No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Lara loves "monkeys jumping on the bed" nursery rhyme. She put legos on her fingers and used them as monkeys sometimes. I bought her a book on this nursery rhyme, she loves it. Here is a short video of her reading the book.

Father-in-law's roast

MIL had a major operation about 3 weeks ago. Before the operation, we were speculating on how FIL would handle this situation. Being a very traditional man who doesn't have many "chances" to be in the kitchen, we didn't think he know how to prepare food. Therefore, we were really surprised to find a whole roast dinner (nice lamb racks) when we arrived last weekend. Next to the food on the kitchen counter were some neatly written notes about the preparation and cooking of the meal.

It's never too late to learn!

Easter show at work

I decided to take Lara to the mini Easter show work organises every year. I told Lara we were going to see sheeps, rabbits, cows and piggies at the kindie farm at work. Lara listened carefully and asked "How about elephant?" No Lara, I don't think elephant would be there this time.

After I parked the car near station (didn't want to drive into the city and get lost in the city street maze) and put Lara into the pram, I found one of the pram wheels deflated. I tried pumping it up but it got flat again very quickly - there must be a puncture. Lara looked very disappointed and didn't want to get off the pram when I told her we were going home. We nearly didn't make it if I didn't drive to a friend's house closeby and borrowed their stroller.

Lara was very excited on the train, turning her head to see the door open and close at every station. She didn't sleep at all on the train as I hoped, and must be quite tired when we arrived just before 3pm. I showed Lara my desk at work and we said hi to a few colleauges before we went one floor up to where the fun was.

The noises around was a little overwhelming. Lara managed to pat some of the animals and ate half a gingerbread biscuit. She liked the Easter bunny the best and gave him several big cuddles. We also queued up for face painting. Lara wanted to be a cat but when it was finally our turn, she refused to have her face, arm or any part of her body painted. She told me on the way home that she didin't want to get her face 'dirty'.

We left at around 4.30pm before Lara had time to get too tired. She fell asleep fairly quickly on the train back. It was definitely an exciting afternoon for little Lara.

Do you want any help?

It was 6pm the most chaotic time in our household when I ran around in the kitchen getting dinner ready. I saw this little face on top of the safey gate, a pair of little hands holding onto the sides of the gate. A little voice, slightly unsure, asked me "Mummy, (do you want) any help?"

How nice it is to be asked if I want any help!

I started to ask Lara's help in doing simple things - like standing on the step chair and putting books in the return shute for me in the libray or putting the pegs back in the container when I got the clothes in.

Oh how Lara loves to help mummy!

Sunday morning walks

We decide to observe the neighbourhood on foot to get to know the area better. We set off after breakfast every Sunday before the heat sets in. We choose a different route each time and enjoy looking at the houses and commenting to each other on what we like or don't like about certain houses or streets.



We usually stop at a park for Lara to have a short play before we turn back home. Zeb is always very excited on these walks too, stopping and sniffing at every other tree and saying hi to every dog that walks past.



We hope the fine weather continues for our little walks on the weekend.

Prawn and avocado risotto

I regained my motivation for cooking after several weeks of not wanting to cook at all. There are so many dishes I want to make but no time to do it...

ps This house has a very basic oven. It seemed to get very hot at the bottom but not hot enough at the top. One of my pizzas (on the bottom shelf) was burned. Oh no what should I do? No baked dinners or cakes now?!

[2 years 2 months] Terrible Two

Lara had more tantrums this month. I feel for her frustrations and I'm getting better at diverting it. Sometimes Lara got angry when she couldn't do something. Other times there didn't seem to be a reason. She also had tantrums in both daycares. Lara usually don't repond to displine, bribes or cooing during a bad tantrum. The teachers in daycare also told me there was nothing they could do except to leave Lara be until she calmed down.

For a period of two to three weeks, Lara didn't want to go to daycare. She would start saying "no" or crying as soon as my car turned into the driveway of daycare. I tried a lot of things to improve the situation. I even called a couple of other daycare centres. The situation did improve, and though she's not always happy going, she's usually very happy when I pick her up in the afternoon.

Lara likes 'boohbah' and 'tellitubbies'. She also loves 'pokoyo'. She asked to watch the "colours" episode again and again. Now she walks around acting the scene in that episode. Lara also likes to dance and sing. Her favorites at the moment are "five little monkeys jumping on the bed", "old macdoland had a farm" and "going on a bear hunt".

Lara is "obsessed" with colours. She wants to wear pink dresses, but white shoes. Hates red shoes or jacket, doesn't seem to like orange either. She especially likes 'blue'. I was told she refuses to eat lunch at daycare if it is not served in a blue bowl!!


(We need to stop at every ride we see)

I made up a story of an elephant flying to the moon and swimming with Lara when she was sick to get her to sleep. Now I have to tell the elephant story every night. The story varies every day and now with lots of added characters- rabbit, upsy daisy and huhu (IgglePiggle) are all regulars. I alter the plot a little every day and sometimes use it to get my point across - like IgglePiggle give his blanket to Mommy so it won't get wet in the swimming pool.

Still unpacking ...

We moved to new house two weeks ago. Even though we informaed the telephone company two weeks prior to the move, we still waited 4 days to get telephone connected and nearly two weeks to get broadband. The reason, the request was in a to-do folder and they 'forgot' to do it. Um... I wonder if I can use the same execuse when it comes to pay, 'sorry we forgot to pay the bill'.

The task of unpacking was daunting but we've done most of it. The speed of unpacking has actually reduced to a snail-pace now - only one box every few days. We learned to walk around the boxes in the dark, which is not a good thing. Have to hurry up and finish it soon.

We had to call an emergency plumber in to fix the taps to prevent the house being flooded. The rubbish the owner removed still sitting outside house. Filling condition report and taking lots of photos to prove the condition of the house all took time. We are almost there.