mothers' day 2016

life is full of surprises. like this mothers' day, i received the best mothers' day gift from Charlotte. she gave us a peaceful car ride to the blue mountains and back. we were so proud of ourselves when we made it to the blue mountains with our ear drums still intact. 

i've been wanting to explore and admire the autumn colours at the blue mountains since the beginning of autumn. both Gabriel and Charlotte has never been and it's been that long since we last went to the blue mountains. when Jim asked me what i wanted to do for mothers' day this year, i told him i wanted to go on a day trip to the blue mountain. we all knew Charlotte is not a good traveller and we could end up with a screaming toddler in the car for the whole journey there and back. but we decided to bite the bullet and just do it and deal with it. 

Gabriel's daycare friend, Zoe and her family came with us too. we met at Leura for brunch, walked around Leura town and then made our way to the Everglades Gardens. the Everglades Garden is gorgeous at this time of the year. the maple leaves are at a different stage of turning brown. some of them are turning yellow, orange and red. we had perfect view of the mountain range from the garden. i think this garden will look so different in spring and is definitely worth going again. Leura town on the other hand was not as serene. it was quite busy and it turns out everyone had the same idea for mothers' day. 

i'm so glad we decided to just take the trip because the kids had a ball and i had a lovely mothers day this year. and another bonus is daddy managed to take some pretty good photos of me and the kids. 

Charlotte at 21 months

how time flies...Charlotte is turning 2 soon and i have yet to decide whether we wanna have a party for her. we most likely won't but i'll still make a nice cake for her. i've been pinning lots of ideas. 

at 21 months, she can say so many words and sentences and she is so much fun. she is bossy, she is cheeky and she loves her food. 

she loves music. her favourite songs are rockabye your bear (which she calls bear bear), twinkle twinkle little star, ABC (which she calls Cee Dee), Happy Birthday (which she calls happy see you), baa baa black sheep and shimmy shake. she's the cutest when she tried to sing twinkle twinkle. sometimes i wish she could stay this little and innocent a little longer. 

she's very good with people's names. the educators at daycare told us she knows all the kids' name in the centre. Ethan, Lachlan, Axel, Alex, Jessica, Harper, Arianna, Lloyd. 

she's curious and is already started asking lots of questions especially why. when she can't find one of us, she'll ask where daddy go? when she sees me doing something, she'll ask what mummy doing? she brings me so much joy this little girl, my little ray of sunshine. although she's strong willed and stubborn and feisty at times, i hope these personality traits will help her achieve her dreams and take her to places further than her parents when she gets older. 

hello 2016

i love the first day of the year. it's like you get to start fresh again, it's the time of year where you get to make plans for the year ahead and you are still hopeful that things will go according to your plan.

just like last year, we celebrated the first day of the year at the beach with the kids. we went to Balmoral beach like we did last year. after spending the entire day at Taronga Zoo yesterday, i was very tempted to just take it slow today and chill out at home but who am i kidding? there's no chilling out at home once you have kids. Jim wasn't too keen to go as he was exhausted from yesterday's outing but i really want to keep to tradition of spending the first day at the beach. so i decided to just go and i know the kids would love it. and as we got there, i was so glad we went. 

Charlotte  was too young to enjoy the sand and the water last year because she could barely sit up. but this year, she had a ball scooping sand and checking out sea shells. as for Gabriel, we loved pushing his bulldozer on the sand, jumping up and down in "muddy puddles", chase the waves and checking out rockpools. he didn't want to leave when we told him it was time to go home.  

if the first day of the year is an indication of what's to come for the year, i'm pretty confident it's going to be a great one. no doubt working full time with two kids is going to be hectic. there's new routine to be learnt and i'll probably have to take my multitasking skills to a whole new level but i'm ready for this challenge ahead. i want to do more with the kids in 2016. i want to spend less time at home just plodding along. i want to take them out to new places and experience new things more often. i want to have more YOLO moments and just enjoy them while they are still little.

2016, let's do this!

2015 - that's a wrap!

blink and we're at the end of 2015. while this little space didn't get as much attention as i would like to give it, i decided to do a recap of the year.

the past year hasn't been too eventful but we did hit a few milestones together as a family. in march, we took a road trip to Canberra to get Charlotte her passport. it was our first road trip and "holiday" as a family of four. she cried most of the way there and most of the way back. so we decided there will be no road trip for this family for awhile.

Charlotte started daycare in May. i felt bad for sending her just as she turned 9 months but it was a right decision to start her young. the carers and the older kids in her room love her. she was doted upon by everyone so she settled in within weeks. mum also came to visit us in May. she spent 10 days with us and surprisingly, we got along fine and didn't get into a single argument the whole time she was here.

i celebrated my 33th birthday in June. Jim took a day off work the day after my birthday
(because Charlotte didn't go to daycare on the day of my birthday) so we enjoyed a child free day in the city. lunch at pendolino was pretty good. while the prosecco costed us an arm and a leg the food was pretty good. we were able to enjoy each other's company and every mouthful of our food which is quite the luxury these days.

Charlotte turned one in August and she has grown in leaps and bounds in the past year. last Christmas, she could barely sit up by herself.  this Christmas, she's toddling around and getting into all sorts of trouble. babbling and getting very good at telling us what she wants and don't want and most importantly, bossing us around and having us all wrapped around her little fingers.

one of the biggest milestones for us would probably be the sale of our little townhouse. when the tenants moved out in July, the house was still vacant after a few open houses so we thought it would be a great opportunity to sell it. i'm still on the fence on whether we made the right decision but the property fetched a pretty good price just before the market cooled down and as a result of the sale, we managed to realised a dream of buying a new car. so, maybe we did make the right decision?

as for Gabriel, he turned four few weeks ago and we had a big party for him. we hired a community hall, got iron man to come, all his friends came dressed in their favourite superheroes and super princesses and i made him a pretty cool cake. it's probably my best creation to date. he couldn't decide on whether he wanted a hulk or an angry bird cake so i made a mash up of both for him. i would like to take the credits for the cake but Jim helped with the figurines. i can't believe Gabriel will be turning five next year and he'll be starting school too.

we didn't do a lot of travelling this year. not that we don't want to but we've learnt our lesson since that little road trip we did in March. Charlotte is still not great in the car and we basically try stay within 5km radius from our house. some people say we should ignore her crying in the car and eventually she'll get it. well, we have ventured outside of the 5km radius boundary and it always end up with her screaming on top of her lungs until she's all worked up, red face with snots and all. so, i don't know when she'll get better at being in the car or being restrained.

it didn't feel like we got up to much in 2015 but life with two kids is so busy. i think we actually got up to quite a bit without knowing it ourselves. i wonder what 2016 has in store for us. well, i know for a start it'll be quite hectic. after working 3 days a week and being a stay at home mum for 2 days since September, my maternity leave will formally come to an end in a couple of days. i return to full time work on the first working day of January 2016 and there will be no more maternity leave for me in the future.

2016 has a lot to live up to but i believe things can only get better. i'm looking forward to our first overseas holiday as a family of four. after much umming and ahring, we finally booked our tickets to Malaysia so Charlotte can meet her aunties and cousins. the flight would probably be the longest as i walk up and down the aisle with Charlotte since she hates being restrained. it probably won't be much of a holiday for Jim and I but the kids will get to play with their cousins and we'll try our best to enjoy it as much as we can.

farewell 2015, it's been a great year!

Spring!

spring is my favourite season and it is looking pretty fine so far.

after neglecting my own fitness for 3 years, my flexibility went from bad to worse. i can't imagine whether if i'll be able to touch my knees when I'm 50. Also my non existent abs has been replaced by a pouch that is getting bigger and bigger thanks to my sweet tooth.  something had to be done before the warmer months where i can no longer hide under chunky knits and loose fitting clothes. so i finally decided to take action and started doing some stretching and also pilates at the beginning of the month.  i wish i could join a pilates class at the gym or at a community college but YouTube will have to do for now.  it's absolutely free and i can do it at the time that suits me (after the kids have gone to bed). i don't know if my work out is working but i feel good.  i feel good to finally look after myself again.  

another reason spring is going well so far is after weeks of prepping our little townhouse for sale at the end of winter,  the house went under the hammer for auction last Saturday and it was sold at a price we are very happy with. we sold the first house which used to be our home, our little paradise for 3 years. selling a house a auction is such a nerve wrecking experience and after weeks of not knowing whether it would be sold at a satisfactory price,  we're glad it's over. we can now move on with our lives and plan our next move.  

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - mma mma

most babies learn to say da da before ma ma including Gabriel. i remember he started calling Jim da dee way before he called me ma mee. i was so excited when Charlotte started calling me mma mma a few weeks ago. and every time she says mma mma, my heart melt a little. 

365 days of Gabriel and Charlotte - the best brother

he calls her his little sweetheart, he wants to be the first person to tend to her when she's up from her naps, he has to give her a kiss and a cuddle before she goes to bed and he is very observant and he remembers the toys she likes to play with. like this morning, Gabriel was playing with his cars but when he saw me getting some toys out of the toy hamper for Charlotte, he came over and grab the box of wooden blocks and he says to me: "let me get the blocks out of the box coz mui mui likes to knock them over".