Christchurch Earthquake

I'm sure most everyone has seen the news of the terrible earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.   The saddest part of it (to me) are the two babies who have died.  One was only 5 months old, which is heartbreaking.  My thoughts are with all those who lost family or friends.

One of my very best friends, we shall call her Miss C., was recently on a work trip through Asia/Pacific.  On Monday night last week we spoke on the phone as she was due to fly to Sydney the next day and we were trying to organise our catch up for either Tues or Wed night.  Unfortunately, her boss is a bit of an ass so she still didn't know exactly which day would work for her and was going to have to email me on Tuesday morning sometime to let me know.  Fast forward to Tuesday, early afternoon: I haven't heard from Miss C but am not worried as I know how hectic her trips can be.  Plus, given that I can count the number of good friends I have in Sydney on one hand, my schedule is... shall we say 'flexible'?!  I don't want to say pathetic (it's not that bad) but definitely a lot of room to maneuvre for me!  So as I said, I really wasn't worried. Until I turned on the tv and saw the news of the earthquake.  You see, Miss C was in Christchurch and I was probably one of only a few people who knew it given the many changes their schedule had had. I immediately called, texted and emailed her and then waited.  And I waited.  After an hour or so, I tried again, telling myself that maybe she had already flown to Sydney that morning and was in meetings.  But after a couple of hours with no response, I knew she was still in Christchurch and that even though it was 7 hours since the quake had happened I still hadn't heard from her. 

At this point of the story, I should note that since having the baby I do tend to cry a bit more than previously.  For instance, the other week I was watching Magnum PI.  I find there is something decadent about watching crappy 80's tv shows.  Like you have so much time that you can waste it on these shows.  Anyways, I'm not sure if y'all know this (Spoiler Alert!) but Magnum DIED at the end of the series!!  I know! Crazy!  What a crap way to end a great tv series - killing off the main character.  So for some reason this upset me a lot. Kind of like I'd not known that a friend from my childhood had died after we lost touch or something.  So I cried....for a good 10 mins.  I'm sure the hormones will sort themselves out soon enough and I will go back to my usual (cold-hearted?) self, but for now I just have to let it out.

So back to the story.  With two hours of no response from Miss C. I was getting very, very worried and scared.  I couldn't bring myself to think of what might have happened but I just kept seeing her blackberry in the rubble with unanswered calls, emails and texts on it, flashing in the dark.  So I cried. I cried much more than the situation called for but I was so stressed about being completely helpless that it seemed the appropriate response at the time.  After about 2 and a half hours with no news I figured I had best contact Miss C's sister and parents as I was fairly certain they did not know she was there. So I emailed and called and then there were a few of us trying to get a hold of her.  Another hour went by and I got word from her family that she had managed to get a call through to her mum and she was unhurt.  What did I do as soon as I heard this?  You betcha - I cried!  But it was happy crying this time and happy crying is good :)

Miss C was remarkably lucky to say the least.  The Christchurch Cathedral is a big tourist attraction and the spire on it completely collapsed during the quake.  Miss C was across the road having lunch and was literally minutes away from walking over to the Cathedral. Thank god she was waiting for the Korean people who owned the place to come over with her bill and had forgotten that in Australia (and I guess NZ too) you have to go up and pay at the counter! Otherwise she would have been in the cathedral and that isn't something I'd like to contemplate. 

So a very close call for her.  I've never been in a natural disaster and can only imagine how scary an experience it is.  Luckily, Miss C was evacuated with the rest of her American colleagues and flew to Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon. 

On the weekend I took a flight up to Brisbane.  It was so wonderful to see her and spend some time with her, especially given everything that had happened.  It was a bit weird to be without Mr. Baby and the husband, but was also actually a nice little break.  They two boys did wonderfully together too - so a very successful weekend all round!  

Da-Da

We have had a verbal breakthrough!  Mr. Baby can be quite chatty at times.  The last two days he has said 'da-da' a number of times.  I know he doesn't know what it means yet, but still we are claiming this milestone :-) 

It's a little odd, but he seems to really like talking while chewing on his fingers.  Don't ask me why!  Sure turns talking into a slobbery mess though... I wouldn't recommend it! 

We're also on the verge of another breakthrough - yesterday and today he has just started to pull his little legs (ok, maybe they aren't so little....) under himself and be on all fours. It is the beginning of learning to crawl!  I will attempt to get this on video or in a photo.

A Few Happy Snaps

Just a couple of pictures of Mr. Baby.  First up, check out the coolest baby on the block with his new wheels!

And now his other wheels - the chariot he gets pushed around in by that lady who is at his beck and call all day, every day....

Progress!

On Thursday I took Mr. Baby for another hour at the day care centre.  I will be honest, I thought it was going to be as bad as Monday was and did not have high expectations at all.  I went on my merry way at 12:30pm over to the shops fully expecting a call after 15 mins to tell me that he hadn't stopped crying (I had asked them to call me if he cried for 15 mins solid).  Fifteen minutes passed and no call, half an hour, then I headed back over at 1:30pm to pick him up, half wondering if perhaps he'd been crying but they didn't want to bother me with the call.  I walked in and he was on the floor with a carer playing with toys!  No tears! I was so proud of him that I got few tears myself however :)

I have booked him in for an hour and a half on Monday and Wednesday so we'll see how he goes this week! 

In other news, the Mister got a brand new bbq yesterday!  It is a really amazing (read: expensive) Weber called a Q300.   I happily agreed to spending over $800 on this bbq for two reasons. Firstly, it truly makes him happy and will do so every time he uses it.  Secondly, I know he will make super yummy food on it that I will get to eat! So it's a win-win situation. I'm sure our neighbours will be happy we have the new gas grill too - the kettle weber he's been using the past few months makes a heck of a lot of smoke when you are getting the fire going.  We live in a townhouse so I was always very aware that our neighbours on either side probably felt like they lived in a smokehouse for a half hour or so!  Not a neighbourly thing to do so we'll now be able to save the kettle bbq for "special occasions".... or maybe until we move into a proper house eventually.  

Day care update

On Monday, I took Mr. Baby for his first hour of day care.  It did not go as well as I had hoped.  I got there about 10 minutes early so I could feed him a bottle and let him get a little bit used to the new place before I left him with the new people there. However, with so much going on he took almost half an hour to drink his bottle.  So already there goes about 20 minutes of my baby-free time. sigh!  I hand him over to the lady and tell her that if he cries for more than 15 minutes solidly then please give me a call as I don't want him to start having negative thoughts on day care right from the start.  And off I head. 

I expected to be getting a phone call after 15 minutes so I raced over to the shops as I needed to buy my niece a birthday present and a few other things.  I get through all the shopping and arrive back at the day care centre at 1pm on the dot, thinking to myself "Wow, he must have done so much better than I thought since they didn't have to call me at all".  I walk in the front door and I cannot hear a crying baby so am still thinking how great he must have done with this new challenge.  And then I get inside and can't see him anywhere in there.  I look outside and this poor frazzled lady has him in his stroller and is rolling him around the play area as Mr. Baby cries his head off.  sigh!  So much for that idea....

Still, I have booked him in for another hour tomorrow as the lady said there was a whole 10 minutes when he didn't cry.  I am going to give it three visits and see if the crying time gets less or not. 

I'm also going to look into finding a mother's helper.  That way, Mr. Baby can be at home and I will still be there, but he is still getting to interact with someone else and eventually I can start to leave him alone with that person perhaps.  I think I will feel more comfortable with that - no day care centre is ever as clean as your own house is and I worry that the staff will just leave him crying in a corner. I know they probably won't but still, I worry.  I suppose it's difficult for both the baby and myself to get used to the separation! 

In other news, we had lunch today with our new friends Sara and Kelly (and their bubba's of course).  I really like them both and am very glad that I reached out to them. We're going to meet up for lunch next week too. 

New Friends

The one thing I have struggled with a lot over the last few months, and which I knew would be the hardest part of this move, is making friends.  I've been away from Australia for so long that the people I know are a different sort of friend now.  We are no longer "pop down for a coffee" or "go out for a drink and dinner" kind of friends. It's too hard to do that when you live on the oppposite side of the world!  So instead I have a half dozen friends that are "email and annual visit" friends. And they are spread all over Sydney!  Most of them work too so I have quickly come to the realisation that I've gotta get new friends! Not to replace the old, but to supplement them :)  I have quietly been going mad with only a 6 month old baby to talk to during the day.  Or maybe not so quietly. Turns out that I get quite bitchy sometimes when I'm not happy.  So for Fritz's sake I am currently conducting Operation "New Friends"!

So I went online to find out about a local mother's group or something similar.  I found a website with a message board that had a few messages posted in the last few months of other ladies in the same boat as me.  Long story short, we caught up for a coffee yesterday and it was great!  Sara has a little girl in kindergarten and a little boy who is 2 months older than Mr. Baby.  Kelly is a Brit and she has a little girl who is 4 months older than Mr. Baby - she's married to an Australian so we are in a similar situation.  They are both really friendly and it was just so nice to chat to a couple of lovely people. So next week we are going to have lunch.  I'm really looking forward to it. 

In addition, next week on Monday Mr. Baby will be spending one whole hour at an occasional care place.  It's basically a childcare center that you pay by the hour (as the name suggests really....).  Mr. Baby doesn't get to see many people during the week so I think it will be really good for him to have a few hours a week  away from his mummy.  It will be a really stimulating environment for him with all the other kids and the carers around and I think it's a good idea for him to learn how to be ok with a babysitter :)  I am quite excited to have a whole hour to myself to go and have a cup of coffee. I plan to get a magazine and sit down with a coffee in the shops and not think about the baby for that whole time!   We'll try to build him up to a few hours and each week he'll have a chance to see other people and I will get a little bit of time to do some stuff too!

Now I am well aware that these things sound really quite minor (and 7 months ago I'd be thinking "coffee with some people and a babysitter - big deal!") but they represent a big change for me (not to mention the baby) and will make a huge difference to me feeling like I am more than just a 24/7 nanny.  Not that I don't love taking care of Mr. Baby, but I need to do more than that and have just a few hours a week when I'm just me, not the mummy. It's the toughest part of the job I now have - you are never off the clock!  And I thought my old job had long hours...

So that is what is happening in my world for now!

Ruby and Jack

Apparently the most popular girl name for 2010 in Australia was Ruby.  And the most popular boy name for 2010 in Australia was Jack.

My grandma's name is Ruby.  And my Pa was named Jack.

My family is obviously ahead of the curve.  By about 80 years or so.