Lara climb tree

After several practices over a period of time, Lara can now climb the Magnolia tree in our front garden!

She makes me baked beans

When asked why she loved her Mummy in daycare, Lara replied "she makes me baked beans". What about all the other food I loving prepared? All I have to do to make her happy is to heat up baked beans in the microwave...

"I'm very good at skating." - Lara tried to convince me she wanted to go skating after we watched people ice-skating at a shopping centre.

"What is happening to me?" - when Lara couldn't get her poo out (no doubt from holding it for too long!) That's another long story:)

"I want to wear the new purple shoes Ruby bought me" Lara said referring to Ruby's old shoes. "I want five minutes of peace and quite from you lot", Lara's response to me asking why she was whispering in the car. "I'm hungry", Lara says when she sees something she wants to eat, most definitely something sweet and not dinner.

Lara does not have any concept about days, hours, last week, next year at this stage. So everything is "yesterady" or "tomorrow". She can count to 29 without missing a number. Thirty (30) is twenty ten.

Steamboat

A new Taiwanese friend invited me over for steamboat last Saturday. It was very nice sharing steaming hot food in the middle of the table in a cold winter day. I decided to try it at home. Simon suggested we use the electric frying pan instead of burners and proper steamboat pots that we don't have. We bought a variety of pre-made frozen ingredients earlier that day and started cooking at 6pm. Lara was very excited watching raw ingredients being cooked and thought it was a great 'tea party'! We all had lots of food and were very full at the end of the night.

Work around the house

New back fence $1500 (our share)

New wires in one part of the house (replaced old copper wires) $1000

New Ikea kitchen cupboards $850

Considering/Working on:
Reverse-cycle air-con in bedrooms.
Heater in 2nd bathroom. (It's freezing there!)
Under-house ventilation.
Wiring in other part of the house?

Pregnancy inconveniences

With the first preganancy, I knew exactly how many weeks I was and how many weeks left to go. This time around, it was only when my check-ups went from monthly to forthnightly that I realised it's getting closer to the end. I generally feel pretty good and don't have a lot of complaints. The two new 'experiences' this time around are:

Dizziness/Light-headedness
These dizzy spells made me late in the mornings sometimes. I was told this is probably due to low blood pressure (the lowest recorded at home was 85/59) and/or low blood sugar. Obstetrician recommended instant sugar in the form of jam on toast in the morning and iron tablets twice a week.

Back-ache
More a pain on the left side of my hip and it makes walking painful sometimes. Despite an one-hour massage last weekend, the pain's still there though not as bad. Obstetrician said this is probably due to pelvic bones moving and recommended not putting too much weight on one foot. That is, sit down when putting trousers/socks on and when getting out of the car, swing both legs out of the car before getting up.

I did yoga and read many birth/parenting books last time. This time, I feel really unparpared because I have not thought about the birth much. If giving birth is a test I have to do tomorrow I don't think I will pass! I'm really looking forward to the few weeks I have off to be mentally prepared for the next stage of our family life.

Deceitful breakfast

I have a big breakfast at around 7.30 every morning. It usually consists of toasts, an boiled egg, some cheese and salad. Simon always laugh at how much I eat in the morning but it is really not as big as it looks.

I do feel hungry all the time!

Best friends

Lara's best friend in daycare is Matilda. They both like to giggle, do funny things and make people laugh. Lara told me Matilda and her were 'twins' and Matilda's Mum said Matilda talks about Lara all the time. Last year the teachers in daycare commented how Lara and Matilda enjoyed each other's company. It's so nice to see the friendship growing this year!

They gave each other nicknames: Matilda calls Lara "Laro" (Matilda likes to put an "o" at the end of the things she likes I was told), Lara calls Matilda "Matildo".

They invented games to play together. Lara described the game "piggy jump" she and Matilda plays - "you stand on a beam and hold hands, then when you jump off you have to laugh". Sounds like a fun game!

Lara also enjoy Abigail and Kiki's company in daycare.

I'm very grateful that Lara meet these little friends and seems to be very happy at daycare.