Row row row your boat
Don’t forget your net
Catch a hippopotamus
Keep her as a pet
Hold hold hold the teeth
Hold with all your might
Should have listened to your mom
Because OUCH THAT HURTS!
Updated: Episode 4 of Olay 360 Transformation is out, and it’s all about skin elasticity and exercise. Have fun watching!
Right from the time the kids were born, we were certain co-sleeping wasn’t going to work for us. From a very practical perspective, there just wasn’t enough space and while the idea of sleeping with a baby seems so irresistibly sweet, the actual doing is considerably more uncomfortable.
The sweetness lasts for 3 minutes and after that, they turn into little sleep tyrants. They do windmills on the bed, monopolise every inch of space and before I know it, I’m squeezing myself into a 50cm strip of space on my bed.
Occasionally, their diaper leaks and I find myself waking up in a puddle of pee. That’s not my own. Not that I wake up in my own pee regularly (or at all) but it’s so much worse waking up in someone else’s pee. If I had to wake up in a puddle of pee, I’d choose my own any day. Just like if I ever got stung by a jellyfish, I’d much rather pee on myself than have someone else do it.
So from the beginning, we were diligent in getting them to sleep on their own beds. We did up a gorgeous nursery, bought them supercool toddler beds, gave them cold turkey and taught them to sleep on their own, feeling mighty proud of ourselves.
But…and you know there’s a but because there’s ALWAYS a but. The ‘but’ sometimes comes in the form of a dark stormy night when the kids wake up crying with nightmares. Or a persistent virus that requires through-the-night supervision. Or just a moment of weakness coupled with puppy dog eyes.
And when the ‘but’ happens, everything goes belly up very quickly.
Which explains why the nursery has been unused for several months now. The latest sleeping arrangement involves 2 mattresses laid out in our room every night and you’d think it’s for the kids to sleep but more often than not, we find ourselves on the mattresses while the kids usurp our bed.
We’ve been wanting to restart the sleep training but the though of having to sit in their room for hours through the night terrifies me. On good days, I get to crawl into bed at midnight and an hour in, I have to stumble my way into the nursery because one of them is awake and asking to sleep in our room. So let’s see, option 1 is to sit there with them till they fall asleep or option 2, cave and let them come over so we can all get some decent sleep.
Right now, we’re even contemplating turning the nursery into our secret back up sleeping room but they’re probably going to invade that too.
Seriously, how do you guys do it?
I’ll be doing one last post on Melbourne and I’ve saved my favorite for the last.
Well it’s hard to really pick a favorite because the entire trip was filled with the most incredible experiences and seeing all those places through the kids’ eyes have been just awesome. I hope you enjoyed reading all the posts as much as I did writing them.
Anyhow, top of the list goes to Phillip Island Penguin Parade. This phenomenon happens only at nightfall and Phillip Island is one of the few places in the world where you can get up close to witness the Fairy Penguins crossing the beach on the way back to their burrows on the island.
They don’t allow photography on the beach, so these stock images come courtesy of Tourism Victoria.
The cover of night gives them a bit of camouflage as they scuttle across the beach back home and apparently, it’s the most terrifying thing they have to do in their lives.
Because they’re so tiny, it takes them many steps to make it across and in that time, they’re most susceptible to predator attacks. And it’s not like the poor penguins are physically equipped to run very fast so it’s very cute to see them put in so much effort to make that one crossing. Some of them cross halfway, then freak out and run back to the ocean.
The kids both fell asleep just as the penguins came out so they missed the whole thing. We tried waking them up like “Kids want to see penguins? Wake up quick!!” Tru took one look at them, then climbed back into his stroller to sleep. Kirsten woke up to peer at them for a while and decided to throw her duck duck over the barricade “to share with the penguins.” Good thing the ranger managed to rescue it or that would have marked the unfortunate end of yet another duck.
Speaking of penguins, we saw some King Penguins over at the Melbourne aquarium. They’re much bigger than the little ones (yeah, DUH!) but no less cute.
Also, I realized I haven’t talked much about the first leg of the trip with the other bloggers. So just a quick shout out to the folks at Tourism Victoria, OMY and Jetstar, who went to great lengths to make the trip unforgettable. And to the rest of the bloggers who went for the trip, your company made it so much more special.
One last thing, Episode 3 of Olay 360 is out here, bringing you the importance of hydration and tips on what to eat for healthy skin by Dr Leslie Tay.
Alright, that’s the lot. Have a good weekend, folks!
