June 30, 2007

Our Toyota



Look this is our new car here. It's a Toyota Camry 2.2litre car. Actually a car is not in our budget when we shift here, but after living here for a while we realise that a car is a neccesity, be it an old car, so long it can brings you to 1 place to another place safely.

We do live very near to public transportation (tram,train and even bus), but their public transporation system here is not as good as Singapore, maybe they are too big a Country.For eg if you miss 1, you may need to wait longer in a super cold windy weather for the next 1 to arrive, especially at weird hours or weekends where there are lessor trams and trains. And because they have big lands, even if you get down from your stop, you will still need to walk a short distance to reach your house. It is ok to walk if the weather is good but not during such cold winter where it rains almost everyday. Travelling between surburbs is worst if without a car, because 1st we don't know where to take the bus and we don't even know the bus number since busses don't really seems common here. And usually it takes longer for eg : for me to travel to Maribrynong by public transport is about 2hr, but it only take probably 30mins to drive there.

Jerry doesn't drive to work because the parking in the city is expensive, so most of the time the car is being park at home, or send Sean to the school, pick Jerry up from the train station if it is raining, weekend use and probably for me to drive to work in future.

June 21, 2007

Simply Cheerful



I have just recover from my flu and is sleeping very well yesterday night since 8.45pm till this morning 8.am without much crying at night, so that its why I look extremely cheerful today.


Just to update all of you......


Sean has not been sleeping well for quite sometime, constantly waking up in the middle of the night crying. Keep telling me he is scare, so i have to pat his chest, in order to soothe him and make him fall asleep again, but this doesn't last for too long as he will starts to cry again after awhile. Not sure if it is too cold for him, but i did cover him with blanket which he will than make a fuss and kick his blanket away because he didnt like it.. So i got no choice but to leave the heater on for him and wear thicker clothing. He keeps on wanting us carry/hug him to sleep maybe because he feel more secure this way. But for us, this is not a solution, Jerry needs to work and I have to look after him whole day so we both need to have enough rest as well.

We were just thinking of the possible reasons that makes him cry at night.
1)master bedroom too cold since he doesn't want blanket and yet he doesnt know how to express it so only way is to cry.

OR
2)He just simply not suitable to sleep there, as sometimes some ppl may crash with certain elements in the room (not sure if we are being superstiuous, but better be safe than sorry)

So we decided to give it a try and change our room to the guest room which is abit smaller but warmer there because it is at the back of the house where we don't have direct wind coming in through the window.

Apparently it works, he sleeps better now, even though at times he still wakes up and make a little fuss, but I would say there is a drastic improvement. Even I myself also starts to like that room because is not as cold comparing to the master bedroom which is facing the wind direction, whereby slight wind can still slip through even with the window close.


I am also wondering, if he is still not adapting to the lifestyle here, because even for myself I am still fighting the battle to live in this place. For him, it may be worst since he has never go anywhere to stay for a long period other than his Marine Parade house. Everything is just too new to him, the weather,........ ,why is it cold everyday and why do I have to wear so many layers of clothes, putting him in a childcare...the teachers and kids just look very alien to him and he is being left there for such a long hour and even the food he is eating here also different......

For his childcare updates, I do notice a slight improvement in him. He cried lessor compare to the very first few visits. Still cry though but now there are times that he actually stops crying for like few hours to play. But he doesnt really likes to go there, maybe because he is still not very comfortable to the teachers and kids there. Everytime when i bring him there, he will start to whine a little then he knows that I am going to leave him there, he will stick to me very closely. The moment i told him I am going off he will starts to cryvery loud and wants to leave with me. I think this should be normal since i ever read about other mum's blog that they are facing this problem for the initial stage. Sean just need a bit of time to adapt to this childcare environment and let him understand that this is just part of his daily routine.

As mentioned before he can talk more now, some words that he can say although not very accurate eg : hold hand, hold tight tight,fall down, abit more,pain pain, buy apple 1 mummy, 1 sean, 1 daddy (he is trying to say buy apples 1 for mummy, 1 for Sean and 1 for daddy) drop how? he likes to ask the question HOW? because we always tell him things like "Don't leave your toys everywhere on the floor, cause you may step on it and fall down HOW?" or sometimes we will say if you want to "she she", you must tell mummy if not you wet your pants HOW? So he just like to repeat what we say, and even without us saying the usual words he will say it out himself...Wet pants HOW? Fall down blood blod HOW?

He is a very playful and cheeky boy and because he is so playful at times it makes it quite difficult to teach him. At times when you are scolding him, he just ignore you and start running and jumping around, so I got n choice but to bring my canne out then only he will stand straight and listen to you. I don't know why, but recently i notice he likes to push people or use the hand to beat other kids or even attempt to snatch other kids' food eg ice cream, cold drinks. Is this normal part of their growing stage? He just makes me feel very embarrase. For those who do not know may even think that I never like him eat. I admit i seldom let him eat all these junk food, but thats because i do not want him to starts coughing again as he is always very prompt to coughing. SO i am also confuse, should i let him eat more of these "forbidden food", so that he knows he always will gets to eat it and will not behave like so "Yau Kwee" everytime






My First Friend In Melbourne

Some back dated posting.......

This is my friend Caleb Choo.My first friend here, same age as me. He lives in Maribrynong, quite a distance away from our place. But Uncle Felix and Aunty (Caleb's parents) are very nice people. Everytime when there is any outing, they will travel all the way to our place to fetch us and send us home as well.rReally appreciate their kindness.Thanks

We went out twice to play, once is at the play center which is near their house and 2nd time is at a big shopping mall (Northland) near our house. Eventhough we are not playing together yet, taking into consideration that kids at out age now tend to play by ourselves more. But 1 thing for sure that both of us can do together is sharing fries. Look....we can click so well when comes to eating our favourite food.FRENCH FRIES
Some photos taken from the playcenter. We are having lots of fun and it seems like the 2 daddies are having fun too

June 13, 2007

My First Day In Childcare


1 Schoolbag with an extra sets of clothing in case I dirty the one that I am wearing and I am all ready for school.....Yeah!!!!!!The bag seems abit too big for me but mummy say that i can use it longer till i attend kinder so it's more value for money. I think mummy is more of cheapskate.Sigh....

Anyway I still like my new Bob the Builder schoolbag. Mummy woke me up at about 8.30am. Fed me milk, changed me and we all left for the school. My school is call the ABC Learning Center located at Preston East just about 7 minutes walk from our house.

I didnt do well for my first day there. I was happy playing initially, that's because mummy is still in the toddler room. But after a while I realised she wasn't in the room anymore so i started to cry real loud. I stop for a while, because I am being distracted by the outdoor activities. All kids are allowed to go and play at their outdoor play area for about 20mins before lunch time. So because there are interesting things to play at the outdoor area so I forgotten about mummy for awhile.
But when we were ask to go back to our room, I start my crying again, so i skip the lunch. Mummy was saying that she can really see the hard time those caretaker were having when they tried to pacify me. Since I am not eating, they fed me with a bottle of milk and pat me for awhile I just fell asleep.
Sleep for about 2hours, I woke up played with 1 of the caretaker. She is a chinese, so she is able to speak in cantonese with mummy. Then i started to cry again, nothing seems to be able to stop me from crying so Mummy got no choice but to appear again in the room ( because all the while mummy is in the center hiding because she doesn't want me to know she is around hoping that i can quickly adapt to the environment without her around but also worried that things might not work out well at least she is around)We played in the room for a while and had our afternoon tea before I left. Mum decided to leave abit earlier because she is also worried that if i stay there too long crying I may start to dislike that place or even have phobia coming next time. So she just doesn't want to force me instead giving me more time to adapt to a new change in my lifestyle.
Mum: Personally I feel that the staff there are good, the way they approach the kids. I can see that the kids there are more independent compare to Sean probably because they are there for a longer time already and probably also because of the culture and brought up. Long and short i think i have chosen a correct place for Sean, hope that he can learn from the rest of the kids there.



Some of the pictures taken, see how busy is Sean initially before I left the room (pic 1,2 3). Sweep the floor, cook for the kids. haha.... The last photo(pic 4) is abit blur because i took it from outside the classroom where there is a glass window in between.