33 weeks and 3 days!

I reminded Tim yesterday that we have not yet taken any photos of me in all my pregnancy glory. Our poor 2nd child. Not even born yet and we are already depriving her of photos. It's a common joke amongst most families I know (including mine) that 2nd children hardly have baby photos whilst the first child has every single milestone (and more!) captured on camera.

I have been feeling mighty big with this pregnancy. I actually feel so much healthier (thank you iron and calcium supplements as well as pre-natal vitamins) than my first one but I just feel BIG this time. I know it since I can no longer wear clothes that I used to be able to when I was at the same week. Maybe its true that women carry girls differently from boys. With Noah, most of the weight I carried was on my tummy. With this pregnancy, I am carrying the weight both on my tummy and on my sides (yikes!). Maybe its because its my 2nd pregnancy and my expanded body is just finding more space to expand. Maybe its because I cannot stop eating chocolate ice cream with m&m's topping.

Anyhow, so I am finally sharing these photos (with Tim's consent of course!)...we took the same ones when I was pregnant with Noah. I am not sure whether we will have another pregnancy, so I will brave it out and let my inner Demi Moore come out and share with you.

Dear Noah

Last Friday, 5th March, you turned 2 years old. I cannot believe how quickly it has taken for you to be a toddler! One minute you were placed in my arms, all 2.62kgs of you.....730 days later, with lots of sleepless nights, lots of feeds and nappy changes and endless surprises, you are now almost 14kgs, talking in phrases and running around and calling me Mummy and mimicking me when I call your Dada Babe! Seriously!

Today I am writing to you so that one day you can celebrate who you are when you turned 2.








Your Dada and I count ourselves so lucky that for the most part, you are a wonderful baby/child. More often that not, you sleep through the night, giving your Dad and I our much needed time together and sleep. Although on some occasions, you still wake up during the night, screaming Dada or Mumma. Usually, it is your Dada who runs to rescue you from your nightmares. Mummy, although half awake will always try to wait it out to see whether you can put yourself back to sleep. Mean Mummy!

At 2, there are so many things that you are obsessed with. Not sure whether these are indicators of what you will continue to love when you grow up but here are some things that make you our Noah/N/ Noey/NoNo/Noahlish right now:

Music 

First keyboard and guitar

Watching live music

Amazing how at this age, you cannot say the word fish but you know the word guitar! Your Dada and I so love watching you explore your musical interests. Not only playing with your instruments but also watching musicians play. It can be a bit loud sometimes when you are banging on your drums, while playing 2 guitars and getting your Dada to play on the keyboard but oh how proud we were when you starting playing the harmonica!!!

Dancing

Okay, your current obsession with The Wiggles is ridiculous. Well, not really The Wiggles but with only 2 of their songs. Every day for the last couple of weeks, we have listened to Here Comes the Camel and Shimmy Shake about 5 million times. If The Wiggles made a cent for every time I had to hear these songs, the millions they have already made would be at infinity-millions. However, it is quite heartwarming to see you watch it as now, you are copying their actions. You have started clapping your hands above your head, pointing your finger while moving your right arm and doing the salute move on your forehead! Hilarious! I better make sure to keep those Line Dancing videos away from you my love.

Mermaid

It does not matter if she is older, bigger and taller. She is pretty!

Watching his mermaid in action

One day when you are a bit older and know the concept of boyfriend/girlfriend, I will remind you how your first love (aside from me, your Mummy of course!) is the mermaid at Manly Oceanworld. Our regular trips to the aquarium have you running to find the mermaid and asking me to have your photo taken with her. Well, she is quite pretty so you definitely have great taste!

Ate (Ah-te)

Enjoying the ice cream that Ate bought for you

Going for a ride with Ate

Playing with Ate

There is no denying how much you love and adore your Ate Isabel. When Isabel stayed with us for a couple of nights during the school holidays, you could not contain your excitement. It was Ate, Ate, Ate. To date, you look forward to seeing Ate and playing with Ate. When you don't get to see your Ate for a while,  you are watching videos of the 2 of you or looking at photos with Ate in it.



Animals

Enjoying seeing a butterfly land on Daddy's hand

I am holding a shark's egg everyone!

This stems from your Dad...definitely! Your love for the zoo, aquarium, wildlife world is incredible.

These days, we currently average going to Taronga Zoo and Manly Oceanworld about 1x a fortnight. Thank goodness that you have very generous grandparents (from both sides) who are happy enough to give Mumma and Dada passes for gifts (who would have ever thought I would ask for a zoo pass as a present???). It makes feeding your hunger to see your mates regularly so easy.

Cars/Trains/Horses (especially the ones you can ride on at the shops)

Riding on Neigh

Riding on Choo Choo

Need I say more? Your Dada and I are fast learning how to maneuver through the shops without having you see the rides (not being successful as you have such fast eyes!) and fast learning to just let you sit on the ride until a good samaritan who is unable to say no to their child comes.

The above are just a snippet of the things you currently love. Like most 2 year olds, you are a captured market for all things commercial. Thomas, Cars, In the Night Garden are just some of the characters that have already invaded our home. At school, you are a congenial child who loves to partake in all activities (especially music and dancing!). You love your artwork (we still cannot believe that word is part of your vocabulary) and you LOVE the sandpit...so much that you often come home covered with it.

Of course, we cannot fool ourselves to think that all is always easy and rosy. We do have our daily battles with you, Noah Timothy Stentiford (yes that's when the full name come out!). Changing nappies is HARD, not because of the smell, but because you hate lying still. You hate putting dot, dot, dot (suncream) and having your nails cut. Mummy and Dada have to bribe you to get you in the bath....and tooth cleaning is definitely OH&S hazard that parenting books never divulged. I have had my finger bitten so hard a couple of times that it has become blue.

I have started calling you Destructo as oftentimes it seems you enjoy tipping out boxes of toys that I have just packed. You also have zero patience (although it seems as if you are finally learning what "Noah wait" means) and God help us when we try to get the ipad or the iphone off you.

However, all in all, I think we will keep you! You have changed me so much (for the better I hope given that I am now decorating a child's birthday cake!) and if the last 2 years indicate how much love and happiness you will continue to bring into our lives, then your Dada and I look forward to what is ahead of us (including the HARD work!).

Your 2nd Birthday Cake! Dada baked it and Mummy decorated

That's our boy!

Once again, Happy Happy 2nd Birthday our darling Noah.
Mumma and Dada are very blessed to have you. 

Lots of love forever,

Mumma and Dada
XXX

A morning at Taronga Zoo

Our beautiful boy Noah turned 2 last Friday. Tim had organised to take the day off from work so that we could take Noah to Taronga Zoo for his special day. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. However, since Tim had taken the day off and has been looking forward to be going to the zoo for days, he was adamant that we were going to spend at least part of the morning there.

Since it was "just raining" and not exactly monsoon weather, I agreed!

We were lucky enough to have received zoo passes as Christmas presents from Tim's parents (Thanks Mum and Phil). It means that I have been taking Noah to the zoo almost on a weekly (or at least fortnightly basis). By now, Noah knows exactly the animals he wants to see. A routine repertoire of the reptiles - frogs, lizards, cane toads, snakes, turtles. Then we stop at the turtle wishing well to put "money for turtle".

We then move on to the chimpanzees which Noah is enamoured with. When we first got there, the chimps were all inside having quiet time. I guess wet weather is no fun for climbing and swinging.

Since the rain had gotten harder when we got to the chimps, we decided to have our morning tea in the shelter there. Luckily, we did as soon after, the chimps were being given their lunch. Apples, oranges, bananas and capsicums were being thrown outside for the chimps to "come and get it". This woke them up, or at least it gave them the incentive to get out.

Noah was so excited to be watching his lovely chimps get fed. "Apple for hoohoo outside" is now a phrase in his vocabulary.  He watched "bubba hoohoo" swing with his "mumma hoohoo" as he tried to latch on to the capsicum mumma was chomping on.

Next stop, the elephants, or E's as Noah calls them. Once again, lady luck was on our side. Despite the rain, at least 3 of the elephants were outside and 2 of them were actually in the water playing! Noah loved watching "E having a bath" and "E blowing bubbles".

Since it was raining, we had to keep our animal viewing to where we could seek shelter too. Next stop, lions and tigers. We didn't get much action from the lions as they were all asleep - "nigh nigh roar" says Noah, but we definitely did with the tigers. Right in front of us was a beautiful tiger just lazing about. The tiger cubs were seeking shelter from under the table but mumma tiger had definitely displayed herself for us.

By this time, we all decided that we have had an eventful morning at the zoo and that it was time to call it a day! Of course, no trip to the zoo would be complete without us riding the Sky Safari or the "zoo car" as Noah likes to call it.  So last stop, Sky Safari to take us back to the top.

So all in all, everyone was pleased with the morning. Tim got his wish of spending Noah's birthday at the zoo. Noah, as per usual, got to pay his mates a visit and in return they gave him memories which he will hopefully remember and of course, I was just pleased to be spending the morning with both of my boys.

Paper!

Today, 5th March 2012, Tim and I are celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary. Cliche but time does really fly when you are having fun!

Now the symbol for 1st wedding anniversary is paper. I have been thinking of what paper symbolises for me. Ever since, I was a little girl, I have always loved paper. The smell of new books, writing on pretty stationery, sending cards and letters the old fashion way were and continue to be some of my favourite things. Paper means writing and reading stories.

The 1st year of marriage for me is definitely the beginning of a new story - a new chapter in the Beautiful Life of Jo. Tim and I stood before God, and our intimate family and friends and promised ourselves and the rest of our lives to each other. No one knows what is in store for our marriage. No one knows what stories will come out of our marriage that we hope to tell our grandchildren one day. We can only create them through participating in our marriage to the best of our ability. Tim and I can only hope to be lucky enough that our love, laughter and respect for each other will see us through many many chapters that our Author has in store for us.

Paper also symbolises communication. How appropriate! Communicating meaning knowing when to say what you have to say and when to keep your mouth shut - a vital organ in marriage, or in any relationship for that matter. As Tim and I continue to embark on our marriage journey, I hope that communication will never be lost between us. Through our spoken words or body language, may we continue to show each other how much of a gift we are to each other.

On a lighter note, Tim and I celebrated our special day last week. We chose to celebrate on the 29th February (just because!) by going back to Pilu at Freshwater (our reception venue) for lunch. Here are some photos of our very special lunch.

Tim Stentiford and his 30 week pregnant wife (gee, I'm looking big!)

With compliments from the chef, Polenta chips (these were so good!)

 Tim's first course - Calamari two ways!

 Can you tell my first course is making me happy?

What we came back for (and will continue to come back for) - Suckling pig. Pork crackling were still crackling even the following day. YUM!

Needless to say we had no room for dessert but I had enough room for a lovely Italian hot chocolate and Tim had an Afogatto.  The chef was nice enough to send us a platter of mini sweets to complement our beverages.

*Sigh*

Ahhhhhh, Pilu, continue to deliver food as lovely as what we had last week and we will continue to keep a part of you in our marriage.

Anyhow, so as I finish up this blog, I want to thank my darling husband for a wonderful first year of marriage. You are truly God's gift to me. You are so much better than what I had hoped for. You are my rock. You are my best friend. You are my number 1 cheerleader. Thank you for your unconditional love. Thank you for your energy and zest for life. Thank you for being such a great husband to me and an even better father to Noah.

I love you Timmy. Happy Anniversary!
XXX