Squirt gun in the tub
I think Ethan took this of himself when he was messing with the camera but I can't remember.
On the monorail.
One of the bats in the gardens in flight
Bats hanging out. Take this tree and multiply it by 200
When we left the apartment Saturday this giant ball was a block down from our apartment. No idea what it was for but they were filming
Sorry for the length between posts but I had trouble finding motivation for this. Plus, it really hasn’t been that memorable of a week so you didn’t miss out on that much. Without further ado I’ll get to it...I’ll pick up last Tuesday because I believe last Monday was when I posted last. Turns out those couple days in the hotel room started a bad habit for Ethan and that was that Ethan decided our bed was where he was going to sleep. When we said it was time to go to bed he headed for our room instead of his own. Using the ‘pick your battles’ strategy we just let it go and Ethan passed out very quickly. Oh, there was one other detail I forgot to add… he was still in his clothes. Apparently bathing and putting on PJs that night was not in Ethan’s plans and we’ve learned if its not in Ethan’s plans often times its not in ours. We let him fall asleep and before we went to bed moved him to his own room. He didn’t wake up or fuss or anything so that worked out well… until 1:30 AM when he woke up and refused to go back to sleep until he was in our bed. So, we spent the rest of the night getting kicked because while he was asleep, he was still squirmy.
Wednesday was normal. I picked him up and we did our normal after work play time. While we were playing Ethan got pretty wound up and delivered a pretty solid blow to my forehead using his toy car. It stung pretty good so after I said ‘Ouch!’ and held me a head a second I gave him a small admonishment for his actions… lately when you do that he gets an incredibly sad look in his eyes and then starts bawling so of course you end up feeling like a giant a-hole. Anyway, he got the sad look but held off the tears and shortly after we got back to playing and I reached to tickle his stomach and reacted liked I’d shot him, threw himself on the ground and started fake crying. After about two seconds he started laughing but I enjoyed his attempt at getting me back. That night we were all wrestling on the couch and Kari was attempting to spread some humor at my expense but instead tripped over every other word. Fearing she was having a stroke I pretended to do CPR on her and Ethan was very amused and decided to participate. Apparently the CPR classes Ethan has taken advise flying knees to the sternum to restart the heart and spitting in faces to help with breathing. That day we also got some really good news… our really good friends Justin and Lacey are now expecting a baby as well! We’re all so grown up now. In an semi-related story we actually planned an event this summer in Chicago where everyone from our college group is getting together for a long weekend. This flies completely in the face of our usual group dynamics because 99% of our college Friday nights we found ourselves sitting around at 5:00 PM with no solid plans for that evening. Though, I guess walking 20 minutes to local watering hole doesn’t take a lot of planning. Anyway, the reason I even mentioned this is because Lacey is now a guaranteed DD for us. Hooray for babies and hooray for DDs. Boo to Ethan sleeping in our bed again like the night before.
Another pretty normal day on Thursday. Though, while I was running and keeping my Olympian-esque body in shape I smelled fresh cut grass for the first time since we got here. Despite the fact everything is green here, living in the middle of an urban jungle doesn’t give you a lot of opportunities to enjoy it. Anyway, it was great cause I know I’ll be back mowing the lawn soon and I love mowing. And with mowing comes grilling and I love grilling. And with grilling comes beer, and I love beer. And with beer comes hangovers and I… never mind. Anyway, that night we had an early going away dinner with the people from the office. It was at an Ottoman restaurant and looking over the pre-selected menu ahead of time I was more than a little nervous. But, I decided to be an adult about it and Kari and I tired zucchini, mushrooms, cat fish, salmon and veal. I liked all of it except the fishes… I just can’t eat fish. Anyway, the rest was all really good, the company was really good and we both had a really good time. Sam was kind of enough to watch Ethan for us so we didn’t have to corral a 2 year old at a pretty upscale restaurant. While he was with Sam, they colored some pictures for us, played with the CD player, watched some of Ethan’s movies that he made her change every 5 minutes and then he passed out on the couch watching Thomas. Ethan tries to get us to change movies for him every 5 minutes like he did to Sam but we’ve pretty much put the kibosh on that. However, with Sam he found a bit of a sucker since she wasn’t aware of his ‘game’ and took full advantage.
Friday was pretty uneventful. I had a couple pints with the fellas and Sam after work and Kari and Ethan hit up the park and Maccas. Yep… Friday was definitely memorable.
On to Saturday… we got up early and killed time waiting for the Art Gallery of NSW to open so we could go further culturize ourselves. Culturize isn’t a word, but this is my blog so I’m making it one. Anyway, we walked through the Botanical Gardens to get there because despite the fact we’ve lived here 4 months Kari hasn’t been in there yet. She was impressed by the plants, flowers and most notably the giant bats. There are thousands upon thousands of them and they’re huge. Pretty cool to see. Anyway, we got to the library and wandered around and checked out what the place had to offer. It didn’t really hold any of our interest for very long. It was cool seeing the history, but most of the paintings were of places we’ve never seen and portraits of dead white people whom I had never heard of and for the most part were pretty unattractive. There was only one painting that I even felt the desire to take a picture of and out of all of the paintings there wasn’t one by someone I had heard of prior to entering the building. But, I’m still glad we did it. The rest of the day was uneventful outside of the fact Ethan was incredibly ornery. I’m not sure if he had a little bug, or his teeth or bothering him or what, but he took every opportunity he could find to be naughty and/or throw a tantrum. Crying at the drop of a hat wasn’t out of the question as well. He started that on Thursday maybe and it continued through the entire weekend. Even the girls at daycare said he wasn’t himself Friday and spent a lot of time crying. Harden up, Ethan… harden up. Speaking of which, there is a guy here in Australia named Chopper Reed and he’s a bit of a celebrity. He has a fascinating history but essentially he is a criminal with several murders to his name who wrote a book on his life that was turned into a movie and now has more money in his bank account than I can ever hope to have in my lifetime and has become somewhat of a folk hero. The people he killed were all drug dealers and criminals. Anyway, there is a show over here similar to SNL and they do skits with someone playing him and they are pretty funny. They’d never make it on the air on the US, but standards are more lax over here. Anyway, Harden Up came from a skit he does. Lots of swearing and naughty words involved so once again if you’re offended don’t click on the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6pZQX22CQ
Just trying to share some Australian culture with you…
Anyway, back to Ethan. Sunday we got up and decided we were going to head to the Powerhouse Museum here in Darling Harbour. From what I could tell it looked to be a lot like a science museum back in the US. It opened at 10:00 so we killed time until then and headed over. We got there and the line to get in was out the door and half a block down the side of the building. I made an executive decision at that point and postponed the Powerhouse Museum trip. If the crowd was that bad just getting in I didn’t want to see the interior. So, we walked back towards the harbour and decided instead to ride the monorail around downtown Sydney. The car was packed when we got on, but about half way through it emptied out. Ethan really seemed to enjoy the ride. Anyway, we rode the monorail from start to finish and when we got off we were right next to Paddy’s Market so we decided to check that out. For those of you who have been to Mexico picture the markets there… then multiply it times 100 and add 3 stories to it. And, instead of Mexicans selling stuff you can swap in people of oriental/asian descent. I’m not sure what the preferred nomenclature is… and I guess I really don’t care either. Anyway, if you can imagine it someone was probably selling it there. I thought it might be a little much with all of the crowds there but it didn’t turn out to be too bad until we hit the produce/deli area. Probably didn’t need to go there and the smells weren’t the best. Oh, and I did see a Hawkeye jacket hanging in one of the booths. Its not bad enough I have to come over here and see Yankee and Husker merchandise then add Hawkeye stuff on top of that and it makes me physically ill. Though, I did have the pleasure of watching most of the Yankees 18 run drubbing at the hands of the Indians on Sunday. It’s the little things in life that get you through… Anyway, after the markets we grabbed some lunch and then headed home and had an uneventful Sunday evening. Outside of Ethan continuing his ornery streak.
Today Ethan sang the ABC song to Kari. He knows A through D, the notes in the middle and W through end of the song as well as the ‘now I know my ABCS… next time won’t you sing with me.’ I picked Ethan up a little early today and when I walked in and they were having afternoon tea which consisted of some ham sandwiches, cake and water. Ethan ate almost all of his sandwich and two pieces of cake. He was all set to go after one and was cleaning up his spot when Corrine asked if he wanted another piece and he sprinted back to his spot at the table and inhaled it. Also, today on the way home from daycare I asked him if he had a good day and what he did today like I always do… usually he just shakes his head to say that he had a good day and that’s where the conversation ends. Today he told me he painted and played with play-doh. That’s the first time he’s actually told me what he had done throughout the day so that was pretty cool. When we got home I was doing my best 50 Cent impersonation which according to popular opinion is pretty much dead on and Ethan put his finger to his nose and glared at me. I didn’t get the ‘SHHH!’ that usually accompanies that action but it was actually more effective due to the glare. Later we were wrestling on the couch and Ethan pushed me and I pretended throw myself off onto the floor… I was a little too effective with my move and I hit the ground pretty hard and laid there for a second cause it actually hurt quite a bit. Ethan paid no mind and came off the top ropes and jumped on me. At that moment I came to the full realization I’m old. Where did the time go?
Ok, this is long enough. Sorry for the lack of pictures but there wasn’t much to photograph this week.
Yours Truly,
Joel
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