It’s Not About Me

Posted on August 21, 2012 by abbyoz

I spend a lot of time thinking about myself.  Am I happy?  If not, then why not?  What is missing from my life and how can I get it?  Now!  I have a beautiful, healthy family.  I have food in my fridge.  I have straight teeth.  Some days, for reasons that remain unknown to me, it is not enough to have all my needs met.  I wake up thinking about what is lacking from my life, although there is abundance all around me.  I am always wanting more even though I know I have more than enough.

Me, myself and I are the most popular topics in my mind most days.  Most days, except for this past Sunday.

This past Sunday morning, in the village where I live on the Gold Coast, the community came together to send love and light to a neighbor who is dying.  I don’t know this woman very well, but her smile and energy are magnetic.  Her nature is so gentle I literally want to whisper around her.  Her husband is a bright, beautiful ball of energy, exploding with exaggerated excitement over my daughter when we ran into them in our local cafe.  He always shares his breakfast with her and talks to her about his day as if she was the most important person in the world.  And his wife is dying.

I had no idea she was dying until this gathering was organized.  Of course we would get up a little early and walk down the street to the bridge where our neighborhood would come together.  We would get up a little early and not think about ourselves.  We would get out of our pajamas on a Sunday morning and step out of our self-indulgent thoughts and gather on a bridge to think about two people who, despite facing the unimaginable, radiate joy and love.

These are two unique people, and this is a unique community that would come together to honor them, pray for them, bathe them in thoughts of love and light, throw flowers in the river for them.  It would be a shame if I couldn’t hang on to this experience and learn from it.  There really is nothing more beautiful or more important in this world than loving those around us – and letting them know they are loved.

Until next time…

Abby

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This Week at Go Go Babyz…

Posted on August 18, 2012 by abbyoz

It’s an exciting time at Go Go Babyz Australia.  This week a shipment of Infant Cruizers arrived.  And not just any Infant Cruizers – these Cruizers were made just for the Australian market, specific to the stroller standards here and designed to fit Australian baby capsules, including the very popular Maxi Cosi Mico.  (Of course, all of this applies to the New Zealand market, too.)

The Go Go Babyz Infant Cruizer is near and dear to my heart.  I bought one in the US a few months after my daughter was born when I saw a buddy wheel one into a mommy group.  (It would be a “mummy” group in Australia.)  It was so small and easy to maneuver – and her child looked so content to just…well…cruise along in it.  When I went home that afternoon, I bought one online from Go Go Babyz.

I also knew that we were moving to Australia in a few months and was starting to seriously stress about all of the details of traveling with a baby – not the least of which was what in the hell am I supposed to do with her car seat when we travel?  Since the Infant Cruizer is basically a trolley that turns into a pram when you snap your capsule in, that problem was quickly solved.  We were able to check the whole thing (capsule attached to the Cruizer) right at the gate as we boarded our plane since my daughter was only 5 months old and still sitting in our laps.  And when we got off the plane, it was there waiting for us, giving us a secure place to put her while we got bags and went through customs.  Once we were through the airport, we could quickly pop her capsule into taxis for our transfers.  (We brought the base with us, too.)

If only Go Go Babyz had a solution for all of my travel woes.  Sigh.

You can read about how I came to work with Go Go Babyz in Australia here.  (Once I get started on the story, I find it hard to stop.  It’s just so darn exciting.)

So, the Infant Cruizer arrived last week, along with more Aussie Kidz Travel Mates – which are selling like hot cakes.  I visited our warehouse on Friday, which is in Brisbane.  Our logistics partner, Australian Customs Professionals (ACP), has been amazing through every step of the importation process.  I am so grateful that they are both diligent in covering details and willing to adhere to our customer service standards on the dispatch side.  They are not just a fulfillment house – they are an essential partner in our business here in Australia.

Here is a picture of Nick Wallace from ACP and me.  What I love about this shot is how flattering the safety vest is.  No, I’m not pregnant.

You can read more about the Infant Cruizer on the Go Go Babyz AUS-NZ website, but here are just a few great features of this innovative new travel pram:

  • Safe click-n-lock base
  • 30.5 cm wheels provide smooth ride on a variety of surfaces
  • Tilt back capability makes it easy to go up or down curbs & stairs without lifting
  • Can easily be lifted by infant seat handle for safe travel on escalators
  • Baby has all the comforts of their infant seat
  • Long-lasting airless all terrain tires that never go flat
  • Certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturer’s Association (JPMA) – USA
  • One-handed lock and carry

We are shooting new videos and photography soon, but here is a blog post I wrote about both the Travel Mate and the Infant Cruizer awhile back that goes into more detail about the products:  Go Go Babyz comes to Australia

If you have any questions about traveling with your child or baby’s car seat or capsule, please email me at abby@gogobabyz.com.au.  (I’ve been around the world several times in the last two years, so I’ve learned a few things about traveling with babies and toddlers!  I have made every mistake in the book.)

Let me know what you think of these products.  (And follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be notified of promotions and giveaways…which we are very fond of.)

Until next time…

Abby

p.s.  If you’re thinking of importing products to Australia, I highly recommend contacting Nick at Australian Customs Professionals.  You can email him here:  Nick Wallace or call him on (07) 3262 5552.

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Mind Games (what really happened at the Olympics)

Posted on August 7, 2012 by abbyoz

Who could fail in a swimming contest with a nickname like “The Missile”?  The Missle, it turns out.  James Magnussen, the incredibly talented (and gorgeous) young Australian man with the fastest recorded time in the 100m freestyle in the world (in a textile suit) was expected to do great things at the Olympics.  He sure wasn’t expected to lose.  And, yet, he did.

First, he lost in the 4 x 100m men’s freestyle relay – no medal at all for Australia.  Then he lost the big event, the individual 100m freestyle, by 1/100th of a second.  An almost imperceptible time difference, yet it was a crushing loss.  A devasted Magnussen just stared at the edge of the pool after the race, being splashed by an ecstatic American in the next lane who won the gold.

In the Land Down Under, we’ve been bombarded by commercials for weeks leading up to these games with a confident James Magnussen in various comical situations – one of which was knocking the “T” in “CAN’T” off a cliff to the cheers of the actors dressed in the C, A and N costumes.  His stoic expression was everywhere we looked, that bold “I’m gonna kick your ass” stare.  (And, seriously, he is SO cute.)

What happened? Australia was so sure he was going to win.  James was so sure he was going to win.  How could he have lost?  He holds the world championship title for the 100m freestyle and yet – twice - he was beaten in the event this past week.

I was very interested in the interviews that followed these losses.  (Mostly because there was so much build-up about his abilities, but also because it was another opportunity to see him without a shirt on.)  He told an Aussie journalist that he was so nervous and sick to his stomach leading up to the relay that he had literally exhausted himself with stress.  And, no doubt, that loss got inside him and brought about the second one.  The fact that he has swum faster than any other man alive at some other point in time had nothing to do with the fact that he had to face his own demons of doubt to win at the Olympics.

I was reminded of the women’s figure skating event in the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It was a hot contest between three top skaters, none of whom I remember now except Michelle Kwan.  There was an American skating in the final named Sara Hughes, who no one was talking about for the gold medal.  Hughes came out and skated like a kid without a care in the world; it was a flawless performance and she exuded pure joy on the ice.  The three skaters who were battling for gold each had their own problems during their performances, none of whom ended up scoring high enough to win.  The coveted medal went to a surprised Sarah Huges who fell on the floor laughing when she heard the results.  The other three had been skating for gold; Hughes had been skating for herself.

I imagine a similar thing happened to Magnussen.  It was his first Olympics (he’s only 21), and probably had that gold medal already glimmering around his neck in his mind’s eye.  Unfortunately and ironically, the weight of it is what slowed him down in the pool.  Had he been swimming for the sheer joy of it, he most likely would’ve won.  The cruelty of these Mind Games…

 

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Smear Factor

Posted on June 27, 2012 by abbyoz

There’s something I need to talk about.  And I’m feeling kind of weird about it.  But I feel it’s my duty to bring this up because I simply can’t be the only one with this secret.

But let me explain a few things first.

My daughter potty-trained herself at about – oh, I don’t remember – between 2 and 6 months ago.  I hadn’t read any books about how to do it and I wasn’t following a strict routine, like a lot of parents do.  I had a little plastic potty beside the big potty and I’d point to it every now and then and kind of shrug my shoulders at her in a “wanna give it a go?” gesture.  Usually, she did not.

Then she went through a naked phase.  (Which she’s still in.  Does this go away or should I just go ahead and put a pole in her room right now?)  And one day, with no clothes on, she just got inspired to sit on the little potty and make something happen.  My friend Natalie was over with her little girl, and we all celebrated.  In a way only mothers can celebrate.  Try celebrating your child’s bodily functions with child-less friends of yours and you’ll be down a buddy.

But what should’ve felt a chapter ending (or beginning) felt like a giant rabbit hole opening up.  What was I so afraid of?  Hadn’t I longed for the day she’d be able to relieve herself independently?  Wasn’t I tired of changing diapers?

And, then, it started to happen.

I’d go into the toilet after her to find brown streaks on our toilet (because she very quickly decided she’d rather use ours than hers) and long scrolls of toilet paper with little brown blossoms along them – on the floor, no less.  I started to hear horror movie theme music in my head and suddenly realized I was dreading my daughter’s use of the toilet.  To her, I was excited.  I’d clap my hands and give her stickers and face the wall when the urge to gag finally overwhelmed me.  Which only made her want to show me more.

Fast forward 2 or 6 months to last night at 2:16 AM.  I am lying in bed and she climbs in behind me and starts playing with my hair.  I get up to escort her back to her bedroom and she excited exclaims:  I pooped!  I’m exhausted, certain I misunderstood her.  But she says it again.  I feel her bottom for her nighttime diaper and instead I detect a ball of you-know-what in her pants.  “Where did you poop, honey?” I asked, my voice quivering.  She pointed down the dark hallway to her bathroom.  I find the courage to walk that long dark corridor to the bathroom and the smell hits me before I even open the door.

Let me just add a quick story to help frame up the story at this point:  About 8 years ago, I accidentally stabbed myself in the hand with a knife.  Don’t ask.  Anyway, I hit an artery and blood went spewing everywhere – all over the kitchen cabinets, it pooled and dripped down from the counter tops, it made a sticky trail from where it happened to the phone to the other side of the kitchen where I called 911.

I would rather have walked into that kitchen than my hall bathroom night last night

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Was it a bandicoot?

Posted on June 11, 2012 by abbyoz

We are very lucky to rent a beautiful house in a divine part of Queensland, the Currumbin Valley.  We live in a lovely community, full of hippies and nature lovers.  Everyone is so nice, and the environment is peaceful.

But even here, drama can happen.  As it did when I came into my kitchen recently at 4:30 AM only to flip on the light and see a large critter take off in my periphery.  There is nothing like discovering wildlife in your kitchen in the wee hours of the morning to make you question everything.  I’m not a total wuss though.  I did what any responsible person would do:  I ran to my husband and told him to get up.  When I told him why, he just rolled over and said it would leave when it was ready.  You might be a redneck if.

I tiptoed back into the kitchen, and spent the next half hour or so looking under chairs and piles of my daughter’s toys, in kitchen drawers and cabinets.  Each time I’d turn something over, I was convinced it would jump out and latch onto my face.  It was like playing with a Jack in the Box over…and over…and over.  But instead of Jack, it was Rat.  Alas, I never found the rat.  Like my husband predicted, he had left.  I guess he was ready.

I discussed this later with the architect who happens to live nearby.  He said the only way a rat could get inside was if there was an open door.  There was no open door, I said.  Yeah, the only way a rat could get inside is through an open door, he repeated.  There was no open door, I argued back.  And we went back and forth like that for awhile.  It was fun.

The owners of this house, who are quite possibly the nicest people I’ve ever known, came to visit this past weekend.  As an example of their niceness, the whole reason they were here was to bring a monster grill for us to use and 4 red leather bar chairs they said would be perfect for Harper.  What bizarre alternative universe have we entered where our landlord decorates for us and bring us unnecessary, super-fun appliances?

The architect came over as well to discuss building a fireplace (the owners are worried about us being cold – naturally), so when we were all in the kitchen I decided to bring up the topic of the rat.  “So…there was a rat in the kitchen recently,” I casually mentioned.  And then I went on to re-enact the whole incident, complete with where I was when I saw him, which way I ran out of the kitchen, all of the places I looked for him after that.

“How big was he?” the husband asked.  I showed him, exaggerating the size.  People expect you to exaggerate things like this.

The architect said there was no way a rat could get in except through an open door.  I was glad he brought that up because I hadn’t realized a rat could only walk through a giant wide-open door.  I suppose they usually show up at the front door selling girl scout cookies make a dash for it.

I told the architect that if that was true, then he was still in the house because no door had been opened to let him out.  Immediately the husband started furiously opening and closing drawers and cabinets and even crawled under the stove looking for the rat.  The wife covered her hand with her mouth in shock.

Why don’t people understand when I’m trying to prove a point?

The wife said, “Are you sure it wasn’t a bandicoot?”

(Quick lesson in Australian wildlife: Bandicoots are a group of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores.)

Um, I’m not sure.  But does it matter?

“Can they enter a house through a closed door?”

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A Funny Thing Happened…

Posted on June 9, 2012 by abbyoz

An American, a Canadian, an Australian, a Russian and a Ukranian walk into a bar…

Well, it wasn’t really a bar.  It was more like an Asian-themed restaurant / dance club with naked Geisha chicks on the ceiling and $18 drinks with names like the Japanese Slipper and the Pink Lotus.  And it wasn’t just 5 random people from different corners of the world, it was me and four of my friends.  It also isn’t the intro of a joke, it was what I did two nights ago.

A friend of mine is getting married (the Russian), so we decided to get together to have a very watered down “hen’s night” in Surfer’s Paradise.  Because we are all mums (including the Russian), we decided dinner and a few drinks was about all we could handle.  Just the thought of leaving my house at 7:30 PM when I’m usually slipping on PJs and pretending to be too tired to clean up the kitchen made me yawn.  But when a girlfriend has something to celebrate – an engagement, a wedding, a positive pregnancy test, a negative pregnancy test – you rally.  That’s what chicks do.  We drink Red Bull and put on some deodorant and we pretend to be comfortable sitting under a giant, naked Geisha.

We sat around a tiny half-circle table, screaming over the sound of the pulsing music, which was getting louder by the minute, and kept commenting on how there was, like, no alcohol in our fancy cocktail drinks because they tasted so good.  Like Jell-O shooter good.  Like wake up on a strange bathroom floor and wonder how you got there good.  And, sure enough, about halfway through my vegetarian Moo Shu, the room started spinning and sweat was free-flowing from my pores.  I apologized to the Australian, whose lap I was practically sitting in.  By the time we were done eating, the music was too loud to even scream over.  I just sat there fanning myself and stupidly sucking the last little bit of sweet, cold, deceitful Pink Lotus out of the bottom of my glass.  Watch out for the Pink Lotus – she may have innocent little lycees floating on the top, but there are barracuda at the bottom that will come back later to bite you in the arse.

We were asked to leave the dining table by our waiter, because apparently only old ladies stay at their table until they are forced to join all of the bouncing youngsters on the dance floor.  (We weren’t even allowed to order dessert, much to the chagrin of the Canadian). So we got our ice waters and stood side by side, doing our best white-girl moves in unison to the beat.  We were particularly excited when songs came on that we had known in younger days: “Jump Around,” that fun one by Kris Kross, some others that I can’t remember now.  But they were good.

Then it started to go downhill.  The songs started to become unrecognizable, sketchy vulture-type dudes started moving in on us, my ice water became room temperature.   It was clearly time to leave.  We all agreed to go, except the Ukranian, who was giddy as a school girl laughing and dancing to songs she didn’t know.  Against our better judgment, we left her there and made our way to the street.  Within minutes, she ran up behind us and said, “I changed my mind.”

Of course she did.  I don’t care where you’re from, if you’re a mom and it’s 11:30 PM, you’d rather be snoozing instead of boozing.

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My Darling Little Biz

Posted on June 8, 2012 by abbyoz

I actually have two children.  You thought I had one: that cute little girl whose legs are growing really fast yet her hair is not.  But I have another one.  Another child who I love very much.  Every day I feed her, encourage her, discipline her – and I love watching her grow and flourish.  That second baby is my business.

A little cheesey?  Maybe.  But when you’ve watched a business grow from a tiny little seed of an idea into a real living, breathing creature, it’s hard not to love it as if it’s a member of the family.  It isn’t just a job, having your own business.  It’s becomes a part of you, like it or not.

So it seems appropriate that I tell you what is happening with my business, Go Go Babyz Australia-New Zealand.  (We call her Go Go for short.)  We are chugging along just like every new business, trying to soak up every new morsel of information about marketing, customer service, technology.  We finally have 100 Facebook ‘likes’ which may not seem like a lot of ‘likes’ in the realm of big online retailers, but we aren’t a massive online retailer selling every gadget under the sun.  We are the distributor and marketer of a few specialty travel products for children.  And we earned 60 of those likes with a recent giveaway we did through Facebook, giving away both an Aussie Kidz Travel Mate and a SideKick 2-in-1 nappy bag and baby carrier.

Let me tell you, every one of those ‘likes’ felt like a great big old kiss on the cheek.  It was so much fun to give away stuff!  If it wouldn’t cause me to promptly go out of business, I’d do it every day.

The other great milestone in this baby’s life is that we have more products on their way to Australia, one of which is the much-anticipated Infant Cruizer.  The Cruizer is for baby capsules what the Travel Mate is for car seats – an easy way to travel with your child’s car seat by converting it into a travel stroller.  The difference is the Cruizer has 4 wheels and a brake like a regular pram whereas the Travel Mate is more of a trolley with 2 wheels and, therefore, no brake.  The Cruizer is very compact and easy to maneuveur, making it useful for both traditional travel and running errands around town.  Any situation where a regular pram is just too much to deal with.  No exact date on the arrival (the waiting list is growing!), but rest assured we will publish that as soon as we know.

I could go on and on and on.  The way us proud parents tend to do.  But for now, I leave you with these latest tidbits on little biz’s latest accomplishments.  I promise there will more in the future.

Until next time…

Abby

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It’s All About the Camels

Posted on June 5, 2012 by abbyoz

And the crocs.  We can’t forget the crocs.

What in the world could I be referring to except the next adventure I have planned with my family.  We are going to fly to Broome and drive to Darwin in a caravan, having lots of crazy road trippin’ fun along the way.

Jimmy told me last night that at one place along the way we can stop in a caravan park where camels hang out.

Camels.

Now all I can think about is seeing wild camels.  I’ve heard of these wild Australian camels – I think in Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country.  (Australia, by the way, I love you for being simultaneously bizarre and beautiful.)

And, who can talk about visiting the Northern Territory without discussing crocs.  Those dinosaur-sized “they-must-be-doing-that-with-mirrors” killing machines that litter the northern landscape like seashells on a low-tide shore.  I’ve only seen one in captivity at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, and that was enough to whet my appetite to see more.  That croc’s name is “Ho-Lee” as in “Ho-lee Sh*t.”  And that’s pretty much what I said when I saw him for the first time.  I’m simply not gifted enough with words to describe what an 18-foot, one-ton Australian saltwater crocodile looks like in real life.  We’ll just leave it at “Ho-leeeeee Sh*t.”

I’m told the best time to see the Northern Territory is now through September-ish.  It’s not boiling hot, and it’s drier than November through January when it gets pelted with rain.  I am like a kid before Christmas.  A kid who asked for a giant crocodile for Christmas and she’s just waiting to run downstairs and see if it’s under the tree.

Somewhere my mother is shaking her head.

At the top of my ‘to do before leaving on this trip’ list is to actually learn how to use the Nikon D90 I bought in December and still have yet to use properly.  I’ve taken over 3,000 pictures and gotten lucky with about 20.  But, seriously, it’s time I actually learned how to take a picture.  The camera just shakes its head when I take it out of the case.  Like my mom.

I haven’t even thought about packing yet.  (Don’t get me started on packing!)  What in the world does one wear to stalk camels and crocs??

Until next time…

Abby

Posted in Travel with Toddler | 2 Comments