Time to catchup...

Yes, I've been quiet on the blog front again... last Tuesday we got back from a 1 week visit back to Adelaide ... we had a great time at home and we really just enjoyed being around family and being back in our home town... it's going to be 9-10 months until we head back again, but I'm sure the time will just fly by!

Beth loved hanging out and being doted on by her Ong Ba and aunties and uncles ... so much that she didn't want to go home! We left it until the very last night to tell her that we were going back to Brisbane and she said to us "Noooo... I want to stay here in this home."... It was a bit heart-breaking for us, 'cos she's now finally reached the age where she really enjoys and company and loves being around family...

As a side issue, Beth *really* doesn't like take-offs and landings in planes... which also may have contributed to her reluctance to leave Adelaide... She freaks out at the shaking and doesn't like the sensation at all... it didn't help that we also hit a spot of turbulence in the second hour of the flight and she got scared and kept saying... "Whoa... help me!" repeatedly... and then we had quite a bumpy landing too... but we survived (well, she did!)... hopefully the memory of the flight fades a bit by Christmas when we travel again!

We've settled in back home pretty quickly... no issues at bedtime like we had after we came back from Christmas... and she happily went to kindy on Thursday ... however, on Friday she didn't want to go for some unknown reason... When I asked her if she wanted to go to kindy she goes to me... "Nooo... I want to stay home." I think she was trying to scam a day at home on the couch watching some Playschool... but when I said to her "If you stay at home, you won't be watching any TV", she reluctantly decided to get dressed and ready for kindy... and when we got there, she just skipped off and started playing wooden blocks with the other children. When I went to pick her up, she had a little splot of green paint on her nose and she was really happy and chattering away non-stop about her day... She got a (ghostbuster) sticker for doing a good show and tell about her toy Peter Rabbit... and she played a dragon game on the computer and his favourite colour was orange and you had to click on the balloons (or something like that... she obviously liked playing the computer 'cos she told us this story about 5 times!). They coloured in pages from the story "Wombat Stew" and she did painting and made green paint from blue and yellow... (she loves mixing paint and can tell you that you need red and yellow to make orange, blue and yellow to make green and red and blue to make purple... I think that's pretty cool!) So in the end she had a great day at kindy and I think she's glad she went. :)

I had an obs apptment on Friday... Everything is going well... I'm still feeling good, although my tummy is beginning to feel really *HUGE* now and it's becoming an effort to get to my feet (esp from bed) and bend over to pick up things (which I feel like I'm doing constantly!) I've also developed a lot of klutziness too... I keep dropping things and today I managed to knock a glass on the floor where it smashed to smitherines... Took forever to sweep up all the fragments of glass and vaccuum all the tiny bits up... I was quite cross at myself! I'm in the last week of the second trimester... and it's beginning to freak me out that there is not that long to go and I have a heap of things I want to do before this baby joins us!

I have a feeling Beth is starting to sense something about the baby's arrival too... She has been very cuddly the last few days... giving me hugs and kisses for no reason... coming up and rubbing my tummy... And those who know Beth, will know that's really unusual for her 'cos she's not a very cuddly child and I normally have to extract hugs and kisses out of her! She's also been insisting I give her baths and put her to bed (something Phan was taking turns doing with me) and during the night I have to take her to the toilet or put cream on an itchy spot on her arm... Not sure what exactly is going through her head, but I'm trying to spend lots of time with her and telling her about the baby... She felt the baby kick for the very first time while we were in Adelaide... she woke up from a nap really grumpy and I was giving her a cuddle in my lap and she was lying on my tummy and the baby decided to give her a great big kick and she was really surprised and taken aback and jumped back a bit and looked at my tummy and went "Whoa!"... I told her the baby just wanted to say hello to her and she seemed to accept that... :)

Today we went shopping for a little bit at Chermside... We let Beth choose a toy to buy with some of her li xi money (Vietnamese New Year money) as she'd been quite spoilt from all her rellies while we were in Adelaide. She's recently developed a bit of a thing for "My Little Pony" stuff... so she was looking at some My Little Pony things... she developed an interest in 3 toys and in the end chose the cheapest of them all... So here she is playing with new toy... she absolutely adores it... she makes the mummy pony and baby pony ride in the car and has been playing games with them all afternoon... I overheard her talking to them and saying "And the ponies are going to Adelaide..."... LOL... so cute... she obviously hasn't forgotten all our family back there... :)