First Birthday Pics
We still haven’t gotten the photos back from the photographer (yes, there was a photographer…), but I can at least show you some shots we took of Princess Carolina dressed as Princess Ariel, just before going downstairs to her party:
And just for good measure, here’s a recent photo taken over brunch at Parque Lage:
Happy Birthday, Princess Carolina!
Carolina turned 3 years old on Wednesday! I should have posted this then, but only got around to putting it on Facebook… Here’s our most recent photo of Carol-as-princess. Stay tuned – her big Little Princess blast is coming up on Sunday. I’m sure in about 2 months or so, we’ll have a ton of photos to post
Visit to LA 2009 – Part 2
Here are more photos of our visit to LA back in June.
- Now I want this to be a clean fight – no eye gouging, no hitting below the belt, no making fun of hippie t-shirts
- On the docks at Grampa High’s boat
- Does this vest make me look fat?
- Carolina learns the art of angling. Grampa High learns the art of untangling.
- Does it count if I just stab the fish with the pole?
- A princess can make even yanking the life out of a fish by violent impalement and asphyxiation look charming and dainty
- Yes, there are dock fairies, too
- The salty olde sailor’s tradition of maritime pattycake
- The weather started getting rough… at least Mikey seemed to think so
- One of at least FOUR competing miniature railways near Griffith Park – All Aboard!
- No, All Aboard HERE!!
- Grandma Kat protects the princess from errant golf balls
- Hey Red, keep your mitts off my pony!
- Carolina passes the redhead on the stretch
- What’s causing the traffic jam here…? Hey, lady! Your horse is leaking!
- On the road again
- Cousin Amelia warming her bones after a swim session
- Another round of “pixie, pixie, fairy!”
- If I can just get my hands on her magic wand…
- Reading about the latest in fairy fashion
- Then catching up on princess fashions with Snow White
- It’s good to be back in princess land (California Adventure style)
- Mommy tries to remember how to drive an automatic
- I love you, Mickey! Especially your ear…
- I think the napkin is missing the point
- We’ve got a date with the diva
- Hitching a ride on some aquatic mammals
- A moment of anticipation, and then…
- A dance with the princess
- Girl talk
- Belle was the first to drop by our table
- Who’s this chick again? Oh yeah, I met you last time, too.
- All the princesses wanted to pose with Carolina… being famous and beautiful can sometimes be so TIRING.
- A surprise birthday treat! Especially since it wasn’t her birthday.
- Every meal should end with a white chocolate conch shell
- If this princess thing doesn’t pan out, she’s got a backup career
- Or, professional mother-daughter fully-clothed tandem surfing might be another option
- Catalina Island, home of the upside-down menu bonnets
- How do I look in my Sunday best?
- Grandpa High shares the secret to happiness with Carolina
- “It’s one part ice cream…”
- “…one part remembering what a dufus your dad is”
- Daddy teaches Carolina about his passion for making mushroom clouds in coffee with cream
- We flew thousands of miles, braved rough seas and cold weather for a view of… Eucalyptus??
- Now THAT’s more like it
- Gilligan’s Golf Cart
- Ahoy mates! Prepare to invade The Love Boat!
- Loading up the tummy for a rocky ride home
- Paradise found
- Mommy, does Ariel get seasick?
- Cap’n Dad
- The end of another long adventure
Los Angeles 2009 – Part 1
Princess Carolina made her annual pilgrimmage to California last month. This one was pretty special. For one thing, she actually knew what California was this time (or at least, had heard of it, after incessant playing of the Sparks tune “Mickey Mouse”). She also got to make all her princess dreams come true this time: we took her to Disneyland to meet the princesses, California Adventure to meet any princesses she’d missed on the first go-around, the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Catalina… just about everything a little princess needs to seem refined, yet worldly. Oh yeah, and she got to hang out with the family, too.
We have so many photos, I’m just going to throw them at you and see which ones stick. This first post focuses on, well, nothing in particular. It’s the “best” 50 or so photos of the first 700 or so shots out of the about 2000 we took on the trip. I hope you get through them all. If it helps any, just think of what WE had to go through to pick them out!
- Grandpa High!! um… where’s Mickey Mouse?
- Survival training at the local park
- Learning from the park’s new “Bank Run!” educational toy
- Carolina and cousins saving butterflies from scientific experimentation
- Fly! Be free! Watch out for the LAPD chopper!
- Carolina learns from her big cousin Amelia how to humiliate younger siblings
- Amelia teaches Carolina how to flee from angry neighbors
- Purple Fast-flying Fairy Queen Amelia
- Pink Pegasus-Unicorn, uh, Dunce Princess Carolina
- Toys R’ Us and The World of Disney stores weren’t enough – even in the drugstore, she wants toys.
- Purple and Green Daddy-flying Drugmart Fairy
- Does the cutie pie come with soup?
- It’s like she’s never seen a turkey sandwich before…
- Go Dodger pink!
- The Getty Center? Is THAT where Mickey Mouse lives?
- Practicing her Shotokan Fairy Katas
- Grandpa high quickly counters her fairy moves with an immobilizing nap-time hug
- Order upstaged once again by chaos
- Cousin Murdoch’s magic trick – the unisleeve!
- Contemplating the moral of the Uncle Timmy in the Monkey Pond story
- Daddy plays a Pink Floyd tune on the acoustic stones
- Daddy breaks the news that you can’t have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat
- Hello, is there anybody in there?
- Cousin Lucas prefers Kiss to Pink Floyd
- Pajama party in Marie Antoinette’s bedroom
- At last! The Magic Kingdom!
- Is this the way to Mickey’s house?
- The ride doesn’t have a height limit, but the photo does…
- Daddy explains the physics behind spinning really really fast in a giant teacup
- Mommy makes a rare photo appearance… while hundreds of people wait to get off this damned tree house.
- Princess Carolina maintains political ties with the Royal Kingdom of Aladdin
- She sees her idol…
- To paraphrase Visa, “This photo is pinned to my credit card statement as a reminder”
- Look! What a coincidence! I just happened to force Mommy and Daddy to blow 60 bucks so I could dress like you!
- Ok, it was worth it.
- Sleeping Beauty! Hated your movie, but you get a big hug, too!
- For some reason, they wouldn’t let me take this very same photo
- Another rare shot of the whole family: Me, Carolina, Dada, and Dada’s fingerprint
- Carolina’s first roller-coaster!
- Is there anybody in there?
- Mickey gets the big-hug treatment, too.
- One last hug before Carolina discovers Mickey doesn’t understand Portuguese
- Watching the Disneyland parade. She held that pose for the next 20 minutes.
- She snapped out of it just in time to rock out with Da Pooh
- More fairy hijinks
- Daddy, please make me fly one more time
- Uncle Joel gets in on the action
- Carolina introduces Old Bill to Minnie Mouse
- Old Bill decides he prefers lettuce
- Mikey wins the “who has more sand in their shoe?” competition
- High Family (generations X and Y)
Carnaval 2009: Day 3
Many months have passed since the actual event, but at long last I’m posting the photos of day 3 of our Carnaval for 2009! This was the one we were waiting for, because our favorite bloco for the past few years was set to parade in the morning. It’s called the Cordão Umbilical do Boitatá (“The umbilical cord of the Boitatá”), which is a play on words from the bloco Cordão do Boitatá (“Cordão”, or “big cord”, is a traditional designation for blocos). The “umbilical cord” is a version they do especially for kids.
The Cordão Umbilical is great for us not only because they’re kid-friendly (they start out the parade with an “ala”, or contingent, of babies in strollers), but because all of our old friends go there. It’s a pretty small gathering (only a few hundred people, as opposed to the tens of thousands that show up at the real Cordão do Boitatá), so it *almost* feels like a private party. As far as G-rated Carnaval goes, it doesn’t get much better than this!
The bloco marches on up the hill to a hospital. When we get there, everyone starts to sing and play in a whisper so as not to disturb the hospital patients (it’s part of the annual ritual). Then we turn a corner and immediately start making mind-bogglingly loud noise again as if, by virtue of not facing right at them, they won’t be able to hear us. The bloco proceeds back down the hill on a separate street to end up where we started.
- The official standard
- Carol makes two new friends
- I’m having strange flashbacks… why do I think that boy needs a self-destruct button?
- Woohoo! Free confetti!
- Loaded up and ready to go
- Rapture!
- The family, plus Kit, Priscilla and Júlia – due May 29!
- Release the strollers!
- Heading up the hill
- It’s a long, hard slog
- Half man, half bear, all beast of burden
- Mommy and her ballerina
- Mommy does the hula; ballerina does the nap nap
- Cooling off under the hose
- Taking a break in the shade
- Look, daddy! A role model!
- Learning from the big kids
- Why do her costumes keep sprouting mouse ears??
- Lesson on self-esteem: THIS is how you hug yourself
- One last costume before we say good bye to Carnaval
We headed back home, got ourselves cleaned up, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool (sorry, no pictures). And that was pretty much it for our Carnaval: Dada had to spend day 4 doing a shift at the hospital, and I joined her there for an emergency ecocardiogram (long story, nothing to worry about). The rest of the week was spent visiting Dada’s cousin down in Campinas, São Paulo. Hopefully I can get around to showing you that some day… or any of the other 2500 photos we’ve taken since Carnaval.
Carnaval 2009: Day 2
On Carnaval Sunday, we decided to take a break from all the parades and costumes and head for the beach. It was a nice, hot day, and Leblon was having one of those rare days that are perfect for families with small children: small, mellow waves, and a high tide that formed mini-pools up on the sand for the kiddies to splash around. Carolina put on her Princess Ariel bikini, and off she went!
Dada was on call at the hospital that night. Guess that means no Carnaval fun, right? Wrong! As luck (or pure statistical odds) would have it, there was a bloco forming right outside her hospital an hour or two before her shift. It was called “Maracangalha”, probably named after the samba / bossa nova tune of the same name (“Eu vou pra Maracangalha, eu vou…“), but they seemed to be playing a mix of samba-enredo and marchinhas, probably just as a ruse to be allowed to wander around in the middle of the street drinking beer.

Carolina and friends - Pedro on the left, Bia on the right, and Helena, the butterfly in the background

Helena with mom Lina (as a zebra), daddy as a... Winnie the Pooh gringo thing, and Carol as "Grandma Kat"

A quick look at the zaniness... less costumes = more beer, less fun. The car over there is the mini "trio elêtrico".
Carnaval 2009: Day 1
Updated: I finally have some time to give some background on these photos…
On the Saturday of Carnaval, we woke up suuuper early (for us – 7AM) so that we could make it to our favorite “bloco” (neighborhood band/parade), Céu na Terra (Heaven on Earth), up in Santa Teresa. Every year, the word spreads a little more about how great this bloco is, which plays in the more traditional “marchinha” style of songs for Carnaval, goes through one of the most scenic places in Rio, and is itself one of the most scenic parades, since it’s frequented by the more “artistic” Carnaval-goers, and the band itself occasionally even plays while riding the famous yellow cable car of Santa Teresa. About 4 years ago, the crowd started getting unbearable, so they moved their first parade to earlier in the morning, and then started an hour earlier than people were reporting in the papers – you had to know someone to really know what time they started. This year, they didn’t lie, but they chose to go at the same time as Bola Preta, the traditional bloco that more or less marks the official beginning of Carnaval. By doing so, they guanteed that at least 500,000 people would be somewhere else during the parade.
Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t enough. Getting crammed in with thousands of people on narrow streets on a hot summer morning in an even hotter costume is great when you’re drinking, whooping it up and haven’t a care in the world, but having to watch out for a princess (in this case, an Indian princess) changes everything. We got close enough to the band the see and hear them playing and sing along, and then soon regretted it. An hour or so of compulsory revelry later, we were finally able to slip out a side street and head back home.
We headed home and went straight for the pool (sorry, no pix!). In the evening, we decided to go for something a little tamer, and went to a little samba fest for kids at an open mall called “Downtown” (far from downtown Rio, of course). A samba troupe made up of pre-teen kids was playing there, and they let all the visitors come and bang on their different drums. We met our friends Lina and Daniel there, with their daughter Helena, and we all hung out through dinner.
And, as a final treat, here’s a quick video of Carolina learning to samba from the experts:
Happy New Year!
These holidays come way too fast for me to even look at the photos of the previous one before we’re on to the next. But before we’re off to another year in the life of our little princess, I thought I’d give the quickest retrospective imaginable: my favorite photo of 2009!
Merry Christmas!
Carolina wishes you all a very merry Christmas on this, the very first year that she can actually say it!
I have a few things to say here about her Christmas, and probably a lot of photos to show you, too, but for now I just wanted to post this photo of Carolina with Santa Claus / Papai Noel (sorry for the photo-of-a-photo – our scanner is broken!):
Mountain getaway
We finally managed to get out of town for awhile last weekend. Thursday was a holiday in Rio, celebrating Zumbi dos Palmares (who is something like the patron saint of Capoeira, and an important black historical figure). We did like all good citizens of Rio do: used it as an excuse to take a 4-day weekend. Some family friends were heading up to their house in semi-rural Javary, near only slightly larger Miguel Pereira, up in the coastal mountains. It’s where Dada’s parents go pretty much any time there’s a more-than-3-day weekend (which here means several times a year), and this was no exception.
Their mini ranch is only a few acres big, but there are two guest houses, one of which was just beautifully renovated by “Tio Fernando” (our host) himself.
To Carolina’s delight, there were also a kids’ playhouse, lots of fowl and a dog.
For those of you who have never seen one before, the black one with white polka dots in the upper right is a Guinea Fowl. They look more like a turkey, but they taste like chicken. Brazilians called them “Angolan Chickens.” For the record, they call Guinea Pigs “Little Pigs from India.”
There was also a pool area, a Brazilian BBQ pit (churrasqueira) and a leisure area with a hammock. Too bad it rained half the time.
That was all fine and dandy, but Carolina is a girl of ACTION! So we went down to the lake in town, and found our princess a horse to ride on.
Joining her on the ride was her new best friend Lívia, the 13-year-old granddaughter of our hosts, the Sandroni family.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Ok, yes it was. But they weren’t always outdoors, in the sun. It rained quite a bit, but that didn’t stop us from having Brazilian BBQ anyway. And Carolina got her first chance to wear galoshes and jump about in puddles. And with her own umbrella.
At night, she had to make do with indoor games. Grandma Lucia played her some guitar. Daddy tried to pick up the guitar, too, for the first time since Carolina was born. She took it as the perfect opportunity to avenge her Grandma Kat, who was an excellent folk guitar player until certain ungrateful little wretches kept putting their paws on the strings to make her stop.
Carolina gave it a shot on the guitar as well.
The grandkids, Lívia and Vicente, kept her entertained by letting her watch them draw in her Disney Magic Coloring Book that daddy brought back special from Chicago…
And there was the traditional Brazilian indoor baseball game, with all the trimmings:

Rounding the bases to the tune of the theme to Monty Python's the Holy Grail while galloping like a horse
You know, the usual stuff.
Other than that, what was there to do, but to keep warm:
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!




























































































































































































