The parents took a mini vacation to Cairns to scuba dive The Great Barrier Reef this week which left me to tend to the kids 24/7 in Melbourne Monday-Thursday.
Monday-Wednesday were easy peasy!
Both kids went to bed between 8:30-9:30pm and didn’t wake up until 8:30 or 9am. There weren’t any meltdowns and they were happy as can be.
Who says the life of a parent is hard? Keep the kids to a schedule and boom, the days are easy. I think I mentally over prepared for this.
And then I ate those words bitterly starting at 1am Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Hunter woke up and was inconsolable from 1-2:30am. He cried when I held him. He cried when I put him down. He cried when I sang to him. He cried when I rocked him. He cried when I gave him a bottle. He cried when I changed his diaper. He cried when I turned the lights on. He cried when I turned the lights off.
After trying everything I could think of, I placed him back in his crib to cry it out. Do you know what listening to a screaming child for essentially an hour and a half straight in the middle of the night does to your mental sanity?!
This is like listening to The Song That Never Ends. It’s repetitive and annoying and makes me feel like a crazy person. I think my ears are now bleeding from listening to Hunter. I was more than ready to head back to my quiet apartment when the parents came home at 5:30pm. I kind of feel guilty for being so short and grouchy with the kids today. Maybe they didn’t notice…?
On Friday I was able to meet up with a girl I met in Bali who lives in Melbourne. We saw Beauty and the Beast (amazing!!!), polished off a few bottles of wine (so cheap, yet so delicious), and discussed Australian culture.
Fun facts: Teachers in Australia start out making around $55,000 a year, and will make just shy of $100,000 towards the end of their career.
On Saturday, we said goodbye to Melbourne and flew to Sydney. That night I grabbed a few drinks at a bar just up the street from where we’re staying. After chatting with a fellow customer, I said, “My name is Laura by the way. What’s your name?” He replied, “I’m Aaron.” Without any hesitation, I asked, “And how old are you, Aaron?” in the small child voice.
Oh no! Did I really just ask him that?! This is an adult you’re talking to, Laura, not a small child!!! Take it back… take it back!!!
After apologizing and explaining that I’ve been around children for too long this week, we preceded back into our conversation of sports and Sydney while I used my adult voice again.
I spent today exploring downtown Sydney and checked off the major touristy items:
- Sydney Harbor
- Opera House
- Sydney Harbor Bridge
- Pylon Lookout
- Botanical Gardens
- Darling Harbor
- Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair
I finished the night off with gelato from N2 Extreme Gelato in Newton. They used liquid nitrogen to make their gelato and have very unique flavors (Mashed Potatoes, Hot Chocolate, Prawn and Chips, etc.). Mine even came with a syringe filled with fudge!
My first impression of Sydney: there are so many people here! I was packed in like sardines while using public transportation. Just when I thought, we couldn’t fit any more people on, 10 more squeezed in. We’ll only be in Sydney for a week so I plan to make the most of my free time here.