Evelyn's First Birthday Party

After all that planning, the day of your birthday party has finally arrived. Too bad the Ipoh and KL folks could not make it. But it was still fun. We'd ordered all the food for the party. So daddy and I were quite free through the day.

In the afternoon, mummy took out the pictures I had prepared as decorations and put them up.

Here you are taking a peek at me as I put up the pictures and decorative items:

Needed to enlist daddy's help to put up the birthday buntings.

You seemed to know there was something exciting coming up. You refused to sleep. At long last, you took your nap just as it was time for us to go pick up the food. We left you at home with Ah Ma while we went to pick up the food we had pre-ordered.

We reached home just before 7, but surprisingly no one had arrived yet! Usually Ee-ee and all would have arrived. For a moment, I thought that I had put the incorrect date on the invitation card!

Anyhow, soon our guests arrived and it was time to makan. Before that, we took some pictures with the birthday girl:

The food served was yummy... We had laksa, choon peah (fried pohpiah), fried rice, roast pork, belachan chicken and also salmon sashimi.

We even had a surprise visitor. It was the Poh Poh which took care of us when I was in confinement. She came bearing gifts.. for us to makan *grin*. She brought a big container of kuih and also acar.

After a relaxing meal, it was time for the birthday cake. Everyone was so excited. Before the song, we tried to take a picture of you with the cake. Since the cake was too big, I removed you from your highchair and sat you on the table. Before daddy could take a nice shot of you, you gave the cake a kick. Tried to kill the Piglet!!

Next was the birthday song. Sweet... you were so happy smiling and dancing as we sang:

We had to chase away your cousins to finally get a family picture taken:

As everyone was so full from dinner, the giant cake was barely touched! Thank goodness some guests took most of the cake home. Else it would have been a waste to throw it away.

Soon the party came to an end. It was really late and we were too tired to open the presents. After you were changed, you KO-ed. End of your birthday party. Muaksss...

Evelyn's Birthday Cake

We're now in the shop waiting to pick up your birthday cake.  Unfortunately they had made it in blue, following the original design.  So they tried to make the pattern more 'girly'.
It looks ok. They added more flowers.  Will take some pictures later on.

Evelyn's 1st Birthday Party Invitation

Party Time Tomorrow

I cannot believe it. Tomorrow, we'll be celebrating your 1st birthday.  We've planned a simple party in the house to celebrate with family.  Too bad some relatives cannot make it, but I'm sure we'll still have a great time.
Food has been ordered.  We'll just have to pick up when the time comes.  Cake was selected quite a while back.
We almost forgot the all important thing: the birthday present, but has been settled today.  We took the afternoon off to pick a present. Ko-ko came along as he also wanted to pick one for you too.
Looks like we're all set. Hope everything goes as planned tomorrow.

The Rain.... According to Evan

It was raining heavily one evening when you came to my room after finishing you homework.  You looked out the window and said:
Mummy,the rain is the cloud wee wee. Then the thunder is the cloud's poo poo.
The lighting is the cloud's pang pui!

Hahaha... love your creativity.  Hugs.. don't grow up so soon.

Time to Clean Evan's Pearly Whites

It was our usual half yearly appointment with the dentist. So we headed to Dr. Goh's clinic at 3p.m.After a short wait, it was our turn. Daddy started first. He had his teeth inspected and cleaned. Then you said you'd go next.

We asked if the gap between your top incissor was something to worry about. He said we'll need to see how it goes after the rest of your permanent teeth grew then only decide if braces were necessary. Then as you had some plaque in the back of your teeth, he also did some scaling and cleaning of your teeth. Nothing to worry about. You were a good boy.

After mummy had my teeth all checked and cleaned, it was time to go off. Good thing we didn't have to wait long this time.

Evelyn's Pearly Whites

Suddenly we realised that there was one tooth peeking at us on the way home today. Funnily it wasn't the bottom incisor, instead it was your top left incisor.
In fact, it looks like the top right incisor is also on the way. After a long wait, our little boh geh is going to be oo geh soon. *grin*

A Proud Moment with Evan

You came into the car after school and told us this on Tuesday:

Evan: The bookshop is selling Minions notebook. It costs 60 sen so can I use my money to buy.?

Daddy: Ok.

Evan: I want to buy 2; one for me and one for mei-mei.

Daddy and I *feeling so proud*

Daddy: You are such a good boy. I will give you the money to buy mei-mei's portion.

Evan: Ok. Thank you daddy.

Daddy: Actually.. you're such a good boy, I will give you the money to buy both, ok?

Evan: Yay! Thank you daddy.

You did not have enough time to buy on Wednesday before school. So on Thursday, you came into the car, you proudly showed us your purchases.

The moment we reached home, you raced up into the house and proudly showed Evelyn her Minion notebook. Then you told her that she could only touch the book gently and that she could use the book when she's "at least 3 years old" *grin*

Up up to Penang Hill

We decided to make a trip up to Penang Hill on Tuesday. It was the last day we had off for the Hari Raya holidays. And feeling ratehr guilty that we did not do anything this holidays, we headed up the hill. Ah Kong dropped us off at the foot of the hill as we worried there may not be many parking slots.

There were a large group of people just sitting around and we got worried that we may not be able to go up. But, we decided to try our luck and queued up for the train tickets.

After that we quickly went to join the queue to get onto the train. Waited around 15 minutes or so then it was our turn to get onto the train. It was a rather tight squeeze but you and mei-mei were ok. One kind lady even asked her granddaughter to sit on her lap so that you could have a seat.

Very shortly we reached the top of the hill. Everyone stood around enjoying the view of the tracks and of Penang. Too bad it was a little hazy. 

After daddy had finished taking pictures of the view and of us, we took a stroll and saw David Brown's restaurant which we had planned to eat at. Since it was already 11.30 and after a debate we opted to have lunch first before walking around. 

Lunch was nice. We had packed Mei-mei's lunch along. While waiting for our orders, daddy took more pictures. You also had some fun taking pictures using my camera until your lunch arrived. After we were all fed, we took more pictures before leaving the little restaurant.

We walked around a little more. Then we saw the little bird park, but you did not want to go in. So we just wandered around enjoying the cool weather and then poor Mei-Mei who did not have her morning nap fell asleep. 

As there was nothing more to do, we headed to the train station to go home. Just a short trip, but fun for us all.  

 

Hello Alan Ku-ku

It was your first time meeting Alan Ku-ku while Ko-ko last met ku-ku almost two years ago when he got back for Alex ku-ku's wedding.
It was just for the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to BM. Ku-ku had gone out with Ee-ee and Nanna. So we waited at home (good thing Chelsea and Grampy were home to open the door for us). You were fine with Ku-ku, thank goodness you let him carry you. Yay! Mummy got to rest *grin*

It was soon time to go home after dinner. On Sunday, everyone came over to our house for dinner. This time we even had 4th Ee-Poh and Teo-Kong too. Nanna and Ku-Ku stayed the night because he had an early flight to Hong Kong before heading back to NY.

Bye-bye Ku-ku. Please come back more often. See you soon.

Hurricane Evelyn

This is what we find the moment you are left alone in the baby cot. Even leaving you for a few minutes will result in "Hurricane Evelyn".

Evelyn and Fish

The next week after you jab your blood test was Ko-ko's turn to see Dr. Mary for a follow up. As Ah Ma was busy that night, we brought you along.
When you realised we were in the hospital you weren't too happy. But then... maybe you were just tired so being a little cranky.
It was a rather long wait that night for our turn. When it was finally Ko-ko's turn, you had already fallen asleep in daddy's arms. After Dr. Mary had finished checking Ko-ko,  she asked if you were doing OK.
We mentioned that you were not sleeping long hours at night.  She asked what you were eating. When she found out that you were still on rice cereal, she advised that we put you on moi-moi as rice cereal digests very quickly which was why you woke up so often. OoooooOoo...
So that weekend we decided to start you on porridge with just veggies. You did not like it. Tried again on Sunday but did not work. Could not convince you to like it.
We then decided to give you fish as Dr. Mary said you could start with fish at 10 months. So at 1 day shy of your 10th month birthday Ah Ma introduced fish to you.
While you love Ah Kong's fishes which swim in the pond, you did not like them in you porridge!!
We continued to try to feed you. I even asked Dr. Mary on what could be done
She had suggested we give you soft rice, but we still wanted to try with the porridge.  And yesterday we finally convinced you that it was yummy to eat fish moi-moi. You started to take more and more and today I am proud to say you almost finished all that kakak cooked for you.
Good job, our little girl. I hope you'll love eating fish as much as your Ko-ko.  Muakkss.

Evelyn's Supplements

The result from the blood test indicated that your iron levels were a little low. So Dr. Mary prescribed some iron supplement for you to take for 2 months.
It was difficult every time we had to give you the 2.5 ml of iron. Some days you'd take it willingly, some days we had to fight with you to make you eat it.
A few days after you started to eat the iron we noticed of your poo was dark and it was getting  difficult for you to poo. Had to call Dr. Mary and she advised me to give you some prune juice mixed with water (1spoon + 1 oz water). Worst case was to stop the supplements. 
But before we did anything you seem to be ok with doing a poo. Still hard but at least you poo daily.
We are ensuring that you take fruots daily. Hope that helps. *Keep our fingers crossed*

Evan Eats Dinner with Chopsticks

We were about to faint when you asked why the waitress had removed your chopsticks and gave you fork and spoon instead.
You insisted that you could eat with them. So daddy asked for a bowl with chopsticks.  When the food came, daddy had to mix up the dishes then put it into the bowl for you to eat. It wasn't easy but you patiently fed yourself and finished the whole bowl of rice.
Bravo my little man. Good job!

Evelyn's Owie..

It's me. Mummy and daddy brought me to Adventist Hospital yesterday. Ko-ko also wanted to come along. 

When we reached and the nurse has taken my weight, height and head circumference she told mummy to bring me to the second floor.
There mummy gave them a piece of paper.  Then they told us to go into a room. Mummy passed me to daddy. That was when I realised some bad was going to happen. So I let out the louded scream. But that didn't work.  The lady still wanted my finger.  I tried to curl my middle finger but daddy and mummy managed to force open my finger. 

Then she poked me. I screamed even louder. After she had taken my blood, I decidid to make it more difficult for her to put on the plaster. That's for poking me!

Then we went up again to wait to see Dr. Mary.
While waiting mummy and daddy wanted me to show them my middle finger.. to take a picture but I made a lot of fuss.

Since they tricked me to have a blod test, I decided to be naughty and cry a lot: when Dr. Mary was checking me and even when mummy tried to change me into my pyjamas.  Ha!

When we finally got home, I was my cheerful self again. Enough naughty girl for one night.  *grin*

Evan the Entertainer

Here you are entertaining a rather bewildered Evelyn *grin*

So Appreciative

Woke up yesterday morning and saw that you were already awake.  So I told you about our plan to have pizza for lunch since daddy was off for golf and Ah Kong and Ah Ma were still in Ipoh.
Your face lighted up and you gave me a big kiss, hug and said thank you. A simple thing for me to do but I love how appreciative you were.
Muakkss.. mummy would bake anytime you wanted darling.   

Go Away You, Haze

Even before the haze is actually visible, you are both showing symptoms caused by the haze.  Ko-ko started coughing and some mornings woke up with a bad sore throat. Mei-mei started with watery eyes and now runny nose too.
Hope the haze goes away soon and you'll both quickly recover. Muakkss.

Chatterbox Evelyn

Left you home with daddy while I went for replacement music classes with Ko-ko. Daddy said you decided to have a lengthy conversation with him:

This is the first time we hear you talking like that. I'm telling daddy that you are trying to call him. Right? So make sure when you wake up in the middle of the night or when you do a poo poo call da-da-da-da-da, ok?

Poo Spa for Evelyn

You were asleep as I was doing some work. When you woke up you were contented to play in the cot so I continued on my computer. Then it smelled like you had done a poo. But I continued to work.

The next time I looked up you seemed to be covered in carrots. At first I thought that you had vomited.  The upon closer inspection... OH MY GOODNESS!!! You were covered in poo... not just you, but the baby cot, cot sheet, mosquito netting and I don't know what else...

I had to put down my notebook, call Kakak to help clear up and carried you upstairs to wash up.

As you were covered from head to toe with poo, I could not put you into your bath tub. So I had to put you on the shower floor and wash off your poo using the shower. Thank goodness you were a good girl and sat still while I washed the poo plus carrots from your body. You did not even fuss when I got water on your face.

Phew.. what a way to start the day.  Certainly put me off carrots for a while!

On hindsight, I should have stopped to take a picture first. Hehe.. maybe this was your secret to your baby soft skin.. POO SPA!

Evelyn Had A Fall

It was in the middle of the morning and I had fallen sleep when suddenly I felt you slip out of my arms. And before I could react, you were on the floor and crying.

Picked you up and you calmed down quite quickly. I thought that you seemed OK. But then when I turned on the light, I saw that you had knocked yourself on the corner of my bedside table. Sigh.. another bruise? Thank goodness daddy got up and brought up some ice. So mummy put the ice on your cheekbone and then went back to sleep.

The next morning, you seemed perfectly fine, except for a little cut on the cheekbone. But now.. it is all healed. Phew..

Reminder to self: Do not sleep on the job :(

Our Day at the Beach with Evan

Daddy and I wanted to do something seeing that you were on holidays. So this week we went around looking and buying the things we needed for the surprise we had in mind for you. Instead it looked like we were in for a bigger surprise. When daddy told you about our plans to bring you to the beach we got these responses from you:

It's so hot...

So boring in the beach

Try as we could we could not persuade you to go. That night daddy tried again.  It seems you had some things about the beach which worried you:

Are there sharks?

Are there jelly fish?

Not sure what daddy told you but he finally managed to convince you to go. So early this morning mummy woke up to make the egg sandwiches from the eggs kakak had already boiled for me.

When everyone was finally ready, we loaded the car and off we went... to buy fried noodles before heading to Pantai Pasir Panjang in Balik Pulau.

We arrived just before 10.30 am and we walked along the rather secluded beach until we found a nice shady spot. Had some of our noodles before daddy moved us to another spot as the earlier one seemed rather close to the water.

After slathering some sun block you headed to the sea with daddy. It was so nice to hear you squeal in delight as the waves crashed into you. 

Halfway daddy spotted a jellyfish which got you really worried. It was already dead but then after that you made sure to avoid the spot which it was last seen.

Daddy took a walk along the beach while we both continued to play in the sand and sea.

After two hours, it was time to head home. Daddy saw that the tide was coming in and he was worried that we might not be able to get back to the car. So we quickly packed up, rinsed off the sea water, changed and headed back to the car.

At the car we had a larger bottle of water. So we got to rinse more and then got into the car and headed home. Before that though, we made a quick stop to buy durians seeing we were in Balik Pulau. We came prepared with a large container and cling wrap to ensure that daddy's precious car does not smell of the durians. We were too full from the noodles, sandwiches and drinks so no chance for laksa. Perhaps next time, when we come we could come with more people so that you have more company to play with.

Bye Bye, Evelyn's Fever

We were instructed to feed you the paracetamol until Friday morning, but on Friday morning you were still warm. So I had to give you a few more doses. On Saturday, you woke up with runny nose and a cough. Sigh.. Apparently it was to be expected.

We spent the weekend in Batu Ferringhi and you had trouble sleeping. But when we left you with Ah Ma while Ko-ko went to Adventure Zone, you spelt for most of the 2 hours. And then woke up feeling very cheerful.

Sadly the cough and cold would not go away. So Monday morning, we went to see Dr. Mary again. More medicine has to be given and until yesterday, you seemed to be getting better. Your appetite was not very good after the fever but seemed to be better since Wednesday again. Hope it all goes away soon.

Get better little girl..

Evelyn's First Fever Scare

Mummy and daddy were at work when Ah Ma called to say you felt warm. It's a good thing Ko-ko was home and he knew how to operate the thermometer. You were having a fever over 38 degrees. I told Ah Ma we'd be back. Called the hospital and they told me to bring you in. Waited for daddy and Ah Ma kept calling, getting more and more anxious as you seemed to be burning up.

Finally we left and quickly went home to pick you up. Went to the hospital and after your weight, size and temperature were taken we went to wait for our turn to see Dr. Mary.

While waiting to see the doctor, we saw her nurse who asked why we were there. We'd just been to the hospital the night before with Ko-ko for his follow up. Then another nurse called you and you were given a suppository to quickly bring down your fever which was measured at 38.7 degrees.

Then we saw Dr. Mary. Everything was checked, she told us what to do and we went home after picking up the medicine.
As expected, feeding you was a breeze.. NOT! Sigh.. it took a lot of screaming (from you) and us performing a series of complicated actions (holding a struggling little girl, opening the mouth and pumping the medicine from the syringe) to feed you. Haha..
Hope your fever goes away soon!

Evelyn's Black Eye

I was just starting my usual morning mad rush when Ko-ko came to me and said that you were awake. Feeling suspicious I asked if he'd woken you up as you were fast asleep less than 5 minutes before. Giving me a guilty grin he said "yes". So I told him to keep you entertained while I got ready.

After finally getting everything ready, I headed up and saw Ko-ko playing with you: him outside the cot and you standing inside the cot laughing. Then only did I realise you had one big and one small eye! Oh no.. you'd fallen in the baby cot. Just like your Ko-ko did when he was young.

The eye was swollen. Not really black yet.. So I quickly carried you down and tried to apply some ice in a towel to the eye. Of course you would not allow me to do so. No tears, but you kept pulling at the towel.

Later this evening when we got back Ah Ma wondered aloud as to whether the fall had its effect on you as you seemed very tired the whole day. Made poor daddy panic.

But no.. there was nothing wrong with you. Look at this picture daddy took, you were almost better. Just a little bruised.

Muakkss.. muakks.. poor little baby.

Evelyn the Bully

You somehow have this obsession with hair. Even your ko-ko's hair is not spared. And the funny thing is when you pull his hair you will shout like you are enjoying yourself. Your ko-ko loves you so much that he allows you to play with his hair although it is sometimes painful when you pull:

Penang International Science Fair with Evan

As our company was the main organisers for this year's Penang International Science Fair, we were given an opportunity to pre-register our children. A lucky thing that you were the right age for the minimum age to participate. So I signed up for the Sunday session. We woke up really early and Ah Kong dropped us in Straits Quay. We got your tag and goodies bag along with some snacks which were provided and then went up to the convention centre to wait for the time to go in. Here you are, waiting to enter. You were pre-registered for the Lego Robotics session.

Parents were not allowed to go in. But lucky for me, a friend was volunteering that day, so she managed to get these pictures of you along working on the robot with the volunteer.

While you were building robots, I went down to look around and see what else there was at the science fair. When the hour was up, I went back up to collect you. It was well arranged where I had the other portion of your tag which both had my phone number. The volunteer would only match both numbers before letting you go off with me. We went to the other side of the convention centre and of course you got excited when you saw the Lego's set up by Legoland which had a booth there:

Took me a while to convince you to leave. Why it is that you've got lots of Lego at home and yet you need to play with other people's Lego??!!
Here is another booth which you were playing with another child. I have no idea what it was supposed to be:

Then we went down where Agilent was one of the sponsors and were having some games. All you need is to get your "passport" then go to the 4 stations to play the games, then get your passport stamped for the corresponding game.  

After the first game, we had to leave as we had bought tickets for the astrodome. The astrodone was an interesting experience. I think you loved it.
We went back down to continue with the other 3 games. Daddy had already finished his golf game and was on the way to pick us up. But since you were not done yet (due to the very LARGE crowd), he parked his car and waited till you finished.

Here you are trying out the last 3 games:

When you finished and got all 4 pages of your passport stamped, you collected your gift which was a little bottle with Agilent logo and we headed home. Only half a day, but it was fun. I enjoyed this time spent together just with you. I hope you did too.

My Love Notes from Evan

When you started school this year I had asked if you wanted me to have your recess snack ordered from the counter. But you had told me that you didn't want it. You wanted to bring your own food from home. So on top of packing your little container with your box milk or Milo along with a selection of biscuits, I would also add a little note for you.

One night, you asked me where I kept the "sticky yellow paper" and when I showed you, you asked if you could have a piece. You also wanted to write me a little note. These are a few of the notes you had written to me:

My heart melts when I see this message with so many hearts. I love you too darling.

Evelyn's First Solids

At 6 months and 9 days, we introduced solids to you. We had wanted to do so earlier but were very busy the past 2 weekends. So today we went home during our lunch time to feed you the solids.

When we got back we were a little disappointed to find that you were asleep. But as I was cooking instant noodles for our lunch, you woke up. So daddy quickly washed and sterilised all the "equipment" that I had bought in preparation for your new adventure in solids.

So what first food did you eat? This organic rice cereal which daddy bought when he was in Singapore. We were worried that we may have problems finding the rice cereal which we wanted as I heard that it was very popular and always out of stock. So the pantry is all stocked with your cereals *grin*

Mummy had bought a new set of everything for you. Here's your rice cereal all mixed and ready for you. I mixed a little too much for you for a first meal. It was one spoonful of cereal and 1oz of milk.

OK, everything is ready and you are seated on the high chair all strapped in and wearing your bib. Everyone stood around watching in anticipation of you taking your first solids. Ko-ko, Ah Kong, Ah Ma, Kakak and daddy with his camera as I got ready to feed you.

When I showed you the spoon, you refused to open your mouth. It was a surprise as daddy had been tempting you with his spoon and everytime you'd open your mouth, hoping for a little taste. Perhaps you thought that mummy was also only tempting you with food. Finally after much persuasion you opened your mouth. As expected you did not know how to push the food to the back of your mouth to swallow. But after a few tries.. yay you did it. And you sure looked like you loved it. Don't believe me? This picture says it all:

See.. I told you Evan Ko-ko was also as excited as you about you eating solids. He had changed into his school uniform and watched and encouraged you as you ate your solids.

Yup, you certainly enjoyed it.

Halfway through your meal, Ko-ko had to go off. He was very understanding that mummy was feeding you so he only requested that daddy waved goodbye to him as he headed off to school with Ah Kong and Ah Ma. Here's Ko-ko cheerfully waving goodbye to daddy:

Daddy got back to the house after and took a picture of your icky little mouth:

You took around 15 minutes or so to finish up your rice cereal mixture and mummy gave you some water after that. So ends your first adventure with food. Another milestone for our little baby girl. Oh how time flies..