Birthday Parties

*Updated 31 Mar

Seeing photos on fb of how huge others' parties are, the beautiful cakes, the gorgeous decor.. I'm kinda freaked out. We have no fancy fondant cake, only a Mickey Mouse cake from plain old Bengawan Solo. I am trying to cut cost as much as possible, but can't help but wonder would all this change had I been working? Hmmm

B attended two of his friends birthday parties today. One held at home while another at a restaurant. There's always pros and cons of holding a party at home or out. With the former, you don't have to worry about logistics like diaper changing, bringing enough food or milk or simply worrying about the kiddo moving around unattended in an unfamiliar setting. With the latter, there's no worried about the cleaning up (esp when we do not have a helper), do not have to worry about ensuring the guests are served etc. I remember writing before it was a huge mistake holding the full month party at home. Well, either I don't learn from mistake, or I actually think we are more experienced now.

So B's party gonna be held at home, and only my side of the family are invited. That's probably about 20 already. We had originally wanted to cater, as it was easier and cheaper, but after doing the sums and what I had wanted to serve is rather costly to have them catered ($90 for a platter of 30 pieces of hor 'deuves from Fine Palate just doesn't gel with me!), we have decided to home cook. I now I'm being ambitious but I kinda wanted it to be a little different. Wish me luck on that day.

Back to B's party today....

Who Is Mummy Before Being A Mum?

Bradley,

One day, you are probably gonna think mummy is boring, uncool and maybe find me embarrassing to hang out with. But baby, mummy had another life before you came along.

Today, as I was driving us to Polliwogs at Vivo, I had the iPod on instead of your CD. There's so many times of "Grand Old Duke of York" I can listen and sing too. U2's song played and I was singing at the top of my voice. It brought back 

sweet sweet memories when daddy and I flew to Sydney just to attend their concert. Then Coldplay's song came along and I thought of the concert we attended here and how close we were standing to Chris Martin. He has really blue attractive eyes.

Before I was your mummy, I was havoc and wild. I bet you don't believe it but mummy was young before. In my teens, I loved clubbing but grew outta it rather fast. Then I married your dad and we enjoyed our time at home, having our happy hour. The copius amount of alcohol we drink is ridiculous. There was once we went on a holiday and started drinking at 8 in the morning. I won't stop you from drinking but you need to practice self control and discipline. That's a conversation for another day.

Then there was all those weeknight a drinking with my friends. We would have bottles after bottles of champagne like there was much to celebrate. Well, I guess we were celebrating being independent, financially stable women.

When you came along, much of this had to change. We have to be more responsible and less reckless now. We need to make sure your welfare and benefits come first. I stopped working, hence no personal income. Day in and out my mind is occupied on what I should feed you, how I should care and provide for you, how to be a better parent. Sometimes I feel myself drifting away from being Pauline. It is tough to try to be Pauline yet daddy's wife and your mum. But as you grow, I see tinge of me coming back but I will always be more of Bradley's mum than anyone else.

So baby, one day, when you are so bored and sick of my naggings, when you have your own girlfriend or wife, don't forget about mummy's love for you. I might be old and forgetful then, but I will always love you, my firstborn.

New Tricks

*Updated

1. Taking things and passing them to me. Waiting for me to squeal and thank him

2. Saying "mum mum" when he wants food.

3. Clinging to my legs like a koala when he wants to be carried. And when refused.. He goes mamamamamama... I do it on purpose so he says that. I don't care if others think he's just babbling. To me he's calling me mama. Lalalalalala

4. Playing his own games with us and expects us to be entertained

5. Going up and down the bed

6. Cruising around the new sofa

7. Downward dog. Everytime we go "o.......ne... Two....... Three..." He gets into the downward dog position ready for his somersaults it's hilarious. He can do it anywhere if he feels like it.

8. Dismantling Lego bricks one by one.

Things Taken For Granted

There are so many things in life we take for granted without realising until one day, it is being stripped off us.

I have had an eye infection for the longest time before I actually do something about it. It started with a red eye everytime I wear my contact lenses for a long time, and I thought that was normal after having wearing them for nearly 20 years. There was no pain, no discharge, just redness which goes away after a few days of letting my eyes rest by wearing my specs. But then it got worse progressively. It felt like there was a layer of something over my eye. And then there was the blur vision, like I wasn't wearing any specs. I finally got scared and saw a specialist. Turns out, it is a condition caused by oily lids and prevalent in contact lense wearers. The recovery process was long, it's now more than 2 weeks, it is definitely improving but not fully. I'm just thankful I can read the texts on my phone. When they have fully recover, I am seriously considering lasik. But first, I've gotta start saving some money. I am, afterall, unemployed!

Guess what? That's not the end of my ordeal. One fine day, my dental crown decided to come off, together with my tooth. My dentist told me my teeth grinding has taken its toll and my teeth are becoming weak and flat surfaced. I never knew my grinding was that bad. Any way, that tooth was beyond repair and had to be extracted. And after so many extractions including my wisdom teeth which needed no surgery, this tooth had to be surgically dissected and removed. Something about surgically extracted teeth have higher chance of developing dry sockets/infections, so I did. 

Not only do I have to battle with blur vision, I had to suffer toothache from the infected wound. Toothache, to me, is worse than childbirth, I kid you not. Sighs... The things we take for granted. At least things are getting better, slowly but surely.

Learning at Fast Speed

My son seems to want to learn what he deems interesting or useful. Trying to get him say "mummy" or "mama" is near Impossible. He will look at my lips but then babble "papapapa". But certain things he learn fast. Like waving hi and bye. Taking the paci outta his mouth when he's up or not sleeping, holding his milk bottles and most recently, I taught him how to come down from the sofa and bed. It only took a couple of tries together and a few days later, he surprised me by doing it. I didn't think he would remember. Now, we just need to give him a gentle reminder of "legs down first" and he knows what to do.

Now it's not really about what he does, but more of how fast he picks things up. before bedtime today, we were sitting together on the floor, him doing his stuff. DH went "brad brad" and he said exactly the same. We just stared at each other, dumbfounded!

Of New Furnitures and Mega Birthday Bash

The newish fridge and new couch made us feel like we have a new home. Well, kinda. Good to have a change after 8 years.

DH and I were enjoying the sofa on Sat evening after B slept over wine and me attempting to sew a tissue box. Minky is extremely difficult to work with, I really need a handheld sewing machine.

Anyway, the mega birthday bash was yesterday after much planning by the committee. Whilst I was on the committee, I'm super guilty to admit I did nothing compared to the rest. I really want to contribute, but I can't keep up with their discussions over whatsapp during the day. Really thank the ladies for their effort on a successful bash.

"Hi friend"

Jare sneaking on B

Group photo to thank the sponsors 

Bubbles bubbles everywhere

B loves bubble time and was super excited 

Thank you for voting my son as Prince Charming. We are very honoured.

Hokey Pokey Millenia Walk

So B went to Hokey Pokey with 2 of his friends, Aprilynn and Daniel on Monday. It was so much fun. And with him successfully transitioned to 2 naps a day, it made taking him out much easier and less stressful for me.

Hokey Pokey was easy to get to at Millenia Walk. For non-members, I paid $25 for weekday for unlimited hours of play. Meaning we could leave the premise, go have lunch and back again. The area is huge, different from Peekaboo which is more of an obstacle course kinda playground. At Hokey, there are many toys, walkers, activity tables, jumperoos, ball pits, costumes. So it was great. I didn't have to follow B up and down - I could just leave him in the ball pits and I'm sure he's more than happy to spend the entire afternoon there.

"I love ball pits!"

Toys shelf

Plenty of space for babies/toddlers to roam around

Spot the baby.

"Hello Biceps"

"Am I strong or what?"

I wish I had known about these playgrounds earlier, I'm so slow in all these. But better late than never, I'm looking forward to spending my free days with B having fun till he KO.

Maniac Weekends

Before B (hereby know as BB), weekends were lazy because we somehow preferred to drink on weekdays. After B (AB), weekends are maniac coz we try to do as much as we can.

Every weekends are packed with activities we need to prioritise. Last weekend, I had wanted to make a trip to United Square for the ELC toys sale and also to bring B for bicycle ride at ECP. We canned ECP because DH was so worried his precious would get sunburned.

So we stayed indoor, bought toys for B, shopped around for child safety gadgets and that was it. Saturday was pretty much gone because our new fridge was delivered and I had to clean and pack it. Loving the new fridge btw. I feel like a real, domesticated mum now. This weekend our new sofa set will be delivered, can't wait! You know you are a mum/wife when things like new furnitures and household appliances excite you.

On a separate note, I set up an email account for B sometime back for DH and I to "communicate" with B. If you know me personally or want to drop B a note, you are more than welcome! Bradleyho2604@gmail.com