Catching up....

Wow, whoever said life with 2 kids is busy was not joking nor lying. Time just seems to be flying by faster and faster as the end of the year nears. And yet when I think back to what we've been doing, it doesn't seem like much, just busy busy busy with Justin and Ava. 

Justin is now 3.5 years old and totally into his big brother role. We have had a few moments of Justin beating up his sister which ends up in tears for both; for Ava because Justin has hurt her and for Justin because we've scolded him. Thankfully though, most times Ava just smiles and laughs at her brother and brushes aside his antics. She is going to be one tough cookie and will definitely learn to stand her ground. For the most part, Justin loves his baby sister, is still continuously showering her with kisses and cuddles and will introduce her to anyone walking by. 

Evidence that Justin is Row's son....he's started recognising numbers...looks like he's going to be a numbers - man! The first number he recognised was '3' because he's 3 years old and he's gradually recognising more, the latest one being '8'. They are also getting ready for their end of year concert at school so we've been hearing Justin practising his singing at home, he's even teaching us the songs. His strong will and determination has been coming out more and more as he tries to be more independent. Most days I have to remind myself that he is just 3.5 years old and still learning to do things so counting to 10 has been helping me be more patient with him. I treasure the moments when he's sleeping and I can just lie there and stare at his face, still not quite believing that I'm a mom and that Row and I created this little boy. He's definitely keeping us on our toes but we're enjoying this age where he's able to do more.

Little miss Ava is 4.5 months old and rolling over from her back onto her tummy. The only problem is that she hates being on her tummy and not being able to roll back makes her frustrated and uncomfortable which leads to tears. She's also quite the chatterbox and loves to babble away to us. Ava's also quite the drooler even though there are no signs of teeth yet. We put a bib on her and 10mins later it will be sopping wet. I don't want to jinx it but we are happy with Ava's sleep...that's all I'm saying. She outgrew the bassinet so we had to move her into the cot at 4 months. She now shares a room with Justin and adapted so easily. In general, she's a happy and content little girl AND I love dressing her up.

Row and I are still ticking along. We've been spending a lot of weekends de-cluttering and throwing/ giving things away. In between the clearing out, we've been socialising with his ex-colleagues and other friends. We're patiently waiting for summer which seems to give us a preview one day and disappears the next.

Here are some photos of the Mingdom!

Pretty outfit 

Can you feel the love?

Justin looking after Ava

Just chillaxing with a book

Taking after Kung-Kung the farmer

Pretty outfit 2

Justin's favourite

So proud of herself (before the tears start)

Justin's new wheels

This past weekend we bought Justin his first bicycle - a balance bike. It has no pedals but has brakes and is supposed to help children learn to balance quicker and easier than the traditional bicycles. Justin loves his bike and new helmet and is improving daily.

Big brother and baby sister

Life with two children has been interesting, busy, amazing, frustrating, fun, tiring....I could use so many more adjectives to describe how life has been since the arrival of Miss Avakins.

Justin has taken on his new role as big brother with a lot of enthusiasm and I'm happy to say that the novelty hasn't worn off. He is continuously showering Ava with kisses and giving her cuddles and telling us how cute she is. Justin loves it when we give Ava a running commentary on what he is doing and often dictates to us what we have to say: "Tell Ava Ka-Heng is eating sausages", "Ask Ava what is Ka-Heng is doing", the commentary list goes on and on. Justin's love and affection is sometimes to Ava's detriment as he is always waking her up or pulling on her to move her or lift her up so we have to watch both of them like hawks. He likes to think he can hold her like we do, with her head on our shoulder but that's not feasible as Ava is longer than Justin's torso. Justin loves to be involved so we try ask him to do little things to help like getting a clean nappy or getting a nappy packet for the dirty nappy or help bath Ava.

Some days we think Justin is getting use to sharing his things and other days not so much. It's quite sweet when he gives his blankey to Ava cos she's crying or she's cold and that is a big wow because Justin doesn't let anyone have his blankey. But then he'll see a toy that was given to Ava and he'll claim it as his own until the novelty has worn off. Justin also likes reminding us that things use to be his, he'll say, "Put Ava in my old chair" or "Put Ava on my old play mat". I don't think it's necessarily out of selfishness, merely his way of showing that he cares and loves his sister and is willing to share. 

Ava is almost three months old - how did that happen?!?!?!?! In some ways she is easier than Justin was at this age, and in other ways, Justin was easier. Justin would feed on one boob, burp, then second boob, burp and done. Ava likes to suck on one boob, have a rest, perhaps a catnap, a little look-around and then half an hour later, she's ready for the second boob...it feels like I'm constantly feeding her. Having said that, she does have a good appetite and feeds well and the scales will prove that, I reckon she weighs close to 6kg now. Justin would feed on the boob and from the bottle without any problems, as long as he got food he was happy; Ava was taking the bottle but the last couple of times she has absolutely refused and would rather starve. She's wasted our reserve of expressed milk so I've stopped expressing. Justin loved his dummy whereas Ava has shown no interest in it but rather likes sucking on her fingers. Ava's already giving us smiles and has recently started laughing and she loves to chatter away. Her neck muscles are also quite strong, she can hold her head up for long periods of time.

We're still trying to get into a routine; for now we take each day as it comes and see where the day takes us. Some days are easier than others but I look forward to the weekends when Row is home to help out and I can do some of my own things like updating the blog and baking. 

Life with two is busy but fun! We're looking forward to see what comes next and to see how the relationship between Justin and Ava will develop. 

Justin loves holding Ava

Justin reading The Gruffalo to Ava

Rocking Ava to sleep

More cuddles for Ava

Practically squashing Ava in his quest to show her some affection

More brotherly love

What a month....

September has come and gone in a flash...and what a month it's been! 

We celebrated Father's Day on 2nd September and this year's was extra special. It's Row's first Father's Day as a dad of two AND my own dad was here visiting us so we celebrated with him. I think this is the first Father's Day I've spent with my dad since leaving South Africa nine years ago.

Father's Day

Row's Ah Ma also passed away. She had lived a long life and always took pleasure in baking and cooking and sharing it with the family. She will be missed and remembered with love and fondness.

Row participated in the annual Sydney Running Festival and ran his first half marathon. We are so proud of him as this was on his list of  goals for 2012 and now he can tick it off.

My mom and dad were here helping me out with the kids and adjusting to life with two. They were here for two months and helped me out everyday. Row and I took advantage by going out on our own a few times. Sadly, they returned back to SA two weeks ago. It's been tough, looking after two children but we're getting there. Some days are easier than other days. 

This was a result of a hard night!!!!!

 I am sick (hahahaha) of going to the doctor and the hospital. Our poor boy came down with a fever early Sunday morning. We gave him some panadol and his fever went away and he was his normal self through out the morning. I happened to be at my brother's house having lunch with my parents and Justin's fever came back. When we got home later that afternoon, Justin still had a fever and was very lethargic and even fell asleep on the couch (his second nap of the day which is HIGHLY unusual). He was sleeping on the couch when all of a sudden he started having a convulsion; it didn't last long but it was very scary to see. We didn't panic as I know this can happen but Row and I decided to take Justin to the ER as this was the first time he had a convulsion even though he's had fevers of 40 degrees before. Luckily mom and dad were able to come over and look after Ava and we took Justin to the hospital. We sat there for about 3hrs and the end result was fine, he just had a viral infection, nothing they can give him. By Wednesday, he still had a fever so we went to the GP and still, they said Justin's fine, his chest, ears, nose and throat are all clear, it's just a viral infection. The doctor did take a nose swab to check for whooping cough which came back negative. By Friday, he still had a fever so we had to take a urine sample to check for urinary tract infection which also came back negative. Saturday morning (the day my parents left) I had to take Justin back to the GP because he still had a fever; this time she sent me back to the hospital so Justin could have a chest x-ray. Poor Justin kept saying he just wants to go home. He had been so good but we needed him to get better because Justin had been in bed for three days, literally, just lying in bed, sleeping for a few hours at a time and not eating anything and barely drinking much. Anyways, eventually the doctor at the ER sends us to X-rays after she's tried to give Justin Ventalin twice to see if it would clear his chest (which it didn't). Turns out my poor boy had acute pneumonia!!!!!! Finally, we were discharged with antibiotics but poor boy still had a fever for another two days. We had to go back to the GP for a follow up and another follow up the week after to get the all clear. Our boy is finally better!!!!!!! Just when I thought we wouldn't be seeing the ER for a while, Justin tripped and bumped his head at the playground. He had a gash above his right eye and blood was just gushing out. Another mom at the playground helped me stop the bleeding and then we high-tailed it back to the ER. Again, Justin was a trooper, so brave and strong. Thank goodness he didn't need stitches, they used glue to close his wound. He is ever so proud of his eina (wound) and the band aid that he needs to wear ;)  Let's hope we won't be seeing the GP or the ER for a while.

The start of his fever

It's story time!

Justin loves The Gruffalo - here he is reading to Por-Por and Ava.

Enjoy!

Kiama Getaway

The last 6 weeks has brought about many changes and they just seem to keep happening. First, we welcomed a new addition to the family and then Row passed his final actuarial exam making him a qualified actuary. Row also finished off at MLC which meant Justin had his last day at his daycare because it was the corporate daycare ( Row and I were very sad about this as Justin loves his daycare, loves his teachers and made a really good friend called Hugo). More changes happening - Row starts his new job on Monday and we're waiting for confirmation from Justin's new daycare regarding start dates. So, to catch our breath and spend some quality family time before the madness begins, we decided to go to Kiama for the week. 

This last minute booking sent us into a flat spin, packing for a newborn, a little boy and two adults. Shew, lucky mom and dad agreed to go away with us because the amount of stuff we took with filled up two car boots. Leaving home was quite stressful, trying to pack, wash dirty dishes and time Ava's feed. We finally hit the road at about 11am and planned to stop in the Royal National Park for lunch. Lunch was supposed to be a nice little picnic in the RNP but due to lack of planning, we had to settle for buying pies and chips at a little cafe. Ava slept through the whole of lunch and didn't manage to wake up for a feed before we resumed our drive. Luckily, the soothing motion of the car kept her asleep for the hour long car ride to Kiama. 

This time we rented a smaller house called Beachbumz near to the beach. It was a nice size house beautifully decorated. Mom and dad slept in the main room and the four of us slept in the second bedroom; Justin on the top bunk, Row and I on the bottom double bed and Ava in a camp cot...what can I say, we're a tight-knit close family ;)

I wouldn't necessarily describe the holiday as relaxing...I wouldn't even call it a holiday but it was nice to get out of Sydney for a bit. We explored the town's shops, took Justin to the playground and beach, took a scenic drive along the coast and explored a nearby town called Bowral and did a coastal walk.

Now to get ready for the changes and the challenges that it will bring us.....

Chilling on the sundeck

The coastal walk

Our gorgeous crazy son

Our home for the week

Ava's 1 month old!

Friends who have had their second child warned me that time seems to go by even faster with the second child...I'm still stunned at how quickly it really does. I can still remember very clearly, every detail of the night before Ava was born, when my labour started leading up to the birth of our beautiful angel. And now she's one month old!!!!

As per Chinese tradition, we held a moon yuet for Ava to celebrate her being one month. Part of the festivities include dyeing eggs red and eating it with pickled ginger. We chose a Chinese restaurant in North Sydney and asked mom and dad to help choose the menu. We dyed the eggs red and packaged them in little boxes decorated with pretty ribbon to give to our guests. 

The food was delicious and the company was great. Ava was a star, fussing a little before passing out and sleeping through most of her moon yuet. Most of the guests got to carry her while she just slept. 

Dyeing the eggs

Pretty packaging

Justin enjoying a red egg

The guest of honour