Randoms

love creativity

 the things we do for our kids

 not as bad as I thought it was going to be

 Mati insisted we make a giant pen out of a cereal box.  hmmmm I am not a visionary person when it comes to arts and crafts and his explanation was not helping.  Claudia had seen the art project on TV and was able to help him with this creation.  swoosh!  Gracias Clau!!

 It's time Mati masters his skills at Popsicle eating don't ya think?

 The kids have a blast when Claudia babysits

Proof that Claudia has been watching the kids

Proof she knows how to clean up!

Will they be able to cook up something more delicious than the two of them?

 Pili found the ride perfect for her

 and Mati too, he is still a hard core Tom and Jerry fan.

family

My mom turned 60 yesterday and all she has wanted for the longest time was a family picture.   She has spent the last few months thinking how she could manage to get the whole family home this summer at the same time.   We knew it was pretty much impossible, and decided to put our faith in  Photoshop.   So here we have six families plus my parents cropped together to hopefully suffice my mother.   She is on a cruise now but I look forward to talking to her to see if she approves this new technology.  I was impressed.

Nico turns 30

And I witness a robbery.

I was on my way to pick Matias up from School at 11:30 am.  Just 3 blocks from home, when I hear life-threatening screams.  I looked across the street and saw 3 guys going into a home.  A nice large home.  I thought to myself they must be robbing them.   I immediately felt me adrenaline start pumping.  I looked around to see what the response was of all of the other people that were in the street with me.  Everyone seemed oblivious.  I walked a block away and called Nico knowing that I had to do something.  Nico had  me walk back towards the home and get the address and he called the police.  I then saw 2 men on the corner who seemed to suspect something was going on and I informed them that I felt strongly that there was a robbery going on and showed them which house it was.  They looked like good men but still I feared they were accomplices and I really just wanted to get out of there.  I took off. already 10 minutes late to pick up Mati.   I started to cry I had become so emotional.  

Later that evening I asked Nico to take me back to that home to see if everyone was ok.

Sure enough it was a robbery.  5 guys went in the home and there were 5 more outside hanging around the block keeping watch.   They hit his 18 month old son twice but thankfully no one was really hurt. Oh and the worse part they totally got away. 

I think these thieves here must laugh at how easy it is to rob someone here and totally get away with it.

I mean come on.  A busy street, mid-day, scream,. neighbors, police, and still they walk away like it was nothing.

Seriously I can not deal with this.  And just last Friday Lili (red shirt) was robbed the same exact way while she was working (she cleans a home) just 25 blocks from me at 12:30pm.  They broke down 2 doors went right it and walked right out.

Way to close for comfort for me right now.  I really felt safe in my neighborhood and in my apartment building but I realized after yesterday I am not safe at all.  Feels like a matter of time.  I am beyond paranoid now.

I pray we will be moving on soon to another safer adventure, closer to home, somewhere in the Southeast would be nice.

OH BUT LIFE GOES ON and we celebrated Nico's 30 birthday.  We had a good time.  The great grandparents were able to experience the scrumptious taste of Guacamole and Salsa for the first time!!!   Dinner was a success (for the adults anyways) and lighting 30 candles wasn't as hard as I thought.   

B-I-N-G-O- THE GAME for the OLD and YOUNG!

Nice slogan don't ya think?

Carnival

Monday and Tuesday were holidays here for "Carnival"  It's really a Braazilian thing but Argentineans I suppose do there thing too.  We took no part in Carnival, not even sure what went on but we enjoyed our

Pili's attempt to put on mascara

Soccer morning

another one of these

Butter and Salt please!!! I'm so over sweet popcorn.  I was surprised though that I was still able to mix in my m&m's for a quite pleasingly taste.  Actually eating the M&Ms made the popcorn seem saltier.

Movies: Rango- Total let down, all we got out of it was some cute pictures

Pili spitting out her popcorn.  She wanted to like it so bad she attempted 3 times. However, unfortunately spitting it into the palm of our hands each time.

She only lasted about 20 minutes in the theatre.  The idea was that she would take her nap in the movie like the 2 previous times.  It didn't work.  We will not be going back to the movies with Pili anytime soon.

Now Nico's got moves

So Alejandro's moves are getting much better but it was Nico who really showed some skillzzzzz

Pili danza kaduro

I think we can almost say good-bye to all of our infantile music.  Pili ask to listen to this song at least once a day.  She heard the song various times while we were in Uruguay on vacation.  It was kind of like the theme song for the resort this summer.  I had no idea she was picking it up until one night she started singing the chorus and then when we got home she started doing the dance.     I have her filmed about 10 times doing it cause I just couldn't get enough so I thought I'd share one of them.

Back to school!

Public schools in Buenos Aires don't have the best reputations and when we moved here I thought it wasn't even an option for Mati.  However, after meeting several mothers who all sent their kids to public schools and being that Mati is 4 not 14, I was determined that I wanted to give the public school system a try.  So we did away with the more normal uniform and we went and bought Matias a GuardaPolvo (protects from dust) the blue apron looking thing are the public school uniforms and they are mandatory up until High School.  I was of course a little anxious and nervous about the change but Matias is off to a fantastic start.   He told me today that he had the best chocolate milk on the planet and that he made a friend also named Matias.

 ONE TALENTED PAPA

 Mati's hair buzzed upon his request


Sala de 4 - Antonio  Devoto