Brayan Noé

Today was the first day we didn't take any pictures (gasp!), so we thought we'd start a series profiling each of our amazing children. We begin with Brayan Noé.

BIO:
Brayan turned 4 years old on August 8 this year. He is articulate, precise, strong-willed, creative, charming and oh-so-adorable! Brayan and his siblings like his new middle name, because Noé (Noah) was a friend of God in the Bible.

LIKES:

• Colo, which means both "neck" and "lap" in Portuguese, and translates as "pick me up." He loves to snuggle.
• Singing
• Dancing (especially in the shower. If it were proper to post a video of this hysterical event, we'd do it, but you'll just have to take our word for it.)
• Jumping (on Mamae or Papai, in the pool, off of rocks, down the stairs).
• Swimming (see video below to see his competitive swimming technique).
• Chewing "found" gum and drinking from discarded juice boxes. Not to mention eating popcorn from the theater floor.
• Cleaning things. He uses any broom or mop he can get his hands on and wipes up the water from the bathroom floor while we're washing clothes in the sinks.
• Tidying, arranging and organizing. He scatters cards all over the floor and then sorts them by color and puts them in neat piles. (Yet, he eats garbage. Go figure.)
• Choosing his own clothes (or at least thinking that he chose them himself)
• Watermelon, but not the seeds.
• Ice cream, cake, candies and everything sweet (maybe that's why he IS so sweet).
• Tic-Tacs (Extra-Forte is his favorite)
• Puzzles
• Hats (anything can become a hat at any moment)
• Coloring books. He colors each picture with one color. Usually blue or orange.
• Blocks and building toys.
• Xuxa and all of her songs, which he has memorized.
• Climbing on Papai and swinging upside down.
• Being tickled.
• Giving hugs kisses.
• Sleeping with his stuffed Lion and Elephant

DISLIKES:

• Bugs of all sorts
• Having sticky hands (except while eating and making mealtime a full-body experience.)
• Spilling food on his pants.
• Dropping his napkin, fork or bread on the floor.
• The deep end of the pool (thank goodness).
• Being in time-out. He pouts his lips and rolls his little eyes back and scrunches his eyebrows while pretending not to listen. Too precious.
• Hot showers

GREATEST HITS:

• Our first day as a family, we were surprised that they all liked to pile in the shower together. There was a moth on the shower wall that day, and Lucas poured water on it to wash it down the drain. He then stuck it to Brayan's wet belly. Brayan screamed like a girl and cried for a good long time. Mom and Dad, however, could not stop laughing. We're glad everyone's learned to shower one at a time now.
• Brayan's laugh is enough to bring a smile to any Scrooge's face. And when he says "boa noite" (good night) it is so sweet it melts our hearts every time.
• Brayan is a runner. He is an independent thinker and loves to run ahead of the group (or AWAY from his parents). Today he ran out of the men's room at the mall while Papai was otherwise occupied and unable to chase him down. We play "red light, green light" often to teach him to "stop" and "come back" on command. He's great at the game, but hasn't transferred the skill to real life very well.He is preciously articulate and likes to tell what he's thinking and narrate what's going on around him.
• Tonight he said (in Portuguese): "I dropped my bread on the floor next to my fork. It was Luana's but I took a bite out of it and now it's on the floor!"
• Probably because all of his caretakers have been females, Brayan is deftly able to wrap his head in a towel the way long-haired women often do after washing their hair. Any towel, scarf, pair of pajama pants or beach sarong can instantly become a fancy hair-do. He often marches around announcing that he is Rapunzel (pronounced ha-poon-ZEOU, in Portugese)! He also likes to stand on a chair in front of the bathroom mirror to admire his hair-do.
• After looking back at the videos from our first meeting, we realized that Brayan was the first one to short "PAPAI! MAMAE!" from behind the closed gate and the first to run toward James to give a big hug.
• Probably because he is so sweet, Brayan ends up getting a lot of candy from strangers (I know, good parents don't let kids take candy from strangers). A few weeks ago he got a free lollypop from a store clerk, and just the other day on a bus ride back from the Centro, he got free ice cream from a teenager selling to raise money when he asked "what's in that box" (her cooler), a bite of a woman's empanada when he asked "what's that you're eating?" and a square of chocolate from a girl sitting behind us when he asked "can I have some?" Sometimes this causes a problem because the other kids see that he has something they don't, which can go downhill fast, so we usually try to refuse all these well-meaning strangers.