Brazil Part Two

After 3 days in Belo Horizonte, we took a night bus to Montes Claros. Our hotel was right across the street from Johnny's apartment, which was above this burger joint.

Here's Johnny enjoying a burger.

They were huge. And full of steak, pineapple, ham, cheese, egg, lettuce, and corn.

Unlike some food, this lived up to Johnny's expectations.

We visited with a family Johnny had baptized. They were great. And everyone had a good time.

There was a local market where we saw some capoeira. It was large and full on interesting smells. We bought some bottles of peppers that we gifted to Johnny's sister for watching The Captain.

We had dinner by the lake.

At a pizza rodizio. Great idea.

From Montes Claros we took the train to the coast. Despite Johnny's face the train ride was actually really awesome.

Some of the beautiful country side we got to see.

We made it to the beach and hiked up to this monastery.

It was really high up. And windy. Good thing we were used to walking a lot by then.

This is one of Johnny's companions, Renan, who served not only as our tour guide, but our body guard.

Ah, the beach.

Ah, chocolate. We love you.

We went to a train museum. And took a picture for The Captain to enjoy.

One of the awesome bridges in Victoria.

Here is the state dish of Espirito Santo. It was delicious. Fish and shrimp in a tomato-based sauce. One of the most delicious things I ate.

We spent the afternoon in the old part of town, visiting dance schools and cathedrals and governor's mansions. It was fabulous. I had sugar cane juice. It was so much better than the time by brother emptied sugar packets into my water at that restaurant.

We ended the day eating hotdogs on the street. They were filled with carrots, corn, peas, raisins, fried hashbrowns, tempura mayo, and a hotdog. All in a regularly sized bun. Amazing. Except the hotdog, that was boiled and gross, but the rest of it was wonderful.

This is the sunrise on the beach and the view from our hotel window.

Before we left, we spent a little time on the beach.

And I couldn't leave without at least dipping my feet in the Atlantic Ocean below the equator. It was nice and warm. Next time we'll go swimming.

Brazil Part One

Some of you have already heard of the horrible time we had trying to make it back to Kentucky to see The Captain again. I don't want to get into it, except to say that in the two weeks I was in Brazil, I understood more than I did during the 48 hours of hell we had in airports in the U.S. coming home. Communication is not the travel industry's strong suit. Which it should be.

But enough about that, the trip itself was great.

When we got to Belo Horizonte we didn't have a hotel, so this is me waiting at a mall for a late enough hour to call a hotel.

One of the many beautiful parks in the city. Johnny wanted to bring his wife here one day. Check.

We ate at the most expensive restaurant in Johnny's area. We both agreed it was the biggest waste of money on the trip. But dessert was very pretty.

Johnny's old apartment.

Belo Horizonte at night.

Johnny eating goiabada and quejo minero. One of the things he's missed the most.

We spent the day in Ouro Preto, a town where missionaries are not allowed. It was very old, and very beautiful.

It is built in the mountains on very steep hills.

It has lots of churches because it was the gold mines of Brazil, and one of the only ways to escape the high tax on gold imposed by Portugal was to give it to the church.

So they built lots of churches.

Puppy Love

I had my second big motherhood scare the other day. I was detailing the car for our upcoming trip. It's a little early, I know, especially with a toddler, but I had to take advantage of another beautiful day. Well, beautiful when the wind wasn't blowing. That wind is a killer.

Anyway, G was enjoying climbing around in the car and playing outside in the yard. I went in the house to put away the cleaning supplies, and when I came back out he was gone. He's never done this before. I didn't really panic, I just started out to find him. I figured he was half-way to the park, but after going a few paces in that direction, felt like I should turn back. It was about that time when I heard my neighbor calling G's name. I ran through the yard, and there he was, in a bright red sweater, luckily, three houses down and across the street staring at the doggies. My neighbor and I reached him about the same time. She had seen the car door open and figured out the rest, so he hadn't been on his own very long. I'm so glad we have good neighbors. That's really the reason I didn't panic. He knows enough people on the street that would take care of him. Plus, it wasn't a time of day when there were many cars on the road. So he was safe. He was looking at this dog,

who came to visit while we were playing on Sunday. He loves this dog cause she's small and less intimidating. Too bad we don't have the time or stability to get a dog right now, cause G sure likes them. I think he'll settle for a stuffed animal right now instead.

Touch of Spring

We were super blessed this weekend to have spring weather. That's right, the snow took a break for a 55 degree treat. Needless to say, everyone and their dog was out walking on Sunday, playing at the park, or in the street. We joined them with a walk to the duck pond. Despite two days of warm weather, there was still ice on the pond. But the ducks didn't seem to mind, and the Canadian Geese visiting for the winter had no idea what to do with themselves, I'm sure. (It's hard to say since they generally keep themselves separated from the other geese. I guess Mother Nature segregates, who knew?) G had a great time walking and wasn't too scared to throw a piece of bread or two. I was grateful to put the stale end of my loaf to good use.

We stopped by our neighbor's house on the way home to check on her. Her husband is in the Sudan right now, so we dropped by to help her wear out her dog before bedtime.

All in all, a great day. It reminded me that winter will eventually end, though this year it seems like it's been dragging out forever. I am super excited for spring, and because of that, I was really motivated on Monday. Here's a look at what I got done:

3 loads of laundry

2 loads of dishes

4 diapers changed

3 recipes made

vacuumed kitchen floor

bought a ridiculous amount of fabric at the store

prepped 2 pieces of mail that are months overdue to get out

worked on my sewing projects that I need to get done before Brazil

finished 1 seminary lesson

and all without Meth! It's amazing when you look at what I've managed to get done on a normal day in January, which is 1 load of laundry and about 7 hours of watching tv. I can't imagine what craziness Spring Cleaning fever will bring around here.

Bring on the Phobias

G hasn't shown any typical baby/toddler phobias other than attachment issues until quite recently. Although his history with the bathtub has been challenging,

he hasn't had trouble taking a bath for awhile and only protested when we had to put water on his head, or when he had to leave. But for at least two weeks, it has been torture for G to even consider going near water. I'm not sure what to blame for all this--maybe we haven't been at all regular with bath time, which could have helped, maybe we were too aggressive at trying to get him to lay back in the tub, maybe I've told him "no" while he was playing around the tub too many times. Whatever the reasons, and they may have nothing to do with us, he is now adamantly anti-bath. Sadly for me, I'm not about to hand him over to my SIL, whom I love, for two weeks without trying to help him fix this. So it looks like bath time everyday for me.

Last night, he cried almost the whole time, standing in the tub, holding on to me for dear life. We finally convinced him to sit on his bum so he could get out. He is slightly distracted by his boat and his letters, but only for a few seconds at a time.

This morning, I took him in the shower with me, which seemed better. He spent most of the time standing at the back of the tub, with his back to the spray, sticking letters on the wall. He did let me wash him, including his hair, so I guess that's progress.

He's also developed a fear of the vacuum. This is not due to lack of use on my part. He has been cautious of the vacuum for awhile, but never afraid. Today, I tried to explain that it's just a machine. That I turn it on. (He loves turning it on, too, but then runs away) That I push it, and I'm not going to get close to him or try to hurt him. This seemed to help a little. He sat in the other room, safely on a chair reading a book while I vacuumed the opposite side of the house. Then we I needed to vacuum that room, I turned off the vacuum and gave him notice. He disappeared upstairs.

He came back down for lunch, then stayed down while I finished the main floor. When I went upstairs I was fully expecting a royal mess to clean up. Usually when I take a nap in the morning he empties the laundry on the floor and dumps out the garbage and such, but when I came up, I found nothing more than this:

he brought his bed into my room. I guess it felt safer. It's so cute cause that is essentially what his bed looks like. I helped him bring in Otto, which reminded him of how fun Otto is. He's too big to carry around everywhere, but once he was off the bed, suddenly it was throwing him around,

wrestling,

and hugs.

All in all, a fairly productive morning and some major cuteness.

Santa's Little Helper

Okay, maybe not Santa's, but he's certainly mine. G has always been interested in helping out. I hope to never use chores as a punishment and keep encouraging his behavior, but like all parenting philosophies, I'm sure that will get thrown in the trash with the poopy diapers.

One of the few times G went to Nursery lasts month, thanks to snow cancelling church, I had to go with him since he was too upset after I changed his diaper to let me leave. It sure is hard to get little kids to adjust to Nursery when they don't get to go every week. When the Primary singing time crew came in at the end of Nursery, they started to sing "When We're Helping We're Happy". They asked the children what they did to help out at home. Some could talk, some like G, not so much, but they asked if they made their beds or cleaned up their toys. When they got to G, they asked if he picked up his toys and I said he helps by unloading the dishwasher. Well, needless to say, they were a bit shocked by that, but now I have photographic proof.

I get all the sharp knives out first, then he takes everything else out

and either puts it in the drawer himself

or hands it to me.

Usually he hands it off.

Then we switch for the top rack

and I hand him all the tupperware, which goes in his "playing cupboard" in the kitchen. It's the one place he's allowed to get into.

He has his own system for putting stuff in there, I'm sure, since sometimes he screws all the lids on, and sometimes he takes them all off.

It sure is nice to have good help around. And it's pretty much his favorite thing to do. It becomes hard to convince him when the dishwasher is dirty that it doesn't need to be unloaded yet. This is why I generally keep the dishes in the sink until there's enough to run a cycle. Less tears that way.