On the first road trip, watermelons and oranges

So we had our first family road trip. Funnily it happened in Brazil, and not Australia. It was the same way Zoe’s mamae drove so many times, from Sao Paulo to Bandeirantes (felt quite nostalgic!).

This time we didn’t get lost in Ourinhos (the border town between the states of Sao Paulo and Parana), probably because auntie Re wasn’t with us, hehehe. Or more likely because vovozinhos (my parents) made a map for us this time? Ok, you’ll probably think, how about road signs? Oh, this is Brazil, you have to come and see it for yourself 

But little Zoe seemed to have enjoyed it. No vomitting again (hooray!), just a little nappy leak…and you need to see Papa’s nappy changing skills, under 35 degrees and bending over the passenger seat, while mamae laughed and made pics. Zoe slept well, and we manage to cover the 420km just over 6 hours and 5 stops.

Bandeirantes…scorching sun and little action. We’ve been managing walks in the morning (we dared the afternoon once and we didn’t try it again). For some reason (countryside town?) people stare at us, perhaps because the father pushes the pram (in Germany they stared at him because he was caring the babybjorn. So no more staring at my Asian face!).

Bandeirantes has been very relaxing, with vovozinhos and mamae’s cousins, aunts and uncles. And more family to arrive still, and pics later.

And to finish today, I need to tell you our little one started having juices! Yesterday it was watermelon, today it was laranja-lima (a kind of sweet orange). You should have seen her face of disgust, after 1 1/2 tea spoons! But unfortunately we didn’t manage to get that on the pic. So here’s one of Zoe in her pretty lacy dress (I’m sure auntie Sharps would love this one).

London – Sao Paulo

Easy – that would be the best word to describe our flight from London to Sao Paulo. Either we got the hang of it or it was just luck, but this was the easiest flight so far with Zoe sleeping most of the way, no vomiting and being content. …or was it that this time we “only” flew for 12.5 hours, instead of the 22 hours from Sydney to Frankfurt (hahaha).

Anyway, we are glad it all went well and we were very happt that Goiti & Gege (2 of our friends) came to the aiport to pick us up. The rest of the day & the following night we stayed in Sao Paulo at the flat of 2 other friends of ours (Mimi & Waldyr) who very generously offered us their flat for our whole stay in Sao Paulo. Thank you again Mimi & Waldyr!

After a good night sleep we set then off to the home town of Eneida’s parents (called Bandeirantes), which is roughly a 6 hour drive from Sao Paulo (so very close in Brazilian & Australian standards – hahaha), where we still are currently. More on our trip out here and finally some pics, which I need to upload very soon… promised!… really this time for real!

London – part 2

Having spent already so much time with the German family, Zoe had the first contact with the Brazilian family side by meeting her cousin Victor in London. Victor, like Zoe, is a mix of Brazilian, Japanese & European roots (his mum is one of the many of Eneida’s relatives; his dad is Polish). So it was only natural that the 2 children had directly a chat on the sofa to discuss the usual topics of cross-cultural upbringing, identity loss and the questionable state-of-mind of their parents. Below an excerpt of their “conversation” – with slightly biased written comments added by Victor’s dad (Thanks so much Jarek!) and off-screen comments spoken by Victor’s mum (Thank you Lu for “encouraging” them to hold hands).

Frankfurt – London

Second leg of our trip around the world to see family & friends.

All went well and we have arrived safely in London. However, Zoe was very sad leaving Oma, Opa & Aunty Bine behind. This sadness leaving Germany, upset her so much that she vomited twice on the short 1 hour flight… or was it all the German sausage she was sick of (hahaha). 

At last, we arrived in Heathrow; got to the car rental, where Daddy spent the next 2 hours trying to fit the rented baby seat in the rented car (Daddy needs for sure some more practice!). We set finally off to the home of Lu & Jarek, where we arrived after a short trip with a screaming Zoe who was by now fed up off travelling and wanted to sleep & being fed. Then we opened our suitcases to unpack (again!) and finally all relaxed after a long day.

Enough for today, more of our adventures in the kingdom soon…

What Zoe learnt about Germany…

There were so many new things for our little one here, which she seems to have soaked in like a sponge. It has been a busy 12-day trip, with many new people cuddling Zoe and giving her their full attention. Nene and I are wondering how she will cope when we are back in Sydney and there is no 24/7 special attention – just boring Papa & Mamae. Ah well.

Anyway, here are some of her discoveries in Germany so far. She has found out that:

• She has a loving Opa, who is so much fun to have around, tells her always silly things. I wonder how this will affect her development and even doesn’t smoke around her!! We know what a sacrifice this must have been be for him
• She has a loving Oma, who spends hours talking to her in their secret language. Again I wonder what an effect this might be on her development…, goes for walks with her, even if she has still problems walking with her ankle
• She has a loving aunt & uncle (Sabine & Stefan) who get her LOADS of presents
• 
• That Germany can be quite cold in November and you have to dress up for a polar expedition (vovozinha Dalia would love it here!
• That driving fast over the “Autobahn” is a lot of fun – ah she is Papa’s girl!
• Autumn is full of yellow, brown, and red leaves
• Daylight is completely gone by 5pm

In summary, it was a lot of fun in Germany and sooo many things had to be discovered. So, for now we are saying “Auf Wiedersehen” Germany and “Hello” England.

Sydney – Singapore – Frankfurt

Well, finally we manage to update you all on our flight from good, old Australia to good, old Germany. Basically, it went all really well and we all managed to survive the 22hr flight across 10 timezones and 2 different climates (so much about the stats).

However, it all started as chaotic as our last few weeks have been. We packed our final things and took a taxi to the airport (even arranged a baby seat for the taxi). We left plenty of time for check-in, so that we were at 2pm at the airport and our flight would leave only at 5pm. After arriving in the departure hall we were checking the display with all flights to find our check-in desk. To our surprise there was no flight to Frankfurt at 5pm, instead they had changed our flight to 3pm! The next 30 minutes we spent rushing like mad through check-in, security and boarding to fall finally back into our seats while the doors were closed and we were off. Zoe didn’t like this rush too much and decided to protest against this abrupt departure by vomiting shortly after the start.

Thankfully, in Singapore we could all relax a bit and the flight onwards then to Frankfurt was very smooth & quiet. Zoe was very good and she was fascinated by all the lights in the aeroplane and it was always a delight to her when the “Fasten seatbelt” sign went on. In addition she slept most of the time and Nene & I could enjoy a few naps too. Well, and that’s that.

So, now we know roughly what to expect for the upcoming legs of our trip. In regards of jetlag, we have all adjusted ourselves somehow to the time here and Zoe is, after a few disrupted nights, again back on track, which makes life easier to all of us.

More about our time here & pictures soon to come…

…and they are off

Just a quick update before we board the plane tomorrow. It’s all a bit frentic at the moment (at the moment?) but somehow we are getting somewhere. We have dusted off our suitcases, triple-checked with airlines our luggage allowance – not to get a bad surprise – and have started packing (again!).

We are getting already all excited (see pic) to see most of you very soon and to show off Zoe to everybody. Zoe is relaxed as always and hasn’t picked up on Nene & my nervousness to fly with her for 22 hours tomorrow. We guess she will be fine and it will be us who will be stressed – is that  pretty much the essence of parenthood?

We send our love to you all. The next update will come from Germany, where we are from the 6th to the 18th of November.

Where is Zoe?

…ah, with mamae…

Sabber-baba

…or the dribbling has begun. Zoe’s muccus glands are in full swing and she dribbles over everything… and with everything I mean EVERYTHING. Anyway, I think this good training for next year when the drooling will be extended to all kinds of foods which we will find in & around her mouth, the flat and us. Mental note: need to buy more H&M clothes…

Funnily, the start of the sabber/baba is at the moment still linked to her tiredness, meaning the muccus gland get only going when she is very tired (see pics). Otherwise, things have been well. Zoe is sleeping very good, although the falling a sleep depends on how exciting the afternoon was. She has also quickly adapted to the new apartment, which she needed to because we are going to drag her once around the globe starting on Wednesday. Poor thing (or in vovozinha’s words: tadinha!), with such parents as us.

Nene just mentioned to me casusally that we  haven’t actually prepared anything yet for the trip and we should start thinking about what to pack & take. Thankfully we have our tickets & passports, which are the most important things, the rest hopefully will find itself. Regardless of what we are going to pack, I am sure Nene will find anyway some excuse to go shopping for her & Zoe in all the countries we are going to visit

The flat is also getting slowly ready before we go so that we don’t leave a too big mess behind. We emptied today the last boxes and the flat looks directly much more tidy & spacious. We really like it here and the neighbours we have met are also friendly, which is always a good sign. Once we are back from our trip we will hopefully enjoy this place for quite a while. Below a few pics from our new place.