General Update on Us

Little peeks into what each of us has been up to lately:

Naomi

1. Is coloring. We are finally to the point where the crayons are scribbling on the paper a bit more often than they are being pulled out of her mouth by a parent. Slow but sure.

2. Is the only member of our family who is a member at the City of Sydney Library. Kind of a long story but when we had to show proof of residency things got complicated, and for some reason the librarian suggested that if we just created a membership for Naomi instead, it would solve the problem. So we did. We went tonight and picked up 7 new books for her. She was so excited about them that she asked to read each of them one by one tonight before bed (we usually only read 1 or 2 books at bedtime). Just in time because we only brought about 7 books from home and have been reading them over and over (and over!) for the last month.

3. Verbal explosion at 20 months – check. Every day we are hearing new words. Some of them more humorous than others (ie. I am starting to realize how much I say the following: “Oh man!” “Oh boy!” “Oh my!”) We are loving this time with her.

4. Suddenly never sleeps past 6 am anymore. The new norm is 5:30 am. What’s up with that? Mommy and Daddy are not excited about this.

Daniel

1. Is fascinated with photographing the Opera House from every angle. As one person said, “It’s the only building that never looks exactly the same, so there’s always something new to look at.”

2. Spent the evening last night tracking down a FedEx package, the low point of which found him walking through a dark abandoned park looking for some warehouse. He found it, got his package, and then took a taxi home. Katie was very relieved when he finally walked in the door at 8pm.

3. Is enjoying the new degree of variety in his job. He went through a training session yesterday for how to dissemble and repair scuba regulators (which are the complicated breathing apparatuses used when you scuba dive). Suffice it to say that a 6 hour training session was not enough to make him feel fully trained to teach others how to do this complex and crucial-that-you-get-it-right task. He’s also dealing with customers more than he did stateside, which is mostly a refreshing change from the IT work he usually does, but also more stressful at times. He and I both like that he is at home most of the time (Naomi likes this too), but the flip side of that flexibility is that sometimes he’s suddenly called on to work an extra hour or two, or to get up at 4 am for a phone call – yuck.

(As a side note, I married such a wonderful man. Yesterday he was contacted (about 5 times) by a female customer (and her daughter, separately) who were furious (to put it lightly) at the problems they’d had receiving an order they’d placed last week. Did he get defensive? No. Did he even get very stressed? No. He handled it with such grace and also did a lot to solve her problem, treating her like a queen through it all. I am so proud of him.)

Katie

1. Cooked pumpkin for the first time. Yum! Pumpkin soup, baked pumpkin and other pumpkin things are a well-loved part of Australian cuisine. I first had baked pumpkin in Ireland, and have wanted to make it myself ever since. I actually steamed this one up, but it was delicious in a chicken and pumpkin stew we had for dinner last night.

Such a beautiful shade of one of my favorite colors!

2. Shopped at the Kirribilli Market last Saturday. Kind of like a huge garage sale meets etsy.com, and since I waited late enough in the day I got some really awesome deals – like this coat for $5 (???). The seller was desperate to get rid of all her stuff, and I couldn’t believe I found it on a rack labeled “$5”. Also scored a coloring book for Naomi. Big hit, and the fact that the first 5 pages had already been scribbled in seemed to only make her more interested in coloring in it. Score.

3. That new brand of butter I bought last weekend is better! Hooray! The eggs however still taste gross to me. I don’t get it. The “tasty” cheese is still not tasty to me, but I am surviving quite well on mozzarella and feta. Have not yet ventured out to try any others. Maybe soon.

4. Am still getting used to having our own washer and dryer (albeit in a community area downstairs). Left clean laundry in the dryer for almost a week last week. Oops. Then, 5 days after remembering that, remembered I’d left a few items to hang on the community clothes line. Oops again. Someone had nicely shoved them off to the side, but nothing had been stolen. Australians really are very nice people.