Busy, busy, busy

Wow, we have been so busy that I have not had much time to post in our blog. There is a lot to write, but hopefully I can summarize it all without writing a book :)

-Swim lessons:
Nathan finally did great on his refresher classes. It turned out that all he needed was to be rested. We joked around saying that we have to make sure that when Nathan accidentally falls in the pool he has to be well rested. We will be doing refresher classes again sometime in May.

-Hair:
Christopher and I got hair cuts. You may be wondering why I mention this and it is because I got about 14-15" cut off! I was ready for a change and told our stylist that she could do what she wanted. She cut off 10" to donate and then the rest was for her to play with. I am on the fence with the hair cut (it is really short for me), but I think that once it grows out a little I will like it. It kind of reminds me of my mom's hair!

-Birthday Party for Christopher:
Even though he said it wasn't his birthday party it was, sort of. He had his annual big bash and he was able to get a couple of kegs emptied. The house was packed and the disco floor was a lit. I think that most everyone had a good time. Nathan was even able to take a nap during it all!

-Australia:
On 3/27 we left LA to Australia. The flight there was 14 hours and I think that it was the longest 14 hours ever! Our plane left at 11pm and Nathan could not fall asleep in the terminal. It then took him forever to fall asleep on the plane. They provide you with bassinets on the plane, but the catch is that if there is turbulence you have to take the baby out and put them on your lap with the kid belt. Well, there always seemed to be turbulence right when we would put Nathan down to sleep. We thought that we would just keep him there and not move him, but we got busted! We didn't get much sleep and I basically was Nathan's pacifier for the whole trip. We did fly V Australia which was really nice and the staff was GREAT! We also got seated in an area that had more room for babies which was really nice. Nathan got diarrhea on the flight and it lasted for a few days and that wasn't fun!

It was so nice to be visiting with Crystal, Sam, Ziah, and Marley! Their house was so cute and felt like we were at home. Much better than staying at a hotel! Nathan who is 11 months was about the same size as Marley who is 3 months. Nathan was heavier, but Marley didn't look that much smaller. Ziah was a great big sister! She loved playing with Nathan and being around him. She was wanting to hold his hand all of the time. I think that Ziah really enjoyed having some new playmates (Christopher and I included).

We took a trip up to Cairns (Australians pronounce it like "can") so that Christopher could dive the Great Barrier Reef. I was not excited about the 3 hour flight there, but it wasn't too bad. The hotel that we were at was beautiful and we had a water view from our room. The hotel also had it's own indoor rainforest and that ended up being the place that Nathan and I went to all of the time. They had a ton of birds and Nathan is very fond of the birds. He even would start saying "ba, ba" when he would see the birds. There was one cockatoo that used to be a pet that was there. His name was Big Bird and he couldn't fly, but he loved being on you. All you had to do was go up to his cage and he would climb on you. It was really hard to get him off of you too! The only bad part about the rainforest was that it was HOT! While Christopher did his diving, which he said was great, Nathan and I mostly stayed in our room because it was hot. Christopher did pay for me to get a massage because he felt bad for leaving us for two days (he was back for the night).

When we were in Sydney we saw the Aquarium, which is supposed to be the largest in the world. It was pretty good, but it was raining so hard and Nathan was grumpy which wasn't a great combination. When we got back to Crystal and Sam's they asked us if we had been swimming because we were so wet. We had taken public transportation and had to do some walking. The public transit was really easy to navigate. We checked out some of the beaches that were gorgeous! We toured the Harbor and saw the infamous Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We went to a great park where there were wallabies and Kangaroos that were roaming around in the park that you could pet and feed. It really was a great park and even though it was crowded for the park, it wasn't that bad! We had a really great time!

Driving on the opposite side of the road was interesting. I didn't do any of the driving, but it was weird being a passenger. The city streets in Sydney were not very grid-like so it looked too confusing for me to drive it. That is one reason we took public transportation to some things. Trying to do anything all together was almost impossible. Having three kids that were taking naps at all different times made it hard to do some stuff together. It was nice though to just relax at home! Crystal made us some amazing dinners! She really is a great chef and she makes some great sandwich bread that I tried to copy and didn't succeed at. We also got to meet Sam's parents and have dinner with them. They too are great cooks and were really nice!

Christopher and I discovered on our trip that when Nathan is fussy all we have to do is give him some bread or other food and he is happy! Kind of bad that food makes our baby happy. Hopefully, he won't have serious issues when he is older :). Nathan was also a great eater and I think that he may have eaten more than Ziah at each meal!

Our flight home was only 13 hours and it wasn't as bad, but it was still long and a little painful! The hardest part is getting Nathan readjusted to the time change. He did ok there, but now that we are home he is having the hardest time. We put him down at his normal time and either 5 minutes or an hour later he is up. He would be up until 2 am and that was killing us. Now he goes to bed with us. It was nice not having him sleep with us, but it seems to be the only thing that calms him down. We hope that soon he will be back to his old sleep habits!

THANK YOU CRYSTAL AND SAM FOR BEING GREAT HOSTS!!!!! WE LOVED VISITING WITH YOU GUYS!

Here is a link to all of our Australia pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/christopheraedo/OZ#

-Family:
Once we got home Christopher's sister Karen was here with her two daughters Danielle and Natalie. Natalie stayed with me while the rest of them went shopping and it was very nice to have Natalie watch Nathan so that I could do some things.

-Nathan:
-Is a VERY FAST crawler!
-Is babbling like crazy! We think that he will be talking soon
-Walks around holding onto the furniture like a pro, but isn't even close to wanting to walk by himself
-He still only has two teeth and it doesn't look like more are coming in
-He likes to imitate Christopher and me. He will do hand motions or mouth motions after we do them. He still will not wave though!
-He plays peek-a-boo with his blanket and it is super cute
-If you ask Nathan "how big is Nathan" he will lift both of his arms up in the air
-He loves the animals and will constantly go after them. Bella has scratched him a few times (we trimmed her claws so this wouldn't happen again!)
-Nathan is into headbutting everything. The cutest is when he headbutts a cat or dog. Sometimes one of our cats will headbutt him back.
-Nathan is almost ONE! Only a week to go!

That is it for now. We have to go to bed!

-Heather