And the other awesome silhouette shot ...

This is the other great photo I got from the silhouette shoot...

A few more pics... just because I can't help myself... :)

Here's our cutie enjoying the beach...

Back Home After A Great Family Holiday...

We just got back today from our 3 day break to Noosa... We had a wonderful time... I will write a more detailed entry later... but tonight I just wanted to share a photo from our holiday...

The Reality Behind the Photo
I love this photo... I have wanted to do a sunset silhouette photo for ages, because I have seen some amazing, sensational shots executed by the EB Photography girls... So on Monday night, I made Phan and Elizabeth go down to Little Cove Beach at sunset so I could take some photos... It wasn't quite sunset... but it was close enough... (sunset unfortunately collides with dinner time... and a hungry Beth is not a happy Beth!) However, the moment our feet touched the sand, Beth wanted to go into the water (even though we'd only just had a swim an hour ago!)... So Beth spent the entire time (all of *five* minutes) squirming and wanting to get away... and the whole thing just ended in massive tears when she wasn't allowed to go in the water. So we called it quits after 5 mins and I just had to be happy with whatever shots I got in that tiny window of opportunity. Gotta love child photography...

Daddy's Revenge...

This afternoon Phan was trying to watch the Crows football match on Foxtel... Beth however had other ideas and kept trying to get his attention by sitting on his lap... throwing herself into his lap... waving books in his face and making him read them to him... screeching... shrieking... and in general just making a bit of a nuisance of herself. He finally managed to distract her with stickers... so he got to watch the game in peace for a little while... but whilst he was watching the game, this is what he did to her -



















We did a spot of shopping this afternoon and Beth was a noisy, noisy thing who didn't want to be in her stroller and much preferred to roam free around the aisles... She has mastered the "fake whinge" where she kicks up a big fuss when we make her do something she doesn't want to do... but we discovered that if we laugh at her, she laughs and giggles as well... it was as if she realised we had caught on to the fact that she was just pretending... hilarious... but at the same time annoying and embarrassing when you're having to carry your child (who is kicking and shrieking at the top of her lungs) out of the shops. Is it too early to start pretending that she's not my child when she starts these antics? :p

Have just spent most of tonight packing and getting all our stuff together ready for our first "proper" holiday away together as a family... Feels like we've packed more stuff for our 3 day trip away than for our 10 day trip home to Adelaide. We'll have no internet for a few days (oh how will we survive???)... but we'll be back soon with a lots of photos (I hope!)

Ordinary Miracle

I've just been searching for a new song to play on my blog because I am a bit over "You are My Sunshine"... :p.

I came across this song (which is part of the soundtrack for Charlotte's Web... I haven't seen the remake of this movie, but I loved the original... my sister and I spent many hours watching that movie and crying!). Anyway, I love the music and the lyrics for this song and just had to share...

Ordinary Miracle - Sarah McLachlan

It’s not that usual when everything is beautiful
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sky knows when its time to snow
You don’t need to teach a seed to grow
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Life is like a gift they say
Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own

Isn’t it remarkable?
Like every time a raindrop falls
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Birds in winter have their fling
And always make it home by spring
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

When you wake up everyday
Please don’t throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
Cause we are all a part
Of the ordinary miracle

Ordinary miracle
Do you want to see a miracle?

Its seems so exceptional
Things just work out after all
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

The sun comes up and shines so bright
It disappears again at night
It’s just another ordinary miracle today

It’s just another ordinary miracle today

Bye Bye Adelaide... See you again in ~Four Months

Our 10 day stay in Adelaide came to an end today... it has gone so quick! So much has happened, I will have to write a big catchup blog entry later...

We had a whole motorcade taking us to the airport (Phan's parents, Phong, Bao and Em and Mike)... and we got there with plenty of time and Beth got a great chance to stretch her legs and run around like crazy for a bit before our flight. Even though I felt a little sad, I never feel like crying at the airport... maybe it's 'cos I know we'll be back in a few months... maybe it's cos I know we are going to have visitors streaming through in the next couple of months... Maybe it's because I feel I have to be strong in front of Beth because I don't want her to see me upset... I don't know...

Beth was really good on the plane... she ate the whole time though... and the Hi5 DVD kept her entertained for about 20 minutes... so it was a pretty cruisy flight for us... although, Beth had to sit on my lap the whole time as there was no spare seat... but lady sitting next to me and Beth was really nice and loved talking to Beth. We had possibly the worst landing I have ever experienced in all my seasoned days of travelling by plane... It was almost as if the pilot thought the wheels weren't going to touch down for another couple of minutes... so it was a very big jolt and the plane was going down the runway *really* fast until the brakes kicked in. It's a good thing they provide infant seatbelts, because Beth would have gotten thrown around otherwise... and she was a little alarmed when the plane landed so suddenly. What was really funny was that there were 2 little 4 year old boys sitting near us and as we were getting ready to disembark, they were chatting away and saying that they wanted to talk to the pilot and somebody asked them "So what are you going to say to the pilot?" and one of the boys said "I'm going to say "What about that crazy landing?!""... absolutely hilarious... gotta love the innocence of kids!

Our flight actually landed 10 minutes late and then we had trouble locating our cab driver ... But we got there in the end. Our taxi driver was an old lady (who must have been in her 50s). It's so rare to see female taxi drivers, let alone an OLD one... and she was saying that she just loooves driving... I thought it was pretty cool to see her breaking the stereotype! Got home and Beth recognised home right away which I thought was pretty amazing... she missed her activity table because the first thing she did was to start playing with it and setting the music off and dancing! And then when I asked her if it was time for a bath and she knew straight away to climb up the stairs to go to the bathroom... she has a good memory!

We called back home to Phan's parents on Skype because Beth was hovering around the laptop... We think she understands that they aren't here in Brisbane... She actually sat in front of the laptop and looked and did her tricks for them (she normally always runs away and starts dancing)... and then she was trying to really touch grandma and grandpa and was kissing the laptop screen (first time she has ever tried to do that)... that was so cute and heartbreaking at the same time...

Dancing At The Shops

One more photo...

Just because I think seeing Beth pushing a stroller around is one of the cutest things ever... :)

Grinning Cheekiness

There is beautiful natural light in the north facing dining room here... so I got a shot of Beth being cheeky whilst sitting and eating her biscuit in her highchair this afternoon... Nothing too much to report other than I got to have a haircut for the first time in 5 months... and it was wonderful! I also love the new hairstyle I am sporting now... Phan took Beth to the park whilst I was at the hairdressers and apparently Beth made friends... there were two 10 year old girls playing at the park who took a liking to Beth and wanted to play with her and Beth let them pick her up and go down the slippery dip with them... sounded so cute!

Phan went and got his haircut in the afternoon... we didn't do much... I was a bit tired from the restless night we'd had (she woke up 6 times... but I think it was a combination of being cold, separation anxiety (she watched me for 30 mins at 2am and made sure I didn't go away) and teething... I only just discovered tonight that she is sprouting another two new teeth... they are coming through lopsided... we have another two teeth appearing on the bottm left... and nothing on the right).

Ann has the day off tomorrow and is hanging out with us all day... yipppee!

Back in our hometown...

Well... we made the trip back to Adelaide uneventfully... Beth was really good on the plane... it helped that we had a whole row to ourselves, so Beth got to sit in her own seat for most of the flight and she spent most of the flight eating (she had 1/2 a chupa chup (just for takeoff to help with ear pressure), 2 mandarins, 2 chocolate biscuits (one of which, she just stole from her Daddy!)and 2 honey oat biscuits... We had bought a portable DVD player to entertain her (which is did), but discovered that the $3 pack of stickers I had bought purposely to use as a distraction entertained her more... she spent a good part of the flight peeling off stickers, sticking them to the napkin... sticking them on her leg... sticking them on Phan... sticking them on me... and then transferring them everywhere inbetween! So - handy tip for anybody taking a flight with little ones - buy a pack of stickers! They are a fabulous cheap distraction! Our flight made great time and landed 20 minutes early... which meant we got back to Phan's parents place with lots of time for dinner... Beth recognised everybody... although was a little shy to being with... but by the end of the night she was breaking out the dance moves.
She fell asleep alright (although, she knew she was in a different place and needed me to pat her to sleep)... and only woke a couple of times during the night.

This morning we went to Thorndon Park and Beth wandered around the grasslands... walked through the park without much interest... and then went running for the lake when she saw it... she wanted to go for a swim! When Phan scooped her up and took her away, she got really annoyed... so we had to leave.

In the afternoon, Phan and I got a little "us" time and went and saw the U2 3D movie at Greater Union Marion... it was *GREAT* and the next best thing to actually going to a concert (since we never made it to the original concert). Phan's parents' looked after Beth and took her with them to a doctor's apptmnt that Phan's mum had... and Beth was very well behaved and had a great time playing with toys at the doctor's surgery. She didn't even get annoyed when she saw me after spending several hours with her grandma and grandpa... (she normally makes annoyed noises as if to say "where did you go? why did you leave me?" but today, she was fine. We had pho for dinner which was yummy and Beth ate 1/2 a bowl!

Lots more dancing post dinner and post bath, and then bedtime... it had been a big day... which reminds me, I should go to bed too!

I'll finish with a photo of Daddy and his girl running to the lake - Happy 30th Birthday Phan... we love you to the moon (or maybe we should say the lake) and back!

One more sleep...

And we'll be back in our home town! Hooray!

Today was official beginning of Phan's holidays... He had worked a 8am-10pm shift on Sunday... but luckily it wasn't too busy, so he was happy about that.

This morning, Beth had her first KindyRoo class... we all went together. It's a bit weird... (hard to explain... but it's almost like "alternative" education... they have very defined ways/theories on education for toddlers and base all the learning techniques on apparent research has been done into the best ways that toddlers absorb and learn)... but Phan and I don't think any harm will come of having Beth attend... the gym equipment is great... there is a little trampoline and lots of slides, monkey bars... tunnels to climb in... in addition to hand/eye coordination toys and things... it is very diverse and Beth seemed to really enjoy it. When we had the singing/Playschool type interaction part of the session, Beth was quite serious and quietly surveyhing it all... but there were moments when Beth got up and started dancing... and in the class of about 12 children, she was the only child to get up and dance... so I think her enthusiasm for dancing is unique to her! There were also things Beth refused to do... like let me massage her with a tennis ball... or lie her down on her tummy... But all in all, she took the class pretty well... I think as we go more regularly, she'll adapt and get used to it.

Okay... that's all for now... my next post will probably be from Adelaide!

My goodness she likes playing the keyboard...

This morning, Beth woke up at 6:25am... I changed her nappy and then went to put her nappy in the bin and whilst I did that, the first thing she did was potter into the third bedroom and hover around keyboard waiting to play! So we sat and did that for 10-15 minutes until she had enough... She not only loves to play the notes (which she does quite well... she can press individual notes at a time) but she loves to press all the buttons which change the sounds and sets off drum rhythms and everything... She is such a funny monkey.

Super Tantrum...

I have only this week plugged in my musical keyboard (Roland VA-7) and started playing a bit again... Beth also *looooves* playing the keyboard... so much, that she would prefer to play the keyboard rather than play with drips of water while I have my shower in the morning. This evening, we went upstairs so Beth could have her evening bath and the very first thing she did was start hovering around the keyboard and trying to play it (to no avail, since i hadn't turned it on). I got everything ready for her bath and she started shrieking and wanting to play the keyboard. I tried to explain to her that we would have a bath and then after the bath she could play the keyboard, but she didn't understand and started getting annoyed... *very annoyed*... so I closed the third bedroom door (where the keyboard is)... and we went into the bathroom... and then all hell broke loose... it was like it was the end of the world... Beth chucked a super tantie... and putting her in the bath made things worse. We had an all-time fast bath, with her screaming and kicking and getting *very angry*... and then I dressed her quickly (all within about 5-10 minutes) still with her thrashing about ... and then I took her back into the third bedroom and we sat at the keyboard ... and she was quiet... and she was happy ... and we played the keyboard for 20 minutes! Talk about a drama... She's not even two yet!

Helping Mummy...

I made chocolate fondant for dessert yesterday because we had friends over... And Beth was helping -

Stomping on Leaves...

She looks so grown up in this photo. (It was taken on the weekend - the same day as the swing photo I posted earlier in the week...)

In addition to "Mumma" and "Daddeee", Beth can now say "Down" (when the garage door goes down) and "Sit" when I am harrassing her to sit down in the bath. And she yells alot and points when she wants something. I'm sure she thinks she's holding perfectly normal conversations that we understand ... she often just starts babbling away when she sees Phan when he comes home from work... as though she is filling him in on everything she did during the day.

Taking the term "Eating Machine" to a whole new level...

I am still chuckling to myself after the events that have just happened...

This morning Beth and I went to the library to return our library books and to browse some books... Beth spent a good part of the time pulling books out of boxes and leaving them scattered on the floor. And then had a hissy fit when I wouldn't let her press buttons on the borrowing machine... All fun and games...

We went to Chermside Westfield after that and browsed around for an hour or so... Beth was starting to get the munchies (had eaten all the snacks I had brought), so I got some hot chips for her to eat for "pre-lunch" (yes... bad.. but she doesn't have chips very often... so it's only a treat). Then we did our grocery shopping for the week... (we have our friends Koh and Vinnie coming around for dinner tomorrow night, so wanted to buy stuff so I can prep tonight). Anyway... yesterday, Beth didn't have her nap until 12:10pm... so I thought she might do something similar today... so I started grocery shopping at 11am... I was doing an quick shop... so I was almost done by 11:20am... was walking down the aisle to get some juice... and I noticed Beth had her eyes closed... and she was eating a chip at the same time... and then she started to waver about and nod off backwards... all whilst munching on her chip!!! Now tell me that is not the funniest thing you have ever heard?! She was sleep-eating! Seeing it in person, I was laughing on the inside and going "Awww..." at the same time... I picked her up to try and get her to sleep on my shoulder (didn't want her to nod off backwards and fall out the back of the trolley seat)... but she semi-woke up. I had pretty much finished grocery shopping... so now we just had to go through the checkout... she sat in the trolley for a couple of minutes and started to nod off again (without food this time)... so I picked her up and rested her on my shoulder as we waited to go through checkout. Ever tried unloading/loading a shopping trolley with a 10kg+ child in your arm...? it's quite awkward... but we got there... managed to pay and switched Beth's position so she was lying in my arm instead of over my shoulder and then rested her on the trolley handle so it took some of her weight, whilst I carried her and pushed the trolley... (Hard to explain... but it worked quite well). This was a challenge ... sleeping child... trolley full of food... need to get to car. I was so fortunate that a cleaner at the shopping centre saw me and took pity on me and asked if I needed a hand and I gratefully took her up on that. The kindness of strangers really touches me... and she was just an angel. Her daughter has 4 kids , so she said she understood how hard it was to do things with kids in tow sometimes and was happy to help... but I was really touched by her kindness. She pushed the trolley for me right up to the car (which luckily wasn't that far away). And I strapped Beth into the carseat and then loaded up all the groceries into the boot and we headed home.

Yes...we know you can draw...

Last night, our darling girl decided to demonstrate her ability to draw...


























She actually drew on the dishwasher, but I managed to scrub out the pen marks. And I only discovered the artwork on the microwave when I went to heat her bottle of milk. We now have to keep all pens and drawing implements out of her reach.

Beth has also been loving these creamed corn muffins we made together yesterday... she had 2 yesterday and 3 of them today! It is the simplest, healthiest, yummiest recipe... I'll post it on my recipe blog later.

10 Moments I Would Bottle...

If only we could put moments in our lives into bottles so we could replay them again later in life ... there are so many moments I would want to keep forever... here are a few I would bottle -

1. The day Phan and I said "I do".

2. The first moment I laid eyes on my beautiful baby girl and held her in my arms.

3. The way Phan used to sit crouched on a big arm chair and cradle Beth in his lap and stroke her head and let her suck on his little finger when she was only a few days old.

4. The time when I was still breastfeeding.

5. The serene look on Beth's face when she is sleeping.

6. The pure glee on her face when Beth is playing at the beach.

7. The way Beth climbs into my lap when she wants me to read her a story.

8. The funny little toddler walk Beth currently has which involves wildly swinging her arms around as she sticks out her tubby little toddler tummy.

9. The cheeky way Beth grins and giggles at me when she is standing in the bathtub whilst I am telling her to sit down.

10. The way Beth snuggled in my arms today, and didn't want me to read to her but insisted on "reading" to me instead.

Quick Scrap Page

Nothing exciting to report, so thought I'd put up a page that I'd scrapped.

A day full of impromptu off-the-cuff activities...

Now that Beth and I have recovered from gastro, we got out of the house today. This morning we went exploring and found this really cool park with a HUGE bus/car and a pretend coffee shop and petrol pump... it was a really groovy park. While we were there, I got a frantic call from Sharon who was at our friend Gina's place. Gina is making a mad dash rush trip back to Columbia to visit her sick father tomorrow morning... she has 2 boys (one who is 3 years old and the other is only 4 months) and was going to be travelling *BY HERSELF* with the two kids on the 17 hour trip (with several overseas transfers) to see her father. Anyway, the point of this is that Gina had bought an ipod video to put some DVDs on so that she could entertain her 3 year old boy for part of the trip. However, she and Sharon couldn't figure out how to compress the videos and transfer them onto the ipod. I was really feeling for Gina (the whole thought of travelling with 2 kids by yourself is just *daunting*), so even though Beth was due for a nap, I drove up to Gina's place (which is about 30-35 mins away) and did some troubleshooting. Beth fell asleep in the car on the drive there... but woke up when we got there. We sorted out the problem and got a couple of movies on the ipod so that was a relief... I was glad I could help out in that small way.

After that, Beth and I came home... she stayed awake on the drive home and I gave her some lunch when we got home. She was an eating machine today... making up for not eating much last week I think... For breakfast she had a weetbix and a WHOLE orange. Morning tea was a yoghurt. Then lunch was rice with pork mince omelette.. and then she pinched some of my lunch (chicken wings with rice)... and was still hungry, so had a kiwi fruit... and then insisted on having some yoghurt afterwards! Dinner was a two part stew with rice... and the stew with mashed potato... followed up with watermelon.

Anyway... I digress. After lunch, we chilled out a bit at home while I made dinner... and then at 3:30pm we headed over to Sharon and Em's place and went for a walk to a duck pond near their place and fed the ducks. Beth was more interested in trying to dive into the water so she could swim with the ducks... She didn't catch on very fast to the concept of feeding bread to the ducks either... she was more interested in eating it herself! I eventually did manage to get her to throw some bread into the water and she did love looking at the ducks... so it was a good new experience for Beth.

After the ducks, we went to the park near Sharon's place and the girls played on the playground for a bit and then we headed home. I was expecting Beth to fall asleep in the car on the way home, but nope. She didn't... so I gave her dinner and we picked up Phan from work... She was in an amazingly good mood... especially since she had only had 30 minutes sleep all day!

I'm having an early night ... way too much activity for this Mummy to handle.

Our mini chef...

Little B and I made these cute little pikelets together on Saturday morning... Beth really enjoyed mixing and poking the batter (although, we did spill some of the flour and batter... but not too much damage in general). With a sprinkle of icing sugar and a little lemon these were a perfect little morning snack.

Swinging Joy

Oh how she is growing up so fast... Today we tottered around the park. Chattered and babbled together. Laughed and giggled. At one point she got nervous and hugged me tight. And at that moment, this overwhelming realisation came to me that my baby is now a little girl... I know I've said before that she is not a baby anymore... but I have never felt it more than I felt it today. As she was all dressed up in her long pants and hoodie, she was her own little person with her own thoughts and needs... Sometimes needing Mummy... sometimes not. Oh how she makes me realise how precious time is.

Two Peas In a Pod

Now if only Daddy's sunglasses were pink to match Elizabeth's...

While I was trying to take these photos, Beth spent the entire time taking off the sunglasses.... so I had to be quick! She doesn't wear them for longer than 5 seconds at a time!

The Beach Photos

I finally got around to sorting through all the beach photos from our day at Caloundra during the Easter break...

Call me "She-Ra".... and put my shoes on now!

Tonight, our little lady has been really quite funny... She has developed an obsession with moving heavy objects (furniture!) around... She has a little wooden table and 2 little stools that go with it and for the last 15 minutes, she has been picking up the stools and carting them around the living room... And then she tries to lift the table (which is soooo big compared to her little person) and gets annoyed and yells out for me or Phan to move the table for her. Then she'll pick up her toy microwave (not exactly a small toy) and walk around with that... and then she finds her little suitcase (full of books) and trot around with that. I don't know what is with this little fascination... perhaps she is like her Daddy who thinks he is a "two-person lift"... :)

She also just found her little pink and purple crocs and brought them to Phan and demanded he put them on for her... so she is currently tottering around in her pink and white polka dotted leggings, pink tshirt with "sweet" written on it and finished her outfit off with the crocs... very trendy.

And now we have 7...

Beth now has seven little teeth!

Beth and I are almost completely back to normal now... this morning we were being silly and I was making her giggle and laugh... and whilst she was letting out a big belly laugh as we spun and danced around, I caught a glimpse of a new tooth! It's the bottom left one and it is really obvious... I'm sure it's been there a couple of days, I can't believe I haven't noticed it until now! So on top of the gastro she's been teething too! She really has been a trooper... yesterday I went and spoilt her (at Phan's request) and bought her a new toy - a cash register, which she just loves. And I picked up some Sprouts clothes for her this morning - Myer currently have great sales going at the moment and they had 25% off some of the big label kids clothes... so I picked up a some nice warm clothes for her to wear while we are back in Adelaide (we hear it's been chilly of late).

The wheels are in motion...

In just under a fortnight we'll be back home in Adelaide... not long to go now!
Sooo looking forward to Phan being on holidays and just spending time together as a family and chilling with everybody back home.

After our trip back to Adelaide, Phan still has a week of holidays... so we're planning to take our first proper family holiday and spend three nights up at Noosa... just been on the phone organising our accomodation... the place we're staying at is apparently only 50m from the beach... so we're looking forward to being able to take Beth to the beach a lot for those few days.... it's all starting to take shape and is going to be so much fun ... ;)

We're on the mend here... still a bit out of it and Beth has actually become quite cranky and unsettled... but we're getting there... I can't wait to get back to normality - I am sooo over being sick and looking after the sick! Beth is sick of being cooped up in the house... but doesn't want to go to the park (we went yesterday and she lasted 15 minutes before she got super hungry and tired) and she's sick of the TV... it's all just a bit of a shambles...

Apologies for lack of photos... but picking up the camera and pp-ing has been the last thing on my mind at the moment...

Geez... this gastro is contagious...

apparently it is transferrable by the net because Phi (BIL) and Ty (SIL bf) (both in Adelaide) have got gastro too!

Yuck yuck yuck... thinking of you guys... get well soon.

I am so over poo at the moment...

You know there's something wrong when I miss a day of blogging...

I have been struck down with the same gastro bug that Beth had... It was really bad on Sunday night... and seems to have hit me 10 times worse than it hit Beth (or I am just a mega wuss compared to her)... It's a test of resilience looking after a sick bub, when you are sick yourself... I've just been trying to suck it up and deal with her needs before mine (which can be tough, when one needs to run to the toilet or feels like chucking). Having said that though... I couldn't ask for a more wonderful, considerate child. She hasn't been too demanding or clingy (perhaps realising I am not well) and when I felt like chucking up this morning, she just stopped playing with the toys she was doing and looked at me to make sure I was okay, but didn't come clambering over me. I had a short doze on the beanbag yesterday morning while Beth was watching TV and when she had had enough TV (amazing - she is a child that doesn't watch it all day!), she just gently woke me up by bringing over her favourite ABC book for me to read to her. Oh, how I love her so much. We have just done a lot of "low energy" things like reading books together the last couple of days.

I have no idea how she has been so happy and groovy and wanting to do somersaults the last 3 days... I have just felt like curling up and sleeping... It has just been horrible, awful, horrible, terrible... (did I mention horrible?!)

Anyway... I'm on the mend today, but still a fair way off being normal... but I can actually stomach fluids and small amounts of food now... I've actually lost 2kg in 36 hours which I think is a sign of how bad the bug hit me. (For those thinking gastro is a great way to lose weight, I can assure you there are much better ways!)

That's all I can muster today... that and the blog header and music change for the start of a new month :) ... I really love the version of "You Are My Sunshine" by Elizabeth Mitchell... I also think the name "Elizabeth Mitchell" is kind of uncanny... because that would be our Beth's name if she ever married our good friends' child Thomas... *laugh*... What do you think Chi and Mitch? :)