Abby, Zoë and Enzo

The girls and I went up to the roof this morning for some swimming.  Luckily there were no parties being prepared for and no maintence going on.  I did see another notice in the elevator that the party room is reserved yet again, this time for the 13th.  Abby and Zoë got into the little pool, and even they exclaimed at the cool temperature of the water.  Luckily the sun was out, besides when it went behind a cloud every now and then, and the heat even lured me over to the pool side.  That and the fact that I'm experiencing some extreme swelling the past couple of days that I thought the cool water might help.  After a while I had the girls get out of the little pool and walk with me to the ladder for the big pool.  They lied down on the warm deck while I worked on getting my body all the way in the chilly water.  Abby came in with me first and did some kicking and scooping and finally some putting her face in the water.  As many times as I assured her that I was not going to let go and that I wouldn't dunk her into the water, she was way less adventurous than in the small pool.  Zoë was next, and while she too was afraid to get her head in the water, she did do a few times of putting her face in for brief moments while kicking and scooping.  After Zoë was ready to get out, Abby decided she'd have one more turn, and she was slightly more adventurous this time.  While the girls sunned themselves to warm up and dry off, I held onto the ladder and floated a bit... until the girls told me it was time to get out. ;)

Irene picked us up at 7:30 AM to go to the Hiper Bom Preço store.  We were all prepared with a big list of items, determined to get the remaining baby items needed.  When we got into the car Irene handed me a gift from her and her family, it was a cute little onsie that said "meu bebé" and also a little outfit that came with a hat.  We apparently went on the right day, because they were having a big baby sale.  We have the flier from the sale to photograph and add once we have access to a camera. We were able to get pampers baby dry diapers with a cost per diaper of R$0.41 = US$0.23, not too bad.  We looked up when we got home what they go for in the US as I just couldn't remember and Chris found that with free delivery in bulk Pampers Baby Dry from Amazon.com costs US$0.18 per diaper.  It is crazy, as you can pay for the diapers here in 3 installments without incurring any interest.  All of the prices at the sale areas showed the price as 3x and then whatever the payment plan price would be.

We got a lot of produce this time, with some yummy things in mind to prepare.  We especially took advantage of having a ride to and from the store by getting some heavier fruits, such as a really big watermelon.  The watermelon ended up being 18 pounds and it was on sale for R$2.70 = US$1.52, now that's a good deal.  Not only that, later in the day when we cut into it, we discovered that it was wonderfully juicy and tasty.

We waited in the special line again, for pregnant women, and senior citizens, figuring we'd take advantage of this for as much longer as we can, and finally we were on our way out of there, after spending R$280.41 = US$160.25.  Visa's rate was R$1.75 = US$1.00.  After leaving the apartment at 7:30 we didn't get back until around 9:45 AM.  

We bought a prepared whole chicken for R$9.99 = US$5.70.  This chicken was very tastey and a way better deal than buying the frozen chicken parts, or even the fresh chicken parts and then preparing it yourself.  Without an oven here, and the typical small Brazilian kitchen, and the lack of tools (pots, pans, utensils) it is a challenge to prepare anything elaborate.  Professional chefs will feel at a huge disadvantage.  After washing the produce and lettuce, we prepared and enjoyed a nice salad with some chicken on top for lunch.  Later we cleaned the whole chicken, Chris cooked the carcass in some water to make a stock for use in our chicken garlic rice dish, which turned out super yummy, with bits of garlic and chicken through out, while the rice became creamy almost risotto like.

Chris also spent 30 minutes in the tiny kitchen preparing fresh salsa (celantro, tomatoe, lime, green onion, garlic, red onion, salt) for us to use on top of our beans and rice dishes, salads and sandwiches.  We need to have some flavorful toppers for our staple foods.  In the tiny kitchen, without modern conveniences like a food processor, all the tiny cuts have to happen by hand, and with dull horrible knives and a tiny counter space in which to work, it takes much longer to prepare.  We saw at the store they had a small bundle of green onions and celantro for R$0.97 = US$0.55, but right next to this special, they had a larger bundle of celantro for R$0.33 = US$0.19 and a larger bundle of green onions for R$0.33 = US$0.19.  These were all marked unit price, so weight was not a factor.  We watched people grabbing the more expensive bundled item with amazement, when right next to it, you could have bought more for less.  We are surprised that in this type of pricing climate, people are not more cautious and aware, or even willing to do the math. 

Here are some prices for items we bought:

The top of Zoë's eyelid is red, I noticed it somewhat yesterday evening, but this morning was more noticeable.  I couldn't figure it out so I told her to make sure not to touch her eyes and she told me this,

"Earlier I had sleepy seeds in my eyes and I had to pick them out so that I wasn't sleepy all day"

After I was done giggling, I asked her more about this theory and she explained that to wake up you have to get the sleepy seeds out or else you'll go back to sleep and want to sleep all day.  So I guess on those days when I'm just feeling groggy all day I'd better check my eyes for sleepy seeds. : )

We've heard a lot about brigadeiro since being here, but couldn't figure out exactly what it was as whenever we tried something that was labeled brigadeiro, it seemed like it just meant chocolate with chocolate sprinkles.  We saw this a few times and Raissa said that that wasn't real brigadeiro, apparently she has it smoother at home.  Today at the local little grocery store, where we walked to get a few items, Chris and the girls picked out a hershey's bar that was labeled as brigadeiro flavor.  When we tried it out after lunch, it seemed to be that it was crunchy like it had chocolate sprinkles in it.  I also thought that the chocolate itself had a different taste than the last chocolate bar we'd bought.  The cost of the 5.6 ounce chocolate bar (a 'family size' kind of bar) was R$2.99 = US$1.72.  This is an amazing deal, as it works out to be about US$0.31 per ounce of chocolate, when buying in bulk on Amazon, 3 pounds of chocolate, the per ounce price is US$0.54.  How can name brand chocolate taxed at 17% here be less expensive by almost half than the same product at home?

This morning Vanda showed up at the apartment in response to our email to Simone (her daughter - the apartment owner who lives in Frankfurt Germany) on the 6th and called for a bug exterminator.  We explained that we resolved the drains issue ourselves.  It was difficult to explain the type of bugs as they are only out at night.  We used google translate to get the idea across.  It turned out that the girls and I would need to leave the apartment while he was spraying and stay out for nearly two hours.  We had thought that he was just going to spray in our bedroom and bathroom, the suite, but he sprayed along the walls in the whole place, and outside the apartment in the hallway as well.  The girls and I went up to the pool, which was being maintained, and had a snack then played some hand clap games, then did some yoga.  It was super windy up there and I was actually a little chilly so we took an elevator ride down to the bottom then decided to go to the park so we went back up to our apartment to give our bag of swimming stuff to Daddy and let him know where we were going.  We came back almost exactly two hours after we'd left the apartment, and there were still some wet spots around the walls so we stayed on the couch until dinner and then before bed I took the girls to the shower and washed them off and Daddy carried them to their beds to keep them off the floors.  Even though the stuff is all dry, we're still not taking any chances with getting the stuff on us.  I think we'll mop tomorrow.  The cost of the extermination was R$70.00 = US$40.49 and is guaranteed for six months.

No, the girls aren't going to 'real' kindergarten, not only because we're in Brazil but because they don't make the age cut off.  However, the girls have been asking when they'll be old enough to be kindergartners since they were three years old.  Also, they have this desire and ability to learn that astounds me.  Sure they are busy bodies and love to run and play, but tell them you're going to do an activity, or better yet a lesson with them, and they run to the table to sit and see what it is.  We've done 'home schooling' type stuff before, but not really.  I hesitate to say that I'm going to home school them this year for a few reasons.  Mostly because the task seems daunting enough without the addition of a baby brother.  There is a lot of information on the internet and lots of resources at the library back home, and it is really exciting to start on the adventure. 

I've started with a tentative schedule with a couple of half hour  'lesson' times in the morning broken up by play time, yoga time, and activities.  In the afternoon, after nap the girls have a time to do their 'daily journals', which is a time they get a piece of paper and get to pick a topic for the day, and write and draw about that on their paper.  The girls love this and are already beginning to write more in with their drawings.  The afternoon also has play time and activity time before it's time to do dinner and all of those evening routine things.  Today began week two and we're going to start doing stuff with maps.  We've done stuff with patterns, which the girls just zoomed through and got things that even Auntie Reanna thought would be tricky for them.  The girls also liked to pick a sentence in one of the books we brought and have individual time with me to try and sound it out, mind you these aren't 'early reader' books so they are a bit trickier.  Reanna mentioned that their class is beginning stuff with mapping and how they're going about it and it sounded perfect for Abby and Zoë.  Both of the girls have been asking since before we left about different things, "do we have that in our country/state/world/etc." and been really interested in that kind of stuff.  So mapping it is and anything that stems out of their curiosity with this.  We'll also still work on some language learning and some reading stuff and work on that underwater swimming too!

Both of the girls have been doing some weird tongue things lately, but Abby's has thankfully subsided, where Zoë's is still going strong.  Abby had been doing this thing basically feeling her top teeth with her tongue.  I asked her again and again if any of her teeth felt funny to her, but she kept saying no.  I guess she was just passing the time. 

Zoë will do this thing where she wiggles her tongue back and forth in her mouth really quickly.  She'll just look at us and do this... I have no idea why.  Hopefully she'll just stop doing it if we can manage not to call attention to it.

I didn't get a response from my email about the clogged master bathroom, so I decided to research the trap system they use here, and fix it myself.  I located the trap, and cleaned it.  It was so dirty and disgusting, surely not cleaned in this apartments first and only year of service.  Yuk!  Laura has mentioned that we are the guinea pigs, having to get all these things done to get the apartment rent ready, fixing the shower heating element, cleaning the drains, and getting the bugs checked out and hopefully eliminated.  It is nice to be able to use the sink and shower again, as this shower has the new hot element.

We invited Richard, Irene, and their kids over today for the girls all to watch a movie together.  Before they arrived we walked down to the bakery a couple of blocks away and picked up a bit of checkered cake, which was R$4.03 = US$2.32, a chocolate pound cake type thing which was R$3.67 = US$2.13, two donuts for R$2.00 = US$1.16, and eight fresh rolls for us for R$2.10 = US$1.22.

Our friends arrived shortly after 4:00pm and the kids all went to the couch to wait without prompting.  Chris started the movie up and while the movie was going he and Richard chatted on the balcony and Irene and I played cards at the table, where we could also get a peek at the movie.  We all know us moms like the kid movies as much as the kids.  After the movie was done we decided to order from a pizza place that we have a pamphlet for here in the apartment, "Pizza do Paulista".  Irene told us what some of the stuff was, we picked two that had different toppings than we'd get at home, and placed the order.  While we waited, us girls all played old maid with Abby and Zoë's princess old maid deck.  The pizza arrived while we were on round two, the total was R$53 = US$30.82 including delivery.  We had ordered one medium 'pizza do caca' which had the following: molho de tomate (tomato sauce), mussarela (mozzarella), frango (chicken, which came shredded), milho (sweet corn), bacon, azeitonas (olives), and oregano and the second pizza was a large 'paulista' which had: molho de tomate (tomato sauce), mussarela (mozzarella), palmito (palm hearts), ervilha (peas), ovos (eggs, which came hard boiled and sliced), azeitonas (olives), and oregano.  Having the different toppings was definitely interesting, but we all enjoyed both kinds.  The pizza was tasty with a crust that was done well and the sauce was good too.  Closer to authentic Italian pizza than what is normal fare at home as these pizzas were fired in a wood oven.

After dinner we got right on to dessert, which was also enjoyed by everyone.  All four girls were all riled up, and it being close to bed time I decided that they might all like a story.  I let Annabell pick from our four books we have with us and she chose The Velveteen Rabbit.  During the story all of the girls were snuggled on the couch.  Abby and Annabell had their arms around each other, while Zoë and Talitha were doing the same.  There were so many times tonight that I longed to have the camera to capture these memories.  Like hand washing after pizza, when all the girls were 'washing their hands' (translated to playing with the soap and water) around the sink at once, or when we were enjoying our treats, when they were watching the movie and snuggling during story time... very nice memories indeed.

We are trying as hard as possible to be good renters.  I rarely email the apartment owner to tell them about any concerns, but Laura has been creeped out by the sand flea issue in the bed room, so I broke down and mentioned it when we noticed the shower not draining.  I thought, I have two issues, it is worth an email.  The drains are all connected.  The sink drain connects to the shower which also connects to the floor drain.  In the master bathroom the trap is in the shower drain, as opposed to the social bathroom, where the trap is the floor drain and not the shower.  So what happens is that the sink and shower all drain to the same spot, and if the trap is clogged or full of junk, it won't drain and overflows the other connected drains.

We noticed this morning that the little fair that has been set up on the street by the park is gone.  Actually Daddy noticed them taking stuff down overnight.  Abby and Zoë were so bummed that the tapioca guy was gone, especially since we'd passed up getting one yesterday.  We had been in the park yesterday afternoon and the tapioca stand was being prepared as we were heading back up to the apartment.  I thought about getting one after dinner as a treat, but I didn't end up going down, so the girls didn't let me hear the end of that.

Abby and Zoë were so excited with their swimming progress, they couldn't wait to get back up to the pool.  We got our suits on and went up this afternoon, but when we got up there people were setting up for a party.  We were all so bummed, as the weather was great with not much wind (usually pretty windy up there on the roof) and I was all set to get into the big pool to help the girls with their swimming.  Zoë was doing a little crying/whining, and Abby said to her, "Zoë, I'm bummed too, but I'm not crying.  We can just say 'man I'm bummed' and not whine about it."  Good advice if I do say so myself. : )

A while back, when singing the girls their lullaby at bedtime, they asked what lullaby I would sing to Enzo.  I said that I would just sing the same one, but they didn't think that was good enough.  Apparently they felt that that is their lullaby and Enzo needed his own.  I didn't just up and make one right away, but eventually a little diddy came to me and the girls heard me humming it here and there and wanted to hear it.  They've learned the words and tune and now ask to sing it after their lullaby and they also make up their own to sing to Enzo during the day.  Since I've written down the words for the girls' lullaby I figured I would write down these as well.

Baby boy, my baby boy, It's time to sleep and dream sweet dreams... baby boy.  There's no need to fear, 'cause I'll be right here, baby boy, sweet baby boy.  Now you've had your lullaby, so close your eyes, baby boy... my baby boy.

This morning Irene picked me up a bit before 8:00 to go and get the x-rays that the dentist wanted to be able to give us prices for braces.  I had asked at the office if they would do them with me being pregnant and he assured us that they would, they'd just cover me with the lead stuff.  Well, you probably guessed it, I got there and they wouldn't do it.  The woman at the front desk was looking over everything, said it would be R$115 and then the x-ray guy came out, saw that I was pregnant and said he wouldn't do it.  I was fine with it, just got the papers back and we left.  Irene is going to make a call to the dentist for us to hopefully get him to give us some prices and be able to work with me without the x-rays.

I didn't have anyting in mind for dinner this evening, so we just decided on tapioca's.  I went much earlier than last time and there was only one person in front of me.  I tried to get the charque again, but no luck.  So I got two mista's (ham and cheese) and two banana,cheese, coconut.  The banana ones are so the way to go, very tasty and full.

Just before 1:30 in the morning, we woke to Abby crying.  Chris went in and she was saying that she wanted to come to our bed.  I guessed a bad dream, but Chris took her to the bathroom and put her back in bed and she didn't say anything about it.  A little while later, she called for me and asked if she could tell me something so I went in to see what was up.  She told me that she had a bad dream, but she didn't want to talk about it and just wanted some snuggles.  I asked if she knew it was just a dream and she said yes, but that she was afraid it was going to come true.  I asked her again to talk about it and she said that it was about a big bug and in the dream she was holding on to Daddy.  That's all she wanted to share, but I just told her there weren't any big bugs in the apartment and gave her some snuggles.  She asked if it was okay if we didn't live in Brazil.  I told her that we were just here for a little while and then we'd be going back home, but she wanted to make sure that we'd never come back.  I asked if it was because of the bugs and she said yes.  I told her we have bugs in Portsmouth too but she was certain that there weren't as many and they weren't the same as here.  We sang the 'boogie man' song from a veggie tales movie they watched at Auntie Reanna's, and then went back to bed.

A little later we heard her start crying a lot.  She kept saying that she wanted to be back in Portsmouth and didn't want to be here and didn't want to live here.  Chris called her into our room, but I guess with her crying and the fan she didn't hear.  She started crying harder that she wanted to be back in Portsmouth.  We got her to come in and she snuggled with us for a little while before Chris took her for a drink of water and put her back to bed.  She slept the rest of the night and both girls didn't get up until 7:30 this morning.  So far Abby hasn't mentioned the bad night.

We had asked Irene last week if she knew of an orthodontist, and she got me an appointment for this morning.  We went and waited a bit and then met with the dentist, who showed us the method that he uses.  He doesn't do the traditional method, uses something called the Damon System, which is a fairly new method.  It looks really really interesting and would not require me to have teeth removed and my palate widened, as I would need to if I were having traditional braces.  It takes a lot less time, a lot less pain, and the results are amazing.  He said that for the whole package of putting them on and the visits to tighten (they get tightened every two months or so, and this lasts for less than two years.  The amount depends on your case) and taking them off, an average price he charges is R$6,000.  He gave me papers for an x-ray at a different location, the x-ray costs R$120, and said that if I brought the x-ray on Thursday then he would give me a price just for getting them put on and having one tightening before we left.  He also called his friend who knows of a dentist in Boston who does this method and could follow up with tightening and said he could give his contact information on Thursday. 

When I got home Chris and I looked up the system and found a handful of dentists within 20 minutes of Portsmouth who do this new braces system, whom we will call and see how much they charge for tightening and make the decision as to whether or not I'll get them started here.

I think we were ripped off on our TP purchase yesterday.  We know the prices here are expensive for paper products and for toilet paper.  We looked online at different brands and prices at the Pão de Açúcar Supermercado in São Paulo, and the same item was selling for R$6.17, we paid R$8.09.  We are positive that when we picked up the item, the price was posted close to R$5, so we thought it was a good deal based on our research.  While investigating my receipt today, I noticed we were swindled, and even this paper product isn't worth wiping your butt with it.  We are going to adopt a policy of writing down the prices of items we put into our basket, to avoid this problem at check out in the future.  On a happier note, the girls are loving the bidet process, it is refreshing and fun, and above all else, sanitary.

We had the doorman call the discount taxi today so that we could go to the grocery store that's a little further away (R$6 = US$3.65) because it is where we need to extract the rent money from the one of 3 ATMs that work for our system.  I am not comfortable taking a bus back with that much cash in hand.  We don't go anywhere with money or valuables.  We had the advice from multiple people, both locals here, as well as people back in the US, that we need to keep a small amount of money in one pocket (this is the muggers buy off cash decoy), and everything else in the other pocket.  Other advice has been to not wear any jewelry, no watches, no rings, no ear rings, no fancy clothes, no sunglasses even.  Anything that calls attention to you while out, and singling you out as a target.  It is a shame, that this level of paranoia is advised and needed for this city.  The taxi guy, whose name sounds like Judaical, gave us his card and told us prices to go to the Recife airport R$130 = US$80, in a brand new small mini-van.  We paid R$150 = US$91 to come here in an older uncomfortable truck.  So far, this guy is our best price to get back to the airport, so we thought we would build a relationship with him and use him when we need a cab.  He waited for us at the store (R$4 = US$2.44) and brought us back to the apartment for a total cost of R$13.90, but with the discount was only R$12 = US$7.30.  That is right, there are discount taxis.  Our land lady turned us on to using the discount taxis.  They take roughly 20% off the meter price if you ask them for the discount.  So we had asked the doorman to call him again when it was time to head out to tour the CLIM facilities (R$ 12 = US$7.30) and we told him that we'd call him around 7:00 PM to get picked back up at the doctor's office for our return to the apartment.  Well, when we came out of CLIM he was there waiting for us, and it was later than 7:00.  I'm not sure exactly what time, but when we got into the apartment it was 7:45.  Apparently he'd waited at the office building for the doctor, then come back to CLIM looking for us.  We must be his favorite customers as well, or the competition for fares is that tight, that he knew for sure he had another R$11 = US$6.70 fare coming his way.  You have to watch though, as the taxi's costs add up quickly.  We took 3 trips today, and the total cost was US$21.30.  The buses would have been cheaper at only costing R$13.60 = US$8.28, but they are hit or miss.  Walking 4+ blocks to catch the bus from the apartment, then walking a couple blocks upon exit of the bus to the market would have added up to too much walking for Laura today, both to the store and for the doctors appointments. Without adequate bus information, about which stops and routes, it is not practical.  Plus around 5 PM, the buses are jammed packed with people, the stops are jammed packed as well, there is no guarantee that you will get on, and when you have an appointment, you can't rely on the buses.  Also, without a monthly bus pass or any efficiencies there, the savings are minimal when you factor in the negatives, the stops, the walking, the waiting, and the uncertainty.  Was the convenience, security, and certainty worth a premium of US$13.02 today?  Unfortunately the answer is a definite resounding Yes.

We went to CLIM first this time, but both us and Raissa weren't able to get there by 5:00 like we'd hoped.  It was close to 6:00 when someone walked in and called my name.  It was Raissa's mom, she'd come and met us as Raissa had been tied up at the University.  With the time, we decided to just walk over to Dr. Eduarrdo's office, but it turned out that we could've hung around CLIM for a tour because Dr. Eduarrdo had been in surgery and we were waiting for him to return.  There was one woman in front of us, and then it was our turn.  The baby's heartbeat sounded great, and my blood pressure was good yet again.  Not sure about the weight however because the scale didn't want to work properly.  We're pretty sure I didn't go from 65kg down to 48kg though, oh well.

Raissa had met us at the Doctor's office and after the appointment we all walked back to CLIM and this time we were able to get someone to take us on a tour.  First we saw the shared room, then the single room and then the suite.  Oh my goodness the suite is crazy!  You walk into a sitting room first, where there's a gorgeously comfortable looking leather couch among other things, then into the room with the typical hospital bed, plus a comfy looking side couch bed thing, and a cushy chair that probably folded back to a lying down position.  All of the rooms had the same bathroom/shower set up.  We weren't able to see any delivery rooms, as I guess there was a surgery or birth or something going on.  We did see the nursery though, we three bitty babies in there.  One was brand new, we'd seen his mother being wheeled from operation to a room.  Chris said, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're going to have one of those in there soon."  We found out that when Irene told us they don't supply any of the baby stuff, she really meant any of the baby stuff.  We had Raissa ask multiple ways, because it seemed that two of the babies in the nursery just had plain receiving type blankets on, but the woman said that any blankets or hats or diapers or anything for the baby is all brought by the parents.  Wow do I feel unprepared should this little guy decide to grace us with his presence early.  I'm sure he'll stick around at least until Mommy has the necessary equipment. : )