"Mommy, you insane!"

"I'm insane?

"Yes, like the cats."



Well, at least I know where he learned that one.

As tomorrow is a holiday and today we had off because our school administrators wisely assumed that few students would come to school on a Monday before a Tuesday holiday, I got up early and went to the 6 AM water bike class. I absolutely love water bike. I feel energized and de-stressed when I leave. Anyone with the opportunity to try it should, in my opinion, and I am constantly badgering people here to come check it out (haven't succeeded yet, though).

Walking back from class at 7 AM, I found myself in the company of at least 50 other people, mostly women, possibly many of them housemaids, on the way to work. I enjoy walking and prefer it to taking the bus if the weather and distance permit. There is a woman who has a juice stand near the pool who was doing a small breakfast rush. A little farther up the street there was a woman all set up to sell "mingal" - kind of pourage like warm sweet breakfast liquidly thing. At the end of my street there is a guy who sells some kind of bread and coffee which I never noticed before (possibly because I rarely walk so early in that direction). It was so pleasant to walk with so many people, I wonder if they found it as pleasant as I did.

Some fun Ju logic from the last weeks:

Reading The Lorax one night with Ju, he noticed the picture of the Lorax lifting himself away by the seat of his pants.
"Mommy, I (mimes grabbing himself by the seat of his pants), I can fly?"


***


During the recent (recent being like in 2008) mayoral elections, there was a jingle for "Nilton 50" that got played so often one could sing it quite easily. My husband took the tune and the slightly modified the words to sing a song about our nanny, Neta, calling it "Neta 40" because she is 40. Ju loved this song and would sing it to her all the time and she adored it (we are SO lucky to have such a great nanny, but that is a story for another post).

One morning this week my husband sang another modified version - "Juju 40" and the following conversation took place:

Maridão - "Eu quero Juju quarenta!"
Ju - "Eu não sou quarenta. Quarenta é de minina. Eu sou quarento!"

For those who don't speak a romance language, there are feminine and masculine words in Portuguese. One cannot use a feminine adjective to describe a masculine object (like Ju evidently realizes himself to be), and Ju realized right away that that "a" at the end of "quarenta" did not match the fact that he is a boy and hastened to correct his father's mistake. He is beginning to become aware of grammar, at least in Portuguese- cool!

(He still says "It didn't was me" though, and "I did see it there, mommy. Yesterday I did see it." )

I have not posted recently not for lack of things to write about, but for lack of wanting to write about whats on my mind because it continues to piss me off. None of what I want to write is pleasant and so I don't write it.