teletubby in the backyard

Baking with Mama

Now that I have got my replacement camera and finally my new laptop, you'd think I would update my blog and website more regularly, right? Wroooong.. as i am too busy to be a mother of a toddler who (officially) toddles like a teletubby now (and needs 24-7 supervision) and also too busy playing around with my new toys.

My husband gave me the 'bla bla bla' last night and I told him there wasn't any point to update them anymore since no one really looking and he said no one really looks because it has been rarely updated. Yeah right.. which comes first, chicken or eggs?? Hehehe..

Anyway..  Am working on the website updates. Will let you know when it's done. 

been wanting to get an ornamental Buddha for the pole at the backyard - found the perfect one!

ATTITUDE!!! (alias kelakuaaan...)

"never again" always came out from my mouth after outing with Oliver but mostly after we go shopping. What a stressful time!
Today not only he refused to sit on the stroller (which is an old story), but he also insisted on pushing his stroller (so I pushed from the top and he pushed from lower - he only walks like this, hasn't been able to walk unassisted but I have to admire his persistence!) and refused to be taken away from it, but then ran away when he saw toy section at Myer, and started pulling all toys with wheels (and imitating the 'brrrr' 'brrrr' sound as things falling out of the shelves!!). Isn't he growing!

Olivers twist

*My sitemeter reports every week show that quite a few people visited my blog every week. Which is intriging , given that I have not updated it as often as I should -the visits might have been more random than not. Anyway so I thought I should make more effort, so well, I hope I keep it up :D*

Had yumcha this morning and saw this very tiny baby in her capsule and thought about the first time we took Oliver to yumcha. He was only 4 weeks old and we put him in his capsule on the floor in the corner of the room. I remember thinking that I had conscience about putting him on the floor . Now I sometimes wish that he was that young again and we could just put him in the capsule and we could enjoy our meals!!



Oliver knocks on the door when he wants to get in now. He also waves bye bye, points at planes flying in the sky, plays car toys like a big boy (pushing it along the floor and making the brrrr brrrr noise), BUT he also started to throw tantrums, throwing everything off the table (not good when this involves food), not wanting to sit still in his stroller, throwing things away (have I mentioned this??) and waiting for me to pick it up so he can throw it away again, and if I refuse to do it he would try to jump off wherever he is in, either it was the high chair or his stroller..


How I wish they come with a manual! The thing about being informed (as you do nowadays with the abundance of imformations) is that the more you know, the more paranoid you are about something.
Last saturday we had dinner at Scott's colleague's place. They have 2 kids - the eldest one, three and a half years old, apparently suffers food intolerance. 1 in 4 children in Australia apparently has food intolerance in some degree but the only way to find this out is by elimination diet - which is a bit tricky and require a lot of commitment (as if you haven't got enough on your hands!). Predictably, we went home convinced that Oliver must have had some kind of food intolerance.

Enough about Oliver.

Started my graphic design course this week and guess what - not only I was the only girl in the group of 5, but I was also the oldest by far (one of them is still on year 11!)! Our first module is drawing, and when the tutor asked if anyone liked to draw, there were only 4 who raised hands. Guess who didn't!
So far so good though, even though I have to say we are only on the stage of drawing perspective - not sure what's going to happen when we start drawing objects & humans.

That's it for now. I've got some hilarious videos of Oliver to be posted so keep watching this space!!

Favourite thing

blast from the past - oct 07

My hubby: "Do you know what my favourite thing in the world is?"
Me: "Me??"
My hubby: "Close enough (grrrrh). it's the sound of Oliver's laugh "

isn't it sweet??

one for the boys!

Mooloolaba blast

We just had a nice holiday in Queensland. Two weeks in the sun. And beach. And water. Oliver got cold and had snotty nose all the time (still do) but doesn't seem to bother him. He & dad spent a lot of time in the surf, also playing with the sand (and eating it). Mama & Dad got to have great coffee at the cafes within walking distance from the apartment, and went out a few nights while letting Oliver fall asleep in his stroller. Poppy & Nanny even came and visited for a night and we had very nice meals at the restaurant in the marina - best calamari I have ever tasted. Judith & David, our friends from NZ who now live in Qld also came and visited for a night. Had a very delicious Tibetan dish for dinner.
The apartment Scott rented at Mooloolaba is on the 7th floor, overlooking water everywhere. It is so closed to the water that I had trouble sleeping the first few nights because the surf was so noisy (Hehe.. you think it's funny but the surf was very rough those nights it felt like tsunami blazing from the window and louder it was because our bed was facing the ocean and we slept with the window open). On the third day I nagged Scott to find me a chemist so I could buy earplugs :P -- I didn't use them though, I swear! Not to mention that Qld refused day light saving which means sun is up at 4.30am and they use the skimpiest materials for the blinds & curtains that they don't even block any light. What's the point, guys!!

pictures pictures pictures

Apologize for being slack - very busy months we had last couple of months. With Oliver's first Christmas and Oliver's christening and travelling to Orange (9 hours drive, try that with a 9 month old!), and meeting the whole Bradleys family for the first time and having my mum & dad came from Jakarta, my brother & girlfriend from Japan and my other brother from Sydney, who would have time to sit in front of the computer and updating this space.

Anyhow, so much things happened, as I mentioned before, with first Xmas (Santa did come to our house!) and big Christening celebration and so on and so on... I can only tease you with the pictures for a time being before come up with the whole story - eventually!

Enjoy!
http://home.exetel.com.au/bradley/baby_album/my_pictures.html

Where is Oli?

Well, you might like to click it bigger to see if you can find Oli :P

Also, we took this video this morning and it's just too good and too hilarious not to share. While we are on the topic of sharing, the ninth month album has been uploaded on the website: http://home.exetel.com.au/bradley on the baby album.

Baby einstein

This is our little buddha enjoying baby einstein dvd. This phenomena has only started a few weeks ago, during which I put him in front of the TV because I was just so tired seeing him jumping up and down and climbing and crawling - and there is no way I could get him to sit for 5 minutes although you can tell he really needed it.

I have heard so much praise about this baby Einstein. Lots of mothers swear by it, not so much because of its educational claim, but they are saying that the only time they get time-off is when they put the babies in front of the television to watch it. I heard some mothers said that their babies eyes are fixed to the television and not moving an inch when it's on.

New research actually shows that all these development & educational dvds do not making the babies smarter. No surprise to me. I personally think it is a waste of money and the dvds look so much like brainwashing that it makes me sick. The idea of the Baby einstein was to tell a story from a baby's point of view, plain and simple. Interactive puppets and images of toys, children, and other everyday objects comprise the basic format of these videos, which are set to the sounds of classical music. Hence the metronome ticking for half a minute, a cow moo-ing for another half a minute, a ball rolling back & forth for another half, water rippling for another half... you get the point. And it all was produced in the low-budget style production. I was happy that Oliver wasn't interested in it

So all the dvds that I bought because I was lured by other mother's testimonial, and the classical music cds which is said to stimulate their little brains were a waste of money for us. But then all of the sudden it changed. We were driving in the car for quite some times and he started to whinge, as he does when he is a bit buggered, so I put the Baby Einstein lullaby on -- all of the sudden he got mesmerised and got those dreamy eyes and bingo - he was asleep!! We tried it on again on different occasions and it was like magic.

So I put on the dvd just to test it. And voila.. amazing.. he stopped whatever he was doing, and sat still for the whole show. Which is very unusually him.

The funny thing is that Cara, the little girl from the mothers club apparently has been enjoying the baby einstein since she was 4 months old, while Oliver only just picked it up. How bizzare, maybe this really shows that boys brains develop slower than girls!

The Undomestic Goddess

The big tree in our backyard was loaded with beautiful yellow orange fruit, come in cluster and tastes nice and tarty like apricot. After a few trial and errors and no one got poisoned, we found out it was loquat. According to our research, firm, slightly immature fruits are best for making pies or tarts. The fruits are also commonly used to make jam, jelly and chutney, and are delicious poached in light syrup. Loquats can also be used to make wine.

Wazza thought that we should make jam and I felt compelled in doing it, because they just got rotten in the tree otherwise. But let me make it clear from the start, I never thought it was a good idea. And it turned out to be the most ambitious project I have the whole year. Obviously, my kitchen brain is not as big as my kitchen bravery. And believe me, I haven't got any satisfaction in doing it.

Right. So, first of all, we need to find out how to make a jam. Hmm.. mr. google makes it sound easy, just boil the fruit til it's very soft, add some sugar and the pectin -hang on, what? With a little assistance from mr google (how did we survive without internet?), we revealed that we can purchase the thing (it's a thickening agent actually, for the jam) at the groceries stores. Piece of cake. I couldn't find any jam jar anywhere but it's not a biggie either, I could always use old jars in the pantry, only need to sterilise it before putting the jam in (this part sounded a bit tricky as a matter of fact).

You would not believe how much sugar is needed for a jar of jam! I bought a package of 1 kg sugar, thinking that this would be plenty.But the recipe said 2.5 kilograms!! Eeeek.. My creative mind decided to portion down the recipe - this and the fact that pitting 1.5 kg of loquat (according to the recipe) took forever.

3 hours of boiling the fruit later, they are still not soft and Oliver and I had to go to our gymbaroo session. Oh well, the jam can wait...

As soon as we got back from gymbaroo, I picked it up where I left off . But during the period where the recipe said : "bring to boil vigorously and stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes" Oliver woke up and screamed on the top of his lungs! so there you go, no stirring occasionally.

The jam turned out to have too thick consistency, taste too sugary (and I only used half of the sugar!) and... smells like chicken stock (Mppph... this is because I used the jar that I previously used for chicken stock).

Now update on the boy. He's turning into little rebel - and not even a teenager yet! changing nappy is fighting session now, so is bedtime. Rianti said there are times where you need to wave the white flag and admit defeated, but in my opinion, there are times that you need to be 'stepmother' and these are the times. Doesn't really work though, he still gets his way most of the time.

helping mama with the laundry? I don't think so.

Eighth Month

Eighth month pictures are up on the web.

http://home.exetel.com.au/bradley/ or click the link on the right hand side and go to baby album.

In the meantime I am going to be scorching in this ozone hole where the temperature is currently 37 degrees!

Eat my shorts!

doing the bart.

Next Australias Top Model

Ok. I admit it. This modelling thing is -of course- my obsession and Oliver doesn't give rats bum at all. And that I, have had worked for ad agency should have known better and be ashamed about doing it. But in my defence, being an ex- advertising executive, I would be the one who take it least personally if Oliver doesn't get any casting or booking. We just wanted to know if anyone else think Oliver is as cute as we think he is. We just need to know if he's wanted :P.

So. He got his first job after his first casting for Target catalogue. Everyone was confident that he would be his happy-self during the photo session. But of course we were wrong!

Little Buddha was grumpy the whole photosession that he only got to pose for 2 outfits (being the biggest baby in there didn't really help either when most of their outfits were size 000). The first outfit required the baby to sit up right so they can show the front, but he just wanted to crawl. The second outfit has special feature at the back so they actually wanted Oliver to crawl away and show his bum but seriously I am sure they didn't even have a single shot where Oliver was not grumpy. Not to mention dribbling!

When we're done, the photographer then dismissed Oliver "you can go now. Go.."

Well we know who is not going to be the next Australias Top Model!!

Life as a SUBURBAN wife/mother

Here I am. Officially a suburban wife/mother now since we moved into the suburb (at least it is our own home now). My to-do list today includes washing-hanging-folding clothes, cleaning the bathrooms, paying bills (should be doing it now instead of blogging), groceries shopping (maybe), vacuuming the carpet (as if that will happen!) yet I am standing here playing internet (not even sitting down because the telephone cable is not long enough to connect to the computer if I put it on the dining table - just because we still haven't organised the broadband connection and still using prepaid internet), because this is the only time I can check my emails and updating my overdue blog (so overdue that probably no one will ever read this entry because everyone stops visiting this blog).

Ok. Where to start.

Oliver & Moving House

Just my luck of course. As you would expect, during the busy period that I had to do most of the packing, my little Buddha had:

• his first cold, for about a week he got very cranky with runny nose and didn't sleep well at night.
  
• 3 top teeth popped out - and before that he was just as grizzly as a bear. He bites and bites now (ouch) - andhis breastfeeding days are numbered now.
• started crawling 3 days before we actually moving!! (Those boxes and stuff everywhere must have been such good incentives to move). Michelle from my mothers club had actually predicted that he'd be an early crawler but I was hoping she was wrong.. I went to the library last week for baby nursery rhyme time and sat in front of these two mothers who were having conversations about their boys who started to crawl about 2 weeks before - when they were 10 months old. 10 months old! Not 7 months and a few days!
  

Fortunately he didn't seem to have any difficulties settling into the new place (despite that his room is bright orange! - we can't afford painting the house yet), if anything he has bigger space to roam about, although I am still not happy when he ventures to our kitchen and starts licking the refrigerator.
Now he wants to stand up all the time and who would've thought looking after him standing up if even bigger job than when he only crawls? Even his cot is not a safe place anymore, as he would stand up on his cot and rattles the gate and falls on his back, hitting his head on the end of the cot.

He is a little joy that boy is. He starts to show recognition to people (but still doesn't mind having a stranger nurse him, oh dear!). He slightly prefers dad when he wakes up (when dad is around). The other day I picked him up from his cot after his nap, he just cried and cried until he saw Daddy, straight away smiled and jumped in the air. I told Scott that "I think he prefers you" and Scott said, "don't be silly" and the moment he walked out from the room, Oliver just cried again. He was happy in Daddy's arms and I think that was just to cutest and sweetest thing.

He also shows preference to sleep on his side or tummy when he sleeps. This wouldn't matter so much (since he's almost 8 months old) if he only knows how to roll back to his back. Yup - the little Buddha is capable of crawling and standing up but NOT to roll back. We have been woken up by him in the middle of the night because he found himself on his tummy and not able to roll back. I think he needs to learn about priority!

The house & the neighbours

We managed to unpacked most of the boxes apart from the books and stuff that meant to go on the walls. The previous owners have penchant for colours and as the result we have blue, yellow, green, orange and pink walls!! We are hoping that we can have the house painted before Christmas but wiith all the expenses that had accrued the past month it probably won't be happening.

Being a family-oriented neighbourhood, we are surrounded by friendly ones. One that I must note though, is this lovely girl who lives two doors away, Aly, with her best friend Keely. They came out to say hi to us the weekend after we moved in, and we introduced them to Oliver.
Keely: "Where is Oliver going to school?"
Scott" "Mmmph.. I don't know. We still have plenty of time to think about it"
Aly: "Look at his hair" (Oliver's hair just grows out of control at the moment, he looks like Krusty the Clown)
Scott: "yeah.. he's a punk"
Keely: "He's going to be so popular at school!!"

They put a note at our door one afternoon offering their service to be baby sitters or do job around the house (five dollars an hour and when they came and visited they said they will donate some of it to the cancer foundation and some other charity foundations. Scott said they will need to charge more if they are going to donate some of their fee). I told them Oliver is too young and that they will get nervous if they are to look after the baby and Keely said "We will just have to ring you every so often!".

The thing is.. we might be too nice to them and they have been at our door all the time now. They came to visit 4 times the last 24 hours, twice we sent them home saying we were on the way out and last one we didn't answer the door. Help!! We are being stalked by 10 years olds!!!

Saturday morning - 7 am. Oliver's in his bedroom, whinging. Scott and I were fighting about who should get up and let him play on his rug. He had been awake since 6am, we fed him, hoping that he would sleep a bit longer in our bed (he didn't), put him back to his bed (twice),brought him back to our bed (still whingy) - nothing happened, he's just ready to get up and play.

Here we are, 6 months down the road - Boy how difference our life is now.

It's a change of the lifestyle and although I should say it's all worth it, I miss some things. Like the luxury of sleeping in (who doesn't?). But seriously, I looove my beauty sleeps. Actually I just don't love sleeping in, I need it. I need it to function normal. Haven't had that in 6 months. Funny how I was given tips to sleep in a lot during pregnancy, because you wouldn't be able to do it anymore once the baby's born. I did sleep in alot before Oliver is born, but that was then, now I WANT my beauty sleeps again!

Not being able to go out often anymore is fine with us - we're enjoying our time as family. Can't believe this - hold your breath I am going to say something very cliche: He is our joy and watching him grow brings smile on our faces.

I keep thinking that their development is like preprogrammed - first smile by 6 weeks, learning to coordinate hands at 3 months, babble at 4 months etc etc. Oliver's new skill is faking coughs. He's been doing it for days now and he will respond to your cough by coughing back to you. Cute.


We are still learning. Lots of trial and error and I hate that we sometimes do not realise that we are making errors. And when the pennies finally dropped, the guilt trips taken tolls.."Why didn't I think of that before?" "My poor baby.. can't believe I did it to him before for so long...".

Anyway - as someone said, having a baby means you need to get ready to change your lifestyle. If you're not willing to, then you shouldn't have a baby! Oh.. so true...

Oliver & Sign Language

I swear to God Oliver gave me sign to 'milk' this morning. I made attempt to get him to sign to me, and he looked at me tentatively, and really, seriously, I was pretty sure that he did. Scott was in bed also with us and he even noticed it. How exciting!!

Hehe.

Of course I don't know if he really did. Later on today I thought he was tired, but hey, is he making that sign again? Is he tired.. or is he actually hungry?

Like playing charade again. Gave him sign of milk, and I thought he was smiling at me so I got up and got the bottle ready. Got back to Oli and he was happy on his tummy, so I thought.. well, maybe I was wrong. And then he got cranky again.. you get the point. And I fed him and fed him and fed him.. A lot!

Oh all these confusions..

I was like an obsessed mother who kept signing "do you want MILK?" when there isn't any milk around. And even though he might have been giving him 'milk' sign I am pretty sure that he's as confused as me now :P

Yikes!

Parents pressure

Started to wean Oliver a bit so he is not completely on breastmilk - I figured it would be better to get him used to this before introducing solids, and guess what.... he's a muuuch more happier baby now, more content, less grumpy, naps are even better. I feel sad thinking that he must have been hungry (well maybe not exactly hungry, just not quite enough) all this time.

On that note though, I still am not very excited about the idea of solids. I know we have to do it sooner rather than later (he is turning 6 months old in about a week), but to think about the mess, the extra work, extra effort to introduce it to him... mmpppph (blowing raspberry like Oliver's new skill) it sounds soo complicated and I'd love to keep it this simple (although still not as simple as just giving breastmilk) for as long as I could!!!

Oooh.. the pressure of being a mother, the pressure of trying to give the best for your child. Yesterday Scott showed me a picture of this couple's baby looked happy and was having so much fun in a kindergym session. Hang on... What is it? Why is our baby not doing it? Does this mean that I didn't "help (your) child to maximize their learning potential ' since "the activities at the centre are not designed to speed up development but are to ensure that each baby/child gains full benefit from each developmental stage" (according to the website)? But we were already planning to enroll him to a swimming school and in my BC (Before Child) years, I promised I was not going to bombard my child with so many extra curricular that he probably would not enjoy anyway -but here I am considering doing everything at the same time and he's not even 6 months old yet.

Is this parents pressure - to make sure that your baby can have 'the best start in life'? Before I had a child I thought some parents just trying to get their children to do what they (the parents) want them to do, not what the children really want to do, but now I actually get it - you are doing it for your child. You are actually worried that you are not giving them enough learning experience, you are worried that they might be an outcast if they didn't do what the others did, that their developments might be behind other kids, in the nutshell - "not giving them the best start in life".

Question is: Is it true? Is it worth it? Is it really necessary or is it really there is a time for everything?

Anyway - too much thinking. My head is spinning.