Tuesday - Museum

Today we went to the museum - well, everyone except Sue and I did. We walked along Brunswick Street. It was kinda like Main Street. There is certainly lots to see and do in Melbourne - plus it is a nice temperature. Lots of old cool buildings. Rowan got to sample some sushi - it was quite good. We were going to go to the Victoria market afterwards - but it closes at 2 - crazy! So we went home and I put the turkey in the oven (I had ordered it from Brisbane - I quite like Coles online, although they sent us nearly expired bread). It was a beautiful day - Sue and Bob have a great deck and yard with lots of big trees around. The kids played a bit. Tomorrow we are off to see the 12 (or formerly 12, now 8) Apostles on the Great Ocean Drive.

Ah Relaxing Vacation - not Enough Angst to Post

We got a late start yesterday - Ellis slept in till about 10 and we couldn't figure out what we were doing. Telling Ellis we were going to Science Works got him going - he was very cooperative from that point on. We were on the road by about 11:00 and had driven about a block when I felt a bump and Cyp said "someone just hit us." Oh - is that what that was. I pulled around the corner and we all hopped out - couldn't tell if there was any new damage, but we got info and were on our way again. We were following this black SUV when Cyp got a call - "where are you?" Oh - we looked closer - that wasn't Sue and Bob! So I pulled a quick uturn in a driveway - crunch went the front of the car as I dropped off the curb. Darn. Then going back around a roundabout I hit the side of the car and the hubcap went flying. Okay - perhaps I was rattled by the accident or it could be the lattes that Bob makes us every morning. They taste so smooth going down but pack a wicked punch. Time to switch drivers. Cyp collected the hubcap and we were on our way again.

We finally made it to Science Works - yup - I was bored after about 10 minutes but Ellis could have moved in. We stayed about 3 hours - Sue and Bob left first as Esme wasn't feeling well and we followed shortly thereafter. We drove through Williamstown and by the beach - it was nice and then we went home.

Bob and Cyp were in charge of putting together the barbecue for our dinner - apparently, they needed beer first. Not sure it helped as about three hours later they were finally done. Sue and I set up the badminton net while we waited and had some short games. For once Ellis ate all of his dinner - and then it was bedtime.

Hanging Rock

So Cyp got to decide where we were going on Sunday - he discovered that Hanging Rock is located in Victoria (the state we are in). So off we went. Drove to Woodend where we got directions to the rock and stopped for a bit in a playground. The rock involved a bit of a hike and the kids did better than most of the other people there. Heard lots of moaning on the trail from others - "how much further is it?" I stopped near the top (where the stroller could go no further and nursed Rowan) while everyone else continued to the summit. Cyp and Ellis came back down and then I went back up with Ellis.... and proceeded to get lost. Got a call from Bob but couldn't really answer as was busy rapelling with Ellis down the mountain (against the rules). So Cyp was probably really excited that we were potentially lost (you need to watch Picnic at Hanging Rock)

We then drove to Mount Macedon and saw a big memorial cross at the top - drove home. Sue and I then hit the liquor store - it was closed! Thank goodness for Christmas leftovers as when we got back, the boys had gotten dinner for the kids. Of course, the kids had been snacking all the way home in the car so the only one eating was Rowan.

Boxing Day

Bob make wicked coffees so unfortunately I had two. They didn't seem strong going down...
So I was jacked up on coffee seeing Melbourne with the rest of the hordes out boxing day shopping.

Not sure what time we made it out the door - we drove to Canterbury train station to catch the train in. Ava loves the train

"hop on train!" is her favourite refrain.

We got off at Flinders station - cool old building (Sue doesn't like the colours). Why is it that Melbourne has so many more historical buildings that Vancouver? I guess the Victorian era isn't that long ago, but the buildings seem old - oh right, they had more money to build cool buildings. Vancouver built wood that burnt down.
We wandered around downtown - I like it. Did I mention there were hordes of people? At one point we were battling our way through Myers to find the toilet for Esme and Ellis.

"I have to pee now." I gave up - I whipped down Ellis's shorts and underwear and put him in diaper in the middle of the mall. This is getting to be a bad habit. Later, I took him to pee again (about 3 hours later) and his diaper had not been peed in. He's playing me.

It seems very metropolitan here and multicultural - way more than Brisbane. I have imprinted Brisbane as being Australia, so I'm not sure what Melbourne is- I guess England?

Sue and I went for drive after dropping the boys and kids off and we were driving through green rolling hills with quaint brick shopping areas lining the streets and gothic cathedrals on the distant hills. Weird - now I know why they call Brisbane Bris Vegas or Brisneyland. We do live in hicville.

Christmas

So - camera ate my pictures from Christmas.

Woke up at 6 am - Rowan was excited to see the presents under the tree. He crawled over to Ellis's door to pry it open (it's a sliding door - one day there is going to be a finger disaster).

"I'M STILL SLEEPING" yelled Ellis.

"Santa came." I said.

"Really?" - Ellis inched his way out into the living room.

We set up video chat with mom and dad and Susie and RJ to make it feel a bit more Christmassy. Ellis plowed through all the presents - the favourite was Rowan's walker.

We finished opening presents and then packed up Ellis's Dora bag with toys he needed and headed out the door to the airport.

Our cabby gave us the history of Brisbane on the way to the airport and I actually learned a lot. He was better than our bus tour.

At the airport (after Cyp spent about 30 minutes wrapping the car seats and stroller) we hit the Qantas club - woo hoo! All the raisin toast you could eat. This was actually really good and we felt like we were on vacation.

The flight was not fun for me. It was only two hours, but I was tense. I don't know what happens to my brain when I get on a plane, but I start thinking of all these things. Wouldn't it be ironic if our plane went down on Christmas Day? It was a tad bumpy and I freaked out at every one. Two hours of tension for me. It was exhausting. The kids don't sleep on the flights either - why is that? Oh - until about 10 minutes before landing when Rowan crashed and Ellis decided he had to pee.

"here!" I said as I thrust Rowan onto Cyp. "Take him!" at the same time yanking down Ellis's shorts and underwear and putting a diaper on him all while seatbelted for landing. There were two distinguished looking Asian men sitting across the aisle that had been looking at us askance the entire flight - this sealed the deal as I was trying to plaster the diaper onto Ellis. I got it though.

"you're a superstar" said Cyp.

"yes"

We landed and got our car and headed out. How did people get by in the old days without GPSs? Did you actually have to plan your route? Sue says there used to be more divorce.

The GPS didn't save us from Ellis who screamed obscenities in the back the entire way to Sue and Bob's house. I swear (pardon the pun) I have been watching my language lately. Ellis was horrible. This was his commentary

"**&#$%(*^^*#*$&*#`ing"

"I'm going to rip all my skin off and then I'll be just bones"

"I'm going to gouge my eyeballs out and they'll be bleeding - I won't be able to see."

This was punctuated by shrieks at 100 decibels.

I realized he was extremely sleep deprived, but this is what kept going through my mind - "he's 3. what is he going to be like - how do I respond to this.

In the end I decided to laugh.

"Why are you laughing mummy?"

That seemed to work.

We got to Sue and Bob's - again - preconceptions of what something will be like from looking at pictures were shattered. I had imagined Melbourne would be like Brisbane or I had a little picture in my mind from Bill Bryson's book.

I really like Melbourne - it is very green (even though it looked brown as far as the eye could see from the plane) with really nice old brick houses. It feels very different from Brisbane and there was a nice cool breeze. It felt familiar - maybe like England (though I've only been there for 3 days) - It is like what I imagine England would be like from all the books I've read that have taken place in England. It seems much more like home too. Maybe that's because we are with Sue and Bob.

We had a great Christmas Dinner - the kids seemed happy to see each other - Ellis seemed to turn into a happy child again - phew -it is nice to be with friends - especially at Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Ok - So I'm writing this from Melbourne - Christmas Eve seems like a long time ago so not sure if I actually remember much.

I decided Ellis was going to school on Christmas Eve (after Wed nightmare day). I was hoping I could leave him there till 2:30 so he would nap and then be all fresh for our Christmas Eve dinner at Tanya and Keith's house.

On the way there, he mentioned that he wanted to stay till 7:30 - tempting, I said, but school will be closed and you'll be all alone.

There were still lots of kids at daycare so I didn't feel too guilty.... really doesn't feel like Christmas, so that helped.

Got home - didn't go much - Cyp got home, we cleaned, repacked.

We headed out at 2 to get Ellis. He didn't want to see us - "7:30 - you were supposed to come at 7:30." Fee his teacher says "Ellis didn't nap today."

great - figures.

We then hiked in the heat to the train station where in a moment of weakness I bought some gummies (it was Christmas Eve after all) and fed them to Ellis so he would be hopped on sugar when we got to Tanya's.

Dinner was great - the kids ran around like maniacs, didn't eat their dinner and then still got birthday cake (it was Keith's birthday). It was so nice to be at someone's house - sitting on the patio, enjoying the nice Queenslander breeze - I almost started to get excited about our move. Except I had read an article about kids drowning in backyard pools. ugh. Don't want to live with a pool no more.

We headed home about 8 - Ellis was way overtired. He started hopping around on the train

"i Have to PEe! i have to pee!"

I sat there and stared at him for a moment - "move to the floor, move to the floor!" Then I got my brainwave and whipped down his shorts and underwear and threw on a diaper - there were only about 3 other people on the train.

"there you go - pee away."

Strapped him into the stroller after we got off the train as he was buzzing around and I was worried he'd run into the street. That caused a major tantrum. This was a very different Christmas Eve.

Got home eventually - got out the milk and cookies for Santa (heh) and the carrot for the Kanga and went to bed.

I think telling Ellis that Santa wouldn't come if he was awake may have actually been a threat that worked this time.

If Only the Days were about 2 Hours shorter

I met up with Tanya and her two kids today. We walked to the library to do crafts. On the way, her kids checked out the Myer window display (Ellis has already seen it and is too cool to want to see it again). The theme is Olivia helps with Christmas and it really quite good. Should have taken a picture, but didn't.

Ellis must be bored with crafts as he wasn't as prolific today. There was enough other stuff there though to keep him entertained for a couple of hours.

As we were walking home around noon, I knew that I should try to find us something else to do, but Ellis seemed really tired and i thought he might fall asleep. He didn't.

He had two pee accidents (I guess the novelty of the potty has worn off) and I was starting to go a bit nutty so we went to the pool. Lasted there for about 45 minutes, came back, got changed, tried to convince Ellis to chill - he wouldn't so I thought - ok a walk. We went to the park and he refused to play so I put Rowan on some of the stuff only to have Ellis come along to try to push him off -he then picked up a stick and tried to poke Rowan's eye out.

Texted Cyp - "coming home anytime soon?"

Meanwhile, I tied Ellis to the stroller and went for a walk - hoping desperately that he would conk out or calm down or something. No dice.

Got home - tried to quickly make dinner. Ellis got progressively more irritating. Tried to poke Rowan's eye out with a fork. I think Rowan will be good at defending himself.

Put Ellis to bed right after dinner - read him his stories. He couldn't maintain calmness for the last story so I got up and left. He came out contrite so I went back and read him his final story only to notice when I was done that he had taken a pen and drawn all over his sheets (or should I say the sheets in our furnished apartment).

I took a walk and contemplated how much I could get if I sold him on the black market - maybe enough for a nice vacation? I also picked up some hairspray - most of the ink did come out.

Pre Pre Christmas Eve

As Cyp took Ellis to work on Monday, I got all my errands done then and was quite bored on Tuesday - I refused to step out the door one more time to go shopping. I'm done.

As I was procrastinating going to get Ellis (I was talking to Nick on the phone - he dialed our Vancouver number), a storm was brewing. By the time I got out the door, the sky was starting to look black.

"uh oh Rowan - we'd better hurry."

We got to daycare and Ellis saw me and ran in the other direction.

"No! No! I want to play! I don't want to go home!"

I got this same response last Thursday and while I'm glad he likes daycare now, I'm a little put out by his response. My one solace is that when I drop him off, he says he'd rather do errands with me. Actually, come to think of it, that has kinda stopped too - he now just asks what I'll be doing and then thinks about it a minute - yah, ok - that doesn't sound all that exciting, I'll guess I'll stay.

So I finally managed to get him to leave and then I ran back to the ferry terminal (1 km). I made it in the nick of time as it started to pour when I got there. We got on the ferry and watched the lightening storm up and down the river. It was pretty cool. Bad part is, we had to get off.

Cyp meanwhile had luckily gotten in the door before the storm hit. He texted me as I was recording the rain from the safety of the ferry terminal (see flickr). "Do you want me to start your drink?"

That was enough to get me running the two blocks home with Ellis yelling:

"look - a river! a river!" at the river where our street used to be.

Cyp greeted me at the door with a towel - the kids were hardly wet and both were grinning from ear to ear. I was almost tempted to put on my bathing suit and go back outside like Tracey and I used to do in Bogota.

Take Your Kid to Work Day

Cyp volunteered to take Ellis to work today.

"Sure!" I said (heh heh).

I wrapped presents and packed, tidied and sorted.

Felt guilty at about 2 and went to do some more shopping. As noted, was too lazy to walk to Target and spent $10 more dollars on Sponge Bob game. Figured we have blown the budget on our trip to Melbourne so what is $10 more. Cyp is always accusing me of false economy so I figured what the heck. Walking to Target would have cost $10 in wear and tear on my shoes.

Cyp got home grumpy (gee I wonder why) and we got into an argument about hiring a nanny. I had just politely pointed out that now he could see what a day was like in my life and instead of him saying "man you are right - you are superwoman." he said "let's figure out a way to hire a nanny."

I wanted praise - I guess he didn't want to grovel like I wanted him to. I don't want a nanny - that would just lead to more guilt in my life. I want accolades.

We had yummy pork (with crackling - they still seem to have that in Australia) and fell asleep at 7:30 (Cyp fell asleep on the couch at 9)

It's been Raining

Darn Rowan - he is all proud of his mobility these days so it's almost impossible to get him to go to sleep at night. I have to turn out the light and nurse him to sleep. The result of this is that I fall asleep too. Last night I think it was about 7;30 when I crashed. Woke up at 1 am - darn! Didn't sleep very well the rest of the night. Sunday night I think I fell asleep at 8. Can't figure out why I'm still so tired.

On Sunday we went and picked up the Santa Picture at Harvey Norman (think Future Shop) - their "Free picture of your kids with Santa" worked as Cyp also picked up a phone headset. He was a pretty good santa though - good beard and not stick thin.

I left Cyp and the kids in front of the Myer Christmas Window and went to try to find Sponge Bob at Target. The only thing I could find was a leapster game featuring Sponge Bob, but it wasn't on sale, so stupidly I didn't get it, only to buy it on Monday for more at the Big W as I was too lazy to walk back to Target.

We then went to the waterpark. There were supposed to be roving carolers at Southbank, but they didn't start till noon and after we were chased out of the waterpark at 11:30 (due to lightening and thunder) we decided to head home instead of waiting around. As we were packing up to go, one family came along and were getting ready to go into the water.

"uh - you can't go in the water right now." I pointed out. "you'll note that they entire pool is empty as the lifeguards just cleared the water."

"What!?" The dad muttered a bunch of other things as well and it seemed like he would send in his kids anyway. He was an electrician. We left before we got to see his kids fricaseed in the water.

It's a good thing we did is all I can say. It poured the rest of the day. Not your namby pamby Vancouver type rain - this was dent your car if you leave it outside kinda rain and it rained aaaaaalll day.

I set Ellis up in front of the computer watching Frosty on youtube and the rest of the day passed in a blur. We went swimming after dinner and as noted fell asleep at 8.

To Market

Yesterday I decided (heh - I'm the activity planner) that we should go to the market again. Now that we don't have to find a place to live, we have so much more time! We were up early - 5:30 am - Ellis is waking up early these days so we managed to make it out the door by 8 am. We should try that more often as it is cooler and there are less people out and about. Got on the city cat and Liz started commenting about the size of Rowan again - what a little Buddha! She also commented about how close together in age our kids are. I said -

"yours are closer 4 and 6 right? I've talked to you on a least 3 separate occasions" She then said "right! I remember your accent now." We decided that Ellis and Rowan look close in age as Rowan is hugeomondo and Ellis is rather small for his age now.

After an argument between Cyp and me about where to get off (I won and was right) we walked to the market. Unfortunately, it is between two city cat stops - but it is nice to walk along the river. I guess we were both right about where to get off, but I wanted to try walking from the other direction. Cyp saw another house auction (brand new luxury home on the river) so he decided to run in and check it out. Fortunately, he came back out and we continued on - only had to stop twice for Ellis pee pit stops.
Market was good - got some expensive cheese then continued our walk with very heavy bag. Bought too much again. We came across another pedestrian bridge - right by the GOMA (gallery of modern art - I think the acronym is funny) went across to the library where the kids played for a minute. Cyp figured out the tv in the childrens lounge. It has all the bubbles floating by and the point is to pop them - you can see yourself on screen. Once Cyp showed Ellis how it worked, we had a hard time leaving.

Then we went and got photo with Santa (Santa wanted to keep Rowan) where Ellis stated he wanted a sponge bob again - ok, I guess I will have to try and track down a sponge bob.
Came home by 2 - we were exhausted - not sure how many km we walked - and Ellis immediately run into his room and closed the door. I was putting stuff away in the kitchen when Cyp said "uh oh - is Ellis pooing?"

He quickly ran to Ellis's door and opened it.

"I need privacy." yelled Ellis.

"Ellis, you are not wearing a diaper."

oh right. Cyp managed to convince him to use the potty - and he did! Hooray!!

After dinner, Cyp booked us a flight to Melbourne on Christmas day to visit Sue, Bob, Esme and Ava for a week - should be good.

Busy Day at the Science Centre

Well, I finally took Ellis to the Science Centre. It almost looked like we weren't going as by the time I got us all out of the house I'm usually in a fowl mood and it doesn't take much for Ellis to provoke me. He was dancing and jumping all over me as we waited at the ferry terminal and I was like "that's it - we're going home!" So I wheeled us around, but decided to stop in the playground to consider what my options were. He played a bit and then I said

"ok - if you promise to be good, we can go."

"uh - ok" he said. and I wonder why our discipline doesn't work.

So we set off again - caught the ferry - got off the ferry. I should mention that Ellis is going nappy free these days - it is rather exciting. I asked him if he has to pee - "yes"

darn.

Ok - let's go in here. We were by the waterpark so they had some washrooms. The handicapped one was occupied
we waited and waited. We saw one man go into the mens, followed by another. The second man came out rather quickly. There seemed to be a rather bad smell emanating from either the handicapped/family or the mens. "Uh - Ellis -do you think can you hold it?"

"nope"

"ok" I said.

We waited some more - eventually the person came out - it was someone changing. Oh - that made me mad - at least that is not where the most foul smell was coming from. We had success - YAAAAAAAY!
We continued on past the waterpark. Rowan looked on with sad puppy dog eyes. "Sorry Rowan - we are not going there today."

We found the science centre and another exciting moment - it was half price day - hooray! It seems that the age where children start having to pay here is 3 - which sucks - so it was nice that I only had to pay $4.50 for Ellis as opposed to $9.

We went in and Ellis immediately started running around like a maniac from station to station pushing every button, flipping every tile... He could have stayed there all day I think - I started to get hungry though and Rowan started to get bored. The science centre was good - but small and one entire section was roped off -maybe that is why it was half price day. I eventually managed to pry him away - just remembering at the last minute "do you have to pee Ellis?" "Yup"

Another toilet success and I was started to feel like a pretty good mom (of course I had nothing to do with it - it's all daycare).

I had these free coffee coupons that we had gotten from someone who turns out to be our neighbour (we saw her on the ferry one day, she took a liking to the kids, we told her we were newcomers and she gave us the coupons). Anyway - she seems like a very unlikely restaurant owner - older- seems a tad dotty, but maybe she is just friendly. We had sort of walked by her restaurant before and from the back, it looks like it doesn't get much business. However, when I went in, thinking I could get my coffee and a cheap lunch, it was a rather nice restaurant on the river. I was told that they were almost fully booked, but they squished us in. So my free coffee and juice for Ellis cost $30 (I had really good lemon pepper calamari and chips and Ellis had his standard fare - chips (with a bite of chicken). I almost felt like a lady who lunches - oh, yah, except for the kids. They were well behaved though - so that is pretty good. Rowan is not yet at that impossible stage where we will not be able to leave the house.

We then took the Citycat across the river and went to the library - it was our lucky day yet again! The craft people had taken over the children's area of the library - they are doing crafts every day until Christmas from 10 am till 3 pm. They had every kind of material you would need. I asked Ellis if he wanted to do crafts

"nah." he said

"WHAT?"

Now I know he just wants to do crafts at home to torture me.

Eventually, the glittery pieces of flotsam and jetsam called to him and he went and sat down. The people running the crafts were very impressed with how prolific he was.

"he's made quite a few things" as he used everything available.

They were especially impressed with his use of straws and cupcake papers - he got me to punch holes in the sides of the cupcake papers and then he threaded the straws through. Should take a picture really - he thought of it himself. I was busy doing snowflake cutouts and paper chains for our tree - that is the limit of my imagination. He was the only boy there and clearly the youngest (but boy did Rowan want to join in - I felt like a goalie - keeping him away from the scissors, buttons, you name it) Our apartment is starting to look like an modern art gallery.

On the way home, Ellis feel asleep while sitting next to me on the ferry. Sigh - never a good thing. He slept for two hours in the stroller in the hallway until dinner at which point we attempted to get him up. He made it through about two bites of dinner before freaking out - had to put him back to bed.

I cleared out and went for a ride on my new bike. It was amazing - the city is completely different at dusk - cool, breezy, happy. I rode down one side of the river, crossed the goodwill bridge (pedestrian/bike only) rode up the other side through the botanical garden (note tree above) and the turned around and went back. When I got home, Ellis was up - acting as normal as could be.

I Should Be Writing Christmas Cards

But I know that they will not get done. I'm slowly gathering a large collection of cards that will never be sent. I did one - to Suzy. It's sitting in the envelope stamped and everything - maybe it will get to a post box. I could have mailed it today when I went to the bank@post to do my banking (yes - we use the virtual bank Ing - so we have to go the post office to deposit checks - interesting)



Right now, I've been going through all the pictures that Ellis made in Photobooth - a program on the Mac. He discovered this program one day when he was poking buttons and it can keep him entertained for quite a while. He has made 250 movies and pictures of himself in various poses and backgrounds. The amazing thing is, no one showed him how to use this program. He found it and just started testing things. One thing Cyp and I worry about is that he is not a curious child (or at least we didn't think he was curious) - the outside world, animals, other people do not interest him, but get him near an iphone or a computer and he finds all sorts of things. I guess I should let him play around with the computer when I'm not using it. You can check out a small selection of movies he made on flickr.

Wednesday - Why oh Why Do I Attempt Crafts?

Today we went to yet another playgroup Christmas party. Yup - take 30 kids, stuff them full of sugar, mix with 30 degree weather, stand back and watch them go crazy.

Surprisingly, Ellis lasted better than he ever has at playgroup. Perhaps it is because Rowan was asleep in his stroller the entire time and Ellis didn't have to be bad to get my attention. He also peed on the toilet there twice. Yay to daycare. I'm seriously considering going back to work as Ellis is a better child at daycare. He listens to his teachers. Erin and Fee.

We got home at noon and I had an afternoon of crafts planned. Sue sent me instructions for an easy one. Take some plasticene (I got modeling clay), some glitter and a clear plastic container. Make some sea creatures, add some glitter - instant aquarium.

Things were going well - I was making some creatures, Ellis was making some creatures. Then it all went to **&#+! I'm not sure what happened. Ellis took his creatures and mashed them all up into a ball. Then he spilled all the glitter all over the table (ok, I should have foreseen that). Then when I started putting the glitter back, he got upset because he wanted to do it and started to flail around sending glitter everywhere. Rowan saw the glitter and was like "paydirt!" and started shoving it into his mouth as fast as he could. I started yelling - as Ellis was getting modeling clay all over the cloth chairs "go wash your hands, go wash your hands!" Cyp decides to call at that point to tell me that they had set up the wrong bike at the bike store.

"Can't deal with that right now!" as I hear Ellis wailing about "my leg! my leg!" He had fallen off his stool while washing his hands and fallen on the open drawer (courtesy of Rowan who inches his way through the apartment, opening every drawer at his level). He was actually bleeding quite a bit. I hate crafts. Another reason to go back to work.

We did finally finish the craft - he spent the rest of the day taking the creatures out (breaking off pieces of them and spreading glitter everywhere). They will probably be in the garbage tomorrow as they are turning into sea creature dust.

Fortunately, the sitters came tonight and we got to go out for Thai in the Valley. Phew.

Tuesday - Beat the Clock

Ellis slept for hours on Monday night- on Tuesday he woke up quite chipper. Yay! As we walked to school he told me he would like another baby - apparently he has figured out that only girls have babies in their bellies (there are a lot of pregnant people here) and he asked if Emilie has a baby in her belly - "uh, no." He requested a girl baby. I should take a notepad with me (or get better at typing on my iphone) as he usually has some pretty interesting things to say on the way to school. He makes sure to sit in the rear seat (the one that is actually for the smaller kid) as I can't hear him if he sits in the front seat.

He usually bargains for pick up time - this time he asked for 5 - I'll admit, I tricked him a bit - I asked him 3, 4 or 5 and of course he picked the biggest number. Slightly evil of me. Dropped him off and then went to fetch Cyp's work key from Europcar (yup - he left it in the rental) and then I headed downtown to try to finish the kids Christmas shopping. We are forgoing Christmas for ourselves as we need to buy some big things - fridge, washer/dryer, microwave, tv etc. Plus, I just got a bike that Cyp gets to ride till his bike gets here.

I next found myself in the toy store buying yet more stuff for Rowan and Ellis - toys here are expensive and they really don't need more, but I got them some bath stuff and beach stuff. I also got Rowan a walker type toy. I really feel that they have too many things - and Ellis just seems to expect things these days. He doesn't understand that he can't have everything he wants (because he always gets everything he wants). We have been trying to teach him to respect other people and other people's stuff (e.g. the furnishings in our rented place) but he just doesn't grasp it. "we'll just get another one." is one of his standard refrains. I'm not sure how to deal with this logic (as he's partially right - he's never had to do without) - start depriving him of things? Stop buying stuff altogether? Tonight we told him that Santa doesn't bring toys to naughty children and he said "I don't want anything anyway." He knows Santa will never remember that he pushed Rowan over yet again. Plus, if I don't buy stuff for him to do, I just suffer. So I next found myself buying more craft stuff. Attempt at crafts number 2.

Went home, ate lunch, tried to rest a bit and then headed out to pick up parcel from the post office. Have to take the ferry across to the city, then catch a citycat to Mobray Park and then walk to the post office. Fortunately, double stroller came in handy. Decided to walk home and then had to rush to get Ellis. I think I walked about 8km. Ellis has finally made a friend at daycare - Leroy. Leroy has workaholic parents and is one of those kids that is there from 8 till who knows when. He is always there when Ellis is. Told me that he knows Leroy's middle name, but he's not going to tell me. He's keeping it secret in his belly (maybe that's what's in boy's bellies).

Was exhausted - was also worried about our new house - the lease had a clause stating rent could be raised after 6 months - what's that! We can't leave as it's a 12 month lease, but they can raise the rent if interest rates go up? I told Cyp to phone them and get it taken out. If not, we would not sign. Fortunately, they took it out. Yay!

Where did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Go?

On Monday I successfully dropped the car off at the rental agency and then met Cyp downtown with the kids so we could continue on our way to Southbank (and the waterpark) and Cyp could make his way to work.

Ellis, Rowan and I were to meet Mireille (from Montreal) and Helen (from the UK). We got to the fake beach around 8:3o and I called Kristene (real estate agent) to find out if we got the house in Toowong. Yes - she had tried to call on Saturday - all that angst that I had from missing her call disappeared. Phew - a place to live. Called Cyp and told him to deal with it from now on. We have to extend our current lease by about two weeks as the other place is not ready till later.

Ellis (who said he didn't want to play at the fake beach) was soon about 30 feet away from me, up to his neck in the water saying "look how far I am away from you now mommy." Great - "yes, you're very far"

Ellis lasted quite a while at the fake beach and I met another Cdn and someone who was actually born in Brisbane. Ellis was done by 11 am so we went home. We had a long video chat with G. Anita, Max and Suzy - Ellis gets more and more wound up during these chats and Rowan gets more and more annoyed with Ellis blocking the screen. The rest of the day was a write off and Ellis got banished to bed with no stories after toppling Rowan one to many times and spitting on Cyp's computer. The computer has become a huge issue these days. Rowan, Ellis and I all fight over it. If computer is charging on the floor, Rowan moves at the speed of light to get to it - I usually run over and pick it up and he starts screaming. Whenever I do try to use it these days, Ellis comes over and wants a turn. If I don't give him a turn, he reaches up and pokes the power button, effectively shutting it off (which is very annoying). So I'm trying to put the computer away during the day and only bringing it out when the boys are asleep. I got Ellis a leapster for Christmas (and Cyp wants to get him an ipod touch - but I'm saying no) and I hope that he will get addicted to that. Sigh - my parenting skills are already hitting the skids.

Ellis really is quite skilled at the iphone. He can use it better than me. Sometimes, he takes little videos. He can locate the photos on the iphone and review them. Cyp loaded a program on it that teaches him to spell. He can spell his name now. I can't decide if this is good or not. Somehow it does not seem right.

Sunday - Beach

We got up at 6 am so we could get to the beach in good time. Drove one hour south to the Gold Coast - Burleigh Heads. We followed our Cdn friends - as we were following I came to the realization that Queenslanders are bad drivers as I was stuck behind three cars that seemed to be driving in formation on the 6 lane motorway. Yup - the car in the fast lane was oblivious to the fact that a long line of cars behind him were getting more and more impatient. We made it to the beach by nine -seems we were late - everyone was already there. They have beach clubs here where the kids learn water safety. There were about 50 kids dressed in green suits and green beanies doing drills on the beach - Ellis was quite fascinated.

Water was cold - but it felt great as it was soooo hot. Rowan loved the water of course and even Ellis went in near the end. He seemed to really enjoy himself. As we were packing up to leave, an announcement was made to clear the water. Blue bottles (jellyfish) were coming in. Good timing on our part. Waves were quite big - Cyp took a tumble and didn't go in again. Drove home through Surfers Paradise. A large collection of skyscrapers on the beach. Beaches here don't have that tropical feel like in Hawaii - they are not quite as nice. I think we have to go North to the Great Barrier Reef to see the beautiful ones.

Got home around 2 - did nothing, then decided to go for a city cat ride. It was a beautiful night, but the kids were out too late.

check out Cyp's bat video on flickr.

Saturday - Bike Testing

So we are so used to going to look for houses, that we decided to print off the list of inspections for the day to see what was out there.

We went to one - in Toowong, where I said I wouldn't live as it is too up and down and not very walkable. I liked the house (it had a pool) - it was old timey. The agent was from the agency where we had put in our first application. I asked her how you get an application approved. She said we would have a good chance as the landlord for this place wanted a family.

I decided we should drive to where we thought our new house was going to be just so we could map out bikes routes for Cyp. On the way, we passed the bike shop and decided to go in (as there was a parking spot right there). I went in and asked if I could talk to someone about a bike. Shane then proceeded to talk to me for about an hour - I guess he didn't see Cyp walking back and forth with more and more frantic kids. I took a test drive - was peddling down the street and was wondering why that stupid car was heading right for me - oh yah, I was on the wrong side of the street. Quickly corrected my position and tried to bike up a hill. I made it, but when I got back to the shop after my two minute ride, my legs were shaky and I was puffing. I told Shane I would buy it, but he wanted to talk some more and finally after a text from Cyp I was back on the road.

We drove by what we thought was our new home and saw two people going in for an inspection - huh? We phoned the agency, were told that Hannah, the agent we had been dealing with was at an inspection -yup, we knew that. We had a bad feeling. They hadn't returned any of our calls on Friday and it was always very difficult to get a message to Hannah. I started writing that place off in my mind - too far from the city cat, too much traffic, too big a hill.....

We then drove out to Bulimba so I could show Cyp the house I had looked at without him. I think he was equally depressed about the suburban feel of the street so we drove home in silence. Got home and phoned the agent we had seen that morning. She asked if we were interested in the house we saw as if so, she would put in our application to the owner that day. Oh - ok. Let me call you back. I talked to Cyp - we couldn't really remember the exact details of the house as we hadn't really been looking at it seriously. We did some quick internet searching and I phoned her back and said "yes please"

Man, this is stressful. Further research revealed that there were no closets in this house (did I mention it is old timey?) Oh well, no where for the spiders to hang out only to later jump out at you. I also thought the downstairs bathroom is perhaps a bit sketch. This is one of my main conditions - house has to have two bathrooms. I guess my main condition just went out the window. It does have air conditioning though and it is about a 4 km cycle for Cyp to work. So good all in all (although Ellis claimed he did not like it - Rowan does though - his arms were flapping when he saw the pool).

We will be paying $800 per week - it seems about what you pay for the area and type of house. People I have met here think that is a fortune (and when you do the math, it is really). We looked at a big range - from $450 per week to $925. I kept thinking it doesn't seem like much more, but then when you multiply the difference by 52.... well - I had to start telling myself - every $100 is $5200 for the year. So, the first one we put an offer on was $775, then $700 (I think that was why I was kinda excited about that house - I was imaging how I could spend our extra $100 per week). In fact, when we start thinking about how we are blowing that money on rent, we start thinking about buying a house - $800 per week is about a $600,000 mortgage. We could get a pretty good house.... but then we'd have to worry about it. Well - I could go on and on - it was a tough decision. So - everyone - you must come and visit before January 27, 2011 (our lease term) so you can enjoy our stunning views and pool. We got a bigger house so people would have somewhere to stay.

In the afternoon, we went to Cyp's bosses house for their solstice party. We basically hung out in their pool. Ellis jumped in lots and was very brave.

Another Up and Down Weekend

On Friday, I got to pick up the rental car. This was rather exciting - I put Rowan in the front of the double stroller and his car seat in the back seat (the double stroller is handy in oh so many ways) and we headed out. I did this as Cyp had two work calls Friday morning and I couldn't imagine him juggling two kids plus two calls. With Ellis, all he has to do is give him his iphone and then he won't be bugged.

I found Hertz (first step) and installed the car seat - thank goodness if had latches (a lot of cars here don't) and I was off. Almost backed into the car behind me as I was leaving and then hit the windshield wiper to signal. Something that I continued to do all weekend. got honked at a bit this weekend - mainly people were annoyed that I wasn't signaling. I was - they just couldn't see the wipers going I guess. I also made Cyp flinch a lot as I tried to scrape the left hand side of the car off. I did note that he kept trying to get into the driver's seat. Yes, it was role reversal this weekend.

Got the car home and drove Cyp to work. Traffic wasn't outrageous as we were going against it - it was heading to the city, we were heading south west.

After I dropped him off, I headed to the Carindale mall - this is in another popular neighbourhood so I thought I'd better check it out just to see what it was like. Got there in the nick of time as I got one of the last parking spots. The mall was huge and it appears everyone in Brisbane was there and there was only one elevator. I bought a few things (Ellis made sure I got dishcloths and cookies) and we were off again. When we got back to the elevator, he had a fit as he wanted to go up (and I wanted to go back to the car). There was no way I was going for extra rides on this elevator as I mentioned, there was only one and it took forever. As I left, there was a lineup for my spot.

Yikes - I guess people go to the mall as it is air conditioned.

I had made another house inspection appointment so we headed off to find the house. This one was in Norman Park. It looked promising:

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403466357&f=0&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=45915455&s=qld&snf=rbs&tm=1260706898

but it was bizarre to say the least. Plus, the house is for sale as well as for rent. A waste of time. At least we didn't walk there.

I headed home and we puttered around for a bit before heading out to what we hoped would be our new neighbourhood. Got out, put the boys in the stroller and tried to walk down the street to find the park that the previous tenant had mentioned. Uh - could barely walk down the street is was at such an angle. When I got to the end, I encountered some stairs - asked some people just going into their house - do those go down to a park?

"well, there is a bit of a grassy patch by the river at the bottom and don't worry, they've kicked the tramps out."

oh.

ok - that is not where the park is. I hoofed it back up the hill, went down another street, found another set of steep stairs. Ok - no so walkable with a stroller this way. Imagine San Francisco type hills. So I packed us back into the car (Ellis was wondering what the heck we were doing) and drove to find the park.

Found it! It's at the city cat stop - 2.9 km downhill from our potential new house. Darn. Nice park though - right on the river. There goes our plan for Cyp to take the citycat to work though.

Ellis of course wanted to get out and play so we hopped out again - what was that smell? Ah yes, I'd left the emergency brake on.

"I don't like that smell mommy."

Soon it was time to go and get Cyp at work. There are basically bridges near the city and one two lane bridge south of the Uni. So we had to drive back towards the city, cross the river and then drive back towards the Uni on the other side. Cyp would not be driving to work from our new place. There is a green bridge (for bikes, pedestrians and buses) that would make his bike trip 2.9 km. That is the way he would go.

We picked him up and then went to see another house. Again - it was another case of deceptive advertising. In this case the house was one house away from the inner city bypass. It was behind one of those highway walls that you always think "wonder who lives on the other side of that"

Nice house, bad location. To make matters worse - we couldn't get out of the street - took us four lights. Loooonng lights.

Oh well, we were looking just in case. We were pretty sure we had the Highgate Hill house.