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!