little miss // three weeks old

my little miss is three weeks old already. it's hard to believe how quickly she grows. soon, she won't be a newborn anymore. 

_ she is becoming a lot more alert and interested in her surrounding. she's looking around whenever she's up

_ she is a lot more interactive this week as she reacts to me when i talk to her. every now and then she would give me a smile when i play with her
_ when she first got home, she was swimming in size 0000 body suits but these days, they are getting a tiny bit snug on her

_ it looks like the witching hours may be behind us but she's definitely less sleepy during the day and are not doing 4 hours stretches anymore. she's harder to settle for a nap between 11am to 2pm

little miss // two weeks old

friday came and gone. i was planning to take a photo of this little miss with the 'today, i'm two weeks old' milestone card but the three hourly feeds, settling and sneaking in a nap here and there got in the way and before i know it, there was no more daylight for a decent photo. this photo taken on wednesday will just have to do. 

two weeks already. time flies when you're sleepy.  at two weeks old //

_ she is still sleeping lots during the day, she generally sleeps for 3 hours in the late afternoon
_ her witching hours go from 9pm to 1am. i always prepare herself for this time of the day and have been pleasantly surprised a couple of times the past week when she didn't turn into a 'witch'
_ she is slowly sleeping longer (than an hour) at night. hopefully she'll start sleeping longer stretches in the coming weeks
_ she is feeding well and she had her first growth spurt few days ago where all she wants all day is to be fed constantly
_ her face is looking chubbier by the day and she's generally looking rounder than she was last week. Jim says she looks bigger every time he sees her when he comes home from work. i'm pleased about it because it means she's getting enough milk from me

i hope the next post about her milestone would be 'i slept through the night'. i know it's a bit of a stretch for her age but there's no harm dreaming. 

little miss // one week old

Rosie bought me a box of milestone cards as part of my baby sprinkle present. so far i've taken one photo of the little miss with the 'one week old' card last week and i thought i'd start a series on the blog to tie in with these milestone cards and to write down her development for each milestone. 

at one week old, she is \\
_ very sleepy. she sleeps most of the day after each feed
_ rather hard to settle at night when she goes through her witching hour from 9pm to 1am. so far, we only had 2 nights where she didn't turn into a 'witch'
_ getting lots and lots of love from her big brother who cannot get enough of her. the first thing he does when he gets home is to find her and give her a big cuddle and a kiss
_ feeding well. when the local health nurse came to do her one week review, she has already put on 270gm in three days
_ wearing a lot of blue onesies from her brother because the few new onesies mummy bought are all gender neutrals

just mummy and boo and bump #2

a couple weeks ago, i got Jim to take some photos of boo and me and baby bump #2. i had some bump photos taken when i was pregnant with boo and i wanted some photos of me with bump #2 too. i'm actually not very keen of taking photos when i'm pregnant because i don't look my best. i feel like the size of a house, i look tired and i have double chins and my face is rounder than a full moon. but i also realised the round face and the double chins are all part of the experience of being pregnant and expecting a child is such a magical experience. even though i may not look as good as i did on my wedding day, what i look like when i'm pregnant is still worth documenting. 

not only do i want to have  photos of me with my 37 weeks bump, i also want some photos of me and boo when he is still the only child. when he is still the centre of my universe. when i can still give him my undivided attention and all of my love. 

at first i suggested to Jim that we take these photos at Centennial Park but Jim had a better idea. he suggested that we take these photos at home to make it seem more real. i'm quite happy with what we managed to achieve. 

my family is now complete

it was friday august eight. all was quiet in the maternity ward.

at 03:40, a little baby made out the loudest cry.

Dr Ford lifted you up so we could all see your face. daddy and i fell in love with you as soon as we laid our eyes on you. we love your thick black hair and your tiny little mouth. you calmed down as soon as you lay on me and all the pain of labour disappeared. all i can feel was unconditional love for you.

i never thought i'd have a little girl but here you are. now all i can think of is peach and purple,  spots and stripes, girly shopping trips and tea party for just you and me.

little ms Charlotte, you complete our family.

bank holiday lunch date - Chiswick Restaurant

we started a tradition last year. our annual bank holiday lunch date. 

we have never appreciate bank holiday so much until we became parents. it's the only day off we get to go out as a couple without having to make special arrangements for boo because he will go to daycare as usual. it has become the most looked forward to holiday for both of us. this might make us sound like really bad parents but considering we don't have anyone here we can rely on to look after boo for us for the rest of the 364 days, i actually don't think we're bad parents at all. 

anyway, last year, we went to Jamie's Italian so this year, we decided to try Matt Moran's new venture - Chiswick. Chiswick is located outside of the city. nestled in the posh suburb of Woollahra. we arrived ten minutes before our booking and we easily found a good parking spot right outside of the restaurant. it's all day street parking and it's free! we wander around the front garden before making our way to the restaurant. 

we were seated right next to the windows and our table looked out to the lush lawn right in front of the restaurant. after a quick scan of the menu, we ordered our food and the restaurant starts to fill up with more diners. 

this is what we ordered: 
entree: snow crab sliders, pickled vegetables with avocado cream
main: the Moran family roast shoulder of lamb and a garden salad. the salad sounded boring but we ordered it because it is literally a garden salad as the greens are all freshly picked from the kitchen garden of the restaurant
desserts: i had the waffles with vanilla ice cream and rhubarb compote and Jim had the hazelnut rocher
drinks: Jim had a glass of red from the Barossa Valley while i had a homemade lemonade and a green tea to go with my desserts. 

all in all, we enjoyed the food very much. the shoulder of lamb is full of flavour but it was a little bit on the lean side. that dish was meant to be shared between two people but we could only finish 3/4 of it. we could have done with just one dessert but we were feeling greedy so we ordered one each. i was so full after that meal that i went into a food coma as soon as we got home and i didn't eat dinner until 9. 

i wonder where we would go for our next bank holiday lunch date?

the growing bump!

Jim has finished editing most of the photos he took of me, the bump and boo. i considered posting them first but changed my mind. i decided to post these selfies i took throughout the pregnancy instead. mainly because the quality of these photos were taken on the camera phone and are not as good. i guess they can be a prelude to the better photos which i'm hoping to post by the end of the week or at least before baby #2 arrived. 

i had planned to take weekly photos of the bump at the beginning of the pregnancy but the morning sickness and my laziness got in the way. and getting Jim to take them for me on a weekly basis was a bit challenging because he's not into weekly bump photos, especially the quick ones you take on the camera phone. but anyway, every now and then when i felt like it, i take a selfie here and there. most of the time in the work lifts and work toilets when no one is around. as you can see, my maternity wardrobe is pretty limited. i wear the same dress, the same top over and over again. maybe that's the real reason why i don't take these selfies regularly? 

are you my best friend?

that's the question i get asked over and over again everyday. 

few weeks ago, mummy can only be boo's best friend because everyone can only have one best friend. mummy can't be daddy's best friend because mummy is boo's best friend. 

then when gung gung and mama first got back, gung gung became boo's best friend and all of a sudden, mummy can be daddy's best friend. but that changed very quickly, in a matter of days, gung gung is not boo's best friend anymore so mummy became boo's best friend again. for a few days, i tried to explain to him that i can be boo's best friend and daddy's best friend too so now, mummy, daddy and Joby are all boo's best friend. amazing how his little mind works. 

this little boo of mine is definitely not so little anymore. he is going to be a big brother soon. in a matter of weeks, he is not going to be the only child. he will not be getting 100% of his mummy and daddy's attention anymore. he will be sharing his parents love with another baby.

i was going through the videos i took of him on my iPhone. some taken when he was just weeks old. one of them was when he was 4 months old where he stayed up past his bed time , the crazy hormones kicked in and he couldn't stop laughing. one of them was of him splashing water happily in his little bath tub and another one when he first started walking. i can't believe all these videos were taken at least 18 months ago. the little baby who woke me up three times a night during the first few months of his life, the little baby who needed his mummy to do everything for him is now a little boy. he could do a lot of things by himself, he can listen and follow instructions and i'm hoping he'll be my little helper when the baby comes. 

i wonder what question i'll get asked next once he gets over his current favourite of "are you my best friend?"