Kaitlin's 2nd Birthday - School Party!

We ended off Kaitlin's 2nd birthday celebration at her preschool! Babygirl was supposed to celebrate with her classmates and teachers on the actual day of her birthday but since she was still ill (talk about wrong timing!) we decided the best decision was to stay home and postpone it.

I had initially wanted to get a "healthy cake" for her classmates as I'm not a big fan of toddlers having junk food, especially since you don't know what kind of dietary restrictions each kid might have. Luckily though, according to K's teachers, the kids are all fine and can eat anything. So I decided on getting her a Hello Kitty cake.

I didn't go with a whole fancy fondant cake cos we all know how much sugar there is in that and how sweet that'll be. They would probably have been on a sugar high..So I just went for a simple cream cake with fruits.

On the day itself, we dropped Kaitlin off and then went back to her school a little later to celebrate. Like one hour later! I had ordered and collected her cake from the branch where her school was at, so it was easy for me to collect as I didn't have to travel at all, and that meant that I could collect it the same morning as her celebration..and sort of ensure that the cake was "fresh" for the kids.

When we arrived at K's class, it was so awesome to see K surprised and happy to see us..loved that look on her face! Well, of course she stuck to us once she saw us, and was afraid to leave our side.

Here's Kaitlin with her cake!

Her classmates were all so super adorable. They were so well-behaved and excited to sing the birthday song.  They sang an English and Mandarin version of the song, and it was kind of cool that some of them knew the entire lyrics. I filmed the celebration process on my phone, but seeing that it's best to respect the privacy of the other parents and their kids I did not post it on social media, and it won't be up on this blog either.

Instead..I have more pictures of Kaitlin!

I think she was pretty unsure with what was going on cos she was giving the 'huh?' face, but at least she blew her on candles and cut the cake. As for eating the cake..all she had was a mouthful and she didn't want more. I guess she really isn't into cake (yet! seriously who does not like cake?!). 

What's a party without treat bags right?

I took the above picture before packing the bags. DIY-ed labels for the treat bags, and I ordered a mix of organic snacks via iherb to fill up the bags. Plus I also made a trip to the party shops at Bugis to get some stickers and bubbles. I just wanted to make sure that what I filled the bags with was toddler friendly and useful.

I totally forgot to take an 'after' photo of the treat bags D: but oh well, there's always next year and hopefully I'll remember to. After cutting the cake at school, K distributed the treat bags to all her classmates. It was such a cute sight seeing her happily distribute it to them, and them being excited to open the bags.

Our celebration for her at school ended after that. Obviously Kaitlin didn't want be apart from us and continue with her programme in school so we brought her home. 

It definitely was fun celebrating with Kaitlin and her friends in school, especially since she does not have friends her age outside of class. It also brought back memories of celebrating my birthday in kindy. Celebrating in school was always fun cos you would be the most important person for the day, and there would be cake + lots of goodies and everyone in class would be excited and happy.

I'm looking forward to next year's celebration! Hopefully by then she likes cake, and she would be able to tell me what kind of birthday she would like (and not be too picky and demanding if not it'll sure be a headache) and be all excited and looking forward to it :D

Kaitlin's 2nd Birthday - A Picnic Affair

Besides the birthday celebration we had with Kaitlin, we also planned another one for Kaitlin to celebrate with her Godparents!

We had a picnic at the Botanics and set up the place as well! Here's the set up:

It definitely was not easy bringing everything over and then setting it up. Thankfully, I had the help of Kaitlin's godparents! To think I even wanted to head over earlier to set up first, but that failed and we ended up being late to meet them!

As for the decor..I know it's so pink and girly..but I'll be thick skinned and say I LOVE IT! I had actually made the streamers as a photo backdrop for photos that I had wanted to take of Kaitlin on her birthday. But she was cranky then and hence we have no photos :( I just recycled that backdrop and brought it over with us to Botanics and it became our picnic party backdrop. It was so easy to make and didn't cost much at all!

The pink favour bags were treat bags for her Godparents. I went to the party shop at Bugis and got old school snacks and toys to fill them with.

Despite being really hungry, we definitely had to take some pictures before we started eating! The photos in this post are really just a super tiny portion out of the many photos we took on multiple phones!

It was getting dark fast, so even though we brought Kaitlin's cake out, we and her godparents decided to quickly go back to our place to continue the celebration and for her cake cutting.

Kaitlin's second cake was from Smitten Micro Bakery. It was a rose based flavoured cake with raspberry jam, raspberries and pistachio bits as filling. I also requested for a vanilla buttercream pink ombre frosting to go along with the pink theme of the picnic. 

I bought the candle separately, and DIY-ed the felt cake bunting (here's last year's DIY-ed cake bunting) It was a little tough to do the bunting cos of the cutting out of the alphabets, but still pretty manageable when you find the right pair of scissors and have lots of patience.

K didn't want to try her cake (yet again!), so it was only the adults who ate it. Which was quite a pity! Cos I really wanted her to try the raspberry and pistachio filling..but oh well..next year, next year!

After all that cake cutting, babygirl got to open all the wonderful presents from her godparents. Needless to say she liked them all! What's not to like about hello kitty kitchen toys and a princess car right! Every little girl's dream if you ask me. 

Definitely got to thank Kaitlin's godparents for their time, co-operation and help! Not forgetting the awesome presents. We truly appreciate it, and I'm sure when babygirl's a little older, she too will know and appreciate their love for her. They are truly the coolest and sweetest godparents. Kaitlin surely is one lucky girl to have 3 godmothers and 1 godfather (who has so many godparents!) who dote on her so so much. Thank you for celebrating with our little one Ronald, Enna, KY and Val <3

Kaitlin's 2nd Birthday - Actual Day!

Finally blogging about K's second birthday!! I've decided to break her birthday celebration up into three posts..cos she had three different celebrations and I'll be starting it off with her actual day birthday, followed by the picnic party we had with her godparents and finally her school celebration!

Lots had to be done as usual..and well to be honest, it was all last minute. Yes, I'm a mother now..but I'm still always procrastinating. Seriously bad habit of mine which needs to be changed..but well..a little pressure always makes me work better.

Daddy Li couldn't be home for K's actual day birthday so I mostly celebrated it with her. First up was her birthday breakfast! Made her rainbow pancakes which took a whole hour to make. It's really not that difficult to make. It's just the cooking that took quite a long time.

If you are wondering how to go about doing rainbow pancakes, it's real easy. Use your usual pancake recipe or buy pre-made pancake mix (I like using this and I usually purchase it form Isetan Supermarket), and divide the batter into 7 portions and mix in some food colouring. The more food colouring = brighter/more pigmented pancakes.

The baby woke up just as I was about done, so that was sort of good timing. She finally got to have her pancakes..but..she didn't want to eat them! The one day that I was open about her eating sugary, unhealthy stuff she didn't want to eat it..and not forgetting I took so long to make them. So oh well, I didn't force her and she had fun looking and admiring it so that was sort of good enough for me.

We took some of babygirl's monthly photos then headed out for some fun. For lunch, I brought her to Sushi Tei cos she loves chawanmushi and sushi rice. After that we got her birthday cake and headed home for her nap.

By the time Kaitlin woke up, Daddy Li was home so we spent some family time together before going out for dinner. We decided a family place nearby would be best so Chilli's it was. Whilst waiting for our food to arrive, I quickly headed to one of the party shops to get a balloon for Kaitlin and let's just say..it was definitely worth it's price!

She was so happy about the Barney balloon and her expression when I surprised her with it was priceless! K and her Barney balloon got to have some fun at the kiddy rides after our dinner and needless to say she didn't want to leave.

When we finally got home, it was time for Kaitlin to cut her birthday cake! She was pretty fascinated with the candles (I got the sparkling ones!)..and was looking at it almost the whole time.

Unlike last year, she managed to blow the candles! Though for some strange reason, Kaitlin didn't want to eat the cake -.- Yes, all the cakes that we got for her this year, she didn't want to eat at all except for her birthday cake that we brought to school which she ate only one bite. So well, we ended up finishing the cake for her. Hopefully by next year, she'll be into cake. Cos seriously, who says no to cake?!

No fancy celebration, but Kaitlin was pretty much a happy little girl, and happy parents we were as well. Besides the fact that it was her birthday, I quietly celebrated with myself that we've been parents for two years! It's been a pretty amazing journey, and at times I wonder how we managed to get through all the colic issues, tantrums, her falling ill and us with lack of sleep etc. 

I'm thankful to be able to spend another year of her birthday with K..and the whole day as well! Got to have some private bonding time with her and it was just nice to be able to pamper her for the day. Idk how long more we'll be spending her birthdays with her before she decides that we aren't cool enough for her so I'm definitely going to treasure every birthday we spend with her! 

KAITLIN IS TWO YEARS OLD!

Obviously this post is wayyyyy overdue, but here it finally is!! Kaitlin turned THE BIG TWO a few weeks back, and here are the photos we took on her special day!

Babygirl was ill so she was pretty much a cranky girl, but of course we tried our best to make it a special day for her. But you know how kids are. One moment they are laughing away and the next, they are screaming like you took their favourite toy away. More about how we celebrated in the posts to come (working on it!).

For now, here are some of her milestones!

Kaitlin likes to pretend play - talking on the phone, kitchen play
She likes to play hide and seek (her version), and likes to hide behind places to scare people (learned from us!)
She's gone into a "mine" stage, where she doesn't want to share unless coaxed and thinks that we are trying to take her things. An example, would be trying to take the spoon to feed her and she would say 'mine' like we are stealing it away from her. Probably because she is aware of herself as a separate from others.

Able to instruct us to eat when she's eating. "Eat, eat", "Eat leh", "Makan" She basically observed what we usually say when we are going to eat and now she does it when she observes that it's mealtime.
She's taken more interest in playing with other children and babies especially. When she sees a fellow kid, she'll refer to them as 'friend'.
Loves jumping (off steps) and walking on grass. She's terrified of sand though.
Kaitlin is able to name her classmates, and even objects related to the specific classmate.
Likes to press buttons (lift, traffic light)
Able to wear her socks, shoes and pants herself.
Can stand on tip toes
Can say 'Godma' and 'Godpa'!
Knows how to get on the pram herself.

Able to do simple puzzles.
Can count to ten and say recite the ABC with help.
Able to blow bubbles and candles.
Repeats words overheard in conversations
Sometimes she likes to walk alone, that is, not holding our hands.
Able to give her first name when asked.
Mostly knows how to identify between big and small.
Able to identify most animals, fruits and vegetables.

I'm definitely feeling very relieved that K has met almost all of the milestones she is supposed to meet. Of course some are a little later and the others came earlier, but I think it all boils down to the fact that she is well and I'm just glad for that.

I used to worry about her speech being delayed, but having heard her utter words and now short sentences, I feel so super relieved. She is still a little behind her peers, but everyone grows and develops at their own pace, so I try not to worry about it.

Having celebrated her second birthday with her..I've come to realised that all that really matters is that she is healthy and happy! I mean that's has always been important to me..it's just that with all the things I've read up, and all that expectations, sometimes I kind of forget what's really the most important for Kaitlin.

I'll be blogging about how we celebrated Kaitlin's birthday..just need some time..Meanwhile, if you're interested, here's how we celebrated her first birthday here, here and here!

Daddy Li's Birthday [ Part Five ]

This is finally the last post about Daddy Li's birthday and also how we spent our last day in Bintan!

Look at Kaitlin waking up in the morning! A little grumpy and pouty at first, but all smiles after! 

We headed for breakfast after she woke up and to the pool straight after that. We didn't get to spend much time at the pool though cos we had to check out that day.

Thankfully the hotel staff allowed us to check out late, so we managed to head to the mini zoo one last time before we left. We practically went there everyday throughout our trip. We fed the animals like spam fed, cos they looked so hungry and we really pitied them cos their food was just near them, but they couldn't have any of it cos they would have to wait for visitors like us to feed them :( It's like tempting them, quite cruel I feel. I mean maybe put the food where it's not visible, if not these animals will feel really miserable right?! I would! Like so near, yet so far.

I took quite a few photos of Daddy Li feeding the animals but I decided it would be quite boring to see the same few images...so here is a random picture of a cockatoo that I decided to plonk in instead. It was quite annoying actually cos it kept making all sorts of noise -.- like some old grandmother nagging in a high pitch voice. 

We couldn't loiter any longer, so we sadly strolled to the lobby :(( at that moment, I really wished time would just freeze, and we could just enjoy the beautiful time we had there. Sure we got frustrated at times, and it was tiring, but it was still a nice getaway, even though..well you can never really get away...when your kid is tagging along but I'm sure you get what I mean.

Sigh, thinking about it is making me really sad and I want to return to Bintan soon! Just for the beautiful scenery and to laze at the pool and beach everyday!

Sobs. Well, this is Kaitlin on the shuttle bus that we were taking to the airport. Cheeky little girl poking my camera lens. Well cheeky little girl soon turned into cranky little girl.

We boarded the ferry and got back to SG in the evening. We were super duper exhausted when we got  home, but well it was really good to be able to getaway for abit and a nice way to celebrate Daddy Li's birthday. Hopefully we will get the chance to travel again soon!

Daddy Li's Birthday [ Part Three ]

Hi! Continuing on from my previous Bintan Trip post..

Kaitlin was asleep while on our way there, but she woke up just when we reached! Perhaps she could sense that the fun was about to begin!

The first thing we had to do when we reached was GET LUNCH! Since we couldn't check in, we went to the pool side restaurant. We got a pizza and satay to share..but we were too hungxz so I kind of forgot to take a picture of the pizza :x

We explored the place a little bit more..

It still wasn't time to check in so we went to the food court cos we weren't full yet. Yes, we are such pigs! Finally we were able to check in and this was what the two of them were up to

It was time for Kaitlin to nap so we took a walk outside and strolled her to sleep. She was fast asleep when we passed by the mini zoo but we decided to check it out anyway!

Of course..she had to wake up when we just got back to the room so we didn't get to rest D: Also, it was almost time for us to shower and prepare to leave for our dinner!

Thanks to Google and some of my quite awesome research skills, I found out about Baan Aarya (you've to take the hotel's shuttle bus to get there) which was a Thai restaurant. It's quite weird that we are eating Thai on an Indonesian island but the place seemed beautiful from the pictures online and it was recommended for a romantic evening, so I booked a reservation for Daddy Li's birthday dinner there.

The still looks quite bright in the photos as I chose for us to dine while watching the sunset. We didn't sit outside though cos we were afraid of the mozzies. Sidetrack - why do mozzies even have to exist?! They should all just die so that we can admire the scenery in awe and other stuff instead of scratching away!

Anyway! We headed out to the outdoor area to see the view and take some pictures. It was really breathtaking and the camera on my phone really doesn't do it justice :(

The sky turned dark really fast so we headed back in. Here's Kaitlin enjoying a glass of freshly blended juice before she got really active and fidgety and started walking around. Thankfully we were the only ones there at that time so it wasn't all that bad.

Sorry for the poor quality photos, but the food was really good and I would totally go back there again if we holiday in Bintan. It was a really great dinner with good food and great service plus a gorgeous view.

We went back to our room after to change into more comfy clothes and headed to the bowling alley since it was still pretty early. Played one round and then headed back as it was nearing Kaitlin's bedtime. She went to sleep pretty well considering that we were in a different environment so that was great.

It was a really long day for us and Daddy Li zonked out first. I did a little more "chores" around the room like boiling water and cleaning up stuff and surfed the net a little and joined them soon after. So that's basically how our first day went! Will blog soon about how we spent the next day.

Daddy Li's Birthday [ Part Two ]

Finally back to posting about how we celebrated Daddy Li's birthday! Well, from the picture above, you can probably already guess that we went for a tiny vacay. In fact, it's the first vacay we took ever since we had Kaitlin. The last time we went for a vacay was to Bangkok when Kaitlin was still in my tummy!

It's also our second vacation as a couple. Sounds so bleak that we been on so little vacations, but that means more reasons to save up $$ for more future vacations. 

We had always wanted to go for a short getaway but the tiny one was always on our minds. For example, whether we should bring her along or not, cos well it would be quite difficult and how would she adjust. Also, imagine the amount of things we would have to bring over + the plane/boat journey to our destination.

Of course, we definitely had to bring her but there was so much logistics to think about that we just brushed off all our previous ideas. Well, this time for Daddy Li's birthday, we decided to be brave and just conquer whatever problem should come our way and I must say it was a great decision! We didn't get to relax much, and did get quite angsty with each other but overall it was a nice experience, and I just felt so happy that we could bring Kaitlin along with us to experience it all.

Back to talking more about our trip!

We left for Bintan on Daddy Li's birthday. Here's Kaitlin on the ferry, while waiting for it to depart. 

Of course a blue sailor Hello Kitty hoodie is a must add to her outfit to match our trip there! I love this hoodie from Zara! Love the colour + the fact that it is Hello Kitty! Like, HELLO? Who can resist Hello Kitty?! Meowww!

Even Daddy Li was excited about the trip! You can totally tell cos he is not one who would camwhore, but he did with his babygirl!

Double big claps for the babygirl. She was wonderful on the ferry. A little fidgety but who can blame her. Plus, no puking or anything of that sort. There was this other Korean kid that puked D: Lucky we were about to reach so we didn't have to deal with the smell for long. Kaitlin also finally dozed off to sleep in my arms before we reached Bintan. So precious!

Thankfully she dozed off cos we still had to get through the airport and get to the hotel and all so she might have fussed and created a scene. No thanks to the other kids on the bus, Kaitlin woke up just when we reached the hotel, and yet again, this girl was such a trooper and wasn't cranky at all!

I'm sorry this is such a short follow up post about how we celebrated Daddy Li's birthday. I kind of accidentally deleted the other half of this post D: I'll continue more about our first day in Bintan in my next post alright :)

Daddy Li's Birthday [ Part One ]

Finally posting about Daddy Li's birthday! Sorry for the delay :x

We started the celebrations on Friday evening. I cooked him pasta and kinda left it at that. The next day, I surprised the boy by bringing him to Macdonald's! His favourite fast food joint, that he hardly eats cos I don't really like to eat fast food. I'm still breastfeeding Kaitlin so I try not to eat unhealthy foods if I can.

I know I probably seem cheapskate bringing him to Macdonald's, but thats what he wanted, so the boy shall get what he wants. Obviously I was gonna bring him to somewhere nice after but I'll leave that for the next post!

Plus yayy cos we got to eat Twister Fries, which is such a scam cos there's so little.

For our activity, I got us into a cab and told the cab driver to go to Mount Faber Safra. Daddy Li was all like "why are we going there?!" So happy cos my plan worked cos he totally couldn't guess what we were gonna do. Even when we got there, he was still wondering.

Well, our afternoon activity was to go bowling! So old school right? Like those kind of things that couples do when they are dating. Well, I thought it would be nice to reminisce the old days, plus it's an activity that allows us to entertain and look after Kaitlin at the same time. 

When you become a parent, you gotta make changes to your day's plan/activities, but that's alright for us :)

As you can see, Daddy Li is happy cos he won! In case you don't know, I suck at bowling. I hardly ever bowl. Well, I did get better after the first round!

Here's babygirl chilling and entertaining herself! She was such a sweetheart and didn't fuss much.

Babygirl took her afternoon nap in between, and we continued bowling. We ended up playing for around 2 hours! Oh yes! Something weird happened in between. This lady with her son suddenly came over and her son wanted to bowl. We were like okay he probably just wants to bowl one or two rounds so we were fine with that, and in the end the mother and son bowled until our game ended and we just watched -.-

We went to town after cos Daddy Li was supposed to cut his hair, but he didn't in the end, so I sent him home with the babygirl while I went to grab dinner! Went over to Newton Hawker Centre to get Chilli Crab (Daddy Li loves crab!), Fried Mantous, Grilled Chicken Wings and Stingray! Nom nom dinner was so spicy but so yummy :9

Lucky for us, Kaitlin was napping so we got to eat in peace for awhile. Note that it was awhile, but better than nothing! We headed out after dinner to grab some things and it was also part of my plan to surprise him with his cake when we got back home.

I bet Kaitlin thinks it's her birthday! Love her expression in the photo below! 

Got Daddy Li a Mao Shan Wang durian cake from Emicakes! I wanted to get him a durian cake from Goodwood Hotel but they didn't make it cos it's not the season. So annoyed..so my next best option was Emicakes. We were super full from dinner so we didn't eat it till the next day. I know it looks lame, but it tasted super nice and since Daddy Li loves durian and I wanted something different from the usual ice-cream cakes I always get him..we ended up with this:

Another year older, but still so cute this Daddy Li <3 

While Daddy Li was admiring his cake, I quickly brought Kaitlin with me to get the present we made for him. Kaitlin was on her way out with it when Daddy Li appeared cos he was wondering where we went so our surprise kinda failed. Well, he was really happy cos Kaitlin passed it to him when she saw him and was being all smiley and lovey so that was great! The moment was so priceless cos Daddy Li could totally feel babygirl's love!

See the proud daddy posing with his babygirl:

That's kind of how Daddy Li's birthday celebration went..but that's just part one! I'll be back with part two soon :)