Sibling L.O.V.E.

Shortly after giving birth to Noah, I found myself getting clucky very quickly. Tim and I had spoken about having more than one child and given that I was in my late 30s and that my Mum menopaused early, we knew that we had to get cracking as soon as we could.

I never thought of planning for my children's age gap. I actually never thought much about it. My brother and I have a 4.5 year gap which was significant when we were young (ie. when I was an angry teen and he was a pesty little kid) but as we grew older, the gap quickly disappeared. It was not long until we were doing things together, had common friends and I counted him to be one of my best friends. Hence, I know that big age gaps effectively does not matter. However, when I was pregnant with Noah, I was exposed to mums wanting to have their children to have a close age gap. Two under Two was the catch phrase. I am not sure if it is because a closer age gap meant automatic playmates/friends for the children or it is to get the sleepless nights over and done with as quickly as possible.

For me, I was just desperate to try and give Noah a sibling.

Noah and Eliza have a 25 month gap. We are not within the Two under Two threshold but close enough.

In the short span of 6 months, I can already see how much they adore each other. Noah is generous with his kisses and cuddles to his little sister, at times, a little bit overzealous. Tim and I are trying to find the balance between encouraging him with his affection and trying to stop him from trampling on her, which unfortunately he already has.

One time, Tim caught Noah riding on Eliza during her tummy time. No photos for evidence which is just as well. Tim was probably too busy rescuing Eliza from her brother!

Luckily, Noah loves playing with Eliza. He often keeps her company when she is doing her floor exercises. Tim, Noah and Eliza have recently developed a habit of going out to the lounge first thing in the morning, leaving me to sleep in a bit (Yey!) so that Noah and Eliza can do their exercises together!

When Eliza starts to fuss, Noah often tells me what Eliza might need. "Milk Mummy for Eliza" or "Put Eliza to bed Mummy".  More often that not, he is right as to what she needs.

Eliza, in turn adores her kuya (older brother). She watches him with such warmth and delight in her eyes. You can tell that Eliza is watching and learning from Noah, absorbing and just itching to play with him. Occasionally she will also have a chat to him which never fails to melt my heart.

N & E, I hope that you will never stop adoring each other. I know that you will grow up driving each other insane, but I hope at the end of the day, you will continue to love and like each other.

If not, I will forever remind you of these moments...

Mummy loves you both very much X

Today's prayers to overcome my weakness!

I have been very lucky to have been blessed with careers that I have enjoyed and employers who have been family to me in the past. Part of the reason I ended up staying in Washington DC for over 5 years was because of how much I loved my job and my previous employer Tracy. Tracy was not only a mentor but also a friend. She guided me through my career and my life and made bidding America goodbye very hard.  With my role prior to getting pregnant with Noah, I also had the opportunity to work with a fantastic team led by Stuart who encouraged me amongst the unknown and paved the way for my success in the role. 

Getting jobs within these two companies were a bit random given that I had no experience within either industries prior to joining them. Tracy hired me simply because we shared the same birthday (yes, I used to include my DOB on my CV) and Stu passed on me the first time he met me (yes, I was the second choice!). It does not really matter how I started with them but to me, what matters the most is that I was given a break.

I started the process of job hunting a couple of weeks ago. I thought I would test the waters out, given I have already completed my online course. I have the time to spare especially during the days when Noah is at daycare. Besides, we have daycare sorted for the children from January 2013 so all I needed now is work to embark on. 

I am not sure why but for some reason, I am being very impatient with the results. I am so ready to begin the next chapter of the Beautiful Life Jo but I am being made to wait. Despite knowing that God is working on something special, the human in me wants answers now. Luckily Tim is being my voice of reason as he reminds of what I already know - that I should enjoy this time now as once the craziness of life as a working Mum start, I am going to miss my time with the children and being at home. I also need to be reminded that God continues to bless me with far more than I could pray for; I just need to trust!

To overcome my weakness, I have been saying extra prayers of late and have been asking my prayer warriors to say an extra prayer (or two) for me. Today, I want to share my prayers with you as I lift this up to God and to the universe.

Today, I pray for the randomness. I am praying for God to lead someone to take a gamble on me. See, at present I am convinced that I want to bring my expertise to an industry where I have no experience in. Again, I am hoping for that break. Take a chance and give me a break and I will show you what I can do. I will ensure that you don't have any regrets!

Today, I also pray for greater patience. I know that God is already working on the best job for me, considering my family especially the children and our finances. However, I need to constantly remind myself that answers are not immediate. I need to constantly remind myself (and with Tim's help) to just enjoy where I am right now as once the new chapter starts, there is no turning back.

Dear Lord, this is your story, your painting, your work! You have blessed me with so much more than I imagined for myself and I truly know that You continue to answer my prayers and know what is best for me.  Please erase any doubts in my mind, but instead replace it with greater faith. Greater faith that in Your time, all will be revealed. Thank you.

The innocence of children!

Dear Noah,

Since you are not old enough yet to "Oh Mum" me, I am going to share some photos of captured moments from your play date yesterday with Ashleigh.

I must admit I love looking at these photos. I think there is so much innocence and purity captured between the two of you, despite the reason for getting the both of you to hold hands was so that you would stop running away!

I know that one day when I ask you to hold your friend's hand, I will get the "Oh Mum, please stop embarassing me" reply from you. However, I hope that you will never allow awkwardness to surpass the innocence in you.

With lots of love darling,
Mum X

The adventures of Puple Poss!

 Dear Noah,

I cannot believe that at your age of 2.5, we are already working together on "school" projects! I am planning to document all the milestone projects that we work on together because one day I can hopefully show you how much fun I have had in helping you put your project together!

Anyhow, your very first project is to document the adventures that Purple Poss had with you for the last week.

This is Purple Poss...

He is a stuffed purple possum that lives in your day care permanently. Weekly, he goes home with someone from your class for different adventures and all his adventures with each of your mates are documented in the Purple Poss (PP) Adventures book.

Last Tuesday, it was your turn to take PP home. You were so excited and so very proud. You immediately showed him your favourite tree that you have to climb every day you are at day care and as soon as we got home, you showed PP your bed and introduced him to all your friends. He then kept you company in the bath!

When Daddy got home, you excitedly told him about PP and together you spent a long time looking at his adventure book, reading all about the adventures he has had and wondering where you can take him for his special adventure with you.

It was then decided that you would take PP to the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary (previously Manly Oceanworld). Given that you visit this place almost weekly, it was apt that PP see the place that you love. Besides, someone had already taken him to the zoo....

You even watched the Manly Ferry together....

One day, you also took PP to Isaac's house for your play date. Isaac so loved PP and wanted to take care of him too. Unfortunately, PP could not stay overnight with Isaac.

Over the weekend, you took PP to the Manly seafront to show him your backyard. Unfortunately, PP took a tumble and fell onto the sand. Oh dear Noah, you were so worried. Luckily a little girl picked up PP and gave him back to you. Daddy had to give PP a good shake to try and get rid of the sand.

PP's last adventure out was when you took him to the play park when you met up with your mates. We tried so hard to take a photo of PP with your mates Alec, Aidan and William but trying to get a photo of the 4 of you together was impossible! Instead, it was easier to take a photo of you and PP on the tea cup ride at the play park.

At home, PP had the luck of joining you in your activities. PP listened to bedtime stories with you, built blocks with you  and even shared in your breakfast! You even taught PP how to play the piano!

 

Yesterday, Eliza and I spent the morning getting print outs of selected photos so that when you got home from day care, we could work on completing the adventure book together. You were so keen to cut, glue and stick!

Today, this is our finished product.

Oh dear Noah, how I enjoyed working on this project together with you. Having PP at home was so much fun and having documented your adventures together is even more rewarding. I am not sure how I am going to feel come the day when we have to work on bigger and harder school projects (which have deadlines!) in the future but at least I can always remind you of how much I enjoyed our first project together!


Love you lots darling.

Mum X

Yay, Me!

I submitted the last assignment for my property course this week! I am so excited! 25 units completed. Almost 25 online quizzes completed as well as more than 25 assignments submitted. Attended a hearing at the Consumer Trade and Tenancy Tribunal (with Eliza nonetheless!) and an auction for a million and a half dollar home here in Balgowlah (great experience but sadly, no one bidded for the house!). Amidst being a Mum to Noah and having given birth to Eliza, I finished my course in 6 months, which I originally intended to do in a year!

Soon I will get my certificate and I will be able to apply for a Licence to be a Realtor here in NSW.

I am still praying to God to help me decide whether this is the next industry that I want to immerse myself in. I am leaving this up to Him. At least, I am equipping myself with options.

I am pretty proud of myself right now. I feel that within the daily motions of motherhood and running a household, I might have finished something. Something for myself!
 
Yay, Me!

My, how things have changed #101

I have always loved going to musicals and concerts.
From the very first concert that my Mum took me to when I was still in primary school in the Philippines - Sarungbanggi which had Sylvia La Torre in it, to the last concert I saw - Pink Martini with Tim, each concert I have been to has brought me much anticipation and excitement, always wanting to get the best possible seats to ensure the best experience.

For the life of me, I cannot remember every single concert/musical I have seen. I know of the following and will admit to.
-Young Talent Time - I begged my parents to take me when I was 12!
-John Farnham
-Bobby Brown
-Pops Fernandez and Martin Nievera
-Prince
-U2
-BB King
-Michael Buble
-Earth Wind and Fire
-Pink Martini - several times
-Les Miserable
-Miss Saigon
-The Phantom of the Opera
-The King and I
-Bombay Dreams
-Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
-The Boy from Oz
-Mamma Mia

I also got very lucky as my former employer Tracy was a subscriber to the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and would always palm off Symphony Orchestra tickets to me whenever she could not attend a show.

Unfortunately, since having children, my disposable income is no longer as it used to be so concerts and musicals are no longer a priority. Add the fact that tickets to concert these days are  well over the price that I am willing to pay - usually around $150/each which makes it at least a $400 exercise if Tim and I want to go out. No thanks!

Anyhow, today, I purchased concert tickets once again. The anticipation and the want of getting the best possible seats have not changed. At exactly 10.01am, I was on the computer trying to purchase pre-sale tickets currently only available to subscribers. I kept looking at the venue floor plan, hoping that the seats I got were going to be good.

Bingo! It seems as if we did manage to get good seats.

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) for me,  I won't even get to go to this show. Instead it will be Noah and Tim going together.

Tim is taking Noah to his very first concert - The Wiggles, the farewell tour in December. I am so excited because I know how much Noah loves the Wiggles (and I hope that he still does in December) and if Noah takes after me, it will be the first of many.

My, how things have changed!

Noah Rockstar and his Wiggles guitar!

My child model

Back in June, Noah had some photos done through his kindy. As I was expecting it to be another day, I did not dress him up in smarter clothes, but instead he had his photos taken wearing his usual play clothes.

When we received his photos, Tim and I were pleasantly surprised at how wonderful the photos turned out. I think Tim and I always get surprised when Noah "does things" on his own - without any coaxing from us at all. There was no Mummy nor Daddy to be saying "cheese" nor jumping up and down trying to make him smile/laugh.

Since we were so pleased with the photos, I secretly sent them to a child modelling agency. Now Tim and I think that we have a gorgeous boy and we have always wondered whether he has the look to do some catalogue work.

Trying to find an agency who is not all about ripping parents off was hard. I read up on a lot of feedback from different forums I belonged to. It was a chat with a friend from my Mothers Group who was actually signed up with a particular agency that led us to making contact with the agency.

I emailed Noah's photos to them. In my email I stipulated that if they did not think that Noah had the look, it was okay. I did not want to waste their time as much as I did not want to waste ours. I would be contented enough thinking that I have a beautiful son.

The director emailed back and said that Noah is very cute and extremely photogenic. She openly informed us that the problem/issue with toddlers like Noah is their temperament and if you have been around toddlers, you will know that one minute they can be as sweet as apple pie giving you cuddles and doing anything you ask and the next minute they are driving you bananas with their stubbornness.  The director suggested that we come in to their office so that they can gauge Noah's temperament. And so we did.

Noah was amazingly wonderful during the meet up. He was charismatic and on his best behaviour.  Noah did his best to answer the questions he was asked. It was almost as if he knew his temperament was being looked at.

I learned many things during the information session. It was good that the agency was very open and did not come across as to be preying on vulnerable parents. I was given the run down on how it all works, their clients, fees and commissions and the possibility of work coming into fruition.

I took everything as a matter of fact.

We parted with the lady telling us that they will have a look if they have room for Noah in their books and for us to to really consider if this is something that we want to do. She said that she will be in touch sometime the following week.

We received our phone call yesterday, informing us that they are interested in signing him up and asked if we wanted to go ahead.

We decided against it, for now.

Now, I am not sure if every parent out there share my sentiments but as I said earlier, when I see catalogues and ads with babies/toddlers, I often think that my children could possibly good looking enough to be in them. However, little did I realise that there is so much work involved, and not just for the child.

The reality is that when a job comes up that Noah might be suitable for, I will have to be ready to take him for the casting. It will be my job to drive him around and to ensure that he is in the right mood. I will also need to ensure that he is able to follow directions, which I know he can given the feedback I get from his carers and watching him progress through his swim class. However, I still get nervous when it is a new person asking him to do things. I never know whether he will follow or not. It will also mean that if a casting falls on a day when he is in daycare, we will have the issue of whether we would want to pull him out instead of letting him have fun with his friends and carers. Keep in mind that if Noah attends a casting, it does not automatically mean that he will get the job. Fruition might be elusive despite the investment of our time and energy. It is a massive commitment.

Besides, do I really want to do this with Eliza, trying to juggle her sleeps and feeds?

Tim and I might reassess when Noah gets a bit older...when we can be truly confident that we have a better handle on his emotions and temperament. In the meantime, we will just enjoy the fact that we have beautiful photos to look at.