Happy Halloween, Now Take Off That Hat

Did you know that there is a mall policy against wearing witch's hats at Pátio Savassi (the closest mall to us here in Belo Horizonte?)

Well, neither did we. And apparently there is no exception for Halloween either. And this is the reason my husband and I nearly got thrown out by and/or in a fight with one hugamongous security guard who looked a lot more 'secret service' than 'mall security'.

Last year we were around for Halloween and decided to be all American and get a little dressed up - nothing too much - and go have supper at TGIFriday's which is in Pátio Savassi. It was a lot of fun, since that was the one place in the city where other people were dressed up and celebrating Halloween. This year we really wanted to go back again and indulge in a little 'Americaness'.

Last week we were lacking any great creativity so we went the boring route and just used our 'costumes' from last year which consisted only of a hat and elf-like ears for Eric and devil horns and elf-like ears for me.

We parked and walked through the mall to get to TGIFriday's - picking up a lot of strange looks along the way. But once we reached the restaurant, we found the place full of people and most everyone was in costume! After consuming a not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-yummy supper of ribs, wings, and onions rings, we decided to go walk around the mall for a while and let our supper settle. By this time we had taken off the ears, since they were hard to keep on, and just had on our Halloween headwear. After walking for a while, someone (I'd hate to incriminate anyone here) really wanted a milkshake, so we headed down to the food court.

Just as we rounded the corner to the food court, we ran into Mr. Hugamongous Security Guy. Mr. HSG said something to Eric that I didn't quite hear, but Eric chuckled and smiled and replied back with something along the lines of "Oh really, and why is that?" (but in Portuguese of course.) Mr. HSG didn't break his very serious expression as he said, "It's mall policy." Still thinking the guy was kidding with us, Eric asked laughing, "Hmmm. Interesting. So there's a no-witches-hat rule on the books, huh?" And our not-so-friendly HSG responded with, "You can't wear fantasy hats in the mall. It's mall policy." I guess it was about now that it occurred to us he was serious. Eric, now a bit annoyed, said, "Look, today's Halloween. Have you been up to TGIFriday?"

And with that we were about to continue on our mission to the milkshake, when Mr. HSG said in a much louder voice now, "You can't stay in the mall if you keep the hat on." Eric shook his head and took the hat off and was saying something to the guy about how ridiculous this is, while I, not so happy about being stalled on my quest to get a milkshake (for Eric, he wanted the milkshake, you know) noticed a teenage boy in a gaggle of teenagers walking towards us with a rather funky-looking hat on. (Not a Halloween hat or anything, just a rather odd looking hat.) In my frustration with the hold-up, I pointed at the kid and told the HSG that he might better go talk to that kid, he looked like trouble with that hat on and all. (Hey, I know, very 1st-grader of me . . . but I've got a whole host of excuses as to why I can't be held accountable for what I say or do when someone comes between me and anything involving ice cream!) Mr. HSG looked at me as if I had lost my mind, so I motioned towards the teenager again. He took one look at the kid, one look at me, shook his head and said, "You need to remove your hat too."

Now I'm not sure if one could be strangled with a headband or not, but if it hadn't been for Eric grabbing my hand and reminding me about the milkshake that was merely steps away . . .

The Verdict is In!

Drum roll, please . . .

Z Baby's a menina! We've got a girl!

We had another amazing ultrasound yesterday, and we were both grinning like donkeys eating briars the entire time we watched our little daughter on the screen. Everything measured and looked absolutely perfect (and those were the words of the doctor, not the mama, but I was already pretty certain my kid was perfect. She does have my genes after all. hehehe)

Head to hiney, she is 14 cm (5.5 in) long now, weighs in at roughly 100 gr (1/4 lb), and has a 10 cm (4 in) waist. Tall, thin, tiny little waist . . . taking after her mama some more here. ;)

And we apparently interrupted her daily calisthenics yesterday. She was quite the busy little thing stretching her legs all the way out and curling them back up against her chest/stretching out her arms, doing some bicep curls while bringing her thumb up to her mouth/rolling from side to side and doing some leg lifts/and in the right ultrasound picture above you can see she has her hands over her head, feet planted against the floor (or um, my uterus) and she is attempting a backbend - quite the little gymnast I tell ya! I'm just thinking that as soon as I start feeling her movements I am going to be in for one heck of a ride!

Eric and I are both beyond ecstatic. I'm looking forward to doing some serious pink shopping now, and the proud Papai (Daddy in Portuguese) is already showing his protective side: On his way out the door for work this morning I was instructed to take good care of his daughter while he was away. I think she's going to have him wrapped around her little finger before she even makes her grand appearance into the world next year!

The Advancement of the Baby Bump

It's growing!

And wow, I've never been happier about low rise pants being in style. I mean if this were the 80's and we were all wearing tight rolled jeans that came up to our belly buttons . . . well, I'd be in major wardrode trouble these days.

We have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday afternoon. If Z Baby decides to cooperate we should be able to find out if we're growing a boy or girl inside the ever expanding bump! Any guesses?

(I am without any great mother's intuition on this one. I have dreamed 3 or 4 times about it being a boy, for whatever that's worth. But I also had a crazy-real dream recently that we were at our second ultrasound and a second baby appeared on the screen and we were all shocked that we hadn't noticed baby number two during the first ultrasound - so we're now purposely not putting too much confidence in my dreams these days. hehehe)

Elections - Finally Over!

I haven't been overly involved in following the political scene in Brasil. But I have never been happier about an election season coming to an end.

Yesterday was the mayor run-off election and marked the termination of all the campaigning. As annoying as I've always found TV campaign commercials to be in the US, Brasil has opened my eyes to an even more obnoxious form of advertisement for those seeking public office. Imagine being pregnant and trying to enjoy a quick 30-minute nap (okay, maybe 60-minute)before you must get on a hot crowded city bus and ride for no less than 45 minutes across town to the school where you will be teaching until 8:30 at night. And just as you find a comfy position on the couch and you're just about to doze off to sleep, a VW van with the back-end full of large speakers with execrable sound quality and then a couple more loudspeakers strapped to the roof comes slowly creeping down your street blasting some horrendous campaign song and possibly joined with a ranting speech of some sort which is so loud that is causes every dog within a 2 mile radius to begin howling and activates the alarm of half the cars parked along the street. And while I was thoroughly awakened and annoyed by these middle of the day VW vans of torment, they didn't stop at sundown. Oh, no this could go on well past 10:00 at night interrupting everything from supper conversation with my Dearest to the latest episode of Desperate Housewives to a telephone conversation with family back home.

And I won't even get in to the parades which blocked traffic, the campaign flag-waving mobs of people hired by the candidates impeding my path through the park, or the gobs of flyers thrown out of car windows the night before election day leaving heaps of litter all over the streets in order to get their name out on election day despite the "no campaigning on election day" law.

I guess what I'm saying is that campaign season is pretty cruddy everywhere . . . and that I would have loved to have only been bombarded with TV commercials and the occasional annoying phone call soliciting my vote.

So last night we knew the announcing of the vote had taken place when we heard eruptions of cheering and chanting followed by a big truck full of speakers at an absurd volume slowly cruising down our street as the newly elected mayor gave a speech of some sort. It was so loud that despite having all of our shutters and windows closed, we were unable to continue the conversation we were having with Eric's Dad over the phone. With the volume turned all the way up, we couldn't hear a single word he was saying. I announced to Eric last night that I didn't know who won the election, but I already disliked the mayor (if only for disturbing my peace last night.)

On a lighter, less crazy-prego-rant note, I have been entertained by the residents' of Belo Horizonte take on this whole election. The last week prior to the election turned into a huge mud-slinging match and the two candidates were described to me this way by one local: 'Well, we have one guy who has been convicted of stealing money while serving as an elected official. Not just accused of the crime, but actually tried and convicted. But the other choice isn't exactly all that much better. He's some crazy evangelical guy whose only concern is the state of the churches in BH.' Hmmm, now, like I said, I haven't been following the politics and have no idea how accurate that summary is, but it cracked me up. And have I mentioned that voting is mandatory if you are over 18 years old in Brasil? Voting is not a right, it is required by law. Although no one has been able to tell me exactly what the punishment is for not voting, I'm told that if you habitually skip out on going to the polls you'll have a heck of a hard time renewing your driver's license and taking care of other routine business. One person equated it to not filing income tax returns - it will eventually catch up with you and potentially get you in a whole heap o' trouble.

I was also thoroughly entertained by Eric's account of his conversation with a colleague this morning:

Eric: So who ended up winning the BH mayor election, was it number 40? (Note: Instead of having a ballot with everyone running for office listed on it, you enter in a candidate's election number into the electronic voting machine. So all the campaign banners and such have the person's picture and voting number on it. Sometimes, it will include their name too - or the name they've chosen to use for the election, like Elvis or Barack Obama or Jorge Bushi or Kung Fu Fatty.)

Colleague: Yes, Marcio won. Why?

Eric: Well, I figured it was him that won because there was a huge party going on really close to our apartment, and then after the results were finalized they had the giant speaker trucks driving down the streets blaring music and some speech. It was pretty ridiculous . . .

Eric: So which guy was this that won, the evangelist or the corrupt guy?

Colleague: I don’t believe it was the evangelist guy, but it wouldn’t matter because he is corrupt as well.

Eric: So why are two known corrupt guys even on the ballot for Mayor?

Colleague: Well it is sad, but there isn’t anybody else, because they are all corrupt.

Eric: Oh

Christmas in October

Excitment filled the air last night around these parts. We received a surprise box in the mail from Eric's folks and we were like a couple kids on Christmas morning last night as we dug in to see what kind of good stuff we got.

All kinds of yummy chocolate for me, chips and salsa for Eric, and an adorable super soft blanket, teething ring, and cute ducky bib for Z Baby! It was such a thoughtful gesture and the food probably isn't going to last long around here. (Eric left this morning for an overnight business trip and threatened to take it all with him to ensure he gets to eat some of it - hehe)

So, if you'll excuse me now, I have a mini Milky Way bar (or 12) calling my name. We're four months into this pregnancy thing and I've gained less than 15% of my 9 kg up to this point . . . I've got some work to do. ;)

Doctor #2 Fits the Bill

Yea! It looks like we have found our obstetrician. She didn't immediately start discussing potential dates that we could schedule our c-section and never once did she direct me to not eat or not gain any weight, so I knew we were off to a better start than we were with doctor #1.

She seems really great and Eric and I were both quite comfortable with her. She spent every bit of 45 minutes with us asking lots of questions and getting to know us. And we took the opportunity to share some of our visions of the pregnancy/birth with her. She didn't seem too freaked out when I told her I wanted to go drug free and without medical intervention if at all possible. She was quick to tell us that Eric would be able to stay with me (which is not always the case here according to the birth stories of some of my friends) and wrote prescriptions for a prenatal vitamin (I have been taking one from the US, but she wants me to use one she knows) and a lotion to help protect against stretch marks. But in good Brasil fashion, she sternly warned me that if I eat too much and gain a bunch of weight that no lotion will ward off stretch marks and that if mother or baby shows signs of stress during the birth a c-section could always be necessary.

The concern with weight gain during pregnancy seems a heck of a lot higher here than it is in the US. While all of my US pregnancy books stress healthy weight gain, adequate nutrition and debunking the "eating for two" myth, there is an entire section in my Brasilian pregnancy book on how to cut calories out of your meals and tips on how to avoid eating so much at parties and in social situations. I'm used to suggestions like eat white meat instead of red meat/never eat the skin of poultry/eat something light before going to a party so you don't overeat there/substitute egg whites for whole eggs/do something physical after eating because being sedentary leads to an accumulation of fat being tips for someone trying to lose weight. I mean, hey, I'm all for healthy eating and lifestyle habits among all people, pregnant or not. But in a society where women are constantly bombarded with skinny twig figures as the model for health and beauty, maybe pregnancy, when you're sort of supposed to get a big belly and extra fat reserves, isn't the time to lecture women on making low calorie choices in the name of not gaining weight. (And by "society" I am certainly referring to more than Brasil here . . . American woman have as many body image issues as anyone!) And I'm not just trying to justify the scoop of ice cream I just ate either. Well, not completely.

But anyway, despite the fact that my doctor informed me that 9 kg (19.8 lbs) is the maximum amount of weight she would want to see me gain, and the fact that one of my best friends in the US who is nearly identical to me in height/weight was told by her doctor that 25 - 35 pounds would be a healthy weight gain for someone her size, I am really happy to have her as my doctor. I think she is going to be supportive of my choices and wishes for the most part and not force me into a totally medical birth experience unless the situation warrants it.

Meanwhile, thanks to doctor #1, I still have to deal with Eric poking me in the ribs and/or belly and badgering me with "Não come!" (Don't eat!) every time I pick up my next snack. And I do dislike it so when he gets all badgerish-like.

Chemical Water

The advice and concern evoked from others when you are pregnant is always interesting. But I think being pregnant away from the country you grew up in makes it all the more fun!

I've gotten in trouble with students, friends, and other teachers for everything from bending over to pick up a dropped pencil, to moving a small classroom desk, to standing instead of taking a seat offered to me, and more. The most interesting lately though has been the concern over what I drink/don't drink.

Eric and I were with a group of 6 other Brasilians the other day at a gathering we were invited to. Not knowing what all would be available to drink and knowing that it would be a several hour affair, I took two large water bottles with a Crystal Light type of drink that I had mixed up. I usually just drink water at home, but water has to be ice cold for me to drink it. I do much better consuming liquids I carry with me if it has some sort of flavor.

Throughout the day I was repeatedly offered beer and wine and each time I declined the offer (mind you now that everyone here knows I prego.) Several times someone would go to grab the beer sitting somewhere in my vicinity, but first check to make sure it wasn't mine therefore ensuring that it was indeed their glass.

A little later on, they made some coffee. I was offered a cup and politely declined. The hostess then asked if I liked coffee or not. I told her that I enjoy coffee, but now that I was pregnant I had stopped drinking it. She gave me the most dumbfounded look and asked what pregnancy had to do with it. I mentioned that I had tried to cut out all the caffeine from what I drink, since there is some caffeine in plenty of the foods that I occasionally consume, like chocolate. She was still confused and asked everyone else there if they had ever heard of a pregnant woman not drinking coffee. Everyone agreed that was the strangest thing they had ever heard and then requested an explanation as to why I would want to cut out caffeine. As I explained that caffeine increases your heart rate and sometimes your blood pressure and would have the same effect on an unborn baby, everyone just looked at me like I was crazy and said that it must be an 'American thing'.

A bit later someone inquired into what I was drinking from my water bottle. Eric fielded that question for me and as he explained what it was everyone freaked out and couldn't believe that I was drinking "chemical water" while pregnant. And a lecture on how I should only drink natural stuff followed. These were the same people that had offered me Coca-Cola and Guaraná all day (not exactly all-natural, you know?), and not to mention the beer and wine (which I guess is natural, but still, um, alcohol!)

More than anything, it made Eric and I giggle that they called it "chemical water". And despite all the conversation being in Portuguese, they actually used the English term "chemical water". I thought it was the strangest thing. But then as I was teaching an English class to one of my individual students, I pulled a bottle of H2OH! out of my bag and took a sip. My student, a guy probably in his upper 40's, totally freaked out and asked what I was doing drinking "chemical water" while pregnant. Common terminology, apparently.

With the controversy I've read about the safety of saccharin, and especially the fact that it crosses the placenta and collects in fetal tissue, I do avoid it like the plague - which is hard sometimes in Brasil since that is generally the sweetener of choice. I'll admit though that I occasionally have something with aspartame in it. But apparently I need to take my "chemical water" habit underground before I really start showing or else I risk giving all the Brasilians I encounter on a daily basis heart attacks!