Family reunion!

It’s been over a month since I arrived home from Malaysia. As soon as I stepped out of the airport into a dreary, bleak, rainy Sydney August I wished I had chosen to stay longer overseas with my relatives! The cold was a terrible shock after so many days of tropical heat!

Cold and sad at Sydney airport

My entire family flew to Kuala Lumpur for my cousin Fay Cheng’s wedding at the Park Royal hotel. There were 30-odd Teoh relatives reunited, with family arriving from England, America, Australia, all over Malaysia, all over the globe!

I was of course looking forward to the wedding, but what I was most looking forward to was meeting my cousin’s four adorable daughters, aged between four and ten. We all went shopping together one morning, we got milkshakes, and I had a really lovely time getting to know them. One night over dinner I had a very detailed discussion with miss 9 about which meal, side, and dessert we would choose if we could only have that for the rest of our lives. #thestruggleisreal

Another highlight was meeting the youngest member of the family, a beautiful baby boy, about eight months younger than my Blossom. We spent heaps of time hanging out in the pool together. My little cherub really came alive in the water and is absolutely convinced she can swim by herself. It brought me real joy to watch her small face light up every time we went swimming.

I had too many great experiences on the trip to recount them all. I loved eating on Jalan Alor, a street crowded with hawker stalls and filled with the smoky, pungent smells of cooking. Miss Blossom found the fragrance overwhelming - it was hilarious watching her try to clear the smell out of her nose. We took a table in front of one store and the server brought us dishes from stands up and down the street. We ordered 20 satay sticks, a whole fried fish, stewed tofu, green beans, fried rice… lots and lots of food! There was one ‘restaurant’ we visited that did not have a menu at all! You just told the waiter what you want and they make it for you. It seemed the rule of thumb is the crappier and simpler the setting, the better the food!

A little thing I found amusing was the way places in the centre foodcourt were named - no ambiguity.

The wedding was a big, emotional, colourful, loud, long affair. We of course started the day with the hotel’s buffet breakfast along with every other member of the family. Us ladies had an important conversation about what to wear, where I discovered that it was usual practice to wear two dresses for the occasion - one for the tea ceremony and the second to the wedding and reception. I had only packed one dress. In a flash of inspiration, and congratulating myself on my genius solution, I turned to my sister and said, “Let’s swap dresses in between!”

Unfortunately this was met by a disproportionate amount of laughter from my Malaysian cousins, making me realise it probably wasn’t the done thing. Anyway, we ended up on an emergency shopping trip between ceremonies and I purchased a very fetching Zara dress and a navy blazer.

Miss Blossom got to participate in her first tea ceremony, and even managed to discharge her duties while soundly asleep.

Baby slept through her first ever Tea Ceremony

The ceremony itself was very moving. Both bride and groom made teary speeches at the end, which was sweet, but I was most struck by one point the minister made. “Some things are loved,” she said, “because they are valuable. Others are valuable because they are loved.” It made me consider again how important it is to value all people because all people are loved by Jesus who gave himself for everyone. For me it means taking care to show love to the rough and tumble neighbours in my (very unfashionable) suburb; and also advocate for people who are not being treated as valuable by our government.

I’m not sure when the gang will be all together again - perhaps it may never happen and I’ve just experienced a once-in-a-lifetime family reunion. I tried my hardest to convince a few cousins to visit - Sydney isn’t always cold and miserable! Hope they come over soon!

#GARDENLYF

Well it appears March has slipped by faster than a breath! It was actually a really fun few weeks - my mum had her 60th birthday party, one of Dane’s besties turned 30, we visited Jervis Bay over Easter. And to top it all off, this is the last of week of Dane’s school term so we’ll be in holiday mode again very soon!

R: Selfie at mum's 60th | L: Bub and I on Good Friday

My genius child has discovered how to clap! It’s amazing how disproportionately proud I feel. I praise her with so much enthusiasm that other people look around, probably expecting she’s doing cartwheels or something haha. Clapping makes her feel really happy too.

When I look back at photos of the day our baby was born, I am shocked at how young Dane and I look - and it was only 8 months ago! It’s incredible how my face has changed. My skin has more ‘character’ now. I feel a bit less confident about my looks and have even thought about starting to wear makeup. I’m reluctant to start because of the hassle and expense, but I do feel a little self conscious. Perhaps I spent too much time in the sun over summer! Although it would be silly to sacrifice funtimes in the sun for the sake of preserving my pretty skin and it might not have made a difference anyway!

I’m starting to feel rather spendy as I’m a bit sick of my wardrobe. Last winter, I was pregnant and had borrowed a thick jacket, one size up from my usual, from a friend, and I wore it nearly every day. I’ve now returned it and I’m looking for something similar in my size. I’ve also got a much loved hoodie that I’ve worn to death and the buttons have come off. I miss the days when I lived at home with my sisters and could steal their jumpers; they always had better jumpers than me. It was like having triple the clothing options. Clothes shopping is more of an ordeal than it used to be, as baby has even less patience for it than Dane! I guess I will have to level-up my online shopping. Hopefully the pictures are accurate!

Last weekend I met my folks for brekky down at Diggies on the beach. They shared a big cooked breakfast with all the trimmings and I had sweetcorn fritters, smoked salmon and a poached egg. They served it with a super cute little jar of sour cream and a very green olive oil. Afterwards, we joined the convoy of prams, cyclists and joggers on the beachside track and imagined which mansion we’ll eventually live in.

Corn fritters, smoked salmon and poached egg at Diggies

We had a picnic lunch at the Illawarra Rhododendron Gardens to celebrate Dane’s mum’s 60th birthday. This little oasis is a real treasure; a secret garden at the top of Mount Ousley. There’s a picturesque lake covered in water flowers which nearly became our frisbee’s grave. Dane’s mum made fruit pudding and fruitcake for her birthday and I brought along some savoury pumpkin, bacon and sage muffins which were a real hit. That night I congratulated myself on reinventing the leftover ingredients into a burnt butter gnocchi for dinner. #Winning.

The next day, we visited the botanical gardens at Mount Annan for the AnnanRoma Food Festival. What a fun day out! It was a huge event, with cars parked over a kilometre down the road from the main lawn. About an hour after we arrived, they shut the garden gates because it was so packed. The food was really tasty and not as pricey as I’ve come to expect from these market-style festivals. We got two pulled-pork tacos, some arancini balls, a couple of sliders, plus a beer and a cider each. We set up our rug in front of the lake and just enjoyed the live music and the view. I’d definitely go again!

The garden craze is not over yet, as we’ve got a catch-up planned for this weekend at the Royal Botanic Gardens with some friends from high school (provided we don’t get rained out)!

PS: Fun fact - my polkadot hat and purple fascinator were purchased at Bayside Emporium, Huskisson.

Happy leap-year day!

Today is the last official day of summer. We even got an extra summer day because today is the 29th of Feb, leap-year day. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the sun because it has already begun to go into hiding. This morning definitely had an autumn chill to it, and it’s made me feel a bit gloomy.

I have lately been making the most of my days on leave. Last week I tried to use watercolour pencils for the first time. They’re pretty tricky to get the hang of! My first picture turned into a runny mess and my second could pass for a primary school artwork. I did manage to produce a fairly convincing image of carrots on my third go. My attempts were so atrocious that I shall post no photos of my efforts!

Last week I managed to visit two fancy bakeries! My parents are regulars at Brasserie Bread, a wonderful bakery-cum-cafe with that trendy industrial feel. There’s a special room for bread-making classes, and lots of windows into the big baking area where I saw busy bakers kneading and lazy loaves proofing.

I had a hearty American-style beef burger with pickles for lunch, and took home a big tray of fun sweet treats for afternoon tea - orange and almond cake, passionfruit and coconut teacake, a mini chocolate croissant, and six hot-cross buns.

Beef burger, bread dough, sweet treats and the happiest baker in the land

The second bakery I visited was that one at Berry, the Sourdough Cafe. The standout there was dessert - a gorgeous honey panna cotta with peaches, served in a jar. It was such a delightful, delicious reinvention of ‘peaches and cream’ with the added sweetness of honey. Dane said to me afterwards that I should apply myself to learning how to make panna cotta.

Honey panna cotta with peaches at Berry Sourdough Cafe

I get fonder and fonder of my little girl. She turned seven months on Saturday and has definitely lost that small, fragile baby feeling. She’s now truly robust with roll-y sausage legs ending in cankles, and has developed more than two emotions - she used to be either content or upset. Now you can see how curious she is, frustration, ecstatic joy, exhaustion… her face, fat fists, kicking legs, even her wee toes are so expressive!

Some of the traits she leaves behind disappear without me noticing, and a few weeks later I realise she’s stopped doing something. She used to make a cute squeal when you poked her around the mouth but that’s gone now. She used to take aaaages to wake up, yawning and stretching and yawning some more. Now she greets us with giggles and her little arms and legs pumping.

A friend who’s got a boy six months older than my baby says it just gets better and better. From this first seven months, I can already see how that’s true. Even though I loved the tiny newborn stage, I can see how much easier things have gotten - baby wakes fewer times through the night, spits up less, there are even fewer dirty nappies. She has stopped turning into a screaming monster every time we put her into the car seat, and drives are much more likely to send her off to sleep now. However, a few weeks ago we swapped the pram bassinet for a normal stroller seat, and she hates that.

Anyway, I hope things continue to get easier and more fun, or maybe you just swap baby problems for toddler ones, but I am looking forward to it all the same.

Bonus baby photo:

My 7 month girl after a swim this week

Chinese New Year!

I feel a bit emotional today. This morning, I realised the countdown is now on for my return to work. I’ll be going back in about two months - really it’s only a number of weeks - and I’m too aware of how fast it will go. I wish these long, warm days with baby could go on forever (or at least another year!).

While I’m sad about this phase of my life drawing to a close, I’m simultaneously really excited by the way baby is growing. Her first tooth emerged today! It’s a little crooked, but that tiny, hard, white bone has definitely arrived. She wasn’t even fussy in the lead up. I wonder if that one tooth needs to be brushed each day.

In the last few weeks, baby has learned to sit, eat, and she can even close her eyes before being dunked in the pool. Spoon feeding her mush is like torture for us both, but she’s not too bad with holding bits of broccoli and gnawing at it with her gums. I’m even noticing little hints of communication which makes me think my child is a genius! Although there’s always a lot of guesswork on my part to get the message.

Baby's reaction to pureed food

But she loves holding food and eating it herself! Look at that cheeky grin!

Last weekend our family celebrated (a belated) Chinese New Year. Mum put on an enormous spread of delicious, spicy dishes, including a big wok-full of acar (cucumber and carrot pickles in peanut sauce). Mum made everything from first principles so it was a huge effort. Growing up, we used to ‘help’ mum by shelling the peanuts and pounding them in a mortar and pestle. We also used to fight over the middle bits of the cucumber, the seeds, which get cut out before pickling. I have no idea what mum did with those bits this year :( .

Of course, Chinese New Year was another first for baby girl. As she is too little to wish everyone ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’, we helped her give oranges to all our family instead and she got ‘lucky’ [read: cash] red envelopes in return.

Baby getting her first lucky envelope from Gong Gong and Poh Poh

During the afternoon food coma, Dane and I left baby with her aunt and raced off to the movies. I finally got to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens! It was such a great film! So exciting! So intense! My favourite part was on the green planet, when they’re nearly overrun by stormtroopers, and then suddenly the screen is filled with rebel fighter planes swooping in to save the day. It made me grin.

I’m in a bit of a food funk at the moment. I just don’t know what I want to cook these days. I have taken to thumbing through cook books for inspiration, but I find I’m not being grabbed by anything. A few months ago I was right in the middle of a chorizo phase - breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I was throwing it into pastas, salads, sandwiches, fry ups, savoury tarts, whatever; and meal inspiration came really easily because it’s such a fun ingredient and so tasty! Chorizo is also super simple to cook and keeps well in the freezer so you can have some on hand whenever you want. Before chorizos, I had a serious obsession with chicken wings.

Has this happened to you? Can you tell me your last ingredient mania so I can steal your ideas? I just need to be seized by another yummy food-phase and I’m sure I’ll be off and running.

Summer holidays!

Well school holidays are over, and possibly so is the best summer of my life. And to make it all worse, baby and I have caught a cold.

Australia Day was earlier this week, and instead of chilling at the beach as planned, I rested on the couch and tried to recover from a runny nose and headache. Usually I’d be smashing the cold-and-flu tablets in this situation but alas, they’re not recommended while breastfeeding.

So to cheer myself up I shall remember the great holidays just passed. After a very quiet New Years (I made it to midnight and was asleep five minutes later) our little family headed to Port Hacking for our youth camp. It was the first year I didn’t have a group of teens to look after so camp felt really different. Dane and I got to go out in a canoe one morning and paddle around the Hacking River, and another morning I got to go on a boat ride in a runabout all the way from Deer Park wharf to Wattamolla.

There was also a very dreadful trip to the beach in which it drizzled continuously, and then broke out into a raging rainstorm. I had to huddle beneath a picnic shelter with baby strapped to me for hours while the youth group played games in the rain. We went back to the campsite early and had a very enjoyable afternoon playing board games instead.

For me the best part about youth camp has always been hanging out with youth kids, so being a bit separate from everything was hard to adjust to. I feel a bit sad that the ‘youth leader’ part of my life is over.

Daddy and baby at the camp site

Once we’d recovered from camp, we took baby on a day trip to Berrima. The last time I’d been there I was pregnant and felt horribly sick, so it was nice to go and actually enjoy it. We stopped for scones and milkshakes at Stones Patisserie, a very cute streetside cafe with a bit of French flair. The pastries in the display looked spectacular but were a bit pricey. Dane’s maple milkshake was a real treat.

Stones Patisserie, Berrima

I bought some Australian apple-box honey from The Little Hand-stirred Jam shop, a passionfruit butter, and some caramelised fig-and-quince paste.

We headed back up the highway to our old favourite, the Berkelouw Book Barn at Bendooley Estate for lunch. They have just added a ‘cellar door’ section with a beautiful wine room and grazing menu. The room is furnished with comfortable armchairs and cowhide stools, so you can sit and look through the glass wall to the vineyard. There’s also a private room which is top of my list for my 30th birthday next year!

Poached peach dessert at Bendooley Estate

On another day this holidays, when there was a heatwave, we took refuge at my parents’ Botany apartment since they were overseas. I took baby for a splash at Botany pools, and discovered a very entertaining new toy for her:

Baby loves playing with swimming goggles

We had dinner at Sedap, in the ground floor arcade at East Gardens Westfields. They had a special for nasi ayam goreng (fried chicken and rice) for $13 - bargain! Even though it’s located in a shopping centre, they’ve managed to keep the ‘hawker’ feel with a very casual setup and funky tin cups.

Sedap Malaysian Kopitiam

We had planned to head home the next evening, but were trapped by another crazy rainstorm. We stayed on another night, and made it home in time for the youth group pool party at our place, which turned into cards until midnight.

I am a bit apprehensive about Dane going back to work. Baby has become so different in these last six weeks. I think it will take me a while to regain my confidence and get us back into a groove. But first thing will be to get rid of these wretched colds!

'Tis the season!

What a merry month we've had! Dane is on school holidays, and for the first time I’m on leave too, so we’re making the most of this time together as a little family.

We planned to start our holidays with a getaway in beachy Avalon. On our way through the city, we’d call in at my office to see my boss who was up from Melbourne. She hadn't met baby yet. After a mad morning packing, we learned there was a severe weather warning for Sydney: tornado strength winds and heavy rain.

We cancelled our Avalon plans but pressed on to meet up with my colleagues. Traffic was crawling and baby screeched endlessly as if she was being murdered, as she always does when strapped in the baby seat. Some way into our harrowing drive, my colleagues called to say my boss wasn't going to meet us. The storm had grounded her plane in Melbourne.

Still we drove on! After all that, and 90 minutes on the road(!), we ended up just going out for sushi with the girls from work. I am taking every chance I get to enjoy sashimi since I couldn't have any while pregnant. It was a good catch up even if nothing exactly went to plan!

Baby being spoiled by my colleagues

Our next attempts at beachy getaways have been way more successful. We spent a night at North ’Gong, waking to a Diggies coffee and toastie on the beach. We took turns swimming laps in the ocean pool while the other watched baby. The sun on the water turned the surface into a million sparkling diamonds.

Sea pool at North Wollongong

I had never swum in an ocean pool before, and let me tell you it is an experience! There’s so much lateral turbulence from other swimmers and the salt water is so buoyant I felt as if I was swimming through jelly. I was completely exhausted after just a few laps.

Dane also left an elaborate treasure hunt for his cousin (who lives in the unit we crashed at) ending in her Christmas pudding, which he had taken and hid. He spent hours leaving clues, and I was starving by the time he’d finished and was ready for lunch.

We tried Pepe's on the Beach, underneath the Novotel. 45 minutes after ordering, our “share platter” arrived and was pretty miserable - a few meat skewers, soggy flatbread and a very limp salad. The food was poor and seriously overpriced, serving size skimpy, service slow. Zero out of ten and we won’t be going back.

A few days later, we journeyed to Vincentia to stay with Dane’s cousins, who were very smitten with our little girl. The weather wasn't quite right for swimming but we rambled about on long walks, read, played a boardgame, ate fish and chips.

Baby got played and played with. Dane’s aunt brought out all her primary school instruments and baby chewed on them.

One morning while baby napped, Dane and I escaped and had a fancy brunch at 5 Little Pigs, along the esplanade at Huskisson. They have really creative menu with heaps of international influences, although I just had a tasty zucchini fritters dish with halloumi and smoked trout.

L: Dane's cousin playing with baby. R: Fritters with smoked trout at 5 Little Pigs, Huskisson

We were home in time for a big Christmas Day and Boxing Day with our families. Baby got absolutely spoiled with gifts. We tried out our new Christmas games, Dane played a bit of backyard cricket, I cooked an enormous sticky date pudding that we’re still slogging through. I felt how special baby’s first Christmas was.

Merry Christmas!

So now we are hurtling towards the New Year. Church youth camp begins the day after tomorrow. It’s a bittersweet feeling, coming to the end of the year. I try not to feel sad about it by thinking of things to look forward to.

When a father is created

What’s this, you ask?

Earlier this month, Dane and I celebrated our four year anniversary. Dane’s parents had invited us over for lunch that weekend, where I noticed a bottle of whiskey set out on a tray. They had bought this bottle when Dane was born, and laid it away for a special occasion in the future. The arrival of baby together with the anniversary of our wedding was deemed special enough and we (excluding baby) enjoyed a nip after lunch.

Dane also took me for a cute brunch in Camden and then a walk through Macarthur Park. It was a chance to slow down and smell the roses!

Macarthur Park Memorial Rose Garden, Camden

Watching Dane become a father has been truly magical. Before our daughter arrived, Dane didn’t have much interest in babies. He much preferred toddlers or kids because they’re more interactive.

When our girl was born, it’s like Dane was instantly hit with the Dad bug and a new level of his personality was unlocked. We were hardly out of the delivery unit before he was holding her, telling me how cute her face is, being concerned about all baby’s vitals which get checked in hospital. He was a great advocate for baby when the nurses wanted to put her on different treatments and wouldn't tell us what was going on. I kept expecting Dane to become bored with our girl and lose interest, but it hasn't happened yet.

His suggestions for our daughter’s Chinese middle name were words like ‘persevere’ and ‘imaginative’. They turned out to be very masculine words in the Chinese language, so we went with a name that means ‘able and bright’; but they were all traits that he would like her to embody as she grows.

We were prepared for marriage to get harder with a baby in the mix. In some ways it has. Being at home all the time makes me more demanding of Dane’s attention, especially because I'm so social and Dane really needs his down time. I often feel like I need to rush around and get things done while baby is calm or asleep, as if counting down to when baby will crack it and need my full attention. Dane has a more relaxed approach to parenting. “I want you to be less frantic,” he said to me once.

Dane's relaxed parenting

I actually think we work well together as a team, and there are so many ways baby has strengthened our marriage rather than created problems. I’ve got to witness Dane be more caring to both of us than I’ve ever seen him before. He really enjoys giving baby her evening wash. He plays with her in the water, drawing out funny facial expressions and cooing noises.

I have loved watching Dane love our baby, and in the process my love for him has grown tremendously. Hopefully this pattern will continue as baby grows and possibly more kids are added into the mix. Four years down; and lots more to go!