Saturday, February 26, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Road trip
With all the excitment of our new sports luxury Lexus, Kristian, Hugo and I made the journey down to Thirroul* last Sunday to meet up with Kaylee (Kristian's cousin).
Despite the thunder and lightning, torrential rain and heavy fog, the journey was great to sleep in to Hugo, full of great potential dangers to me and "just great" according to Kristian, which goes to show how much he loves that car. Not enough to wash and polish it every weekend though methinks, if only Peter lived closer ;)
Anyway, we didn't pick the best weather to travel in, but despite that we had a fantastic time and this is what we learnt:
- Kaylee + Hugo = good clucky combination, Kaylee + Reina + Hugo = lethal clucky combination;
- According to Kristian, the nearby town of Bulli (pronouced Bull-eye) is actually pronounced Bully. We all have it wrong. He doesn't;
- There are few restaurants open in Wollongong on a Sunday evening and absolutely none in Thirroul;
- Those few open restaurants will take you about 30 mins to locate;
- You can pretty much cover all of Wollongong in that time;
- Kristian's technical skills are greatly appreciated in a Canadian bachelor pad with little-to-no IT know-how that is highly dependent on the net. He will be deemed 'Hero of the month', which he'll quietly think is just about right;
- Road rules don't apply to Thirroul so the town is full of absolute speed fiends!
* For those who don't know, Thirroul (God knows how it's pronounced) is around 80km south of Sydney. The nearest city is Wollongong (pronounced wool-on-gong), which is approximately 100kms south of Sydney and only a 10 min drive from Thirroul. The journey from Sydney takes around an hour and a half to accomplish.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
First Chinese New Year
The following is conversation snippets from our family Chinese New Year yum cha feast:
"Excuse me, can I have a glass of lemonade please?" Andrew asked the waiter.
"No, later," he said and walked away.
***
"Catherine, look at that baby," Mum said to me in Mandarin.
"So ugly, no one's baby as beautiful as Hugo."
"Mum, you can't say that," I replied.
"Huh! Ay-yah, it's true, just look. You can always find many faults," she said.
"Ok, you're right," I slowly admitted.
"Hm. Your mother is always right. Also right in wanting more grandchildren. I give you 12 months. Fourteen months is also good. Yes."
"Mum, give me some time," I said.
"You just have the baby, I'll look after it," she replied.
"Gee, that makes it all better."
***
At the end of Kristian's sarcastic remark, a hearty laugh escaped from everyone's lips, with the exception of Esther. No longer preoccupied, she suddenly turned to face him.
"What was it?" she asked.
"Nevermind, you've missed it," he said.
"That doesn't matter, tell me. I'll laugh anyway."
We all laughed again. That's typical of my sister.
***
"Catherine, I have a hom bou for Hugo," said Mum.
"Mum, please, you don't have to," I said.
"Rubbish," said Kristian. "Of course she has to."
"Yes, that's right. I'm his grandmother and this is his first Chinese New Year. You just take a picture of me, him and the hom bou," she snapped.
"Ok," I said. "But he hasn't mastered the art of gripping anything yet."
As soon as that sentence escaped my lips, my son betrayed my words and held onto his first object - a little red envelope filled with money.'
"Oh no!" I gasped.
"Haha, good boy," said Kristian. "Daddy's taught you well."
***
"Excuse me, can I have a glass of orange juice?" Andrew later asked a waiter.
"No! I give you lemonade," he firmly replied.
"Ok then."
***
Today was the last day of the Chinese New Year - may this one bring you all good fortune!
xx
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Three months: a retrospective picture story
Hugo turns three months old this week so we've featured some of our favourite pictures and stories in celebration below.
We hope you enjoy them!
xxx
Newborn: How wonderful life is...
After finding out three months beforehand and enduring six hours of labor, Hugo Wolfgang was born on Wednesday 10 November at 6.48pm. He was three week's early and I was awfully thankful as he already weighed 3.7kgs and was 52cms long.
Kristian's first words were, "What's wrong with his head?"
I felt elation, shock and pain, but we were both immediately in love.
Sporting a funky light brown mohawk and blue eyes, I wasn't surprised when my Asian relatives looked hard for a similar trait. I occassionally still look for one too, he's so obviously his Daddy's boy.
Month One: A month of crazy sleep
From no sleep to a little more... a month into the journey was all about watching Hugo catch some zzzzs...
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Two months going on...
At the age of two month's, Wolfie decided that lying down was for babies, so unless you propped him up in a sitting position he would cry like one.
Unsatisfied with the weight of a newborn, he also ate like a trooper and became the weight of a 3-4 month child.
"Good boy," we thought.
"Soon you'll be big enough to eat other babies."
He also started to sleep through the night (woohoo!), his neck muscles developed greater strength and he started to smile a lot more. In fact, Kristian and I used to spend the better half of our days just trying to make him do so.
Not much has changed...
Month Three: I'm on my way from misery to happiness to misery then happiness....
Yes, Hugo's starting to express his likes and dislikes a little more now:
- He loves it when Mum and Dad sing to him, but is a little wary when they do so together;
- He adores the feeling of water on his skin, but will certainly start singing (ie. screaming) in the shower if you take him away from it!
- Meals are always good no matter what the time, even when he's sleeping;
- Car rides are fun, but traffic lights are not (yes, he's learning quick); and
- Sucking on his dummy/pacifier is great, but trying to suck on his whole hand is better (the best when he actually misses his mouth and then tries to find it).
This parenting stuff rocks.