Post #21: In the Beginning ...
- Nana Beryl Jupiter
- Oct 30, 2019
- 10 min read
Updated: May 24, 2020
Stacy and Cooper were released from the hospital on Friday morning, August 19, 2016. Jason installed the new infant seat in a car kindly lent by Stacy’s friend James who lives in Brisbane but was temporarily out of town. Cooper had been peaceful all morning but being buckled into the car seat brought the kraken out in him. Fortunately, it was a very short car ride.
Once we got back to the apartment, Stacy and Jason were particularly amused to find there was already a kraken in house, in the form of a rather large octopus, one of the sea creature puppets sent by cousin Claudia as a baby gift.
So in anticipation of my grandmother-ing duties, I had expected that I might be needed for infant night duty. But as it turned out, Stacy and Jason handled all of that by themselves and I was never called on for any mid-night rescue. But if I heard Stacy in the living area early in the morning, I was likely to join her and Cooper. An added bonus was live televising of the US Open tennis tournament from New York, which provided an excellent early morning viewing activity in tandem with baby care. So I wasn’t cooking and I wasn't involved in much direct baby care. So what was I doing to help out? Many willing baby hand-offs when an extra pair of hands were needed, and lots of post-meal clean ups and many laundry loads and folding.
By early Saturday morning, I was surprised to see Jason whisk baby Cooper out the door in his stroller to make a coffee run to the nearby Regatta pub. We certainly had perk-able coffee in the apartment, without which I would not have been able to function, but Stacy admitted she was a coffee snob and preferred hers from a barista, for which Jason graciously obliged. Getting a bit of “cabin” fever, I was happy to accept Jason’s invitation for a longer walk along the river, as he briskly pushed the stroller, leaving Stacy to catch up on sleep and recovery. An excellent opportunity for fresh air, body reconstitution and family bonding.
On Saturday afternoon arrived Jason’s twin sister Melanie, more commonly known as Mel, the first of Jason’s relatives I was to meet as they came to meet the newest member of the Allport family in Brisbane. In advance of Cooper’s birth, Jason was uncertain as to which of his relatives might visit them. His immediate family predominantly live near Sydney which is more than 600 miles from Brisbane, necessitating a plane ride for a short visit. Mel’s arrival led to a luncheon outing at our local favorite Regatta pub, where we enjoyed outdoor seating while baby Cooper slept snugly in his stroller. Mel overnighted with us in the spare bedroom, and I appreciated learning more about her which vicariously informed me more about Jason. I learned that Mel and her family, a husband of Greek descent and two teenage daughters, live on the outskirts of Sydney where they run a pizza restaurant.
On Sunday morning, I started organizing my belongings for the apartment move. Jesse arrived, also carting two extra pieces of luggage with baby gifts and necessities, having left Boston on Friday with an itinerary through Los Angeles and Auckland, New Zealand. We had originally booked Jesse on AirNZ because they had premium economy service for a much less expensive price than business class. But more recently he had agreed to give a hand surgery lecture while in Brisbane for which he would be nicely compensated. So he decided to upgrade his itinerary to business class. I couldn’t argue with that as I had used our mileage points to obtain my lengthy cross-Pacific itinerary in business class. And as I have been informing Stacy, and others with whom the subject arises, I am sorry that they live so very far away, but I will still continue to visit as long as I do everything I can to upgrade beyond economy class, or as my mother so humorously dubbed it “no class.”
Jesse and I moved into a lovely fourth floor apartment which admittedly appeared to be furnished more attractively than Stacy’s larger yet quite functional one. So I saw what Stacy had observed when she first moved into her current apartment and found the decor rather lacking. But their living conditions were quite functional and the large outdoor patio was great for al fresco dining and extra entertaining space.
On Monday, August 22, one week after Cooper’s birth, I sent an email to my sister Carol, sister-in-law Tracy and Claudia:
“If you have been wondering, I think my time here has been going exceedingly well.
I have enjoyed getting to know Jason with our up-close and personal living conditions.
He is an amazing chef, and the meals he has prepared or just pulled together from frig leftovers are gourmet. Jason is very funny too, and I am enjoying seeing the loving relationship between Stac & Jas.
Obviously, meeting our grandson from the start has been sublime. I had forgotten how delightful it is to cuddle a soft sweet newborn. You have seen my photos so you know how cute he is.
It is wonderful to meet Stacy the mom and see her delight in her personal production Cooper. And Jason is a particularly attentive and helpful father.
We've only had some rough times when sleep deprivation set in, shortly after birth in hospital and early on at home when Cooper fussed all night. All to be expected.
Jason's sister visited on the weekend and I enjoyed getting to know her as well, especially as her stories gave additional insight into Jason & his family life of origin.
Jesse was concerned about all of us sharing too-close living quarters, so we arranged to move to a separate apartment during his stay (he arrived yesterday). I think that will work out well too, since I already feel comfortable hanging out in my first apt with S, J & C.
That's the update. I hope you are enjoying viewing the photos as much as I have loved sharing them. Wish you could be here to cuddle Cooper too.
Xoxo Beryl”
Upon Jesse’s arrival, we two went Toowong shopping to supply our apartment with necessities. Happening on a cigar shop, Jesse purchased baby-welcoming cigars to share with the father of his grandson, which was much appreciated by Jason, providing quality male-bonding opportunity.
By Monday Stacy and Jason had to attend to outside errands. They had to personally apply at a designated government office to expedite obtaining Cooper’s birth certificate. That was the first step to obtain Cooper’s passport, without which they would not be able to bring him back to Fiji. Who would have thought that? In years gone by, when Jesse and I took four year-old Stacy and her two year-old brother to Switzerland, they were listed on our adult passports, rather than requiring separate documents for them. But in this day and age, I suppose it makes sense to fully document a baby so some random kidnapper, for example, cannot just whisk a baby out of a country. So while the parents were off on documentary errands, that left me (predominantly) and Jesse in charge of Cooper. Stacy had been pumping breast milk so I could attend to any feeding needs by bottle. And I took a diaper-changing lesson so I could manage that too. Once we felt Cooper was settled with feeding and changing, Jesse and I embarked on our first grandparent outing. As we passed the inn manager, a Chinese woman, at the front desk, we showed her baby Cooper, as she had known Stacy as a pregnant resident for the past two months.
“You’re taking him out already!” she remarked. “In China we keep babies indoors for the whole first month.” Different cultures, obviously!
Jesse and I initially proceeded merrily along the river walk but eventually cricled back to the liquor store. Photographing baby Cooper in his stroller, without proper ID, as Jesse and I were buying beer and wine, I whimsically entitled our Facebook-posted excursion “Grandparents behaving badly.”
During that week Jason’s mother Lyn came to Brisbane to meet her new grandson. She lives in the vicinity of the Blue Mountains, located west of Sydney. That’s where she raised her four children, including an older and younger brother of Jason and Mel, all born within a four-year span. Lyn arranged to stay in a nearby Toowong hotel for a few nights. I had heard that Jason had not seen his mother very much of late. So before her arrival, I asked Jason when he had last been together with his mother. He was not really sure, but answered, “Maybe eight or nine years.” That seemed an incredibly long time to me, compared to my frequent contact with Stacy, even though she had been living predominantly far way from Boston for the past 20 years.
But despite their longtime physical distance, I observed a grandmother who was very thrilled to meet her son’s first child. Lyn had already been a grandmother for quite some time as her three other adult children all had children of their own, including several teenagers. Admittedly, I was a bit jealous of Lyn’s baby holding time, which diminished mine somewhat, but I reasoned to myself that her visit was much shorter than mine. And during her visit Lyn told Stacy that she had last seen Jason fifteen years ago! That was even more stunning news to me.
Meanwhile Jason continued to host and impress all of us with delicious and attractively presented meals, mostly with seafood and assorted vegetables to accommodate Stacy’s dietary preferences. During his mother’s visit, Jason prepared a gourmet dinner of lamb shanks adorned with broccoli and seasoned potatoes (separately cooking a fish filet with the same accompaniments for Stacy). Jason managed all of this cooking while also sharing infant night call with Stacy. The least I could do was the post meal clean-up, typically finding the galley-style kitchen strewn with numerous pots and pans resulting from all the separate ingredients and intricate sauces in each meal.
As a ceramics artist and potter, Lyn brought Cooper a lovely angel that she had made. During Lyn’s stay, Stacy suggested an art museum visit. Admittedly, I was surprised that Stacy felt comfortable leaving newborn Cooper at home with his dad, but that’s because I came from a maternal-oriented generation in terms of infant care. I had rarely ever left my babies in Jesse’s care. But I certainly was on board for the museum trip, as we left baby Cooper home with pumped and bottled breast milk and two sports enthusiasts in front of the large screen TV. Fortunately, the men typically found common television viewing interests in sports as well as food and history programs.
Meanwhile, it was only a short walk to the ferry dock where we boarded a CityCat, one of the catamarans which smoothly cruise the Brisbane River, and conveniently disembark at the culturally rich South Bank area. Again I was surprised
how Stacy could leisurely view the museum exhibits and spend time for lunch at the museum cafe in the absence of her newborn. I’m sure I was more concerned than Stacy about the length of time we were gone. But on our return to the baby nest, all was well, daddy-handled proficiently by Jason.
One morning we all went to breakfast at the Regatta pub. Right outside our residence inn we noticed a parked MiniCooper, which inspired a photo op including our own mini Cooper. Later Stacy found an online site to order a toy MiniCooper car for baby mini Cooper.
By the weekend Lyn left but more visitors arrived. James, who had lent his car, and his girlfriend Helen came to Saturday brunch and we dined al fresco on Jason’s aesthetically presented and individually plated eggs, salmon and avocado on toast. When not being held, baby Cooper slept peacefully in his large Bob car seat/stroller combo which could be maneuvered from inside to out.
On Sunday Jason’s brother Byron and his teenage daughter Caity flew up from Sydney for a long one-day visit with a load of baby gifts. Everyone had their turn at holding and feeding cuddly Cooper. Jason catered a colorful, multi-dish buffet lunch on the large outdoor dining table. The guys drank a lot of beer and smoked some baby-welcoming cigars. By the end of the day Caity was looking for some diversions and began creating silly Snapchat photos of Cooper, and finding other online games for us to play and songs to sing. For a while Caity and Stacy got very involved in creating a video of Cooper being blown up in his stroller seat. Post-partem playtime!
Every so often we would visit some of our US family by FaceTime, calls to Carol, her husband David and daughter Marissa; to my brother David, his wife Tracy and daughter Sophie; and to Claudia, all delighted to meet the newest member of our family and find out how Stacy was doing as a new mother.
I only made one dinner when both Jason and Stacy were particularly exhausted from the demands of newborn care. I decided to make a seafood pasta with a vegetable tomato-based sauce. I bought shrimp and squid at the local market. I knew Stacy liked squid but I had never bought it raw to cook. In Brisbane it was sold in “tubes” so I had to cut squid/calamari rings from the tubes, which was more time consuming than I expected. Admittedly, I was nervous to cook a meal for chef Jason. Without a written recipe, I basically used my general go-to sauce with tomatoes, onion, garlic and red pepper, with some Italians seasonings and wine. Surprising to me, Stacy remarked, “It tastes like your chicken cacciatore.” And essentially she was right, as those are the ingredients I typically use for that dish too. I was glad that Stacy still recognized my signature cooking as she had so infrequently returned to our Boston area home for the past dozen years. I think my pasta dish was fairly well-received although admittedly not as gourmet as Jason’s individually-plated presentations.
My other foray into feeding all of us was a decision to bake a cake. I decided on one of my most frequently-made and well-liked pastries, a moist and rich apple cake. Although I am fairly familiar with the ingredients, I emailed Carol to send me the recipe for the specific amounts. The apartments we were renting were fairly well stocked with cooking implements but not necessarily for baking. But I was able to purchase a bundt pan and a set of measuring cups at a kitchen store in the Toowong mall. I carefully converted the oven temperature from Fahrenheit in the recipe to Centigrade on the apartment oven, and set a timer for one hour as always for this cake recipe. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to check on the cake prior to the completed hour. When I removed the cake, I was very sad to see that it appeared to be over-baked and a lot browner than it should be. Although meticulously set for the same temperature through conversion that I always bake the apple cake at my home, this rental apartment oven had been heating to a higher degree. That also meant that the cake was not as moist as it should have been. It was very disappointing to have a less than optimal result when this cake is always consistently good baked in my home kitchen. But I served it to Stacy and Jason anyway, with my apologies for the dryness. I took the new bundt pan home and it has been performing just fine in my own oven.
Stay tuned for more newborn Cooper and Nana experiences coming up in Blog #22 ...
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