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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!












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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.