And so another year comes to an end. And to celebrate it, we will leave the city and party all night at a rented house on the beach where some friends of ours are staying. We always travel on holidays in this country it seems. For the life of of me, I cannot remember if we did this in the States. Usually New Years was spent at a friend's house, somewhere close by, or at home, and everyone would drink, have a designated driver home, and sleep it off starting at about 3AM, right?

I spent my last New Years before moving here in NYC's Time Square, just so I could say I did it (froze my ass off standing so far away you could hardly see the ball, for 6 hours in one place, with no way to get out or pee or eat or anything - no drinking either: this is what 9/11 accomplished for us). Last year when we traveled there again to visit, we spent our first New Years as a family in the NYC subway, somewhere in Harlem, trying to visit a friend's party by 12AM.

But for every holiday here, the question is usually "where?" as in another city instead of "what?" as in activity. For São João (in June) we travel to the country side and act likes hicks, drinking and dancing in the main square of some city we would never be in otherwise, and usually where we don't really know a soul who lives there. For minor holidays one might travel to a resort type of area - Guarajuba or Praia do Forte, and spend the weekend. We never want to stay home it seems, enjoy our our surroundings we work so hard to preserve.

Or maybe it's to further avoid cleaning and looking at the mess we have created while the maid is on vacation.

Tuh-oh = turtle. Ju has several small plastic turtles we take to the pool as swimming goals. When he finds one he picks it up and tells us it's a tuh-oh.

Mee-mee = movie/ filme. Usually only one in particular...

Boys and cars....

One of the first things Ju was able to name besides us and the cats was CAR. Cah-oh. Carro.

About a month ago my father sent the movie "Cars." I hadn't actually heard of it before, although products based on it have been flooding my preschool classroom since October. Ju has always be into cars, seems to be a genetic predisposition. He never had any cars really, nothing with wheels, until his nanny told me he liked very much to play with a car-like toy that belongs to his friend Mari, so we went out and bought him one of his own. For months it was almost the only thing he would play with, pushing it around in front of him as he crawled (when he was about 10 months or so).

For his first birthday, one of my good friends gave him a hotwheels she found in her house (she has two grown boys). It was an instant addiction. He would empty a whole box of little toys just to get out the hotwheels and play with it, stand next to the foot stool and "drive" it on the top. It was one of the few toys I took to the States and back, tied to a piece of BomFim tape to save my self from chasing around the floor of the plane when he threw it into the air. While State's side, he acquired a number of new toys, the favorites all having wheels (or related - one of the most popular toys I found for him was a V-tech Baby Driver steering wheel from the 80's).

When we returned, I was "forced" to buy him another hotwheels on two occations that I was out shopping and had to get something to appease him in the cart. Each time he chose orange ones. His father got him large plastic shiny trucks for Children's day presents, and my mother in law sent a Tonka tow truck that I tried to save for Xmas, but he found it and dragged it around in the box until it was liberated.

Now with the arrival of this movie, the obsession is getting worse. Every morning he asks for his "mee-mee cah-oh." And he will proceed to sit down and watch it almost without interruption. It is quite amazing, considering television never interested him for more than 10 minutes until now. While watching he gets all his hotwheels out (Santa filled his stocking with them this year - a motorcycle that is by far the favorite, another orange car that he chose, a bulldozer, a helicopter, and a by-plane) and drives them around, or just holds them in his hands, watching in awe. It's cute and disturbing at the same time.

Is it genetic? Does having a pinto automatically destine you to become obsessed with all things that have wheels? What is the deal? I am pretty sure I didn't foster this based on society stereotypes, so what is it?

Wooooooooo......

Can you tell I am on vacation? Today, so far, I have showered and eaten. I am so productive!

Boo-beh-eez - Blueberries! Ju's favorite fruit (the dried version sent from the states, which is all we can get down here).

A correction on "mah-mão" - lava mão = wash hands, but also means soap in general.

Bah-ee - bike/trike

Tah -o : Towel

He is really trying to talk to me, but it all just sounds like Japanese right now. Except, of course, for the words in the dictionary listed here.

Ju is exploding in vocabulary. He likes to say/imitate all words that end in "ees" - keys, peas.... He also says "juush" when he wants juice. I know what is comming now, just like all big steps: you wait so long for them to talk and then you wish they would shut up.

Bap-pish: Lapiz = crayon. And the crowning achievement with this new word was that when I came home and he said it and I didn't understand and I told him I didn't, he went and got the crayons and showed me what he meant. So smart.

Additional Ju words:

Ow: agua = water in any form, puddle, pool, drinkable or otherwise

Boo-bay: Blueberry - a favorite dry fruit sent by kind grandparents in the States.

He seems to go in and out of wanting to imitate words and not. Some days he says things like "tattoo" but other days he just stares at me. Today he said boo-bay.

Besides saying "gato, Neta, papai, mamãe, mommy, pé, rua" Ju is producing a lot more language than previously understood.

A dictionary of understanding Ju:

OOOOOO-vah: Uva = grape

Ah-poo: apple or any white fruit that you have to cut up (this includes pears) - you'll notice this is the only word besides boob that he uses English

Boo: Boob/ I want a boob to suck on

Too-tah: Ducha = shower and also "I am ready for a nap" since he takes a shower before sleeping

Oh-ão: Avião = airplane or anything else in the sky

Mah-mão: Lava mão = wash my hands/ my hands are dirty/ I want a napkin to wipe my hands

Toh-toh: (I think) cocó = poop/ my diaper is dirty/ I want to take off my diaper

Pehshhhhh: Peixe = fish

Cah-o: Carro = car or anything with wheels

Pah-pah-poo: pato = duck

Pah-pah-too: Sapato = shoe or sandle or anything that goes on your feet

Oof: Lixo = something that goes in the trash, like a peice of paper or lint

Also to be noted: all finger puppets say "tchucka tchucka tchucka" for some reason. And "tugudah tugudah" may mean "agua e gas chegou" or it just might mean "truck."

It seems he has figured out I speak Portuguese, and everyone else is speaking Portuguese, so there is no real need for him to say things in English, since English is something that one person will understand versus the other 10 or so important people in his life, so Portuguese seems to be the way to go.