Tara's 3rd Birthday Part 1

Tara's birthday is on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. We held 2 parties for her, one at her school and one at home. We couldn't bear not celebrating for her in school cos it's the first time that she knew so many small little friends and besides, she has been celebrating other kids' birthdays since the start of this year, so it's finally her turn and we definitely have to celebrate for her.

I thought the school was particular about not having cream cakes for birthday celebrations. Parents were encouraged to think of other "cakes" to replace the usual creamy cakes. Months before Tara's birthday, I've already storming my brain on what kind of cake to get for Tara. I've finally decided to bake muffins and I even tried to bake a few batches, with my colleagues as the guinea pigs. I thought of stacking them up then popping a candle on the top. However, just a week before the party, one of her teacher spoke to me, and prompted me to get a cream cake instead, saying the kids will love the cake! And the more we discussed, the more food I decided to bring, so in the end, the playgroup's lunch was covered by us too. I have no complaints though, anything to make the kids happy.

I woke up early to do the cooking. Bob had to send the little one to school first, then his parents to breakfast so I was all alone working in the kitchen. Lucky I got Mum to help me with the fried beehoon.

My younger BIL was in town too so he was the event's photographer. Alright, pictures!


The school put up this banner for birthday kids. The Hello Kitty helium balloon was a gift from the teachers.


The birthday cake. The kids went "Star.. Star.. Star" when they saw the cake! I didn't want the Happy Birthday wordings to smear the cute cake so I only got the shop to write Tara's name on it.


A photo with her playgroup apple friends.


Here are the playgroup watermelon friends.


Tara blowing the candle.


Cutting the cake.


Queuing for her food. She get to be the first one, since she's the birthday girl.


Enjoying the rare treat of oily but yummy food.


Getting her share of her cake!

Yeah, I know, I don't have a flair for tying pig tails. I got her "party" clothes for her too, cos the teacher wanted her to be the star of the day and told me to dress her up. Even the teachers and aunties changed into nicer set of clothes just for the party! How schweet!

The kids had to go for their performance rehearsal in the morning but the teachers made effort to take the first bus back to the school after the PG group rehearsal so that I can celebrate Tara's birthday before I rush to work in the afternoon. I'm so grateful for that!

And as the food were home cooked, they weren't halal so the school had to take out their set of party utensils which they have labelled specifically for non Halal food. I'm supposed to help out with the cleaning up but the teacher, knowing that I have to rush to work, told me they will help with the cleaning instead. Again, I'm very grateful.

When we left, Tara was enjoying herself pretty much and didn't even fussed when she know we had to leave. I gave the goodie bags to the teacher to help distribute for me.

I wanted to upload the video of the kids singing the birthday song but it took really long to load up so I finally gave up. In the video, Tara was sitting so proper and still during the singing but once the song ended, both English and Mandarin version, she knew what she had to do. Without prompting, she immediately leaned forward to blow the candle, then she picked up the plastic knife, I didn't managed to film this, and cut the cake 3 times. She has been through so many birthday parties during the year and already know the "motions". And that was really funny and amazing to watch!

There, her birthday celebration part 1 comes to an end. I will post the part 2 soon.

Oooh... So Busy!

I haven't been updating much recently because I've been busy! Just a summary of the major things that has been happening these 2 months:

• Bob and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on the 4th of October. We had dinner at Morton's Grill and I tasted the best steak ever! The food portions were humongous that both of us decided to play safe and ordered just one set to share, from the soup to the main course. But still, we didn't managed to finish the steak in the end. Can you imagine?! The next day, I wrote an entry on our dinner but procrastination and procrastination, the entry is still in draft stage. I will post it up soon though.

• Friday nights have officially become my scrapbook night! Jaime (our new kaki), my sis and I will get together after work at either Jaime's place or my sis' place and we will scrap till we get so sleepy before we head home. I really treasured my Friday nights and I always make it a point not to miss any sessions. It's so very therapeutic too!

• I made a journal for my friend's little boy Aidan early this month and I actually have people commissioning me to do one for their little kids too! So far, I've made 1 more last week and I still have 2 journals to complete before I fly off to HK for my hols in mid Dec. Uh oh, 2 more weeks!

• Tara celebrated her 3rd birthday in this month. Wow, she's 3! I can't believe it. My baby is growing so fast I can't keep up! We held a small party for her little friends in school and she was really happy, though she didn't show it at the party. I'm supposed to do a healthy and cream-free "cake" aka muffins and prepare some little goody bags for the kids but in the end, after discussions with the teacher, I ended up buying a 2kg cream cake in the shape of a star and provided lunch of fried beehoon, chicken wings, fish fillet and sotong balls! The cake was a hit with the kids! I was wincing away when I saw the little ones spooning the colouring laden cream cake into their mouth! I don't fancy giving food with too much colouring to Tara.

• We held a 2nd party for her at home, with family and relatives this time. She got her 2nd birthday cake, in the form of small pretty cupcakes. The kids love the cup cakes, the little one was so happy, the adults commented that the cupcakes was a good idea, cos there's no need to cut the cake. The week prior to this party, I spent most of my free time doing up the birthday banner and the cake stand for the cup cakes. Tara received many ang baos and she absolutely love the cup cakes. I'm glad everything turned out great!

• Tara performed in her first concert just days after her birthday! My PILs, Bob and I went to watch. She played a small part in the drama but she did a wonderful job! All the little kids did fantastic too! I was so touched by it all that I almost teared. Oh man, I'm getting so emotional nowadays! During the 30 min drama, there wasn't any crying, no little kids running amok, no stage fright kids. It was so perfect! Everyone knew their role, their positions and when they should be on stage, off stage etc. I'm so amazed!

• My sis started an online business selling her craft work! I took pictures of the pegs she made, started the blog for her, made a banner and did some fine tuning to her links and stuff. I'm pretty satisfied with how the photos turned out. Canon cameras are amazing! I didn't even need to do any colour editing on the banner photo! Take a look at her website! Great gifts at affordable prices! She's now filled to the brim with all the Christmas orders! And she also starting to make appearances at fairs and carnivals to sell her stuff. Jaime and I were almost always there to help her out! Hope her business will bring in more moolah for her!

• I've started jogging since 2 weeks ago. Finally, finally the lazy me decided to do something about my distorted figure. So far, I've managed to make 4 trips to the nearby stadium. Each time, I will jog 2.4km and walk 800m before I head back home and climbed the stairs right up to my flat on the 14th floor. I don't think I lose any weight yet, since it's only 4 times but I do feel my hip and calves are firmer than before. Darn about the tummy though, I still look so pregnant that I got someone offered me a seat on the train last night. And I shamelessly took it. I've got my reasons though. Firstly, I'm so tired standing. Secondly, I didn't want to embarress the nice lady cos I've seen a few people, looking rather helpless when they got rejected. Thirdly, I don't want to launch into a lengthy explaination that I'm actually not pregnant and the bulge is just a bloated tummy and not a baby. Anyway, back to the topic, the reason I started to exercise is that I'm hoping I can shed at least 3 kilos before the CNY. So that the relatives can stop asking whether I got pregnant again.

So, that's mostly what I've been busy with the past 2 months, of course, on top of that, doing my duty as a mother and giving the rest of my free hours to my little girl. Will follow up with posts real soon!

Tara's First Sleepover

Ever since she was born, she has never spent any nights without me, well, except for the time I travelled to Bangkok and Taipei last year. Oh yah, and one single night when she decided to sleep in my in-law's room.

But never has she spent the night away from home without me around her. It's her first and my first.

My PILs will usually spend the night at Bob's aunt's on Sundays so that they will not get in the way of the cleaning lady coming in every Monday morning. And since Tara need not attend school today, it just makes sense that Tara spend the night there with them, so that dear Daddy need not chauffeur the little one to Queenstown through the morning peak hour traffic.

Tara left for the aunt's place late morning yesterday. I went to give my sister support. She set up a stall at the carnival near her place to sell her masterpieces. I was occupied and didn't think much about my little girl.

I went home mid afternoon, did some laundry and started to think of her. But I still felt okay cos some Sunday afternoons, we have left Tara at the aunt's place too, so Bob and I can rest at home or catch up some overdue chores.

Bob left for a wedding dinner at 6 plus. That's where the thoughts crept in.

I wonder what my little girl is doing. I wonder if she can sleep well over there, whether she will cy for me. She usually slept through the night, so I thought will she wake up in the morning, realised she's in a different place, and start to cry for Mummy?

I contemplate on calling her. But I worried I will miss her even more when I hear her voice. Or she might cry when she hear mine? At about 8.30pm, I couldn't bear the quietness in the house and called. I deliberately chose this time, because Bob's niece and nephew would have left the aunt's place. They usually go there for dinner on Sundays.

Tara picked up the phone, and recognised my voice immediately when I said hello. I asked did she behave. She asked why I wasn't there. I told her she's sleeping over so I'm staying home. I told her to be good and don't cry in the night, she said okay. I told her I will pick her up on Monday and she said okay. Then silence. I said hello again, and I heard the phone clicked.

She hung up.

No crying.

Never wanting Mummy.

I was so sad. I thought my little girl would miss me, and want me but I was so wrong. A lot of people commented that my little girl is very attached to me, so I wonder how come there isn't any bawling when she knows Mummy is not going to sleep with her tonight.

I thought of calling her back.

But I thought, better not.

I'm worried I might just rush down to the aunt's place to pick my baby.

Bob sms-ed me at 10 plus, said he spoke to Tara. She didn't want to go home with Daddy. Bob came back at about 11 plus, I thought he might have brought back Tara but he didn't. He asked me how I feel. I said weird. Yeah, weird. Not hearing her voice and seeing her in the house. Then I asked why didn't he bring her back. Bob just gave me a reply "Kids who stick to mummy don't grow up".

I know there's a certain truth in this statement.

During bedtime, Bob said Tara wasn't around me when I was overseas either. But I told him it's different. I'm at home and everywhere I turned, I can see traces of my little girl. Her toys, her hanky on my dresser. Her clothes in the laudry basket. Her mess of colouring pencils.

Of course I will miss her!

The first few days Tara attended child care, one of the teachers said to me, it's usually the parents who cannot let go, not the children.

Tara was able to let go of Mummy. Mummy wasn't prepared to let go of Tara.

Need HELP!

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Update:
I've found the clothes already! From Zara! A long sleeve polo top and a pair fleece pants. In plain red. And at an unbelievable price of $29.80 for both. Great bargain. The polo top has fleece lining too! Great for cold weather.
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Anyway, I thank all of you out there who have rendered your help. Deeply appreciated.

I need to get red long sleeve top and long pants for Tara urgently. I have tried several places including Giant and Carrefour but just couldn't find anything red. Mostly are pinks, whites etc.

Tara will be performing at her school's graduation ceremony next Saturday and I definitely need to get the clothes within the next 2 days.

If anyone of you knows were to get, please let me know. I don't mind getting second hand ones, but they must be priced reasonably and in size 2T only.

If anyone of you going shopping anywhere, can help me keep a lookout? I need plain ones, but a little design is okay too. Preferably in t-shirt material.

Please help! Thanks a million..

Latest Project!

Just out from the oven!

This is a first year journal I made for Aidan, my good friend cum colleague's little boy. I definitely hope she likes this!





The left side is for journaling, and the right side, I used transparencies to create photo sleeves so my friend can just insert the photos.




























I've also created 2 pages, for Daddy and Mummy to pen some words to their little boy.


Just in case they got more things to write, one additional page here.


This is supposed to be a first month gift for Aidan, but as usual, I fell behind schedule. By not much though, only a week. Hehe.