Good times in Melbourne - Home away from home

During our short stint in Melbourne, we stayed with Aunty Irene, Uncle Leong and my cousins Philesia and Jacqueline.
Home away from home was at Scoresby, and we pretty much did what the local folk did - dine at Asian restaurants and had dim sum at Yum Cha, go shop at the local supermarts etc.
The only touristy thing we did was probably joined a local tour to Great Ocean Rd to see the 12 Apostles (or 8, whatever's left of em).

At the airport departure:

My happy family shot



as usual, Gonggong is very proud of his fav Grandson.. because he's the only grandson. Haha!



At first, Baby Adam slept in the bassinet.

But after a grand total of 15min, only Mom's lap will do.


Home after 8 hours!!! What a long tiring plane ride for us, and poor Baby Adam is jetlagged.
Local Aussie time was 7.30AM, but in SGT it was only 4.30am. Can you imagine?!


We stayed at my Uncle & Aunt's huge but cozy home in the suburbs.


Our guest room had a mini bar, toilet, couch with TV, and even a big piece of lawn attached!


As expected, Baby Adam spent most of his mornings in the lawn playing, often on his own.


Showing Mummy a blade of grass he plucked from the ground. Hehe


Getting distracted by magpies on the cherry trees



And he also walked his baby steps too!


"I made it to you Mummy! Ho ho ho"


Went to the local Carribean market which apparently sold everything from food to vehicles.


Baby Adam playing and observing seagulls & ducks in the nearby lake.


Cheeky bubs!


We also brought Baby Adam to the nearby Chesterfield Animal Farm which was only 5 min drive from our home.


He can't feed them yet, but at least he is enjoying himself under the shade of a tree.


In the Nursery Barn with tame baby animals.



more photos to come when I have time :)

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Here's Baby Adam wishing all our friends & loved ones a Very HAPPY & PROSPEROUS Lunar New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!

This year, being Baby Adam's first CNY, is extremely busy as you can expect - we had soooo many places to go, so little time, therefore we had to plan whose houses to go to first/last.
It is also Andy & my first year distributing angpaos instead of collecting. Boo hoo! But thankfully we have Baby Adam to help us collect back some $$ hahaha!
Baby Adam collected close to $1k of angpao $$ on the 1st day of CNY. Fatt ah!
Andy & I decided to open his own Savings Acct with that money, on top of his current insurance-tied investment and CDA account.

We've also got our visas approved, changed AUD$$ and almost finished packing our luggages. Phew!
Catch ya all when we are back from Melb.
Have a lovely V-day everybody!

The Tans :)

New Ikea high chair for CNY

Baby Adam has 2 places to go for his Reunion Dinner - first stop is buffet with Andy's family, followed by steamboat with my mine.
Therefore, we bought a new high chair for him, something simple & light from IKEA to put at my parents', which costs only $29 ($25 without the feeding tray).

We actually rushed out to get it on last Friday night and we bumped into Crazy Carol & Hongkuan. They were furniture-shopping for their new pad.

In fact, I'm liking this new feeding chair better than his current one, which drives me insane because Baby Adam is learning how to self-feed now and can you imagine all the food he has smeared onto the cushion and how many times I have to wash it!

With this new feeding chair, it is so much more convenient to wipe clean and I don't have to worry about Baby Adam being a messy eater.
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by the way, Baby Adam went for his 9 months development assessment today (which he did well) at Dr Simon's and at the same time we took his travel meds - for flu, fever and diarrhoea.
Speaking of diarrahoea, I apologise if I sound as though I'm having Blogspot diarrhoea, but really, February is a busy month for us with many happenings!

Packing for Down Under

I've only got the most important aspect of Baby Adam's luggage sorted - his food.
The rest of our luggages, I'll have to pack in between work, studies and preparing for CNY.




I'm sooo looking forward to our first trip abroad as a family, together with my brother, aka Uncle Junwen.
I'm really thankful he can make it, because with all these extra baggage weight, I'm not sure if Andy & I can handle, on top of having to check in our Bugaboo Cameleon and not to mention the shopping!

We'll be doing a road trip around Melbourne, driving along Great Ocean Road and bringing Baby Adam to see penguins at Philip Island, and kangeroos at the local farms.

At the same time last year, Andy & I did a road trip in Perth.
I was 4 mths preggy with Baby A :)

Hanging with Mavy

Here are the 2 brothers hanging together on random afternoons.
In case you don't already know, Mavy has taken up Babysitting as his new full-time job, and he's taking it rather seriously Haha.
Baby Adam loves torturing the dogs too, although Alice doesn't really reciprocate that love.

Whenever Baby Adam is in his walker, he will chase after the dogs, who will run and try to hide but Baby Adam will scream and be mighty pleased with himself, as if to say "You can run but you can't hide!"
And mind you, those wheels do hurt!

Busy start to an intensively busy year

I started school this week. That's right - Mummy has gone back to the books.
In case you're wondering, I have 2 Diplomas, and now I am doing my Bachelor of Science.
I had initially wanted to take up Psychology, majoring in Childhood Learning or the sort (I'm sick of doing Geriatric nursing already).
However, I decided to take up my area of work instead because with Nursing, I could branch into Paediatrics, but with Psychology, I couldn't branch into Nursing.

Time to brace up and get my act together for an extremely insane year ahead!
It's only the 1st week and I've been loaded with heaps of e-learning and a 200-word assignment -__-"
I sat with Baby Kai in the living room, my notes and highlighters all over the place, and Baby Kai in his rocker.

How do I feel about school?
I feel young again, being a student comes with privileges like cheaper canteen food and of course, forging new friendships. I ran into my ex-classmate, and made new friends with fellow TTSH colleagues.
My lecturers are all Australians and they deliver their lectures humorously.
On the other hand, inevitably, I feel anxious that I will not be able to catch up with my school work, what with Baby Kai and my fulltime job on my plate as well.

Ok, let's hope I will stay sane and breeze through this semester first!
Other than school, I have to sort out the following by CNY:

- prepare and pack Baby Kai's travel food rations. According to an email from Australian Embassy, Baby Kai is allowed 1 opened tin of milk powder, and all other food items must be sealed in jars (or tins).
- send an official email to school requesting for Leave of Absence during CNY due to my being overseas.
- pack Baby Kai's and my luggage.
- bring Baby Kai to Dr Simon for his travel meds.
- get my 200-word assignment done.

Baby Adam attends 1st Wedding Dinner

Mummy's little gentleman endorsing Baby Burberry.

Baby Adam attended a Wedding Dinner for his first time tonight, and I'm really happy that everything turned out better than expected.

At first, I was worried that all the noise and Yum Seng session would make Baby Adam scream or get cranky, but he just fell asleep in his pram - while other babies cried & fussed - which made me really proud of him.

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And Oh, Daddy A won 3rd prize in 4D tonight too!
Thanks to our Lucky Lil Munchkin, Andy is always striking 4D. Time for Mummy to go shopping. Bwahaha :P

"Just Delivered"

Daddy A gave Baby A his morning bath, wrapped our Lil Baby up and announced to Mummy "OK. Just delivered!"
Baby Adam: "Huh??"

Then as Daddy & Mummy started laughing, Baby A burst into chuckles as well.
Parenting is a wonderful journey indeed :)

Cheeky Bum bum

Time for Lil Rascal's night-time bath, the one he gets before going to bed.
Baby Adam loves his tub filled with lots of bubbles and he enjoys splashing and hitting at them.

Can you see his cellulite-filled bum-bum cheeks when squashed together? Hahahaha!
Umm, might I also add that my cheeky Bubs is a little vainpot in the making?? He's always camera-ready!

Baby Adrina's Full Month Shower 170510

It was a bright and happy Sunday blessed with good weather.
Baby Adam turns 8 Months old today too. Happy one-month-older son!
After breakfast, we headed to Baby Adrina's Full Month Shower.

The gift for Baby Adrina! A one-tier diaper cake.


The star of the day

Mummy is very happy to have everyone pass Baby Adam around so she can enjoy her buffet. *evil sinister grin*




Daddy & Adam the Charmer

Sloppy kiss!

"Stop acting cute Daddy!" *frowns & glares*

If I'd known the pool is just next to the Function Room I would wear my bikini and bring Baby Adam for a swim!




Enjoying being kissed!

Mummy's little Prince charming his way into people's hearts.

and showing off his toothsome twos


Kids making merry and dancing around...





Baby Adam gives Donovan korkor a kiss!


Cake cutting time!

Kids really light up everybody's life.
With so many mommies around my age, we could talk about feeding and other babytalk.
It was a GRAND time with lots of food & desserts and everybody couldnt stop smiling and laughing at the cheeky children!