Baby Siu Life Story

Christmas 2011

2011-12-19T17:28:00.001-08:00

Another dated post!! The year end was hectic and crazy for us, having to rush for some cake orders and to prepare for year end trip.

This year is Esrene’s 3rd Christmas but little Rennice’s 1st Christmas.

As Esrene slowly grows up, she gets more exciting with the celebration, seeing Christmas decoration ups everywhere and big Christmas tree set up in our house 1 month ago. In order to make sure she know the real meaning of Christmas, her night time bible story reading for this month is “The birth of Jesus”. Even the teaching in Children church this month is about the birth of Jesus. So now when we ask her, what is Christmas, she will sing “happy you you…Jesus” (Esrene cannot pronounce “birthday” so she will say “you you” instead of “birthday”).

This year, I have the opportunity to bake some Christmas cookies with Esrene but I have to do most of the decoration as she ended up more interested to finish eating the cookies than decorate them!

Esrene in charge to put the star on top of the cookie tree

Esrene helped to pack the cookies in the zip bag. 2 cookies per bag for her friends.

I wrapped them up in the printed candle wrappers and let Esrene gave the cookies she made to her church friends. She was so happy distributing them! Maybe this is a good way of teaching her what is “giving” and to learn the “joy of giving”

Proudly show her cookies. These are the remaining cookies for her snack!

We set up the Christmas at home since November. Both the girls are so amazed with the lighting on the tree. Pressies that we received from friends around were all placed under the tree. We told Esrene that she is not allow to open the present until we have our Christmas celebration at home. She was quite good, didn’t disturb the presents until the day we told her its time to open her pressies.

see how blessed they were overflow with the presents from everywhere from friends around including Esrene’s carer.

I did some cupcakes for Esrene to bring to her family care for her friends as well. She was so happy “distributing gifts” to friends around.

And she got the most valuable gift from her carer – the calendar made of her photo with her best friends!

These are our little Christmas celebration in Melbourne before heading to Malaysia. Will update more of our trips if we have time.

Esrene’s Life in Family Care

2011-12-16T02:57:00.001-08:00

Esrene loves going to family care. She can’t wait for Friday to come so that she can go to “auntie Vicki’s place”. Maybe she is too bored at home just facing mummy, mei mei and tv. As the year close to the end, Esrene’s carer Vicki passed us some CDs of Esrene’s photos she had taken over the year. We can see how much this little girl has grown throughout the year in these photos and we can also see how much she enjoyed her self there meeting good friends. While busy with handling 2 kids, Esrene seems just to "pass by us" without us realising how much she has grown...oh...if only we can stop the time!!!

The Raspberry Blowing Girl!

2011-12-04T20:18:00.001-08:00

I love to blow raspberry, anytime, anywhere.
As a result, “Jie jie” also learned from me and starts to blow raspberry together. This annoys daddy mummy sometimes. But daddy mummy, we are just forming a raspberry blowing choir!!

Daddy mummy realised that I have a very cute reaction whenever I blow raspberry.

Did you notice what I did when I blow raspberry?

1st baking session

2011-11-28T04:38:00.001-08:00

One fine day, mummy decided to have a baking session together with Esrene. Mummy prepared all the ingredients needed first, then Esrene put the ingredients in the mixer

first of all, put all the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in mixer to beat

Then add in the egg until combined

Next combined the cake flour and stir with the wooden spoon

Mummy, this is so hard to stir, help!

After that mummy kneed the dough, roll it on the bench top, then it is time to cut the dough out! This is my favourite part!!

I love star and flower, so I choose star and flower cookie

This is so fun!! See how well I cut the dough with mummy’s guidance?

After that mummy put the dough into the oven to bake for 15min then it’s time to EAT!!!!!!

See how many cookies I’ve made? Mummy and daddy said they are so yummy!! I am so happy that I can do baking together with mummy and get to eat my own baking too!!

Mummy can you bake more with me please??!!

On the sunny Saturday

2011-11-23T04:39:00.001-08:00

On the sunny Saturday two weeks ago, daddy mummy brought me to the Dentist for check up. Actually it is the family dentist check up, daddy mummy also did theirs. This was the first time I visiting dentist!! Mummy told me that it’s like Caillou’ dentist visit (Caillou is my favourite kids show).

Mummy did her check up first before me. So I had the opportunity to see what’s all about. After 40min of waiting while playing toys and colouring outside the waiting room, finally it was my turn!!

waited patiently on the chair

Dentist Anna is a very friendly and nice dentist. She carried me into a unique black chair and let me wear a very cool sunnies.

After that she let me take a ride on this special chair. The chair can go up and down, and the back and forward too! After that Dentist Anna asked me to open my mouth very very wide to let her have a look at my teeth. She counted for me that I have 9 teeth now!

After that she spread a tiny air on my teeth with a special tool and even let me feel the tiny air on my palm. It was so fun and make me giggle! This concluded my check up and I was given a tooth brush and a nice sticker before head home.

Dentist Anna told mummy that I need to come back for the clean up coz my teeth has a lot of tarture. Since this is my 1st visit to the dentist she wanted me to have a nice and pleasant experience instead of doing the clean up straight away for me.

After my afternoon nap, I had another treat from daddy mummy. They brought me for a swim with ‘mei mei’!!

This is the 1st time ‘mei mei’ went swimming. She seems to enjoy herself at the pool with us.

As for me, I definitely enjoy myself. I swim here and there with mummy’s help and played with the water until I refused to go back. We spent close to 1 hour at the pool. By the time I get myself dry up and dress up, ‘mei mei’ was so exhausted that she felt asleep on mummy’s arm!

Overall I had a great and fruitful Saturday!!!

Outdated Post: Mummy’s birthday

2011-11-08T03:07:00.001-08:00

Life is busy for daddy mummy having to take care 2 of us and to work. So you always find outdated post nowsaday, sorry!

We celebrated mummy’s birthday one month ago, 2 weeks after daddy’s birthday. Daddy took a day off as it was Thursday. In the morning daddy brought me out to get birthday cake and flower for mummy, while we let mummy have a sleep in that morning after feeding ‘mei mei’.

After mummy woke up I gave mummy her birthday flowers! NICE!!!!!!!!

Then daddy brought all of us out to have a nice lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the city. ‘Mei mei’ was having her nap in the pram when we were waiting for the food.

have a nice photo with mummy

having fun with daddy while waiting for our food

The food in that restaurant was yummy. Look at how expert I eat my Edamame (Japanese sweet bean).

I even get a treat from daddy mummy - yummy green tea ice cream with cornflake for dessert!!

Looks more like my birthday treat then mummy’s one!

At night we went out for dinner with Auntie Sue for the final celebration.

After the dinner we have a little cake cutting celebration.

Mummy’s favourite fresh cream fruit salad cake

A family photo together. I requested daddy to bring party hats before we headed to the restaurant because it is a birthday party!!!

Candle blowing time

and the cut cutting time before we proceed to eat the yummy cake.

Mummy was so happy and thankful for the wonderful celebration and a sleep in day on her birthday!

On the Saturday we had a picnic at the park with Auntie Suz, Uncle Derrick, Auntie Kai, Uncle Clarence, Amie and Elias for another round of celebration. We had a nice bbq picnic there.

have my lunch with Amie on the picnic mat

Auntie Suz even baked some yummy raspberry cupcakes for mummy! We all kids got the chance to sing birthday song and blow the candles with mummy!

I had a lot of fun running around the nice big playground with Amie and Elias.

And ‘mei mei’ happily sitting in the pram looking at us having fun!

the RED cheeks

2011-11-03T03:31:00.001-07:00

Ah, this RED cheeks look familiar…mummy daddy can recognise that easily….

No no no…daddy mummy didn’t slap my face!

…something is POPPING OUT!!!

TA DA!!!

Can you see my 1st little teeth?
Soon I am going to catch up with ‘jie jie’ with my eating skill!

6 months and growing

2011-10-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am 6 months going to 7!! I am a cheerful baby as usual. Smiling is my trade mark now!
I love to stand up even though I still cannot crawl or sit by myself. I love standing since I was 2 months old! I have very strong legs. I will be very happy when daddy or mummy let me stand up on my feet!

I just started to flip over myself. Mummy managed to captured my 1st turn!

I am a pretty lay back baby you see. Despite of mummy trying to attract me with some toys, I still lay down on my back comfortably, look at mummy and smile instead of trying to reach out to the toys. Even I can flip over now, I will not flip over straight when daddy mummy put me down on the floor. When I flip over, on my tummy, I will stay on the same position for quite some times instead of flipping around like ‘jie jie’ used to do. Daddy said that’s his gene – lay back!

Daddy mummy think that I am a very quiet baby. I can stay there quietly observing everyone without making much noise. However when I start crying, nobody can stand my loud voice! I will not only cry, but scream my lung out so that everyone can hear me. Often this will wake “jie jie” (sister) up in the morning when I woke up at 5-6am crying.

I have a very different characters and temperament from ‘jie jie’. I want to have accompany all the time. When I see daddy or mummy or jie jie not around me I will start whining and even crying! I love them to cuddle or carry me most of the time. Mummy says I need to learn to play by myself instead.

I still want mummy to give me dream feed at 9ish every night, if not I will wake up very early the next day crying out of hungry! Even with the dream feed, most of the time I still wake up at 6ish instead of waking up after 7am (12 hours sleep). On and off I even wake up crying at 4-5am and refused to sleep back!! That makes daddy mummy very tired. Sorry daddy mummy, I am just a hungry little girl who always wants cuddle!

Despite all these, I am still their sweet little princess that never fail to capture their heart with my sweet smile!

My best friend oh my best friend!!!

2011-10-22T02:20:00.001-07:00

This is yet another out-dated post.

I have 2 best friends whom I love to mention to daddy mummy especially after family care. Yes, they are my friends from family care. Their name is Harrison and Mayah! Mummy think they are just my self declared best friends instead.

Last month after picked me up from family care, mummy saw an invitation card inside my food container’s bag. It was addressed to “Dezerene”. Mummy opened the envelope and realised that it’s the birthday party invitation from Mayah! My best friend invited me to her birthday party!!! See mummy, Mayah is not my self-declared best friend, we are really best friend!! Mummy quickly RSVP Mayah’s mum and brought me to get a pressie for Mayah.

On that Saturday after lunch, we headed to one of the McDonald nearby for Mayah’s birthday party! I was so excited when I see Mayah. I gave her the birthday present and joined her and the rest of the kids at the playground. Daddy mummy get to know that it’s Mayah’s 5 year old birthday party!!! My best friend is double my age!!!! They even noticed that I was the youngest in the party and the only Asian kid there!!!! How special I am!!!

We have a lot of fun during the party. We played like crazy at the playground. Mayah is a very nice friend. She always there besides me or behind me, takes care of me when we were at the playground playing.We also have some party games (which most of the time I was out what the game master was trying to tell me), yummy food – daddy mummy said these are unhealthy food, , yummy cake, last but not least party pack to bring home!!!

Due to the privacy, daddy mummy are not allowed to post up the photos of any kid without permission. Thus they have to do some “amendment” to these photos.

Happy birthday Mayah! Thank you so much for inviting me to your birthday party! I haven’t see you for a while at the family care, miss you a lot!

Daddy’s Birthday

2011-10-10T04:08:00.001-07:00

This is an out-dated post. Mummy has been very very busy with lots of back to back cake orders and her work during the September month, that’s why no time to update the blog.

Daddy’s birthday was 2 weeks ago. Mummy guided me to draw a nice big happy birthday drawing for daddy, and I gave to daddy on his birthday. He was very happy to receive from me. Too bad mummy forgot to take the photo of my drawing so cannot show to you here. But the drawing is full of orange colour and with lots of stickers, including my favourite Eeyore sticker on it!

It was Sunday. So after church we headed to Tokar Estate restaurant (chosen by daddy) at the winery to have a nice lunch for celebration.

Excited when reaching the Estate

‘Mei mei’ in her pram getting ready to zzzz….

a photo with daddy before the meal. We love you daddy!

As usual I get to enjoy my favourite pasta.

Don’t take my messy face daddy!

After the meal, is cake cutting time!!! When mummy told me we got to sing birthday song for daddy, I was so excited that I started to sing out loud “Happy you you….happy you you” until everyone in the restaurant looking at us. But when the waitress brought out the cake, I was so shy to sing until daddy barely can hear my singing!

Mummy made a red velvet cake for daddy. She was busy with her cake order so didn’t manage to do a nice cake, just a simple buttercream coated design with dark chocolate ganache. However, daddy still loves it!

Can you see the heart shape inside the cake? This is the 1st time mummy trying out curving a heart shape inside the cake, but she said it didn’t turn out nice.

However, daddy & I still enjoy the cake. Yum yum!

Happy birthday daddy. Thank you for being the most wonderful daddy in the world!!! Hope you enjoy your day and may the good God bless you always.

Ever first…(mummy’s sharing)

2011-09-22T19:38:00.001-07:00

Nowadays I see a lot of giveaway prize in the popular blogs but didn’t really bother to enter any since as far as I recalled I never win any giveaway or lucky draw. A month ago I saw another few giveaway prize at a facebook page by my favourite kids illustrator Rachelle Anne Miller. Her giveaway prizes are so cute just like her arts! I was quite hesitated to put in any entry (even it’s just a comment in her wall) knowing most likely I won’t get it anyway. But at the last day of the opening, I finally put in one short comment for the entry. The next day I saw my name appeared in her new blog entry! I won the giveaway prize!! I was very excited & thrilled! I won 2 handmade stuffed toys that cost USD67!

Within an hour, I received an email from the donor of these cute toys, Wilmarie Viljoen requesting for my postal address for the gifts to send over. I received these cuties after 1 week all the way from South Africa!

Esrene was very excited to see the parcel delivered to our front door. She was even more excited to “drag” out these two stuff toys from the box. Since there’s two, I told her the big hedgehog is for her and the small little owl is for “mei mei”. These two cuties came with the name tags too! Hedgehog was name “Holly” and the little owl was called “Orli”.

See how excited she was cuddling her new toy!

And “mei mei” too!

Now Holly added to her sleep pals list together with her forever favourite Eeyore and her sea lion that daddy won at seaworld for her (she called it “fish”).

God must have known that I need a little cheer from the hectic and tiring days, gave me this sweet blessing to cheer me up! Oh wait, these gifts all go to my kids instead of me, how how come I’m still so happy?! I guess the best gift to a mom is to see the happy faces of her kids?

Family Trip 2011

2011-09-04T19:51:00.001-07:00

Yea Yea, Ma Ma & Pak Pak came over to visit us during their Raya holiday. The 2nd day after they arrived Melbourne, we flew over to Gold Coast for family trip. I was very excited as I get to sit on the plane!

Mei mei’s first time on the plane. She slept through most of the journey

I have my own seat now but I felt so bored and restless. Make a lot of fuss!

However, it wasn’t a good start of the holiday when our plane was delayed for 2 hours, after that was diverted to Brisbane due to the weather in Gold Coast! We took the train from the airport down to Gold Coast and only arrived at our Gold Coast apartment by 5ish!!! (we supposed to arrive at Gold Coast before noon!) It was a very tiring day for all of us. We had delivery food for dinner than call off our day. Daddy mummy, mei mei and I had to share a room together. As it was a new bed and room for me, I struggled to sleep and only fell asleep by 10pm! The next morning I woke up at 6.30am right after ‘mei mei’!!!!! However, God blessed us with sunny day for the next 2 days!

Surfers Paradise from the view behind our apartment

Broadbech behind our apartment

Our apartment is about 15min to Surfers Paradise. We spent our next day at Surfers Paradise, walking around & enjoying the beautiful beach.

After lunch, I had my nap in the pram while daddy mummy they all walked down to Broadbeach Mall (which is 10min from our apartment) to get some groceries. I also get to play at the playground in the mall for a while and sit on the carousel!!

We had our dinner at one of the restaurant there before heading home. I get to eat my favourite pasta while Yea Yea, Ma Ma, Pak Pak, Daddy & mummy enjoyed their monster seafood platter!

Family photo together while ‘mei mei’ resting in the pram

‘Mei Mei’ wasn’t feeling good, so right after dinner, daddy mummy had to bring her to see doctor while I follow Pak Pak, Yea Yea & Ma Ma back to the apartment. They had to wait very long in the clinic but I was a very good girl, even let Pak Pak feed me milk and put me down to the cot to sleep. ‘Mei Mei’ was down with conjunctivitis virus!! She had swollen and teary eyes, and very bad cough. She was recovering very well after using the pharmaceutical drops from the doctor.

The next day, we went to Sea World. I got to see a lot of nice animal shows there, but the best show is my Sesames Street show. I get to see my ELMO!!!!! I also get to take some rides with daddy before I had my nap in the pram.

Shopping for my Elmo merchandise

When we went back to the apartment about 4ish, daddy, Yea Yea and Pak Pak brought me to the beach just right behind the apartment for a stroll, while mummy feeding ‘mei mei’ in the apartment. I still scared of the wave. When the wave came I will run away as quickly as possible.

The Surfer’s girl

Photo with my favourite Pak Pak. Pak Pak, I miss you!!

After the stroll, we met Ma Ma, mummy and ‘mei mei’

at the apartment pool for a nice swim.

The next morning we had to leave the apartment early to fly back to Melbourne. This concluded our 3 nights short holiday Gold Coast. I enjoyed my holiday very much being spoilt by Yea Yea, Ma Ma & Pak Pak!!!! Daddy & mummy was quite tired during the holiday having to wake up constantly at night to attend to ‘mei mei’ and we woke up very early every morning during the trip too! However, they still enjoy the time spent together with the family during the trip. Daddy mummy, can we have more of the family trip please??

My Room

2011-09-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

I just moved into my room 1.5 months ago. Daddy mummy only managed to set up my room by then as po po was staying in there when she was here. They supposed to move me into my room much earlier but they have been very laid back! They only get the work done recently when they realised that I already outgrown my bassinet in their room.

Majority of the furniture in my nursery passed down by ‘jie jie’ except for the chest of drawers.

I wasn’t used to the new room and bed for the first few days when mummy put me in my baby cot for the nap. I cried and cried non stop refused to sleep!! Daddy mummy said they should have moved me into my room when I was just 2 months old like “jie jie”. That time I was younger, easier to adjust to the new environment. However, I get used to my new room within 2 days.

Remember this mobile? Mummy DIY for ‘jie jie’ and now passed to me. Too bad one of the hanging toy already torn by ‘jie jie’. However, it’s still good enough to entertain me!

My room is just opposite “jie jie” room and next to the main door entrance of our house. To filter the noise outside the room, daddy mummy had to play some classical music in my room when I sleep and have my nap. The music helped me to sleep through especially when ‘jie jie’ cried middle of the night coz of nightmare.

Winter weather wasn’t treating me well. I was down with infection from the cold when I was 10 weeks old. And one month ago, I was down with chicken pox!!! Daddy mummy very thankful that it was just a mild one. I didn’t have any fever and the blisters are just around my body, not even the face, hands or legs. It took 2 weeks for the blisters to disappear.

Right after recovering from the chicken pox, I was down with bronchitis! The phlegm irritates me a lot that I have been coughing so much until I often throw out the milk I just drink. Thus, I have been losing a lot of weight just within 1-2 weeks. Daddy mummy pray that I will be over with all these sickness as the spring arrives.

No matter what, I always brighten the day up with my smile. Daddy and mummy said that the smile always melt their heart. Yes, they are now under my spell

The new record

2011-07-30T03:28:00.001-07:00

As you all know, Esrene loves puzzles. On the day of her 2nd birthday, we actually bought her a wooden 20 pieces puzzle next to the indoor playground. The puzzle was on clearance sales, so only cost us $5! However, she doesn’t really like to play with it until recently. We reckon coz it is pretty hard for a 2 years old. It took us sometimes also to fix up the puzzle!

She started to have interest with this puzzle few days back and keep trying on it. Within a few days of ‘practice’ with daddy mummy’s help, now she manage to fix up the 20 pieces puzzle by herself. We are pretty impress! She seems to recognise where some pieces should go.

Her satisfying look after fixing up the puzzle

30 pieces puzzle next little Jewel?!

3 months and 27 months (mummy’s sharing)

2011-07-15T05:56:00.001-07:00

Time flies!! Rennice already 3 months and Esrene already grow up to be a little girl that know how to voice up and complaint! If you ask me how’s life handling 2 kids these 3 months, I should say I was in honeymoon for 2 months when mom was around. I basically just have to concentrate on both kids, and have her to help me with the rest of the housework. Now then mom is not around, it is challenging! But by the grace of God, I manage to put through it and get the hung of it now.

Rennice is very chubby. She is double her sister size comparing month to month. She is close to 6kg now at the age of 3 months, which means she gain average 1kg per month! She is the size of Aussie kids, now have to wear 3-6 months old baby clothes. This little girl is very cheerful. She loves to smile. Just a little “hi Rennice” will make her smile back at you!

However, not like her sister who slept through 9 hours at 2 months old, most of the night Rennice will still wake up at 3-4am crying, and will only go back to sleep after we put dummy on her (she does not like dummy, only will take it when she wakes up half way through the sleep) until 7am. We are hoping she can sleep through the night soon.

Rennice is a pretty quiet baby. She will lay down there quietly observe us while we spend time with her ‘jie jie’, but when she cries she is really loud! We can hear her clearly even in the living room without the baby monitor.

Happy Rennice after feed

The big sister Esrene always on the go! Never stop running and jumping around. It is hard for me to make her sit down and concentrate on one thing just for 5 mins (sounds like daddy when he is young). Her favourite day is Friday when she gets to go to childcare and play with all her little friends. She will run in straight without even saying bye bye to mummy. This two years old girl constantly testing our boundary and patience. She hardly obey straight away, and most of the time will go against us. That’s why she always get herself into ‘naughty corner’ or ‘wooden spoon’.

We start to set house rules for her (2 rules for 2 years old) to put more discipline on this girl. Mummy will repeat regularly these rules that written on her wall sticker black board. If she breaks the rules after 3 warnings, she will be disciplined.

When she is in the max of her naughtiness, she will ransack the house, do her “reverse engineering” to anything to see in the house, including those she is not allow to touch! Her books were one of the “victims”. We realised that she treated her books like toys, love tearing the books more than reading and not interested even we offer to read the book for her. To help building up her interest in reading, we decided to create a reading corner for her. We subdivide our living room with the bookshelves, put all her books on the bookshelves for her (her books used to be locked in our bookshelves) and put a comfortable bean bag there for her. We told her that, that’s the place she will use to read her books. If she wants to play her toys, it will be at the family area.

She get excited with the new place of course. We borrow more books from the library for her, and try our best to sit with her, read the books for her. This helps a lot to build up her interest in reading now. Now at least she can sit down for a good 10 min to read her books, and she loves it when mummy read the books for her. One of her favourite books now is “When baby lost bunny” (the library book).

Attentively reading her “baby” book on her bean bag (pre-loved one) that mummy bought from Kids market

Despite of her naughtiness, she is still the sweet little girl that constantly bring the smile to our face.

Esrene is a loving sister. She always want to “bao bao” (carry) her sister. She wants her sister to join her to play or even read but too bad ‘mei mei’ is way too young to sit down and play with her. For now the only thing that she can do is to lay down next to ‘mei mei’, holding her hands. How sweet!!

However, daddy is not allowed to carry ‘mei mei’. She will get jealous. She will either want mummy to carry her when daddy carries ‘mei mei’ or want daddy to put ‘mei mei’ down at her rocker instead. Such a daddy’s girl!!

It is certainly a hardwork taking care of two kids full time, however, like my friend said, it is definitely not a hardship. I have to be thankful that God has blessed us with two beautiful girls that bring joy to this family!

Kids’ day celebration

2011-06-17T04:23:00.001-07:00

Last week jie jie and I had a great time in the life group. We celebrated Kids day -to celebrate God’s blessing of children (us) to our parents and baby dedication!

There’s games, face painting and cupcakes decorating for us the kids at the start of the party. Of course I can’t enjoy any of these yet but Jie Jie enjoyed herself very much. Look, mummy had jie jie’s face painted with flowers. Is it nice?

It was my baby dedication after the yummy barbie lunch. There were actually 6 babies dedicated to the Lord during the party besides me. Daddy mummy thank God for His blessing to have me in the family. They dedicated me back to the Lord, praying that I will serve the Lord and love Him in my whole life.

Sitting on mummy’s lap waiting for my turn to be prayed for.

Now our turn!

Pastor Daljit said hi to jie jie.

Pastor Gurmit prayed for me. See how concentrate I listen to her prayer.

During the prayer Ps Gurmit prayed that I will bring the music that God put in my heart to the people around, mummy wonder what’s that mean…mmm…

I was given a certificate to remember this important day. Pastors also gave daddy mummy a nice box of chocolate as a celebration.

Auntie Jo helped to organise the whole celebration. She is so nice to even prepared party pack for each of us! There’s chocolate (which goes to daddy mummy), bubble blower, craft, bouncing ball and a hand made bracelet of our name!!! Thank you auntie Jo for all your effort, we love you!!

That’s me with mummy during the party.

I enjoyed my day so much. Thank you everyone and thank you daddy mummy for dedicating me to the Lord. I will grow to love Jesus more and more each day, to bring His joy to the people around!!!

谢谢婆婆!! (Thank you po po)

2011-05-30T19:52:00.001-07:00

Popo came over to Melbourne 2.5 months ago to help up mummy in the house work and taking care of us. Time flies, it has been 2.5 months and we just sent “popo” off to the airport to fly back to Penang.

We had a very wonderful time together with “po po” these few months. Everyday I will “instruct” po po to play with me. I will “dress” “po po” up with all my toy accessories and play “shopping” with her.

Popo will help mummy keep in eyes on me so that I will not “disturb” mei mei when mummy needs to do some stuff. Popo also loves to give “mei mei” warm loving cuddles, and massage “mei mei” with the “ru yi oil” to ease the gassiness in “mei mei” tummy.

Afternoon and dinner time “po po will cook very yummy meals for all of us to eat. As a result of that we all have been gaining weight.

Popo also help daddy mummy clean the house and garden, do laundry everyday. However, I will dirty the floor with my snack and meal every time I have my “mam mam”. Popo is very patience to clean it up again.

These few months I also learned a few mandarin and hokkien words from popo. Now I know how to say “mai” and “ai” (hokkien), “yao” and “bu yao” (mandarin) instead of “no” and “yes”. I also know how to say “bao bao” when I want anyone to carry me". Apart from that when popo speaks to me in mandarin sometimes I know how to answer her with the correct answer.

Thank you po po for flying all the way here to help taking care of us and spend time with us. We miss you so so much! We hope that you can come back very soon to play with us again and accompany us.

快点回来找我们好不好? 我们好想念你！！

My Recent Activities

2011-05-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

Dressing up “mei mei”

with her head band

with my sunnies

Dress myself up with “mei mei” head band

Mummy said this is the latest 2011 hair do. Somehow this made mummy and “po po” laugh, I wonder why….

disturb “mei mei” when she is resting on the rocker and bambino

Sing “mei mei” songs and tell “mei mei” some stories that only I understand

and last but not least

feeding my baby

burping my baby (need to put the cloth first)

just like mummy does for “mei mei”!

Mother’s day 2011

2011-05-14T04:35:00.001-07:00

Wow!!!! My 3rd Mother’s Day celebration with my mummy! I am so happy. What makes is even special I get to celebrate this year with “po po”. Not only that with a new addition to my family, “mei mei”, it is so much exciting! My daddy planned a day earlier to avoid the crowd and also pricey restaurant on mother’s day.

Daddy brought us to a nice seafood restaurant at Port Melbourne for lunch. Thank you daddy for taking some time to look out a restaurant that is child friendly and spacious. It’s quite a nice restaurant with the view of the pier. The food are very yummy too!

Reading the menu getting ready to order

I have my own plate of spaghetti Bolognese from the kid’s menu. However mummy and daddy were shocked when the meal arrived. It looks like an adult portion. From the photos you can see how much I enjoyed my meal!!

Our yummy meals

Mummy happily posting in front of her meal

Photo with all the girls

Taking photo with mummy in front of the restaurant

Happy mother’s day mummy, po po & ma ma!!

Daddy’s Thank You Message :

Thank you to my wife for being the mother to my both children. You are a strong woman and without you around, I wouldn’t have any clue on taking care of my children. You are truly an inspiration.

Thank you to my mother in law for being around when Rennice was born. You have helped a lot. The yummy cooking, tending to Esrene, the clean-ups in the house and garden but most importantly just being around.

What I can do…

2011-05-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Hi this is Rennice here. I am 1 month old now. Few days before I turn 1 month old, mummy took a video of me after daddy bath me…see what I can do now

The midwife told daddy mummy I am a feisty newborn, you reckon??

Recently daddy borrowed a playmat keyboard from toy library for Jie Jie (Esrene). So Jie Jie has been into this activity in front of the keyboard ….

Mummy said Jie Jie looks more like a conductor in training but I think Jie Jie's sense of rhythm is pretty good. Bravo Jie Jie!

Blessed Full Moon Rennice!

2011-05-03T05:17:00.001-07:00

Time flies! Rennice already one month old!!

She is growing very well within this one month. She has gained 1kg and grown 6cm taller since then. We really thank God for His protection upon Rennice, keep Rennice healthy. Thank God for the good milk supply for Ida and thank God for mother who’s here to cook delicious meal for us everyday, help us with housework and keep in eyes on Esrene so that Ida can have more rest in between, which helps a lot with milk supply as well.

We didn’t really have a party to celebrate the full moon. To be fair, we did the same small celebration for Rennice like we did for Esrene. Last Saturday we asked mother to do some ang ku kueh, chicken curry and nasi kunyit, which is the full moon delicacy of Malaysia to celebrate Rennice’s full moon. and distribute the food to some close friends around. Thank you “po po” for working so hard at night to do the kueh, and woke up so early in the morning (4am) to start doing the nasi kunyit and curry chicken.

Mother working hard at night to get the Kueh ready for tomorrow

Yummy ang ku kueh, curry chicken and nasi kunyit by the “si fu” from Penang!!

The full mon delicacy all pack ready to be collected by friends

On the actual day, we ordered our favourite fruit salad cake and had our own “cake cutting” celebration at home.

Esrene was the happiest on the actual day celebrate as she get to eat her favourite cake! We took some family photos before cutting the cake.

Photo with Jie Jie

Photo with po po

Photo with daddy mummy & jie jie

Family photo with everyone

After every shot Esrene will ask to eat the cake, this shows how excited she is! She was also the one who helped her sister to cut the cake!

Jie Jie cutting the cake on behalf of Rennice

Esrene enjoying the full moon cake

We pray that Rennice will continue to grow healthy and grow up to be a God fearing lady who will shine for God.

I am two!!!

2011-04-19T17:19:00.001-07:00

I am two years old already!!! On my birthday morning, mama called to wish me happy birthday. See how happy I talked to mama.

As the weather was cold and wet that day, daddy mummy took me to the indoor playground in the morning to play to let me enjoy my special day. There’s so many things there to play, slides, car, jumping castle…

I even play this table game with daddy! (don’t know what’s that called)

I enjoyed myself there so so much!!!

Before we leave the playground daddy bought me my favourite baby chino to drink as well.

You can see how much I love my baby chino

On Saturday daddy mummy gave me an even biggest surprise.

In the morning, a few of my little friends came over to our house with pressies for me. Actually Daddy mummy organised a very small bbq birthday party for me!!

After that mummy brought all of us to our backyard and show me the birthday pressie that daddy mummy bought for me.

It is a chubby house!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually this is the combination pressie from daddy mummy ,Yea Yea, Ma Ma, Pak Pak & Po Po (with their angpow money that they gave me for birthday pressie). Mummy found this beautiful chubby house in ebay with a very good price. It took daddy a few days to assemble the whole house for me.

I was so puzzle when I saw the chubby house. I walked around the house for a few times before I decided to open the door and enter the house. I couldn’t believe I finally got a chubby house to play with!!!

Inside the chubby house there’s a table with a lot of food toys and 2 chairs as well! Mummy got them from ebay as well with very cheap price under the used items. And guess what, there’s even a door bell for my chubby house. I had a great time playing with my friends in the chubby house.

Of course I enjoy my first bbq food as well with my little friends.

Thanks to the great cook, daddy!!

After the yummy food, it is cake cutting time!!!

Mummy just delivered so she did not have time to bake my birthday cake. Instead she ordered a very yummy fruit salad cake for my birthday. The bear bear on top of the cake was done by mummy few months before. This is my favourite bear bear which I have to put besides on bed before I sleep!

A family photo before blowing the candles.

I love my cake and look so tentatively on it when everyone was singing birthday song for me.

After blowing the candles daddy helped me to cut the cake.

A photo with daddy mummy

See how much I enjoyed my birthday cake. It is yummy-licious!

Today I managed to enjoyed a lot of food that I haven’t try before – cake, bbq burger, cookies etc and all of them are so so yummy!!!

After this, I get to open my birthday pressie!! I have two beautiful dresses and two nice toys from my friends. I love opening my gifts, unwrap the pressie and see the surprise inside!!

Thank you auntie uncles, all my little friends and most of all, daddy mummy, po po and mei mei for giving me such a wonderful birthday party!!!

I enjoy myself a lot!!

My Big “Jie Jie”

2011-04-16T05:03:00.001-07:00

When I just born Jie Jie came to visit me in the hospital. At first Jie Jie was so reluctant to cuddle me and kiss me when she first saw me, maybe because this is the first time she sees me. However, after sometimes jie jie started to kiss me and even asked mummy to let her carry me. See how loving jie jie was when carried me.

Jie Jie loves to kiss me. She will kiss me everytime she sees me.

Jie jie trying to take off my hat and help me to put back again

Jie jie sharing her pram with me. She asked mummy daddy to put me besides me.

Jie jie loves to use the thing I use too.

She is trying to sleep in my baby cocoon, but jie jie I think you are a bit too big for that.

She loves to lay down on my rocker and play on it too!

Isn’t my jie jie so sweet and cute?? I am so glad to have a loving jie jie like her!!

The Appointed Time (Mummy’s sharing)

2011-04-08T05:55:00.001-07:00

Finally after the long waiting, Rennice is out in the world. It is a relieve for me to be able to finally “unload” the heavy uncomfortable big tummy. Yes, another overdue baby. But this time it is just 3 days overdue. My mum and 3rd aunty were here 2 weeks ago to help us taking care of Esrene when I am in labour. We were hoping Rennice can be born earlier so that aunty get to see her before she flies back to Malaysia (she was only here for 2 weeks). Too bad Rennice has the mind of her own and decided to only came out right after aunty flew off!

I didn’t share the labour experience during Esrene’s time as the labour is too long (20 hours) and not an easy one, no point sharing it to scare the other first time mom. Well, this time it is totally different experience. From the start of the 1st contraction cramp till the delivery was only 4 hours plus. No induction, no epidural.

My 1st contraction started 2 hours after we came back from airport sending my auntie off middle of the night. It was quite an intense pain from the start. After managed and monitoring my own contraction at home and settled some stuffs for close to 2 hours, we decided to head off to the hospital. When we arrived in the hospital, my labour was even more intense and nearer to each other. I was 5cm dilated by then. Water broke after one hour plus and from there on everything just went so quickly, I dilated from 5cm till 10cm within 1 hour until delivered. In fact the midwife did inform me that once my water break things will go very quickly as this is not my 1st pregnancy.

As I took epidural when I delivered Esrene, this is the 1st time I experienced the real agony of pushing stage and learning how to push correctly from the midwife. It was crazy, scary and the most tiring ever “task” I ever did!! However I am thankful for the supportive husband and the caring midwives who’s there to encourage and help me.

Photo with Lillian the midwife (in red) and Katie the midwife in training

1st photo with Rennice

The proud daddy of two!

We are so proud of Esrene that she was behaving very well while we were in the hospital. She was very well behave and cooperative while my mom took care of her. She even went to her room to sleep by herself without mom having to ask her too. We are so amazed and proud of you little Esrene!! You are big girl and jie jie now!!

The big jie jie lovingly staring at her mei mei

Rennice did her infant hearing test which is compulsory & free by the hospital

I would like to thank God for:

1. Smooth and quick delivery

2. Good timing to travel to hospital (midnight without any traffic)

3. Healthy baby

4. Sufficient milk supply that came in much earlier compare during Esrene’s time

5. Good latching of Rennice on the breast

6. Esrene being a caring and loving sister without playing up

7. Great hospital service and facilities

8. Great help from my mom to take care of Esrene and to do cooking and housework for us this time

My 2 beds hospital room for the 2 nights. I had the room by myself for nearly 1.5 nights until the last day before discharge

One of the hospital meal. We have a big list of menu to choose for our 3 meals, from starter, soup, side dish, main course, dessert and drinks. By the way, this is a public hospital. (and yes, Selwyn was eating the meal in the photo )

The hospital lunch & dinner menu. Too bad the hubby totally forgot to order dessert for my last 3 meals!! What a disappointment!!

Hello world!!!

2011-04-04T05:41:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, I am out finally to join the little family with daddy, mummy and jie jie on 3 April 2011. Thank you for all your prayer for me and mummy!! We are both safe and healthy.

You must be very interested to know what daddy mummy name me right? My name is Rennice Ern-ying Siu.

Rennice is the combination of Rena (meaning joy) and Annice (meaning pure). Daddy mummy hope that I always have a pure heart in the eyes of God and always bring the joy of God to the people around me. My middle name Ern-ying is my Chinese name 恩盈 meaning surplus or extra grace. I am the result of God’s extra grace for daddy mummy despite doctor told mummy she can’t conceive with another child.

From now on I will share my life story here with jie jie. Daddy mummy will update more of me in the blog when they have more time.

My Eeyores’ collection

2011-03-18T02:20:00.001-07:00

As you all know, I love my Eeyore. Eeyore is my best friend, I can’t live without Eeyore especially when I sleep. Since mummy realised that I am so clingy to my Eeyore she has been looking around for the same Eeyore I have. She even emailed the manufacturer that produced my original Eeyore in Singapore, but too bad this was the seasonal Eeyore 2009, already out of production.

Last year alone I have received 6 Eeyores all together from Pak Pak, Auntie Audrey, Auntie Chiang Mei, Auntie Joni and uncle Gabby. However, none of them can replace my original Eeyore!!! I will give all these Eeyores a cuddle and left them alone after that.

Mummy put all the Eeyores on my bed hoping one day one of these Eeyores will find favour in me.

Group photos with my Eeyores

You know who is my favourite from here

You are still my “Yore Yore”!!!

My new game

2011-03-06T01:42:00.000-08:00

Recently I created a new game by myself with the wooden shape blocks of mine.

I will stack up the blocks one after another until it becomes a tall towel. A lot of time I managed to stack up all the blocks without collapsing any while trying to count (in my own language).

Daddy mummy was very amazed with my skill. They thought I have very stable hands to be able to do that. Daddy said I don’t have a shaking hands like him (he ate too much chicken feet). I even taught daddy how to play the game!!

What you think of my new game?

Me and my puzzles

2011-03-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

I love puzzles. I have my first set of puzzles from auntie Suzanne for my 1st birthday pressie. I was too young to play that time so mummy kept them away until I was about 15 months then daddy mummy started to teach me how to play these puzzles. It took me a while to learn but now I become an expert with these puzzles. If I really concentrate I can fix one puzzle within 1 min. Daddy mummy bought me some more puzzles after that and at times they will borrow some puzzles from toy library for me to play. Actually I received a few more puzzle sets from aunties and uncles for Christmas but that was for 5 years old and above which is a bit too hard for me to play.

Me playing with my 3 basic puzzles

Me playing with slightly harder puzzle. I don't know how to count so I reckon them by matching colours. As you notice both "hands" puzzle have the same colours. So I will always confuse which one to put in, need daddy mummy's guidance.

Recently mummy bought me a 9 pieces puzzle which is under 50% discount. It is meant for 3 years old and above, however, mummy thought she could try to teach me, maybe I will be able to play with it. This puzzle does not have a picture or shape for me to follow, it is very different from my other puzzles.

Mummy taught me to start fixing the corner pieces of the puzzle first then only the rest of the pieces. It is very hard!
Did I tell you I do not have patience? I will cry or throw tantrum when I could not fix the pieces together. Daddy or mummy has to keep reminding me to be patience, reassure me when I fix this puzzle. Now I can fix the whole puzzle by myself with a little guidance from mummy.

Me playing with the 9 pieces puzzle. See how I throw my tantrum when I can’t get it right!

Family Care (mommy’s sharing)

2011-02-23T16:55:00.001-08:00

We have been talking about sending Esrene to family care or childcare for a while but nothing has been done. Daddy wants Esrene to be in care for few days so that she can expose to more children instead of always stay home facing mummy, and mummy can have some break and focus on nurturing baby as well.

As it is approaching to baby’s due date, I took up the task to visit childcare & family care. After some visits, I prefer family care over childcare. In the family care, only maximum 5 kids with a carer, less virus to pickup and they get more attention from the carer. Besides it runs by the council so it is cheaper compare with childcare. I managed to find a family carer who’s available to take care of Esrene from the council. Esrene and I are pretty comfortable with her during our 1st visit, so we started Esrene in the care since February.

Little girl carried her own bag filled with sleeping bag, Eeyore, food and water, getting ready to go family care. My baby has grown up!!!

With her independent and sociable character, it is very easy for Esrene to adopt in the care. There’s 3 kids in the care she is in – two 5 years old boy and one 8 months old baby boy. She enjoys playing with them. We send her to the care every Friday and she will spend her morning in the playground with other kids from other carers. She enjoyed her time a lot in the playground, a lot of activities set up for her there like colouring, craft, outdoor play etc. She will happily saying bye bye to me when I send her there. Sometimes when I pick her up she will refuse to go back!

The only con is that she skips her afternoon nap in the care, maybe because of the new environment. So she will look exhausted and sleepy by the end of the care. Hopefully after a while she will be able to get used to it and take her afternoon nap.

Every Friday is an “off day” for me now until the baby come. I get to do more housework, my financial or cake work and run errand. But of course I constantly miss Esrene when she is away. The house seems so so quiet without her around.

Few days ago daddy tidy up his stuffs and leave Esrene with a big cardboard box. Esrene loves playhouse. Every time when we are in Bunnings or toy shops she will run to the playhouse. Playhouse is the first place she will run to when she play in our friends’ backyard as well. However, a good outdoor playhouse will cost at least $300 above, which is too costly for us to get her now. So I decided to make a playhouse from the cardboard box.

She was quite excited with the playhouse for the first day but after that it becomes the playhouse for her Eeyore instead after realising it is not big enough for her. She still goes into the house once in a while but after comes out the “house” will collapse! Anyway a reasonable toy with no cost, not too bad

Learning to be a good “jie jie”

2011-02-20T19:53:00.001-08:00

To make sure I am a good “jie jie” (sister) to “mei mei” when “mei mei” is born, daddy mummy every morning and night will train me to say “hi” or “nite nite” to “mei mei” and give bubba “mei mei” morning and night kiss.

Mummy will let me feel the movement of bubba “mei mei” in her tummy and I will giggle in laughter when I feel the movement.

Mei Mei : “Jie jie, stop pressing your face too hard towards me, I don’t have place to move!” (“Mei mei kicked towards jie jie’s face").

It is so hard for daddy to take photos of me hugging mummy’s tummy or kissing bubba “mei mei” as I will run away straight after hugging or kissing “mei mei”. These are a few rare photos that daddy managed to capture for us as a memory.

Daddy mummy, I will try to be a loving and good “jie jie” to “mei mei” and share my toys with her.

Chinese New Year 2011

2011-02-18T02:54:00.001-08:00

This is my 2nd year celebrating Chinese New Year. A week before CNY daddy mummy got some beautiful “fish fish” hanging decoration to decorate the house. I was so excited when I see some fishes at the living room!!

On CNY eve, we had steamboat for reunion with auntie Ling who is staying alone in Melbourne. Mummy said this is the easiest one to do consider it is just a few of us. For the first time I get to eat steamboat and I love my fish balls!!!

CNY fall on Thursday, there is no public holiday in Melbourne, so I stayed home with mummy as usual. This year we didn’t go any china town to see the celebration because the weather is pretty hot. In the evening after bath, daddy mummy changed me to a pretty CNY cheong sam that they bought for me from Penang. I get to collect angpow from them. I was very excited to receive the angpow, mummy said more like I am more excited to tear off the red packet than anything.

On CNY weekend, daddy mummy invited some of the close Chinese friends to have lunch as CNY celebration. Mummy cooked some of her family dishes for CNY eg. lobak, ji hu char which daddy loves a lot. I love ji hu char after the first try. I kept asking for more and eat 2 bowls of it for my lunch!

Daddy mummy let me wear my pretty cheong sam to church for the two CNY weekend. All my Sunday school teachers, aunties and uncles said I look gorgeous with the dress.

You reckon?

Honk honk! Lets go and collect some angpow daddy!

CNY passed by so fast. We managed to celebrate the last day of CNY with a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Hope you had a great CNY too!

Play-doh (Mummy’s Sharing)

2011-01-17T18:25:00.001-08:00

Play-doh has been a popular modelling craft for all the children since my generation. I remember when I was young, my parents always get me some play-doh from supermarket to play with to make different shape of animals. Nowadays more and more interesting play-doh toy sets have been created for the kids, some even have the “machine” to make play-doh burger or hot dog!!

When I started to serve in children ministry in Australia, I was shocked to know from one of the teachers that they actually made their own play-doh!! After that I realised a lot of moms that we know here actually made their own play-doh for their children as well! According to them home made play-doh is 100% safe even the kids accidently eat it, it is economical and super easy to made. I was told that I can get the recipe to make play-doh from Cream of Tartar bottle.

Recently I see Esrene getting bored with all her toys around so I decided to try making some play-doh for her to play. She actually has some simple play-doh toys we got for her last year which she used it as her cooking toys. It surprised me that actually it is super easy to make and only took me less than 30 min to finish the whole play-doh with two colours! And I think the whole ingredients cost me less than $1!!!

Here’s the result

The texture of play-doh is something new to little Esrene, so she doesn’t really know how to play with it. Evenafter I show her she is a bit reluctant to “mess” the dough with her hands, just using her play-doh cutter to poke on the dough. I hope soon she will learn how to enjoy playing this fun toy.

If you are interested to try out your home made play-doh, here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

4 tbs Cream of tartar

2 tbs cooking oil

1 cup salt

2 cups water

food colouring

Method:

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan, stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture congeals.

I actually separate the colouring from the ingredients, after the mixture congeals, I separate until 2 portion, and knee the colour I want into each mixture.

“Hua” (flower) I made for her using play-doh which she loves it so much, keep holding on it.

Great bargain!!

2011-01-10T21:20:00.001-08:00

Few months ago we have been considering whether we should get a stroller for Esrene while letting the little jewel use her pram or we should get a double pram instead. After talking to a few friends who has 2 kids or more with close gap, we decided to go for double pram. Reason mainly due to Ida’s convenience when she has to go out alone with the kids to buy groceries, go clinic or run errand. It will be close to impossible for her to carry the new born in the carrier while dragging Esrene along and carry her shopping + Esrene is very active, refused to hold on to our hands when outside. Another benefit of double pram is we can put both of them down for their nap when we go out.

So now come down to double-decker double pram or side by side. Some review shows that double-decker is unstable and the heavier one needs to always be at the bottom. Our concern is whether Esrene is willing to sit at the “bottom” of her sibling! Will she kick her sibling? So we focus on side by side pram. The only concern we have with this type of pram is the weight and size. During the long new year holiday, we took some time to go to a baby shop to try out their side by side pram and there’s not many brand available. The one that attract us is Baby Jogger City mini. It is quite a compact double pram and the lightest among the double pram (9kg).

Esrene happily sitting inside her new pram. She was trying to smile at the camera!

However that’s the most expensive in the store!!! Around AUD900!!!!! While we were trying out Baby Jogger, a grandma approached us and told us that we should check out ebay or online shop as she saw an online US seller selling for close to half a price even after include shipment.

This become Ida’s assignment to look for a good bargain online after that day!! Due to the restriction from Union to protect the retailers in Australia, not many international sellers are allowed to ship their goods which already in Australia market to this country. So it didn’t take long for Ida to find this US seller who sell Baby Jogger double pram and qualified to ship to Australia. And the price as told by the grandma is very good! Includes shipment we only paid around AUD560, that save us close to AUD400!! Strong AUD against USD also helps this purchase.

We were very surprised to receive the pram courier right in front our door step 1 week after the purchase!!! Very fast shipment with a nice compact packaging.

Esrene was so excited to see her new pram too! We have to keep telling her that she has to share the pram with her baby “mei mei”, which she noted “ya ya”.

This is how the pram looks like after collapse down. It has two easy pull handles in the middle to collapse the pram. Compact enough for us to put inside our car boot. We hope that this double pram will serve us well like our mountain buggy swift. Of course we also hope the kids will feel comfortable sitting and sleeping on it.

Thank you “ma ma” for sponsoring us this pram!

Big girl in process (Mummy’s Journey)

2011-01-04T01:40:00.001-08:00

Few months ago a church friend of us passed us a toddler bed for Esrene after knowing that we are expecting the 2nd child. We are so blessed with all these blessing given to us even before we think about it.

We know that once she sleeps on the toddler bed she can get down from the bed easily and mess up with the things in her bed. So we started to put on all the safety locks on her wardrobe and cabinet drawings, moved out the changing table to baby room to avoid her from messy up with anything she is not suppose to touch or play with.

Daddy even made a garden bed in front of Esrene’s window and plant some nice flowers on it so that she can enjoy looking at the flowers from her room. Esrene loves it, she kept shouting “hua hua” (Mandarin for flowers) whenever she saw the flowers from the window.

Our friend advice us to transit Esrene to her toddler bed few months earlier for her to get used to it before the little sibling comes. So we took the opportunity to change her baby cot to toddler bed on the day when we came back from Malaysia. We were told not to make a “hoo-haa” of the new bed so that she won’t get too excited and can’t sleep on the bed. Of course she noticed the different, keep climbing up and down the bed since she can do it now easily. But this only last for few days.

She is doing very well sleeping on her toddler bed except for the first night she came down from the bed, laid down next to the door and cried for us. She fell off from her bed once also from the gap (even we try to put the bumper on it but it doesn’t seems to help). But after that she sort of learn the lesson and sleep closer to the wall, never to fall off from the bed anymore. Now after she wakes up from her sleep or nap she will take off her sleeping bag herself, walk around the room a while or play with her toys a while before she goes to the door and knock on it to call for us. Daddy taught her well to knock the door each time if she wants to open the door :D

We are very proud of her able to be able to adopt to the new bed so easily. Maybe her new toddler bed make her feels that she is a big girl now. Now then we can to get ready her previous baby cot for her sibling.

Christmas in Penang

2011-01-01T02:31:00.001-08:00

This year we have the opportunity to spend our Christmas in Penang again! I spent my 1st Christmas in Penang last year too but I was just 8 months old and I was down with HFMDs.

Thanks to Pak Pak who bought us the tickets to fly to Penang this year. As daddy has to work, we only have 10 days there, however we had a very enjoyable time there.

We did a lot of things within these 10 days…

I had my 1st salon hair cut there with daddy’s favourite hair dresser!!

Of course we also did a lot of shopping there.

Daddy mummy bought 2 boxes full of nappies for me and “mei mei”!!! We did so many shopping until we have to go back to Melbourne with 5 checked-in luggages and 1 hand carry!!

Enjoy myself with the beautiful Christmas decorations in the shopping malls. The Christmas decoration in Penang are more beautiful than those in Melbourne!!!

We met up with daddy mummy’s friends, aunties, uncles and some little friends in Penang like Shanna, Caris, Clement, Su Yin etc. I am so happy to be able to see Jie Jie Shanna again - get to hold her hands and give her big hug. But I am too rough until caused jie jie to topple over and hit her head of the floor. Sorry Jie Jie Shanna!!

Spending time with Yea Yea, Ma Ma, Pak Pak, Ah Ma, Ee Poh, Ee Ee and Ku Ku

Enjoying myself playing at the playground with Pak Pak

With Yea Yea and Ma Ma With Poh Poh, Ee Poh, Ku Ku, Ee Ee and Ah Diao

Daddy mummy enjoyed eating their hawker food everyday and I get to join them to taste some of the yummy food too!!!

Enjoying the pure fresh apple juice without sugar and salt especially ordered for me

Trying out some tosai given by daddy….I like it!!!

On Christmas day I was spoilt with lots and lots of gifts from everyone!

See how expert I open the gifts! I even helped daddy mummy open theirs!

This trip I get to attend Huay Chin Ee Ee’s wedding too!

I suppose to be the flower girl with cousin Jie Jie but when the bridal march started I refuse to walk. So only Jie Jie alone become the flower girl. Sorry Ee Ee, too many peoples, I was shy!

The flower girl dress shi ee poh made for me, nice?

Photos with daddy mummy during the reception

Huay Chin Ee Ee and Roy Uncle cutting cake that mummy made for them

Happily playing with cousin Jie Jie. Jie Jie miss me a lot since the last time she came to Melbourne to visit me. She always ask about me.

Photo with poh poh, and ee poh……spoilt by ku ku

Our 10 days in Penang were very eventful!!

The highlight of our trip was the flight back to Melbourne. Pak Pak got us the business class seat. For the first time, daddy mummy and I get to enjoy the luxury treatment with business class. We were served with big meal even during Penang to Singapore flight.

Enjoying my welcome drink in the flight while sitting on daddy’s seat

My kid’s meal at Silkair– fish fillet with spaghetti (surprisingly they served me kid’s meal when I am just under infant ticket)

Mummy daddy’s tom yam grilled fish and baked chicken on tomato sauce

While waiting for our transit at Changi airport for 7 hours, daddy mummy rested at Silver Kris lounge and I took my afternoon nap in my pram. Daddy mummy surfed net and had some drink while waiting for me to wake up from the nap. I slept for 3 hours in my pram!!

After that we had our free dinner at the lounge and even took our shower there!

See how much I enjoyed myself at the business lounge

We boarded the flight around 11.45pm. We were surprised to find out that only us and another passenger in the whole business class. So we have the luxury to choose any seat we want. Because of that I was blessed to even have my own seat instead of sleeping in the bassinet.

After a big nice “supper” on the plane we all went straight to sleep!!

The seat can be fully recline so I sleep very comfortably on the seat until daddy mummy had to wake me up when the plane about to arrive Melbourne!!

Thank you so much Pak Pak for such a nice treat!!! I really enjoyed my flight and of course the time spent with you!!!

Thank you everyone for spending their time with us when we were in Penang. We miss you all a lot!!! Hope to see you soon in Melbourne!! Happy New Year!!

Potty Training Tears and Joys (Mommy’s Journal)

2010-12-29T02:41:00.001-08:00

We potty trained Esrene for poo since she was few months old. Everything went very well until when she turned one year old when she started to have constipation. Her constipation was pretty bad that she suffered with anal fissures and haemorrhoids at the same time. Can imagine how painful she was when she poo. To make the matter worse, we have to put suppository into her anal to help her poo each time. From that day onwards, pass motion is a scary thing for her. Whenever we put her on the potty she will cry and refused to poo, but eventually she will. For her to willingly go to the potty for poo is an impossible thing. From that day onwards, she always poo in the nappies instead. So now to be fully successful in potty train Esrene for poo, we really have to be patient and continue to pray that she will overcome her fear to poo.

We started to train Esrene to wee in the potty only one month ago when Tim, Audrey and Shanna came for visit. After seeing how successful Shanna is trained to wee on the potty, we decided to take the first step. It was challenging to train an active toddler. She couldn’t sit still on the potty to wee firstly because she is not used to it. The funniest thing is that she was shocked when she see her own wee, as if she never know what is “wee wee”. It was very tiring to train her initially having to deal with the mess afterward. With the big tummy, squatting up and down to clean up the mess is tiring. However after training for a few weeks, finally she know how to wee on the potty when we told her to or even walk herself to the potty when she wants to wee. Even though she is still not fully train to wee on the potty but it is very close, much much better than her “number 2”.

We hope that she will be fully potty trained before her sibling comes. Anyway we are very proud for being able to learn it up so quickly.

5 Years Journey of Faith

2010-12-16T05:58:00.001-08:00

Can’t believe it has been 5 years since we recite our vows to become one as a husband and wife in the presence of God!

This journey is definitely not easy. We did not really have a honeymoon year. Lots of argument, misunderstand and quarrelling. But God is faithful, He always bind us together with Him love and bring us back together. Of course we still argue sometimes but we learn to resolve it in a fast and effective matter.

We want to thank God for His grace and faithfulness in our life, our marriage. He not only bring us closely together, He even bless us with two beautiful additions of life in our marriage – our two beautiful daughters within 5 years of marriage.

We pray that we will continue to serve Him, shine for Him together as a couple, a family. May our marriage glory His name.

We won’t be really celebrate our anniversary this year as we will be in the air flying to Malaysia!! But we have had our lovely and wonderful celebration earlier on at Bora Bora!

When the journey began….

and 5 years….

Dar, thank you for being a supportive, loving and caring husband as you promised to be. Thank you also for being such a wonderful father to our children!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Pregnancy Update (Mommy’s Journal)

2010-12-12T02:32:00.001-08:00

Still remember when I did my post-natal check up with the gynae early this year, doctor told me that my ovaries was full of cysts again (due to my PCOS problem) and no chance I can conceive without any treatment. This time we won’t really upset with the news knowing that all these are in God’s hands. Nothing we can do if it is not in His will. We already so happy to have a miracle blessing of Esrene from Him!

Really praise God for His faithfulness and blessing with another miracle life no long after the check up.

Pregnancy this time round is tougher. Morning sickness is worse. Maxolon (anti nausea pills) that I took during my 1st pregnancy no long works this time. Nausea and vomit which later leads to acid reflux was terrible. Having to take care of a young toddler while struggled with morning sickness (MS) was worse! Esrene was upset because I could not pay much attention to her due to the sickness. Because of the terrible MS, I even felt a bit depress and hate my pregnancy!

Thank God for a very supportive and helpful husband who take over my roles to take care of Esrene when he comes back from work and during weekend. Bathing, feeding, changing, cooking for Esrene and even helping me do most of the housework while letting me take as much rest as possible. That’s exactly what I need the most that time. Thanks dar for being such a great hubby and father!!

During my 13 weeks check up, one of the obstetrician who examine me prescribed me with this amazing anti nausea pills called “Zofran Zydis Wafer” which is as thin as wafer that melt on the tongue within an second and works within a second too to stop the nausea and the vomit of course. Doc told me these are the “superior” pills prescribed when maxolon is not working. It really saved my day and make me feel “more like human”. I can start attending to Esrene and do some stuffs at home after the pill. Too bad I was introduced with the pill close to the end of my morning sickness. A lot of friends I know are very sceptical about anti nausea pills during pregnancy. To me, after gone through 2 bad morning sickness, if the pills are tested safe for pregnancy and can make me more sane, let me able to enjoy my pregnancy more and my time with my family during pregnancy, why not?!

24 weeks now, we thank God for His continuous protection upon the baby. The baby is growing well in the womb. We keep telling Esrene there’s a baby in mummy’s tummy. Now then she sees my bump she will touch and said “bubba”. Every morning and before sleep we will ask her to say “hi” or “bye” to baby and give baby a kiss. She is doing very well with it now. When she heard the heart beat of the baby during my check up she will respond with “wah!!!”. We really hope when her sibling comes out she will be a loving sister, not feeling jealous at all.

As the baby continue to grow bigger each day, doing house work and attend to Esrene is getting harder, especially when I have to blend down. Too much of blending and squatting cause some backache in me now, or maybe I am getting older? mmm….

Here’s the photos of our little Jewel during 18 weeks scan.

Baby curving both legs up towards the chest

Close look of the face, looks like a very sharp nose

The ultrasound specialist did a 3D scan to see the little Jewel for us but somehow it wasn’t record in the DVD she passed to us, disappointed!!!

Yes, a little Jewel!! Daddy loves girls. Now he got a little princess and a little jewel to “manja” with him!

Heavenly Getaway

2010-12-05T15:16:00.001-08:00

We were away for 8 days immersed ourselves in a beautiful, heavenly island last week.

This is a long planning trip since years ago. Remember when we celebrated our 1st anniversary, we promised each other we will want to go somewhere nice to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We were choosing between Maldives – the dream place for our honeymoon last time, and Bora Bora – the island we fall in love with from a documentary. We decided to go for Bora Bora as the distance from Melbourne is nearer and the price is quite reasonable.

Here’s some quick introduction of Bora Bora. Bora Bora is one of the most beautiful islands belong to French Polynesia. It is situated at South Pacific Ocean, surrounded by lagoon and barrier reef. In the centre of the island are remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks – Mt Pahia & Mt Otemanu. There’s only 5000+ residences in the island.

The Tahiti Faa’a International Airport is located at Tahiti, which is the largest island of French Polynesia and also the centre of economic, culture and politic.

We have to fly to Auckland (with Emirates) then from Auckland transit to Tahiti (with Air Tahiti Nui), after that take a domestic fly to Bora Bora. The total journey is around 9 hours, which is not too bad. We really thank God that Esrene was coping very well with the flight. She sleep through most of the journey from Auckland to Tahiti. She was very excited to see the aeroplane as well.

Conquered daddy’s seat and trying to buckle herself up.

It is about 21 hours different between Melbourne and Tahiti. So when we arrived at Tahiti, it was around 10pm there (which is 7pm in Melbourne a day after). We were transferred to Sofitel Tahiti Hotel for one night stay. Esrene was quite refreshed after her nap and slept around 12am there!!

The next morning, we still have plenty of time to have our brekkie provided by the hotel and walked around before the shuttle picked us up to the airport.

Tahiti Faa’s International Airport is just the size of Terengganu Airport, without any terminal either for domestic or international flight. So we have to walk our way up to the flight. This give Esrene a close up view of the aeroplane!

It takes 45 min for us to fly to Bora Bora. Upon arriving at the airport, we were welcome with Frangipani Lei by the hotel staff (we had been receiving lots and lots of frangipani flowers and Lei since we step into Tahiti), then they lead us to the boat to transfer to our hotel, Sofitel Bora Bora Marara & Private Island. Yes, another transfer!! Bora Bora Airport is located on an outer Motu called Motu Mute, so all the hotels will have to arrange their own boat to transfer their customers to the hotel.

Due to long period of cold weather in Melbourne, we all struggled with the heat and humid weather of Tahiti/ Bora Bora. The weather was around 24-26 degree but Esrene looks like a little sweating lobster most of the time!

When we arrived at the hotel pier, we were welcome with a Tahitian guitarist singing their local welcome song and a beautiful Tahitian lady who lead us into the hotel deck for registration. Nice cold welcome fruit juice, beautiful scenery, friendly host – we just fell in love with the hotel service.

We have a garden bungalow which is just behind the beach bungalow, few steps away from the beach. It looks more like a beach bungalow to us. Really praise God for the nice location.

The view in front of our bungalow

Our hotel package includes daily American breakfast. However, the breakfast is never changing. After 8 days we were kinda sick of the ham, bacon, wages, bread, French bread, eggs!

However, the restaurant is facing the sea view and water bungalow. Nice and relaxing view for the breakfast. After breakfast Esrene will walk near to the bench to see fishes and feed fishes. We couldn’t believe that even the sea next to the restaurant of the hotel is so crystal clear. We can see fishes and corals through it without having to snorkel.

Maybe cause of the humid and hot weather, we weren’t that hungry. We normally will only have a sandwich for lunch in the hotel sharing among us. No doubt hotel foods are expensive. We had our dinner at the restaurant nearby our hotel (only limited restaurants within walking distance). We discovered a restaurant operates under a 2 star hotel (Le Maitai) within walking distance which serve quite a nice food and cheaper compare with other restaurant. That was our regular place for dinner after that.

Seafood pasta and Mahi-mahi burger (dolphin fish) served by Le Maitai restaurant

7 days in the island we only went to the town Vaitape, Lagoonarium and went for a sunset cruise, other than that we just spend our time relax in the hotel, have a dip in the pool and enjoy the scenery, the beach and the crystal clear sea. This was the best and most refreshing holiday for us.

Have a little swim in the pool

Cheeky girl pretending to “sun bathing” under the umbrella like the angmo auntie in front of her did.

Spending time at the private beach of the resort. Esrene still hates to put her feet on the sand but enjoy playing with sand castle.

Our hotel water bungalows. You can just jump down from the bungalow for a swim and snorkelling anytime you like. Perhaps this will be the place to stay for our 10th anniversary trip?

Visitation to the Bora Bora town Vaitape – a very small town with limited shops. The life of the people there are very simple.

Tahitian folk dance performance in the hotel. Esrene was curious initially with the dancers but when we went to take photo with them, she was scared and cried!

Visiting Bora Bora Lagoonarium to “interact” with turtles, sharks, stingrays and tropical fishes. These creators are all in the sea not the pool. Yes, the sea in Bora Bora is this crystal clear, cleaner than our swimming pool!

Esrene wasn’t scared at all with the fishes that swim around her.

The sunset cruise. It was a very relaxing cruise sailing on the sea while waiting for the sunset. Esrene loves to be at the catamaran and busy helping the captain “sailing” the ship!! Too bad at the end the sunset was covered by a sudden big grey cloud.

Beautiful Mt Otemanu from the cruise

Our hotel has a private island just opposite the motu, with some bungalows and a restaurant there. The hotel provides unlimited boat transfer for the guests to travel between the motu. They even set up some nice seats and hut for the guests to enjoy the sunset view on the hill. On our last night at Bora Bora, we went to the private island for sunset view and also private dinner.

Beautiful sunset view from the hill

Romantic dinner with signature dishes and a big “lamp post” which “brighten” up our dinner :D

8 days trip end so quickly. Un-reluctantly we have to leave the island, back to Melbourne for our busy life. We left Bora Bora to take our domestic flight to Tahiti around 5pm. The hotel was so kind to extend our stay until 4pm so that we can have a siesta before leaving.

We were sent off by the hotel staffs with some nice handmade seashell necklace as a farewell “safe journey” gift.

Arrived at Tahiti Sofitel hotel was just nice for the dinner. Selwyn take the chance to try out a hawker food at the road side outside our hotel.

Looks like Ramli burger stall hey? Look at their stall and how they prepare the food we can imagine how simple their life is.

The sign wrote “Chicken or steak with fries or CHEO-MEN (we think is fried noodle)” for 950 Francs which is equivalent to around AUD12. The living expenses in French Polynesia is pretty high. Even a normal hawker dishes cost around AUD12. To eat in the cafe or restaurant at least need to spend AUD30 per person for a simple meal.

Boarding Air Tahiti Nui to Auckland.

The last Francs note left from the trip.

Bye Bora Bora. We enjoyed ourselves so much even though Ida and Esrene are quite tans after the trip. Will miss this beautiful island. Hope to be back one day!

P.S More photos and videos available in our private photo album for security purpose. If you want to view, kindly drop us a message and your email address. Gmail address required to login to the album.

Warming Up

2010-11-29T15:55:00.001-08:00

Due to the cold winter in Melbourne, daddy mummy haven’t been bringing me for a swim for very very long time. Daddy said as we will be going for holiday in an island, we will be swimming quite a lot so they brought me to the nearby swimming pool for a swim a week before our holiday.

I didn’t like the water initially and cried

However, after 5 minutes or so in the pool I started to get used to it and enjoy my swim!! See my smile

Playing with the float that found in the swimming pool

and I love these unique “weight like” floats. Can’t stop playing with it

I even asked to come out from my float and swim without it

Back to Daddy Mummy’s Uni

2010-11-17T20:41:00.001-08:00

After uncle & aunty Lee with Shanna went back, uncle Gabby, Aunty Lee Chen and Aunty Lin San came for a visit. They are daddy mummy’s ex uni mate. As this is the 10 years since they graduated, daddy brought all of us back to Geelong (where they studied) for reunion.

Daddy bought me to sit on merry-go-round before lunch but for some reason I was scared and started to cry!!

Only until the last 3 minutes of the ride than I started to enjoy the ride and gave daddy mummy a big smile. Now getting ready for yummy lunch

Group photo of daddy mummy’s 10 years reunion lunch

Photo with lovely “ka chuak” (this is how I called aunty Lee Chen)

After lunch we went back to Daddy mummy’s university for a tour (walk down the memory lane). The field around uni and hostel full with nice wild flowers. So I started to pick up these flowers and enjoy myself. I love flowers!!! This is a lovely photo of my little hands with flowers taken by Aunty Sue.

Group photo in front daddy mummy’s hostel. This is the exact post they took 10 years ago in front of their hostel.

Weekday mummy brought aunties and uncle to Dandenong for a ride. We had lunch at Pie in the Sky. Mummy said has to pray to Jesus before have my meal.

Enjoy cuddling with two beautiful aunties.

Enjoy myself with uncle Gabby

Uncle Gabby had been helping mummy to carry me when we were out. Thank you Uncle Gabby!!

I enjoy myself so much with the accompany of aunties and uncle. Esrene miss you guys a lot!!!! Hope to see you guys soon!

Happy time with the Lee’s!!

2010-11-11T22:06:00.001-08:00

These 3 weeks past our house full of overseas guests. End of October till early Nov we have uncle Tim, aunty Audrey and jie jie Shanna visited us. After that we have aunty Lee Chen, aunty Lin San & uncle Gabby for another week.

I was overwhelm with their presence and get a lot of their attention. Mummy brought me out nearly everyday with aunties, uncles when they were here too. I was a happy happy girl, able to go “gai gai” everyday.

These are some photos taken while spending time with the Lee’s family.

Holding hands with Jie Jie Shanna for evening walk (thanks to uncle Tim for some of the photos)

Went to National Rhododendron Garden without daddy :)

Happily picking wild flower with jie jie Shanna

At Collingwood Children's Farm Abbotsford. I was so scared of the animals and cried most of the time. But Jie Jie Shanna enjoyed seeing and touching the animals so much.

The two daddys with the distracted daughters.

Mummy brought us to Strawberry farm and Beach at Mornington and Frankston (These are photos taken by uncle Tim, thanks for the nice photos uncle!!)

This is mummy’s strawberry sorbet.

Strawberry jam with scones – mummy’s lunch too!

Mummy enjoying her sorbet

At Frankston beach. I was crying and refused to walk on the beach. However after a few minutes I started to get used to it.

We miss you all so much uncle, auntie and jie jie Shanna!!! Please come back to visit us more often!

Esrene promised will be more behave not to disturb Jie Jie Shanna next time.

Mummy’s Birthday is Today

2010-10-13T04:11:00.001-07:00

Today is my precious Mummy’s birthday. However we went out for lunch on the weekend instead of today as Daddy has to work and dinner will be too rush to enjoy the meals. Daddy took us to Fifteen in the city. It is opened by Jamie Oliver. Even though it is Mummy’s celebration, I was treated special by the staff. I’ve got my own high chair and also was given paper and colour pencils to draw stuff.

See how intense I am doing my colouring

of course, can’t forget Mummy’s pressie. A nice Swatch watch, which daddy has chosen.

Then the food came, wah!!!! all of them looks nice. Daddy’s steak and Mummy’s fish.

and of course I enjoy getting some from them. Daddy mummy’s desserts looks yummy too. Look at me!!!! I have mastered the use of the fork.

Of course I can’t forget to take a special photo with mummy. Happy Birthday Mummy! May You always be blessed by Jesus. I will continue to pray that you will be healthy and safe always. I love you a lot. Kisses and Hugs.

My first leg injury

2010-10-06T02:21:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, the weather was very sunny and warm so daddy mummy allowed me to spend some time in front of our house pathway. I was so excited that finally I can step out from the house to enjoy the sunshine after so many months!

See my happy and cheeky look.

I am so excited and happy that I started to walk faster and faster…

then I started to run…

faster and faster…

then oh oh!!! Opsy-daisy! I tripped and fell!!!

As this is the concrete surface, I scratched my knee. Pain pain!!!

I cried and cried but when daddy picked me up, I stopped crying. Only 1 min cry. Daddy mummy said I am as tough as an Aussie kid!

Back in the house, I forgot totally about the injuring and pain, started to run and play again!

I found my empty nappies box and used it as chu-chu train. But I only get to enjoy for a while because daddy mummy said it is way too tired for them to push me around like that. But dada, mami, I enjoy the ride !!

Farewell 二姨婆(grand auntie)

2010-09-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

Today is the saddest day for mummy. She received a bad news from home that 二姨婆 (my 2nd grand auntie) lost her battle with cancer and passed away in the morning.

Mummy grew up with 二姨婆’s cooking. 二姨婆 has been like a 2nd mom to mummy. When I was just born 二姨婆 came over to visit me. She made a lot of nice kuih for my full moon and cooked a lot of nice food for mummy to eat.

I spent some sweet moment with 二姨婆 when I went to Penang for visit last year.

We no longer can see 二姨婆 next time when we go back Penang :(

We will miss you forever 二姨婆!!!! Thank you for all that you have done for us and the family. We really hope you are in a better place now.

Happy Birthday Daddy

2010-09-25T03:38:00.001-07:00

Today is daddy’s birthday!!

Mummy still not fully recover from her morning sickness, so we didn’t have a celebration for daddy except for normal weekend eat out. In the afternoon, grand auntie Wong, auntie Liza and auntie Suz came over for visit, brought some egg tarts to wish daddy happy birthday. How sweet they are!!

We went out for dinner tonight cause mummy wanted to give daddy a birthday treat. We had our dinner at a Japanese restaurant where daddy get to eat his favourite tempura and Japanese Shiron steak. I get to eat some vegetable and fish from daddy mummy’s meal too!

Daddy, happy birthday!!!!

Mummy and I pray that the Lord Jesus will continue to bless daddy with good health, and guide daddy each day so that daddy can continue to walk closer to Him and shine for Him. We love you daddy!!!

Back in Action

2010-09-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being mission in action recently as mummy is not feeling well all these while. We had a busy few moths and a lot of visitors. Here’s the quick update:
Mid of August Ah Gu, Jie Jie (my cousin) and family came over to Melbourne for holiday and stayed with us. I had a great time playing with Jie Jie. I love her accompany!

Early September mummy’s friends came over with their children, I have friends to play with again!
Yea Yea, Ma Ma and Pak Pak were with me for the whole last week! I am spoilt! Everyday they will play with me and pampered me. After I wake up in the morning or my nap, I will look for them! I enjoy myself so so much with their accompany! I even know how to call PAK PAK & YEA YEA loudly. See how much I love them!

They went back now, the house is quiet again. So I have to learn back how to play by myself. As you can see I desperately want play mates. Daddy mummy said I will soon have a play mate to play with everyday! Let me introduce you to my future play mate, my sibling!!

Mummy said he/she is still “cooking” in mummy’s womb.When he/she grows much much bigger then will be ready to come out and play with me! I can’t wait!!! For now I just have to be a good girl and pray that mummy will recover from her morning sickness soon so that she can spend more quality time with me. Please pray for mummy too ok?

My 1st snow experience

2010-08-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

Daddy took a day off and took us to the snow trip during the weekend to Mt Baw Baw. We stayed in the forest studio cottage for 2 nights during the trip. We all love the cottage, it was cosy and nice, and very good price too.

The bed room. Daddy has to start the fire every morning to warm the house

The living room

The kitchen

The bathroom with spa

I am making myself cosy at the sofa with the woolly blanket

The next day morning we headed to Mt Baw Baw for the snow!! It was sunny and nice on that day. Mummy put the snow suit and boots on me, and the glove as well. Daddy said I look like an astronaut!!

Most of the time daddy has to put me in the toboggan and pull me around as I refused to walk on the snow (it was too slippery daddy mummy).

I enjoyed sitting on the toboggan!!!

Daddy mummy let me sit on the snow to have a play with it. It was very cold!!

Daddy put some snow on my boots and shown me how to throw the snow balls!

Did you realise that I become a “koala” cling on the tree? I didn’t know how to hold on the tree with my glove on you see! However I still enjoyed standing there watching other kids skiing and running pass me

And now it is the tobogganing time!

I love playing with toboggan and keep wanting daddy to bring me for another round.

so poor daddy has to carry me with the toboggan, climb up the slope for another ride

and here we go again! YEAH!!!

After a few round, daddy was exhausted!! Times up daddy said and pull me to another spot. No more toboggan daddy??

Now time for family photo

These are some view of Mt Baw Baw, nice?

Daddy: This is SNOW Esrene. SNOW!

Esrene: “SNEEZE”

Daddy: SNOW

Esrene: “SNEEZE”

This is me, “little astronaut wondering around infront of the cafe while daddy mummy waiting for their meal”

Mummy said when we win lottery, maybe we can rent one of these snow cottage for our winter holiday :)

Overall, I enjoyed our winter trip so much!!! Can we go to the snow again next year daddy mummy?

I want to be a grown up girl

2010-08-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

Recently daddy mummy realised that I keep making noise during my meal time. I either want to hold their utensil or mine. I want to be like them, eat by myself! So now mummy will try to let me eat my own meal if those food are not too messy for me to handle.

See how happy I am when I can eat by myself? I want to be a grown up girl!!

15 months old life

2010-07-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

As a 15 months old toddler what I do everyday?

The most enjoyable time for me is my bath time!! That is also my bonding time with daddy.

I know how to wash myself with the towel (normally just same area)

Playing with my duckies and bath toys! This is my favourite baby ducky

and of course playing with daddy with my squeaky bath toys!

I also love to walk around and run around in front of the house (the weather now is quite wet, so the garden is too wet to run around).

Playing catching game with daddy too!

See how much I enjoyed myself when I am outside! I am the outdoor girl!

Daddy took out this bouncer for baby Elias to sleep during our Christmas party. This bouncer look so familiar to me but I cannot remember when I saw them before. It looks like a new and unique toy to me so I climb into the bouncer and started to play inside it. Mummy said I am way too big and too heavy for the bouncer. Half of my legs are out of the bouncer. But I love to bounce into it and play with the small tangling toys.

Daddy mummy realised that a lot of Asian eat out place do not provide high chair, so a lot of time they have to walk away from these places because it is tedious for them to feed me without highchair. I will jump off from the normal chair and run away. They saw a 40% sales on this boaster seat recently. It is very light and self inflatable. They thought this would be a very nice boaster seat to bring out and also for me to use at home as I am getting bigger and refused to be constraint in my high chair. This boaster seat will be able to last me for another few years.

I am so excited to sit on my new boaster seat! Now I can sit in the same chair as daddy mummy during meal time.

But mummy, can you take away the bib? I don’t like bib on me!

I love holding my own drinking bottle to drink now. This is my favourite “straw bottle”.

Ok, so where is my lunch?? I am hungry!!

Christmas in July

2010-07-28T02:44:00.001-07:00

I know Christmas is in December, but in Australia December is a hot summer. So in Australia there’s Christmas in July celebration, with the winter Christmas theme because July is generally the coldest month of the year.

Last year Christmas was my 1st Christmas. However, I was down with HFMD, so I didn’t really get to celebration my Christmas. So daddy mummy thought it would be nice for them to have a Christmas in July celebration now, invite some little friends of mine to celebrate together with me. This is to replace back what I have missed out last year December.

There’s turkey with cranberry sauce, salad, prawns, pasta & chicken ball (for us the kids) and lots of desserts. Some of these dishes were brought by aunties and uncles.

This is the chicken ball with green apple and herbs stuffing made by mummy for me and my little friend.

I like them! You want some?

This is the ripple log covered with tempered white chocolate – the Christmas theme design made by mummy. This is mummy’s favourite. Mummy said this is the easiest ever “cake” to make (click here for recipe).

Half of the “cake” (it is actually cookies) finished by mummy

This is the Christmas tree daddy mummy put up for this celebration, with all the pressies brought by everyone for the exchange.

Time to open pressie!!! Kids first!!

Daddy helped me to open the pressie. What is my Christmas pressie?

William shown me how to play the pressie he got for me

Mummy look! There’s so many shinning little balls on the big tree!!

Let me help you to take down the balls from the tree

I enjoyed my Christmas in July very much!!!

MasterChef in making…

2010-07-16T17:29:00.001-07:00

I love playing with kitchen toys in Sunday school. Daddy mummy always see me playing with it everytime I am in Sunday school. Mummy saw a great bargain on kitchen toy during the great toys sale last week, it was close to 70% off! Mummy thought it was quite a great bargain and the toy can let me play till 4-5 years old, so she bought the toy for me!! Thank you mummy!!

Now I am very busy with my “cooking” practice. My kitchen can make the sizzler sound when I on my stove. My oven can talk as well. I love it!!! This little kitchen of mine can be packed easily into a plastic box which is the base of the kitchen. I can bring the kitchen with me when I go travel in future too!

Checking to make sure the soup is not over boil.

I have to test to make sure the meat is well cooked…

ah….my chicken is roasted in the oven

don’t you see I am so busy cooking? Now everyday I can cook for daddy and mummy

what do you want me to cook for you?

Weekend Getaway

2010-07-12T05:28:00.001-07:00

This is the update of my weekend two weeks ago as promised.

Daddy thought mummy and I always stay home during the weekday and most of the weekend, we only spent time doing groceries shopping, so daddy decided to bring us to the country side for some fresh air on that weekend.

After considering my nap time, they decided to go somewhere nearer. Daddy brought us to Yering Station winery at Yarra Glen for lunch, fresh air and nice relaxing scenery. Daddy mummy went there before but this winery has a big space and quite baby friendly. So they decided to go again.

Daddy mummy know their restaurant meal are quite costly, so they decided to go to their cafe for lunch instead. But when we step in to the cafe, we saw…

nice antique fireplace

nice antique chair

and we were served by the professional waitress.

When daddy mummy opened the menu, the pricing of the meals are definitely not the normal cafe price. However, we have been seated and served with drink, so daddy mummy decided to just have our meal there. They thought just treat this meal as the celebration for their 4th years anniversary staying in Australia.

Daddy mummy enjoyed their meals so much. This is indeed the high class cafe food with quality.

The grilled fish

The duck pasta & yummy chocolate moose dessert

and yummy chocolate moose dessert

After lunch, i was very sleepy so daddy mummy put me in my pram for my nap while they walk around the winery.

They even took the opportunity to take a couple together using my pram as the “stand”. This is their first couple photo since I was born!!!

I had a good nap for 1 hour and woke up to take some photos with daddy mummy

I am happily running around at the winery field. See my “just waking up” face

not forgetting carrying my Eeyore with me

We had a great day out as family.

The wana be...

2010-07-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

Let the video tell you why…

I have a lot of potential in these right?
Mummy said I better don't be the shopaholic!!

** Sorry for not updating the blog recently as mummy is quite busy with her work and cupcakes. More update will be done when mummy finishes her work this week.

Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend

2010-06-26T05:02:00.001-07:00

We had a long weekend holiday 2 weeks ago (Queen’s birthday). As usual, we did not go anyway, just hung around in Melbourne, staying time as family together.

As usual, daddy mummy took me on the trike to walk around the neighbourhood.

They shown me flower and I got to play with one too! Even though it is just a wild flower, I treasured it along, carefully holding the flower and admiring it all the way till we reached home.

I tried to learn like daddy mummy, pushing my trike around

At home, I played with my toys as usual. This time, I let bunny, piggy and eeyores sat inside my see saw to join me.

This position looks weird…I think I will join you guys in the same place

I became a Hawaiian girl as well. I was trying to be creative with my toy you see

and I learned to be like daddy – become a coach potato

I love to stand in front of the tv and sometimes “stick” to the tv when daddy mummy on the TV. So now mummy wants me to sit on this “tongue” sofa when I watch my favourite Giggle and Hoot. tv program. However, I can only sit on the sofa for maximum 10 min before I start moving. Mummy has to keep asking me to go back to the sofa if I want to continue watching my “Giggle and Hoot”.

Couch potato in making…

See how concentrate I am when my favourite Giggle and Hoot was on the TV?

So now daddy mummy only on the TV for me occasional when they need to keep me occupy while they need to do some work.

Saturday of Queen’s birthday, daddy mummy’s friend uncle Alex came to Melbourne for work. So they took this opportunity to meet up with him. We went to Dandenong Ranger near our house for lunch and tea.

I enjoyed my time at Smoky Fox restaurant with the fox toy there

A photo with uncle Alex at the lookout point. It was freezing cold that time!

With daddy mummy…

After lunch we went to daddy mummy’s favourite chocolate factory for hot chocolate.

I was so happy running around at the garden behind the cafe

And not forgetting asking Uncle Alex to help us take a family photo

On the holiday Monday, we went to Uncle Simon and Aunty Liza’s house to celebrate Grand Aunty Wong’s birthday.Mummy made a beautiful cake for Grand Aunty Wong and I became the temporary grandchild of her to take photo :)

Aunty Liza’s house is VERY BIG!!! I was so happy running here and there, and playing with the interesting vertical central heating on her wall.

Toy Heaven

2010-06-14T07:08:00.001-07:00

I am in the toy heaven now. I have new toys to play with nearly every week!!! Yeah!!! Daddy mummy didn’t win any lottery to buy so many toys for me, all these toys are from toy library! As I grow bigger, I get bored with my existing toys. So mummy thought it is time for us to join the toy library so that I can get to play new toys frequently in the lowest cost possible. Anyway, I get bored with a toy pretty quickly. Mummy said it is a waste of money buying me toys which I only play for few days or even few minutes. Some of the nice big toys could even cost few hundreds! Now we only need to pay $30 per year and can borrow as many toys as we like.

The first three new toys we get from the library…big toys!

I was playing with this for a few minutes, after that I felt so bored and throw it aside

Now I am climbing up the rocking “elephant” trying to rock on it

well, I don’t really like it. So I decided to put Eeyore on the rocking elephant inside and rock him. It is more fun!!!

This is the post box that I like the most among the three toys. I will take out the envelopes from the post box and “delivered” to daddy mummy and put the envelopes back after they finish “reading” them.

The next few days, daddy went to the library to return the two toys that I least play with and get another 3 toys! Actually we can keep the toys for 2-3 weeks but since I didn’t seem to like them, so daddy mummy decided to borrow other toys for me.

This time, I love the toys that daddy chosen for me

The mini Accordion. It makes nice sound when I pushing and pulling the bellows. the cho-cho train that can play music and move by itself

and my favourite CAR!!!

I know how to open the car door…

get into the car …

not forget to close the door

and start driving the car like daddy!!

see who is with me in the car?? my Eeyore!!!

Eeyore, remember to put on the seat belt ok.

See how I turn the steering wheel?? Do I look like a professional driver?

I can spend half an hour to 45 min playing with the car. I just like it. Mummy said they will have to extend the borrowing of the car for me so that I can play with it much longer.

This is another new toys of mine. But this is from Auntie Rachel. Ethan and Josiah out grown the toy, so now this is mine!!

When I press on the handle, the balls will come down and it plays nice music together with it!

So what’s the next new toys daddy mummy??!!

Eeyore and me

2010-06-01T00:24:00.001-07:00

Let me introduce you to Eeyore if you haven’t know him. He is my sleeping pal. Daddy mummy got it for me in Singapore for my 1st Christmas pressie. Since than I have been sleeping with Eeyore. I will rub her ears and bite her face when I want to go to sleep. Normally I will only cuddle Eeyore during my bed time, other than that I will throw it again.

However, these few days I have been very attached to Eeyore. Most of the time after my afternoon nap, I will want to drag along my Eeyore with me to the living room and my play area.

I will hold tight on my Eeyore and walk around the house.

Once in a while I will bite on it and rub on the ears to show that I love Eeyore.

I will even hold tight on Eeyore while trying to play other toys

I even can kick ball ball while holding Eeyore

And took Eeyore for car ride

Oh Eeyore, I love you a lot.

Mummy said she better go and get another Eeyore that are similar for replacement just in case this one spoilt in future.

Round and round the garden…

2010-05-25T04:48:00.001-07:00

For the past two weekend, the weather was so nice and sunny. So daddy mummy took the opportunity to take me out to the nearby park for a stroll. Two weekend ago, they walked me to the playground next road to our house.

I love swing. Don’t worry Yea Yea, Ma Ma and Ah Ma, I am securely buckled on the swing, no chance for me to fall off.

Daddy mummy got me a trike. I love to be on my trike when mummy daddy brought me to the park with it or when mummy push me on the trike to collect letter at the post box.

Did you see the maple leave on my hand? I love to hold the leave. They are so beautiful!

Me playing happily at the backyard of our house with the grass and leaves!!

I am so amazed my the different colour and textures of the leaves!

Last weekend, we went to Ringwood Lake Park. I love outdoor, I love to run around on the field and play in the playground.

Mummy said I was acting like I really know how to play the big kid’s game – the bingo

I love this rocker. When I shake it will rock!!!

I’m walk walk walk walk in the light… .

I love autumn because the leaves are so colourful and they make noises when I walk on them

and not forget the family photos together before we left the park

Daddy, can we stay longer? I don’t feel like going yet.

When I am at home, mummy will let me do “colouring”

I am very good in colouring, I will colour everywhere, including the table, the chair, the floor board but not the paper!! :D

Notice my spiky hair? This is my look when I just wake up from my nap/ sleep.

I will also play with my car but I don’t know how to push with my own legs yet. Mummy has to push me all the time.

These are basically my weekend activities for the past few weeks.

Oh yeah, last week mummy make a new hair style for me – the samurai hair style!! Nice?

My 1st encounter with the ocean

2010-05-13T00:10:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago, daddy did not have to go to work on Monday because of ANZAC day holiday. So mummy suggested to go for a ride and bring me to the beach since I have not been to the beach. Daddy drove us to Mornington, where Auntie Liza said that the beach is nicer there.

Daddy mummy met Auntie Liza there for lunch, after that we headed to the beach nearby.

When we arrived at the beach, I can hear very loud noise around. Mummy said that’s the sound of the wave. I didn’t not like the sound. Daddy shown me some seashells on the beach. They look beautiful.

Mummy let me stand on the beach, but I did not like the texture of the sand, it wasn’t the same as the sand in my sand pit!!! I lifted up my feets refused to stand on it.

However, after 10-15 min, I started to get used to the sand and even start walking on the sand. It was quite fun actually!!!

Auntie Liza showing me some doggies on the beach.

I was looking at the sea gulls flying on the sky.

However, I am very scared of the wave. The white big wave keep coming in and out on the beach and making such a loud voice. I cried when the sea water touched my feet. It’s very cold!!!

Other than that I enjoyed myself on the beach walking around.

See my cheeky look came out now!

Having fun time with mummy

Is that bird bird mummy? There’s so many of them! Ah, it is so fun walking on the beach!

Of course daddy mummy did not forget to take a family photo before we left the beach.

Daddy mummy said they will have to bring me to the beach more often so that I can get used to it and enjoy beach because both of them love beach very much.

Happy Mother’s day!

2010-05-09T06:39:00.001-07:00

This is the 2nd mother’s day I celebrated with mummy. Last year I was just 1 month old, mummy didn’t get to go out and celebrate her special day but were able to celebrate with Ah Ma, and Yi Por. This year, daddy and I were able to bring mummy out for a small celebration. We brought mummy out for lunch on Saturday instead of Sunday to avoid the crowd and the expensive pricing on Sunday. We had lunch at one of the famous Japanese fine dining in Dockland – Kobe Jones. Daddy mummy ordered themselves a bento each…

and a side dish called adegashi tofu

I got to eat some of the chicken, rice and tofu from mummy, yum yum. Besides that I also enjoyed my oatmeal biscuits on my special high chair.

more biscuits on the tray? I also enjoyed walking around at the restaurant while attracted a lot of attention from the waitress.

Daddy mummy had a yummy and gorgeous Sushi Mi dessert at the end of the meal.

There are not sushi but yummy cheesecakes and the dark chocolate which looks like chopsticks.

I went to children church on mother’s day Sunday. I gave mummy a special something after the church, my 1st craft – mother’s day card.

I put the stickers on the card and did some nice “colouring” inside the card to give to mummy. Isn’t it nice?!!

Mummy was so happy finally I did the craft in Sunday school.

Mummy bought me some crayon and in the evening, I saw mummy how I did the colouring for her card again.

I can colour with two hands too!!

Daddy cooked mummy warm prawn salad with mandarin and spinach for mother’s day dinner.

Daddy also bought mummy a mother’s day, a pressie that can give mummy clear direction when she needs to drive to new places herself. Yes, it is a GPS! How thoughtful and sweet daddy is. We are glad that mummy enjoyed her mother’s day weekend after the hectic week working and baking. Thank you daddy for making it happened. Happy mother’s day mummy, we love you!!

I also want to wish grandma, ah ma, all the mommies happy mother’s day!!! God bless you all!!

My 1st Step

2010-04-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

When I was 11 months old, I finally made my first step!!! I can walk now!! Initially I can only walk for 3 steps, then slowly day by day as I practice more I can walk longer distance now.

So now most of the evening, mummy will walk together with me to the post box to collect mails.
Oh yeah, I also know how to put coins in my piggy bank now. Can I have more coins to put inside the save please??!

Mummy has been training me to keep my toys back to the toy box since 1 months and I have been doing very well to keep my toys being going to bed or for my nap. Mummy also asked me to keep the toys back after the children church and after finishing Life Group. However, sometimes I am still very reluctant to let go of my toys. Mummy can't I play a little while?