Muffin Tray

We arrive at our local swimming pool, just two minutes before class. I usually like to give Little Bambi about half an hour of play time before her swimming lesson. But obviously, there is no time for that. 

Grumpy unlocks her car seat belt and lifts her down to the ground. Little Bambi, all ready and dressed up in her bathing suit, she holds on to a muffin tray, for dear life.

Grumpy "LITTLE BAMBI, YOU CAN'T take your baking tray to the swimming pool!!!!!"

Little Bambi "BUT I WANT TO TAKE MY BAKING TRAY to the swimming pool!!!!!!"

Me (looking at the time) "JUST LET HER TAKE THE BAKING TRAY TO THE SWIMMING POOL!!!!!!!!"

She finally jumps into the pool with her swimming instructor and her friends, showing off her baking tray. 

One of the mums come to me and goes "What an interesting toy to bring to the swimming pool?!!!!"

"Oh god don't ask!"

Just a regular Saturday morning with the family!

Promotion

Work - I finally got the promotion I have been waiting for!! It was all dependant on this guy Arthur, leaving his role to work in a different department. I will be taking over Arthur's old role. There were no interviews (which was GOOD! But I did apply for a different role in that same team earlier in the year and was unsuccessful at that time). I do not have a start date yet, or details of a pay rise. Regardless I am very happy with the outcome. 

Yoga - YES! A crow pose, baby! It took a good three months of practice to hold myself up on my palms. It all happened on Grand Final Friday. I went for a morning class where the instructor did heaps of upper arm strengths variations. I attempted the crow pose there, but it did not work. Yet I felt I was ready. I got home, pulled out my mat again, gave it a shot and it worked! It felt effortless. I was extremely proud of myself! Grumpy and Little Bambi on the other hand, did not share the same level of excitement as I did. But whatever, I finally did the bakasana! Next up, a side crow!

Crow pose (bakasana)

Money - As much as I love yoga, it is not a cheap practice and I simply cannot afford paying for both yoga classes and my gym membership simultaneously. My monthly yoga pass has expired and I have another 6 months to go on my Fitness First contract. Sadly, I have to continue with the gym as it is the cheaper option. Boo!

Family - Now that winter is over, we finally made it to the beach for the first time since winter. Little Bambi absolutely loved it! Having said that, we have not had much luck with swimming lessons. The previous three lessons comprised of this same girl, screaming and crying during the entire lesson, for all three lessons.

Loving the warmer weather

Friends - Sydney boy spent the weekend in Melbourne and Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and I decided to meet him for breakfast on a Saturday morning. This is at The Grain Store, and the food was absolutely delicious.

Bed time!

Good night xx Jules

Patience

The past couple of months have been extremely busy.

Work is going really well. I really do enjoy what I am doing, the team that I am working with and all the new things I am learning. However, I am still impatiently waiting for the promotion I was promised. It still has not happened yet, and while I am doubtful, there is still a glimmer of hope that it could happen before year end. Sometimes I think maybe I should just leave, find another role that pays more. Yet, it is the people that I work with that makes a difference. They are a lovely bunch, very smart and friendly. I just need to be a bit more patient. 

Little Bambi and I travelled to Malaysia in July for a two week holiday. During my time in Malaysia, I got hooked on yoga. I used to do Body Balance in the gym and declared myself a yoga enthusiast. I was confident and told myself I was good at it. Boy, was I wrong. Now that I am doing yoga alone, I realised I never mastered the basics to begin with. To help improve my yoga practice, I decided to freeze my Fitness First membership and signed up for a month of unlimited classes at a yoga teacher training school. I am not doing yoga teacher training per se, but they do normal classes as well. I would actually love to do teacher training. If only I could afford the $7k fee (and time and commitment, i.e. potentially lose my day job). The best part of my yoga classes is my incredibly handsome male instructor. Did I mention he was Irish? Haha.

While I embrace yoga in recent months, I have also decided it is time for Little Bambi to start her swimming lessons again after her first attempt when she was 6 months old. We did not start off on the right foot back then, and unfortunately it seems like the tables have not turned. She is still crying in every class, and only wants to play in the baby pool! OH MY! I am a good swimmer (this one I stand by strongly, unlike my previous yoga claim). I have been swimming since I was a child (being the daughter of a navy captain). Swimming is very much in my DNA. I love it. And the funny part is that my daughter absolutely hates it. 

Since we returned from Malaysia, I have also started baking my own sourdough bread. It is quite an interesting process. It is not hard to bake your own bread. Just requires a bit of planning and patience. Lots of patience. Just like Little Bambi and her swimming lessons. 

Patience Jules, patience. 

And finally, just quickly, to follow up from my previous post, Little Bambi's third laser attempt has been a huge success! The birthmark is no longer visible and it appears that she has recovered so well from it. There is no scaring and the skin colour has adjusted back to normal. 

Okay, time to hit the sack now.

Good night!

Bravery

It is that time of the year again for Little Bambi to undergo laser treatment at the Royal Children's Hospital for the birthmark on her face. I dread it so much, I really do. Today was her third laser treatment and it was an real tough one for all of us, especially me.

Back in 2013, at 10 months, her first treatment. The doctors missed a portion of her birthmark from laser, citing reasons that it was not visible under theatre lighting. I know, it was a WTF moment for me.

One year later, at 20 months, her second round of laser. The doctors treated the entire birthmark. By then, 2/3 of the birthmark had been treated twice, while the remaining 1/3 only treated once. Overall, Little Bambi responded really well to laser treatment, and the entire birthmark is hardly noticeable at all. Doctors advised that she does not need any further treatment. They left the decision to me, for a third round to treat the small leftover area.

The decision for round three was difficult. Do I put my gorgeous little girl through the ordeal of laser and general anaesthetic again? For something so small? Was it even worth it?

I decided to delay the procedure to later this year. I told the doctors I needed time. Time was not something I could easily buy considering there was a 12 month waiting list for admission to operating theatre. I thought of Little Bambi, and considered the possibility of treatment much later, maybe when she's 5 or 6 years old. But then, 5 or 6 means she would remember it. For life! I then considered the doctors and the current government. We had both treatments completely bulk billed. I will not be surprised if at some stage the rules change and it comes at a cost. While cost should not be a factor, the level of care (apart from the area of the birthmark they missed) Little Bambi has received at the Royal Children Hospital has been excellent.

So there you go, I decided to proceed with the third round, despite differing opinions from Grumpy and my parents. I also wanted it done sooner rather than later. I wanted it done before her 3rd birthday and during winter, when there's less sun (for recovery). I had to negotiate with a lady at the hospital for Little Bambi to be brought forward in the waiting list. Then next up was for my mum to organise her flights so that she can be here for Little Bambi's recovery. Oh and lets not forget, convincing my family that this was the right thing to do. Was it?

Today entailed my mum and I waking up at 2am to feed Little Bambi milk. I then woke up at 4.30am, for some quiet time by myself with a hot cup of tea in hand. Calm before the storm. At 6am, I woke Little Bambi up, and fed her some juice. This was her last drink before fasting. By 6.30am we were out the house and at the hospital by 7am. My heart was aching. All week I explained to Little Bambi about the doctors putting a mask on her face and taking a short nap. She did not understand why but she accepted it, hesitantly. "Is the doctor checking me for my peanut allergy, mummy?" "I love you to the moon and back my gorgeous girl!"

At the hospital, waiting for her turn.

Because of her age, we waited forever for her turn. Young babies go in first, older ones go later.    Finally at 10.15am, they called us in. The anaesthetist was with us when the nurse handed me a gown for Little Bambi to change. As I took her clothes off, she said to me "Mummy, I want to keep my undies!" That definitely made the doctors laugh. Once we went inside the theatre, it was a completely different story. I don't blame her. A cold room with machines, and at least ten people all dressed up staring at you. She refused to lie down on the bed, making it more difficult for the gas to work. She fought the doctors hard when the mask was placed on her face, and it took about 4 people to hold her still. My heart ached. The anaesthetist assured me only the intelligent ones fight back. When she finally went to sleep, I walked out the theatre asking myself WHY?!

Finally at 11am, it was done. They called us in and Little Bambi is awake. She is disorientated and of course she's crying for me. I try my best to console her. I hold her close to me, tight. The nurse offers her an icy pole, and that makes everything better. Her appetite is back, and she enjoys some sandwiches with apple juice. I look at the eye, and this time round, the doctors have treated not only the remaining 1/3 of the birthmark, they treated small areas of the entire birthmark. I am not sure if I agree with that, although my mum assures me it was probably a good move. There is always a risk of discolouration.

Its over!

The swelling at her eye is quite bad. Did I mention how much it breaks my heart? Apart from the swelling, she is back to her cheerful self. My baby deserves the outstanding award for bravery. Well, my baby and all the other kids at the hospital today.

First Post for 2015

Its already mid-April and this is my first post for 2015. What can I say? It has been a very busy summer. 

Little Bambi is about to turn 'twee' in about two months. Time flies. As I was walking home from the train station today after work, I keep thinking what an amazing kid she is, my beautiful girl. 

Grumpy had a mild case of food poisoning last night. He thought he was going to die. I asked him this morning if he was still alive, and he replied yes. 

Work has been good. Very busy but good. I applied for a different role within the same team recently. Strange thing is that I hardly told anyone about it. I knew my chances were low, yet I had a glimmer of hope. On Wednesday this week, I was told that I was unsuccessful for the role. And I spent all night and the next day feeling sorry for myself. Having said that, my current boss pulled me aside just as I was about to head home today, and hinted about a possible promotion in July. JULY?! That is like 'twee' months away. Anyways there is nothing concrete there, but enough to cheer me up a little bit.

We had a swarm of visitors from KL travelling here for holidays since March, with Grumpy's family being the most recent one. Just as I thought that was the end of it all and I could recoup my energy levels and bank account balance... my parents informed me that they will arrive next week. 

Hoping to be able to write more frequently for the rest of the year. This is my way of keeping a diary and a collection of thoughts, memories and experiences. 

Lovely weekend all!

Shitburgers

Oh my, I cannot believe I survived this week. It has been extremely busy at work, so busy that I feel like I have just been taking shitburgers, one after another. I have been working late most nights, at home of course, doing work on my laptop. Yesterday was such an interesting day. 

At 6.30am, Grumpy took off with his mate to the airport - and they were travelling to Malaysia for a bucks party! So that means its just myself and Little Bambi at home, to fend for ourselves. 

I dropped her off to creche at 7am. She was the only kid there. I swear I drove back home with a massive pang of guilt! It is too early in the morning, and most kids only start coming in at 8am or 8.30am. 

I rushed to work on the train, grabbed my favourite coffee , made it to my desk by 8am and did my work as usual. At 12.15pm, my ex-boss from my old work organised lunch for 10 of us who used to work together, also in the same bank, but lunch was in a different building. I work in 500 Bourke Street, lunch was at 700 Bourke Street. Walked there, had lunch, said my hellos, and walked back again to 500. At 2.15pm, I packed my laptop, cleared my desk (bloody flexi-desk policy) and ran for my life to my next 2.30pm meeting at 800 Bourke Street. Bloody hell. Weather was warm, OMFG I was sweating like an effing pig! Also, I barely know my way around 800 Bourke building, which made it nearly impossible to make it in time to my meeting. Meeting rooms in this building are, as an example, 'Meeting room 1234', which means Pier 1, Level 2, Room 34. I found myself stopping people to ask "Excuse me, where's Pier 8?????"

2.30pm meeting went great. It still have no idea how I made it there in time. Then the next meeting, also in 800 Bourke, was at 3.30pm. It had some fancy name called 'The Hub - Meeting Room 2345'. This is rocket science, isn't it? Again, I had to ask someone, "Excuse me, where is The Hub, Pier 2?" The 3.30pm meeting was an interesting one, a Board meeting, I arrived 5 minutes early, only to find out I am the second last person to arrive. There were ten people already seated. The last person was of course the Chairman of the Board. Anyways, got it over and done with. TICK!

Next stop, back again in 700 Bourke St, to have a quick cup of coffee with Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch. It started to rain. Shitburgers.

The final stop, back to the CBD from Docklands, was at Campari house for our team drinks, which is all paid for by work. After drinks, I took the train (a bit tipsy) and got home at 8pm. 

While I did all of that, in the back of my mind, of course, I was thinking of my Little Bambi. Thank goodness I had Dopey. He was kind enough to offer to pick her up from creche. I made a checklist for him, which meant that he had to bath her, feed her dinner and put her to bed. Dopey had to be in Adelaide for work yesterday, but I twisted his arm, and he changed his Adelaide trip to next week. 

Last night, as I laid in bed, my legs sore and my head mentally exhausted, I was just glad the day was well and truly over! With Little Bambi by my side, I kissed her cheeks and tell myself how blessed I am that she is such a good kid. I do owe my brother big time for helping me out yesterday too. 

10 More Weeks Til Christmas

Little Bambi at 2 years and 4 months

We had a weekend filled with catching up with my friends - from work (actually). 

On Friday, an ex-workmate invited us for a playdate at the park for Little Bambi and her son. I felt bad because while I had work that day, I could only get to the park at 6pm. So it was a pretty late playdate. We finished at the park at 7pm, and rushed home for a shower and dinner. It was still pretty fun.

Saturday we did the usual routine. All three of us headed to Chaddy at 8.20am. I went to the gym for the 8.30am RPM class, while Grumpy and Little Bambi went to McDonalds for breakfast and they did a Coles run together. In the evening, we invited some friends over for dinner, including Little-Miss-Sailing, a new friend I made at work. Little-Miss-Sailing is from the Hong Kong office and I thought it would be nice for her to come over instead of spending her weekends by herself. 

This morning, we drove all the way to Eltham to meet another ex-workmate (from my previous previous work) Little-Miss-Frenchie (she really is French) and her 4 month old baby at the farmer's market. While the market was not great, there was a nice big park which Little Bambi could play in. 

Grumpy and I have not been feeling 110% over the last week because of hayfever and a chest infection. I am getting better though, so lets hope next week will be a lot better! 

10 more weeks til Christmas! 8 more weeks til my mum arrives!