Daddy's Home!!

Well, Jessy is back, but since it’s almost 11:00 and he’s not up yet, I’ll do the diary once more. Of course, I’ll be happy to do it because we are SO happy that Jessy is home. Hunter stopped wandering around the house saying, “Where Daddy?” and running to the door if anyone knocked after about two days. Collin was very forlorn and always “missed Dad.” Savannah knew what waiting a week meant, but she still said she wished he didn’t have to go. We were very happy to pick him up yesterday morning from the bus stop after he flew for about 23 hours again. He distributed his presents, which included an Eiffel tower replica and drawing, rugby footies, airplanes, Polish pottery, amber jewelry, a Hard Rock Café t-shirt, and a Polish soccer scarf (for himself, of course). The presents are great and we were so excited to have Dad back, but all he wanted to do was sleep. So, he slept the morning away, I woke him up to get ready for church and thought he was up and at ‘em, but when I went up there about 20 minutes before we had to go, I found that he was completely out—I don’t think he even remembers me waking him up. He only nodded off a few times in church, and did well to go to youth firesides in the evening. Hopefully after the monster sleep he’s having now, he’ll be recovered.

Well, it’s the most beautiful time of the year here in Australia (at least in my opinion). Everything is beautiful and green (water restrictions aren’t in force yet!), and the trees are the most amazing colors! I love seeing the dark purple trees, the red bottlebrush trees, the yellow flowery trees, and of course the white blossoms (all scientific names, of course). There are flowers all over (these weeds they call sour sobs, that are like mini-daffodils are everywhere and they’re so pretty!), and the birds are going crazy with all their singing (even in the middle of the night—I think sometimes the cockatoos fall out of trees)!! Of course, there are not-so-pleasant things coming out of winter hibernation, too, like the ants, spiders (I have to clean the webs off the clothes line before I can hang clothes each week), millipedes and centipedes. Jessy will have to spray this weekend around the house, but I have to admit that we haven’t had nearly as many ants and daddy long legs as last year—maybe because I’ve got cans of Mortein under all the bathroom cabinets and am not afraid to use it! We’ve actually had rain this year, and it’s made our yard look great!

As for the kids, Hunter and Collin were playing while Savannah was at tennis. Of course, they found the only puddle on the courts and, by the end of the lesson, were completely soaked from their knees down and wrists up. It wasn’t so bad (at least they hadn’t fallen into the pool!), until Hunter started sucking the water from his sleeve on the way home. Anything for food or drink!! Speaking of which, Hunter said his first sentence this week, “Cordial…cordial…I want cordial.” (For those who don’t know what cordial is, it’s a syrup to make punch.) He’s also showing me how he’s picking up things from the TV—whenever he hears the “Bob, the Builder” theme song he puts his two pointer fingers up and starts dancing; when he hears the “Little Einsteins” song, he runs into the living room and starts patting his legs (that’s what they do in the show); and whenever Mickey Mouse says “Oh TOOLS!” (or is it toodles?), Hunter answers by repeating “Oh, TOOLS!” He doesn’t sit around and watch it much, but since the other kids have the TV on a lot he is picking it up. He didn’t want to stay at nursery yesterday (darn), but he liked it—just while one of us was there with him. He’s a cutie, who is always humming and singing and trying to get us to laugh, but I can’t get over the amount of mischief he makes!! He is unlike any child I’ve ever known, except maybe Dennis the Menace. He isn’t hyper or anything, and seems quite mellow, but he just does everything he shouldn’t. If he gets a hold of markers, crayons, whatever, he has to write on walls (and the paint here doesn’t exactly wash up well—even the washable markers don’t come all the way off!). He turns the switches on all the outlets and tries to stick things in them. He climbs up on the kitchen table and dances or knocks down flower vases or tips over the gravy boat. He unrolls every roll of toilet paper, aluminum foil, wax paper, or paper towels he can get his hands on. He loves to run with sharp objects in his hands. He climbs up to the computer and deletes whatever is up and resets the desktop and basically does whatever he can to mess it up. If he gets his hands on scissors, he tries to cut his hair. He eats out of the garbage and loves to suck toothpaste from the tube. He tries to climb into the dishwasher and clothes drier every time they’re open. Whenever he gets a drink bottle, he has to take off the lid and stick it in his mouth and run away from whoever tries to take it out. The other kids have done some of these things, but they usually stopped doing it after I got mad at them once or twice, but this kid is seriously a repeat offender!! I just hope he lives to see his second birthday.

Collin has been melancholy this week, missing his dad. He did enjoy kindy, where they had some chicken eggs in an incubator and he got to see one hatch. He also likes going over to his friend Hinckley’s house, where Holly babysits him and Hunter on Wednesdays. After we got home this week, I got this email from Holly called “Overheard Conversation.” It said:

Collin: "Hinckley, don't sing! I'm golfing!"

Hinckley: "But I like to sing songs about Jesus"

Collin: "Oh yeah, well I like to sing songs about Star Wars!"

He is very Napolean Dynamite. He also came in Saturday saying that the neighbor was a bully. I didn’t get what was going on, so I went out and found that the kids had thrown a stick over into the neighbor’s yard and then they were yelling things at him like “Give us back our stick” and “Why don’t you say something?” When he said, “No,” Collin came in to say he was a bully.

Savannah was a good helper while Dad was away. She did get sick this week, which is very unusual for her. We had a big argument over her staying home from school Friday, but she didn’t understand why she should stay home when she wasn’t puking, just sneezing and coughing. She ended up going to school because I didn’t want to have to find 1000 ways to tell her why she should stay home, which is what she would have demanded all day Friday. On Thursday at netball, she wasn’t feeling well, but she still did a great job defending a 7-year-old giant. She managed to get a few steals, and did well at getting open to receive passes. Leanne (her coach and Collin’s kindy teacher), asked if she could keep her when we move back to America so she can train her up to be a Thunderbird (pro netball team here in Adelaide). Savannah’s also very excited about her showbag that some friends brought me and the kids. (The Royal Adelaide Show is a very expensive, very hyped-up equivalent to a state fair. Almost everyone goes, but since it costs $45 for our family to get in plus $10 parking plus $7 per ride plus whatever you want to eat or drink plus your “showbag”, and since I had the three kiddos by myself last week, I didn’t really want to go! So our friends got us our own showbags—the kids are in heaven with their candy showbags!)

Last but not least, and maybe the reason that Jessy slept in so late this morning, is that we bought our tickets to get home in October. I made him stay up until midnight to get them. I was nervous to buy it myself, since you have to coordinate all the dates and times, which is tricky with the international dateline. So I foolishly waited until Jessy was home and it was way more expensive than it would have been. However, it is going to be a miracle if we make it in one piece with all our luggage. Collin likes to know what the planes look like that we travel on, so he’s very excited to know we’ll be traveling on 6 different “brands” of planes on that trip! It’ll be worth it to be there and see everyone, though!