Sam swimming

Sam went into a swimming pool for the first time this week. He's sititng on his Christmas present, a Wiggles blow-up airplane in the picture. We thought Sam would enjoy the pool based on the fact that he loves his bath but that was not the case. He was very tense and cried and cried when he got out of the water (he was probably cold). He preferred to be held in the water. Lara enjoyed a swim at the same time, but didn't want to leave. She cried when it was time to go.

It seemed like such a good idea to go swimming. But when both kids cried we thought "why do we bother"? I guess this is now part of our parenting memories. We will be able to tell Sam when he is older "the first time you went swimming you were 4 months old and you didn't really like it...".

Christmas 2010

We stayed up a little later than usual with Lara, Carolyn and the girls on Christmas Eve. Lara was very excited and showed off her ballet dancing and performed silly acts. I woke up the earliest at 7:30 on Christmas morning to feed Sam but had a fuzzy head and a small headache.

The in-laws arrived at 9am and we all sat down and had a big breakfast of ham, croissant, rock melon and champaign before the presents were opened. Even though Mother-in-law and I tried to do as much as we can beforehand, there were still a lot of preparation food-wise on Christmas Day.



People nibbled on nuts, chips, fruit, cheese and crackers and had prawns before we served Christmas dinner at 3pm. I went outside to watch Lara and her cousins playing with bubbles between cooking.



For dinner we had roasted potatos, carrots, peas, three types of meat (rolled and stuffed turkey breast, ham and pork belly), three salads (roasted vegetable couscous salad, green salad and Chinese cabbage salad) and three deserts (Christmas pudding, mangomisu and lemon tart). We had so much food left that we didn't need to cook much for another set of relatives who where here on Boxing day (thank God). In fact we are still eating left-overs from Christmas day!

ps Grandma and Sam had matching clothes on both days!!

Is it 5 minutes yet?

I had been doing things for Lara all day on Friday. "Mum can you get that for me?" "Mum I'm thirsty". "Mum I want to watch TV". "Mum I'm hungry....". "Mum....". I had enough by 4pm. I asked Lara to "give me five minutes of peace and quiet", a phrase she learned from a book and knew what it meant. Lara disappearred for a few minutes. I found her drawing in the study. When she saw me, she asked "Is it five minutes yet?".

Blond & blue eyes:
Lara had a thing with blond hair. She said me a couple of times "I wish you have blond hair Mama." and "Why is your hair black Mama?" She also told me she would like to have blue eyes and wondered why her eyes are not blue?

Shopping list:
I sat at the breakfast table writing my shopping list one Sunady morning. Lara asked what I was doing so I explained the purpose of a shopping list "so Mummy wont't forget to buy food you like". I took her with me to the shops after breakfast. When we walked past the corn chips, Lara said "I like corn chips Mama. Can you check if it's on your shopping list?"

Last one:
Lara was the last to be picked up from the 3-5s in daycare one day. She told me in the car "I like to be picked up last. Can you do that again tomorrow?" In fact, she was a little upset when she was not the last one to be picked up the following day.

The Tuesday ballet concert

This Tuesday the 7th of December is one of those funny days which everything happened at the same time. It had some wonderful memories but certain aspects of it I do not wish to repeat. To summarise the events, it contained the first day of a new job, a pair of lumpy and hurting breasts, a run-away dog, doctor's appointment, a fussy baby, a very excited 3-year-old and her first ballet concert and a sleepless night with temperature, vomitting and mastitis.

The highlight of the day of course was the concert. It started at 7pm, Grandma and I arrived with Lara just after 5pm to get ready. Lara's dance was in the first five minutes of the show. We had good seats but Sam cried as soon as the lights went off and music started so I didn't get to see the whole thing. We were all very tired and left at intermission (most parents with young kids did unless their kids performed in the second half). We didn't get home until well past 9pm.

We are very pround of Lara doing her dance in front of so many people, the most important of all, she enjoyed the experience very much.

Grandma's Birthday

We celebrated Mother-in-law's 70th birthday this weekend. Lunch at "The cooks garden" was very nice. Most people had either the fish 'n' chips or steak 'n' chips. Food was delicious but it was a warm day and too hot to sit outdoors. Miraclously, Sam slept through most of the meal leaving us free to enjoy our food. Afterwards, we went back to Grandma's place for mudcake. Everyone enjoyed the lovely cake from Pattisons. Happy birthday Grandma!


The steak and chips was not cheap at $34, but I heard it was delicious!


My baby calamari, chorizo, and spinach hot pot.


Lara loved her fish and chips. Fish was very tasty and fresh.

Card making

Kayleigh stayed overnight this weekend. We made cards on Saturday, Sunday was Grandma's 70th birthday lunch. Kayleigh played with Lara and taught me some tricks about stamping and card making. I only managed to make two Christmas cards, among my cooking and motherly duties. There aren't enough for Christmas so it's Plan B, off to the newsagency!