Preparing for Our Gotcha Day...

A few days ago I was talking to Luka about his Adoption or Gotcha Day and our plans for the celebration. It is coming up on the 30th of November. I asked him if he wanted me to go to his class and read our favorite book about adoption, but he said something that worried me, "Mommy, I don't want to read the book about adoption because not all the kids in my class know what adoption means."

I could sense his hesitation and even though I explained to him that the reason we read the book is to celebrate the day, but more importantly to teach his classmates what adoption is all about...just like we did last year with the 6 Kindergarten classes. He said, "Okay, Mom." But that okay mom didn't leave me thinking he was convinced.

We love love this book - I Wished for You: An Adoption Story. It not only talks about adoption, but specifically interracial adoptions and deals with the topic of the birth mother...really an amazing book. But although we love the book...I thought Luka needed a new way to address the topic of adoption to his 1st grade class. You know there are "big" kids now and maybe a book with Bailey the Bear wasn't cool enough.

So off to Pinterest I went in search of some much needed inspiration....I can't believe I never thought of this angle before...some amazing super heroes are adopted!!!!! When I told Luka his face lit up and I knew he couldn't wait to share the news with his friends. "Mom, for real...like how...who adopted them...they were not in their mommy's belly...how did they become super heroes?"

This is the plan, we will read our book...it is our book after all and I rarely get through it without shedding tears and Luka always cuddles up next to me just as Bailey does in the book with his mom. It melts my heart every time. The book is also a great way to talk about many of the issues that surround adoption. 

But once we read the book, share our personal adoption story and talk about the first time I held Luka and he peed on me (he loves that). We will end with a POW...super hero style and ask the class if they know who else is adopted....Batman, Superman and Spiderman are...that's who!

We made these little cards to put in the goodie bags we will distribute to the class. The idea is that they take the card home and discuss what they heard in class with their families. The more they talk about adoption and get familiar with it the more "normal" it will become for them.

Luka goes to a HUGE school with not many children of color or adopted for that matter. My hopes is that we educate these kids one at a time and that at least his classmates can become mini ambassadors and if someone at recess says something about Luka's mom being white or about his skin color (which happens more often than what I would like) they will say, "Hey, don't mess with Luka...Did you know Superman was also also adopted! Luka has super powers." Okay, scratch the last part...but you get the idea.

But let's see how it goes. What do you guys think? Good or bad idea...Motherhood is trial and error, no?

Losing a Loved One from Far Away

I still remember the day in 4th grade when my dad picked me up at school to tell me my grandfather Evaristo had passed away. It was the first time I remember dealing with death in my immediate family. I was sad, but Yeyo Evaristo (like I used to call him) had been battling cancer for a long time and recently taken a turn for the worse.

My father NEVER picked me up at school...so I knew something was up. I was sad, but I was happy to go straight to my grandmother's house where I could give my abuela and mom a big hug. In times like this it is important to be a family and hold each other tight.

Last week Luka and Sam (although Sam is still very little) had to deal with the first death of a grandparent. Opa Johan (married to JJ's mom) passed away in his sleep. I had the job of telling Luka as daddy was in transit back to Chile, just to have to jump on a plain straight to Holland to get there as soon as possible to help his mother with all of the arrangements and be there for her.

After school I sat Luka at home and explained to him what had happened. At first he didn't get it. "You mean I won't get to see him again" and "Mommy I am sad" are things he said. After a little while he asked how he died, then he asked about his Oma and wanted to make sure no one else had died. He was really worried. Poor little baby. As the days have progressed he keeps asking questions and saying things like:

"Mom, I am sad about Opa Johan, but I can still feel him in my heart"

"I know he is in the clouds with Tia Georgina (my great aunt that passed away 2 years ago)."

"Mom, do you know where in the sky Opa Johan is? I want to know the exact place."

"Mom, don't you see him up there...I do."

He also has been a little down that he can't be with his Dutch family at this moment grieving for his Opa. Again, one of the major drawbacks of this life, but realistically it wasn't possible for all four of us to go at this time. He asked about what his Dad was doing there and why he had to be there so many days?

This is a milestone I didn't want to have with my boys so early in their life, but we can't pick these moments. They just come and we have to deal with them.

Last night they drew these masterpieces so that Opa Johan could "take" with him. Luka's is pretty self-explanatory. The Dutch line at the top reads "For My Grandpa...I Love You."

Sam was really funny. I asked him to draw a picture for Opa and he drew a airplane headed to Holland and asked for my help in drawing the four of us. His instinct was that we all had to be together.  Children are amazing!

Opa Johan. We will miss you! You were an amazing husband to Oma Joke (JJ's mother). Your love for her was evident every moment we shared with both of you during the summers and holidays. Your attention to detail was flawless...whether it was preparing the perfect dinner menu or chronicling family memories in a scrapbook (you know how much I loved that) you made everyone feel special. I loved scanning the books with the boys during our visits and seeing every photo and note we sent you displayed for everyone to see. Comfort comes with the fact that you passed away peacefully in your sleep and in one of your favorite places in the world - your house in France. Thank you for never letting us forget to enjoy life!

Keeping Traditions as an Expat

The holidays are around the corner and I have been thinking about establishing traditions for our family. As an expat family this can be challenging at times, not only have we lived on 3 continents and 5 houses in the last 8 years, but coming from different backgrounds (Dutch, Cuban, American, Mozambican) we also have different traditions to keep in mind. 

In Holland they celebrate Sinterklaas, in the US we have Santa Claus, in my house my parents also celebrated "Los Reyes." In Chile they have "El Ratoncito" (little mouse) instead of the tooth fairy. It makes it a little challenging to keep your story straight with the kids. Somehow it works and our boys are lucky enough to celebrate them all no matter what country we are living in.

Oh, the most confusing thing for me and something I am still not used to (even after almost 8 years) is celebrating Christmas in the summer!?!??!?!?

But one holiday tradition that was very important in my house growing up and specifically with my mom was HALLOWEEN. She always made sure I had the perfect costume and she always made the costume or had someone make it for me. Every year I looked forward to this very special time of preparing for Halloween. Whether it was Wonder Woman, Roger Rabbit, a ballerina, a genie...the costume was always perfect and I always felt like the princess at the ball, yes, even dressed up as Roger Rabbit!

This is one tradition that belongs to me...the American...and my kids love it. Honestly my husband doesn't really get into it. Although Halloween is slowly lurking into every corner of the world it is still a fairly new "holiday" in countries outside of North America.  But Luka and Sam love dressing up and coming up with ideas for costumes even more!

Above you can see a celebration of our Halloween costumes over the past 6 years. I must confess...Yes, we have costume changes every year. At least the boys do. Luka and Sam love to play dress up on a regular basis (that box gets the most use in my house) but to have it officially be a day to be in costume and go outside into the real world like that...well this is heaven for them. Sometimes I dress up with them. As Luka has grown up he has asked me to participate and be part of the costume...who am I to disagree?

I hope other expat families also have traditions they keep alive overseas.

This holiday season I will be working on starting some new traditions as well as keeping some old ones  alive:

- Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner

- Celebrating Sinterklaas

- Writing Letters to Santa

- Leaving Cookies for Santa

- New Christmas PJs for the whole family

- Noche Buena Dinner....Cuban Style

- 2nd Christmas Day...Yes, in Holland they keep Christmas going and the 26th is also a Holiday

- Visiting a charity or doing some type of volunteer work on or around Christmas Day (we started this last year)

- Los Reyes

- Christmas Book Countdown...this will be a new one. We will unwrap and read a different book everyday until Christmas. This is a good year to start since Luka can read many of the books to us.Here is the link to the idea.

I also have a homework assignment this Christmas season: Trying to incorporate a Mozambican tradition into our repertoire of holiday activities. Maybe a recipe, activity, book, song....to all my friends that had the joy of living in Mozambique with me...any ideas? 

Okay... Happy Holiday and lets start making memories!

Oh, here is one photo I forgot to include in the collage. I love this costume for the boys, but honestly Luka wasn't too excited with it...good thing he was also Prince Charming that year.

20 Years...Say It Isn't So!

Wow, has it really been 20 years since my High School graduation from St. Brendan High School. A few weeks ago I was able to travel to Miami and back in time for this momentous occasion. Luckily I have stayed in contact with quite a few of my friends from high school, even with so many miles between us. I left Miami 8 years ago but Facebook, the blog and email has made it easy to stay in touch with lots of folks. But there were sooo many other people I hadn't see and it was amazing to reconnect.

I was honored to be on the planning committee along with fellow classmates Javi, Dunia, Ivette, Esther and Rosy. We had numerous conference calls, emails and managed to plan it all while we each were all over the place. But I have to give a HUGE thanks to the school. Recently they made a big commitment to their Alumni Program and hired a dynamite coordinator...the weekend was a success and it could have been possible without them.

Unfortunately I went stag..my hubby was at home taking care of the boys. It was a little expensive for all of us to go to Miami just for the weekend. The funny thing is that I went alone to my 10-year reunion...never had a date for high dances and finally when I get to "show off" my wonderful husband and beautiful boys I end up going alone..oh well. I did have plenty of photos on hand to gush about Sam and Luka. Although going alone did let me be the social butterfly and chat with everyone. Here is a photo of the girls that went solo to the reunion. Who needs a date anyway? Don't we look good?

That's me and Barbie...one of my BFFs. We have been friends since we were 5!!! 

Little did I know that when I went to St. B with Isa that we would be sorority sisters in college. GO KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA...small world. 

I have to say that most of the folks at the party looked amazing and we all looked much better than at our 10-year reunion...I guess age has agreed with us. But there were some people that "wow" they must be taking anti-aging pills...they looked INCREDIBLE. I need their secrets.

Guess what...this mommy went out clubbing after the party. I think it had been like 5 years since I had stepped foot inside of a club. It isn't something I would like to do on a regular basis, but it is always fun to step out of your comfort zone and "party like its 1999" (I guess that reference doesn't work anymore).

Here we are at Fifty. You know the club has to be rocking if a tequila shot is $20 USD.

Well, here is looking to the 25-year reunion!

I Miss You La Paz!

If I am going to be completely honest...the first couple of months we lived there I wasn't in love with La Paz. A year and 10 months after we arrived we had to leave the post early and I was devastated. I had fallen in love with Bolivia! Time went too fast...we didn't get to know "her" as well as we wanted to. We are planning to go back and visit some of the places that you have to "check off" your list if you live in La Paz...maybe February....I hope we can make that trip happen!

I don't know if La Paz has as big a chunk of my heart as Mozambique..but in all fairness we lived in Maputo for four years and I "had" both of my babies there...it was our first expat post...we made friends that are our family now...but every time I think of Bolivia I feel guilty that we didn't travel as much as we should have and I regret "not loving" her for the first couple of months. It wasn't fair. I missed Maputo so much I wasn't giving Bolivia a chance.

This video was created by ACS (the American School in La Paz)....it brought back many memories. Great job on the video!

I miss you LP!

Neverland Places Third

This year the boys wanted to dress up like the characters from Peter Pan. Luka's first thought was Wizard of Oz, but one day he just said, "No, I want to be Peter Pan and you can dress up as Wendy mommy." Who am I to argue with a great idea. Well, Sam was eager to be Hook and we even managed to recruit a Princess Tiger Lily & Tinkerbell to join our "Neverland Crew." 

Yesterday was the Halloween Festival at Luka's school and we placed 3rd!!!! Prize winning group....we were very excited.

Can't wait...we still have the actual day of Halloween to dress up!

Child Friendly Wine Tour...Seriously

Back in March our friends the Miranda Family came to Santiago. We were ecstatic to have our very good friends come and visit. We met them when were lived in Maputo, Mozambique.During our first post we had close knit group of friends and they were also experiencing their first taste of life abroad.We were all around the same age and by the time we left Mozambique we all had kids around the same age. Something happened during that post that our friends became our family...now these folks are posted all around the world, but we all keep in touch. Some of us have visited each other, but I know that we are still very "present" in each other's lives. Well, the Mirandas we part of our Maputo family and it was truly special to have them visit us in Santiago. 

They were with us for 10 days and during that time we thought it was going to be hard to take 5 kids (all 7 and under) to a wine tasting. Come on...we have to be crazy! But low and behold we went and all of us had a great time.

About 1.5 hours from our house in Santiago is Concha y Toro and we signed up for the traditional tour. I think it was around $16 per person and kids were free. I believe that was after a discount from my cell hone carrier (you can always find a discount in Chile).  

The kids are best buds. Even though it has been three years since they saw each other they didn't skip a beat and were inseparable. 

My Sammy Whammy...ready to taste some wine or something.

Here we are ready to learn about some delicious wines. 

First we had a tour of the grounds. They are spectacular and there is lots of room for the kids to run around while we try and hear some of the history of the magnificent estate. 

Then it was off to a section of the vineyard where we were able to pick grapes and taste different varieties...did you know they have 26 varieties of grape! Sam loved this part. 

Luka is wondering why this creepy hand is offering him some grapes. 

After the vineyard we sampled three different wines. Yes, they gave each of the adults three different wines to taste (almost three full glasses). They answered questions and shared a little about the ones we tasted.

Then we were taken to the cellar and discussed how the wines were stored. Cue in scary music....from there we were taken to the Casillero del Diablo. Here is an excerpt from their website about this legend:

The beautiful vineyards of Casillero del Diablo are home to some of the finest wines in the world. But few outsiders know the dark secret that lies beneath them. For the locals say that in the depths of the cellar lives the Devil himself. A tale so infamous, they named the wine Casillero del Diablo, the Devil’s Cellar.

The kids were a little freaked out with this part. It was dark, cold and creepy. But after it was all one (about 3 minutes) they thought they were very cool and for surviving and Luka still talks about it months later. You can learn more about the legend here.

After the cellar tour we were taken to a final "one glass" wine tasting, where we sampled a special blend and the souvenir etched glass was ours to take home.

All that drinking and excitement left us all very hungry. We stayed for lunch at the restaurant. The food was good and the kids were happy with their yummy pastas and parents were happy eating and having one more glass of wine! 

NOTE: Yes, I was driving, but I never drank all the glasses they offer in its entirety....just a taste. If you do drink the four glasses of wine they give you and then have more wine at lunch you will definitely need a designated driver.

Here is a photo of Sam at lunch making his own blend. He kept the grapes he picked from earlier in the tour..sneaky boy!

I totally recommend this tour with kids. If you don't have the kiddos with you then you can probably go on a more serious wine tour (plenty to choose from in Santiago) but this was perfect for us.

A Perfect Santiago Sunday

Once in a while there aren't any BBQs, school events, birthday parties, things to fix around the house, handymen to wait for, work to do and you can explore the city and take your time to enjoy the day. Honestly, this doesn't happen often, but a couple of weeks ago it did and the four of had a great Sunday.

As you can see from the photo above Luka was ready to go and wanted to get the perfect outfit. Here is what we did on our Santiago Sunday....

We headed to Tiramisu - our favorite pizza place in the city. It is a little pricey, but worth it and totally deserved on our special day. We arrived a little early, but luckily there was a little fair on the street close by so we perused while we waited for our table to open up.

Do you think we have enough food on the table? Lunch was delicious! If you live in Santiago you have probably been to eat at this Italian restaurant...if not...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

At the time Luka was studying the Solar System at school....the "Planetario" was the place to go. I was pleasantly surprised. It is small and perfect for small kiddos...not super high tech, but it has some interactive exhibits, a craft room/activity for kids, 3D movie and the dome with the stars and planets was AWESOME. 

"Mom, where is Chile?"

"Hey, I am an astronaut guys." 

Don't we look goofy? 

From there we were on our way home, but not before a nice walk to the metro. Here is Estacion Central...actually the first time we walked by it. Nice building.

We found a vendor selling these cute hats. Luka went with Angry Birds and Sam a pitufo (or otherwise knows as a Smurf in English).

We arrived back on the Metro and here we are walking back to our car parked in Daddy's office. JJ works in a lovely part of town.

Scenes from Our Staycation

The week of "Dieciocho"is sacred in Chile. September 18th is Independence Day in Chile and they take an entire week to celebrate the occasion...yes kids are out of school, parents are out of work and it is time to party and, what most people to...TRAVEL. Santiago is EMPTY...I kind of like being the city when there is no one else around. You sort of have your own quiet playground.

We would have liked to take the week to explore a new city in Chile or take a quick trip to a neighboring country, but JJ and I both have quick trips to the states planned for October and then I will go with the boys for 4 weeks in January. This means we are in saving mode so a "staycation" was the perfect money saving option. Daddy also had to work so Mommy was the staycation coordinator, but with help from the boys.

The Saturday before the start of the staycation I sat with the boys and came up with a "to do" list for the week. 

1. Complete Photo School Yearbook for Luka & Sam (2012-2013)

2. Go to a Fun Park

3. Organize Lego & Playmobil

4. Ice Skating

5. BBQ with Friends

6. Go to the Movies

7. Play date w/ Jacobo

8. Go on a Family Hike

9. Play w/ Linda

10. Arts & Crafts

Okay, that is a pretty comprehensive list that we all contributed to. Can you figure out which ones mommy put on the list?

No, let's take a trip around Santiago and see what we really did on our "staycation."

Sunday, was our "unofficial" start of the staycation and the entire family went to the Costanera Center. We got to walk around the quiet city a little and then catch a movie at the tallest building in South America!

We parked at JJ's office and walked from there. Here you can see the bleachers ready for the big parade in town to celebrate on September 18th.

First order of the day was LUNCH. We went to the food court and everyone picked something different. JJ and I had from "Take a Wok" - fresh wok dishes custom made fresh. It was delicious. 

Movie Time...we saw Airplanes...very cute movie! Here the boys took a photo with "Berry" - new character from the sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs....looking forward to that one too.

Monday...first official day of the staycation and I asked Luka was he wanted to do and he said lunch at Ruby Tuesday...score, I love their Carolina Chicken Salad.

My boys really love this restaurant. They always pick a pasta dish..nice break from burgers and fries. After lunch we went to the mall and visited some art shops to buy supplies for projects this week.

Tuesday was stay at home day...we had to wait for the plumber and gardener and were home ALL DAY.

Wednesday...whoo hoo...today we see Dinosaurs come to live at "Explora" - a special exhibit put on by the Buin Zoo. The event was at a local mall, right next to a great park. After the dinosaur experience we organized a picnic.

Sam was kind of scared inside...those dinosaurs looked real and were HUGE! By the end Sam was a little calm and excited to sit on this "little" guy to pose for a picture.

We spent the afternoon with our good friends Jake, Maya and their mommy at Parque Araucano. This park has many things to do. Here are Luka and Jake enjoying the large playground area. 

The kids spent a good 30 minutes in here looking at the birds. I might have to build one of these at home if they like it that much.

The park is also perfect to ride bike with the little ones. We didn't bring the bikes this time, but we will very soon.

Thursday....Luka went to work with Daddy and Sam stayed home with Mommy to prepare the house for the BBQ with friends we had later that day. I think he enjoyed baking the best. Look at my little sneaky Sam eating the cake batter.

Wednesday....yes, I went over to the dark side and took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. I am not a big fan of this place, but the boys love it. Honestly, it was so empty that it was quite okay. But my biggest complaint is the price. Each coin is about 50 cents (US). It took about 15 minutes for the boys to go through $30 USD worth of coins. I don't think it is that expensive in the US. 

Here they are very proud of their winnings. 

One of our prizes was a bag of cotton candy. Sam was all over that, Luka not so much. 

It was Luka's choice for lunch and he asked for Sushi. So we headed to Sakura Express - our favorite Sushi joint where we get 40% off with our Claro cell phone. But oh no...it was a "holiday" so they didn't honor coupons. Well, that means that we will spend about $100 USD for sushi...I don't think so. I had promised Luka sushi so we got his roll to go and walked over to Burger King for the rest of the family. Sam was very happy! 

Saturday we went to Chicureo with some friends and had lunch at one of our favorite weekend spots - El Establo. The kids really love to play on their Western themed playground. Oh, no...they got arrested. They must have been up to no good.

El Establo offers FREE face painting & animal balloons for the kids. Sam was feeling like a superhero that day.

Sunday...do we really have to go to school tomorrow? YES!!!!! This mommy is ready for staycation to be over. That is the thing about school holidays...not really a holiday for the parents, well not all the time.

Sunday the boys wanted to see snow...they got dressed and ready to go all on their own. We tried, but we left a little too late. It was 2:15 pm when we headed up, but the police asked us to turn around. They had shut down traffic up the mountain. We should have known, it was too late.

The boys were disappointed for about 5 minutes, but we did have the chance to discover a new AMAZING park - Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura.

The park is gorgeous with different playground areas, nice trails for a bike and look they even had FLAMINGOS!!! Cool, we feel right at home...missing Miami.

You could buy food to feed them. 

The highlight of the visit were our ice cream popsicles. I wondered what all the fuss was about. The line for the ice cream truck was dreadfully long and at $3 USD a pop I thought they were a bit overpriced, but they were totally worth it...YUMMY! If you go to the park on the weekend don't leave without sampling one of these treats. We had pineapple and chocolate. They were both delicious, but the chocolate was the best...so rich and creamy...not what I expected from ice cream on a stick. 

That is a wrap for our Santiago Staycation.

To recap, this is what we got to check off our original list:

1. Complete Photo School Yearbook for Luka & Sam (2012-2013) (actually 80% done)

2. Go to a Fun Park

3. Organize Lego & Playmobil (i am overwhelmed by this project. still no clue how to tackle it)

4. Ice Skating (the rink was closed for the season)

5. BBQ with Friends

6. Go to the Movies

7. Playdate w/ Jacobo (not able to organize with him, but had other play dates)

8. Go on a Family Hike (it was our plan on Saturday, but the weather was cold and wet)

9. Play w/ Linda

10. Arts & Crafts

Not bad...