Sometimes parents can be really mean. As a mummy I have done some mean things. Here are some of the them:

1) I asked Jono to collect leaves in the backyard to keep him busy for ages. My real reason was I'm lazy to clean up those leaves myself. :P

2) Take the batteries out of his toys and tell him that they're not working anymore. Just so that I can put them away because they annoyed me so much.

3) Secretly eating Jono's biscuits (Dane does the same) and tell him that he was the one who finished them. :P

4) I gave Jono some water instead of the real thing when he ask for 'medicine' because he's sick. LOL

5) I cut up the lollies into tiny pieces so when he asks for lolly I would give him one with no hesitation (one really tiny piece).

6) Telling him 'mummy's busy working' when I was just doing some surfing on the laptop. Very very naughty mummy!

There are many others things but I can't list them all. The idea is parents can be mean sometimes! Hahaha, watch out kids!

Mean Parents

Esther is 8 months old. She is growing up too fast and I can't keep up with it. She has been crawling since 6.5 months and loves pulling herself up since 7 months. She is a chatterbox too. She likes making joyful noise and can say dadadada, duck and tada. Notice the similarity? Yes the D sound, babies can make this sound very easily. Another sound they can make easily is bababa sounds. It's just amazing to see how babies develop and grow, day by day they learn different things and become a little person of their own .

Jono sometimes can get really rough with Esther and he even said to me that he doesn't like Esther. :-( He seems to think Esther is taking over his territory and he is not happy with that. Aaahh the joy of sibling jealousy. Pray that Jono will come around soon enough to know that Esther is not going anywhere and she is part of us. :P

Thank you God for my two beautiful children who continue to amaze me and bring me lots of joyful and tearful moments. They are part of Dane and I. Even though I cannot see or touch dear hubby Dane for few more weeks but I'm able to hold mini Dane and mini Josephine. I can see us in them. :D

1) "I'm a man, I can drink COKE!" He said this to his grandparents when they took him to McDonald's.

2) When I told him we're going to Wagga Wagga and Sydney to see daddy. He said "No, daddy is not in Wagga Wagga, daddy is in training." :D

3) Every time when I drop him off at his kindy, he would say "Mummy, I want to go home". And when I go pick him up, he would say "Mummy, I don't want to go home". Just as well I don't listen to him or ask him to make decision because he does not have a clue what he really wants. :P

4) He also got this really strong view that pink is only for girls. I never said that to him but I think he made his mind up after seeing most girls like pink stuffs. So he asked me, "Mummy, are pigs girl? Why are they pink?"

Some higher level thinking questions:

1) He asked me the other day "Who made God?" I replied, God is always there, no one made him.

2) While we were watching NEMO, he asked me in the beginning of the movie when Marlin and his wife were naming their babies, "Why Nemo's mummy died?" I was not prepared for it and was really shocked. Sadly I said to him people do die and we can't stop it. We were both very sad to think that Nemo could not be with his mummy. I think he started to understand death means separation.

Jono's favourite character in 'Finding Nemo' is Dory

I watched this video today, and I just have to share it.



Below is an article I found on the internet that tells us more about the story:

I want to share with you a true story about a man named John Griffith. In the 1930’s he worked as the controller of a huge railroad bridge across the Mississippi River. Every day at certain scheduled times the huge bridge was raised so that barges and other ships might make their way down the river. And according to a schedule, John would lower the bridge so that the freight and passenger trains could rush across.

In the summer of 1937, John Griffith took his then eight-year-old son with him to work for the first time. The boy was excited to watch the big railroad bridge and the trains & boats, and also to see the control house with all kinds of levers over which his daddy had absolute control.

His father took him to an observation deck so that he could watch the boats and trains go by. At noon John put the bridge up to let some ships go by since there would not be a train coming for awhile. He made his way to the observation deck where the two of them had lunch.

Just as John was telling a long story about the trains & boats, he was startled by the shrieking of a train whistle in the distance. He quickly looked at his watch and noticed that it was 1:07.

In the midst of his story telling he had forgotten that the passenger train - the express for Memphis with 400 passengers on board - would soon be roaring across that bridge.

Without panic but very quickly he leaped from the observation deck and ran back to the control tower. He placed his hand upon the massive iron controls and started to close the bridge. But before pulling the lever, he glanced down beneath the bridge to see if there were any ships beneath it.

There a sight caught his eye that made nearly made his heart stop.

His son had slipped from the observation deck and had fallen into the huge gears that operate the bridge. Though the boy was still alive and conscious, his left leg was caught in the cogs of the main gears!   John knew that if he pulled that lever his son would be crushed.

His eyes filled with tears of panic, and his head was spinning. What he could do was to take a rope, rush to the observation tower, tie it and lower himself into the gear box, free his son, bring him back up to the observation deck, and make his way quickly back to the control tower to lower the bridge.

But no sooner had he thought it, than he knew there was no way he could do it in time for the train.

Again, closer than ever, the train whistle sounded. He could hear the wheels clicking over the tracks and the puffing of the engine.

But that was his son!

Yet there were 400 passengers on that train which was roaring toward the bridge. But John Griffith was a father and that was his boy!

………He knew what he had to do…….. so he buried his head in his left arm and pulled the master lever.

That massive bridge lowered into place just as the Memphis Express roared across the Mississippi.

When he lifted his head with his face smeared with tears, he looked into the passing windows of the train.

There were businessmen casually reading their afternoon papers, uniformed conductors looking at their large vest-pocket watches, well-dressed ladies in the dining car sipping coffee, and children pushing long spoons into the dishes of ice cream.

No one looked at the control house and no one looked at the great gear box.

With wrenching agony, John Griffith cried out at the train---- "I sacrificed my son for you! Don't you care?"  But nobody heard.  They never even looked up from their newspapers, watches, coffee and ice cream.

The Son of God has been sacrificed so that we might have eternal life.

Will we look up from our newspapers, watches, coffee and ice cream?

Jono is growing up so fast. He enjoys learning about everything and loves reading information/fact books. He asks lots of why and how questions. He's indeed a keen learner and I enjoy teaching him and sharing what I know with him. As a parent and a teacher, I personally think parents are their children's best teacher. You can send your child to the best school in town but you never spend anytime with them nor teach them anything, then you are wasting your money. Many children in top schools might achieve really well academically, but failed as a person. We can see some of them do drugs and some of them steal and what not. I have seen many parents thought the school is responsible to teach their kids since they send them there. Not so, we as teacher can only do so much in the class.

Every now and then when people praised Jono and how good he was, I felt a sense of pride because I was the one who taught him to have good manners, to share and to be nice to others. I make sure I spend the most time with him not his kindy teacher. Imagine one day when there's a conflict between what you teach your children and what their teacher shows them, and who would they listen to? Do you want them to listen to you or their teacher?

So, parents, spend as much time with your kids and show them the way of lives. We as Christians should be faithful parents to our children. Nannies, childcare, schools, even grandparents can only do so much for them, the responsibility rests on you - Mum and Dad!

"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-8

Yes, my Lord cares for me and He is always there for me. I know I'm never alone! HE KNOWS everything about me and my condition.

I'm counting my blessings and learn to be thankful and joyful!

I'm feeling under the weather. I'm sick with the flu and is really missing Dane. It's two weeks now since he left for his trianing. He is doing great and very much enjoying the whole thing. I'm doing ok but no doubt I would have days like this when I feel run down and really wish he was here with me.

However, I thanked God for my two beautiful children who keep me busy and focused. Jono is still very chatty and he is learning to cope without daddy. He has started to learn to play with Esther and share his toys with her. :D Esther is very mobile now that she can crawl. She also loves to stand up holding on to tables or anything she can hold on to. She can say 'dadada' as to daddy and duck. How clever!

Everyday I just hang around for Dane's 6pm phone call and that would definitely make me feel better and ready for the next day. Less than 2 months to go now! Can't wait!

Jonathan is a delightful 3 year old boy who loves to talk all day. He is friendly and often mixes well with other kids. I mean I could not ask for a more cheerful son than him. However, he has entered into the phase I called: "The Negative Three" (in light of the 'Terrible Two'). He used to love his food, his bath, go to bed peacefully but lately he refused to have bath/shower, becoming difficult at meal times and his favourite excuse now is "I don't want to do anything". My patience has once again been tested on a daily basis. The battle of getting him dress, getting ready to go out, or whatever it is, the response is usually NO. It's ok if I have the time of the world to be with him but I still have a 7 minths old daughter who equally needs me to spend time with her. So, I try to be calm and firmly guided Jonathan to do what he needed to do everyday. It's hard and emotionally draining. Undoubtedly, there were times when I lost it and I just asked him to go to his room and let us both calm down. Hopefully when he turns 4 it would be a fabulous four. :D

On the same note, my little Esther who had been sleeping through for 12 hours straight at night since 10 weeks old started waking up at nights for the last week or so. She would screamed and appeared very distressed. I really hope it is teething because I NEED my SLEEP BACK.

 

Our recent trip to the zoo

The good news is Dane might be able to finish his training a week earlier. That means he could spend 4 weeks over Christmas time with us before he leaves again for his employment training. The things that get me going is the HOPE that we are going to meet again. WIthout hope there is no purpose for living. Yes, we all need hope and real hope can only be found in THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope." Psalm 16:9

Today is the 4th day without Dane. We actually had an excellent day. I took the kids to swimming lesson with my mum-in-law. Jono was unwilling to go to the swimming lesson and he refused to get into the water. He never did this before and we think it's because daddy was not around. However, once he got into the water he was fine and enjoyed his lesson.

After swimming lesson and breakfast, we sat down and watched NEMO for the 100th time (a bit of exaggerating here, but we do watch it so often that I lost count). He has always love watching NEMO, but he particularly wanted to watch it more this week and I think it's the daddy and son story that he likes. :D I know my poor boy is missing his daddy. He fell asleep on the couch and I managed to get a few things done while Esther was happily playing by herself.

After Jono had a nap, I took the kids to the shopping centre to kill some time. We bought a few things and spent about 2 hours there. It was a first time for me going out on a Saturday with 2 kids without Dane. Jono and Esther were extremely good the whole time. Oh I should also thanked my Phil and Teds double pram which allows me to push two kids and enjoy my shopping. I got it 2nd hand form Ebay because I could not manage to have Esther in the single pram and Jono walking when we go out anymore. As very often, Jono would want me to carry him and he is just too heavy for me. As a result, I'm happy with the decision to invest $250 in this 4yrs old double pram (which would cost about AUD$600-$900 brand new depends on the model). I have fallen in love with it already after just 2 days of having it. It also allows me to go out for my evening walk with the two kids by myself with no hassle.

A picture of the pram

Well as for me, I'm still missing Dane a lot. Missing everything about him even his bad habits. :P Everyday, I would hang around waiting for his phone call and listen to his voice. We are not allow to use video call because of privacy and security reason. He is not allow to take photos of the place as well. I guess being in the military it makes sense. However, I'm slowing getting used to not having him around physically. I thank God for family, friends and their supports.  

Dane has finally been enlisted today (6/10/2009). It was very hard to say goodbye. We will be separated for 10 weeks. It is so far the longest separation we have to go through. In fact, we have never been separated since we're married 5 years ago. No doubt, there was tears of joy and sadness. Joy because Dane is one step closer to realise his dream. Sadness because I will be by myself and  the two kids will have no daddy around for 10 weeks.

                                               Special Enlistment Ceremony at Anzac Square              
          
I pray for strengths each day that I'll be able to look after the kids and with stand the loneliness. I feel lost and as if part of me is missing. However, with God all things are possible. Praying for Dane too as he will be going through some tough military training.