Christmas Day Aussie Style

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. After so much rain, the clouds cleared and the sun was shining. We wanted to have a traditional Aussie Christmas, so we (Jeff, Avery, Gigi, Gpa and me) had lobster tails on the barbie for our main course and it was delish! Then we headed down to the beach and walked along the strand listening to Christmas music that we brought with us (probably not very Aussie I'm guessing). Tons of people were out walking along, picnicking, laying on the beach, surfing, swimming. It was great! On Christmas Eve we attended the live nativity family service at St. Matthews on the Corso in Manly. It was interesting. The kiddos seemed to like it, but it was Star Wars characters playing the wise men, Darth Vader was there... I don't know. It was hard to hear where we were sitting in the kids/pram room and it was standing room only - we got some of the last few seats in the TV room. Very... different. But I heard kids say it was cool, and I think that's what they were going for. All in all, a great Christmas.

Merry Chrissy

One thing I L-O-V-E is how they add a "y" or "ie" to words. It makes them so much more fun! Mozzie=Mosquito, Brelly=Umbrella, Cozzie=Swim Suit (or Swim Costume), Brekkie=Breakfast, Prezzy=Present and of course Chrissy=Christmas. Fun, right? That way too I get to share my name with the holiday. We are enjoying the season, but honestly it just doesn't feel that Chrissy to me yet. If you've been reading, you know we don't have cable, and sadly there are no Chrissy movies on like in the states. People don't listen to non-stop Chrissy music here either. My husband is told at work that he has a Christmas fetish because he listens to Chrissy music all the time. I was also surprised that street fairs happening on the weekends don't include any Chrissy ornaments or decorations. If you want a summer Santa type of ornament or really anything made in Oz, you will be searching high and low to find it. I found some cool ones this weekend at a touristy store, but the cute home ware stores just carry the regular things you would find in the states. They told me it's too expensive to buy Australian-made things and make a good profit margin. Sad but surprising? No. Another thing I have really struggled to find is a gift box or a good (or even decent) ribbon for gift wrapping. I really love wrapping prezzies, making cool bows, etc, but I just had to give up. Please comment if you have recommendations, esp on the bows around Manly. Otherwise I will have to use the little creativity that I possess.

Differences In Opinion

You wouldn't think that there would be that many discrepancies between recommendations for babies here versus in the states, but I have come across quite a few. It's hard when you have read and re-read your handy baby books from America a million times, and then you get to your regular checkups and they throw a curve ball at you. Whose opinion do you go with? Most of the differences have centered on feeding. First when I got here I wondered what kind of water I should mix with the formula, especially since I am not familiar with the water here. When I asked around, the only opinion in Oz is boil the water. This is harder than it sounds though because it's only sterile a certain amount of hours, it must boil a certain amount of minutes, etc, and if I don't need to do it, I would rather not. I ended up going against popular opinion in Oz and we buy sterilized steam purified water, which is ok according to my book. 

Then solids came along. The book I have (Baby 411) said starting at 6 months, 1 meal per day in between bottles, then at 7 months 2 meals and by 8, 3 meals. The GP (General Practitioner, which babies see instead of a Pediatrician unless something is really wrong and they need a specialist) said feed solids first, then bottle. The Early Childhood Development Center (Gov't office you see for regular milestone checkups and growth) said she needs 3 solids a day and feed bottle, then 30 minutes to an hour later do the solids. Well, Avery made the decisions for me I guess. She doesn't like her formula so I did start her on 3 solids a day and she just turned 7 months old. But it's interesting to see how different the medical community feels about these things. Another book I have with baby food recipes says a pediatrician should clear the baby for 3 solid meals by 9 months! Guess we're just ahead of the game.

Bird Watching

I have never been an avid bird watcher, but before I came to Oz, I had read that there were really cool, tropical birds, and this was an understatement. We have Rainbow Lorikeets that love the tree right outside our bedroom window. They are gorgeous and they love the nectar from the flowers in our trees. I have tried to take a few photos, but the green on them blends in with the tree so they are camouflaged. Here is a photo from a google search though. The downside to having the birds outside our window is that they are LOUD. They make this weird electronic-sounding chirp. It wakes us up every morning.

Another beautiful bird, my second favorite, is the Sulfur Crested Cockatoo. We spot them around Manly feeding on the grass or maybe bugs in the grass. 

And of course I can't leave off the Kookaburra! Sorry this photo is not the best. I love singing the Kookaburra song to Avery.

Here's an Ibis that are around a lot too. Long beaks dig in to eat bugs. Some people think they're ugly, but I disagree.

And the last one I will mention is the Little Manly Penguin. I have not seen them because they come out at night over on the harbour side (I live on the beach side). When my sister visits, I'm hoping to try to get a glimpse, but they are very protected by volunteers round the clock because they are becoming endangered. Poor little guys. I guess there were a few incidents with dogs off leash. There are so many signs around but I still see loads of dogs off leash in this area.

Christmas Tree

So apparently it is bad luck here to decorate before December 1, but we went out and bought a tree today. It's fake and tiny, but that's all we have room for. The weird thing was Jeff couldn't find regular lights for it. They were all LED or colored. LED lights look so weird on a tree. Less fire hazard I guess.

Thanksgiving In Australia

I can't explain how strange it feels to be here at this time of year. Usually Halloween and then Thanksgiving plus cold weather send signals to the brain that Christmas is around the corner. Without these things, it just doesn't feel real. We don't have any Christmas decorations, stockings, etc., which again makes it seem like Christmas is not coming soon. For Thanksgiving, we luckily have some other expat friends who we will meet to celebrate with a potluck picnic. Hopefully this will flip that switch in my brain so that I can really start Christmas shopping, and at least get a few decorations for our sad little town home.

The Art Of Racing The Rain

Here's a little secret that very few American expats seem to have known before moving to Sydney, including myself: It rains A LOT. There's not a "rainy season" unless you're referring to all seasons here. There are a lot of nice days. Gorgeous really, and they make you forget the ugly days. My husband likes to flatter the Aussies by telling them the weather here is better than Orange County, Ca. But I beg to differ. He is sitting in an office and I am the one traveling by bus, ferry and most of all on foot with the stroller. In the summer, you can see the clouds rolling in, and I know usually before leaving the house that  it's only a matter of time before I'm drenched. But the hard part is finding that perfect window of time between naps and feeding and making that coincide with a moment of no rain. For my first "window" today, we were fine. We desperately needed groceries and so I filled up the stroller and got the essentials taken care of with little rain. But I still needed to pick up a package from the Post and had no space in the first outing. In our neighborhood, they drop off at about 7:15am so if you miss it, you have to go wait in line and pick it up. So once Avery woke up from the afternoon nap, I made a run for it. I saw the clouds but the Post would close soon. We lost the race today but didn't get too wet. Maybe by the time we leave, I will have mastered the skill of timing everything perfectly. Somehow I doubt it though.

The Hunter

We took a short 3-hour drive to beautiful Hunter Valley wine region, or "The Hunter" as some affectionately call it, this past weekend. It was a lot larger than I thought it would be and A LOT hotter. We got there around noon on Saturday, headed straight to lunch at Oishii, a Thai/Japanese place, and then went next door to a winery in the same building (easiest thing since we brought our pram for Avery to sleep in as we tasted). In Oz, it's pretty common to bring your baby with you wine tasting, out to a nice dinner, or wherever you want. There were 3 other small babies just in our B&B alone.

So it didn't start out that hot when we got there. It was comfortably hot, but by the time we left the first winery, it was sweltering (98 at the hottest according to the iPhone). Avery was sweating and not happy but dealing with it as we all were. The mozzies (mosquitos) were brutal too. From there we checked into the cutest B&B, Willow Tree Estate, relaxed for a bit, and then headed out to Tintilla Winery and finally a very early dinner at Restaurant Botanica. While we loved the restaurant, it took a bad turn when Avery would not go to sleep. We blame the heat, but needless to say, we didn't stay for dessert and Avery was a few hours late to bed. This late sleep plus heat caused many wakings throughout the night and a cranky baby for our only whole day in wine country (another hot day). But we did manage to enjoy our trip, and just rearranged some things like dinner for the next night and today, our last day, was much more pleasant. Nice and cool and not crowded at the wineries. Dolly Parton happened to be in town performing so we got lucky that the crowds didn't affect us at all. I have to admit I was disappointed that we didn't see any cool animals in the bush or on the drive. There were lots of wombat and kangaroo signs but all we saw was a dead kangaroo by the side of the road:-( Here are a few photos.

Holy Heat Wave

How strange for it to be 95 degrees in November! But alas it was and still at 8:33pm, according to Jeff's iPhone, is. It actually said it got to 100 today, but I don't believe it. Avery and I went out and relaxed in the shade on the lawn behind the beach and it felt amazing. Maybe I'm starting to get used to it like the rest of the Aussies here who don't have air con. Of all of the people I have met so far here, no one has a fully-ac-functioning home. In the states, this would never ever fly when there are days of 100 and very humid weather. But here everyone opens all of their windows and doors, not caring about flies, gnats and other bugs. We are starting to adjust to just leaving the doors open. We have few screens so not much choice when the heat is this hot. The hardest part so far has been poor Avery. She is sleeping in just a onesie, but over the weekend the poor thing was waking every few hours and got very little sleep. And so neither did we. My sister Lisa just booked a trip out for February. Please let the heat take a break in February! I hear that could be the hottest and most humid month of the year.

Culture Shock

Ok so the culture isn't that different but it's different enough. I have met some wonderful people though and love getting to know the Aussies as well as the many people from the UK and other transplants. But its surprising the feeling I get when I meet other Americans here. It feels so comfortable, like I don't have to try as hard. We talk the same and have similar thoughts on a variety of differences between home and here. There are few Americans in my area. I met the first yesterday and she lives one town over. And she invited me to an American expat book club. I think I will check it out next week. Most Americans here live in a suburb called Mosman and that's where the book club is. Not sure why so many end up there. Randomly another American just contacted me through Facebook too who lives in my suburb and has a baby a month older than Avery.

Now I am going to share an example of a culture difference. Since before we moved here, we were concerned that our daughter had a somewhat flat head. Once we got here, we saw a doctor as well as a nurse at the government run health center, and I asked each about it. Both said it would round out and not to worry about it. Really it's not that bad so it was easy to believe them. As time has gone on, I have had a concern but then I look around and see so many babies with flat heads that I think that it must round out. But we saw the doctor (a different one) for a 6 month checkup the other day. I asked him and was surprised when he told me he never even mentions anything about the flat head to parents unless they mention it first. How strange? It seemed to be because it would be offensive to the parent. No wonder babies have flat heads here. Parents go into denial and other doctors tell them it will be fine so they have nothing to worry about. Anyway, the doctor told me it would not change at this point and recommended we try putting a head band on her. The kind "that tennis players wear" is how he described it. Needless to say, I set out to find a specialist and that was next to impossible! There are so few doctors that even do it but I guess there's not much demand given all the babies NOT wearing helmets that need them.

Aussie TV, Internet, Bugs, and other things no one told us

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE where we live. I am in heaven spending my days meters (yes, they use the metric system here) from the ocean with my baby. However, there are some things that take some getting used to. First we were in for a rude awakening when we realized we could not get cable or internet (except for a WiFi hotspot) from our apartment. My husband and I have been reading a lot though instead. We've also started watching a few of the Aussie reality shows I'm afraid. They love their reality TV here. Master Chef Junior is great as is X-Factor. I'm always concerned the kids on Master Chef will cut their fingers off though! They're all about 11-14yo - so young but they make some amazing things. Of course you have to get used to all the crying when things don't go well, but it's great TV. The internet was really hard to get used to in the beginning but now it's not so bad. It's amazing what you think you can't live without until you really do, and then you just learn to live with less. That's something we've learned here about a lot of things. People have been so kind to loan us their toys and things for Avery, and that's pretty common here I think because everything is so darn expensive! If we lived in the states, I know we would be buying new things all the time from Babies R Us without batting an eyelash.

On the other thing, the bugs are not as easy to get used to. Roaches are something I have never dealt with. It's so strange but most people don't have screens on doors and windows and on hot days (it can get in the 100s), everyone just leaves everything open and the bugs all make themselves at home. Jeff and I are struggling to adapt. There are some really large spiders here too. It's rare to see a deadly one in your house, but they are around. Apparently the Funnel Web Spider (scary and deadly) has been indigenous to Sydney but has since made it's way to other parts of Oz. We learned about what to do in our baby First Aid class here luckily so I will be able to save all of our lives in that situation as well as if a deadly snake bites one of us.


Ok and last random thought is - I can't believe the holidays are around the corner. It's so strange for it to be 85 outside and November. It makes it easy to forget that I need to start doing some Christmas shopping.

Melbourne Cup

Avery and I attended our first Melbourne Cup party today that one of the moms from my mom's group hosted and had a fabulous time! I made guacamole because the Mexican food in Oz is generally terrible, so I thought mine might impress and it did! No one here uses cilantro in their guac, which to me is essential (they actually call it coriander), so it was a hit. Avery wore a dress and our version of a fascinator and I wore a dress and heels, which I never do especially when walking Avery in her stroller. My horse came in second in a photo finish - so close to winning our jackpot at the party. Everything about the MC reminded me of the Kentucky Derby. The fashion and the hats were beautiful and exciting. The weather in Melbourne looked really cold though, but it didn't stop the summer dresses.

First Post

So I/we (Jeff & I) have a few other blogs. One about Avery and Jeff started one about Oz, but I decided to add one more to the list that would be more of a public chronicle of our lives through my eyes. The others are more for our families back home who desperately miss our little Avery. I kinda wish I had started this earlier. There are so many experiences I have had already since we got here 3 months ago - learning how to work the oven, figuring out what ingredients are what since they all have different names here, navigating the medical system, trying to decide if I should conform to the way they speak here without feeling weird ("How ya going?", "Do you have extra nappies in your pram for the bubby?") shopping (everything is insanely expensive to the point that it's a lot cheaper to buy things in the US, and have a family member ship them to you), and the list goes on. But I have no doubt more curve balls are coming my way that will make this blog at least slightly entertaining.