Noah's letter to us

I know, I know...more than a month has passed, and nothing has been posted here!
I know it, and it breaks my heart too. I have tons to tell you all...and I will...eventually.
Right now, I just need to post about this, because I need him to know when he is like 18, and we will hopefully laugh together about it!
Noah's teacher at school, Miss Renee, asked him to join her in writting a letter to mommy and daddy. About anything. Anything he wanted to talk to us about.
He was supposed to tell her what he wanted to say to us, and she would write it.
So, here is the letter I got when I went to pick him up last Friday:

"Dear mommy, I love you so much!"
"Dear God and Daddy, please let me have a birthday party!"

Yes, I tell you. The boys has his s@#& together. He knows who to go to for each category!!! (Even though he would have gotten a hell lot more of a birthday party had he asked me or grandma and grandpa!!! Hahahahahahah!!! But that is ok, Noah. We are in charge of the party anyway!!!)

He has been so spontaneous, he cracks all of us up! Too funny!!!
We can't wait for the Lightning McQueen party in two weeks!

I will try to post again tonight about what the boys (and Marcio and I) have been up to lately, I promise!

Mom's Universal Language

This weekend we went to visit my family in St. Louis and also see Bryce and Keri, and participate in his wonderful birthday party.(I will post about our Sunday adventure together later!)

We got there on Saturday, and of course, the boys behaved so badly I wanted to stick my face in my lower back once in a while!
Really proud of ourselves, Marcio and I packed really well for the trip, and thought of all the possible outfits, and snacks, and drinks, and toothbrushes, and all different soaps for each need, and underwear, and diapers, and of course, what did we forget? Basic...TOYS!
So, Noah ended up using my mom's real markers, and my dad's drawing paper! We found a Thomas Sticker book in the car, and it saved us!

After we put both boys to bed, I am not sure whether my dad was just exhausted from the experience, or if he was truly feeling sorry for Marcio and I(knowing that he was going to get "away" from the boys Sunday morning, but we were "stuck" with them for a while!), so he decided to show us one of their newest DVDs, a comedy from Anita Renfroe. Now, seriously, I almost peed my pants! She is amazing!
The whole DVD is about MOMSENSE. I need to get the DVD! As I watched it, I could not help but thinking of all the moms in my life: my own mom, of course, my friends Lori and Keri, Sheri and Misty, Paula and Karla, and also ME!
Now, I will tell you, people. I am adding a part of the show to this post, and believe me, IT IS THE SAME THING in any country, any language!

I kept remembering all the things my mom told me, and started thinking about all the things I have already told Noah and Oliver. It is scary...Mirror, mirror on the wall, I AM INDEED my mother AFTERALL!!!! :-)
Here she is...Have fun!

Busy Summer...Finally!!! :-)

Marcio and I were talking the other day about the fact that we are finally having the chance to spend quality time as a family on the weekends, with company of great friends.

It has been Oliver's first summer and Noah's first summer in the suburbs (his first summer was at the house downtown Indy, not much we could do there with him...and second one, patient Noah spent mostly inside a 3-bedroom apartment, while mommy took care of his baby brother who had just joined the family!).

I am just so glad we decided to hire our guardian angel (aka Connie, our cleaning assistant, who is also my laundry assistant, my closet organization assistant) before the summer started. I finally feel like we can spend the weekends without the pressure of "Oh, my gosh, we have to clean the house" or even "Oh, my gosh, we did not clean the house!!!"

This past weekend was fun and full of things to do. Mommy and Oliver ended up catching some sort of bug, but we are feeling much better now.

On Thursday we took the boys to the pool. They love the water! Oliver does not want to stay in his little floater in the shape of a boat. He wants to be like his big brother and jump to the pool!

On Friday we had Keri and Claire over for dinner and the boys had an absolute blast!
Oliver's eyes just light up with joy when he saw them coming in!
Noah was so anxious that he kept asking all week whether that was the day that they were coming!
They ran around the house and played until the boys were pooped out and ready to go to bed!

Miss Claire and Oliver
















Miss Keri and Oliver
















These two angels who took such good care of both our boys and helped shape their personalities have also become really good friends, and are here to stay!

We feel blessed to have such great people cross our ways here in the US. We have slowly been building our family away from home.

On Saturday we went to the Marion County Fair with our friends Lori, Greg, Sara, Kelly and Lori's mom ("borrowed" grandma Sally). We had a great time. I can't believe in 8 years+ that we have been here in Indianapolis, this was the FIRST time we went to a county fair! For the ones who don't know, both Marcio and I come from a small town in Brazil, in the middle of nowhere, to be considered a country girl, you need to be a little bit closer to the "big city" than where we were! :-) Here you call such people rednecks...there you call them red feet (because of the color of the soil)...but at the end of the day, we are all the same "type" of people, if you know what I mean!

So, needless to say, both Marcio and I felt at home (more Marcio than me, of course! I never wore Wranglers and boots). We got home late and both boys were already asleep! They were both exhausted!




























On Sunday we went to a "Brazilian style" barbecue (churrasco) at our friends Karla, Andy, Aiden and Connor's house, and got to spend time with some other Brazilians, speak some Portuguese and have a good time! Noah had a chance to play in their HUGE Banzai pool, one of those with a huge slide! He had a blast! It was really hot outside, so both boys fell asleep before we even got out of their subdivision! All four of us were able to take a great 2 hour nap that afternoon. (Oliver was already not feeling too well at this point, poor little guy took two 2,5 hour naps this day!)






















We ended the day with a visit from Aunt Fabi and some siliness from both Fabi and Noah, while poor sick Oliver went night-night a little earlier. (For the ones wondering about the pics below, Noah is trying really hard to coordinate a peace and love, and the other one is Fabi and him playing horse - we are glad Fabi brings such energy to the house!!!)


















Really, what a great weekend!!!
Looking forward to the coming one. We have two birthday parties! Samantha's 4th b-day and Kelly's 1st!!! More pictures to come!!!

For the ones who always ask me...

Marcio and I took the day off today together, with two purposes: one to clean and organize the garage and two to spend some time together.

As we were opening the final boxes in the garage, we found our baby albums. We have been talking about them for a while, and have been curious to see our pics and compare them with the boys. Of course Marcio is always teasing me, and our friends and family can never agree on who both Noah and Oliver look like. I have heard all possible combinations already.
Of course if you ask Marcio, he will say they both look like him, always. I think they are a perfect combination of the two of us (thank God their nose came from me! Love you, honey!), and I think our baby pictures proved that I am right!

So, for the ones who are dying of curiosity, here are some of Marcio's and my baby pictures, at same age (or close) to where the boys are today.

Ana Paula - 3 years old

Ana Paula - baby

Marcio - 3 years old


Marcio - baby

PS: I am sorry about the quality of the images. Please click on the pics to see them a little better!

My Little Wonders

Marcio keeps asking why I like this song, and I can't really explain to him. No, I have not watched the movie yet. It is sitting here on my counter, reason #1 why I have agreed to Marcio subscribing to Netflix, but I have not watched it yet.

I think it is because it goes about saying:"...our lives are made in these small hours, these little wonders, these twists & turns of fate, time falls away, but these small hours, these small hours still remain..."

And that is what I hope for me and for my boys, that our little moments together, those special moments that just we share, stay with us forever, and that they be all that ever matters in the end.

Holding their little fingers in my hands, hugging them tight close to me, that quiet moment putting them to sleep, the smiles that we share...that is all that really matters in the end!

So here is to my favorite song of all times at the moment, for the ones wondering... :-)

Our new fence is in!!!!

Once again, thanks to grandma Marga and grandpa Ivan, we get one more big addition to our beautiful home. We got the fence!!! Thanks, guys, for one more dream that you make come true for our family!!!
We are so excited!!! We can't stop looking outside! Noah wants to go there all the time, and so does Bella!
The guys were supposed to come on Thursday, but ended up coming only yesterday!
Marcio and Noah had a lot of work after they left, cleaning the dirt that accumulated around the posts! Marcio (and Noah, of course, big helper that he is) did not finish until today. It was a LOT of work!
Here are some pictures of the boys working, and of course, of our beautiful new fence!!!
And for the ones wondering...no, the swing set, also a great present from grandma and grandpa (and uncle Carlos and uncle Ron), is not ready yet! (I love you, honey!) There were two parts that ended up cracking and one came missing, so we are waiting for them to get here from the manufacturers in order to finish the roof and the rock wall!

Oliver, you are ONE!!! Here is your so deserved post!!!

For the ones who have probably been thinking: "What in the world is AP thinking?!? Her kid turned ONE, for Christ sake, and she did not blog it!!!"
I know, I know. I am the worst mother in the world!
But I guarantee you I am not the only mother in denial in this world!
Oliver is actually 13,5 months now, and has he blossomed in the past couple of months!
His personality has completely come out. He went from this quiet, sweet and shy little guy, to this funny little boy who is learning really quickly what he needs to do to survive a big brother!
Oliver has learned to say tchau and bye-bye, has learned to sign for more, to sign all done, to say all done, to sing "Bob, the Builder..." (more like: "Boooh, Baaaah!" with a little dance in between), how to call Bella and Noah (both of them seem to be Daaaaah! with finger pointing), to get down from the couch and my bed on his own and say "Doooooh" and "Puuuup" (Down and Up).
He loves playing with Noah and the Tchu Tchu table, and he also does the tchuga-tchuga (more like "tuga, tuga, tuga").
When something is not right he lets his "Uh, oh!" out. Soooo cute!
Now, the best one is his "carseat nap mantra". He has done this since he was a baby, and now it is only for carseat naps. Oliver starts with his "Ahuuuuuuuuummmmmm...." and then starts closing his eyes, until he finally put himself to sleep. It is hilarious. It never gets old. Marcio and I laugh hard every time it happens!

It fills us with joy to watch both boys run around the house together, and Oliver's laughter as his brother runs after him! He is learning his way with his brother, and Noah has been really sweet and sharing so much lately.
Oliver wants EVERYTHING Noah has, and by that I mean food, toys, shoes, night-nights, daddy's lap...and yes, they love being around their daddy! Sooo cute seeing the three of them together. It just reminds me all the time how thankful I am.
Oliver, you are my sweet little baby, and like aunt Lori says, no matter how fast time flies, you will be in College, and you will still be my baby.
Your hair is lighter and lighter every day, so really, people sometimes wonder if I am the nanny! ;-) You got your dad's genes, I know. But your heart is 1/2 mine!
I don't know if I will ever get over the "syndrome of second-time mom guilt" with you. I often cry as I put you to sleep, just thinking how much more I could have done for you.
But, filho, one thing I can promise you, there is no way I could have loved you any more. My heart is all yours and your brother's. You guys have taught me what being alive means.
I honestly wouldn't change a tinny thing if I got a chance to go back in time...other than trying to go back in time all the time, just to be able to keep holding you in my arms.
You have been a wonderful sleeper since birth. This week you are transitioning to Blue Helicopters, and miss Amber is your angel this time around, just like she was for Noah. Mom and dad are soooo happy. Since you started transitioning you have been happier, fillho, and of course, so have we. You are very sensitive to change, but you embraced this one. Loosing miss Claire and miss Keri all at once was not easy on you. You had a tough time for a while. But it is all passed now (even though we will forever miss them, and our eyes light up when we meet them!).
You have been sleeping 11 hours straight for the past week!!! Tonight for some reason you cried a bit a little while ago. As I rocked you back to sleep, I realized you are really heavy...but your little body still attaches to mine like it did 13 months and a half ago...and it always will.

I will always be here for you, filho. Always. That is how blessed I feel.
You chose me, and now we are attached, forever. I love you so much, filho, it hurts.
Thanks for choosing me. It has been a humbling experience so far, and such a journey!

Here are a couple of videos of Oliver, for the family and friends who are far away, and don't have the opportunity to "experience" Oliver...but who are always sending tons of good energy his way!