Big bird

JD has a funny sense of humour and imagination at times. Sometimes they are so silly that it makes me walk away shaking my head, and at the same time laughing my head off. Last night as I was sitting down at my desk doing some blog surfing, I heard this bunch of giggles behind me. Wondering what this little monkey was up to, I turned around to hear him say "Big bird, stomping, stomping..." Yes, he got the rubber gloves out from the kitchen's bottom drawer and put them on his feet to look like Big Bird!



Oh, I couldn't stop myself laughing.... he is a funny little kid!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday is a lazy day. I love Sundays when

- we spend time at home
- sleeping in even when JD is already awake
- chilling out in front of the TV
- have coffee
- reading the paper
- going for walks
- playing with JD
- doing colourings with JD
- watching him play, sing, dance and being a kid

and enjoying the quiet moments in life. My mind is rested, no rushing to places, no obligations, just time for me and the family!

Be organised

One of the new year resolutions I made to myself earlier this year was learning to be organised with things at home. At the same time being inspired by IKEA's theme this season - Get Organised, I spent my time, weeks after weeks, little by little, faithfully visiting IKEA to get all types of drawers, boxes, containers to sort out the mess in the wardrobe, my study desk, JD's clothes, my kitchen cupboard and anything I could lay my hands on.

Whilst I am a perfectly organised person at work, filing every single piece of project and work away, I have a "can't be bothered" attitude sometimes when it comes to home. Whilst I am generally a neat person, I could still let things go a bit astray at times.

Call me anal or anything, but I have now sorted all the wardrobes into various little compartments for t-shirts, long sleeves, short sleeves, shorts, jumpers, socks, PJs, jocks, socks, belts. Everything has its own designated place.

It felt great once I have sorted out the mess. And you know what, the best thing was not having someone on my back asking "Have you seen my......" Now I could just say it's in this drawer, in that room, go get it yourself! Ha ha! It feels good to be organised!

Hub and I have made a pact that we have to do everything to keep all things neat and tidy! Let's see how we go this time.

Naik Pangkat (Moving Up)

Whoosh, this has to be one of the busiest weekends we have had in a while. Being Mother's Day on Sunday, I had my MIL and the rest of the family over for dinner on Saturday night. Silly me, possibly due to the gradual dissapearance of my brain power, which correlated well with my expanding belly...I underestimated the amount of food! It wasn't enough, so we had to order 2 large pizzas from the shop nearby (much to the delight of my BIL and hubby). And sorry, we didn't take any pics of the food either. I made a Chicken Cottage Pie and served that with a warm pumpkin, spinach, parmesan salad! It was yummy, all gone in a second, except it wasn't enough.

But what kept us really busy this weekend was buying a new bed for JD! He had obviously outgrown his cot a long a time ago and had been sleeping on the QS bed in the guest room. We finally got him a Kura reversible bed from IKEA, a new mattress, new rug, a treasure box, new bedsheets, quilt, quilt cover set for his new room. Buying the furnitures were the easy part, putting them together was where the fun began! This is the fun with IKEA!

JD loves his new bed! Now he can sleep under the stars everynight! But like all mums probably, I spend a bit of time telling him about his new bed (worried that he might resent it), that it has got stars, that I am going get him new sheets and bla bla bla....

But one night as I was telling him, this little conversation nearly made me fall off the bed.

Me: JD, mommy is getting you a new bed soon
Me: Bed has got a little canopy over it and you can see stars
Me: So, what do you think
JD: No, no stars bed
Me: Oh, you don't like stars
JD: No, I want a HEART shape bed!" (as in a love heart shape!!!!)
Me: Har, you sure, what colour?
JD: RED!

So once again, I had to put on my imaginative hat on and sold him the idea till it clicked!

However, with JD moving into the guest room, means me giving up my home office! I have since moved my workstation to the common room, and which means lots of reorganizing, cleaning up, and all the work that went along with it when you shift furnitures around.

My own Mother's Day was spent decorating his room which I enjoyed. It was a quiet one, but man, I just slumped onto the sofa after playing musical chairs with the furnitures.

Rounding up Melbourne Trip

WE LOVE IT!

Amazing what a little holiday could do to brighten up your days!

Last gypsy stop - Shepparton

Shepparton was our last stop as gypsies. And all I could remember about Shepparton was it was cold at night, freaking cold, so cold that you freeze your butt off. I had trouble sleeping on one of the nights despite covering myself with blankets and sleeping bags...I was still COLD,brrrrrr! I had to wear gloves, beanie, thermie, the lots until I look like a Michelin man. And it was so cold that my bladder was not cooperating with me but yet too cold to get up and used the toilet.

That night we stayed inside our campervan and entertained ourselves with different games. One of our favourites was Play-doh session with JD. There's something really nice about being away somewhere there's no TV, PC, and phones ringing. You become really creative in what to do with the spare time. You start thinking of fun things to do. You spent more time talking to your partner. So often we get so busy in our daily lives that we forget to sit down to chat about anything and everything.

On that trip so far, what I have enjoyed most was the time I spent with my hubby! Our lives have become so busy with work, activities, family commitments and etc that we seldom have time for one another. But we managed to do it all again on the trip and we talked, laughed, joked and enjoyed each other's company. We never argued, it was always fun to be around one another. It was nice!

Now, I have to show you a funny picture of what JD did with his Play-Doh on one of the nights in Shepparton.

JD wanted to make daddy and mummy with his Play-Doh. So with some help from us, he created a family of daddy, mommy (with the belly), JD, new baby and a puppy! It was funny, and sometimes he surprises me with his ideas. Kind of smart, but also kind of strange.

Next stop Bendigo

From Ballarat, we drove 121km to the next major town, Bendigo.

It was Good Friday when we were in Bendigo, so most places were shut. But they had a big Easter Festival in town and we decided to join in. Before then, we had a little walk around the town centre and also visited the Dragon Museum. There we saw the longest dragon in the world on display and learnt about the early Chinese settlement in Bendigo. After that we headed off to the Easter fest.

While at the fest, I found myself torn between letting JD joining in the fun but still protecting him. There were lots of little rides for kids, merry-go-round, bumper car, spinning around in a giant teacup and not the least, the jumbo jumping castle. I knew straight JD wanted to go on the jumping castle, but I noticed most of kids were much taller, bigger, stronger and older than him. I hesitated and tried my best to get him interested in other rides, such as the train ride!

But no way, my little man has a mind of his own when it comes to things he likes to do. With a bit of persuasion from hubby, I reluctantly gave in. Part of me was glad to see him growing up and wanting to experience the fun of bigger kids, but part of me was frightened that he might get hurt or thrown around by the bigger kids.

Whilst that was my fear, it didn't faze him. And before I knew, in front of my eyes, my 2.5 yo was climbing the rope with the big kids, taking one little step at a time and took a big slide down to the jumping castle. My heart skipped a little bit, but he seem to have really enjoyed himself. Yes, my 2.5yo is growing up!

I thought to myself, perhaps JD would very soon tell me "Don't worry mommy, I'm a big kid now!"

Life as gypsies continued to Ballarat

Our life as gypsies continued from Port Campbell. The next stop was Ballarat.

But uh oh, JD has developed a nasty dry cough overnight in Port Campbell. He was a grumpy bum as we drove off and was crying on and off in the car while on our way there. He coughed so hard at one stage that he brought up lots of phlegm and some gooey looking stuff. I didn't feel right then and really wanted to find a chemist. An hour later, we got to Warnambool and saw a big Amcal Chemist sign and quickly took a turn there. May I say Amcal Chemist became my best friend then! The chemist recommended an Infant Decongestant that helped to break up the phelgm and allowed him to breath easier. That cough syrup worked wonders. An hour after taking it, he not only fell asleep but his cough started to subside. That night he slept like an angel and was definitely back to his happy self the next day.

Day 5 - Ballarat

After a good night sleep, we planned what to do in Ballarat. There were 2 places we wanted to visit - The Sovereign Hill and Eureka Centre. Our first stop was Soverign Hill. This place was a lot of fun and you need at least 2-3 hours there. We spent almost half a day there and had fun trying to pan for gold. Well, gold, maybe not, but lots of sand and rocks that JD was more interested in. Well, who cares about gold when sand and rocks were more fun for a 2.5yo! Ha! Hubby and I tried but with not much luck at all :) We took our time to read and learn about the goldrush history and enjoying the atmosphere of seeing people dressing up just like the old days. There were the old style lolly shops of which JD just marvelled at, old style bakeries that sold some delicious apple and custard pie, candles shop and demonstration of how people made candles in the old days, a blacksmith shop and we got JD a horse shoe for good luck.

On this trip, I came up with a nice "treasure bag" idea of which JD was given an opportunity to collect something special from each of the destinations he visited. In Ballarat, it was a horseshoe and a little wooden black spider. Why spider you may ask? Well, boys being boys, JD is totally fascinated with spider!