Good Times

We had such a great week...

Funny Little Antics...

A couple of funny little things that Beth has done -

When I tell Beth off, I often point my finger at her and tell not to do whatever it is she's doing... And now she thinks it's some kind of game, so if I start pointing at her, she starts pointing right back at me and waving and waggling her finger at me like she's telling me off. Honestly, it makes me want to crack up laughing when she starts doing it because it's soooo funny seeing her doing her "monkey see, monkey do" thing, but for the sake of disciplining her I have to keep a straight face and be serious... nobody ever told me there was a lot of acting involved when parenting!

Today Sharon, Em & Isaac came around in the afternoon for a playdate... Em and Beth played so well together... there was no fighting, there was amicable sharing... the only thing Beth got slightly annoyed about was when Em got a little overly friendly and started hugging Beth too much... it was so cute though seeing them snuggle up and cuddle on the couch. Anyway, I was playing tea parties with the two of them and Em was talking to me and say "Clara, here's your cup of tea" or "Clara, I've got you a piece of cake"... and then next thing you know, Beth looked at me and started calling me "Clara" and I was like "Hey! That's Mummy to you missy!" Only one person can call me Mummy and I don't want to miss out on that!

Okay, another trip down memory lane - this is a photo of Beth striking a pose from 2/12/2007... that's over a year ago... it's a bit of a dodgy photo, 'cos I didn't have my speedlite back then, so it's taken with onboard flash... but it's such a funny little photo of her... look at her little baby face!

Her Love For Water Is Evident For All To See...

Just have to share this happy snap photo taken with my little point at shoot camera while we were in the lagoon... She was having so much fun...

Chuc Mung Nam Moi & Happy Australia Day!

Well, today is an extra special day as we celebrate Australia Day and Vietnamese New Year on the same day... It's the blending of two important days on our calendar from our two cultures... and honestly, it is just wonderful to be able to celebrate these two eastern & western events side by side.

We celebrated new years eve last night with Sharon, Collin, Emily & Isaac last night, along with a few of their friends... we had steamboat for dinner with lots of delicious seafood, meats and vegetables. Just gorgeously yum! Beth was scoffing down the salmon we were cooking, unusual 'cos she doesn't normally like salmon! Beth played with Em and Dylan (a little boy who is 6 months older than Beth) really happily. Phan and I actually got to eat dinner in peace while she played with them... So nice seeing Beth interact with other kids... she was tickling Dylan at one point too (huge progress, 'cos she doesn't normal like getting near kids she doesn't know)... and giving Em hugs... really cute.

Today, we did the typical Aussie thing and spent the morning and early afternoon at Redcliffe, which is only about 30-40 minutes away from where we live ... There is this fantastic family friendly outdoor saltwater pool (it's *HUGE*) and water play area called Settlement Cove Lagoon (Bao, Ty & Phi, I'm wishing I'd known about this place while you were down, because we would have had a ball there!), there was such a safe and fun atmosphere there... lots of people, but not an insane crowd... We got there about 10:30am, spent a good 45 minutes paddling in the water, which was a perfect temperature... I could have spent all day in there. We went and had lunch at a great place called Ebony & Ivory... it reminded me cafe food in Adelaide (those who know me and my foodie obsession, will have heard me complain about the lack of quality of food here in Brisbane *alot*... so it is a big deal for us to finally come across good quality food that for a reasonable price)... I had eggs benedict for lunch (mmm!) & Phan had the house special chicken schnitzel which was really good! Beth looked completely knackered from the swimming... but she managed to eat a good amount of Phan's chicken and down a whole glass of juice. Then we had some icecream (Norgen Vaas) at an icecreamery right next door... (delish!). Beth looked pretty tired, so we walked back down to the lagoon on the way back to the car, and she perked up again when she saw the water, so we went for a second 45 minute swim. I took along my p&s (I don't like taking my 40D out near water!) so I managed to get some photos and a snippet of video footage of our second swim... the camera didn't get too wet from the splashing, but I'm beginning to think about getting a waterproof p&s camera. I apologise for the quality of this footage... I had to downgrade the quality to upload to youtube from 115MB to 15MB... so a lot of quality has been lost, but hopefully you can get an idea of what was going on...

After our second swim, we headed home... Beth crashed after about 10 minutes... and then when I tried to transfer her to her bed, she woke up! I put her down in her cot and she lay in there for about 40 minutes having quiet time, but there was no way she was going back to sleep... so I let her get up after that little rest... I suspect she is going to get tired pretty early tonight! I dressed her up in an ao dai (traditional Vietnamese outfit) in the afternoon... it was a present from Ong Noi from the last time he was in Vietnam... it fits well, except the pants are waaaay to long and they are swimming around her feet... but it's very cute.

The Funny Things She Says...

Beth makes us laugh a lot these days with the funny/random things she says... It's kinda hard to remember when she wasn't chattering away to us... but really, she's only been having a word explosion for 2 months and is learning new words every day. Just a quick little list of some of the things she says -

- She can count to 13... strange number to count to huh? She also always seems to forget the number 7... but she can say '7' and does recognise it... In fact she can recognise all her numbers up to the number 11... (yes, again... really odd)... We will often be at the supermarket and I'll suddenly hear her exclaim "EIGHT!" (or some other number) because we're in aisle 8 and she's spotted the number 8 in the aisle sign.

- She tries to sing and says "Here A Boat" and "Here Me" when she tries to sing the song that goes "Here is the sea... The wavey sea... Here is a boat... And here is me".

- When she wants more of something she tries to say "More Please"... but for some weird reason it comes out sounding like "Bullsh*t"... so very wrong, but quite funny in the context that she uses it. She often says it when she wants more food and although she's trying to be polite, it sounds like she's annoyed and impatient 'cos you're not giving her the food fast enough. Again, this is really odd because she can say "More" and "Please" separately, but put them together and it sounds so very very wrong.

- If something is on TV that she doesn't like she comes running to me and says "Scared... scared".

- If we're at the shops and someone is looking at her and she doesn't like it (often another little child), she will hold me and say "Shy... Shy"... too cute really.

- She recognises lots of colours... red, blue, orange, yellow, pink, purple, green, brown, white, black... and she's very proud of this bit of knowledge, so we often get to hear about the colours of whatever she's playing with.

- She says "Ready... Set... Gooooo" in the cutest way... often when playing chasey or when she's about to go down a slippery dip.

So many other things she says, but I can't think of them... just thought I'd better jot down what I remember now before she really starts babbling and I can't keep up!

On a different note, the last month or so, we've had some bedtime drama with Beth not wanting to fall asleep by herself (completely understandble, there's been a few things that have happened that excabated this)... I've had to lie down on a mattress on the floor next to her cot whilst she falls asleep (and she bobs her head up to check on me to make sure I'm still there)... which was okay, except for the days it took her an hour to fall asleep. The last few days, I've talked to her about falling asleep by herself and after a bit of anxiousness the first night, we're at a happy point now where I leave the door open as she falls asleep and come back to check on her at the doorway every 15 minutes or so... she's seen me come back to look in on her, so I think we've hit a big moment of trust that I'm always going to come back to check on her. Big progress for us... and I'm relieved that we managed to do this change over without too many hassles. Tonight it's taken her more than an hour to fall asleep, but the few times I'm looked in on her she's just been quietly sitting/standing in her cot and just waiting for me to check on her... no crying or anything. She's just so sweet when she's half doozy... lots of big kisses and praises from me to her for being such a good "big" girl. :)

I'll leave you here with this photo from a couple of months back...

Unconventional

This is how Beth eats cucumbers... She eats the centre out of the slice of cucumber, then holds it up for us to see and goes "Ohhhh" (as in the letter 'O'... because it looks like an O... yes, she's a clever one, our Beth) and then leaves it on her plate... Phan and I usually end up having to eat a lot of half eaten 'O's as a result...

Giddy Up Daddy

Much hilarity surrounded this little episode of Beth making Daddy trot around the lounge room like a horse... Beth loved it and giggled so much...

Sleepyheads...

Bao snapped the following photo on the way home from our daytrip to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast... I really love this photo... I think it's so cute. At one point I was the only person in the car that was awake... all 3 in the back were asleep and Bao was snoring in the front seat next to me... but I can assure you that if I didn't need to drive I would have been snoozing too... :) Having fun at the beach is hard work!

The Human Slide

This was what Beth was doing last night... enough said.

Fun Filled Days Spent With Family...

There has been a distinct lack of posts this week because we have had Bao, Ty and Phi come and visit us ... and it has been one action packed week!

A brief rundown of what we've been up to...

Saturday - They made their way into BrisVegas not long after noon... Phan was working an afternoon shift, so Beth and I went to pick them up... Beth had fallen asleep in the car on the way there... and when they all got in the car she woke up... a little startled to see all these people in the car! She was a bit nervous having so many people in the car, but she remembered who her Bac Bao Anh was, so she held onto her hand really tight all the way home... As soon as we got home and broke out a few presents Beth was on happy terms with Phi and Ty... and when they started playing this game where they lift her up high over their heads (like she's flying), she decided Phi and Ty were her new best friends! She warmed up *very* quickly to them... In the afternoon, we went to the local pool and spent a good hour there... Beth was back to her normal happy self in the pool... there was no "santa face" this time... just lots of laughing, giggling, splashing and silliness. Came home and I whipped up some roast chicken and vegies for dinner and we spent the night chilling.
Oh, they introduced me to this game called "Bop It" that they had brought with them I am currently the reigning high scorer after scoring 139 on their last night here... LOL (C'mon Bao and Ty... I wanna see you beat my score!)! I really miss that game!

Sunday - We made a day trip to the Harbour Town on the Gold Coast... Awesome, almost overwhelming shopping... lots of bargains to be found and had... Bao and Ty wandered off by themselves and Phan, Phi, Beth and I shopped together... Beth developed this complex of not wanting Phi to leave her sight though... so we all had to go into the shops together... no letting Phi quickly pop into a different shop to us... And she wanted to follow him into the changeroom at Ralph Lauren at one point... It was quite cute. Phi found some great bargains (pants, shoes, tshirts... he did some serious shopping!)... Phan bought a RL polo (I'm amazed he actually bought clothing!), Beth got a RL pink polo top, a dress from Cotton on Kids and some cute Nike sneakers and I bought a whole heap of sports apparell and found some great pants and a skirt in Colarado. I've basically done my clothing shopping for the year. Bao & Ty did really well too... they found some stuff... Overall, we saved about 50% of the retail price on the things we bought. That night we dropped into Trangs for dinner.

Monday - We went to the park with the curly slide and flying fox in the morning... I converted the Croozer into a jogger pram and we walked to the park which was a decent 15-20 min walk... It was pretty warm too... Beth spent ages on the slide and then had fun going down the flying fox whilst Ty, Phi and Bao held her.... In the afternoon, we went to Chermside and managed to waste a lot of time in a shop called IGEDO... Beth was hilarious... running in and out of the changeroom through the curtain whilst Bao and I were trying on clothes! Beth also drank a ridiculous amount of Boost juice whilst we were there. Bao and Ty got freshly cooked crabs to have with dinner from a seafood place there and they were delicious!

Tuesday - A low key-ish day... we went to our other park, taking Beth on the trike. In the afternoon, we ventured to the pool again and burnt a lot of energy swimming around. Lamb yiros for dinner that night, that Phi kept raving about...

Wednesday - A big day trip to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast... We left at 11am expecting Beth to have a sleep in the car on the way there... but noooo, she decided not to have a nap. She's now developed a fear of the waves, but had a ball in the saltwater pool that is right on the beach... Relaxing on some grassy parklands and had fish and chips for lunch... then Beth (who was still as bright as a button despite the lack of napping!) ran laps and played soccer on the grass with Chu Phi and Ty.. I sat and watched and Bao decided to bake herself in the sun and give herself some sunburn! We went for a second dip in the saltwater pool, then had a rinse down and headed back home around 3:15pm... Beth had managed to stay up all this time (her love of water must have given her a boost of adrenalin needed to stay awake), but crashed 5 minutes into the drive home. Nando's and Eagle Boy pizza for dinner (because I was too tired to cook!)...

Thursday - This was my slow relaxing day with Beth whilst Bao, Ty & Phi took a daytrip down to Dreamworld... Beth and I took it easy in the morning and then in the afternoon, went to Chermside so I could pick up somethings for dinner... Beth enjoyed sushi for afternoon tea and spent an exorbitant amount of time looking at herself in a set of mirrors outside of the Portmans store... Picked up Phan from work early and then back home and I cooked dinner. By all accounts, it sounded like Bao, Ty and Phi had a fantastic time at Dreamworld....

Friday - Everybody's down day... after all the go-go-go and things we'd done during the week, Bao, Ty and Phi were totally knackered. Beth was also severely constipated, so I was having to deal with an unhappy, pained child... but luckily we got a bowel movement in the afternoon. Bao, Ty and Phi popped out in the afternoon and had a massage from a machine which uses a Migun Thermal Massage system (sounds weird, but apparently is really good... I'm intrigued and am planning to go and try it out myself). I prepared a family bbq to celebrate Phan now being fully qualified in his profession after many years of study and also to farewell Bao, Ty and Phi who we have loved having around this last week. Everybody went to sleep *really* early... it had been a busy week!

Now that they've all gone home, I really miss having a "full" house... It was just great having them around... We had some really funny times in the evenings when we would all get in a funny mood and laugh at the silliest things... It was kind of amusing seeing Phan being annoying and trying to 'molest' Phi (in a brotherly way)... So good to have chats with Bao about random things (and to educate me on all things beauty related... :p), great having Ty there to capture lots of priceless moments on video... And it was good always having someone around to play SingStar, FIFA 09 or Rock Band with... But most of all, seeing how much Beth just adored their company and how much she loved playing with them. Ahhh... good times...

I'll leave you with a few photos taken during the week ...

Happy Heavenly Birthday Mum...

I still think of you every day and I know you're always watching over us... Love you always... xo

A Child's Eyes...

Developing Confidence...

This morning we went over to Sharon's place for a playdate with Em and a few playgroup friends. Now ever since Beth was a baby has always been a shy, nervous and anxious child... but over the last month, she has been even more shy and clingy... it takes her a *loooong* time to warm up and get used to having strangers and people around. Even in the latter part of the year at playgroup, Beth wouldn't play with the other children... in fact she wouldn't go anywhere unless I was within arm's reach. Anyway, with that background knowledge in mind, I was expecting Beth to be quite nervous and to be hanging off my arm for most of this playdate as there were going to be 5 other children there. But she totally surprised me and interacted with the others really well... she wasn't scared of them... she wanted to play with them (one time she got a bit left out as she is the youngest of the group, but she got included again and it was all good). She didn't need to have me in her sight at all times... and she knew where to run and find me if she needed help (which she is very good at doing at the moment... I hear the word "Heeelp!" about 50 times a day!). It was just nice to be able to stand around and have some adult conversation with the other mums without Beth whinging and sitting at my hip. She even gave Em a hug when we first arrived... and when we went to leave she gave hugs to Em and David (a little boy who is a few months older than Beth)... I was so happy and relieved with how she has started to develop a little confidence around other children and is happy to play with them. Will have to line up lots more playdates to help with the social skills.

Okay... another photo from the park shoot yesterday -


Although she looks like she's hailing a bus, she's actually yelling out "BIRD!" and pointing to it. She's a little obsessed with birds...

Look Over There...

I think she had spotted a bird...

A Typical Morning At The Park...

We went to the park this morning (yes, the normal routine)... it does sometimes get a bit boring doing the mummy thing and just watching and supervising a toddler play on the playground over and over again... so this morning, I decided mix it up and bring my camera with me and have a play...


When we got there, there were some other children playing on the equipment, but Beth didn't freak out (as she has often done recently)... in fact she was quite happy to share the playground with them... I didn't take many photos while I was supervising her... but later on when she was having a bit of a run around away from the playground equipment I managed to get some lovely shots... here is one of my faves... She's wearing a new top I bought for her Cotton On Kids... $25 reduced to $10... gotta love a bargain... it's so cute and it's just thin cotton and nice and cool... perfect for the humid weather here in Brisbane. I also had this epiphanous moment when I "saw the light" ... lighting it probably the most important thing in photography ... and I got a bit excited when I saw it in a completely different way today... it was sunny, but there were clouds out and the sun hid behind it a few times and gave a beautiful diffused light through the sparse trees... I previously thought this park was a terrible location for taking photos, but I've completely changed my mind after today!

One of those days...

Yesterday we had one of those frustrating days ... Beth was being annoying/cranky/whingy/not sleeping/giving me a lot of attitude.... It was one of those days where you think "I'm sure I didn't sign up for this in the 'motherhood' job description... I wanna resign..."

But you can't... so you just keep on going...

Hoping today is a better day...

In keeping with avoiding nekkid posts... here's a photo from back in October...



I'm experimenting with some different pp-ing at the moment... this one looked ok last night, but now I'm awake with fresh eyes this morning I'm not sure I like it anymore... Anyway... it's a cute capture...

A Very Active Day...

This mummy is really tired tonight...

Today we:

- went to the park on the trike in the morning and spent 45 minutes at the park.
- did a load of laundry (and Beth "helped" to hang it out... she has some old fashioned pegs which she puts on the clotheshorse (but she just pegs it straight on without any clothes...)... she feels like she's helping and it's so cute watching her...
- read a heap of books and then played under a big sheet, pretending to be sausages, ghosts and a new years lion (from the chinese lion dance) for ages...
- went to the pool in the afternoon and spent 1.5 hours in the water. Beth spent the first half an hour doing the "Santa" face, which is her shy, not-wanting-to-look at anyone face... but after that she got over the fact that there were other people around and was happy to swim and splash.
- did a spot of grocery shopping for some things for dinner
- put a butterflied leg of lamb on the bbq for dinner... it was easy and delicious!
- did another load of laundry (had to put our bathers in the wash and threw in some sheets while we were at it)
- went for a bike ride when Phan got home... we went to Beth's favourite new park with a curly slide...

And that's it... and now I'm ready to go to bed... although I am tempted to play another round of World Tour with Phan on Rock Band. For the uninitiated, Rock Band is a console game with a drum kit, guitar and microphone... you play/sing songs in time to some coloured flashing lights that appear on the screen... We first played it when we went back home to Adelaide in September (spent a good part of my birthday party playing it)... and Phan and I really enjoyed playing the drums... Phan bought it on Friday night for our Xbox 360 and now we're a bit addicted... We played 1.5 hours on Saturday night and I woke up with sore thumbs from playing the guitar (RSI... Don't ask, I have weird technique! I am so soft, it's pathetic!) and then last night we played for another hour, but I only played the drums to give my thumbs a rest... (hehe, plus, I really like playing the drums and I think I'm better than Phan... :p)

Just so this post isn't naked, I'll leave you with this photo of Beth from January last year... she looks like such a baby in this shot -

See No Evil, Speak No Evil

I've decided to go back through some photos... It's almost ridiculous the number of photos I've taken and how many I actually get around to sharing on my blog... I'm sure I only get around to posting about 1% of the photos I actually take... (however, I do tend to only share the best photos I have taken - quality over quantity... :)). Anyway - here's a photo taken mid-December... Beth decided to decorate Phan... and I must mention, she did it totally unassisted... she managed to pick matching stickers to put over his eyes... She also stuck stickers over my eyes and lips that day too...

Squeezing Into Her Favourite Shoes

We have a routine where Beth has to find some shoes and put them on before she is allowed to go outside. On Boxing Day, she was hovering around the back door and asking to go outside... When Phan and I weren't responding to her needs quick enough, she went and found her own shoes and put them on. It's been 6 months since Beth has been able to wear these shoes, but she found them in the wardrobe (and even as a matching pair!) and decided to try and squeeze her little feet into these teeny tiny little shoes...

What could be cuter than a red polka dot swimsuit?

Putting some of the stuff I learnt from Evolve into practise... It's been a while since I consciously set up a shoot with Beth... I've been lacking time, motivation and the right head space... but I think I'm hitting my groove again... I'm really pleased with how this storyboard turned out... It's the most photos I've ever tried to put together at a time and I'm happy with how consistent the pping turned out across the photos... Hope you enjoy this series... I hope to do more in the future...

Some Kids Are Just Naturally Cool...

Beth has all of sudden started becoming a bit of an "accessories" kind of girl... 6 months ago... well, even one month ago, I would never have had a chance to get a photo of her like this with as she'd have lasted 10 seconds with the helmet and sunglasses before ripping them off. After spending most of this year tugging on her hat to pull it off, pulling off her sunglasses 5 seconds after she'd put it on, not liking the fairy wings she wore to Emily's bday party in Feb last year... Suddenly overnight, she loves wearing her hat (and loves wearing her "helmie" when she's riding her bike), she will wear sunglasses for extended periods of time (like for the entire duration of mass last Sunday!) and even wear her sunglasses upside down. Yesterday she rediscovered her fairy wings and thought she was very "pretty" and refused to take them off. She also loves her shoes (but she's always loved shooes)... and has particularly taken a fancy to the two new pairs of shoes she for Christmas.

Happy New Year.

Seek the light... See the light... Be the light.

This was the main theme for Advent at our church this year and one that I hope to carry with me during this bright, shiny new year of 2009.

Hope everyone enjoyed their festivities last night... Phan and I didn't even last until midnight... we were asleep by 11:30pm... and although our little girl didn't go to bed 'til 9:30am, she was up and ready to go at 7am this morning... no sleep in for us!

Off to get ready for a fun day of cycling today... Have a great day everyone!