William Josef (Will)

I wanted to make a special post to introduce our new nephew: William Josef (Will for short). My sister-in-law, Veronica, delivered him on 8/7/11 and he weighed in at 8lbs, 6oz. He is perfection.

As I wrote about before, this birth is very special to us because Veronica and I were going through infertility treatments around the same time. We emailed back and forth about the unfairness of it all, how everyone and their mother seemed pregnant, how we were pissed off and scared and unsure of what to do next. Veronica was a life-line for me in a lot of ways. She helped me to feel not so lonely during all my treatments...and that support was invaluable. Because of her, I felt so much less isolated. I didn't feel as much like a "freak" because I knew it was not just me. I learned through this that support is a much needed entity, no matter what your situation, no matter what you are going through. Find support! Find people who are in (or have been in) the same boat!

My (previous) infertility journey ended in May 2009, when I became pregnant with Alexandra through injections and IUI. Unfortunately, Veronica's journey continued much longer: through 5 rounds of IVF until she became pregnant in November 2010. But alas, Will is here and healthy.Thank God for modern technology/medicine, for bringing another healthy baby into the world who probably wouldn't have had the chance to be born otherwise....

So, without further adieu, here is little Will:

 Veronica, 39 weeks pregnant and outside her brand new house!

 At the hospital to see little Will...Alex is not so sure about her cousin at first...

 William Josef

 Already, Alex is stealing his toys (that pony was in the bassinet)

 Little man <3

Love this pic of Will...and of Alex sticking her little fingers through the holes of the bassinet to touch him <3

The new family of three!

Second Stop...Yeppoon.

Our second stop after Brisbane was Yeppoon. This is where Dan grew up and where his parents and one younger sister live. And this is where we stayed for the remainder of the vacation. Yeppoon is a beautiful coastal town, I miss it already! And now for some pics recounting our time there...this is only a few of the almost 300 taken...

 Dan and Alex with Babi and Deda (Dan's Czech grandparents)

 Alex playing with Kiki...Babi and Deda's dog

 Babi and Deda's back yard

 

 Babi and Deda's house on the beach

 One Aussie neighborhood

 Alex with her deda (grandfather)

 Dan, Alex and Auntie Genevieve (Dan's youngest sister)

 Helping nana make cookies

 Having a picnic at Emu Park with Veronica, Dan's younger sister. This was the day before Veronica went in to be induced

 We found a nice playground right by the ocean

 Nana helping Alex balance

 Auntie Genevieve helping Alex

 Walking to the beach from the house...not bad, eh?

 Yeppoon beaches are gorgeous!

 No one around for miles...this is how a lot of Aussie beaches are. And you can drive on them!

 A view of part of Yeppoon

 Downtown Yeppoon...can you see why I miss it?

 Dan and his father

 Alex helping her deda blow out his birthday candles

 Deda with his two grandkids on his birthday

 Family pic

 Seeing the dingo at Cooberrie Park

 Little cousin, Will, meeting a 'roo for the first time

 Feeding the joey

 hugging the joey

 Dinner party

Playing back at the house

And Our First Stop...

Our first stop, once on Aussie soil, was in Brisbane for the weekend. Dan and I went to school at Bond University on the Gold Coast. However, after graduation, he moved to Brisbane with a bunch of friends (an hour north of the GC). Many of his friends from Uni still live there, so we made that a stop to see everyone.

We had a wonderful time...it was awesome catching up with everyone. Dan's friends are great (and tons of fun) and I have become good friends with them too. Heck, a bunch of his mates came over for our wedding seven years ago (about six of them). That's a long and expensive trip. It kind of shows you how great these guys are.

We ended up having a big barbecue on Saturday that lasted all day and well into the night...and into the morning as well. It was interesting to see his once rowdy friends beginning to settle down in steady relationships (and there were even some who were married and had kids). I had quite a bit of Bundaberg rum. Probably a little too much. But what the heck! It was the start of our vacation ;)

 The BBQ

 Alex hanging out with Mia

 Vicki and Mia (Ben, Vicki's husband, was one of the guys who came over for our wedding and was an usher)

 Dan with Jon and Adam...both good friends who came over for our wedding

 Candid shot

 

 Vicki and Cara...we stayed with Jon and Cara (Jon's wife)

 

 Adam with his wife and older son

Jon (Dan's best friend from Australia) and Cara...we stayed with them in Brisbane

Traveling with a Toddler...

Ok, I'll start my Aussie pictorial here. With travel.  Before we left, I had a sneaking suspicion that traveling last year (with a six month old) had been far easier than traveling with a toddler (18 monther) this year. Oh yeah, I was so right.

Don't get me wrong. It was not a horrible experience. It was about half enjoyable and half stressful, with only one really *nasty* meltdown thrown in to keep us on our toes. Now there were things that were easier this time around, since Alex is older. Things like not having to deal with bottles and formula and bottle drop-ins and bibs and spit up. Yes, not having to deal with those things was nice! Here's to hoping that next year, we won't have to deal with diapers!

But of course, this time we were presented with new challenges such as: having a toddler who wants to run *everywhere* in crowded airports, having a toddler who does not understand why she has to sit on so many (and such long) airplane rides, having a toddler who is *just* starting the tantrum stage, and having a toddler who sometimes gets so overstimulated and exhausted-but just cannot sleep-so screams. So those were some of our challenges.

And honestly, Alexandra did extremely well for the most part. Given her age and the amount of travel it took to get to and from Australia, I'd say she did exceptionally well. We had a few minor melt-downs and tantrums, but only one big one. This was the mother of all meltdowns and occurred when we were at LAX waiting for our flight to Brisbane. It was about 1am eastern time and the airport was loud and bright and my poor little monkey was exhausted. But because of all the action around, she could not fall asleep. You can imagine what happened next. IT was loud; IT was ugly. I was a little worried that we would be escorted out of the airport because of the commotion. But by that point, we just felt so bad for her that we were doing everything we could to try to make her comfortable (and to get her to fall asleep).

And parts of the travel were very fun. Alex loved playing "hide n seek" with the people in the row behind us, she loved watching the planes out the windows and jabbering at them, she loved being able to run around (with me running after her). So yes, half stressful, half fun....but I will say that I am glad the travel part of the trip is over with until next summer. Going to Florida in February will be a walk in the park compared to this! Ok, so I promised less words and more pictures...oops....so here are some travel pics:

 Now this is the way to travel! The Go-Go Babyz wheels for car seats are awesome...I highly recommend!

 Having some juice, waiting for the first of four flights to get to Australia

 How we passed the time: running from chair to chair playing some variation on musical chairs ;)

 Alex LOVED watching all the planes

 Finally on board and settling in

On the flight from LA to Brisbane. That tablet was the best. buy. ever. It had all her episodes of Olivia and Fresh Beat Band (her two current faves). It was a life-saver, really....

Back in the States!

That's right. We're back home! After four weeks visiting family in the Land Down Undah, we arrived home last night about 10 pm. After the 36+ hour trip to get home, we pretty much crashed. Poor Alex was beside herself with fatigue. Lets just say, the last flight home (which was thankfully only an hour and 20 minutes) was a little bit ugly. As my mother in-law would say, Alex "chucked a wobbly" (better known in the states as "throwing a tantrum"). And who could blame her? We'd been traveling about 35 hours at that point. Honestly, there were times that I just wanted to sit in the middle of the terminal and cry (or scream). I swear, air travel seems a lot more stressful now than it used to be...

Anyway-we had an amazing time! We had a lot of quality family time and we did a lot of relaxing. Rather than talk about all that we did, I'll do some pictorials of sorts (that will probably be less boring) in the next few days. There was a lot of beach time, a lot of family dinners, seeing the 'roos/koalas/snakes, bonding with my new and perfect little nephew, taking a trip to Mackay, having a stay in Brisbane....we did a lot for four weeks! It was also wonderful seeing Alex there, interacting with her Aussie side of the family. Last year, when we made this trip, she was only six months old. This year, she was jabbering away to everyone and exploring. And actually having relationships with people. It was neat to see <3

So it's nice to be home, back in our own space, on our own schedule. But I have to say that we are missing everyone in Oz like crazy. That's always the downside to this trip, having to leave and to not see most of the family (except Dan's parents, who usually come out in the winter or spring) for a year. So yes, it's nice to be home...but the house seems especially quiet without a bunch of people being around, running in and out. It will take a few days of adjustment, but we have a lot, and I mean A LOT of unpacking to do. Not to mention grocery shopping and all that fun stuff. Pictures to come!