Here we are... 7 years old!!!

Primary school!!! You are enjoying it a lot! You get to stay with older kids now, in another area of the school. Since you became this beautiful young lady, there is this kid who is already chasing you at school, calling you "linda" all the time and I'm going there to kick his ass!!!! :) Good for me that you are still not interested in them.
You are still fighting big deal with you brother and you guys are driving me nuts!! For that reason you hate the boys and I hope that continues for the next 10 years, at least!! :) I wish, right?
Oh there is something I want to register here so that you know: you never let me drink any alcooholic beverage and I tell you that I won't as long as you never do it when you grow older and you say you won't anyway. I will bring that on when time comes. Don't forget!!!

Your greatgrandma is now 88 years old and I will post a picture of her here so that you can remember her when she is taken to heaven. She is a very cute and funny lady.
This year you added another friend to your group: Luciana. She is the daughter of Andrea and they are very nice people. So now you are four friends.
Ah this week you did something very cute - your teacher gave you a cool assignment - drop some grains of bean on a humid peace of cotton and write a journal about its evolution through the days. On the first night, I heard this classical music playing in the kitchen (where we had the stereo) and went there to check. You had placed the cup on it so that the beans could go to sleep in peace. :) it was very cute. You even asked me for a blanked so that they wouldn't feel cold. That's my girl!!!
You are a very bright kid who is always interested in knowing how things work, asking about all sort of things, loves Math and Portuguese, thinks really quickly. Ok it's not only because you are my daughter!!! You really are all that!!! :)
But you are also very shy. Competition? no way!!! you just can't do it. You feel stomackake and get stuck. I guess it's just the way you are. The second picture was taken at Porto Alvorada, where you were participating in Porto Esporte.

At 6 years old

That year was very special. It was the year you would have your first graduation. Mommy was very proud of you! Your teacher was called Lyra (you just asked me to write that :)










Also you had your first piano audition at the local theater, in Jaú. I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano but since I couldn't I was proud of having a daughter playing it. Your best friends Maria Alice and Lara were there and you looked gorgeous on that blue dress.










Your dad came to visit you from Colombia and brought Juan Guillermo and his daughters Maria Camila and Ana Sofía. You went to Rio de Janeiro with them and just loved it.












Your uncle Kim came back from Japan with his family and you got to know your cousins Igor and Letícia.
Oh you asked me not to forget to mention that we went to Colombia in December to see your dad and his family. You and your brother stayed with him for almost a month while I went to Portugal for 10 days. You loved staying at your greatgrandma's house, in Timbio, because you went for long walks at the mountains.











At that year, you still hated the boys (just so that you know it :)

At 5 years old

We did a lot of things when you were 5.
You started the year changing schools again. This time you went to Colégio Porto Alvorada, a school we used to love. For me it was the best one. You got to meet your other best friend, Lara Patrícia. The three of you were inseparable.
That year, in July, we took our first real vacation, you, Leo and me. We went to São Paulo and stayed at Marco's apartment (my ex-boss). I took you to Xuxa's park, to Ibirapuera park and to Zoo Safari. We had a great time there!
In August, we went to Serra Negra with grandma (where we visited the Robot's city, which you loved) and in October to Guarujá with her too.
And that is not it. In December we went to Guaruja again, this time only the three of us and stayed there for 10 days, Christmas and New Year!! As you can see, we traveled a lot!!

At 4 years old

We moved to Jaú when you were 4 years old. I started to work for the government, at Forum.
Your dad came back to Brazil and lived with us for almost one year.
You didn't have much trouble with the move and you made some friends at school and in our neighborhood, at Jardim América. You used to play with Isabela, our neighbor.
That year, we went to Bertioga and even though it was raining and a bit cold we had a lot of fun. That's where you met your best friend Maria Alice. We also met Andrea, Emerson (who you used to call Eberson), Pietro and Enzo at the time, our truly friends (although you used not like Pietro because he would bother you all the time and you hated boys!!).
Oh we got our first puppy too! Her name was Babi but she ran away after one year!!!

At 3 years old

Time to go to school!
Your first school was 7 Cores. You were three years old and you had to stay there the whole day while I went to work. My first job after you were born.
At the end of the year you had this ballet presentation and you looked precious that day but still very serious.
We hated the school afterwards and changed to Realize after a while, where you were much better off. It was a great new school and you liked being around the kids even though you were still shy.
Oh, something very serious! You had your first crush! There was this brazilian actor who was in a soap opera this year and you thought he was handsome even though you denied all the time. But as soon as you heard his song on TV you came to the room to see him. :) You're were not silly... he was really hot! You would mention that he had "cabelo de bola" (ball hair), meaning curly hair. Smart girl!

At 2 years old

We went to Brazil when you were 18 months old and lived with grandma until your dad came. Then we moved to a house at Jardim Damasco, in Marilia. Your brother Leonardo was born there and your mom had to start sharing her love and attention with him, although I had all the care to avoid you from being jeallous.
I don't remember so many things about that time... sorry baby... too many things to do!!

But I do remember we used to have nice neighbors (who you couldn’t remember after a while). You used to play a lot with Giovani and Natália.

Oh, I just remembered your Christmas that year, when I took the gifts to the mall where there was a Santa Claus sitting on his chair giving the kids candies. So I hid the gifts from you and left you and your brother taking a stroll with grandma and ran to the car to pick up the gifts and left them with Santa. All the people in the mall were staring at us because they didn’t know what was going on! you and Leo running there to receive the gifts from him :) It was fun! All the things I did for you!!!!

First and second birthday parties!

Well, actually, you had two first birthday parties! Lucky you!
We were in Brazil when you were about a year old. So you had the first party there, with all my family. You have always been this shy girl so you were quiet the whole time. But I am sure you enjoyed all the gifts!!
The second party we had back in Toronto, with our friends. They all came to our house and it was very fun!!

I don't really remember your second birthday party because I was handling too much at the time, I guess... but we were living at Jardim Damasco and many people came, as you can see in the picture. You didn't look too excited though. Very serious girl!

Your two first years

Oh we did a lot, baby!

We used to live in Toronto and I wasn’t working at the time. So we had all the time together.

You were born at The Beaches, so we used to go to the boardwalk very often. When the weather was too cold we would go to the library or to a mall. When the days were warmer we could go swimming, or to the park where you used to play with other kids in the sandbox.

Since daddy was working we did a lot of things only the two of us. But we did go camping one day when you were still a baby and you loved it.

Oh, one day I made this sort of pajama and your dad made fun of me saying that you looked like an astronaut!! Too bad I don’t have a picture of that.

Your first vacation was to New York when you were 4 months old. We went to visit Lúcia and Steve, when she was still pregnant of the twins. So you did get to see the Twin Towers!!!!

Our friends used to come visit us very often. Uncle Sady and Aunt Carla were always there and he was the one who taught me how to drink out of the glass all by mysellf.

Oh, there was this party we went once, Sole and Damian's wedding, when you were 4 months old and you cried a lot, and when I say a lot I really mean it! I think you didn't like the bride's gown or something. The thing is that you cried for about a whole hour and your dad and I didn't know what to do with you anymore! I left the wedding to take you for a ride in the car... nothing... then your dad did the same... nothing... you were not easy, heh? then you finally went to sleep and we could enjoy the dinner!

When you were 6 months old we went to Brazil for the first time. Then you met all your cousins.

After that, we moved further away to Port Union and Lawrence to our first house! It was a very nice house but in a quiet neighborhood and I used to feel lonely there.

Your first Halloween was there and I made this Little Red Riding Hood cape with daddy’s Che Guevara’s flag and he almost killed me!! :) no… he laughed about it… but I do think he wanted to kill me! :)

It was too cold and we didn’t go outside with the kids but we did receive them at the door and gave them candies.

When you were almost a year old we went to Colombia, when you met your dad's family. All of his sisters were there too and they all got to know you finally. We also went to San Andres and to Brazil. Great vacation!

We had a great time in Toronto before daddy and I split up and we went back to Brazil.

Back there your brother was born and you were a good big sister to him, at least in the beggining. :)

Time to be born

So the big day arrives!! Daddy had come back from work and I was taking a nap when I felt this liquid coming out… I knew that my water had broken and I called your dad to tell him. Even though he tried to hide his anxiety I knew that he was very nervous and did not know what to do with us. :)

We called the midwife and she said I would have to wait until the contractions were about 5 minutes apart, I think. It was January, 26^th, 7pm and we waited until the next day to go to the hospital. All night feeling those terrible contractions. Uncle Sady and aunt Carla came to give us support at the hospital and stayed there the whole time. Aunt Carla filmed everything. It was a moment of great pain but of greater happiness for me and for your daddy. We were both crying when you came to this world. It was one of the happiest days of my life!! (I won’t mention what happened in the next days, when I had to go to the hospital several times because I couldn’t pee for 10 days!!! :) you used to love to hear that story when you were 6 years old… mommy carrying that plastic bag around… remember that?)

So you were born on a terribly cold morning of January, 27^th, 2001 to brighten this world.

Grandpa Guilherme was the first one from the family to come visit you. He stayed with us for two months helping me with food!!! We loved it! :) He even brought meat from Brazil to make us some feijoada! Too bad the only thing you could have was breastmilk!! :)

Before your birth

You have been a very loved girl since the day you were conceived. In preparation for your arrival, mommy took a PCR course, took you to the beach and listened to some classical music so that you could relax and feel peace inside my uterus.

I went to swim all the time in Toronto (winter and all) and people used to say that you were going to be a water girl.

Daddy and I went to pre-natal classes and it was fun to see all the big belly women preparing for the big arrival.

Grandma Tomiko came to visit us in Toronto and bought all the furniture for your room.

I used to walk a lot too to keep in shape for the labor. But I had to stop all the time and go pee :) it was funny.

Here are some pictures of those moments.