Beautiful Day in HZT. . .

Today was beautiful in so many ways! The most obvious beauty was the weather. Wow! Gorgeous! Perfect, perfect day!! I wish I could bottle up this day and keep it for a rainy day! We slept in and took our time getting out of bed. We stayed in our pajamas long after we were awake. Kevin cut up a large pineapple and a mango and I was reminded once again of how incredible some of the fruit is here! As the Starbuck's Gold Coast brewed, Emma organized her beads and then we sat on the couch to read. We drank coffee, read, talked about parenting and snuggled, all three of us, on the couch. The windows were open and the air just felt so perfect.
We decided it was too perfect to stay inside, so we decided to go to the fruit/veggie store. On the way there we stopped at the mechanic to make an appointment to have our brakes checked. Kevin began talking with one of the guys, who happened to have a baby girl strapped to his chest. As I sat in the car with Emma, the thought crossed my mind to just stay there. Then it dawned on me that I really wanted to meet this man and his daughter and I figured Emma would want to also. I unbuckled her and we made our way over to Kevin. It's still intimidating for me to have conversations with Brazilians, but it's getting easier all the time. I asked him quite a few questions about his daughter and then he asked if I wanted to meet his wife, who was inside the building. Such a sweetheart, this woman was! I am so thankful I took a tiny step out of my comfort zone to meet the man, his daughter, and then his wife! They have a beautiful, and huge, 7-month old daughter named Julia. (Huge, meaning I thought she was closer to 15 months!!) The husband works at Deere and happens to sit just outside Kevin's office. Lena, the wife, is the secretary for the mechanics, who happen to be her brothers. So we sat and chatted and laughed and I was just a happy camper when we left. It felt so good, like we were actually making an effort to be a part of life here. That's so hard sometimes.
We left the mechanic and drove to the fruiteira, which is a tiny store with just fruits and vegetables that are insanely cheap!! As we were parking, we saw one of our neighbors sitting by her car. She had just left the store and was waiting for her husband, who had gone to another store with their 2-year old. After a few minutes, he showed up and we all stood on the sidewalk chatting, mostly in Portuguese. Their son is absolutely adorable and he chased Emma around trying to give her hugs and kisses. Way too cute! We made our purchases and went home for lunch.
Emma's at the age where she still needs a nap every day, but she can also make it through the afternoon without one if it's necessary. Today was just so beautiful that I decided it was worth it to skip her nap and go to the park instead! I brewed another pot of coffee to take with us and then we drove over to one of the two city parks. Emma took her pink soccer ball and Kevin took a frisbee and we just played together as a family. Our neighbor Glenio and his son Lucas showed up and Kevin talked with him while Lucas played with Emma. Lucas is about 8 or 10 years old and has been very adamant about his dislike for the female gender. However, he just adores Emma and plays with her whenever he sees her! It was cute to watch them play together.
After our time at the park we went to the bakery for fresh juice and then went home. Emma said she thought it would be fun to go for a bike ride and since we didn't have anything else to do, we jumped on our bikes and headed to the other park in town. On our way, we ran into one of Kevin's coworkers so we stopped for a few minutes to talk with him. More Portuguese.
I was riding the bike that holds Emma's seat so that was another new challenge for me. I prayed all the way to the park (about a mile) that she wouldn't fall off of her seat and that I wouldn't wreck the bike. She had her helmet on, but still. . . Well, we made it to the park and Emma took her shoes off to play in the sand. As she was playing in the sand, two little boys crept closer and closer to where I was sitting. Finally, the older of the two began asking me questions, the first being, "Falando em outro lingua?" He had heard me talking to Emma and wanted to know if I was speaking another language. He was four years old and asked about fifty questions in a matter of minutes! The best part for me was that I was able to practice my Portuguese and not worry about whether or not I was making a mistake! He told me all about his mom and dad and how great he was at swinging and then he asked me how to say short phrases in English, like hi and bye. We played at the park for a while and then rode our bikes back home.
Just before we made it to our house, we stopped at our neighbor's house to drop off some Star Wars stickers for Lucas. Claudia and Glenio were home and we chatted with them until Emma informed me with legs spread that she needed to pee. Oops. So we headed home and began preparing supper. Kevin commented that today was just a really good day. I think we agree that it was good because we saw so many people and had so many conversations with Brazilians. A year ago, that would have been so intimidating to me. Today it feels like such an accomplishment and I wanted to do it.
Kevin's leaving Monday for another trip so he's been very purposeful about spending time with Emma. He helped her get ready for bed and when I walked into her room, my heart was just happy. He was sitting on the bed with her, reading books. She was leaning into him and resting her head against his chest, listening to him read. She loves her daddy. I think this was such a great day for us as a family, in so many ways.
Because she missed her nap, Emma's lights were out at 8 and she was asleep shortly after. Kevin and I sat on the couch and talked about the day and realized that it was a good day partly because we had made an effort to get out and interact with people. It was an effort, but it was so worth it. As I was writing this, Kevin asked me what I was doing. I told him it was such a great day that I felt the need to write about it. He remarked, "It's fun to write about the good days, huh?" Yes. Yes, it is.