Happy Birthday USA

I was trying to explain to Luka what the 4th of July was and the easiest way was for me to tell him that today was the USA's birthday. He still wanted to know "who" the USA was....I tried to explain but I don't think I was doing a good job on that one. Nonetheless we sang Happy Birthday to the USA and were off to the 4th of July picnic sponsored by the US Embassy in Maputo.

The festivities were held at the American School and they did a really good job. The decorations were great and I felt like if I was in a fair somewhere in the USA. I also loved the music...especially when I heard God Bless the USA by L. Greenwood. I am not a very patriotic person, but man I love that song and every time I hear it I stop and ponder on the fact that I am an American. It is one of the few songs that really make me stop and think about all the lyrics. It is so cheese, but I can picture myself traveling all lover the US. I guess that makes me a little patriotic...at the very least proud to be an American. Please tell me that someone else out there has the same reaction to this song...

The day was full of activities for Luka and JJ and I had a mediocre hot dog...but it was either that or Thai food and I thought the hot dog was more "4th of Julysy."

Here are some photos from the day and above you can see the whole family celebrating "Sam." No, not Uncle Sam...our new baby Sam.

Luka was very proud of his tattoo.

Awwww...the new family of four!

Yummy....blue ice cream!

To see all the photos from the 4th of July please click here.

Happy 4th of July

Today we will go to the Fourth of July Family Day at the American School. I am really looking forward to it and spending the day with my three boys.

July 4th is a day that I always spent with my family and many times we spent it on the beach. I am feeling a bit nostalgic today and I am missing them terribly, especially knowing that my mom, dad, sister and her family are renting on Miami Beach this weekend. They must be having so much fun with the kids. But we will see them soon enough and it will be perfect beach weather when we arrive in Miami, barring any hurricanes from appearing.

This video has nothing do to with my family or 4th of July, but I came across it this morning and I was looking for Luka's favorite music video on YouTube. I had never heard this song during his campaign...but I guess it is as good of a song as any to jam to on the 4th of July. Luka really liked it as well...

P.S. OMG, if they have sparklers at the picnic today it will really make my day.

Way to Go HOLLAND!!!!

Way to go Holland! I can't believe they beat Brazil...and one of the favored teams to win! Now we have to beat Uruguay or Ghana. I am rooting for Ghana tonight when they play Uruguay, but I think I will be wearing orange if they get to play Holland.

Lucky 7

It is incredible to see how much babies change just in 7 weeks. Here is a photo of Sam at seven weeks and one the day he was born! Amazing...

Let's see...this week he started to have somewhat a routine at night...Bath at 8 pm then some milk...then bedtime at 9 pm. He sleeps till 2 am then some more milk...then up at 5 am for some mommy and me time. This is such an improvement from the marathon of feeding him every 1.5 - 2 hours. Thank you Sam! He still hasn't had a bottle, but seems to love mommy's booby juice.

He is a champ at lifting up his head during tummy time and every time we hold him up straight he has to lift up his head to see what is going one. He is really observant.

His smiling is all the time now and I think he recognizes JJ and I and can tell us apart. I guess that is not too hard, since I am the one with the milk on tap...ha ha. But he responds to our voices with slight differences and he also stares at Luka all the time. I wonder what he is thinking about his big brother...probably "please stop counting my fingers and toes" since Luka is obsessed with that. I think he wants to make sure Sam doesn't loose any of them.

Luka has become very overprotective of Sam. If he cries he yells, "Mommy, please help him...he is crying." It is pretty cute.

Sam Perfecting His Morning Smile...

This is Sam's smile at 7 am...after he has been awake and chatting with mommy for about 2 hours.

Baby Group Despedida

For the last couple of weeks we have started to say goodbye to our Maputo "family" and friends. JJ has had parties at work, dinners and colleagues' houses and endless coffee dates. Well I thought....why should the adults have all the fun.

I think Luka and his friends should also be given the opportunity to celebrate their upcoming adventures. As I have mentioned before my Latina friends and I meet every week for a "Baby Group." This week's baby group was a "Despedida" for Max, Nynke and Luka.

Max & Nynke (Paty & Bastiaan's kids) are off to Brazil and Luka will be making is way to Bolivia soon. We hired a face painter to paint the flags on the kids and we had some snacks for everyone. Some of the adults (well Paty and I) even got our faces painted.

Thank you for everyone that attended. The kids really had a great time!

Here is a photo of all the girls....

I managed to hold Luka down for 5 seconds to take a photo...

Here are the "Three Amigos" that we were celebrating...

To see all the photos from the despedida please click here.

Happy Birthday Miguel

Miguel, thank you for inviting us to your first birthday party. The three of us really had a good time. I think Luka's favorite part was the face painting. He was very specific on what he wanted. "I want a purple and silver monster face, Luka told the nice lady painting faces - Angela.

Click here to see all the photos from the party.

Scenes from Our Weekend & Happy Father's Day

First of all let me start by wishing a Happy Belated Father's Day to all the fathers in my life...especially my hubby JJ. I have to make a big confession. I totally forgot it was Father's Day on Sunday...yes, I know...pretty awful. But to my defense, these days with Sam not sleeping and breastfeeding all day long I sometimes forget to brush my teeth and it is hard to find 5 minutes in a span of 24 hours to take a shower... I am a walking "mombie" (mommy zombie).

Okay, but that is no excuse to forget Father's Day. Baby, you deserve to be celebrated and I promise to make it up to you soon!

This weekend we spent the weekend with the kids and watching World Cup Soccer. Way to go Holland. They won again on Saturday and our friends came over to our "temporary" home to watch the game. I can't believe that our best friends are leaving next Saturday. We were posted here together and their family became our family. Bas, Paty, Max & Nynke: We are going to miss you so much...do you really have to go? This is one part that really sucks about diplomatic life. It has its tremendous perks, but losing your friends that have become your surrogate family is really difficult. I can't imagine making such good friends again. La Paz has a lot to live up to. Our time in Mozambique has been so great and our friends were a major part of it.

On Sunday (Father's Day), which I didn't realize until JJ reminded me (after breakfast!) we woke up and took some pictures of the boys. Sam and Luka are both growing up so fast and I realized that I hadn't really taken any nice photos of them together. Don't they look handsome. Luka is really fascinated with his little brother.

Then we were off to the park. There is a new cafe/park in town that JJ loves (least we could do after I forgot about Father's Day). Here you see Luka proudly showing off his new shirt:

Super exciting stuff huh...I hope I am not totally boring you, but I wanted to show off all these photos of our little men.

Oh and when we got home Sam enjoyed hanging out in his borrowed swing. It is called the "Magical Mobile Swing" and it is really magic. That boy takes at least two naps a day on that thing. It gives mommy time to type silly things on her blog...ha ha ha. Thanks Cherry for lending it to us.

Sam Helps with Laundry

For the next 1.5 months we won't have a washer/dryer where we are
staying and you know how much fun that is with two little kids!

Well thank goodness that my friend has given me an all access pass to
her laundry room. Here I am waiting for the laundry and Sam seems to
be content napping on the spinning dryer. The humming has put him
right to sleep. Do you think my friend will let me install the dryer next to
my bed so I can get some sleep. I will even offer to take care of her
laundry.

Ding...one load is done!

Giving Mommy a Break

It has taken many hours of training, but we finally got Sam to take the "dummy" a few times a day. I can't say that he is in love with it...he prefers the real thing...but at least it gives me a couple of breaks during the day.

Sam Learns to Smile

He has done it a couple of times...but this is the first time I caught it on camera! What a cute smirk...

Happy One Month Sammy

Hey Sammy...one month today. Well done! You are grown up so much. You are already weighing 4.61 kg (over 10 lbs.)!!! Today I think you smiled for the first time. Your dad saw you smile as well...now we just have to figure out how to get you to do it more often.

You still are feeding like a mad man...please give mommy a break. For month two the project will be to get you to eat every couple of hours instead of all day. I will work on it with you.

We love you and your Big Brother Luka is fascinated and intrigued by you and doesn't miss a moment to kiss you, touch you or try to make your hands and feet clap. He loves to do that. He also keeps asking me why you don't have teeth or talk yet. We will work on that.

Happy One Month Birthday!

For photos from Sam's first month click here.

Sam & Mommy at the Park

An afternoon in the park on Sam's One Month Birthday!

Moving Day - Part Four

Okay, so it took us 4 days for the movers to pack up and load our
house into the container. 325 boxes/items later I realized we have too
much "stuff."

Wow, that means I have to unpack 325 items in our new home...can't wait!

Here is a photo of Luka as he claims his title as the "King of the
Boxes."

A Little Sad...

This is our first move from a posting and I didn't realize how hard it
would be.

We arrived to Mozambique as newlyweds and we are leaving as a family
of four! We have also made such good friends that have become our
family. I can't imagine making those close bonds again! I made friends
this close once before and it was in Miami where I had lived my whole
life, so I don't know if I will have the same luck a third time.
Amiguis las voy a extranar a todas!

Then there is the house. Luka took his first steps in that house, had
his birthday parties there, slept in his first big boy bed, learned to
throw a ball, etc. Just last night he was asking me to go back home.
How do you explain all this to a 3 year old. Well I tried, and I think
he understood.

For now I leave you with a photo of the chaos that is our house at the
moment. Thank you honey for taking care of everything while I hang out
with Sam.

Sam @ 4 Weeks

Yesterday Sam turned a whole 4 weeks! Here you can see him on my lap
right after dinner...doesn't he look full?

Moving Day

Today we packed up our house and moved into temporary housing. I can't
believe how fast time has gone by.

I have been really worried about Luka and how all these changes would
affect him...but here you can see that he is really happy and adapting
well. I guess it helps that the apartment/hotel we are staying in has
an amazing play area for kids!

I apologize for the short posts...but I am uploading this from my
phone and typing takes way too long.

Get Up & Dance

On Saturday Luka's school celebrated "Dia de Crianca" - Children's Day and Luka and his friends were busy performing all the songs they have learned at school. Many of the songs, like this one, are in Changan - one of the local languages spoken here in Maputo.

Luka particularly loves this song as you can see from his enthusiasm to jump up and be the first one to get up and dance. I hope you enjoy watching Luka and his moves as much as I did.

This boy has loved dancing and music since the moment he came into our lives and his love for anything with a beat continues....

Sam's First Passport Photo

This week we are busy working on getting Sam's American and Dutch passports. We had to take him to get his passport photo done and one of the few places in town is the Chinese Kodak shop. The woman there LOVES to photoshop. If you notice Sam's face looks a little stretched out, but still cute, right? Well, this is the photo that will go in his American passport.

I tried to instill a little bit of tradition and I put Sam in the same shirt that Luka was wearing when he took his first passport photo in the same shop. As I am typing this I am realizing that this is something my mom would always do. If you look at photos from when my sister and I were little it seems that Moqui wore the same thing I did...for example in our Kindergarten photos we are wearing the same dress and like that there are many more examples. I think that as we got older my sister decided she wanted to wear her own clothes...actually as we got older I started to take her clothes.

This was Luka's photo taken in January 2008.

Naptime

Sam taking a nap in his Mozambican bassinet...