Sharing

Sharing. It is one lesson every parent of a toddler desperately wants their child to learn. And so we were proud of Jackson tonight. After I asked him if he wanted to share the cookies with Grandma Schupp and Papa, he continued to line up the cookies on the counter assigning them to "Baby. Grandma Parker. Grandma Hodel. Sue." The only thing is that none of these people were present. But we'll take it as a step in the right direction. And don't worry guys, we ate the cookies for you. You know, just to reinforce the lesson.

Defense

Sunday Jackson, Drew and I attended our first Brisbane Lions footy game -- an Aussie rules football game, which left us all very confused. Huge field, no announcer, fans with flags, four goal posts. Jackson kept asking for a "soccer ball," probably offending fans within hearing distance. Jackson also had a great time yelling out "DEFENSE" (in a very loud voice) during defensive plays, offensive plays and time outs. Maybe he understood the game better than his parents.

Because defense wins championships, we continued to practice into the evening. We had some friends for dinner, including one-year old Charlie, who was offered a "team jersey" by Jackson. (I was just glad I didn't have to wear one -- while we were staying with my parents in January Jackson found an old Morton High School jersey, made of pure polyester or some other very uncomfortable fabric, that his very pregnant mom was instructed to wear for a daily hoops game.) Once the jerseys were on, you can see these boys were all business. The next morning Jackson woke up looking for his new red footy ball and yelling "Charlie. Defense."

Footy confusion

New footy ball

The boys on defense

Siblings

Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet. ~Vietnamese Proverb

Jackson is taking this proverb to heart as he likes to be VERY close to his new sister. He giggles everytime her hands or feet tickle him. But as you can see these two still require a referee.

Credit

We are implementing a new bedtime initiative at our house. I have come to the conclusion, however, that Jackson sees this new routine only as a challenge to the limits of his creativity. Following are some reasons he has presented as grounds for getting out of his bedroom.

-- "Too hot here."
-- "Too cold here."
-- "Can't find it. Cold night-night." This time he couldn't find his favorite blanket (the one he calls "cold night-night"). The blanket reported missing was later found by mommy. It had been planted in another bedroom downstairs by Jackson. Of course, Jackson first searched the house repeating, "Hmm. Nope." as he went from room to room.
-- "New pants. Too tight."
-- "Mommy make cookies."
-- "New shirt."
-- "Maever wake up."
-- "Change it. New one." (Change his diaper.)
-- "Juice." (We're not this stupid!)
-- "Fan. Broke it."
-- "Can't reach it." (This was in reference to some Thomas the Train catalogs in his top dresser drawer. With the help of a shelving unit, a few thuds later Jackson was able to get these flyers out of the drawer, but not before placing a nice, big scratch on the wall. Thank God he didn't hurt himself!)
-- "Fan. Broke it." (Take two.)
-- ''Dark here." (Yes, because you broke the night light.)
-- "Train. Build it, Papa."
-- "All done."

We gotta give the kid credit.

History lesson

It rained for five days straight last week and Jackson was down with a cold, so we decided to spend our time recreating historical events such as . . .

First Transcontinental Railroad

The Overland Trail

The Last Supper

Development of the Interstate Highway System

Building of Grand Central Terminal

100 percent grateful

Sometime last fall (amidst uncertainty about where we were going to be ending up) Drew opened a fortune cookie that read "You will make many changes before happily settling down." Well, the last of these changes finally came ten days after Maeve was born when our container was delivered to our new house in Australia. And we are happy to report we are happily settling down.

First off, I need to apologize for my absence. If you would believe it, it took a full month to get our Internet hooked up at this house so I am just now getting back online. OK, that is not exactly the truth. But it did take one full week, and the truth is in the past month I have had little time to think about e-mails, phone calls or this blog. Well, that isn't exactly the truth either. I have thought about it, but the thought has been "I would die just to have a few minutes to send an e-mail!" I have definitely had more "I think I am in over my head" moments than I would like to admit lately. The best was when Drew asked me how my day had gone. "Good," I said, "but there is very little downtime." "Maybe you should have thought about that before you had two kids," he said. Funny.

So like I was saying, with a less than two-week old baby in our arms we began unpacking 250 some boxes, items of furniture and who knows all what else. I have to say it is a little unsettling to see all of your possessions parade before your eyes. I kept thinking," Why does Jackson have so many toys? Why do I have so many books? And why does Drew have so many shoes?" We thought we had donated and gotten rid of a fair amount of stuff, so maybe the Australian government added to our shipment on its way through customs. That is the only explanation.

We would still be in boxes today if Drew's parents hadn't been here through our move. There is no way we would have survived without them. I mean these people were more expert than the hired movers themselves. I am not sure what their going rate is for non-family members, but I am certain that it would be worth your every penny. There energy and motivation was so appreciated. Especially considering Drew's dad, Jim, arrived on the day of our move.

I want to pause here to share with you a quick lesson from Jim in getting over jet lag. It goes like this: 1) Fly straight from a business trip in the States all the way around the world to Australia. 2) Get off the plane (quickly -- he was the first one of the flight), kiss your grandson hello. 3) Eat a muffin and some sort of a brekkie sandwich, and after encouraging by your son, take a shower. 4) Within 1.5 hours of landing, arrive at your son's new home. 5) Hold and kiss your new baby granddaughter. Pose for a picture. 6) Making sure to move faster than the actual hired movers, start unloading and unpacking boxes, and lifting and assembling piece after piece of furniture. 7) Repeat steps 1-6 for the next three days.


Not only do they do moves, but Drew's mom did an unbelievable amount of laundry while she was here. She was like the laundry fairy. I started wearing extra clothes just to see if she could keep up. And she did. Phenomenal.

Four days after we moved in, my mom arrived and got to meet Maeve for the first time. And again we had a mini-Christmas of gifts from aunts and uncles and our American requests fulfilled. Jackson was so excited to see his "Grandma Schupp" as he started calling her. And I was so thankful for the arrival of the woman who requires no sleep, aka my mom. Truly, you cannot underestimate the value of this trait. If Jim's method of battling jet lag doesn't suit you, you could take a cue from my mom: 1) Stay up for three days straight prior to leaving to finish and arrange all of your work while you will be away. 2) Fly to Australia on the longest travel days ever, i.e., early flights to ensure you avoid bad weather. 3) Arrive in Australia and immediately take on the duty of staying awake with your granddaughter during the day and through the night. The bottom line of this method is just never sleep. Amazing.

As you can see, I was on cloud nine with all of our help here to love on Jackson and Maeve and take care of us. We all were 100 percent grateful for all the sacrafices of time the three of them made to be with us. Then wouldn't you know it, just days before my 3oth birthday, they all deserted me. Took off back to the States. Grandparents these days are so selfish.

For the past few weeks, Drew, Jackson, Maeve and I had to find our own rhythms and ways to make things work. Drew has had a few work trips so that has made it interesting (read chaotic), but we are making progress and most importantly everyone is still alive. Honestly, there are so many moments of feeling so blessed for Jackson and Maeve. These two kids are the love of our lives. Especially when they are sleeping at the same time.

Now I only have six days (yep, we're counting down) until my mom comes again to share five weeks of her summer break with us. I told Drew tonight that we are going to make my mom wish she never said we didn't leave Jackson alone with her enough. I was so stressed to leave Jackson when he was young, but boy have I learned my lesson this time around. My dad will also join in the fun for a few weeks and will get to meet Maeve for the first time. I can't explain how excited we are for that.

Maeve is growing like a weed, and breaking our hearts all the time with her smiles. Jackson has tried, although unsuccessfully, to break Maeve a few times. Mostly, he just loves her a little too much. Jackson continues to crack us up, and I finally got him into a gymnastics class which he loves. The class is full of two-year old boys (energy!) but they have a great young gal for a teacher who manages to keep them in line very well. I am so impressed (and envious).

I'm not going to make any promises, but I am hoping to more regular updates from here on out. We can't wait to catch up with you all too, so if we haven't returned and e-mail or phone call, please don't write us off just yet.

Serendipity

Here are some serendipitous facts about baby Maeve:

1) Maeve and Jackson were both born on the 14th day of the month.

2) Around 2 a.m. one night at the hospital a very sweet, Irish midwife came in to care for Maeve so Drew and I could get some rest (I could have taken her home!). She told us she also had a daughter named Maeve, but hadn't heard it used since she named her daughter that 15 years ago. She said our daughter would be strong. The name comes from Irish and Gaelic origin, and the original form is Meadhbh, name of the legendary warrior queen of pre-Christian Ireland. Apparently, this Meadhbh was some woman and ended up slaying a warrior hero. The meaning of the name is "intoxicating." Because I had this name in mind since college, we had never bothered looking up the meaning, etc., but now find ourselves with a warrior queen. Yikes!

3) A side note to that: You know how sometimes the last song you hear on the radio in the car is the one that stays in your head all day? Well, the last song I listened to on my iPod at the hospital while we were waiting for things to get going was "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado, a remake of the 80's song by Hall & Oates (who happens to be a Schupp family favorite). And it has been in my head every since. So here are the a few lyrics, which I think, add more meaning to side note number two . . . She's a maneater. Make you work hard. Make you spend hard. Make you want all of her love. She's a maneater. Make you buy cars. Make you cut cards. Wish you never ever met her at all!

So yes, we might just have a little warrior queen after all.

4) Heather, the midwife on first shift during delivery (I have yet to deliver a baby during just one nurse's shift) shares a birthday with Jackson, November 14th.

5) Maeve was born at 5:16 p.m. My birthday is May 16th, or 5/16.