2016 So Far

Ok, when did it February start cause I'm still thinking it's January. 

Posts have been infrequent on this blog lately. I wish it wasn't so. I do enjoy blogging, and because I do take pride in my little online space I only want to publish stuff I'm completely happy with. So because I want quality posts that reflect me, I don't like to rush posts just for the sake of having regular content.  

Life has been a little busier and challenging. Firstly the boys, who are both constantly surprising me with their growth and their personalities. There's Kai who's in the "terrible twos" stage, therefore testing his limits, being unruly and defiant at times. Kai's determined personality makes it hard to discipline him. Kai will yell and scream until he gets his way, and shows signs of aggressive behaviour when he's in situations he's not happy about. Eli has also changed. He's becoming more and more like a little boy and less of a toddler. He's into little boy things, likes to play a little more roughly, and knows what he likes and doesn't like. Making it a little harder to keep him entertained or pleased. He also questions more and very much well aware of what's going on around him, sometimes it's a juggling act trying to figure out how much detail or truth does he need to know. 

We started Kai in daycare this month, attending the same days as his Eli. Naturally he's still adjusting to his new environment, so that means lots of tears ... for Kai. Don't get me wrong all children take time to adjust to going to daycare, but there's definitely a difference in adjustment between Kai and Eli. Kai cries hysterically almost throughout the car ride to the centre. Trying to reason out why he shouldn't go. However since Kai started daycare, Eli has really stepped up to the kuya (tagalog for big brother) role. To help calm Kai down, Eli will tell him "It's okay Kai I'm just next door", or he'll agree to stay with Kai until he calms down, and apparently Eli looks for Kai at the playground during play times they're together. 

Their changing personalities haven't all been challenging. They're also even more hilarious now that we can all communicate and understand each other. Kai has always been cheeky and he knows when to turn it up for a laugh and Eli joins in or plays his own jokes now.  

Me, towards the end of 2015 I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and trying to put 100% into everything I was doing. As a result, I was starting to put a strain on myself and everything I was doing. I felt like a sh!t STHP cause I wasn't fostering my kids development as much, or cause the house was never cleaned. I felt like a sh!t business owner cause I was always chasing my tail on tasks. I felt like I wasn't looking after my body cause I had put on 4kgs, not eating well and started feeling like going to the box was a chore. I was easily irritable and not really responsive to people in general, even to my husband. I was shutting him out cause I was focusing so hard, and felt I had no time to take it easy.

Two months on and .... it hasn't really changed hahaa ... but I'm slowly trying to be more aware, since this week. I'm trying to eat at meal times instead of when I feel like I have time to, sleeping more even if it means napping with the boys, not force myself to go to the box cause it'll be a waste of money if I don't, slowly get back into prioritising a clean home, and just stop putting pressure on myself to be great at everything.

I've also been educated on the impact all this pressure has on the body internally. How lack of sleep, food and self-pressure impacts various internal systems, and as I get older I'm aware it's the internal health I need to look after as much as the external. 

So that's where Gen-Y Mum is at right now. I also celebrated 7 years of marriage a few weeks ago, registered for the CrossFit Opens which starts in a few days, the business has plateaued a little bit, but that's okay and starting to look at kindy for Eli. 

Life is busy, but I'm grateful and open to more. 

How have you been? I know we all have a million things going on so at times we like to use a blanket response like "Yeh good, same old." Hope things are looking bright for you regardless of what may be going on your life. 

That Time I Put My Kid in Danger

We went away the other weekend. We just went to Kiama, about 1.5hrs south of Sydney. We were celebrating hubby and I's seven year wedding anniversary and I was in charge of planning our celebrations, so I decided to go away this year. We took the boys with us cause our regular babysitters (grandparents) all had other plans too. This is one of the annual issues faced when your wedding anniversary is the same or a day apart from your parents and inlaws. 

How Running A Business Is Like Having a Newborn

It's been 6 months since I started my business, Follow Me Media. People ask me how it's all going and to be honest, it's going really well. I'm still surprised and humbled by how well the business has taken off, but like any business owner would understand its a lot of hard work. I remember seeing a quote that read, "Entrepreneurs are people who quit their 9-5 to work 24/7". There's always misconceptions about running your own business, such as having the flexibility to work your own hours - ha, if working 16 hours a day every day is working your own hours. Or not having a boss to report to - but it means you're doing the work of every employee of a business, from book keeping, marketing, sales, customer service, graphic designer to CEO.

Accommodation at Big Island Hawaii

As I've mentioned previously, various members of my family have visited Hawaii before, but our recent trip in September was the first time we all travelled there together. Last time I went I went to Hawaii I checked out Honolulu and Maui. So this time, around I wanted to visit another island and after asking a few friends for their suggestions, Big Island was recommended as the next best  island to see.

It's My Birthday!

Another year flew. It's so cliche but as you get older time seems to fly. Hubby and I were reflecting on ageing the other day. When you're younger you look forward to things, or look forward to things coming to an end. Like finishing uni, or looking forward to getting married, or having children. All these things I'm slowly ticking off or experiencing, I never really pictured myself ... ageing. Of course I age as the years go by, we all do. I've always believed you're as young as you feel, or feel as old as you let yourself to be. Even though I'm clocking over another year, my mind, my sense of humour, things I value, and what I enjoy hasn't changed much in the past several years. So I don't feel as old as I am. What I see in the mirror though ... well my thoughts on that is totally different. 

So another year another round of 'Things About Me'. This is my third year doing this and admittedly I'm running out of 30+ new things to share about myself, but here we go ...

1. The reason why I always wear sunglasses when I'm out is because when I was 15 I suffered from pterygium. Apparently I got it due to over exposure to sunlight. My treatment didn't require removal, but since then I'm very sensitive to direct light.
2. I love mint chocolate.
3. Being late is a pet pee of mine. I hate being late and I dislike when it's done to me. 
4. I love organising and planning things, in particular events or parties. I don't do it often but when I do, I can be a little ... over the top and demanding. I don't do things in halves.
5. I guess that reflects a bit of my personality. When I've set my mind to doing something, I go for it.
6. I've always blogged. In high school I use to blog and build personal websites back in the day when of GeoCities and AltaVista existed. I wasn't doing much of it in my mid twenties but I was really into it in my teens and during uni. 
7. My hair takes for-ev-er to grow. I'm not kidding. I prefer long hair and I barely cut it because I'm always trying to grow it. I get very envious of friends whose hair go from bobs to long manes in twelve months. 
8. Actually I have a thing for hair in general. It's the one aspect about myself I put some effort in. Everyone has one feature about them self they put extra care in. Some people care about their eyebrows or their complexion, mine is hair.
9. I like to travel.
10. I like my name and maiden surname. I really struggled (and still complain about it actually) when I had to change it after I got married. I felt I was losing a sense of my identity when I changed my name. 
11. I'm a big coffee drinker. 
12. I like to cook. I prefer to cook. I'm not the best at it but I don't do too bad. I've learnt a few rules of the kitchen and have a few recipes up my sleeve. I find cooking therapeutic at times.
13. However I can't bake. I've tried a few times and it always turns out bad. 
14. Growing up I had a fear of people not liking me or being excluded. I think this insecurity really held me back growing up. There was so much I wanted to do, to say, to try but I didn't want to seem .. uncool or rejected. Speaking of excluded, I only recently learnt what FOMO stood for: Fear of Missing Out. A friend dropped it in a conversation and I had to stop her and ask what it stood for. 
15. I rather clean the bathroom than do the ironing. Why cause ironing can take me hours, but cleaning the bathroom, less than an hour. 
16. I'm a morning person. 
17. But I could sleep all day.
18. Putting this list of 34 things about me, that I hadn't included in my previous list is hard. I've struggled on number 15 for the past two days. 
19. I never took piano lessons. My dad taught me everything he knew as a child - what key was what, how to read notes and music. Then in my early teens I suddenly had a new found interest in playing. So I learnt all the cords and studies how to read music sheets. Because of this today I'm really slow at reading music. I didn't learn any of the fundamentals or techniques one would learn if they took lessons.
20. Same fact as above with my bass guitar skills. Suddenly had an interest in learning, dad taught me the basics and off I went and taught myself the rest. 
21. Riding a horse is one of the top things to tick off on my "bucket list". This desire stems from when as a kid. Where we use to live, our neighbour's daughter (who was much older than me at the time) owned a horse. While over my neighbours house playing with her younger sister she asked if I wanted to see her horse, she was going to go get him. I said yes and waited all day for her to return. I remember feeling excited in anticipation, but when it got dark and realised the horse wasn't coming felt really disappointed. Now you're probably reading this thinking, "Maybe she never had a horse to begin with and she was just joking?" My younger sister has seen and ridden this horse, I just wasn't present that occasion.  
22. Sharks scare the b-jebus out of me, but ironically I love being in the ocean. 
23. I'm not a pet person although I've grown up with many dogs during my childhood. I'm just turned off by the maintenance involved in owing a pet. 
24. I like documentaries in particular murder mysteries. 
25. I know I have a resting b!tch face. I do frown a lot and according to my husband, apparently the shape of my eyebrows adds to why I have the resting b!tch face. Doesn't bother me, only when I see candid photos of myself and I look mad.
26. I know at times I don't stand up straight, something when I do realise I correct. Again I think it's got to do my childhood. I've always been a taller girl amongst friends, mix in my fear of wanting to fit in ... well my body language over the years would reflect this insecurity. 
27. I have big eyes. Not really an unknown fact, but as you can probably tell I'm running out of new things to share about myself.
28. I literally laugh out loud when I find something really amusing. 
29. If something takes too long to learn, I get lazy or feel like I can't be bother learning how to use/do something. Of course if it's something that I'm totally interested in then I can spend hours immersed in learning.
30. I trend to rush things in the end. I'd say I do better under pressure. Like this post which I drafted a week ago, facts 14 onwards were written 24 hours ago. 
31. I went to a co-educational high school from years 7-9, then moved to a girls school afterwards. I prefer the co-ed school over the girls school. Not because there were boys, but I noticed a big social difference between the two different high school. Girls from girls schools are cray cray! Also I ranked better in school when I was matched up against boys. 
32. I'm bad at remembering numbers, especially logins that require numbers. I can't even remember the numbers to unlock my husband's phone. 
33. I avoid medication. I'm a firm believer you should let your body's immune system do its thing before you take drugs. Whether it's get some rest, hydrate, sleep or eat something good. I always try one or all these things when I feel unwell before I take anything. 
34. I have slow reflexes. This is one of the reasons why I started playing sports later on in life, to improve my reflex. I refused to accept my body can't be learn to move quicker as I age.

Hopefully I haven't repeated any of the 34 items previously. You can read another 65 facts about me from my previous birthday posts here and here. 

What have I got planned for today? Just chill and hang out with my family, couldn't have asked for a better birthday. 

Review of Aqua Pacific Monarch

During our first week in Hawaii we stayed at Waikiki, on the island of Oahu. Originally we had booked an apartment that could accommodate my whole family, but six days before we were about to leave I get an email from the owner saying she had double booked us for a few days and couldn't check in until 3 nights later. The only compensation she was offering was to remove the cleaning fee and of course not charge us for the days we weren't going to be staying. This completely annoyed me, and I refuse to give her our business any longer and asked for a refund of what we had paid to date. So that left us scrambling for some place to stay that could accommodate our large party. Eventually we decided on Aqua Pacific Monarch based on hotel's location, consistent positive reviews and was within everyone's budget. However we were separated into tree different rooms, but I think that was actually a good thing.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the room we stay in before we messed it up. I was a zombie by the time we checked in and I like to take photos of the accommodation we stay at when I first walk/check in. If I'm doing a review I like to give readers a view of what I see when I first see a room. But there are photos of the rooms available on their website and on Trip Advisor and that's where I got the photos you can see below. 

Ok so the pro's and con's of Aqua Pacific Monarch.

Positives:

• Rooms had a kitchenette which comprised of a electric stove, microwave, fridge and basic utensils for when you can make your own meals. 
• Spacious room for the boys to play around in, and plenty of storage space for our things. 
• The hotel is two short blocks away from the beach. The hotel is close to the nicer side of Waikiki beach where there's more sand real estate, and there was barricades to filter waves, so  it was a very child friendly spot to swim. 
• Some great food joints within hotel's door step, (I strongly recommend that Korean BBQ place across the road) as well as various convenient stores for essentials. 
• Staff were always friendly.
• Guest collect beach towels and beach chairs for free from the front desk. 
• We all stayed in studio style room apartment where there was a kitchenette and living room space. The price was reasonable, we paid roughly $130 AUS a night per room. 

Negatives:

• Although you can tell the room has elements of modern fixtures it's still quite outdated. The hotel is probably really old so it could do with a complete renovation - but that's just my opinion.
• Weak air conditioning. None of the rooms have ducted or built in air conditioners, so there was a unit in one corner of the room that supplied all the cool air. If you're not in the room during the day it's fine, but we kept our thick curtains closed at all times to keep the heat out and cool air in. 
• Small bathroom with poor ventilation so would steam up quickly when taking hot showers.
• Poor lighting in the room.
• In our room house keeping was terrible. They would either not come so we'd have to call them to come in and do it, or arrive at 9am when we're still in the room. This happened everyday during our stay. 
• Although hotel was close to the beach it was a little bit of a hike to the retailers and popular food joints. I don't mind walking however with young children four blocks to get anywhere can be challenging if a child is not in the mood for walking. 
• There was a free shuttle bus that takes guests to Ala Moana Mall but it was always full from collecting other guests from other hotels. Plus it only came around every 30 minutes. It was easier and quicker to catch a bus from across the road, buses that included Ala Moana Mall in it's route came every 5 minutes.

Would I stay at Aqua Pacific Monarch again? No. There's are so many more other accommodation options available in Hawaii. Given we were forced to find an alternative so soon to our departure date, this was what we could find that met everyone's requirements.  

Have you stayed at a hotel around Waikiki before? Where did you stay? Would you stay there again why or what not?

Linking up with Jess

Tips For Traveling With Kids

We did it again. We travelled overseas with two kids under 5. This time we took an even longer flight, a 9 -10 hour flight each way.