First Day of School

Dear World,

Today, my little boy with tousled hair, two big brown eyes, a cheeky grin and a big hearty laugh began his journey to become a man. It tugs my heart, when I walked him through the big school gates, his little hand in mine. He could hardly contain his excitement, a skip in every step. He waved goodbye with his confident hands, and said "bye mum" and went on with the rest of the class, doing whatever he was doing like he has done it many times before. It was his first day at school.

Daddy came along to say his "goodbyes". He said goodbye... about 9 times. But still stood in the corner of the class. Looking around, lingering. Come on daddy, let's go!

I walked out, proud and tall. Thinking I deserved a big pat on my back, and maybe pop open a bottle of champagne when we got home. 1 down, 2 more to go, hip hip hooray. But... I couldn't help myself, I peeped into the classroom window and looked at my little boy with tousled hair, two big brown eyes, a cheeky grin and a big hearty laugh. All grown up, in his new school shirt, shorts and black shoes.

My heart tangled in knots, crying silent tears. This small person has been my whole life for the past 5 years - and now there's all this time and space without him. And HIS days will be filled with new experiences, new friends and new interests. Without ME.

Lucas and Lily, wondered where's big brother koko? What is he doing? Where is his school? When's he coming back? Is HE coming back? Asking a million koko questions in a short span of time, over and over again (and it was only half day today). How will I cope with two little siblings WITHOUT HIM??

I guess it's just a matter of getting used to...

My babies, growing up too quickly too soon.




..

Sleeping Children

I love this picture of my sleeping babies. This was the last photo that I took in our previous home. It brings back lots of memories. Ask Lachlan what he remembers most in that house, it would be this last night that we spent, all 5 of us huddled together in the living room. That very room that he came home to as a newborn, that he toddled into his pre-school years and watched endless episodes of the Hi-5 on telly! It is precious. I'm glad I took this photo as it is how I would like to remember "the old house", forever.


I sleep with my babies, all of them. And I still do! Not simultaneously, just when they are babies. Well, it's nothing to be proud of, but it just felt like the most natural thing to do. I believe that there is no right or wrong way to let your children sleep. And believe me we did have many sleep battles (and still do!). So over the years, we have just learnt to go with it. Sleep baby sleep, and just let mummy and daddy sleep with you.


And we do get there eventually, believe me! Lachlan slept with us for years, even after his baby brother arrived. We thought he would never grow out of it! But he did. He sleeps independently now in his own bedroom and he did that just before he turned 5.

And Lucas. He was a darling! He was such an easy going baby. He is the one baby I slept the least with. He would go to sleep in his own cot. Until we moved him into Lachlan's bedroom, in hope that he would teach his older brother a thing or two about sleeping. That is when the opposite happens! He is now daddy's baby. My poor husband, he shares a teensy tiny IKEA single bed all 6 foot of him and his size 12 feet, with his baby Lucas, who isn't exactly quite a baby anymore, nor is he petite.

Aahhh this is MY baby. Isn't she just the most adorable thing in the whole wide world? Watching her drift to sleep is like a magical moment. Eyes fluttering. Chest breathing. Limbs getting heavier... and heavier... God, I love my children! If you don't normally sleep with your children, you should snuggle in with them one night. It is one of the most beautiful moments of being a parent.

The 'Transformation' of a 5 year old!

Lachlan, for his 5th birthday, requested for 20 or so of his kinder friends, to bring their energy cubes to his Transformers Birthday party. And THAT is a lot of energy packs crammed into the longest 3 hours of my entire life! Phew!

He is one transformers (and voltron) mad kid, thanks to his hand-me-down transformer toys from his daddy's days. He loved them to bits. So for his birthday cake, he wanted you guessed it right, a transformers cake! And gee, that was a little mind boggling for me for days as I was cracking my head, thinking what this cake would be or if it has to "transform" or not.

So 25 kids (including some siblings) or so went hunting for toy soldiers who went missing on a mission to fight the deceptacons (I made that up). Kind of stole the soldier hunt idea from another party we went to earlier in the month. And then, they saved aliens from a frozen ice block. The kids were divided into 3 groups. It was a race to melt the ice with little bowls of warm water that the kids took turns scooping, walking or running to, and pouring over the ice block. The first group who manages to free up the alien wins. I would have made 10 frozen blocks of ice if I knew how entertaining this would be for five year kids. Thank goodness the weather was warm enough for this game. It was so warm that the buttercream icing on the cake was literally sliding off the cake!



Speaking of which, I am so so so in love with this chocolate cake recipe by Nigella Lawson. It is so super moist, so ultra decadent. You can find the recipe here. Click click. The cake was a simple rectangular chocolate cake covered with red buttercream. We make a lasting impression with our parties, and I am sure the kids would be bouncing off walls when they got home that day with all that red food colouring they had with the cake. Not to mention all the lollies from the pinata. Sorry moms and dads! For the autobot logo, I looked for images on the web, printed one out on an A4 page and cut the shapes out. Then I used it as a stencil to cut out the shapes on rolled out fondant icing. And yes, it did "transformed" to nothing, as each piece get cut and eaten off.

So 2 parties down, and 1 more to go........ I hope someone left an energy cube behind, because I will need it muchly. Lucas turns 3 next week!

(Top photo: Lachy pictured with this kinder teachers who were so kind to pop by for the party)

Lego Lad

My first born child is almost 5 years old. He goes to kinder this year.

I get asked all the time when we go out together, why isn't he at school? Is he cutting classes? Surely this charming young lad, often very very suave with the ladies (especially grandmas) is of school age. No, he goes to kinder. 3 times a week, only 3-4 hours each session. Every other time, he gets to hang out with his mom. His poor mom!

Often when I potter around the house, picking this up and that, I would come across many of his interesting creations. A Lego police speedboat, with wings so it could fly and fold out tyres, so it goes on land. A rotorcraft house, so you can bring it with you on holidays (I like that!). Vehicles that change into robots, and robots that transform into humans. Space crafts, space shuttles and rocket ships.

And he talks to himself, in his imaginative play. In R-O-B-O-T like sounds. So sci-fi.

My first born child, he builds houses and space crafts. Perhaps one day, it will become a reality.

Graduating from 3 year old kinder!

Oh my goodness, will you just look at my little man! The past year has seen him blossomed into a charming, handsome boy, a serious chatter and a caring and giving person. He is a home-body, a mummy's boy. He does amazing things with his agile fingers. He loves building, making fantastic structures from bits of Lego.

Last Friday, Lachlan graduated from 3 year old kinder. They had a mini Christmas concert and a break up party. Oh goody, he goes from 3 to 4 year old kinder, so that means an extra 2 hour session in a week. 2 HOURS, 3 TIMES a WEEK! Golly... just enough time for me to have another cuppa with just 2 littlies at home.

Mr. Chatz

My 4 year old Lachlan, is a chatterbox.

At Play...

"Mum Mum, look over here. I made this tower (from Lego), and in the tower there's a princess, not Princess Fiona, but just another princess with long yellow (blonde) hair. And outside, there's a dragon. The dragon spits fire like this... bleh bleh bleh. It's awesome isn't it? And a black horse will come and rescue the princess so he can kiss her, and then she turns into Princess Fiona"

Huh? Is that how the story goes??

At Kinder...

"Hi Leanne (teacher)! How's it going? Did you enjoy your weekend? Yeah, me too. It was lovely weather isn't it? What did you get up to? I was in the garage, just helping dad out. His car needed a big clean up. And there's all sorts of tools for fixing cars. You should come over to our house some time."

Yeah, mate!

At Swimming Class...

"I can't blow bubbles with my nose. I have a cold. All the green stuff will come out. See? You know, last week my brother caught a cold, and he had green stuff in his nose too. He passed it on to me."

(You're not meant to say that Lachlan, just shut up and swim)

When I was mad one day...

Me: "Lachlan, you are really testing my patience!"

Lachlan: "Mum, you don't have any patients. You're not a doctor anymore, remember?"

I didn't get it straightaway. I thought, yep I have definitely lost all of my patience, vamooshed, along with my sanity! A 4 year old telling me I have NO PATIENCE! What a wake up call!

(And yep, surely I have lost all of my patients!)

Phonics with a Four Year Old

Lachlan, my 4 year old child, has started recognizing some words using phonics. In all honesty, he learnt most of his ABC's from a toy bus with little A-Z buttons. When each button is pressed, it will tell you the letter and the sound it makes.

Today, we had a conversation that went like this:

Car starts with the letter "K", "kuh-kuh-kaarr..."

I said, no Lachie, C is for Car.

Mum, listen to this sound..... "kuh" for "kar".

I said, "C" for CAR, just like "C" for CAT.

No mum, Ceeee is for Snake. SSSss, Ssss, Ssnake. Ceee for snake.

No Lachie, "S" for SNAKE. Hissssss....

"S" mom, is for ES-ca-la-tor!

*sigh*

Better start using the books, I'd say.

On the 8th Week...

2010

Lily weighs 5.3kg and is 56.5cm long.

2006

Lachlan was 6.36kg and 59.6cm.

2008
And the winner goes to...

Lucas! A whopping 7.005kg and 59cm long.

Sleep: Issue #101

Why is it such a big deal for us?

Because we're losing our sleep...and sanity.

So where are we at in this huge sleeping debacle in this household? Firstly, Lucas moved into the same bedroom as Lachlan. This was a big step for Lachlan, as it was he who was having sleeping through problems. We thought Lucas might teach him a thing or two about sleeping on his own and in his own bedroom. They then took turns waking each other up, and it did not stop Lachlan from running to our bedroom still in the wee hours of the morning. One good thing though, is that they fall asleep on their own. But not without mucking around for up to an hour before sleep time, which can drive you up the wall because they end up jumping on the bed, pulling curtains down, throwing pillows around, taking turns doing poos, wees etc.

Now, Lucas is climbing OUT of his cot, the one thing that could jail him in (More like our "get out of jail free" card). He pulls himself up and swing himself around and out he gets! This meant gaaaaaaaaahhhhh we could no longer MAKE him go to sleep on.his.own. And one other thing, he likes to strip himself butt naked, including pants, nappies and all. Just imagine our horror walking into the bedroom to see a naked toddler tarzan himself out of the cot, swinging on the curtains, toys, pants, nappies strewn across the room.

THE WITCHING HOUR!

O.0

So last week, we took apart the cot, make it a big deal for Lucas that he has graduated to a big boy's bed. So he can freely climb in and out of his bed, when he wish. Now we have not ONE but TWO pitter patter feet running to our bedroom in the wee hours of the morning.

The saga continues....

A New Term

First day back at kinder today, and I forgot to stick my SD card back into my camera after blogging the night before.

So Lachy puts on his favourite Ben 10 T-Shirt (for 5 days in a row now!) and piggy-backs his new Ben 10 backpack. He brushed his teeth twice as long in the morning, and I made sure there were no vegemite left on his face.

What's different this year? I had to pack not one, but 2 bags, 2 snack boxes, 2 water bottles, 2 hats, 2 everything. Lucas got dropped off at grandma's this morning for babysitting duties, only because they stayed over at Gary's brother's place. (Grandma/pa lives in Geelong and comes for a visit once a week). Lucas insisted he MUST have his bag packed too. He got Lachie's hand-me-down spiderman bag, spiderman T-Shirt and spiderman (not-so) cuddly.

So 2 superheros set off for their adventure this morning. There were no tears, only excited chatter and happy smiles.

Rebellion

Since returning from our very long holiday, I have been preoccupied with boring house-keeping stuff, getting the house back in order, the dust of the shelves, the boys back in their routine and turning into a scary mum-zilla. Why is it that the chores seem never-ever-ending? There's constantly things to be picked up, toys to be packed away, laundry to be done, mouths to be fed... and little people (boys, in particular ONE very cheeky toddler, are we mentioning any names here?) getting into misfits and making me very VERY annoyed, angry and basically turning me into that ugly monster of a mom!

Phew!

*Takes deep breath*

So anyways, this morning, as I was yelling away at Lucas to get out from behind the TV before he gets zapped, and Lachlan to not touch my furnitures with vegemite fingers, only to get mischievious grins in return or be completely ignored. Toys were strewn everywhere. Ben 10 blasting on TV. That was it! Enough already...

What's happening here? Am I getting holiday withdrawal syndrome? For 6 weeks, we had somebody cleaning up our mess, doing our laundry, cooking our meals. Bliss! But I was more than happy to come home, call me nuts but I actually like doing my own laundry. But now I feel like I'm the house maid! Gaaaaahhh....

*More deep breaths*

So I figured, stuff it! Let's be messy, dirty, lazy. Let's eat pizza's tonight, or KFC I don't care. There were warnings that mum-zilla might turn into one of those ugly, angry aliens from Ben 10 if he doesn't get off the TV. So we stirred up a batch of playdough. Stick the boys on the kitchen bench. And had my 10 minutes of calm, before the storm starts all over again.


Pushing, shoving, snatching, not sharing, biting, hitting, screaming, crying ............................



Hard to imagine such cuteness can wreck so much havoc in a home!

Holiday Diary: Playing Dress-Ups

A few days before the wedding, I dressed the boys up in their tuxedos just to make sure they still fit. They were bought at the start of 2009 for the first of many weddings we attended during the year. Their pants needed to be lengthened, the shirt a little bit short, but overall they still fit quite nicely.

The boys had brand new bow ties for this special occasion, in different shades of purple.

Tuxedos by Precious Children's Boutique, LG20K, Subang Parade.

Bow Ties by DOMII Boutique : Lot 172B First Floor, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara.

Lachie's Pyjama Pants by Cotton On Kids.

Lucas' Pants by MamyPoko.

The Year That Was 2009

JANUARY
In January 2009, I made some new years resolution. Looking back in the past year, I may have achieved EVERYTHING pertaining to motherhood, but nothing else apart from that matter. Nevertheless, it has been a fruitful and rewarding year. I have enjoyed my time tremendously and count all my blessings that I could spend every waking hour with my boys, watching them grow and not missing out on anything. First steps. First words. First puzzle completed on their own. First everything.

My brother Kelvin and his then girlfriend visited us. They went to Tasmania and he romantically proposed to her, caught on camera! We love you both. Kisses for you, kisses for you!

I won my first ever blogging competition, and won myself a mini Dell Inspiron laptop, one I'm using to blog now whenever I'm away from home.

My husband took me on a date with Brian MacFadden Delta Goodrem.

FEBRUARY
We experienced one of the darkest days here in Victoria. Temperatures were soaring above 40 degrees celcius, bushes were burnt down to the ground, people perished along with their loved ones, hectares of bushland and properties destroyed. It was The Black Saturday.

Gary and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary and my parents celebrated their 35th year in marriage.

MARCH
We celebrated Guaran (Gary's younger brother) and Chai's wedding, in Melbourne and in Malaysia.We grew a giant squash in our back garden.

APRIL
It was a month of birthdays and birthday parties.

Lachlan turned three. He started 3 year old kindy. We had an arrrrrr me hearties pirate party complete with a pirate ship birthday cake.

I celebrated my 30th birthday and gave myself the best present ever, perfect vision.

MAY

My darling Lucas turned ONE! Be charmed again by his smile, read this post here.

JUNE
Mom and Dad visited Melbourne from Malaysia, and mom spoilt us by making her famous Hokkien (Prawn) Noodles.

This is a typical Thursday for us in June 2009.

JULY
Lachlan fell asleep while eating pizza, caught on camera and made headlines on YouTube. People are still talking about it up till today. Laugh again, watch the video again here.

My brother Mark and his family moved into a new home in Melbourne.

I ponder about whether or not there's a medical career left for me.

AUGUST
It was a month of baking, cooking, trying out new recipes, eating, sharing, merry-making etc. Here are some of them:

Tricolour Marble Cake Lemon Meringue Pie Golden Syrup Scones Pear Crumble Cake Spicy Kerabu Salad Almond Biscotti

SEPTEMBER
It was footy fever all over again, with the Geelong Cats in the grand final in AFL, going against St. Kilda. We came home winners! Go Catters!!

We hosted a Father's Day lunch, with 6 daddies and daddy-to-be's. It was all about food.

I found out I was pregnant, all over again for the third time!

OCTOBER
Gary celebrated his 34th birthday.

NOVEMBER
It's all about being pregnant again. Morning sickness. Cravings. Juggling my three boys and tiredness. Read about it in my Pregnancy Diary.

DECEMBER
We came back to Malaysia for the biggest event of the year. The wedding ceremony of my brother Kelvin and new sister-in-law Ching Mei. (One I'm yet to blog about!)

We had a lovely time with family in a very well deserved 6 week holiday. We ushered in the new year 2010 with people who mattered to us most.

More blog posts to come!

That was it! The year that was 2009. Here's to a better, brighter, bigger year ahead. Welcome 2010!

We heart hand-me-downs

We have been very lucky. The boys wear pyjamas that has been worn in, but in great quality. They're so soft and comfortable, and they smelt like love. They wear clothes that looked somewhat familiar, like they've been seen on someone else before. There're jeans with banged up knees that has been patched, that's oh-so-cute! Or shirts with so much character and a little bolognaise stain on its collar. And once a month or so, they get bags and bags of toys, scouring, exploring and rummaging through them like treasures! It's like christmas day, every time!


Oh we feel so loved.


:) Thank you.

Christmas Art

In a trivia night this year, I won a pack of customised greeting cards from Art By Kids. Basically, it's just a blank card where you can draw or create a card however you like. And they will print it out for you.

So I thought we'd make something christmassy to send out to our family and friends.

The drawing scribbling above is a joint effort between Lachlan, Lucas and I.

There's one coming your way, or otherwise, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Well, you can tell the boys aren't the picasso type!

Lego Creations

This year, we got our christmas presents early. Not too many (thank god!), we weren't going to celebrate. But you can trust a few of our worthy family to pull up stunts like giving the boys more toys a few weeks before christmas.

One that stands out, Lachy's absolute favourite, one that he hasn't parted with since, was his brand new Lego set. For hours to end, he sits next to his box of Lego, creating. Houses, cars, trucks, space ships, rocket ships, speed boat, light house, even machine guns (gaaahh, how does he know guns?) and swords! He takes them all to bed, and guess what? We'll be taking them on a holiday with us too.

Thank you also for the noisy drum sticks (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!), that one is staying behind though. Swim suits. T-shirts. Bags. Die cast James and Jack. Thomas bed clock. We love you!

Nits and all things un-nice!

Just last week, Lachy came home from kinder with an important notice. There has been a lice outbreak in his class. Head lice that is. Gaahhh.... strangely enough, my own scalp had already started to itch!

They're tiny little wingless insects that breed and feed on human scalp. They move from head to head without discrimination, and do not carry or transmit disease. And you get it from direct contact, when you play together, cuddle etc. Lachy and ALL of us sleep on the same pillow if you remember his sleeping saga I wrote about not long ago.

So we had to hunt them down, if any.

Here's what the notice had to say:

Finding head lice

Half of the people who have head lice never scratch their head so itching is not a reliable sign. Lice can be hard to spot because they move quickly. The easiest and most effective way to find head lice is to follow these steps weekly:

Step 1 Comb hair conditioner on to dry, brushed (detangled) hair. This makes it difficult for lice to grip the hair or run around.

Step 2 Wipe the conditioner from the comb onto a paper towel or tissue.

Step 3 Look on the tissue and on the comb for lice and eggs.

Step 4 Repeat the combing for every part of the head at least four or five times.

Step 5 If the person has been treated recently and only hatched eggs are found, you may not have to treat them again since the eggs could be from the old infection.

Step 6 If lice or eggs are found, the person should be treated.
...

I read the steps over and over again.

Then out came dadda's good ol' clippers. What easier way could there be than to chop and look at the same time. Lachy was first to be on the barber's (mummy) seat, Lucas watching intently as his older brother's locks came falling off his head. 12mm. That was because we have a major event coming up, and we'll be in big trouble with the grandma's if they both ended up looking like shaolin monks for the big day.

Not a sign of a louse on the loose. Phew!

I kept a few wispy bit of fringe for Lucas. Just because. :) I am such a hoarder!

And you guessed it right, Lachy's mullet hasn't been touched either!



I wouldn't have a single clue what I'd do if I had girl(s) with long curly pigtails!

Teaching L1 to Sleep

For years now, my oldest child Lachlan always had a little trouble with sleeping. In fact, I don't think he had ever slept through a night without waking up once since birth. Yep, 3 and a half years ago. He wakes up, once, twice, three times or sometimes even more and needed one of us to put him back to sleep. He's addicted to stroking our ears, or holding us near. Sometimes, Gary would wake up with sore ears, as bright as a tomato.

We I have read countless of books on sleep. We have played musical beds, moving from one bedroom to another. We have tried numerous tricks/tips/threats/treats/techniques etc. but it has never worked. It's partly our fault. When Lachlan was a little baby, he slept with us in the same bedroom. He then graduated from his own little cot, to our big bed. We've never really been strict about it. Whatever works right? Sleep is too precious then. I loved him being close, feeling the warmth of his body and just watching him snore gently. It's the best thing in the world! So now, I guess you can say we're paying for it. He doesn't want to leave our bedroom.

Yes, he has a normal bedtime routine. He goes to sleep in his own bed, in his own bedroom. But without fail, he would creep and crawl into our bedroom, onto our bed EVERY NIGHT, sometimes without me even knowing it!

Lucas is the total opposite! He has been sleeping on his own for... I can't remember. We kiss him good night and lay him in his cot and won't see him until the morning. He prefers it that way, he couldn't sleep well any other way. So one day, a few weeks ago, I moved Lucas to Lachlan's bedroom, hoping that he would teach his older brother a little thing or two about sleep. It was a little crazy at first, they took turns waking each other up.

Now? Lucas sleeps through the night. But Lachlan? He still comes into our bed. Back to square one. But at least we got our spare guest bedroom back.

Sigh.

Pregnancy Diary: Week 11 Being Mrs.Grumps

I'm not normally bitchy about anything, really. Not openly bitchy anyways. But lately I have been a bit of a grump. I would be nit picking on little matters, blowing it into slightly larger proportions, and sometimes I could erupt emotionally like an active volcano without any warnings. I find myself teary eyed more often than not.

One day, Lachlan caught me with tears in my eyes and asked if I'm sad. I said, no, not really. They're just "nothing tears".

Nothing tears? He then wiped them with the tip of his pointer and "popped" them. There, he said... feel better now? What do you know? Soon enough, nothing tears started pouring out.

Oh no! Mummy, your eyes are raining! I just couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter. Nothing tears soon became funny tears.

Oh, back to the topic of bitchiness. This little incident happened a little while ago. I had to blog about it only because I had to get it off my pregnant bosoms! When and if I do look back, at least I could blame it on the hormones!

We were at a kid's party and there was a pirate's treasure hunt. In this treasure hunt, presents and loots were hidden in little bushes and plants, and kids were meant to get their elbows and knees grubby and look for their loot. Read: KID'S treasure hunt. Anyhow, it was over within 30 seconds, because a MOM stood over the loot, pointing to the treasures, well literally fished them out herself and put it in her kid's palm. Trivial? Yes. Annoying? Oh yes!

Even my 3 year old said "Not fair, she's a GROWN UP" Ah huh.

OK...see? I'm getting bitchy.


To read the entire Pregnancy Diary, click here.

Cooling Down by the Creek

We have had scorching weather here in Melbourne over the last week or so, a little bit unusual for this time of the year. Last weekend, we took a leisurely drive to Badger Creek. It was a nice little secluded spot up in the Yarra Valley, not far from the Healesville Sanctuary. I packed a picnic lunch and huddled the boys in the car. We drove for about 40 minutes into the picturesque countryside, pointing out to cows, sheeps and horses that dotted the rural landscape along the way.



Soon, the boys are splashing in the icy cool water, fossicking for rocks, twigs, leaves, gumnuts and every other thing from the creek. Despite the hot weather, the water in the creek was numbingly cooooold!



Lachie enjoyed a warm sunny spot after a cool dip in the water. He was hesitant for a little while, but as soon as he saw his little brother jump in, clothes, diapers, sandals, gusto and all, he too charged into the water.


Lucas was a busy little bush ranger. He kept us busy too, for we were at first wary that he might slip from the slippery surface of the rocks. He peered in between the rocks, collecting little objects of interesting shapes, texture and colours and put them in a pile. He climbed up big rocks, and down again. Twice, he stuck his head beneath the water to reach for a pebble or two. He is the dare devil of the two, and yep he definitely takes after his mummy! :)

It was a nice little getaway. I enjoyed the peace and tranquility, the sound of water running down the creek and the chirps of the wildlife amidst the laughter from the boys.

Lachy asked me today, wanna go there again?