Night views from the balcony and Ethan in his new swim shirt.
Well, I thought I'd just fill you in on the last couple days since they've been active ones. I'm sure once we go back to work and settle into routines there won't be nearly as much to talk about... But, since we're currently on a mini-vacation(company paid) a lot has happened so I wanted to get it out there before I forget things.
I'll pick up where I left off on Wednesday...
That morning we got up and did the usual to kill time. This includes books, play-doh, Spongebob and Thomas. If you have never seen Spongebob I would suggest watching it. It keeps me entertained because whoever writes the stories is on some serious drugs or is mentally unstable. Either way that adds to funny stuff in my opinion. Anyway, after the banks opened we went to one to open an account to pay for Ethan's day care over here. What should have been a 20 minute process turned into a 70 minute ordeal. The guy was borderline incompetent and tried to sell us every account they have even though as soon as we got there we explained to him what we wanted. And, for some reason sitting in a tiny bank office didn't appeal to Ethan. Who would have guesse? Though more than ever I noticed how his eyes light up when he knows he's in trouble/doing something wrong. Booger. We took turns taking him into the lobby where he could run around and probably disturb the normal customers... though normal may be a bit of a overstatement. After all there was a dude wearing ladies clothes/shoes in there. Very strange. After a while even that didn't work so he and i went outside to watch the trucks, busses and occasional junky passing by. That's culture right there...
Eventually we got the account set up and were on our merry way to our appointment at daycare that we arrived at 45 minutes late. Ethan was supposed to have an orientation where he'd play with the kids for an hour. But, that was over by the time we got there so we had to reschedule for the next day. Lucky for us the people who work there are very nice.
That afternoon we were taken on a personal tour of our part of Sydney by Kari's co-worker's girlfriend who will hence forth be refered to by her name which is Sam. She showed us a bunch of the shops we will need, where to catch the busses and trains, the tunnels that lead to the train stations that can keep you out of the rain/heat, the ferries and how they work, where the office is, saw the opera house(which is huge)and just general information about our new city. It was nice to get to see all that instead of having to figure it out for ourselves. And, had my feet not been killing me cause I decided our longest walk was the best time to break in new sandals it probably would have been quite enjoyable. Not my best decision. Anyway, we also encountered a crazy guy who was very friendly though. He said something to Kari and Sam that I couldn't make out and said 'Hi daddy!' to me cause I was pushing Ethan. Added some extra flair to the experience. AND, they have all these people out trying to get you to go to their salon for haircuts and they asked Kari and Sam who does there hair and Sam aleady goes there and thanked them and we were on our way. But, I was 10 or so feet behind them cause:
1) My feet hurt
2) I'm not the greatest conversationalist anyway
Anyway... as the ladies walked away one of the guys said 'I love you' (not loud enough for them to hear but I could) which I found hilarious cause my old room mate Steve used to do that. Its nice that time honored traditions such as harrassing girls is still kept up over here.
Anyway... on to Thursday.
Same morning routine only this time Ethan fell asleep on the floor around 9:40 and we had to be to daycare at 10:00 for play time. I gently tried to wake him up and it wasn't going well and then I told we had to go on a walk and he popped right up like he hadn't been asleep at all. He loves the walks and just being ouside so that works out nicely since we'll be doing alot of walking in our time here. Before we left Kari got some gum and put the wrapper on the counter next to another wrapper she had and I nicely asked if that's where we are putting gum wrappers these days. 4 AND A HALF YEARS! That's how long I've waited to use that line since I hear it all the time about my hats and magazines. Vindication... Anyhoo... we got to daycare and Ethan was a little hesitant to be away from us at first. But, once we got him to go down the slide once he was fine and paid us little attention after that. The daycare is actually on the second floor of an office and the play area outside overlooks a street so I enjoyed watching the cars. I saw a Maserati which I had never seen before so that was cool. Anyway... Ethan did really well which made me feel better and after that it was home for lunch and his/my nap time.
That afternoon Kari ran to K-Mart... don't snicker. Its better than Target over here apparently. She got a bunch of stuff while Ethan and I played in the pool. His new game is to have me start to get out of the water and then he pushes me back in and laughs. Tons of fun. We did that until about dinner time. That night we had dinner with Sam and Chris(her boyfriend and Kari's co-worker also from Des Moines). There are a bunch of restaraunts around the Harbor we live on and we found a nice Italian one. Ethan did pretty well during dinner... but it was about his bed time so i left early and the three of them stayed and finished the wine. Ethan has a snack when we got home and burped and I said 'nice push buddy' and he put his hand up for a fist pound and said 'boom' like we always do. Whoops... :) I'm dragging him back down to my level... but I found it hilarious. I had Ethan in bed by the time they got back to our apartment but of course he heard them and now that he's not in a crib can he was able to get out of bed and join us. Heaven forbid he miss a social event... :) Anyway, we let him stay up for a while but we could see he was tired so several times I put him in bed, stayed for a few minutes and would leave. Several times he heard his doors open and then a little person would appear in the hallway. Eventually I stayed with him in there for a while and he kept taking my hand and making me rub his back. I would do that until I thought he was asleep and as soon as I stopped there would be tears. That happens a lot when I leave... people cry. Anyway, eventually I just rested my hand on his back and that seemed to keep him calm and eventually I swapped my hand with his Elmo doll and it worked! Finally... a good use for Elmo! What's funny is Sam's parents had to do the same thing when she was a baby... but they used a shoe with her.
Yesterday we got up and went back to daycare for Ethan to play more. He was playing and ignoring us shortly after we got there so Kari and I left for a little bit to see how he would do. He did really well... but was really excited to see us when we got back. Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon in the pool. It was really hot so the pool felt great though. Ethan really loves playing in the water. Yesterday he figured out on his own how to make himself float by holding on to the ladder and pushing his legs out. That was pretty fun to watch him figure that out.
I got my haircut yesterday... pumpkin head kind of snuck up on me this time. I felt fine in Iowa and then we got here and it was like my hair exploded and I looked like a pumpkin head like I tend to do. Anyway, the guy was kind of weird. The first thing he did was tell me I'd look better with a shorter beard and then proceeded to trim it short. I think it makes me look like I'm trying to be Don Johnson from Miami Vice. As cool as that sounds... its not. Anyway, the haircut took far too long considering I don't have that much hair and the guy was a dick to his assistant and kept ordering her around. Don't ask me why he needs an assistant cause I have no idea. I secretly think his assistant wants to stab him with some shears based on the looks she gave him. He reminded me of some crabby artist though. Based on that I decided two things:
1) I'm not going back there
2) I'm not trimming the beard short anymore.
Despite last night being our first Friday in Sydney we didn't do anything fun or exciting. I worked out and read a book and Kari just worked... I still think she's more lame than I am.
Anyway... on to random Ethan observations. Ethan's ADD has increased exponentially since he got here. He's hyper a lot and his attention span is less than normal. On top of that he's constantly making noise... he's not talking, just making noise. I've been check the baseboard to see if any paint is missing cause the only thing I can figure is he's eating paint chips or the pressurized air in the long flights did damage to his brain. He's also all about using a 'big boy' cup now that doesn't have a lid. I figure this is as good a place as any cause when he spills its not my carpet. Plus, the carpet is dark blue and doesn't show stains. So, bottoms up! He also says 'I did it!' after almost everything he does. He's very proud of his accomplishments. I think I'm going to try this at work from now on and see what people think.
I think that gets us up to today. We're heading to the beach today where I will most certainly get sunburned. My goals are to not burn too bad, do some body surfing, absorb lots of vitamin D from the sun and not get eaten by shark. Number 3 is most important to me.
Until next time...
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