Mommy's get together

Last weekend I went to San Diego for the weekend to meet with some dear friends from the time we lived in LA. We all have kids (some 2 and some 3) and got together, no kids and no husbands! We had a blast! It was reassuring that we share similar doubts, guilt feelings, joys, worries, challenges, etc

I always thought that the personality depended on being 1st or 2nd child, a boy or girl... But talking to my friends, not so much! Some of them have their eldest son with similar personality trends as Josefine or their youngest daughter being similar to Kaio. Which just reinforces that there is no standard rules about raising kids and you just need to do the best you possibly can at the circumstances you are in! 

We all love our kids dearly and are trying, to our full potential, make them great human beings, but it does not always go perfect and there are lots of challenges, but what is important is ensuring their happiness, building strong ethics and values but certainly, also have fun while making them these awesome people they'll become!

Little lier...

We recently have noticed that Josefine has been telling some minor lies... It's a bit funny but also worrying! It is cute because she is not good at it and it is unexpected to see a 3 1/2year-old making up lies. Last week, when I picked her up at school, I noticed she had shorts on that were not hers. I asked her... She smiled and said she bought them!!! And a big smile! After talking to her a bit more, she revealed she had an accident and they used another's girl spare cloths! She did loose her tv that night for lying! She has lied about having washed her hands before dinner, having finished her lunch (while she had a half full plate), having finished cleaning her room, etc

On the other hand Kaio is very honest. I honestly don't remember the last time he told a lie....

So different......

Sports

Jason has always understood about the rules of sports but has never been the kind if person knowing all the players, playoffs, etc. he never interrupted his day to watch a game...

Last month Kaio and Jason went to a baseball game and we have been making Kaio aware of the different sports in all the countries he had been to. He has really expressed interest in baseball! And had been very aware of the score and really comprehends it! It is cute to see!  We ha e also been practicing baseball with him, watching local teams play, etc and he really enjoys it!

Watching TV

This week it was extremely hot and so we decided to stay inside, with ac on, and watch a movie. The kids picked the movie: The last unicorn. As you can expect, it was a intense cartoon with several 'evil' people trying to catch the last unicorn. Kaio has always gotten very into movies and laughs, cries, jumps around, closes his eyes and gets very emotional with TV. Josefine has never been very much into tv and only in the last 2 - 3 months that she has gotten some interest in TV. She now watches for more then 2 mins, but still does not get much emotional about it. S, going back to the 'last unicorn', as expected it caused Kaio to be very upset and he started crying (which I heard from the kitchen) when I went to comfort him, I caught Josefine with her arm around him and she was saying "don't be afraid , I am here to protect you!" It was very cute and funny! She often acts like the "mom" towards Kaio!

The pic above illustrates how Kaio gets so into the cartoon (he is just laughing out loud) while Josefine just sits and stares at it!

Sensitivities

Our kids are so different in many ways..... (As I mentioned in several previous posts) but one interesting one is josefine's sensitivity to cold and Kaio's to heat. Josefine loves sweets and adores the 'concept' of ice cream but hates the cold feeling in her mouth. She also does not like ice in her drinks.

Kaio on the other side is sensitive to heat. When I fill their bath with warm water (not hot warm), Josefine jumps right in and Kaio often complains it is too hot and will not sit down in it. Kaio is also known, since baby, to prefer cold food and milk. (Which was great since I did not have to warm his bottle when he was a baby!) Josefine is not keen on cold food and prefers it warm....

Books

Kids are true bookworms! They can sit and 'read' them for hours and are constantly asking for us to read to them... Although they can't actually read, they Love looking at the images and then imagen the story, so when I read the book to them they ask lots of questions as the might have imagined it diferently. We now live less then a mile away from a great library where we go weekly and the kids choose 10 - 15 books. They can't wait to get Home to 'devour' them!!! 

Kindergarten

We moved to the US at the end of february, towards the end of the schoolyear. Since his birthday is at the end of september, he was right at the cut off to start kindergarten. He was the youngest. He adjusted really well and learned so much in 3 months, made friends and got fluent in english. By the 'norms' he could start first grade in the fall, however, after taking into consideration his size, his background (moving countries for the third time and 2 languages) we decided to retain him and he will start kindergarten in the fall. It will be great for his self esteem, knowing the teacher (who he really likes and she also really enjoys having him in her room as he is very focussed and eager to learn) and being the older kid.

Feeling a bit guilty

On monday I start work. I am very happy since it is a great opportunity and an interesting challenge for my career. However I have had very mixed feelings since I accepted the role. Kids will go back to full time daycare and it males me feel guilty. Here in the US it is very common mom to leave their career on hold while raising their children (in Brazil, this is not always financially possible). We have also spend some much time together in the last year and specially since we moved to the US! I will miss spending so much time with them! But I am also aware I will be 100% present on our time together once I start working. Both kids will be at the same daycare until Kaio starts kindergarten in august. I am sure they will have lots of fun and be happy as it is a great daycare, it's just this mom's guilt (i would also feel very guilty if I would not have a career!) Since this is our 'last' week together, we had a full fun active week! We went to the zoo, the pool, museum, circus, library, indoor jumping arena, playdatea and ate tons of junk food, ice creams and sweets!

"Popoly"

It is fun and sometimes a bit scary to see how both kids copy US with things we say, our tone of voice, our way of sayin things! Josefine, since she was little was always bossy, well now she repeats the things I say to Kaio. "Kaiooooo, bathroom lights" (when he leaves them on, eventhough she also often lets them on) "kaioooo, come toda a tua comida" or "tidy up" (although she likely has much more on her plate or she also needs to help tidy up.) The other funny word she has been saying is "popoly" (properly) "I popoly put my toys away" 

New job...

We've moved here little over 3 months and finally are getting our employment figured out. Initially Jason took a temporary job in Los Angeles, which was a great opportunity but required him to be away more then 70% per month. After 2 months we decided that it was not going to work! (Josefine, on a week day, asked what he was doing home and why he was not in LA...). We even considered moving to LA, but then I got a great job offer which was also going to allow is to stay here in Colorado. At the same time Jason also got a job offer here in boulder! So, we decided to stay here in Colorado. A much better place to raise out kidlets!

We are celebrating!!!

'Punishments'

When Kaio or Josefine misbehave, they get a warning, and if that does not make them stop, we give them a punishment. For Kaio, taking away his tv is very impactful. We allow the kids to watch tv 30mins before bed (it is rare we allow them any other tv time during the day). Kaio loves tv, so he really does everything he can to avoid loosing his tv! Josefine, on the other hand is not that much into tv and often she just watches it because she wants to be with her brother, hence, loosing her tv is not that impactful. That is why we recently started taking her dessert away! She loves sweets and it is definitely something she wants. We keep the score of 'lost tv or sweets' on the refrigerator. They get the opportunity to get them back is they behave the remainder of the day.... It works pretty well, most of the time ;-)

Vacation time!

Kaio finished school 10 days ago and since I am not working yet, we are spending a lot of quality time together. Josefine goes to daycare 2 full days and on those days we are a bit more flexible in finding activities.... Earlier this week we went to the museum and saw a 3D movies (Josefine would probably be bored after 30 mins) but we were there for 3 hrs and only left as it was 1pm and we were hungry! Today we went to the pool and we spent 2 hrs playing and swimming! I love this one on one with the kids! ( when Kaio was in school I also did lots of fun stuff tailored to Josefine's age...)

Brother Love

So the kids have been bickering more lately .... Sometimes silly things like which lego person will be the daddy of their family. However the days that one of them stays Home and the other one goes to school, the one that stays with me keeps asking when we are going to pick the other one up. They miss each other!

4 day weekend

 Over the years we have definitely noticed that Josefine has a very strong personality, she is also very loving and sweet, but very strong minded (like her mom...), we often have to 'protect' Kaio from her stuborness. Kaio used to be very patient and understanding of his sister, but we seem to have gotten to a limit. He just is tired of always beeing so sweet and carigng and has become a bit frustrated with her. Most of the time they are great playing together, however, we have Had do interfer in more 'misunderstandigs' recently. (Good for him!)

Morning people

I have always been known as a morning person and Jason more an evening person (so, not a morning person, although he has gotten much better over the years). Seeing our kids grow up it is fun to see how they evolve.... Josefine is definitely a morning person and wakes up wanting to play, put her cloths on and start the day. Kaio, on the other hand, needs his time to wake up. He wants to cuddle a bit, stay in his pj and start the day slower.... Although, once he gets going he is 100mph!!

Hiking in the mountains

We went to Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park. How much fun! We met with some great friends whom the kids adore, Scott and Missy. The kids loved all the outdoors fun and loved seeing wildlife (elk, deer, sheep, birds), exploring footprints, the different plants and just simply throwing stones around. We also went to a waterfall and they enjoyed hiking around, playing in the water and having fun! We are definitely ready for some real camping soon! We bought the annual pass to the Rocky Mountain National Park so we can come back several times this year (it's only 1hr from where we live)

Sleeping habits

It's 22:30 and the kids go to bed at 20:00... they are so easy going at bed time. We have a routine which we have been doing for years and it is dinner, bath, TV and bed. It works really well and by the time they go to bed, we kiss and hug, tuck in and a song (twinkle twinkle little star, ABC, itsy bitsy spider, etc), turn off the lights, "Sleepwell... I LOVE YOU" and close the door. Sometimes, at around 21:30 Kaio comes out, very disoriented, without many words, hugs me and goes back to bed (this takes 1 - 2 mins). It seems like a sleepwalking and he does not remember it the next day. Josefine has always drank a lot of water and she often comes out at around 22:00 for a glass of water. She downs a cup and goes back to bed.
Kaio sleeps with Eeyor, who he got when I was pregnant and is just absolutely attached to him. He looks for him when he is sad, but mainly sleeps with him. Josefine has not been very attached to any of her many teddy bears she has received over the years. She always takes 2 or 3 to bed but is not attached to any of them. It is cute to see her arrange them nicely around her.

Snippets

It has been more then 2 months since I last posted. Oops! As always, it has been so busy!! Specially adapting to our new home, Colorado.... There have been many occasion I thought about posting events on the blog, but then time just would get the best of me. So, instead of writing long and very sporadic posts I have decided to write snippets and post photos randomly. I am hopeful this will make the blog a bit more active!
Snippet 1:
So today, for dinner the kids wanted corn dogs. To make it a bit more of a balanced meal I made a nice cucumber, tomato and manchego cheese salad with some olive oil. Both kids finished their plate in minutes, when asked if they wanted to repeat anything, Kaio asked for more salad and Josefine for more corn dog. (Kaio did not want more corn dog and Josefine struggled to finish her first salad) They are very different in their food taste!

And it is March and we are in the US!

The last couple of months have been very hectic! January and february were aimed at planning and arranging our move to the US. We had to sell cars and furniture and arrange to donate several toys and items to institutions. Initially we thought the kids would be a bit reluctant in giving away their toys (they had accumulated quiet a bit over the 3 years we lived in Brazil). But they were very good with this and happy to donate their toys to kids in need or friends. Of course, their favourite toys we moved with us. We were also very busy seeing our friends and saying goodbye. It was very sad to say farewell to so many dear friends and family.
We left Brazil on the 25th of february and had an amazing trip. We had 3 flights and a total of 24hrs of traveling. The kids were very well prepared and were champs during the whole trip! (Kaio was of great help to lug around the 10 pieces of luggage) Luckily everything went very smooth. We arrived during a snow storm and everything was white and beautiful.
The first week was very busy. We had to buy a car, adjust to jet lag, move into our new apartment, unpack luggage and boxes... the first week was so busy, it just flew by.
We stayed 4 nights at Anita and Steve's and it was perfect to help us. The kids were very content in staying with them while we ran our numerous errands. They enjoyed the attention and being spoiled by the grandparents they saw weekly on skype. They also had a lot of fun with Vinny! I can say that after 5 days, both Vinny and grandparents were exhausted!
Kaio started kindergarten at the local school (Emerald Elementary) and has been really enjoying it. They are long days (from 7:50 until 2:30) and it seems to be very demanding with lots of homework: writing full sentences (he was barely recognizing all capital letters), math (he needs to know all equations until 20 and be able to count until 200), reading (he actually gets books to read) and drawing. But he loves challenges and learning, so it has been great so far. The kids of his classroom have welcomed him very well and he is making new friends!
We have looked at a couple of daycare's for Josefine and which would also offer after-school for Kaio. Since we are not working yet, we are in no rush to enroll her. We find Josefine much easier when Kaio is in school. I guess she loves the attention.
We have had a couple of snowy days and a lot of fun! It was a temperature shock going from 35C to 0C, but we have gotten some warm boots, mittens and scarves and just enjoying the weather and the beautiful new city we have moved to!
After only 2 weeks, we already feel at home!

10 year anniversary!

Last week we celebrated our 10th anniversary! Since our last trip it was just the two of us (in august, for Jason´s 35th birthday) and we missed the kidlets so much, we decided to plan a trip to celebrate our anniversary with them! We also decided to explore a different part of Brazil and decided for Rio Quente in Goiás.
It was PERFECT! 
They have amazing hot springs and a huge waterpark and lots of fun activities for the kids. For us, just being with them and having fun together was also priceless! The kids did very well on our trip there and back (which was almost 10hrs each way)
Kaio improved his swimming even more and loved all the options for him to practice diving, swimming, looking under water, etc. He did several rides and did not stop for a second! Josefine is also very confident with her floaties and did not ask for us to hold her, she continues being very independent.
We had an amazing trip as a family! 
It has been 10 years since we got married!  Back in 2003, we were living in LA, in a small rented apartment in Marina Del Rey.  On the 24th of January we went to the LA courthouse (close to the airport) with 2 of our good friends (Tom and Phil) and got married! We had a lovely afternoon at the four seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, with a bottle of Don Perignon. We spend the weekend up the central coast in California.... In these 10 years we have become a strong family with 2 amazing kids and lots of experiences around the globe! We couldn´t be happier!