finally laila is a carioquinha. this is official b/c she finally will step foot on the sand without crying. she has these "frescuras" [pickiness/fussiness is the best translation i can come up with] about cleanliness that is beyond her 1.5 yrs. she doesn't like to get dirty and is constantly pointing out stains, spots and blemishes, usually on mommy which is not so cool given that this 2nd pregnancy has not been kind to my skin. so she never liked the sand. not stepping in it, touching it, hardly even being near it without wailing like it was torture. so it's kinda strange considering we live a few blocks from the beach and we are in rio hello.

but yesterday we made a breakthrough. a late afternoon stroll with grandma (who is a child psychoanalyst of course) resulted inn laila's first contact with the wonderful world of sand! we didn't actually step out onto the sand, we've done that before and it's usually a few trepidatious steps and someone carrying laila back to the boardwalk. but after being soothed with a fresh "coco gelado" (fresh coconut water), laila sat at the bottom step of the stairs leading up to the boardwalk and after grandma placed a few handfuls of sand on the stairs, laila actually dug right in. at first she would only pinch the sand and made whiny noises that i would interpret as "ew - what's this crap?", but soon her inner carioca had her digging her hands right into the sand.

i know it doesn't seem like such a milestone in consideration of all important ones - first time potty, walking, drinking from a cup - but not liking the beach for a carioca? blasphemy! so we are now normal!!! we can actually go to the beach now w/o fear of meltdowns and the unintended workout from carrying our adorable 11 kilo weight bag across the sand. great for calves, not great for hernias. if only we could get her to wear a hat w/o bribery...