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December 2013

precious moments

2013 in a few words and pictures

At the end of every year, I sit down and do this post, to remember the very best parts of the year gone by. Even if the year wasn’t stellar or filled with moments I’d rather not relive, it’s cathartic to sort of acknowledge the not-so-good parts, feeling glad that perhaps the worst is over.

But mostly to find and celebrate the good parts.

2013 has been one of the good ones.

As far as years go, it was overwhelming. Present throughout the year was a feeling that I was barely catching up with everything I wanted to do. All the balls I had up in the air each felt like they were threatening to fall just out of my reach the moment I took my glance off it and onto something else. Sometimes I think maybe we should slow down and take our feet off the pedal just a little but the husband and I have a condition of being chronically restless and a smidge masochistic so we’re constantly flinging up new balls into the air just because.

But on the bright side, I dare say that we’ve gotten a lot done this year. A lot to celebrate and thankful for.

Adjusting to 3 kids has been exciting but it’s also been the year we’ve had the most fun with the three of them. There’s never been more adventures in the park or giant bear hugs (especially from baby Finn, who spends his day randomly doling out tummy squeezes to his siblings) or pre-bedtime tumbles or synchronised battle cries as they charged around the house, roaring in unison. Good times.

Ok, enough words. My 2013 in pictures.

1. Is this the raddest baby of the year or what? My heart can’t even, urgh, he’s too cute is what. 

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baby finn

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2. So Bali was breathtaking and loads of fun, if not for the lizards and occasional uhm, FROG.

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bali kids

3. Truett turned 5?!! and I made an angry birds cake for his party – achievement unlocked. 

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4. Sydney and Melbourne were awesome as always. 

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5. My baby girl turned 4 in style. This girl is the beat of my heart. 

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6. And then there was that time I tried to change a dollar coin with a stranger and she thought I was begging for money. There will be no pictures for that. 

7. New York, oh, New York, how you’ve stolen my heart. I’ll be back for you. 

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kirsten ice cream

tru fao schwartz

me with the kids

8. Disney! Disney does not require words. 

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9. We also witnessed the evolution of The Hair.  

From this:

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To this:

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To this:

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And finally to this:

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10. Of all the great things that happened this year, watching my babies loving on each other is the very best one of all.

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all 3 kids

However your year went, I hope the year ahead is better than ever. See you guys in the new year!

pregnancy

Pregnancy induced narcolepsy

It’s been an excellent Christmas by all accounts but I just haven’t been enjoying it like I should. My head tells me that all this is great and I should be having a good time but you know how when you’re pregnant and everything just draaaaags…

This pregnancy has not been kind to me, is all I’m going to say.

ALL THAT DELICIOUS FOOD EVERYWHERE AND MY BRAIN WON’T LET ME ENJOY IT. Nausea and vomiting aside, I’m also flat out exhausted. So many fun christmas parties to attend but I just want to be in a horizontal position all day. By the time I get to 10 in the morning, my system starts to go into shut down mode and I lie down for just a minute because my head feels so heavy and bam, I’m out cold. It’s like full on narcolepsy hitting me square in the face. I try to will myself to focus but none of those mind over matter techniques seem to be working. It’s no good, my body just won’t cooperate.

All I could think of is that I’ve never be gladder to be working from home because if I was working in an office and falling asleep all over the place like that, I’d be so fired.

My OBGYN says I should be *ahem* getting as much rest as I can, even if it involves 4-hour naps in the middle of the morning. He even offered me MCs to be on bed rest until I felt better – best doctor ever.

I’d love to say that I’m enjoying all the extra rest but most of the time, I wake up feeling as tired as before I napped and increasingly miserable because I just lost two hours taking a nap that doesn’t seem to help. I feel like I’m sluggish and unproductive and half drugged and there’s so much to do and I need to snap out of this.

On the bright side, the kids have been the sweetest. They take turns to tuck me into bed and fuss over me and the other day, I heard Kirsten shushing baby Finn and saying “shhhh, be quiet, mommy is pregnant she needs to rest.”

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i love christmas

It’s Christmastime!

It’s here! Christmas is here!!

(So is santa baby, it seems.)

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This is us signing off for the holidays. We’ve been so blessed this year and we’re really thankful for all the friends we’ve made through the blog, the love and kindness we’ve received from all of you. Thanks for sharing our lives and we hope that in some small way, this little blog has brought some joy and laughter to yours.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful time filled with love and peace and joy.

Merry Christmas!!

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kids inc

Reading with Elephant & Piggie

You guys! We just found the best kids books ever. Ok, we found it a while back and I only finally managed to get around to talking about it.

We’ve been trying to get the kids to fall in love with reading since they were born and on the scale of being interested in books, Tru has mostly been on the end of “not entirely impressed”. We got them tons of Dr. Seuss, Julia Donaldson, Oliver Jeffers, and he does sort of join in our reading sessions but often with very little enthusiasm.

And then a friend bought them a book from the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.

Total gamechanger.

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Tru loved it. He almost never voluntarily picks out books to read on his own but these days, we often spy him sitting on the couch with a book in his hand and a smile on his face and I AM SO THRILLED to see my son in love with words (and pictures!). He thinks they’re hilarious and he’ll be giggling to himself while he reads. Did I mention that he’s reading them on his own? He still struggles with some words but his reading has improved tremendously since he started on these books and yes, I can’t stop raving.

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The husband was so impressed he went out and bought the entire series from book depository.

You know what? We love these books so much I’m doing a giveaway – just a little something on the house. I have two of Truett’s favorite elephant and piggie books up for grabs. Just leave a comment below with your favourite kid’s book of all time and two winners will be chosen randomly. Contest ends at 11.59pm on Friday, 27 December.

a spot of singapore, giveaways reviews ads

Getting Mystica-ed at the Night Safari

We were at the Night Safari’s Mystica over the weekend and it occurred to me that even though we love zoos and animals (we visited 3 zoos and 2 wildlife parks during one trip to Melbourne), we’ve hardly been to the Night Safari. Maybe just once or twice since it opened.

I have to admit that we subconsciously steer clear of the touristy type of attractions back home – partly because we feel like it’s always going to be there and we’ll have a chance to visit anytime. And then things get busy and it turns out to be never.

Well, that’s going to change starting right now.

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If you haven’t been to the Night Safari for a while, December is the best time to do it because that’s when Mystica happens – when the whole park turns into a dazzling wildlife wonderland.

Also, December is usually the time where parents start putting together activities to keep the kids meaningfully occupied and instead of doing the usual mall or movie routine, the kids are going to have way more fun on a nighttime adventure with all the animals, so it all works out.

At Mystica, the lights are up everywhere and the costumes + performers are out in full swing. Like these flamingo dancers. When I was a kid, I used to get confused by flamenco dancers and I’d call them flamingo dancers but these, these were definitely flamingos.

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And this particular plant, which I believe to be a venus boobtrap flytrap.

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And this uhm, I have no idea what this is. Some kind of plant/bird hybrid? But points for effort, double exclamation point!!

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The last time we visited the Night Safari, we didn’t feel quite adventurous enough to venture out on the walking trails lugging two tired toddlers so we just hopped on the tram and that was it. This time, we were determined to check out not one, but all four trails. I mean, the kids don’t have wilderness explorer badges for nothing, right?

Armed with their maps and spirit of adventure, they led the way starting from the wallaby trail.

It turned out to be so much fun.

A wallaby hopped right up to us in the middle of the trail and we saw tigers, lions, hyenas, leopards, flying squirrels snakes and roof rats, among other cool/gross animals, all just chilling out doing their nighttime thing. Baby Finn is really into making animal sounds lately so he had a great time roaring to his heart’s content.

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There was a bit of a queue for the tram after we were done so we hopped out for some neon face painting. It’s like ordinary face painting, except with neon glow in the dark paints.

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Meet my little lion and butterfly.

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And what’s face painting without a bit of role-playing? Truett spent the rest of the evening trying to sneak up on Kirsten like a lion while she flapped her little butterfly wings flittering around.

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There was also a glow in the dark photo booth where they could admire each others’ glowing face paint. In the dark. It was all kinds of cool.

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After having visited quite a number of zoos, I can say for a fact that our Night Safari is hands down, one of the best in the world.

We’ll be doing this again soon.

*Mystica 2013: Wildlife Wonderland will be happening this weekend (20-21 December), as well as 27 through to 31 December, from 6.30pm – 9.30pm. 

**PAssion Card members will enjoy 10% off Night Safari admission from now till 31 Dec.