fine day

Spent a nice afternoon at the Australian museum. E has been wanting to go see the dinosaur exhibit. He definitely enjoyed it along with the birds and skeleton exhibit. He even made me list down his favourites. Next up would be the Maritime museum.

spare or strike

We (me and a few kindy mums) brought the kids to the bowling alley last Tuesday to take advantage of their after school offer and boy did the kids enjoy their first bowling experience. It was funny because as soon as they sort of learned the concept, everyone adjusted the bowling ramp on their own to try to hit all the pins down. E ended up getting the top score after getting two strikes, he was really happy but then everyone forgot the scores when we handed then the arcade tokens after haha. I heard from the mums the next day that everyone asked when they could go again. Another bowling play date soon!

term break

I survived term 1 hahaha! One term down and many many more to go. I must say that E has adjusted pretty well to school and he actually likes to go (well so far, I haven’t had any days where he has told me that he doesn’t want to). I think right now what stresses me more is planning and preparing his lunch everyday. You might say that’s the easy part but hey I’m no goddess in the kitchen. Need to search for more quick and easy lunch recipes.

On homework, he’s keen to do them. I’m glad that right now he doesn’t think of it as “work”. I’m also amazed at how quickly he learns. From not being able to read at the start of term to being able to go through a short book by himself, all that under two months of being in school. He does have a tendency of losing focus though (if only you can give him something similar to a project management software just to make sure he does what he needs haha) and the teacher recognized that so she sat him beside someone who’s really focused on doing the work in class.

Last week we did parent interview with his teacher and am glad that so far we’ve only heard good things. He’s performing according to the level that they are expected at this stage. And also happy to hear that he’s good in math, he’s among the top in his class in that area. So far we’ve adopted a “relaxed” attitude towards his studies but I know that at some point we do have to push him to excel. Ichi has already slightly hinted with him that he has to go to university. Here’s hoping that he will thrive in school.

playdate

E recently received his first play date invite. It’s from one of his best buds from school and he’s all excited to go and have a bit of play with his friend this Friday.  Now, I don’t know what the play date dos and donts are for parents but here’s to more play dates for E I guess we really are starting to settle huh?!!

which car?

The place we moved to now is along the main road and some of our “neighbors” are car dealership. This one is right beside our building.

One afternoon we went car window shopping from our balcony and these are what E chose:

this

and this

What do you think? :p

Last month

We’re now into the first week of February and I feel like January just flew past. So what happened in January?

• We celebrated E’s and my birthday
• We had to do house viewings on weekends with the kids in tow
• My mom went back to Pinas after spending 3 months here. Her luggage exceeded the luggage allowance with all the gifts for her friends and she had to send some back thru a balikbayan box.
• My in-laws flew in for their turn to visit mid-January
• Prepared all the things that E would need for Kindy

And now we’re in the midst of E’s first week in big school and packing all our stuff for the move into the new place.  Hopefully we’ll be settled into the new place and the new routine by next week.

so what did E get?

I mentioned in a previous post about my mum’s birthday that even though it was her birthday it was E that received a present. Actually he got two, one was a space police lego that he has been wanting for a long time (leave it to mamita to buy it for him haha .. lucky for him that it was one of the cheap ones and that it was on sale) and this … a BEN 10 bike. Early Christmas and birthday gift for E. We asked him if he wanted the cars one (which was cheaper) but he really insisted on getting the Ben 10 bike. It’s timely too that it’s nearing summer when we can bring him to the park so he can get lots of practice riding the bike.

mum’s birthday

Mum flew in a week before her birthday, I specifically scheduled it that way because her birthday would already mark my 37th week which means that I could give birth anytime. Anyways, on her birthday we celebrated it with a yum cha lunch at hilltop phoenix at castle towers.  We initially intended to have the yum cha at eastwood but then we learned that they had a granny smith festival parade that day and preggy me didn’t want to walk a lot that day. After lunch we walked a bit around the mall and even though it was my mum’s birthday it was E who got presents haha. Talk about spoiling the grandson :p I’ll post what E got (a super early Christmas and birthday present) in another post.

At the resto ..

Helping mamita blow the cake …

school

We received this week the confirmation letter from the primary school that we applied to for E’s enrollment to kindy next year. It also states the confirmation of the schedule that we picked for E’s participation in their beginner’s program which is basically all the kids entering kindy next year would get two days in November to come in. It will only be for 2 1/2 hours per day and they have some arts and crafts and meeting with a yr 4 and yr 5 buddy. I guess it’s time for me to go online to search for best buys for school supplies and other stuff that he would need. Well, probably after I give birth haha.

surprise!

Two saturdays ago, tin, roselle & their families hosted a get together in honor of siobe. It was planned as a surprise for me but a couple of hours before the dinner ichi had no choice but to tell me as I really didn’t feel like going out that night and he had no “valid” excuse to get me out of the house haha! Had fun catching up with them and E had tons of fun playing the whole night with C. Thank you too for your gifts for siobe!

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Last Saturday we went to Corner Cubbyhouse in Five Dock for E’s classmate’s birthday party. Funny though E was all excited leading up to the day and even on the way to the play centre but when we got there he suddenly didn’t want to join the party. It was weird seeing him that way because it was the first time that he really refused to participate, it took us a while to convince him to finally join the fun. It was also nice meeting some of the other parents as we rarely see them at the day care. It was crazy at the play centre with some of the other parents running after their younger kids following them everywhere, they sure don’t need fat burners with all the exercise they’re getting there.

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After the party, we were on our way to a baby store in Castle Hill but got detoured to another baby store in Parramatta. We decided to check out the store since there was a bit of traffic. It turned out to be a good decision since the stroller that we were eyeing turned out cheaper there (Ichi asked for further discount hehe), the newborn nappies was cheaper too (compared to the nappy warehouse we checked last time). Earlier in the week too we were able to get siobe her portacot and thanks to the gift card from the manabats we were able to get it at the budget we set. With this we were able to get most of the big items off the list and some others we plan to get as needed. I still have to get some small items plus ready the hospital bag soon. Just over a month to go and our little family of 3 will become 4!