April's Blog

After we returned from Darwin, things weren't all that easy at the
DingoDen. For one thing, Logan had a virus and his temperature went up
and down from 101 to 104.5 and back. He was lethargic and nauseous for
most of that first week. Meanwhile Delenn came home and started
teething. She has been in a lot of pain for the past month, but those
incisors have yet to pop through.

We also had bad news regarding our housing. We had/have been in the
process of trying to apply for a house with more bedrooms (we have 2).
When we last applied when Mommy was pregnant with Delenn, we decided to
turn it down for a number of reasons. The backyard was just as small as
our current yard, but had no shade. Plus there were neighbors across
the back so there was considerably less privacy. Since we were certain
it was our last tour, we decided to "make due" with what we currently
have. Now that our friends are returning to Alice Springs, we'll be
staying at least another 3 years. We really can't make this place work
any longer, as Delenn is a terrible sleeper and needs her own room. We
talked with Tony's work representative and she sounded optimistic that
she could explain our reasons and see what she could do on our behalf.
She missed the meeting. The housing board turned us down; we are not
eligible to move to a place with more bedrooms. We were shocked that
they said "No." They simply want to protect their bureaucratic methods
and as we had already turned down our options (one of which was deemed
"unfit and unsafe" by the previous occupants because of fighting in
their yard, banging on their doors at all hours and because their little
girl was afraid to go outside.) Anyway, feeling trapped, shocked,
helpless, angry, upset, flabbergasted and a number of other adjectives
-- Liesl stormed off to talk to someone at Intown Housing with the two
kids in tow. Cutting a long story a bit shorter, it now looks that
Liesl's words (both in person and in a 4 page letter) explaining our
reasons for turning the other places down and the fact that we were now
planning to stay another tour have had some effect. They have now told
us that they'll try to move us after all. We won't know anything until
around the 4th to 11th of May (my guess).

In the midst of all that, we found out that we will not be getting APO.
Bummer. And, we were hit with a tax audit and had to round up papers
from 2003 - 2006. What a pain! We assume that is because of Mommy's
income at that time which is tax free as Mommy worked for the University
of Maryland and lived overseas. Daddy is not tax exempt because of the
specific agreement between the US and Australian governments. It's one
of the few overseas positions where Americans have to pay taxes no
matter what their income. Most ex-pat American are tax exempt up to
$75,000 or something like that. Anyway, we're not particularly worried
about anything, but it's just another stress and annoyance to add to
everything else.

Meanwhile, here are a few other things we've written down to add to the
blog from time to time:

Mommy was getting ready for her hockey game last Saturday evening (April
14). Delenn (18 mo) said "hockey" very clearly (and over and over!)
Her words right now consist of (in part)
knee, help, hot, no, wet, stop, more, hockey, up, cat, hat. She still
uses signs for most of her communication. She puts two words together
to make short sentences -- Logan is swinging, Daddy's at work, and so forth.

Logan sat down last Sunday (April 20) with one of the easy reader books
we have and started reading it aloud. He could easily tell what was
going on because of the pictures, but he pointed at each word as he read
the book! He's definitely interested in reading (we spend a lot of time
answering his "what does this say" questions.) Later in the week we
were at the post office getting a package. While we were standing in
line, Logan looked at a sign on the door and told Mommy "That says No
Smoking." (It said 'door not in use.') The woman behind us in line
said "that was a good guess, but look at this sign (behind Mommy's back)
-- it says "No Smoking." Logan obviously remembered the No Smoking sign
from another visit and is working hard to understand the words in his
world.
On another note, Logan has been interested in the piano (keyboard) which
we now have set up in the toy area of our living room. He has been
playing "songs" for us which use one or two notes. He's very proud of
himself when he plays. Mommy has also been playing more frequently as
well. Logan often asks for Mommy to play the guitar so he and Delenn
can dance. He tells us now that he wants to learn the trumpet, piano,
guitar and elbow (oboe).

On the phone with Grams and Gramps (Sun. April 29), Mommy held the phone
to Delenn and told her to say "bye bye." She didn't expect anything,
but Delenn said "bye bah" and waved. Mommy was quite surprised and
Grams and Gramps were very pleased!

Mommy and Daddy have their first soccer game later this afternoon
(Sunday, April 29). We each play half of a game while the other watches
the kids. We enjoyed the summer season (the games were at night) and
hope to have an injury-free season this year (last year Daddy severely
sprained his ankle. It took 8 or 9 months before it was better).