It's May!

One of my favorite months of the whole year: lovely weather, gorgeous scenery, school's out, the garden produce starts, etc.  Although this year is not that typical May for us, we are officially done with April. YES! April was a rather scattered transition month for us, as we lived in 3 different cities in 2 different countries over that 30 day period.  Now that we’ve been in Brazil for two weeks, it’s starting to feel more familiar, more regular, and more consistent.  May weather in Rio is supposedly quite lovely…highs right at 80 or just under, lows around 70, with abundant sunshine. (After 5 straight days of clouds and rain, I’m pretty excited about the sunshine part.)  We are moving from fall to winter though, so the sun sets around 5:30pm and the days will continue to shorten until the winter solstice in June.  Jason’s been researching at the library most days from around 9am-6pm and is quite delighted with his findings.  He’s working on a post with more info, so stay tuned.  There’s no mid-day siesta here but Eli and have been walking down to meet him for lunch nearly every day since our apt is only a 15 min jaunt from his library.  

And Eli?  Is. on. the. move. !!

It’s a little crazy to think about the changes which have occurred in the last month...by late March he had started to crawl and explore on his own.  But now, he’s a super speedy crawler, pulls up onto anything and everything, motors around while holding onto the couch and chairs and likes to walk holding onto our hands.  He claps and wiggles his little butt along to music, points the remote at the TV (who taught him that??) and loves to 'throw' his green bouncy ball to us.  He bangs and stacks and opens and closes and puts things in and takes them back out again, all while chattering, babbling, yelling and giggling.  It a full time job to keep up (and keep him out of mischief) but is (most of the time) great fun.  A downside to his curiosity: how do you tell an 11 month old that his bath water is non-potable and therefore, non drinkable??  I feel so bad for him…what a drag to be placed in this tub of splishy-splashy fun, and mom and dad just keep telling him he’s not supposed to take a sip.  

We’re also finding meals to be rather amusing these days.  Eli heartily enjoys eating nearly everything we give him and also enjoys examining, dissecting and then smooshing/smashing/smearing as he sees fit.  Such fun to explore all the new things coming his way…

And, despite feeling like we’re better adjusted now, there will be some new things coming our way too.  We’ve decided to move to another apartment in a different neighborhood, mostly to get away from the very noisy buses and traffic zooming up the street 3 feet from our current apartment but also to be closer to parks and Eli-friendly establishments.  We’ll be moving from Santa Tereza to Botafogo on May 15… just in time to get settled and get ready for a birthday celebration.  :)