And it's back to school..

The break is over and Term 4 is here.  This is a shorter term (8 weeks) and then the kids will be out of school for almost 2 months.  We are all excited to see our first Aussie summer.   I am fascinated by the idea of Christmas in summer.  

This is not my photo - it's one that I found on the internet when I looked up Christmas in Australia.  Those boys look like they are struggling to hold the girls up.  (Are they trying to be Chippendales or what?)

I get sidetracked so easily...

So back to school today for Hollie and Brynn.  Jax starts back tomorrow.  Summer uniforms for Term 4, and I am so happy to see those back.  One simple dress with a zipper in the back.  No button up shirts and dresses and tights.  Hollie needs about 15 minute per article of clothing, so I can get irritated (aka ranting, yelling, stomping, etc) in the morning before school.  This morning, however, was quite pleasant. She was dressed, had breakfast, and even helped Brynn to get ready (pink sequin shirts go with purple sweatpants don't they?).  She'll be starting piano lessons again this week, which she hasn't taken since our move, so she is excited about that.  

Jackson has not worn summer uniforms yet, because he didn't start school until Term 2, where Hollie started at the end of Term 1.  His uniform is very Boy-Scoutish.  Khaki button up shirt with tie, long khaki shorts, tall khaki socks.  The socks throw me, but once you see all of the other boys with the same clothes, you get used to it quickly.

Brynn will finish up the term at her current preschool , and will then move to the 4 year old center where the kids are prepped for kindy.  She will go there for a year and then she'll be off to Abbotsleigh with Hollie.  

Holidays are full of fun things for kids, but there has been a rash of accidents with kids over this break. A two year old girl was run over and killed by her father in our neighborhood.  We don't know the family, but my heart hurts for them and what they must be going through right now.  There's actually been four toddlers killed in the last several weeks by this happening.  I cannot imagine a worse thing as a parent, and I pray that these families are surrounded by people who love them right now.

Bring on the Crazy...

I like to keep my kids busy during the holidays.  I get very anxious when we sit around and do nothing (aka relax).  I just feel like they need to be doing something other than watching TV or playing on a computer or xbox.  
With that in mind, we took the girls to Wizzie World (Wizzie is short for Wizard, best I could tell).


Wizzie World is a big indoor playground where every kid can unleash their inner crackhead have fun and get some exercise.  There is a cafe inside with lots of tables so parents can kick back and have a sandwich and coffee (they don't offer yager shots, although I'm convinced they would sell out in minutes).  Of course, they also sell hot chips (fries) and chicken nuggets for the kids (and Jeff). 


Brynn, who I think we might see in the X games in another 15 years, went right to the big slide on the "big" playground (versus the "under 4" area).  She took off down the slide, came up off of the slide midway, fell back on the slide, and got a massive scrape on her arm and elbow.  She cried for about 2 seconds , but quickly saw another slide and was off and going again. 


Jeff and I were at a table beside some kids, where one of the boys was being horribly  mean - kicking , spitting, hitting - and encouraging other kids to do the same.  Brynn came over for a minute and was playing, when the little boy kicked her - lightly at first, but then drew his foot back - when Jeff and I went all American on him, me being a little more polite "No kicking!" than Jeff "DON'T YOU KICK HER!".   The kids dad rushed over, but didn't say anything other than "are you having a good time?"  .. Uh yeah, if beating the shit out of other kids constitutes a good time. 


I find that people are much more lenient on their kids here.  Kids running around restaurants is common.  I don't know if I will ever get used to that.  Time out is a last resort.  Definitely not getting used to that.  


Here is the Crazy House, er..Wizzie World. 

Two Little Fishies...

The kids are on a two week holiday from school.  This holiday period between terms is shorter than the last (which was almost 4 weeks).  A lot of people here travel out of the country during these breaks.  One of Hollie's friends from school is in New York at the moment, and of course MeanGirl had to tell Hollie that she was headed to Raleigh.  She mentioned this multiple times to Hollie, once in front of Jeff, who asked what she was planning to do there.  She said "I don't know".  Now don't get me wrong, I love Raleigh.  But if I were an Aussie travelling from Australia to the US - would Raleigh really be the place I would go?  


I thought of taking the kids on a short trip somewhere in Australia during this break (Jeff is buried at work) but decided that we needed to focus on swimming instead.  The girls have been taking swim classes once per week, but I signed them up for daily classes during the holidays.  Hollie had grown timid again around the water, while Brynn is the polar opposite and is not afraid at all (and yet she cannot swim).  So, both could benefit from the classes.


Hollie had not swam the length of the pool since beginning classes - rather, she would swim the width since it was a shorter distance.  On her second day of class last week, her teacher said "You can do this, come on Hollie, you can do this..." and Hollie told me later that she felt like it would have been rude to say "Back off lady..." so she gave it a go (insert Jackson rolling eyes at me with my Aussie phrase there).  

And she did it!  I have never seen her so proud of herself.  It doesn't matter that the pool is small, because it was such a big deal to her.  She could not stop talking about it, and couldn't wait to do it again the next day.  


And Brynn was just as excited. She doesn't stop smiling from the time her class starts.  She swims with a bubble on her back, but hopefully she'll be off on her own before too long.

I love the swim school.  The owners are fantastic, and I've met a lot of nice people there - I dare say I've got a couple of friends there!

Say Cheese!

Jeff and I went to Costco yesterday for some essentials - Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough and bagels.  Is it worth the craziness of the crowd there?  My family seems to think so - and I must say, those cookies are pretty good. 

We were there along with 10,000 other people, trying to navigate the trolley (buggy) and getting run into by countless others.  And only to find...that there were no cookies!!  WHAT!?!  No Otis Spunkmeyers?????  Tragic.  Of course we did manage to find a lot of other things that we needed  (hey, we ALL need 10 pound box of Twizzlers).  

Here's the crazy thing.  The lines to check out go to the back of the store.  As you get closer to the front, the lines on each side form into two lines.  So, as I'm in line, I go to the right as the line splits.  The people behind me were apparently not paying attention, because low and behold, I saw two people approach that line from the side , check to see if anyone was looking, and then turn around and join that line.  And I'm thinking, I'm not in a big hurry, so if you really gotta get in line that bad to pay for your Twizzlers and 50pk of toilet paper, then whatever.  Of course, had I been in a hurry, I would have been completely ticked.  But in this instance, I was just amused, and so I did what any normal person would do.  I took their picture.

Perpetrators #1 and #2:

Perps 1 and 2 proceeded to get all cuddly and display all kinds of PDA, so I'm giving them a double violation.  Get a room, and wait your turn for it.

Perpetrator #3:

And Perp #3s partner, Perpetrator #4, as they had to take turns standing with the trolley while going for other things.  

I think I'm going to take pictures every time I see something like this happen and post them to a website.  Didntyourmamateachyoubetter.com, , here I come. 

Tick Season is officially on us (Pun intended)

I am officially changing my position on critter hating in Australia.  When we first moved here, so many people made comments about the spiders, snakes and bugs.  My thoughts were yes, it's true, there are some nasty things here, but we've got our own nasty things back in NC - black widows, copperheads, fat women in spandex (I swear I won't do it again)...


Today I am a changed woman, at least from an animal fearing perspective.  All of this thanks to one little tick.


Meet   Ixodes holocyclus, more commonly known as the Paralysis Tick.  Sounds so nice, doesn't it?

It started yesterday after Brynn's swim class.  She came out of the pool and as I was putting dry clothes on her, I noticed something on her neck but thought it was fuzz from her towel.  A few minutes later, one of the moms said Hey - I think there is a tick on Brynn.  I grabbed her towel to put over my hand and pulled it out.  The mom that had told me about the tick took it and was going to smash it, but dropped it by accident.  Everyone at the pool was on the floor looking for the tick and through their conversations, I had my first pang of worry.  Now, I don't like ticks, and I know that they can carry Lyme disease, but I don't get overly worried by a tick.  Wait, let me change that - I used to not get overly worried by a tick.  The people are talking about this specific tick and how it causes paralysis and all kinds of awful things.  After at least 15 minutes of everyone looking for the tick, we give up and everyone checks their little ones and all is good.  

One of the other moms says Pop in over at the pharmacy next door and have her checked out.  Wait - what??  A pharmacist will check out my kid?  This is a new one.  We go next door, and I tell the pharmacist the situation and ask her if she might take a look?  She says Sure, pop her up here and let me see.  Yep, tick is completely out, all looks okay, but get some Claritin just in case she starts to have a lot of itching.   We leave and head over to pick up Hollie.  I am continuously feeling something on my leg, and I am laughing at myself thinking about the psychosomatics of this, and wonder how long I'm going to feel like there is something crawling on me!

Just before we get to Hollie's school, I pull over to drop something in a mail box (since you can't mail out from your house here).  I get back in the car and I start to feel the same sensation on my stomach, but it's more of a painful feeling.  I lift up my shirt, and the psychosomatic theory goes out the window. There it is.   I hiked my shirt up, and went to trying to pull it out.  Never mind that there are people walking by the car - take a look, I don't care, I just need this THING OFF OF ME!  It was seriously attached, and I had a hard time getting it off but after about 7 attempts I finally got it.  By the time I got home, I had welts all over my stomach and neck, but Brynn was fine.

I got home and immediately googled this thing .  Very regional (lucky us).  Delayed reaction.  18-36 hours to onset of symptoms of toxicity.  But I also read that that it would have to be on the host for 3-4 days for a full on release of the neurotoxin (that word alone gives me the heebie jeebies).  This morning I woke to awful itching and lumps in my  neck.  Brynn has a rash on her face.  But otherwise, we both feel fine.  I've scheduled a doctor's appointment for us later this afternoon.  I am not sure I got the whole tick out of me (ew, I know), and I want to have Brynn checked out, just to be safe.

And we are just in the beginning of tick season.  Great!

Life as we know it

Here it is, September already.  I can hardly believe that almost six months have passed since we moved to Sydney.  Another school term has passed, as Jax and Hollie finish up term 3 this week.  A two week holiday will ensue for them and for Brynn, since most kid activities stop during holidays.  Both girls will be taking swim classes each day during the break.  It's not quite warm enough to swim in our pool yet, but it won't be long.  Once Brynn can at least get herself to the side of the pool without help, I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief.  We just received a package from Joey that contained some orders that I had placed online.  I can appreciate the opposite seasons when it comes to shopping - end of season sales just as the season starts here.  I'm getting sidetracked talking about shopping (imagine) - my point is that Brynn got a new swimsuit that she is positively loving.  (Side note - swimsuits are called "swimmers" or "costumes" here).  I am not sure about this pose.  I think Hollie must have taught Brynn this stance!

This past Friday night, Hollie's school held their annual infant musical.  Infant = K-2.  The show was fantastic, and I was amazed at how talented some of the girls are.  Hollie was picked to read a poem, and she was so nervous but did really well.  Brynn was loud during the concert, clapping as hard as possible and shouting "BRAVO!".  She was in and out of her seat, standing, sitting, rolling...And as it always happens in these situations, there was a family sitting next to us with 2 girls around Brynn's age.  They sat quietly and stayed in their seats the entire time.  I made myself feel better by convincing myself that the parents must have fed the girls Benadryl prior to the concert, and the girls had some superhero ability to stay awake through it.  

Here are the girls during the concert.

Saturday, both girls had birthday parties to attend, and Jax went to a friends house to hang out.  It was a very "normal" sort of day.  The party that I took Brynn to was outside, and the weather was gorgeous!  Sunny and 20 - something or another.  It felt like 80 degrees to me, but I don't know.  There was a fairy who hosted the party, and she painted faces and played games with the girls for hours. I met a lot of people there, and it was a pretty fun afternoon.  As we left, the mom asked Brynn if she'd like to take a piece of cake home and Brynn said "yes, my dad loves cake".  Aww how sweet...until we were to the car and she said "I'm not giving this to dad, I'm eating it myself!" , even though she had already had one piece of cake plus a cupcake.  Hey, don't mess with that girl's food.  She fell asleep on the way home (around 4:30-ish).  I woke her up when we got home and she walked in the door, and then this...I thought that benadryl trick might work for the party....nah, not really.

I could not get the kid to wake up!  She ended up sleeping until Sunday morning.  I guess a fairy party wears a girl out.

Jax had a good time with the boys Saturday night.  The friend who invited him over is from South Africa and is into mountain biking.  Jax has gone with him riding, but has decided he needs a new bike.  So he is saving money and trying to decide which bike to get.

Jeff and I went to see Change Up on Sunday night.  It's so nice that Jax is old enough to watch the girls for us so we can get out once in a while!

Life has been busy lately!  I say this in a very positive way, because I am completely uncomfortable and anxious if I have nothing to do.   So, busy is good.

Brynn is taking dance classes, which she loves.  The girls are not required to wear traditional dance clothing, so a whole slew of princesses burst through the door every Tuesday.  Sometimes Brynn wears her princess costume, and sometimes she wears Hollie's old dance costumes..and sometimes she wears a wide array of thngs that do not match or go together in any sort of way.

She is also taking swim classes.  It reminds me of Florida here, where a lot of the houses have pools, and there is water everywhere.  So it is essential that children learn to swim early on.  Hollie is taking swim classes as well.  She can swim already but is getting lots of good practice, and learning the proper techniques.  They both take classes at a swim school nearby.  I thoroughly enjoy my time there - parents sit in a room looking into the pool, so I can see what my girls are doing throughout the classes, but I also enjoy all of the parents.  It's a really nice group of people. 

We have a pool at our house, and I will fully confess that I have lied to Brynn and told her that we have a shark who lives in our pool, who only goes away when moms and dads are around.  She is duly frightened , and I wonder if I'm a bad parent for telling such a horrible lie to keep my kid away from the pool.  There is a gate, with locks (key locks at that), so it's unlikely that she would ever even reach the pool alone, but my paranoia gets the best of me sometimes!  We haven't actually used our pool yet, but the weather is getting pretty warm and I think it won't be long...

We've just received notice that Brynn has a spot for kindergarten ("kindy" here) at the school Hollie attends.  She will be starting there in February 2013.  I can hardly believe I'm thinking about kindergarten for her!  
Hollie is doing really well with school.  She is really enthusiastic to learn the things that are new to her, like violin and French.

This is Hollie entertaining herself on the way to school (aka, learn French at Home)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGufFiR4APU


Jackson is doing really well in school as well.  We just received his scores from Naplan (standardized test here).  The yearmaster called me prior to the test  to say that we should not worry about the test or the scores.  But I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jackson scored well above the national average and his school average in all categories.  I was also impressed to see the detail that goes into the results, down the level of questions that were missed.  Really good stuff.

Term 3 ends next week and the kids will be out of school for two weeks.  Term 4 means new sport for Jax (basketball) and summer uniforms again.  Let me just say that I love uniforms.  I wish all schools required them.  We all talk about how great they are as far as no kids being judged by their clothes.  But let me tell you why I really love them.  There is no drama about what to wear in the morning and they are as wrinkle resistent as you can get!