Almost 2009

Can you believe we are almost in 2009. I remember being a kid and thinking how the world would look like in 2010, and I must tell you it was a lot more futuristic then it is now. But I am so glad I was wrong ... the world looks just fine the way it is. If we can just conserve it and make sure it is around for our children to enjoy, great!
Let me give you an update about Isabela, she had a great sleeping run... she was going to bed at 7:30pm and waking up at 6am! GREAT! finally.. that went on for about 2 weeks, I thought for sure we were finally at the easier stage. Oh well.. today she decided to wake up at 4am, ready to go! That is no fun! I can not function before 5am, so hard. Hopefully it was just a fluke and she'll go back to sleeping better again, that way I can convince her daddy to think about baby #2 :-)
She also has been transitioning to whole milk, and doing very well! She loves it! Drinks it from her sippy cup, and seems to be adapting to the transition (not easy to stop nursing.. for me or her actually). She has been very talkative lately, she can say daddy, but no Mommy yet! She loves the intro to playhouse disney show, with Ohh and Ahh, the two funny monkeys. She can sing the song along... well, its all just oohhh and ahh... Too bad she has already watched her dvd's a million times... starting to memorize them by now, I need to ask someone in the US to record some more for me. Before I came I recorded about 20 dvds of the Disney channel, I would set up the dvd to record from 6am on.. and they saved my life! Here in Brazil for some reason cartoons don't start until 9am!!! As if kids woke up that late!
Not that I leave her in front of the tv, don't get me wrong. Her attention span only lasts 15-20min anyways, but it is long enough for me to go to the bathroom and change in the morning. I have need too!
We are heading to Campinas tomorrow to spend a couple of days at my aunt Virginia's house. She has a pool, so we are hoping the weather will be nice so Isabela can get in the pool for the first time ever.. can you believe it! She still hasn't made it into the pool...
we are spending New Years there as well. I am very anxious about all the fireworks and noise... it will not be a fun night for Isabela, but we'll make it.
I have to also comment how much I love facebook lately! I have been able to connect with some very very dear friends of mine that I had lost touch about 7-8 years ago! And it was so nice to see them married, with their adorable children. I really hope we get to see each other again once I get back to the US.
I better go try to get some zzzz... before Isabela wakes up from her nap... after all waking up at 4am, I won't last until 7pm either!
Have a happy NEW YEAR 2009!

Wrap up!

Okay, its Christmas already?! Amazing how as we get older Christmas just seems to come so fast every year. I remember as a kid waiting so long for the next one..., now I blink and its here again. I took Isabela to see Santa at the mall, and although she loves xmas trees and decorations, she wasn't a big fan of Santa. She stood there for two seconds for the picture and then cried... I wasn't surprised since she rarely goes with strangers anyways... now this large old man in a red suit wasn't going to be easy.
She had a great time at her birthday party a couple of weeks ago, her favorite part was unwrapping gifts. Didn't matter what was inside, she just wanted to unwrap. So under the xmas tree she will have lots of empty boxes wrapped this year! Seems to be her favorite anyways... why spend tons of money on toys when all she really wants are empty card board boxes, tapeware, pan lids, paper... Anything that is mine and I tell her she can't have it, she wants it. I am looking foward to Christmas, although last year was her official first xmas, I feel like this one will be more like it since last year she was only 2 weeks old.
Here in Brazil, Christmas is huge! Since most of the population here is Catholic the holiday starts with a mass celebration on the 24th, usually around midnight, and then a feast follows. Then on the 25th, another feast!
well, it is the 23rd, so I have lots of cookies to bake, better run.

Proud to be a Gator, proud to be São Paulina and Proud Mommy

Wow, what a weekend this was. My dear gators did it! They beat Alabama in the SEC championship game, and are now on the BCS Championship game. We woke up and dressed our gator gear! All three of us, orange and blue. Waited all day long for the game, finally at 7pm our time we connected with our friend Dylan, who broadcasted the game to us via a webcame turned to the TV. It wasn´t easy to watch.. we couldn´t really hear what was going on, and the image was foggy. But it was better than nothing! And we loved every minute of it!
Now its BCS time! and we are already trying to search for a better way to watch the game... we´ll see what we can get.
Then came Sunday, and our soccer team São Paulo took the field to try to win their 6th title of best team in Brazil. My family here are huge fans, and I grew up watching this team. So it was time to bite nails again and watch closely... and again! Party! They won the game and got the title! They are the most successful soccer team in Brazil, with the most wins ever. My father was so happy!
And now for the biggest party of the week, my little baby girl turns one tomorrow!!! Oh my.. I can´t believe it, but yes, she will be a toddler. She is almost walking, takes a couple of steps towards me on her own already. Although I´m not sure who´s more scared, her of letting go, or me of her falling. If I could I would make her wear a helmet, knee and elbow pads. But my mom tells me that a little bump and bruises are part of growing up.
We will have a little cake for her tomorrow and then her party will be on Saturday. Picture to follow for sure.

Gravity!

My little scientist just figured out gravity, oh yes, how proud I am! I turned her sippy cup upside down and watch the water drip as she shook it. And loved it... so now, all the time.. in the car, in the living room, couch, anywhere anytime, its time to shake up the sippy cup and get everything wet. I'm lucky that all she has in the cup is water, so although it makes a mess, its just water. I'm not giving her any juice until around 18 months... oh that's a big one! Everyday I get the look from somebody when I say that.. oh poor baby! Give me a break! I made the decision and I'm sticking to it. And its a good choice, juice is nothing bug sugar water sprinkled with a little big of vitamins. Why not give the fruit instead? Plus for dehydration, they need water only! Also there is so much evidence of juice leading to diarrhea, to malnutrition (by not eating as much food since they are too full from just drinking juice).. and the list goes on. So.. sorry folks, I know so many people, specially here in Brazil, start with juice as early as 2 months, but that's the beauty of being a parent. You get to make the decision for YOUR child to the best of your knowledge for their best.
Sorry.. its a hard subject for me.. as a dietitian I am trying my best to do with my child what I have for years taught other moms to do. It's not easy, I give you that.. but its basics. Like: no soda!, no junk food (she is one! she doesn't need chocolate chip cookies!). Not that I'm never going to let her have that stuff.. of course I will! I hope to bake many cookies with her and eat them too! But she is just to young, lets first get her a good start by teaching her that fruits and veggies are great!
On another note, Thursday is thanksgiving! We will be cooking a turkey at my mom's house and she has an exchange student in her classroom at school from Illinois that will be joining us. I'm going to try to make some pecan pie, but I'm sure it won't be as good as Cracker Barrels. And the day after thanksgiving.. that glorious shopping day.. well, we won't talk about that.

November already!

Time flies... I can't believe its mid-november already! I have to start planning Isabela's first birthday party for next month. She has grown so fast! She is almost walking, crawls around so fast, and she is starting that phase where she mirrors everything we do. If we laugh, so does she; if we cough, so does she, its so funny. She has 5 teeth already, and is eating very well. She loves to pick up foods and feed herself, not always a practical option, but her favorite. She still has some sleeping issues we are working on... waking up at night to feed, and not napping very consistently. But if that's my problems, then I'm happy! I'm still nursing her, looking to start weaning when she turns one, although I'm not in a hurry.. if it continues to be convenient for me and her I don't see why to stop just yet. A little independence would be nice too though.
Jason is doing well, continues to make progress on his Portuguese and working hard at the farm. They are planting eucalyptus so he has been busy with that. Last weekend we went to a concert at our city theater. It was a Beatles cover band, and it was decent for a Brazilian band trying to cover Beatles. We enjoyed doing something grown up for a difference.
We are technically still in the spring, but for the most part it feels like summer already! We wake up to 90F and go to sleep to 95F... without AC sometimes it feels like 100F inside our apt. I'm trying to make some crafts for x-mas to decorate our home since I left all of my stuff back in Clearwater. I really do miss my xmas tree! It will be hard not having stuff to decorate this year. Also with thanksgiving fast approaching my favorite day of the year-black Friday! Needless to say I am devastated that I'll miss it this year... I am already looking online at all the awesome deals, but the best part is always waking up really early (4am!) and driving to walmart to stand next to the huge covered mountains of goodies! And when the clock hits 5am, its time to shop!!! Thanks to my friend Nic who introduced me to this great marathon! I'll be back soon so we can plan our next one!
Nap time for Isabela so I better run... missing you all very much.

Granpda turned 80!

My grandfather turned 80 this week! He is my mother's father. He has been a source of strength for our whole family all these years. When I was little I used to think he was the best grandpa in the world, now as a "grownup" I realize he is not just the best grandpa in the world, but an example of man for us all. He has lived his life with integrity, with respect, always placing his family at top priority. I have learned so much from him and will continue to learn. And we are so lucky that he is so strong to be around for a while and teach Isabela and any other children we have the many lessons in life I have learned from him. We threw him a big birthday party! He deserves it! Everyone had fun, I'm posting some pictures down below of Isabela at the party.





Another note... my father is visiting China at the moment for a citrus congress. He has sent us some pictures and already is telling us amazing stories about China. I never was really interested in traveling to that side of the world to be honest... but now I am! He says it is so neat, the culture there is incredibly different from anything we've seen. The world is so huge.. it makes me realize that when I think about the fact that I'm living 10,000 k away from my home in Clearwater, my brother is in California, my father at the moment in China... technology has made it possible for such an immense world to be connected. Thanks to skype we've been able to talk to him during his trip.

We had a blast!

The weekend was full of fun! Isabela cooperated wonderfully and we were able to go to our cousin´s wedding! She went to sleep at 7:30pm, and only woke up at 5am. So we went to the cerimony at 8pm and were back at home by 2am. Sure it was no fun waking up in 3 hours to take care of baby... but it was worth it. It had been so long since we were up past midnight, we had a great time. We ate good food, danced, had a drink, got crazy and everything! I´m posting some pictures below. Enjoy. And btw- go RAYS!

Wedding

This coming weekend we are going to my cousin´s (Antonio) wedding. We are so very excited since the wedding starts at 8pm, so this will be an event for mommy and daddy only, Isabela will be home (HOPEFULLY!) asleep. The plan is to put her to bed as usual around 7:30pm, then finish getting dressed and go to the wedding. An aunt of my cousin (Aunt Ana, she is awesome!) will be staying with Isabela. We are praying that she will just sleep through until about 2-3am, which is usually what she does, and by that time I´ll be home to feed her and get her back to sleep until 5am at least. Now all of these plans are just that, plans! Isabela needs to cooperate in order for it to happen. And we´ll be so happy if she does since it has been a long time since Jason and I get to enjoy dinner and dancing.
The topic of wedding also reminds me that in about 5 months we will be comemorating our 2 year anniversary! wow.. it goes by fast. We are hoping (again dreaming..) that we maybe able to take a trip together. We never got to go on an official honeymoon. Since we got married here in Brazil and at the time were living in the US we didn´t have the time to take a honeymoon. But now that Isabela will be 1 and more independed (again HOPE), we are starting to plan a trip together.
The weather here is full on Summer already! 100F during the day and a cool 90F at night. Yeap, I said 90F... and no central AC. My oh my.. I thought it was hot in FL, but here without AC seems like the desert without water. Jason and I sleep with fans and windows open and we´re still hot. And since the window is open we wake up with millions of scary looking buggs in our room, and some mosquito bites. Isabela, poor baby, wakes up wet from head to toe ... she loves standing in front of the fan too (although I´m not sure that´s a good idea).
This weekend is a bye for the Gators, so we´ll try to follow the other SEC teams. And wait for the Gators next weekend vs Kentucky.

Saudades

There are words in each language that are unique to their traditions and culture. There is no straight translation into other languages. And this word Saudades is one of them in the brazilian portuguese language. It means to miss someone dearly..., to have that knot feeling in your chest when you think of someone who is far away or who has departed, to feel empty inside when you think of those (things or persons) you miss. It is a word that is constantly in my vocabulary! Unfortunately... even though the world is much "smaller" nowadays I still live with this feeling of 'saudades' quite often. When I'm in the US I feel saudades of my family, my mom, dad, sister, brother, cousins...etc. When I am in Brazil I now feel saudades for my friends, my home, the beach, even my work! It is a healthy feeling though I think. It means you have ties in many places, that you have found meaning in many encounters in your life. And although it hurts, its nice as well because you always know in your heart that you'll get to cherish times with those people, places and things again. Well, this feeling of saudades is what our friends left behind this weekend... they were here visiting us for a week. Dylan and India came all the way from Cape Coral to spend a week with us. We had a great week, we went to Santos (beach, deep water port city), to Pocos de Calda (city near by with lots of water springs and waterfalls), Caconde, where we went water rafting! I'll post some pictures soon!
We are now hoping more friend will come visit!!!
This will be a long post.. sorry! I also wanted to update you all on Isabela! She is 10 months old!!! and now had 4 teeth. They all sort of came in at once. She has her two upper and two lower front teeth. She wants to chew everything now.. no more pureed foods for her. She is sweet as ever, she is playful and now she is starting to understand what we are telling her. She is a little sponge! Whatever we do she tries to do it too. She has a little purse from Fisher price that she got as an early b-day gift from her cousin Lucas and it has a lipstick inside (a fake one made of plastic) and she looks at me and rubs the lipstick on her lips like she is putting it on! So adorable! Such a girlie already.
Well, Jason and I continue on our quest to try to watch gator games, we've been able to watch a little bit b/c my awesome brother!!! who is now living in California puts the skype camera towards the tv and we can see the game a little. Got to watch the 4th quarter of the LSU game, GO GATORS!!! great game and good timing to win! all the other ranked teams lost!
okay, I better get some things done around the house before Isabela wakes up from her 30 min nap!
much love.
here is a link to a video our friend Dylan taped of Isabela:
http://www.youtube.com/v/onWEwgJy1ic&hl=en&fs=1

why don´t you like to sleep?

ohhh why?
Isabela is not a sleeper! Jason says its because she is so smart and she doesn´t want to sleep since there is so much to explore. That´s one way to look at it, but really, waking up at 4:30am, and taking 2 thirty minute naps is just not working... I am so sleep deprived! How can she do it? its a mystery to me!
on another note, next weekend is elections here for city mayor. So I wanted to share how that stuff works here for those of you who might be curious.
Well, starts off with the fact that everyone is obligated to vote, that´s right, everyone has to vote! Yes, its a democratic country, but if you don´t vote and you are between 17-70 yrs old you will have to justify and pay a fine. Wierd huh?
Since so many people that have to vote don´t really even know how to read the candidate pictures appear on the ballot as well. Their campaign is crazy, lots of musical cars drive around the city with catchy tunes to remind you to vote for them... they distribute freebies all the time, bags, sodas, chips, cell phone cases, koozies, all sorts of stuff.
Also, for 8 weeks prior to election we have what is called "horario politico", this is an hour show, twice a day, at noon and 8pm where all your TV channels just show this same program which are the candidates introducing themselves and making their promises for a better tomorrow. So crazy b/c they interrupt normal TV programing for this daily!
For city seats of vereador (sort of like senate? of the state?- i´m not a political person) many of the candidates are very low class individuals. Usually they are school lunch ladies, house- maids, bar keepers, school security man. Most of them have middle school education at most. The political parties pick them and launch them so that they can get someone in the government... they are manipulated and paid for it. Very strange and corrupt unfortunately.
Anyways, its an interesting process.
So on Sunday that we have the election I have to justify why I haven´t voted in the past 4-5 years and pay a fine.. probably will have to stand in a line. I have to justify why I choose not to vote in a democratic election where everyone is obligated to vote?!
enough of that.
I´m on countdown for Dylan and India!!! 3 days!!!
missing everyone very much ~~ Carolina

Next event

The other day I was thinking about life... trying to reflect on life and how wonderful the gift of life is in itself. Then I realized how I'm always living my life waiting for the next event... and I think a lot of you can relate to this. I am a planner, therefore each event has to be scheduled ahead of time, and it must be on my calendar or else there is no chance that it will actually happen. Our next event is the arrival of our friends Dylan and India, they arrive Oct 4th. So for the next couple of weeks my job is to get through things efficiently and planning for their arrival. We just finished the last event on my calendar which was a bbq at the farm with my cousins. So now, on to our next. But then I realized how weird that is... because by living by events we forget to appreciate the gift of normal days... the routine days. Which are a blessing just as much as the "event" days. So today, I'm making a point to celebrate the routine-normal day of Monday! Back in the day... when Isabela was in my belly, and I worked full time, Mondays were dreaded... oh boy, another Monday. So far from the weekend... 5 full days of work ahead! Now I realize how silly I was for that... really! Full time mom, there is no Monday, there is no Sunday for that matter.. every day is work day. Don't get me wrong! It is the single most rewarding (not in the money sense.. ) job there is! And I am so very lucky to be able to dedicate my full day to that. But it is work also! So much work! No breaks, no lunch, no 15 minutes surfing the web on work clock, no quick run to the store for a snack, no chatting with grown ups about how much the boss sucks; just plain work... sometimes silent for hours, sometimes dirty work (ohh the poooohhhh), sometimes creative work (trying to keep her busy with a paper towel and a bib), and non-stopping work. My paycheck, her smile, her peaceful sleeping, her clapping, her crawling, her health... all of that is more than enough.
Anyways, its Monday, and she woke up at 5am, and now is down for a 45-60 min nap... so I enjoy this little time to surf the net. And oh yeah... I am so so anxious for Grey's anatomy this week! I hope I can find it online on Friday or Sat to download! I can't wait.. also back this week is How I met your mother, Heroes and 2 and 1/2 men.. .all very good shows. Lots of downloading this weekend.
much love and missing you all.

Go Gators!!

I must start off by saying how glad I am that we beat the Vols!!! We didn't get to watch the whole game, but we did get to see a little bit because my brother, who lives in California, called us via internet video phone and put the camera toward the TV so we got to watch about a quarter of the game. It was nice!
We went to the farm this weekend for a bbq with my cousins, and we had fun! Around 3pm though the weather turned, and we had some rain with ice! Crazy weather here.. went from 80 to 50 in about 3 hours. We got in the car and drove home then... but the dirt rode was wet so it was quite a challenge.
I'm adding some photos, Isabela loved the bongos that were there!

Nice day!

We went to Pocos de Calda today, a city about 45 minutes away. It is a town built inside an inactive vulcano. It has lots of water springs that are said to have special "healing" powers. The town is nice, and the drive there is great. The road goes up and down beautiful mountains! Lots of zig-zag which makes me a little nauseas.. but worth the drive there. I use to go there when I was a kid and have great memories, so it was special to be able to take Isabela there. It is the closest city to us with a McDonalds, and a mall! yes a mall!!! of course the mall only had about 20 stores... (2 big department ones, and a grocery store too), but it was just nice to stroll around inside for a change. Outdoors is so hot now that we treasure the time inside cooler places. There are lots of nature adventures around this city as well. Our friends Dylan and India are coming to visit us in a couple of weeks, and we hope to take them there to enjoy a couple of adventures. They have "arborismo" (not sure what's called in the US), but its jumping from tree to tree with ropes, and other gadgets (not like tarzan though!). Also they have water rafting, and lots of repel from waterfalls. Cool stuff we are excited to try it out.
We are anxiously waiting for our friends, they are our first visitors from the US, we want to plan their stay for them to have fun and enjoy their time here, and hoping that others will come too :-)
well, my little one is up from her nap, so gotta wrap it up! miss everyone lots.

"You could be hipper"

Yes.. that is what my husband said when I said that I needed some new clothes... I was shocked. Really, he thinks I need some new clothes because the ones I have aren't cool.. what? Funny guy my husband, the guy who's been wearing cargo shorts and tennis shoes since the day I met him. You gotta love him though!
I'm attaching a video to this post, Isabela has been doing this lately, if a song comes on she starts dancing and clapping, its really adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR6Wj4MwIkk

As I write this, its 9pm, and it is still 90F!!! Without central ac this feels like 100F inside our apartment... oh we miss the US right now.. central air is one of the best inventions ever! To think that summer hasn't even really started, officially we start Spring in Sept, but really here we go from a mild fall straight to summer, don't really have a winter...
Florida can get hot as well, but I think with so much AC everywhere we go, we tend not to notice as much, only from the car to the stores... We wait until it gets dark so we can go to the grocery store here because its cooler in the evening, and yes.. there is no AC at the grocery store!

Today when Isabela woke up from her nap, she didn't make any noise at all, I just went to check on her because it had been about an hour since she fell asleep. So when I peak at the door (she was asleep in a mattress on the floor at my mom's house since we were there for the afternoon), she had crawled to my mom's bookcase and was grabbing all the books out of the shelf and throwing them everywhere!!!
When she saw me she froze! It was so cute, she opened her mouth and was shocked to see me.. I guess she didn't think she was going to get caught. So funny!
Gotta go take a cold shower and try to get some sleep, miss you all lots!

09-11-08 seven years later...

I can't believe it has been 7 years since that terrible day... We all probably still remember exactly what we were doing this exact moment ... (coincidently I'm writing at 9am). When I think about that day I still get sad, confused, angry, all together. I can't imagine what the family of the people who were actually there feel today. I always pray for them on this day, that God help them heal. I will never really understand what happened that day, why it happened... sure there have been lots of terrorist groups explaining why they do what they do... but really, when it comes down to one individual, how can he rationalize in his head that it is okay to kill massive amounts of innocent people, dads, moms, children... how does he sleep at night? And the rest of the world... how can we not all unite against this terrorists... these crazy humans that think its okay to kill to get their ideas across, that think fear is the only way to get people's attention. It is sad that seven years later we still have killings by terrorists groups occurring all around the world, almost on a weekly basis... we don't always hear about them all, but believe me they are still happening. I'm not a political person at all, I can't claim to know much about politics... but all I know is that I am joining whatever team has a plan to stop the killing of innocent people all together.
Okay, enough of that ... I just get a little emotional on this day. I guess the fact that I do have dual citizenship (Brazil and US), makes me be extra proud to be an American as well! I am so proud to belong the country which has so many advances in the scientific field, the country who has liberty for all, where everyone is innocent until proven guilty, an organized and true democracy, and to belong to the American people, some of the best people in the world! Open hearted, accepting, respectful, intelligent, and forgiving.
I am glad my child wasn't around yet seven years ago... I'm not sure how I would've explained all that to a child... and I'm happy she is part of the world AFTER, a world much more aware of what we need to do to become a BETTER world.
Here in Brazil today they briefly mentioned on the morning news about the anniversary of Sept 11th, the news were followed by news about a new strategy US will be adopting to catch Bin Laden. Interesting...
For today is all, I am not for war, I am for peace always, but if we need to fight to bring terrorist groups to end, lets do it without injuring innocent people, is that too much to ask?

9 months!

Wow, I can't believe she'll be 9 months in 2 days, the time she's spent in my belly now equals the time she's been out here with us. Amazing! She is such a smart cookie too! Today she was crawling around and she went right up to the stairs and started going up, one step at a time. Really have to watch her closely. This past weekend we went to a wedding, this is where this picture was taken. She had fun in her dress, playing with her cousin Lucas who was also there. It was a beautiful wedding in the country, the day was sunny and perfect for pictures. She behaved very well, we were able to enjoy the day.

Jason and I tried really hard to get the Gator game online this past weekend, but no go... all we were able to do is listen to it on online radio! It was still great since the Gators beat the Canes, a much needed revenge win. But we are missing American Football a lot! Tonight for example, Monday night, Jason heard they were going to play the game, but because there is a soccer match, they are playing that instead, even thought there are 4 sports channel, they all choose to show the same game?.. go figure.

Jason is getting better everyday with his Portuguese, he is speaking much better now, and his understanding is very good. He is doing well at the farm, and walking around all day has caused him to continue to loose weight.. I can't feed him enough food! He eats so much and still has already lost 14 kilos since he got here (about 30 pounds).

Hope Florida is okay with all the hurricanes... We are always watching the news to keep up with it, we need our Clearwater home in one piece for when we return!

Lucas and Isabela

Yesterday my grandparents came to visit us, they are Isabela´s and Luca´s great-grandparents. It was so much fun to watch all of them interact. Lucas and Isabela had a great time. She is now crawling, and he is walking! So she would try to follow him around, but she couldn´t keep up. They both played for a couple of hours, and we were just all watching... For my parents and grandparents it was such a treat, you could see their joy and how proud they were.

I´m almost getting over our "incident" from the chair.. but still when I feed her now, it has to be with the booster seat on the floor, don´t have the courage to place it on the chair yet. She is crawling and getting into everything, we have to be so careful with her, she likes to stand up on things.. she is fearless!

She started to really enjoy music now, as soon as she hears anything... a comercial, or someone singing, she starts clapping and dancing. It´s adorable.

On another note, football! UF vs Miami on Saturday! I really hope we can figure out a way to watch it. GO GATORS!

Bad Mother! I should be punished!

If someone from DCF is reading this they may take my baby away...
This morning, as usual, after feeding Isabela I put on her baby Einstein movie while I do the dishes from last night. She sits very quietly on her booster seat from Fisher Price (the one that straps to the seat and has a seat belt for her). All of a sudden I hear a horrible noise, my heart popped out of my chest as I turned around, dropping the cup that I was washing, to see my baby girl on the floor!!! not crying or screaming just there shocked and out of air. I guess she flipped the chair backwards somehow and the chair fell with her strapped to it... hitting the back of her head on the plastic chair that was on the floor. I rushed and tried to get her off the chair without moving her too much.. I didn't know if she was hurt.. broken bones?... as soon as I hugged her a huge scream came out.. she then started crying, which was a relief for me b/c for a second I thought she maybe unconscious. She cried for a while .. and I did with her as well. Jason was there too and rushed to help as well. We were both shocked and trying to understand what just happened... She seems to be okay. She cried for a while.. I couldn't see any cuts or big bruises on her head... I kept her awake for a little while and then let her take a little nap. I'm observing her for the rest of the day.. if anything seems weird I'm taking her to the ER (which is the most scariest place here in Brasil..). I think her guardian angel blinked for one second, but I'm glad mine was close to catch her and make sure nothing horrible happened... just to think how much worse it could have been...
Now! Fisher Price is getting a letter from ME!!!! No warnings about unstable chair... or anything.. and why the heck was she able to push off the table... okay, maybe its just me creating excuses b/c I am a horrible mother... I shouldn't have left here in her chair while I washed the dishes.. but I really thought she would be safe.. the chair has a seatbelt! and it straps to the chair itself.. oh boy.. I really messed up on this one huh.
I'm still shaky as I write this.. I guess I'm sort of using this as a "confession" to try to relief my guilt a little.
On another note, Isabela is now crawling (which means I need to be even more careful with safety around the whole house!), and she is clapping with music and even tries to dance, so adorable. She also started to send kisses! So cute!!! I've been trying to teach her some simple sign language and she has been able to use the sign for "more" sometimes.. although I'm not sure if she knows what she's doing yet.. but I'll keep working on it with her. Well, I hope you like this blog site better! It's much easier to use! miss you all and GO GATORS

New blog!

A friend of mine (thanks Nicole!) showed me this new blog spot, and I loved it! So much easier to use. So from now on... this will be my blog. Thanks!