365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - goodbye 2014

if motherhood has taught me anything, it's patience. patience is certainly not my strongest suit and ever since i became a mum in 2011, my patience has been and is still being tested more often than i would like. i can confidently say that i have become more and more patient person.  we had a challenging day today. Charlotte was exceptionally hard to settle. days like these are not uncommon and they come by more often than i would like. not surprisingly my mood was affected just like any other bad days we had and Jim reminded me that i should focus on the positive because there's a family out there who would give anything to be able to hear their baby's cries. i get that but I also hope we'll get less of these trying days in 2015.

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - car washed

the car needs a wash and Gabriel needs to be occupied so we got him to help daddy wash the car. seeing that he loves playing with water and he also likes to help,  we thought getting him involved in washing the car would be a great activity for him. needless to say,  he thoroughly enjoyed scrubbing the car with a sponge full of bubbles and wiping it dry after with a dry cloth. after he's done,  he says to me: 'mummy,  your car is all clean now,  don't get it dirty again,  (you) have to keep it clean. ' 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - toilet training day three

after three days of not going out (except for today when he went out a couple of times to the shops with daddy), i'm proud to say, toilet training is a success! hooray! we did it! we've had no accident today and he actually knows to get himself to the toilet when he needs to go without us asking him every five minutes.  

whilst we still have to work on is number twos, i think we're 90% done with this intense three days toilet training?

Gabriel is so proud of himself. he says he wants to tell his friend, Lachlan, that he's not wearing nappies anymore and he also told me he wants to wear undies to school just like his best friend, Frankie.

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - toilet training day two

we're on day two of toilet training and we're doing better i think. we almost had an accident, almost. but we still have to work on doing number twos on the toilet because for some reasons, Gabriel is petrified of doing number twos on the toilet. he would rather hold it in. after three attempts and knowing how badly he needed to go, we gave in to him and put a nappy on him. i hope he'll be able to get over his fear in the next few days. 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - toilet training finally - day 1

we've been meaning to toilet train boo for awhile now. he turned 3 at the beginning of the month and it's a little embarrassing letting him go out in public wearing nappies. the xmas/new year break seems like a good opportunity because Jim is taking some time off so they'll be two of us at home for the next 11 days. even though we had one accident, we did have a proud moment where he went to the toilet and did a wee on his own. i was so proud of him. the training will continue tomorrow. hopefully we won't have any accident.

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - happy Xmas eve to me

daycare finished yesterday so i had both kids with me today. for the first time in many months,  i somehow managed to settle them for a midday nap at the same time. so while they napped, i was able to put my feet up and sneak in a little power nap myself. it's like xmas came one day early. thanks kids. feel free to do it again. ... and again. .. and again. 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - xmas picnic 2014

for the past couple of Christmas, we've been having gatherings and catch up with the Chans, the Chaus and the Dais. last year Kitty hosted a boxing day lunch at her place. this year, as the kids (mainly the two boys) are older and are full of energy, we decided to have a Christmas picnic at the park. this is not just any old park, it's the Blaxland Riverside Park. i've been meaning to take boo there after hearing raving reviews of this park and it certainly did not disappoint. He had a great time playing with Lachlan at the water fountain, the huge sandpit and the man made hills too. as we were packing up to leave, he told me how much he likes this park. i guess we'll be going there again. maybe with our scooter and trike next time. 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - when Charlotte meets Aunty Rosie

At 19 weeks, Charlotte finally met one of my best friends, Rosie, today. If Rosie didn't move to South Australia with her family in June,  we'd be hanging out and having coffee dates at the Eden Garden like we used to when we were both on a maternity leave in 2012. we can't wait to see you again Rosie!

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - the dreaded 4 months needles

after putting it off for a week, i finally gathered my courage and took Charlotte to the doctor's for her 4 months immunisations today. i was going to wait till the weekend so Jim can take her but weekends are quite precious nowadays so i had no choice but to suck it up and take her during the week. she cried for less than a minute and was over it shortly after. as for me,  i'm glad it's over until the doctor reminded me that he'll see us in two months for her next needles. in other news,  Charlotte currently weighs around 7.4kg (dressed) which puts her in the 75th percentile.  apparently,  her cousin Rynn who is two months older than her weighs the same.  now i know why people mistake her to be much older than she is.

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - a big boy now

what a lovely Sunday we had today. the weather was beautiful, Gabriel had a great time at Blake's birthday party and the xmas tree is up! we've been to a few parties lately and Gabriel continues to show us that he's a big boy now. he used to be the shy kid who sits next to his parents and just won't join in any games or play with other kids. but lately, he's been less shy and more independent. he went off to Blake's room to play with Blake's toys as soon as we got there and he also enjoyed all the party games. i'm so proud of him. 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - a trip to the hairdresser

i haven't had a hair cut for 18 weeks and i really need one. i had a window of opportunity yesterday and i took it. Charlotte was fine when we got there and i was hoping she would be happy to stay in her capsule and just watch. but she wasn't happy. she started crying as soon as i sat down. so, i took her out of her capsule and held her as i got my hair cut. lucky the hairdresser was very accommodating. i wonder when my next hair cut would be? 

reviving an old project

there are so many things i wanna remember about the kids, what they are up to now, their little milestones, the little moments in our everyday but every night when by the time i get to turn on my lap top and start to draft a post, it is usually after 10 o'clock at night and i try to go to bed y 10:30 just in case the girl decided to wake up for a middle of the night feed. to write a good post that is well structured accompanied by nicely edited photos at that time of the day, in thirty minutes, is just not possible. i'm generally too tired, my thoughts are jumping everywhere and my post is all over the place (just like what's happening right now). 

so, i've drafted about five posts which have not been published because they are all poorly structured and not very well written plus i haven't had the chance to choose and edit the photos to go with them. but i had a lightbulb moment at the dining table tonight. instead of writing long post (which are never going to be completed and published), i am going to revive an old project i did on instagram in 2012.  i called it 365 days of Gabriel whereby for an entire year, i posted a photo a day about boo and each photo is accompanied by a few lines of the things i wanna remember about that day. so, instead of bringing back this project on instagram, i'm going to do it on this blog and i'm going to call it 365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte. this way, the things i wanna remember will be written and published here on the blog rather than remaining in draft mode and never published. the project starts now! 

a birthday and a secret mission

for Jim's birthday last year, we were lucky enough to have his parents here so we could leave boo with them and had a date night for his birthday. we went to Sepia and it was the last time we had any fine dining.  

date night or day date or any kind of date/celebration on his birthday is not feasible this year with a 3 month old and a pre schooler. and because it was a weekday too. to celebrate his birthday this year, we've planned to go out for lunch as a family on the weekend but i couldn't let the actual day of his birthday go by without a mini celebration with the kids. so i gave myself a secret mission. i made a death star cake for him. because it was a surprise, i could only work on the cake when he is at work and also when boo is at daycare. i'm so glad his birthday this year was on Friday because that gave me Tuesday to Friday to make it. i baked the cake on Tuesday, ganached and iced it on Wednesday, worked on the embellishments on Thursday and finished the last minutes touch ups on Friday at 3pm. 

the cake was completed in between feeding and settling Charlotte, laundry, daycare drop offs and pick ups, groceries shopping, dinner preparation etc. suffice to say, Charlotte was pretty neglected and by the end of the week, i was knackered. 

i'm glad i managed to pull it off and completed the cake on time to surprise him because he truly deserves a special cake this year. he's been such a good husband to me and an awesome daddy to the kids. this cake is nothing compared to all the surprises he's given me over the years we've been together. hopefully we'll be able to have a date night again at a fine dining restaurant for his 35th birthday because i have no idea what other cake i can make for him.

to my little miss // 100 days old

my little miss, you are now more than 100 days old but i finally have a chance to finish this blog post i intended to complete when you were 100 days old. 

life has been pretty hectic since the in laws left but i won't go into too much details about it because this post is all about you, my little Charlie Bear. 

you turned 100 days old on 16 November. while we don't celebrate this milestone like some other cultures do, i thought 100 days old is still a pretty big deal so i took some photos for you to remember this milestone.  

these photos pretty much sums up what you were like when you were 100 days old - HAPPY! you're a little happy baby just like your brother and as long as you are fed and rested, you are very generous with your smiles. and with that smile of yours, you can ask for anything and everything and i would give them all to you. 

when i sent these photos of you to your grandparents (gung gung, mah mah and poh poh), they all commented on your chubby thighs. your gung gung asked me if you've put on more weight since they left just a few weeks ago. i looked at the photos again and thought to myself, are your thighs really that chubby?!? to be honest, i didn't even noticed them when i was reviewing these photos because all i could see was my little happy baby. i guess it's fair to say that when you become a parent, all you can see in your own child is perfection. in hindsight, maybe i should have put you in something nicer rather than a Bonds plain white onesie but i don't think it would make a difference because your happy face is all i can see in these photos. 

you are getting so much more interactive these days. you chuckles and smiles whenever i play with you and talk to you. i know just exactly what i need to do to get you to chuckle and smile. your favourite songs are baa baa black sheep and rockabye a bear and whenever i sing them to you, i would hold your hands and we would do all the actions together. i'm not sure if you like my animated face or my singing but you sure love these two songs. 

in terms of milestones, you discovered your fists and you can't stop putting them into your mouth and it's actually your favourite pass time to suck on them. apart from that, you have also found your voice. in addition to your normal cooing, you now also like to babble. your babble is especially loud when you are tired which is pretty handy because that's my cue that you're tired and need to sleep.  

time is going by so quickly this time around. soon you'd be 6 months old and ready for solids, soon you'd be crawling, walking and soon you'd be the size of your brother but one thing for sure, you will always be my littlest baby. my sweetest sweetest little Charlie Bear.