Rebecca turned 1

Hello guys!!

Well, I decided I won't translate the last two posts from portuguese because I don't feel it's a good idea! Mainly because of three reasons: One, I don't feel that way anymore, it was more like a momentary feeling; Two, I think most of the people didn't think it was an inspiring thought anyway, on the contrary, although that was not my intention AT ALL and I think I was misunderstood, which it's understandable, btw. And three, because I'm lazy right now and don't feel like translating anymore!

But to compensate the fact that I won't translate the last two posts, this one I will first write in english which it's not that big of a deal since most of the people in Brazil can read in english and - in fact - I've noticed that many people DO read my english posts. So I guess many people in Brazil like reading my posts twice! Weird... I think they want to see if my english is that much better than theirs since I've been living here in the US! Well, I bet many of them are kinda disappointed with my english and all the many mistakes I make! But never mind, isn't about this that I intend to write about today!!

I got carried away by the many things and changes Rebecca is going through in the last week so I wanted to write this post really bad!! Yes, one week and sooo many things happened all just at once!! Well, first Rebecca turned one year old on Tuesday, August 30th and we threw her a little birthday party on Saturday, Aug, 27th. I remember I wrote here that we were going to give her a "water park party" but then we thought better and we realized many of our guests have really small children so it wouldn't be comfortable to them! Well, we were about to give up the idea of a party for Rebecca but D was stronger than me and he convinced me to use our small apartment to throw her a party! But we couldn't invite many people or all the people we wanted to. Well, everything went well although it was a little too crowded.

I decorated the apartment with some pink balloons, some pictures of Rebecca from her birth till now and a "happy birthday" banner or something like this, I don't know how they call it in here! (I have to pay more attention to what it's written on the label packages...). We also had two tables, one for the food and other for the sweets and cake along with some beautiful roses!! Well, about the food. We made two brazilian dishes: feijoada and chicken stroganoff. (We were having some indian guest so we opted for the chicken stroganoff not the beef one). We also made pao de queijo, we served a salad and some brazilian peanuts (ovitos).

Well, I guess we should have made our guests plates because they loved the stroganoff and didn't care much about the feijoada, which it's not very common at all when we invite people to eat only feijoada! So I guess it was a matter of not combining all the ingredients correctly since this is kinda crucial on eating feijoada! All the side dishes matter and combined they are delicious! Well, we cannot complain much about it since we had many feijoada leftovers for ourselves but I wish they had enjoyed it more! But the chicken stroganoff they really loved it! Almost everyone asked me the recipe, which I still didn't give it to them, btw... ops!

Well, about the sweets, I made one chocolate cake with walnuts filling (close to a camafeu flavor) and strawberry cupcakes with white frosting. Both were dairy free!! I discovered that some duncan hines cake mixes are dairy free so as the ready frosting we bought! So I was very happy about it since Rebecca has dairy allergy! Ok, then I also made brigadeiros, but there is no way a brigadeiro can be dairy free so Rebecca  just didn't have it! I also prepared a fruits plate and bought a cool whip to eat together with the fruits but I only remember to serve it too late so I guess none of our guest ate it!

Then we opened the presents in front of everyone! Well, this is kinda traditional in here although we are not very used to it yet.... but since people were expecting it, we did it for them! Rebecca loved all the presents specially the beautiful bags and wraps! lol Classic, I know! And Rebecca had an awesome time with the people and kids around!! She was about to cry when the last guest left, poor child... I guess only mommy and daddy aren't enough for her.... "mom and dad, give a little sibling NOW!!"

Well, so that was it!! Mission accomplished!! I was kinda tense about all this party stuff.... I feel like D and I are so unprepared for this kinda of thing.... we are so all by ourselves here that I feel like we are two children that don't know exactly how things should be done.... but we made it anyway, everything turned out just fine! I can relax now!!

Now about the other things that were very exciting to us!! Well, the first one was not very exciting but I think it's kinda important to mention it. Well, Rebecca had her 12 month check up on Thursday, Sept 1st and the doctor told us she is doing fine bla bla, but... she didn't gained too much weight like the last few times. And since she is a small baby in length she was also worried about anemia (iron deficiency). So, the doctor asked for an extra appointment for the next month to check her weight and also a blood test for anemia. Besides these, since Rebecca was in Brazil for more than 3 weeks in May, she also asked for a skin TB test (tuberculosis test). So we had to come back on Saturday so they could read the results. Of course, it was negative!

Well, so the doctor made us see that we're putting Rebecca under a low fat diet... well... we realized she was correct about it! Since Rebecca is still breastfeeding but only trice a day and my breast milk was her main source of fat since she can't have cow milk instead, nor cheeses and she doesn't like to drink her soy milk in a bottle but only on her rice cereal, so she wasn't getting much fat. And the world nowadays teaches us to be very healthy but things should be different with children! Kids need fat!!! So the solution we are now trying to apply to her is to put a good amount of olive oil on her baby food after it's ready and we are putting some peanut butter on her rice cereal too! Fortunately she is enjoying both changes!

Well, now about the exciting things! Rebecca had a "word boom" this weekend!! Before, she only said "mamae" (mommy in portuguese) pretty well actually, but only this! So we wanted her to say "papai" (daddy in portuguese) pretty bad!! I remember trying to make her imitate what I just said to her, but she didn't even try!! I felt like her personality doesn't make her try when she knows she is not able to! Well, but this weekend, all of sudden, she just did it!! A perfect "papai". So she's been saying it all weekend very happily!! And also she is giving her first little steps all by herself!! And many other cool things!! Like yesterday I was reading some books for her, and I decided to test her for the first time!! And she scored high, man!!! Oh my!!! That was soooo awesome!! She showed me with her little and cute index finger the strawberries and the bananas, when I asked for it!! And also Dora and Boots!! This was sooo incredible!! And I was asking it in english!!! Also, she said "bye" and waved to the priest on Friday Mass when we asked her to!! The priest was so happy, hahaha! Aaaand, she tries to say "God bless you" when we sneeze!! I swear it!!! I noticed this a while ago but now D thinks this too!!

Well, it's been amazing to find out this new stuff Rebecca is doing!! We are overwhelmed by the fact it is all  happening at once!! Also, she has two teeth already but I'm almost sure her next two teeth are about to pop out, I would say, in a week!! Which is actually a fast pace for her! And I think because of everything, now she is not so attached with my breasts!! I mean, sometimes she doesn't even want to drink my milk so I think we are now and finally ready to stop breastfeeding her!! I'm so happy I'll be able to eat milk and cheese and sweets again!! D and I've been saying it's my freedom day coming!! haha! I'm like: "Owa, I don't know what I'm going to eat first!!!".

And today is Labor Day here, so it's a holiday!! And we took Rebecca to play at a playground!! Owa, there were so many kids because of the holiday and because the weather today it's beautiful!! She enjoyed it so much!!! She even cried when we were leaving the place!!

Well, and that's it! Yes, I'm aware this post turned out HUGE, and I'm sorry, but I guess you all know me by now and you don't expect anything different, right? So sad... lol!

You all take care!!