Little Bright Light

Here I am again, finally, one year later.

Kayla has grown so much and she has become one nutty little girl!

We had the chance to experience a different way a life, different people and different environment in June/July, we went to visit Orlando's family in Brazil, a really very FAR away!!! Being there was nice, but the trip itself, with catching so many planes, the time spent in the air and a bus ride, it was just exhausting!! I enjoyed meeting everyone, they were all very nice, it was nice to get to see other kind of people other than Madeirans for a change and a good change of scenery. I did miss Madeira, I think this is a beautiful island, I missed my family here and Madeiran mountains, but it was just a lovely experience to be in Brazil. What I miss most after coming back, other than the people, is the heat! It was a bit unbearable at times, but I loved it! I know Kayla loved it too! She used to have baths outside in a plastic tub, walk around all day in her panty or nappie, sleep without pajamas, eat ice-cream all the time! That was great! I was a bit sad that Kayla didn't speak much Portuguese while we were there, seeing as her grandparents don't speak English, but now things have changed and our next trip everyone will understand eachother!

Kayla started going to school in August, so she's picked up a lot of Portuguese, I'm proud to say she is bilingual and doing great in both languages, although I think she speaks more English than Portuguese, which is fine, she's only 2 and a half years old, she'll get there! I'm so happy I stuck to my own way of continuing speaking English with her and not listening to other telling me to speak Portuguese to her... She is also doing very well at school, she's adjusted well, although in the beginning I thought she never would. Before she started I thought she'd do great, but her first weeks were terrible, screaming and crying for us not to leave her there, but now she gets there and doesn't even say goodbye, which is a good sign!! She's got her little friends and plays all day, what more could a kid want?! Haha!! Lately it's been so funny, when we go out for her to run around, any little girl she starts playing with is called Carina, I wonder why? :-P It's hilarious!

She speaks so much nowadays and sometimes says things we're surprised at! Words she learns from Strawberry Shortcake, Noddy, Winnie The Pooh or other shows she enjoys watching. It's also so cute to watch her play with her little baby dolls. It's strange that playing with dolls is not something I incentivated her to do, it just came naturally for her, I never wanted to put that stereotype on her, but if that's what she likes, so be it! I've heard it has something to do with the mothering (or is it parenting) she gets, that she imitates it with her toys, which seems true when we watch her play. There are times she puts on my shoes and then I call her mamãe and she pretends to be me, it's really funny! She herself is a little comedian!!! She's got a good sense of humor for her age, are other children her age also like that?

She used to be able to count in English up to 10 without missing a number, but nowadays she skips some on the way, she can ever go up to 20 inEnglishh, but some numbers get lost in space somewhere, haha! Come to think of it, I don't know up to which number she counts in Portuguese, it used to be 6 without missing any a few months back...

She still loves singing and has memorized some songs already, some are half memorized and it's so funny to listen to her sing and make up words along the way.

She's so full of energy she would be good for aenergizerr battery advert! She'd beat all those bunnies!! Haha!! And she'd got a very good imagination, she could play on her own for ages, without paying attention to anyone else.

When she gets a fright with something, she says "I'm scaried" instead of "I'm scared". haha!! And she says "I feld" instead of "I fell". I guess those are normal ways of using language for her age.

The other day I told her not to ask her grandfather for chips or suckers and she got upset, so I asked her if she was upset and said to her that I love her anyway, so she tells me back "No mamãe, don't love me!". Haha! Shame!

When we're home, she hardly ever wants her clothes on, the first thing she does when we get home is take off her socks and shoes and most times her clothes follow! She just loves that! Pity it isn't as hot as Brazil for her to be able to walk around without clothes, even in the Winter, but we're not in Brazil and it's cold here now, so clothes must stay on! Bleh!

She's managed to draw something now, she draws something like a circle with eyes, nose and mouth, hair and ears when we ask where they are and she forgets the rest of the body except for the shoes, she has to draw shoes and when we are the ones drawing a face, she asks for the shoes! She's going to be a shoe person, she's often worried the kids are going to take her shoes from her feet.

She still loves her trusty blanket and her little bear, when she started school she wouldn't leave the bear the whole day, she'd get there holding it and still have it when we went to fetch her, that was her littlsaviorur when she was left in that weird world called School.

Time for bed, there is most probable lots more to tell about my little star, but it's getting late and I need to get some sleep. Hopefully I won't take another year to update on my blog.

All's well in my world!