A ton of photos from Laura's birthday celebration yesterday.
With one of her presents:
With Alina:
With Daddy:
With Mommy:
"I love juice!"
Laura was too absorbed with the bracelet Alina gave her and I don't know what Alina's problem was, so this is the only semi-decent family shot we have:
Receiving a present from Grandma:
Getting another present:
Thrilled beyond words!
Trying to unbuckle her shoe:
Giving a balloon a ride ("Hush now, little baby."):
One of the loves of her life (gelatin):
Such a princess:
Singing "Happy Birthday" (Alina had been romping around, hence her ultra-messy look):
Making a wish before blowing out the candle (yeah, right!):
Yum!
... my daughters, of course! :)
And here they've been transformed into rascals who naughtily greeted Daddy and Mommy when they arrived home late one night:
Our little stinker came down with chickenpox in the beginning of last week and the poor thing suffered quite a bit. It is pretty wretched to see your little one suffering and not be able to do much to relieve the pain and bothersome-ness as well as to see your once spunky monkey all of a sudden feeble and languid ... sigh.
Thank God, it was one of the mild childhood diseases and that she's already almost completely recovered. All her spots have scabs which will soon fall off and hopefully the marks won't be too apparent by her birthday.
I am grateful that I'm still a stay-at-home mom and thus was able to take care of her and try to ease her discomfort.
We put the television in our room for her to watch her super educational videos while resting:
"I'm so sick."
Her latest reading project:
"I'm too cool for my spots!"
"I'll climb out the window, if you won't open the door ..."
Feeling better:
After a tiring day, there really is hardly anything better then to take a shower, throw on a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, and snuggle under a blanket with a GOOD book and a drink, whilst breathing in the sweet fragrance of perfume that lingers in the air ... it's pure bliss!
For a few moments I felt like I'd been transported to a timeless place; and in those few moments I actually couldn't feel the chronic pain in my back (no, my drink wasn't THAT strong, hehe).
Gosh, the last time I felt that relaxed was when I drank a dozen cans of beer! ... But I got depressed afterwards :D.
This year has been the first time since I was 17 when all I've had to do is take care of my kids, ponto final. No co-managing a home of 15+ people, no endless meetings, no staying up late making photo logs, schedules, last-minute graphic design projects, and what-not, no endless record-keeping, no frustration in trying to teach people who couldn't care less to learn, no pressure in trying to live up to a certain [spiritual] standard ... AND I've had time to READ (which happens to be one of the five passions of my life)!!! No less than 12 books and several book summaries and poems (as well as watch lots of period dramas).
I know, this won't last for long, especially once I enroll in college (there go my nights, once again), but it sure feels good to have that load off and just concentrate on my family, not that being the mother of an intelligent 6-year-old and a two-year-old Destroyer is relaxing, heh.
In the 5 weeks that we've been here it never actually rained, only drizzled non-stop for some days. But then it just HAD to rain (like pouring rain) on the 7th, sabotaging our holiday plans ... boo-hoo.
This was going to be the first Independence Day that we celebrated (as a family). So anyhoo, we spent the day in-doors (you don't say!) and ended up having a nice enough holiday with lots of hot chocolate milk, chocolate pudding, Aristocats, Robin Hood, tea sets, and the like.
And I've come to the conclusion that Brazilians (very generally speaking) are pretty unpatriotic ... except for when it comes to soccer :D.
Alina happily helping make the hot chocolate and thrilled that she got a whole extra day to do nothing but play (as well as stay in her pajamas all day):
Our little patriot:
And what better time or place to think about life then while seated on a throne (with a banana and books to boot)??
This wonderful child of mine simply refuses to do anything on her throne (other than the above-mentioned). My attempts at potty training her have been futile so far and even though she's thrilled with the idea of using panties, she has absolutely no desire to discontinue using diapers. She'll sit on her throne for the longest time without any results, but the second I put a diaper on her (or don't put one on), she'll do what she should've done whilst on her throne ... talk about frustrating!
She has a mind of her own and sure knows what she does and does not want, and sadly, at this time in life, she does not want to use her potty for the purpose it was created for. And life goes on ...
"This potty is so comfortable!"
"I can pose!"
"You can have the rest of my banana!"
Not even the fact that she was wearing her favorite dress-up outfit helped towards the cause ...
