The things kids say (aka Emma says)...

In honor of Emma's start to preschool here last week and the relatively "quiet" days I enjoyed with just Morgan, I thought I would reflect on the non-quietness that is usually my daily life. Emma is a talker and just like most children, you can never be quite sure what is going to come out of her mouth some days. Some of it is sweet, some is sassy, some is funny, and some is just downright weird. In no particular order a look back at a few things she's said from the last several months.

• We have the most beautiful baby in the whole world! Followed by excessive kissing and her trademark tackle cuddle and then Morgan screaming.
• Daddy: Stop pinching your belly and eat your dinner Emma. He then walks out of the room briefly and Emma continues to not eat. So I say: Emma, daddy asked you to stop pinching yourself and finish your dinner. Emma: I'm not pinching my belly, I'm tickling it. Of course, our bad Emma.
• Hmmmm... I'll have to think about my decision to that question during quiet time. In response to my seemingly rather simple question asked over lunch, this girl is a thinker in addition to a talker.
• Emma: I want to marry daddy! Me: No one marries their daddy Emma, besides he'll be too old by the time you are ready to get married. Emma: But you got married to your daddy! No, Emma, in fact I did not marry my daddy. I can see this is going to get confusing.
• No way Jose, no way Jose, no way Jose! Each repetition a little louder in expectation of the timeout punishment about to follow. Somehow expecting if she told me "No way Jose!" enough times she wouldn't need to have a timeout.
• Mommy, did you know our poop comes in all shapes, sizes and colors? I had no response for this...
• Overheard conversation... Did you have the giantest poop daddy? A big poop? A little poop? How big was your poop? You can tell what's been on her mind lately...
• When I need a spanking, I do it gently to myself. Hmmm... I've heard of kids putting themselves in timeouts, but spanking themselves?
• Emma: I'm going to get married when I'm 34, but then still live with you guys. I always want to live with you guys. Oh you're too sweet Emma.... still that's not going to happen.
• Random five year old at the park on Mother's day to me: Happy Mother's Day! Emma overhears and responds back to the other little girl: Happy Mother's Day! Five year old girl stops and gives me a confused look, I just shrug my shoulders.
• Me: We have to leave the park because it's getting too dark and I won't be able to find you. Emma: That's ok because God always knows where I am. True fact Emma, I can't even argue with that one, but the fact remains that I won't be able to find you so we're going home. 
• Emma: Mommy, when can we have bunk beds? Me: Maybe when you and Morgan get a little older. Emma: I can't wait to sleep on the top and Morgan can sleep on the top too. Me: Huh? What do you mean you can both sleep on top? Emma: Well our brothers can sleep on the bottom. The brothers that are going to come out of your belly. Me: Oh really Emma? And how many brothers are going to come out of my belly? Emma: Twelve. Me: Hahaha, you're funny Emma. Emma: Oh, well maybe only five. Me: Sorry Emma, neither of those scenarios is ever going to happen...
• I need to write this letter, but I need to go to the toilet. Paces back and forth between toilet and craft table. If only the toilet were closer to my craft table so I could do both at the same time.
• Mommy did you know the holy spirit is like us gobbling up Jesus and instead of going to our tummy he goes to our heart?! Oh my heart...

Our wonderfully spirited girl!

Things that might kill me in Australia...

It was the ongoing joke when I told people we were moving to Australia last year... "You better watch out, do you know how many things can kill you there?!" A few of my favorite memes to commemorate the stereotype many Americans have of Australia...

And for my former co-workers and all of our Snapple lunch quizzes...

Thankfully, we have made it over nine months and I am happy to report we haven't even had any close encounters. Let's hope that trend continues. And up until now I chose to remain in the dark about what exactly all those deadly things were. I thought if I did too much research then I would just find myself more stressed out about the ridiculously small chance of encountering any of these animals and insects. I recently however had a change of sentiment and thought with two young children perhaps I should be better educated. It also didn't help when a friend shared an article of an unexpected cause of death in Australia, the cold. Yes, I know this is absolutely ridiculous, but true. Just read this article about the "glorified tents" they call houses here and how there are more cold than hot weather related deaths here, and more cold related deaths here than Sweden.

Anyways, back to the whole dangerous animal and insect thing. There are a lot here, some which concern me more than others. When I think too much about it, it pretty much makes me never want to go swimming, go bush walking, put on a shoe or reach into a dark closet. Take a look at the top ten here for photos and descriptions, but here's a quick look at what makes the list:

1. Box jellyfish
2. Honey bee
3. Irukandji jellyfish
4. Bullshark (not a bullshark, but this shark provides a pretty good warning to all of us)
5. Eastern brown snake
6. Saltwater crocodile
7. Sydney funnel web spider
8. Blue-ringed octopus
9. Coastal taipan
10. Common death adder (what type of name is this?)

I find it especially disconcerting that most of Sydney's north shore (right where we live) is a favorite spot of the appropriately named Sydney funnel web spider. Luckily there have been no reported deaths due to this spider since 1981 when an antivenom was created, I hope I'm not the one to test the streak.

Poisonous animals and insects aside, there are still plenty of other creatures that don't make my list of "Reasons I love living in Australia." While I have gotten a bit more used to the occasional "Sydney roach," I do my best to reduce the possibility I find them in my house, which is as I've been informed going to be impossible no matter what. And the massively large spiders that exist in this country (even those that aren't venomous) I just find unnerving. I about jumped out of my skin when I nearly brushed up against this guy on the corner of a building:

At least I didn't panic as much as this man did, but I wouldn't put it past me in the future. And while I have gently nudged one or two tiny geckos out of our house, I'm just glad I haven't had this problem:

And this has nothing to do with animals or insects, but do I need to be concerned about entrapment (hopefully not death) by the "hairy panic" here as well?

That does bring up the more legitimate concern over bush fires here and the huge risk they run to many people in this country. And probably the top, truly most serious concern I should really have with young children here, melanoma. There literally is a hole in the ozone and children are required by law to wear a hat outside at school.

Thankfully there are so many wonderful creatures in this country as well, so I'll leave you with one of my recent favorite findings. Seriously, how cute is this kangaroo?

Sausage Sizzling, Compulsory Voting & "Ice" Skating

This past Saturday was our first "lazy" Saturday at home in several weeks and we were looking forward to doing nothing specific. For Australian citizens 18 years and older it was election day. Coming from the U.S. it was strange for elections to be on a Saturday, but then I learned that voting here is compulsory. If you don't vote you'll be hit with a $20 fine. As someone else explained it to me in Australian terms - that's about five takeaway coffees, so why would you even consider not voting?!

While I don't want to get into the whole conversation as to whether compulsory or non-compulsory voting is better, I did find what I consider better about the Australian voting tradition: the sausage sizzle. Evidently some time ago a brilliant entrepreneurial mind clearly was looking for ways to capitalize on the lines of people waiting to vote and decided it was a great opportunity to host a sausage sizzle and raise some money. Since most polling places are either schools or other non-profit locations like churches it was possible to find sausage sizzles all over this city raising money for various organizations. And no need to look too hard, there is actually a Sausage Sizzle and Cake Stall Map online. You heard me right. And get this, if you haven't gotten enough voting in on the day, then you can continue the fun and vote for your favorite location!

The "official" map - I'm still wondering how many people made it to the sausage sizzle in Sri Lanka...

Vote for your favorite!

So even if we couldn't vote, we went out in support of a local sausage sizzle at Emma's most likely future primary school. As soon as we got out of the car we got hit with last minute political paraphernalia - a bit more aggressive and certainly closer to the polling location than is allowed back in the U.S. We must have looked like the people that really didn't care as we wove our way through them just to locate the good smelling food!

Approaching the polling location.

Lines for voting and sausage sizzling!

Amply full of sausages and cakes we sought out a free ice skating location we heard about in the area to burn off a few calories. Seeing how it is winter here, quite a few locations have popped up. However, keeping in mind that the weather is still relatively mild many of the skate locations are not actually ice, but instead a synthetic ice surface made of interlocking panels. Emma has been asking to go ice skating, so we thought the small synthetic ice rink at a local mall might be a good one to try first and see if she likes it before we try one of the larger outdoor spots (there is one in Hyde Park that is real ice we would like to try, or perhaps we will test out the outdoor rink on Bondi Beach!).

Dad just wore booties on his shoes and Emma hung on dearly!

Steve took Emma out on the even smaller than expected rink. I am honestly not sure if she cared much about actually skating or just wanted to act goofy and fall down and get covered in the fake snow, in other words getting sprayed with soapy bubbles. Either way, she had a great time.

Waiting to get "snowed" on!

Emma didn't seem to mind falling down, perhaps she even preferred it!

One of the great parts about living in another country is taking part in the unique traditions that you would likely never encounter as a tourist. In Switzerland one of my favorites was Sechselauten (aka - burning a giant wood snowman until it's head explodes). I think we checked an Australian one off the list this weekend with the sausage sizzle. However, we missed out on playing two-up this year on Anzac Day, perhaps we'll have to put that one on the list for next year!

Happy ice skater!

Happy Birthday to Emma!

Our little girl is four. Our free spirited, strong willed, princess loving little girl is four. God has richly blessed us with Emma and he has also richly challenged us with her. There is rarely a quiet moment with this one (unless she's using her ninja skills to crawl into bed with us). When she doesn't have a question to ask, a comment or smart remark to make she can be caught narrating her day. It is amazing to watch her grow in every which way and it is so hard to believe how big she is getting. She will be starting preschool soon and she'll be starting kindergarten before we know it. She strives most days to keep up with the big kids, but she also loves being the hand-holding, hug giving, teacher to the younger children and especially to her little sister. I can't wait to see where life takes her. While I pray for patience daily when it comes to parenting her these days, I see God using Emma to teach me patience everyday as well. There are so many lessons to be learned from a child and Emma demonstrates many of them brilliantly. I could not be more thankful for this forgiving, resilient, curious girl.

In honor of her fourth birthday I'm also giving a look back at her third birthday, which never made it on the blog last year. Not surprisingly to those who know her best, she asked for a princess party both years and I obliged...

The requests for birthdays 3 & 4 were quite similar - princess balloons, rainbow flowers and lots of Anna & Elsa!

The little princess protecting her gifts...

Prepping all of the princess garb to give to her friends upon arrival.

Bubbles and a princess bounce house.

Bouncing princess.

One of the most fun and easiest cakes I have ever made!

Nothing's sweeter than a bunch of little kiddos singing Happy Birthday...

Opening gifts with Grandma Souders.

How we miss our other sweet girl.

Princess Elsa with Grandma Jones.

Cheesing with Grandpa Jones.

Birthday #3 was pretty special with all of Emma's grandparents.

Last family photo in our south city house. Loved that place.

And birthday #4 in Sydney...

One has to practice being a birthday princess a few days prior to the big day.

Twas the night before her birthday and mom and dad let her open her gift early...

While one of us was up early getting ready for the party, the others slept...

Every good princess needs good princess food - magic wands.

Rapunzel bread braids.

Crown sandwiches.

Cinderella's pumpkin carriages.

Initially Emma wanted me to make her cake, but then she remembered the Frozen cake at the grocery store. I could have gotten off the hook easy, but making this one was too fun, so we just had both instead!

Elsa even came to paint faces & make balloons!

One happy rainbow butterfly was the trendsetter of the party.

Emma used to have a summer birthday, now it's a winter birthday. Luckily we still had a beautiful (albeit slightly cold) day at the scooter park. 

We at least tried to get a family photo amidst the chaos.

Birthday cake was served and for about three minutes all the children were quiet and still. 

We had a full afternoon after her morning party - and riding the ferris wheel at Darling Harbour was a top priority for Emma.

Views over Darling Harbour from the top.

One happy princess post ear piercing, bus card buying (she's been waiting since the day we got here to turn four and get her own card), and riding the ferris wheel with daddy.

Safe to say the day wore her out. In fact, it wore ALL of us out.