Date Night!
Thursday evening we had our first date night in 4 months. When we got home from work we were rushing around to get everything ready for the sitter. Ty told Jay that he wanted to take a shower so that “she won’t see me dirty.” Oh boy, this kid is going to be trouble!
The kids and Belinda seemed to get along great right away, and Ty didn’t seem at all upset that we were leaving. Too easy. Jay and I didn’t really have a plan, so we headed to Surfer’s Paradise. We haven’t been there yet and it has been on my list for a while. We found a delicious restaurant called Hurricanes. Jay got a steak and I had prawns – the biggest shrimp ever… Best meal we have had at a restaurant in Australia.

After dinner we grabbed some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and headed to the ocean. We are so fortunate to have one of the world’s most beautiful beaches close enough to visit on a random Thursday night. We walked along the sand, splashed our feet in the waves, and watched the blood red moon rise up over the Coral Sea. *sigh*

Such a nice night. Unfortunately our borrowed Au pair plan is short lived, as she became too homesick and is moving back to Melbourne. Nuts. We talked about seeing if we could find a regular sitter because we really need to get out more. 🙂

Memaw!!!!
Jay went and picked up Memaw on Friday morning at 6:00 am. I took the kids to daycare and then I had to go to work. Ty and I were so excited for the end of the day to come so we could go see her. She had a smooth flight, she slept a lot, had nice neighbors, an on time arrival, all of her bags arrived. No worries!
Jay took her around to show her the area. They went to the house first. They drove around Sovereign Island, went to Surfer’s Paradise, rode the buggy to the marina, got groceries, and then went to daycare a little early to see the kids. Her first impressions were that it is hot and busy. There are more traffic/people than she was expecting.
I was glad that her bags arrived because they were stuffed full of goodies from the states. Christmas presents from the Scroggies (thank you!!), Valentines Day prizes, lots of clothes for the kids, real Qtips for Jay, bags of black beans, boxes of hidden valley ranch dressing mix, pink Orbit gum, Crest toothpaste, my favorite conditioner, and Magic Shell!!!!!
Friday night was the usual pizza and movie night, but it was so much better with Memaw! We watched Mr Popper’s Penguins – random, cute movie. She stayed awake until about 7:30, which is really good! She woke around 2:00, unpacked her suitcases and fell back to sleep.

Saturday.
Ty bypassed our room at 5:15 am on Saturday and jumped into Memaw’s bed for a bit before we had to get ready for swim lessons. It was fun for Ty to get to show her his swimming skills in person! Lily had fun kick kick kicking her way around the pool. The teacher called her a water baby today – she sure is!

We came home to get changed and ready to go into the city. Lily found the best place in the house to catch some zzzz’s – on Memaw’s lap!

South Bank.
The weather forecast was cooler and a chance of rain, so we decided to go to South Bank Parklands up in Brisbane. Such a cool, fun place! The walkways were surrounded by these huge vines with purple flowers. Beautiful. There is a man made “beach” swimming pool that overlooks the Brisbane River. Ty loved playing in the sand. Next time we will bring swim trunks so he can play in the kiddie pool. They had a little tent market (bought a dress and the most adorable outfit for Lily) and heaps of restaurants and shops. We ate at a Mexican restaurant – Guzman & Gomez. First Mexican in Australia and it was pretty tasty!
After lunch we rode the Wheel of Brisbane, the largest Ferris wheel in the Southern Hemisphere (I think). Memaw didn’t want to ride so it was just the 4 of us. The views were awesome, even though it was a cloudy day.
There was an Aboriginal festival, which was pretty cool. They had crafts for sale, and they did singing and dancing performances. It was neat – glad we came across that unexpected surprise!

IKEA.
Do you remember when we first moved here and we had to go to Ikea to get furniture. It was probably Jay’s least favorite experience in Australia (and possibly his life by the way he complains about it). I have been wanting to go back to pick up a few more things but Jay never wanted to go back. I mentioned it to sherry and she said she has never been to an Ikea. Woohoo! Perfect reason to go. :). I got what I needed and this experience was much more pleasant.

Roos!
We were on our way home around the time that we heard the kangaroos like to hang out just a few roundabouts up the road, so we thought we would go check it out. Success!!! Wild Roos!!! Memaw must be good luck. 🙂

Rest.
The rest of Saturday evening we just decided to take it easy. Such a fun day.

G’day mates!

Rubbish.
On Monday afternoon nearly the entire branch participated in Clean Up Australia Day. When I signed up, I didn’t know what the volunteer event would involve. As we got closer to the day, we received emails saying we need to not wear our volunteer t-shorts, instead long sleeves are recommended. It is summer. In Australia. But Ok. What else? Wear jeans. And solid shoes. And a hat. And show up early for the safety debriefing. See, kids, we are going to clean up the rubbish in the Berrinba Wetlands. For those of you that need a translation, in my opinion “wetlands” = “bush” = snakes, spiders, and a heap of other critters that want to eat me for dinner. I tried to find some history on the area, but Wikipedia doesn’t even know the Berrinba Wetlands exist. I thought wiki knew everything. Heck, it knew about the long forgotten history if Halloweeny (well, before the wiki cops deleted it and threatened to remove Jay’s access to wiki world).
We showed up early (didn’t want to miss the safety debriefing) and noticed that I was one of about 3 people that followed the long sleeve shirt recommendation. It was like 100 degrees so everyone else decided to choose cool over life.
The safety debriefing did include a warning about snakes. After my reaction to the emails we had received in preparation for this event, when he mentioned snakes everyone looked at the crazy terrified paranoid American girl (me). I kept my composure, but I did squirm.
We were split into groups of about 6 and were told to go off with our empty trash bags and fill them up. If you were to stumble across a large item, like a couch, just let the guy in charge know at the end of the day. That got quite a chuckle.
Now, I am not afraid of picking up trash. I have done my fair share of Southside Pioneers 4-H club Adopt-a-highway days. But I was never afraid I would die on those days.
Did you notice that I didn’t say anything about the purpose of splitting us into groups of 6. I was kind of assuming that we would get assigned a section of the park to clean. Or at the very least, a “hey, you are venturing out into the poisonous bush, make sure you come back with your group in tact.” Nope. Just figure it out as you go. No worries.
My group headed off down a trail. Jay’s group went across the street to an area with zero shade. Feeling good so far. There wasn’t much trash along the trail, but when there was some, nobody else seemed to be petrified of going off the path to pick it up. So I quickly assumed the role of spotter. I wasn’t the first, however, to spot the giant freaking spider web with equally giant spider hanging off a tree. I was told it is a Golden Orb, harmless really. I found this picture online (forgot my camera again!!). The little spider next to it is what I would consider a big spider back home – like a wolf spider.

After about 20 minutes, we came across an unpaved “trail” that led us down a dry creek bed with shoulder high bush on either side. I could feel my blood pressure rising, started getting panicky. I must have squeaked out a nervous sound because the guy behind me said he would go back to the paved path if I was nervous (thank you Steve!!). So back we went. Steve and I walked the trail for a bit and came across a couple strays along the way (more people whose groups hadn’t worried about their disappearance). I did go about 6 steps off the path a couple times to get trash, but I didn’t breathe the entire time. I am a bit surprised I didn’t pass out.
Our little trio of left-behind misfits were wandering along the path and we couldn’t believe what we saw up ahead. Any guesses? A freaking couch. And a smashed up entertainment center. WHAT?!?! Steve wanted to take my picture next to it, so I cautiously approached it. Not sure what I was afraid of…a dead body, a homeless person, a family of brown snakes… Snapped a picture and decided we would tell the city where the couch was when we got back instead of trying to haul it back (although it would have been quite hilarious to show up with a couch at the end of the day). There was a bit of trash that would fit in the bags nearby, but when I wandered over to help pick it up, I almost puked from the stench. That was one part of Australia that I wasn’t about to clean up. PeeeeeeYouuuuuuu! Unfortunately the third member of our trio did pick some up, so the rest of the walk back was rotten. As soon as I came across a couple other wandering misfits I ditched my stinky group and joined them. As we walked out of the wetlands, Harry said, “hey Nicole – isn’t that Jay?” Driving off down the road. Um, yep. Panic set in again, for a brief moment. Was he really going to leave me in this poison infested wetland? And then an instant later my composure creeped back in and I realized he just had to go get more bags. Since my bag was pretty much empty, and it looked like he and another lady (yes, their group ditched them as well) had heaps to pick up, I went over to help them. They had pulled out a set of tires and about 6 bags of trash. Nice work Jay!
When we got back to base after a couple hours, a few people couldn’t wait to tell me about the snake they saw RiGHT by where we had STARTED our day. It’s harmless, they say, just a little green tree snake. I don’t care, I don’t want to see it. And then Harry came wandering over to show me the shed skin of a 4 meter brown snake (2nd most venomous snake in the world). Good freaking Lord. It is amazing I came out of there alive. Thank goodness the only snakes I saw were on an iPhone and the dead remains of one. I hate snakes…
But, at the end of the day, I survived. And Australia is cleaner because of it. And we visited a quite beautiful area that we likely would not have put on our list of things to see otherwise.

Annie.
Friday evening I went to the grocery store and decided to pick up a movie for Pizza and Movie night. Annie was on the shelf, and quickly joined my stash of goodies in the grocery cart. I haven’t seen that movie in forever, and it is possible that I never actually watched the whole thing from start to finish. But I LOVED it! I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face the entire movie (might have also been partially caused by my second glass of vino). Ty really liked it too. He would get up and dance, and he got a kick out of Jay and I belting out “tomorrow tomorrow I love ya tomorrow”. I would love to take him to see it on Broadway someday. Sweet little Valentines Day.

Swim.
Saturday morning was the usual rush to get out of the house for the 7:00 swim lessons. I almost kept Lily out since she wasn’t feeling great on Friday but decided at the last minute that she would be OK. Jay got to have fun in the pool with Lily this week. He is less timid about dipping her under, so I think he might get to do it next week as well. She thinks it is so fun! Some kids cry the whole time – not Lil. She smiles the whole time. I got to sit and watch Ty – it has been a few weeks since I had been in the pool with Lily. He did awesome. He really swims to the other side – kicks, does big swimmer arms, holds his breath forever. Check out the video on Facebook.

Skatepark.
Every day on the way to school we pass a skatepark/playground. Every day Ty asks if we can go. Today was the day. We didn’t tell him, we just loaded up his scooter and helmet with the swimming gear. He noticed that I put it in the car but didn’t ask why. After swim lessons we started heading that way. It took him a while to guess, and his reaction was just like, yeah, ok. After three months of asking to go, I would have thought he would have nearly jumped out of his carseat with excitement… First he wanted to go to the playground. Jay FaceTimed Memaw while Ty played. During that conversation we learned that she isn’t arriving until Friday – we were thinking she was coming Wednesday. I asked her to move her flight but she didn’t go for that idea. Nuts. I just want her to get here!!!
After a while Ty wanted to go to the skatepark. I walked over with him. There were a few other kids playing on it – one was actually going up and down the ramps, but there were younger kids just climbing up and sliding down on their bums. I thought Ty would be timid because he won’t even ride his down the driveway, but he went straight to a little ramp and rode it down. Didn’t stay on his scooter, but that’s ok. I think he got a little adrenaline rush. He kept trying – and he checked himself before trying something new. I could see his little brain thinking “hmmm if I fall how bad will it hurt? That boy did it. Maybe I will try it next time.” He took a couple spills but choked back tears and got right back on.
Jay had mentioned to a coworker that the park we found last week should have a skatepark for the kids. She said there was no way the community would put one in because they are “full of drug dealers and graffiti.” This one seemed quite nice. We chatted with a dad for a bit. Then he asked if our company does drug tests. Um. Jay and I were like, we aren’t sure, it is mostly office workers, we didn’t have to pee in a cup… Got awkward, and I could tell Jay was thinking the same thing I was – this guy needs a job, but does drugs, so he doesn’t want to bother if they do drug tests. I mean, we were at a skatepark, the dude had gold trim on his glasses, he has a boat and was talking about buying another. He must be a drug dealer. Either he needed a job or was fishing for more customers. Jay and I look like total addicts. And then he said, “always networking, that’s what I do for a living.” Ohhhhhhhh! So you give the drug tests?! Makes it totally less awkward. Although now that I am thinking about it again, I think that was a cover. I agree, skateparks are full of drug dealers. But we will go back. Ty loved it.
Ty wanted to go back to the playground one more time, so I went to the car to feed Lily while Jay went to the playground. I got a text message saying Ty wanted his chips. He hadn’t eaten much brekky because we were rushing to leave, so the poor kid was starving. Like awesome parents, we thought a bag of chips after swim lessons was a good substitute. And orange juice. Apparently while I was not at the park (I would not have allowed this…) Ty got on this ring around a pole and spun around and around and around. Ok. This is the kid that is Nana’s grandson, who can’t take two left turns without getting car sick. What do you think happened? Yep. Ty puked up his orange juice and chippies at the skatepark. I pushed him in the stroller back to the car, headed home, and he puked again. He caught most of it in his airplane puke bag (Memaw, please get some more on your flight over). The rest of the morning was pretty relaxed, letting both kids’ tummies heal up (and letting mama sneak in a nap on the playroom floor). I think jay was passive aggressively telling me that he wasn’t impressed that I fell asleep because he posted this picture on Facebook. It isn’t obvious that there is a sleeping mama under the blanket…

Flush.
I forgot to share a funny story yesterday. On Friday when I was home with the kids, I was upstairs feeding Lily, and Ty was downstairs. He came up and told me he went toots. I said great, but you didn’t flush or wash your hands (he is really having a hard time remembering to do this lately). After trying to convince me that he did (I knew he didn’t) he walked away, went to the bathroom UPstairs, flushed and washed his hands. I didn’t realize what he had done until a while later when I noticed the DOWNstairs toilet had not been flushed. I guess I didn’t specify which toilet needed to be flushed, and he sure wasn’t going to go downstairs if he didn’t have to. Well played, little man. Well played.

Crawling!!!!
It is official. Lily looked a bit like a newborn foal trying to find her legs, but after a wobbly first try, Lily is now crawling!! Timing is perfect – Jay just went and bought a drill to I stall the baby gate this afternoon. Going to need it!

Once she figured out how to get to Ty’s toys, she gets really mad when we take them away. Little hissy fits. 🙂

Dance Party.
We all know Ty hates wearing anything but his Bonds undies. So don’t be surprised when you check out the Facebook video of our little impromptu Saturday afternoon dance party, and Ty is showing off his sweet moves is his undies. Jay has mad skills, as well.

Coffee.
Jay bought me a coffee maker today. They don’t have anything like I am used to back home, so he came back with an espresso machine that has a separate milk frother. Fancy! It has a bunch of sample pods, so I can try them all out and figure out what flavor I like best. The first one I had was pretty good. The coffee fills a normal coffee cup only about halfway. I filled the rest with my fancy frothed milk. Not bad, not bad. I am either caffeine deprived or the coffee here is mega strong, because I felt like I was totally jacked up. I am anxious to try the other flavors. Thanks Jay!!

Ramina.
We had dinner at the ramina (marina) Saturday night. Jay took Ty over to the tavern to play video games. He is learning about odds. He could choose to put money in the claw game and only maybe get a toy, or he could put money in the vending machine and definitely get a treat. He chooses the vending machine game. Good choice, son.
During dinner, Ty was quoting lines from Annie. “I love you Mrs. Hannigan!” in a totally sarcastic voice. He is his father’s son. Movie turrets.
Ty was playing with some older boys, doing what boys do – running, jumping, climbing. They were tolerating him, even though he was quite a bit younger than him. When it was time to go, Ty was down on the lower level talking to two cute girls about the same age as the boys. He said he was telling them about his cool toys. If the older boys weren’t impressed enough by Ty’s smooth talking, they saw us climb into Tiger. They said, “hey! That is the awesome buggy we saw earlier!” Pretty sure Ty is now a legend.

Night swim.
When we got home the boys decided to go for a night swim. Ty must really like them because one of his pieces of artwork at school has a title – “I love swimming at night.” It isn’t hard to convince Jay to go for a dip. I think he has started making mental plans for our pool back home…

That’s all for now! G’day mates!

Sitting.
On Wednesday, the day after Lily’s 7th birthday, she pushes herself from her tummy, up to all 4s, into the sitting position, and sat upright for a long time, unassisted. She has been able to get close to that for a while, but hasn’t given up the support of one hand on the ground. Until today. Such a big girl!

She also has started doing push-ups…I am sure to get buff for the beach…

Valentines Day.
Sadly, Valentines Day is not really celebrated in Australia. There is a small selection of cards to give to a loved one, and a few boxes of chocolates, but that’s about it. I went out looking for Valentines cards for Ty to give to his friends at school, but they don’t do that here. Kind of sad – was such a fun thing when I was a kid. I hope Jay won’t be disappointed when he realizes I didn’t get him anything for V-Day… I would have forgotten about it completely if it weren’t for Auntie Shell and a few Facebook posts.

Date nights!
We are getting hooked up with someone’s au pair who is looking for some extra hours of work. She is cheap (compared to the going rate here), and is willing to come watch the kids every Thursday evening. This will be crazy for us – we have only been away from the kids one night since we have moved here. Not that I don’t love my babies, but Jay and I need some “us” time. Thursday nights are late night shopping, so we might be able to run some errands and go out for a nice dinner that doesn’t involve mid-meal diaper changes, cleaning up puke, and chasing Ty around a restaurant. Really looking forward to this!

Bandit.
Friday morning Ty came into Lily’s room all sleepy-eyed and said, “Mom, is Bandit here?” I told him no, and he asked where he is. He must have had a dream that Bandit was in Australia with us. Sad. :(. So we FaceTimed with Auntie Em and saw Bandit. I know she has her hands full with him (and so does everyone else that she lives with), and we really appreciate that she took on that huge responsibility for us. It is great knowing he is in such good hands.

Sick Day.
Thursday evening Lily slept the car ride home from school, didn’t wake until it was time to eat, went back to bed, and slept all night. When we woke her Friday morning she had a low grade fever. Later in the day I noticed she had some dried blood spots and vomit on her sheet – must have had a bloody nose??? My poor sweet babe. So I kept both kiddos home from school. She was a little more fussy and clingy than normal throughout the day, puked a few times, and took little cat naps. She really just wanted to cuddle with me a lot on Valentines Day…
In between cuddles, I kept Ty entertained by teaching him how to play PIG with the mini basketball hoop. He legitimately won the first game, I came back to win the second. And now he knows how to spell pig. He impressed me with his ability to follow the instructions on his Planes Duplos (with little guidance) to make a little village. Such a smarty!

He helped me make a fruit salad (he loves rock melon (cantaloupe)), and then we made homemade hummus. Turned out delicious.

I tried to do some work throughout the day, but it is nearly impossible with 2 kiddos.
Ty is asleep, Lily will only stay asleep in my arms, so she and I are sitting on the patio watching the magpies, jumping fish, and a lone kayaker.

Weekend.
We are hoping to take the Torrey’s out boating tomorrow (if Lily is up for it), swim lessons, probably pool time, maybe the beach or the park…nothing too exciting planned for the weekend. Really looking forward to Memaw’s arrival on Wednesday!!

G’day mates!!