And It Was Christmas Eve

...and we came together to remember and celebrate Jesus coming to our world.

We had some loved ones living close by join us: Tia Nena, Linnan, his mother (Auntie) and Delin (age 3).

We first enjoyed just being together and exchanged gifts...


We were then spoilt by a special dinner prepared by the master chef - everything was yummy!










After dinner, more fun... Linnan had his special camera, more playing, and eating cake!

And finally, a definite highlight, singing Christmas Carols!





It was a special evening!

We missed our extended family. It was our first Christmas ever without any family and weeks before, I had struggled with this... But God showed me the importance of focusing on Him and of sharing His love with loved ones closeby. Praise Him, we had a Merry time!

I Sing Praises To My Lord!

All I want to do right now is sing praises to my Lord, for He is so faithful, so loving, so good! I want to shout for joy! Lord, thank you, thank you, I am so undeserving, but you are just so wonderful!

Psalm 100
A Psalm for giving thanks.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Daniel's First School "Report Card"

Hi loved ones! I know, I know, I'm so behind on blogging... I have so much to share! I hope to write a catch up update soon, but until I can, I just wanted to share something special that happened today.

I participated today in Daniel's first "parent conference" at his school, and spent about 20 minutes with his teacher, Miss Jessica, talking about him. I felt so emotional talking about him, hearing different stories, as if he is so grown up! Miss Jessica only had praises to share and said she just "loves that cute little guy." It warmed my heart to hear that Daniel is the same sweet boy at school as he is (most of the time) at home! We thank God for the blessing he is!

I thought you would be happy to read what the teacher wrote on his first "report card" at age 2 and 9 months:

"Daniel is such a joy to have in the Busy Bees class! He has really begun to show us his awesome personality. Daniel frequently participates in music/movement time. And has some really great dance moves to share with his friends. He is also very musical in the sense that he sings and plays instruments throughout the day. He will also join other friends in the class when they pretend to turn books into guitars and sing their own songs. Daniel does a great job participating in circle time, he sits very nicely, demonstrates great manners and is often selected to be a helper. We are currently encouraging Daniel to participate more frequently in group activities. Daniel is also working on his potty training skills. He does a great job sitting on the potty as well as identifying when he is wet or dry. Daniel is a very sweet boy who is increasingly becoming more independent in our classroom."

Daniel's Love of Music And Another Singing Video!

Daniel just loves to sing. He sings a lot during the day and often sings himself to sleep and when he first wakes up. He just loves music and has been recently reminding me often to play Christmas music on the stereo. He loves to play his recorder, the drums and the piano. I think he has taken over Uncle Peter in this matter! Though the Franca side of the family also loves music and for sure, Daniel's love for dancing too must come from the Brazilian side! :) The other day at school, his teacher said the kids were dancing and all of a sudden, Daniel got on his knee and pointed straight out towards the sky - a dance pose she called "The Travolta move!" Apparently all the kids were clapping watching him in the center doing this! He has never seen that kind of dancing before so it must be in the genes! :)

Here's another recent video of him singing. Like I said, he loves to sing and will do it anywhere! :) (And notice how he has improved in singing the ABCs since the last video!)

Video Of Daniel At 2 And 9 Months

Here is a cute video of Daniel last night, just before bath time. He will be 2 and 9 months in just 2 days - not long until he is three! We are just loving this age; it's funny because we have been saying that since he turned one, it just gets better and better!

Recently Jonny and I were debating: "Should we just keep Daniel at this age? Make him stop growing up?" "Yes, I said, I just love this age because he is still quite little but is already grown up in some ways, like talking and all." Then Jonny said: "Well, maybe we should wait a little longer, maybe we can stop his development at age 3, just a little older." And then suddenly we started laughing and said: "We are talking as if we have a choice! There is no point even debating this!"

But yes, that little debate just shows how we often wish we could just freeze time and keep Daniel just like he is right now...

Surprise Visit From The Cousins

Last weekend, we were very blessed with a surprise visit from my cousin Manuela and her beautiful family. She left me a phone message saying she was in DC and we got to see them for a whole day two days later. Daniel still remembered his 3 little cousins from our trip to their house in Florida this past summer and when I told him we would see them again he said "Yay, I love it!"

We were so fortunate that it was a beautiful fall day and we went to the DC National Zoo to enjoy the first part of the day. This was only the second time we had gone to this zoo and it was a lot better this time - not very crowded and so we go to see lots of animals.

Uncle Paul and Jonny with the 4 cousins

The kids looking at the monkeys

For me, seeing the Orangutans was a highlight! There was one in particular that wrapped himself in a blue blanket and later went to sleep with it on a hammock. I was fascinated watching them; so human-like!

Daniel really enjoyed the zoo this time too - it was the first time he really stopped to look at the animals.

Daniel loved to know he was inside the head of a dinosaur! He loves to say "rarrrrr!" when talking about dinosaurs!

What a sight this was!

We were able to get a photo of all the little ones together (including two other kids who were the children of my cousin's friend who also came along).

After the zoo, we went to visit my other cousin Josie and her daughters and spent a lovely afternoon and evening together.

The three boys played so well together. This was the first time Daniel "played" a video game - his cousin Nicholas was actually the one driving, but Daniel and Lucas both believed they were driving too!

We all had fun - not just the little ones!

Daniel also enjoyed watching a DVD in bed with the cousins!

San Antonio And A Morning In Baltimore

I had hoped to blog more consistently again, but life has still not slowed down... So tonight when I saw an opportunity to go through some recent photos and write a post, I just went for it!

I was recently in San Antonio for 3 days to participate in two evaluation-related workshops (my area of work). It was the longest I had ever been away from Daniel and I tell you, I found it painful -- literally. The first two days went well, but on the third day, when Jonny sent me a photo of him via text, I felt pain in my chest, I missed him so much (now it's funny, not at the time though! :-))! Thankfully, he didn't' miss me much at all and had a blast with his papai and at school -- it was just me. The workshops were great though and the highlight was that I got to see an old friend from Europe, Cristina, who had come all the way from Italy to participate in the conference too. We even got a photo of us together by the "river walk" in San Antonio (I found it artificial but at night on my way back to the hotel, it was quite magical being by the water and walking past restaurants with live music - nice atmosphere).

This past weekend Jonny had a meeting in Baltimore in the morning and so Daniel and I decided to enjoy the city too. We went to Port Discovery (a children's museum), using groupon coupons I had bought months earlier, and Daniel had a blast. I wouldn't pay full price for the museum, I thought it was a bit run down and not that exciting, but it was still a fun morning.

Daniel loved the Bob the Builder section:

And the moon bounce!



He loved playing in this train and pressing the whistle button (the noise scared him at first but he quickly adjusted)


The coolest part of the museum was the Diner, in which the kids pretended to cook the parents food and serve them. Daniel loved this - and I loved watching his enjoyment!

We then met papai for lunch at the inner harbor. It was a beautiful warm fall morning. It was special to be there again, especially since it was across from the building I worked at for four years - lots of memories... Seeing my son enjoying himself just outside my old office, was special...

Playing outside my old office building...

Daniel loved seeing the ships and boats

A nice lunch outside at a place I had eaten at often - Chipotle!