Sunset in Autumn

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2011-01-06T20:23:00.001+11:00

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11/11/2010

2010-11-11T23:44:00.003+11:00

It's been almost a year since Michaela was born. I've really enjoyed being a Mum of two and now that Junior No.3's on his/her way, there's even more to look forward to. Thank you, Lord for these bundles of joy! May your will be done and not mine...Amen!

Michaela Elsha Meilan Cousins

2009-12-04T23:08:00.003+11:00

These photos are of the birth of our little girl - Michaela Elsha Meilan Cousins. Born 9:49am 4/12/09 4.2kg, 55cm, hc 35cm (kindly upload by my husband)

Gabe

2009-04-13T17:26:00.001+10:00

06/03/09

2009-03-06T15:58:00.006+11:00

Gabe's nearly 2.5 years old now. He's a happy boy. We find parenting more and more challenging as he's learning to be more independent but we enjoy it.

Gabe's into spelling now and he's able to spell and read everything! Yes, Ever-y THING!! Example: One Fee(Three) Zero Zero Six Five Six Five Nine Five=Grandpa's Van!!! But he also knows how to read this b-a-b-y =baby c-o-l-o-u-r-s=colours(ca-ners)He still can't say his "L" right, so when it's his nap time, he'd say "but I don't want to go to sneep.(sleep) Jesus noves Gabi.(loves) Turn off the night.(light) In the past he used to substitute "L" with an "R" but now he's using "N", which I find quite fascinating!

Favorite toy: Cowboy Woody
Second Favorites: Buzz and everything else
Every time he jumps off something, he'll say: To infinity...and beyond!
Favorite movies: Toy Story, Toy story II not that we don't allow him to watch anything else!
Counting Numbers: 0 to Forty, and if there are too many, it'll be "nots and nots"(lots and lots)
Favorite things to do: Helping Mommy making cookies, playing with water, singing, dancing, spelling, recently being a photographer! Mommy's the super model-haha not that he has many choices, loves going to church(kids' program)
Favorite food: cookies, jelny(jelly) beans, cakes, cheese and nots and nots of juuuuuice.
When you ask him, "Are you alright?" when he hurts himself, he'd say,"Yeah, I'm fine cool, Mom!"
How I wish I could keep every detail of these precious moments on some sort of hard-drive, but I guess I won't be doing much but keep watching them over and over again. God is good!

My God is So Big

2008-10-30T18:16:00.003+11:00

Happy Birthday, Gabe <3

2008-09-16T21:33:00.008+10:00

Our boy's 2!!! Can't believe how time flies! It has been an amazing 2 years being Mom and Dad for me and Dave. Hasn't been easy but being parents really have helped us to understand God's love a whole lot more. He has been so faithful in providing for us, teaching us and forgiving us when we make mistakes.

It was an interesting day! 15th September 2008 was Gabe's birthday and it was also my birthday based on the Chinese calender. (1 day after the full moon festival) In fact I didn't even realize until I got some phone calls from family in Thailand wishing me happy birthday and I was like...duh...?? thinking they made mistake only to find out what an interesting day it was!

Gabe's so happy that Daddy got him a swing-set. The part he loves the most is the slide. But I think Buzz and Woody got to enjoy the swing set more cuz Gabe took them on with him and entertained them pretty much the whole afternoon on both the slide and swings.

I was a bit upset that he had a fall when he was running to catch me. As a result, you can see the mark on his face near his mouth and a little bruise on his forehead. I'll get over it! Kids heal fast.

Can't thank God enough for His provision and how He's watching out for us. We thank everyone for your prayers for our little man. He's such a blessing and we have learned so many things from just watching him grow. I'll put more pictures on tomorrow.(if I get a chance) God bless you all.

What happened in May?

2008-06-08T22:39:00.003+10:00

Well, a super busy month is gone and left behind a lot of good memories:

-We met Darby and her cousin Kedra in the city. It was pretty awesome being able to catch up with Darby and getting to know Kedra. More than anything, I think Gabe loves these two 'very' tall aunties!

-My first Tupperware party- I was stressed out the whole time before I had the party. I didn't know what to do, who to invite, whether people would wanna come and buy stuff...At the end, I helped Cheryl made over a thousand bucks worth of sell and as a result I got myself some free Tupperware stuff. The most important thing is I did try it, but I don't think I'll go there again. Love the Tupperware stuff though!

-Women's church- Still studying Dr. Larry Crabb's 'Encouragement,' led by a very wise lady called Ann R. I have learned how powerful words are and that we're responsible to the words that go out from our mouth-so before saying anything...think hard: we should only say words that encourage one another. One very interesting point though is that: Words that are meant for good have equally potential for evil!

-Playgroup has been good. Gabe was sick so we didn't missed out on the playgroup for 2 weeks. Last week we went back and it was Trinity and Matthew's birthday. I really enjoyed it. Being able to catch up with all the moms is quite encouraging. I also got a chance to update the playgroup's blog and am loving it.

What else happened in May? Oh! Congratulations to Nui, Matt and Julius for the safe arrival of gorgeous Casandra!

I think I'm gonna start teaching English again, just because Gabe's grown up a lot and think I'll be able to manage to do that. That's about all that happened and will try to keep you all updated more often!

God is still faithful

2008-05-01T00:07:00.004+10:00

Gabe had a little accident about a week ago. He tripped and hit his face on the edge of a wooden chair and had a cut on his eyebrow and some bruises on his face. I was quite surprised at how well I took it. Guess these days I have learned to trust the Lord more than before. Just looking back, there was no hard time I went through without God being there supporting me and giving me strength. He has given me such a beautiful family and He's been faithfully blessing us and providing our needs so generously.

The school holiday's over and Womens' church is back on. I'm joining Ann's group and we're going to study about Key to Encouragement and yesterday was the first day and it is so encouraging already! I am looking forward to going back next week. I am very thankful that Gabe's doing better when I leave him with Maggie, Dorothy and other kids while I'm having the bible study. Can't thank those ladies enough!

I was invited to a Tupperware party at Mel B's place and I really enjoyed it. And crazy enough I booked myself one, which I have no idea what to look forward to whatsoever, but oh well, just another experience. Dave and his family are so supportive and encouraging.

Dave and I have talked a bit more about having another child and the answer is 'not yet' but we lift it up to God. (May His will be done) My back is still pretty bad, guess it doesn't help doing all the gardening and looking after a 19-month-old boy, but I enjoy them so much. Not sure whether I've ever mentioned that I have my own little garden bed in our backyard. There's some chili, morning glory, spring onion, lemon glass, basils and mint. Oh, forgot to mention that the grape tomato vine Matt planted for us when he was down is still there and Gabe loves picking them thinking they are grapes.(yucky ones) I should take a picture and post it on here next time. It's late, I should go to bed. G'night :)

Adjectives!

2008-04-17T21:23:00.003+10:00

Gabe's 19 months old now. In the past month, he's learned a whole lot about adjectives, numbers and alphabets. Gabe recognizes numbers 1 to 10 and learning to say 'twenty, thirty...' and he recognizes about 20 alphabets out of the 26, which I think is quite impressive.

His new favorite cartoons, characters(whatever you wanna call them) are now Elmo and Cookie Monster, oh...and Thomas the train... At night I usually go in his bedroom to check whether he's still got his blankets on, sometimes I'd wake him up(as much as I try not to) and he'd say, "Hi, Mom! Watch Elmo, yeah?" and I'd say, "No, son, tomorrow." and he'd say, "okay, no more Elmo" and goes back to sleep.

When we put clothes on him, we often tell him how he looks handsome and stuff and he's learned to put those adjectives before some nouns, like...handsome jumper, awesome bib, amazing jacket, cool dude glasses, cute nappy and pretty flowers(he pronounces it wither the [er]bit.) Sometimes Gabe brings me his little beanies and asks me to put them on, and when I do it, he'd say..."Awwww...handsome!" We really enjoy these moments. The fact that he says things more clearly makes me worried sometimes, just because my boy's growing and soon he'll be independent and he'll go around doing things himself and won't need Mommy and Daddy's help anymore. Oh well...

A lot of people have asked when we're gonna have another child and I guess I'm not quite ready yet. I've got to work on my driver's license and make sure my back is well enough to handle the pregnancy. The most important thing I guess is to make sure Gabe's well nurtured and perhaps when he can do more things by himself and then we may consider having another one. In fact, we have to totally lift it up to God! May His will be done!

Gabe=18 Months

2008-03-17T01:13:00.003+11:00

Gabe had his immune-shot today and he did well. He was upset at the nurse and pushed her hands away with the look on his face saying, 'I'm cranky at you!' but at the end he smiled at her and said, "bye bye" before we left. Grandpa and Grandma went down to the doctor's with us as well. It was good having them over the weekend and Gabe was so happy to see his 'Papa' and 'Mama.'

Gabe's into numbers these days. Often he gets them right, but still a bit confused between 6 and 9, and 1 and 7, other than that he often gets them right when he sees the numbers. He's talking a lot more and copying almost everything we say. He's learning to say the seven days at the moment and it's so funny that 'Saturday' seems to be the easiest day for him to pronounce. Anyway, I should get a nice video and post it on here. I need to go to bed now...zzzzzz

2008-03-04T14:51:00.004+11:00

Gabe's first word was "hello"-he said the word when he was two months old. When I was in Thailand, I got a chance to babysit my little nephew, Ford, can't remember how old he was then but I was able to teach him to say a couple of words and since then I realized that baby can start talking when they're that little.

I found Gabriel always tried to copy things I said since he was a couple of months old. He was able to ask the question, "what's this?" since he was about 6 months and that was when I started to take time teaching him words, telling him what they are and how they relate to our daily life.

Being able to communicate has made him a happy boy.(That's what we think anyway) These days he's able to say "peace(please) and ta(thank you) when he asks for stuff. Recently just learned to say kyou kyou(Thank you) and it sounds so cute. He's also learning to put words together and sometimes he gets it right, and sometimes we just have to guess what he's trying to say.

Last Sunday at church, he's finally old enough to join the other toddlers upstairs where parents are allowed to be with them for 5 minutes then they'll have to leave their kids and go join the service. It was pretty emotional to me, thought he might cry, but it turned out so well. He just said "bye bye, Mom" and gave me a kiss and he was fine. I couldn't concentrate on what Ray was preaching cuz I wondered whether Gabe would be crying or when those ladies were going to come down to get me, but thankfully that didn't happen. After the service I ran straight up and Gabe pointed at me and said, "Mom" with a big smile and I was happy then to know that he had a good time. At women's church, he's going to join the bigger kids next week, so I'll be able to just concentrate on the study. That's such a blessing!

Oh, well! Anyway...this video shows our routine after giving him a bath or a shower, that's when we learn more words together. Sometimes it's a little bit tricky though cuz I breastfeed him right after putting the clothes on him and he's often can't be patient enough to have his tucker. :D

It's been a while...

2008-02-26T14:41:00.004+11:00

Today's our 3rd wedding anniversary and I got the most beautiful card ever with a very surprising gift. Dave and I took Gabe to the park this morning and had a good family time together before he headed off to work.

Gabe's 17mths old now and he's really into drawing, coloring and saying words and putting them together. Every number used to be 'six' and every alphabet 'W', but now he's recognizing more and able to tell some differences. I often take him down the road and he'd walk to people's mailbox and points at them then reads the number out. We made a new friend down the road about 4 houses from ours. Coral is such a lovely lady. She invited us in and showed us her lovely backyard and the 2 cute birds.

Gabe knows that Tuesdays and Sundays we go to church, so in the mornings of those two days he often says to me, "...church," which I gathered he means today we're going to church. I'm happy that he's able to communicate a whole lot more, which makes things easier for me. We're recently joining a playgroup, which takes place on every Friday morning where we join other ladies and their kids in the morning and the kids get to play and learn new stuff and the moms get to catch up and chill out.

Well, I added new slide show down at the bottom of this page, hope y'all enjoy 'em :)

Gabe= 16 mths.

2008-01-18T20:24:00.000+11:00

We took Gabe to get his pictures taken. It took quite a long time, cuz he kept pointing at stuff around him and asked the lady what they were...hehe Well, finally we've got TWO versions and we think he's adorable. (I know we're bias)

Gabe's saying a lot more words these days and I've better write them down so we can come back and look at them together when he grows up: aunty, uncle, mama(Grandma), Papa(grandpa), Ah-gong(Grandpa-Chinese), Ah-po(Grandma), Gege(older brother), Jiejie(older sister), Ah-yi(aunty), Teddy Pooh(he calls all the teddies Teddy Pooh, basically mixing Teddy bear and Pooh bear together-you can blame Daddy for that), bread, yuck, chunky, bye Dad, Bob(the tomato - from VeggieTales), ball, bib, burp, bird and a few other words we can't think of right now.

Pics From the Christmas holidays

2008-01-07T13:38:00.000+11:00

Gabriel's words

2008-01-02T22:07:00.000+11:00

The video explains it all :)

Isn't God awesome!

2007-12-10T00:32:00.000+11:00

It's Summer here in Australia now but we've got quite a bit of storm and rain in the past few weeks. We went to church this morning and went to Westpoint shopping center after that because I heard Dalta was coming and I wanted to see her sing. I've always liked her. We saw Natalie, the latest Australian Idol yesterday and she's got beautiful voice as well! Anyway, we invited Alan and Saranya to join us and our plan was to go to Cabramatta after that. Thank God it didn't happen!! Saranya and I decided to just do some grocery shopping there at Westpoint instead and after that Alan invited us to go to their place. I didn't wanna go cuz I was tired and so was everybody else. It would be nice to just go home and have a nap. Anyway, we thought it would be nice to catch up with Alan since he was away for 2 weeks and would be great to talk about his trip! Later in the afternoon the sky was all dark, and I said ,"we should probably go home before it rains."-I really wanted to. Saranya kept asking me to stay and go home after it stop raining. Okay then! So we stayed and there came the rain. It was louder than usual and we figured out it was actually hailing!! I was excited and ran outside with the camera and took some pictures. I picked up a piece of hail that I thought was big and put it in my palm and took a picture of it.

About 10 minutes later we received a phonecall from Mom and Dad saying Fiona's house was damaged by hailstorm and they were the size of a fist(a tennis ball)! They asked whether our house was okay and we said oh yeah, it should be fine. It was quite sunny after the rain was gone and we decided to come home an hour later. We saw leaves and glasses everywhere on the road as we drove into Moody Street and the neighbors were out looking at the cars and that was when we thought, 'oh no, our house!' When I got off the car I saw some white stuff on the grass and had a close look and I was shocked to find out that they were the hail still the size of a golf ball. Dave and I went and checked around the house and we are so thankful that only one window is smashed and there are some dents on the roof and that was it. Neighbors have holes on their roof and their cars are damaged and straight away we know it was God. He is so good to us. If only we came home straight after the concert or if we went to Cabramatta, we would have been hit by the hailstorm and our car would have been damaged and perhaps we could have been injured as well. See more pictures here!

Jesus, you're my super Hero!

2007-12-05T11:40:00.000+11:00

Wow! Another year's about to end! God has been so good to us and we're looking forward to the 2 week-holiday during Christmas and the new year. We plan to go up to the Central Coast to celebrate Christmas with family up there, then they'll come down to spend a couple of days down here with us.
I am seeing a christian counselor for my postnatal depression. The depression I'm going through has a lot to do with my childhood and I am thankful that now it's being dealt with professionally. The ladies at church have been a great support and I can't thank them enough for their encouragement and prayers!
Gabriel's still being a handful to me. Just three days ago, he started to climb up on the couch and I'm not excited at all. I know that many other kids his age have learned to do that a lot sooner than him. Gabe on the other hand is well in progress with his language and communication skills. I don't want to encourage him to climb cuz I know one day it's gonna come, but well it's just another part of life I suppose and all I can do is to make sure he's safe.
The weather in Australia is so changeable and often during the day it's too hot so I just take him out and play on the front porch a lot instead of going out for a walk. He's shown a lot of interest on basically everything around him. Being able to communicate a whole lot more makes him a happier child. I'm so thankful that there's gonna be a christian playgroup around the area we live early next year and Gabe and I are lookin' forward to being part of it!

Some pictures before the haircut :)

2007-11-23T22:31:00.000+11:00

These are the pictures of Gabriel before he had his hair cut :) My little angel :)

Gabi's 2nd haircut

2007-11-23T22:01:00.000+11:00

Gabe's 14 months and 8 days old today. Yesterday I decided to give him another haircut. I had to give him something to eat for him to sit still for me and there were only 3 pieces of cookies left and I had to be 'super' quick. Didn't do a bad job after all, I think.

Gabe's a very touchy person. He loves cuddling and kissing. He's learning to feed himself and is learning to draw. It's been a lot easier to communicate with him as he's learned to say more words and able to express more emotions. One thing I find very interesting is that I thought he was always left handed, but recently we've seen him using both hands- often he'd draw with his left hand and eat with the right. He loves his music and sometimes I'm surprised to hear him humming a tune. It is amazing to watch a 14 month old child to be able to do so many things. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy his pictures and would appreciate it if you could pray for him. :)

One thing I learned from women's church 2 weeks ago was that you never stop praying for the children. I've spent more time praying with Gabriel. I pray that God provides for him good friends, good teachers, good leaders. I pray that he'll grow up knowing Jesus and understanding his love and forgiveness. I pray that he'll be a loving person and that he'll put others first. I also pray that God will give him wisdom and strength when he goes through trials and hardship. It is amazing just to see how God's answering my prayers. Gabe loves it when I pray, he'll just put his face on my shoulder and stays quiet until I finish praying, and often it's about 10 minutes plus. I want to encourage everyone to pray for their children and other kids as well, not just once a day but as often as they can. Gabi loves the bible, even the adults' one that has no pictures or anything. He would flip through it as if he's reading it, it's just too cute to watch him doing that.

Updates of Gabriel!

2007-10-26T13:13:00.000+10:00

I sat down in front of my computer last night and looked through all the pictures from last year since I first fell pregnant up until Gabriel's 13 months and 10 days now. Time flies!! Gabe's got his 7th teeth came out six days ago. (20th Oct.) We finally moved him into his own room on Sunday 14th Oct., which was extremely emotional for me but thankfully he's been takin' it quite well. On Monday 15th Gabe did somethin' that completely surprised me, yeah, it was a 'surprising' face with his mouth wide open and eyebrows raised so high!! I have NO idea where he learned it from. I still have no answer where he learned squeezing his eyes(blinking) at girls from either. Guess it will continue to be a mystery. Anyway, it happened when we were playing with a pop up toy and when he pressed one of the buttons, a little puppy popped up and there he went, 'surprised!!!' He still does it every time he plays with that toy and it's just too cute! Gabe's also learned to throw away his dirty nappy in the bin after I change him, he'd get upset if I don't let him.
The whether in Australia is so changeable. We had an extremely hot day on Monday, but Tuesday and Wednesday were quite cold. I put a scarf on yesterday and when Gabe woke up from a nap he kept asking me what it was. So, I told him that it's called a scarf and put it around his neck and he loved it. Gabe's into everything now. When I say 'everything,' I really MEAN it. He's become quite handful and I find it quite difficult sometimes, but I really don't mind it. Dave and I are embracing these special moments of watching him grow...

Life is so precious...

2007-10-02T22:47:00.000+10:00

So often I look at David and Gabriel and I think to myself, 'is this real? I am married and I have a child!!' God says in the bible that children are blessings and I truly believe they are. I stay at home with Gabriel and watch him grow everyday, but still sometimes I think he grows so fast and I wish there's a "pause" button I can press and put every single detail of the changes in his life into my memory, but it's impossible. I love watching him learning new words, trying new things and acting silly. He is such a happy boy and he loves making us laugh. A couple of days ago he came to me pointing at my food and said, "Ahh..." with his mouth wide open, so I fed him a little bit of my rice with spicy Panang that I made thinking 'you'll regret this, little boy.' Dave and I watched him chew and swallowed it, he looked perfectly fine and he asked for more! I was surprised. Lots of friends are amazed at how quick he picks up words and stuff. I can't help but being proud and thankful. I think he knows that he's clever, but I pray that he'll learn to be humble and use this blessing to glorify God and not to manipulate other people. When we were at church last Sunday I noticed that Gabriel shares his toys with his friends. When other kids came to him and snatched they toys off him, he just let them and turned to play with other toys. I was very happy to see that. He's also learning to be a bit naughty though. Sometimes I ask him, "how many times does Mommy need to say NO til you understand?" Then I think, God must have said the same thing to us. We are just as bad and as rebellious. That's probably why God asks us to learn from these little ones!

Gabriel's turned 1

2007-09-26T00:43:00.000+10:00

Gabe turned one on 15th September and we held a small party for him with some close friends and family. We'd like to thank everyone for making his birthday very special and memorable. He loves all the gifts and this is one of them.

Gabe's learning new words everyday. He's still asking "what's this?" a lot and he picks up new words a lot quicker as well. He loves his little bible and he calls it "Jesus." We enjoy being his parents and watching him learning new things. We only hope he grows up knowing and loving Christ. Please continue to pray for his future and salvation! :)

Gabe's walking :)

2007-09-07T21:34:00.000+10:00

What a wonderful Fathers' day present for Daddy! We went up to the Central Coast on 2nd September to celebrate Fathers' Day.(which actually was on the 3rd) When everyone got together, Grandpa reached out his hand and asked Gabriel to walk to him. Gabe, who'd learned to cruise around since he was about 6 months walked towards Grandpa's hand as Grandpa slowly pulled his hand back and Gabriel finally realized that he was walking by himself and since then he's gained the confidence to walk without hanging on to things!! Daddy was so thrilled of course :) Another week to go, and he will turn 1. Gabe's quite talkative now, he keeps pointing to things and asks 'what's this?' or 'what's that?' He enjoys watching the Cockatoos and Galas everyday when they fly to our neighbor's backyard for dinner, and he's crazy about them. Gabe loves playing Pick-a-boo, reading books and his favorite TV. shows are High-5 and New McDonald's Farm. He also loves kissing Mommy and Daddy, especially when he knows he's in trouble :) Anyway, Nui and her family are coming down this weekend and we're lookin' forward to spending time with them. We're also planing to have a small birthday party for our little boy, and I'm planing to make Italian and Mexican food for lunch since Pii Nuch and Pii Yutt made awesome Thai lunch at her twins' birthday party. I will definitely visit their Thai restaurant when it's open...until then...no more sticky rice :D By the way, Happy Birthday to little Emma Mosby, she looked gorgeous on her birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

2007-08-22T18:27:00.000+10:00

I got a recipe of this cake called "The best chocolate cake ever" and made it for David on his birthday, he was thrilled. It was extremely YUMMY! Dave just turns 31, and he's enjoying being a dad. I also made him a pumpkin pie that he's been asking for for ages and that was a big surprise for him. Big thanks to Fiona with her help, everything turned out well!

More pictures taken last week...

2007-08-08T00:43:00.000+10:00

At Flemmington Market with uncle Alan & aunty Saranya :)
After church, ready to go home!
Yup, this is me!
Mommy and Daddy!
Don't ask me who bought this bib...hehe

Cheeeeeese.........

2007-07-10T20:11:00.000+10:00

It's winter in Australia now and we've got lots of rain this year. We had Yvette's family down here with us for about 6 days and the kids enjoy seeing and playing with Gabi so much. Gabi can say a lot of words now: Daddy, yes, juice, nene(milk), night night (sometimes), poos, pach (spatula), boots or booty, shoes... I also teach him some sign language but he often gets it wrong, but he's still trying. Gabe's been cruising around lots and kitchen's his new playground at the moment (sick of the living room). I have to keep my eyes on him, want him to learn about new stuff but try to avoid him hurting himself as much as I could. Gabe loves reading books. Think his favorite ones are his Chinese book and his baby bible. He can stand up without hanging on to things now. Once he starts walking or running around, I'll probably have to see my physio more often :) Please see more pictures at the photo gallery. (new album)

Daddy and I in front of our house

My first bath in a big bathtub

Learning to drive...

I love pointing at stuff now

Thanks for buying me these shoes, Dad!

I'm 9 months old

2007-06-14T23:27:00.001+10:00

Question:What do you see when you throw a watch out the window? Answer: Time flies! Yup, Gabriel's growing so fast. He's got 4 teeth already and he's saying a lot more words: Chinese, Thai, English and...Gabrish :) He'd say "Hi, Dad" to every person Mom's talking to on the phone. He loves music and even tries to sing along with Mommy when she plays guitar. I think he's gonna make a good singer when he grows up. Gabriel becomes quite clingy at this stage. He loves going to church on Sundays though and would skip his morning nap, because there are lots of toys there that he can't miss. Besides that, he's the only boy among lots of baby girls! Aren't you lucky, boy! Check the photo gallery to see more pictures :)

Grandma's little boy

2007-06-03T15:11:00.000+10:00

Gabriel's wearing the clothes that Grandma bought him quite a while ago. He's growing so quickly and they won't fit him much longer, so we've better take some pictures while they still fit.

Lord, I know...

2007-05-30T21:43:00.001+10:00

I know I’m not perfect and that I’ll never be,

I know life isn’t easy and that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Yes, to die is easy and to live is a challenge.

I know I fail you but I’m sure again it will happen.

You are my Lord and I want no one else to be.

I know You love me and I can always count on Thee.

But yet I’m often blind and Lord please help me see.

The world is so cruel, I’m tired please set me free.

I know I’m often scared, You’d say “Don’t be, my child I’m there!”

I know You’ll never leave me, because You love You care!

You have a plan for me, but often I choose to flee,

Yet Lord You’re never angry, You keep protecting me!

Lord I’m sorry, I’m vulnerable, not strong as I wanna be.

Now I pray, down on my bended knees,

"I want to live my life for your sake and for your glory.

Grant me your wisdom your strength, and help me to repent.

Because I know…Lord I want to make you happy

and want you to be proud of me! "

Gabriel's 8 months 'n 10 days

2007-05-25T14:28:00.000+10:00

Gabriel's calling "Mom, Mom" a lot these days and I'm real thrilled. He loves clapping his hands. He's also learning to say lots of words like"silly, silly...and (nap)py." Dave and I really enjoy watching him grow!

Rejoice in the Lord always!

2007-05-17T21:51:00.000+10:00

I'm having a cold at the moment! Yeah, for those people who know me could possibly imagine Jean going around with red nose, swollen watery eyes and messy hairdo... What makes it worse is that I cannot take any cold medicine! Why? Cuz I'm breastfeeding! Gabriel knows there's something wrong with Mommy and he just wants to be with me and wants to cuddle the whole time while I have to try my best not to kiss him, which is not easy. When I was preparing his solids for him in the kitchen, I sneezed about 3 times, and I turned to him after that. Of course he was looking at me with his eyebrows raising, then he smiled and said "Ha-chu!" to me and started to laugh. That wasn't nice, but I started to laugh too. I turned to him and said, " you shouldn't tease Mommy, you should say God bless you, Mommy!" No wonder why Jesus loves the kids...They can make you SOOOOO happy even in a hard time!

My first Mother's day

2007-05-13T16:24:00.000+10:00

After feeding Gabriel his solids yesterday morning, we dropped some Masaman Beef and rice by a friend's place who's recovering from a car accident.(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=261222) Then we headed off to Central Coast to celebrate Mother's day with the family. We went to Hog's Breath Cafe for lunch and then went to the Lawson's to visit Don, (Yvette's husband) who's having a bad back and didn't make it to lunch. Then we stopped by Grandpa and Grandma's for a short visit since it'd been a long time since they've moved into this house. It was good to see that they're settling in well, and the house lookin' quite nice. We left the Central Coast at around 4 and Junior had his little nap on the way home. It was a beautiful day! Today (Sunday) I slept pretty much the whole morning cuz I coughed all night and didn't have a good sleep. So thankful that Dave's been lookin' after Gabriel and played with him when I was asleep. Now that I'm awake, it's his turn to have a nap. My poor husband!! Gabriel's now playing in his playpen and I'm sitting in the office. Well, I just heard him calling, "Dad, Dad" so I've better go out and play with him before he wakes Daddy's up.

Winter is coming!

2007-05-11T23:00:00.000+10:00

Time flies! The weather is getting colder and colder already. I'm having a cold at the moment, I'm also coughing and my eyes are sore. I just pray that the Lord will look after us, especially Dave and little Gabi cuz I'll hate to see them sick. At night we have to make sure we put extra layers on Gabriel, cuz he'd kick the blankets away and move around the cot. We also put little booties on him, which never last the night cuz he's such a little wiggly worm. Gabi's learning to say more words. Yesterday, when it was his bath time, he kept saying "Pom-pam, Pom-pam," so I grabbed the camera and took a short video. Please click here to view the short video clip.

Grandma & Grandpa Visiting

2007-05-05T22:31:00.000+10:00

It's awesome to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting us this weekend, they haven't seen us for nearly 2 months. Today we also had Charlie, Cherry, Fiona and Dave over for lunch, we had a good time. I think it's good for Gabriel that we have visitors from time to time so that he's used to having more people around than just the two of us. Dave bought him a new high chair and he's enjoying it. He's also got jeans on today and it's his first time wearing jeans, lookin' quite cute.

My beautiful sleep

2007-05-04T15:03:00.000+10:00

We broke Gabriel's routine completely when we went to Thailand and we were so worried that it would take a long time to put him back to it and it'd be hard for him to sleep through the night again. Thankfully we were given a book called "Save our sleep" by our friends Alan and Saranya Fillery, which really has helped and it only took Gabriel less than a week to sleep through the night after we got back to Australia. Gabriel has two soft toys in his cot; a puppy from Nanna (Ja)Nette and Pooh Bear from Aunty Hong, which he plays with before bed and in the morning before the feed. Today he is 7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day old. He's got two bottom teeth already and the top two are on their way. He loves his bath time before bed and loves to listen to mommy singing "Jesus loves me" to him. Gabriel also enjoys our prayer time, he'd listen carefully to what Mommy prays and sometimes he smiles and would peacefully fall asleep after that. Can't thank God enough for this little BLESSING...

My little Model

2007-05-03T23:45:00.000+10:00

It was a nice day today, took Gabriel out to the front porch and took some pictures of him. I felt like I wasn't even there, he was too busy playing with his little bear and looking around. I think he's gonna make a cute model!

Daddy

2007-05-03T20:41:00.000+10:00

Gabriel learned to say "Mom-Mom" when we were in Thailand, which was when he was about 4 months old. The word "Mummy" seems to be too precious for him and he wouldn't use it easily-only when it's critical. (hehe) These days he enjoys calling his dad with his unique accent, "Dad, " or "Daddi" He gets a bit upset everyday when daddy walks out from home to go to work. At night when I put him to bed, he'd always ask to see David. We're praying that Dave will be able to change a shift or find a new job then life might be a bit easier. Oh well, only God knows!

Never take things for granted!

2007-04-27T15:31:00.000+10:00

Sawasdee, kha!

I'm a Mom!! Still can't believe it, but my boy's 7 months old now. I thank God for him everyday, and I pray that I will never take him for granted. I've got a wonderful husband and a happy boy, what else can I ask for but doing my best as a wife and a mother! Well, I'm still...learning...