Be kind….rewind

Last week, we marked another milestone for our family with Anna’s second birthday. Leading up to this special day there was the usual retail therapy for mum and dad to buy gifts for Anna (or things that we really want for ourselves but feel less guilty buying when it’s ‘for’ Anna); organising her birthday party; and, also other activities around birthday week (not sure if you knew this already but we celebrate birthdays for a whole week in my family).

I also thought it was time to update Anna’s 2 baby books: one chronicles her first year and the second is our ‘time capsule’ for Anna – a collection of notes, advice and words from my friends which we’ll give to Anna when she’s older.

One of these notes was from my colleague Zac and it talks about the importance of being kind – whether it is being kind to other people, to the environment, to animals, etc. And I couldn’t agree more.

Reading comments on news articles and forums is one of my guilty pleasures. And it never seizes to amaze me how unkind people are to one and another. Hiding behind the anonymity of avatars, people dare say things that they would never utter in person.

More evident of this behaviour than anywhere else online is on parenting forums. It saddens me to see parents argue and point their digital fingers at each other over every minuscule choice: breast feeding, weaning, gaps between each child, diet, toys, sleeping habits, dummy…

As parents, we should be supportive and respectful of each other and our choices. Because it is not ok to go up to a person on the street and make a nasty comment about their choice of clothing, sexual orientation, career – then why is it ok to do so to fellow parents who are also facing the same challenges of raising little human beings?

One thing that I hope we’ll be able to teach Anna is that being kind shouldn’t be a type of self censorship or an after-thought, it should be the norm, the first course of action, standard operating procedure, whatever you want to call it.

So happy birthday to our little girl, we love you more than words can explain and we hope you like your Blue Planet DVD box set!

To the other side of the world and back again

Sorry that we’ve been a little quiet lately, what a busy few months we’ve had!

Shortly after deciding to travel to Europe we were told that we had to move out of the apartment we’d been living in for the past 4 years. Owners are moving back in, what can we do. So we had just over a month to look for a new place, move and then go on holidays.

We were very lucky to find a great place that’s closer to work and child care. It’s a bigger place so Anna has more room to run around. There’s also a great park nearby so it’s a blessing in disguise that we were made to move.

Shortly after the move, we began our adventure to Holland and France. The much dreaded flight was easier than we first thought. Anna was just under the weight limit for the bassinet and we were glad to offload our lovely 14kg once in a while to reboot the circulation in our legs. A highlight of the journey was definitely when Anna screamed out ‘F$#K’ at Singapore airport when she saw a giant frog – you see, she hasn’t quite master making the ‘fr’ sound, much to the embarrassment of her parents.

We spent the first week of our trip in Holland. It was great for Anna to meet all her Dutch relatives and to spend some quality time with the family. A highlight would have to be meeting her little cousin Pepijn and spending time playing together. It was great to have that time together. In Chinese culture, paternal cousins are as seen as siblings rather than cousins, so it was wonderful for Anna to meet her ‘brother’.

Then off to France we went. It was always going to be an ambitious trip, driving and training across France. As Anna’s at the age of discovering her independence, it was particularly challenging at meal times and nap times for her to sit still or remain seated in the pram. It was frustrating at the time, but we can look back now and be amazed at how quickly our little girl grew up in those 2 weeks across France and what a fantastic adventure it was for all 3 of us. It was also great to meet up with my best friend Laura, even though it was so brief. She has been away for almost a year and it was great for Anna to reunite with ‘Lau-la’ who taught her to stand up all those months ago.

With another 10 days in Holland, we were ready to go home again. Anna was definitely more active on the flight home and she thoroughly enjoyed taking Daddy on walks into Business Class. 

Back in Sydney, we settled back into a routine very quickly. Teachers at childcare all remarked on how much Anna was now talking and also how tanned she was. We were asked to prepare some photos from the trip and stories so the children in her class had a Dutch-themed week during which they learned all about Anna’s time in Holland, coloured in paper clogs and looked at the photos on display. Those teachers know how to make parents go ‘awwwwwwwwww’!

3 months down the line, life is back to normal. Anna is no longer using the pram and at almost 22-months of age, she started toilet training. She’s doing great so far, using the toilet at each nappy change. We’ll soon change to pull-up nappies to make it even easier for her. Will keep you all posted on her progress. She has also learned to use the dvd player (thanks Daddy for showing her what to do!) and is going through an obsessive phase with watching The Wiggles. She’s started singing a lot more and now knows all the lyrics from ‘Twinkle twinkle’, ‘ABC’, ‘Bah bah black sheep’ and a few other nursery rhymes. She’s showing a real interest in helping with household tasks, and at the moment she’s in charge of putting all dirty laundry in the laundry basket and putting recyclable rubbish in the special bin. 

So once we train her to vacuum and get drinks from the fridge we’ll be all set!

I leave you now with one of my favourite shots from the trip - Anna cracking up herself in the mirror. Enjoy!

To wean or not to wean

As with most baby habits, there comes a point when you have to wean them. The breastfeeding, the formula, the bottle, all done and dusted. Now we have the dummy.

Anna wasn’t always such a fan. In the very beginning she had trouble keeping it in her mouth, until we switched to the current cherry-shaped dummy. Ever since she’s been using it for sleep. Now that we travel for more than an hour in the car each day (Sydney traffic is getting worse) she started requesting it each time she’s strapped in. I suppose it is partly our fault. We used to feed her a snack in the car on the way home but to make sure that she still eats her dinner once we’re home we’d sometimes offer the dummy when she starts complaining. Now we’re stuck with a screaming Anna until dummy is fetched.

Recently, I met up with a few mums at a café, Anna was using her dummy to try to fall asleep when one of the mums said “Oh Anna, you look too big to be using a dummy”. Immediately, I felt guilty. I comfort myself by thinking: well, she doesn’t use it all day like some babies. But should I be concerned that her use has increased? Will it be one of those things that she’ll all of a sudden stop doing one day because she simply ‘grows’ out of it?

In the meantime, I’ll just be happy that she has a cure for her sore ears for our upcoming flights and I'll enjoy it every time she says ‘Ta’ and hands back her dummy at the end of the car trip :)

To other parents out there reading this, any advice on what we should do?

New year, new blog post!

Firstly, apologies for such a long absence. I have gone back to work full time since the last entry so free time is quite precious right now.

Work is going well, I feel like I have switched that part of my brain on again and everything is still functioning. Juggling work and home life is ok so far, you just do what you have to do. The biggest challenge is wrapping my head around the fact that the teachers at day care are spending more of Anna’s waking hours with her than us.

Anna is thriving, growing bigger and smarter every day. She just started ‘counting’….if you consider being able to say ‘two’ after we say ‘one’ counting. She seems to be having a great time at childcare, even though she has been a repeated victim of the classroom biter. She likes to show us different things around the classroom when we pick her up, all the while babbling away about this and that. Someone should invent a baby-translator because we’d love to know what she’s saying!

Anna has achieved many milestones since the last post, most notably:

-   Turning one – after having a pirates and princesses themed group party with the entire mothers’ group, we also held a smaller party for family and close friends at home for Anna. On her birthday (which turned out to be a public holiday) we took Anna for her first visit to the Aquarium, it was a fun day for all of us.

-   Walking/running – Anna mastered walking at 13 months of age, after about 6 weeks of cruising. She now prefers to run and can walk up the stairs by herself if there is a railing.

-   Her first 2 syllable word – BUBBLE. Yes, it’s incredibly cute and such a useful word too!

-   First trip to the ER with a 'pulled elbow'. Long story short she's fine but now that it's loose, it could happen again. For those of you with young children, please take a look at this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursemaid%27s_elbow

Anna is overall a happy toddler who loves to dance. She has many moves including the ‘wiggle’, the ‘finger-pointing- boogie’, the ‘Irish dance’ and the ‘sway’ (reserved for slow tempo songs). She also loves watching many kids shows, especially ones with music and dancing, such as The Wiggles and Hi-5.

Sleeping is still the biggest struggle even though it’s improving. It usually takes ½ hour of us sitting next to her cot to put her to sleep at night. Most of the time is encouraging her to lay back down each time she stands/sits up in bed. She usually sleeps around 5-6 hours before waking up and joining us in bed.

Besides mummy and daddy, Anna’s favourite person at the moment is my dad. Just saying ‘Gong-Gong’ (Chinese for maternal grand-dad) puts a smile on her face. When my parents are visiting, Anna likes to sit in Gong Gong’s lap while he surfs the internet, and she especially enjoys tickling him when he’s trying to nap on the couch.

It’s such happy times for us at the moment. The weather is warm, the sun is shining and even with all the crazy things happening in the world, the three of us are enjoying being a family together. What more could we ask for :)

P.S. For those of you who haven’t done so already, please donate to the Queensland Floods Appeal: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html . The affected area is the size of France and Spain combined and it is the worst flooding we’ve seen in Australia for a century. Please help if you can.

Love,

Viv