The little one is 5.1kg and 57cm today! Woah! That explains why he's been bursting out of his NB clothes (up to 56cm) and diapers (up to 5kg).

Remember not to buy to much NB sized clothes and diapers! You'll prob only need enough for 3-4 weeks and mostly they'll outgrow them fast. If diapers are on sale, the size to stock up is Infant (4-8kg), not the Newborn ones.

We spent the day at the local A&P show today. It was fun, fun, & fun.

Sophie had a couple of firsts – first cotton candy, first ride in a tea cup and on her own (she used to refuse to go on rides), first time seeing miniature horses, first time seeing someone spinning wool, first alpaca wool sweater…

I enjoyed looking at the antique farming machines and I saw a couple of antique cars driving past. Sometimes I still can't get used to the idea that I'm living in the countryside where farming is the main business. I saw little girls dressing up in their gear and getting ribbons for horse riding. I've only seen those on TV thus far! I even saw a girl pulling along her prize winning sheep with a couple of ribbons round it. So cute!

P/s Btw, A&P stands for Agricultural and Pastoral

My in laws left last weekend. We went up to Auckland to send them off and spent a night there.

It's been such a blessing having them around. They cooked for us every day, every meal for 6 whole weeks. It was such a luxury. My father in law was also the one who drove us to the hospital when Levi was about to be born. My mum in law helped to soothe Levi in the evenings so that I could have dinner in peace. Most of all, they were Sophie's main companions when James had to return to work and I was spending most of my time with Levi.

Sophie was inconsolable when they left. She cried and cried. Poor thing. She's grown so attached to them over the past 6 weeks. But it was good that she could grief like that. As grown ups, we always overlook the grieving process when people leave because we get so hardened. Looking at her grieve made James and I wished we had that kind of heart again. Once she stopped crying she was absolutely fine.

Sidenote:
1. Auckland is so fun! I love being in the city once in a while. James and I went on a date (Levi was our chaperon) on Sat night to watch the latest movie The Last AirBender. The show was so so but it was my first date with James since we returned to NZ in July and my first 3D movie. I know, very suaku but so shiok. Levi slept thru the movie and woke up in the last 30 mins to feed. Nice.

2. I drove back from Auckland. Woah! 2 hrs straight. I'm really starting to enjoy driving long distances.

Levi is exactly a month old today.

He's doing really well. He's now 4.7 kg, a whooping 10 lbs! He's outgrown his New Born (NB) sized onesies and is almost bursting out of the Huggies NB sized diapers! I went to buy Infant sized diapers yesterday and by instinct got a pink pack instead of blue. I didn't even realise it until I came home. Even the midwife here commented that he was big. I guess he's big even for babies here.

Some days he's still feeding every 2 – 2 1/2 hours but mostly he's doing 3 hrly feeds. He's sleeping better in the nights but also still waking every 3 hours on good nights to feed.

He's much more alert now and is constantly looking to engage eye contact. I think he likes communicating as much as Sophie.

We're still trying to get used to eating at the dinner hall. If he's sleeping, he tends to cry and wake because of the noise level. But good thing is that everyone is more than happy to take over and carry him.

Here's what I can do at 4:

1. I can read!

Mummy's comments: YES! After teaching her phonics for the past few months, she's beginning to read. We use Reading Made Easy and Explode the Code and of course, lotsa lotsa reading everyday. She can read simple words and know most of the sight words. Mostly she reads by context and part memorization but sometimes she surprises us by reading signs that she'd never seen before. We've got a couple of Strawberry Shortcake readers and she loves to read to Levi (ok that's my trick of getting her to read aloud coz she still prefers us to read to her. If I say to read to Levi, sometimes she'll oblige.)

2. I can write!

Mummy's comments: We're still working on this. When we first started homeschooling this term, she wasn't keen on writing and it was too stressful to get her writing consistently and properly so I gave it a rest. But recently she's starting to want to write again so we've picked it up again and she's doing well!

3. I can talk to anyone about anything. Ok, anyone who would listen.

Mummy's comments: Sophie can REALLY talk. And talk. And talk! One of the best thing about being here is that everyone listens to a kid! Kids are not ignored, told off or brushed off when they speak. Or the worst, patronised. I love the way adults communicate with children here. They really listen to what Sophie have to say and she has lots to say. This has really helped Sophie to develop and form her identity. She is very confident amongst adults and older children and has no problem holding her own ground. Now I just need to teach her not to butt into people's conversations.

4. I can carry my didi!

Mummy's comments: She's doing really well as an older sister. I think it's been great to have a 4 yr gap between the two kids. Sophie has been rather patient during the times I need to look after Levi. She'll play or read in her room and wait for me. Sometimes I will just read to her while I'm feeding Levi. In the beginning it was a bit harder but 4 wks in, she's doing very well. She's been having a cough and cold this week and she's been very considerate not to go kiss Levi and remembering to close her mouth when she sneezes or coughs. But James has been really good and been very deliberate in spending more time with her and I think that really helped in the transition. I just wished I have more time to spend with her.

Things I like
1. Anything pink and sparkly
2. Princessy things, dolls, Strawberry Shortcake, ballerinas
3. Bling blings – rings, bracelets, etc
4. Cheese – I share Mummy's love for soft cheeses too!
5. Green leafy veggies and fruits
6. Fairy Tales – I still like reading a lot

Things I dislike
1. Main meals – Mum says it's SO hard to get me to eat!
2. Villains – I hate bad people or characters in movies.
3. Putting on too many layers. I don't feel cold! I'm really a summer kinda girl, give me a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, I'm happy.

Sophie had lotsa birthday presents.

We gave her a dollhouse that was as tall as her.

James got her a dress up Cinderella doll – her fav story at the moment. Everything is Cinderella.

Grandma and grandpa asked me to get something for her and I got her a cloth house that comes with the three bears and their beds.

But when I look at these pictures, I feel so blessed for her because she now has a little brother to call her own for the rest of her life. I think that is one of life's greatest blessing – to have siblings. What a gift!

My in laws left on Sunday and I've been so busy the past week trying to catch up and to get a hang on being on our own. Finally I have some time to blog. So much have happened since!

First of all, Sophie turned 4 last Saturday. We had a huge celebration party for her on Friday afternoon. My in laws have been planning this for her even before they arrived. They brought all the party decorations, invites and goody bag things from Singapore! On the day itself, they cooked fried noodles, chicken wings and sausages.

The kids had a blast with all the goodies! We played pass the parcel, Sophie's special request. Even the adults broke fast to enjoy the food (check out the food spread in the photo above) and played with the toy cars in the goody bag. Sophie had lotsa fun hanging out with her friends and just enjoying the attention.

The Birthday Cake
Last year I made a jelly cake for Sophie – a no-bake idiot proof thing to do.

This year, I attempted to bake a cake coz I didn't even know how to go about ordering a cake here! No one really order birthday cakes around here. I guess I could have bought one at the supermarket but it was just strange to do that. Everyone makes their own so I attempted to do so. What a disaster! It took me three attempts before I got it close to a birthday cake taste and feel! Anyways here's how it turned out. I ran out of time to do the icing coz Levi had to feed so James took over and I'm glad he did coz he's the artistic one. It turned out beautiful in a homemade kinda way.

One guy had three pieces of it so I guess it must have tasted alright. But the funny thing was that he told my mother in law that the bread tasted really nice. Erm… he was referring to the cake but maybe he's danish so his englands not vely goods. Anyway, I discovered the hard way that baking is NOT one of my giftings. Ha! But I had fun trying tho.

It's our princess' birthday tomorrow! She turns four.

She's going to have a Princess Party with motorcars and motorbikes as door gifts later today. It's kinda a mish mash party theme with lotsa lotsa pink! Photos to come later. Pray for good weather!

Lullatone is SO COOL! Electronic music, looping lullabies for babies…. all you need to put a baby to sleep. Check it out!

This husband and wife team based in Japan has more interesting stuff for kids like iphone and ipad apps on their website. They also conduct workshops for making instruments. I like!

I just spent the past 2 hours trying to put Levi down for a nap. Looks like he's past the feed sleep feed sleep phase! That was fast! Woah! Now he's awake for longer and can't seem to fall back asleep as easily unless we rock him or I nurse him. Oh wells, that's the reality of having a baby ya?

But we've found a great way to help baby sleep and soothe a baby. We discovered this when we had Soph. We were struggling with Sophie's colicky phase and inability to sleep. Then we found this book and DVD called "The Happiest Baby on the Block". Of course we bought it!

The author Harvey Karp emphasizes on 5 ways of helping to soothe a baby. He talks about the Fourth Trimester and how after a baby is born, we need to try our best to replicate his womb environment. Read more about it here.

We found that the first "S" – Swaddling really worked for Sophie and we've been swaddling Levi too. They tend to sleep longer and better. Coz they can't seem to control their limb movement and the funny thing is that their own hands scare them! So wrapping them well helps them. Sophie is attempting to swaddle Levi in the picture. She's very cute, she does that with her dolls too. I found a step by step guide with photos on how to do a swaddle on Babycenter. Check it out. I also found that large swaddle cloths are better. My aunt made some for us the last time. Unfortunately we didn't bring them here and have to make do with the smaller ones.

Btw, the reason why Levi can't sleep the past two hours is probably because I've chucked all the swaddle cloths into the laundry accidentally! Silly me! Hopefully the next nap will go better with a good swaddle.

Lemme just say it again, NZ is BEAUTIFUL.

We just spent the weekend with my in laws in Rotorua. It's only about an hour and a half away from Matamata. However, the landscape is totally different. It's filled with lush green trees even though spring only just started, many geothermal areas and smells of sulphur.

We went one day at Wai-O-Tapu to see the mud pools, craters, lakes and geysers. You need to pay to get in there but it's nicely built up for tourists and easy to push a stroller. Very safe too. Unfortunately it was pouring so we had to brave through the rain to do the walk. Thank God we brought the Mountain Buggy. Sophie was quite happy to sit in there completely protected by the raincover and even fell asleep towards the end of the walk. James carried Levi in the sling and wore a poncho.

Left: Lady Knox Geyser shoots up to 20m high!

Right: Devil's Cave, a sulphur hot pool

The next day we went to Redwood Forest to do the shortest walk. It was supposed to be a half hour walk, turned out to be an hour for us. Sophie started to whine halfway and had to take breaks along the way but still she made it to the end. It was also drizzling and the heavy rains before made the ground really muddy. I think it'll be great to try the walk again on a sunny day. The trees were so beautiful. It's a very doable walk for kids too.

This was Levi's first trip away from home. We stayed at a hotel. They didn't have a cot so James folded up the duvet covers and made a little "mattress" on the floor for him. It's pretty easy traveling with a newborn since they still sleep most of the time. I think he only had a melt down once prob because he had enough stimulation and was tired of being in the car seat.

We are back from a short weekend trip to Rotorua! Updates soon, meanwhile photos on flickr.