Tonight is another quiet one.

My husband is still working late in the office. I have had a very long day, with lots of errands to run, people to see, things at home to catch up on. I noticed the neighbours have already got their Christmas tree and lights up…mine is still sitting in the box waiting for me to put it up.

I just put JD to bed and finally had a chance to sit down. Then it occured to me that hubby has been working late almost every night and including weekend for at least the last few months.

I went back to my old blog and realised it must be that time of the year again. He was doing the same this time last year, I was newly pregnant with Chloe, and having very severe morning sickness.

1 year on, hubby is still working long hours, even longer than before, we have 2 kids, I am a stay-at-home-mom again, enjoying it all albeit a little tired some days!

But today also mark something very special for me.

I am embarking on a new project that I hope would be a new beginnng of something good for me in years to come. I can’t share it just yet because it is still in its infancy stage.

But I am writing it down because I know it is this day that I begin the journey of making ways to improve my life, with my greatest hope to strike a good balance between my desire to be a good mom and achieving the basic necessity in life.

Today is my 2nd Sister P’s birthday! Here’s a birthday cheers from us all here in Perth! Muak! Muak!

(Image from www.google.com)

And if you haven’t noticed, my sister is a cats lover! She looks after lots of cats living around her HDB block and even keeps a blog for all her cats!

A few weeks ago, Chloe had a bad case of eczema all over her face. She looked really miserable with red face, slightly cracked skin and not too happy at all. I searched everywhere for ways to help her, and carefully changing my diet too. As she is still a breastfed baby, some suggested me cutting down on dairy products, milk, eggs, and staying away from eczema prone food.

But most importantly, I must make sure she is well moisturised every day, afternoon and night. And because she tends to suck her hands a bit, she tends to get a bit of rash around her mouth and cheeks. I was looking for a good barrier cream and after trying lots of stuff, I still think the good old vaseline works the best.

Each day before she goes down for her naps, I would apply a nice layer of Vaseline on her face.

And when she wakes up, we always have this beautiful glowing baby smiling at us!

So, her skin has finally cleared up after copious amount of vaseline and moisturiser, evening primrose and bath oil for her daily bath and me being cautious with what I eat. And I just need to keep doing it.

‘Dragon’ by JD

JD’s paternal grandmother bought him this book from a door-to-door salesperson. Great. JD rushed through the door, showing me his new book, tore opened the box, balloons scattered all over the floor. Fantastic!I stood there trying to work out what the excitement was all about. Balloons. JD’s favourite. Big fat round balloons, I have no problem with. I can blow them with gusto till my belly hurts. But balloons that require me to twist and turn into a bee, caterpillar, guitar, giraffe, puppy dog, you name it….NO! Because I am bloody fearful of popping the balloons.

JD’s paternal grandma had this idea that at 3 years old, he should be able to do it. But no. Look at the packaging. For 8 years and up!

My hubby being the gung-ho father he is took on the challenge. But after 1 nano second of trying it, he turned around only to tell his son “It’s not working!” Brrrrrrr

Now, anyone that has a kid would know how terrible it is to dissapoint kids because they always think that daddy and mommy can do anything and EVERYTHING! And most of the time when daddy can’t help, mommy would always come to the rescue.

So after one morning of nagging and please, please, please a million times from my 3 yo, I plucked up enough courage to attempt making a bee for him. Come on I told myself, don’t be such a chicken!

Now now, am I am good mother or what! Wahaha, after holding my breath for a good 5 mins, I managed to come up with a bee!

Ah, things I do as a mom!

And and and, mommy also finished painting the butterfly for Miss C’s room! No, I didn’t draw the butterfly, I can’t draw. The canvas came with a butterfly printed on and I just coloured it in. Hee!

One recent nigt, just as I was going to bed after feeding the baby, I heard JD making noises from his room.

So I popped my head in and checked on him. Perhaps he was having a good dream because he was laughing in his sleep. Maybe dreaming about lollies, cakes, fruits or all his favourite food. Maybe something better.

And then he started saying in his sleep “Where is Christy? Where has Christy gone? I WANT Christy!”

Wahahahaha, Christy is a cute lil blondie from his daycare. They started on the same day and have been going there since for almost 2 years now. She is 4, he is 3 but they get along like good ol’ friends!

He talks about her all the time. When she went back to UK recently for a month long holiday, he nearly drove his care giver crazy by continually asking her “Where is Christy? Still holiday!!!!?????”

Haha, this will be the kind of story I dish out to embarass him at his 18th birthday. Heehee, I am rolling on the floor with laughter.

2 years ago, on their first day (11/01/04) at the daycare, Christy refused to take a nap. Instead she woke JD from his afternoon nap to have a play. He didn’t get his afternoon sleep, and he fell asleep big time at dinner time that day. Well before dinner was even served! Haha, that was a change.

Yes, as of last Thurs, my lil Miss C can roll from back to tummy. She did it all on her own. I left Miss C on the mat while I took the rubbish out. 1 min later when I came back, she has rolled from her back to tummy! Yay! And she kept doing it over and over again.

That’s her one other milestone at 4 months old!

Each day I put 3 drops of lavender oil, pop 3 evening primrose oil and a cap of her bath oil into her bath. So many types of oil my husband always ask, but lavender oil is to make her all nice n relax, evening primrose and her bath oil is to make sure her skin gets well moisturise and making her less prone to eczema.

And no, she doesn’t cry in her bath anymore. She loves every moment of it.

After she finishes her bath which usually last less than 5 mins, her brother would jump in and make a big splash.

Bath makes me feel good, and I smell good too u know.

The bath makes me relax, maybe sleepy too.

Getting hungry too, maybe sucking on my towel might help.

Then, there is my famous “sticking my toungue out” look!

Sometimes during the odd moments, JD would have this “pai kia” (naugthy kid in Hokien) look. And it is always when I snap his pics without him knowing it. Recently while we sat on the front steps enjoying the cool afternoon breeze and waiting for daddy to come home, JD reminds me of a security huard sitting outside the bank back home. (By the way, I still don’t agree to letting children play with ammunition of any sorts, but that was a toy that came in a goodies bag from a b’day party).

Then there’s this bikie look. Actually the good thing is he is learning to wear sunnies to protect his eyes from the harsh sunlight in OZ land.

But when he has his face painted like this, who would be scared of him hor?

And somemore a “guard dog” that fell asleep, the burglars would have stolen all his toys already.

When JD was a baby, he would only sleep when he is being swaddled. So much so that he still enjoyed being wrapped in his bunny wrap till he was at least 6 months old.

But Chloe does something totally different. She sucks on different fingers when she sleeps. Sometimes the sucking gets so loud at night that I have to turn down the volume of the baby monitor in my room.

Otherwise, she is mostly happy when she wakes from her sleep.