A picture of Ethan... watching Ethan. Sweet hair too
Shower the other night
Chillin on the couch
Its been a pretty quiet week for the Bretts in Australia. The weather hasn’t been the best lately so we’ve been cooped up in the apartment quite a bit. Good thing Ethan is so well behaved and Kari is so domestic so I can just sit around when I get home and do nothing. Or not.
Monday was low key. Last week they told us daycare Ethan loves to call out letters and numbers when they’re doing activities throughout the day. Trying to capitalize on this I made some flash cards with all the letters and the numbers 1-6. I ran out of paper so 7 through 10 didn’t make the cut. If it’s not worth doing half-assed, its not worth doing at all is what I say. Anyway, the letters are still a struggle but he’s getting pretty good with the numbers. Especially if you go in order. If you go out of order it can trip him up. At one point I was holding a 4 and Ethan informed me it was a 2. I politely corrected him and he continued to insist it was a 2. We went back and forth a couple times cause that’s the mature way to handle the situation and he finally grabbed the card said it was a 2 and walked off. At that point I realized I had just lost my first, but certainly not my last, argument to Ethan. As long as he shows that tenacity and unwillingness to back down on the sports fields/rink I’ll be happy.
Tuesday was a big day… for me anyway. Quite possibly the best Tuesday I’ve ever had since I started working. Got to work, was in the middle or a normal morning when the CBD of Sydney lost power again. This is the 3rd time in the last month. Since the building only had emergency lighting for 90 minutes they evacuated us and told us to go home for the day. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I quickly complied. So, we walked down 43 flights of stairs, met up in the lobby so they could account for everyone and off we went… to the bar that is. Six of us headed to a place just down the street and by 11:00 am we were firmly in our seats for what would turn out to be the rest of the day. The bar had a Tuesday lunch special of $10 steaks that you just couldn’t pass up. I ended up staying until around 5:15 or so before heading home to start my parenting duties for the night. Thankfully I had paced myself throughout the day so I wasn’t a complete mess. Kari did not participate in the ‘team bonding’ session at the bar and instead went home like a giant nerd and worked remotely. Anyway, since I hadn't consumed enough calories with the beer, steak and rum we decided to get McDonalds for dinner. And since McDonalds for dinner wasn’t enough we got ice cream for dessert. I don't even want to know what my total calorie intake was that day. Ethan was really well behaved at dinner. For the most part he does really good when we do have meals out.
After dinner I started feeling kind of crappy… and no it wasn’t a hangover. I was beginning to come down with whatever version of the bubonic plague Ethan and Kari had been carrying around the past week or so. Wednesday wasn’t the most fun day I’ve had, but I still made it through work. We didn’t do anything real exciting last night. Just kind of hung out and took it easy.
Today was more of the same. Not a lot going on. Pretty exciting stuff here, huh?
Anyway, as far as other Ethan information goes I’ve got some interesting stuff. Lately it has been a battle to get him to leave daycare when we go to pick him up. This is a complete 180 from when we first got here and he sprinted to us as soon as we saw him. He’s really adapted well to the center and he loves the teachers. Plus, the toys there are way better than the toys we have at the apartment. Most of his toys were in the shipping container that we sent back immediately after we found out our stay was getting cut short. You can only color, play with toy cars, read the same 20 books and play with the same 4 pieces of play-doh so many times before they get old. And since this is month 4 of our stay we passed that place abouuuut… 2 months ago. But, we can’t really buy him toys here because it’d be a struggle to get them back or we’d have to pay an arm and a leg to ship them back. Today when I went to pick Ethan up I spent quite a bit of time playing with him and building things and I found myself really enjoying it and looking forward to getting back to the states so we can get back to the good toys. His, and mine. : )
Ethan’s most recent obsession is taking showers with us. It started the other night cause I went to shower after I worked out and Ethan decided he’d rather do that instead of taking his bath that night. Since then Kari and I have not been able to take a shower without him. What was once a relaxing experience is now filled with Ethan telling us what soap he wants next, when and where we should draw in the steam on the doors, when we’re supposed to drink the water and which direction he wants to face. Even in the shower I get bossed around now. Fantastic. He also likes to scream at the top of his lungs in his most girly voice when you put him under the shower stream and it hits his head. Hopefully our walls are pretty soundproof... This morning he noticed the steam in the lights for the first time and I think he thought the lights were producing the steam cause he pointed and said ‘lights very hot.’
Of all the words we are trying to teach Ethan there is one word we cannot get him to say no matter how hard we try or what consequences we give him if he doesn’t… that word is sorry. Whenever he gets a timeout before he can come back out he has to say sorry to us. 99% of his timeouts are due to him hitting or kicking us. No matter what we do he will not say it. He flat out refuses. Its frustrating and almost humorous at the same time cause of how steadfast he is about it. Tonight Kari tried to trick him into saying it by asking him if he could say words like apple, and pear and then sneaking sorry in. No dice on that one either.
Ethan has also mastered the art of fake crying. The second something doesn’t go his way or he starts to get in trouble the tears flow like he just lost his best mate. But, if you make fun of him he’ll start laughing immediately so you know its fake. He’s almost bi-polar sometimes with how fast he switches between being mad and laughing hysterically. Looks like he has inherited some of Grandma Brett’s personality traits after all…
Lately I’ve been trying to get Ethan to play catch with me at night. He’ll usually play for a little bit before losing interest like he does with almost everything now. He throws with both hands still but you can already tell the right hand is dominant. Sorry Jim... Sometimes he throws like a wild man with no form but I show him how you’re supposed to throw and he mimics my movements. It’s a lot of fun… for me anyway. He seems to enjoy it as well though. Tonight we were sitting on the couch and he said ‘daddy, catch.’ I was pumped and we ended up playing catch for quite a while. I’m already looking forward to when we can start playing stuff for real.
When we’re not playing catch we’re more than likely either watching videos of Ethan or watching that stupid fire truck video on the TV. Its all he wants to do. He loves watching himself and he thinks his videos are hilarious even though he’s seen them umpteen million times already. I don’t know why he likes the fire truck video… I hated it 3 months ago and my dislike for it hasn’t waned at all. He probably just likes it cause it’s a fire truck. Other than that it really has no redeeming qualities. I’m not exaggerating when I say that is almost all we watch anymore.
The weather here has turned pretty crappy the last couple weeks. The temperature has really gone down with it getting dark so early. It also has rained quite a bit and we haven’t had very many sunny days. The sun will peak through for a while each day but its usually followed by rain. I’m not sure if this is just how fall weather is here in Sydney of if this is some sort of anomaly and we just happened to luck out. Either way, it’ll be nice to get back to warmer temps and more daylight so we can spend time outside. It’ll be great having a yard to play in as well instead of having to walk 15 minutes to the park. This really has nothing to do with Ethan… just thought I’d share more of our experience.
I think that’s it for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Sayonara,
Joel
Monday was low key. Last week they told us daycare Ethan loves to call out letters and numbers when they’re doing activities throughout the day. Trying to capitalize on this I made some flash cards with all the letters and the numbers 1-6. I ran out of paper so 7 through 10 didn’t make the cut. If it’s not worth doing half-assed, its not worth doing at all is what I say. Anyway, the letters are still a struggle but he’s getting pretty good with the numbers. Especially if you go in order. If you go out of order it can trip him up. At one point I was holding a 4 and Ethan informed me it was a 2. I politely corrected him and he continued to insist it was a 2. We went back and forth a couple times cause that’s the mature way to handle the situation and he finally grabbed the card said it was a 2 and walked off. At that point I realized I had just lost my first, but certainly not my last, argument to Ethan. As long as he shows that tenacity and unwillingness to back down on the sports fields/rink I’ll be happy.
Tuesday was a big day… for me anyway. Quite possibly the best Tuesday I’ve ever had since I started working. Got to work, was in the middle or a normal morning when the CBD of Sydney lost power again. This is the 3rd time in the last month. Since the building only had emergency lighting for 90 minutes they evacuated us and told us to go home for the day. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I quickly complied. So, we walked down 43 flights of stairs, met up in the lobby so they could account for everyone and off we went… to the bar that is. Six of us headed to a place just down the street and by 11:00 am we were firmly in our seats for what would turn out to be the rest of the day. The bar had a Tuesday lunch special of $10 steaks that you just couldn’t pass up. I ended up staying until around 5:15 or so before heading home to start my parenting duties for the night. Thankfully I had paced myself throughout the day so I wasn’t a complete mess. Kari did not participate in the ‘team bonding’ session at the bar and instead went home like a giant nerd and worked remotely. Anyway, since I hadn't consumed enough calories with the beer, steak and rum we decided to get McDonalds for dinner. And since McDonalds for dinner wasn’t enough we got ice cream for dessert. I don't even want to know what my total calorie intake was that day. Ethan was really well behaved at dinner. For the most part he does really good when we do have meals out.
After dinner I started feeling kind of crappy… and no it wasn’t a hangover. I was beginning to come down with whatever version of the bubonic plague Ethan and Kari had been carrying around the past week or so. Wednesday wasn’t the most fun day I’ve had, but I still made it through work. We didn’t do anything real exciting last night. Just kind of hung out and took it easy.
Today was more of the same. Not a lot going on. Pretty exciting stuff here, huh?
Anyway, as far as other Ethan information goes I’ve got some interesting stuff. Lately it has been a battle to get him to leave daycare when we go to pick him up. This is a complete 180 from when we first got here and he sprinted to us as soon as we saw him. He’s really adapted well to the center and he loves the teachers. Plus, the toys there are way better than the toys we have at the apartment. Most of his toys were in the shipping container that we sent back immediately after we found out our stay was getting cut short. You can only color, play with toy cars, read the same 20 books and play with the same 4 pieces of play-doh so many times before they get old. And since this is month 4 of our stay we passed that place abouuuut… 2 months ago. But, we can’t really buy him toys here because it’d be a struggle to get them back or we’d have to pay an arm and a leg to ship them back. Today when I went to pick Ethan up I spent quite a bit of time playing with him and building things and I found myself really enjoying it and looking forward to getting back to the states so we can get back to the good toys. His, and mine. : )
Ethan’s most recent obsession is taking showers with us. It started the other night cause I went to shower after I worked out and Ethan decided he’d rather do that instead of taking his bath that night. Since then Kari and I have not been able to take a shower without him. What was once a relaxing experience is now filled with Ethan telling us what soap he wants next, when and where we should draw in the steam on the doors, when we’re supposed to drink the water and which direction he wants to face. Even in the shower I get bossed around now. Fantastic. He also likes to scream at the top of his lungs in his most girly voice when you put him under the shower stream and it hits his head. Hopefully our walls are pretty soundproof... This morning he noticed the steam in the lights for the first time and I think he thought the lights were producing the steam cause he pointed and said ‘lights very hot.’
Of all the words we are trying to teach Ethan there is one word we cannot get him to say no matter how hard we try or what consequences we give him if he doesn’t… that word is sorry. Whenever he gets a timeout before he can come back out he has to say sorry to us. 99% of his timeouts are due to him hitting or kicking us. No matter what we do he will not say it. He flat out refuses. Its frustrating and almost humorous at the same time cause of how steadfast he is about it. Tonight Kari tried to trick him into saying it by asking him if he could say words like apple, and pear and then sneaking sorry in. No dice on that one either.
Ethan has also mastered the art of fake crying. The second something doesn’t go his way or he starts to get in trouble the tears flow like he just lost his best mate. But, if you make fun of him he’ll start laughing immediately so you know its fake. He’s almost bi-polar sometimes with how fast he switches between being mad and laughing hysterically. Looks like he has inherited some of Grandma Brett’s personality traits after all…
Lately I’ve been trying to get Ethan to play catch with me at night. He’ll usually play for a little bit before losing interest like he does with almost everything now. He throws with both hands still but you can already tell the right hand is dominant. Sorry Jim... Sometimes he throws like a wild man with no form but I show him how you’re supposed to throw and he mimics my movements. It’s a lot of fun… for me anyway. He seems to enjoy it as well though. Tonight we were sitting on the couch and he said ‘daddy, catch.’ I was pumped and we ended up playing catch for quite a while. I’m already looking forward to when we can start playing stuff for real.
When we’re not playing catch we’re more than likely either watching videos of Ethan or watching that stupid fire truck video on the TV. Its all he wants to do. He loves watching himself and he thinks his videos are hilarious even though he’s seen them umpteen million times already. I don’t know why he likes the fire truck video… I hated it 3 months ago and my dislike for it hasn’t waned at all. He probably just likes it cause it’s a fire truck. Other than that it really has no redeeming qualities. I’m not exaggerating when I say that is almost all we watch anymore.
The weather here has turned pretty crappy the last couple weeks. The temperature has really gone down with it getting dark so early. It also has rained quite a bit and we haven’t had very many sunny days. The sun will peak through for a while each day but its usually followed by rain. I’m not sure if this is just how fall weather is here in Sydney of if this is some sort of anomaly and we just happened to luck out. Either way, it’ll be nice to get back to warmer temps and more daylight so we can spend time outside. It’ll be great having a yard to play in as well instead of having to walk 15 minutes to the park. This really has nothing to do with Ethan… just thought I’d share more of our experience.
I think that’s it for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Sayonara,
Joel
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