Sakura is now two years old!
To start this blog off right I need to talk all about my munchkin and her endeavours.
She now know her letters and numbers and can recite the ABC's - she just randomly started doing this. She also can sing nursery rhymes with about 1/3 of the words on a regular basis. She loves helping mommy with everything such as watering the plants. She will even try to pour her own cereal and milk in the morning.
She has had her first kiss (See video).
And has had lots of fun playdates!
One day while drawing she decided to paint her fingernails (Video).
I decided for her birthday we would do a Saturday party (Halloween themed) in the morning for toddlers and young kids, and in the evening for us adults and older kids to party. I even made my own invitations using Canva.com - which was surprisingly easy and I was able to get them printed cheap too!.
For Sakura's actual birthday we got to go to swim class, have some fun at the library baby rhyme time and play time, visit the pet store, and play on the playground. She passed out on the floor after all the fun. Also this was her last swim class with the Infant 2 class because she has passed all the criteria so she graduated and is moving on to the Infant 3 class on Saturday mornings. They even gave her a medal!
Halloween
Sakura and I had a fun day with her friend Cristiano although playing with pumpkins was a flop. My favourite moment was when Cristiano hurt himself and sought comfort from Sakura. She initially didn't know what to do and then decided to give him a hug and pat on the back.
Sakura helped me carve my pumpkin in time for trick or treaters. Unfortunately she REFUSED to get dressed. I was afraid we would miss trick or treating entirely so I forced a dress on her and headed out. She enjoyed knocking on the doors and getting treats in her tiny bucket. Anytime I put her down though the was like "Oh wait, I hate this dress!" She fell asleep as I walked back home and went straight to bed so still a successful night.
The Birthday Parties
Before going into detail about the parties I have to give a HUGE shout out to Dan and Brianna Biddle who were a big help with preparing for the parties. Matt was working so much that I could not have done it without them. Also, thank you to Lawnton Country Markets who had free pumpkins on November 1st so I could happily have more than enough pumpkins for people.
The toddler morning party started out with us unsure we would have a space at the park. A lovely family said they were just leaving so we had two tables and plenty of space. Sakura refused to let me put her down so it was a blessing the missionaries randomly showed up and helped Brianna and I set up. One family showed up and I couldn't even socialise because Sakura was so cranky - she wanted to be in the swing with no shoes and while I was holding her, which of course wasn't possible. Another family showed up and so we got started on some pumpkin painting. After that Sakura was pretty good. I did get thoroughly painted though. Sakura made some new friends and had a blast so although we only had one more family show later it was still successful. I was just glad I had another party that night to be able to reuse the food.
The night party was mostly what I had hoped it would be. My goal was that people would be able to come and enjoy themselves, dress up, eat good food, and that Sakura would be able to have fun. I think I met that goal. We had something like 15-20 people total and the majority of the food was eaten. In case you were wondering - everything was gluten and dairy free except a pumpkin pie. It IS possible and still tasty. The kids were not impressed with my dark chocolate mix or coconut cream caramel to dip apples in though.
The cake turned out great with special note to Lorelle who made the decorations. I made the cake with simple gluten and dairy free box mixes from Woolworths as it was easier. It came with frosting powder so I just had to add my coconut cream and nuttelex to make it dairy free. I also added charcoal to the cake and chocolate frosting to make it black. We did a strawberries and coconut cream mix between the layers and it turned out pretty tasty. I was glad we were able to get rid of most of the cake, but sad the next day when I realised we only had a sliver left.
Sakura had an absolute blast the whole night! No costume again, but she was happy. She enjoyed her gifts and jumping on the trampoline with the big kids. Jennis even got out her face paints! Lots of fun! It took us a couple days to clean it all up thoroughly, but I look forward to doing another Halloween party next year (not a birthday party) and improve upon things I learned this year.
Shade is Gone
On a sadder note. We said goodbye to Shade Friday November 15th. Every since Sakura came into our lives we have struggled to give Shade the attention he used to get. I would still play with him often and Sakura used to try and help as well. When we moved to the new home he wanted to go outside a lot so we let him. This was our big mistake. I only learned recently that to let your cat roam is illegal, but the real issue was in the last month he was frequently coming home with new scratches or injuries. Some are definitely from a fight, but when he was limping I think that was actually from scaling fences. Worrying for his safety I tried to train him to be more indoors again. This resulted in him meowing CONSTANTLY and in the middle of the night. We have airbnb guests often and cannot have Shade disrupting them. So we often caved and let him out. If we didn't, he would then pee on something to show his frustration. One place he's chosen twice migrates to get onto my giant panda bear. That is the WORST thing to try and clean sufficiently. I've tried different things, but if you smell the area it still smells like cat pee. BAHHH! This began to be frustrating for the whole family. Matt was ready to get rid of him. I was trying to think of what I could do to help the situation like cat proof the yard or play with him more, etc. I prayed about it and felt that the best thing for Shade and the rest of us would be to find him another home. Although this was not what I wanted, I recognised it was the right thing to do. I contacted a vet who suggested a pet rescue organisation
CKs Paws. In less than a week they found a foster home for him and I packed up his things and dropped him off. The organiser feels confident they will have a forever home for him by Christmas. He'll love the foster home too as the lady has a large patio that has mesh all around so it is a cat proof outdoors space. We got Shade direct from a Bengal breeder and have loved and cared for him for the last 6 years. This has left a hole in my heart and I hope one day we will be ready to have another cat and perhaps a dog. For now, I think it is safe to say our focus is on Sakura and work endeavours and we shouldn't be dedicating any efforts at the moment to a new animal that requires us to entertain it.
All About Me
BIG NEWS! I got accepted to two schools for the
4th Year Honours Psychology Program. The
University of Sunshine Coast was my second choice as the campus is 15-20 min away, but the
University of Queensland I had spoken with people that were willing to work with me for a doctorate so they would be ideal for building connections and starting something that I could build upon. I won't hear from UQ till about December or January. Surprisingly though, I was praying about it and felt the strong impression that I needed to attend USC. I thought this was crazy because UQ was the logical place anyway. After a few days of pondering this I received enough confirmation to feel that USC would be the best for me even if I didn't understand why right now. So I am working on coordinating more details with them and I am excited to see what next year brings. I haven't mentioned yet that I have NO idea how I'm going to pay for it though.
My VIPKIDS contract was up for renewal. I am so tired of teaching 4-5 classes Monday through Friday at this stage so I was considering just not renewing. I don't make that much money. In the end I realised I don't have to open up any slots if I don't want to so when I start school I may just not teach any classes for a while or I will just open 1 or two slots a week. I'd rather have the ability to keep doing it if I want to. After this month though I seriously need a break.
I've also been trying to make sure I go and do something fun just for me. So in October I got a massage, toured the city, and went to dinner at East Street by myself. Another night I went to a Painting class I got from Groupon. It was a lot of fun! My only regret with the class is that instead of trying to mimick the artist who was demonstrating, I should have just gone with what I felt would be better (then my pink zebra would have been more proportionate). Still well worth it, and it was good to get out of the house.
For November my friend invited me out to do some rollerskating. I got rollerblades as I think rollerskates are just weird, but had a blast. I forgot what it was like rollerblading and it was harder than I thought to keep my balance. I'm definitely more into ice skating, but it was so nice to be able to chat with good people while also do something active.
Other Updates and Events
We made a couple of beach trips when Matt didn't have to work. The first time it was very windy so Matt made a giant hole that blocked the wind. The second time was great until you got in the water and the wind made it freezing.
Our oven kicked the bucket and while waiting for the owners to consider replacing it, Matt happened to find a good one for free on one of his job sites. The owner approved the replacement and install by a professional. We are so happy! The new one is very nice and I now don't have to worry about burning my baked goods as easily.
General Conference was a bit tricky to keep Sakura entertained. Matt played a game while Sakura watched and we had conference on at the same time. I got very sleepy and closed my eyes a few times. It was a great conference and I am still re-reading at least one talk a day. I felt the overarching message was that God wants us to have JOY! Not just after this life but right now. Another interesting part of this was our Airbnb guest at the time turned out to be a member. He didn't tell us until his last night when we had dinner with the missionaries. He watched part of conference in his room - I'm not sure why he didn't just come out and watch it with us then.
As another side note:
Current favourite recipes are...
Almond butter chicken with zucchini noodles
Cajun-style steak with spicy mango glaze
Both are from Paleoleap.com so if you haven't seen or used their website you should check them out. They have Keto recipes too!
Until next month! P.S. Apologies for what are likely many grammatical errors as I ran out of time and didn't want to wait to review it later.
