Arrival at Sydney Airport
So we wait for all others to depart the plane and then we do. We get Muffin and Huckleberry in the stroller and toss misc. bags into the stroller bag to make our trek to TCOB. First stop passport patrol. Woman sees us and though the lines aren't bad, allows us through a wider entrance for our stroller and we zip on through. Then, it is time to gather the other eight bags. Luggage scored, we have two carts(trolleys) full of stuff and a double stroller with kids inside to push. We attempt this move where we push then take turns falling back and getting the thing left behind moved up. Some darling man sees our debacle and takes sympathy upon us. He gets us fast forwarded through customs, too. Lines weren't bad, but it still saved us some time and effort. We find our driver and get into our Mercedes bus with disgusting hot fuzzy slipcovers on every seat. There is some crazy infant car seat for Huckleberry and it is forward facing...not nearly as sturdy looking as our seats at home and a BOOSTER for the Muff. Hope the little Miss doesn't expect that again...I have to check into what the requirements are here in Aus., but I'd rather use ours..though not legal here. Off we go to the deluxe apartment on the park-side!
Our Apartment
So we get into our apartment on this very busy street and get settled. Ha Ha. It's hotter than hell and they advise not to leave on the air when you leave the apartment for an outing. Seriously? I appreciate their environmental concerns, but I want to keep my kids alive and Seth is a wayyyy hot dude...The kitchen is fine and the bathrooms are quite nice. The rest is not as nice as a generically decorated hotel.
Settled means everyone's bags are in their rooms, some stuff is put away and I, of course, have started laundry! Just had to get our germ infested traveling clothes washed. Can't even go there. BLAHHH! Muffin is excited about the welcome present/basket from the corporate housing people. Here is some of what they gave us: Coffee and sugar packets,(but the coffee maker looks kinds of like a plastic measuring cup and we have not attempted to use it) hot chocolate, 2 bags of rice and 2 yogurt like containers of fruit,cookies and chocolate... Wish it were all cookies and choc. Also provided is a small container of milk and two oj's, a couple packets of laundry detergent and dishwasher tabs and some cleaning thingamabobs. Hopefully the scrubber stays out of radar so she doesn't get any ideas about cleaning the "loo" here like she did with the bottle brush back home recently.
The property management guy starts telling us about false fire alarms and the fees that you are charged. I do believe he said 700 dollars, oh The Man thinks he said 900 false alarm fee. Well, looks like I won't be cooking much. We'll spend that 7 to 9 hun on dining and take out:)
Luckily, The Muffin has not complained about the milk. But I will. I love milk. So far, I hate their milk. I drink organic mostly at home, but this just has an earthy taste I don't care for! However, when in our lattes, no dif! The eggs make up for this--they are delicious and they do not refrigerate them at the grocer or 7-11 which is next to us.
Cribs
Wow, we are snobs and safety snobs. So we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express when our house was emptied on our last night in Richmond. It was right beside The Man's office and he had to knock some stuff out Friday morning before we left town. The crib was interesting and I dubbed it an orphanage crib. Huck was getting his legs stuck in it and screaming! So we weaved towels through the bars to create a bumper. Then we got here. This crib is a step up but similarly not bumpered and he hasn't gotten stuck so much. I run as soon as he fusses in case he is stuck. The bars seem a bit wider and he seems to get it and get himself out of it. They provided a beautiful sheet set still pack, looks like its linen, in new packaging. I did pack some crib sheets. No where near as posh...but our crib trumps this one! Muffin and Our Huckleberry are sharing a room. I was surprised she didn't mind at all. She has a double bed buffered with spare pillows, but she was so tired she barely even moved. I was so tired, I fell asleep while reading out loud to her last night! Thanks, Anna, for the new read Fancy Nancy and the Late, Late, Late Night! Luckily, it wasn't!
Oh and the baby, who has always put himself to sleep and likes his own space, now wants to snuggle longer. I love to snuggle him, but takes so much more time for napping and night night, and most of you would know what a blessing he has been since Muffin is a title winning sleep fighter. He also fusses more now that he got used to being so cozy in the airplane. Thanks, United Airlines, for messing up our sleep routine. As one of the gents at the airport said "United gonna help you".
Potties and TP
The toilets have a two in one flusher. I thought The Man said one is a hot flush. Since I thought that, I figured a hot one is for poopers and a cold one for wee wee. But I misunderstood him. One is a half flash for wee wee and a whole flush for poopers. Clearly they don't know that I am a tp madwoman and every flush needs to be a whole flush! So, the tp is not bad. Sorry, peeps, I know some of you really do want to know about that. Haven't seen any familiar tp brands in the grocery we have been going to, but plan to do an online grocery shop Monday so I can get stuff delivered! It is not easy to push a "pram" and carry bunches of groceries blocks and blocks!
Baby Food
The only tears I have cried so far here have been about my baby eating. I really wanted to hold on to what we had left from traveling, but The Man wanted to pitch it before customs. Of course, this was the only thing they assumed we had, and would allow. He was trying to save time on that end. I was trying to keep us from having to run to the store promptly and feed him familiar food for one more day! I had already gone shopping online to get info. on baby food and saw that some of it seemed a bit weird...figs, etc. Ok. The Man goes to get a few things at the grocery. Good daddy gets the organic Heinz baby food in a glass jar. Some weird varieties and no real veggies. I am only thinking, "you are supposed to introduce new foods one at a time and this is all new....". Also, too much watching of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bourdain No Reservations. Just because he likes new and exotic foods...The selection is limited in all fairness to The Man.
First feeding, Little Boy gobbles up half of the jar of creamy oats with fig and sultanas. WTF is a sultana? So, next thing you know, he projectile vomits the whole mess. We argue over the cause of this vomiting from our baby who has never thrown up. Is it the contents of the food (me, who was worried about this), the speed of his eating (this from the speed eater himself, Seth) or could he really be sick? All signs say he isn't sick. Maybe he really can't tolerate figs and sultanas. I am silently wishing I went to the store and just got the plainest of plain baby food. So, we go out for the day and when we stop for lunch, I try some other jar of baby food. Apples and oats. Two or three bites in--spits it all up. I am in tears. My baby is hungry and I look at the label. The food is for 6 months plus. He meets that criteria. But when I saw before my eyes, "whole milk" in the ingredients...I couldn't believe it. We don't give babes whole milk for a WHOLE year in the U.S. Wow, whole milk is in every jar Seth brought home. Who'd have thunk it? Back to Cole's we go. I get some more food in these cool squeezable pouches. They are organic and have what's listed on it and the words "and nothing else!" Yes. My baby can eat for now until we are together enough for me to start preparing some foods, which it seems I am going to have to do to give him something other than carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin as vegetables. Is pumpkin a vegetable? Mama is happy, I can lay off the figs and sultanas*! So far, so good. Huck is gobbling it up, but we lack grains. I haven't found any rice cereal or oat or any sort of similar or familiar thing to add to the food. It's all in that other jarred food that poor Huck can't tolerate. We will figure it out soon. But we may have another feeding Huck issue. Huck may not be nursing much longer, because the two tooth wonder has been biting me. I think he may have done it repeatedly at first, because of my reaction. But later in the day he bit me and when I reacted he cried! Believe me I wanted to cry, too. Boo, hoo! My boo boos!
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