It’s hard to believe, but I just realised that we are now over half way through Grace’s first year. She officially turned 6 months a couple of weeks ago and is developing so fast that I’m barely able to keep up with her updates here. Since the last update I posted, she has really been stretching herself all over the floor. Not only rolling and flipping, but pivoting and even lunging and creeping forward to reach for objects. Yes, the crawling has begun. And boy can she move. She is constantly on the prowl, reaching out and grabbing everything she can get her hands on. Hair, glasses, her fingers, our fingers, her toys, her brother’s toys, scraps of paper, scraps of anything really… nothing is safe within her reach. Whatever she gets her hands on, the first stop it makes is straight to her mouth. And then she chomps on it. Hard. She really is such a voracious chomper. I know all babies generally like to mouth or suck on objects. But I am convinced that Grace’s chomping action ...

Happy Tuesday peeps! How was your Australia Day long weekend? Proud to be Australian! We had a busy and fun weekend, then we kicked back for a chill Monday, just lazing around at home, sleeping in and recovering from all the Australia Day excitement. City of Perth Australia Day Celebrations On Sunday we headed into the city to watch the Perth Skyworks fireworks show. There was a big carnival atmosphere in Langley Park by the river front, with street food vendors, entertainment, games and bouncy castles for the kids. Because it’s summer We found a picnic spot, laid out our picnic mat, kicked back with some food and snacks and just soaked up the sunshine and revelry all around us. Enjoying our Australia Day in classic picnic style Nathan really enjoyed watching the air show of airplanes, sky writers, fighter jets, helicopters and skydivers. Watching the Perth Australia Day Air Show But he was absolutely blown away by the big highlight of the night. This...

So during our trip back to Sabah over the Christmas holidays, apart from all the playing, the other major activity on our agenda was simply: EAT. Pretty much every day, my folks were stuffing generous helpings of love in the form of food into us. Though my mum and dad have different versions of this: mum cooked all manner of yummy eats and treats in her kitchen for us, while dad took us to all his favourite food haunts around town. There are simply too many to specify them all. But here are some of the main food related highlights from our trip… Tuaran noodles ~ These local specialty egg noodles are freshly made and stir fried to piping hot perfection. This is my hubby’s absolute number one favourite food in my hometown. Tuaran mien (“Tuaran” noodles) Fish-paste ball noodles ~ The fish paste is freshly made, rolled into balls, poached and served in a steaming hot fish broth. I love eating these with some tasty noodles on the side. Yee wat mien (fish-paste ball no...

So on Christmas Day 2013, Nathan officially turned three years old. We celebrated with a big cake together with my whole extended family back in my hometown in Sabah (although he did have another special party with his friends at day care a few weeks earlier). Celebrating Christmas Day and Nathan’s Birthday with our extended family in Sabah He is still adjusting to the fact that he is three. Whenever someone asks him “ How old are you? ” he often still says two instead of three. But I’m sure he’ll catch up soon enough. Nathan is most definitely growing well into his boyhood and is into many of the typical things that appeal to boys, like cars, trucks, tractors, Lego, action figures such as Superman and Spiderman (which is a mystery as we have never let him watch any such shows before), and getting himself into precarious acrobatic stunts on the couch. But one thing which I think is really special in him which I treasure, is his vivid imagination. He is an incredible conversa...

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, we spent the time back in my hometown in Sabah, Malaysia. We had a really idyllic and relaxing break just spending some quality time with close family. The cool rainy monsoon season was also a nice refreshing change from the burning summer heat in Perth. The children had a wonderful time just playing in the spacious compound, Hanging out with grandpa and grandma, And enjoying their Christmas presents. The boys played in the rain, We hung out at the beach, Although Grace could only be a spectator for now, And we let the kids stay up late to watch the musical fountain at Perdana Park. We visited the local zoo… Nathan had a great time spotting elephants, monkeys, orang utans… And of course tigers –his Chinese zodiac sign And Grace reached some major milestones during this trip… She started learning how to pivot, lunge and inch forward to reach for objects, She can sit up on her own unassisted (for a few seconds at a time),...

[ So after yesterday’s post on the registration process for setting up a family day care, I thought I’d also share on the how and why I came to the decision to embark on this venture… ] Since the arrival of my first baby, I discovered that my priorities in relation to work and career had changed dramatically. I wanted to be around my children as much as possible and be the main person looking after them and caring for their needs. After my maternity leave ended, I went back to work on a part time basis. It was a great arrangement that allowed me to balance my time between career and motherhood. However in the long term, I knew it would be difficult to progress forward professionally working on a part-time basis. So I started thinking about what I really wanted and the direction I truly wanted to head toward. What I really wanted was to BE in my children’s life. I wanted to be the primary person guiding their learning and helping to shape their values and character, especially in ...

So for the past couple of months, I’ve been swimming in a sea of paperwork and administration. It seems a major factor that will enable you to qualify setting up a family day care is the ability to stay afloat in the ocean of forms, assessments, policies, guidelines, and lots and lots of reading. I feel like I’m back at university all over again. The road to setting up a family day care is truly not for the faint-hearted. Thankfully, experience has allowed me to gain the uncanny ability to sieve through the bureaucratic jargon and terminology to extract the key essentials. Plus the support team at my local Family Day Care network have been awesome at guiding me and helping me navigate through the whole process to get me registered. If you are considering the possibility of setting up your own family day care or just would like a glimpse into the process behind the set up of a family day care, here is an outline of the administrative process I had to go through to get registered… ...

So I received a really nice surprise when we returned back from our holiday in Malaysia. We found a delivery note waiting for a mega toy pack prize which I recently won. I immediately called the delivery company to organise for the package to be dropped off again. The jumbo pack arrived at our doorstep today! I was so excited to open it up. Nathan and I dove straight into it… couldn’t wait for hubby to get home. It was hard to tell who was the bigger kid –Nathan or his mum. Sending out a big shout out to Mouth of Mums for organising this competition and Chalk Educated Toys for sponsoring this awesome toy pack. Here are some of our favourites in the prize pack… Eurotrike twist and roll scooter VTech baby walker Thinkfun Zingo!© game Vertical bubble generator Numbers wooden peg puzzle Set of stacking and nesting blocks This prize is really providential and perfect timing in the midst of all the preparations and set up of my family day care . So grateful.   Linking u...