Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Abby and Zoë have done pretty well today behavior wise and really, really wanted tapioca's.  We saw the guy setting up earlier than normal, on our way back from the park, but I really didn't want to go.  Chris and I kept willing each other to go, but made egg sandwiches for dinner and then sat with the girls to watch a movie.  After the movie was over, Chris finally talked me in to going down.  There was only one person waiting for their tapioca when Chris checked out the balcony before I left, so he figured I'd be back before the girls were in bed. ;)  When I got down there, there was a guy who was just about to get his tapioca, a girl waiting for hers, and a car parked right there also waiting for their order.  It didn't take too long for my turn this time around though, so I asked the guy which were sweet and chose two.  I chose one with coconut and cheese, and one with goioba jelly and cheese (romeo and juliet)... always with the cheese around here.  I think I was only gone half an hour this time and everyone had done well so we all got to share some tapioca for snack.

The girls and I ventured down to the park again today, but we waited until the afternoon so that the sun wasn't so strong and there were more shady spots in the park.  This morning we had went up to the roof, not to swim but to play in their game room area just doing some hopping and general running off of energy... Abby and Zoë's, not mine - taking the elevator up ran off all the energy I have these days :) . 

We got down to the park and the girls asked me to make a hop scotch for them, so I tried in the dirt with my foot, but it wasn't coming out so well.  As we were looking for a stick, a couple of boys ran over and started jabbering to us.  One was younger, three we found out later, and the other was probably six.  I tried telling the older of the two that we didn't understand and didn't speak Portuguese, but he didn't seem to get that.  Meanwhile the younger boy was going on and on about a game he had in his hand.  I found the stick and began drawing the hop scotch, saying the numbers out in Portuguese, and then had the girls try and show the boys how the game worked.  The mother or caretaker, whomever she was, of the boys came over and sat on the bench next to me while the kids ran around drawing pictures in the dirt with sticks, and tried to spark a conversation with me.  I got a couple of the questions, but then someone else came along and she chatted with her instead, oh well.  After a while the boys began playing with the two other kids that had arrived, while Abby and Zoë wanted to play games in the grass.  Pretty soon another lady with a toddler came to the park and then another woman with a baby in a stroller. 

These women had both meandered to the edge of the (cement) futbol court, which Abby and Zoë were using for their starting off point for a race.  The woman with the baby had asked the girls their names, but they hadn't understood and took off racing. The woman then asked in English if the girls spoke Portuguese and I said they didn't.  We walked over to introduce ourselves and it turned out that the woman spoke very good English and was eager to practice... fine by me!  Her name is Simone, and her baby, Pedro Felipe, is three months old today.  She has another son, who is five and was at school.  Apparently she lived in California for a year some time ago, and had also been to New York for a visit a long time ago.  She said that if the weather was nice on Saturday she was planning to come to the park again, this time also with her other son and a ball so that he and the girls could all play together.