Happy CNY of the Ox

It's Zachariah's 1st ever Chinese New Year of the Ox!

So this morning on CNY eve, I decided to dress my two boys in RED along with myself. When we rocked up to my parent's house, they laughed cos the 3 of us looked like 3 little red lobsters. It was very cute I thought.

Anyhow, this year's CNY, I've never collected that many Ang Pows ever! Of course they were not for me.. all for the little one.. I think he received at least $500+! too spoiled! Even I never got that much!

This year's festivities meant we kept on eating non-stop! one after another but the good news is that my weight keeps on dropping! woo hoo! Anyway, here are the pics...

Chinese New Year Eve
Steamboat at my folks house along with the lovebirds, Vincent & Angel



Chinese New Year Day which also fell on Australia Day
Back to my folks place for the tradition of eating long life noodles for breakfast

At lunch time, it was off to my in laws to celebrate it with their family & their in laws and once again our poor bub was passed around like a hot potato. Luckily he didn't cry... He was such a good boy!

Uni friends re-union

Tonight, we decided to have a pot luck gathering at our place to celebrate a re-union for the 4 musketeers (and now with partners!).

Judy & Corey (flew back from HK) for their wedding on Sat 31st. Unfortunately we couldn't make it b/c of my bro's wedding, so we decided to hold a little dinner party for them so that we could all catch up again like the good ol times. It has been at least 2.5years since we last saw each other! Crazy!

They all arrived at 6pm. We spent the rest of the night eating non-stop & drinking non-stop. By the time they left, it was 1am! I wonder when we will all be re-united like this again?

Tour of Melb Weekend

This weekend, my ex-colleague Ethan from Singapore came over with his girlfriend Ritchie to visit Melbourne. Mr M & I spent half of our Friday & the entire Saturday to show Melbourne off to them. By the end of their trip, they admitted that Melbourne was definitely better than Sydney :) yay!

Friday
Stopping over for coffee & cakes at Brunetti's, Carlton
On an extremely windy day @ Docklands



Saturday

Getting ready to go to Phillip Island
Here is baby with Uncle Ethan's generous gift - his first pair of Adidas runners! cute hey?!
Our cool little Homie :)


1st stop: Kilcunda


2nd Stop: Fish n' Chips lunch at Cowes




3rd & final stop: The Nobbies
Here are the Singaporean tourists viewing through their binoculars in an attempt to peep at the seals on Seal Rock



Penguins in their burrows & yes I finally discovered that Penguins do in fact lay eggs :)

Potty Training

Ever since Zach reached 4months, my mother could not stop pestering me to toilet train our little one. So finally Mr M & I went out to buy him his first ever Baby Elmo Potty.

Now that he is 4.5months old today, my mother decided to put him on his potty after his feed ready to catch that poo of his. Unfortunately, my bub had no idea what was going on. Instead of trying to concentrate to poo, he was trying to get off the very uncomfortable seat.

Sigh... I now know just how much patience you need to toilet train a baby. I think I may re-start him again when he's 6months old :)

Maternal Instinct

I remember several times in my life when my mother, in her spirit knew something was wrong with me even when we were separated by the ocean. Now that I am a mother, it amazes me that I too have adopted this supernatural power.

Every morning just before Zach wakes up, I would all of a sudden wake up for no reason at all. Then, 30 seconds later, I would hear my little one begin crying in his cot. This happens nearly every morning since giving birth to him!

Then there was an incident once when we took him for a stroll in his pram. All of a sudden, he started to cry. Mr M was comforting him using his words of affirmation. I, on the other hand knew that something was wrong. Immediately, I checked his body and sure enough an ant was on his arm & it had bit him.

There are also several moments when he just stares at me çooing & I know exactly what he's talking about. I can't explain how all this happen but I think it's got to do with the fact that it is the mother who has carried their child in their womb for 9 months and somehow, this maternal instinct doesn't go away even when the child is out of them. Hair raising but true :)

Zachariah at 4 months!

Our little one is finally 4months & boy has he reached many milestones! At four months, we have introduced his new playgym courtesy of my highschool chickies & his all time fav Jolly Jumper courtesty of Charlene & her family which he absolutely loves! We laugh every time he's on it cos he looks just like a man walking on the moon. Anyway, here are the changes:

1) We have noticed just how playful he is now. Omg, this is such a world of a difference compared to last month. He loves to scream at a high pitch at the top of his voice (I have myself to blame cos I always exagerates my excitement with him by laughing at a high pitched voice & now he's imprinted from me). He usually does this when he's very happy or when he's trying to get his parent's attention. He would sometimes throw his toy on the ground too on purpose so that we would pick it up and fetch it for him. Then he would throw it again just so he could gain attention. He does a good job at it too!

2) He loves to stand. Everytime I hold him in a standing position, he laughs & is soooo happy. I think that's why he loves his Jolly Jumper so much

3) He sleeps on avg 7-8hours although there was one night he slept for 10hours straight without a feed.

4) He is very strong on his tummy now. His head is up for at least 30seconds before he flops down (in the past it was on avg 10secs). When I took him for his checkup, the maternal child nurse gave him a toy in front of him & he started to crawl a little to grab it! I was sooo proud! Even the nurse said he's a very strong boy!

5) He now weighs 7.3kg which really surprised me as his weight increase has slowed down from previous months. Still, he looks like a Michelin baby with his rolls of fat.. kekeke...

6) Baby's head circumference is now 43cm up from 1.5cm & his length is 63cm up from 2.5cm vs last month.

7) He is now in his 'attachment' phase whereby if you are a stranger to him, he would cry and cry and cry until one of his parents hold him. I thought it was very touching at first but now I'm finding this a big headache. The same applies to when we take him outside of our house. If he is in a unfamiliar territory, he would too cry as he knows it is not his home. Amazing! Also, if I walk out of his room after putting him in his cot, he would literally stare at me with the 'mummy pls don't go look' and then starts to cry as soon as I walk out the door!

8) He had his 4months vaccination today. A very brave boy. The first jab, he was fine, no tears whatsoever. However, the second jab, he screamed & cried loudly. Luckily it only lasted for a minute because his daddy was there to give him a cuddle.

9) Here he is with his new playgym which helps him to 'like' tummy time b/c of all the words/cartoons on the mat. All these motivate him to lift his head up longer & he does! :)

10) Here is his Jumper Jolly which makes him look like he is 'moon walking'. He loves it when I bounce him on it too :) I think I love JJ more than him! ha!

11) We also decided to fill his bath with more water so that he feels like he is 'swimming'. His reaction was sooo funny. First, he was really tense as you can tell by his little toes on his feet. Next, his face was like the inquisitive.. 'what on earth is happening' look. Then finally after a few minutes, he was splashing all the water around with all his kicks. So so cute!

12) He loves to imitate us. When he's crying non-stop, occasionally you can hear him scream out 'mummy'. Both Mr M & I have heard this at least four times now! Also, I have discovered that every time he yawns, he does this moan and groan sound straight after and guess where he learned it from?! His daddy!! But then again his high pitch scream & hysteric laugh are all thanks to me :) It's really scary when you see yourself via your baby's actions! I can not imagine when he starts to talk. We better not say any bad things in front of him just in case ;)

13) He loves to stare at us eat. Dinner time is a very easy time for us b/c he would just sit in his rocking chair doing nothing but stare at us eat and then occasionally he would do a high pitched laugh to get attention from us.

14) He loves to clinch his hands together as if he's doing a 'praying' or more 'gong xi gong xi' pose. I think he learned this after I taught him how to clap his hands.

15) He loves to eat his hand & put everything in his mouth. My parents suspect is b/c the teeth on its way :)

16) We have bought him a mini-hifi to put in his room. His daddy loves to put on the classical music channel for him to fall asleep to it. It works sometimes. As for me, I love to put on the baby lullaby CD for him not for himself for me as it reminds me of my childhood :) It also helps him to fall asleep - sometimes.

17) He poos less frequently now. On avg, once per day.

18) He is very good at grabbing things now. Not only that, he would grab it and not let go. Occasionally, I would bend over and give him a kiss. To my dismay, he would grab my hair so hard that he would not let go. I have to scream in pain & take this hand blindly to detangle the grab. Furthermore, he likes to pinch your skin especially when he misses grabbing your clothing. Painful I tell ya!

19) When he is breastfed, I find it amusing to see him needing to grab something. He would usually grab my top & then he would let go, grab it again, let go, grab it again, let go in a stroking movement up and down in order to further enhance his 'drinking milk' experience :) It is very cute.

Thank you LW yiyi for my Pumpkin Patch outfit. It's still a bit big for me but I love hiding my face under the hood. I laugh every time cos the material on my face is ticklish. And oh.. pretty LW yiyi, when are you going to carry me again? We make pearls again can?

Highlights of Parenting so far...

... Getting used to not being able to complete a task in the usual span of time


... Sleep Deprivation (although this has improved. Our little one now sleeps for a whopping 7-8hrs a night! Woo Hoo!)


... Changing the bedlinen - first time was when he did a pee & it leaked out of his nappies (yes this does happen! don't know how though) and wet our bed (cos we normally take him out of his cot just after dawn for his feed in our bed). Second time was worse - he did a massive poo with his daddy the toilet (baby always does a poo when his daddy holds him. It's quite bizarre!) & silly daddy didn't even know until a huge pile of runny poo literally splatted on our entire king size bed! The spill was like the size of a rockmelon! Messy & extremely smelly! I nearly fainted.. I even needed to wash the mattress protector.. sigh


... Having vomit on you (which smells like old milk curdle) just when you have entered your friend's place for their dinner party. Who needs Issey Miyake when you have your baby hey?


... Having his little birdy weeing all over daddy & mummy once in a blue moon especially when we change him on his changing table


... The most rewarding of all is when he gives you the sad face every time a stranger carries him because he realises they are not his mummy or daddy


... When both mummy & daddy pretend to laugh in hysterics & our little one follows with the biggest & loudest laugh of all


... Mummy/Daddy giving the tickles to our little one & he starts to laugh uncontrollably until he gets the hiccups


... Hearing our little one talking to himself non-stop just before he goes off to sleep



... Seeing his hands grow longer and then all of a sudden when you change his nappy, you have to also pin his hand down just in case he touches his little birdy & have poo all over his hand



... Finally discovering from relatives that the reason he does a 'shivers down his spine' action is because he has just done a wee.



... Parenting is hardwork alright & having to digest the fact that it's a 24 x 7 job for as long as we live

Dialogue: Hungry-Angry-Fed-Happy

"I hate it when mummy puts me in the playgym. Mummy make me work oh so hard that I am sooooo weak now. I'm about to faint... Where's my milk?!!!"


"Oh oh oh.. milk milk milk... "


"mummy... gimme gimme gimme"


"ohhh... it tastes soooOOOOOO good........I'm in heaven"


"I'm so happy. My mummy's the best"

House: Entrance/Dining Room

I must admit, this has to be my proudest room in the house. We had put a lot of effort into all the fine details for the room (from choosing the colour, furniture, design, decorations etc). This room took the longest to get done because it was the main room in the house that all the tradesmen would walk in and out.

So... after five months later, I'm proud to say it's finally finished! Everyone chipped in to help to clean up all the mess & boy there was a lot of mess alright.

The Design:

Colour

The feature wall of this room is red. We chose this colour because of 3 reasons:

1) We wanted to give a nice warm feeling to the house especially in the dining/rumpus room where we would be spending the most time in entertaining our guests.

2) Another reason was because since our front double door is red in colour, we wanted to continue carrying the red colour as soon as you walk into the room. It actually turned out really well.

3) Red actually gives it the 'Ming Dynasty' look & feel to the house as soon as you walk in :)

Decorations

1) We had a lot of ornaments that we bought from Asia during our travels, thus we wanted to display this in either the Rumpus room or the Dining room. However, due to the limited space in both rooms, we had to purchase a furniture that would do the job as well as giving the room some division as we didn't want to expose the entire house as soon as you walk in.

2) We also wanted to give some division to the rumpus & dining room so to do this, I bought some waterfall black curtains to match the red colour feature wall. I was actually so pleased with the end result.

3) I had bought a very nice black leather rectangular mirror in Singapore and was wondering where on earth I would put this in the house. Then I realised this room wasn't as bright as I like it to be in the afternoons. So I decided to place the mirror horizontally opposite the window for the outside light to reflect onto the mirror to give the room more light and it worked! Plus the black leather rim really goes well with the red feature wall.
I was beaming with glee when the entire room was finally finished :) What an effort!

Back in July 2008 when we had just arrived back from Singapore

September 2008


October 2008


Nov 2008


Dec 2008


Dec 31st 2008
Voila! It's finally completed!

Eating Fest

Happy New Year Everyone!

Every day of the week we have had BBQ's and parties after one another.

First, it was with Mr M's cousins & family at Hay's Paddock in Kew - this was baby's first BBQ outdoors! my poor baby was swamped with flies too! (that is one thing I hate about BBQ's in Australia but boy do I love the BBQ chicken wings/drumettes... hmmmm).

The kids were absolutely besotted by Zach!

Anyway, next it was New Year's Eve count down at Stanley's place in Kew as well. We decided to spend it with families who also have either babies or toddlers. It was a nice night. The food was in abundance and of high quality. Everything ranging from BBQ scallops, salmon, prawns, lamb, steak, chicken to drinks such as $300+ bottle of red wine & Mr M's $200+ bottle of JW's blue label (the best of the Johnny Walker's range). It was in deed a celebration alright - after all, it was the year that our babies were born!

Then came the NY's celebration just with our parents held at our place. Once again, it was a BBQ & like always, my mother in law brought soooo much food along. We had so much food that it was as if we were feeding a party of 12 when we only had 6ppl.

Finally, on NY's night, it was Mr M's cousin sis' twins 6th birthday party at their place also in Kew (it seems that every single person we meet lives in Kew nowadays!). Once again the kids swamped Zach when we brought him in the house. I was so full by then that I only had room for their Dairy Bell Ice Cream birthday cake :)

There you have it, 4 eating feast in a row. Now can someone pass me a detox kit?!

And just for my Yin Zi yi yi, here is the Baby Gap outfit you bought me sent all the way from UK!! So sorry I couldn't wear the socks or the jeans yet cos my lazy mummy haven't washed it... kekeke