O Que Temos Feito!

Ola a todos!

Quero contar a todos o que temos feito nos ultimos dias! Pra quem eh meu amigo no facebook e acompanha as fotos pode jah ter uma ideia! Mas quero contar com mais detalhes! Mas tambem quero deixar o post curto, se eh que consigo fazer isso!

Entao nas ultimas semanas estivemos ocupados em arrumar "playdates" pra Rebecca! Sim, a traducao eh companheiro de brincadeira! A Rebecca adora criancas, bebes e gente em geral, e sendo filha unica, por enquanto, dah muita doh ver ela sozinha! Entao conseguimos marcar tres playdates diferentes! O primeiro deles foi com um bebe dois meses mais novo que a Rebecca! Deu certo, ate! Mas a Rebecca adora ficar subindo em cima das pessoas entao tava meio perigoso deixar ela ficar tao perto do bebe que nem engatinha ainda! E tbm teve aquela parte da choradeira inicial - A Rebecca comecou a chorar porque a voz do pai do bebe eh muito grossa e ela assustou - apesar q ele eh super bonzinho - haha, dai o bebezinho comecou a chorar junto! hahaha! Faz parte!

O segundo playdate foi com uma menininha de quase dois anos e outra de nove, eu acho! E esse deu super certo! Eu chamei as meninas junto com as maes para brincar aqui em casa e tomar um lanche! Alem disso cada uma delas trouxe uma comida pra dividir! Entao tivemos pipoca (e meu molho especial, q todas adoraram), brownie com nozes, cookies, um doce de arroz japones que esqueci o nome agora e suco de morango natural! Foi uma comilanca! A Rebecca ficou sentada no cadeirao comendo puffs - snack pra bebe!

E na hora da brincadeira foi muito divertido e todo mundo pareceu ter um otimo divertimento! A Rebecca dava gritinhos (altos) de felicidade!! Foram quase duas horas e meias de playdate e na hora de ir embora, a menininha de dois anos nao queria sair do apartamento, hahaha!! Eu fiquei realizada!!!

O terceiro playdate foi mais espontaneo mas nao menos divertido!! A Rebecca e esse amiguinho de um ano e meio brincam muito bem juntos!! Eles jah se conhecem da missa! Os dois sao super felizes e gostam de uma boa brincadeira e agitacao!!  Teve uma hora que os dois estavam bem pertinhos brincando e minha amiga foi tirar uma foto dos bebes e dai o menininho dela na hora q viu que ia tirar foto jogou o braco em volta da Rebecca, abracando-a, e fez pose!!! hahahaha E ainda por cima ele nao queria mais largar depois!!! Tambem fiquei realizada!!

Alem disso, estamos tentando levar a Rebecca em todas as atividades para criancas que conseguimos encontrar, como no sabado passado que teve show para criancas na biblioteca municipal daqui! Sobre outros compromissos, nesse proximo domingo iremos em um batizado e depois a Rebecca tem uma festinha no parque aquatico da cidade!! Vai ser muito bom!!

Agora sobre outros assuntos! Minha amiga de faculdade esta numa viagem de negocios e por isso veio para Houston! Entao fomos ate lah para passear um pouco com ela!! Almocamos em um restaurante de frutos do mar (com direito a lagosta, caranguejo, ostras e camarao!) Calma, aqui nao eh tao caro assim!! Foi gostoso mas faz muita sujeira, alem de ser bem dificil tirar a carne do caranguejo e da lagosta!!! Ate virei gente de novo depois que limpei minhas maos com o paninho umedecido que eles te entregam junto com o prato!! Ah eles tbm dao babador, q eu usei eh claro!! Perdi minha vergonnha faz um bom tempo atras!

Dai passeamos um pouco lah perto do restaurante que tem vista pra baia. O lugar era bem legal, mas afastado uns 40 min de Houston e como em todo os EUA, estava muitooo quente! Dae levamos a minha amiga pra fazer umas comprinhas, mas o plano saiu meio falido porque era domingo!! Tambem tiramos foto na parede de agua em Houston, passamos no hotel dela pra dar uma folguinha pra Rebequinha que precisava engatinhar um pouco e fomos jantar no Chilis, que eh sempre uma boa pedida! E depois voltamos pra casa!

Tambem estamos nos preparativos para a festa de um ano da Rebecca! Faremos no parque aquatico tambem! A gente queria fazer no salao de festas do condominio que eh super legal, super mobiliado, super acondicionado (rs), mas as regras para alugar o salao acabaram de mudar e como nao temos seguro de casa (na verdade eh um seguro pra quem aluga um imovel), nao podemos mais alugar o salao! Pena, fariamos feijoada e strogonoff e eu jah estava planejando uma super decoracao com um espaco para os bebes brincarem!! Mas o parque aquatico era nossa segunda opcao e tbm deve ser legal! Diferente, mas legal! O triste eh que nao pode trazer comida, apenas bolo!

Nesse ultimo mes tambem oferecemos jantar para alguns amigos em tres ocasioes diferentes!! Eu sempre gostei de chamar as pessoas para comerem em casa (aprendi dos meus pais) e agora o D tbm gosta e ate fica animado!!!

Bem, jah vi que esse post nao ficou muito curto, mas tudo bem! Agora soh falta falar que pretendo dar uma pausa nas postagens pois preciso ao menos COMECAR uma coisa que minha mae me pediu que eu fizesse faz tempo! Entao enquanto eu nao mexer nisso nao irei mais postar aqui!! Quem sabe isso me anima a comecar mais rapido??

Um beijo a todos e me mandem email contando as suas novidades!!!

Gabi, D e Rebecca!!

Ah, Summer!!

For those who know me very well they can tell I never liked summer so much. I always was "team winter"! About that usual question of silly quizzes: "Beach or Mountain", I'd always chosen "Mountain" and immediately came to my mind good memories of family vacations in Pocos de Caldas, Ouro Preto, Curitiba and Campos do Jordao! (Cities in Brazil that are famous winter getaways). My dream was to see and touch snow!!

Yeah... but I've changed sides! Maybe because here in the US I have experienced really low temperatures during winter. People from north, please don't laugh at me, I know the texan winter is not very cold compared to yours. And I know we have terribly hot summers here!! 100F-106F are usual highs for summer during a hundred days straight, every year! But in here we can also have low temperatures!! No, it doesn't snow! I mean, it snows! Once a year, maybe twice, and sometimes not every year! This pattern is for my city because there are some cities in Texas - more at north - and they have heavier winters and snow more frequently! But even in here we have freezing temperatures almost daily for 45 days straight.

Anyway, it is cold so you have to turn you heater on everyday on winter! It is cold so you don't fell like leaving the house for anything or you are just not able to take your child out to play! If at least there was snow to play on, but there is none! It's so cold to me that I can not walk in socks on the carpet floor, I must wear slippers too! Finally, It's so cold it makes you forget the summer and the 104F temperature and makes you cry for it missing it! And it's so cold to the point that I now despise the winter in my country - like the foreigners do - and I think it's funny when I hear people saying that they are dying of cold in Brazil, hahaha! I even laughed to myself now!

And that's why I changed sides! I prefer summer now! Moreover, the fact that we live farther from the beach than we did in Brazil makes me want to spend our vacations at the seaside! I miss the beach like we have been best friends forever! It's obvious that we would feel better if we didn't have to face the heat of 104F that can also lock you out into your AC cold home! But the truth must be told and I am enjoying summer this year here in Texas! No, there was no drop in temperature, but I've learned how to use it well! I can even walk around at 9am with Rebecca on her stroller and the temperature is very pleasant! Hot, but nice! And we also found out that the splash pads are the best thing ever invented in Texas! It's a delight to get wet and cool down while playing! You don't feel the cold from being wet nor the heat from the sun just on top of your head - oddly as it sounds like! In here the sun seems to have its peek around 2pm - weird! And later on, around 5-6pm when the sun is lower we can go to the swimming pool! And the best thing in the texan summer is the water temperature of lakes and pools! It's soooo nice! Not cold and not too warm! It's just the right temperature! You know that water that you can feel refreshed but you can jump straight into without having to get used to it before? It's perfect like this! And finally, here it gets dark only around 8:30 pm so we can enjoy outdoors until late and when the sun is not so strong!


And that's it! I don't know if I could show off all my recent love for summer, but believe me that I'm a fan of it now!

 At the Splash Pads!

Ah, o verao!

Pra quem me conhece bastante sabe que eu nunca fui de curtir o verao! Sempre estive do lado daqueles que preferem o inverno! A respeito daquela tipica perguntinha de quiz barato: "Praia ou montanha?", sempre respondi "Montanha" e imediatamente me vinham boas memorias de ferias em familia em Pocos de Caldas, Ouro Preto, Curitiba e Campos do Jordao. Meu sonho era conhecer a neve!!

Pois eh! Mas mudei de lado! Talvez porque aqui nos EUA eu tenha experienciado na pele o que eh um inverno de verdade. "O que? Mas voce nao mora no Texas??" Eh bem verdade!! Aqui faz muitoooo calor!! 38-42C eh a temperatura padrao por mais de 100 dias seguidos todo ano no verao! Mas aqui tambem faz muito frio no inverno! Nao, nao neva. Quer dizer, neva! Neva um dia por ano, e as vezes nem todo ano! Isso na minha cidade, pois tem cidades mais ao norte que sao bem mais frias e que tem neve mais frequentemente. Mas, mesmo assim, aqui faz muito frio! Temperaturas abaixo de zero sao recorrentes quase diariamente por uns 45 dias.

Enfim, eh frio de voce ser obrigado a ligar o aquecedor mesmo e todo dia! Eh frio de voce nao ter vontade de sair de casa pra nada ou de nao poder levar a sua crianca pra fora pra brincar! Se ainda tivesse neve pra brincar, mas nao tem! Eh frio de voce nao poder andar de meias no chao de carpete, tem que usar pantufa tbm! Enfim, eh tao frio que te faz esquecer dos 40C do verao e te faz chorar por ele com saudades!! E eh tao frio ao ponto de que agora eu q menosprezo o inverno paulista como os gringos e acho graca quando ouco gente falando que tah morrendo de frio no BR, hahaha! Ate dei risada sozinha aqui!

E eh por isso que mudei de lado! Prefiro o verao! Alem disso, o fato de morarmos mais longe da praia do que no Brasil me faz ter vontade de passar ferias no litoral! Sinto saudades da praia como se tivessemos sido melhores amigas forever! Eh claro que iria achar melhor se nao precisasse enfrentar calor de quarenta graus que tbm te afungenta pra dentro da sua casa gelada de ar condicionado! Mas a verdade seja dita, e eu estou adorando o verao desse ano aqui no Texas! Nao, nao houve queda nas temperaturas, mas eu aprendi a como as utilizar bem!!

Ainda as 9am eu consigo passear com a Rebecca no carrinho e a temperatura eh muito agradavel!! Quente, mas agradavel! Descobrimos tbm que os splash pads sao a melhor coisa que jah se inventou no Texas!! Eh uma delicia se molhar e se refrescar brincando! Voce nao passa frio e nao passa calor e nem sente o sol na cabeca por incrivel que pareca! Isso porque jah fomos nos splash pads as 2pm (horario que o sol entra em pico! Serio, aqui nao eh ao meio dia!!!) e tbm mais tarde as 5-6pm que o sol jah esta mais baixo! E a melhor coisa do verao texano eh a temperatura da agua dos lagos e piscinas! Eh mtooo boa!! Nao eh gelada e nem quentona! Eh no ponto certo!!! Sabe aquela agua que te resfresca mas que voce consegue ate pular direto sem precisar se acostumar? Eh gostosa assim!! Alem disso tudo, aqui soh fica escuro por volta das 8:30pm entao a gente consegue aproveitar lah fora ate bem tarde e quando o sol jah nao esta tao forte!!

E eh isso! Nao sei se consegui transparecer todo o meu recente amor pelo verao, mas acreditem que agora sou fa!

Nos Splash Pads!

"Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" - english

So, I changed the letter font of the blog because my previous one had a exclamation point which was very weird and easily confused by the letter "l". So I wanted a letter that was still very personal but not too pretty, because my handwriting is not so neat too. So I hadn't many choices and I ended up choosing this one!

Well, let's go the post itself! The title of this post, actually, is the name of one of Blake Shelton's songs. The song talks about how the women look all pretty publicly but the singer wonders who are they when they are alone, or what they do while no one is looking! Well, I thought this was kinda interesting and made me think about a couple of things. I won't be reveling all the stuff I intentionally hide from everyone, but the song gave me the idea of writing a post about my routine at home, alone with little Rebecca!

So, since I got married and came to the USA, people in here usually ask me: "And what do you do during the days, since you have no job?". Well, I always answered them talking a little about my routine, and obviously it wasn't so busy as one's who have to work, but it wasn't so empty as they might have thought it would be! Of course now I have a complete different routine since I had my baby, so it only makes sense to write about my actual routine! Actually this is kinda of a complicate subject to me because I'm not totally satisfied with my performance! But I will write the routine the way it should always be, even though sometimes I slip out of it a little!

Ok, so my week is divided into three routines! One is for the mondays, wed and fridays! The second is for the Tuesdays and Thursdays and the third and last one for the weekends! The difference is the time I attend Mass during these days! On the routine number one, the Mass is at 8:30am and on the routine two, the Mass time is at 5:30pm.

So our day here at home starts pretty early at some time between 6am and 7:30am, but the most frequent time is around 6:45am when Rebecca's biological alarm rings! So I wake up, take Rebecca to our bed and I breastfeed her while daddy is still trying to wake up rolling into the sheets. Ten minutes later Rebecca is extremely happy and excited and crazy for playing with Daddy!! Meanwhile, us three offer the day to God with our usual prayer! Then daddy changes Rebecca's diapers! Ok, so everybody is up, with clean faces, etc, so all of us go to the living room!  

We let Rebecca playing with her toys while we prepare the breakfast! Usually I prepare everything but sometimes D gets to the Kitchen before me and starts doing something! Lately we've been eating a bread which we both like very much - btw, I make the best oven toasts from them, thinly sliced!! - heated on the toaster with my delicious "butter" and some deli, usually hard salami! We have brazilian coffee - only brazilian here - or tea, or almond milk with cereal! D drinks a "bio salud" every morning! But sometimes I only eat my toasts with "butter" because I like it very much and coffee because both go pretty well together!!

Sometimes we put Rebecca on her high chair and put some cartoons for her to watch. She loves "Dora, the explorer" the most, but she also likes Barney and Blue's Clues! We play them on Netflix and then we connect the laptop on our tv so she can watch it in the big screen! While she is there we can have our breakfast peacefully! Well, on routine number one, D goes to the gym (on our building) and I wash the dishes and then give rice cereal to Rebecca! After this I take Rebecca to Mass with me, so no one can pay attention to the Mass! lol (just kidding, this is not my intention at all!!!) So when D is back he can have a quality time alone! When we get home from Mass, D is already waiting for us outside our apt because he needs to rush to get to this job on time, at 9:15am.

Then Rebecca is practically feeling sleepy so usually I wait a little bit, nurse her again and put her on her crib! Sometimes she sleeps on my breast and sometimes she sleeps alone on her crib after nursing. Usually she doesn't complain to be left on her crib when she is not sleeping yet! But sometimes she cries a little and then she sleeps! Usually she naps for 1h30-2h. While she sleeps I play the rosary on my ipod and I pray it while I'm cleaning something up! After this I meditate a little, go to the internet, prepare something for lunch, assemble the bed, etc! Sometimes I need to prepare - cook - Rebecca's food. Other days I need to do the laundry, or iron clothes, or vacuum the house, or clean the bathroom, the porch, etc.

Then Rebecca wakes from her nap and it's already time for her to have lunch! So I put her on the high chair and I give her homemade baby food! Then I try to make her drink some water which is always complicated since she doesn't know how to take bottles nor sip cups but i want to believe she's getting better at it! Then D gets home for lunch and we let Rebecca watching her cartoons on her high chair while we're eating. After lunch we play a little with her and then D goes back to his work. After that I usually supervise Rebecca while I'm cleaning the kitchen until she is felling sleepy again and it's time for her afternoon nap. So I nurse her and she sleeps! Usually she naps two hours more or less like she does in the mornings. And while she is napping that my ruin comes! I usually end up wasting this time at the computer - say fb - while I could do much more like read some of the thousands books I intend to read someday, or I could play the keyboard that D gently bought me last year, or I could draw or paint as I enjoy doing this, but no! Ok, sometimes I use this free time to bake something or to write on my blog. Buut, I'm working on this and I hope I'll use this time in a more useful way in the near future!

Well, then Rebecca is up again and I'm missing her to death. She always wakes up super smiling and super happy and excited!!! Then I feed her again and we play a little together! Then I give her some banana puffs snacks but i have to keep my eye on her bc sometimes she chokes =/. and I try to give her more water.... it's a battle... Then we kinda do this until Dad gets home from work! Some of these days we were going to the pool with daddy and she looooves the pool!! She has SO much energy!!! lol We play and swim for half hour and then return to our apt which is so close to the pool so it's wonderful and very little messy!! Well, we give her a bath - sometimes it's my and other times it's D's turn - while the other prepares her dinner - another batch of baby food! The one who prepared the food gives dinner to her while the other takes a shower.

Well, then we just wait for her bed time and usually she is very calm after her bath and dinner! So when it's time, I nurse her again and she sleeps or goes to bed without complaining!! We prepare our dinner - usually it's my duty - and then we eat! After dinner, I wash the dishes while D plays video games! After that we both watch something together! Right now we are watching "7th heaven" episodes and we just started watching "full house" episodes too! Wow, "full house" it's more embarrassing that I would have remembered but it's still cool!! Sometimes we don't watch anything and we read something on bed for 10 minutes! But I would like to make this reading a routine!! And we usually end up sleeping at 10:30-11pm.

Ok, this post is already big enough and I didn't say anything about the other routines! So now I will be really short! Well, on the routine number two, since I go to church at 5:30pm we don't have time to go to the pool but instead we have more free time during the am so I usually put Rebecca on her smaller stroller and we go for a walk at our building's streets. She loves it!! And while we are having a stroll I pray the rosary! And the other thing which is different is that I keep the car after lunch - so we drive dad to work - so I can go to mass and after mass we pick him up! And since I have the car I usually end up doing some groceries shopping with Rebecca! Usually we do this once a week but sometimes we need to go twice!

And now about the weekends the thing is that we don't have a planned routine! We try to set up a schedule for the day shortly after we wake up. We usually go out with Rebecca at some place and cook nicer meals! We go to the pool or splash pads, watch some movies or even go out of town! On Sundays we go to Mass together at 8:15am, the best time ever since it doesn't mess with Rebecca's schedule and she is peaceful. Besides this we try to speak with our families every weekend through skype!

And that's it!!