Lately

I have been busy visiting childcare places, and confirming Sam's spots for this year and next year. Sam started in Lady D's family daycare 2 weeks ago. Because it is based in the carer's home, I hope this translates to less sickness (less kids). Lady D cooks a vegetarian lunch for the kids every day and she's been doing this for 21 years, Sam seems happy with her. Even though not all the days I want is confirmed, I feel comfortable that things are starting to fall into place. Work has been busy and with Simon started a new job, completing life's many activities just seemed a little rusher and harder. Lara has done 2 school orientations and I have booked after-school care and got some uniforms. There is still quite a lot to do before the year's end.



We had a few very warm days in the last couple of weeks but fortunately some wet days too. The new grass in the back garden is growing crazy with the the good combinations of rain and sun. We were told to let the new turf grow and not cut it for 6 weeks, but Simon had to cut it a little earlier in fear of breaking the lawnmower. The first cutting took him a long time. The rain hopefully will make the 9 new plants we bought last week grow too.



Wei-po came 2 weeks ago. The timing was good and wei-po helped with cooking, looking after kids, and household chores. Lara loved doing puzzles with Wei-po after dinner and Sam went to wei-po when food was served. Wei-po's flight home was delayed for 2 hours so she must be exhaused. We hope she visits us again soon.

Halloween 2011

Halloween landed on a Monday this year. I didn't plan anything because Monday was normally a work day. But life had a way of working itself out. My laptop power supply/battery stopped working and the new one didn't arrive until Tuesday, suddenly I had a couple of days free. We decided to join Lara's friend Annie for trick or treating.



Lara was very excited, she wore her 'wizard' cape and 'witches' hat (like I said we didn't plan to go so we weren't prepared). We walked around for about an hour and collected so much candies! It's funny how with candies in minds, walking up and down many blocks suddenly was no problem at all. We saw many fine displays of halloween spirits at Lara's first trick or treating, it was great!

Busy October

October was a busy month. Lara & I started our violin lessons. The first few lessons are all about postures, postions and rhythms. We learned 'rest position song', bunny rabbit bow hold, names of the violin parts and violin strings. Lara likes the rocket and chu chu train song and she can do "busy busy stop stop" on the A string & E string. We just started on the more challenging left fingers. I'm not only learning violin with Lara, I'm also learning to take smaller steps and making each practice fun. (It is very true that children like to do what they can already do).

I met some new Taiwanese friends who have kids of similar ages to Lara and Sam. We had a few sessions of park plays, I even learned how to make a delicious Taiwanese pork stew from one of the Mums. Lara learned more Chinese words because of this.

I got a phone call one day mid October from an early childhood eye test nurse (they do eye tests in daycares). She told me Lara couldn't see well with her left eye (she could only see 3 lines out of 9). That freaked me out but I later found out the result of "6/9 -3" meant she got three letters (out of 6) wrong in last line. The additional eye test confirmed Lara's eyes were fine. What a relief!

Antoher good news is that Sam's ears improved greatly in the last 2 months. His glue ears are mostly cleared. Although he's still on nose drops, specialist confirmed at the last appointment at the end of October that it's unlikely Sam would need grummets. Yeah!

I have enjoyed the last few months with both of us working part-time. I didn't have to rush home from work to pick kids up and rush to get dinner ready. Even though working part-time means less money, there is always one of us home with the kids so their lives are less hurried. The good time unfortunately has to end. With Simon going back to full time work, life will undoubtedly get busier. I also have to sort out daycares in a very short time (not something I'm looking forward to do).

November is very busy for Lara - she's got kindy orientation, 3 birthday parties and 3 ballet rehearsals. We also have a 21st party to attend. Fortunately, Mum will be here for a couple of weeks to provide some much-needed relief.