Mama, Papai sleep, are tired, is very late. Vovó is go flying plane in the Brazil. Daniel don't need sleeping. Daniel needs write ABC in computer of Mama. You know, Daniel take fotos of Mama and Papai. Look, Daniel take fotos.

Oh! Look, is Vovó! Vovó want to go flying plane. And oh! Is Papai. Papai has to play tennis always, tennis of the table and tennis of the - of the - of the floor...

This is Mam... - Oh, look, isn't Mama, is finger of Daniel. And here, is legs of Daniel. Is legs of Daniel, too, and feet, look, feet, too. And feet of Papai!

This is Mama. Mama has to take fotos always of Daniel. And this Mama, too, Mama has to phone with Sustyna in the computer. And this is Mama and Vovó. Vovó has to harvest. Oh! Daniel need computer of Daniel, Daniel has to harvest, too.

Daniel is home. Daniel don't want go walk. Is dark already. Daniel want take fotos of the animals. This is the dog, is fell over off the sofa. And this is the penguin. (Papai says "Pinguin", just like Mama!) Oh, look, the penguin doesn't have the head! Und this is the tiger. And Papai - Papai has maked strange head!

This is the door of the - in the kitchen - Daniel has to hide, there, Daniel want to do always. And this is door of the fridge. You know, always need to close. Says Mama and Papai "no, no, no, Daniel, don't open", "bad, bad, Daniel" says Mama and Papai always, "no, no, no". And this is the ball of the bowling. Daniel need to knocked over all pins and make "swike"! And this is the balloon, can fly really fast and make "boom", really loud.

Here is Papai. Oh! Papai has head off! Weird Papai! Here Papai is better. Papai is work. "H I J K Elemennenopae"... Now Papai is game, need make lightning. And this is for Papai phone with Vovó.

And now Daniel don't want take more fotos, don't work, don't make flashes any more...

(For German, English, or Portuguese subtitles: Simply select your subtitle version under "CC" at the right bottom of the player.)

Daniel's First Birthday!

Finally, just a week before Daniel's one and a half year "birthday" - we are getting around to showing the pictures from his first birthday. Well, he certainly has been keeping us busy in the last few months...

Since Daniel's first birthday fell on a Sunday, we decided to have a little party and invite some guests for his big day. My parents and brother came to visit us around noon, and Luciana, a Brazilian friend, joined us with her two sons, Thales and Cédric, later in the afternoon. Jefferson decorated the apartment with balloons, I made a cheese cake (for the first time ever, not for Daniel of course, just for the guests) and my parents brought the most important party food: strawberries for Daniel - probably his most favorite food above everything else!

Of course Daniel also had his birthday candles - luckily, for when were looking for a nice "1" candle in the store, they only had "2"s, "4"s and a few higher numbers left. We had to search hard to at least find some general "Happy Birthday" candles. Of course, since these were way too many candles for his age, Daniel didn't quite manage to blow them all out at once - but he may be excused still this one time... ;-)

After the big party was over and we were all stuffed with cake, we decided to use the nice weather and celebrate some more outside. Unfortunately, my parents had to leave, since they still had a long drive home ahead of them. But the rest of us could enjoy the sunny evening - Jefferson and Thales got to play badminton and Frisbee, Cédric invented a new style of big ball badminton ;-) and Luciana and I sat in the lawn in front of our building and chatted. Daniel first investigated the grass and played a bit with a ball, but soon he decided to use the chance of everyone being busy with other stuff to take his a well-deserved nap...

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. After Jefferson and Thales had finished their badminton game several hours later ;-), Jefferson drove our guests home, while Daniel and I spent a lazy evening at home. A nice and crazy day, and a nice and crazy year; and here he is, our one year old little angle/devil... ;-)

Month 12 (06/19/2010-07/17/2010)

Daniel has failed us!!! Despite all his cute soccer outfits, we started into this month watching both of our teams get their butts kicked in the world championship... ;-) Brazil was the first to go, then Germany (though they did at least win the "loser's final" for third place), and in the end we were left to watch some obscure Spain against Netherlands final in some similarly obscure German-Indian restaurant. Ah well, now we have 4 years to teach Daniel to do a better job as a mascot... ;-)

For the moment, though, he was busy learning some more basic tasks like walking and talking. He's made a lot of progress on walking freely and has started to proudly repeat "Papa, Papa, Papa" over and over. "Mama", on the other hand, still seems to be very confusing to him, probably since this word seems to mean at the same time food ("ham ham" in baby German) or milk bottle ("mamadeira" in Portuguese) or "drink from the breast!" ("mama!" in Portuguese, as Jefferson's mother kept reminding him whenever he was getting distracted from drinking)... But since walking and talking were apparently not enough of a challenge, Daniel has been practicing more new tricks, like clapping his hands, waving good-bye and playing the recorder...

Daniel also continued to get more interested in all kinds of toys, like his toothbrush, remote controls, phones... To be able to pry our phone from his hands at least long enough for us to make a call, we decided to get him the "Kuschelfon" ("cuddle phone") - a blinking and singing children's phone. We were skeptical at first whether he would accept this, after all, this is a toy, actually meant for children... ;-) But surprisingly he did like it, and also a few other "real" children's toys have lately caught his attention, like his small ball pen and a new toy with small wooden pieces to assemble (or, if you will, "ammunition" to throw).

This toy was a present by my parents, who made it to Aachen for a short visit. They spent the afternoon taking a walking tour in downtown Aachen with Jefferson and Daniel. Afterwards, we went for dinner at the restaurant in our street, where Daniel entertained all of us by falling in love with a small fountain, giggling about a come-alive wooden piece from his new toy and trying out a slide for the first time in his life.

With summer bringing us some extremely hot days, Daniel got to spend more time outside and enjoy old and new ways of staying cool: eating fresh fruit (he loves strawberries!), "drinking" water by the "Jefferson method", trying his first "ice cream" (a frozen piece of baby strawberry puree), and playing in the water. Even more than before, he enjoyed splashing around in the bathtub. But we also went to a big public swimming place for a change, where he could experience waves, a pirate ship, a whirlpool - but he ended up being the most fascinated by a little stream of water coming from a small hole at the side of one of the pools...

Besides all the fun, we also had to take care of some official business. For one thing, it was time for another regular checkup with the children's doctor. Once more vaccinations, nasty exams, and the cow hung by its neck - no fun, but as always, Daniel was taking it as bravely as possible... On the other hand, since our summer trip to Poland was approaching, we got Daniel his first passport. A much more pleasant experience, especially since, when we had to have his photograph taken for this, he decided to show his most charming smile ever! So this turned out a really beautiful passport...

Last but not least, what kind of blog entry would this be if it didn't end with some funny pictures of us sleeping peacefully to recover from this long and eventful month... ;-)