1. Be at the bus stop on time. Yeah, we all run late sometimes, but it's how you handle being late more than the being late itself. If you're running for the bus as it's pulling up, and the bus stops for you, don't then slow to a walk. The driver's been nice enough to stop for you even though you aren't technically AT the stop hailing the bus, so at least do him/her the courtesy of hurrying up (at least a brisk walk) so everyone else can get to where they're going reasonably on time as well.
2. Hail the bus. Come on, it's not that hard to stick your arm out for a few seconds when you see your bus driving toward you. It avoids confusion all around if you just let the driver know you do actually want to catch the bus! Your driver is (probably) not psychic. Simply standing by the bus stop as the bus approaches does not constitute 'hailing' the bus. It just means you're standing by a bus stop. Anybody can do that. And sitting on the bench talking on your phone just means you're talking on your phone. How is the driver supposed to know you want to catch the bus if you just sit there? My own rule of thumb is to hail until I see the bus's indicator start flashing. Only time you can get away with not hailing the bus? If you're married to the bus driver and you've discussed earlier the potential for you and your kids to be out at a particular bus stop at that time. (But even then I think I still hail the bus, if only for Caleb's sake because he's still learning.)
3. Have your ticket or money ready when you get on the bus. It's a waste of everyone's time to stand there at the driver's seat digging through your handbag/pocket/wallet, counting out your money, realising you're 10 cents short, and then go rummaging through another pocket for the rest of the change. Your bus driver is often trying desperately to keep to the timetable. Every second you stand there looking for your money or your ticket is another second you're holding up everyone on the bus. And don't try to pay the driver with a $50 note, because you just look like you're trying to scam a free ride.
4. Hang up your mobile phone when you're purchasing your ticket and actually tell the driver which ticket you're purchasing. Or you may just end up with the most expensive one on the list for failing to pay attention.
5. If you throw up on the bus, don't laugh about it and then use your mobile phone to post on Facebook that you threw up on the bus, and then announce to the whole bus that you just posted to Facebook that you threw up on the bus. Head. Bang. On. Desk.
6. Don't whine at the bus driver that the bus is an older one. Believe me, when given the choice, no driver picks the ones with stairs and crap air conditioning. They all hate them too - not only are they hideous to ride, they're hideous to drive.
7. Be aware of which buses are express services. And then don't complain if you go to the bus stop, hail the (express) bus, and it doesn't stop for you.
8. When it's time to get off the bus, do it expeditiously. (Yes, we watched Oscar this weekend.) Don't sit there playing with your mobile phone and wait till the bus starts pulling away (after sitting at the interchange for up to a full minute) to jump up and say 'Hey! I wanted to get off the bus!' because that'll just annoy everyone. If you're lucky, the driver will only mutter under his/her breath. If you're not...well, can't say I didn't warn you.
9. Those signs on the back of buses that say to give way to the bus when it's pulling away from a stop? OBEY THEM! Seriously, your little Nissan Micra (or whatever it is you drive) against an articulated bus? Who do you think is really going to come off best in that match? It won't be you, I can guarantee it!
10. Oh, and if you fail to give way to a bus (which in Australia you are legally obligated to do, by the way), you look like a complete idiot if you then honk your horn at the bus every time you go past it at another bus stop. Because you ARE a complete idiot who just can't let it go.

Ethan is NOT dairy intolerant. His green poos were just the precursor to the whole family getting gastro one week. After he finished up with his (which included some very impressive projectile vomiting) they were normal baby poo colour again. Yay. He's also getting very close to crawling. Puts everything in his mouth. Was 9.2 kilograms (about 20 pounds) last time we weighed him at 4 months old.

Caleb finally wrote his name for the first time the other day. Yay. He didn't want to at first, but I asked if he wanted to write a C and he was happy with doing that, so I just asked about each letter after, and before he knew it, he had a name! He loves being a big brother so far, but I think he's in for a shock when Chuckie starts crawling and grabbing his Lego.

Darrin had, or has, his one year bus driving anniversary about now. Yay. Several months ago, he was made a permanent employee, and has been working out of the Elizabeth depot 10 minutes away since July. Which is a lot easier on the budget and our collective sanity. He wants to use up some of his annual leave soon before they tell him he has to, so we're pondering when, where, and how we'll go with two kids for a week.

I have a pile of work to do for Little Para Pants that will actually earn me money! Yay! I've also registered my business name, another domain name (littleparapants.com.au), changed my bank account name to 'trading as Little Para Pants', and procrastinating looking for business insurance and accountants.

Trouble is, I don't really know any other way of life! I grew up in Wisconsin, nicknamed America's Dairyland. Every June was Dairy Month, and local shops often had specials on ice cream and other dairy products. If you lived in Wisconsin and didn't like milk, or didn't like dairy, you got funny looks from people. Not just that - some people (particularly dairy farmers) might even be offended.

And I love cheese. I would (almost) stake my life on the belief that there's a type of cheese to go with every type of food out there. Even sweet stuff? Yes, especially sweet stuff! Cheesecake - need I say more?

So I'll have to work out something to do with all this yogurt I just bought last week. Frozen blueberry yogurt popsicles for Caleb perhaps.

Tonight Caleb is spending the night at his nan's house, so Darrin & I are having pizza. And then as of tomorrow, I'll be dairy free to see if that sorts Ethan out. I hope it's not as boring as I expect it to be!

According to www.babynames.com.au, Ethan means 'firm and strong.' Which is definitely what we've noticed since he's been born. His neck muscles are amazingly strong for a newborn - as in, he was lifting his head the same day he was born.

And Charles? I don't know that I've told the full story here yet, so here goes.

A friend introduced us to the TV show Chuck, about a computer geek who inadvertently downloads government secrets into his brain, so he has to learn how to be a real spy. We really liked it, and so over a weekend watched way too many episodes in a row. Caleb decided he really liked shouting 'Chuck!'

So not long after this, Caleb and I were at a playground with one of the homeschool groups we catch up with. I was about 20 weeks pregnant at the time, and probably only just barely showing, so nobody in that group really knew yet. So Caleb blurts out 'Mum's growing a baby' and there were congratulations and all that like you'd expect. But then he blurted out 'Our baby's gonna be called Chuck!' Ah, no, I don't think so!

But we started calling the baby Chuck anyway as an 'in utero' name. And you can guess what happened from there. We've been calling him Chuck since he was born. And last night I was searching through the baby name book, desperately trying to find a middle name to go with Ethan, and thought 'bah, why don't we just call him Chuck? He IS Chuck!' Because there were a few names that sounded good, but nothing that really felt quite right. I told Darrin and he suggested Ethan Charles (as he had a few days ago, and I turned my nose up at it). So Ethan Charles he is.

But we're still calling him Chuck. At least now the Chuck makes sense with the rest of his name.

Everyone's happy & healthy, and the photos are here if you want to have a look at him. And I'm enjoying being able to bend in the middle again.

An official name is yet to be decided but I reckon Chuck is going to stick as a nickname for the rest of his life.

Now all we need is a baby!

For the last month or so, we've also had problems with Caleb kicking, hitting, yelling at us when it's bedtime. And especially on the nights when Darrin has to get up at ungodly o'clock the next morning, it's a real pain in the neck. Sometimes literally. And it's not as if I can just carry him out every night, wait for him to calm down, then carry him back to bed. I'm getting to the point where it really hurts to pick him up - and not just for the minute or two that I'm holding/carrying him either, it goes on for a while after because I've strained my muscles.

So. Monday night we were going through our usual dance of us trying to get him to calm down and him not playing along. Finally in exasperation, I asked him 'Do you want to go sleep in your room by yourself?' And he surprised me by saying yes! I asked him 'Are you sure?' and he said yes again. So we got up, grabbed his pillow, blanket, and water bottle, and set him up in his bedroom on the little cot mattress on the floor. We'll see how long this lasts, I told myself. And I tucked him in with his blanket and another blanket, and a hot water bottle at his feet, and his stuffed bunny, and his torch in case he needed to go to the toilet in the night, and read him a couple of stories. Then I sat on a chair next to him and he fell asleep.

Well. Okay then. I went back to our bed and tried to sleep. As I suspected all along, I had more trouble sleeping that first night than Caleb did! He slept in his room by himself all the way till about 4:30 when Darrin was getting ready for work. He said he was hungry, so I went and got him a leftover sausage from the fridge. Darrin left for work, Caleb was still half awake, I was almost falling asleep sitting with him so I went back to my bed. I think it was around 6:30 when Caleb came in to our bedroom and crawled into bed with me. And then we both slept till about 9.

Then Tuesday night, he decided to sleep on the couch in the lounge. He got himself all sorted out with a pillow & blanket, and Darrin & I both figured that hey, if he's choosing to do this, he's probably ready for it, and at least the lounge has a heater, so he should be fine. And he was. A few stories later he was ready for us both to go into the bedroom, and he fell asleep on his own. He did wake up a few times in the night and asked me to put his blanket back on because he'd fallen off the couch. But each time, as soon as I put the blanket on him, he was asleep in seconds. Even the time he walked into the bedroom to tell me he needed the blanket on again!

Wednesday he decided to sleep in with us. Thursday & Friday he slept on the couch again, straight through on Thursday. Last night he woke up from a dream at about 5 and decided that he HAD TO fix his block constructions on the floor that the cats or we had knocked over. So he fixed those and went back to bed with a carrot to munch on.

So this is for all of you co-sleeping naysayers - you know who you are. You're the ones who say 'you'll never get him out of your bed' and things of that nature. This didn't take any prodding from us (I wouldn't call my original suggestion 'prodding' because I was fully prepared to let him come back in the bed with us if he was going to be sensible and go to sleep). And suddenly, we don't have the bedtime battles we used to have! It was his decision to move out of our bed, and he knows he's always welcome again if he needs us. But I guess in a way you're right - we didn't get him out of our bed. HE got himself out of our bed!

However, I don't believe in due dates. I believe babies come when they're ready, regardless of what we'd like them to do. It's only in very extreme cases that we need to actually DO anything about making a baby be born at a certain time (things like severe pre-eclampsia and heavy bleeding come to mind). I have a friend who gave birth, at home, at 33 weeks, and her baby is perfectly healthy. I know of another woman who had a baby at around 45 weeks, also at home, and again, her baby is perfectly healthy too.

So far I've been 'lucky' in that my babies have been born before their 'due' dates, so I haven't gotten too much harassment about being 'overdue.' But I thought I'd write this all out in advance anyway, so that I can shove this in the face of anyone who starts harassing me when I get close to birthing. Because harassment is exactly what a soon-to-birth woman DOESN'T need, and I'm sick to death of hearing about other women going 'over' and getting phone calls, emails, texts, and whatever else asking them when that baby's coming, and all it causes is stress for the poor pregnant woman who should just be allowed to relax!

If the only thing you have to say to me is something along the lines of 'Hasn't that baby been born yet?' then DON'T bother contacting me. Yeah, because we're really going to forget to tell all our friends and family that we've had a baby. Get real.

If you're going to suggest that I should get induced because the stillbirth rate increases after whatever gestation, DON'T bother contacting me. Besides, you'd be wrong - the stats I've seen (which unfortunately I can't find at the moment! if you have that link please comment) clearly show that the highest risk of stillbirth is BEFORE 40 weeks. So suck on that.

If you're going to tell me horror story after horror story about big babies, long labours, dead babies, etc. - save it. I don't think you can compare anything with the horror story I've already lived. And how dare you try to scare a pregnant woman anyway.

And if you even THINK of mentioning that I should go to hospital this time because of what happened last time - GET LOST. You clearly don't understand the situation and I don't need people like you in my life.

End of rant. For now.

So I was thinking tonight about polenta, also known as corn meal. Polenta is, from what I gather, a fairly common ingredient in Italian cooking. I, however, don't know much about Italian cooking, other than pasta, garlic bread, and parmigiana. And I especially have no idea how people cook polenta around here. So I have some polenta in my pantry, which I mistakenly thought would be suitable for making corn taco shells (it was kind of a disaster), and was wondering what else I could do with it. Corn bread was the first thing that came to mind, of course, because I'm a Yank. And then I thought about corn dogs. Mmmm. It's been ages since I had a good corn dog - hot dog on a stick, dipped in corn batter and deep fried. Not exactly the healthiest thing on the planet, but they are pretty tasty, especially when dipped in real mayonnaise.

And that's when I had the idea for this blog post: foods from here and there that I like, don't like, miss, never had before, never had since...all those kinds of categories. So I'm just going to start listing them in no particular order, just the way I think of them.

And this is a much different list than it would have been seven years ago, because you know what? I've adapted to my new culture, not completely, but enough to be pretty comfortable. Plus, there are enough shops around that carry some of my favourite American foods/snacks that I don't have to pine for them - I just need to go to the right shop when I'm having one of those cravings, and I'm good for another few weeks. Because I know it's not a 'forbidden fruit' or anything, and I can have it whenever I want.

Foods I miss from the States

This one is actually going to be a pretty short list, because of the aforementioned shops that carry American imports. Corn dogs are something I wouldn't mind having now and then, but since I don't remember having one in the 7 years I've been here, I obviously don't miss them that much. If I did, I would have worked out how to make them at home by now. However, I still haven't found anywhere that sells packs of Jolly Rancher candies with ONLY the watermelon flavoured ones. And I don't suppose I'm likely to.

Little Debbies fit in this category too. I don't believe I've seen them anywhere, and I don't think USA Foods in Melbourne is allowed to import them, otherwise I'm sure they'd have them by now.

And how can I forget Rocky Road ice cream. I might have to try doing it myself one day.

As for restaurants, there's Arby's and A & W. Those are really the only ones that I miss that I'd go back to. And a good buffet restaurant (but not Old Country Buffet because they think breastfeeding is perverted or something. I won't be spending my money with them anymore).

Foods I never had before moving to Australia that I can't imagine living without now

I can't count Tim Tams here, because Darrin once filled an entire suitcase with Tim Tams, Milo, and Cherry Ripes when he came over for Christmas. But you know what does? Fresh mandarins. Prior to moving here, I only ever saw them in a can, never fresh. My brother and I, since we were first learning to read, called them 'Maynard oranges' because it sounded funny, and there was a guy at our church named Maynard. Now I have a mandarin tree in my back yard. Hopefully it'll start fruiting next year.

Chips (fries) from Chicken Chef in Gilles Plains. You have not lived till you've had these.

Australian foods that I'm still not game to try

Vegemite. I'm not sure I'll ever get there. Since Darrin doesn't like it, and Caleb's never had it either (to my knowledge), it's not really that crucial that I deal with it.

Imported American stuff I buy now and then

Dr Pepper
Welch's Strawberry soda
A&W root beer
A&W cream soda
Reese's Pieces
Reese's peanut butter cups
Jelly Belly jelly beans

Typical American foods that I make at home

PBJ (only I use, and have always used, strawberry jam instead of grape jelly)
'Ants on a toilet seat' - aka an apple cut in half, core removed, spread with peanut butter and raisins (sultanas) placed on top. Only I usually cut up the apple into wedges and put peanut butter on each one, and don't bother with sultanas.
Pumpkin pie (especially now that I've finally successfully grown pumpkins in my back yard)

Things I've found suitable substitutes for

Hershey's Almond chocolate bars: Cadbury Roast Almond, of course. And Cadbury tastes better anyway.
Cheddarwurst: the mild cheese kranskys from the Pacific Big Butcher in John Street, Salisbury.

It's a small world, after all

Know what? The dine-in Pizza Hut outside Westfield Marion smells EXACTLY like the Pizza Hut I used to work at in Hudson, Wisconsin, over 10 years ago. Some things never change.

What was I doing here again? Oh yeah.

Actually, all of these lists are smaller than I thought they'd be, because I seem to have forgotten a lot of the things I used to miss. Funny what 7 years does.