Having fun in the mountain city

Today is Thursday and the country is lazily going back to life after four days of Carnival. Salgueiro, one of the 12 Samba schools in Rio, won the traditional carioca Carnival Parade championship after 16 years. It was a beautiful parade, but I only watched its short version on TV:

In the meanwhile, Lucas played at the Crystal Palace fountain, getting soaked and happy:

He went back hand in hand with grandma...

He quenched his thirst of fast-food (meaning chips, nuggets and coconut water!!!), at MacDonalds with me and uncle Evaldo...

Aahhh... Priceless!

Little Carnival

Before coming to mom's, Lucas went to his school's Carnival party, where he went into Spiderman skin.He had lots of fun with his little friends, and it showed he's adjusting himself to the new place!

With his witchy mom!

All happy  at his classroom before the party began...

Playing with his friend...

This is his teacher, Neila

Finally going back home, after a full afternoon of fun, at Mr. Ozias' taxi - he's our favorite taxi driver in the city, the cutest!

In Petrópolis!

I just couldn`t resist. Carnival here in Minas is an one-week holiday at Lucas school, and I just couldn`t miss the chance of being with my family! So On Monday noon I came with Lucas to my mom`s, to spend the week. Rodrigo stayed to keep the construction going, and to take care of his coffee plantation. I was so excited to meet them all after almost two months away! The bus trip was good, if we don`t consider the migraine that decided to visit me exactly in the middle of it... But I was all happy and relaxed. Lucas behaved very well as usual, watching through the bus window and sleeping a bit. When we arrived, mom was there waiting for us with my nephew Davi. Aaawwww.... It was good to be in her arms again! :o)

I really neede this time here. Although everybody at my in-laws`s are so sweet, it is hard to live at other`s house. After ten years of marriage living only the two of us, and later, the three of us, alone in Rio, it`s really weird to be surrounded by people with such different personalities and temper from mine all the time. I was feeling chocked. So for my mind`s sake, these days will renew me until the house is ready.

Obviously my mother is happy like a cat with milk, and we are enjoying each other`s company, chatting a lot and specially, laughing a lot, as my family is a very good humored one.

We went to the Crystalk {Palace, where Lucas got soaked by the fountain`s water, we went this morning to McDonalds, walked a lot in the streets...

When we come back next Sunday, I`ll be ready to carry on with our lives. As soon as possible I`ll post some of the photos I`m taking here.

Wish you all a wonderful week, kisses!

New Etsy shop!

I had to stop by to let you know about the awesome Etsy shop the multi-talented Sasha, from The Kitchen Witch, just opened with her friend Amber.

It's the Violet Folklore, and it's all about vintage cloths. In her own words: "We are Your Bohemian Rhapsody dressing the most fabulous Free Spirits, Forest Folk, Peasant Princesses, Flower Children, Fairy Tale Heroines, Psychedelic Mamas, Prairie Sisters, Gypsy Poets, Earth Priestesses, and Victorian Ghost Girls of the world!"

They have gorgeous items among dresses, skirts, shoes and even home decor with good prices. Everything so creative and high-spirited that it does worths a close look!

Almost there...

As promised, here are the photos I took with my new camera, but here goes a warning: this is a long post with lots of photos!! :o)

Our little house is brick by brick getting there! Above you see the front part, with the roof skeleton ready to receive the shingles.

Here is the back part, with the shingles starting to be installed, that's a hard work!!!

Rodrigo and his dad, doing their best to get the house covered.

My hard-worker varnishing the roof skeleton before the shingles being put.

Inside the house, inspecting the work....

Rodrigo's dad all proud of the good job being done!

Me and Lupi, one of my in-laws' dogs. He's a brave little thing! Behind you can see some of Rodrigo's coffee plants starting to grow.

This is the van's driver and his assistant with Lucas after a school's day. They're super, and she knows how to make him feel comfortable and safe during the trip to school!

During snack time making funny faces...

Inside the van, with his "bad boy" look...

Being himself again, with Zen, the little kitty that will be ours in the new house - shhh... Baruck still doesn't know about it!!

... Talking about him, here is my poor Baruck!!! See how thin he got after this hepatits started?!

I took this one this morning, he was stretching himself after a nap. Here he looks better than the previous photo, taken only one week earlier. He's in full recovery. The only problem is that he restarted pissing everywhere, as if his body had lost itscontrol after the disease... Alas...

Lucas took this photo last morning when we were walking along our favorite path...

... Then he got tired and took advantage of dad's strong shoulders...

This is the brand-new little cow that was born the day before yesterday!! Isn't she lovely??

And to finally end this long post, here is my little witch pretending to be brave holding a sweet bull... But his eyes can't deny he was happy to have a fence between them! LOL

Well, that's all, Folks! I hope you have enjoyed it, thank you all one more time for all your supportive, wonderful words. You guys definitely rock!

About the school

Yes, here I am again, talking about Lucas' school!! :o)

I decided posting about his progress after reading Boho's and Holly's sweet comments. First, thanks Boho Mom for sharing what you did with your hatchling for her to feel better away from you! You know, we have something similar at home: there are two things he carries with him at school: a "courage sword" kept in his bag, that we remake every year at Full Moon. I started this when he first went to school three years ago to give him some strenght. He draw a little sword on a sheet of paper, and we consecrated it at a Full Moon ritual. Every year, we burn the old one and m ake a new one for him to carry, and this year it wasn't different. He likes to know it is there.

He also carries a little bull's eye stone on his trouser's pocket, it's already a bit wasted, but he loves it. This year he included one more item that he carries in his hands all the time now when at school. It's this little King Arthur dool Kelli made for him:

I'm afraid that soon he'll have to carry an extra bag only for his little encouraging stuff! ;)

Holly wisely pointed out (as always!) about how important it is that the teacher gives him some helper tasks to make him feel important. Yes, my friend, thankfully she does it! He loves taking homework papers to the copy room to make his little colleagues' copies! The school routine here is a bit different from U.S., though: it starts here at 12:30am (so he needs to have lunch at 10:30am so I get him to have shower and be dressed up until 11:30am, shen the microbus picks us up!) and ends up at 4:45pm. The problem is at the entrance. When the bell rings announcing the start of the classes, he starts crying and wants me to stay with him at the classroom.

This week things are a little better, as we are always talking about how the following day routine will be, so he knows how his afternoon will be. The crying time is shorter and I no longer stay at the room (I was firm on this). Today, I left him with the teacher in the begining of the class, explaining I had to go to the bank and other places. He almost lost control of himself, but with gentle guidance I got him to calm down and wave me byebye after being sure I'd be back soon. I need to make all the adaptation at a slow pace, very gradually, it's really his weakest point. He's so independent in the other aspects of his life, but about school it has always been like that.

The shitty (sorry) thing is that on Saturday starts Carnaval, and so the whole next week the school will be closed (as well as the rest of Brazilian commercial life, actually...). It probably means that, in two weeks, he'll go through all the adaptation stress again after being away for an entire week... Arght!

BUT even, or because of, the turtle steps we're making, we'll be able to move on to the next level, like a game, as I explained to him - and he accpeted it as a good metaphor.

I promise that next time I'll only talk about the house ad how great it is becoming, with photos!!!! LOL

An award to share

Last December, I got this cute award from my awesome friend Kris - thank you again! It's more than time to post it here! I was supposed to do it much earlier, but as it was in the midst of my moving, and I postponed it, arght!

The following text is to be passed on with it:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So I should pick 8 bloggy friends to pass this on. This time I just can't do it. The last weeks have been incredibly challenging, sometimes stressful, and I received such generous support from everybody here that I wouldn't feel right to just address this award to some people, although I'd love to write about how wonderful all of you are, one by one.

You all deserve this, for your kindness, patience, bright-lighted words and support along my last boring posts! So please, all of my friends on my blogroll (and those who are not there yet simply for lack of time to include your addresses on it by now), do feel free to pick this and display at your pages. It comes from my heart to yours.

Kisses from the country spot! :o)

Tcharaaam!!

Finally I got my new camera!I bought a Samsung 7.2MB, I love it, almost slept with it when I took it home, hehehe...
I was dying here upset because I always had to borrow my sister-in-law's, and I just hate bothering others. So this week I found a good camera that will fit my needs alright (considering how stupid I am in terms of technology use, I couldn't buy anythting too full of details, it would be a waste of money LOL!), so from now on, I'll have loads of photos to share! :o).  It's been raining cats and dogs the past three days, so I have to wait until I can take them though... I want to show how the roof is before the shingles are installed!

Lucas is in the slow process of adapting himself to the new school. One point is that as it is in the neighbour town, we go by microbus, and he knows it's a little far (15 minutes away), and it stresses him to go by himself, so I'll still go with him next week. The second point is that with everything being so new, he's very unsecure and fragile. and cries at the entrance every day. It takes him almost half an hour to calm down, even with me staying at the same floor, at the school's library. I never thought it would be so hard, but I should have imagined. Sometimnes I even think that he will never get used to the new place, but then again I remember that he's just a little boy who needs my love to feel confident.

As you can seem, no news here, this has been the main issue of my life lately. Bear with me! :o)

We are here at the cyber cafe after taking Baruck to the vet for a revision. He's recovering well from the hepatitis, being well medicated, and day by day he's coming to his old self again. Now he only need to get some weight!

I've been working on some rune sets made out of felt for the Carioca Witch, but at a low pace, I believe that only when I'm at the new house I'll be able to really create something. Being at my in-laws make thing more difficult, there are many things that are in the moving boxes, etc. Alas!

I hope everybody has a super weekend and a wonderful week! Kisses from us.

Just a quick update

While I wait to fetch Lucas from school, I wanted to let you know that things are a little better here.

Barcuk is very slowly recovering, with the aid of antibiotics and corticoids. He got so thin! And seems like he hates me, because I'm the one who gives him the meds... Oh well, anything is ok as long as he's back to his old self again.

Lucas is also slowly adapting himself to the new school. He always got a hard time in the first weeks, and now with this big change, obviously things are a little harder. There's this microbus that take the kids to and from school, and I'm coming with him while he get adjusted to his new routine and feel more confident on his own. But it's hard. The first week (last week actually), I stayed all the time at the school's library, and he would often come to see if I was there. This week starting yesterday, I leave him with the teacher and come downtown for some errands while he's there, more to make him get used of being alone with his little classmates and teacher. So far it is working, but I see it's a little fight he fights inside his little self. My heart shrinks, but if I stay there all the time this week again, he'll never get used to it.

So with a lot of daily talk, we go step by step showing him he can be comfortable wherever he is, because, don't matter where, he's the same little person. He seems to accept and absorb it as something he understands. I hope so!

On the construction site, the roof is being built! I'm so sorry I can't show any photos now! I depend on my sister-in-law's camera now and unfortunately she often forget lending it to me. Alas... Another thing to buy, besides the pedal bike! :o)

I just love these moments when I come here at the cyber cafe (called Lan houses here) and I'm able to check out how things are going with my friends. Being so distant from home and to tell the truth from an intelectual stimulus for being stuck in the same place for days in a row, being online and reading the amazing posts you write is like quenching my thirst, in my heart and mind.

Kisses from us, in our little corner of the world.

Some good news and some bad news

Hello, my friends!

Well, my corner got a bit stressing and sad these days... First, my inlaws' two cute little poodle puppies died with a terrible disease called parvovirus, although we trie everything to save them. It's a bad disease that destroys the poor animal guts, oh I don't even like to remember that. I got really sad for them, so little, such babies... At least one third survived, and seems like she will live.

Then Baruck got hepatitis!!! We're so worried about him. He was looking weird, too quiet and grumpy, and the day before yestrday we could see his eyes and belly were with a strange shade of yellow. So Rodrigo took him to the vet yesterday and he took a blood exam, and somehow he got thi stupid disease, my poor kitty! We are giving the proper medicines, and watching him closely, Lucas is all sad, just like us. We believe that due to all the changes in his life, hios immuno system got a ver low resistance, and being among other cats and dogs made things worse. We can only pray and treat him the best we can accordgin to the doctor's instructions, please cross fingers and pray that he recovers from this.

Anf to finish this serie of "disasters", yesterday was Lucas' first day at school. What a HORRIBLE experience. Let me start by saying that he's not there anymore. I went with him and stayed in class to watch how things would be, just like somo other moms (it's very common in Brazil to stay at school the first days of adaptation). Well, the teacher's Portuguese was incredibly bad. When I say incredibly, I mean absurdly bad for a teacher. Of course no one has to have a perfect gramma and vocabulary, etc, but a teacher has to know the basic rules, to say the least. She was an old lady, very sweet and all, but I could clearly see that she had no structure to teach, besides the language problem, as if everything was improvised. That made me raise my eyebrown for the first time.

Then when the kids (17) said that they were thirsty, she came with a bottle of Coke full of water from the school (gods know where she got it from), and passed one single glass for everyone to drink from it!!! 17 kids and one glass to share the water! Obviously Lucas didn't take it. Second eyebrow raised.

Then came recess/snack time - when students eat the school's meals, but some took their own snack froim home, like Lucas. Well, the teacher told me to tell Lucas to always sit by her side, so no one would steal his snack! As if this was the simplest thing in the world, five-year-old kids stealing juices and cookies from others.

THEN, Lucas went to the restroom, and I noticed he was taking too long to return to the clasroom, and I went after him. He came in my direction wide opened, saying that a kid inside the restroom told him that he would punch him in the eye! I asked him to show me the kid, he did it, and I told the little brat, very seriously, that school was a place for learning, no threatening little colleagues. I told his teacher about it and complained to the coordinator. Lucas hated the place.

Do I have to say that that was Lucas' first and last day at that terrible place? Here in Brazil, unfortunately, public schools are neglected, it's a general thing, but I thought that, being in Minas, a traditional state, things would be a bit different, but I was wrong. I really wanted to give it a chance, but with so many negative things, I just couln1't return there. So today, a couple of hours ago, I came here to Manhumirim, another city a little bigger than Alto Jequitibá, and visited a private school that my mother-in-law knows about. Lucas loved it, and so did I. A wonderful infrastructure, with everyting Lucas had in Rio, but at a cheaper price (another good thing in Minas, prices are usually the third comparing to Rio). So after a long talk to the coordinator, having the school's schemes and routine analized, I enrolled my son and he will start tomorrow. A minibus will fetche him along with other students, and I'll go with him for the first week of adaptation. Phew! At least one story with a happy end!

Sorry for such a thumb-down post! Believe me or not, the week was a good one too, despite what I just typed!
The house's roof is finally being built, and soon we'll have the shingles put. As soon as I can I'll post new photos.

It's always lovely to hear from you guys, it's like a present when I open my page and read the many friendly words you send me in waves of beautiful energy.

There's a little witch here saying hi to you guys! :o)

Take good care, I'l try to write some eords in your pages, I miss visiting yourblogs more often! Kisses from us.