Sunny Day

Belle sportin her sunglasses for a walk. She didn't seem to mind them at all!

Tchau,
Sara

Game Day

Putting my camera to use! I need to get good fast because Belle has a very short attention span. Usually by the time that I have her dressed and ready to go she is ready to quit. I was able to capture a few cute moments! Nate picked out her bow this morning, out of the two options I gave him, and the onesie and tutu were a given. The girl needs more orange!

One thing I need to work on is lighting. Some look a little dark to me and I think that I was blocking the light. 

Bad thing about living in Brazil is that we can't watch college football :( terrible news. We did have a slingbox which enabled us to watch US cable through the internet but it had a glitch and refuses to work. Sunday football is making an entrance this year on Brazilian cable. I have seen more games on tv this year than last so maybe the trend is catching on. Only bad thing is that the games are all in Portuguese. 

Tchau,

Sara

Holding

I could hold this sweet girl all day long!

Tchau,
Sara

Bogota Columbia

Nate left for Bogota Columbia today and will return later in this week. I really get to test how well I can handle being a single parent! Well, not really. Nate went grocery shopping for me this morning and stocked the house full of food. Then I asked Claudia to come Monday, Wednesday and Friday so all I really have to do is look after our sweet baby girl :)

Poor Nate has a full day of travel to get to his meetings. There isn't a direct flight from Rio so he has to make a few connections along the way. I am actually a little jealous that he gets a chance to visit this country. To bad he won't be able to tour the city or see any of the sights. I have friends that live there and heard that it's absolutely beautiful! I really hope that he can get some pictures of something or anything. Who knows with boys though because the last thing they care about is photos. 

Picture of the city skyline that I found on the internet.

When he returns back home I have no doubt that Belle will have changed so much. Each day that passes she becomes more aware of her surroundings and fixates on random objects. In the morning she smiles constantly and recognizes both of us. I cannot describe the love I feel when her face lights up because she sees me looking down at her. I just hope that when he returns Belle give him the biggest smile ever because I know that I will! 

Tchau,

Sara

Smile Belle

This is what I get when trying to make her smile!! A nose curl :) guess I need to break out the big camera so she laughs more.

Tchau,
Sara

5 Week Check-up

Yesterday we went to a pediatrician in Macae just in case Belle had an emergency we would already know someone.

Nate and I walked in the building and immediately I felt like I stepped into a building somewhere in India. The atmosphere screamed third world and I wanted to take Belle and run. The waiting room, littered with mothers and their children, contained ten plastic waiting room chairs and a receptionist from a Stephen King novel. We opted to wait outside until Belle decided it was time to eat.... Every other mother had a boob out so I squeezed in between two people to take my seat and whip out the boob.

Imagine squeezing in to find a seat to BF your baby in a room like this?

As Belle was eating I thought to myself, how things have changed in my life and how far out of my comfort zone I have flown. I would never do this in the US. Well, I would but I would cover up and probably find a small corner to sit in and not just show the world! I could see Nate through the sliding glass door and every once in awhile we would catch each other's glance and smirk at the scene. Finally Belle finished up and I quickly cleaned up, got up and passed her to Nate outside. I went and waited inside for our name to be called per Nate's orders and against my wants.

The view in the doctors office didn't ease my worries of contracting something deadly. While we talked to the doctor both of us couldn't help but notice the rusty scale and exam table. The doctor brought up the fact that we haven't got the Tuberculosis vaccine yet and all I wanted to say was, "hell she doesn't need that she needs a Tetanus before coming to your office". I kept my mouth shut because I knew there was no real danger.

Belle's Stats:

     Weight= 5kg (11lbs)!! An increase from 3.7kg (7.7lbs) at birth
     Height= 58cm (22.8 in)!! An increase from 52 (20.5in) at birth

I just can't believe how much she has changed in the past month. She really is growing too fast. The doctor told us to watch her weight because it was above average percentile wise... then he showed us her height on the same graph for percentiles and she was almost in the 100th percentile. Shouldn't we take that into consideration when telling us to watch her weight or does he want us to watch that too! Ha! Belle looked like a toddler compared to the other babies in the waiting room so I am guessing that he is not used to big gringo babies :)

Overall things went fine. I really was a shocked to see the difference in health care in Macae compared to it in Rio. We will not be seeing that doctor again unless we have an emergency. Next month we will be traveling to Rio the Pedi that went to her delivery and she will get her immunizations. For now I will just focus on keeping her healthy and happy.

Tchau,
Sara

1 Month

A week late but here are some 1 month old photos. I love that she is smiling so much these days. Nothing better than seeing a response after weeks of blank stares. Belle also started recognizing people and stares at everything!

Just looking at these makes my heart melt so much. I still have to pinch myself because we have a baby and it's already been over a month!!

Tchau,

Sara

Play Time

During our rough no sleep night and day we still managed some developmental play time. She finally tolerate the swing for more than two minutes. I actually caught her smiling and playing in it!! Then we did a little tummy time... She didn't like it too much and rolled over to her back. Fingers crossed that she sleeps tonight because I am walking dead right now :)

Tchau,
Sara

Lobster Time!

I asked Nate if we could grill out hamburgers tonight and he brings home a kilo lobster. Belle out weighs him for sure but he challenges her length! We shall see how this endeavor turns out. We have to grill him and I bet it turns out dry. Nate is pretty good with a grill so it should be interesting!

Tchau,
Sara

Ps- we also have hamburgers... Good thing I can eat an entire grocery store these days ;)

Karma

Yesterday I laughed at my mother in law for blowing out her curling iron in the hotel. She plugged her 110V beauty supply into a 220V outlet. Needless to say the device smoked and quit. I smiled and laughed because I have been there before. Luckily my hairdryer didn't blowout but ever since then I have tried to be careful or at least aware of what devices could handle 220V.

The thing is, is that in Brazil some outlets are 110V and some are 220V. In our house we have both voltages depending on the need for the room. Nate went around with a volt meter and labeled each outlet to make sure blowouts didn't happen.

After dropping the parents off at the airport we returned to the hotel which only has 220V outlets. I plugged in my breast pump and after 3 seconds of running the entire electricity in the room shut down. I could smell the burning of the circuit board and my now bruised boob pulsated from double the suction. I can't believe that I didn't double check the voltage!!!

To make matters worse is that the warranty is out on the pump and Brazil doesn't even sell this type of pump. I am not even sure that they sell breast pumps at all! I have never seen them sold in any store and even if they did then the price would be ridiculous. The price in the US was ridiculous.... uggh!

Example of what I lost.... :(

Don't you just hate yourself for doing stupid things that cut your legs out from under you? I wish that I could blame someone or something but I am responsible for this mess. The freedom I felt from being able to give Belle a bottle and the bonding that Nate was able to achieve is severed. Now I really will have to be with Belle 24/7 for her every feeding need.

On brings the search for some sort of pump even if it is handheld. If all else fails then we will have someone bring down another pump for us. Probably not the same one but a very very cheap version like below!

Old school handheld....

Who knows, maybe the pump will come back alive... wishful thinking I know but that would make my day so much happier.

Tchau,
Sara