Aussie Break - Day 1 (Brisbane and Gold Coast)

8 July
We are back!!! Hopefully refreshed and recharged...hahaha but actually revving for another one.

It was a 11 days trip....eventful, fun, uplifting, tiring...all in one. I personally enjoyed the first half of the trip the most - Moreton Island, Gold Coast, Snowy Mountains... Sam's fav is Moreton Island and Canberra.

During this trip, Jovann got to feed wild dolphins, pick strawberries, rode a pony around the mountains, touched snow for the first time. He also bite a dog (not the other way round), terrorised a cat, and milked a cow. Jazreel learnt to speak new phrases and words : "Find Daddy/Mommy", "Sit down, Now!", "dolphin", "eat bread", learn to eat strawberries and sausages, and is basically a sweetie to be around.

We also realised that the older kid is not always the better behaved child, that it may not always be the children who cannot sleep on a night flight, that lugging 2 huge luggage + 3 cabin bags +2 kids + a twin stroller to and from airports is a feat only meant for the truly insane. Thanks so much to Sam's bro, Jovann's fav uncle Ernest, whom helped us tom pang some luggage not once, but twice.

We made in total 4 attempts to go harbourtown or DFO, but for some reason or other didn't make it. Bleh.

At the airport, mama and gong gong sent us off. The 2 of them snug in the twin stroller that will be serving us very well on our trip. We have 2 large luggages and 3 cabin bags, as well as my diaper bag and Daddy's allerhand backpack.

The kids all dressed for the bedtime in the air.

We had a late supper, me anxiously waiting for the lights to go out so I can put Jaz to bed.

To our surprise, the kids slept for 6 whole hours out of the 7hrs 40mins flight! Jovann on the seat leaning in the corner with pillows and blankets, Jaz 2 hours in my arms and 4 hours in the bassinet. Sam engrossed himself in Clash of the Titans whilst I tried unsuccessfully to sleep. :(

Rise and shine the next morning!

Getting ready to disembark! its 17degrees outside, yippeee! Jovann ready too with his new toys given by the stewardess.

Pure adrenalin was what kept me going like an energiser bunny when we reached, considering I only had less than an hour real sleep in total. But I was fresh and ready for strawberries! It was a place I sussed out when planning for the trip, 45mins drive north of Brisbane Airport. We arrived early within 30mins with Ernest's driving all the way, heee.

Jaz was napping but woke up when we starting picking, and in a good mood too.

Rows and rows waiting for us! You can't imagine how excited I was.

The funny twin strawberries!

We didn't know strawberries grow out from middle of the leaves like this!

You were allowed to eat only 1 strawberry when picking, yums yums. Really sweet.....

Back to the shop, bought 3 jars of freshly made strawberry jam and paid for our 2 punnets.

We stopped by a petrol kiosk for some water and to wash some strawberries for stuffing our face with heeee...

Drove back to Brisbane to catch the ferry to Moreton Island, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort.

Before the trip, I told hubby that we will be feeding dolphins UPON arrival at the island, as the wild dolphins typically come to the shore between 6-7pm to be fed, and our ferry arrives at 6.15pm. I told him that if he is going down with Jovann, then change into shorts (crazy idea right, it being winter? But that's what I was advised and apparently what I saw some teeangers did). But hubby kept thinking there's time to go back resort to change, so when we were met (very well organised) by a representative at the wharf holding a placard with my name written on it, hubby and Ernest were not ready to go down. I brought a change of clothes coz actually I was itching to go down. So its me then! get ready to shiver!!! Its winter and I need to get up to my waist if the tide comes.

To my pleasant surprise, they were renting out waterproof coveralls with attached boots. how cool! you can stay dry up to your armpits! heeee! It cost $8 AUD, of course I go for it. Can save a pair of jeans from getting wet, why not? Jovann was feeling cold, but was very game for feeding dolphins and the 2 of us excitedly waited our turn.

We got to feed a dolphin named Tinkerbell. She took the fish directly from my hand...ooooohhh.....

I was carrying Jovann very high up for fear he will get wet, but he got wet anyway coz the waves were strong and the freezing water came up to my waist. The guide taught me to bounce up with the waves when it comes so that it won't catch me off balance. Brrrrrrrr.....cold....

Jovann ended up kinda throwing the fish down in the water heeee...but Tinkerbell caught it. Jov asked for another one from the guide, and he got to feed twice.

We got a buggy ride back to our room, I gave Jov a hot bath and all of us went for a nice warm and filling dinner at the Steak House. Jaz learnt to like green peas! Sam and Ernest ate too much buffet and couldn't finish their steaks. heeeee....I was introduced by Ernest to the wonder of sourcream+sweet chilli dip for fries. Yumms.

On the way back, Jovann and Jaz had a great and noisy time running up and down the small slope of green, and we were treated to a beautiful unclouded night sky filled with gazillion stars....

Jazreel at 19months

It seems like a long time ago that I blogged about my little princess. Its so fun watching her grow, watching her start to express herself, watching her try to to form more than one word into half sentences, even watching her display her tyranny over her gorgor. She's changing so fast that I feel compelled to try to record her little quirks, as they can change within a few weeks.

She weighs 10.5kg and is 81cm tall. She looks as if she has lost a bit of weight from the coughing. :(

- This girl seem to like speaking chinese, so ah gong ah ma are very pleased. She prefers to say "开" to "open", "走走" to "walk walk", "怕怕" to "scared", "坏" to "cup".

- like to re-arrange her bolsters

- She adores her gorgor so much that she will bring him his shoes first before she wears hers to go out, help him take off his jacket first thing when we come home. Even likes to help him remove his shoes, takes his towel for him when its time to bathe, brings him his water bottle when she's drinking hers, thought first of sharing the flower windmill with him when she saw it at toysrus. He's also the first person she ask me for when she wakes up in the morning. And, he first colour she learnt to recognise is his favourite colour green. She learnt it when I am preparing his medicine and she wants to help, so she has to learn how to recognise the green cup.

- But she can be very very stubborn and defiant with him too. If she knows gorgor wants to "cook" something at the stove, and she's not in the mood to let him, she will plant herself at the stove side of the ELC kitchen, and start fiddling with her toy or cup or spoon, refusing to budge. If gorgor tries to push her away, she will push back. If gorgor scolds her, she will scold back either by a loud "No!" or some nonsensical shouting. Her favourite defiant act recently is blowing a raspberry at gorgor, splattering her saliva all over his face.

- She loves brushing teeth,and will sign "brush teeth" to me every single night. And for some strange reason, she needs to hold one toothbrush herself when I am brushing teeth for her with another toothbrush. After brushing, she will gnaw on the toothbrush she's holding until its time for latching whereupon she will push the toothbrush back to me and say "mai".

- At times, she knows that gorgor wish to walk past the coffee table to reach a toy on the other end. So she will deliberately block the path, and if gor gor comes close, she will push him. If he complains, she will blow a raspberry at him. Many times, hubby and I gotta stifle our laughs in order to reprimand her.

- I have started reading to her at night again after she turns 18mths, and now she's more receptive. Every night she will ask for "book", except she pronounce it "bohh". And she has gotten this idea into her mind that she must hold and flip a book herself while I read another book idiotically to myself.

- She very enthusiastically repeats whatever we teach her to say.

- Due to the above, for about 2-3 times now, when she wanted something e.g. for me to carry her, she came close to expressing it by suddenly saying "Ma ma...I warng (want)...... 抱抱 (upon prompting).....".

- For some strange reason, she used to (around 18mths) say "1" as "bonng". I like it whenever I ask her to help me take tissue paper, she will walk towards the tissue box, pause and turn around, raise up her index finger and asked me questioningly "borng?", meaning "Just 1 tissue?". But recently, she has changed it to"Warnng". So when she repeats after us counting, she counts as "Warnng, hu, eesh....(1, 2, 3)".

- Last week, when Daddy counts with her, she repeats after him until "7", then she herself continued with "Ehh (8)". When Daddy said "8", she continued with "Naih (9)". Heheee...

- She lives to imitate gorgor in everything he does, including eating fruits, running around in circles, jumping up and down. Once, gorgor was jumping up and down and making some happy but nonsensical noise, Jaz (she can't jump with both feet off the ground yet) imitated by walking around and kicking her leg up and down, up and down, and mumbling something that sounds like "shai....shai....shai". I wasn't there but when hubby made a very close imitation of what she was doing, it (he) looked quite hilarious.

In this photo, Jovann has set up a make shift "stall" by overturning the highchair and placing the toy cash register on it. He's selling stuff. Don't ask me why is his customer sitting on a potty though.

- Just tonight, Jovann was holding onto Daddy's hands and jumping on every third count, chanting "1, 2, jump, 1, 2, jump". And when I was preparing the bed for Jaz tonight, it happened that she nearly wanted to walk to the edge of my bed so I quickly picked her up. She could somehow sense my anxiety, so she chuckled and said "warng, tuu.... dumb (1, 2 jump)!".

- She can hold conversations with Jovann sometimes when they cooking up a storm in their little eatery/restaurant. She appears to be the one taking orders and delivering the dishes, and the conversation between them can be quite amusing to witness especially when Jovann seem to understand her gibberish. Heheee...

- She can turn on her tears when she cries, you can see her squeezing her eyes tight shut and sure enough, within the next few seconds, tears will ooze out.

- She can switch off her tears like turning off a tap too. E.g. when I said yes after she's been crying for more latching ("na na").

- Nowadays, most times in the night, I let her roll in bed before she falls asleep herself. Although its not always successful.

- She has a serious nursing addiction hehee. Not that I am complaining! I love this.

- 8 May is the first time Jaz sat on the potty seat on top of our adult toilet bowl, and pooed for the very first time! Yeah! milestone! She has always been more resistant than her gorgor towards the potty, but ever since I bought her the car look alike potty, she has started getting more receptive, and that day, its a milestone for us when she really did poo inside the adult toilet bowl.

- Her favourite DVD is now Baby Signing Times.

- She's more daring at slides and tunnel slides than gorgor at same age. At Julia Gabriel, she's also more receptive to food. First lesson, initially she didn't wanna eat the raisins and papaya, and only attacked the biscuits in her bowl. When the biscuits finished however, she grudgingly started on the raisins. But as she has been eating so slowly and most of her friends has finished and the teachers need to prepare for song and dance, they encourged us to continue eating at another table in a corner that was set up for the slow eaters (only Jaz and a girl called Alicia, which happens to be the daughter of one of my ex coursemates in Uni). But Jaz refused to budge and she insisted on finishing her food standing up, me holding the bowl for her while she ate the raisins at her own sweet pace.

- She still loves her pink princess cloth book, and will pluck at the fibre when she's falling asleep holding it.

- She can multitask quite well. When playing chef at the kitchen, she can balance a plate on her arm with the help of her chin, stir the soup pot on the stove, and close the oven door with her feet, all at the same time.

Selective Listening

This is something that I have been meaning to blog for months.
Jovann can be totally selective in the things he "hears". If its something that agrees with him, he will hear it fine and well. If  its something that doesn't benefit him, he will pretend otherwise.

An example from a few tele conversations with him months ago.

Positive Example
(Jovann called me)
Jov: Mommy!
Mommy: Hello Jovann, have you had your lunch?
Jov: Mommy! Can I drink chocolate milk? wai gong says I must ask you.
Mommy: Yes you can.
Jov: Ok!!! *turns to ah gong and yelled "我的妈妈说可以!"*
(He hanged up the phone)

Negative Example
(Jovann called me)
Jov: Mommy!
Mommy: Hello Jovann, have you had your lunch?
Jov: Mommy! Can I drink ribena? wai gong says I must ask you.
Mommy: Hhmmm. No you can't, because you already drank a lot yesterday.
Jov: Huh? What Mommy?
Mommy: I said, NO you can't.
Jov: What did you say Mommy? I can't hear you!
Mommy: I said No You CANNOT drink Ribena, Jovann.
Jov: Huh?? What???!!!
(He hanged up the phone)

I can't believe it!!!
 
Then just this evening, something similar happened again.
 
Scene: Jovann sitting at his table, and I was sitting 3 metres away. He just finished complaining to me that Ah Ma don't let him sleep on our King bed ("Daddy's bed") during this afternoon nap. He told Ah ma that Daddy allowed him to sleep on "Daddy's bed", so she must allow him too. Ah Ma was worried that he may pee on the big bed because nowadays he don't wear diapers to sleep.
 
Daddy, whom is standing 3 metres away from him, starts explaining.
Daddy: Jovann, you can only sleep on Daddy's bed at night. When Daddy is around. Ok?
Jov: Daddy, my ear very small. I cannot hear what you are saying.
Daddy: I said that during your afternoon naps you CANNOT sleep on Daddy's bed, you can only sleep on your bed.
Jov: Daddy! I told you my ears very small, I cannot hear you! You need to speak louder.
Daddy and Ah Ma was quiet for a  moment, thinking how to proceed.
Me (deciding to "test" him, and using the same decibel as Daddy): Jovann, you can drink ribena. Can you hear THAT?
Jovann: No I cannot hear that.
Another pause from him.
Jovann: You should say..... (raising his voice at this point) "YOU CAN DRINK RIBENA!" then I can hear.
 
All 4 adults, plus maid, burst out laughing.
He was smart enough to pretend he didn't hear that first sentence about ribena, but yet not smart enough to really continue pretending he can't hear! So funny lah.

Jovann is 3 years 8 months old.

Aiyoh, 4 more months and its his birthday! That's fast! where have all the time went?

He's 101.3cm tall and weighs 15.3kg. He still looks so skinny, due to all the months of coughing. Sigh.

- He still loves roaring like a dinosaur. We bargain with him, only once a day. Whenver he happens to fulfil that promise, he will be so proud and tell us all about it when we get home. But many times he defies ah ma and ah gong and keep roaring, resulting in him coughing and coughing a lot after that.

- I must admit I have been quite laid back regarding his diaper training. Besides nap time, we have never let him sleep without diaper for his night time sleep...until the day he turns 3 yrs 8mths. That was the first night we did it, and managed to wake twice to pee! and didn't wet the bed. I guess that's beginners' luck, coz the next 2 nights, he wet the bed in his sleep. But 4th night onwards he managed it again.

- He can't seem to eat enough food now, always asking for more. After his dinner, if he sees us eat, he will come to the table and ask where's his food, and pitifully told us he's still hungry. And whenever ah gong ah ma reach our house, Jov will ask them "阿嬷, 你有买东西给我吃吗?"

- He likes "cooking" delicious gourmet food for me, arranging them nicely on the tray. Often during our dinners, he likes to come around my table especially to add "dishes" like "chicken", "eggs", "sandwich", "pizza" or "soup", complete with a fork and knife/spoon and wrapped in napkins (a piece of tissue).

- His current favourite DVDs are Disney "Cars" (Lighting McQueen), Jurassic Park and 101 Dalmatians. All 3 disks are all over-watched and spoilt. Sigh.

- Millenia Walk, Collecting the good bags, race number (to be pinned on the tshirt) for the Run For Water 1km Kids Dash that weekend in April.

We had lunch at this quaint little Jap/french looking restaurant that sells tiny portions of food. :P

At the 1km Kids Dash, after our run, hot and victorious hehee. He loves that medal.

'

- Musical instruments introductory workshop arranged by Auntie June. Held at Staccato Music School.

1st Golf lesson at Kinder Golf.He amazed the coach by fully paying attention throughout. Apparently thats quite unusual for that age. I think he's just influenced by Daddy's regular practice swings at home heee.

My Birthday

Such a belated post, but been really busy and tired. Finally got down to some blogging. Wish to mention my birthday this year as its really enjoyable a day for me. Love the food, the movie, and flowers.... :) Thanks hubby!

Hubby asked me to choose the spa myself, as he knows I am quite particular when it comes to such luxury. Ngiak. I am not complaining! Decided on Auriga Spa in The Capella Sentosa. Ultimate retreat! very pampering, organic products. Excellent ambience, plush sofas, relexation lounge, perfect service. Love everything about it.

We had a tour by the friendly therapist and came across this strange ice bucket thingie. Apparently, you are supposed to slather ice over yourself after you come out of the suana/steamroom/hot jaccuzi...I can't remember which! hahaha! whatever it is for, I will NEVER put these cold things on myself!

The relaxation lounge, complete with tea and dried organic apricots. yummy.

Next is lunch. Hubby brought me to Julian Bombard. Hubby had pan seared foie gras and their lobster bisque (which he proclaimed to be the best he ever tasted) for starters, whilst I had a delicous half dozen oysters of the freshest sort I have ever tried. These oysters beat the oysters at Greenwood hands down! Its crunchy, fresh, succulent, didn't give me the "zhe lak" feeling at all. Each of the 6 is excellent. I wanted more!

On top of this, we had another starter of House Smoked Duck Breast with chopped romaine salad, which is surprisingly as sinful and fatty as the foie gras, hehee!

Roses from Poppy..! so pretty I kept looking at them througout dinner. The sweet waiter brought us a ice bucket to put the bouquet in.

For mains it was Pork Platter with briased jowl, belly and loin served with roast apple and green peppercorn sauce for me, and Spanish Paella with Chicken and Prawn with Chirozo sausage and orange for hubby. Both are delicious. Dessert was Melange of Berries with Chocolate Sorbet. Then hubby arranged a surprise for me.

We went to fetch Jovann and brought him to watch How to Train Your Dragon. We sat in Directors Seat and Jovann sat in between us,it was very fun and cosy. He enjoyed the show too. We then did some glass painting.

Lovely day! enjoyed every minute of it. :)