Heavenly Bliss

The epidural is in and it all went well. The doctor said Renata was shallow, not referring to her character but the depth of the spinal cavity from the skin! Various medications and blood pressure checks are going on now... Mummy is all relaxed and ready to snooze. Talia should be here in a few hours!

Daytime Differences

Having a baby in the daytime sure feels different than going in at 3am like we did with Ethan. Last time it was like a secret mission or covert operation cos it was all dark and hardly anyone was around. Now it is bustling and Renata even gets served lunch! (wonder if they will charge us extra for the lunch?) Not being sleepy is good too cos Daddy is awake this time!

Easy Does It

This giving birth stuff looks easy... At least Renata makes it look easy! See how relaxed she is, settling in for a lunchtime nap. She scrunches her face a little when the contractions come... Ivan would probably be squealing like a little girl if it was him.

Talia's Heartbeat

She sounds strong and well! The first doctor is checking her out. Talia's head is low but it's still early hours...

Brotherly Love

Ethan is giving his last hug to Talia while she is inside. Next time his mummy will be in the arms of another baby. Renata is having contractions at 10 min intervals so we're off to the hospital now! Pray for us!

McDonald's Mania

We are now having father-son bonding time in McDonalds on Farrer Rd. Daddy thought he would never be a McDonalds fan but has to admit that these guys really have it down to an art! The Happy Meal is just the right size and Daddy gets a decent cappucino. It's all perfect to keep us 2 occupied for an hour!

Careful on that Playground!

We discovered another way that Ethan is like his Daddy. Though he enjoys the playground he is quite careful and averse to climbing too high or things that seem 'dangerous'. Daddy remembers he was that way too when young and never did like to climb too high or swing too vigorously. So Ethan will wait till Daddy shows him how to do things in the playground before he attempts them, and sometimes need a bit of encouragement before undertaking the scarier things. Funny that Daddy loves fast motorbikes now...it must be a late developing thing that I somehow think Ethan will pick up too.

Ethan's motor-skills is rapidly improving now. Here he is in this video climbing the ladder with some help from Dad then enjoying the slides all by himself!

Our Techie Time

Here we are enjoying one of our techie times together. This is when Daddy takes pictures of the fun things we've been doing then plays photos or videos on his phone. Ethan lies down next to me and we watch together. We also enjoy searching YouTube for toddler videos! Ethan loves this and since he stays still next to Daddy for so long Daddy loves it too. "Let's look at pictures!" says Daddy waving his phone and Ethan smiles gleefully and clambers up onto the comfy bed!

Cooling Off

Maybe its just me being pregnant but this last week has been really HOT! Fortunately our sweaty little boy has his ways of cooling off in this sweltering heat. Here he is enjoying a cool swim in the nice pool at Ah-Mah's place....and it looks like he's not the only one enjoying the swim!

He also enjoys long and leisurely bubble-baths at Por Por's place where it's always a stuggle to extricate him from the bath......

And when he's stuck at home with me, we sometimes take a quick trip down to the Jacob Ballas Garden in the afternoon to cool off in the lush greenery of our favourite park! It's also a great place to celebrate the wonders of water play with other kids as well -- and that certainly takes all our minds off the hot weather!

Liao Yi Lin

We have chosen Talia's name and here it is... 廖 亦 霖

Similar to Ethan's name, we wanted to choose a Chinese name that had rich meaning but was also related to her English name. Her chinese name means "rain that refreshes, especially after a drought". As refreshing rain and dew, it is our hope that she will be a source of God's loving and refreshing kindness to whomever she meets!

In case the above Chinese text doesn't appear properly on your computer here it is as an image:

Talia is Coming

The name Talia (tal-yuh) is a Hebraic contraction of "dew" and the name of God, thus meaning "dew of Heaven". In Jewish tradition, dew is gentle and ever-present thus representing God's kindness. We thought this is a wonderful meaning which we hope is expressed in Talia's life as she grows up.

This Talia is about to descend upon us very soon. Renata is having minor contractions already. Here she is getting hooked up to a machine that measures Talia's heartbeats and detects any contractions. Look what a nice picture Renata drew with her uterus!

First Lanterns!

Ethan enjoyed his first lanterns this year during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He had a choice of a Snoopy Lantern with red and blue LED lights that Daddy bought or a bright blue SpongeBob one that Uncle Roy gave him!

Ethan was fascinated by the lights and held onto his lantern very well -- but I think what he probably enjoyed most of all was the treat of having a nice evening walk with Mummy & Daddy at a time that is usually a little past his bedtime!

Playground Escapades

We have a lovely playground just downstairs now. Five floors and two minutes walk gets us here. Ethan is not that adventurous though and plays it quite safe which makes it easy to watch over him.

Just Like Daddy

We try not to disturb Ethan when he's focussed on a task at hand because he really concentrates on it... often he can't hear you when his mind is occupied anyway. We checked with Grandma who says that Ivan was exactly the same when young! So Ethan is just like Daddy! His facial expression when concentrating is also just like Daddy!

Relishing this Birthday

We are at Relish in Cluny Court enjoying gourmet burgers and a great Belgium pale ale! Ethan is only having water though! This morning he was complaining about having to stop what he was doing to get changed until Mummy said, "We're going out!" Then he quickly changed his clothes cos he always loves going out!


He walked into the restaurant, saw grandpa and grandma and immediately said: Yeh Yeh, Ah Mah! He sure knows how to butter them up. Mister Ethan was very well behaved all through lunch and entertained all of us!

Auntie Mei got Ethan these wonderful stacking boxes - brilliant in their simplicity and Ethan enjoyed them a long time after the meal was over. In fact, the whole lunch was her idea and her treat! Presents also included a bumble-bee outfit which I'm sure will appear on the blog soon!