and say it correctly so other people could understand him. So he tried, tried and tried and he got it! He was so proud of himself that he started saying all the words he knew with F and V. Flor, Feliz, Josefine, vaca, etc and he even started putting Fs and Vs where there weren´t, like VVVVVCOPO (=VVVV"GLASS")