Patiently Waiting

Today was AJ's second birthday celebration, as usual we had a great time.  I think the presentation of the cake was most notable.  When the moment arrived for everyone to sing -- silence.  We had to hold off until an Aunt returned back to the house after taking a dog for a walk.  To the Aunt's defense, she did travel hundreds of miles for this celebration -- however keep in mind that all kids had already jockeyed for position around the table and were anxiously awaiting the song and delicious cake to follow.  Approximately 5 minutes went by, 2 birthday songs (one with, and one without, Aunt), and 1 birthday boy who could no longer keep a happy face.  One thing I have learned with kids and waiting -- patience levels are measured in seconds, not minutes.

AJ cheered up once he had treat in hand.  Happy Birthday AJ!

More pics from Christmas

Lunch time

Bed head

Christmas Day in WNY

A few quick pics from Christmas morning.

Transition

In just two days our home has been packed up to the point where it's no longer livable.  The move operation is run with five guys and they move fast!  Day one was for all items going to storage, day two was sea crate.  During both of the days we were scrambling to make sure items we identified as storage were not going on sea crate and vice versa -- on top of which we had to sort out items for our air shipment and also determine which stuff would be luggage on our flight.  Air freight items take about a month to get to us and the sea crate items take ~3 months.

I am writing this from our temporary home (a hotel room) and have to be back at our house at 8am sharp for the rest of the packing which is scheduled to be complete by noon tomorrow.  Once house is cleaned up, it's off to Buffalo for Christmas -- from there we return back to Michigan for some more hotel living.  Then we're off to Brazil and live in a hotel there for about 5 days until our apartment is ready.  Needless to say, but we'll be slightly busy -- and unfortunately blog content will be light for the next 3-4 weeks until we get settled in.

Reflex Training

The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation rather than using critical thinking.

Silence

A little bit late, but had to post this one.  When we were in Phoenix all the kids took a 1.5 hour nap -- at the same time!

Lost: Phone

Last Saturday we all went to Maddie's dance class, then as we were leaving I realized I lost my sunglasses.  Cathy agreed to get the kids in the car while I went in to find them.  While I was inside I missed a call from Cathy -- as it turns out, Maddie found my glasses on top of the stroller.  Who cares right?   Well, that was the last time Cathy's phone was used for the next 7 hours.

At the time, I wasn't too concerned -- I had a good feeling the phone would turn up.  So after a round of errands we pulled up to our house and Maddie and Dylan were out cold in the car.  Cathy went inside to search while I dialed repeatedly -- no answer.  At this point, even I was starting to believe that the phone was history.  Within an hour both kids cheerfully awoke and I went inside -- from there I provided assistance on the search that now surpassed the one hour mark. 

We started to backtrack the day to the last phone usage, which brought us back to the sunglasses call.  Perhaps Cathy left it on the bumper after the call, then put the kids in the car and drove off -- leaving it on the pavement for a car to steamroll?  After 1.5 hours of searching we were beginning to think that this scenario was indeed a reality -- which caused the mood of the household to go from moderate to sour.  Fortunately, it was time for a coffee and Cathy decided to make the trip (get some fresh air) and to get to that final stage of -- Acceptance, that yes, the phone has been mowed over by another car and is now in 100s of pieces.  I was at Acceptance 30 minutes prior -- however that's my nature, worst case scenario. 

So I made the kids dinner and while they were peacefully eating -- decided to give it one last search.  I dialed her phone and lifted the garbage can lid.............  and thought I heard something.  Could it be?  I dialed again and this time was positive that something was vibrating in the trash.  Piece by piece I sorted through the garbage until I unveiled the missing phone!  Cathy returned to a happy house and Madison delivered the great news!  Turns out, upon our return from dance class, Cathy gave Dylan the phone to play with while she prepared lunch.  From there the phone made its way to the next obvious place -- the garbage can.

I bet your wondering why I mentioned the purpose of Cathy's last call on that day.  Recall that I returned inside to find my sunglasses -- so it was a blunder on my part that kicked off the chain of events that led to the sour afternoon -- the butterfly effect.  Blame was never aired in my direction on this eventful day, however I knew where I would have been had I not decided to go garbage picking on my Saturday afternoon. 

Thanksgiving in Phoenix - Part 2

Pics from Aunt Maggie's camera.

Dylan and Steele - hair was styled by their respective sisters.

First sleepover for both Maddie and Sienna.  Up a bit later than usual...

...but they did manage to fall asleep in the same room.  Next - sleepover with Chelsea for Christmas.



Thanksgiving in Phoenix

Maddie and Dylan visited their cousins (Sienna and Steele) in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, a fun week that went too fast!



 

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Kicking off the day

Here's Maddie and Dylan at breakfast time yesterday.  A smooth morning if I do say so myself.  I took this pic before we headed out on our routine visit to the local coffee shop.  On the way there in the car we're at a light and Maddie chimes in:  "Hellllo!  The light's green!" 

I wonder where she picked that up?  hmmmmm.

Look who's walking too

It's just under 2 months since his spica cast came off and he's really getting his butt in gear -- this little guy is non-stop!  He'll climb just about everything and now Dylan's to the point where he can take a couple of unassisted steps before dropping down. 

Time Savings

Too many times I have been witness to, or guilty of, spending way too much time searching for that one last piece to go with a child's toy set.  I've pretty much seen every parent I know do it.  Their kid asks for a piece to a toy that's typically smaller than a quarter, and the parent spends 30 minutes trying to find it!  I've actually seen parents combing the house -- without request from their kids -- trying to find that elusive last piece.  The best part, if your kid did ask where that last blue ducky magnet was AND you actually rediscover it -- they only use it for one minute and move on.  Let's stop wasting our time here!  I'm declaring today,  I will not spend more than one minute searching for a useless toy piece that only satisfies my childrens' toy hunger for 30 seconds or less.  I have written about my efficiency gains when it comes to snapping a picture of my children, now it's on to improving issues that involve (time) waste management. 

Step by step

Dylan has been getting much more comfortable on his feet.  In fact today, he stood up unassisted and even took a step!  That's right, at approximately 1.5 months since the spica cast was removed, the 1Y2M9d old actually took a step!  We were not prepared with camera in hand, it really came out of nowhere -- we'll see if we can catch him in the act with the camera for his next step!

Buy now or cry later

Ok, maybe this is a forced photo -- but it is the first time the two of them shared a cart together.  Tonight we went to Costco in preparation for our move in under 2 months.  Why you ask?  Let's see, currently $1 USD buys you 1.68 BRL (Brazilian Reals).  We snapped this pic at a grocery store in Brazil of a sippy cup, take a look at the price:

Applying the conversion rate:  (34.87 BRL) * ($1 / 1.68 BRL) = $20.76!!  Think about what $21 gets you here in the States.

The reason, if you were wondering, is mainly due to the import tariffs that exist in Brazil -- and applies to most of the products sold down there as well.  Electronics - fuggedaboutit!  They're triple in price. 

So what about the goods made in Brazil, they must be cheaper right?  In some cases yes, however for the majority we came across they just undercut the import tariff price by a few percent.  Example:

An imported product costs $100 after tariffs.  The same type product is also made in Brazil and should only cost $60 after typical retail markup -- however, the Brazilian company puts this product on the shelves for $90 -- and why not!?  They can rake in a much larger profit margin and still be $10 cheaper than the import! 

Problem is, not many people can afford these items -- so who's gaining here?  I could go on forever about this:  Tariffs never work, imports are just as important as exports, etc... but who wants to hear a discussion on economics.  This post is supposed to be about a Costco trip and how it relates to our move to Brazil.

Fact is, we only heard about the tariffs (from just about everyone) and saw it first hand in 3 out of 3 shopping centers.  I guess what I'm getting at here is, we still have to find our way around. I'm in no position to be talking in absolutes on this topic yet either, but get the feeling that finding deals down in Brazil will prove to be quite the challenge. 

Anyway, with no further explanation, we went to Costco today in preparation for our move.

Halloween in WNY

Avery, Chelsea and Maddie went trick-or-treating together.

Visit to WNY

Look at that mop!  He actually got his haircut after this -- pics from the event will not follow though, Dylan wasn't too excited for the cut.

Quick pics from our recent WNY stay.

1 Month Progress Report

Today marks exactly one-month-to-the-day that Dylan had his spica cast removed.  So how's the 1Y1M24D old doing?  See for yourself!  He had been pulling himself up standing and cruising along furniture for at least a week now -- then all of the sudden today, he decides to start walking with the lion!  

The lion is no stranger to our living room either -- recall that this toy also assisted the princess before she could walk solo as well.