First day at school

Who was more excited!? Us parents or our little boy (not little any more! he started school today!)

It was Oliver's first day at nursery today. We all got up nice and early at 6am which is Oliver's normal wake up time so we didn't really have any issues getting ready. After his breakfast he got his uniform on and boy! he was proud of himself. He came and said to me "Look at me mummy look at me!"





He didn't really like the socks and his new shoes but I told him Lucas (next door) wears the same to school - no problem at all. He changed his mind and he liked them : )



When we got to the school carpark Oliver's little friend Helen was there too. So they walked together all the way down to the nursery (The school changed their security procedures and parking etc so now Oliver has to walk almost 500m to get to his classroom,) or running with excitement I should say.



The entrance of the classroom was nicely decorated - he is in Unicorn class.



Here is our little Unicorn:



This is where he hung his bag:



And he put his water bottle in the basket:



The classroom is huge!



He was very excited about the all the play stations he can play at, and straight away got into the playdough! He was cooking and baking with his little friends and his teacher Ms Jo.



I thought he would cry when I told him goodbye but he was actually quite ok and carried on playing. He might have been too busy with what he was doing and didn't actually comprehend the fact that we were leaving him there. We were advised to come and get him a little bit earlier today as it was his first day. So we went to get him around 11 o'clock. When he saw me he was very excited and wanted to show me all the things he was playing with. He wasn't in a hurry to leave at all. Ms Jo told us he got upset every now and then but he managed to get through the day ok. So I guess it was a success!

While Oliver was at nursery Matthew, Luca and I went out to the Empire for a little celebration for Oliver. We had a cooked breakfast and coffee and a wee walk around. It was very lovely but felt a little odd not to have Oliver with us...





Luca enjoyed 100% full attention from both of us. Yes his hair was up as always!



Hope he will be excited about going to school again tomorrow, our tired boy is deeply asleep now : )

Rugby World Cup 2011

Yes! It's on!!!
The first game was on Friday evening, we watched it next door with some kiwi friends. All 6 kids were dressed in All Blacks clothes and looked so cute. I was too busy watching the game (plus the children were so happy running around and playing), I didn't get any photos.

But here is Oliver before heading out in his World Cup top and his rugby ball : )



It will be a very entertaining few weeks! Go All Blacks! (and Team Japan of course, but I know we don't have much of a chance...)

Sleepover - Take 2

This time it was Linnea's turn to come and sleepover at Oliver's house. We had Lucas the other day and it was such a success, I couldn't say no when Linnea asked me early this week.

She was so excited - Boel (her mom) told me she had her bags packed since Monday (sleepover was on Sat night).
She arrived with a nicely packed suitcase and a baby buggy.



When she got here she asked me if she could do exactly what Lucas did with Oliver, she must have read my blog post, she wanted to watch a bit of TV, play a little bit and have a nice bedtime story and go to bed.

So that's what we did and a little bit extra.
Oliver hadn't finished his dinner when she arrived so she helped him eat.



They played the movie "Cars" with the train track.



I promised Linnea she could have a bath with Oliver - they both enjoyed it so much!

It was so nice to see the two of them giggling away and excited about the whole experience. When they were both tucked in bed Linnea said with a big smile "This is so lovely! I am liking this sooo much!", bless her!



They snuggled up to each other and went to sleep without a hassle - I just wish they slept in a little bit longer in the morning. They were up nice and early at 6am! Lucky Matthew was at home, I just escaped to the other side of the house and slept for a few more hours : )

It's berry season

Unfortunately not for us humans, these berries are for the birds in our backyard. I think twice a year the tree overhanging Oliver's tree house fruits. During this time we get so many birds hanging around our house.

This morning Oliver and I went up in the house for some bird watching. We could hear them above us but because of the roof we couldn't actually see any from it. But we took our noisy/musical toys out and played some songs with the birds. It was rather nice...

Snack box

Oliver is getting ready to go to nursery from next week (Well... It is already starting for some but as he was born in late May he is in the younger group who are starting the classes one week later). We have been doing lots of adjustments to his everyday routine. Breakfast time, nap time, dinner time etc etc. One of the things I tried today and yesterday was opening and packing away his own snack box (and of course eating!). Apparently he will have two snack times while he is at nursery (he will go from 8am till 11:30).

Oliver already had a cool lunch box that Merryn gave him when he was in NZ in April. I packed his snack box and took it to the yacht club.

He managed to open it himself.



He got some raisins, pasta, apple, grapes and a jam sandwich.



He was very happy eating his "Kiwi" jam sandwich : )



Only a few more days and our little boy will be a big boy and going to school. How exciting!!

Three months already!?

I have heard lots of people say "with your second one everything goes very fast" - YES IT HAS! Luca is already 3 months old today.

We just cannot believe how fast the time flies and the speed he is growing. He is very healthy with his legs and neck very strong. He is almost able to support his neck by himself. And pushing himself up with his legs whenever he gets chance - even when he is feeding. If I put him in the car seat without the seatbelt he tries to turn himself or I should say tries to get out of the car seat. He is very sociable - loves chatting to people and smiling.

I wanted to do something to celebrate this day so we spent the morning at the yacht club. Luca loved his extended no nappy time very much. While he was in a good mood I took some photos. One of my friends gave me a book called Mamarazzi - Every Mom's Guide to Photographing kids when Luca was born and I have been reading the book and learning tips.

Here are some of the photos I took today.



Well this one didn't really come out the way I wanted it. I wanted his little toe to be more in focus... but I thought it is still very cute of him looking at his own toe : )



The hair - everyone comments on his wonderful "mohawk" and it is still growing!



The fresh air put him into a deeeep sleep.



He has a wonderful smile and now he can laugh with sound!



And he love love loves eye contact with people.

I tried to take brothers photos but as you can see Oliver wasn't really helpful today. So this was as good as it got.



Can you see Matthew and Luca squinting the same way?

The toughest months have gone - now it's time to enjoy seeing my boys grow further!

Toilet Toilet

"Toilet toilet" this is what Oliver says when he needs to go. We are very happy that his toilet training has been successful (so far). But I have to say, "toilet toilet" at 5:30 in the morning is a little bit too much...

Big TV mummy!

Oliver went to the movies for the first time last week with Lucas and Linnea. He has seen Cars (the original one) so he knew what he was going to watch and was very very excited. We weren't too sure if he could sit still for the entire movie though, but no problems at all. Matthew came home and told me he was just sitting there with his eyes wide open!

He enjoyed it so much that he has been talking about the big TV for the rest of the week. So I thought it would be nice for me to take him to the movies this time and spend some mummy and Oliver time!

Aynur (Muhammad's mom) and I had some coffee and a chat before the movie. The boys were very excited and looked so cute holding their hands together, bouncing to the movie theater.



I couldn't get Oliver to look at me as there was a little TV behind me showing previews of Cars2...



The theater was pretty much empty, only 8 of us in it. We were in the new theater which was very cosy and clean. And guess what? Oliver just sat on my lap for the entire movie! I actually bought him a seat but he was too light to sit on the chair, it kept flipping back... poor little man.

I really enjoyed being with Oliver alone and eating salty popcorn :) It was a lovely afternoon.

My hand?

I think Luca has discovered the annoying things moving in front of him and smacking his face might belong to him...

Hari Raya 2011

We certainly enjoyed celebrating Hari Raya this year! The first day was busy busy busy - we had three open houses we were invited to. I love open houses as it allows as to experience Hari Raya in the local way.

We visited our friend Hals and Keiko's house first. At open houses you are supposed to greet and eat the nice foods they provide and not stay long and go. But we had lots to catch up on and ended up staying for far too long : ) We were lucky Hari Raya started on Thursday. Matthew had a flight to Perth from the evening for a few days so almost missed the celebrations.



Tomoko-Natasha and Oliver.



The beautiful host Keiko and Hals with Oliver.

Unfortunately after leaving Hals and Keiko's we were sort of in a rush. But we still managed to visit two more of our friends places and enjoyed more chatting and more of the lovely food!!

The next day was a big day again. We decided to pay a visit to the Istana (the palace!) to meet the Sultan (the King) and the Queen. I really wanted to meet the Sultan but only males are allowed to greet him on this occasion.

We parked the car and rode the bus to the entrance. The ride wasn't long at all but Oliver got the biggest buzz from it!



When we got there we registered our visit:



And received these numbered tickets for... something special.



When we got in we walked though this corridor - with a plate and as you walk along you get what you would like to eat. Of course Oliver got his favourite food - Rice!!



He was pretty impressed the rice wasn't ordinary rice he normally has at home - it was yellow!



We then walked into this huge food court-like area to eat the food. It was just soooo crowded!!





It got rather uncomfortable with watching out for a little one and a baby in my arms. Luckily I had my friend to help me out. There was no way I could get there by myself with my two boys.

After a long queue we got to this area, which was packed with people but we each got a seat. But the unfortunate thing was by the time we got here it was almost at the end of the morning visit time. We missed it by 10 or 20mins and ended up waiting in these chairs for another 2 hours!!





Luckily Luca was entertained by Gemma and slept in my sling the rest of the time. Oliver was so well behaved on his iphone : )



The afternoon visit was from 2pm. But we were led through the security and entered the next room at 1:30. The room was heavily air-conned with lots of seats. There were signs saying no photos so I didn't take any from this point onwards.
When it was finally our turn I got very excited but found out there would be MORE waiting, this time outside and it was so hot!
By this stage Luca was deep asleep in my sling and Oliver was getting very very tired (he still has his afternoon nap around 2-3pm). We just started to feel very uncomfortable when we saw all the royal family come back from their lunch and enter the room where we could meet them. Yes we saw Sultan too! He was smiling and waving : )

And guess what!? Oliver fell asleep 3 minutes before meeting the Queen - after 4 hours of waiting he didn't get to see the lady he (or I made him) queue up for. Poor Nicole ended up carrying him to greet the Queen...

I was delighted when I greeted the Queen saying "Selamat Hari Raya" she said "You need to be careful with your baby" as Luca was sort of coming out of my sling! It wasn't a proper conversation but I at least got some words from her!

When we came out from the greeting room there was a person collecting the tickets with numbers, in return we received a special yellow box each and a greeting card. Both of my boys got money in the envelopes too!





To conclude this year's Hari Raya we had one more open house we got invited to - our friend Maria & Donncha's house.



Three of us together!



Oliver



Luca

It was certainly a long long day but it was definitely worth it. I hope Matthew can join the celebrations next time.

Little Ninja

Oliver scored a new t-shirt the other day from one of his friends. Cool ha?

First time sleepover

Oliver had his very first sleepover the other night - with his favourite simpang brother Lucas!

They watched a movie and played with toys before they headed to bed.





We read story books (Gruffalo and Gruffalo's child - Oliver's favourites) each holding their own teddy bear in their hands. So cute!



I was worried it would take forever to settle them down as they were both in Oliver's bed. But nothing to worry about, they were both fast asleep after 20min or so!

The next morning Lucas read Oliver a story (of course - Gruffalo!) until Luca woke up, then both boys enjoyed a morning chat with Luca : )