Work or Breaking Bad

It has been more than 2 months since my last post. Most of my time has been spent on work or Breaking Bad. To sum it all up:

• Did my first cupcake decorating class. Enjoyed it. However, have not done anything related to baking in the kitchen since. Too lazy. I did borrow a Planet Cakes book from the library for further motivation. 
• Catching a cold for the 4th and 5th time this year. The same with Grumpy. Either he gets it first and then passes it on to me, or vice versa.
• Did my first Dress Rehearsal weekend for work. It was such a stressful and exhausting week. And ended up reporting to a previous Queen Bitch manager (whom I used to work for back in 2007 in a different company) for a couple of weeks. Lesson learnt : Melbourne is such a small market. You never know who you end up working with. 
• We finally did our first trip together on our own with Little Bambi to Sydney. It was a huge success! We had lots of fun, and we caught up with my darling BFF Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot (who hasn't been drinking, really because of breastfeeding) and her gorgeous little bubba. 
• We found out Little Bambi is allergic to something… what exactly, we still do not know. When she had the reaction, we were so scared for her. Now we are waiting for our appointment with the allergist. 
• Applied for an internal role with the firm. Failed to secure it. Ah well, disappointing.
• However, Little Bambi getting accepted for full time care next year at our preferred childcare centre - Jumping JOY! What a huge relief.
• Little Bambi's vocabulary has improved and she can count one to six, and she says A, B, C, B! 
• We finally installed evaporative cooling at home, after the last dreadful summer I endured while on maternity leave. And then 5 weeks later, our hot water system broke down, and we had to replace that too. So definitely feeling very poor right now.
• Survived 6 whole days without running hot water at home. Utter madness, yes it is!

Overall, it has been an interesting 2 months. Now its all about prepping for Xmas and the New Year!

15 Months

Poor Little Bambi with her swollen eyes

Happy 15 months my Little Bambi! Unfortunately she picked up conjunctivitis from child care on Thursday, and has been suffering from red and swollen eyes since. She has been a bit grizzly and as such, we have kept her home, making sure she gets lots of rest.

At 15 months exactly yesterday, she took her first steps on her own! My baby is walking! My baby is walking! *sobs* How fast has she grown?!? We have been busy taking videos of her taking her baby steps, (with her red eyes - my poor bubba). She is doing really well walking without any assistance, and loving every minute of her new profound independence. However, at certain times of the day, she resorts back to crawling as it is just a quicker way of transportation. 

I decided at 15 months, I would stop breastfeeding completely. Little Bambi handled being weaned off extremely well, and I still marvel at the easy going baby that she is when it comes to feeding and sleeping. In fact, if there was anyone that did not cope too well with the transition, it was me! I must admit I felt quite sad, which is only natural (especially with the hormones).

Also at 15 months, despite all the wonderful traits that she has been showing, she started learning the art of throwing tantrums! It does sound awful, and I assure you that it is! She throws herself to the floor, kicking and screaming until she gets her way. Oh my, how and what do I do with this?! Plenty of reading and advice from other mums, I guess.

So there we go, three big development milestones at 15 months - walking, weaning and tantrums. My gorgeous little girl - I am still so crazy in LOVE with you.

Sore Back

Oh my, I am suffering from a sore back. As much as I hate to say it, I know it comes from carrying Little Bambi. My chubby bubba is approximately 12 kgs, and loves to be carried only by me! She insists, she only wants 'mummy'!

I think I am joining my other colleagues at work who spend their days complaining about their bad backs and exchanging contacts for good chiropractors, osteopaths and physiotherapists. What is happening to me?!

By the way, I have booked myself in for a massage at Endota Spa tomorrow.

Yesterday I picked her up from childcare, and she had a red eye. I noticed a sign on the door saying Little Bambi's room has a confirmed case of conjunctivitis, and true enough, she's got it too! We brought her to the doctors last night, dropped by the chemist for some eye drops, and today, she stayed at home with me (while I worked from home). I scheduled her naps during my meetings which I had to dial in to, and she slept on cue (bless her!).

It has been an exhausting week. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Good night!

Hello 31!

The weekend before my birthday, I spent my entire Saturday volunteering for Daffodil Day.

The next Sunday, we did a spontaneous trip to Daylesford and we had a yummy lunch at The Farmers Arms Hotel. 

More food mama!

The Lavandula Farm in Daylesford

The long drive and lunch obviously made Little Bambi quite tired..

Then the week came and it was busy at work (as usual). 

Coincidently, all of us mummies from Mothers Group agreed (a few weeks before) to go out for dinner and drinks on Thursday night, and they surprised me with a cake! 

Then on Friday, we did a scavenger hunt for work. I was made the team captain of my team, and I cringed when I found out my bosses boss was in my team! But in the end, it probably worked to our benefit because we won! Either that, or it was because I picked Richmond for our team (as I am a Tigers supporter).

This is when we had to eat a pie, all at the same time.

And finally on Saturday, Grumpy prepared a feast at home for our friends and Dopey.

Home made yong tau foo and soy sauce braised pork belly

Group shot with Little Bambi and even the dog!

With Little Bambi a bit older now, I have been able to celebrate my birthday this time round with more activities, and it has been a lot of fun! Of course Grumpy played a big part in it all, supporting me with the charity work, looking after Little Bambi while I was out at night or staying back for work. And of course, with him cooking all my favourite food and sharing a meal with my closest friends together with Little Bambi, it was the perfect way to celebrate my 31st birthday! Here's to the first year of my thirties!

Sleep Better

Things have been a lot better since the start of the month.

For starters, at the end of July, my old boss at work told me about a potential BA role in her stream. I jumped immediately and was all like "Pick me! Pick me!". The next day which was a Thursday, I met the hiring project manager and my old boss for coffee at a restaurant downstairs in our building, and in less than 15 minutes, the project manager goes "Yes, I want you on board. Lets get the ball rolling". By that Friday, my current boss released me from my previous role effective immediately, and I was so happy that I did not have to deal with any of the idiot consultants who have been causing me so much grief! This secondment role is a different step from my previous project management role, but considering my mummy status now, my priorities have changed. I am still in the same effing 'never ending' project, but just working in a different stream.

Requesting for this change of roles at work, I highlighted to my bosses about my need for work life balance at the moment. Working full time, I need to be able to leave the office on time, which I have NOT been able to do at all previously. My hours have changed slightly, I start at 8am instead of 8.30am. And so I leave work at 4.30pm instead of 5pm. Also, I squeezed in a request to be able to work from home on Fridays. I still send Little Bambi to childcare on Fridays, but with working from home, I am able to drop her off later, and pick her up earlier.

So there you go, the pressure has been off for the moment. Its strange, how I never liked my old boss when I started at the firm, and now we are close and she has been instrumental with this move. On Thursday this week, we went to the Cancer Council Victoria for Volunteer Day (with work) together.

At home, it has been a bit over two weeks now that my mum has left. So Grumpy and I are on our own caring for Little Bambi. It has been challenging, a bit tiring at times, but overall, we are closer than before. Its all about teamwork right? In the mornings, after I wake Little Bambi up, I breastfeed her, and straight away hand her over to Grumpy, while I run for the train. He then puts her on the potty, changes her nappy, dresses her, and drops her off to childcare. He is also in charge of cooking - he whips up dinner for Little Bambi and us too.

Working full time, I know how my time with Little Bambi is limited. I only get to spend full days with her on weekends. And as such, I have decided to hire a cleaner, that comes to our place once a fortnight. This cleaners costs us an arm and a leg, but that gives me the luxury of spending more time with Little Bambi, instead of scrubbing toilets.

I have also started going back to the gym now. Previously, working long hours, being stressed, lack of sleep blah blah blah, made going to the gym nearly impossible. But now, I go for classes with two of the mums from our Mothers Group, which is great. It is important for me to be fit and healthy, and at the same time, keep in contact with the mums. They update me with the latest goss, new trends and baby developments. We have a girls night out planned in two weeks, and I am looking forward to it.

I sleep better these days, and also, after taking a dose of antibiotics, I have recovered from my cold and throat/chest infection.

My birthday is at the end of this month. I am getting old. What a bitch!

15 Year Anniversary

While sitting at my desk at work this morning, looking at today's date, I realised it was our 15 year anniversary. Since we got married, we stopped celebrating the 8th of August because the 23rd of January became the new official anniversary. Regardless, I still remember the 8th of August very fondly, and 15 years is a big enough milestone for us!

I have been looking at my iPhone and my laptop, searching for a recent photo of just the two of us. Unfortunately there is NONE! Oh dear.. its either the three of us together (like the one here), or just myself and Little Bambi, or Grumpy with Little Bambi. But that is okay, before the arrival of Little Bambi, we had like 14 years of 'just the two of us' photos. 

Having my mum live in our home for the past couple of months, we have been lucky to be able to sneak out for date nights (while my mum stayed home to look after Little Bambi). We would go to the movies at least once a week at night, and also, every Thursday night, we would head to 2 Brothers for some beer and a pizza, just for some alone time. But this arrangement was not permanent, of course. It has been over a week now that my mum has left Melbourne to return to Malaysia, and so its back to just Grumpy and myself with Little Bambi. So far we have been enjoying our family time together.

Okay I am getting sleepy now. Bed time for me! Happy anniversary to my dearest Grumpy, the father of my Little Bambi. Now that she is in our lives, looking back, I would not have it any other way. 

13 Months

I was not sure if I should continue taking Little Bambi's monthly portraits after she turned one, but I decided to continue for my own pleasure, seeing how quickly she's grown into the little girl that she is.

At 13 months, Little Bambi is so much fun. On Thursday night, as usual, I put her to bed at 7pm, then I left her room to have dinner with Grumpy. 30 minutes later, I went to check on her, if she was asleep, but she was not. She was just lying in her cot, talking and playing with her stuffed toys. We spent the next hour and a half, just giggling and being silly together.

At 13 months, she is still not interested in walking. She still loves to be carried and cuddled, she is very affectionate (in other words, quite clingy). But that is okay, considering she spends 4 full days in child care each week. That gives her every right to be clingy with her mum and dad!

Her hair is growing now, which is great because I love doing stuff to her hair. Haha this is one of the reasons I wanted a daughter in the first place! In this photo, she actually has a little pony tail at the back of her head.

At 13 months, she has learnt to become a picky eater. I read that it is normal among toddlers. She still accepts all types of food. However, the difference now is that half way through a meal, she will decide that she has had enough. That it is, mama! No more, I don't want any more food, get it out of my sight! Jeeezzzzz...

Recently, she has been obsessed with baths. She has always enjoyed bath time, it is a fact, but now, she is clever enough to REFUSE to leave her bath. After Grumpy has soaped her and all, he will try to lift her out the bath, instead she holds on to both sides of the bath with her little pruned fingers - clinging on for dear life. She is absolutely hilarious. I can't imagine my life without her!