Kaitlin's 1st Birthday - actual day! [Part Two]

Hey there! I'm back with part two of Kaitlin's First Birthday :) Here's part one if you missed it, and if have not checked out Kaitlin's First Birthday Party, do go over to take a look! It was a pink bunny themed birthday :)

Babygirl woke up from her nap all cheery! That's always a good thing :)

Undressed and ready to have some fun with paint!

I wanted to do something as a birthday tradition for her..so we did a hand and foot print for her and of course as the years go by, we'll do it and see how she has grown! Idk how long this will last before Kaitlin refuses to do it and calls it "lame". I hope she doesn't but you know teenagers will have their teenage angst and want to be cool and all. We wanted to do a couple of other things as traditions but we kinds forgot. I KNOW. HOW COULD WE? I really don't know, but I blame it on exhausation.

We continued playing with paint since Kaitlin seemed so happy and she was so concentrated with exploring the paint and all

The next few pictures were taken at the same time as when Kaitlin was born exactly a year ago..

I wanted to spend some alone special moments with Kaitlin and Daddy Li to just cuddle and remember everything about Kaitlin's birth <3 I attempted to carry her in the way parents usually carry their newborns..but that failed..guess she really is a big girl now! 

After all that cuddly stuff, we got dressed cos Daddy Li had to book back into camp and I had wanted to send him off together with Kaitlin..so while waiting for Daddy to get changed I took a few more photos of babygirl

Daddy Li changed and we took a few more photos and then it was almost time for him to go

Time to leave the house and send Daddy Li off!

So that's about it for Kaitlin's birthday. We didn't do much, but I guess it was well spent with the right people.

Intend to continue recording what Kaitlin likes/loves/enjoys each time she turns a year older, so that she has something to remember and look back at when she's all grown up. When she has her own kids, she can even compare what her kids like at a certain age with what she likes at that age.   

Finally done with blogging about Kaitlin's birthday. One birthday for a ONE year old translated into THREE posts! 

Kaitlin's 1st Birthday - actual day! [Part One]

I know this post is very very delayed. Oh my. Feel like a horrible mommy blogging this so late, but well today happens to be one month after Kaitlin's first birthday so I thought it would be good to post how we spent the actual day of her birthday today!

We basically woke up and spent time nuah-ing in bed with Kaitlin and wishing her Happy Birthday and giving her lots of hugs and kisses. It was obviously pre-noted in our heads that if Kaitlin misbehaved that we would give in to her and just let her be since it's her special day and it only comes once a year. Yes, for once a year babygirl, you can get the sky and the ocean :)

We started the day by doing the usuals, feeding her her breakfast and showering her.

Mandatory shot of birthday princess with her birthday hat on her birthday :) Just so you know, Kaitlin does not like things on her head and she would usually try to get them off and get irritated. Thankfully, for the first few moments that the party hat was on, she didn't fuss and I managed to snap this picture :D

After that, we brought her out to Macdonald's with us so that we could have our brekkie. I thought I did not bring my phone out (which I actually did!) so we didn't take any pics :( No worries, I made up for the lack of photos later that day. Took like at least 175 photos on my camera after that. 

Got back home and played with Kaitlin's new presents!

Didn't manage to take a picture of her with her personal slide from Godpa cos it was a little difficult to take a picture and hold her hand while playing with the slide. Was afraid she might trip/slip/fall since it was a new toy and she hadn't "mastered and conquered" it yet. Better to be safe..but not to worry Godpa Ronald! Kaitlin enjoys her personal slide very much and now she knows how to go up on her own, though she gets abit timid at times.

We decided to do the "Zhua Zhou". This was initially planned to be done at her party, but it didn't happen in the end cos babygirl was too frightened that day, and when she was not, she was just sitting down and not moving. 

All the items laid out and ready for Kaitlin to pick! Watch the video below to find out what she picked! I'm sorry the video is quite long and that I was very chapalang. Please ignore it! :( I was at home and lazy to change into something more presentable hurhur.



I have no idea why the quality is so bad when it's like perfectly fine on my camera and laptop -.- Anyway, in case you were wondering what they item were and their symbolism:

Chicken: Always have food on the table, won't go hungry, prosperous
Credit Card: Rich, wealthy
Beret: Army/military, may become a soldier, policeman, navy
Exercise Book: Studious, may become a professor, scholar
Calculator: Financial, may become a banker, broker, financial officer
Ruler: May become an architect, product designer
Stamp Pad: Has authority, may become a judge
Spatula: Culinary, may become a chef, baker,
Bracelet: Fashion, may become a fashion designer, visual merchandiser, stylist
Medic thing: Medical, may become a doctor, nurse, vet, surgeon
Orange: Agricultural, may become a farmer, horticulture
Paintbrush: Artistic, may become an artist, designer, dancer
Garlic: Suan which translates to count, any careers involving good accounting and calculating
Spring Onion: Chong Ming which translates to smart, any careers which requires alot of intellect

So I guess..Kaitlin will be a wealthy chef who knows how to grow her own crops and can save lives at the same time. I guess she will be wealthy because she will be good at calculating and knows how to make lots and lots of money. I wonder how true this will be in 20 years time!

Next up, was to let Kaitlin smash her cake! Same thing, Kaitlin was supposed to smash it at her party, but it failed so we attempted to let her do it on her actual day!

Daddy Li and I baked the 4-layer vanilla cake with no-sugar whipped cream frosting for baby girl from scratch. We also did the bunting ourselves! Initially wanted to bake her a healthy cake with no sugar and all, but all my attempts failed. We ended up baking and eating so many cakes the whole month before her birthday just for this one cake..which she didn't voluntarily smash! :( Quite sad cos I was looking forward to her having fun and smashing the cake and even eating it. Wanted to capture all those precious moments. I guess we will have to wait for her second birthday, but first I will have to convince Lihai to go through all the trouble to bake with me again. He was like "Please don't do all this party things anymore next time" :( I'm still glad he went along with me on it even though it's not his thing :D <3 thank you i love you very much!

Sorry I sidetracked! Back to the smash cake!

Judging from the pictures, I guess I can safely say that the babygirl is just like her mommy! Don't want to get her clothes and herself dirty! Or, maybe she just does not like cake. I guess we'll have to see about that!

Even though babygirl didn't seem to get very dirty from all the cake smashing, it was still a mess. She was all oily so we got the cranky girl all cleaned up and ready for her nap.

This post is getting quite lengthy, so I shall continue about her actual day birthday fun in my next post. Look out for it yeah and I'll also do a post about her milestones thus far. 

Meanwhile, Happy 13 Months my babygirl! You are a big girl now, growing up real fast. Soon, you'll be starting school and mommy realised that it might not just be you with the separation anxiety issues. It recently occurred to mommy, or well more specifically, it dawned on me yesterday that I can't bear to leave you. Well, it won't be that bad for maybe the first hour or two, but I don't think I can go beyond that. I most definitely will not be able to part with you if you give me your sad and stoned face :( perhaps only on occasions when you are chirpy and happy or being real difficult would I then be able to say bye bye to you at the door. We'll see how it goes. For now, you've sure got mommy stuck on to you. Love you my dearest Kaitlin. <3

September [ in pictures ]

September literally flew past, and now it's already October! Amazing, isn't it? Two more months and it will be Christmas and on to a new year! Wow! Looking forward to 2013 for sure..cos well..we've got some plans ourselves :)

September was FUN! We celebrated Kaitlin turning a year old! That was tiring to prepare, but yet so so fun! We visited many playgrounds, and not forgetting..we witnessed Kaitlin's first steps!

I just can't wait to see what new tricks Kaitlin can do! Yes, I call them tricks, cos I think it's really amazing when she does something new! This tiny one, really amazes and surprises me everyday. Yes, on good days they are usually new stunts she can do, and on bad days, she really tests my patience and shows me how much of a badass she can be! 

Looking forward to celebrating Halloween as well, though we don't have any concrete plans. Might join a party at one of the playgrounds or playgroups. Or, I'm just thinking of donning Kaitlin in a halloween outfit, just for laughs and for lots of picture taking! She is afterall only a baby toddler once! However, it's not that easy to find halloween outfits in SG for tiny ones..so we'll have to see about that. 

Let's hope October will turn out to be a good month! Hope your October has already started off on  good note..and to all kids..HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY! If you're 21 and way past that like I am..Happy Children's Day to you still :) We all still have a kid in us so embrace it and have fun this week cos one day is never enough! 

Kaitlin's 1st Birthday

I'm back to talk about Kaitlin's 1st Birthday! That was the invite btw..I know it seems amateur, but I'm honestly not good with design and all okay..so I tried my best! Photo was taken at BabyU International Photo studio & you can read about it here & here.

We celebrated Kaitlin's birthday on Sunday, just one day before she actually turned #thebigone! It was a tiny gathering just amongst close friends. Didn't want it to be too big cos Kaitlin doesn't usually do well with crowds...and well during the party, she happened to be having her nap time and when she got up she mostly cranky and afraid, so she ended up crying quite abit.

After everyone left, she immediately went back to normal and started roaming all over the house and playing with her new gifts! Perhaps, next year we would just have a family celebration.

On to the party!

I know it doesn't seem like much, but we did spend a fair bit of time deciding on the theme, the decor and the food to serve, as well as actually doing everything since we did not cater. I wanted to DIY everything instead of buying them from the store..just cos it's my babygirl's birthday and I wanted it to be special.

Theme: Pink Bunny.
Why? Well, since she was born in the year of the rabbit, I thought, why not a bunny theme then. And since she is a girl, and yes, I'm being stereotypical here..so why not pink? Plus, half her closet is already pink..and she seems to like the colour..and it's cousin..purple. So pink should be fine? I don't think she will hate me for this decision 20 years down the road. So there!

For the decor, we made bunny garlands and buntings. I also hung up photos to show Kaitlin's growth and development at each month. Of course, we kept the decor according to the pink theme.

Veggie sticks for starters. We had avocado and hummus dips to go along with them. Not forgetting, bunny eggs! The little pot at the top right hand corner of the bottom image was corn soup.

For the mains, we had sushi rice, ebi tempura and chicken karaage. The sushi rice were moulded into bunny shapes to keep to the bunny theme and we had white and pink ones!

To go along with the sushi rice..or as I liked to give it a fancy name..."deconstructed onigiri" cos well..you know there were no fillings insde..we had crabstick mayo and tuna mayo dips.

On to desserts! Tiny selection cos we figured since there weren't kids around, no point in having a dessert buffet. There were pink and white marshmallows, strawberry pocky and strawberry mochi!

Bunny cupcakes which we baked to add on to the desserts!

For drinks, I specially went to buy these mason jars for the party cos I thought they were oh so cute and preets and filled them up with homemade bandung.

So while we were all eating, babygirl was still sleeping. Once again, she did it! Sleeping though most of her birthday party..during her first month she was sleeping through most of it as well..but I guess you can't blame her then cos well newborns sleep most of the time.

Babygirl woke up..and we got her dressed up for her party!

We wanted to start off the "zhua zhou" thing. We had already laid out the items, but baby girl ended up sitting there and not choosing anything. I guess she was feeling afraid cos everyone was staring at her and she was getting so much attention. So we tried to open her presents next..

Next, it was time for Kaitlin's cake! We baked her a smash cake..well with the intention of having her smash and have fun with the cake and all..but since Kaitlin was feeling out of sorts throughout the party we ended up not doing it. I initially searched for no-sugar cakes to bake but they all turned out really fail, so we just decided to do a normal pink ombre 4-layer vanilla cake with a no-sugar whipped cream frosting. We spent really long..like at least 2 weeks trying to bake the cake, and practice frosting it. Ended up going to quite a few baking shops as well to find the things we needed, cos they all seemed to have sold out on the items..the cake really wasn't an easy one!

I also specially bought Kaitlin a pair of bunny bloomers for her intended cake smashing..it's really very preets though a tad on the pricey side..but I felt birthdays only come once..so why not right!

I also made a cake bunting to go along with the cake and bought this super cute bunny figurine! It's actually part of the Sylvanian toys series..not quite sure what that is..but it's crazy..like they have all these figurines with bunnies and squirrels etc..with like furniture as well to go along with it..and they are not cheap okay! I hope she doesn't ever take a fancy to those cos it will cost a huge hole in my pocket!

Overall, I guess the party wasn't too bad. Things were really done right up to the last minute, and well I only have myself to blame for procrastinating and all. Plus, it was my first time planning a party so I did take away many learning lessons and there really is just so much things that go into it and when you think you are done with it..you actually aren't! 

Was a pity that babygirl slept through most of it and then when she woke up..she was just generally afraid and got cranky..I'm really not angry with her at all for it cos I guess she was genuinely scared seeing strangers around the house, when it usually is just us, and all these people were showering her with so much attention. What's more, we all know how sticky Kaitlin is..so really, I can't fault her. I do feel a little sad that she didn't get to enjoy her party, since well, we really did everything for her. 

I know she might not understand what's going on, or the efforts that we put in and like Lihai said, we could just keep it simple and not tire ourselves out, but I really wanted to do all this for my babygirl. I never know when I would ever have the chance to actually have the time and energy to think up and plan all these and then execute it. So why not now right? I would have regretted not doing this for her, and planning a regular party or even no party at all..Most of all..I'm really glad that Lihai went along with me on my idea and helped me so much though he wasn't really fond of it initially <3 you for being awesome hubster.

To my babygirl, I really hope you liked the party. You were crying through most of it and I am really sorry..and feel bad that you were feeling scared and all..Mommy just wanted you to be happy and enjoy yourself. Next year, we will keep it simple..or perhaps we will do whatever you want if you can communicate to me what it is :) Happy Birthday my sweetheart..you turn ONE! Big girl now and you have so many huge things ahead of you. This past year has been great and you make motherhood such a rollercoaster ride, but it's all so worth it. You only turn ONE once, so enjoy it! Walk, run, jump, laugh and enjoy being a toddler! If you fall, I'll be there to pick you up and sayang you :D Sorry, those "I love you's", cuddles and kisses won't stop, so you'll have to bear with me..I'm really awaiting your first phrase/sentence, your first "I love you" to me and all the insane amount of hugs and kisses from you. Bring it on baby! I welcome them with open arms any time of the day..even if it's in the middle of the night and you feel afraid. Mommy will always be there for you. I wish you only the best, and to always be healthy and happy. I'll always be there holding your hand every step of the way..whether you're one..or sixty years old with your grandchildren..remember that! Happy First Birthday Kaitlin Anne <3