Hide & Seek

Having fun with Mommy on a rainy day in Rio.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Clara had a fun afternoon at the mall with Vô, vó and Mom. Santa had a train to entertain the kids and Clara loved it!

And on the way back, we got stuck in traffic but we didn't mind much because we had this nice view: 

One more photo shoot :)

Tia Dani went to Vovó Vera's house to take pictures of our awesome Clara. Soon you'll see the results. For now it's just Clara being cute with Dani.

Uncle Josh

Clarinha bonitinha chiling like a vilan with Uncle Josh

She did not stop eating tonight - vegetable soup, fruit "mush", and quasi half a "mamao".  I guess she's a growing girl :-)

It's crazy how "independently" Clara is starting move around - walking, crawling, falling down, getting back up ...

Josh's in Town

 Dr. Hudson is in town to visit ...

 ... and as the nerdy Civil Engineers that we are ...

 ... Joana organized a visit for us to go see the new subway line construction ...

 ... this is the German built Tunnel Drilling Machine called "Tatuzao" ...

 ... Tatuzao means big freaking armadillo ...

 ... parts of it looked more like a space shuttle going to the moon than a tunneling machine digging through Ipanema ...

 ... this is the cutting structure ... at 12.5m it's the largest tunneling machine in South America ...

 ... the machine is brand new and will drill 5km of tunnel before being dismantled and sent elsewhere in the world ...

 ... slightly hung-over ... but still engineer nerds ...

 ... self proclaimed "Sons of the Year"!

 God bless the dried fruits ...

Clara's Birthday - 9 Months - Wow!

 She clapped when we sang her birthday song and was happy as can be!

Mommy's little helper

She's crawling!!!

Check it out ... she's actually crawling ... and moving pretty fast!!!

Clara Dancing!

She definitely didn't get this from her dad - the girl's got rhythm!

Clara in a bucket.

Yes, that's right,  we put Clara in a bucket.  It was so freaking hot today, that we all wished for a bucket of cold water to dive into.  Instead,  we chilled out on the rooftop terrace of the Copacabana Marriott hotel with Cousin Marcus visiting from New Jersey.
It was Black Awareness day today, so I managed to leave work early - I wish we could celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. every day.

Videos ...

Some of these are from a while back ... but still so darn worth watching :-)

Clara is walking ... sort of!

She is simply the best!

It's been too long since my last blog entry ...

When I saw (and when you see) how many pictures I had in my phone since my last blogging session, I was flabbergasted (as you will be from the beauty of my daughter) ... I need to write no more ... simply look for yourself :-)

 Clara found Daddy's back-pack and discovers lots of interesting stuff ...

 Oma Elke with Robert at Parque de Catacumbo

 It was a great little hike on Oma Elke's last weekend in Rio.

 Later that same weekend we went to go see the monkeys with Clara - not sure what she thought of them ...

 But it was quite clear what she thought of Santa Clause: Get me the heck away from this guy!!!

 Pictures from last weekend's wedding: Bruno and Daniela (Joana's cousin) ... above we have Pedro, Paula, and my super stunning beautiful Joaninha ... below it's Sogra and Sogro with "Party Central" and his wife.

 The mother of the Bride - Tia Sete.

The following day we went to a children's birthday party where Clara popped her first balloon - she didn't react as badly as we thought she would - I think Joana and I jumped more than Clara did :-)

And now a random series of pictures ...

 ... of the most beautiful ...

 ... daughter ...

 ... a father could ever hope for ...

 ... 

 ...

 ...

Thank you God - please protect her always!