Silence is gold

Before we had kids, travelling together in the car can sometimes be really quiet. Especially during those morning rides to work.

When JD came along, things changed a little bit. Sometimes we would have him cooing, chuckling by himself, or sometimes crying at the back.

Then when he started to talk, it became a lot noisier. He would quite often wants to join in the conversation, telling us about the boat, the motorbike, the crane he spotted, the person he saw....

At the same time, my husband and I would try to have our own conversation.

Sometimes, I find myself talking to hubby, nodding to JD at the same time. And now that we have Miss C, it also involves one of us turning around to make funny faces at her and etc etc.

Put it this way, it is nosiy!

Then, there is one of those odd and priceless ocassion.

When both kids fell alseep together in the car. Ahhhhh, silence! So rare, so good, so priceless!

"Skinny Dip"

I really like this picture of the 3 of us. We were all so happy dipping in the pool, on that lovely warm Sunday afternoon.

At the time hubby took the pic, JD was trying to give his sister a kiss.

Autumn in the air

Autumn is truly here. The morning air is so fresh and crisp, the clock has been turned back, I can hear the birds chirping away, the night is definitely cooler, kids are dressed in super cute winter pyjamas, my jeans are out of the closet again, I love the change in seasons.

The new flower seedlings are blooming...

We can sit in the garden enjoying delicious lunches...

JD running around unde the glorious sun and immitating my "downward facing dog" yoga pose

I feel a surge of energy today.

自弹自唱

My husband call her the young Mozart everytime he sees her playing with the toy piano. I thought she was getting a headstart with "karaoke".

Noodle Boy

JD loves noodles. He can have noodles everyday. Last night we brought him out to Nishi Japanese for some udon. And I was rather surprise when I spotted him using the chopsticks rather skillfully. Well kind of.

Motherhood ain't easy

Once in a little while, some random comment will make me think, reflect, and slowly fear, uncertainty, regrets all begin to creep through my mind, little by little, eating me up. Quite often, they are issues closest to my heart, my kids, my relationship with them, my day to day impact on them....

Someone said to me yesterday "You need to sort yourself out. Quite often you pass your worries, anxieties to your kid. Sometimes you said he is difficult, but it's not his fault. You are the cause. He is a good kid with a good heart. He is a kid that tends to pick up a lot of feelings around him and tend to keep it in. He has no outlet to express. So he runs, he climbs, he jumps and physical acticity is his outlet."

I came home with a heavy heart. I vaccumed the house. Paid the bills. Clean the kitchen. Check my emails. And then I stop. And I feel pain.

Oh yeh. I haven't felt this bad for such a long time. Grief begins to wash over me.

Because so often we become so hard on ourselves when we try make everything right. We strive to be the "all-round-well-balanced-I-can-do-it-all" person. And more often than not we are still trying to. And I think really, most times we only do well in certain thing and not all. Afterall I am a woman juggling different roles sometimes all at once. So many different roles and responsibilities to play, to take on and no wonder once in a while I feel like I have lost my grip on things. I can't be the same woman as I was before.

Truly at the end of the day, I am just like anybody, I have my good days and my bad days. On a good day, I would be fine, contended, satisfied and life goes on like a breeze. On a bad day, things would easily go pear shape. I try to pick a fight with the husband, raise my voice. Frustrated at my own self. It becomes a cycle.

In hind sight, as always, I realise there is better way to a situation. And I am trying to be better everyday. Reading. Searching through the internet for information. Attending parenting courses. Or sometimes just by saying yes to the kid.

What she said to me was the truth. Perhaps along the way on this intricate world of motherhood, I have sometimes become insensitive to his needs and feelings. But those ocassions are still far less in comparison to the times when I have been there to nurse him, comfort him, feed him, dress him, reading him the same story over and over again, cook for him, putting up a brave face for him on his first day at kindy, that I was the one that couldn't sleep the night before he starts kindy, that I am still his main caregiver from the very first day I brought him into this world.

Who said being a mother is easy? It's never easy. And I am still learning everyday.

Sometimes I become paronoid that one mistake I made would completely tarnish his whole childhood, that he would never know how to have fun, that he would have complex, that he would struggle, that he would feel hurt, or even an odd chance he might be considered as a "weirdo" by some and etc etc.

But me of little faith sometimes. Surely as a kid, my parents would have said certain things to me that might have sounded awful at that time. But hey, I am still ok, at least I think I am.

So, what happened today was just a gentle reminder to myself that I can make mistakes too. But I learn from it and move on.

Also perhaps it's also time for me to dust off my yoga mat and rejoin a group yoga class again to stretch n relax.

Chloe - 8 months old

Miss C turned 8 months old last week. JD and I went to the clinic with her and her latest stats were:

Height: 66cm

Weight: 7.380kg

Chloe is doing what every 8 months old would be doing. She is crawling, exploring various places in the house. She has now venture out of the family room and her favourite spot is the corridor leading towards the front door. She likes sitting there in the morning, admiring the morning sun, playing with the doorstop and when she starts to get bored, she will start chewing on shoes! She and her brother has the same habit :)

She has also been trying to stand and she does it with mighty effort. The funny things is once she got herself to a standing position, she will look like she is hanging onto her dear life.

We also spotted one tooth last week! Yep, one!

She loves her tucker. She is not a big fan for porridge but prefers food that she can chew on. She loves rice, toast, grapes, peaches, crackers, cheese and she also drinks lots of water in a day. We have also been giving her finger food and she could sit there chewing and tasting every pieces of food you put in front of her. She is a 小肥猪 ( little piggy) !

Chloe seems more attached to us compared to JD when he was a baby. JD would very happily play by himself and fairly independent from very early on. But man, no not with Chloe. She gets upset when we are out of sight, and that goes down to when she can't see her brother or me or her daddy. And we would constantly be shouting out "Won't be long, Chloe, I am coming back!" When we are a bit slow or trying to get something done, she will whinge, sob as she crawls with her fastest speed to look for us. It's really a funny sight.

Apart from that, she is happy little baby, drinking her milk, eating her tucker, crawling around the house, checking out the various rooms and toys!

But she is not that "angelic" all the time. I caught her snatching her brother's ice cream the other day. While she was sitting on her daddy's lap, she looked across spotted her brother's ice cream, and thinking no one was looking, she leaned across, grabbed her brother's arm and had a lick of his ice cream! Wahahahaha!

Grandfather's Joy

A Grandfather's joy are rare
For they are pure
With little words said

But deep in love

A joy only seen in his eyes

As he pushes the swing for the child

With laughter and giggles

Ringing through an otherwise quiet morning

That only a grandfather knows

And only felt in the heart of the child

The smiles on his face

Yet hard to wipe

As he held the little baby in his arm

Resting her head on the grandfather

That you would have never known

Is only a grandfather's joy

With such abundance

To fill his heart

Censored Conversation

On Tuesday when I picked up JD from daycare, his caregiver shared with me a bit of his day.

Over lunch, she heard this little man telling his friends about this.

JD: U know, my dad has got a willy
K: My dad got one too
JD: Yeh, but my mommy and Chloe don't have one
E: Yes, my dad got a big one too
JD: No no, my dad got the biggest one
K: Hey, tat's not fair, my dad has got a giant one

Oh my, at that point, Andrea the caregiver had to step in to offer them one more serving of lasagna!

The stuff that kids talk about can be very amusing. And perfectly normal for them to be so interested in "human anatomy".

Waigong is in town!

My dad, the kids's waigong (maternal granddad) is in town for a week. JD and I excitedly drove to the airport on Sunday. JD was very happy to see his waigong again, though I am not too sure if he remembers him. The last time JD saw his waigong was during our 2004 visit back to Malaysia and JD was only 18 months old then.

Likewise, my dad was very happy to see his grandson, and literally just let his luggage trolley rolled away while getting down to give JD a big cuddle. I chased after the trolley and managed to catch up with them, phew :) JD hit it off very well with his waigong, showing him his bedroom, checking out any presents that his waigong has brought over, calling "waigong" everywhere in the house ... and even insisted on sleeping with waigong on his first night!

They have been going for morning and evening walks together. Everything is good with the walks, but he would bully my dad into carrying him because his little feet were too tired. Gee! JD knows whom to bully. And my dad being the doting grandparent, would happily obliged...

Then, there was the very first meeting between Chloe and my dad. This is his first time meeting her and a very special moment for both of them. Chloe loves to grab her waigong's nose and glasses, and she gets terribly upset if she couldn't grad hold of them, tsk tsk!

Like her brother, she also bully her waigong. I had to do a volunteer parent roster at JD's kindy on Monday. I left her with my dad. And she refused to go down for a nap on her own and would only settle by sleeping in her waigong's arms. And my dad did that for 2 hours, applause!

Imprisoned

I was trying to fold the laundry, she kept crawling over them. So, I put her in the laundry basket as a "prisoner". Hahahaha, and as you can see, she wasn't too happy with the arrangement.

Friday Crazies

I am a bit disoriented today, you know, just can't seem to find my bearings for what I need to do. Maybe it's Friday afterall!

We went out to do the weekly groceries, and stopped by at a nearby cafe for a coffee before heading home. Chloe was so happy after trying a bit of my blueberry muffin, and gave me this really funny smile. The muffin crumbs were all over her face. She is so funny!

And JD is just the same. I heard him ramsacking my kitchen cabinet while I was on the phone, then I heard a lot of giggles and out came him like this! He said he was trying to be Chicken Little with a baseball helmet! I nearly fell off my chair laughing and I couldn't continue with my phone conversation. He is my crazy kid.

Later this afternoon, JD wanted to race cars. He was trying to do a makeshift racing tracks with bumps and tunnel by stacking the sofa cushions on the floor. It didn't quite work.

So, I went through my recycled boxes and made this for him. I thought it was pretty cool and it occupied him for a couple hours.

My Must Have Everyday

I must have my walks everyday. Once in the morning and if possible, once in the afternoon. I load both kids in the pram, JD in the front, the little one at the back, with my ipod, a hat on, the daily walks have become a bit of "me" time. It doesn't matter if the kids are with me, but I get to listen to some music, absorb in my thoughts for that 30 mins or so twice a day, once in a while engage in some conversations with JD, sometimes stopping by at the supermarket to get some juice or bread. I can't do without my walks and I can't do without my Phil&Teds double buggy. I feel sluggish if I have missed my walks, as if I haven't gotten a good night sleep at all. And I wouldn't have such joy with my walks have we not bought this last year.

The funny thing is, even if I really had a bad night sleep, the morning walk do wonders to kick start my day. And it's a great way to let the kids enjoy the fresh air in the morning. Both kids were up by 6.30am today, so I thought what better way to start the day by going for our walks before it gets too hot.

The mercury is gonna hit 42 deg c (107.6 deg f) again today, so we might skip the afternoon walk. It would be way too hot.

Now at 8.53am, the aircon in the house has already been turned on, blinds are shut, lots of ice water, fruits in the fridge ready for another hot day. I am feeling terrbile not doing my part to conserve the energy after watching An Inconvenient Truth about global warming the other night, but heck, it's 42 deg today!

6th March

Today is Phil's birthday! I helped JD to make a card for his daddy. He applied the glue, sprinkled the glitters, rolled the crepe paper into little "cherries" for decorating the cake, it looks yummy enough to eat!

And here's the real cake we had tonight. This time we got the tripod out to take a family picture. Initially, I had planned to bake a cake for hubby with help from JD. But we are experiencing some serious heat wave and the mercury hit 42 deg c (107.6 deg f) today. So, I had to forgo the idea of baking and instead bought a cake from the bakery.

Today also marked the first birthday celebration hubby had with Chloe. A year ago, I was 4 months pregnant with her, and JD has matured so much in his look since then.

Family Time

We went out to Fremantle yesterday to grab some lunch. I had a delicious chicken n avocado sandwich on a nice thick sourdough bread, JD had a ham n cheese sandwich while Phil had a Tempura fish n chips. It was a nice lunch with the kids.

After lunch, JD and I shared a mega size strawberry n cream gelato. I asked for a junior cone, but the ice cream gal just kept topping the cone with more and more. We couldn't finish it between the 2 of us, and Phil helped to finish the rest.

JD with a happy smile.

And Chloe having a chin wag with her daddy. Well, actually she stole a piece of chip from her daddy's plate and started munching on it. I love her chubby hands!

And since it was 元宵 yesterday, I called my MIL to come over for dinner. I made a dish of mapo tofu, snowpeas stirfried with carrots, sweet corn, pork and I also bought half a roast duck and some char siu from the nearby Chinese BBQ shop.

It turned out to be a really nice night. My MIL got to spend some time with both JD and Chloe. After dinner, we put a mat down in the back garden, enjoyed the evening breeze and some family time together while munching on some watermelon and oranges.

It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday as well as 元宵!

Another new trick of Miss C

This has been Miss C's latest trick. It's okay if she does it at anytime except when I am trying to feed her dinner. And you wouldn't want a shower of porridge or oats all over your face and glasses either, yikes!

最佳美腿小姐

Check out those juicy thighs! Kee kee kee!