A Round of Applause for the Gentleman in the Hot Seat Please!

OK, first up, to the people who read this blog regularly, my apologies for the rather long silence on my end! I've just been having too good a time these last few weeks with mum-in-law extraordinaire Maree who was in town from wintry Dunedin.

To make up for the unforgivable hiatus, please find below a video taken today of the Jordy clapping! Yes, for the first time! Not that I'm one to get too paranoid about reaching of milestones but he was slightly overdue on this one! Well, I guess he makes up for it in terms of his rapid progress with the little ol body of his. The stuff he gets up to now truly keeps me on my toes.



I'll post more on what we've been getting up to these past weeks, the major highlight of which was our family holiday to Bintan! For Bintan virgins, D and I were rather impressed overall with the place. Water was lovely, resort was pretty decent (service slow and kampong-like but hey, we were on holiday and I only used the phrase "This is unacceptable!" twice, haha!) and our villa, magnificent and just the right thing for all eleven of us! Yup you heard me right! D + me + Jordy + MIL + Mum + Sis + Her Husband + her three kids + Aunty Aida, her helper. Only person who was missing was my poor dad who was completely immersed in preparations for the Asian Youth Games. We missed the ukelele, dad!

Highlights of our first Turnip family beach holiday include:

*Lovely villa we stayed in, with its own private pool. We never even made it to the main pools at Bintan Lagoon.


* Going for joyrides in our buggy.


* Chilling out with the whole family. Puppets and Bananagram were the orders of the day.


* And the beach that was 200 metres away from our villa!


Note: All photos except for the last are courtesy of Mama Maree. The last amazing family shot is taken by brother-in-law and photographer-with-the-uncanny-eye, Les! Thanks so much :)

Happy 10th Month Birthday, Jordy!

Your newest trick is to ball up your fist when I say "close!" and to show me your palms when I say "open!". Clever boy!

Dear Jordy,

I can't believe you're 10 months old today! You're turning more and more into the little communicator everyday. And I daresay you have a career ahead in management from the way you look at me when you're hungry and shout urgently in an increasingly audible tone, "mum-mum, MUM-MUM, MUUUM-MUUUM!" Which results in a scurry of activity on my part!

For the most part, you love posing for the camera. When you do, the result is usually rather nice, like the picture above. When you don't, things turn out like so:

"Hmmmmm? Just a sec mum, this cud is sooo chewy..."

Well, your 10th month birthday started out like most other days, you got up, daddy changed you then gave you your milk, then I gave you your cereal. After which you played on all your various favourite toys (or the Stations of the Jordy as I have come to term them). You go bash a bit on your walker, then you play peek-a-boo and spot-the-wheel with the car that Aunty Pearly and Dylan gave you, then it's taking out everything in your little red pail - blocks, teethers, rattles, assorted plastic bits from other toys - and seeing what happens when they bang against each other or the floor, then you say hi to your teddy bear and Percy the pig, then you crawl over to the music table and play deejays for a bit, and then it's on to the stroller where you embody man's primordial fascination with the wheel, then you come see mummy in the kitchen and play with your kitchen magnets, then you look so sweaty so mum gives you some water, and then I read you some books and then, it's time for a nap!

Phew! Just typing that made me rather tired.

Anyway, so after you woke up, I took you to the library to get a bunch of new books, and boy did we strike gold! It's the school holiday promotion and we got double our quota each of books, that means you got to borrow 8 books on your card, and I got to borrow 16! Here's what you helped mummy to pick out for you. Oh and I got five Baby Blues comics too. What a treat!

We HEART the library.

You were starving by the time we got back but thank goodness I had everything planned out so you got to have you favourite brown rice and fish mornay (we love Annabel Karmel right?) on your new IKEA plate! You finished the lot and still said "Mum-Mum, MUM-MUM" so I gave you some apple, mango and yogurt. Then you ended off by having three red grapes! Goodness. Daddy will need to work a second job to feed you, young man.

Badly taken picture of brown rice and fish mornay.

Anyway dear Jordy, I just wanted to say how fun it is hanging out with you*. I'm really, really glad I took the year off to take care of you and watch you sprout into the strapping lad you are now! It was, and is, hard work at times (you try changing four pooey diapers a day!) but I wouldn't trade it for anything**.

And now that you're almost walking, it's just going to get so much more fun (and frenetic)! We'll explore parks, feed ducks and fish in ponds, play on swings, hang out with your friends in all sorts of cool places, go to the pool, y'know, it'll just be like the Jack Johnson song, this city'll be our jungle gym! Oh and on that note, wanted to link into your friend Poppy's blog as she posted some wonderful pics of our day out to Keppel Marina and West Coast Park!

Hanging out with Olive and Poppy at Keppel Marina.

Anyway we're still halfway through your 10 month birthday so better go get ready for your playdate with Isaac and Jasmine, your Gymboree buddies! Of course, mummy will do the getting ready while you continue with your zzzzs.

OK bubs, just wanted to say a huge happy birthday to you, and can't wait for many, many more. And yes, you will be able to have cake on your first birthday. Don't you worry your (not-so-little) self about that!

Love,
Your mum


*most of the time, but not when you start screaming loudly in the Vivocity Tangs bedlinen section.

**except, MAYBE a spa holiday in Bali or a cruise to Alaska.

Jordy's Latest Magic Trick!

As you can see, we are now all rather hooked on video Chez Turnips. Especially now that I've finally figured how to use the darned camcorder (note to all: do not buy JVC Everio harddisk camcorder. Not intuitive.).

Anyway, back to the video. It's really amazing how you can spend hundreds of dollars on "developmental" and "age-appropriate toys" but what ends up being the firm favourite is an empty yogurt container. That, and any drink bottle and wet wipe pack.