Little Miracles · Celebrations

Cute Gift For Father’s Day

June 16, 2013 in Celebrations, Ethan, Funny Moments, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Ethan and Hannah had waited till the clock struck midnight to wish their Daddy a Happy Father’s Day. Then they presented him with gifts they had made.

Hannah made picture frame with her picture and a message that said, “I love you Daddy” and Ethan wrote an interesting account on Daddy for him in a huge card. Hannah had also made a paper necktie and decorated it all by herself. Those of you who follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram might have seen it, yes?

Well, in the morning, she asked Daddy to wear the tie while he had breakfast, but when we were on our way out for lunch, Hannah exclaimed, “Oh no…I wanted Daddy to wear the tie I made for him to lunch!”

Daddy said, “That’s okay Hannah, I’ll wear it at home..”

Hannah replied, “Wear it for dinner, okay, Daddy?”

Daddy said, “Just at home, all right?”

Hannah pleaded, “Dinner Daddy, please..????”

And Daddy said okay.

When dinnertime came and we were preparing to go out, Ethan conveniently “reminded” Daddy about the tie. So Daddy wore the adorable tie to dinner at McDonald’s.

Ain’t it sweet? 🙂

To The Big Apple And Back

April 22, 2013 in Celebrations, Emma, Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Vacation | No comments

Last week, we made a quick trip to New York and back. The primary reason for this trip was to get Emma’s birth registration and Malaysian passport done at the Consulate General of Malaysia. Previously for Hannah’s case when she was born in California, we did not need to make the trip to the Consulate General of Malaysia in LA, and we only needed to Fedex all the necessary documents.

However, now that Emma was born in the East Coast, the rules for birth registration at the Consulate General in New York were different. Not only did the Consulate General require the baby to be physically present at the point of birth registration, submission could only be done from 9:30a.m. – 12:00noon. Same-day collection would only be guaranteed if we submit the documentation at 9:30a.m. in the morning, so in order to comply with that and not have to wait to collect the stuff a day later, we decided to go to New York on Thursday, stay the night and then submit the registration early Friday morning.

We left a little later than planned on Thursday morning (what’s new?), and while Emma was wide awake when we drove off, she fell asleep a few minutes later.

Hannah and Ethan were as excited as ever about our trip. Here’s Hannah showing you how happy she is…You would know by now who’s the one who’s ever willing to pose for the camera and who’s just the opposite. 😛

Emma was dozing away beautifully and only woke up after we had our lunch; we stopped at Subway in Rocky Hill, Connecticut before heading on towards The Big Apple.

Traffic was unbelievably heavy on a week day, and even heavier when we arrived in NYC. We drove straight towards the Financial District and parked our car near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

There wasn’t a long wait thankfully, and we boarded the ferry not long after. Emma was quite fidgety at that time, and we soon found out why: she pooped while we were on the ferry!

Pete managed to take the kids up to the deck to get a closer look at the Statue of Liberty though. It was rather cloudy that day but the kids just loved the ferry ride.

Upon arrival at Staten Island we took the next ferry back to Manhattan. On the return ferry, and after changing Emma, I put her in a baby sling, and took her up to the deck for about a minute or two. She was still really restless, even though I had fed her, and even when we put her in the stroller and pushed her out from the ferry. In fact, Emma only settled down and fell asleep in the car, as we made our way to our hotel.

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The Wondrous Birth of Sweet Little Baby Emma

March 20, 2013 in Breastfeeding, Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | 14 comments

It has been a little more than a week now that we have been blessed with Little Baby Emma in our lives, and sometimes I still can’t believe that she’s here! 🙂

We had been waiting for her arrival since I hit the 38th week, and every day since then had been anxiety-filled and putting what-ifs into question. I had also gone for several rounds of prenatal fetal non-stress tests before Emma’s arrival, and every time I had been told, “Your baby looks perfect! This baby’s beautiful!”

Apart from the regular Braxton-Hicks contractions I had been feeling, there was no other indication that Emma was gonna come soon. Week 39 came and there was obvious stress on my bladder and pubic bone. I was finding it increasingly hard to move around, but I still did my regular stuff: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and even some yoga and light cardio on the elliptical. Her movements in my belly were more prominent at night. I tried to keep my mind off the waiting by doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, rewashing Emma’s crib linens, whatever I could think of, but nothing happened.

I drank a lot of labor prep tea (containing red raspberry leaf) and also had yogurt with pineapple in it, in the hope of starting off labor, but guess what, nothing happened.

Initially I had predicted Emma would be born on February 28th, but that day came and went without incident. Then Pete predicted she would be born on the same date as her sister Hannah’s birthday, but March 2nd came to pass too. Then we thought it would be March 5th, and I thought for sure it would be March 8th. But nothing happened.

Incidentally, we had a blizzard on March 8th, which lasted till March 9th, so had she decided to make her entrance that day, it would be hard for us to make our way to the hospital too. Clever girl. 🙂

On Saturday, March 9th, I felt stronger contractions, or rather they felt like the urge for a bowel movement. Nothing happened then though, except that I *thought* my mucus plug was dislodged that day. On Sunday March 10th, at about 11:00a.m. I definitely had “the show”, and I excitedly told Pete about it.

“This is it,” I said. “Emma will be here in a day or so.”

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Hannah Turns Four!

March 5, 2013 in Celebrations, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 3 comments

Last Saturday, my little sweetheart of a little girl turned FOUR!! She had been looking forward to this day for a long, long time, and she had already started the countdown to this auspicious day after Ethan celebrated his birthday about a month ago.

Being a little paranoid and worried that my third little bub might arrive on that same day, I had a contingency plan in place for Hannah’s birthday cake. Thankfully, this year, Hannah requested for a cake that did not require much shaping and moulding on my part. So the backup plan in case I was not around was that Pete go get a store-bought cake and then decorate the top with my ready-made cake topper.

However, in the end, since my third little one decided that it was still more comfy in Mommy’s womb, I still got to bake and decorate Hannah’s cake….and a whole lot of fun I had!

Hannah’s crazy about Princess Jasmine and the song from the movie Aladdin: A Whole New World, so it came as no surprise when she’d requested for a Princess Jasmine-themed cake. I ordered the edible cake topper online and only had to bake the chocolate cake and decorated it with chocolate ganache, frosting, chocolate rice and some orange slices. The addition of the fruits was Hannah’s idea too.

And afterward, because the weather was not-too-cold, she took her present for a “test drive”…or “test ride”.

It was the first time Ethan took his scooter (our Christmas present to him) for a spin too…and boy, did we have fun!

Definitely an awesome way to spend a birthday! Happy Birthday Hannah!

Hannah’s Early Birthday Celebration in School

February 15, 2013 in Celebrations, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

I’m already 36+ weeks along, so being paranoid that I would not be able to do a simple birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her friends (when she clearly wants to), I made arrangements for an early celebration on Valentine’s Day.

As was the case with Ethan’s school, we were not allowed to bring in any food items, so I managed to get a cute craft kit for the kids. Every kid in class would get a giraffe-shaped foam piece which they would then decorate to their liking using stickers and such, all provided in the kit. Cool or what? 🙂

Hannah was absolutely looking forward to the Giraffe craft and kept on talking about it right till the day I had planned for it. We did the craft with her friends in the morning, and all the kids had fun creating their own version of their giraffes.

It was the perfect way to spend Hannah’s birthday in school and also a kid’s Valentine’s Day and I was so thankful to be a part of it. Hannah’s teacher was also very thoughtful and had taken a few pictures of the activity and then compiled the pictures into a little ring booklet, which I thought was so cute! And of course, Hannah was beyond jubilation to take home her very own giraffe, which she named Sandy. 🙂

She’s now counting down the days to her actual birthday! 😀

Ethan Is Seven Years Old!

February 1, 2013 in Celebrations, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Milestones | 2 comments

Yesterday, my little Ethan turned seven. I still can’t believe how much he has grown. I told him that now when someone asks how old he is, he can say, “I’m seven years old!” instead of his usual “I’m six…but I’m gonna be seven soon!” 🙂

Here in Massachusetts, schools are very strict about food being brought into the classrooms in view of hygiene and food allergy. So instead of edible stuff for the kids, I prepared little birthday treats for every one of Ethan’s classmates, so that he could pass it round during snack time. His teacher(s) had suggested something practical and useful for the kids like a pencil or a fun eraser, so here’s what we prepared:

The kids helped me with the packing and arranging. The treats were just something very simple and useful: A mini memo pad and a cute little pencil. The memo pads came in 5 different colors and the pencils were just fun-looking and colorful. Ethan told me he had a great time passing these round to his friends, and they were thrilled to get them.

Back on the home front, we had a little celebration of our own. What would a birthday be without a birthday cake eh?

That’s right! I made him a Captain America shield cake! 🙂

He’d been consistently asking for it for a year and thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to make, but I ran into a few minor glitches when I realized that I had left my cake leveler, fondant smoother and offset spatula back in Penang. So I had to just make do with whatever I had here, which explains why some parts of the cake were a bit uneven.

Ethan didn’t seem to mind though, and was really looking forward to blowing out the candle and eating the cake.

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Winter Festival

January 28, 2013 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

Last Friday evening, we attended the Winter Festival organized by Ethan’s school’s PTO. It was like a mini carnival, with games, food and activities for the kids. We were surprised by the turnout despite the freezing cold weather!

The festival was held in the school gym and the school cafeteria, and only Ethan needed a ticket (@$2). Adults and kids 3 and under enjoyed free admission.

Ethan started by playing some basketball in the gym.

Unfortunately, he met with a mishap when he scored a basket in one of his games. He’d jumped up and down in celebration and accidentally bumped his top incisors on a metal horizontal bar. 🙁

He was bleeding a little, but thankfully the bleeding stopped after a while. However, he just wasn’t himself the rest of the evening, and it took him some time before he was back to his cheerful self. Poor boy. 🙁

(At the time of writing, his teeth are okay. He was feeling a little bit of sensitivity for a couple of days after the incident, but he’s okay now.)

I had also volunteered to bring in a cake for the Cake Walk. Here’s a glimpse of some of the other cakes brought in by other volunteers.

The Cake Walk is a fun game open to all kids at $1 per dance. All the participants will start dancing when the music is played and when the music stops, every one chooses a number to stand on. A number will then be drawn from a can and the kid whose number is called will get to choose a cake of his/her choice! The rest of the kids will win a consolation prize of a lollipop each.

Hannah wanted a go at the Cake Walk:

…but then she got upset when someone stood on the number she wanted to choose…in the end, she won a lollipop anyway.

And then, just before we left for home, the kids wanted to get their faces painted.

Meet Batman…or Batboy… 🙂

…and say hello to Little Miss Cheetah!

By the way, if you’re wondering what I used to wash the face paint off, I started with damp hands and then lathering up some shower gel and then applying it all over the face, gently massaging the face as I went along. I rinsed off with some warm water, but only about 75% was rinsed off. After drying the face, I used regular baby lotion with cotton pads and gently wiped off the remaining stains. About 5% still remained after the first night, so I did the moisturizer thingy again the following day and managed to remove everything.

Our “Somewhat” White Christmas

December 29, 2012 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting, What's Cooking | No comments

Okay, I admit I had been singing “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…” for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and according to the weather forecast, it was supposed to start snowing at about the time Santa was making his rounds, i.e. Christmas eve.

When I woke up on Christmas morning, I realized that the weather forecast was correct. There was a light sprinkling of snow to greet us, but it didn’t last long as it stopped snowing later that afternoon. It was only on the night of Boxing Day that the snow started, coincidentally as we were making our way home from our grocery shopping. Later that night, I even saw snow ploughs clearing inches of snow from the driveway right outside our apartment.

Anyway, we stayed in the whole day on Christmas and we really had a great time. It was warm and cozy indoors and we just wanted to relax and enjoy Christmas.

I woke up in the morning to get lunch ready for us, and Ethan was up very soon after. He exclaimed in surprise and sheer joy as he saw all the presents lying by the fireplace, waiting to be opened. This year, it was the first time Ethan and Hannah really really expected presents from Santa. Maybe because this year we have an actual chimney and fireplace in our house..haha. Ethan and Hannah were also very concerned about Santa hurting himself that Christmas eve when he came down the chimney, so they had made extra sure that we turned off the fireplace by midnight.

So “Santa’s elves” were kept busy on Christmas eve getting the presents ready for Ethan and Hannah. We got them presents from “Santa” (the pink-wrapped ones) and also presents from Daddy and Mommy. It was tricky getting them the presents as surprise ones; one of us had to sneakily make a speedy purchase, and then make a dash for the car to load the goodies in the trunk. Obviously the one who isn’t 7 months preggers was the one doing the running to the car. 😛

They also each had letters written to Santa, and on Christmas eve, Ethan noticed the letters were still lying around the house, so Daddy had to quickly go to the “office” to send the letters to the North Pole. LOL

The moment Ethan saw the presents, he told Hannah about it, and she immediately woke up. They were very eager to open their presents, and when they did, all we could get were these rather blur shots with our phone.

Yes, they were still in their jammies.. 🙂

After that, they busied themselves with the presents as I got lunch ready. It was past 2pm when we had lunch, because the roast turkey takes at least 3 hours to be ready.

We hung out at home the whole of Christmas and the kids were only more than happy because they got the chance to play with their new toys!

My Pretty Dolly Surprise!

September 13, 2012 in Celebrations, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

Last Friday, Mommy told me there was a surprise waiting for me at home. I asked her to tell me what it was, but she wouldn’t, so I had to wait till I got home.

I saw a large rectangular parcel wrapped up by my table and eagerly tore open the wrapper. I gasped as I saw what was wrapped inside. It was that Barbie Dress-Up Set that Mommy told me she had recently won in a contest!

Hehe…it was finally HERE! I had been bugging Mommy for it every day since she told me, and now I can’t believe I am seeing it in real life!

Look at the dresses, shoes, handbags and hairband this set came with! Wheeee!! I immediately asked Mommy to help me remove each and every item in that set. Mommy said it’s for me to play dressing up Barbie with. I brought out my other Barbie doll (which had only one dress then), and then I started dressing both my Barbies up!

Yes, you can definitely tell that I was over the moon! I kept telling Mommy, “Wow…I’m SOOOOOOO happy, Mommy!”

Mommy says she’s gonna get me a box to put all my Barbie stuff in, so they don’t get lost. Look how pretty they are! 😀

Boys and Girls Come Out to Play on World Play Day

June 6, 2012 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

What I envisage is not an event or series of events, and not something that entails expansive and expensive preparations (or expensive presents). The essence of PLAY is childlike. It is what all children do naturally. Therefore, a WORLD PLAY DAY should be a day of total attention to each other, from generation to generation. A day when children and adults do what they want to do. A day that is relaxed and emphasizes human interaction. We do not need to stop the world for a day. We play in our own place, home, school or work place. Perhaps I am describing an attitude rather than an activity. A day that is FUN, shows adults and children in interactive situations promoting the healthy growth of each other in simple, self-motivated activities of their own choice. If everyone in the world can do this on the same day each year we will have a WORLD PLAY DAY.
– Dr Freda Kim, Founder, World Play Day

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Before this year, I had not even heard of World Play Day. So it was a great surprise and experience to all of us when the kids’ school decided to organize an event in conjunction with World Play Day this year.

World Play Day is celebrated on May 28th each year, and it’s a day where kids and adults alike dedicate to the art of play.

Sounds like fun, yeah?

Not even the hot afternoon sun could dampen the spirits of these beautiful kids. The celebration of World Play Day started with some warm-up exercises, which the kids were all to eager to participate in.

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