Fri 29 Dec 2006
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It’s the last blog for 2006. It has been a wonderful year and we are looking forward to our new adventure in 2007. We are especially looking forward to watching Lucy continue to grow and change – she is a very fun girl to have around.
We’ve had a fab week. Christmas Eve saw us at church in the morning followed by a lamb roast at home and watching ‘It’s a wonderful life’. We discovered that Lucy loves lamb. (She also loves lentils so she is a good mix of both Andrew and I!) Here is Lucy waving her piece of lamb around.
On Christmas Day we woke up to a waffle breakfast, opened presents and had a red velvet birthday cake for Jesus. Lucy wore a fabulous red Ralph Lauren dress with ruby red slippers. Church was next and we stayed chatting for a while afterwards. Headed over to grandma and grandad’s – all attention and presents were for Lucy! A seafood feast followed by a turkey feast and then a nap. Over to nan and grandpa’s for presents and a roast dinner.
Lucy met her Auntie Julie for the first time on Christmas Day! Here is a photo of all the Thomses! Boxing Day saw us back at nan and grandpa’s for brunch to celebrate grandpa’s birthday.
With the weather turning warm again Lucy has been swimming with Dad in the pool. Despite the cold water Lucy loves being in there!
Some Lucy firsts:
- Dancing and singing! The best rendition was on Christmas day in church. During a couple of carols Lucy jived along and squealed loudly. She thoroughly enjoyed herself
- Sucking in her top lip
In other exciting news the study has been cleaned out (almost! this caused the delay in the blog as the computers were being moved), the backyard has been levelled and the dishwasher has been repaired.
Thu 21 Dec 2006
A long and not very fun week. So I won’t go into details suffice to say Lucy has visited Sutherland hospital, our GP and the paediatrician all in the one week. The good news is that Lucy is well and slept through the night last night!
Despite all of the hoo-ha we made it to Grind in Cronulla with Dave & Kel. We also managed to clear out a bit more of the study. You can see wall-to-wall carpet! We even got the vacuum cleaner in there.
We are looking forward to Christmas Day. We will be having our own Christmas traditions like having a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas morning, going to church and having Christmas Eve dinner together (which includes watching ‘It’s a wonderful life’). Thanks to Nanna for our nativity scene (Thai style)!
A big welcome to Cora and Brooke both born in the last week. Congrats to Ben & Jackie and Richard & Deanna! Lucy is very much looking forward to meeting both girls.
Also Lucy started saying ‘mamamama’ during the week!
Here are a couple of the photos Maarten took of our family in Bowral.
Wed 20 Dec 2006
Thu 14 Dec 2006
It’s pretty stressful here at the moment. Three groups of people over for dinner in one week means lots of cleaning and tidying. And a bit of cooking! We have almost caught up on sleep. Lucy slept through the night for four nights in a row! But for the last few nights she’s woken up once a night. Maybe it’s got something to do with all the noise!
We went to Bowral on the weekend for Andrew’s work Christmas party. We stayed at the elegant Milton Park. There was fabulous food and a great day spa. Maarten took some very nice photos of us as a family so I will post them up as soon as I get hold of them. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
Lucy is babbling “babababadadadada†quite a bit, together with high pitched squeals and laughter. Her two bottom teeth are poking through now and are easy to see (if she’ll let you near her mouth)
We decorated our Christmas tree on Monday. Here is our lounge room all lit up with Christmas lights! The presents are wrapped under the tree, the 10kg ham is in the fridge and we are looking forward to Lucy’s first Christmas.
On a serious note, part of the stress is that Lucy hasn’t put on much weight over the past few months and we have discovered after a couple of tests that she has a virus. We are waiting to hear from the doctor about what to do next. Last we heard she had to take very strong antibiotics to get rid of it. This has added to the stress over the past week or two as we have been out to the doctor and the pathology lab a number of times.
Fri 08 Dec 2006
We’re back! It’s been a difficult week. Not only have I been jet lagged but I had 3 teeth come through! Mum and I haven’t been getting much continuous sleep…
The flights back to Australia were 2 hours longer than going over. The one from Charlotte to LA was not fun as I did not have a bassinet and it was hot. LA to Sydney was not fun because the mum next to us kept shouting at her son and calling him horrible names. He cried a lot (not surprisingly) and woke me up so I was cranky. Mum got to watch ‘The devil wears prada’ and saw the whole thing after 3 attempts (once on the way over and twice on the way back). I’m glad to be home in my own room again!
Whilst Dad has been at work we’ve been out and about visiting the clinic, the doctor and shopping at Miranda (making the most of the mall before moving to the US!) On Wednesday we had lunch with Nanna, Grandpa and Uncle Mikey, then dropped in to see Liz and Nick.
Mummy & Daddy celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary. They went out for dinner at Summer Salt whilst Nanna minded me at home. They told me that they had an awesome meal whilst watching the surf at Elouera. Happy anniversary Mum and Dad!
Here are some photos from our trip to Wilmington, including our first thanksgiving!
Fri 01 Dec 2006
Friday
- Traveled around looking at neighbourhoods and houses with our realtor. Had a cup of Port City Java and a great salad at Henry’s. We saw lots of nice houses and communities.
- Walked along Wrightsville beach where we saw dolphins, $3m beach ‘shacks’ and people scouring the beach with metal detectors (i guess for quarters because most of the currency is in note form)
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Saturday
- we ate brunch at the Causeway café. It is popular with movie stars as well as the locals so we had to wait for a table. We didn’t see anyone famous and the food was a little strange ie American. Dad had butterscotch waffles which consisted of a waffle topped with butterscotch chocolate drops and spray cream (which kind of dissolved and he was left with hard chocolate and some foam on top of his waffle!) We did try a Southern specialty – grits (corn porridge) which was surprisingly nice.
- we drove south to Fort Fisher, caught the car ferry to Southport and looked through a few antique shops. We also bought some coffee beans from Port City Java, a popular coffee shop around here, for Dave to test out.
- dined at Sweet and Savoury where dad had great NZ lamb chops and mum a seafood feast. I made some friends amongst the other diners.
- we missed the annual holiday flotilla due to the traffic on the bridge but we did see the fireworks
Sunday
- we visited Myrtle Grove Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I slept for most of the service but mum and dad tell me that they enjoyed it. Unfortunately morning tea was BEFORE the service so we missed out but we met a couple of people afterwards.
- In the afternoon we headed over to Amy’s for a cookout. So we got to meet a few more GE people
Monday
Daddy went to work and was ready at 7am!
- Mummy and I went on an informal tour of wilmington and had lunch at Elijah’s a swish seafood restaurant on the intracoastal. We both had an afternoon nap.
- We met up with Daddy and headed out to the Oceanic restaurant for dinner. It is right on Wrightsville beach but unfortunately it was dark. I slept for most of the dinner but started crying when one of the head guys from GE gave a speech near the end of the night. Oh, well…I just wanted my mum!
Tuesday
- Daddy was off to work and after a late start we finally got on our tour of the various temporary accommodation units. We visited 3 places and then had lunch at the Artisan café, a very nice produce store/deli
- We went shopping around Mayfaire and mummy found some excellent shops. One in particular stood out – Williams-Sonoma. It has every kitchen/baking/cooking utensil and gormet food items imaginable. Mummy and Mrs Kel would go crazy in here!
- We met up with Daddy and headed over to a bank. We now have a US bank account! We then got some groceries at Harris Teeter. A good grocery store that stocked lamb and had a great selection of world cheeses but also had gross stuff like ‘easy cheese’ (cheese in a spraycan) and ‘pumpkin pie in a can’
Wednesday
- We test drove a subaru and then went shopping at Best Buy and TJMaxx. Mum bought some cool Ralph Lauren and Nike outfits for me!
- We dined at the Port City Chop House. I fell asleep but mum and dad enjoyed their meals very much.
Thursday
We are leaving today and will be back in Sydney on the weekend. We walked along the beach this morning and ate strawberry icecream.
NEWSFLASH! My bottom two teeth are cutting through. Should make for an interesting flight!
Other things
I like honeydew melon but I hate green beans.
its cheaper to buy 12 krispy kreme doughnuts than 8 krispy kreme doughnuts
everyone drives trucks
the tap water smells like chlorine
bananas cost 50 cents per pound. At Walmart they were on sale for 49 cents per pound.
See you soon!
