Em fevereiro, tem Carnaval!

Moro em um pais tropical, mas fez frio em São Paulo neste Carnaval de março. Meus pais ficaram trabalhando e não me deixaram fazer nada...então tive que pular Carnaval em casa!

Happy Carnival, everyone! Here's me showing off my samba skills to bad Brazilian pop music! (Note to self - fairy wands and samba are a potentially dangerous combination....)



I was, after all, born on Carnival weekend, 3 years ago....I'd better know a thing or two about samba!



I must say that I've improved a bit since the beginning of my dancing career!



Got to work at it a bit longer before I get to the sambódromo, though....But if these kids can do it, why not me?

3 aninhos!

Wow, I've sure come a long way since that chilly February morning in Whitehorse in 2008. In case you've forgotten, check out these photos:
Birthday (as in, the day I was born!)
First birthday
Second birthday

As of today, I'm 3 years old - can you believe it? If you're in the neighbourhood, why don't you stop by my birthday picnic?

Christmas Day in Santo André

No presents (that was on the 24th, at night), no snow, no milk and cookies for Santa Claus (or carrots for his reindeer)....just 24 hours of barbecue, sun, really annoying firecrackers, loud music, dancing, and playing in the street....



*Nota para os amigos gestores, engenheiros, arquitetas e urbanistas - fiquem à vontade de usar esta foto para mostrar (mais uma vez) que o desenho dos conjuntos habitacionais tem que pensar melhor o espaço comum de convivência e lazer e modificar radicalmente a prioridade total que é dada até hoje para o carro....Mas mesmo com este péssimo planejamento, nós mesmos fechamos a rua e criamos uma rua de lazer em quase todos os feriados.

Even the adults got in on the fun!




Yes, that IS our stylish grill, thank you very much.


And whose fault was all this bagunça? My dad's, of course!


Now I'm off to Brasilia for New Year's.....tchau!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I love manioc flour!

Who has time to blog when you're two years old?

OK, so I am now almost two years and two months old, but here's a quick look back at my most recent birthday.

My bilingual birthday invitation....



My birthday party was pretty fun.....



And there was even chocolate cake....but I didn't get any! By the way, don't get the wrong idea. This is not a typical Brazilian birthday party - a REAL Brazilian party includes lots of fried pastries and pop. Lots. And then some more. Serving tropical fruit is considered weird. I only get away with it because, well, I was born at 30 below zero....



Here are some of my neighbours....



All in all, it was a pretty fun party - I should have birthdays more often!

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...........



.........



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



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



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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!