All About Your Child

This year, Binbin had one of the most ‘Over‘ birthday celebration. In total, it was a 5 parts mini-celebration for him:

Part 1: 27th March at his cousin’s 9th birthday bash.

My niece’s birthday falls on the 29th and Binbin’s on the 30th. Thank God, they were NOT on the same day, or else, (personally I feel) neither of them will feel special on their birthday, ‘cos its being shared.

This video images are very dark, I apologise.

Over at the chalet (read previous post), Binbin received his presents from all his wonderful uncles and aunties. Because the givers always like to see the expression on the receiver’s face, thus the presents were opened on the spot, even though it was not his actual day.

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Part 2: 28th March at MIL’s house.

This was an extremely last minute decision. We did not plan for this due to Allan’s pre-scheduled appointment. It was however canceled in the morning and thus we decided to get a off-the-shelf cake and head over to my in-law’s place for a mini-cake-cutting session.

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Part 3: 29th March at home.

As per our own tradition. Cake cutting session is always at midnight. Since Binbin’s birthday is on the 30th, the blowing of candles is naturally on 29th midnight.

After which, it was another round of unwrapping of presents.

The Hat from my sis, the gun from my sis’s bf, the helicopter from Papa and Diamond head from Keatkeat.

Did you notice? We had been having cakes for 3 days in a row! And we are celebrating my nephew’s birthday this Sunday, another cake to go! *faint*

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Part 4: 30th March Noon at Peek-A-Boo

Yup! It was a promise not forgotten.

We did promise the boys to bring them to Peek-A-Boo again on their birthdays. That place is indeed a charmer.

This time, less photos, more play. If you want to have a better view of every corner, go read another post here.

So while Keatkeat was in school today, Binbin, Allan and I were climbing up and down, in and out of tunnels. Though Allan and I had occasional bumps here and there, it was still Awesome Fun!

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Part 5: 30th March Night at Sakae Sushi @TradeHub21

Because of that blog post, I came in top 5 and won a $50 Sakae Sushi dining voucher.

What better way to celebrate Binbin’s birthday than to bring him to his dining heaven. *wink*

In the end, with the voucher, we ‘almost’ had a free meal! *Massive Grin* Nice!

So that ended Binbin’s ‘A Little Over’ birthday celebration this year. *wink*

Happy Birthday To My Little Cutie!

We celebrated my niece’s Z.Y.’s 9th birthday over the weekend at Coasta Sands Resort. Other than fun, there were many other mixed moments:

The Red: My boys were so tanned after 2 rounds of swimming on the same day, their faces were red as the bums of the red-butt monkeys.

The Black: My nieces were already very tan. And after the swimming sessonS, my FIL said they looked like Indians. Which I had to agree man!

The Pain: I had to tie the many mini-balloons for my niece that my 3 finger turned red and swelled a little. Took more than 24hours to subside.

The Bubbles: This is the ONLY place, where we would not need to worry about cleaning up. Thus we bought bubbles for the 6 kiddos to play with.

The “Huh?!”: A stranger popped into our chalet seeking for a space to watch the famous long-winded Taiwanese drama “Love” with us. She stepped in with a chair ready and asked: “My ’side’ is watching another channel, but I want to watch “Love”, can I come in and share with you guys?”

Before we could even reply or recover from the sudden request, she had already rested her butt in the middle of the living room. *faint*

The Minnie Mouse Surprise: Nope. Not for us. It was the unit opposite us. The had an event organiser to get a Minnie Mouse Birthday celebration for their child. Our kiddos had the luck to see Minnie Mouse in person.

The most amused had to be the 2 year old W.D. He was so engrossed that he did not even realised when Minnie Mouse had left. He kept asking: “Where did Minnie go? Where?” *huge laugh*

The “Wahhh…”: Z.Y. had one of the best birthdays (I would say). Her presents this year are expensive! And they were all that she had wished for. The most major one was a Handphone from her Papa.

(Man! Isn’t that a little too early?….Alright, me and my old-fashioned mind.. *eyes rolled*)

Our presents for her this year:

From: My sis, her bf, Allan and I:

From BinBin(left) and KeatKeat (right):

Happy Birthday Z.Y.!

Today is the first time my boys experience the real deal. They had an understanding about death when they were 4 and 2 years old: Read Post here

Allan’s mother’s brother’s wife passed away this morning. She was already in the Intensive Care Unit on the eve on Chinese New Year. Respiratory difficulty.

The family is handling the wake details as I am typing this post now. We will be off to meet them once everything is done.

A time to celebrate has became a time to mourn…. *sigh*

For the very first time in my 32 years being alive, I had my reunion dinner at a restaurant.

All my life, reunion dinners were taken in the house. This year, we wanted something special, but we could not decide until my sushi crazy 4 year old said “Let’s Eat Sushi!”

We thought it was an Awesome Idea! Having a healthy meal of Vitamin E enriched rice with my favourite high in Omega-3 Salmon…Whoo-hoo! Perfect Choice!

So we headed down to Sakae Sushi at TradeHub21 for three simple reasons:

Firstly, we have yet to visit this branch!

Secondly, we have an option to book a Private Room! I certainly felt rich being able to afford a private room! *laugh* Nahh….its just a small price of $10.00. However, if your bill exceeds $100, the room charge is waived. Hitting that $100 was easy peasy for us, big eaters! *laugh*

This was a totally new experience for us as a family. I love the way we could put down our legs into the ‘hole’. It felt like we were in Japan! Cool!

Thirdly, there is a playground for the kids. Definitely a cool experience for them, to eat their favourite sushi and get to play at the same time. Our room was separated from the playground by just a sliding door. Perfect convenience for the parents to lookout for their kids.

They had so much fun, I could not resist but took a short video of them playing.

While the kids had fun outside, the adults were happy to have a breath of kids-free air! Freedom! *laugh*

Deciding what to eat was hard! We were spoiled for choice! *laugh*

The kids had no problem ordering though.

Their usual favourites included Kappa maki (cucumber), Tamago maki (egg) and Ebi Sushi (prawn).

To me, new year means new beginning, hence new tastes were a MUST!

My sis is a gourmet queen. So nothing was new to her.

But for Allan and I, we tried these for the First Time:  Lobster Salad Sushi, Spicy Salmon Handroll, Inari Roll and the biggest surprise was Hotate Mentaiyaki. It was Super Delicious!

We tried new food and the kids had a new friend!

His name is Ryan! They had so much fun, the boys kept coming in to tell us about him. *Smile*

But when his family left and the kids needed the comfort of an air-conditioned room, they came in and turned the room into a playground! *faint*

We were so full!! Not only were our tummies full, our hearts were filled with joy too! For the first time, did not need to wash up after reunion dinner! Hooray!

So while the kids admire the tempting display of Sakae merchandise, the adults were at the Cashier.

It was $142.70 before discount. All thanks to my sis’s Citibank credit card, we had a 10% discount.

Thus the final amount was only $128.45. The fulfillment achieved during those 3 hours were beyond compare to that amount. *Smile*

Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!!!

The boys woke up at 11.30am yesterday! *laugh* All thanks to the intense late night activity.

The parents were just as tired. One parent decided to do an extraordinary thing on the 1st day of 2010….

Allan: “Keatkeat, we are very tired. Can you please go down and buy our lunch?”

Keatkeat: “HUH??!!! Alone?!! Don’t want! I’m very scared.”

Binbin: “Don’t be scared! I’ll go with you!”

Allan: “See? Binbin will go with you.”

Keatkeat: “Don’t want!!!”

Allan: “Hey, you are big brother you know? Binbin is not scared, why are you still scared?”

Then the training of how to order the food in Mandarin began. It was obvious that Keatkeat was NOT as excited as his little brother, hence the ‘training‘ took way too long. Keatkeat just refused to cannot remember the correct words. In the end, Allan turned towards Binbin, who was hyped up for the adventure.

Allan: “Say ‘yi-bao-ya-fan, jia-fan. Hai-you yi-bao-shao-rou-fan’.”

Binbin: “yi-bao-ya-fan, jia-fan. Hai-you yi-bao-shao-rou-fan.”

Allan: “Say again.”

Binbin: “Cannot remember.”

*faint* Yup! That’s so typical of Binbin. *giggle*

I whispered into Allan’s ear. “Are you joking or are you serious?”

Allan: “Of Cos Serious!”

I knew he meant it. I was pretty nervous. So I decided to go down with them (since Allan was tired).

But Binbin FLARED UP!!!

Binbin: “Don’t Want! I want to go down with Gorgor alone! You and Papa stay at home!”

My boys were completely in disagreement with each other even after MANY minutes of ‘persuasion‘ from Allan. I knew I had to ‘satisfy‘ both desires and so I said, “Ok, the two of you will go down alone. You two have to walk ‘that longer’ path. Less cars pass by.  Papa and Mommy will walk the usual route to the coffeeshop. We will meet you there.”

Finally BOTH were excited!!! *giggle*

They set off first and we became P.I.!!! We were running and hiding behind walls and pillars. Just like the famous Japanese kids show. Where kids of age 4-6 goes to the market with a list of grocery to buy, all on their own; but little did they know that they were followed. It was super EXCITING for Allan and I! *laugh* I think we enjoyed it as much as my boys did!

Here’s the P.I. video. My phone’s video resolution was greatly discounted after zooming in at them from about 80m away.

Their first response when they saw us?

Binbin was GRINNING from cheek to cheek…..

and Keatkeat complained: “Papa, Binbin got Run!”

*laugh*

‘GuoDong’ is  like New Year to the Chinese. On this special day, everyone is older by one. If I were to include this day as my birthday, I am double my age now! *laugh*

‘Tang Yuan’ is a MUST-eat on this day too. Every year, we will celebrate over at my in-laws’ place.

Yet, during this time of the year, I will always remember the days when I was staying with my Auntie, getting my hands all floury, rolling the colourful dough into small balls. Mine are ALWAYS the smallest. *giggle* I was only 4-5 years old then! Small ‘Tang Yuan‘ for small me. *wink*

Since its always around Christmas time, we took this opportunity to give presents to the kids. That’s the beauty of Christmas, isn’t it? Its just CONTAGIOUS!  Even though none of my in-laws are Christians, they do celebrate the Festive of Giving.

Yes, unwrapping was fun. But guess who was the one clearing up the mess after all the fun? The most hardworking grandmother. *Salute*

The STAR today was Keatkeat! Saw that furry fox which Binbin held at the end of the video?

Keatkeat could not find it. Everyone thought he had thrown it away with all the torn wrappers. My MIL was consoling. He said sorry to my 2nd SIL who flew that fox over from Japan. Sadness was all over the 6 year old boy’s face.

Just when he was getting out of that awful mood by playing with his VERY FIRST mini game system, my MIL FOUND the Fox Still nicely Wrapped Up on the corner of the sofa!!!

He was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HAPPY!!!!

It was misplaced way before they started the unwrapping session. What an emotional roller coaster ride for my Keatkeat today! *laugh*

These were the rest of the presents…..

Here’s Wishing All Chinese Friends “Happy Dong Zi!”

Back-dated Post.
Happened on 14th November 2009, Saturday

After Keatkeat’s Graduation Ceremony, we head down to my eldest niece’s house for a sumptuously-fun Birthday Party.

The ‘sumptuous‘ was my description and ‘fun‘ is obviously the children’s. Too busy eating away, forgot to take photos of the glorious food. *giggle*

I love to buy presents which are on the Birthday Kid’s wish list; ‘cos Satisfaction is Guaranteed! *wink*

This year, my eldest niece, C.H. wished to start her collection of the Sylvanian Families.

OMG! We were spoilt for choice! My sis bought another set for my niece too. I cannot wait to see her build up her collection.

I have always been in love with miniatures, hence, I am more just as excited as she is. *laugh*

Happy 9th Birthday, Sweetie!!!

Back-dated Post.
Happened on 14th November 2009, Saturday

I was asked to help out in the preparation (make-up, belting the boys…) before the performers head off to the stage.

Feels so good being with children! Its like back to the days when I was teaching in Child Care Centre. So Fun! *Grin*

(Left: Picture of me and the boy ‘B’, whom I fell in love with when I first set my eyes on him 3 years ago, when Keatkeat entered Nursery. *giggle*)

I would say it was less exciting as compared to the Full Dress Rehearsal. ‘Cos we could NOT run up to the stage and take photos or video-ed him like crazy. *giggle*

But all ‘h***’ broke loose at the grand finale. Parents started moving out of their seats. Cameras and flashes were everywhere. “Parents please sit down.” was repeated over the microphone several times. But NO ONE CARED!!! *laugh*

We joined in the rebellious majority and Allan started filming the beautiful finale.

My only regret was not being able to video Keatkeat’s EXCELLENT performance that day. After I told him the mini-changes needed, he danced SO WELL! OMG! After watching so many of his practices, his ACTUAL performance turned out to be THE BEST! Whoo-hoo!

He even WINKED at us (after he spotted us) AS HE DANCED!
Aaaawwww… isn’t he cute or what!!!?

When the whole graduation ceremony was over, he asked, “Mommy, did I do a good job? I hold my hand up until ‘hey hey hey’ then I start to jog. Is that good?”

“Its AWESOME! I am sooooooooooo proud of you!”

When we were on our way home to bathe and dress them for my niece’s birthday party. I held him up. Kissed him countless times. Spun him around. “Mommy is sooooooooooo proud of you!” And did just the same to my little ’selected’ Nursery Boy (Binbin) too…*wink*

Physical is Memorable.
Praise your Child
not with words alone,
but With Actions too.
~ Angeline Foong