Happy Birthday Momma

Portrait of a Woman on her Birthday

Artwork that van Gogh would be proud of. Momma celebrates her 37th birthday today, and with just her kiddies around. I wish I could be there, but we will have to wait until next weekend when I get back to celebrate. In the mean time, have a cupcake for me, and tell Johnny to get your present out of my bottom drawer. Love and miss you guys.

how do you say 'pet' in portuguese?

One of the fun things about living here in Brazil is that it feels more like an extended vacation than real life, because we're here for such a short time. Everything is temporary - we have little actual furniture - we use boxes for bedside tables, but for four months it feels fun and freeing. Our car is a rental, so no real worries when we go a little too fast over one of those many speedbumps.

In a similar vein, we are now enjoying some new additions to the family without the responsibility of, say, actually keeping a parakeet for twenty years. It's pretty ideal - the kids' school keeps a variety of animals....dogs, turtles, rabbits, fish, etc as part of the Montessori curriculum. The school was happy to commit to keeping our pets when we leave Brazil, giving us the opportunity to enjoy them while we're here. I guess I'll find out soon enough just how ideal Anthony find the whole arrangement (ahem).

But we are enjoying them - hamsters and parakeets - and they all get along! Carina's got to have one in her hands at all times; if it were up to her, "Fluffy" would no doubt sleep with her...uh, except it's nocturnal. John loves his animals and takes great care of them, though his is a more scientific approach. He likes to sit outside the bird cage and watch them for a long time while taking notes in his journal about the ways in which they are similar to dinosaurs.

Carina is convinced that the animals like singing, so she'll hold them and make up long, ballad-like songs about who-knows-what. The parakeets are very tame, and one in particular (Zebra - named by Carina) will hop onto my hand when I reach in the cage. They are living outside on the protected part of the porch. My grandpa had a parakeet, Sparkie, when I was young and maybe cause of this, I feel a surprising affinity toward the birds.

We leave their cage open in the back yard, and they seem to like hopping around and, in particular,perching on the spokes of Anthony's bike tire

The kids have strict instructions not to handle the animals when I'm not around. Nonetheless, as you may have guessed, the temptation proved too great. The other morning they woke up before me and I came downstairs to find this scene in the laundry room:

The picture kind of explains itself, right? Yes, John's hamster, Lemon-Lime (don't ask) was under the washing machine but (don't worry, mom....it's under control) John had a plan. The best part of the 'plan' is that he had Carina hiding on the other side of the machine with

the net!

Still, I do like seeing them with their animals. This shot kind of reminded me a bit of my birthday present to myself....shown below.

The Joke that Backfired

Poor John! This time the joke was on him and he was NOT happy about it....can't say that I blame him.

Before leaving for Brazil, we spotted a plastic toy cockroach that looked disturbingly realistic. John thought it would be funny to play a joke on Daddy once we got to Brazil by hiding the toy cockroach under the bed and seeing what might happen. Or maybe John just wanted to get it to play with and I was the one who thought it would be a funny joke, I can't remember exactly how it happened.

Anyhow, cut to Brazil....he hid the thing, Anthony was somewhat surprised and hilarity ensued on the part of John and Carina.

A few days ago, John went into the 'frustrated club' - a name he's given to small nook in the wall of our living room. It's about 3x3x3 feet and I've hung a little curtain over the front and basically just sweep their toys into it about ten times a day to keep some semblance of order in the living room.

So, John heads behind the curtain of the frustrated club, I go upstairs to fold laundry and I hear him a few minutes later screaming "Mommy, mommy....it's an emergency!'. Well, this is the first time he's actually used 'emergency' in its proper context. He tells me there's a cockroach in the clubhouse, and he was playing next to it, thinking it was the toy when all of a sudden....you guessed it: it moved!

Poor, poor John -

this thing is enormous! John runs away upstairs terrified, and Carina and I are left to deal with it - remember, Anthony is in the Amazon for two weeks, so no help there. I'm pretty good about spiders, snakes and other assorted crawlies, but I really can't stand cockroaches...especially the really big ones.....so I may have screamed a little and maybe even jumped up on the couch.

But it was the kids' clubhouse and my home and it had to be dealt with. Carina came to the rescue - she was totally fearless and went in with a broom while I stood by with a net. Together we herded the thing out of the house while John yelled at me from upstairs to 'not hurt it'. But when it tried to run back in the house, I was forced to whack it to its mushy end....forgive me, John. Not pleasant.

I can only imagine how John must have felt, playing quietly with his toys in that small little cave, when suddenly the real cockroach sitting next to him began to move.....

(okay, he doesn't look so fearsome in this picture, until I tell you that the ball here is slightly larger than a tennis ball!)

Miss you ...

Leaving for the Amazon this afternoon. Going to miss everyone immensely. You guys have a good few weeks, will try to post updates via my Rio Branco excursion on my science blog: The Mercurial Scientist, come visit if you'd like.

Did she really say that??

Among the Top 10 Things No Parent Ever Wants to Hear Her Three Year-Old Say: Wow, that's a really cool motorcycle!

Caramba!

Exploring the Neighborhood

Now that we have settled in, we've had more time to explore the neighborhood. Barao Geraldo is a cozy little suburban neighborhood in Campinas, and close to the University. It has a great residential feel, yet also has great supermarkets, small shops and boutiques, and nice restaurants along the main streets. We have taken to comparing it to our time in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It is a great place to walk around, lots of parks and playgrounds, and feels very homey. However, it has two distinct advantages over Park Slope. First, it is a heck of a lot easier to get in and out of Barao Geraldo by car than Park Slope. And second, it is common to pass a nice little fruit tree on the side of the road in Barao Geraldo.

CC & Dad - Exploring

CC and I have taken to exploring the neighborhood on bicycle when we have spare time. I was lucky enough to borrow a bike from a Spanish ex-pat living in Campinas, and it came with a great kid seat that CC loves. We generally roam around until we find an Amora tree (blackberry - yes, they grow on trees down here), at which point we stop, pick a few berries, and than have purple stains on our hands and lips from the juice. Another tree we've found just up our street is a Pitanga fruit. Pitanga is an interesting little fruit that grows like a cherry, it is a small red fruit with a stone inside. While it is quite sweet, it has an interesting taste that takes a bit of getting used to - we've nicknamed it the sweet-musty-old-man fruit, not entirely unpleasant, but the kids are not fans.

Our stash - Amora and Pitanga

New Friends and New Professions

Almost a month in to our adventure and things are starting to fall into routine. The kids are in school, and though they protest some mornings, they seem to be getting accustomed to it. We have a house with a kitchen so don't have to eat at restaurants every evening. We have a better feel of the town and are not getting lost (as much). We are starting to figure out the price differential between gasoline and ethanol that makes buying one more economical than the other (gasoline is more expensive but you get better mpg's). We still have no home internet, and that is a tale of Brazilian bureaucracy more painful than our bank account story, but I can't stomach to retell it quite yet. My Portuguese still stinks (obrigado, de nada) but Amy's is getting so good she can almost haggle with the local vendors. So, all in all life is good.

This weekend we relaxed and enjoyed some of the parks in and around Campinas. On Friday we visited the Lagoa do Taquaral, an urban park in the center of the city akin to Central Park. Lots of joggers, walkers, and street side vendors who sell coco gelado and other local treats. CC and John found a wee little friend foraging in the bushes. Little "blacky" as they named him, seemed to really take to Carina as he followed her everywhere (and she him) for the 30 or so minutes we walked around the park. Luckily, people leave cat food by the gates of the park and he stopped to eat as we exited the park and distracted the kids with toys - otherwise we might be accidental pet owners.

CC, John, and little "Blacky" in Lagoa do Taquaral

On Saturday we stopped by a small crafts fair at the Praca de Coco in Barao Geraldo. John has been anxious to open a lemonade stand in Brazil; however, they don't seem to be as popular south of the equator as they are in the States. So, he satisfied his entrepreneurial streak by setting up a makeshift stand at the local craft fair. He worked all morning drawing pictures of dinosaurs and then sold them at the fair for 25 centavos a piece. He sold 7 of his 10 drawings - one to an excited 3 year old, two to his dad and sister, and a handful to two grandmotherly-like craft vendors; and he then promptly spent his earnings, plus an advance from dad, on a dinosaur puppet from another vendor. He now has the bug and is making decorated paper airplanes for next week's fair.

John hawking his wares at the Praca de Coco fair.