Ashley Turns One

09 December 2009. Wednesday

I seriously think that my blog's gone to Neverland. I've left blog world for so long, if they ever had a rule on dormant blog sites, mine would have vanished into thin air !

In my hiatus from blogsphere, both the kiddos have taken over our space and lives. Aiden turned 3 in June and Ashley's now 13 months old. How time flies. Hats off to mummies who have to work and get home to cook dinner, put the kids to sleep and then log on to blog. I seriously need time management here. By the time both kids are in la-la land, I too would have joined them, if not any earlier.

Last month, we celebrated Ashley's first birthday with family and close friends. Of course, the party would not be complete if we did not have red eggs (especially for 1st birthdays...) and loads of food. So I took the easy way out > catering from a reliable nyonya restaurant at Damansara Perdana. No mess & easy peasy. MIL insisted on making her curry kapitan even though we could have catered, but I was not one who was going to complain.

And of course, any parent who has organized parties for children would tell you their woes in creating goodie bags that caters to children of various ages and gender unbiased. I know I know..... you might think why would you have goodie bags for guests attending your baby's 1 year old??? Well, it's like this.... when your baby has an older sibling, and when your baby can't fend for him/herself, the older sibling will automatically claim that it's his/her party and therefore entitled to invite his friends. So our poor Ashley had to settle for her older brother singing the birthday song to himself, blowing her candle and cutting her cake (claiming that she's too small to hold a plastic knife - 'it's dangerous ah').

All in all, a good party. Oh by the way, most of Ashley's presents have been claimed (confiscated) by the tai-kor-tai.....

Ashley in her dress ready for her party

Yummy fruit jelly cake we ordered for her birthday. (Costs us a bomb!)

The 'morning after' ....opening pressies from uncles, aunties and friends.

Birthday Celebration with Paternal Grandmother and In-Laws

10 June 2008, Tuesday

* backdated post - had this drafted out, but did not post it earlier*

The privilege of having 2 birthday parties means double the food, double the fun & celebration and Aiden gets to blow candles for 2 cakes! We had the second 'makan session' last Sunday at MIL's favorite restaurant – Oriental Pavillion @ Jaya 33, PJ.

Two incidents happened on that day, well... something that we did not expect anyway. First one was that I totally forgot all about my brother who was supposed to have lunch with us. The point being I was supposed to fetch him to the restaurant, but we were already halfway there when I realized what had happened. OMG! When I called him, he was still asleep (12 noon) and finally sleep won and he didn’t manage to make it. I was a bit sore about the whole thing as I wanted to have him around since my parents were still in Japan.

We took a drive to Taman Desa to pick up Aiden's Elmo jelly cake prior to lunch. I must say this lady's house is amazing – she had at least 3 large Fisher & Paykel fridge in her home to store all her jelly cakes and her whole garden is full of fragrant pandan plants.

Okay, less talk and some photos to share:

Aiden's Elmo Jelly Cake

Blowing the candles

I think this made him puke...blame it on daddy..

shake, shake, shake... what's in there?

I'm overwhelmed by all this attention!

Second incident: Aiden was really chatty yesterday and more active than usual. It makes me wonder if he was aware that it is his big day. I think he had a little too much to eat; one whole bowl of home made porridge, followed by some "chee cheong fun" and "char siew pau". Unfortunately though, halfway through lunch he gave a loud belch and proceeded to throw up on himself. Luckily I managed to "save" him by having most of his lunch on my cupped palms . Anyhow, it was grandma to the rescue as she gave him a set of new clothes for his birthday. So we opened her present and fortunately was required only changed his pants as his shirt was still ok.

shy cousin Erika

Aiden with cousin Sharren

Thank you all for coming to my party..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDEN

01 June 2008, Sunday

I remember the day when you came to us
Just like it was yesterday
The operating theatre was all abuzz
Doctors and nurses were kept at bay
Just waiting for the arrival
Of Aiden Chan Zhiwei

I remember the first time I set eyes on you
It was love at first sight
You looked a little forlorn and blue
Perhaps you were cold with fright
Don’t worry my little darling
You're just not used to the sound and lights

I remember holding you in my arms
My tiny little bundle of joy
Your eyes still closed, so were your palms
My heart sang out 'Oh my little boy!'
This is really God's miracle
My limbs grew as weak as baby bok choy

We've watched you grow, your laughter, tears and pains
Your first crawl, first step, even first fall
You've made me fall madly in love all over again
When I hear this word "Mummy" - you could finally call
It makes my heart sing
I'm so proud, I feel ten feet tall

So my little precious take your own time
To discover yourself and the wonders of life
For daddy & mummy will be there a lifetime
To see you through the mountains that you climb
I LOVE YOU my little darling
Smile, you'll always be on my prime time!

Early Birthday Celebration with Maternal Grandparents

27 May 2008, Tuesday


My parents will be off to Japan this week, so we celebrated Aiden's birthday with my family last weekend. It was just dinner for the 6 of us (including my younger brother) and after contemplation; we ended up in Bijou @ Mont Kiara.

My brother got Aiden a small chocolate cake - I think it was so that both grandparents could see Aiden blow the candles out, more than the cake was meant for Aiden's consumption. However, because it was his birthday, I gave Aiden quite a lot of it, although he's technically allergic to eggs. Why I say technically? That's because he had an allergy test done when he turned one, and besides eggs we found out that our little boy was also allergic to chicken. We've been very careful since then to give him anything with egg produce. Last Saturday, I was a little more adventurous, but thank goodness he did not breakout in rashes or made his eczema worse.

And here's his surprise gift from my Dad – a bicycle! It was really funny because the first thing that Aiden did was pull at the pedals and got his plastic screwdriver out to take the bicycle apart….. He wasn't really interested in getting on the bicycle until we thought him how to, but he still can't coordinate his feet with the pedals. So we just pushed him around the hall with him ringing the bell.

My birthday cake....Yummy Yummy !

Getting ready to blow the candle

ok - if I stare long enough maybe the flame will die off by itself?

THANK YOU AH KONG & AH MA !

Aiden's New Home

15 January 2008, Tuesday

[yet another backdated post]

Aiden was very excited when he got into his new home. It fitted him perfectly, and this was one home where he could actually reach for the windows and doors! Both mummy and daddy stood aside proudly while he explored this new place and after a good 10 seconds, he declared it His.

You may be wondering if we just bought a new place? Actually, no….

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this new place is just the right height for me

check out the window - I can actually reach the sill

ahh - let's get comfortable

Daddy - can we take this home?

Aha - Caught you there! This was taken on Christmas Day in Westin Hotel, KL. The 3 of us, hubby, baby and 1 splurged 1 night and stayed in the hotel on Christmas' Eve. We had a 5 course set dinner at EEST (a restaurant in Westin) and later on took to the KL lights around Bukit Bintang area and Pavilion. Of course Aiden had the most fun exploring the hotel room and huge bathroom and didn’t get to bed until 1130pm that night. As for me and hubby, we slept on Westin's trademark "Heavenly Bed" full of bliss……

Aiden's First Mail

14 Jan 2008, Monday

[backdated post]

I was so excited – on behalf of Aiden that is, when I saw a package in our post box! It was Aiden's first mail, all the way from Sydney Australia.

It's from Little Phoebe and I've uploaded some photos that we took of Aiden whilst he opened the package. Noticed that he's already in his pajamas getting ready for sleep, but we kept him up anyway!

Mommibee- I don’t think the photos did justice to your present :)

A BIG THANK YOU, HUGS & KISSES from Aiden to Phoebe ! Look at the last picture, where Aiden has put Phoebe's photo next to his cheek. We asked him to "sayang" Phoebe !!

Preparing for Christmas 2007

14 Jan 2008, Monday

[backdated post]

Here's Santa's little helper….well, not so little anymore eh? Now, he can help me hang ornaments on the tree (errr – I think it was more like removing and destroying the ornaments on the tree).

When I was putting up the tree, I recalled Xmas 2006, when he was barely 6 months old and was presented with a walker by my parents! How time flies!

Psst - there will be several backdated posts coming ahead as I have not updated my blog for so long !

Mooncake Festival

21 September 2007, Friday

In celebration of the upcoming mooncake festival, my neighbours had organized a potluck party last Saturday. The idea of course was to bring together all the children, toddlers and babies in keeping this tradition alive.

I had made some of my famous *ahem ahem* potato & chicken salad together with some agar agar (jelly) to bring over. We also brought over Aiden's fish lantern bought last year but of course he was too small then to play with it. At the peak of the party, we had a total of 16 kids either running about, crawling, feeding and even dozing....

Here's Aiden with a battery operated lantern - what to do, he was more interested in this one compared to his traditional fish latern :(

Let me go, I want to walk by myself..

Mummy, how come she's got a bigger lantern than mine?

Aiiieeee - karate kiiickkk...