Rubbish truck.
Ty has been fascinated by garbage trucks for quite some time. Aussies call garbage “rubbish”, so Jay and I have been encouraging Ty to ask his teachers if they are called “garbage trucks” or “rubbish trucks” here. The suspense is killing me. Anyone know the answer?

Riley.
Jay’s nephew, Riley, is coming to visit for basically the entire month of June! The flights are booked. We are really excited. I think Ty is going to be super pumped to have someone to play every sport imaginable with for a whole month. And man, to be spending a good part of the summer after your freshman year of college in Australia….sounds pretty awesome for Riley. We will do our best to keep him entertained and hopefully give him some lifelong memories.

Swim.
Saturday was the start of a new term for swim lessons. We decided to let Lily sit out a term or two, as her lessons were feeling repetitive. She probably would be doing the same class for quite a while, so we will consider adding her back in a term or two when she gets a little older. We will all just watch Ty for a while.

Mummy Tree.
We had a package to pick up from the post office so we went to Sanctuary Cove after swim lessons. We had a yummy brekky, and then Ty got to open the package from Nana, Papa and Aunt Brookie. They sent a book about Australia and a metal detector for the beach! So fun! I can’t wait to try it out. I am sure we will find a buried treasure. The Cove had the Mummy Tree Markets – all sorts of fun booths with cute kid stuff. They had a bouncy house and a petting zoo. Ty had fun with the animals. He held a hamster for a while – really hope he doesn’t ask for one….

Clean.
Somehow the cleaning lady decided to not show up on Friday, which normally wouldn’t bug me too much, except Jeff and Rachel are coming on Monday and I didn’t want them having to walk into a pigsty. Not that they would care, but I do. :). So, we did quite a bit of scrubbing on Saturday. I had a great idea while I was cleaning. We have this big “movie” room that has a TV and two love seats. We have never once watched a movie in there – such a waste of space. I have been begging Jay to move one of the couches down to the toy room, but he is as stubborn as a mule. I was able to convince him to move one of them into our bedroom, and we moved the TV as well. Ty thinks it’s pretty cool. “You can watch Tv while you are sleeping!!”

Hoops.
After we finished up the cleaning, Jay and Ty decided to hop in the pool to cool off. They got out the basketball hoop and had heaps of fun shooting baskets.

Lily loved pool time as much as the rest of us.

Convertibles.
You would think that in a land of endless summer, there would be convertibles all over the place. But there aren’t. Jay read in article in a car magazine about it. Aussies tend to have a thing about making sure people don’t get too big of a head. Apparently driving a convertible is too flashy – too “hey look at me I’m awesome.” Which at first thought makes some sense. And then I think about the houses, boats, and hard-top cars that people here have and think, why not just have a car without a top? Does it really make that much more of a statement?

Dogs.
They don’t mess around with dogs here. There really aren’t many fru-fru dogs. Nearly all of the dogs we see are short hair, burly, stocky, tough looking dogs. They make me grip a little tighter to Ty’s hand and plan an escape route with Lily’s pram (stroller).

Ramina.
After the boys finished their swim, we got cleaned up and went to the ramina for dinner. The place was packed. We couldn’t get a table at our top two restaurants. But our dinners at the third place option were delicious. I finally had a yummy steak. Yay! Sweet potato hash browns. Chocolate mousse for dessert. Yum.
Jay and I decided that we will probably say for the rest of our lives, “remember that one time when we rode our buggy to a marina that had 5 different dining options?” Life is pretty great here. We are so fortunate.

So yeah, another pretty normal, run of the milk Saturday in Oz. Nothing too exciting. Hope this post doesn’t put everyone to sleep…

Magic.
Ty has really been into magic. He wants to be like Oz the Great and Powerful. I am pretty sure if I asked him right now what job he wants to do when he grows up, he would say, “a magician.” As Jay and I were getting ready for work, Ty was busy prepping for his magic show. He laid out 4 blankets on the carpet, perfectly straight. And then he told us to come watch as he performed his amazing magic tricks. “Zimbadabim!!” And he pulled the blanket away and quickly converted it into a cape, revealing a TOY from nothing. I swear there was nothing underneath that blanket. And then just like that…a toy!! Magic!!

There is a magic show every weekend at Sanctuary Cove. We are definitely going to have to check it out. The magician won some sort of Australia’s Got Talent show (or something), so I think it might actually be pretty cool. To be continued…

Shower.
I forgot to mention this on Saturday, but got a good laugh out of remembering the situation so I thought I would share. After swim lessons, Jay lets Ty take a shower in the locker room at the gym. Since Jay was home with Lily this weekend, I took Ty to lessons by myself. He of course wanted to take a shower. He stripped down and turned into a crazy kid. There were a couple other kids in there, none of them were crazy. I won’t go into details to save him some embarrassment in high school, but he would stand there and scream and make faces (and stuff).
I forgot all about it until the car ride home on Monday. I asked Jay if Ty gets crazy every time he takes a shower after swimming. Apparently he does. And Jay said, “it doesn’t get better with age.” So I guess the immature male locker room behavior is a part of their DNA, with signs of what is to come starting at about age 3. Boys…….*sigh*

Hayche.
Generally speaking, I love the Aussie accent. I mean, who doesn’t? But there is one thing that is a pet peeve of mine, kind of like fingernails on a chalkboard. They pronounce the letter “H” as “HAYche”. Say it out loud. Annoying. It is just “ayche”.
Monday afternoon in the drive home from school, Ty was talking about how he is learning letters. This week’s letter is “T”. But, since Ty is a genius of sorts, he has jumped ahead a few weeks to another letter. He was sounding it out. “Huh huh huh huh HAYche!” Oh no. Jay and I looked at each other, thinking the same thing – did he really just say that? And then he repeated it. Yep. It’s official. Ty has an Aussie accent. Just what I always dreamed of…

Stool-scoot.
Monday evening Lily discovered the stool in the kitchen. She realized that she could push it along the floor while in a sort of upright position, which had the benefit of keeping her dress off of the ground. The speed at which she covered ground was improved by at least double.

It didn’t take her long to realize that she could stand up and push it along, as well. She gave it a go, and had some success “walking”. So I gave her car-car and held onto the steering wheel so it wouldn’t roll away from her. She totally walked. Assisted, of course, but she did it. See the videos on Facebook.
Between restrictive dresses and a desire to keep up with her big bro, this chica will be running soon. Life is about to change. Again. To be continued….

Stinking Wicket.
Ty has been running around saying “stinking wicket” a LOT lately. He also likes to tell us when “other kids” at school say “stupid”. I know he just likes to tell us this because he likes to say the word “stupid”, which is toilet talk and prohibited in our house. He thinks he is so smart, but I am on to his tricks. So back to stinking wicket. A wicket is used in the game of cricket, of which I know nothing about, so I am certain he picked this up at school. Question for any Aussie readers out there… Is “stinking wicket” a toilet word that we need to stop him from saying? I have this awful fear that it is similar to calling someone an “f-ing a-hole” and we are oblivious to it…

You’re Beautiful.
Ty has started this thing where he will say, “mom, I have a secret.” He comes over and whispers in my ear, “you’re beautiful.” He knows this results in me giving him a hug and kiss. Lately he has changed his ways slightly and will now, out of the blue, say, “mom, you’re beautiful.” Love that boy. :). He is really going to make some lucky gal happy someday. Like 40 years from now. I don’t think I will be ready to share him for at least that long.

Winter.
For some reason, Ty has been grabbing his cold weather clothes out to wear. It is still 80 degrees here. He wore a hooded sweatshirt on Monday (could not talk him out of this). He has to wear a hat at school because of the super-sun here. I asked him which hat he wanted to take to school, and he put the hood from his sweatshirt on his head. “I don’t need a hat.” I think he saw that sweatshirt and thought “cool – built in hat.”
And then later this week he came downstairs wearing jeans. He went in the shoe closet and found his leather shoe-boots. I let him put them on, and although he looked stinking cute I couldn’t let him wear jeans to school. They run around outside so much, he would have died of heat.
So I wonder if this phase he is going through is because he is bored with the clothes he has (he has heaps) or if he has some sort of crazy Midwest inner-clock that is telling him that it should be winter by now. Where is the snow? Where is the cold? I am sure he is hearing about the upcoming “winter” here and is really confused…

Giant.
There was a grasshopper on our patio last night the size of a small bird. Seriously. Where are we?

100.
I hit a milestone last weekend that was a little surprising. 100 blog posts, in about 6 months time. I hope you all are still enjoying my rambling stories about our crazy normal life down under!

Two coworkers from the US – Shane and Carrie – arrived in Brisbane Sunday morning. We invited them over after they got checked in for a boat ride to help keep them awake. The forecast called for rain, so we almost cancelled, but then decided a quick trip to Sanctuary Cove would be better than nothing. As we were pulling out of our dock, the sprinkles started, but it wasn’t too bad. Ty got to play in the beach/pool for a while. It came down pretty good when we were eating lunch. It lightened up a bit, and we thought it may get worse, so we thought we better just head on out. It rained the whole way home, but they didn’t seem to mind. I think they were just happy to be off the airplane, and in a place where going out on a boat was an option. :).

When we got home, we sat around and chatted. They both tried Vegemite – both hated it, as expected. The sun came out, a nice breeze was blowing through, so we sat outside on the patio a while. Shane had done an expat assignment in India. It was nice to talk with someone who has experienced this. I know it probably sounds like our life is all glamorous, but we really are just two working parents, trying to excel at our jobs as parents and at work, there are still only 24 hours in a day, and our support network is a 24 hour trip away. That is the hardest thing to get used to, and Shane knew exactly what that feels like.

They asked how the cafeteria at the branch is, and we had to break the bad news that there isn’t one. So, we hopped in the buggy and took them to the grocery store to pick up a few things for them to try for lunches. All in all it was a really fun day, despite the weather not being totally cooperative.

After they left, it was back to the typical Sunday evening rush. Make lunches, finish laundry, bath kids. It is 7:00 pm, feels more like 10:00. Ty didn’t take a nap today. He didn’t want to miss the fun (he has more of his aunts and uncle in him than me). I am fully expecting him to crash at any minute…but then he started watching shark videos on the IPad. A never ending loop of shark attack YouTube videos. If you are ever bored, check it out. Hours of entertainment.

Back to the grindstone in the morning. Have a great week!

Sleepless.
Friday night Lily had a rough time. She was up off and on all night, so restless and uncomfortable. Ty, however, somehow managed to sleep through it all. At about 2:30 in the morning, when we were actually all sound asleep, Jay and I were both frightened out of bed by the sound of a large crash. What the heck?!?! I turned on the lights and started to creep down the stairs. Jay’s sense of hearing must be better than mine, as he went to the guest bathroom. We always have the blind down over the window – don’t really use that bathroom, and the blind helps keep the sun out. He said that he thought the window had broken. My groggy mind had a hard time comprehending what happened. And then I noticed little bits of glass sitting on the ledge by the tub, and I heard a crackling noise. Jay was hesitant to pull up the blinds – didn’t want it all to fall in. There wasn’t anything laying around that looked like it would have caused the damage. We figured a bird hit it, never crossed our mind that anyone might have thrown something at it. As we were already sleep deprived from Lily we went back to sleep, figured we would do more investigative work when the sun came up. Ty didn’t hear a thing.

Saturday morning I showed Ty what happened. We pulled up the blind and I was shocked at how big the hole was! He and I went outside to see if there was a dead bird (or bat) laying on the ground. Nothing. We looked all around the ground, under the hedges, on the other side of the wall. Nothing. I figured we better notify security just in case there were other similar incidents. They haven’t received any other reports. He did say that sometimes the heat makes the glass shatter, but I don’t think it has been especially hot here the past few days. He also said that he has seen the bats run into windows, shatter them, and fly off. This is my best theory at the moment.

The real estate manager came by to assess the situation. As he was standing outside looking up, he said, “it almost looks like it came from the inside out.” I didn’t think anything of the comment at the time. I am certainly not an expert in assessing the evidence of broken glass, but I can say with 100% certainty that nothing went through that window from the inside. And then glass started falling on the guy. He went upstairs and knocked the rest of the glass out with the broom handle. And then he said to Ty, “I don’t suppose you threw something through that window.” And my sweet little sarcastic kid who “just wanted to give the man an answer” said, “yeah, I shouldn’t have thrown my monster truck.” Oh boy. So if the guy had any initial thoughts that we were nasty people trying to cover up something that we did, now he certainly thinks so. Great. This ought to be a fun one.

For the record, putting this out on the internet for the world to know, and I would put my life on this, Ty did not “throw a monster truck” out the window at 2:30 AM in the bathroom that he never goes in where the blind was closed which prevented the glass from going everywhere when he was sound asleep and all three monster trucks were tucked away safe and sound in their box in the toy room. Good Lord. If he had done it, we would be the first ones to ask “who do we make the check out to.” I am so worried now that there is going to be drama…. Ugh….

In other news.
We decided to keep Lily home from swim lessons since she had such a rough night. I took Ty to his lesson and he did great. Still not real comfortable floating on his back, so we need to work on that. We came home and made an appointment to have the doctor check out Lily’s ears. Am hoping that she doesn’t have another ear infection.

While we waited for the time to go to the appointment we caught part of the Iowa State sweet sixteen game, and Jay and Ty vacuumed the car. What a bummer for the Cyclones. 😦

Ears.
Dr. Simone checked out Lily and, just as I suspected, she has an ear infection again. Twice in a month. :(. She said if she gets another one, she will refer is to an ear/nose/throat specialist to see about putting grommets in. I suppose this is like tubes in the US. Hopefully she doesn’t get anymore, but if she does we will consider it, if it will prevent pain in the future.
And, because I knew my mom has been worrying about this, I asked the doctor if it could be caused by swimming. She said no, because her infection is on the ear drum. Swimmers Ear is in the canals. So we don’t have to stop swimming! Yay!

Glass.
We had lunch at the ramina and then came home to meet the ASAP Glass repair guy. It was pretty impressive. He fixed it right up, right there in the driveway. Ty was fascinated by the process. We sat outside on the buggy and watched him work. He showed Ty the tool he uses to cut the glass. Pretty neat. He cleaned up all of the glass upstairs, and tried to get most of the glass outside, but a ton of it ended up in the garden, under the bushes. He couldn’t get that. The worst part is that is where I have to walk to hang dry clothes. No more running out there barefoot! I hope neither of the kids (or Jay) forget and run out there without shoes. Ugh. What a mess.

A couple weeks ago we noticed that the neighbor next door had a shattered window. She was outside so I asked her if she knew what happened. Nope, they figured a bird or the heat did it. She hadn’t reported it to security. I told her what happened. She was going to call security to have them review the tapes (there are cameras all over the neighborhood) to see if they noticed anything. Seems a little coincidental…and now I have myself freaked out a bit. We will be sleeping with the lights on outside. 😦

Bomb.
And then the neighbor gave me some interesting scoop. Apparently the renters 2 people before us got evicted. They were apparently bad people that pissed off some even worse people. One day she came home to find that she couldn’t go to her house. A bomb squad was there to extract a freaking bomb from the driveway. What?!?! Yeah, that guy didn’t live here much longer. Oh the stories these walls could tell…

Pool.
It was hot on Saturday. Really stinking hot. And humid. Like a good old Iowa August day. So between the Lily not feeling well, the dr appointment and the glass guy coming , we didn’t have a chance to go anywhere fun to cool off ( like the beach or the waterpark). When Ty went down for a nap, Jay and I put Lily in her playpen and he and I jumped in the pool. Well, I stepped in, cautiously, trying not to get my hair wet. And then as I was floating on my back, relaxing, Mr. I Just Learned How To Cannonball did just that. Hard to get mad at him when he looks so proud of himself. 🙂

When Ty woke up, he wanted to swim, so he and Jay splashed around while Lily slept in my arms. She would occasionally sort of wake up, sort of not, whining and moaning. Poor babe felt like crud. :(. The view I had, however, made me smile. Watching Ty and Jay through the window, I could only imagine what their conversations were about. I sure do love those boys.

I am hoping for a peaceful night, and that the meds kick in ASAP for Lily. There are some people from the States flying in tomorrow, and the plan is to take them out on the boat. It depends on how Lily fares overnight, though.

G’night mates!

Ice Cream Brekky.
We forgot to pull bacon out of the freezer on Saturday, so on Sunday morning we loaded up the buggy with all sorts of fun things, threw on our swimsuits, and went to the marina for breakfast. Ty said he wanted waffles. I am pretty sure he can’t read, but the menu said it is served with ice cream. Good choice, son. What the menu didn’t say was that the waffles were made with 50% sugar. So after brekky we needed to burn off some of that sugar high.

Corvettes.
We have only seen a Corvette or two down under. We were all pretty excited to see a whole bunch of them parked in the marina parking lot! Sweet!

Tennis.
We drove the buggy to a nearby tennis court. Ty had a free lesson at school and seemed to like it. And it is a pretty easy sport for us to play together (and have him chase balls). We played for quite a while, I gave Lily a bottle, she snoozed while we played some more. It started to get warm so we hopped in the buggy to cool off in the breeze on our way to our next buggy destination.

Basketball.
In another little neighborhood, they have a basketball hoop with a little slab of concrete – not enough for a pick up game, but enough to get some shots in. There was a covered picnic area close by, so jay and I took turns keeping lily entertained in the shade while Ty threw the basketballs (and then the tennis balls) in the general vicinity of the hoop. We didn’t stay there too long before we really got hot and decided a dip in the neighborhood big pool was just what we needed.

Cannonball!
When we arrived at the big pool, we had it all to ourselves. Some other kids arrived about 20 minutes later. Ty did great – swam in the deep end with Jay nearby. And then he climbed out of the pool and started doing cannon balls! With a running start. It was awesome.

Which reminds me of a story Jay told me last night at dinner. When he was playing in the pool by himself on Saturday, I remember him doing a cannon ball and then looking at me through the window with this look on his face like he just did something totally awesome. Well, come to find out he has never, ever, not once in his entire life, jumped in a swimming pool. What?!?! How does a person go 35 years without doing a cannon ball? I think I am going to have to give him diving lessons, too. :). Love this man. 🙂

After about an hour in the pool, it was nearly lunchtime so we headed home. Fixed grilled cheese sandwiches, then Ty laid down for a nap. I was researching flights for my brother to come to australia and Lily fell asleep in her high chair eating puffs. So sweet.

Rickster.
And then we found a good price and decent routes for my brother, Rickey, to come to Australia!!!! He is flying out on May 2, will arrive here on Sunday, May 4 in the morning. I. Can’t. Wait. After we booked his ticket, I started wondering if Rickey even owns a pair of shorts and flip flops. Might have to go shopping immediately after he lands. :). Gosh, the sun hasn’t seen his legs for probably 20 years, let alone the Aussie sun. I will buy more aloe vera before he lands in the sunburnt nation.

Bug’s Life.
Jay went to the grocery store, and when Ty woke up we popped A Bug’s Life into the DVD player. A perfect way to round off “a buggy life” day.

Have a great week!

Feet on the Ground.
Lily was really stretching herself on Saturday. She pulled herself up on the steps (see Facebook video), and on her car-car. She was holding on with one hand. I think walking is in her near future.

Sale.
After swim lessons on Saturday, we followed the signs to a garage sale. We picked up a bike for Jay, a rake, some fishing poles, and a tackle box. Then we realized we don’t have a bike rack. So guess who had to ride the bike 5 kilometers home? Jay. In his nice weekend clothes. Getting passed by serious bikers in spandex left and right. I am sure they were wondering what the bogan on the bike was doing. He came stumbling in the house, covered in sweat, looking like he might pass out. Said his legs were jello. But by golly he made it. 🙂

Relax.
I had a hair appointment, and I stopped by the marina boutique afterward. Jay and the kids had a fun time playing while I was gone. They went for a bike ride to the park to play baseball, and then Ty rose his bike around the majority of the neighborhood. I came home just in time to watch Ty fall asleep on the trampoline.

Jay jumped in the pool and I got some snuggles in with Lily-bean. Based on his apparent level of enjoyment in the pool, I think my chances of getting one when we move back home are pretty good. 🙂

Date!
Jay and I were needing a nice dinner alone, so we asked one of Lily’s teachers to babysit. Ty basically kicked us out of the house – he was super excited to play. Jay and I went to Marina Mirage and are at a place called Saks. We sat outside, had a table right next to the edge if the boardwalk. Our entertainment was throwing scraps of food into the water and watching the fish pounce on it. Of course when we looked away from the water, we heard some girls on the dock squeal and the guy at the table next to us say a shark swam by. Nuts! Our food was delicious. Even had dessert. Yummy!

After our bellies were full, we walked around the marina. The Palazzo Versace hotel is on the marina. We decided to stroll through the lobby. Um, I was impressed before we even got inside. The walkway had beautiful pillars, the circle drive entrance was made of little pebble stones meticulously places into a work of art. The lobby was breathtaking. The most beautiful hotel I have ever stepped foot in. I told Jay that I didn’t care if it was only a half hour from our house – he could take me there sometime for a mini “getaway”. Palazzo Versace Hotela

Clever.
Ty has a handful of books that are considered “activity” books and don’t make the cut for bedtime books. One of then is Goldbug, which is a 40-50 page “where’s Waldo” type of book where you have to find Goldbug. That little stinker told the babysitter that he wanted to read that book. She pushed back a bit, but he won. They read the whole thing. So clever…

And with that, this bedtime story is complete. Good night!

Is That a Taco Truck?!
I am apparently starting to hallucinate. Someone call 911. Jay was driving down the road and I saw a trailer of some sort on the side of the road with flags flying off of it. The sun was in my eyes and the windshield was a little foggy, so I couldn’t quite make out what the vehicle was. My brain deduced that it was a taco truck. My heart went pitter patter. My mouth started salivating. I shouted, “is that a taco truck?!?!” For the record, I have never actually eaten from a taco truck, but at this point the thought of any type of Mexican food makes my mouth water.
Jay started laughing. We got closer, my eyes adjusted, and I realized it was an oversize flatbed semi trailer hauling a load of drywall or something. Whatever it was, it was not tacos, queso, or guacamole. Damn. Better luck next time.
Jay was kind enough to follow it up with, “Is that a unicorn?!?!” Because the likelihood of seeing either in Australia is about the same.

This Episode is Brought to you by the Letter S.
Ty learned about the letter S at school. I was really impressed at how well he could ssssssssound sssssssstuff out to find out if it starts with the letter s. Sssssssunglasses. Sssssssswim. Sssssstars. Ssssssssslily…hmmm… Ssssssssssdad….hmmmm… Sssssssssmom… Ok, maybe not genius level, but still pretty good for the first day. 🙂

Batman.
Ty has been really into playing pretend, and he usually wants to be Batman. We try to discourage the fighting that comes along…boys…. He also has really enjoyed watching Oz the Great and Powerful. I think it is a bit much, a little scary, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Monday night he wanted to be Batman, Jay was Oz the Great & Powerful (said in full every time), Lily was the wicked green witch, and I was Glenda. He ran from the toy room to the kitchen 50 times, telling us what was happening, what we should be doing, and most importantly where the flying monkeys were. The best was when Jay would try to throw an idea out there, Ty would say, “no, Oz the Great and Powerful doesn’t do that.” Apparently in Ty’s pretend world only his rules count. 🙂

Bite.
On Tuesday I got a call from daycare. Turns out Lily tried to steal a toy from an older boy, he didn’t like it, and he expressed his feelings by biting her finger. Dang. It didn’t leave a mark, just frightened her. Oh, how I hated this phase when Ty went through it. Awful on both the receiving and the giving end. It is an animal instinct, one of the few ways they have to communicate at an early age. I get that, but it still sucks. I really hope this isn’t the start of a recurring event. Ugh.