A Day in the Life

Kate, Neale and Charlotte have settled into a nice routine now that Neale is temporarily not a road warrior and Charlotte is back to her energetic self. It goes a little something like this:


5:35am: Kate awake and walks to gym with neighbor, Neale might roll over, usually not.


6:00am: Kate arrives at gym, Neale and Charlotte dream of delicious cupcakes


7:00am: Kate leaves gym arrives home shortly after. Charlotte wakes and whimpers "Mama, mama, mama" until mom arrives home. Neale feels sad because Charlotte never says "daddy" in the morning. Mama and Charlotte have a pretty special bond.


7:15 am: Neale leaves for his run, usually tires in 3 minutes and hits Cibo for a flat white. Splashes water on his face and pants heavily when arrives home 20mins later. Sometimes he walks briskly. Charlotte and Kate have breakfast. Kate has coffee ready. Neale likes caffeine.


8:15am Charlotte watches "Shaun the Sheep" yells "baaa, baaa" during entire show. Neale leaves for work, usually walks and grabs another coffee on the way. Kate settles into Oprah and bon bons. Kate hits Neale in the shoulder as he types this.


8:30: Neale arrives at work. Charlotte watches Diego, Kate gets ready for the day's activity (Monday - swimming, Tuesday - Playgroup, Wednesday - Montessori, Thursday - Kindergym, Friday - more bon bons - ouch, stop hitting, Kate).



9:15 am: Kate and Charlotte leave for their activity. Neale slaves away in sea-side office.

12:00pm: Kate and Charlotte pick Neale up at his sea-side office and head home for lunch. Charlotte either eats, or doesn't, and is down for a big nap by 12:30 or 1 pm.


1:00pm: Neale goes back to work. Kate cleans up and starts chores, which include watching Oprah from 1-2pm. Chores also include, washing Neale's clothes, dishes, dirty sink he has left behind, and putting his clutter back in a place that Neale can never seem to find. Time spent cleaning up after Charlotte: 6-7 minutes. Time spent cleaning up after Neale: 1-2 hours.


3:00pm-ish: Charlotte wakes up, often announces that she has to "poo". Has a snack and then has aforementioned poo. Neale gets up from his desk, announces he has to"visit the facilities" and then does so.



3:30pm-5:30pm: Kate and Charlotte play, colour, read books and sometimes go to the beach or park (weather permitting). Dinner preparations commence around 5:30pm, just before Neale gets home. Neale slaves away in sea-side office as sun reflects off the ocean and dolphins play, often jumping out of the ocean waving to to Neale saying "G'day Neale"


6:00pm: Neale arrives home; the Sendeckis dine. Kate asks Neale to refer to her as "Master chef" during the meal.


6;30pm -7:15pm: play time, which sometimes includes a trip to the beach or a walk. Other times includes playing Dora memory game. Charlotte always wins. Kate, a close 2nd, Neale, a distant third.


7:15 pm: Charlotte has a bath. Sometimes a cheery experience, sometimes not. Neale has a bath - sometime a cheery experience, most of the time not.


8:00pm: Charlotte says "nigh nigh". Kate and Neale retire to the couch to watch out-dated North American programs on cable TV. Sometimes a movie. Neale tells Kate how his day went, Kate puches Neale in the face, saying "Shut up, I'm watching Australian Idol (mondays), Australia's Got Talent (Tuesday), Top Chef (Wednesdays), Americas Next top Model (thursdays) and Two and Half men (Fridays). Neale cries.


10:00 pm: Kate and Neale go to bed, and get ready for the whole thing to start all over again . . .

Cool dudes and Zoos.

February is half gone and we are excited to have many family members coming to visit us over the next few months. After a short stint of weather dipping down to about 20 celsius, we are back up over 30 and it is suppose to stay like this for a few weeks. We ventured out to the Monarto Zoo on Sunday which is about a 30 minute drive fom our home in Glenelg. As Charlotte fell asleep mere minutes into our adventure, we took the back roads through the hills which extended the journey to about an hour. We saw Lions, African Dogs, G'rafs, Rhinocerouses, Hyenas and many others. It is an interesting design as you drive into the main platform and then take buses over many miles to see the different platforms that give widespread views of the animals exhibits. Charlotte was a trooper as even though she was not that excited by the animals, she found ways to entertain herself while in the pack on mommy's back or walking around the carnivore Platform (dogs, lions, hyenas). She really enjoyed playing with the dehydrated lion (see below).

We had our own personal guide at the carnivore exhibit as we were the only people on the platform. He was a terrific bloke and we all learned a lot. Sidenote: Did you know that African dogs recognize when members of their pack are ill or old and take care of them accordingly. Day to day - African Dogs never cease to amaze me.

Time really seems to be flying as we are fast approaching the half way point in our Australian Adventure. Looking forward to our visitors and seeing more of this beautiful country.

See ya later cool dudes.

Neale

Now it is cool

The weather has finally sorted itself out and it has been reasonably cool for the past couple days - good thing, since it was making us all a little crazy. Over two weeks with temperatures around 40C -- too hot! Charlotte often cooled off by climbing under her table and resting her head on the chilly tiled floor.

A lot of people have been contacting us asking about the fires in Victoria - it is being called Australia's worst natural disaster ever. Luckily, we're about 900 km away from the area the fires are in, so we're not really affected by it, other than that our hearts go out to those who have lost so much. Now the government has announced that they believe the fires were started by arsonists, which is so, so sad and disappointing.

Things have been relatively quiet lately as Charlotte is sick (yes, again). She's had a tummy bug for almost a week and it has really taken the wind out of her sails. She sleeps a lot, and when she's awake she's whiney and uncomfortable. Poor little thing. We thought she was on the mend, but then yesterday and today she's had a fever, so who knows what's going on in that wee little body. We had to skip Montessori today, and we missed our first swimming class on Monday. Hoping to be able to take her to Kindergym tomorrow, but we'll see.

I joined a gym just down the beach from our place. I've been going from 6-7 in the morning with our Canadian neighbor, Melissa. I really like the concept that they have going at this particular gym - the trainers who work there provide a new workout everyday, and the idea is that members follow the work out that is posted on a whiteboard. You do it at your own pace, and it ensures you work your entire body and exercises are rarely repeated day-to-day. It's especially good for someone like me who can easily get in to a rut at the gym when left to my own devices. There is so much variety in the workouts I've done so far that I think I'll find it hard, if not impossible, to get in to a rut! It works out for both Neale and I, because as soon as I get home from the gym in the morning, he gets up and goes for a run - we both have our workouts in before Charlotte even wakes up!

We're thinking of going away this weekend - leaving on Saturday after Neale's baseball game and driving north to either Port Augusta or the Yorke Peninsula. Either way, we'll spend the night somewhere and head back to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon. Now that the weather has cooled off, these kinds of trips are much more appealing. Will post more about our weekend once it's come and gone. Happy Valentine's Day!

Neale and Charlotte colouring at her new table. She like to have company when sitting at her table, so for those of you coming to visit, be prepared . . .

Click on this photo to enlarge it, and if you squint and use your imagination, you can see the dorsal fin of a dolphin just to the right of the pole out in the water. They are much easier to see in person, I promise.

+44 C

Hi Everyone! It's been a while since we've updated the blog - the big trip home and back, and the recoveries on either end of the trip have meant there hasn't been a lot of time to sit down and post something.

We've settled back in to our routine here in Adelaide - Charlotte and I went to Montessori this morning and it was like Charlotte never left. She got right back in to the swing of things very easily. We weren't able to play outside like usual today, though, because of the heat. It was 37C by 8:30 this morning, and over 40C by 11 this morning. Crazy!

Last weekend was a long weekend (Australia Day was Monday) and we took it upon ourselves to do a little exploring. After all, many of you are coming to see us over the next few months, so we are of the mind that we need to get to know our surroundings a little better so we can show it off when you're here.

We were up early Saturday and decided to take advantage of that and head out on a little road trip to the southern beaches along the Gulf St. Vincent coast. After navigating our way out of Adelaide, we ended up along a gorgeous stretch of coastline with very impressive beaches, cliffs and views (see above). On 4 different occasions during our little road trip we came across the Tour Down Under. Unbeknownst to us, we were cutting a path right through their cycling route. We were lucky enough to catch very fleeting glances of Lance Armstrong (I think he's somewhere in the picture below, but I don't know which one is him). Even though he wasn't the winner, we were happy to see him, mostly because I don't think either of us could name another famous cyclist . . .

By the time Sunday rolled around, the heat was upon us, and there's no sign of it ending. The weekend forecast has LOWS of 30C. Luckily we've been invited to a barbecue at a friend's house on Friday. They have a pool. You're probably thinking, "well, how bad can it be when you live at the beach?", which is true, but honestly, it is too hot to be out at the beach for any length of time, especially with Charlotte. If she was content staying in the water with her hat on, it may be OK, but she prefers to run around on the sand and fling her hat off, which isn't the best thing to do in this kind of weather.

We'll post more soon, including some pictures of our trip home over Christmas and Josh's wedding!

Coming Home!

We took this photo at the beach right outside our door on Monday at around 5pm. Charlotte found it quite interesting to be buried in the sand.

This will probably be the last post before we head off on our big trip tomorrow morning. We're close to being ready - got new visas today which will allow us to re-enter Australia in January.

We're bracing ourselves for the cold, but figure that we're Saskatchewan natives, so adjusting to the typical December weather shouldn't be too hard on us . . . we hope . . .

Looking forward to coming to a proper Christmas-y setting. It truly doesn't feel like Christmas at all here; very few places are decorated and those that are seem to do it half-heartedly. It doesn't help that the weather has finally started to improve -every degree the temperature increases makes it feel less and less Christmas-y.

I'm interested to see what Charlotte will think of Christmas trees and lights - she was too young last year to get much out of them, but this year will be different. I imagine we'll be removing many of the ornaments on the bottom of the tree at Mum's and Dad's houses!

We're all packed up. Ready to head out early tomorrow morning. See you all soon!

Tick . . . tick . . .tick . . .

We're coming home in a week!

Exciting times around the apartment in Glenelg. We're starting to get organized and think about packing. Only 7 sleeps until we make the big trip.

Charlotte seems to be on the mend - the fever has subsided and she is getting back to herself. Still a little irritable, but not nearly as bad as earlier this week.

We're having Jen, Rod and Annika over for dinner tonight, and it's so nice out -I think we'll eat out on the balcony. We've only done that a few times since we've arrived, so it will be a nice treat. Funny to think that the next meal we'll share with Jen and Rod will be at the SO Asher Christmas party next week in Saskatoon.

Eye eye?

As some of you know, Charlotte has been sick again for the past few days. She's been fighting off a fever since Friday and has yet to develop any other symptoms (other than some vague and transient congestion). She has been on antibiotics since Saturday evening, but the fever hasn't really subsided for longer than a few hours, and even then, she almost always needs Tylenol to help bring it down. This morning we discovered that she has three new teeth coming in. Yikes! All of her eye teeth except the upper left side are through the gums. Maybe that has something to do with her being unwell? I'd be surprised if the new teeth were entirely responsible for all she's been dealing with, but I will chalk up some of her irritability and crankiness (see above photos for an idea of how happy she's been lately) to the teeth.

She seems better today than she has since last Thursday, so hopefully she is on the mend. Now that these teeth have broken through her gums, the majority of the discomfort should be over.

I won't be taking her to her playgroup this morning, but I think we'll try for Montessori tomorrow. We might not make it through the whole 2 hours, but I think we'll give it a shot at least for a little while, depending, of course, on how she seems tomorrow morning.

Last week at Montessori. Playing lego outside.

Offering up sand soup at Montessori. She looks a little sick in this picture . . . maybe this was when she started coming down with whatever she has now . . .