Autumn is here

This post was drafted last week and finally completed the day this post is published!


Brendan
One of the things I love doing is looking back at old photos of my little koala, and chuckling to myself, amazed as to how much he has changed. Heehee. It really tickles me.

Now that B is almost 11 months, I can see his developments progressing bit by bit, from improvement of his motor skills and expressing himself better. There's a lot of baby babble and hand pointing and I nod and respond accordingly, pretending to understand him when I only understand 10% of it!

One of my daily struggles involve preparing his meals. While I wish I was one of those super health freaks who insist their children eat only the best organic food, I can only be partially bothered. *guilt-stricken*

Breakfast are the toughest. I used to feed him some yoghurt when we were in Malaysia but I stopped, fearing for its sugar content. Right now, I alternate between oats with pieces of bread and fruit, and Cerelac with pieces of bread, as well as a piece of bread to keep his restless hands busy (so he'll feed himself) while we watch Sesame Street on tv.

I try to stay away from processed baby food but having Cerelac and some baby rice puffs (for snacks) readily available at hand is very convenient!

What a mess!

I dread cleaning up after his meals, I really do. Well, the hubs does, too. It's hard work!

Sometimes I prefer to feed him to limit the mess but it helps to have some finger food available when he insists on feeding himself.

Check out the scrunched up toes.

But I need to let him feed himself since it's part of the development and growing process. It also helps to give us some time to enjoy our meals without having to feed him every now and then. 

He has also learned to 'share' his food and occasionally offers us a piece of half-eaten veg/fruit/pasta/snack he's holding in his hand. Sometimes we relent and let him feed us, and sometimes we vigorously shake our head to say no, just as he does.

The house is a daily war zone. :)

The best part of our day is when he takes a really long nap so I can prepare his lunch / our dinner / do the laundry / clean the house a bit / rest / gardening / watch TV / read / sew, etc. No matter how much I am tempted to nap and rest as well, I can't until his lunch is ready and some chores are done!

The worst part of our day is when he doesn't go to sleep at his bedtime.


Gardening

The highlight of our backyard is our pumpkin patch. We were very surprised to see one fruit greet us in our backyard when we returned home from Malaysia. It was totally unexpected, as we had forgotten we had it pollinated (by hand) before we left.

Our first pumpkin! :)

After weeks of dilly dallying (the hubs wanted me to harvest it and I wanted him to have the pleasure of harvesting it), I finally harvested it last week. It weighs almost 3.5kg and is currently sitting on our buffet table, like a trophy to showcase. Ha!

I asked the hubs if he wanted to cut it for me so we could roast a few slices for dinner last night but he refused. He said he'll wait until we harvest our 2nd pumpkin, which I tell you, could be weeks before it happens. 

I tell the hubs that it reminds me of a hairy testicle. :P

Another surprise was to see this little round fella. We had completely forgotten about planting hairy melon, or better known as winter melon! 

Not sure when it'll be ready for harvest (or even survive) but it'll be exciting when it happens. :)

Butternut pumpkin near our air conditioning unit.

We look forward to having butternut pumpkin as well but we missed the opening of the female flowers as we were away during the Easter weekend. Argh! 

So now we'll have to wait for some new ladies to bud. The male flowers are pretty useless for pollination without females available for business. :D Crude, I know, but sadly true. :(

(Note: The above plants were planted from seeds of the vegetables I bought from the supermarket and grocer. You can try planting your own as well!)

(Update: The 2 females in the picture above didn't make it. However, another female one appeared and is happily preggars at the moment. :D)

Gazania - a pretty weed.

Along our driveway is a narrow strip of land which we've chucked patches of gazanias we grabbed from an open field near our house. They are technically weeds, originating from South Africa. But such pretty weeds that we couldn't resist!

Mt Buller

We spent the Easter weekend up at Mt Buller, a popular skiing destination. We stayed in Merrijig, a 30 minute drive to Mt Buller village instead of at the skiing village itself.

It wasn't skiing season yet but it was exciting to spot a few piles of ice along the road as we neared the village. There were a few more in the village itself but as they were on slopes beneath chalets, it was considered too dangerous to approach it for a selfie.

Bin was there to take part in the Mountain Fun Run so bub and I kept ourselves busy by doing a poop so I had to change his diaper, feed him his breakfast, walk around, exploring, cheering for papa when he ran past, waiting for papa at the finish line but he ended up snoozing before papa crossed the finish line.

Later on, we drove up to the bottom of the summit to trudge up the summit, hoping to catch the view of the valleys beyond us. Alas, the fog came in, so there were very small pockets of clear views. I wished I had brought my gloves because my fingers were cold!

The run itself brought 14km runners up to the summit to have their little bib stamped by a marshal waiting at the top (to avoid cheaters) and I really can't imagine how long I'd have taken had I participated in the run. 

There were plenty of visitors trudging up the summit that day despite the fog.

B was lucky that I had prepared some food for his lunch so we fed him in the car before we walked up to the summit. His parents ate cold noodles and plums and some biscuits - such is life when I hadn't packed enough food for our trip. As long as we have everything for B, the adults can make do with everything else you can purchase at the stores. C'mon, B can't eat fast-food yet! ;) 

Me

I am currently hooked on Call The Midwife series. It's pretty cool that we get to rent the DVDs from the library for 2 weeks and we're almost finished with season 4. One of our favourite characters is Sister Monica Joan, who quotes phrases from great literature and uses such bombastic words for her vocabulary. 

I am still getting poor sleep at night as B has regressed into his old habit (at the age of 6 months below) of waking up every 3 hours for feed. I don't know why he's such a glutton. *gloomy look* He's just like his parents!

B turns 1 next month and we are a little bit hesitant to throw a birthday party for him. It's a lot of work, you know, but sigh, probably necessary to have a few friends over. Nothing extravagant like those huge banners and buntings, or cakes with fondant icing decorations or cupcakes with cartoon toppers and what-nots. We strive to keep it low-key and homey as ours once was. Call us old-fashioned but hey, a 1-year-old won't remember much about it, right?

Hmmm ... I've got several sewing and cooking projects to embark on but simply don't have the time to indulge myself. If B was contented in playing on his own for an hour when he's awake, then perhaps it's possible. But I suspect he's also running out on toys to content himself with. I find himself flicking through pages of his books every now and then, and I smiled happily to myself. It has been a concern of mine that he wouldn't love books as much as I do. Hehe.

So now that the month of May begins tomorrow, and after deliberating for months, I will finally get my a$$ back on a regular exercise regime - I will wake up early tomorrow and get my workout done at the gym and get home before hubs leaves for work. Which means, I should go to bed NOW.

It's the only way to get some exercise done since I don't like running while pushing the stroller!

Oh gawd.
Wish me luck.

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P.s. on Sesame Street: He's pretty taken with Elmo and I have to grudgingly admit that he does grow on you. (I was never an Elmo fan.) I'm glad B likes Cookie Monster too as he cracks me up in his Crumby Pictures parodies of movies!

(Check them out here! I guarantee you'll laugh, especially Twilight Breaking Cookie as they got Bella's acting spot on - just looking stoned!)