Australia Day

Felt like another Boxing Day - "people mountain people sea" everywhere, except everyone has got some sort of Australian flag on them.

Australia is a great country and we are certainly very privileged to live here!

Happy Chinese New Year

Celebrating Year of the Ox -- Mommy's year... Wearing something red is important. Still remember the last Year of the Ox... looooong time ago.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at church after the service. Everyone wore something red or something Chinese.

Photos from Rebecca's party

Some photos from Rebecca's 4th birthday party last Saturday.

The "arms up" pose has been one of Isabel's favourites. She is showing off her big muscles!

Guess what

Sam fixed the Play Station!!! Arrggghhhhh!!

Isabel starts day care

Today is Isabel's first day at day care centre. From now on she will go one day per week on the Fridays together with Isaac.

This morning after I got myself ready, it was 7:10am and I went downstairs to wake kids up. They both were still asleep. But they quickly got up without any problems. I dressed them and took them to the bathroom to brush teeth. Then Isabel demanded to put her new bag on the back. She was extremely excited about the new bag and going to day care centre. She looked at herself in the mirror, laughing and clapping hands. I quickly took out the camera and got a few good shots.

At 7:20am, the whole family left the house and headed for the day care centre. It was only 2 minute walk down the road. After we got in, we put sunscreen on Isaac and Isabel, put their bags down, and went to the dining room to have breakfast. After they sat down, I said bye bye to them, got big hugs and kisses from them, then I left. But Mark stayed until 7:50am and he reported to me afterwards that all was well after I had gone.

This afternoon, Mark and I went to the day care centre at 5:45pm to pick them up. We saw them play in the backyard as soon as walked in. We quietly approached them without them noticing. Then one of the other kids yelled out "Isaac! Your mommy is here!" They turned around and saw us. All of a suddenly they were jumping up and down, squealing happily "Mommy!! Daddy!!!". Isabel was also clapping hands and laughing loudly. They looked so happy to see us!

After lots of hugs and kisses, we had brief chat with the teacher. Apparently Isabel was really good. Occasionally she was a bit upset, but she got happy very quickly when she was given a book to read or the teacher played with her. After lunch, she didn't want to sleep. So she was happily reading the book and playing on the computer. Then she got tired after a while and fell asleep. The teacher also said Isaac was really cute because during the in-door activities, he was constantly looking through the window between the two classrooms to check whether Isabel was okay (Isaac has moved to the pre-school room and Isabel is in the younger class).

Isaac and Isabel also gave us the report of the day. Isabel said she was a good girl and Isaac was very nice to her. Isaac said he looked after Isabel and told her "Don't cry, mommy will pick us up in the afternoon."

So as expected, Isabel had no problem adjusting to the day care life. She is just an all-around easy child.

Goodbye Play Station II

Isaac learned from daddy how to play games on Play Station during the Christmas holiday. It happened when I was out shopping and I guess it was the best way for Mark to have some "peace" in the afternoon when Isabel was asleep and Isaac was bored.

Isaac was pretty good doing it: racing the car, shooting the monsters, flying here and there... But I was constantly worried about his eyes.

Just when I was busy thinking about how to limit his play time, he broke the Play Station this morning!! When it wasn't working and Isaac asked me to fix it, I said I had no idea and we had to wait for daddy to come home. I didn't think it was anything serious. But when Mark got back and tried to fix it, he declared it was dead perhaps because Isaac put two discs in the drive the broke it.

Mark was upset about it. But I was happy - Isaac won't sit in front of the TV for so long any more! And I'm sure Mark is happy too because there might be a Play Station III on the way. Not so soon guys!

Isaac's first trip to cinema

It's definitely worth recording here: Isaac went to the cinema for the first time today!

This afternoon Nan and Opa took him to see Madagascar II Escape to Africa. Apparently he behaved so well, sitting there watching the movie intensely without making any noise or moving a muscle. When the movie ended, he said "I want to watch it again!" Nan explained to him it's not a DVD and can't be played again.

Isabel wanted to go as well, but she is a bit too young for that. So daddy took her for a walk in the shopping centre instead and she was happy straight away.

A pleasant surprise

So apparently I forgot to put a nappy on for Isaac last night. He was wearing the underpant after his shower and I thought I would put a nappy on when I took him to bed. I totally forgot about it.

Today I returned to work after 2-week holiday. Mark was home being the full-time daddy. When we talked on the phone, he asked me whether I had taken Isaac's nappy off and put the underpant on this morning. I realised what happened and was a bit horrified... thinking Isaac's bed was probably soaking wet. Then I noticed Mark was pretty happy and calm, which meant nothing bad had happened. Then Mark told me that Isaac said he got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. Wow!! I was very pleased hearing that! What an unexpected achievement!

I told Isaac on the phone that he should do this every night and no more nappies from now on. He happily said Yes. But, I'm still a bit skeptical whether he would keep up with the good job.

Happy New Year

We spent the New Year's Eve at Nan and Opa's house, again, eating and drinking and chatting and playing cards. As the New Year's Even tradition, Opa made the traditional Dutch "oily balls" for us.

2008 has been an eventful year. We went through some rather difficult and stressful times. We are happy that we have entered a new year and hope 2009 will bring us good health and lots of joy.