Do one thing everyday that scares you… and your kids

I wrote about confronting fears a while back. One of the things that scare me as a mother is letting my boys push their limits through a new sport/activity. There's always the fear that they'll get hurt but at the same time, I must put on a calm and "oh don't worry, this is safe if you follow instructions" look during the learning process.

Kit waxing his board.

So the boys learned to sandboard during the December holidays. There was the initial worry that someone would fall, tumble down the slope, and break something (not the board) but the boys really did well on the slopes. Plus, they absolutely loved it!

Me prepping Kit's board.

(Photo taken with LC-A+)

I really worried about Kit although all he did was just sit on the board and slide down a really, really, really long sandy slope.

Me waxing Kai's board.

(Photo taken with LC-A+)

And Kai stood on the board all the way down slope.

Empty landscape because we were too busy sand boarding and cheering the kids on that no one took pictures of anyone in action!

This long slope.

Oh, and yes, I sandboarded too. So yay, I confronted the fear of my kids getting hurt and confronted my own fear of potentially hurting myself. Heh!

Giving thanks

There's time for play, even at dusk on the cold, windy beach in Gold Coast, Australia

I have been feeling a little... (I suppose the word is) sad the past few days. I saw a boy, probably around 7yo, having his tennis lesson. Nothing special about a boy having fun in the tennis court, all except that he has down's syndrome. Tears welled up in my eyes when I saw him, so happy, so carefree.

As a mother, how many times have I worried over my boys' ability to overcome life's challenges? Countless. But looking at the down's boy in the tennis court remind me that no matter what issues my boys face, their issues are not going to be as hard or challenging as those faced by the boy (or by his mother) in front of me. Sure, I still fear for my boys, but I must thank God for giving us two happy, healthy, normal boys with normal, everyday challenges.

Finally, I love how William Blake captured a mother's thoughts in his "Cradle Song".

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.

As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.

O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful night shall break.

My 4.5yo

My 4.5yo loves trucks. Railway trucks to be exact. When he was two, we brought him to the "A Day Out With Thomas" show and though he wasn't talking much yet, he was blabbering with excitement when he saw Thomas' Troublesome Trucks in 'real life'.
He never outgrew his passion for railway trucks though he has fleeting love affairs with an engine once in a while. (The current favorite is Hiro.) He loves filling up his trucks with tiny stones and other whatnots he finds outside, and shunts them around on his Thomas tracks.

So imagine his delight when he saw REAL coal trucks^ on display in Blue Mountains. He examined the couplings. He stared at the wheels. He sat outside a mine entrance and stared and asked a thousand and one questions about the exhibit inside the tunnel (which features a mine worker and his tools).

He attempted to take pictures of a truck^.

Another attempt^.

He asked Terence to take pictures of the wheels^.

And the trucks^.

If childhood ambition doesn't change with time, I would say he's sure to become a railway engineer. And I love how steadfast he is with his passion; it's another thing about him that makes Kai, Kai.

More from our Sydney getaway:

- Trekking in Blue Mountains

- Anxiously waiting for...

- Road trip snacking and its consequences

- Where the wild things are

- Paddling like a hamster

- Summer in Jervis Bay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trekking in Blue Mountains

The Macpac Possum is one of the best investments we've ever made as parents. It is a backpack child carrier that allows you to go off the beaten track with kids. We bought it two years ago in Melbourne, and we have been bringing it faithfully on all our trips where some heavy-duty-walking-in-the-great-outdoors would be involved.

For our recent Sydney trip, we knew without a doubt that we would bring the carrier along. But the question was: Who are we going to carry? Kai won't be able to complete a one or two-hour trek. So if we carry him in the Possum, what are we going to use to carry Kit? The Baby Bjorn carrier places the baby in front, which is quite a strain after a while. Furthermore, this means we would need another backpack for the essentials (i.e. water, snacks, diapers).

So we ended up bringing TWO Macpac Possums to Sydney. Yes, two carriers in addition to our two luggages and stroller. And no, we didn't buy another carrier (those things are pricey!). We borrowed the second one from our friends. I carried Kit and most of the supplies at the start of our trek in the Blue Mountains. It was a matter of mathematics really. Kai weighs around 16kg and Kit is about 9kg. Though Terence was really chivalrous about it and said it was ok, he could carry more, I was quite confident I could manage.

We completed a medium-grade trek (Lyrebird Dell and Pool of Siloam Circuit) in 2 hours. The trek brought us to two waterfalls, and we had a picnic at the Pool of Siloam^.

Kit fell asleep at the start of the trek and was still asleep when we reached the pool. So I propped him up (supervised of course), still in the carrier^, against a big rock while we ate and played for a while.

He woke up eventually and enjoyed the rest of the trek.

One thing stood out from the whole experience: Terence's mum joined us and she completed the whole trek with no problems. Now, she is 60+ and the trek has its fair share of uphill climb and steep, slippery downhill track. But she kept up. It just reinforces the importance of good health; I want to be able to do the same thing with my grandchildren when I get to her age.

(I left our camera battery in the warm confines of our cottage. So the pictures were taken with Terence's iPhone 4.)

More from our Sydney getaway:

- Anxiously waiting for...

- Road trip snacking and its consequences

- Where the wild things are

- Paddling like a hamster

- Summer in Jervis Bay

For tips on trekking with children:

- Grampians part 2: Lesson Learnt

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Anxiously waiting for...

The weather was cold and the sky was grey when we arrived at The Train Shed, but that didn't bother Kai at all. For all intends and purposes, the whole objective for our trip to Australia this year was so that he could ride on Thomas and his friends at the miniature railway. He was the sunniest person that grey, grey day; it was such a joy to watch him.

The miniature trains at The Train Shed probably made the cartoon characters come alive for him. Here's Kai anxiously waiting for his last ride on....

Toby! I thought he might pick Thomas again or ride on James, another main Thomas and Friend character, but he chose the adorable and silly steam tram instead. My sweet, sweet boy is a sentamentalist. (Toby is the only steam tram on the Fat Controller's railway, and he's really old.)

More from our Sydney getaway:
- Road trip snacking and its consequences
- Where the wild things are
- Paddling like a hamster
- Summer in Jervis Bay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Road trip snacking and its consequences

When you have two young children, going on long road trips can be a really stressful affair. You have to pack lots of snacks, plan stops, include an entertainment device for older kids, and most importantly bring a sense of humor.

During our recent holiday in Sydney and surrounding areas, our road trips can be as long as 4 hours. I have a 14mo toddler who can't usually sit still for more than 5 minutes on a normal day and a 4yo who hasn't been on long road trips for quite a while so I wasn't sure how he'd take to it.


Snacks (lots and lots) and cartoons loaded on the iPad saved my sanity.


But our rental car suffered dreadfully. I lifted up Kai's booster seat to find a treasure trove of crumbs that can keep a nest of hungry roaches pretty happy for a lifetime. In addition to crumbs, I found pebbles that Kai picked up during our stops.


As well as rotting blueberries and dried up blueberry skin.

I am pretty sure the cleaner from the rental car company found even bigger horrors after we returned the car. What would they think! Which horrible family with terrible manners sat here? I certainly don't treat my car like this back home, but when you are on long road trips and you are always getting in and out of the car, lugging heavy luggages out of the boot while trying to keep an eye on two boys, sometimes feeding young toddler in a moving car, something's got to give.

More from our Sydney getaway:

- Where the wild things are

- Paddling like a hamster

- Summer in Jervis Bay

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Where the wild things are

As city dwellers, I don't want my boys growing up thinking that the natural habitat of animals is the zoo. Every chance I get, I remind them that hey, animals do live in the forest or parks around us.

One bright early morning (at 6.30am) during our stay at Bay of Plenty Lodges, which is located right in New South Wales (NSW) Booderee National Park itself, I saw a bright patch of red among the green trees right outside our cabin. It was a bird chomping on some fruits for his breakfast.

I brought Kit, who was awake at that time, as close to the bird as I dared and pointed out the bird to him. Then I left him in his playpen, grabbed my camera, and tried to see how close I could get to the bird.

I got really, really close and the bird just continued eating. It obviously didn't think I was going to have him for breakfast. (Later I found out that this species of bird is called the Crimson Rosella. What a pretty name.)

Pretty Rosella wasn't the only wild life we saw at the national park. Kai and Terence were chased by a wild kangaroo which probably knew they had some yummy grub for him back in our cabin. It stood right outside our door for a long time before going back to graze at our front yard. On our way to the lodge late in the evening, we saw more wild kangaroos (and a joey hopping into a pouch!) as well as a mummy possum with her baby on her back.

I certainly hope Kai will remember this experience for a long time to come.

Paddling like a hamster

The weather on our third (and last) day in Jervis Bay was finally warm-ish enough for us to go kayaking with Kai in the bay near our Bay of Plenty Lodges.

The kayaks were rented free of charge to guests, which I thought was such a lovely gesture. The bay was just a short 5 minutes walk from our cabin and it took Terence and I about 15 minutes to haul two kayaks down to the bay which was just a few steps away from where the kayaks were kept. The water was clear, a light breeze was blowing across the bay, and it was calm. Absolutely nothing that would spell disaster.

In fact it was a perfect setting for Kai's first time in a kayak, and he was thrilled to bits.

But as we paddled, we noticed that the tide was coming in and the current was carrying us very quickly towards the opposite side of the bay. That was when Terence said it was time to call it a day and I remembered words like "danger", "strong currents", and "be careful" coming out of his moving mouth. How they all got strung together I can't remember because I was already trying to paddle back to shore like a mad woman and I was NOT moving. The current was against me all the time.

I felt like a hamster running in its own exercise wheel. So much energy spent but the hamster's going no where and neither was I. I was in my version of caged up, hamster hell. And whenever I stop paddling, the current would push me further and further away from where I want to go. Terence and Kai were getting smaller and smaller. Then they disappeared.

I paddled. I cursed. I paddled. I cursed.

Then I thought, "To hell with it." I got out of the kayak and WALKED, dragging the kayak behind me. The water was shallow enough to walk yet deep enough to dip the oars in. How unglamorous.

I dragged the kayak to a part of the bay where the current wasn't so strong (and the water deeper) and paddled quickly back. Terence was about to launch his rescue mission after dropping Kai off in our cabin, but he came back just in time to see his tired wife hit the shore in her kayak.

I don't remember what I was doing when Terence took this picture^. All I can say is that the whole experience was lovely enough but I am no national sailor.

Summer in Jervis Bay

Australia's Jervis Bay is the kind of place that is beautiful, charming, and atmospheric even on a cold, rainy day. It is the kind of place which I wish is just an hour's drive away so that I could--any time I want--go canoeing with Kai, explore rock pools with the boys, and just be the only family playing on the beach.

When I read about Jervis Bay two months ago, I knew it was a place we would enjoy as a family. But we were plagued by a cold spell when we arrived about two weeks ago. It was cold, the sky was overcast most of the time, and worst, it rained on our second day there. So most of what we wanted to do in Jervis Bay was cramped into the third day, which thankfully stayed mildly sunny though the wind was chilling.

It explains why we were decked out in our sweaters and long pants at Chinaman's Beach in Jervis Bay; it wasn't a good time to bring out the bikinis and swim shorts. And it certainly didn't feel like summer!

We arrived at Chinaman's Beach by accident; we originally wanted to go to Hyams Beach, which reportedly has one of the whitest sands in the world, but we weren't quite sure which stretch of the beach it is. But no one minded. We all had a lovely time, and there were so much to see and explore.

There were plenty of rock pools to peer in to see if any fishes or sea creatures had been trapped when the tide ebbed.

We could walk among the corals and seaweeds.

And find creatures we have never seen before in our entire life.

The only sign of spring/summer were the wild flowers blooming on the beach.

Melt down

Point Walter, Perth: Great place to fire up a barbie, and even catch sight of dolphins if you're lucky (we did!)

I was in total despair (almost daily) during the recent trip to Australia. Kai had the worst bout of tantrums ever which upon thinking back, could be because he was home sick.

We decided to do a BBQ at the picturesque Point Walter--a place that is popular among Perth urbanites. On the way there, Kai dropped his bag of Coco Krunch in the car and he went ballistic. He screamed for nearly a solid 30 minutes, and I had many bemused locals staring at me.

Nothing, not even the thought of playing sand on the lazy shores of the river could calm him down. Later Sharon shared how her friend executed "naughty corners" (time-out corners) even in public places. It works, to a certain extent.

Urgh. Toddlers and their tantrums.

Go to the beach, mama!

Every single day of the trip, Kai would say: "Go to the beach, mama."

It was incessantly repeated every single hour.

This is him scooping sand with his shoes at Fremantle after brunch.

Finally. My own digital SLR camera.

Playing with depth of field on my D40

Our two biggest 'windfall' during the latest Perth/Margaret River trip would be:

1. Picking up an AU$50 note in the bushes next to our car

2. Buying the Nikon D40 (which came highly recommended by budding pro-tographer U-Jin) at AU$498, which is about S$200 less than what is selling here

*Big sigh* I've been wanting, wanting, wanting a digital SLR for so long, and it felt great to grab this deal. Big thanks to:
- the Chows for spotting the Harvey Norman ad
- Terence for insisting that we go to a Harvey Norman store
- the Australian Tax Refund Scheme (TRS), which gave me a 10% rebate on my purchase, as this meant my camera really costs AU$448 (WAH! Lucky number some more.)

Grampians part 2: Lesson learnt

The last leg of the trek up to the Pinnacle

This post is long overdue. Chatting with the Chows over breakfast on the possibility of going to Australia together reminded me that I've yet to complete my documentation of our Grampians trek.

We've done a couple of treks in our lives (with and without baby/toddler), and I've learnt a few things making the most of the excursion with baby/toddler:

1. Get fit: Mothers always say they stay slim running after/taking care of their kid/s. Sadly, those hair raising moments of chasing your kid and grabbing him before he runs out onto the road is not enough. Doing some cardiovascular exercises regularly is important if you want to have fun on the trek.

If you want to trek but don't exercise enough, then pick an easier walk. The great thing about trekking in Australia is that there are always options. Some come complete with boardwalks so you can wheel the stroller.

Trekking can be very rewarding. I often start out thinking: "How on earth did I get myself into this", especially when the going gets tough. But the view we see along the way and at the top makes it all worth the while^.

2. What to carry: The arsenal of things you carry before you become a parent and after you actually own a wailing kid change. Of course there are the basics like good walking shoes, appropriate clothing, water etc. But there are other things you need to take into consideration when trekking with babies/kids. The trick is to balance between travelling light and carrying the essentials at the same time.

- Clothes: Do you need something warmer for the peak? It's better to layer clothes than bring one bulky item that takes up plenty of space in the bag. How about a rain jacket just in case? (But if it looks like it's going to rain, I'd vote postponing the trek!) Change of clothes is essential in case you get caught in the rain. If driving, you can leave the extra change of clothes in the car.

Finally, you may be toasty warm as you're the one who's doing the actual walking and sweating, but baby/kid may be cold. So wrap them up well if walking in cold weather or when there's strong wind.

Kai stuffed his face with Coco Pops down the moutain

- Food and water: Carry enough water for you AND the kid, as well as plenty of snacks (biscuits, fruits) to entertain the kid. We gave Kai Coco Pops in the Grampians^, and Terence ended up with chocolate stains down his back after the trek.

How about milk? One option is to do a short trek just after a feed to avoid the hassle of carrying the milk, bottle and bottle warmer. Kai is at an age where we can still bribe him with biscuits, but there were occasions when things turned ugly.

Me, the 'essential service'

We learnt it's better to split the load rather than place everything you need in the backpack you use to carry the toddler. So I was the 'essential service' carrying the water, snacks and jackets in my backpack while Terence carried the rest of the warm clothing. And yes, I did bring one diaper in case he does a major poop along the way. One more thing: bring along plastic bags to carry your junk back down. Be a responsible trekker.

3. The carrier: It's the bag for carry the baby/toddler, that is. The simple baby carrier like the Babybjorn works for some folks, but because Kai is older and heavier we use the Macpac Possum. Borrow if you can from friends or rent them. We found a shop in Melbourne which leases the Macpac Possum for a really affordable price, but it was booked. I pestered Terence to buy our very own since we're likely to be trekking during our trips overseas.

Make sure the carrier is sturdy, comfortable for both parent and child. I like mine with additional space for carrying other essentials. If you can, try out the carrier WITH the baby/toddler in it before the actual trek. Some kids might take a while to get comfortable with the idea of being strapped in. But Kai loves it as it gives him a bird's eye view of his surrounding.

4. Have fun and don't fall off the cliff: Point out interesting things to your kid along the way. It's not often city dwellers get to enjoy nature, and you'd be surprised at what you can find if you keep a sharp lookout. Even flowers can be interesting as I've been using them to teach Kai the concept of big and small, colours, smell etc.

Finally, please, keep an eagle eye and tight grip of your baby/toddler when you get to the top!

Why restaurants hate us

Here's the trail of destruction that we usually leave behind in restaurants. (This was taken during our last night in Melbourne. The waiting staff were really nice. I feel bad; can't remember if we tipped them! :p )

Grampians part 1: How did I get here?

I pestered Terence to buy our own Macpac Possum (which came with its own 'sad' adventure) because if not, I argued, we would be wasting the wonderful outdoors of the Grampians.

So during our first night at the Grampians, he said: "Can I leave the walk tomorrow up to you? If you don't want to do anything strenuous, that's fine too." Happily, after many back breaking hours of being squashed between the door and the car seat, taking turns to carrying Kai (with the Macpac of course) at Otway Fly, I picked a few easy walking trails to check out some scenic spots in the Grampians National Park.

Next morning, after consulting the AU$3.30 map that he bought, he said: "Let's do the "Wonderland Carpark to the Pinnacle" walk.

OK, whatever, I'm fine.

In the car, I picked up the map and read:

Wonderland Carpark to the Pinnacle

... a strenuous walk to a famous peak

A STRENUOUS WALK TO A FAMOUS PEAK

A STRENUOUS WALK TO A FAMOUS PEAK?

And next to this, it read:

The walking tracks to reach this famous peak involve rock steps, slippery track surfaces, several water crossings and some rock hopping.

Our second cottage

After the Great Ocean Road, we took almost a day (with breaks in between) to drive up towards the Grampians. Terence took the recommendation of the Lonely Planet guide and booked us into our second cottage--D'Altons Resort. It is the rustic version of the luxurious cottage at Apollo Bay, and it's great in a outdoorsy, rough-it-out kinda way.

You are suppose to be able to see wild Kangaroos around your cottage, but all we saw were Roo droppings.

Despite the cold, Terence insisted on firing up the Barbie which he enjoyed immensely. We had wonderful steaks and wine for two nights in a row.