We had a fantastic new year’s eve! We joined some friends for a backyard bbq. There were heaps of other kids around, so we had a mini new year countdown at 9pm. It was very cool. We had poppers, tooters, sparklers, the whole shebang. And after that, all the families with small kids went home early to put the kids to bed. It was an awesome NYE party format. After our kids were in bed, we were a bit *naughty* and stayed up past midnight - oooh what a thrill.

We all woke up early the next day. We went to have morning tea with some friends who lived near the beach. Then we headed over to the beach for a swim and some serious sandcastle making. The beach was busy, but the weather was fantastic!!

We stayed for much longer than we realised, and as we were driving home, we were SO HUNGRY. So we actually stopped to buy take away for lunch (OMG take away!!). After that, everyone had a quick shower and a nice long nap.

We woke up, drove over to my parent’s place, and had another swim! We stayed for a delicious dinner. Rushed off to the river foreshore, wiggled our way through thousands of people at a new year festival. Found a perfect spot by the water’s edge, just in time to see an amazing firework show overhead. We were so close! It was spectacular! Came home, put the kids to bed, and finally the both of us snuggled on the couch watching a DVD. Another very cool day!

We have been indulging in the most delectable morning time routine this past week. Both our sons have been waking up at 8:30am. They never used to wake up so late. I suspect it’s because of daylight saving, and the fact that my husband has taken a few weeks leave - so there are no active alarm clocks in our house.

We all lumber from our beds and sit in the cool shade of our backyard. We have a lovely little outdoor lounge setting - wooden lounge chairs and coffee table - under an open gazebo, covered with a spectacular wisteria.

I sit and look after the kids. My husband makes breakfast for himself and the boys. Then he makes me a steaming hot cup of soy chai tea with no sugar, 2 eggs (with the yolks a little runny) and 2 slices of toast… and I am in heaven.

By 10am, we decide what we’re going to do for the rest of the day. Some times we split the boys up, to have a bit of quality parent-child time. Other times we go on a family outing to some place - usually the hardware store, or the beach, or river. Or the fruit shop. Or to visit someone. Anywhere easy and casual.

And I’m just loving it. I’m so floppy and relaxed and full of happy hormones.

Oooh I live for discovering these little gems on the internet. Birdmotel.com is an online boutique that stocks heaps of the latest Australian designer surf labels like One Teaspoon, Milk and Honey, Mermaid Sister, Nookie, and Tigerlily. *Swooon*

My 3½ year old is a real sweety. He’s got this huge spirit of generosity and fun. He’s charming. He loves to make people laugh. He’s full of energy and excitement. And he’s always concerned about people’s happiness.

He also has this uncontrollable fascination for all things BAD - like fighting, guns, soldiers, swords, bombs, jet planes, those scary bad guy types (Batman and Darth Vader). And he hasn’t even started school yet!

Now, there are no toy guns in my house. And I have a house rule, no pretending to play with guns or swords or ANY fighting thing whatsoever. I’m pretty strict, and am quick to launch into a long lecture. I’m not sure how it might affect the future of my boy’s suppressed imaginations… but I don’t care at this age. Fighting is not fun or cool.

So. Callum has been experimenting with it in his story telling and drawing. He loves drawing weird scenes full of monsters and robots and fire and swords and stuff. It spooks me a little bit. I know that it’s just a phase. And really, I’m more worried about his preschool teacher calling me up for a chat.

We’re going away for the weekend. Just the two of us! We’re going to my cousin’s wedding, in a fancy resort by the beach. Looking forward to a leisurely drive with my husband, relaxing by the beach, and some silly family wedding fun!

I thought while I’m off, I might share some amusing photos of Sean during our new year’s eve party. This is Sean searching for ice.

Sean makes his way back, obviously concerned about something.

He says “Ungh yee yah cold there bucket now!”. I give him a blank look over my camera. And he sighs.

Thus he resorts to much simpler ways of communicating.

My cousin’s wedding was fantastic and absolutely lovely! Everything ran smoothly and perfectly. We had such a relaxing time! It was held in Dunsborough, a popular holiday spot famous for its beaches, wines and a variety of outdoorsy activities. It’s also a 3hour drive south of Perth, so it was cool to see my WHOLE extended Chinese family there, including my 84 year old grandmother. The ceremony was outdoors, in a beach resort function garden - under trees, parisoles and a cute gazebo.

I was the official videographer, which really only came about because I happen to own a camcorder. I didn’t mind though. I like having little *tasks* during family weddings, because it means I get to be where all the action is. I got front seats at every event! Just for setting up my tripod and pressing REC.

We partied till late! We didn’t have the kids, so we were tempted to sleep in the next morning and have a leisurely swim in the hotel pool, maybe a dip in the spa. But no, (shakes head) we were oh so very good. We woke up early the next morning, bought breakfast at The Famous Dunsborough Bakery, ate breakfast on the beach, and took a slow walk along the shore at low tide in the morning light.

Memorable moments :
- I teared up during the groom’s speech as he spoke about my cousin *it was SO SWEET*
- Watching one of my uncles engaging in unspeakable dance moves in the middle of the dance circle.
- The Chunky Steak Pies from the bakery. SO DELICIOUS! I sat there thinking, hmm… I could probably eat another 4 of these. Which makes 5 pies in total. But that would cost me $21. And spending $21 on meat pies, for breakfast, seemed a bit wrong.

My cousin, Ken Chan, in a somewhat spur of the moment thing, entered himself into the Raw Comedy Competition part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. YEAH! STAND UP COMEDY! This man has balls!

The venue was PACKED. 12 newbie comedians, 5 minutes each. A very funny MC. An even funnier headline act. It was SUCH a great night. Myself and a bunch of friends had an excellent table. And I laughed and laughed until my belly ached and my face hurt.

It was all good. In fact. A good hearty laugh was truly medicine for my soul. It was the end of a long day, and I felt light as a feather and smiling from ear to ear.

As for my cousin, he was confident, relaxed and pretty damn funny! But alas, he didn’t get selected for the semi-finals. But he did get a couple of invites to various comedy gigs around Perth, so watch out for him!!

This evening we went out for a star gazing adventure - hoping to see Comet McNaught, apparently the brightest comet to be seen in 40 years.

My husband saw it a few days ago and raved about it. I was keen to see it too. So we decided to drag the kids and a few other family members out after dinner. We drove over to a local footbridge and waited and waited.

My brother-in-law brought his brand new Canon 400D. There were heaps of people standing around with binoculars and cameras. Callum kept shouting “Hey when are we going to see the omelette?! Why is it taking so long??”

I was the first one to spot it in the twilight sky and OH MY GOD it was so cool!!! At first it looked like a small patch of wispy clouds, then as time passed, it got brighter and brighter and it just looked amazing! Its tail was so long! My husband said it looked like someone smudged a star across the sky. Which I thought was quite cute.

(Picture from Wikipedia)

Where I stand beside my husband on that grassy field, and wonder if my boys will ever stop to look back.

This evening we took the kids to the river for a brand new adventure : fishing! We wanted to test drive the boy’s new fishing rods. And to teach the kids about fish, bait, life cycles etc. We didn’t actually plan to catch fish.

Now the humour in all this is : the last time either my husband or myself went fishing… was probably 20 years ago. We’re both fairly outdoors/active kinda people. And we would love our kids to be the same. But I’m not exactly huge on catching marine wildlife - fishing, crabbing, abalone catching, prawning etc.

In fact, I would probably consider myself to be a bit eco-friendly, with a save-the-wildlife kinda conscience. I don’t like to kill things. Why are we bothering these fish anyway? What’s the big deal? I seriously don’t understand this whole male bonding, hunter/gatherer, beer at sunset thing.

Anyway. This was a test drive. Bait went on the hook. Dad cast the line into water. Dad passed the rod to the 3½ year old kid. Kid slowly reeled in the line. Oh look! Fish on the end of the line! It was textbook.

Callum caught 3 fish. He was terribly excited. Even though all 3 were blowfish. We even made a big point to let them all go. But the last one got a hook stuck deep within its guts. I’ll save everyone the gory details, but lets just say I was overtaken by the Chinese chef in me and there was a LOT of explaining to do to the 3½ year old who saw everything.

Today my 3½ year old boy drew me the cutest drawing ever. I was SO impressed. His attention to detail was just… SO CUTE! You just have to love the eye patch, the squiggly angry mouth and the little parrot.

Sean speaks now. A LOT. It’s very freaky. He’s got excellent pronunciation and strings multiple-word sentences with ease. From the everyday “My name’s Sean”. To the excited “Bob the builder’s on TV!”. To the random “I like red plants mummy”.

He also loves to sing. He can actually “sing” the rhyming couplets (or whatever they’re called) to Sing a Song of Sixpence, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jack and Jill and lots of others.

He’s almost potty trained. Since the start of this year, we’ve started Sean on a potty training routine : Every morning, we take his nappy off and let him run around in the backyard. The boys eat breakfast, play and hang out there for 1-2 hours. In that time he’s 100% successful with the potty. Last week I introduced a 2 hour (nappy-less) afternoon session too, and so far he’s doing great. Only one accident!

He doesn’t drink any milk at bedtime now. He used to have 180mL of soy milk, but we switched him to water (cold turkey!) and he didn’t seem to mind. Since then I’ve been a bit worried about his calcium intake. And I’m now stocking him up with plenty of broccoli, spinach, cheese and yoghurt. He’s an excellent eater.

I believe he has also reached his “Terrible Twos” stage. One day he woke up and started saying NO! to all my requests. Add mood swings, massive tantrums, and irritable aggression.. and you have one grumpy little kid. According to some really useless online calculator, I have 403 days, 12 hours, 13 minutes and 0 seconds until Sean is out of the terrible twos phase. I so needed to know that.