The Bath Time Boogie

Bath time has been quite the chore lately.  The kids now spend 90% of the time standing, slipping and falling -- somehow we were able to get a couple of pics of them in a semi-relaxed state.

DETERMINATION

DETERMINATION - When your kids want to go to bed and you decide it's a good time for a picture.

Appetizers

The kids were relaxing and having a granola snack on the floor while we were getting ready to take a trip out for lunch.  We ended up at an Italian joint that offered up free food for the kids -- and I'm not talking about a standard kids plate with mac-and-cheese or chicken strips -- this was entree food right off the menu!  Too bad Maddie wanted nothing to do with it... Dylan on the other hand, ate about two-thirds of the plate.

Cutting edge

I still try to get in some activity time with Madison at night, most recent focus on sounds for each letter and piecing together words -- starfall.com has been a great site for learning both.  I have to admit though, I definitely have been more skewed towards technical learning and probably haven't put in enough time with fine motor skills -- scissors being one of them.  We did buy Maddie scissors a few months back but it appeared she wasn't quite ready... or I wasn't ready.  Well the time has arrived, Maddie received homework last week -- lacing and cutting exercises!  I was actually excited to get working on them with her, it's nice to have a syllabus to work off of.  At first she struggled quite a bit to even cut a straight line, 3 nights later -- she's working the zig-zag. 

Limited toy selection



Sea crate is supposed to be at our door around the 1st week of March, until then -- the kids will have to keep improvising, here's Maddie's play stroller.

School update

Gym day!

 

Maddie is liking the school scene -- the first week of classes went very well.  In fact, she had school all five days last week.  You see, here in Brazil, they don't cancel classes for snow. 

Playing around in the afternoon

All part of the experience

We have had quite a bit of paperwork to complete over the last couple of weeks, some of which I've highlighted below:

Once the employee (and family) arrive in Brazil, the employee (and each family member) must apply for a Residence Permit ("RNE"). Applications must be submitted to the local Federal Police Department in the place of residence in Brazil.

In addition, the employee must apply for a CPF (Tax) Card and an Employment Book (Carteira de Trabalho) in order to be assigned to the Brazilian company's payroll.

For the RNE, we took the entire family to the police station for some fingerprints -- I described it as finger painting to Madison.  Regardless, she wasn't too thrilled with the whole idea and gave the local police worker a difficult time... it wasn't until Dylan did his finger painting that Madison reluctantly joined in.  The whole trip took about 1.5 hours and other than the fingerprints it was rather easy -- RNE complete!  At first when we arrived, our driver (who didn't speak a lick of English) stopped in front of the station where we saw a line of about 100 people waiting to get in.  After about 5 minutes in the car waiting and watching the line growing, we figured we might as well get out and join the crowd-- we were reassured that the representative who handles our government related paperwork would be there.  After about 5 minutes in line and zero clue if we were even in the right line, the representative arrived.  That's when she told us we could go right to the front -- Brazil is very accommodating (and respectful) to families with young children and this was no exception.

The RNE is required to obtain the Employment Book, fortunately the kids did not have to make the trip.  It took roughly 1.5 hours just to get to the place for the Book and we had arrived 30 minutes early for our 2:00pm appointment.  Looking around I thought - great, we're the only ones here, this will only take a few minutes.  Well, the entire building was in a meeting and it was supposed to be done shortly.  Keep in mind this would be like you going to the Secretary of State (or DMV) while all of the workers were in another room having a meeting.  The meeting (in our case) lasted until 3:45pm!  At which time we were immediately called to the front of the room, signed our Books and they were stamped -- done in 10 minutes! 

• 1.5 hours to get there
• 2.25 hours of waiting
• 1.5 hours to get home

A mere 5.25 hours for a 10 minute stamp.  No complaints here though, after all -- we are working in a foreign country and obviously some process and paperwork is going to be required... it's all part of the experience.