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.

Signed by

About 1-2 months ago for about a week straight (each day) I had Maddie write her name 6 times with my assistance.  Since then I have never revisited the activity with her.  Anyway, after Maddie finished her latest picture today I asked her to sign it on the bottom -- and voila!  Completely unassisted!

A week in MA

It was nice to see the family before we headed off on our trip without Maddie and Dylan -- which was the longest we've ever been away from them. 

It's been a while since these kids have last seen each other.  The cousins had a great time together!

10 Days....

Pic from Albert Einstein Hospital elevator

Blog content has been light the last ten days... perhaps non-existent, whatever.  So what have we been doing?  Let's see... 10 days, 6 flights, 2 baptisms and 1 birthday.  The trip was a success, kids had fun at Nana and Pup-pup's house and we accomplished a lot down in Brazil. 

We found a place to live, visited schools, hospital, etc.  For my birthday -- Brazilian steak house, Fogo de Chao (which are in the States as well) -- great meal and experience.  I'm usually not too impressed with steak houses either, after all - how many ways can you cook a steak?  and let's face it, it's not rocket science.  What I enjoyed most was the method of service.  I'm not going to elaborate further since I'm no restaurant critic, but if you haven't heard of it you can click on the link above for the restaurant website --  really though, the important thing to gather here is that it has my stamp of approval.

I quickly learned a couple things on this trip as well -- first, learn Portuguese... and second, learn Portuguese.  I cannot wait to get down there -- we're looking forward to the move!

80 in October?

Here are a couple quick pics of the kids from last weekend enjoying the unseasonably warm October weather.

A walk in the park

On Thursday last week I took the kids for their wellness visits (and physicals for our upcoming move).  With two kids in the room (1Y1M and 3Y4M) it was going very smooth -- then the doctor started going over the immunizations required, which I had anticipated since it was Dylan's 1 year wellness visit.  So the doctor starts reading them off, he needed 2 shots and blood work from his toe -- the doctor then turns the page and read off two more!  I told the doctor this was simple, I'm only going to do 2 shots for Dylan today and I'll come back later.  That's when the doctor replied, "oh no, these last two aren't for Dylan".  Not for Dylan!   The last time Maddie had shots was quite a while back, in fact, I don't think she ever remembers getting any.  Needless to say but I was definitely caught off guard and the entire visit ended up being 1 hour 15 minutes back in the patient room as well.  Not to mention that my daughter overreacts to the smallest of boo-boos -- now with an anticipated boo-boo on its way I had to think of how to deliver the punishing blow.

Maddie had asked me numerous times if we were done yet and I simply told her that we had one more thing to do.  And that thing, I told her, was a quick pinchy-shot that she needed to keep her from getting really sick -- I then reminded Maddie of her bout with pneumonia earlier in the year, which she can recall in amazing detail.  My story was not well received, but she understood this was going to happen.

Okay - first thing, I thought, was to have Maddie go 2nd and to not be in the room as Dylan's witness.  Reason for this was simply that I knew Maddie was going to need some extra attention after her shots and didn't want her sitting there alone while it was Dylan's turn.  So the assistants took Maddie out to play and we took care of Dylan's required shots -- it probably took 10 minutes for Dylan alone, drawing blood from the toe takes forever and is not a fun procedure.

Now it was the princess' turn.  I told her to get on my lap while the doctor gives her the pinchy-shots.  She reluctantly sat on my lap and was actually pretty calm considering.  I don't think Maddie realized what was coming next, but before she had time to think, shot-1 came in.  Maddie was unhappy, but she did better than I was expecting -- and before we knew it, shot-2.  After this one Maddie was crying -- but not uncontrollably and to my surprise she quickly stopped.  At this point it was more of pouting and wanting to leave (not after she gets a sucker and sticker of course) -- and Maddie clearly stated her feelings about this appointment:  "I really didn't like the last part, that was bad".   All-in-all it went pretty smooth, both kids did great and the checkup results were good -- wow was it really that easy!?

Well... almost, a little bit of drama followed.  There have been times during the Summer when Maddie's knee touched concrete (no scrape, bruise, nothing) and she all of the sudden acquires a limp!  Imagine the response we get with a planned boo-boo such as this one.  Maddie had been walking around just fine prior to this Oscar worthy performance (after she rediscovered her band-aid):

More Dance Class

A big step for our princess.  Here's Maddie taking the stage during her 2nd class.

Back on track

A long awaited quick pic of the two kids on the floor.  Dylan is loving free reign of the house again!  He's already back to crawling the way he did prior to the cast.  As for the parents -- life sure is easy now.