2006: Toddling Year

Following our end-of-year tradition here is an update of what has been going on with our family. By left-clicking in each picture below, you will be able to see a larger version. Esta carta também está disponível em Portuguès.

We had a great time spending Christmas 2005 and the New Year in Xangrilá in the coast of the South Atlantic. We rented a house half-a-block from Vovó Dioraci's house at the beach. We celebrated Christmas with Summer weather, then we helped Vovó organize a very large party for Vovô Geovany's 80th birthday on Dec. 31st. After that we still had plenty of time for excursions to a local waterfall and to walk the bottom of the Itaimbezinho, a beautiful local Canyon in the northeast of Rio Grande do Sul.

As soon as we came back to Edmonton, Grandpa and Gagá (Daniel's name for Grandma Juana) came to visit. They joined us in another tradition: our January Christmas-After-Christmas party in Edmonton. Because we will likely spend Christmas away from home for years to come, we created this party as a way for Daniel to have a Christmas tradition at home. Daniel got his first battery-powered car from Gagá. This car has been a success with kids in all our parties.

Warm weather arrived very early in Edmonton this year. Daniel was riding his little car outside in February! In the end of March I went to Vienna in Austria to attend a conference for a week. Scott and Daniel took the time to go to Oklahoma to spend time with Grandpa, Gagá and the extended family. Daniel "helped" grandpa with his filing and with the lawn mowing. He also got great wagon rides from cousin Braden.

Daniel continued helping around the house whenever he could. Papai got some great assistance with the kneading of the bread one morning; and Daddy's vegetable garden would not have been the same without Daniel's valuable help. Later in the Summer Daniel helped Papai harvest the potatoes. During the Fall Papai have been also busy on weekends with a do-it-yourself basement remodeling project. Often Daniel goes down to help out with his hammer and his screwdriver. But he does not like when Papai uses the drill or the electric saw because they are noisy and scary. Daniel was not too keen on his first haircut early in the Summer.

I started traveling in June to attend conferences again, this time to Ottawa and Toronto. Later in June Grandpa and Gagá returned to Edmonton for another visit. Daniel got his first baby grand-piano. He loved it. He seems to have a thing for music. We had time to go out and root for the Brazilian team just before they got kicked out of the World Cup. Also with the Oilers in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, Daniel got hooked in hockey. He would wake up in the morning and ask for the Sports Channel, When we would seat down at night to watch Teletubies he would ask for "Hockey! Hockey!" Of course grandpa obliged and played several hockey games with him. Daniel is turning out to be a little sport jock. He likes soccer, hockey, baseball, and golf.

Maiara, my niece, arrived from Brazil in the end of June for a month-long vacation. While Daniel stayed home with Grandpa and Gagá we took Maiara for a horse-back riding trip to the Tonquin Valley close to Jasper. We stayed in a back-country lodge in the Valley and enjoyed wonderful vistas. Once we were back to Edmonton we had time for visits to the Saint Albert's outdoor Farmer's Market and for picnics.

We were fortunate to have both the American grandparents and Vovó in the house for one day in July. Vovó arrived the day before Grandpa and Gagá left. We had enough time to have a meal together and to take some rare pictures including Daniel's two grandmas.

Maiara was still in Edmonton, and Magali, a friend of Vovó, came with her. Thus we went on a driving trip to Jasper and the surrounding area. We took the gondola up to Whistler Mountain , had several picnics, and took a boat ride on Maligne Lake. We got to see quite a bit of wild life and enjoyed some afternoon tea at the world-class Jasper Park Lodge. Daniel's highlights in this trip included throwing stones into lakes, picking up sticks, playing with big-truck tires, and similar excitement of a road trip. Back in Edmonton the visitors had several sightseeing and shopping opportunities and kept busy.

Once Magali and Maiara returned to Brazil, Daniel had Vovó for himself and we enjoyed a lovely quiet time at home. Lots of great home-cooked meals, afternoon strolling to the playground, and great time in the backyard. With Vovó's encouragement Daniel became a great puddle jumper, and they also did other exciting things such as picking up pine cones. Vovó was also very busy preparing all kinds of sweets, small savory bites, and a delicious passion-fruit cake for Daniel's second birthday party. We had several friends over in our garden to celebrate Daniel's birthday. Soon after that Vovó returned to Brazil.

In September Emily's parents, Howard and Liz, contacted us. Emily is Daniel's middle sister who was adopted at birth. When Daniel was born we sent them some pictures and a note about us. Now that Emily was ready to meet her little brother they contacted us. We traveled to Calgary on a weekend and Daniel had a great time playing with Emily. The next day we spent a few hours visiting with Mac, Daniel's oldest sister. We took the opportunity to take a picture with Diane, Daniel's birth grandmother, and Mac.

Scott has been working from home all year on his engineering consulting business. His company is called Consicuro. He is also in a partnership with a USA-based consulting firm called Kenexis. In September and early October Scott went on a three-week-long trip to Trinidad to work on a Kenexis project and from there he went to Alabama to teach some engineering training courses. I had a flavor for the busy life of a working single parent during those weeks. Every night Daniel would say: "Daddy went in the airplane to Chikidad. Daddy come back."

Next day after his return, Scott had a day surgery to repair a hernia and was walking on clutches for a few days. Daniel was very concerned about "Daddy's aui." He would say often to daddy "Be careful Daddy. Be careful." We were lucky that Grandpa and Gagá were able to come back to Edmonton to help us out. Just a couple of days after the surgery I had to go to Toronto for a conference, and they were very helpful keeping our house running and taking care of Daniel and Daddy. Grandpa returned home soon, but Gagá stayed until early November so that she could be in Edmonton while I went to New Orleans for yet another conference in the end of October. Snow arrived in mid-October and Daniel went out to play with Daddy and Grandma. Grandma got Daniel a little shopping cart that he loves to push around when he goes out shopping. He also uses it to carry his "baby" around in the house. The baby was a present from Vovó this Summer. Whenever Daniel has to take medicine or clip his nails, the baby does it first.

With grandma around, Halloween was a big affair around our house. We had some decorations, carved a pumpkin and dressed up Daniel. Daniel had a party at day care, and also went to a Halloween party in our neighborhood association - where the haunted house was very "s-c-a-r-y". On Halloween night it was very cold thus we limited trick-or-treat to our immediate neighbors. Daniel seems to be a trill seeker. I took him to the West Edmonton Mall to see a mechanical fire-spitting dragon that is at the entrance of a movie theater complex. He was scared and he talked about the dragon been "scaaary". But when we were going away and were at a safe distance from the dragon he said " I like the dragon!"

Early in December I had to go in yet another trip. This time to a conference that took place in a Disney-world resort in Orlando. Daniel protested that he wanted to go in the airplane to Mickey-Mouse house, not Papai.

Daniel is already very aware of his special family arrangements. When calling both of us he often says "Come on daddies." And the fact that Daniel has two daddies is talked about a lot by his classmates in day care. Actually in November we were told that he is already using it for one-manship over his colleagues. Sometimes they get into shouting arguments. One day they were all shouting "My Mummy!", "No, my Mummy!", and Daniel shouted "My Papai!" The other toddlers were stunned because they did not have a Papai to shout about. Sometimes when I show up to pick up Daniel at day care I get a five-toddler group hug, and they all yell "Daniel's Papai!"

I had a very good year at the University. I have a great team of students that keeps me busy with exciting exploration of ideas, result analysis, and paper writing. We had a high-water mark in terms of publications this year. We were very proud that our research team was selected the "Team of the Year", by the IBM Center for Advanced Studies in Toronto, thanks to our contributions to IBM's mission. I also took new responsibilities, on top of my associate chair for graduate student duties, in high-level governance committees on campus. It is good to branch out of the department and connect with the whole institution.

Now we are getting ready to go to Oklahoma to spend Christmas with Scott's family. Daniel talks about going in the airplane to visit Gagá and Grandpa in "Homa". Nelson, Scott & Daniel