Christmas 2018

We had a wonderful trip back to the states and a great Christmas surrounded by family and friends. We also made it to Michael's cousin's wedding in Cincinnati, and walked to the Kentucky state line (which was about a 15 minute walk from where we were staying). So, Penelope made it to four US states (VA, MD, OH, and KY) and the District of Columbia in one trip. She really took to a lot of our family and friends, and just beamed the whole time (when she wasn't teething). She now has four teeth, by the way. She is now an expert crawler, and has graduated to working on steps (always with a spotter, of course), and standing up with the help of people or furniture. She loves to wave all the time at everyone, and now loves clapping (a milestone she seemed to hit a little late). She learned to say, "Lala", the nickname for one of her grandmas, and is working on the other extended family nicknames. 

As I type, Mike and Penelope are taking a long, jet-lagged afternoon nap. At some point I will crash, probably when they are just waking up. 

The Packing Has Begun

I am packing in stages. I have completed stage 1 - Penelope's things and Christmas gifts. Travelling for 24 hours with a teething baby, my carry-on is almost entirely full with baby clothes, diapers, wipes, several plastic bags, toys, documents, and various foods and medicines. She has been really picky and messy when eating lately, and has had a tough time at night too, so I am hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Hopefully everyone sitting around us across the Pacific won't hate us, but if they do, we will likely never see them again. 


I'm looking forward to three weeks of winter. I hope Penelope will get to see her first snow, but that it doesn't affect any of our travel plans! Going home is always a whirlwind of social events, and this time will be even busier because of the holidays and a wedding we will be attending. All I want for Christmas is for things to run relatively smoothly. I hope that's not too much to ask for.

Happy Hanukkah!

Snaggletooth

Penelope has started teething. She has one tooth on the bottom and one on top. They are not directly on top of each other. So all the great sleeping and eating has gone out the window again. Such is the nature of having a baby. She has never been one to suck on a pacifier/"dummy", but we let her do it today - more like chew on one - and she kind of loved it. Maybe that will help in the next few days.

She has developed the ability to shake her head "no". At first, she did it to say she did not want a particular food. Now she will do it even before she tries a food, and sometimes we have to convince her to just taste something (this probably has more to do with teething, since she is in pain). She has also shaken her head "no" it when I've poured water on her head at swimming (we do it to warm up before putting them under), and when I said she was going to take a nap. Anyway, it's interesting to see what situations she uses it in now, because it's a clue into what other words and concepts she understands.

It's a pretty quiet weekend. Our sleep and meals have been out of whack because of our late-night teething parties. Michael has been working on some side projects, we had our regular Saturday morning breakfast sandwiches, and I took Penelope to the farmers market. Peaches and cherries are in season - yum! And I bought some local raw lavender honey - double yum! 

I am mentally preparing for our trip to back to the US for the holidays. I am keeping my expectations low for the long flight, which kind of sucks anyway, with the added bonus of a teething baby. Hopefully those teeth will pop out in the next few days and not be an issue. It's unrealistic to expect a baby to be blissfully happy or sleep for an entire 15 hours, though (plus a layover, then other shorter flight). 

Share Our Calm

Today, I taught in a school where this was on the wall in the teachers' lounge. It's a nice reminder to anyone who works with or spends time with little kids, and it's also a nice sentiment to hear on a day where I am saddened to hear that the US military was firing teargas at children. Children. Children who are fleeing violence already. 

Something is not right. 

The US had weeks to prepare for a large surge of people arriving at the border. They could have adequately prepared the checkpoint to appropriately process the people who are seeking asylum legally. Instead, they shut down the checkpoint and freaked out and shot teargas at a crowd on Mexican soil that was not acting violently (from my understanding of what happened). 

Something is not right.

Sort-of-Thanksgiving and Buster Scruggs

This time last year, we were in the states, celebrating with family. 

I last minute decided to try to make a sort-of-Thanksgiving meal. I cooked a few pieces of turkey breast, Easy Mac, and sweet potato, with a side of fresh green grapes and leftover fried rice with green beans. It was just the three of us when Michael got home from work. Even though just about everything was non-traditional about our Thanksgiving, down to us being in the wrong country, it was Penelope's first. I'm not sure she even knows, since she couldn't eat most of the food. 

I try to remind myself daily of how much I am thankful for. That being said, I am particularly thankful this year for Penelope joining our family.

We finished off the evening, after P went to bed, by starting The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. We are four vignettes into it; we are kind of watching it like episodes of a TV show, rather than a movie. Anyway, I'm really enjoying it, despite the fact that it's really messed up, and also that (so far, anyway) there have been no female characters. You kind of go into a Coen Bros. movie expecting it to be violent and for there to be characters with dark intentions. Anyway, I am also thankful I'm not alive during their version of the Wild West. 

Expat Non-Thanksgiving

Most of the people would probably spend Thanksgiving with have moved away from Sydney in the last year or two. We will just have a normal family dinner of Turkey (but not a whole one) and some sides. We can be quietly thankful and that is enough.

Penelope has reached the milestone of being able to pull herself up to standing. She's not great at it yet; if she gets distracted, she completely loses balance. I'm trying to teach her to kind of sit quickly if that happens, as opposed to just falling down onto her face or back. I'm also trying to teach her that to get down off the couch, she should turn around and put her feet down on the ground first. It's all a work in progress. 

In other news, I think I may have broken my first bone ever: my right pinky toe. I stubbed it really hard yesterday, and it is now swollen and bruised worse than I have ever seen it. It obviously hurts if I put weight one it. It's hard to tell if it's broken or just very badly bruised; but it's not bad enough that I feel the need to seek medical attention. I don't need to play frisbee for a few weeks anyway, so I imagine it will just heal on its own. It would help if I could stop banging it on things, though. Now that we have a baby, and all the stuff that goes along with a baby, like the high chair and bouncer and pack-n-play, there are so many more things around to stub my toes on. A lot of them happen to be things that are wider on the bottom than on top, so that they don't easily fall, which is part of why I'm poorly estimating where my feet should go (in the already small and crowded space). Anyway, I guess I need to evolve better navigation skills, or all my tiny digits will pay for it.

We are starting to get ready for our first trip overseas with Penelope. The flight will be about 15 hours, and then after a layover, another approx. 4.5 hour flight after that. It will be a log haul, but I suppose if we can survive that, the rest of the trip should be a piece of cake. We hope. 

Carnivorous Plants

We went to see the carnivorous plants exhibit at the Botanic Gardens this past weekend. Mike had gone the previous weekend, but since it was so beautiful out and we our friends were also interested, he and Penny got to see the exhibit again. If there is any exhibit you probably shouldn't bring a baby to, it's probably one that has live carnivorous plants. Penelope came home with all 10 fingers and toes, though... both times.

It was a fun, and we also walked around the gardens and along the water some, and had brunch at the cafe.