Know that we love you very much and always will.

Happy 3rd Birthday, baby girl!

For our kids, we have decided that we will have a do of course and apparently over here, it is the norm to actually get bottles of wine that is from their birth year so for Arianna, we’ll have to be on the look out for wines from 2009 and I think at this point, it would be good to buy since good wine takes time to mature. I havent started my search yet but I’m definitely on the lookout for something that will be cherished. Any ideas?

I dont ask for much – no where near those steel buildings you see all over the place. Just a nice garage size room where I’d get me a nice long table so I can trace and cut my fabric. And then I’d get me a huge built-in wardrobe like storage space so I can stack my fabric in. Of course I’d need to get some decent wall racks for my HUGE collection of patterns and books. Of course I’d be sure to make one part of the room just for my knitting and crocheting things. Thinking about it makes me feel so excited but tis short lived. I’m back in reality where I’d be lucky to be able to cut fabric on my dining room tables!! O.o

I reckon if we did move into a house, I’d put up a compost bin too and perhaps that would encourage me to get a nice little veggie patch going and call it Yvy’s Organic Veg. I could work the kids and get them to do the digging and what not! lol

I don’t normally bring my camera out with me, I think the blogger in me is slowly dying! lol I still remember how stuck I was with my camera when I first started blogging. Everything had to be shot and blogged about, it was quite ridiculous actually!!! These days, I’ve mellowed tremendously but for the sake of keeping up the blog and to blog about the kids and watch them grow, I’m trying to make it a habit to bring my camera out with me.

Bradon having a go at the slidey thing. Hasn’t quite got the idea of climbing in but he’s getting there.

The girls being silly and pulling funny poses for me! lol

A relatively decent shot of KR….Lord knows how hard it is to photograph a hyper active child!!

The 2 men in my life….

And finally….

A shot of me and the kids. So rare….!! My MIL teased me today when I showed her this pix, ‘O, so you ARE part of this family!’. LOL Cheeky old lady she is. As you can see, I dont normally take pix of myself mainly because I feel like a sack of potatoes on a pair of match sticks. I’m tempted to just click http://www.dietpillsideeffects.com/7-dfbx/. And if I did, Ted would say that I didnt need to….he loves me just the way I am and I am happy that he feels that way.

I cant complain really. While I have no else to blame for what I look like today, I feel that I can still save myself and that is the reason why I have been trying to be good and have started a slightly healthy snacking habit. I’ve been taking raw veg sticks to work to munch on instead of munching on biscuits, bars and chips. Might take time to kick in and lose weight but I am hopeful. And if at all, I do not lose any weight, at least my digestive system will thank me!

All smiles and happy….and then….

As we were walking downhill of the driveway, it is rather steep going done, he missed a step and went face first into the cement driveway with a thud! ( Poor thing didnt know what hit it I reckon but there are scratches and a big bump on his forehead! O how he cried coz he had to let the neighbourhood know about it but it was nothing a piece of plastic couldnt fix, you see? Once the dummy was in and the car got moving, he promptly fell asleep.

While he was quite happy to be asleep, we were concerned if he has a concussion or something coz you just never know with kids but praise the Lord he was his happy self after his nap. And I think has totally forgotten about the whole thing.

The one who kissed the driveway…

Can even watch footy with Daddy…both boys had their own drink in the hand. Boys will be boys!!

I honestly have to say that this is the first time such a thing has happened to us. Nothing remotely close to this has happened with the girls. It makes me wonder if this is just a boy thing – prone to falling all over the place and getting bruises as part and parcel of growing up. *sigh* Ted was asking him today as they were watching NRL if he wanted to play it when he grew up. Lemme tell you, while I love this sport, I dont know if I can take watching him get hurt as this game is the raw deal! Getting hurt is almost a sure thing…and if I couldn’t handle this small injury, I wont be able to survive the knocks you get with NRL, no way!!! So Brandon, I’m afraid you’ll just have to pick up golf up but you stay away from Tiger Woods ok?

While back in Malaysia, the junk mail we receive is mostly for sales for everything under the sun, over here I noticed that its for new restaurants around the area which to a certain degree isn’t that bad but still….

I’m sure it is not cheap to print business adverts nor would it be for plastic cards printing that sometimes I feel sorry for these people. I personally do not appreciate the junk mail that I get in my postbox but *shrugs* perhaps other people do.

First impression I got when I opened the box and actually had the Boba in my hand was how vibrant and Aussie the design was! (Bonus points for having the Aussie touch. Heh.) The Kangaroo print was the runners up in the Boba’s 2010 Spoonflower Design Contest and was designed by Eva Chang. She did an EXCELLENT job coz to me, even Daddy wouldn’t mind putting this on in public!

How cute is that??

Another reason why I am loving the Boba Baby Carrier 3G is because the weight intended for this carrier is 7-45lbs or 3-20kg and through my experience and research there are very few carriers that go up to 20kg, and for us this carrier will go a long way as B is only 10kg and KR is 15kg. Anyway, here is what we think about the Boba :

The testers : B (1.5 yrs/10kg) & KR (3y/15kgs)

For both kids, I found that the back carry option worked best for us. While I can still front carry B, it didnt take long before I could feel the strain on my back, so I feel that at this weight the back carry is the preferred choice for us plus his point of view is also different. That said, when I was carrying B on the front, the waist strap supported my back quite well until his weight took its toll on me! So I am assuming for lighter kids/babies, the support from the straps will do its job well.

Both didn’t quite like having their feet in the foot strap because they just prefer swinging their legs about and also because our usual babycarrier doesnt have one. That aside, I think this feature is a definitely a good one and one that I have not noticed in the other carriers that I have tried.

Out and about with KR

The one thing that didnt quite sit well with me is that the Boba doesn’t have that additional feature that my carrier has. It’s like a security feature which is an inside panel that helps me feel more confident and secure when transitioning bub onto my back. I’ve never been good with getting bub on my back on my own – I always need help but I reckon with practice, getting bub on the back with the Boba should be easy peasy!
A personal note to those who are new to trying the back carry option : Always have someone nearby in case your hands should slip, you’ll never know! And if possible, try it on nearby a bed or sofa – something for a soft landing, just in case, you know?

In a nutshell, I truly wished that when I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I had done my research and not just bought the first baby carrier I saw at Baby Warehouse (I think it was). We (DH and I) liked the look and loved the features that we read but we didnt do our homework about it to see if there were other options. I didnt know ANYTHING about babycarriers. I didnt even know they existed back then and while we were happy to have purchased it, it didnt last long as A just grew out of it so fast (as all babies do) – it was not cheap either! Back then, I wished I had known about carriers like the Boba which caters for newborns right up to toddlers. And with the Boba, you dont even need to get extra inserts like mine does. All you need to do is follow some intructions to adjust the Boba so that your new bub gets the proper support.

So the lesson of the day is : Do your homework! And happy babywearing – nothing beats having your baby close to you.

Disclosure : No payment or compensation, other than product samples as described above, was received for this post. All opinions given here are solely my own.

See what I mean by being bestfriends? Its really lovely to see them this way though.

This is one of my fav shots of the kids! LOL I’m sure you all know why.

Going thorough my camera, I realised that I have not been taking much pix of the kids at all. I have almost nothing to share! But here are just 2 more to seal the deal for now.

Love this shot of Brandon although he is behind bars, holding my measuring tape ransom.

Arianna trying to dance with Brandon, but Brandon’s not buying it! lol

I’ve had my camera for ages and it can be said the same about my batteries too. I use rechargeable ones coz they last longer AND are rechargeable. They may cost a bomb to buy initially but when you work out how many batteries you’d end up using in its place, rechargeables are the way to go.

But just my luck, my batteries were dying on me not because I hadnt fully charge them for the day, they were just plain old. I knew it was high time to get new ones but I didnt know where to look or where to get them. Then along comes David and tells me about duracell procell d and for the life of me, I have no idea what he is talking about. So I’m going to haul myself to Bunnings to see if they have any of these. You learn something new everyday, dont we?