KRW at Marlene's 30th birthday

Just some random shots of our little girl at Marlene's birthday bash. Of course, Kyla's wearing a lovely outfit given to her by the birthday girl



.

Kyla's first birthday presents

Kyla Rose Wong is a very lucky girl indeed, judging by the number of presents she got for her first birthday. An extremely huge THANK YOU to everyone who blessed our little girl with a birthday gift. Please also rest assured that all monetary contributions have gone straight into the KRW scholarship fund.

Kyla's first birthday

KRW celebrated her first birthday at a park/playground around the corner from our new Mount Waverley home. Bubs and Babes are actually waiting for pictures from Attila and Amanda's cameras as the proud parents of the birthday girl were too busy mingling and making sure adults and kids alike were comfy and well-fed. Until we get better pictures, here are a few samples.

Inculcating reading habits

At Bubs & Babes Inc, we encourage our offspring to pursue a healthy interest in literature. No expense is spared to acquire the finest reading materials. So it is indeed heartening to see Kyla Rose Wong displaying such unrestrained joy with a book in her hands. Even if it is occasionally upside down.

Cousins in the bath

Des, Su and Charlotte were in town for a wedding, and they were our first guests at our new home. And speaking of our new home, please excuse the reduced frequency of blog posts, we've been busy with work issues, moving etc. You have NO IDEA how much stuff we've managed to accumulate, but at least it's done now. We'll post pictures of our Mount Waverley residence before too long. Oh, KRW's the one on the right, just in case you were wondering...

Like father, like daughter

We introduced KRW to roast duck the other day, and she enjoyed it very much. She's at a stage where she'd rather have what her parents are eating, instead of the yummy food that her mum has specially prepared for her. Oh and she had a little bit of Hainanese chicken rice at Malaymas last night too, but I didn't dare to give her some char kuay teow. Or maybe I was too selfish to give up some of that precious commodity!

The Spaghetti Kid

This little girl is steadily developing the kind of reputation that will leave all kinds of pasta quivering with fear. She has learned the art of mangling and torturing spaghetti beyond all recognition. Several times a week, her training sessions involve strand after strand of Italy's finest, all efficiently terminated. Here's some photographic evidence:

Kyla's (very) early birthday celebration

Babes' mothers' group decided to celebrate all the kiddos' birthdays at Pender Park last weekend, about a month and a half before KRW's actual birthday. So there we all were with lots of yummy food including meats on the barbie. Kyla Rose wore an H+M dress her mum chose in Hong Kong last year, but she had it taken off later as it got quite warm. As for her actual birthday celebration, we told ourselves (before we had her) that we wouldn't go to much trouble to organise it, but it looks like we'll be going back on our word...

KRW in Sydney

Kyla's first trip to Sydney was an interesting one. She refused to sleep on the flight over... until the last few minutes, of course. Which meant that Bubs and Babes ended up sitting in an empty aircraft, the last ones to leave as we wanted to make sure she got some rest. She enjoyed spending time with her 'godsister' Isabelle and her 'godbrother' Marcus, who were very good to her.Fast asleep, enjoying the seabreeze at Balmoral Beach.
KRW and Isabelle at a playground in Lane Cove.

KRW's first tooth

This little bit of enamel made its appearance a couple of weeks ago, and we've finally had the time (and opportunity) to get a shot of it. Here it is, the first of many (we hope)!

Table manners

KRW has a long way to go before she's ready for fine dining at three-star Michelin establishments. But for now, we're just happy that she's eating at all! The second picture reveals that food DOES eventually end up in her mouth...

Kyla Rose Wong: swimming or crawling?

This little girl has been moving around quite happily, but she hasn't quite mastered the art of crawling yet. Once she has, we're gonna be pretty busy. I'm looking into attaching a GPS tracking device onto her...

Note to babysitters

This post is for anyone/everyone who will (hopefully) be helping us babysit KRW at some point. It's pretty easy to tell when she's tired and ready for bed. Here's the signal: thumb in mouth and other hand covering it. Easy, right?

BBQ time!

The family (and a couple of friends) took advantage of excellent weather to indulge in that age-old Aussie tradition, a good ol' barbie! Hosted by Amanda in her cozy Fitzroy premises, meats supplied and prepared by Mars and Jag, salads (and general expertise) provided by Babes. What did I do? Umm, walked out to buy bread and ice-cream. Oh, and helped ensure there wouldn't be too much left over.

The Templestowe Farmers' Market

This is a relatively new event that takes place on the fourth Sunday of every month. We went along recently to see what fresh produce we could get (especially for lil' Kyla Rose). There wasn't much in terms of fresh fruit, slightly disappointingly, but the vegetables were decent. Some of you might know I'm not a huge tomato fan, but the truss tomatoes we bought there were absolutely delicious!

Another short Kyla video

She doesn't say 'da-da' this time, but she's got the loveliest laugh. Yup, I know I'm biased, but hey, it's my blog :)

Kyla says 'da-da'. Or something to that effect anyway.

Babes made many attempts to capture KRW speaking on film yesterday, and she eventually succeeded somewhat. Right at the end of this footage, you'll hear a little gem...

A lovely day for a picnic

We took advantage of the lovely weather today to take KRW for an outing to the Fairfield Boathouse. It helped that the footy Grand Final was on, and a park that would usually have been chockers on a day like this was fairly quiet. As you can see, Kyla Rose enjoyed herself!

A bit of news: the sequel.

Hot on the heels of KRW's first 'words' is her first tooth! The telltale sounds of something hard in her mouth hitting the cup she was drinking from was a dead giveaway. So Babes stuck a finger in Kyla's mouth and there it was. Which hopefully explains the little girl's abysmal appetite...

Pictures from Patsze's camera

A big thank you to Patsze (who's one of KRW's three godmums) for spending last week with us here in Melbourne, and being such a great help in spending time with her and helping to look after her. We had a great time, and KRW and Pats bonded really well. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any pictures of the two of them together. (Guess you'll have to come back and see us again soon then, Patsze!)

No, there's no connection between Kyla Rose and the 'Wine by the glass' board behind her.

A family photo taken at Ripe in Sassafras (in the Dandenongs).

Kyla Rose enjoys spending time in the playground. She might not look like she does, but trust me she does.

More holiday pictures unearthed

Not quite unearthed lah. More like I forgot I had taken some with my other camera. Here are Babes and Kyla Rose with Sue and Charlotte in Singapore:

Kyla Rose with Gregory and Zerlina's three little girls. Recognise her?

And Kyla Rose on our hotel bed (which she took over) in Chiang Mai, looking absolutely adorable.

A bit of news

Sorry everyone, we haven't really taken any new photos in the last few days. There's something to report, however. Kyla Rose Wong said her first word. And guess what it was?
'Alfalfa.'
Well, maybe not quite 'alfalfa' but something that sounded like it anyway. That's since evolved to something that sounds like 'papa' but has more of a rapid-fire 'pa-pa-pa-pa' to it. But I'm now teaching her to say 'sustainability'. Stay tuned...

The great imitator

Babes has taken great delight in teaching KRW a new 'move'. I think the next step should then be to teach her how to nod...
Meanwhile, our little girl put on 280g in the last two weeks. Woohoo!

More pictures of Kyla Rose

We've been rather slack with the blog in the last couple of weeks, due to work, house-hunting and all kinds of other things. For now, here are some random pictures of the lovely KRW. She's still rather underweight (in some cases, she's still wearing size 000!), but has been eating a bit more in recent days. Let's hope she keeps growing... otherwise how to be Wimbledon champion lah?

KRW's sleeping positions

Kyla Rose Wong can be a rather restless sleeper, as you can see from these pictures. Restlessness aside, she's been a bit more settled in the last week or so. Hopefully, she's settling back into life in Melbourne without a multitude of friends and family fussing over her all day. She's also eating better, which is a very good thing considering she's still significantly underweight despite her mum's best efforts.

We're back! - Part Four

A few more photos from the Chiang Mai leg of our trip. As you can see, Kyla Rose enjoyed herself, especially looking at her mum and Dad wearing Thai massage outfits...

We're back! - Part Three

In Chiang Mai, Kyla Rose went for lots and lots of walks (in VERY hot and humid weather!) with us. She explored the 'arty' neighbourhoods, rode in songthaews (red taxis) and had lots of fun. Along the way, we learned that she didn't need expensive toys to keep her occupied; give her a straw and that would keep her entertained for hours. Well, not quite hours but for a decent amount of time...