Less Patient?

This morning I became aware that the girls wouldn't be able to play with their friend Sophie. Sophie's father said that Sophie was unavailable, apparently for a family day. Somehow, I was prompted to ask who was more patient, Andre (Sophie's father) or me. I thought I knew the answer, as our kids seem to have a bit more freedom. Heloisa said that Andre was more patient, that he yelled only after the "fourth time" and that I yelled after the third time. Helo was referring to requests we make of our kids. Apparently, in her observant wisdom, she notes that she can ignore me the first two times at least and can wait until the third time, when I lose patience and yell. Andre waits another time. Who is leading whom? In all fairness to my parenting style, I noticed that the kids were playing Eliene in the same way. The would never do something the first time, preferring to wait until the yelling came - as it sometimes did not come. Kids are not dumb. I began a "first time" policy. But obviously even I am human, not backing up my requests right away.

Cavities, Dental Floss and Reward-Punishment

All of the kids get decent allowances. They get them because after dentist visits we learn that they had no cavities. I told the kids that I would rather pay them than the dentist. It's been a year now since the last cavity. But today, I noticed that Heloisa was not flossing. I told her that not flossing increased the probabilities of cavities and further underscored that she would be six months without an allowance if she indeed did develop a cavity. I ended the conversation by saying that flossing was up to her, but that it was small insurance to pay for the big hit that losing six months of allowance would be. Let's see what happens.

Tales of Brazilian Business

You all know that we have some 46 cows, tended by Eliene's father in the northeastern state of Maranhao. Two months ago I told Jose, Eliene's father, that I need R$10,000 from selling cattle to help pay for our purchase of a lot. I would finance the rest from my 401(k) plan. We were told about a month ago that he had sold some cattle (though the price was low) and that he would transfer the money to Eliene's bank account. He immediately transferred R$2,500 and then... nothing. He would call and then the line would go dead. We can't call him as his farm has no phone nor electricity. This non-communication went on for several weeks - he'd talk but for the briefest time. His wife and, indeed all of us, were worried. Last week, I told my friend Les that I thought that Jose had gotten a bad check and was attempting to make good. Indeed, he phoned last week (a week prior to the lot closing) and said that the buyer pretty much stiffed him. He got another R$500, which he sent to Eliene. And he got the cows back after culling enough for the buyer's R$3,000. Funny, where Jose lives is a pretty much everyone-knows-someone kind of place. The buyer was a friend of a friend. Times are a bit rough in Maranhao now, it being mostly agricultural. I'm not sure we'll know what really happened, but in getting the R$3,000 I got my expenses for vaccinations, etc. back. So everyone is even at this point - until the next vaccination time next year. Fortunately, I had the funds to close from Plan B.

Swine Flu

Maybe it was not swine flu that hit here at all... swine flu apparently has a high fever and muscle cramping. Most people who have had the flu don't have those symptoms. It's spread widely here - the kids' school closed for 10 days because the flu had hit epidemic proportions. It ran through our house like wildfire, finally infecting me last Sunday. But everyone is better now.

Jovana and Math

Jovana and I have had fun counting. The latest episode has her doing some double digit math - adding and subtracting - adding 50 plus 6, or 70 plus 7. She knows that the answer is 66 or 77. Simple deduction, but fun anyway. She can also add by tens, 70 plus 10 and so forth. The most fun is when I write problems on the computer. She can add/subtract simple double digit numbers so long as "carry" is not required. She has learned to add or subtract numbers from the same digit place. Fascinating.

That's all the news, folks. Be well.