A tough start but good end!

The only way I can describe this week is disjointed. It did not start well at all. Caleb spiked a 101 fever Sunday night that continued through Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday I took Caleb to the dr to see if they could find a reason for the fever. He has had fevers like this in the past so it is not entirely new, but still scary that once the motrin wears off it spikes back up to 101+. There is universal health care here and to put it nicely it stinks! We were lucky to get an appointment. We got there on time and then waited 30+ minutes to see the dr. The dr did the usual things, checked his ears, throat, lungs, ect, asked about the fever. Then said if it was still around on Friday to bring him back and then rushed us out of the office. We were in there for 5 minutes! He also said there was no medical proof to treat a fever (hmm I think my baby feeling better, being able to play, ect. is reason enough!). The dr followed us out of the office and called another patient in. Everyone we have talked to here has had the same experience. There are not enough General Practitioners so they rush people in and out! Luckily the fever did break so we did not have to go back. And hopefully Caleb will stay healthy so we don't have to do that again!

So that sums up Sunday-Wednesday. We stayed at home.

Thursday Caleb was back to his normal self so we met our Aussie mum and bub at Questacon. They had a good time but it was a bit crowded and Caleb got a bit roughed up from the older kids. So we cut it short, had coffee, and let the kids run around in the lobby.

Friday we had a make-up swim lesson, since Caleb was sick on Tuesday. It went well, Caleb is getting more used to the water and I think opening up a bit more to the idea of swimming.

Yesterday was a beautiful day so we went into the city to Lake Burley Griffen and walked around and then went to the fresh food market. It is starting to warm up a bit, now in the low 60's a few days a week. So hopefully we will be spending more time outside.

Today we went back to a church we had previously visited. They have a nursery for part of the service so I was able to enjoy the sermon. The Pastor is good and they have a playgroup on Wednesdays at the church, so we might check it out this week.

This week is looking normal. Our Monday playgroup is at a mum's house. She lives out in the country about 40 minutes from here on a sheep farm. So we will be able to see sheep sheared. I am not looking forward to the drive, but I think it will be neat to see how they live!

I have already complained about one aspect of Aussie culture today, and I was going to write about driving to new places, but that is also awful. So I will write about that another day and will focus on the positive. Caleb!

I am starting to enjoy being a stay at home mom. Caleb still drives me crazy now and then, ok there is probably a moment daily that I get angry at him. But in all I love spending time with my little guy. He has really developed a lot since we have moved. He is saying a lot more words; hot, again (his favorite!), eat, read, open, down, out, koala, stuck, snack, and he has learned the signs for please and thank-you. John, Kim, and Madi gave him 2 stuffed koalas before we left that he has begun playing with. He will hug and kiss them, feed them his snack and give them them drinks of milk. It is nice to see a more nurturing side to my rough and tumble boy! But as with everything else, when he is done with them he throws them across the room. He is also playing more with other children and is learning to share (kind of). He is also learning how to be a good helper and will help me clean up his toys and put his books on the book shelf.

Some things have stayed the same. He still loves to read books. He brings a book to me to read constantly throughout the day saying "book, reeeeeeeeea!". He still loves to take naps, when I ask him if he is ready to take a nap, he runs to his crib and points to it. His favorite foods are still cheerios, goldfish, peas, and corn. He still calls everything Elmo. And his favorite person is still daddy. Whenever we go head toward the garage, he says "dada dada" and in the afternoon when he feels it is time to go pick up Brian from work, he will bring me his shoes and say "dada?". He gets very rambunctious at night and loves to wrestle with Brian, chase him through the house, and do silly dances with him. Caleb still has his temper and when he is angry with me will either hit me or throw whatever is in his hand at me. I am afraid this will get worse before it gets better. But that is life with a toddler right?! In all, I am so blessed to have Caleb and spend this time with him! I love my silly, goofy boy!

This week was much better than last, thank goodness!

Last Sunday we tried another baptist church. It was ok, people were friendly, but we don't think it is the right place for us. In the afternoon we went to a birthday party for a child of a coworker of Brian. It was actually a lot of fun! It was the first time I felt like this was going to work for us. All the families had small children and we got along well with the other parents. The only problem is that most of them live in the north, about 45 minutes from us.

Monday was the birthday party for the kids turning 2 in the Monday playgroup. It was at at petting farm. It was great! Caleb loved seeing all the animals. The picture of Caleb mounting the pig was taken there. Caleb got to pet sheep, bunnies, a pony, and pigs. He got to see chucks, alpacas, ferrets, birds, and goats.

Tuesday was swim lesson. We got there about 10 minutes early so Caleb could acclimate to the water and area. That seemed to help because he had a great lesson! Yay! He is still very behind in skills, but he will now sit on the edge of the pool and scoot in to me! It is nice to see growth is such a short period of time!

Wednesday we had Caleb's 18 month check up. It was very different from what happens in the States. The doctor came out to us in the waiting room to ask if everything was ok and then we saw the nurse for his measurements and immunization. It was very quick. Then we went to the library. Caleb was not happy with me for being out of the house all morning but at least it was productive.

Thursday was our Aussie playdate. It was nice :)

Friday we went to Questacon, the science museum. It is a nice place to go when we don't have any other plans, but was a bit crowded.

Today we finally made it to Tidbinbilla. It is a nature reserve about 40 minutes from us. We have bee trying to go for about 3 weeks, but for different reasons we could not get there. It is a huge nature reserve with tons of animals. It was not crowded at all, so Caleb got to run around (that is the picture of Caleb running) on the trails. We got to see a koala (picture above) and lovely scenery. There were a lot of wallabies and birds. We tried to see platypuses but we could not find them. We got an annual pass so we can go back as much as we want and I think we will take advantage of it especially when it warms up!

Tomorrow we are going to try out a Lutheran church and then go into the city to the Old Bus Depot to look for some Aussie art.

One thing we have had to get used to here is the eating out differences. Bri and I really enjoy eating out. I cook 5 days a week so we eat out Friday and Saturday nights. Well, we do carry out those nights, restaurants are not conducive to toddlers. There is not a lot of variety here, mainly asian. All the chinese, thai, and indian you want (I am considering this asian because India is a part of Asia - Brian does not like me calling it asian food!) We have found 1 Italian restaurant, that is ok and a take-away place that is ok. The pizza here is not good, we have tried 2 places and have been disappointed both times (they use shredded ham and I don't think they use enough cheese), they do have Domino's and Pizza hut, so maybe that will be better. They also put beets on their burgers and sandwiches. We were warned of this, but forgot and were completely grossed out by it! And like everything else, it is twice as expensive as the U.S. Krispy Kreme donuts are $3.00 each and Subway boasts of $7.00-11.00 footlongs (and they don't have the fun jingle!) There are a few places we have yet to try, a Turkish restaurant and an Irish pub. I definitely miss eating out in the U.S and nothing will compare to the amazing food we had in NYC! What we would give for a good burrito, a real hamburger, and yummy greek food :)

We love and miss you all!

The week from . . .

This has been our toughest week yet here. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. So here it goes.

Monday was ok and to be honest I don't remember much about it since the rest of the week was so bad. All I remember is that we went to our normal playgroup. I also made roast pork for the first time and it turned out well.

Tuesday is when things started going south. I was very excited to start swim lessons. Caleb loved the pool at Marc and Betty's house and beach house so I thought he would love the pool here too. He proved me wrong. The swim lesson was very well done, the instructor did a lot of activities that were age appropriate with a lot of singing. But Caleb was not feeling it and cried the first 10 minutes (the lesson is 30 minutes). Then the instructor threw out balls that the kids were to swim too (with mom's help) and bring back, he liked that and seemed to cheer up some after that. Caleb is also the clear beginner, all the other kids could blow bubbles, kick, paddle, and jump from the side of the pool to mom in the water. So we have some work to do. I think that next week I will go early and play in the water with him to get him used to it before the lesson. When we got back to the house it was nap time, so after changing him, I put him down. He decided only to take 1 1/2 hour nap, which is a good bit shorter than normal. Then in the afternoon he was playing and yanked the t.v. cable out of the wall and broke it. Needless to say Brian got a not so nice phone call from me at work about his son. Brian of course was wonderful and when we got home he took over Caleb duties so I could have a break.

And Brian fixed the cable outlet! Imagine how tough it would be without t.v. We enjoy vegging when Caleb is in bed at night :) On Wednesday Caleb got sick all over himself, me, and the floor. I think he picked up the bug from the playgroup on Monday. So we stayed at home all day.

Wednesday night we got a text from our Thursday playdate saying that they were sick so they could not make it Thursday. So Thursday we checked out the mall in the next suburb over. That evening I picked up Caleb's bug and got sick.

On Friday, Brian woke up sick with the bug. So he called out of work and I tried my best to look after Caleb while still trying to recuperate. By the evening I was feeling much better so I went to Romeo and Juliet the ballet with our sponsor's wife. It was really good and I am really glad I went. I did not feel 100%, but it was nice to get out of the house and away from the baby.

Today we decided to take it easy since we have a rough few days. So Brian took Caleb for a walk to the park and I went shopping for the birthday parties we are going to tomorrow and Monday.

Tomorrow we are trying out another Baptist church in the suburb over from us. Last week we also tried out a Baptist church to the south of us. It was ok. It was in a gym of a school and the heat did not work well, so it was very cold. Also their version of childcare was toys in the back of the gym, Caleb liked running up and down the gym instead, and he does not run quietly (for some reasons he seems to hum as he runs!). They had morning tea after church like all the other churches, so that was nice, and again all the people were very friendly. We will see how the church is tomorrow. Then we are going to a birthday party for a child of a coworker of Brian's. I made chocolate chip cookies to bring for the first time here. They turned out ok.

Monday we have a birthday party for some of the kids from the Monday playgroup. It is at a petting farm, so that should be fun.

Some good things did come out of this week:

Like I said earlier I tried roasting pork for the first time and it was very tasty!

The mall we checked out has the body shop, so I got new body butter :)

We went to the DMV on Thursday and got driver's licenses, and it was a very painless process.

I finally figured out my coffee order! Coffee terminology is different here, so my order is flat white, 2. (coffee with steamed milk and 2 sugars) It took me a month to figure it out!

Ok, so on to the political elections I said I would talk about. The election is at the end of the month. It was only announced right after we arrived, like 3 weeks ago. I don't understand why it is not a normal set date. Maybe it was because the former prime minister resigned recently. So the big race of course is for prime minister. Right from the start the news starts showing pictures of the 2 main candidate holding and kissing babies. I guess that does not change country to country. It is the labor party (incumbent) running against the conservative party. There is also the green party and one other lesser party so coalitions get formed. The negative t.v. ads against the conservative party started last week and they are hilarious! My favorite is one that show families frowning, children losing computers, and patients dieing in hospitals. There are negative ads about the labor party too. There was a big debate about 2 weeks ago, but it had to be pushed up because the finale of Master Chef (like Top Chef in the U.S) was the same night and they knew no one would watch the debate! The Master Chef finale got 45 million viewers the most in t.v. history here (it was on basic t.v, not cable)! We of course watched the finale and not the debate. But can you imagine the U.S. changing the time of a presidential debate for a reality show? They would run the debate over it!

I cannot believe we have been here a month now! We are praying that this week is better than last. Besides the birthday parties it is looking like a normal week (hopefully!).

Our week and funny signs

In response to my boring blog update last week I really tried to be on the look out for interesting differences between American and Australian culture. There are definitely a good amount of differences. The most obvious is driving, of course we drive here on the left side of the road. The Aussies also love speed traps, Canberra is full of speed cameras, ones that are mobile and stationary. They are very clearly labeled and tell you about 3 time before you see the camera. They also have a campaign of signs against drinking and driving and talking on the phone and driving. Here are some of my favorites on the side of the road:

Drink Drive Die in a ditch

No Seatbelt No Brains

You're not that special, hang up the phone

Telstra Optus Vodafone (cell phone companies) Won't pay 4 your funeral

Shut Up and Drive, It's the Law

On the phone? You're an Idiot

There is one that changes daily close to our home that I always look forward to seeing!

The week was pretty "normal" or what normal has become for us. Monday was the embassy playgroup. Many were sick this week so it was smaller which was nice.

On Tuesday we went to Questacon, a science museum for children. Most of it is geared for older children but they have an area for 0-6 year old children. It has mini cars for them to sit in, a building area with huge blocks, a space ship, a space room, a large water table, a huge climbing area, and imaginative play area. Caleb loved it and threw a fit when we were leaving!

Wednesday we went to the library, got a library card and saw some of the kids from the Monday playgroup.

Thursday was our playdate with the Aussie mum and bub. That afternoon I went to a talk about early literacy skills for 12-24 month bubs. It was really good! The speaker had wonderful activities and gave me a lot of good ideas to do with Caleb. Here is his website. http://toddlericon.pbworks.com/

The Aussie mum from our playdate looked after Caleb for me. He and his little friend had a great time. It was really nice getting out of the house even if it was learning about Caleb!

On Friday Caleb and I went to a session that Mr. Jim (the early literacy guy) had. Caleb was not in the best mood, so it did not go as well as I would've liked, but I am glad we went. On Thursday Caleb woke up with a cold, it is not too bad, just a runny nose but his molars are still coming in also, so that is mainly why he was not in a good mood.

Today Brian really wanted to get out of the house and do something. We were planning on going to a nature reserve with a lot of animals, but I did not think it would be good for Caleb's cold to be outside a lot. So we went back to Questacon, so Brian could see how much fun Caleb had there and so we could get a membership. Now we can go as much as we want. Caleb had a great time again!

Tomorrow we will try out another church. There are 2 more that we have seen online that we are thinking of visiting, a Lutheran church and another Baptist. We are really hoping we can find a church home soon.

Next week we start swim lessons! I am really excited about that, hopefully Caleb's cold will be better so we can go! Beyond that it looks like the norm :)

Next week I will talk about the elections going on, it is pretty entertaining too. But I did not want to use up all my funny stories in 1 blog :)

We love and miss you all!

Settling in - sorry not the most exciting blog update!

I was able to fill the week! It was a busy week but I feel good about it. Here it goes:

On Monday I tried the embassy playgroup. It is at the same cottage as the other playdate. I learned about it through the CLO at the embassy. When I arrived there was an Aussie mum and an American mom. Well it turned out to be almost all Aussies, it did not really matter to me, but I was hoping to meet moms from the embassy. So there are only 2 embassy moms and one is moving in October. The other is nice but when I asked her if she had gotten to know any of the other embassy moms, she said she had not met any. So, I guess I won't really have American friends here. No worries :) The playgroup was huge, I think 7 other moms so Caleb was a bit overwhelmed.

On Tuesday we went to the zoo. Caleb was most excited because he did not have to be in the stroller since it was not crowded. He loved running ahead of us and climbing on the rocks. He did not really care about the animals at all. Although he did laugh at the lemurs. We went with Pattie and Amanda, our sponsor's wife and daughter. She mentioned she wants to do something this week too. So hopefully that can become a weekly thing.

Wednesday we tried out the library story time. Basically it was a disaster. Caleb did not care about the story, he just played with the toys they had out. So, I don't think we will do that again.

On Thursday we had our playdate with the Aussie mum and bub from last week. Caleb and the bub actually play really well together and the mum and I get along well too. She is even going to look after Caleb for me while I go to a lecture at the library about communicating with 1 year olds. Maybe they will teach me how to understand Caleb better.

Friday was the most boring. I had to take the car into the shop to get road tested. When cars are over 7 years old here you have to have them tested yearly. So picture Caleb and I in a tire store for 1 1/2 hours. Not too fun. But our modem for the internet came and I got that set up. It worked really well Friday, but would not even turn on Saturday. So I am back on the broadband modem until they send a new modem.

This weekend was a bust weather wise. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and today we went to church. (I know you are all jealous of our fun weekend!) We tried the Presbyterian today. It was held in an elementary school. The people were really friendly and we were immediately pointed out as visitors. Last week we went to the Baptist church. Again people were friendly. The issue that we are having is that there is no real childcare during service. Most people here think that the children should be in the service. Caleb is not quiet nor still and therefore I spend the service outside with him. We are going to keep looking and hopefully we will be able to find a church home here.

Unfortunately I don't have any funny or interesting stories from the week. I am still trying to live day to day here. The homesickness really hit me hard last weekend. But no huge breakdowns like last week. One thing that helped is Caleb has finally gone back to his old napping habits. For the 1st week and a half he was only napping 1 1/2 hours, his bottom molars are coming in. But this week he went back to 3 hours. I really need that time to myself.

I did realize I have not updated you all on Brian. He is really busy at work, the person he replaced left in April. So there is quite a lot of work for him to do. Besides that, he has adjusted much better than I have and seems to be enjoying it here!

We love and miss you all!

Week 1

So we have completed and made it through our first week in Canberra. It was a busy week and I think it was pretty good.

We had a lot of meetings this week, so I was at the embassy a good bit. I like busy weeks, I don't do well with idle time and either drive myself crazy by doing too much or completely shut down and do nothing. Even in high school every summer I worked at least 2 jobs to keep myself busy.

Our air freight came Tuesday, which was great timing. Our plan of moving out of the house early to get our things here faster worked. The air freight had Caleb's crib, toy box, lots of toys, and clothes. So Caleb was very happy he had lots to play with. But, the movers were not allowed to put the crib (called cot here) together. Of course we have no tools yet, so we called our sponsor - who happens to be very handy, and he came over that night to "help" Brian put the cot together. (If you know Brian, you know he is not handy at all, so basically our sponsor told Brian what to do and Brian followed him.) Anyway, our house is littered with toys again so it feels a little more like home now.

On Thursday Caleb and I had our first Aussie playdate. They have a whole playgroup system here, where you sign up with the playgroup association and they they have tons of playgroups to choose from. So I emailed the group for Kambah, the suburb we live in and they said they had a vacancy on Thursday mornings. Well, it turned out that they playgroup only had one other mum and bub (baby). So we went to the cottage, a small 2 room house filled with toys for the kids and couches for the mums, and an outdoor space when it is warm. The other mom is right around my age and super nice and her daughter is couple of months younger than Caleb. We played for about 90 mins and made a date for the following Thursday. The other mom gave me lots of good tips for stuff to do and them emailed me later to give me websites to check out and her number in case I wanted to go to coffee sometime. So sweet! I don't think she knows my love for coffee! Anyway, it was really nice to get out and meet another mum and bub and maybe potential friends for me and Caleb!

I also found out about an embassy playgroup that is on Mondays and we signed up Caleb for swim lessons on Tuesday mornings (that will start in 2 weeks). So I have 3 days of things for us to do! I am excited about that!

On Friday Caleb and I went to Lake Tuggeranong, where they have a walking path around the lake and a few playgrounds. I am learning that Australians really enjoy being outside and active, so there are a lot of nature reserves and playgrounds. Caleb really enjoyed exploring the new playgrounds and watching all the new birds and ducks!

Today I got a cell phone. So far I cannot activate it, but things here tend to take a lot longer get started than in the States. For example, it takes 1-3 months to get internet service here. Right now I am using a broadband mobile card. Hopefully my phone will activate today so I can actually use it!

Tomorrow we are going to start looking for a church home. We are going to try a Baptist church. It will be interesting to see how Baptists are here compared to the church I grew up in. On Monday we are going to the zoo with our sponsors wife and 3 year old. I am excited to see new animals!

I got a cold this week, I think from the change in weather and stress of moving. So when Caleb was sleeping I would lay on the couch and watch t.v. They import a lot of U.S. shows. Some interesting choices were:

Bewitched

I dream of Genie

Murphy Brown

Judge Judy - really?! I am really embarrassed of this one!

some late version of I love Lucy - she has teenage kids?

Get Smart (not sure if this is a show or movie)

They have other shows too like Oprah, Ellen, The View, Bones, CSI, that 70's show, Seinfeld, How I Met your Mother, The Ghost Whisperer, and Modern family (yay! we love that show!). At least I can keep up with some of the shows I like.

Anyway, it has been a productive week. I think I only had 2 breakdowns where I wanted to look up planes to come home. I didn't want to go in to details about those - but I think they are pretty normal when you live in a new country and at home with a toddler all day, right?!

Let me know if you want our address or phone number. I can facebook message it to people or email. I love all of you and miss home a lot!

We're there!

So we finally made it to Australia after traveling for 30 hours we made it. I will recap the flights first. . .

The flight to San Fransisco was 5 hours and there was too much going on for Caleb and he did not sleep. He played, walked the aisles, and screeched for the sake of screeching. But in all was not too bad. Then we spent a few hours in the San Fransisco airport, mainly in the business lounge where I could send off an email to the family and Brian could eat some. Caleb still was running around like a maniac (it was 2am his time). The flight to Sydney had potential to be a lot better. The business class section was great, seats that lay completely flat and your personal t.v (it kinda reminded me of the pods on the plane in sex and the city 2) and Caleb fell asleep immediately. Buuuut, about 15 minutes later, we hear that the flight is going to be delayed, so our 14 hour flight turned into a 16 hour flight and Caleb was already asleep. He slept about 7 hours, woke up for about an hour and then slept another 2. He spent the last 6 hours walking the aisles, climbing the stairs (the business section was 2 levels) and playing. Since that flight was delayed, we only had about 1 + hours to get alllll of our luggage which was 6 large bags, stroller, a car seat, and 6 carry ons, go through customs, and get on the flight to Canberra. And of course the domestic flights are a 10 minute walk (for a normal person) across the airport. So here we are Brian is pushing a trolley with 7 bags with one hand and Caleb in the stroller with the other. I am pulling my enormous 70lb suitcase with one arm, and have 3 carry on bags, and the car seat with the other. So I am stopping every 2 minutes to adjust, brian is dropping f-bombs, and we are trying to go as fast as we can so we don't miss our connection. Luckily the Aussies are very efficient checking into flights and pulled people to the front of the line that had flights that were leaving shortly. So we made the flight. But by that time Caleb was done and had a meltdown on that plane (luckily it was only a 50 minute flight). I think I might have told Brian about 5 times I was never moving again so he better enjoy this one.

Our sponsor met us at the airport. He and his family have been great to us. They have cooked for us 3 nights, run to the grocery store for us before and after we arrived, taken Brian to work, and shown us around town really well. Only my large bag did not make it to Canberra, but it was delivered that night to the house.

Our house is wonderful! It has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, it has a very large walk-in closet in the master bedroom, a spa tub in the master bath, a 2 car garage, and a really nice backyard for Caleb to play in.

It is a bit chilly here, it has been in the low 50's. The first 2 days we were here there were storms - just rain and strong winds, but apparently that has been the worst weather they have had in 12 years. So I guess that is good news for us.

Brian had to report to work immediately, so Caleb and I have been on our own. So we have been exploring our neighborhood. It is really nice. The scenery is beautiful, there are a good amount of trees and it is not overly built up the way that the DC/Baltimore area is. We face mountains on one side have a nature preserve right next to our community that we will explore soon. It has free ranging cows and kangaroos. We saw one of the kangaroos yesterday at the park across from the preserve. There are also a ton of birds here, cockatoos, parrots, magpies, and galas. They are all really pretty and very loud and apparently mean, during mating season the magpies will actually swoop at your head and bikers will wear spikes on their helmets to prevent attacks. Crazy!

Today we bought a car. I will be the main driver, taking Bri to work and back and driving around town. It was interesting driving on the left. But so far I have only hit the curb twice, and turned in the wrong lane once. Hopefully I will get used to it soon.

Wow, I just realized I have written a lot. So I will stop for now. I will try to start taking pictures soon. I really miss home, but it is exciting getting to know a new place!

One last story (at least for now :) In the Sydney airport we had to go through Aussie security as well. So we get to the x-ray and the security guards are helping us put all our luggage through the machine and the guard asks me if I have any bags on the pram. I look at him blankly and say "what is a pram?". He responds, "Are you from America?" I say "yes. . " and he goes "You are in Australia now, it is not a stooooooller, it is a pram, BLOODY YANKS!" I wonder how many more times I will be called a bloody yank?! haha