foreignmama

Haiku Mode: Number Four

"Mama, do you know what water is made of?"

"Two molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen?!?"

"No! Ice."

A Break in the Vacuum

A Party in my Tummy!

What a great video to help make kids get excited about meals. And the song is catchy too!

Broken Heart

After a heated discussion:
"I am going to fix your heart, mom."
"Why?"
"Because I broke it!"

Cupcake Fiasco

As Tetti left his full time pre-school to join a part-time cooperative nursery, where I am going to put in weekly hours of work as a parent teacher (and by now you reader must be thinking that I am a lunatic...but I have good reasons; I really wanted to spend more time around him before he is off to elementary years) we decided to bring cupcakes for a farewell party. Since I am in such participatory, present mommy, crafty mood, I've decided to bake them myself.

Picked an easy recipe at Epicurious, got the paper baking cups and set off to work. In my cheer naivete, I was sure that was all I needed: a hot oven, the batter and the paper cups. I didn't know you needed to put the paper cups into metal tin holders; so the cupcakes grew so much they took whatever shape they fancied, coming out sort of contemporary looking. One of the wishful commentaries my son made: "This one looks like a heart!". Well, you can see it for yourself:

Tetti chose the most obnoxious colors for the frosting, and as I tried to make mine look somehow ok, he was joyful: "Mamãe, it is bitiful!" (I know he meant beautiful, but maybe his vocabulary has become so sophisticated and he actually tried to say pitiful? Hopefully not.) The frosting tasted great though, as I made it mixing dulce de leche and cream cheese (instead of using butter and sugar). Dulce de leche is an Argentinian thick caramel sauce (in Brazil we call doce de leite) and the best brand available in America, in my opinion, is La Salamandra.

We went to sleep super late and exhausted, but he had a great time decorating in a style he defined as "party bagunça". It was well worth it. And the kids loved it.

 

Death by Broccoli

"Actually, broccoli makes me die, mamãe."
"?!?"
"Because I don't like it."

No Need for Cleaning Up, Just Make a Movie Theater

"I want to watch the grizzly bear movie"
"Not until you collect all the sock puppet materials - the yarns, buttons, pieces of fabric and felt, several sizes of wiggly eyes, pom poms and pipe cleaners."
"But I don't want to!"
"So you are not watching the movie."
"So I am going to build a movie theater!"

And that is how I ended up with a wool and felt "movie theater" in my living room - a lot messier than the previous mess...

"Brazilian Girls" and "Mosquitos"

So it seems that nowadays Brazil is the "cool factor". Just add some Brazilian spice and anything gets a little more... interesting. In our lounge/groove/Buddha Bar era, including some Brazil to your mix is a sure hit - the gringos hear something in a sweet girlish voice over an electronic background and they go "Coooooool...", even if the singer is just saying "café com leite é bom" (coffee with milk is good). Some DJs and fans tell me they just love the way Brazilian Portuguese sounds - sultry, warm and full of promises... A guy once told me that just listening to me talk in my native language made him "weak in the knees"! (he also told me he was still in love with a former Brazilian flirt...that should explain much of his weakness).

Maybe you don't even need to speak any Portuguese to borrow from our coolness: take the band Brazilian Girls; a bunch of guys and only one girl, the singer Sabina Sciubba, who, by the way, is Italian, and sings in English, French, Spanish, and German... they just needed a catchy name. Made you look, didn't it? Click here to listen to MP3s of their last album, "Talk to La Bomb". And click over here to watch the video for Don't Stop: With Smoking in YouTube. Here you can watch Pussy live in NYC (Parental Discretion is advised; the chorus goes like this: "Pussy pussy pussy marijuana").

The band Mosquitos, on the other hand, is not as cool!-the-latest-thing-to-be-aware-of-in-New-York-city as Brazilian Girls seems to be (who, by the way, may suffer from trying too hard - making too much effort to be edgy is so, uh, uncool), but they are really cute. Funny. Soft. And cozy. You can visit their site to listen to the "Songs of the Day". And they do have a Brazilian singer, who knows how to sing - in a lovely style -  in Portuguese. And whose name is Juju (how dare her? Too bad I did not register my Trademark). Below you can watch the video for their hit Boombox:

Need to take a Break from your Job? Have only 2 minutes to spare?

So you wish you were underwater, in a sunny morning at a beach in the Caribbean? Well, if you are chained to your computer and think such feat is not possible, and the Summer is over anyway, think again. And visit this site.

No Mom? I Guess a Brush will do It...

This story run by the Daily Mail brought me to tears: orphaned hedgehogs adopt cleaning brush as their mother...