2 months to 2 years

Mia turned 22 months yesterday.

2 months from now she'll be 2 years old. Oh my, how time flies. More and more, she makes it known to me and those who dresses her that she has her own style. It could be tomboy-ish in the morning, girly-girl in the afternoon, and nerdy in between then and evening.

As of now, she doesn't really talk any comprehend-able words. Maybe she'll throw in "kai-kai" from time to time when wanting to go out. No mama, no papa, no mummy, no bye bye, no nenen, no chu-chut, nothing.

Its not that we've not tried, we have and are trying to get her to speak. She does understand when we talk to her and respond accordingly though eg: come here; ok, we're going - bye bye Mia (to which she'll run towards us or the front door), go to school, oh-oi time, sayang-sayang etc.

I am enjoying this time when my kids are just infants. I'm not too worried about her not speaking for now. She'll talk in time, and I'm sure she'll have plenty to say. OMG....the neverending "mama, WHY????, mama, what's that? mama, I waaaaant......"

Meanwhile, I'll keep myself occupied with her birthday party prep. The venue, the cake, the games. Hmmmm.

Yes, we'll have a little party for her ;) Those who were at her party last year are definitely invited again.

Perth & Beyond Vacation: Day 4 (Sun 28th Aug 2011)

Today we planned to go down to the port city Fremantle to try out the famed fish & chips at the fishing boat harbour.

As I was busy getting Alan and our supplies ready, our girl Mia was busy "dancing" in front of the TV.

We did get caught in nice traffic on our way to Fremantle.

Apparently there was a huge event happening at the beach halfway to Fremantle: "City to Surf" which is an annual marathon event. I enjoyed the view outside - wildflowers, crowds of people, and yes, he was one of the participants and one of the proud winners I believe looking at his medal on his chest there.

Once we arrived at Fremantle, we headed straight to the only multi-level parking in town and walked to the harbour from there.

Along the way, we stopped by at the park. Mia tried out the many slides. She wasn't that impressed with this one.

This one was slightly better. She still wasn't that impressed.

She did enjoy picking wood chips from the ground and putting them in her mouth. I gave up stopping her after a while.

We got hungry soon so we proceeded to the harbour.
Here we are at the famous Cicerello's Seafood Restaurant. Its a really busy restaurant and we were given pagers to hold on to while waiting for our orders to be ready. It was a really long wait.

There are a lot of seagulls waiting for customers to leave food for them. Once you leave your table, the seagulls come flying in to catch some leftovers.

My fish & chips order. Very nice indeed. Yes, they Cicerrello's do offer other dishes as well like pastas and desserts. By the way, ketchup and other sauce are not given out complimentary - you have to purchase them.

Uncle's seafood platter. Yummy!

Then we had coffee and dessert including cannoli

Once the kids started to play up and a bit too much to handle, we left the restaurant. We had to walk through the park again and Mia desperately wanted to play inside the bouncy castle. Unfortunately for her she wasn't allowed. Not even her wailing and pleading in front of the gate guy worked. So a major meltdown moment followed.

We forced her onto her stroller and walked back to town.
We had a look at the market. Hubby tried out some pepperonis and uncle treated us to huge strawberries.

After the market, we decided to continue our drive to another town - Mandurah Bay.

On the way, we noticed a car with eye lashes behind us!

Once we arrived at Mandurah Bay we went to the local park so Mia can play in the playground.

One of the more interesting things at the park - the Liberty Swing. This swing was designed to allow the handicap enjoy a ride on a swing while seated in their wheelchair. The photo I took was corrupted so I googled this image. Thank goodness for Mr Google.

Mia's ultimate favourite: the slide

She keeps on climbing up

Then sliding down. Over and over again.

Mia tried out other stuff. Its hard to get her to smile for the camera these days.

I asked her to smile, an this is what I got.

She climbed into a yellow boat. She liked this too.

While Mia was having fun in the playground, we got to enjoy the beautiful lake.

Before leaving Mandurah Bay for that long drive back to Perth, we drove around to have a look see at the beautiful luxury homes.
How would you like that for a backyard - your very own jetty to dock your boat/s! Wow. This is what I'd call livin' it up in Mandurah Bay.

Perth & Beyond Vacation: Day 3 (Sat 27 Aug 2011)

Hubby's uncle (as with most Aussies) don't work during the weekends. So, he and his whole family were free to take us around Perth.

Our first stop which is located inside Whiteman Park. This place is only 12km away from hubby's uncle's house. I'd recommend anyone visiting Australia or Perth the first time to make this a must visit place. The park (Whiteman Park) as a whole is huge. The park is named after Lew Whiteman (1903 – 1994) a prominent local figure who donated the land for conservation efforts.

There are just so many things to see and do in Whiteman Park including hiking, train rides, playground, picnic, barbeque. The main attraction I think would be getting up close and personal with the Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats and other animals inside the Caversham
Wildlife Park.
At 10am, they have the Sheep Shearing Show. They explained the history of sheep shearing and do a live demo as well.

All this wool (in 1 piece mind you) came from shearing just 1 sheep. Such skill!

As part of the show, they get kids to volunteer to participate in the lamb feeding competition. Pity our own kids were too young to join.

After the show, we headed to the kangaroo enclosure. They were so many kangaroos and we are free to touch, feed and take photos of them.

Mia was more interested in the kangaroo feed. No, not to feed the kangaroo but for HERSELF to eat!

Then we went into the koala enclosure to have a look at the koalas. Again, we can touch the koalas and take as many pictures as we like with them. We were advised not to touch the eucalyptus leaves as koalas are really picky. Once the leaves are touched, they wouldn't want to eat them anymore.

We skipped the Wombat Show because Mia can't sit still through any show.
During the Sheep Shearing Show she got restless before the show even took off. Her father had to take her out and let her see other animals in the farm (rabbits, chicken, goat, lamb etc) until the show was over.

We went home for a while to let the kids have their afternoon nap and then we headed out to Chinatown to have dim sum lunch. Sorry, no photos. The photos I took got corrupted!

After lunch, we walked into the main city centre.

We were so lucky to meet the Vegemite bear, took photos and scored ourselves a free jar of vegemite!

Strolling down London Court. This place is really beautiful. There are a lot of souvenir shops along this stretch. We didn't shop here at all. Instead, we enjoyed the beautiful ambiance and architecture of the place.

From the mall, we walked to the Bell Tower. Perth has a very modern bell tower.

Our next stop was at Kings Park which is located adjacent to the Swan River. Kings Park is just like Central Park in New York - natural habitat filled with beautiful flora and fauna. At just over 400 hectares, this park is HUGE!

Our main intention of visiting this park is allow Mia run freely in the hope that she'll get tired. Run she did.

Followed by embarrassing episodes of her "begging" for food and drinks. OMG.

She got herself a sip of coke. Yes, we did stop her but the other park visitors insist on sharing their food and drinks with her. She was like an animal attraction in a park for people to feed. Dangerous.

She got chocolates too.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze, the grass clean. I could just sit there all day looking out onto the Swan River.

Mia was happy with her chocolate.

There were quite a number of newly-weds arriving in limos to take photos inside the park. I enjoyed watching them too.

There's also the State War Memorial inside the park honoring those who served in the war. When I was studying in Brisbane many years ago, we learnt about this phrase "Lest we forget".

"Lest we forget" is the slogan in a campaign to remind us of the prisoners of war or those missing in action. We are reminded to never forget the past and sacrifices made that have brought us here today.

Seeing Mia walking along this slogan made me a bit emotional and I was really glad that this photo wasn't amongst those which were corrupted. Lest we forget.

Moving on to the rest of Kings Park. As we strolled around the park I was struck by the beauty of nature. The chirping of the birds in the trees. The wildflowers sprouting from the ground. The amazing landscape of the park as a whole. I read somewhere that the park gets over 6 million visitors a year and yet it is SO clean.

That tree behind us is called the Gija Jumulu. Its about 750 years old and weighs 36 tonnes. It made headlines around the world a few years back (2008) as it was transported over 3200 km from Warmun in WA's Kimberley region, to Kings Park.

Just behind the Gija Jumulu is the canapy walk. Some parts are made of wood.

Some made of steel. But whatever the make, this is the first time we're on a canopy walk pushing baby strollers.

As we head back to our cars, we stopped by a pond to look at some wild ducks.

We watched the water fountain spurt water high up into the air.

That was fun to watch. We got wet a bit but it's alright. We enjoyed the experience.

Soon it was time to go home, take a bath and freshen up for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant near uncle's house. We had crabs amongst many other foodstuff. And yet again, I got too excited and did not take any other photos.