Festa Junina do Luís!

Star fruit

The first fruit from our garden! So exciting!

Copa do mundo

The fun part of the soccer games is having the family together, and this last game we had the best part of the family over for a kind of barbecue.

When the game started, Luís and Aunt Andrea put themselves in position for the brazilian hymn, it was funny!

... and boys all over the couch ... it was a good game, lots of fun with 3 goals, for Luís 4 because he celebrates all goals, it does not matter if it is from the other team.

Jardim Botânico - SP

We went for a picnic in a park in São Paulo, this park is part of the Botanical Institute, it is very beautiful, there is a special area called "Jardim dos sentidos" - Sensory garden - there are different plants in smell and texture, the ground is made with different materials too and some areas are very sunny while others are shaded and dark. So cool! Everyone is allowed to touch, smell and eat (if you feel like) the plants.

Festa Junina preview

Just to get a little of brazilian Folklore, we have celebration all moth of June, we call these "parties" Festas Juninas, they are organized by churches, schools or other community centers.

According to historians, this festival was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese, even during the colonial period (time when Brazil was colonized and ruled by Portugal).

At that time, Brazil had a great influence of cultural elements from Portugal, China, Spain and Frace. From France came the dance set, the tradition of fireworks came from China, from the Iberian Peninsula would have been dancing ribbons, very common in Portugal and Spain.

All these cultural elements were, over time, blending the cultural aspects of Brazilians (indigenous, african-Brazilian and European immigrants) in the various regions of the country, taking particular characteristics in each.

We went to the festival in "probably Pedro's future school", I've been talking to the teacher over there, they have a special ed class inside the regular school, that's not the norm in Brazil, anyway, the problem is Pedro is not cognitively disable, but he cannot follow a regular class yet ... so we are trying to come up with a plan. Let's see ....

Next week it is Luís' school "festa junina", he will dance (I hope, at least they have been practicing at school).

new cousin

Yesterday a new cousin was born, it is a baby girl, her name is Roberta. I decided we should give her a visit, I mean, Luís and I, so a called André to ask him to come home earlier so I could run to the hospital with Luís, Pedro heard the conversation (in Portuguese) and cried for 40 minutes, so I decided to be brave and take with me both boys. Yes! Two autistic kids in a maternity for a baby visit!

The boys were really nice, we just saw the baby through a window, Pedro had a delight time, he loves babies and Roberta is so tiny, nothing out of norm, we don't see just born babies every day :)

After the visit I had promissed Luís a treat, so we went to get something to eat, we chose our treats and I misunderstood Luis' one, so by the end we had an extra treat, we never count on Pedro because he is so picky to eat and we had our suprise, Pedro just picked up one of the treats and ate it all.

It made the trip to the hospital extra special, Pedro tried something new and Luís understood something new about being part of a bigger family.

Zoo

This was the best time ever for Pedro at the Zoo. He was showing awarness about the animals and the hippos were his favorite, he was so excited and he spent a big time just watching them.

Luís loved to see a cougar, why not? He still feels homesick at a times.

World's Cup

Luís is ready!

The soccer World's Cup is one of the more important (if not the most) events for Brazil. Everywhere you go it's what people are talking about, the whole Country is "dressed" with the brazilian flag.

Brazil's first game will be on Tuesday and Luís knows all about it. They have been talking at his school about it and Luís is learning and enjoying, it is really a big part of brazilian culture. He is with geography a little bit confused, he thinks Brazil is inside São Paulo, tomorrow we are going to work on a map.

As my parents live in a different city and the beach house that he loves is in a third city, it is time to pull a map :)

It will be a very excited season for all of us. I need to make a confession, I still think more in Thanksgiving (I bake a turkey for Luis' birthday) than World's Cup, so it will be a great time to start resetting my mind.

Love, Maria

First dialogue ....

Luís: - What are you making? - while Pedro was writing on the sand.
Pedro: - One and two. - it was the very first time I heard Pedro respond to Luís.
Luís: - So, that's twelve!

Pedro: - Yeah! Twelve!

That was just so amazing. I loved to be alive to see this moment! They had been playing a little bit together, but more in the running and jumping way. Luís never gave up of talkng to his brother, way to go Luís! I will never give up!

Love,

Maria

The perfect day!

We went to "Ilha do Cardoso", it is a island where Dolphins swim close by, the water was chili for an Atlantic sea, but Pedro and the Dolphins didn't care. Pedro is so excited in the water that is hard to make him notice the Dolphins.

I tried to upload the video with the Dolphins but it took forever and didn't work :(

baking and eating

A winter day at the beach

What we love ...

Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is a Religius Holiday that I don't really know the meaning, but what I know is that some streets are decorated, there is a ceremony then people walk on the decoration, so to see it we should go before the ceremony, the problem was the boys wanted to walk on the decoration :) so we just saw a little bit of the streets.

What we live for ...