A riddle for you....

What do you get when you mix Canadian and Brazilian genes - and 6 trips between the megalopolis of São Paulo and small-town northern Canada - into one 20-month-old kid?

a) the world's only moose-eating, soccer-playing samba dancer?
b) a happy, even-tempered tot who's as comfortable hanging out in international airports as in favelas (7 and 4, respectively, at last count)
c) a fearless superhero who can take on the mean streets of São Paulo, as well as the odd muskox, bear, and giant beaver?
d) a multilingual parrot?
e) (organic brown salt-free) rice and beans at midnight?
f) all of the above.

You guessed it - f) all of the above is the answer! Proof to come in the next post...keep your eye on my blog!

Ahhhh....summer in the Yukon!

No Brazilian beaches in sight, but it sure was a nice summer!

It's a bird....

It's a bird.....


(Thanks, Tia Sarom, for the fabulous chickadee with the ultra-realistic chirp!)

It's a plane......


(OK, so it's not in the picture, but Ellazora and I are pointing at an airplane, really we are!)


It's...........



.........



...............



........................................................



.......................................................................................................................................................................


SkookumYukon Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!












______________________________________________________________________

I have added dozens of English words to my vocabulary in the last few months. Words like "moose," for example. Yep, I sure do like mooses! And squirrels. And buses and airplanes.

While it probably doesn't interest anyone but me and my parents, here's what I could say at 18 1/2 months - in mid-August - for the record.

(These are words that I say spontaneously - not just copying someone - and consistently, listed in the language that I say them in. While I understand all of these words - and many more - in both Portuguese and English, I almost always say any particular word in just one language....and so end up saying funny things like "Mais (more) cheese!" Sometimes, my "words" are so far off that they're not actually words in any language, but if I use a sound consistently to mean something recognizable, it's included. Words that I already said at 15 months aren't on this list - you can see them on the post from May.)

hello ("lo")

purse ("puss")

banana

blusa (sweater)

outside ("ow-sigh")

nenê & baby

puppy

bunny

dress

onion ("anyeh")

tchau & bye bye

guitar ("tao" - with guitar sign)

Harley ("ah-ley" - 5-year-old neighbour)

bus

mess (I just love throwing things on the floor and then announcing that there's a "mess!")

vroom (car -"bum")

num num or papa (a.k.a food)

tetê (milk/nurse)

meia ("mia" - sock or leggings)

real & money

yeah

OK ("otay" - OK, I don't really say it spontaneously, but I copy it a lot.)

bug ("bu" with spider sign)

pants

shirt ("shut")

apple ("apo")

rice

pão (bread)

cheese

bird ("buwd")

avião

train ("tayn")

tractor ("tato")

diaper ("data")

boat

moto (motorcycle)

bike ("bat")

rio (river)

umbrella ("bala")

flower ("flau")

hat ("ata")

Vovô ("wowo" - Grandpa)

ovo ("o" - egg)

towel (tau-oh)

Po (the dog we took care of)

up

desce (down)

all done

sapatos ("paty" - shoes)

moose

horsie

pee & "sss"

poo

thank you ("te" along with sign)

meow (cat), grrr (bear), fish lips (fish), tongue click (squirrel), bow wow (dog)

bola (ball)

"bat" (glasses/goggles)

anda & walk ("wa")

monster ("monta")

eyes

bum

mão (hand)

please ("pees")

keys ("tees")

tree ("tee")

I am starting to get proficient at combining two words together, too. For example:

Daddy, done.

Mamãe/Tia/Daddy, dress/blusa/paty. (a.k.a sapato - shoe)

Blue, tia. (Translation: "Draw a picture for me, auntie." It took Shauna a while to discover what she was being commanded to do!)

Mais cheese!

Mamãe, tee (tree) á. (Translation: "Mommy, water the plants.")

Bowwow, anda!/Po, anda!

Tia 'Lo (Translation: "Auntie Hello" - Shauna's neighbour's name is Carol, not Hello - but we always say hello to her!)

Mamãe, tetê/num/pão.

All done.

Vovô vrum! (I identify cars by their owner - "vrum tia," "vrum vovô," and "Harley vrum.")

Nice bus!

Bom dia!

Me at 17 months in the Yukon!

For some reason, the audio is ahead of the video....but if you can ignore that, you'll see just how clever I am these days!

Almost 16 months old!

My little neighbours came over to play and brought their digital camera! I really wanted to make a video showing off everything that I know now, especially since it's almost my Grandpa's birthday and he hasn't seen me in ages! I'll bring your birthday present personally in a few weeks, OK, Vovô Greg?

Blog comments

Thanks to everyone who commented recently! I'm so bad at responding to comments. From now on I'll make more of an effort, because I do love reading them! Obrigada a todos que comentaram no meu blog. Me desculpem por não responder a todos antes - vou me esforçar de escrever mais daqui para frente, porque adoro ler seus comentários!

I woke up with my Dad today, at 6 am, and insisted (by making a "psss" sound) on being taken to pee three times in less than an hour. So, believe it or not, I peed three times in a row in my potty. That is definitely a milestone. Generally it's hit or miss - sometimes I will signal that I need to pee, other times I can't be bothered and just pee in my diaper. I confess - I just wanted to be allowed to get out of bed to play! Normally, I'm the best morning sleeper - I go to bed late, but then I sleep until 10 or 11am - so I don't quite know what happened today.

After all that commotion, and a cracker, and playing a bit, I fell asleep in the middle of the living room. To share with Julie and the Casa Rosa gang, I took this photo - I call it Self Portrait with the Casa Rosa Quilt. Aren't I cute?




And here are a couple more cute photos that I took recently, for good measure....



And now for Auntie Lizz....

Mission accomplished. Sorta.

Way too many photos of me in Santiago

Way, way too many unedited, unselected photos from my visit to Santiago, Chile in December 2008....

Me at 15 months

Today I am 15 months old! I don't mean to boast, of course (do I ever?), but I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments. My mom has been writing things down in a book, once-in-a-while-if-she-remembers-sort of-maybe, but in this day and age, everything that's important is digital, is it not? I told her to get with it and let ME do the list - on my blog. I mean, I'm already behind the times because I don't use Twitter, right? (I would, but my mom doesn't let me. She says it's silly. My dad doesn't know what it is and doesn't care.) So here's a digital list of my accomplishments, big and (mostly) small.

I weigh 10.8 kg and am 78.5cm tall. I have 8 teeth and hardly any hair. I can:

• Say in English: Mom, Daddy, dog, muh (milk.) I also answer "Eissh" when asked "What's your name?"

• Say in Portuguese: Mamãe (mommy), bow wow (not sure how it's spelled - maybe bau uau - for dog), a (for água - water), dá (give), and something that sounds like "desce" (down.) Answer "Cadê o dodoi?" (Where's the owie?) by saying "ay" and pointing to the place that hurts.
  

• Say the names of some of my friends and neighbours - Jessa (Jessica), Chagõ (Tiago), Deiss (Deise), Tata (Carla) and Chi (Tia - auntie - for my babysitter Sandra.)

• Point to my head, nose, mouth, foot, hand, and belly button when asked in English or Portuguese.

• Follow simple instructions in both Portuguese and English. Here are some that I have mastered in both languages:

Give Mommy/Daddy the ......
Come here.
Go get your car/ball/book/diaper.
Go to Daddy.
Put it in the garbage.
Brush your hair. (Yeah, yeah, I know I don't actually have any hair!)
Sit down (although I understand, I usually don't obey!)
Kiss the baby (kiss myself in the mirror!)
Kick (the ball)
Dance

Two words that I only know in Portuguese are "gira" (to which I spin wildly in circles - I haven't learned the word "spin" yet!) and "carinho" (to which I gently touch - or hit - a person or animal.)

• Charm people by showing off that I understand both languages - they can say any of the words below, and I do the appropriate action!

Blink or piscadinha
Kiss or beijo
Hug or abraço
Tchau or bye bye

• Fill in the missing "da" if you say "Você é minha vi...." or "Elis is from Cana....." OK, OK, so I don't actually know what I'm saying, but that's beside the point. My neighbour Carla taught me that trick, and everybody loves it!

• Use hand signs for "hungry," "milk," "doggy," "bath" and "all done" and shake my head to disagree.

And of course it's not all about language skills. No, I am multi-talented, you see. I can pee and poop in my potty (not all the time, of course - but at least a couple of times per day. I like to think of it as doing my bit for the environment - fewer laundry loads of cloth diapers and hardly a disposable diaper in sight these days, except for at night. My dad works for the municipal garbage department and the local landfill is within months of being completely full - what's a concerned baby to do?) I can nurse lying down, sitting, and even standing up! I just learned how to walk backwards, and these days I love climbing up on things (and into things, like closets.) And I love to dance, of course - I clap, tap my toes, stamp my feet and bounce to everything from reggae to samba to folky Yukon tunes. I can manage to very messily ingest a bowl of food on my own, although the spoon is more for decoration than for use - what's the point, really, when you can get your hands messy? I do scribble, but the crayon is more likely to end up in my mouth than on the paper. I am particularly fond of pressing buttons - from turning on the TV at the neighbours' house to taking photos to flushing the toilet. And I just discovered how to blow bubbles in the bathtub - my mom thinks it looks kind of dangerous and watches me like a hawk, but I think it's just plain fun! I try to be helpful, sometimes - recently I dumped my water all over the floor, and then - without anyone telling me to - found a cloth and began to wipe it up. That was an isolated incident, though - usually I just make huge messes. Emptying drawers, grabbing CDs and other reachable objects and throwing them on the floor - and if anyone tries to stop me, I let them have it. Ah, yes, I can't wait for the terrible twos...

Well, that was the most photo-free post I have ever done. I will work on getting some photo and video evidence for all these grand claims. In the meantime, please encourage me by leaving comments - I might even get those pictures up faster if you do! But for now, I've got some sleeping, growing, and learning to attend to!

Sophisticated Me

My dad and mom and babysitter Sandra made an exhibit of some of the big events in my life to show to our friends at my first birthday party, at the beginning of February....

Well, I think they missed some key details....My first doll, my first book, baby photos and passports (yes, that's plural - did you ever doubt my sophisticatedness?) are all well and good, but what about these sophisticated things I've done in the past year?


- Spent Rendezvous in Whitehorse, Chinese New Year in Vancouver's Chinatown and Carnaval in Brazil


- Not been allowed to eat the yummy food at far too many fine restaurants.


- And at some not-so-fine restaurants....


- Imbibed more alcohol than I should have and still managed to crawl straight

- Visited 5 countries and 4 national capitals (still need to work on Brasília!)

Ottawa

Santiago

Buenos Aires

Montevideo

- Travelled by plane, automobile, bus, motorbike, electric bicycle, small boat, train, subway, streetcar, dogsled, ferry, and backpack.














- Dipped my toes in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, Lake Ontario, and the Yukon and São Francisco Rivers

Pacific Ocean - Chiloé Island, Chile

Lake Ontario
Yukon River

- Hung out with Madonna AND Evita in Buenos Aires, Lula in Brazil, and....hmmm....some Yukon bloggers in the Yukon....

Eva Perón's tomb, Buenos Aires


Lula and ministers, Santo André

- Slept, bathed, nursed and been the life of the party in too many exotic places to count.

Montréal

Buenos Aires

Chiloé National Park, Chile

Santiago, with my amiguita Rocío

- Pondered the world's problems



Whew! That's enough bragging for one night. If you encourage me by leaving comments, I might add to the list another day! Heck, I might even add some recent pictures of me doing sophisticated things like peeing on the potty, riding my mini-tricycle, and eating tofu. Oh wait, those aren't sophisticated, you say? Right, maybe I'll go back to solving the world's problems....