Carter Update

Our little man seems to be adjusting to life down here pretty well.  Thinking about it the other day, I realized that by the time he's 3, he will have lived in at least 5 different states! (3 in the U.S. and 2 in Brazil).  Hopefully we're paving the way for an adaptive little boy :)  Life is definitely different down here for him, and, although as I mentioned in an earlier post, he's been throwing some temper tantrums, I really think he is doing well.  Here's what his weekly schedule looks like:

Sundays: church from 9-11:30am and 7:30-9:30pm

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: 'school' at a national, Portuguese-speaking school from 8:00-11:30am

Every day: nap from 1:15-4:00(ish)pm

Free mornings and afternoons: watching cartoons in the apartment, playing on the apartment terrace, going on walks all over the city, and playing with trucks, dinosaurs, balls, and blocks.

Bedtime: 8:15ish (although this is a very late night culture, so if we go to dinner or a church event, we get home much later)

cool grocery cart at the local supermarket: 

When we picked him up from school yesterday, he had on the cutest bunny ears and was holding a fabric carrot filled with candy.  Yesterday was the last day school for the week as many businesses are closed Thursday and Friday for Easter.  The director of the school was holding him next to someone who was dressed up as the Easter Bunny!  Although they saw we had arrived to pick up Carter, they didn't bring him to us and were frantically going in and out of offices, apparently looking for something.  Turns out, they were searching for batteries for a digital camera...it seems they wanted a picture of their token white kid with the director and the Easter bunny, haha. We were happy to oblige :)

He's starting to mimic more and more words, although his memorized vocabulary still isn't very large.  We're not concerned though, as we've heard children are often delayed in their speech development when they are learning two languages at the same time.  He definitely understands a lot of our English and is following directions better and better.  We measured him a couple nights ago to mark his development on his growth chart and he is 35 inches!  That's just one inch away from the big 3 foot mark!  My baby is growing so fast...He's grown 15 inches since he was born and 7 inches since March of last year - craziness...

Today it seems he's picked up a cold, complete with runny nose, sneezing, and a really warm forehead :( He's in pretty good spirits, although it breaks my heart to see him so pitiful.  Praying he fights it off quickly and I know how to best take care of him!