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.