I will be grateful for this day

This week, Coline ate mash (potato and pumpkin) and this is rare enough to be mentioned,

we had these extravagant flowers (in a vase) in the kitchen and collected hundreds of seeds with the hope of getting them to grow one day in the garden at the back of our house, which we yet have to find,
I got together seeds, shells and stones to make myself a peaceful spot in the house and it turned into Coline's toolbox to mix and match,
and throw and taste and more,
and then turned into a family full of children, a house, a classroom in Leila's pretend play,
my little cousin and I made rye bread,
and I got myself ready for the week-end.

Week-ends here have had a tendency of being trickier than the rest of the week. We have noticed that Cristiano in particular tends to get sick or incredibly tired on Fridays, is flat on Saturdays, hardly survives Sundays and is fresh up and running on Mondays, while I suffer from terrible mood, and so when I came across this poster on the web I decided to make my own for our home and stick to it. After all, it does apply to every day, even today, when the 4 of us have the flu and it is raining outside and the girls complained the whole day. But out of the blue Leila also came to me and said I love you, I played ball on the kitchen floor with Coline and Tintin, saw him run in the park with his ears flapping in the wind, made delicious chicken soup, chatted with my mum, received amazing news from a friend far away and so I am grateful for today, and will try to remember so when I wake up too early tomorrow morning and get greeted with something like "I want cereal" or "oinnnnnnn".

Arte [artchi]

There is a fine line between art and mess, and it is a movable one. "Fazer arte", means make a mess, faire des betises, but what I like in that expression is that it allows the thought that perhaps the intention was not to destroy the couch, but instead to make it look prettier, with the help of a couple of pink marker pens. (our couch is fine, by the way)

Design - by Leila

She often disappears with a pen and paper, sometimes with color markers. I just love what she does!

Really, I wish I knew how to draw like this.

Carnaval 2012

Last year Coline was in my womb instead of out in the world and so our first proper carnival in Ouro Preto happened this year Feb 16th-21st. Actually, last year's carnival was quite wet and that is rather the reason why this year's was enjoyed more thoroughly not only by us but by the whole town and its visitors, which included family from France! What a delight to share this with them.

Last year I had the impression that Carnival here was a lot less about fancy dressing than it is in Europe, and so I did not prepare myself for it. Luckily my friend Michelle came with bags full of wigs, clothes, confetti and more, and mamie-Claire had brought into our house Leila's most favorite accessories: face paint crayons. And of course I could not resist the temptation to dress up a little. Cristiano was not impressed when he saw me in his clothes. The worst however was Leila's face when I showed up at her school (parents were invited but just that once I think she wished I had stayed home). It did not put me off, though.

We followed the "blocos" on joyful "marchinha" music and watched the children play in the park near our house where they got barbapapa (algodao doce / candy floss?!) for free and slid down the grassy slopes. Coline was hooked on walking up and down all over town, and collecting beer cans and caps while we were not watching ,and yet we thought we were. At night we heard from our house the chilled samba of Candoguero playing in the distance, reminding us that we do live in a "pais tropical" and I even got to enjoy it live once for one early night out with my cousin (thank you, the daddies!). Carnival 2012 was fun, it made me like it here.

Coline has no fear

Coline has been extremely busy lately. She is a happy, cheerful and easy going little girl, and quite a handful too. Coline loves dogs, "tchin-tchin" of course but all and every one that she sees or hears, and she has no fear.

She also loves cellphones and handbags. She has this new habit of grabing a handbag, putting it on her arm and heading for the stairs for us to take her for a walk, any time of the day, be it before breakfast and without a nappy. As I said she has no fear.

She has no fear but luckily she is cautious, what a great combination!