Busy, busy (but who isn't?)

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't updated since the beginning of May! Sheesh! Where does the time go?

Ah yes, the time goes to building impenetrable forts!

I guess there's nothing really new or exciting to blog about. Life in Australia is pretty boring these days. The weather has cooled off nicely and we're enjoying bundling up under blankets at night. This is the best time of year to live in Queensland: cool nights and warm days and not too much rain.

Our good Aussie girl wearing her Uggs on a chilly morning. (She's wearing an eyepatch to help get her peepers aligned. No pirate jokes, Aunt Becky!)

We're looking forward to a visit from Nate's dad next week. He will be here for three weeks, with a solo sojourn to Sydney in there somewhere.

Roxy put Grandpa doll into bed for a nap. She's practicing for when he gets here.

That's all for now. This last picture was requested by Katie (about a month ago). Taken tonight of preggo me just days from the six month mark. No endless summer pregnancy this time around!

Now accepting name suggestions! We are at an impasse for a boy name!

two weeks already!?

I can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since I last updated. Where has the time gone?

We flew down to Sydney for a visit to the U.S. Consulate. We had to submit paperwork to get a Consular Report of Birth Abroad for Miss Rox as well as apply for her passport and social security number. The CRBA and passport arrived in the mail last week, but the SSN won't arrive for 2-4 months.

Getting the paperwork organized was the most difficult part of the whole process, but was pretty easy because Nate and I are American citizens. It becomes slightly more difficult if the baby has an American mother and a non-American father and is exponentially more complicated if the baby has an American father and non-American mother.

Roxy is an American citizen, but is not an Australian citizen. Australia used to be like the U.S. in that anyone born here automatically gained citizenship, but they changed the law a while ago. Instead, she is on our visa and should we decide to become Australian citizens, she will shall she.

I don't know how this affects her should she decide to run for U.S. President. In order to be eligible for that office, the Constitution states that a candidate must be "a natural born citizen of the United States," and there is some debate about what our founding fathers actually meant by that. Her certificate clearly states, "A Consular Report of Birth Abroad is proof of United States citizenship by law: 22 USC 2705." If it's still unresolved 35 years from now, I guess she can hire any (or all) of the lawyers in our family to represent her in the Supreme Court.

Enough blabber! Here are some pictures!

Roxy's first flight. She calmed down eventually.

This happened in the Sydney terminal the day we flew in! (a bikie is a member of a motorcylce gang, like Hell's Angels)

The view from our hotel room. That's Sydney Harbor up on the left.

We had this lovely tub in our hotel room. We put Roxy to bed and tiptoed to the tub for a soak. Then just like a movie, as soon as we got in the tub, the baby started crying and didn't go back to sleep until the water was cold. :(

My favorite: Artemis, goddess of the hunt! (Part of a fountain in Hyde Park)

We met up with some Davis friends for dinner the night we arrived. Terry and Louise are Australians who lived in the U.S. for a few years and we met them when Lou was a postdoc in our Davis lab. They moved to Sydney a couple of months ago and we finally got to meet their son Harry! Harry was born a couple of weeks after we moved here. We had a delicious Thai dinner and talked all about babies and Australian sports.

Terry and Harry, Nate and Roxy

Brekkie near the Harbor Bridge

Fruit stand in the Sydney CBD.

Playing in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Roxy is now as big as her daddy's shoe. Keep growing, Rox!

These reminders were on practically every corner. We figured they were probably for all of the tourists that came to town for the 2000 Olympics.

We're in the middle of a storm. It's been raining pretty well for the past few days. It's been raining so much that I invested in a new umbrella. Here's Nate showing it off (nevermind the blue sky behind him. It was raining when he left on the walk):

This umbrella is inspiration for a new wardrobe.

Nate has back-to-back four-day weeks coming up. Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays here. We don't have any plans for the long weekend. We're thinking we might rent a car and go nowhere - just enjoy having a car for a few days.

Sydney and back in a day and a half!

Too tired now to tell the whole story, but here's proof that we were in Sydney:

In front of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge in the background

and here's (more) proof that our baby is adorable:

Laughing at Daddy