Winter Holiday in Melbourne--week 1~

Recently Stan has been assigned to consult for a project in Melbourne for 4 months. He goes down Monday through Thursday and then fly's back to work in Sydney on Friday. We see him on the weekends and this break (we get two weeks off of school every ten weeks), we were able to fly down to Melbourne to spend the break with Stan in Melbourne. Unlike PwC, Bain flew the whole family down and then put us all up in some serviced apartments so we could cook and have more flexibility than a regular hotel room. Our apartment was right in the heart of the city. And we were one block away from the city circle (tourist tram) which would take us around the city for free! We visited everything you could think of... Here are a few pictures--about 300+ are on Facebook if you want more!

Reading the in-flight emergency procedures! Go Thomas!

The tram/ City Circle!

Thomas loving the tram!

Saint Patrick's Cathedral below!

reminded me of England just a bit!

After I took this picture the kids were mobbed by a Chinese tourist group who did a 5- 10 minute photo session--Seriously, see pictures below!

Touring the parliament building

Flinders station!

Federation square playground, by the Yarra River and the circus behind us!

Melbourne Aquarium

Saint Paul's Cathedral

A really amazing wood carving

Olivia wanted to light a candle. I told her that she had to donate money and think of someone who needed help. I said maybe she could think of herself so she could start growing and she said, "no--I want to light a candle for Millie." Millie is her friend from Oxford who has cancer.

China Town!

The AFL (Rugby) stadium

Federation square

Old treasury building

Melbourne Museum!

Olivia has been talking about seeing King Tut for MONTHS!

Street performers

On our way to the police museum in the world trade center (melbourne)

A petting zoo in the docklands!f

A playground with snow--laughing at the sand toys thrown in ...how does snow come out of a water pitcher?

Complete with a snow machine

End of term and first semester!

At the end of term the kids get to do something on the last day of school. This year it was crazy hair day... The girls loved it!

In addition, since it was also the end of the first semester (half way through the school year) we had an open day; where the parents could come into the classroom and observe. The girls were very excited to show me what they had been up too and the teachers also did Parent/ Teacher interviews which went well for both girls!

Mary with her best-y (as they would say it here in Oz)

Mary's teacher, Mrs. Stephenson

Miss Mary showing me her work!

Mary showing me some of her art work

Olivia with her Teacher Miss Rigney (year 2)

Olivia showing me her work!

doing math on the smart board, basically like a giant I-Pad chalk board.

Olivia getting to ring the school bell for recess to end!

This year Thomas has started swimming lessons! He started at 2....got kicked out for crying and then started up again at 2 1/2. He has now been in lessons for 6 months and while we originally thought he was a prodigy...because he was paddling around at 18 months without assistance, we have now learned that his audacity is completely dependent on his mum! The term before we had to leave the lesson early because he saw kids jumping off the diving board which gave him quite a fright! This term (terms are 10 weeks) I was surprised to see him not only swim to the deep end where the diving board is, but after getting thrown off the diving board about 6 times he actually jumped himself the last time!....which I didn't get on film. Here is some footage and pictures--enjoy!

4th of July in Sydney....

This year for the 4th of July, we celebrated with the American Society at the City Hotel (on the 2nd--as it was a Saturday)! It was rented out and decorated with every random American thing you can imagine...lots of Las Vegas stuff, a random statue of liberty, sports teams paraphernalia etc... All the American abroad clubs had booths. There was one for the US soldiers; each person would write on a post card a message of appreciation and then they would mail it to an injured soldier. The democrats abroad had their usual cut-outs of Obama everywhere--there are no republicans abroad :-)

Upstairs there were games and coloring activities for the kids. There was also a guy dressed up as Uncle Sam, who would give the kids candy! The club had classic US movies playing all over the hotel--first it was Top Gun, then Independence Day etc... I won $150.00 worth of beer for winning part 1 in the trivia contest!! There were fire works in Darling Harbour at 8:00 which we didn't stay for as the hotel turned up the heat around 7:00 and families with kids were invited to leave....the party started at 4:00. We went with another family who was happy to take the beer--apparently it was an American beer company so everyone was really excited.

The next day we flew to Melbourne for the winter holiday break (2 weeks). When Monday rolled around we celebrated again with our Melbourne friends from Montana (Candace and Wes Anderson). They had us over for dinner and Candace even bought a gift for each kid! The kids were pretty excited, and we got to wear our American t-shirts all over again!! So proud to be an American! Happy 4th everyone!

Back to square one?

So a few weeks ago we were back at the hospital meeting with Olivia's gastroentologist. We have been seeing him for over a year, he originally discovered how she is all clogged up and has had her on a laxative for over a year now. She is mostly cleared out now and has put on some weight but has hardly grown in height. I showed him her blood tests --indicating celiac disease and asked him about the biopsy my GP requested. We ended up having a conversation that went something like this.

Doctor: "Why did you even get this test done?" looking at the results....

Me: "Because Olivia's not growing and the GP was worried that progress wasn't being made."

Doctor: I hate this pathology center, they test everything correctly except celiac serontology. I am going to order a new blood test and analyse it myself and it WILL come back negative.

Me (thinking): why get a blood test if you have already decided what the outcome will be?

Doctor: If I had to do a biopsy on every positive celiac blood test I would never get to go home at 5:00

Me (thinking): well, I do pay you $400+ for one visit, you are the #1 at this posh private hospital in Sydney, so maybe a few late nights wouldn't kill you.

I finished up with him and then we went and got some more blood tests. He said he would call with the results in 3 weeks and if it was negative he would not see us again until 6 months. I figured since he already decided it would come back negative that I would start back at square one and go see an pediatric endocrinologist (dr.s who help kids grow). I haven't taken Olivia off of gluten yet, as we need her to eat it in order to get accurate tests for both her blood work and also for her biopsy. If the doctor won't do a biopsy then I might go gluten free without his consent. My grandparents sent me a book about going gluten free and Olivia fits all the typical symptoms to a T. In addition, after doing some homework, we discovered that her grandma has also tested positive for celiac disease, and her other grandma is allergic to yeast so --whether it is an allergic reaction to yeast or gluten we can hedge our bets by getting rid of the same food.

Overall, this might just be a smaller piece to the puzzle...I was kind of hoping it was the finally piece!

School pictures!

We are half way through the school year, and it is time for school pictures! Below are the girls, their class and some fun facts about how they are doing!

Mary-Adelle Swinton (Kindergarten)

Mary is in Mrs. Stephensons class, and her best friend is Georgie. Georgie is from Fiji and she is two girls to the left (girl with bangs). Mary is fantastic at reading and pretty average with math. She is again the tallest girl in her class and also one of the oldest. The cut off date is July and Mary is a September birthday. Mary still loves her dad (the most) but has warmed up to her mom a little bit more this year than previously!

Olivia Sue Swinton (Second grade)

Olivia is in Ms. Rigneys class. There were two year two classes this year and she was put in the one with the girls; the other one is all boys. Total there are 40 boys in year 2 and 11 girls at the infants school (Kindy--year 2)...which makes for a lot of drama regarding who likes who, love notes, and apparently engagement rings. Olivia had a boy bring her a ring at school. His mum said he spent his own money on it. Olivia was thrilled and immediately asked him, "is this a wedding ring- or an engagement ring?" He said...."NOT wedding- so I guess engagement!" I asked Olivia what an engagement ring was and she said "a best friends ring- Duh!" The kid had his bases covered because he handed another girl a ring 5 minutes later (Olivia's best friend)....they have agreed to share him which I find odd with 40 boys to pick from.

Aside from recess drama, Olivia does well in school. Highest reading group and first one to learn her multiplication tables. (0, 1,2, 5, & 10's). Still not sure which school to send her too for next year! Still doing heaps of school orientations, wait lists and school tours! She is still small but working hard to find answers to her failure to thrive!

Moving to New Delhi?

GUESS WHAT! Stan's company asked him if we wanted to do a project in New Delhi (India) in three weeks (for 6 months). He said YES, but soon found out that he needed more time at Bain (must have been at the company for 6 months min) so it was suggested that the dates to start be pushed back until January- June. We said YES to that too but nothing has been set in stone so we will see what happens. Overall the later dates work better because there would be a lot of things to do and such as:

• Get immunizations (6-8 weeks)--kids need shots in half doses!
• Let the kids finish the school year (especially since we are half way through school and India has an American school calendar year so we would miss out until September)
• Get Olivia's biopsy results and figure out how to eat gluten free etc...
• Go on all our trips we already have tickets for (Deep creek- USA, Melbourne Cup-New Zealand)--that would be a pain $$ to change!
• To be around for everyone who has tickets to Oz to see Olivia get baptized in the ocean etc...

Plus, who wants to show up in New Delhi in July?....120 F....

I have started looking up cool things to do and these are a few that came up on the list!

(1) Desert camping --ride the camel, and camp for 5 days....but it is posh camping--the tents are like Harry potter tents (lots of rooms) made out of bright fabric and the tour guides do all the cooking and stuff!

(2) Nepal... Himalayas... gorgeous!!!

(3) Taj-mahal...plus all the other cool temples....!

Just getting started if you know of any other cool things to do--let me know! I in the meantime will be renting all the bollywood films and watching with an open mind ....thank goodness people don't base their assumptions of America on Hollywood hu!

Thomas....

How I spend my days with Thomas.... so glad the other two are in school!

why wipe when you can eat the toilet paper?

Peanut butter....don't worry!

Getting a snack while I take a shower