Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Home and back again

I looked back at the blog and noticed that we have not been there for awhile. I suppose that it is time that we do that again.

First thing is our trip back home. We had such a great time. We felt like minor celebrities. Everyone seemed happy to see us and there were parties galore. We sneaked in a cabin trip, played poker, spent time with family in Red Wing, had a couple of baby showers, and attended a party for Beth’s nephew Sam who joined the Army. The problem with this is we feel like that is what is happening all the time and that we are missing out. To contrast, we come back to Melbourne and the phone never rings. I guess we will have to survive on the memory of the fun filled two weeks that we had home. Thank you again everybody.

We are back into winter now. It is not the cold that is a problem here, (I am sure that Beth might argue that) but it is the lack of daylight. The sun doesn’t really come up until about 8AM and the shadows in the afternoon start to get long about 3pm. It makes for really short days and lots of TV time in the evenings. Now that the winter solstice (remember we are in the southern hemisphere) has come and gone we can look forward to the days getting longer.

It was a rough first week back. On Tuesday I found out that the company that I was working for lost a big contract. So we had a big meeting about that. On Wed Beth took a fall while in the operating room. Normally it wouldn't be so bad she is pretty tough and can take it but:
1. She is pregnant.
2. She is wearing double lead suits to protect the child from radiation (I am still not comfortable with this, it may come out glowing).

She banged up her knee and elbow, broke the computer, and snapped a pen in half. To top it all off she was like the "help I've fallen and I can't get up" lady. There was too much weight for her to get up by herself, so people had to peal the lead off of her in front of the patient. The person having heart surgery even asked if she was OK. I think that it was probably more embarrassing than anything else. It was traumatic for her but she is still in amazingly good spirits. Go pregnancy hormones.

After she relayed this tale to me, it was my turn to tell her my news....I got laid off.

It wasn’t unexpected. I was the last one to start and I was working on a casual contract basis. Now it is back to the job search, and the whole banging your head trying to think, "what should I do"?

Any thoughts?

It has now also fallen to me to get day care sorted out. Day care here is governed by city councils. Even though we live in Toorak which is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, the city council is Stonnington. Huh? I have received the child services literature and have started calling and visiting different day care centers. We are looking for part time care for a four month old then full time a month after that. The problem is there is a two year waiting list for some of these places. I am trying to reason through that math. Did I need to get on a list last year for my four month old next year? If I take my spaceship and slingshot around the sun with enough speed can I still get on the list?

In filling out the paper work at one of the centers there are certain ways to get bumped up the waiting list:

  1. Already having a child at the centre.
  2. being of aboriginal descent

There were many others. Somewhere around 15 was “socially isolated”.

We are not sure what this means or what it does for us but Beth checked it anyway. We figured without friends and family around we fit into this category.

We have both been reading baby books and are starting to get prepared for the new arrival in a few months. It can all be very confusing. We have the pram… do we really need a cot?.... and what is a baby capsule? The good part is I think that I have figured out what “nesting” is, it is Beth making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

4 comments:

AKS said...

I have been anxiously awaiting your next post and been checking it everyday! We enjoyed so very, very much the time that we got to spend with you while you were here. I selfishly loved being able to spend a glorious afternoon off shopping with you and learning a great deal of information about pregnancy - either from books at Barnes & Noble or from Beth. We will now once again count the months until you return again, this time with baby in tow! Beth - I will hope for candid conversations about motherhood as well now. You will be the person I can ask all the "inappropriate" and not talked about issues.
Sorry to hear you got laid off, Enrique. That's never fun news, but at least now you can devote yourself to the intricacies of the Australian day care system? It sounds very complex. Sorry that my municipal law experience does not translate well into the international legal community. Keep us posted on your life - your blogs are always a highlight to my day.
Anna

Unknown said...

We loved seeing you two! It was a let-down when you left. Where was the action? Where were the parties? You leave a big hole here in MN. We all feel more interesting when you are around. When you're gone, we fall back into our little routines.

The weather has gotten hot, and now I'm wishing for central air and a cook. I'm glad you'll get to stay cool during the last few months of the pregnancy. Eric, you'll have plenty to keep you busy for a bit, but I really do hope you find something new and good relatively quickly. There's always insurance....

--Laura

Susanica said...

Dang! First of all, Beth, I hope that you are okay. That must have been quite an experience--on the bright side it's gonna be a pretty funny story to tell Jr. one day (you may even have to act it out for him/her.) And Eric, so sorry to hear about the job loss. Hopefully you'll fall into something new right away.

By the way, we have the same "Manual for Babies" for Danny's baby book. It's been pretty fun to keep it updated.

Have you guys read the "Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp? That book helped us more than anything before Danny was born. And our neighbor lent us a hysterically funny book called "You're Pregnant Too, Mate!" It's subtilte is the Essential Guide to Expectant Fathers". Highly recommend.

So...don't forget to write frequently. You both crack me and Susanne up! -Monica (AKA Pep)

Unknown said...

Wished we lived closer to MN., so we could have seen you two! However, hopefully you'll see Mike (my better half??) in a few weeks!

E., I hate to say it,but that fall sounds SO like you! At least you have a funny story to tell your kid when he's old enough for therapy (it may explain a lot to him later!)!

Eric, I am sure something fantastic will present itself soon on the job front. Hang in there!

Hope all is well!