The First Noel...

Christmas this year was all the more special for us with Mia's arrival. Once again, we are reminded of just how blessed we are to have two healthy, beautiful kids.

Our "new" happy family :)

Woodland Pre-School Christmas Concert

An X-tra special Christmas package

Christmas fever hit our home the moment we brought out our Christmas tree. We continued our little family tradition of decorating the tree together then giving Ryan the most important job of placing the star on top of the tree. As the presents began piling up under the tree, it was very amusing to see the poor little guy's will power tested to the limits. Shad and I had managed to "persuade" him to wait until Christmas to open up his presents but each day we were asked the same question, "can I open my present NOW?"

We decided to have a quiet dinner at home on Christmas Eve this year with Mum and Dad who are here for the holiday season and a few close friends. Christmas Eve night has always been very special for me. Growing up, that was the time when all our family would come together for a huge meal then sit around and sing carols until it was time to go for Midnight Mass at church. While we didn't make it to church this year, we still managed to keep up the tradition of lots of yummy food and great company for the night.

A turkey and ham Christmas dinner with the Chins, Hans and Ngams

Opening up presents with Emeric and Aunty Ava

A Christmas snuggle for Mama

Can't wait to try out Mama and Daddy's Christmas pressie

She may be tiny, but she stretches like an old pro

The extended family portrait

We had two of Ryan's classmates' families over for lunch on Boxing Day. Ryan, Samuel and Alicia are good buddies at school, and I suspect that their little siblings Mia, Zoe and Andrew will also grow up to be good friends. The three littlies were born within days of each other :), so it looks like we'll be seeing lots more playdates in the days to come.

Ryan and his fishing buddies Samuel and Alicia

Synchronised feeding session for the trio of second time Mums

Triple trouble :)

Proud Dads with their special Christmas packages

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

A special, post-concert reprise performance of Let it Snow...

All About Ryan

A Day in the Life of a Pre-Schooler

This post is a little out of sequence as I started it before Mia's unexpected, early arrival ...

Ryan has been attending Woodlands International Pre-School for over two months now. So far he seems to be enjoying it and looks forward to seeing playing with his friends each day. However, of course there are still days when he wakes up and cries, " I want to stay home with you Mama" when we try to get him dressed and ready for school. But thank goodness, there are less and less of those days now. We've settled into a comfortable routine, Shad wakes Ryan up and gets him dressed, we eat breakfast together, I drive the little fellow to school then go run my errands, pick him up from school three hours later then head home for lunch. So far, we've been pretty happy with the Woodlands system, and impressed with the processes that they have in place. The crucial thing for us is that there seems to be a lot of importance placed on parental involvement, and the kids seem genuinely happy while they're at the school.

Dress Up Day...

The classroom of terror...!

Halloween day at school - in costume
. Mama's contribution to the Halloween party - mini chicken puffs

Morning Tea with the Kids...

The school organised a one-hour session one morning for the parents to join the kids in their classroom. Sitting on those itsy bitsy kiddy chairs, we watched the kids go through their daily activities - circle time, story time, Mandarin lesson and snack time.

Average attention span of 27sec
.

Ryan and his buddy Samuel having a snack

Ryan and Daddy taking a break during the "Kids in Motion" exercise session

Daddy regressing to Kinder'

Ryan came home one day with a huge bite mark on his face, a result of a "toy sharing incident" (as his teachers called it). While Mama and Daddy were concerned (which resulted in a conversation with his teachers), Ryan did not seem too affected by the whole incident and went to school the following day with just as much enthusiasm as any other day, except this time armed with some self defence moves :)

Battle scars (not a love bite, sadly)

During the last few weeks of my pregnancy, we tried to spend as much time doing "fun things" (as he calls it) with Ryan, letting him choose the activities himself. Each time we had a blast whether it was going out to the park or doing arts and craft at home.

The deep concentration of a skilled artisan

A 3.5 year old on a clothing strike

A final outing with Mama as an only child

30% of the ice-cream made it to his mouth

A reluctant pose with Mama

Hanging out with school buddy Samuel

How much for the monkey?

Happy and full after a teppanyaki dinner

Virtual tennis lessons on the Wii with Uncle Peter

Our New Addition

And now we are four...

Thursday 27 November started off like any other day. I woke up with some tightening around my stomach but thinking that they were just Braxton Hicks I didn't give it a second thought. We went about our daily routine, Shad got Ryan dressed and fed, and I drove the little fella to school. Then I headed out on my errands run, first to the post office then a quick stop at the supermarket, and as I was trying to decide whether to go to Central to pick up a few more last minute baby things or head to AMC for a hot chocolate and pedicure (one final opportunity to spoil myself :)), the tightening in my tummy got a little stronger and more regular. Talking to Karen over the phone, I described the feeling and my ever sensible sister just quietly said "eerr maybe you should go home and call your doctor". Thinking that it was probably good advice, I drove home, timed the contractions and called my OB who told me that it was time to go to the hospital!

At that point, I was feeling very relaxed about everything thinking that it was probably a false alarm and the hospital would send us home after they had checked me over and we would still be able to make our 2.30pm appointment come Monday for the planned C-Section. But this little baby had other plans, and by the time we got to Matilda, I was already 2cm dilated and the contractions were about three to four minutes apart. After speaking to my OB we decided that since I was already in labour, we'd try having a natural birth instead of a caesarian.

At 8.43pm our little girl Mia entered the world with her eyes wide open and an extremely loud cry for such a small parcel. Weighing in at 2.39kg, she was tiny but healthy. We are extremely thankful for her safe arrival and feel very blessed that we have two healthy beautiful kids.

Is this happening now? But we weren't scheduled until Monday...

Yes it's happening - those peaks at the bottom are contractions - 3 mins apart

Fresh out of the oven

Our new baby Mia

First portrait with Mama and Daddy

Little wrinkly foot

Kor-Kor meets Mia for the first time

Living it up with the Matilda Hospital room service

Slippers too - hospital or hotel?

A view over the South China Sea from our room, not bad for Mia's intro to the world

Daddy and his babies

He may be a big brother now but he will always be Mama's baby

All bundled up and ready for the journey home

A new teddy bear for Ryan

Playing with big brother

Err, does she have to stay here tonight?

Enjoying a soak in the hot-tub

Big baby, little baby

Siblings sharing a moment

Don't cry, Kor-Kor will look after you...

Who's who? Ryan and Mia, both 4 days old