Malaysian Wife, Australian Life

Last week Ayisha turned 3.  She seems so big to me now - big feet, big hands, big hair and doing lots and lots more - lots of pretend playing, lots of daydreaming, lots of talking AND talking back with lots of attitude.  She's been looking forward to turning 3 for what must've felt like forever to her, constantly asking me "Am 2 now? 3 tomorrow?" or "Is my birthday tomorrow? Or tomorrow tomorrow (day after tomorrow)?".  So the day came and we had a Laidler family birthday dinner on her actual birth day, followed by a Cinderella Princess party on the weekend. It was a pretty last minute choice of theme made by Miss Squeaky.  Initially she wanted Dora again, like last year. I tried to talk her out of it for weeks but with no success. Then she got introduced to Peppa Pig by her cousin Abbey and got hooked. The next thing I know, she wanted a Peppa Pig party. My initial reaction? Shock shock, horror horror! Let's go back to Dora, Squea...

Michael, Ayisha & I were out partying last weekend! Woohooo! But, errrr..with a place called Peekaboo, you know it's a kid's party yeah? For the past year living in Bali, out of us 3, Ayisha has had the most invites for parties. Lucky for me, I got to join all of these parties. Michael, not so much. This is because almost all invitations that we receive for her specifically state 'for mums & kids only'. It took me a while to get used to this actually. In Malaysia & even Australia, most kids parties (esp 3 years old and below) would include both parents or don't really specify otherwise as it's a gathering of family & friends. Like, how many friends does a 1 year old have? Or to be exact, it's actually an excuse for the parents to celebrate and have a get together, with the added excitement of a fancy birthday cake & a chance for us mums ( yang over) to put together the ultimate party bags. I would find myself asking my friends here for...

Last year, we celebrated Ayisha's 1st birthday with friends & family in Malaysia with an Aussie Gold & Green Themed Party. At that time, I never would've thought that we'd be celebrating her next birthday anywhere else besides either back in Australia or Malaysia. But now here we are, in wonderful Bali, celebrating her 2nd birthday with her new friends and 'family' that we're fortunate enough to have known during the short time that we've been here. We're also extremely lucky to have our very special guests - grandma & poppy who came all the way from Sydney to make this all the more memorable. Weeks before the party, Ayisha & I were just so excited. We'd be reading books and watching TV shows on birthdays. We kept talking about her friends coming to play and her Dora cupcakes that I planned for her, we practiced pretend blowing candles, rehearsed singing her birthday song bla bla bla and we'd be jumping up & down and rolling...

No, the baby's not out yet. I've just been busy around the house and there's been a lot of changes happening in our lives. Last Friday was my last day at work. I started my maternity leave at week 37. Over here, they normally leave work 4-6 weeks before the baby's due. I have to get a Dr's letter to show the company that I am ok to work 3 weeks before the due date. I know a lot of people back in Malaysia work up till their due date. Most of them still driving to work! So yeah, i've been doing a lot of stuff around the house. Last weekend, we finally got around to getting our wardrobes for our room! After almost a year, we finally have wardrobes, yippee!! We've been taking our time looking around for the perfect wardrobe. In the end, we finally went to IKEA, went straight to the wardrobe section, wrote down the codes of stuff that we knew we wanted, straight down to pick up what we needed and we're out of there in 1 1/2 hour - SO not right. :p I think...