A [very] big part of me wishes I could have enough self-empowerment to maintain a positive self image during my pregnancy. You know, love my growing body and crap like that. Embrace the stretch marks, accept the skin blemishes, look beyond the rising kilos, the new flabby bits, the chubbiness in the cheeks… and ah, the fact that my wedding ring won’t come off my finger. But alas. I am a woman. And I am terrified of gaining weight. Pregnant or not. It’s really freaky to see the scales hit the big 6-0 kgs. Especially when I’ve NEVER been over 50kgs!

Actually that’s not true. During my first pregnancy I also shot up to 60. And even though I lost it all quite quickly - everytime I chomp on yet another chocolate bar, I have this nagging feeling that things might be different this time…

The picture above was taken a month after giving birth to Callum. Yeah yeah, I was showing off. Looking at it and remembering all the awesome and crazy moments of having a newborn, eases my dread about the impending labour pains. I guess it’s nice to be assured that things DO calm down to create a new normal in our lives.

My little sister, who’s working and travelling around Japan, sent back a little souvenir toy for the new baby. She picked it up while she was visiting Okinawa, a very cool little island South West of Japan. Apparently, they are NOT famous for their lizards, dragons, or crocodiles. Okinawa is famous for their bittergourds!
Yeh, my sister sent my child-to-be a plush vegetable!
She’s SO going to be “the weird aunty” in a couple of years…

Found a site where they sell FELT gift bags. Tee hee, I can’t get over how cute these are.

Wow I can’t believe it. It was 5 years ago that I took my scuba diving ticket. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) inspired me to do it. He’d always come back with colourful stories of mermaids, beasts from the deep and underwater sunken treasures. Ok not really, but it had the same effect.
Anyway I just had to experience it for myself.

Since then I’ve dived all over Western Australia - Rottnest Island, the Bussleton Jetty, wreck diving at Albany and Lancelin, exquisite tropical diving at Ningaloo (with whale sharks!), deep dark wreck diving at Esperance and the pretty reefs of the Abrolhos Islands. And all that was within 2 years!

I’ve never dived anywhere outside of WA. And most of my diving have been in fairly cold water - I’ve never gone without my 7mm suit and my hood! So it’s my dream to dive in the REAL tropical waters of Asia. And maybe head over to my hometown (Christmas Island) to do some really spectacular shelf dives!

Ah, well, I haven’t been back in the water in 3 years. I’ll probably need to do a refresher course, practice my long distance swimming, scrape the dust off my dive gear, and shed some weight to squeeze back into my custom-made wetsuit! Heh.

Oooh what a great idea! Janice has turned her son’s drawing and paintings into cute little cards!
I might have to do likewise! Haha, but at the rate Callum is painting… I’ll have enough Christmas cards by July.

On the weekend, we went to the beach again!

It was overcast and cool. Not really beach-going weather. Thus we enjoyed the absence of a Sunday crowd.

We ate chicken + salad kebabs with sauces that dripped down our arms.

Callum had a neat time building sand castles, decorating them with seaweed and burying his feet.

Andrew was spotting aqua-fauna in the surf.

And I redefined the meaning of being a ‘beached whale’.

Everyone, meet Sean.

He popped out at 12pm on 11 March 2005, Friday.
Weighing a whopping 3.65kgs (8lbs), Sean entered the world with dark blue eyes and a killer armani hairstyle, complete with chocolate brown highlights. I was in labour for 6 hours. The birth was completely natural! No drugs, no instruments, no tears, no stitches! I’M OVER THE MOON!!

He’s such a cool baby! He sleeps in big 4-5 hour chunks. The rest of the time he’s either feeding or burping or gurgling away, quietly watching the world go by.

My (almost) 2 year old is SO excited about the new baby. He’s helpful, caring, curious, protective. It’s all been great so far.

We chose the name Sean because :
(1) We wanted a traditional Scottish/Irish/Celtic first name.
(2) It’s meaning - God is gracious - is special to us.
(3) And it was the only name my husband and I could agree on! I also preferred the traditional Celtic spelling.

We haven’t decided on a Chinese middle name yet!

Anyway, that’s all for now.

Thank you THANK YOU for all the flowers, gifts, cards, emails and messages!! I feel sooooo loooooooved!!!

I just had to share this because the whole milk = cow thing makes me wince, yet chuckle.

Did I mention they hooked me up to a milking machine while I was in hospital? Was that too much information?

Anyway, I found this at Sparkability. They have SUCH a cute range of baby gear, gifts and other bits and pieces that you probably don’t need. Enjoy!

To my very best friend,
my special companion,
my perfect match,
my unwavering strength,
my glow of inspiration,
my favourite dive buddy,
my efficient dish washer,
my talented handyman,
the father of my children,
my lover and only soul mate… you rock my world babe.

I am indeed a lucky woman.

Ok. Weird. I swear he doesn’t look like either Andrew, me or anyone else in our family!!
Nobody seems to believe that he’s our baby. Hehe.

LOTS of people emailed me and commented on Sean’s eyes! Apparently all Eurasian babies are born with blue-ish eyes, which turn brown within a few days or months. And I read on the net (so it must be true) “Why would an Asian have blue eyes?” which says that ALL babies are born with blue eyes because they haven’t yet produced any pigment in their irises. Then as the pigment production begins, the baby’s eye colour will eventually change. Hmmm, sounds dodgy - I’ve never seen or heard of a 100% Asian baby with blue eyes!

During the week, one of Callum’s friends turned two! It was held at the Tumblers Kids Gym in Riverton. It was the first time I’ve been invited to a kid’s party where there were paid party leaders, prepared party food, drinks, games, music, and of course the indoor gym. The mothers just sat back, chatted, cup of tea in hand and enjoyed the 2 hours of being kid-free. It was so relaxing. I don’t know about the kids, but I had a great time!

It sounds terrible, but when Callum climbed up to the 4th storey of the indoor gym, got his foot stuck in some ropes, and then howled “Mummy! Help! Mummy!”… I laughed delightedly, because I didn’t have to climb up there to save him. Chuckle. God knows how he got up there in the first place. That thing is a monstrous rabbit warren of tubes, steps, ropes, ladders, slides. He may have short little Scottish legs, but man, can he climb like a Christmas Island monkey.

It was really a four day tea party. We had a steady flow of family and friends, an endless buzz of chatter and laughter, a never-ending mountain of teacups, trays of cakes and freshly baked scones, and a table covered with flowers, baby presents, gift wrapping, cards and chocolates.

We must’ve had 20+ people come visit in those four days. Old colleagues, friends from our dive club, friends from church, friends from uni, friends from high school. It was really nice to see so many people from so many different parts of our lives in such a short space of time. Last year, for various reasons, we kinda kept a low-key social life. So now it felt like we were finally back into our social loop again. Yay.

Funniest moment : Callum was struck and smittened by my friend’s daughter - a very cute 2 year old girl. I saw him go all sparkly-eyed the moment he saw her. And he was so uncool about it. Such a doofus. By the end of their visit, he was running around the house singing her name on the top of his voice. I guess he’ll learn one day.

Social etiquettee lesson : Probably not a good idea to talk about the degrees of perineal tearing around my unmarried friends with no kids.

My husband and I found ourselves at Spencer Village one evening. Not exactly the classiest joint in Perth, and not exactly my choice of eating establishment, in terms of it’s excellent dietary variety for kids under 2. But my parents were buying us dinner, and it’s probably the Asianest food court in town, with the yummiest hawker-styled food I’ve had outside Asia. So I didn’t complain.

We actually thought we were going to a fancy restaurant for dinner. So we dressed up. Such a bad move. Besides getting evil leers from the old Chinese men kerb squatting in the rear carpark and bitchy looking-you-up-and-down looks from every woman in the building… I stepped in a puddle of hoisin sauce (at least that’s what I’m telling myself), I split my skirt trying to get my legs over the indoor wooden park bench (classy no?), and I splashed a laksa noodle on my top.

Anyway. My husband enjoyed himself. He loves Indonesian and Malay food. To the point that it’s actually quite amusing. All notions of a post-cancer diet (comprised of anything wheat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, meat-free, dairy-free and cholesterol-free) went out the window when it came to the nasi padang and beef rendang.

He’s a recently converted “vegan”. And I’m trying my best to support him. Actually, it’s more of a two way thing. I’m trying to “incline towards a moderate veganism” - with a few exceptions. Everyone knows how much I LOVE MY FOOD. Especially my penchant for asian foods, kfc, roast lambs, chocolates and camembert. Not exactly the healthiest cocktail of culinary indulgences. But my husband has been very gracious. Actually he’s been great about it. He’s not excruciatingly strict and won’t pass up the occasional exception to the rule.

In fact, it’s been really exciting delving into the world of psuedo-veganism. Never imagined that beans, legumes and tofu could be so yummy! And much to my surprise, a healthy Asian diet of rice, tofu, fish, and veges is very fitting. Not to mention vegetable casseroles and curries. Yum.