So Many Celebrations

7/10/14

We had one day to site see in São Paulo, so we made a whirlwind loop around Praça da República, Praça da Sé, and Largo de São Bento. We climbed to the top of Edifício Copan, Brazil’s largest apartment building, designed by Niemeyer, to get a beautiful 360 view of the city. Visited the Municipal Theater and Igreja de Santo Antônio, which in the 1600’s was the main church of the São Paulo settlement, and admired the sheer size of the Catedral de Sé. We took in an Olympics exhibit at the Caixa Economica Federal, where you could actually hold the 1968 Mexico Olympic torch (!) [Nick: It was an awesome exhibit. They had a torch for almost every Olympics (multiples are made for each host country), medals from lots of them, really cool publicity posters, and did you know that every athlete gets a diploma of participation? I do now. There were some items from the Olympics in antiquity. And all this was free!]; walked across the exact spot in Praça Pátio do Colégio where the city was originally founded in 1554; and laughed at the fact that even a monastery in Brazil (Mosteiro São Bento) had a small soccer museum inside it.

Edifício Copan

Municipal Theater

Igreja de Santo Antônio

Catedral de Sé

Mosteiro São Bento

Mosteiro São Bento soccer exhibit

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Brazilian futebol style

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Six hours and 4km later, we were toast. Nick was developing a severe cold and the rain was not helping matters. Fe and Camila graciously picked us up from the São Jose bus stop two hours later and we headed back to their house to celebrate Filipe’s birthday. Poor Nick was sick as a dog at that point and couldn’t join in the festivities. Fe diagnosed him with sinusitis, gave him some steroids, and put him to bed. Oddly enough, without Tio Nick to play with, the girls wanted to play with me (ha!). [Nick: I guess Tia Cat will do in a pinch :-P) We played hide and sick (I swear, little girl laugh is one of THE best sounds in the world), during which a winking Isabela showed me the best spots to hide in the house. Camila dressed up as Anna from Frozen (even little girls in Brazil are obsessed with that movie!) and we settled into the tv room to watch cartoons.

Filipe's Bday

Now obviously, I don’t have kids or nieces and nephews around, so I don’t really have little kids in my life anymore (something that I definitely miss and feel at a loss for). Which is why I felt very privileged to be around to experience the joy of such a momentous kid occasion as Isabella losing her first tooth! She had been wiggling it and showing it off all night; so when it finally popped out while we were watching tv, both of us stared at each other in a moment of total surprise. We rushed to tell Fe & Filipe and the happiness and pride this little family felt on such an occasion was heartwarming to see.  At least for everyone but Camila – she was so scared of the tooth and Isabela’s “strange new face” that she wouldn’t go near the tooth or her sister (it was pretty funny, poor girl). Isabela was so excited about the tooth fairy coming to visit her (even though her parents told her in all honesty that the tooth fairy didn’t exist, she told them to wait until morning and she would prove the fairy was real – clever little girl!) that she couldn’t stop playing with her tooth and promptly lost it on the floor, in the couch, and in the covers several times that night. ;o) There was so much commotion that Nick finally woke up and joined us. [Nick: I am so sad that I missed it and all the other fun that evening. But Isabela was so excited when I woke up and Fe fed me a piece of Filipe’s chocolate cake. Awesome!] The girls were so excited about it all, they refused to go to sleep until they (thankfully) passed out around midnight and the adults soon followed. So many happy celebrations on this trip (Camila’s bday, Filipe’s bday, Isabela’s first lost tooth on Filipe’s bday), I’m just so glad we could be a part of them!

Isabela's 1st lost tooth!