Camera found

This is the last picture I took on the camera before I lost it. It took me a couple of days to realise I lost my camera and a couple of days to go through in my head all the possible places where I could have left it. Calling the cafe I went to earlier that week yielded good result - someone remembered a camera found in the car park. I called centre management but the lady who found the camera took it home so they had to call her and get her to bring it back. The lady wish to be anonymous so I couldn't thank her, but I'm happy that I can take photos again. I could't take any photos of Lara's first bike ride to the park (luckily Sue took some). I couldn't take photos of Sam sitting on the sand at the beach for the first time. I have forgotten completely that I took this and other picture of Sam and am glad I didn't lose these photos.

Vegetable box

I started ordering organic fruit and vegetables again now that Sam is on meshed food. This is this week's box. This is the second time I ordered Russian curly kale (pitctured in the middle next to bananas and yellow squash) becasue even Lara eat it. All I did was simmer it in water and then stir fry with a little butter, pepper and salt. From the dark green look of it, you know it is packed with nutritions and antioxidants.

The other vegetable that we tried and liked is the yellow button squash. We also had it sliced thinly and fried in butter and seasonings as suggested and it was very nice. The rhubarb (you can't see it in the photo, it's at the bottom of the box) I plan to mesh some for Sam and make the rest into an apple and rhubarb crumble. Sam will also have some of the beetroot, zucchini, broccoli and all of the Asian white sweet potato. The bananas can go into the coconut and banana bread that Simon likes. Any left-over vegetables will all go into a soup or fried rice later on.

I still need to go and buy other vegetables in the shop. I find it very hard to pay $20 a kilo for mushrooms for example. But a box delivered means I've got some of the food covered so we are alright even if I'm too lazy to leave the house sometimes.

Letter to Zebadee

Dear Zeb,

Did you have a good time out by yourself today? I was worried after I found you missing this morning. I couldn't drive around looking for you like I did last time because Sam was asleep, and Granddad couldn't find you. And I was still disappointed at your behaviour when you ran off two months ago - I was very lucky to have spotted you and got off the car very quickly to get your attention. You saw me but ran the other way and disappearred out of sight again. I know you thought I was angry at you so you ran away from me. You did run straight home, but I would like you to come to me when I called you. You were out for so long I thought we lost you for good this time. Daddy was at work but told me not to go and look for you. He said if you want to run away, don't come back, but I know he was worried too because he sounded relieved when I told him you came back.

We still couldn't work out how you got out. We increased the height of a side fence, but you found another way. You obviously came back the same way you left. I kept looking out for you and kept checking the garden for the sight of you. I was in Sam's room putting him to bed when you came back, and you barked at Sam's window to let me know you were home.

I know we have been neglecting you a little because we are busy with Lara and Sam. But you have a big garden to run around so it is very naughty to go out by yourself like that without letting us know. We will be checking all the fences again and make sure you dont' go wander off for your own good. If you have to go wander, please stay on the footpath and don't go too far!

Love Mummy

Walk away

Lara is learning to trace pictures at the moment. Tracing takes concentration and patience, Lara sometimes got frustrated when she couldn't get the lines right and she would scrunch up the tracing paper in anger. Sometimes the same thing happened when she couldn't draw the pictures she wanted or used the wrong colours. I can see how frustrating it was for her, but I wasn't sure how to teach Lara to handle her anger. It's no use telling someone not to be angry when they are angry. And it sets the wrong example if I get angry myself over her behaviour.

Yesterday Lara was playing with her birthday present, the Zhu Zhu salon. She couldn't fix the hair dryer on properly and I could sense her becoming frustrated.
Then I heard a loud sound. I thought toys were being thrown so I went to 'investigate'. I don't know exactly what happened but Lara said she didn't throw her toys. I took this opportunity to explain the consequence of taking anger out on toys. Then an idea came to me. I told Lara to try to walk away next time she could not do something or feel angry. I explained that she would calm down by walking away (plus she wouldn't have broken toys), then she could get back to it and try again later. I didn't know if Lara understood all these but I thought I would try anyway.

A while later, I was feeding Sam when Lara got up quickly from her drawing table and walked to the lounge. She told me excitedly later "Ma ma I walk(ed) away and I feel better now" Oh how hard Lara tried to be better. I'm very blessed to have such a beautiful little girl!

Lara's birthday party

Lara waiting for friends to arrive before the party

Lara had her 4th birthday party last weekend, 7 little friends came to the party. Lara was very excited, talking about the party for days prior. She helped me choosing the balloons and doing the party bags. Lara would like to invite more people (she wanted to invite "everyone" in daycare) but for a first birthday party, 8 was the maximum number of kids I thought I could handle. Luckily the rain stopped for a brief moment so the kids could play outdoors.


Kids playing outside


Birthday cake


consisted of three layers with icing in-between.

The best news about Lara turning four was she doing poo in the toilet. She told us she would do it when she turned four (we had our doubts) and she decided to poo in the toilet on the night of her birthday party, and has pooed almost every night in the toilet since. The bike is down now waiting to be ridden on a sunny day!

[5 months] Very active

Weight: 8.4kg (@ 5 and 1/2 months) Lara was 8.5kg at 6 months.

Sam is very active, legs kicking constantly, especially in the bath, splashing everyone. We frequently find him turned 90 degrees in bed in the morning (not sure how he did it!). Last night, Sam was put to bed on his back at 8pm. When I went to check on him at 10, he had turned 180 degress and was on his tummy! He mastered rolling from his back to tummy a few weeks ago, still learning rolling from tummy to his back. I sometimes have to pin him down to change his nappy so he can't roll on the change mat, oh he tried.



Sam is very interested in watching us eat. I started him on meshed food before Christmas because he started getting up at night again. He has tried sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, beans, apple, nectarine and mango so far. He definitely prefers the sweeter fruit than vege.

Sam fell to the ground from his baby rocker and the couch a couple of times, but he didn't seem to mind. He giggles when being tickled and fell asleep in front of tv last week. He's growing up fast.

She wants to come to my birthday party

We went shopping last week. Simon went to check out something in JB hifi and I sat watching Lara play at a playpen thing with Sam in the pram. Lara came back five minutes later with a little girl. "Mum she wants to come to my four year old birthday party" Lara said pointing to the little girl behind her. "What is her name?" I asked. "Dont' know". OK. Are we inviting strangers to the party already?

She followed the girl to see her Mum too but they left soon afterwards. Lara went back to play. Another five minutes later, Lara came back with a little boy and told me he was her friend. Simon came back and it was time to go. The little boy ran to his Mum and brought back a packet of stickers. He wanted to give it to Lara, I confirmed with his Mum that it was OK. Lara was very happy.

That night, Lara did 3 drawings using these stickers. Here is one of them.

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at the beach. It was a lovely warm day, we arrived at the beach just after 4pm. We had planned to leave home ealier but it just took so long to get ready these days, with all the kids stuff we had to have with us. Simon set up the new beach tent then took Lara to play while I looked after Sam. We swapped an hour later, I played with Lara at the beach while Simon had a rest in the tent. The sea breeze was quite strong, the afternoon sun warm but not unbearable like the mid-day sun. Sam had a little sleep. We had fish'n' chips and burger, another little play before we headed home at around 7pm. People started to arrive while we were packing up to leave. There were various activities and performaces on at the beach to celebrate the new year. Lara and I danced to the beat of drums feeling very festive. Having two young kids, we couldn't stay. The aim is to not spend a long time at the beach each time but go frquently.

Lara was of course unhappy to leave, she loved the beach and could spend the whole day there.

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!

Garden makeover (2) - prepare for retaining wall

8 tonnes of blue metal dust were delivered in 3 batches and layed in the back garden in the last few weeks. The rain meant little progress on some weekends. More blue metal and blue metal dust are ordered. Retaining wall blocks were delivered this week. These blocks will sit on the leveled blue metal ground after trenches are digged and pipes layed for irrigation. Work is behind schedule this weekend as we lost a worker temporarily due to hang-over.

Swimming at Grandma's pool

Lara and I enjoyed a nice relaxing swim & play at Grandma and Granddad's last week, our second one this spring. Grandma and Sam watched us from the side of the pool. I have not signed Lara up for any swimming lessons, and probably won't be next year. We plan to go to the beach whenever we can in summer and by going to Grandma's pool often, Lara's swimming hopefully will improve. I'd like to have less organised activities and let Lara have more free play.

Off the breasts

It has been a month and a half now since I last had mastitis. I know I said I would stop breastfeeding but because I didn't have any problem after I finished the two courses of antibiotics, I was not seriously pursuing this 'weanin'g business... (only topup with formula from time to time) until NOW. I spent half of Friday trying to clear a lump on the right breast, thought that was it and then spent all of Saturday trying to clear a hard lump on the left breast due to blockage. At one stage, 3/4 of the breast was rock hard. I tried needle and several showers but nothing seemed to work. Sam was crying and wouldn't suck. Lara was crying and didn't want to poo in the toilet. I was crying because the breast hurt. Simon made dinner and dared not mention the fact that I spoke about weaning weeks ago. The blockage was finally cleared (by forcing a crying Sam to suck) just after midnight (early this morning).

I do not know why I kept doing this to myself! I should have weaned quickly while the time was good. I replaced a whole feed with formula this afternoon and am now focusing on getting Sam off the breasts before any more painful episode re-occur. I re-read the breastfeeding story I wrote in May 2007, though I can't help feeling I failed 'breastfeeding' again, I know it is the right thing to do.

ps I moved 2 posts of breastfeeding stories from another site to remind myself to delay no further. Unfortunately I can not locate the pictures now.

pps No wonder I had mastitis three times with Lara. I know more about my breasts and how to handle blocked ducts/lumps this time compared with last time. Breast-feeding is still the hardest aspect of parenting for me with what I know.

Ballet rehearsal

We had the first ballet rehearsal this Saturday from 10:45am. Somehow I thought it was at 9.45 so we arrived one hour early! Because of that, I had a good car space, had time to feed Sam and bought the tickets without standing in a long queue. The day turned out better than expexcted.



It was a very warm day. Sam waited patiently for the rehearsal to finish with nothing on except his nappy. Lara was very tired afterwards that she had a good long sleep on the couch after lunch.
Two more rehearsals to go before the concert.

[3 months] Happy Sam

Weight: 6.3 kg

Sam is growing happily and beautifully. Like all other second child, he suffers from the fate of constantly being woken up for various reasons, mostly to do with Lara but he didn't seem to mind. Sam is used to not being picked up straight away. Sometimes he falls back to sleep but when he's insistent with his whining, we know he wants to get up. He's partidularly impatient when hungry (who isn't?), and will complain loudly if the breast is not shuffled into his mouth fast enough. His cry is mostly a 'demanding' reminder that we don't forget him.

Lara was never sick in her first year of life. But with Lara bringing germs from daycare, Sam was not so lucky. He had a cold when he was less than 2 months old. Poor thing when he coughed, he sounded like he couldn't breath, gasping for air. Doctor said it was normal. Hopefully this built up Sam's immune system.



I feed Sam around 4 times a day. Feeding is now shorter, about 1/2 an hour. I use formula supplement if required but have not had to do that last week. If I wake Sam up to have a 4th feed before I go to bed (if his last feed is before 6pm), he can sleep through the night. I probably only got up during the night to feed twice in the last three weeks.

Sam knows where his fists are and likes to suck on his fingers. He studies his hands and tries to grap objects. He loves to babble. His eyes follow Lara when she is around. Sam likes his new pram and is very interested in his surroundings. He seems to be able to hold his neck a little longer. Sam has been mistaken to be a girl, maybe because he sometimes uses his sister's pink blankets.



I try to have at least one quiet day a week at home with Sam and enjoy these days very much!

Three year old teenager

Lara loves to 'dress-up' at home.

Lara has an 'attitude' problem recently ...

When Lara wants me to do things for her, she often shouts from where she happens to be. I've been telling her to come to me and ask for help nicely. I was in the kitchen when Lara shouted 'help' from the tv room again. When I asked why she didn't come to me, she gave me all the execuses in the world on why she couldn't come - she can't walk, she can't get up, she's too tired and her blanket is stuck! This reminds me of the time when Lara was one and she threw herself on the floor to get attention. Ignoring her worked wonders then, but not so well this time. She worked herself up to a sob, made me angry and ended up standing in the corner for the second time that day.

Lara had a couple of outbursts at daycare too. The attention-seeking behaviours at home is particularly bad when I feed Sam. She is moody sometimes, sulks for the littlest things. Last week I was cross with her, she looked sad and said 'nobody likes me!'. It's hard to find out exactly what happens at daycare. When I asked Lara what she did in daycare and who she played with, she replied "I don't remember" in this off-handedly, shrug-shoulder-teenager kind of way. She doesn't listen when she is in this funny mood. I can repeat the same things again and again but get this blank look.

Lara is still lovely and happy most of the time. But sometimes it felt like we have a teenager in the house! We like the smily and funny three-year-old back please!