MASTER ELETRÔNICOS

It's amazing what a simple idea can become! From the simple idea of opening a store, came a huge change in our lives of moving to a different city and going through all the changes we've been through. I'm very proud of my husband for facing the challenges with his head held high and being so brave while going to the unknown! I'm so proud to see what a successful businessman he has become! I'm also excited that we now have an add of our store on the local TV!! I just don't appear because i didn't know they were going to record that day, and I forgot to use my uniforme, so i figured it wouldn't be cool! Anyway, the add has been on for a week and we already feel the difference!! Amazing the influence tv has!

FRIENDS

i would like to use this post to ask for your advice. i've found myself in an odd situation. It seems i've forgotten how to make new friends!! When i first arrived in rio grande i was caught up in my own little problems and had no desire whatsoever to make the effort of finding new friends. But now that i'm over with some of my issues, i would love to have friends to visit and have them come over to my place, or plan an outing with. You know, those normal things you do with friends! The people we know here now are single and it's hard sometimes to relate with since we don't have that much incomun anymore. So there you have it. What should i do to make new friends? Any advice? I'd honestly love to hear it!!

no title

Time flies by!! I know everyone keeps saying that, but it seems that ever-so-often i'm made aware of this very truth. Looking through some pictures of Julia as a baby today, just shocked me again. It's amazing how quickly one can forget how small ones baby really was!! And now i find myself with a soon-to-be ''independent'' toddler!! When did that happen??!!

Oh! So many regrets! I know that sounds awful, being that she's only 23 months old, but it's true! Where to begin?I regret not taking enough pictures... i regret not completing the baby's first year calendar my mom gave me...not keeping a diary...and most of all for being frustrated with myself for not being the mommy i always imagined myself being!! WOW!! it feels great just admiting to that! And until recently, i'd been caring this weight of frustrations of my own imperfections as a mommy, until i learned a wonderful truth. It may sound simple to you, but it has been an everyday learning process for me. And it is: to live one day at a time! To concure one challenge at a time! No need to create this elution of a perfect scenario (house perfectly organized while the child plays quietly and perfectly in her room)!! In truth, that elution is what brought the feeling of frustration for not making that scenario true!! So my motto now is to: enjoy these rapidly changing phases in my little girls life! The house will always have to be cleaned and cloths will always have to be washed, but these moments in our lives will go flying by. And one regret i don't ever want to have, is letting these sweet moments of so many daily changes in Julia's life, to go by unnoticed! Loving Julia for the person she is and is becoming is my new motto!! The other frustrations regarding the calendar and pictures, are inevitable....i guess i'll have to try harder with the next one...

potty training continued...

well, the reason i haven't given a closure to my potty training posts since January 27th, is because nothing in terms of potty training was done! To tell you the truth i really don't know for what reason exactly it happened, but my little girl started to simply HATE, (yes, hate is the correct word) sitting on the piniquinho or any word related to xixi and the such!! So one day while sitting on the bathroom floor watching Julia crying or rather screaming, i decided to let it go and give it some more time. So, we went on vacation in February and I just accepted the fact that it wasn't time for potty training yet.
However, I started noticing that Julia seemed to get frustrated at times with her diaper in our hot summer days and she would often try to take her diaper off. I felt that that was my sign to try the big task again. Once settled at home after over a month away, i decided to take up the challenge once more. This time i was psycologically prepared for the many 'accidents' to come and had my rag and detergent-hylex water prepared before-hand. I was ready! On Monday, March 22nd as soon as she woke up, i took her diaper off. Yes, all my preperation was needed as many accidents did happen, however this time it wasn't such a big deal as I had my mind set for the task. She still, however, didn't want to go anywhere near the piniquinho. Tuesday came along with hopes reneiwed as I got to stay home all day Tuesday. I then took my time sitting on the bathroom floor reading stories from her favorite books there, and slowly she started to like the whole idea again. That day, she actually did xixi in the piniquinho!!!!!! I could hardly believe my eyes!!!! It truely is a satisfactory feeling, believe me! And to my suprise and joy today she did coco too!! Although we still have some occational 'accidents' and tantrums, i think we are on the path to a successful potty training experience number 2! I think this time there is no going back...or at least i hope not!!

potty training - DAY #2

Day #2 went by very fast. In the morning very few accidents happened, but nothing was done in the toilet, :- ( . In the afternoon we took the last trace of company from the weekend (tia Mara) to the bus station in Pelotas and than went off to Bagé to visit one of Neval's clients there. Since we were in the car most of the day, Julia spent the rest of the day with a diaper on. We got home at about 10:30pm and Julia was already asleep.

that was it for day #2.

more to come!

potty training - DAY 1

Yes, yesterday i decided to start potty training oficially. Last week i took Julia's diaper off a few times during the day and let her see what it feels like without one. It seemed to go well.

The morning started out okay. I explained to her that she should call mommy whenever she needed to go xixi or coco. At one point she actually called me to the bathroom, only to sit on the piniquinho and do nothing. I figuered that was a great start. In the afternoon things started to change. Julia started getting annoyed at me for calling her to the bathroom all the time. Whenever i said 'xixi' she whould say very emphatically 'NO!!!'

Than the first episode happened. I was cleaning the room with her playing around me and she suddenly said 'xixi mommy' and kept pointing to the floor. Sure enough there was a little puddle of xixi on the floor and her panties were completly wet! No problem right, that's part of it! Later on in the day, i was cleaning something else and felt a strange smell. That was when i put my hand lightly on her panties and felt a round ball....yes, coco!!!! Thankfully it wasn't runny!!..hehehe. That was episode #2. Than came #3. I found Julia sitting on our guest's bed looking very guilty...she was going xixi!!!

Well, DAY #1 didn't seem very promising, but we can't give up, right!!

Another great day at the beach!

Little Angel

I've always thought that kids sleeping with teddy bears was so cute, but never had the courage to give one to Julia just because I was afraid it would distract her instead of help her sleep. Well, one day I was going through her stuffed animals and found such cute ones that I decided to give it a try. Turns out, she really likes it!! Although some days it does seem to distract her somewhat, other days it seems to help her cuddle in bed! Thus the picture to show you her new friend. I present to you "Mr. Quack"!

summer = company

The pictures above are of the first Saturday in summer that we went to the beach. It was so much fun because we decided to go about 4:30 and after putting everything together got there about 5:30. It was great!! Julia had a lot of fun, and since there was some wind, i just let her go in the water with her clothes on...she had a blast!

Summer has come and with it the certainty that there will be lots of company! Living in a beach town has many advantages, and one of them is that you suddenly become everyone's best friend!! My last year's experience was very stressful because besides having company all the time, i already had people living at home with me, so having other people come was just overwelming. But this year is different, and i have decided to be the best host i can possibly be with NO complaining!!!

So, as i was saying, we have a full weekend ahead of us. On thursday Luiz (neval's first spanish teacher which became our friend and also worked at Global Way with us) and his daughter are arriving, as well as Gel, Fabe and from what Gel said, his car is coming full, so I'm supposing + 3. That's just on Thursday. On Friday, neval's nephew Matheus is coming with his girlfriend. On Saturday we are expecting 2 more family's of 4 people each...besides that we had another 'great' friend call and ask if we were going to be home on the carnaval in february and if not, if he could use our house! He also asked if we would be home THIS weekend...hahahha..that one neval was able to get out of!!! As you can see, i have a lot to prepare for! On the weekend after this one, we already have another family booked from Friday through Tuesday! That is of course the first family we know of... from the looks of things, you never know who could show up!! I honestly wish it were my family coming instead. Any of you intrested?! Love to have you here!!

bye for now, got lots of work to do!!

First Post of the Year!

Well, this is another attempt to make this blogging thing actually work! I've discovered a few things about myself that help explain why i never really kept on with my blog. The first reason is that i generally have a hard time keeping up with something i've started. Like reading a book without stopping it to start another one that for that specific moment looks more attractive. Or staying for a whole year at a gym, and actually going regularly, or even doing exercises at home for that matter. So blogging was another one of my 'uncontinued' things.

But now we are in 2010, and with a new year there are always new ideas, new goals, new hopes, new everything! So, hopefully this time, i'll actually stick with this project, not for myself, but mostly for my daughter, so that the cute things she does everyday, and the new words she says, or new things she learns will not be kept just for me, but be shown off to her tias and grandma (to which this blog is really for)! I know it is time-consuming to stop and read blogs ( i know it because it's hard for me too) but whenever you do have the time, i'd love for you girls to see new pictures of her, and love her for the cute things she does and now says too!

love you all

patricia

Two favorite people

Though it's strange to have two blogs in the same day, I decided to do it this way since one is thoughts from the heart, and this is evidence that despite those yukky feelings i DO have GREAT things to be greatful for. And two among those are these two beautiful people I have in my life, first my awesome husband, and second this little beautiful girl that has definitly brought us so much joy! This is one of Julia's favorite games. It also gives Mommy a lot more work...as you can see though, she thinks it's a lot of fun!! She also absolutely LOVES the Barney DVD!!

This is when we were at Grandma's house...she liked to play the piano and help make the bed with Grandma!!

Isn't she just plane beautiful!!

ALONE

ALONE is the word that best describes me at this time in my life. Living in Camaquã I was surrounded by friends and people ALL THE TIME in my house, and I honestly had had enough of that. Well, now i've come to the complete opposite which isn't so great either. The deepest conversations I have had nowadays are with my 11 month old like: "Let's watch Barney", than go on to sing along the Barney DVD. Or else, "Pumpkin, it's nap time", than go on to hear some tiarsome(sorry, bad spelling) tears from a little girl who doesn't like naps!! I feel the need to have some sort of outlet, but can't seem to have found one right now, and once my husband gets home, he needs to have his time with Little Miss, and once she's in bed, neither of us have the energy to get into deep conversations! Funny thing is that writing this I've stopped to realize how many hours a day I actually spend all by myself!! My husband leaves home for work around 8:30 and has half hour lunch, which I'm SO greatful he comes home to, than he only comes home at around 7:30-8pm. And in the mean time I'm running around the house trying to keep up with my little girl who's climbing everything and crawling everywhere, while trying to keep the house livable. You would think that after spending so many hours alone, I'd be thriving to see people and 'get out there', but I've found that the more time alone I am, the more I want to 'hide', it's just that I haven't had the gutts nor the desire to go out there and talk to people.
Alone is not the only word that describes me now; LOST is a good one too. At the end of the day, i look at the diapers I've changed, the floors I've swepped 'again' and the food I've made 'again' and the time I spent washing dishes and washing and hanging and folding clothes 'again' and the times I had to stop everything to hold a crying baby, and the times I had to feed and bathe and put down for a nap and everything else you have to do with a baby, and it all feels like I'm going in circles, because I know that once I wake up, I'll have exactly the same tasks 'again'. Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY grateful for being able to be the one to care for my little girl and see her growing out of each fase, but should I be satisfied with that and ONLY that>:: I really don't know. It's really hard sometimes to see the big picture of things, like raising a child. The everyday tasks seem to shadow the influence I'm actually having in her life. I know this blog isn't making sense at all, it isn't making any sense to me either. I guess I should just stop here. i don't know if writing down these thoughts really help or make me feel sorry for myself...don't want that!!!

rushing the writing

It has been three months since my last, which in a sense is very embarrassing, but if you'd take a peek into my current internet situation, you'd see why! Let me explain. When we first moved to Rio Grande, we decided not to put internet in our home so we wouldn't have that extra expense since it would only be for my use, and when I wanted to access the internet, I'd go to the store downtown and use it. The only little problem we didn't think of at the time, was that with a 10 month old baby, it's not that simple!! When I do get a chance to go to the store, I have to be lucky enough to have no clients being assisted which gives me the chance to use the computer. At the same time, my husband has to be free enough to hold Julia while I use the computer, because all she wants to do is type WITH mommy!! So, as you can see, by the time I'm able to use the computer, all I can really do is check my email and my family blogs quickly and that's it! As I speak, my little girl needs....maybe I'll get the chance soon to put pictures of her!!

julia 7 months!!!

She brings us so much joy...just like her name says!!

first time at the beach!

this is julia's first time at the beach! it was a chilly day, so we couldn't put her in the water llike we wanted to,( poor child - crazy parents)!

7 days to 6 months

It`s hard to believe that my little girl is almost 6 months old! She is absolutly awesome, sweet, smily and simply beautiful!! Here is Julia Joy, 6 months old!!

Master Eletrônicos

Master Eletrônicos is the name of our new electronics store in the city of Rio Grande!! So yes, we have finally moved to our new town and now we are adapting to our new city, house, and routine! It has almost been a year since Neval first had the idea to open a store and expand his business and we have been very anxious for it to become reality, and it finally has and we are SO excited to see how everything is coming into place so smoothly! In the 15 days we`ve been here the store is practically open and our house practically organized!

Above are some pictures of this new adventure in our lives! As you can see there aren`t any products set out yet since we just finished remodeling the store.

Julia 4 e 1/2

p.s. she is crying on picture number 4 because she doesn't like to put clothes on after baths. Basically she cries after every bath, just when i start putting clothes on!! Any suggestion as to how to take that trauma away are all very welcome!