Just as we run into the predicament with the post office, the giant washing machine sized box (actually the box it might have come in, to be more exact on sizing) that minha sogra sent sometime in February or March arrives. Within it were hidden: a new computer keyboard, a toaster oven, and a television. I have no idea how this got past customes. From the amount of things contained in that box, you would think we would have had to pay R$1000 or more in taxes, no even considering the television... It is a mystery.

Sorting through it took over an hour. There are countless things, mountains of clothing (most of which we will give away), and about 20 onesies for Julian. I don't know what to do with all of this stuff. Right now it's just piled all over the living room and the entire downstairs smells like the U.S. (or maybe this is just the scent of things that have been mailed). Lela had great fun jumping in and out of the box. Ona and Julian are oblivious. They are a lot alike in that way.

Ju is becomming like a real person. He follows things with his eyes and even kind of has some different sounds now, beside just crying. He also whines now. Last night he let me sleep, but I woke up with a horrible migrain headache, probably caused by the yellow fever vaccine I got yesterday when he was getting his second Hep B innoculation. It felt like I ate a tomato. I should have eaten one just to taste it again, as long as I was going to feel like crap anyway...

Today I found I can fit into my cute short skirts again (how appropriate is it that a new mom wear this sort of clothing, I don't know...), but I still have a major gut and love handles to loose. The great and wise Caryn says I should do weighted side bends to loose the love handles. I hope 4.5 kilos is enough weight, since that is what ju weighs. He has gained 1.5 kilos since birth- a little over a month ago. Big boy. Big Jujube.

I will update the this week in Bahia site today. I meat to update it a few weeks ago, but forgot. I got some lovely shots on the way to the pediatrician's yesterday, so there will be lots to look at. I'll put up the old ones too, from two weeks ago or when ever it was, just for entertainment value.

Note to anyone anywhere thinking about mailing anything to Brasil:

There is a limit on tax free things comming into the country. I have no idea what the yearly limit is, if there is one, but I do know for sure that any box/envelope is only tax free up to $50. After that amount, or if the postal employees determine that the worth is over $50 when they open the box (they might), the recipient must pay 100% of the value, or something similar to that, in order to recieve the box. So in the end, the person sending it pays for it, pays to mail it, and then the recipient pays for it again.

So right now, there is a box with my name on it at Correios, that I must pay R$146 to recieve. We don't have this money. So the box will have to sit there for an undetermined amount of time. I have no idea who it is from.