Aunt Lise

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Family by Ashley Z Harper

On Culhane’s 4 month birthday he received a MAJOR gift – his Aunt Lise came to visit! Lise lives in Phoenix so she hadn’t gotten to meet Colt yet, and although she will be seeing him again over New Years, she just couldn’t wait that long. Lise is an amazing, talented and BUSY doctor, so she didn’t have long to visit, but she still made the trip to be with us Thursday morning through Sunday evening. We were so honored that she would go through all of the time, energy, etc. to come see us and our sweet boy, so we tried to pack in a combination of São Paulo fun + lots of Culhane snuggle time.

Lise arrived Thursday morning and came directly over to meet her nephew. Next, we met up with Michael for lunch at one of our favorite neighborhood spots. Then for dinner Thursday night, Joe hosted everyone at his apartment for a beautiful meal, complete with a fancy menu! On Friday morning Lise came over for lots of good, quality Culhane time. After lots of morning smiles, we headed to the fancy mall in our neighborhood to meet Michael and Joe for lunch. After lunch we walked around the park & Culhane showed off his sweet new shades. Next we cooled off in the apartment and played! Friday night we headed to our favorite sushi spot, Nagayama, and it was amazing! On Saturday Lise came over for some more quality Culhane time, and then we drove to Bar da Dona Onça in the Centro for a great Brazilian lunch. Saturday night we all took it easy and just headed down the block to dinner at our favorite Italian spot, Sallvattore. On Sunday we took Lise to mass at the beautiful Nossa Senhora cathedral and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the park with friends. It was perfect out! Lise, thank you so much for coming to visit! We had a blast with you and can’t wait to hang out together again next month!

4Nov2013

Halloween (#2)

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

Saturday night was the “big-kids” Halloween party and it was honestly one of the most fun nights that I’ve had in São Paulo. The night was full of delicious food, amazing drinks, well-planned games, and the main event…the lip sync competition! Everyone brought their A-game and we realized once again how lucky we are to have this incredible group of friends. Although there is no way to capture the fun of the night, here are some favorite moments….enjoy!

We went as a leopard, panda and a cute, chubby little FOX!

Brittany & Leo, comin in hot as bling!

B-Rak. Just awesome.

Alex & Jana as…each other!

Suzanna & Jeff as Taylor Swift & a throw-back hottie

Michael and Mailey hanging out.

Colby & Jana hanging with sweet Culhane.

After arriving and socializing on Jeff & Suzanna’s amazing rooftop deck, the party moved indoors for a Billboard Top 40 game. We were split into 4 teams (1995, 1997, 1998 and 2000) where we got to hear 30 seconds of a top-10 song from our year and we had to guess the artist and name of the song. There was also a little intermittent flip-cup involved for bonus points. Michael and I were both on team Y2K and I think we came in second to team 1995.

After the games came the main event…the lip sync competition! The hosts & party planners — Team Glitter — kicked off the night with “Call Me Maybe.”

We started on the first floor but after the first couple performances, we may have gotten a few calls from the neighbors so we moved back upstairs for the remainder of the night.

Leo going gangsta

Team Hudson leaving it all out on the stage.

Mailey loves performing.

Opposites attract.

I can’t even comment on this one…

Now, since the moment that the idea for this party was born, Michael and I had been trying to think of what song we would perform. We took the competition seriously and we wanted to win. We contemplated several options but ultimately our inspiration came from Culhane. We had already ordered him an adorable fox costume and then it hit Michael, we should obviously be doing, “What does the fox say?” We choreographed a routine to roughly match the music video and had regular evening rehearsals — Culhane loved watching us practice! We were a little thrown off when I lost Culhane’s original fox costume that we ordered (I had it in the bottom of my stroller and it fell out on a walk), but luckily our friend Bryan was in the states and we were able to overnight a new outfit for him to bring back.

Getting ready to perform – handing out animal masks to the crowd.

Yak yak yak yak yak yakey yak

Michael and I were not messing around. And Culhane was so excited he fell asleep!

After everyone performed, we had a “vote” to determine who gave the best performance of the night and I am proud to say that we WON!!

Michael accepting our trophy.

The crowd called for an acceptance speech and Michael obliged by saying that the only way to truly commemorate the moment was with an encore performance! Who calls for their own encore?!?! I was not in favor of doing it again but by that point we were sort of committed so, back to the stage we went.

Encore performance with our little fox holding our trophy.

We may have kept our little ones up a tiny bit past their bed-time but it was totally worth it and they had a great time too.

Mailey Jane – eyes wide open right up until the last moment.

Our little fox – the champion. All tuckered out.

Big thanks to Team Glitter — Jeff, Suzanna, Colby & Hayden — for all of the hard work, planning and hosting that went into the event. It truly could not have been better.

2Nov2013

Halloween (#1)

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

Culhane is going to a big-kid Halloween party tonight and will have a new outfit for the event, however on Thursday Culhane attended his first ever Halloween party, just for babies! I accidentally lost the costume that we had for him so we had to improvise a little and he ended up going as a Republican.

Here in São Paulo, there are 7 babies within 7 weeks of each other. Out of the 7 there is only 1 girl (Mailey Jane!) and Culhane is the youngest. babes Thanks to Lesley for hosting and Jana for the awesome photos!

9Oct2013

Recife & Porto de Galinhas

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

This past weekend Culhane and I joined Michael on a quick work-trip of his in the northeast of Brazil. He had a Friday morning meeting in Recife so late Thursday afternoon we headed to the airport for Culhane’s longest flight yet – 3 hours. The plane was full so we opted to carry him in the front-pack. We brought bottles for the flight and ended up giving him a little bit during take-off since he started crying, we fed him a full bottle in the middle of the flight since it was time for him to eat, and then I nursed during the landing since the change in pressure was clearly bothering him. He cried a bit during both takeoff and landing, but feeding definitely helped.

We arrived Thursday evening and after dropping our things off at the hotel, we headed straight out for dinner. Recife is known for great seafood and specifically for a few local dishes so we ordered it all.

The next morning I was thrilled to wake up to this view from our hotel window!The only problem, however, is that Recife is known for their prevalence of shark attacks, so we opted not to go swimming here.So, on Friday afternoon, after Michael was finished with work, we drove an hour and a half to the beautiful beaches and turquoise waters of Porto de Galinhas where we stayed Friday and Saturday nights at a resort hotel on the beach.

Culhane didn’t seem crazy about the pool, so we tried the beach!Michael taking him for his first ever dip in the ocean.He really wasn’t sure what to make of the waves, and Mama didn’t want him in the sun too much, so we moved under an umbrella and relaxed in the sand.After a great day at the beach, Culhane was a happy little guy!Staying hydrated with lots of fresh, cold coconut water.Playing in the grass.On the flight home I nursed both during takeoff and landing, we changed 2 dirty diapers, and I think he only cried for about 45 seconds. Superman indeed!

2Oct2013

Made In Brazil

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Family, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

Culhane McGeever Harper & Mailey Jane Hudson.
4 weeks apart. Best friends. And both, made in Brazil.

18Sep2013

Belo Horizonte & Inhotim

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

This past weekend Michael and I took Colt on his first flight! Michael was speaking at a legal conference on Friday in Belo Horizonte so on Thursday afternoon our family of three headed to the airport, and two of us crossed our fingers and held our breath to see how the littlest one would do on his first flight!

We knew that no matter what though, he would at least look the part!
Big-boy travel attire! (Thanks to Jessica Bryant for the shirt, Brad & Brett Coppens for the pants, and Mike & Moira for the sweet kicks!)

When we checked in, they said that the flight wasn’t full so we would be able to bring Colt on in his carseat and put it in the chair between us. I made a bottle before we left as I have heard that it’s good for babies to be drinking at takeoff/landing to help with pressure (similarly to how chewing gum can be helpful), but since presh-pot was asleep, I figured it was best to just let him sleep. He woke up during the flight to eat so we gave him the bottle then, and he was back asleep by the time we landed. Not a tear was shed and we were thankful that he seemed to be a good traveler since that’s kiiiind of a big part of our lives.
On Friday, Culhane and I got up early and got ready to go watch Michael speak at the conference. I didn’t know if we would even be able to get in, but I thought it was so impressive what he was doing — speaking and presenting at a legal conference to a Brazilian audience in Portuguese!!! — so we decided to try our best to sneak in. Thankfully Colt was napping so we snuck in the back and were able to watch most of the presentation. Michael spoke for about 30 minutes and did an amazing job! Although I didn’t totally understand it all, I can say that Michael looked great up there! Culhane and I were so proud!

Our return flight was for Saturday evening, so during the day we decided to rent a car and drive to Inhotim – a very unique park of sorts that has random modern art exhibits scattered all throughout. The weather was perfect and the park was gorgeous – we had a great time walking around, exploring.

Culhane’s new favorite changing-table.
On the flight back they didn’t allow our carseat so I held Colt the entire time. At first I was a little annoyed but it was nice getting to snuggle with him for an hour and a half. He gave a couple of little cries on the flight but nothing that lasted more than a few seconds. Otherwise he seemed happy to either be sleeping or snuggling.

It was a relief to get his first flight out of the way, especially since the next one will be MUCH longer (heading to Jackson, Mississippi in November to celebrate Emily & Kern’s wedding!!), but at the end of the trip we were all happy to get back home.

12Sep2013

Michael’s 31st Birthday!

Posted in Brazil, Family by Ashley Z Harper

Culhane and I were so excited to celebrate Michael’s 31st birthday and his 1st birthday as a dad on Monday, September 9th.

We had a busy few days with friends the weekend before and we’re heading out of town this weekend and Michael will be out the next one as well, so we took it pretty easy but had fun together.

Morning breakfast and festive signs and notes throughout the house.Colt, a little unsure (and chubbier by the day) in his custom-made dad’s-birthday-attire: Lunch at the Gourmet Tea: and dinner at the new Argentine steak house in our neighborhood, 348 (which – if you’re in SP and like meat, I would totally recommend!):