Christmas 2008

Lara standing still for a minute for me to take a picture.


A game of twister before the feast started.
Rach won most games - long legs are a great advantage.


Christmas was a two stage feast this year.
This was first course - Prawns, ham, ocean trout and potato salad.
Second course almost didn't happen due to a technical oven fault.


Water was freezing.
Some went in for a splash, but came out blue-lipped and trembling.


Our second Christmas feast at S&M's place.
There were heaps of tasty food, the Gammon was delicious!


The cute couple relaxed at the pool comtemplating about next year.


My first attempt of Christmas puddings (before cooking).

Beef bolognese

With work being very busy before Christmas and trying to get ready for the festive season, I had absolutely no motivation to cook. Wanted to use up some old frozen meat, I made a few batches of Bolognese sauce using beef mince. The good thing about beef bolognese is that it taste nice as left-overs and it's very versatile. Besides serving it with pasta, I made "Nachos" one night and "Lasagna" two days later.





Afternoons or early evenings were cool in the last few days, so we ate on the veranda most nights. Light meals such as nachos and lasagna seemed very fitting for fine afternnons like these.

2nd Saturday before Christmas

We spent a very unproductive Saturday buying Christmas presents. We only managed to buy a couple of presents in 5-6 hours! We told ourselves not to leave Christams shopping until the last minute every year. But it feels like you blink you eyes in the middle of November and next thing you know, it's the week before Christmas! If it were not for the lovely evening we spent with some friends and their kids in Bicentennial Park Pymble for "Carols in the park", we would have felt like we wasted the weekend.

Sitting on a picnic blanket listening to carols and surrended by strangers holding candles somehow felt very festive. The grass was still a little wet from rain the night before. It was breezy but quite warm. It would be good if there was more singing but I guess the choir also needed rest. The kiddies were tired by 9pm and it was great to be able to get home under 10 minutes.


Lara enjoyed patting sheeps, chicks and rabbits at the little farm they setup for the event.


Another Jakaranda branch in the front garden fell off while we were shopping on Saturday.

Count to ten

I didn't press the record button fast enough and missed "one" in this recording.

To buy or not to buy?

We didn't think we would be renting for too long after we sold our house. Three months would be enough we thought, but we had to sign a minimum 6-month lease. Since then, the extent of the global credit crisis became known. Suddenly we find ourselves unsure about what to do. Two houses we liked were sold this week, but we can't make up our mind whether to buy or not.

Will Australia go into a ression like some economists predict? Will house price keep going down? Are our jobs secure enough to service the loan? On the other hand, maybe house prices will be steady? Won't it be better to use the money we pay as rent to pay for a house anyway? Is it wise to do nothing and wait for somthing that might not happen at all?

We don't have a crystal ball and we can't predict the future. I guess all we can do now is to enjoy where we are and be patient. What will be will be.

New fairy dress

Lara tried a tutu on when we were at a friend's last week and she was very upset when it was time to take it off. I didn't realise she would be so interested in dress-ups already. Grandma bought this fairy dress as soon as I mentioned it.


(Lara wants to wear her dress all the time!)


(Lara checks out a video clip Grandma took of her dancing around in the fairy dress)

Fallen tree branch

A huge tree branch snapped after the rain last week and it's now half-hanging in the backyard. Getting the owner to fix it proves to be difficult as the actual tree is located next door. It was unclear as to whose responsibility it is to remove falling branches and keep them trimmed.

After many phone calls and emails to the property manager and next-door neighbour, the real estate agent will finally send someone around to have a look. Here is it still dangling a week later.

Muffins

Strawberry and Ricotta muffins

(recipe from Delicious magazine Feb 2003)

Savory muffins with 2 fillings -
Goat cheese, spanish onion and rosemary
Swiss cheese, sping onion and sage

(recipe from Delia Smith online)

[1 year 10 months] Chatterbox

Lara's favorite words are all to do with food - apple, pear, raisin, kiwi fruit, grapes, berry(strawberry), mato(tomato), ice cream, pizza, bread, milk. She especially likes to recite all the fruit she knows before going to sleep. Lara initiates "hellos" to people in the shops. Last week, she called out "hellos" and "grapes" again and again in a fruit shop that the old man works there ended up cutting a small bunch of grapes for her.


Lara also likes to dance and sing along to the songs in Wiggles. She knows most of the Wiggles' names. Wiggles is definitely her favorite now, surpassing "in the night garden". "Tellitubbies" is popular too. Lara tends to move closer and closer to the TV set if I don’t' watch her.

It's not always easy to understand what Lara says. You need a little imagination (sometimes a lot) and patience. Most days she is an angel, so easy and fun to be with. Other times she could be very difficult. The tantrums usually come without warnings but are mostly gone quite quickly too.


(Lara likes to pretend to fall over)

Others:
* Lara likes sushi rolls with avocado fillings or California rolls, not so keen on tuna ones.
* We went to yum char and Lara had a piece of prawn for the first time. She started having funny rashes that day. We are not sure at this stage if this is prawn related.
*We saw a couple of houses one weekend. The first 2 houses had swimming pools. Lara liked to point at them and repeated "swimming pool". Lara was looking around in the backyard of the third house (no pools) for some time. Then she turned to her Daddy and held her hands out and said "No swimming pool?"
* Lara enjoyed being in a peddling pool with Milo. Those blow-up peddling pool seems to be a great idea.
* This is how Lara counts to ten: "two... four ... six... seben...ten!".
* Lara like to run around naked before bath.
* Last weekend we were discussing where to go in the car. Husband said "ok turn right at the next traffic light". And we heard Lara said "turn left" from the back seat.
* Lara asks me which daycare we are going in the car -"Hello Jenny? Hello Mari?"? If I said "oh we are going to see Jenny today, hello Jenny", Lara would repeat "Hello Jenny, bye-bye Mari".
* Lara wants to pick flowers before getting into the car every morning. It's taking me longer to get her out of the door in the morning.
* Seemed to sleep for 3 hours frequently in daycares. They have to wake her up often.

Newport beach

We spent 2 lazy hours at Newport beach a couple of weekends ago. It was quite a windy day and there were a lot of flies around for some reason. Lara and I had a very short play at the beach and a little dab of the cold but refreshing sea water. To get to know the neighbourhood better, we are planning little excursions on the weekend that don't take up the whole weekend. Palm beach is next on the agenda.


(Lara and Dadddy enjoyed their chicken'n' chips.)


(After dinner entertainment is several songs and dances, including some duets.)

Looking for daycares

The most stressful part of this move was finding Lara a daycare. I started looking casually when we first put our house on the market. Everywhere I went, I got the same "we are full and waiting list is long" story. Not knowing where we would live and when we would move only made things more difficult.

I knew there was a possibility that I would not find somewhere satisfactory in time, and that meant I would have to take an extended holiday from work. But secretely I thought there had to be some movements in one of the daycares and just hoped I would be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when a vacancy came up.

I called the daycare I like the most and closest to where we would be living every week to enquire the possibility of getting a place. It was a very stressful time. Luck must be on my side and my persistent calling somehow paid off. Three days before our move, I was told there is one day available for Lara and managed to get another day (total of 2 days) on the second week.

Because there seemed to be impossible to get into daycares, I also widened my search to include family daycares (people looking after up to 5 kids at their own homes) and daycares further away. I went and visited a few places, some were available but none to my satisfation. During this process, I happened to talk to a lady running her own family daycare. She sounded really nice over the phone and cleared some of my reservations. A visit with Lara made me decide to try her one day a week.

Lara loves the family daycare environment and never cried once when I left. With daycare, Lara only cried a couple of times. The good news is Lara seems to be happy with both places. She knows the names of some of her carers and friends, she lingers on and never wants to rush home with me. In fact, most days I have a real job dragging her home after work!

Both places tell me how good Lara is and how easy it is to look after her. They both offered me all the days I want for next year. I could not have planned a better outcome, I am very grateful for that.

Big red car

Lara loves driving around in her new red car. The first week we got it from the toy library, Lara spent most of her waking hours driving. The first thing she wanted to do when she got up was get into the car and drive around. She's very good at maneuvering around our furniture and reversing to avoid collisions. Now (2 weeks later) the car spent more time parked in her room than being driven around. It's almost time to return it!

Real estae agents

We met Lush 6 years ago when we were looking for a house to buy. Lush was friendly and courteous. He made a good impression on us and we felt sorry that we didn't buy a house from him at the end. During the last 6 years, we bumped into Lush many times in the neighborhood. He remembered our names and always appeared extremely happy to see us. His office is across the road from the train station. He would wave to us from his desk every time we walked past.

Before putting our house on the market, we invited a few agents to come and gave us market appraisals. Lush stood out as the best agent, way ahead of everyone else we had over- he was the most positive about fetching the right price for our house. The decision was easy. Lush made selling a house relatively easy and stress-free! We were really lucky to have met Lush 6 years ago!

We are again looking for a house. We enjoy going to open homes on the weekend but the same can't be said about some of the "snob" agents we met. We met an agent called 'Barbara" on the weekend, like a bad taste in the mouth, the annoying feeling lingered on all weekend. Dont' these people realise they just lost the chance of ever selling our house?

ps Lush seemed to make a great impression on Lara as well. We were at an open for inspection on the weekend. Lara said "Bye bye Lush" to the agent at the door. She knows a real estate agent when she sees one!

Broken plate

This ceramic sushi plate was one of the first I painted in 2004 and one of my favorite.
I have served a few dishes on it over the years.
Even though it was wrapped in towels, it still got broken during the move.
I want to paint more plates, just need to find the time!

Backyard

(taken from our bathroom window)

This is what attracted me to this house.
One look at this, nothing else mattered.

In new home

We moved on a Saturday about 2 weeks ago. I made the first meal on Sunday night before we all went to work (Lara to daycare) the following Monday leaving Zeb to guard the new home.

Besides unpacking, there were lots of things to do. There was no key to the lock-up garage, and quite a few cracked windows. The paint in the bath tub and kitchen bench top were peeling (I don't know why there was paint in the bathtub) and I'm always looking for the right light switch. I did a quick walk-through on first visit and took this house on the spot. I didn't even enter the bathroom or noticed any broken windows. Anyway, most thing should be fixed. The street view and backyard is beautiful and the house is proportioned quite well so it feels bigger than it is.

Lara didn't want to go to sleep in her new bedroom, and had temperature in the first few days. Zeb barked a lot at any moving objects, I'm sure imaginary dogs on the other side of the fence and leaves and wind are among them.

It also took over a week to get phone connected and nearly 2 weeks to get internet from home. It felt like we lived in the dark ages for 2 weeks.

We are settling slowly into our new home.

Cannelloni

First go at spinach and ricotta Cannelloni with Bolognaise and white sauce.
The filling shrunk a little (too wet?) but it was delicious if I may say so myself:)

Black eye Lara

Lara was playing in the lounge near the coffee table like she did hundreds of times before. I left the room only a few seconds when I heard the cry. It looked like Lara fell and hit the table drawer knob. It must have hurt a lot as the bruise and swelling lasted quite some time, so was the crying. Thank God it just missed the eye!

Wedding anniversary meal

There are a few things that warranted celebration recently, wedding anniversary (nine years!!) being one of them. Lack of time to think about where to go, we booked the first restaurant that came to mind and not too far from the city - Kobe Jones. The food was unforgettable a couple of years ago. It seemed to be have gone downhill after that. Anyway, we thought we would give it another try.

One of their signature dish "Special No 1" was magnificent 2 years ago. It's the kind of dish that could keep me awake at night thinking about it. There was this melt-in-your-mouth crab salad and fish wrapped in seaweed and baked in an amazing cream sauce. A friend told me the cream sauce tasted like a "Nobu" sauce. Well, it definitely looked like they have changed hands or chefs. "No1" is still nice tasting but definitely less creamer and the seafood taste is more prominent. There also seemed to be quite a lot of empty tables, though it was not too late into the night, it was not a good sign.

We did enjoy a leisure meal just the two of us and got to see the sunset at Darling Harbour before the meal. What more could you ask?

[1 year 8 months] Yes Mom No Mom

Lara's development is pretty close to the milestones described in Dr Green's "Toddler Taming" book for 18 months/2 years olds. For example, Lara refers to herself by name, and she claims ownership of everything - everything is Lara's. Needless to say, sharing is not a strong point. She scribbles in a circular manner (and tells me she's drawing an "apple") and starts to show discomfort when wet or dirty. (she told me "poo poo" and pointed to her nappy before she actually pooed occasionally) In fact, Mother-in-law tried Lara on a toilet training seat the other day, Lara called it "poo chair" and was quite happy sitting on it for a long time.

Lara's 'specialty' this month is stringing two words she knows together. For example, "Lara shoe", "Da da hat", "Mom hair", "Lara feet", "Ta Mom", "Bye bye Grandma", "Come Honey" etc. When Lara says yes or no to me, she says "yes Mom" "No Mom". Sometimes she gets the names wrong, for example said "Ta da da" to me then corrected herself.

Lara loves to eat ice cream. Still loves fruit too. She tells me "na na" when she wants banana. Generally, if Lara won't eat banana, she's not hungry. She hasn't said "no" to oranges, kiwi fruit or strawberries. She tells me when she want's water too.


Lara loves swing and slide in the park too. She wants to be pushed higher and higher and can stay in the park for a very long time!




Lara knows the names of most simple body parts. I can't say if Lara is right-handed or left-handed ('Taming Toddlers' says hand dominance is established in most 2 year olds). She uses the left hand a little more when drawing, but it's a very close call at the moment.

Lara seems to be able to "count". When she see both of her pink blankets, she says "two blankets". When she put her blocks in the box, she sometimes counts "two four six"(sounds like). Grandma thinks she's a genius, knowing her times table already.

I was "told off" by Lara several times this month. The first time was in Grandma's when I put the teddy bears Lara took out back to the toy cot. Lara looked cross and pointed her index finger at me and said "NO! MOM!". You could tell she was imitating someone (not sure who). I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was very funny. It also happened at bath time. I had a Band-Aid on my finger that day. It came off during the bath. I didn't want to leave Lara, so I put the Band-Aid at the side of the bath. Lara wasn't happy with that. She told me "No Mom" (finger-pointing) and pointed to the toilet "bin bin" she said - she wanted me to put it in the bin! I also saw her did something similar to her bear too.

Lara stopped hitting her head on the floor when she was not happy, however, she cries a lot more this month, especially when we say no to her, take things away from her or stop her from doing things. I am trying what I did before - ignore her or walk away. Hopefully this is another phase she's going through. I guess they are not called "terrible two" for nothing!

Lara loves to to baby puzzles. She can do it quite fast (possibly faster than me!)