We're well into our third year here in Sao Paulo, Brazil and life has never been busier! The school year is off to a good start and Dan and I have both taken on new positions and responsibilities in the school. Dan is the new math department head this year and has weekly meetings and lots of new responsibilities. He continues to enjoy teaching the IB higher level math classes. In preparing for our cottage renovations, he blew everyone away by redesigning the math office. Nobody realized that there was so much space in the old, cluttered office.
Kim is the new fourth
grade team leader this year and has been on lots of committees. One of the committees that took up so much of my time was to find the new superintendent of our school for next year. There were 12 members of the committee, only three of them being teachers, and we spent three months looking over resumes, checking references, conducting phone interviews and ultimately inviting two candidates to the school for four days. Just this past week we received word that our first choice of candidate accepted our offer and now OUR JOB IS DONE! I also have started taking my reading specialist part 1 course online so this has added to the list of things to do.
Gavin is having a great year and is talking up a storm. He enjoys his K3 class at school. He goes from 8:00 - 12:00 every day and is in a Montessori class with 3,4 and 5 year olds. His classroom is just down the hallway from mine so I get to see him most days. He can count to 12, he sings the ABCs and lots of other songs. Dan is teaching Gavin to swim and has made some progress. Gavin will now go in the indoor pool at our complex without his water wings (he can just barely touch the bottom). Gavin is a fantastic older brother and, knock on wood, we have not seen the jealousy that sometimes comes with a younger sibling. He is usually very gentle with Zoe, he shares his toys with her and he loves being with her. The most exciting, recent news with Gavin is that he just went coco (poop in Portuguese) in the potty! This has not been an easy task and Dan, and I, have spent a lot of time with him in the bathroom. Friday and again Saturday Gavin did it! Yesterday Dan and Gavin
made a "coco cake" and we celebrated last night! Although Gavin says he does not want to do it again as "it's too hard", we're hoping that it will become a habit.
Zoe is probably the cutest baby I've ever seen. She is an absolute joy! She laughs and growls all the time and lights up as soon as she sees Gavin. She has been consistently sleeping through the night for quite some time and is generally a good napper, too. Tomorrow
she will turn 10 months old. She has two teeth on the bottom and four coming in the top. She crawls speedily and pulls up onto everything. I predict that she'll be walking by Christmas. She loves being in the water and can't keep her face out of it! We really have to watch her in the pool as she's not afraid of the water at all unlike big brother!
Summer is upon us here in Sao Paulo. Today the temperature should get up to around 30 degrees Celsius and we will likely spend most of the day at the pool with friends. The complex we live in has three outdoor pools and one indoor pool. There is a lunch restaurant outside, beside the pools and we usually plant ourselves there for most of the day. We still have our nanny, Roquelina who we absolutely love. She stays with the kids while we are at work. She loves Zoe and Gavin and the kids are very happy with her. We're planning our Halloween party with friends in our complex and I'm trying to find a Superman costume for Gavin. Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Brazil so it's not easy to get candy or costumes. I might reuse Gavin's first dog costume for Zoe with the addition of a pink bow on the head. Most people here think Zoe is a boy. I think it's because her ears aren't pierced, something most Brazilians do in the first few days of life before they even leave the hospital.
So far this year we've had a trip to the beach and last weekend we headed to the mountains, to a place called "Campos do Jordao" with two other Canadian families. We had a GREAT time and
some of the pictures on this posting are from that trip. We don't have much in the way of travel planned until we leave for Christmas. Now that the weather is nice it's perfect just to stay in our condominium complex and we can save our money for our trip home. We are headed home for one month (Dec. 18 - Jan 18) and are very excited about it. I can't wait for our families to see Gavin and Zoe. I expect this will be a fun Christmas for Gavin. He knows who Santa is and I'm sure will be a big believer! I'm also sure that Zoe will be a terror around the Christmas trees. There will not be much rest for the adults around her!
We are easy to get in touch with these days with Vonage. Our number is: 705-812-0848 (this is an Ontario number) and we love to hear from people. Hopefully we will get a chance to see lots of friends over the holidays.
Take care and thanks for reading this long Blog post
Love, Kim, Dan, Gavin and Zoe
Here is a short Video of Gavin dancing with his best friend and classmate Sophia at a fondu restaurant we were eating at over the weekend. Sorry the lighting is bad.
Just a little more than two weeks until the Bentley crew heads back to Canada for the holidays. We are so excited to get back and see everyone. Gavin can't wait to make a snowman and Zoe can't wait to show off her walking and pull down a Christmas tree or two.
