Bye-bye 2013, Hello 2014

This is my year in review blog post.I would like to have written it a month ago while sending out Christmas cards but the end of last year was kinda crazy to us! Needless to say, I didn't even send out any Christmas cards but got some in reply (?) which made me incredibly ashamed and somehow propelled me to write this ASAP. Also, the fact that it's already 2014 for three days has something to do with it!

And there were so many things I would like to write in this blog, but time is getting short by the second. Literally.

But I would love if you guys would remind me to write about my 2014 resolutions, a spiritual post about asking God's grace and a post with my favorite Mary songs. If I feel like I owe something to someone I tend to be more effective.

But here we go, to my 2013 year recap.

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We kicked off 2013 with a third trimester pregnant Gabby on our new house! In february things started to get crazy as half the world visited us! I joke, but we really had a lot of family coming over and staying with us for some time! It felt great to be able to host people as it was the first time we had a spare bedroom and a comfortable home to share it.

In March, 10th, our little dude Nico arrived! He was a good boy as he waited to be born on a Sunday, after mass and only one and half day before my parents arrive. They got to see Nico when I was still on the hospital. Everything was smooth, thanks be to God. Except that he had shown to be clingy and not a very good night sleeper since the beginning! But there is still room to be grateful as, incredibly, I'm managing it and not lying dead on the floor. Usually.

In April, my in laws came and Nico was baptized. Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, Rebecca was still not talking, not potty trained and not doing a LOT things I wished she was. On the bright side, she also managed really well the arrival of her little brother! Sure, "there will be" jealousy, sometimes, but the fact is that I was expecting much, much worse. She is a good girl!

Only in May all the visitors were gone and we could taste what really meant to have two kids and no family around us! Right now, looking back, I don't feel like it was too bad! Although I can't help but remember how Dan got sleep deprived. The guy needs to chillax! Are you reading it, honey? Don't worry so much! The kids will survive and they will do just fine. And you need some good nights of sleep!

But I'm not complaining about Dan, don't get me wrong! The "complaints" come from over complimenting him. He is such a selfless guy and worried about the minimal details regarding our babies that more than a few times he over did himself! I wrote a little about it on the "father's day" post.

After this point, I don't actually have a month to month recap. But a developmental one! Two actually. One regarding Nico's achievements and the other about Rebecca's. And then some random picked facts put it together. Let's get to it!

Nico, by the end of 2013, cute as it can be had 6 teeth. He started solids at 4 months and just recently we realized that he probably cried of hungry for five months. Don't worry, he was fine, but would had liked a little more food shoved down, that's for sure, now we know. He never liked tummy time and it was during these moments that he clearly showed the size of his big mouth and powerful voice. He also dislikes being left alone and on the other hand, becomes incredibly satisfied while being carried. Mommy cooked a lot of dinners with Nico on the side! This time I don't mean it literally, chillax! He also smiled a lot, and melted our hearts more than I could count! Daddy could tell you that too! Nico floods him with kisses. Just daddy....... but I'm fine, I'm fine! Actually, I love that Nico loves his daddy so much and vice versa! A recipe for success, I'll tell you! And finally, the big milestone came two days ago, so only in 2014, but he started moving. I wouldn't say crawling... what he is doing it's too weird and funny to be called crawling. But never mind that, cuz he is on the go, yay!

Rebecca was a warrior last year! Actually, 2013 was Rebecca's year. Well, Nico's too since he was born, BUT.... Rebecca was awesome you guys! She became an awesome big sister, she started using fork and spoon really well, she conquered and mastered potty training (she is GREAT at it), she loves to learn and read new books with mommy, she shows great potential (speaking of her intelligence), turned three years old at the end of August, started MDO a few days after, she loves school, she's great at making friends, she is joyful and playful, she went to her first Halloween party, she got sick more times that I would have liked, she got better, AND SHE IS TALKING!!! What a year!!! Whatta girl!!

This year we went a few times (three, to be exact) to the beach for the great pleasure of our Rebecca old time beach lover and our brand new beach lover, Nico! We went a lot of times to Menchies for frozen dairy-free yogurt and a lot of times to the library! All of us benefited from the local library and I'm happy and proud of it! Gabby reread all seven HP books in english and fell in love with magic all over again! 

We bought a lot of things for our house like paintings and a big cross for the walls, a six seats dinner table, some small appliances and things for the kitchen, some gym equipments for Dan, a new bike and, naturally, an extra queen bed for the guest room and necessary things for Nico. We are grateful to God for all of this. I'm still missing some curtains and a rug for the living room! Let's see what can be done this year!

Spiritually, we continued to attend catholic formation ministered by the Opus Dei and Dan and I attended the Couple's Prayer Series at our parish! The kids and I (most times Nico and mommy because Rebecca was at MDO) also attended Kids adoration hour almost every Tuesday and that's probably one of the biggest blessings of this year! 

Emotionally, I feel very much in love with my husband like I've never been since we got married! I'm very happy! =) I'm sure this will continue to the next years with God's help and our own efforts!

We started to drink wine regularly. Our neighborhood - our house included - started recycling. Dan got a merit based raise on his pay check and family came to visit one last time on December! We got to spend Christmas together in a vacation house in Orlando and I got see the Harry Potter theme park and drink butter beer and pumpkin juice! We spent new years in our house in Texas and they left without us yesterday morning to more adventures!

And lastly, a sad happening. My mom's best friend from college, my sister's godparents, lost his sweet and talented 25 years old son on a car crash on Dec, 26th. I cannot explain in so little words how this affected us! We weren't so close, specially because they moved to the US about 15 years ago, and before that we lived in different cities in Brazil. But they kept visiting us every year, we had each others on facebook and their three sons were the sweetest guys one can ever met! I truly feel like I missed a brother, although I'm sure I cannot even imagine their pain. I'll be praying for his soul and comfort for his family for all my life!

Be safe everyone! Love God and your neighbor. Life is too precious and the pain of those who stay is enormous and life after death lasts forever!

Peace to all and a truly blessed new year is what I wish for everyone.

I finish this post with a Christmas song:

 "Let there be peace on Earth"

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step i take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.

Cotton Candy

Blogging surely has a funny effect on me and on my family, or so it seems! I write something on it and then quite the opposite takes place in the near future! I wrote that Nico had zero teeth and less then a week after that he has three teeth popping out! I tell you he only eats avocado and bananas and then he started enjoying pumpkin, carrots and even my homemade baby food! (Thank God!). And I also said that nothing exciting was going on, well, Nico just started clapping his hands!!! It's so cute!!! We all have so much fun watching it and cheering him on! I think it's time I take it to my own advantage and let written in here that Nico - isn't - crawling - yet. DO YOU HEAR IT, BLOG??? ;)

And finally, I say I'll write a new post on the following day from my last post and more than two weeks have passed and you haven't heard from me ever since! I also said I was more organized, so you can figure that this blog's plot against me took action again and my house was messy for a good while (up until we had friends coming over last Saturday night and I HAD to clean the house! Dan helped me A LOT, God bless the man!).

I also stopped making my gryffindor scarf....... And I haven't ironed a single piece of clothe since the last post! Well, but I continued reading HP books and I actually just finished book number five this morning! But I guess I don't get bonus points for this, huh? Nope, I didn't think so!

I also started playing Candy Crush again, but I'm doing it responsibly! At least for now!

My last two weeks had some good things going on too but all the good things I was bragging about on the last post went downhill after I spilled them in here! I know failure is only natural and expected, I myself being human and all, you know! To always restart has to be the most important ability for me to acquire and to never give up hope! So here we are, on restarting mode!

But I was about to tell y'all about "the cherry on top" I mentioned on my last post! But let's change it, because I actually hate those pretend cherries on top of ice cream sundays or cakes. They taste horrible! They taste horrible but look beautiful! Deceitful little nasty things that trick young kids into your awful flavor!

Anyways, let's call it Cotton Candy, then! Not that it's my favorite sweet, but I surely enjoy it sometimes! We even got REBECCA a cotton candy machine as one of her birthday presents, hehe! Yeah, sure! Well, she does enjoy cotton candy, mind you, although she keeps calling it "ice cream"...

But without further ado, let me get to what really matters cause I'm already kinda late for lunch.

The cherry on top The Cotton Candy of my new resolution, that I was about to reveal to you, is:

Wait, I've almost forgotten! I meant to put a disclaimer on this post! So here it goes: if you are not religious, or get annoyed by religious subjects, you may stop your reading here, if you want! I do not wish to make it through you without your fully consent, knowledge or will. So you've been warned, I won't get offended if you wish to stop here and neither you will be offended/annoyed in some degree by what I write in this post! And, sure, if you would like to read the whole post, go ahead, you are always welcomed to do so!

As I was saying, the best part for me, when I decided to have a change in how I was running my house and dealing with my schedule, it's that I committed myself to go to confession every week!

Okay, pause! I cannot postpone lunch for the kiddos anymore. I will have to stop here for a while!

Just came back! Kids and mommy had lunch then we had some fun watching leap frog on Netflix and playing with balloons and now both kids are napping! So back to blogging.

I was writing about my new resolution! You could say that is an old new resolution! Because when I was still single and living with my parents and siblings I used to go to the Opus Dei center every week and I used to go to confession weekly! Then I got married and Dan and I are living in the US, ever since! I tried at the beginning to go to confession twice a month and although our former parish priests didn't say the words exactly, I had the feeling they thought it was a little weird for me to be confessing that often!

And I know what you might be thinking: "well, it is kinda too much indeed." And I used to think the same way, believe me! I used to go to confession weekly because some people offered me this advice, but it wasn't actually of my own consideration at the time. And I know what else you might be thinking: "but what so much do you have to confess?". I believe people are not much instructed in this matter anymore so this is, actually, a common thought for many people! They think: "I'm a good person, I didn't kill anybody, I don't steal, I don't cheat on my boyfriend/girlfriend and I don't do drugs. What is to confess?". And I don't deny you one thing: you probably are not a bad person indeed! But what people fail to acknowledge is that everybody commits multiple sins everyday, even if you are a very holy person. Probably not all of them are that much serious, but they are sins, regardless.

The catholic theology of sin, if I can call it this way, it's much more complex and it's not my intention to explain it here! But I will give you some examples of not so serious sins that probably everyone commits every once in a while! Well, there is the sin against patience! And when I lack patience with my neighbor I also lack charity. There is the sin of being selfish. Selfish with my time, my money, my abilities. There is the sin against purity, chastity (although these ones are usually always serious sins, the theory says) There is the sin of laziness, the sin against temperance (self restraint). There is the sin of gossip, bullying, etc! In a big compendium, every action, thought and words that hurts in some degree your relation with God, your relations with your neighbor and your relation with yourself, it's bad, it is a sin! It can be a mortal, serious sin or it can be a venial, light sin.

When I say I used to think that it was kinda too much to go to confession every week I mean that this was what it felt like sometimes! But I would have to add that not doing it correctly was one of the reasons why! If you don't prepare yourself properly for confession, it can easily become banal, and fruitless. By preparing yourself, it's common practice that this means to pray at least for awhile trying to rethink your conduct since your last confession. BUT, many people would also add to make a daily bedtime examination of conscience. And by my own experience I say that this is so very true! Every time I kept a written record of my daily examination of conscience at the end of the day, my confession is better. The contrary is also true!

And I will tell you what made me feel that actually what Opus Dei, in my case, taught me, about going to confession frequently - as in once a week - and doing my examination of conscience is actually the best thing ever you as a catholic can do for yourself and your family, it was, of course, when I was forced to suffer from not doing it!

Since I moved to US, as I was saying, that wasn't possible anymore. And even when I've tried to got to confession at my parish, it didn't feel the same, because I was so much spoiled and used to getting practical advice and spiritual direction from an Opus Dei priest who already knew my soul. So my spiritual life went a bit downhill. And I've learned the hard way that it was so much harder to get rid of old bad habits when you don't confess so frequently and don't have spiritual direction. And I started to miss the old days!

Fortunately, we moved to a place where there are a lot of Opus Dei activities going on! But only after a year living here, it hit me: "I should start going to confession every week! I know there is a chapel where Opus Dei priests attend confessions all day long and there is barely no one in line!" What a blessing, I know!

And I have been to confession every week since then! It's been the third week in a row, now! I can't say it's been perfect, but I'm on my way to improve things (if the "blogging special turnover feature" doesn't get on my way!) ;)

And what's best, I could choose a day when Rebecca goes to MDO (school), so I only have to take care of Nico AND now every Thursday Dan, Nico and I have lunch (a picnic) together after I go to confession and before I get back home! Isn't it truly lovely??? Nico has such a blast seeing daddy in the middle of the weekday, for a change and I try to pack a yummy picnic and it is also a good change from hot meals everyday, lunch and dinner. And Dan and I almost feel like we are on a date!! (Nico is such a sweetie and doesn't bother us at all). =)

So that's my cherry on top cotton candy!

xoxo

"Second post of the week!" or "I have the most inventive post titles!"

Aren't you surprised with my creativity on naming my posts? I am! How can I lack so much of it? But anyways...
________

Wow! One post yesterday and another one today? That's crazy! I think so too! I don't know what has got into me!

Actually I do! I'm not that crazy and my actions do have an explanation - most of the times! The thing is that I really wanted to write about today's post (actually, tomorrow's post because this one turned out long enough already. Typical.) But in order to do so, I felt obligated to finish my kid's anniversary post that already was incredibly late.

Other reason (why do I always feel I need to explain why I'm writing on MY blog? Get a grip, girl!) is that I'm considerably more organized on these last few weeks! And it all started with Harry Potter!

Okay, so now I'm crazy!

Jk, I'm not crazy, I told you already (why do I feel like saying "I'm not crazy" all the time? Maybe I'm a little crazy! Actually, I know that I am! But so are you, in case you don't know!).

But yes! If you follow me on facebook, and chances are that you do follow me if you are reading my blog, you'll know that I am rereading all Harry Potter books! I'm currently reading book number four! And it's been awesome, just like it was on my teenage years! Is it absurdly nerd of me to say that the times when I was first reading the books were probably the highlight of my adolescence? I guess not, the books are really really great, everybody will agree with it! Right??

Mind you that I'm a very self conscious person. An egocentric you might say! And I have a high mental activity. I have a good memory, I tend to analyze every single detail of anything, I over think, I over judge and my imagination tends to run wild, except when I need it, of course!

So as I was reading the books I kept thinking what others might think of me! I imagined things like: "gosh, she must have been neglecting all her duties", "doesn't she have kids to take care of?", "Stay at home mom, must be THE DREAM job". And things like that. Well, mostly, because at certain point I've thought about it myself.

Well, sure, what the heck I think I'm doing with my free time reading the books while a have a house to clean, two kids to take care of, meals to cook, errands to run, etc? And I confess that at the beginning I didn't think I would be able to finish any of the books. But then, the unexpected happened, and I finished book number 1, then book number 2 and book number 3. And sure, some things were neglected! Not the driving (Dan continued to go to work, I continued to go to daily mass, Rebecca continued to go to MDO and I surely continued my grocery shopping). Neither the cooking was neglected (or we would be starving/dead right now, or we'd be really poor because of all the take out meals I would have had to buy. Well, our budget it's a little tight right now but it's not because we've been eating out...), and - finally - I didn't neglect the kids either.

The kids have been sleeping at the same time and our schedule has been easy on me! So I basically read when the kids are napping in the afternoon. That's about 2 hours of reading! And sometimes I would read at night (I actually finished book number 2 past 1am! I couldn't stop until I've finished it!) And there are also the weekends. Dan usually cooks on the weekends and helps me with the kids so I usually have more free time. I love my husband, I know he's the best! And I certainly love his cooking! You know the old saying, "you conquer a woman by the stomach". Or something like that! =)

What proceed it was the following: as if reading the whole book series was not bold enough for me, I decided to knit my own gryffindor scarf! Actually, I'm making four scarves, for the whole family! And being precise, I'm not really knitting because I'm not using needles (how can anyone mange to maneuver those things?) but a loom circle (it's so easy, it's actually ridiculous!) and three tutorial youtube videos. Blessed youtube, when you need it for noble reasons!

And the unexpected happened AGAIN!! So I'm not neglecting all my SAHM (stay at home mom) duties, I'm reading the books, and I'm knitting  making scarves (and it's getting really pretty!!).

So at this point I started to rethink what I was doing before all of this took place in my life. What was I doing with my time? Because I surely couldn't imagine me having the time for all of that! And reality and reason started to come together in my mind and I once again concluded: I was losing all my time! And this turn it wasn't because of Candy Crush Saga (I stopped playing it again, although I confess I did try it for 5 minutes a couple days ago).

But I was losing my time with my old pal enemy, "Mr. Facebook" or "Mr. Miscellaneous of the Internet" (aka, blogs, articles, pinterest, instagram etc). And what a waste! Gosh, It's been so awesome to read HP and to knit make gryffindor scarves, much more than I was enjoying doing nothing in front of the screen.

And on top of that, guess what? I even started to clean, as in "deep clean", my house and even iron the clothes!!! All because I felt empowered and started to think I actually could do EVERYTHING! Now my house is cleaner and more organized than it has been for ages! And finally, I even found the time to write on my blog again!

I'm finishing this post right here, but there is more to it. It's the cherry on top, actually! Maybe tomorrow I'll write about it!

xoxo
gossip girl Gabi

Can you tell I only found out about the strikethtough feature recently? I LOVE it! hehe

3 years and 6 months - Actually, it's 38 and 8 months!

Ok, so this post is exactly two months late! But like the old saying, "better late than never"! That's more my style! So here it is!
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I've heard more than once that when you have more than one child, they start sharing nearly everything. For example, think about pictures! We have tons of pictures of Rebecca. Rebecca alone, Rebecca with Dan, Rebecca with me, Rebecca with both of us, Rebecca taking a bath, eating, sleeping, playing on the playground, etc! We basically have a picture (or usually multiple pics) of Rebecca doing anything. Now about Nico, I still try to take pics of him doing everything, but - it's only natural - we don't take as many pictures as we did with Rebecca! And it's more difficult to take pictures of him by himself or with just the two of us, his parents! We end up taking pics of Nico, plus Rebecca, at the same pic! Gotcha what I mean?

And I've just realized that I wrote the word "pictures" (or "pics") nine times! Eleven, if you count the last two in this line!

I know that some of you just read the paragraph again to count and confirm the number. =)

I'm sorry, But I do not have enough english to make it fancy or to play with the grammar in order to avoid repeated words! Bear with me!

Well, all of this to explain why I called this post: "3 years and 6 months". Because this is a post about Rebecca turning 3 years and Nico turning 6 months old! In the old days I would write one post each, but I'm just too busy or tired nowadays! BUT I'm very happy, in case you are wondering! =)

So baby Rebecca is 3 years old (actually, 3 years AND 2 months old)!!! I remember last year when I wrote her a post for her second birthday! And I will be plain honest with you guys! That time last year, it wasn't very easy for me to be all lovely and write nice things about her! I know, this is shocking! But the thing is, she was right in the middle of that well known phase brilliantly called "the terrible twos". Man, it was NOT easy!!!!! When I say she was in the middle of it, it's because she decided to enter the "terrible twos" at 18 months! Please, feel sorry for me!

BUT, that phase is now basically gone! Thank Goodness! But don't get me wrong. She still throws a lot of tantrums and can be really hard to manage sometimes, but now I know she understands us better, thus we dialogue more and fight less!

And besides, she has accomplished SO much in the last months that instead of thinking only about the hard time she gives me, I'm mostly so proud of her! Everyday when Dan gets home and I'm telling him about our day at home, I have something to say like this:  "and you won't believe what our smart girl did today".

And she IS smart! My goodness! Dan and I are starting to wonder if she might be a genius! And this is not just us parents (or the rest of the family) talking! Every single person who has the opportunity to spend some time with her says the same things to us! I'm not going to lie, this is sweet music to my ears and maybe I care more about it than I should. Actually, I know I do.

And she just started MDO, that's somehow like going to school, twice a week! And she LOVES it!!! And she is doing so well at MDO! She never cries when we leave her there and we love her independent personality! Actually, the teachers just confirmed me that she is the only one that actually cries to leave the school! Every-single-time.

And talk about independence and strong character! She is full of emotions and she's pretty sure of what she likes and what she doesn't! And she will let you know all about it! =)

She is also getting a lot better at talking. Now she can repeat practically anything we say, in both languages, but she will speak - by her own - mainly english. She knows lots and lots of words. Combine two words often and can say some of three words sentences. I know that if you compare to most 3 years old, that is still little (talking-wise), but the norm for your child to be considered "normal" (talking-wise) is actually that a 2 years old should be able to speak 2 words sentences, as few as they might be, and three years old should be able to speak 3 words sentences, it doesn't actually matter how many sentences.

But like I said, she improved so much in a matter of few moths, that I'm in that stage that I get proud every time she says something new, instead of thinking how much more other toddlers can speak! And this my new posture is great!

She also learned how to use the potty in June this year, and it was also a matter of great proud for us!!! She was fully potty trained, day and night, in a very short time and has had very little accidents! The fact that she has a good bladder control helps a lot. She is usually more comfortable at home (who isn't?) but she can use the big potty anywhere, which also makes our life much easier when we are on the go.

And as for the rest, she is very friendly, energetic, and, well, cute! A true joy, even considering the tantrums and problems we have with her!

And Nico will be 8 months old in ten days! And he is such a cutie, OMG. I have to control myself not to eat him with kisses, specially when the other one is near! Jealous, you know, nobody is jealous-free! I think.)

Not much to say about him though. No teeth yet, but I think we might spot one popping out in the next month. He is sitting up, and can prop himself up in certain cases, but not when he is totally lying down. (I once saw, with my own eyes, a 5 months old - soon to be 6, alright - propping himself up as in "lying on his back" to "sitting down upright"! That was impressive! But not my baby, nor future babies I must predict.) No crawling yet, either.

Nico still hates tummy time, but will endure it for a little time, specially if he doesn't see me around and has Rebecca to distract him. By the way, talking about sibling distraction, that's a blessing!!! That's the main reason why I tell anyone who would care to listen that I would rather have babies 18 months apart than longer. Rebecca and Nico are 30 months apart but I really wish they were much closer!

Anyway. What else? He already eats solids, but "eating solids" is much harder with him than it was with Rebecca. Rebecca used to love my homemade baby food (with meat, potatoes, carrots, peas, onion and parsley), but Nico doesn't like it! On the other side, Rebecca hated all fruits for a long time, and Nico loves bananas and avocado. But actually those are the only two things he likes to eat. Can a baby thrive on bananas? Cause I'm giving him two bananas a day!

And he is just a sweet baby! He loves his daddy (well, Rebecca adores him as well)! Every time Nico has a daddy time (daddy and Nico only, usually outside the house), he comes home and he is so much happier and talking-ish. It melts my heart! And he loves Dan's voice as well! Actually daddy singing and playing the guitar even works as a lullaby for him! Not with Rebecca. For her, it means "jamming time"!!! Energetic, remember?

And I'm start to think he is smart as well! Different kinds of smart, for sure! Nico and Rebecca have so different personalities! But both have my hands! My granddad's hand, who was an artist! I love to draw like my granny did and consider myself to be good at it! And I think my kids will be good at it too! They clearly have good fine motor skills, at least!

But look at me bragging about what I think my kids will be! I know it doesn't matter if they won't excel in math, or if they won't be an athlete. I know it won't be easy for me to realize, if that's the case, that my children aren't bright as I wanted them to be! But what really matters are manners (look at me rhyming)! And a good heart!

So finish here, asking God to please make me a better loving mother, a better educator, a more understanding and compassionate woman. Help me always be grateful to what we have, and be joyful. Be patient. Be forgiving! Be more self giving. Help me be worthy of what I have received, specially my husband and our two kids, and to help others too. Amen.