It has been a long, draining first week of work and daycare, but we survived!

Halloween.
I have never seen a group of adults so excited about Halloween. Except, of course, at our epic Haloweenie parties. But as far as an office is concerned, wow. So many people came to work in costume. Unicorns, Ghostbusters, witches, devils, pirates, and scary ghouls overtook the office. The canteen (break room) had a spread of spooky snacks that Rachel and Ashley would have been impressed by. Jay and I both had the same thought…we felt like we were in an episode of The Office. Awesome.

Unfortunately Jay had to work late so I had the pleasure of taking care of everything by myself. I had barely walked in the door with a starving baby before kids were standing by the door. While I was stuck upstairs feeding lily, kids were pounding on the door. Some must have frightened Ty because he was hanging out in the bedroom. After I got the kids costumes on (lily was a fluffy pink bunny and Ty was a fireman…well sort of, but he wore out his costume on day 2 of our arrival in Australia), we headed out on foot and stroller to trick or treat. Turns out nobody in our neighborhood walks on Halloween, they all cruise around in their fantastically decorated buggies (golf carts). I had to set our bowl of Skittles and Starburst by the front door. I am guessing they didn’t last 5 minutes after we left the house.

Roos.
We have been in Australia for 2 weeks and have yet to see a kangaroo. Or a koala. Or a snake. Or a shark. Or a deadly spider. We have, however, seen a few lizards. Ty gets a kick out of the little white lizards that hang out on our patio at night – on the ceiling. Ty has to be wondering why we were talking about all of those critters for the past several months…

TV.
I haven’t had any time to sit and watch a TV show from start to finish, but Jay has been able to watch Walking Dead, and Ty has Nick JR (thank goodness!). The Nick JR programming is mostly the same but there are a few local shows throughout the day that we don’t get in the states.
I don’t understand all of the details on this, but apparently our movies that we brought from home (mostly for Ty) don’t work in the DVD players here. Something about a regional setting or something??? Sherry to the rescue with a US BluRay player in the mail!

Driving.
Every time we get on the road, I see cars I have never seen before. Jay has quite enjoyed this. He is trying to talk me into letting him get a Holden Ute and having it shipped home…

Kids.
Kids are given much more freedom here. At restaurants the kids just run around, parents don’t seem to mind or worry about them. Makes me feel a little better about my crazy kiddos, but I am a bit worried that Ty and Lily will adopt that behavior and then be out of control when we go back home in 2 years.

Babysitter.
We have lined up a babysitter for our first “date”. There is an end of year party at work in late November. One of Ty’s teachers is going to babysit. She is awesome, so we are lucky that she agreed to watch the kids!

Ew!
Personal hygiene and cleanliness is a bit lacking. Not horrible, by any means, but noticeably different. I feel like Ty doesn’t wash his hands at school nearly as much, and the floors seem a bit dirty, which is gross if you think about Lily eventually learning to crawl. Jay said the daycare we are at is by far the nicest he visited, so regulations must not be as strict. But I have heard that kids don’t get sick as often here. Wonder if that is because they have tougher immune systems because they aren’t over cleaning, or some other reason. Not too concerned, just grosses me out a bit.

Public bathrooms seem to be hard to come by, and if you are in a store that doesn’t have a public restroom they really don’t want you to use it. Once we talked them into letting Ty use it and I am convinced we came out with diseases. (See paragraph above). Soap in bathrooms is also lacking. Will be pleased when Sherry’s shipment of mini hand sanitizers arrives.

Random.
A loaf of white bread for sandwiches/toast is about 30% larger than what I am used to. This is great if you are hungry, but annoying when the top section of you bread doesn’t get toasted. YEAH TOAST!!

Dipper.
Don’t read this last section if you don’t want to hear the harsh reality stuff. This week was pretty tough emotionally. Jay had a stressful first week of work with year end, my work stress was caused by not knowing what I should be doing and trying to find ways to not be bored (both of these should be better next week). Reality is setting in for Ty so he is having some adjustment issues. Lily, bless her heart is clueless to all of the happenings. I was quite stressed with managing all of the evening activities by myself since Jay had to work late. Unpacking the car, washing bottles, feeding Lily, entertaining Ty, figuring out supper and cooking, packing lunches (thankfully Jay took this over midweek). By the time Jay got home we rushed to get the kids bathed and in bed, and then I just crashed. Seems like I haven’t sat down at home in a week, and lily is still waking at night to eat, and it annoys me that the house isn’t completely settled and we don’t have most of our things yet. Trick or treating on top of everything else almost pushed me over the ledge, but it was rewarding to see how happy Ty was and how cute they both looked. I need to keep focusing on the little things that make us happy, and remember that the ocean is just a short drive away. It was definitely a trying week, but I am hopeful that next week will be better. No worries, mates!