Feliz Pascoa

Happy Easter! This is the best we could do with a family photo. We couldn't get Jacob to look up at the camera...

... so we tried a different angle and it worked, but now we have wires that are protruding from Jason's head. Oh well! Here are our friends, Daniel, Marana, and Mirena. M and M are sisters and D is Marana's husband. We went to their wedding in December just before we left to spend Christmas in the U.S. We spent Easter with M and M and the rest of their family (immediate and extended). They live in one of the favelas (slums) near us. They are a great family and are part of the church that we attend in their community.

On Good Friday, a Catholic church near us had a mini parade (not sure what to call it) on the street in front of our house. Here is a video of it...

Tastes of Brazil

This is a caju fruit. The top part contains the nut...the cashew nut. Each fruit has only one nut...that's why cashews are so expensive! Here in Brazil, they make a juice from the fruit. It's pretty good, but its an acquired taste. The first time I had it, I didn't like it. We took this picture at our friends house. They have a cashew tree in their backyard and Jason picked this one.

Below is another fruit that we don't have...the caqui (it has various spellings) fruit. It looks just like a tomato, but has a different taste and texture on the inside. It is delicious!

One of our favorite summertime treats down here is Acai. Acai is a fruit from the Amazon. It is a small berry that grows high in the palm trees of the Amazon. It is extremely high in antioxidents and is considered one of the top 10 wonder fruits of the world (or something like that). The pulp is frozen and it is made into a delicious frozen smoothie (see picture below). You can add bananas, strawberries, granola or whatever you want. We love it and can get it on almost every street corner here. My parents fell in love with it when they came down for Jacob's birth and actually found the frozen acai pulp in the Whole Foods in Atlanta and have been making smoothies with it. But be careful! This berry is very healthy, but it is also full of calories.

Mondays are our family day. We try to do something different around Rio. A couple of weeks ago, we were walking around the Lagoa (I'll have to find a picture and add it later) and we came across these beautiful flowers growing on a tree.

Phone calls, etc

Jacob has learned how to use the phone...so watch out, you may get a collect call from Brazil. OK, so maybe he doesn't know how to make a call yet, but he sure is trying. Oh yeah...don't you love the mohawk he is sporting in this photo!




He is a week away from his 5 month birthday. He is grabbing for everything. Today as I was trying to fill water bottles from our filter, he managed to knock over all of the bottles I had filled. Our apartment here is completely tiled, so we have a folded comforter on the floor for him to have a soft place to chill out. Unfortunately, since he is more and more "mobile" (as you can see in the video), he often ends up on the tile anyway.

Doesn't he look innocent?...don't let it fool you! :)

Strange Sights

When we first came to Brazil, we lived in a more rural area and we had a lot of horses, goats, chickens and sometimes cows that roamed the streets. When we moved into the city last year, we thought those days were over, but even here with the busy traffic, we often see random horses trotting down the road like stray dogs (which there are a lot of as well). The other night, though, Jason caught on video different visitors to the neighborhood.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Jacob has started to get more and more mobile. He used to lay contently on his play mat hitting the dangling animals with glee. Now, he is like a steam roller trying to crush everything in his path. I had him on his play mat the other night when he started to fuss. I was making dinner, so it took me a couple minutes to get to him. This is the sight that I found...

He is also starting to grab his feet a lot.

Riddlelicious

Here we come...into the world of blogging. Live (or not really) from Rio...