Nana and Noosa

Totally candid picture of Carolyn bird-watching at the Noosa Inlet

My mom, Carolyn, (Roxy's Nana) has been here just over a week now and we've been very busy. She's added 20 new birds to her life list and she's seen a lot of them in and around our neighborhood! The remaining were spotted at the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, the City Botanical Gardens in downtown Brissie and on the Sunshine Coast on our first Australian road trip!

Grey butcherbird (top) and Pied Butcherbird (bottom) at Mt. Coot-tha

White-eyed duck at Mt. Coot-tha

Kookaburra spotted at the Noosa Laguna Look-out

The Big Pelican of Noosaville (does not count for bird life list)

Our trip to the Sunshine Coast was great. We hired a car and took to driving on the wrong side of the road with no problem. The weather didn't cooperate fully all weekend, but we managed to jump into the warmish South Pacific and Nate body-surfed like the good ol' sea dog he is.

Look out for the surfer!

Due to a glitch by Travelocity, we got an unbelievable deal on our hotel room at a resort. It had three pools, two spas, a sauna and our room came with a kitchenette and, drumroll, air conditioning!!! Before we left, I picked up a set of long-sleeved, footy pyjamas for the bub because she's only ever slept in just her nappy and she likes to kick(!) off the blankies. We wanted her to keep warm in the cool A/C.

Bubba modeling her new jammies in the cool air

The rest of Nana's visit is to come... to be continued. The sweet sleeping bub pictured above is practicing out her crying-so-hard-I'm-turning-purple skills....

Marsupials and the heat (two posts in one day!)

It's been warm in Brisbane this summer, but it's been downright unbearable for folks down in the southern part of the continent. In many places, there have been many days in a row of temps above 40-45 C (104-114 F). I saw these pictures on a website I often read. The story is these people live in southern New South Wales this baby koala came ambling up to a back porch looking for some relief (even if it's not true, these pictures are still pretty adorable):


(I just have to throw this next one in because our baby likes to bathe in a tub, too)

The next pictures were sent to me from our doula, Janelle. I saw her last week for the first time since Roxy's birth and I told her that the hardest thing about living here has been adjusting to the heat. Apparently, I'm not the only one...

Mussels from Brussels

Mussels and beer - Nate's perfect meal

With Eddie and Lisa in town, we finally had a reason to go back to the Belgian Beer Cafe in downtown Brisbane. We had a jaunt through South Bank and watched the dragon races before getting on the ferry to cross the river to the restaurant.

Eddie using their fancy new camera to capture the dragon boat race on the Brisbane River

Taking Roxy on her first boat ride (she slept through it!)

Roxy's milk-drunk face.

Nate's mussels-drunk face (father-daughter resemblance, no?)

(latter two pictures taken from Eddie and Lisa's camera)

The next day we took a short trip to the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens just outside of town. After a windy bus ride there, we had a great lunch (and not so great milkshake) at the cafe and wandered around for a bit.

Har har - prickly Americans

Lovebirds on their way to live with real Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea

Nate showing the Little Macho Chili plant who's boss

Breastfeeding at Mt. Coot-tha? Check!

Watching the cockatoos causing a ruckus around the Japanese Garden

Yesterday (Thursday), we saw Eddie and Lisa off as they begin their new life in Papua New Guinea. They will be fighting the good fight for a couple of years (at least) at a malaria research laboratory in Madang (on the northern coast of the island). It's pretty exciting to have them in the same time zone again, even if they're two plane trips away! We're hoping to visit them at some point in the future - waiting to hear if the snorkeling is worth the price of admission (i.e. getting malaria).

Eddie and Lisa with everything they packed for the next two years

Next up for a visit from my mom! She gets here on Sunday to meet her youngest grandchild in person and to celebrate said grandchild's 2-month birthday! Needless to say, Roxy's pretty excited to meet her Nana.

We've got a short break after my mom leaves before we get to see our graduate advisors Peter and Penny. They're in Canberra on sabbatical and will be here for a short visit with colleagues and to take in a rugby game.

Not too long after that, newlyweds Andy and Darshana come a'calling! They're coping with the recession by taking a month-long vacation to Australia and Thailand. I like the way they think. They get here mid-March, just as we're getting into autumn.

We're loving all of these visitors, so plan your trip! The Australian dollar has tanked against the American dollar - bad for us, good for you! Now that we're on the other side of summer and jellyfish season is ending, it's the ideal time to visit Queensland!

Australia Day, summer foliage, friends!

Monday was Australia Day here in Australia. It's the official national day of Australia, commemorating the arrival of the first fleet of Brits to arrive on Ozzie shores (not when Australia was 'discovered' by Captain Cook - that was 18 years earlier - the fleet was on a mission to establish a penal colony for the British Empire). It's celebrated every year on Jan. 26.

Needless to say, there are many in the Aboriginal community who aren't too fond of celebrating the day the first fleet of British soldiers showed up to inhabit the country and many Australians feel that Australia Day should be celebrated on a different day. The Prime Minister responded to these requests with a flat-out, "No," during his Australia Day press conference/party.

Anyhoo! We observed Australia Day the way we saw most other Australians doing it - we bought some Chinese-made Australia stuff and watched sports (the Australian Open).

Front and back of our genuine Australia Day stubbies coolers

A new tree has started blooming on our street - the Ivory Curl Flower (Buckinghamia celcissima). I haven't been out much beyond our neighborhood, so I don't know how prevalent it is around other parts of the city, but it's certainly a dominant plant on our block. They are so fragrant! I think they smell like a candy factory.

Looking down the street at the row of Ivory Curl Flower trees

Just one in full bloom. Smells delicious.

Our friends Eddie and Lisa arrived today on their way to Papua New Guinea where they will be living for the next couple of years doing medical entomology. They left San Francisco Wednesday night and arrived here at 7:30 Friday morning. They were total champions and stayed awake until 8 pm to fight the jetlag. They're our first friends from home to meet Miss Rox in person! She must have been excited to meet them because she couldn't get to sleep last night.

Inauguration Day!

The TV caption says it all.

The Australian TV started their coverage of the inauguration at 2 am on our Wednesday. Although I'm sure the baby and I were up at some point during the live coverage of the swearing in and Obama's speech, we didn't turn on the tv until the next morning to see part of the endless parade and the rebroadcast of everything. Our newscast said 2 billion people tuned in to watch! Amazing.

Insane Qantas Sale!

Check out the sale here!

Less than $800 to Brissie from the West Coast and less than $1000 to Brissie from the East Coast!

Sale is over on Monday...

And then there were three...

Doreen (Mena), Nate and Roxy

Nate's mom left for Philadelphia a couple of days ago. She arrived in Brisbane the same day as Roxy and we (me, especially) were definitely sad to see her go (it's not that Nate wasn't sad, it's just that he's too macho to show it). To all expectant parents: Find yourself a Doreen to live with you for a month when your baby is born. She makes delicious meals, sings wonderful baby songs and is over-the-top generous. Thanks for everything, Doreen! I'm sorry Roxy didn't start really smiling until the day you left. Just think of all of the smiles and laughs you'll get next time you see her!

Vegans! Avert your eyes!

For Doreen's farewell meal, Nate prepared a recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Fall Special Edition issue. Osso Bucco. Yes, it's veal, and yes, it was delicious.

Wee Roxy

Now we're on our own and we've handled things pretty well so far. Roxy's five weeks old and up to 4 kilos! Whenever I'm out with her in the baby carrier, the most common comment I get is, "Oh! What a tiny [wee, little, small, other diminutive adjective] baby!" The electrician that came by the other day and actually asked me if she's healthy! "Well, it's just that she's so tiny!" I think he must be used to large babies because he is Samoan and could probably fit her entire body in one hand.

Staci and coy Roxy

We also had a visit last week from my cousin Staci! She is in Australia with her family and was in Brisbane for a day or two. It was so nice to see her and talk with her about a lot of things and she shared a lot of advice about being a new mom. The timing of her visit couldn't have been better, for a number of reasons... it's funny how the universe works... The day after she stopped in for a visit, she and her husband Michael showed up on our doorstep with an instant baby shower! They gave us all sorts of useful and practical items (including a swing, which has been wonderful!), toys and other sundries. I think I might have scared them because I cried (happy tears) practically the entire time they were here. Their generosity was quite overwhelming for this new mum! Thanks, Staci, for taking time out of your vacation to look after us!

Roxy getting pumped in her new gym

So now we're back to the daily grind. We're surviving our first tropical summer. We've had a couple of really uncomfortable days, but for the most part, it's been pretty tolerable (knock on wood). I'm afraid the bub is going to be too big for all of the newborn onesies by the time it cools off enough for her to wear them.

We're looking forward to the upcoming visit from Eddie and Lisa at the end of the month and then a visit from my mom at the beginning of February! To round out our summer visitors, our former graduate advisors Penny and Peter will be in town for a few days at the end of February/beginning of March. By that time, we will be out of the worst of summer heat (hopefully!) and at the start of autumn. I'm interested to see how autumn manifests itself at 27 degrees latitude.

We just got word that Nate's sister and brother-in-law will be visiting for three weeks in July/August. They took advantage of the insane sale that Qantas is having - check the qantas website for cheap flights!

We will be in California for my sister's graduation from law school in May and I hope we'll get to catch up with a lot of family and friends while we're there. More details to follow...