Crooked Smile

Love her new crooked smile and snort!! She is growing up way too fast!!

Tchau,
Sara

Today

Well Belles room is empty except for a few boxes that will eventually turn into a bed, a rocker and a dresser. Somehow I think I am missing a few boxes!

While we wait for the assembly guy to show up we are eating black beans! She loves them!!

Tchau,
Sara

First Fine

Well the other day we got our first multa (fine) for breaking the apartment rules. No, it wasn't because I took the trash in the personal elevators instead of the service, even though I still could be fined, but something the movers did. I guess I really need to sit down and read the 25 pages of random ass rules for this place. 

It doesn't help when your husband thinks he rules the world! 

I thought we would be getting another one because right after we opened the multa we got a phone call from the porteiro saying something about our lights.

The conversation went as follows:

Me: Alo? (in my most Rio accent I can muster :))

Porteiro (door guy): nanannanana luz nanannan ligar....... nanannana.... desligar.... Ta Bom? Entendo?

Me: Sim. Tudo Bem. Tchau e boa noite

Then the hubby asked: what did they want.

Me: I don't know something about lights... I think we are supposed to turn off our lights at a certain time or have curtains or something.

Hubby: We just moved in and they can kiss it!! 

Me: We are not making friends anytime with that attitude (as I start to flip through the rule book)

I find a rule about black out curtains being white and something else. So that must be it. We are getting another fine! Shit!!

Next Day-

We are leaving the apartment to go look for a new washer/dryer and white black out curtains and when we get to the car our dome lights are on. This should have been the first clue of what the porteiro was trying to tell me but I didn't catch it. Then we are stop by the porteiro and he begins rambling but this time I understand him because I can see his face! He said that he called me to tell me about the lights on in the car and did I understand him.... I felt terrible. I told him about my bad Portuguese and yes I understand but I thought he was talking about the lights in the house... 

Good thing he is awesome and just laughed! Ahhhh life is great. Except for the only multa we have which is right around minimum wage. Ya. Minimum wage for a month. What kind of place have we moved into?? Somewhere we don't belong! 

Tchau,

Sara

Big Week

Ok- This weekend we bought a few things that should be coming this week. Last week the repair man for the washer/dryer didn't come and Belle's walker never came. Who knows what happened to the repair guy but the walker is another story.

I called to check on it and in my AMAZING Portuguese I managed to stumble through and the girl told me she would check on it then call me back. She never did so this weekend we made a trip back to the store where I talked to the manager.

He told me they didn't deliver it because all they had were blue and pink not green. Well the whole reason we bought green is because they told us they didn't have blue or pink. Bastards! He asked if I wanted pink and I told him no. I want green. He then said but you have a girl and I told him I wanted more kids so I want green.

The green walker should be delivered on Wednesday so we will see. If not then I have his name and number.

A new washer/dryer is coming tomorrow along with all of Belle's furniture! I am so excited!! Happy Birthday to me!

Also tomorrow we have a new maid coming.... dun dun dah!! Hopefully she will be amazing :)  Oh my.

Slowly getting settled and Belle is growing way too fast. Right now she wants to be mobile but she can't go anywhere and relies on me. I am worn out but my arms are getting defined now :) I promise to post more pics of her soon. I can feel everything coming together this week and so hopefully I will be back on track.

Tchau,
Sara

Say What?

Spending two months back in the US for the holidays did not help my already sucky Portuguese. My sleep deprived baby brain cannot seem to keep up. My mouth just keeps spitting words out and I try to bring them back in but it I can't! 

Funny thing is that this time around I hear the words but it's taking me a more than a minute to decipher. I will here the word. Then my brain says, "oh, you just heard the following, 'dela' 'la' 'proximo' 'baxio'" blah blah blah. So I hear all these words I know and I can't put the sentence together. Make sense? It's like my brain pauses to congratulate itself for remembering what the word means. Then by the time that it's done clapping for itself I have missed the rest of the sentence being spoken!

Good thing I can fake it like the best of them. You hear the verb and guesstimate what the rest is :) I will probably have to do this until A. I can get some more sleep and B. I can hire a Portuguese teacher. 

I wish that I was one of the few self driven people but my self study has brought me this far and it really has come to an end. Time to buck up and really get after it.

I vow to search for a Portuguese tutor within the next week!


Tchau,
Sara

Feed Me!

This morning she had watermelon in her little mesh teether (a mesh bag that you can stuff fruit or other foods in that they can eat and not get big chunks while feeding themselves. Anyway, after that we had some yogurt and she was loving it!!

Tchau,
Sara

Ahhh Brazil

Moving while having a newborn = disaster!

During the move our wash machine broke. Our supposed 2.500R washer/dryer broke (thank goodness that it was provided to us by our company). I think it's because the movers did not stabilize the front load causing an imbalance. A guy is coming to look at it tomorrow. 

By now over a weeks worth of dirty clothes, burp clothes, blankets, bibs and other random baby stuff has piled up and the flies are circling.

I wanted a new washer/dryer anyway because this one is soooo small and it takes forever for a basketball size load to get done but I didn't want it to break! 

So today I had to finish the dishes by hand so I could use the sink to hand wash some things we really needed. Check out my small space below-

Once that was done I need to plug in our dryer, which is worthless and I wanted to pull an Office Space on it one day where I take it to a field and beat the sh** out of it with a bat. Anyway, thanks to genius engineers there are two types of three prong plugs. 

Below is what I had available.

Below is what I needed.

The only place for what I need was above the washer/dryer that doesn't work. 

So now my kitchen looks like this below.

We are now on hour 5 of drying the following: 5 bibs, 1 burp cloth, 2 baby footed PJ's, and 2 baby washcloths..... hour 5 people. 

So while the drying is taking place I take out the trash. Unfortunately I didn't read my 50 page rule book and I used the personal elevators and not the service elevators. Honestly it was 11am and I didn't think it was a big deal.

A lady looking like Magda  (from Something About Mary)

Magda

 got on the elevator wearing a see through net bikini cover up and a swim suit smaller a napkin and had the nerve to look me up and down. I guess I wasn't good enough for her. I bet I will be getting a letter from the admin about this.

All in a day of life in Barra Brazil! Keep in mind while all this is going on I had to entertain a 6 month old! I am better now. I just needed to be initiated back into the crazy since I spent so long in the States. 

Point taken Brazil. I won't leave you for so long anymore if you promise to take the knife out of my back :)

Tchau,

Sara

Photo Catch Up

Here are some photos taken before we left and then some after but it should catch you up on everything that is going on!!

Below Belle and Colson trying to take a photo together!

Can you tell they are cousins?

This is the best one of the bunch! 

These below are taken with my new camera lens! Thank you Nate for the Birthday/Anniversary gift!

LOOOOOVE her eyes!

I put a bow in her hair just to show you how much it has grown.

Doing her high push up and getting ready to crawl.

Losing her attention quickly.

Such a happy little girl!

Below are some views from our balcony and pictures of our apartment today.

On the horizon is the ocean. The green area is a natural preserve with a lagoon.
We have a ferry that will take us across the lagoon and to the ocean where there is a beach walk.
We have yet to venture out there just yet but maybe over the weekend.

Our living room. Down the hallway to the right spur off three bedrooms and two baths.

My tiny kitchen :( At the end and to the right there is the maid's quarters with a small small room and sink/toilet/shower.

Other side of the kitchen with a small breakfast nook.

More of the living room.

Where I plan to set up the kitchen table

We look forward to our new future here in Rio! Things are already going great with a few minor hiccoughs: our wash machine is broken... blah blah. Life is still good!

Tchau,

Sara

Belle Today

Getting back on track!! Today I am unpacking the kitchen. Tomorrow I am tackling Belles room.... Ahhh so much to do and all I want to do is play with this little girl!!

Tchau,
Sara

Flight Home

We started our travels at the Tulsa airport unloading our 4 huge bags, 1 car seat, 3 carry ons, 1 stroller and of course 1 Belle. I could see the ticket agent rolling his eyes before we even approached the counter to check in. Naturally all of our flights were messed up and on different itineraries which needed to be fixed so all our bags would make it to Brazil.

After we got the bags checked Nate dealt with all the passports and bags and I dealt with Belle. No strip searches and the agents were all super nice! They even helped open up the stroller for me :) Once inside we had about an hour before our flight left so we really tried to get Belle to take and afternoon nap to prevent crankiness.... too much going on for her to sleep though!

Time to board and I take my seat in the tiny jetliner in the solo seat  by the window with Nate across the aisle from me. At this point Belle is high pitch screaming while the rest of the plane boards and I can see their faces drop when they realize a baby is on board. This makes me nervous and really angry at them for being so selfish. Of course I was once in their shoes so I really can't complain.

Belle continues to fuss and I know that she is hungry but I really just don't feel comfortable pulling out a boob while people are boarding.... ughhh!! I start to sweat and finally say f- it and prepare to feed her.

She arched back in protest, a new thing she does now, and bumped her head on the armrest. Ohhhhh noooooo. Now the tears and screams begin and I immediately feel terrible because it's my fault. I sweat even more. 

I finally am able to get her to calm down a little enough to start eating when the stewardess informs me that I cannot sit in that seat and I must move next to Nate. Great. Now I have to pack up the food bags and haul my a$$ over! In the process I bump my head in the small plane and I am almost brought to tears. I sweat some more.

We settle into our seats finally and the plane takes off. Short of a few more tears and ear piercing screams the flight went ok. It went good enough for the people immediately around us not to make eye contact with us after the flight but for the people at the end of the plane to comment on how good she was. 

While we exit the plane I can't help but think of the next 14 hrs ahead of us and cringe. Might as well make thing interesting and have Mexican food for dinner.... it's like rolling the dice before a 10.5 hr flight!

Luckily we have access to the Continental lounge, thanks Nate for all your frequent flights, and they have a family room that was completely empty. 

I set up the room so Belle could try to get a nap in before the flight. At this point I thought she would have passed out because it is 6pm and she has been awake since 1030 am. She does fall asleep and takes a pretty good nap. Enough to get over the crankiness.

We board the flight and get settled into our seats only to find that a 6 month old Brazilian baby boy is sitting behind us with his family. This makes my worries melt away that I won't be the only one. 

Brazilians LOVE babies and kids in general. To prove this to you while the rest of the plane was boarding three teenage boys (Let me repeat. Three teenage boys. ) walked by and whispered to each other in Portuguese about how cute she was- Actually they called her a he but who cares! My baby is cute and not a nuisance! 

Side note: what teenage boy thinks a baby is cute?? Aren't they supposed to run from babies?

Well it turns out the flight was pretty uneventful. I had to hold her the whole time except for when Nate held her for a little and then once when she slept in the little bassinet. Who cares cause it's over!!

Ohhh what a long flight. I didn't sleep at all really. I nodded off right before the lights came on for breakfast and Belle managed to sleep through most of it.

Through immigration and customs in a flash and almost leaving the airport without the carseat (I would have cried cause it's new- Yes she out grew the infant carrier already). 

We make it to our new place filled with boxes, beds set up without sheets and a couch with a working tv! Couldn't be happier. Nate has to quick shower and run off to work but at least he got to sleep a little on the plane. 

Two full days of recovery for the three of us and I finally think we are starting to settle. Boxes still line the apartment but it doesn't matter. Life is great and we are happy.

Tchau,

Sara