We are back from Sydney. My advice? It is not a good idea to bring 2 young kids, who are close in age on a long-haul trip like this. There were nice moments, definitely, but the tantrums, crying and puking were far more common, on a daily basis.
We left on the second day of CNY. It started off quite smoothly. The flight was in the night time and we were assigned a bassinet seat. Nat and Lucas were both in a good mood and didi slept right through, 2 hrs into the flight. Nat was well entertained by my DVD player which I brought along for her to watch Little Einstein. I even boasted to my mum that the kids were cool travellers, just like daddy.
Sleep, Food and Weather
When we arrived in Sydney, it was morning. The kids were tired and generally slept on the double stroller most of the day, as we pushed them around, exploring the city. Tip 1: Feb is not a good time to visit, the weather is hot, mostly like Singapore. We enjoyed ourselves a lot more in Melbourne in May last year, mainly because of the cool weather throughout the day. This time round, it was hot, hot, hot!
Food was usually western type bread, eggs, bacon for breakfast, burgers and fries for lunch, although we did try to have a fancy dinner in Hunter Valley. Tip 2: Not a good idea to visit a fancy restaurant with 2 young kids, who threatened to bring the glass cups (nope, no plastic ones available), throw the breakable crockeries on the floor and get drunk on daddy's glass of red wine, after making a swipe for it. Did I mention the din we were making? Tsk Tsk! The kids didn't really like western food and pretty much survived on milk, cereals and fries. Towards the end, we got desperate. We spied an ad for Din Tai Fung in the Sydney guide and made our way there, just so the kids could have some real hot piping chicken soup and rice. They thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did we. Sigh, we really are true blue Singaporeans that cannot do without rice for extended periods of time.
Sleeptime was another exhausting experience for us. With the kids in the same room, they both refused to sleep. Switching off the lights and patting them to sleep didn't really work, as they were too hyped up. It sometimes took us more than an hour before they fell into slumber.
Nature
The nature walks at Botanic Gardens was nice. Nat and Lucas love chasing the seagulls and there were miles and miles of greenery. However, the hot weather diminished any hope/dream that I had of us hanging out for half a day at the gardens reading a book, while the kids chased the birds. It was just too hot. Surprisingly, many local Australians were doing that, while the sun shone down strongly on them.
Our visit to Featherdale Wildlife Park was fun for the kids, they loved it. The nice thing about visiting wildlife park overseas is the close interaction one can really have with animals. Nat and Lucas fed wallabies, kangaroos, koala bears and even roving emus (nat was scared of the big black bird but lucas was quite brave and enjoyed roaming amongst them). The animals are so tame and so comfortable with humans that one has no fear, even when face to face with the bigger size adult kangaroos, which can actually look quite intimidating. Nat even collected her own set of bird feathers (and I have no idea where they are). She was also pleased to see a real live kookaburra up close (the kookaburra song , the one about it sitting on the old oak tree is one of her favourite tunes).
The other highlight of the trip was our boat trip out to watch dolphins. From the boat, we could see the dolphins up close, frolicking in the ocean. Didi Lucas slept through the boat ride, lulled into sleep by the rocking of the boat. Nat adored the dolphins and screamed in excitement every time she saw one pop out from the water.
Good Playmates or Not? Tantrums and Puking, Sigh!
The kids love each other to bits, that is, when they are not trying to kill each other. Nat loves to tease her baby brother. She will tempt him with food or other interesting items and when he attempts to swipe it, she will scream and hide it away. This gets Lucas really pissed and he ends up chasing her to make a grab for the desired item. When this happens, she pushes him, but if she misses, he makes a beeline for her hair. It's quite comical actually, in hindsight. But there and then, it is quite frustrating, Gary and I have had to stop such scuffles many times a day.
Nat is also at the age when she is experiencing different emotional experiences. For her, jealousy is a big issue. Whenever we pay too much attention to Lucas, she gets upset. She has honed her crying skills so well that crying on demand is no problem. When Lucas gets carried, she wants to be carried too, when she is perfectly capable of walking the short distance. When Lucas gets juice, she snatches his cup away. Tantrums are a daily occurence, with both the kids. Over the course of the week, my gentle little boy has been "led astray" by his big sister and become more aggressive. Interestingly, I realise now that this little boy is capable of a even bigger tantrum than nat, when he starts crying loudly, he refuses to be distracted or pacified by anything.
Puking was also a "highlight" of the trip. Gary and I love to drink orange juice and whenever we drink, of course, the kids want some too. Overdo the juice and "in one minute, out the next". It didn't help that after the dolphin boat ride, nat and I both felt seasick and that night, she puked quite a few times, staining the bed linen and carpet. Poor girl, she wanted to be changed everytime she puked until I literally ran out of clothes to change her into. As a mum, it is really worrying to see your child puking away and being so helpless. All I could do was comfort her after each puking session. Tip 3: May not be a good idea to bring young kids on boat rides. Luckily for us, Lucas was fine, I can't imagine dealing with 2 puking kids.
On the plane trip back, Lucas puked a heap of orange juice onto a sleeping Nat. You can imagine the din that occured thereafter. Cleverly, I had packed some spare clothes into the carry-on lugguage so I whisked Nat off to the toilet to change. However, her mood was spoilt thereafter and she glared at Lucas for vomiting on her.
One of my most stressful moments of the trip was during the plane landing at Changi Airport. Lucas must have experienced some discomfort in his ears and he wailed and struggled loudly during the whole process. No matter which way I held him (within the constraints of the seat belt), he wailed ever so pitifully. I can imagine the irritation of the people sitting around me, but frankly, at that moment, I didn't give a damn. Ironically, once we landed and entered the airport, he was in a good mood again, pointing excitedly at the aeroplanes and shrieking as I pushed him on the baggage trolley.
My Kids
It's been 2 days since we have returned from our trip. Things are back to normal and the kids are back on their usual routine. Interestingly, to me, in just a mere one week, I suddenly feel that they are more grown up. Despite all the stress of the holidays, they are still my little darlings.
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