She doesn’t find my jokes funny all the time anymore.

She doesn’t tell me everything that’s bugging her, or what she is thinking anymore.

I saw a bag of her old clothes ready to be given away- that she has grown out of. Spotted a pair of shorts that she likes / wears quite often.
She doesn’t find my jokes funny all the time anymore.

She doesn’t always tell me everything that’s bugging her, or what she is thinking anymore.

I saw a bag of her old clothes ready to be given away- that she has grown out of. Spotted a pair of shorts that she likes / wears quite often.

My baby is growing out of the “cute” phase. She is developing more and more into a “regular” person!

We organised a party at the kids gym, like last year; only at a different venue. Should have gone back there, more value for money you know.

We invited Caitlins friends from school; maybe I am generalising here but I still tend to think that locals don’t know what RSVP means. A few replied, but I had to call up a few too to confirm whether they were coming, or not.

As I recall, for the same price, last years was organised in a room, the staff organised games, and there was a lot more food for everyone. This years they only put together the tables and enough seating for the headcount, and served the food- that’s it. Moreover 10min before the end of our booking we were actually “reminded” to vacate make room for the next booking.

It’s just as well that the kids were more keen to get into the gym cos they were bored shitless.

I thought I’d organise it the day right after the last day of school. Not only was it the weekend before Caitlin’s actual birthday, it was also more likely that her friends are still in town, in case the families have year-end holiday plans, presumably they’d not leave town so soon after the last day of school. It would also be the last time these friends see each other before they all start primary school when schools reopen in January… except Caitlin, naturally.

Happy Birthday my dear

How did I spend it?

Father’s Day isn’t really a big thing in my own family, but it is a little bigger in Hot Mummee’s (not a major thing, just bigger than mine).

Since we usually spend our weekends at my parents’ place (my kids rarely get to see them during the week), today we had dinner at HM’s with steamed and fried crab, along with some other yummy foods. But the highlight was a inhouse photo session earlier in the afternoon at my parents’.

I think I have shared before that my older brother has been bitten by the photography bug since just before Caleb was born, which means it’s been about 18-19 months now that he’s really been into photography. He’s taken a lot great shots while professing that he’s still got lots to learn. He’s also shared before that he should have started this hobby years ago, cos he’s lost all those opportune times of shooting his own kids as they were growing.

So, whenever the opportunity arises, he’d like to help me shoot my kids; since I don’t have the (finances!) gear that really snaps really good photos. He’s also been investing in flashes, and have started experimenting with mood-creations by playing with the different lighting conditions.

Such was this afternoon’s highlight. HM was out at the hair salon, the helper was at our places doing the weekly clean, and I was left doing all of: Looking after the 2 kids, help directing Caitlin in the photo shoots, holding the (remote) camera flashes or reflectors to get good light, making sure Caleb wasn’t in the way / in the shots / annoying his uncle, and getting fed!

These are two of what he’s taken. I have the rest put away as timeless treasures now.

That sewing machine, mum had only mentioned this afternoon that one of the mechanisms had lasted over 50 years, before it needed replacing, and the new part didn’t even last a year. The same was for the “belt” that is attached from the foot pedal, that turns that wheel you see, which drives the sewing needle.

Yes, she’s had that for over 50 years. Her mum had taught her how to sew, and my mum’s first “job” was actually sewing, when she was only reaching her early teens (she didn’t go on to secondary school).

Caitlin’s classmate Chloe had her birthday party at Centrepoint’s McDonald’s over the weekend.

I had organized Caitlin’s 4 year old birthday party before, and one of my criteria was that all the kids should enjoy the party or event. I did consider McD’s then, but didn’t think it was going to be all that fun, as I thought it was just all sit-down and eat, with party packs and hats to take-away, and maybe the chance for them to go crazy at the indoor playground.

I was wrong.

The party invitation, a McD stationary no less, stated that Chloe’s party is from 12-1:30. We only arrived around 12:10, cos since it was a Sunday lunch time all the good shaded parking spots were taken. Darn it I had to park in the sun, illegally no less. Went in, saw the sign that said “Chloe’s party” pointing upstairs. Went upstairs and some of the kids were already at their designated-just-for-kiddies long table munching away at their fries. An older kid came to greet us, and asked what Caitlin’s name was. “Hey, that’s my name too!” quipped the probably-10-years-old girl, and proceeded to write the name on Caitlin’s McD cap.

Caitlin then was led to the table to an empty seat. Rather apprehensive at first, as she is when attending any event, she soon got comfortable with her friends and found her fries and the McD toy in her mealbox, with her hat on – which is still at home today

Okay, so now what do I do? The playground doesn’t look like it will hold my weight….. I thought.

There were other parents there. I noticed some of them were talking to a McD staff. Others seemed to already know one another. Relatives, is what I thought. Do parents of school kids get involved with each other??

I didn’t know anyone, so I sat myself down to watch the kids for a while. Wait a sec, what about me- the kids are eating, and I am starting to get hungr..

“What would you like to eat sir?” said the same McD staff from before.

Isn’t this a fast-food self-order restaurant? “Err….” I was just thinking about going downstai…

“Would you like to try the Spicy Chicken McDeluxe?”

“Okay”. Can’t say I have heard of that menu-item before; Qtr Pounder and McChicken- yeah. This one must be new…?

Soon the staff came back with a tray full of the red boxes, closely followed by another with a tray full of fries and drinks. I warfed mine down, and so did the other parents; partly cos I was getting hungry, but mainly cos this is some tasty chicken burger with some spicy zing to it! It wasn’t bad, just like the McChicken that I always get, but with that extra kick, and it also seemed crunchier. I never liked adding sauce to most things I eat (not even on fries) so the spiciness of this burger is just what I liked, without the sugar of sauces.

“Cabbage-between-the-teeth for seconds anyone?”

I soon realised that Chloe’s mum was taking care of even the adults’ meals as well, so after I kinda picked my teeth to make myself presentable (cabbage-between-the-teeth for seconds anyone?) I went over to thank her for it. Made some small talk. By this time the kids were being rounded up for some games and activities already.

I realized then that my impressions of a McD’s birthday party was all wrong. The kids didn’t just sit around wearing their hats, munching on fries and going home with party packs (which btw contained a colouring book, colour pencils, and stickers of “My name is…”). There were 2 staff there actually getting the kids to play pass the ball, musical chairs and even the quintessential happy birthday song, complete with a big chair fit for the princess for the day!

In all this time, I was trying to capture as much as I can photos of my darling girl, who is growing up so quickly … and then, not suddenly but slowly …. something still didn’t feel right in my stomach.

Hmmm…

I looked around the upstairs a little bit. Should I leave Caitlin “unattended” while I step away for a while? Will she freak out if she can’t find me? Or will she even notice that I wasn’t around?

I took the chance. Headed straight downstairs hoping that it was gonna be a quick one, and found that there was a queue! Yikes, I gotta wait!

Tick tock tick tock….

Soon, it was my turn, and I conducted the “transaction” as fast as I could, and quickly went back upstairs, happy with myself with what I needed to do, and also that Caitlin didn’t even notice I was gone, being so engrossed with the games that the staff were putting on.

Sat myself down again, and enjoyed ANOTHER SPICY CHICKEN McDELUXE McVALUE MEAL!

Heh heh! Now I was happy.

We left only at 2pm, even though most of the kids were still loitering. The real reason we had to leave was because, as stated in the invitation, the party was only supposed to be until 1:30pm, because at 2pm another one was starting!

Thank goodness I still managed to get the the second McValue meal- it’s actually catered for the lunch period, 12-3pm; but luckily it’s on everyday! Guess where I’d be having a value-lunch mostly these days, now that they also have a new menu-item (at least for me) that’s to my taste? RM5.95 only, no less?

I did, twice in a day!

It was a successful affair! We had achieved the desired outcome!

My parents had invited close relatives and friends, and had wanted to keep the affair not-to-big. So naturally the guest list was crafted by them. Seatings were also generally determined by them, as sometimes one has to try and please as many as possible and diplomatically seat various folks together or apart.

So anyway, whatever brought about the inspiration, my niece took it upon herself to add more activities and significance to the event- she had wanted to give her grandparents a surprise gift. She thought to create a photo album, chronicling from the days my parents dated, to their wedding, to when the kids (us) were born, and to when their generation was born. So there were lots of baby photos that still bring laughters today! She then got everyone of us to write a greeting / message of whatever we wanted to say to my parents.

Me and my siblings usually communicate via emails; like a mailing list, when we have something to collectively discuss. Here was no different, only that the nieces and nephews were also roped in; in discussing this, the program for the evening, and also all the planning leading up to it.

This latter phase largely revolved around what to get as doorgift for the guests. The criteria was that it had to be something that the guests won’t be throwing away very easily, not something that is left at the bottom of the drawer, something that can serve as a reminder of the event later on, and of course meaningful. So, that ruled out chocolates of even the best quality; cakes, for the same reason; Chinese tea; photoframes, cos, well it just didn’t jive well with anyone.

What we eventually settled was a pair of chopsticks, and Chinese teacup set.

In this pic, the gift looked like it does above with the chopsticks tied to the box, which contains the teacup.

After the party / the next morning, while recapping all the fun that was had by all, mum was looking at this doorgift. No, she / they didn’t know anything about this surprise either!

She shared a useful comment for the ethnic Chinese among us.

It would have been more meaningful if it were a rice bowl, instead of the cup, because a chopsticks+rice bowl combo is a more complete symbol for such an occasion. Since the occasion was to celebrate their 50th anniversary, as well as an early 70th birthday for my mum (it’s actually in the middle of the year), the combo would be symbolic of the hosts also wishing that their guests would also eat-well into their later age.

While mum’s birthday is later in the year, their anniversary apparently is spot on the date! It was also good that we did it early ‘cos some of these nieces and nephews have to leave for / go back to uni pretty soon.

The dinner party program also included a surprise slideshow presentation. In preparing for the photo album, my brother made copies (more like photographed the photos) of the nostalgic moments in their lives, and put together a slideshow with a similar chronicle theme to the album, but for all the guests to see.

That was a big feature of the evening, everyone’s eyes were glued to the screens! Friends who knew my parents even more than a decade ago were keenly watching the slideshow of my parents in their early 20’s and 30’s. Relatives relived the old days, my nieces and nephews laughing their heads off at kid photos of their parents.

But most importantly, my parents too were saying “Hey, that was when… ” and “Oh dear! Where did you get that from!?” They had a good time watching the whole 35min slideshow.

The nieces and nephews too had a series of speeches all planned out. In all, all of the grandkids present did something. Well wishes, toasts, and a presentation of 2 calligraphy scrolls handwritten by this organiser-niece, no less. The last of the grandkids’ surprise was this photo album mentioned earlier; a few of them slaved over it about 2 weeks before the event.

All the grandkids had a great time, too. All helped out in one way or another; even Caitlin accompanied me on stage when the hosts’ sons were up there welcoming the guests and other speaking ocassions.

Dr Pixie, being the oldest and de facto leader of my generation, summed it up nicely in her email today:

On a final note – the parents are very very very happy with the effort put into the Feb 14th dinner. Thats what parents live for – the time and effort by their children & grandchildren. The evidently wonderful camaderie enjoyed by the grandkids captured so well in the photos is so heart-warming; they have never ever quarrelled, with love and humility all round ; there isnt the slightest feeling of envy, jealousy, anger nor one-upmanship amongst this lot – this can teach us adults so many lessons.

Kudos, guys, for a job well done! All except Caleb, who was gladly snoozing through the whole event. He had to be taken out of his stroller / woken for these family shots, which while he thought it was very rude of the adults to disturb his sleep, we couldnt’ help but laugh at him though, trying to either stay awake or stay asleep, and stay balanced!

Oh yeah, much later that night, I thought I was the last to go to bed (we crashed at my parent’s place) I caught my father enjoying the photo album, in his fave seat, slowly flipping the pages and reading every single word…. Hear that, Mdm Organiser?

When Caitlin had her 4th birthday party, I had invited these particular two friends of hers.

The first is a friend over a year older than her. Their Mummees have known each other before they knew their respective husbands, and naturally when both had daughters, they play when the adults get together. The second is a classmate she gets along well- she talks about her all the time after school; at parent teacher meetings the teachers have even complained that these two chatterboxes had to be separated!

If I can categorise these 2 friends- one is while in school-mode, the other is outside of school-mode; if you know what I mean. It’s not that Caitlin is or acts differently in and out of school, but she only sees these friends in respective surroundings and circumstances.

So this party was held in an indoor kids’ gym, you know- steps and rubber balls and slides. And these two friends were present.

Being host we arrived early. Caitlin was off to the gym. Her friends started arriving, and quickly joined in the fun. This was also the first time I watched Caitlin playing host, unprompted. Let me rephrase that: This was the first time I had to prompt her to be a host. But it was all good; after all, in a place like that, one (kid) would not really need much urging to join in!

Soon, both of these friends were present. And since both didn’t know each other, they were demanding the attention of Caitlin.

While Caitlin was quite happy following either one of them, the other was starting to feel neglected in that Caitlin either didn’t heed her plea to “come over here..” or didn’t hear her at all. When she played with school friend, the other was feeling left out and cried. So when we asked Caitlin to also include the other, somehow the first one then became somewhat left out too. Caitlin, in all this time, was busy accommodating one or the other!

So the tears were flowing, complaints being raised with the mummies, and Caitlin seemingly needed coaching.

But even I was at a loss somewhat. Naturally I was thinking in adult-mode: Can’t we all just join in and (learn to) get along? Hot Mummee and I were saying things to all 3 girls to try and pacify and solve the “issue”. “Why don’t you include the other…”, “Why don’t all 3 of you play together…”, “.. they don’t know each other, so you (Caitlin) have to try and get them to play together….”

While it is somewhat amusing to see this little dilemma, how would you have settled this triangle??

So it was Caitlin and Caleb’s grandpa’s birthday dinner tonight. I wore my almost-10-years old Dockers. It’s a bit tight, but still manageable, barely, to be honest.

I also wore a ribbed polo shirt. Fitting but not tight. Quite a dressy one.

In the car I was in the backseat, with Caitlin on my lap; Hot Mummee was driving.

Caitlin feels my torso, and says, “Daddee, it feels like you have a float here…” poking at it; “Hee hee..”

Due to the conservation of mass, the Dockers was squeezing the mass up and out and over my belt; which was there only to prevent the button from popping, actually.

While I already knew of this, I know I am in real trouble now.

Gone are the days when:

I can still carry you easily because you weren’t so heavy…

You listen to everything I say without question…

When all you ask are simple questions that Daddee has an answer for…

I lie with you till you fall asleep… well, I still do but we are trying not to do that too much these days…

Your plans for the day is the same as your retired grandparents…

Numbered are the days:

When I can still carry you, when Hot Mummee isn’t looking, but I shouldn’t anymore mainly ‘cos you are getting heavy, and also you need your independence…

When I can still reason with you and you generally still listen to what I have to offer…

When the things you ask are becoming quite complicated that Daddee can no longer think of a feasible bullshit answer for…

When you still need me to tuck you in….

When you get excited that Daddee is coming to pick you up from school….

That Daddee wishes his homework was as simple and that he doesn’t mind helping because it’s (still) so easy….

Smell your hair without any complaints from you..

But today…

I love how we can carry on a conversation these days…

I love how you observe the world, and highlight (back to Daddee) the stuff that Daddee told you / taught you about months ago…

I love that you are asking quite intellectual questions these days…

I love how you share with your immediate family members, despite you liking whatever it was you had; which is usually a favourite food…

I love how you sometimes mix the various languages in your speech, never failing to bring a smile to my face…

I love how the first things you say to me when you wake up are things that are really unexpected.

I love your little-bit mature attitude to things that you know ought to be done: Switching off the tv even when a somewhat-fave show is on, ‘cos it’s bedtime; going “Alriiiiiight” not quite disgruntled-ly when told to do something that isn’t necessarily something you want done (usually go get wiped down and changed into pj’s)

I love the common understandings we sometimes have, when we operate as a team

I love the somewhat wicked jokes that Daddee cracks, and that you actually get them; and how you are also starting to joke with me

I love watching and tracking some of the skills you are surely picking up

I love that you show genuine love and care for your little brother, that even though sometimes you don’t know your own strength, I understand that you mean no malice towards him, that you do in fact love him

I love how you greet me when I come home from work, with whatever story is on your mind. It could be that you mentally noted to tell me upon seeing me, but it’s always great to be greeted by you with any story.

You have brought the most joy and happiness to my, our lives.

Happy birthday my dearest!

Caitlin will be turning 4 this week.

From experience of Caitlin’s 3rd birthday party, it was quite a task trying to organise a toddler’s party. We had some “trouble” thinking of who to invite: Caitlin hadn’t started school yet, her nearest cousins are at least 10 years older than her, she only has ONE toddler friend. Then there was the venue; we booked the multi-purpose hall at our condo, but it was hot as hell. And the food; both grandma’s were quite frantic in organising and cooking the food- a lot of which were left over. And then the cleaning up.

This year though, was actually just a little easier- she has been attending school this year and have some same-sized acquaintance.

So this year, I for one took the easy way out- I didn’t bother with streamers, balloons, party packs.

I outsourced it.

Since her birthday is going to be on a weekday (as I write this), we thought it’d be better to organise the party on the weekend, and going be the (local?) tradition, we planned it on the Sunday before the actual birthday (yesterday).

Kids her age absolutely love the kids’ gyms and playgrounds. During my last visits, I had noticed that they organise birthday parties for kids.

That’s how it clicked.

I consulted Caitlin, saying that Daddee and Mummee would like to organise a birthday party for her, and asked who she’d like from school to come to her party. Index finger to her chin, she ran through the list of names in her head, with Daddee tailing her with a pen and a pad.

Speaking to her class teacher I managed to get the contact details of the parents. Due to some administrative error, I had a red face experience when I contacted one of the mothers with a wrong child name. Honestly! It wasn’t my fault!

Again from experience / witness, a gym like this would be better suited for kids who are already able to run. I have seen tinier people being knocked over by toddlers and bigger kids. If you recall your physics lessons on conservation of momentum, at head on collision the body with the lower mass bounces off the one with the higher mass. Quite a hazard really for the little people… (Sorry Ann, that’s why I left Christopher out!)

Naturally I also had to ensure that I get the venue secured too. It was quite a tricky situation balancing fulfilling the package of set headcounts against those who would be coming (ie keeping to their word). Experience from organising events at work recently has proven boss’ theory of expecting a 30% drop out come time of the actual event.

The theory proved correct.

I did try to make some last minutes fillers; called up a colleague with a 2 year old boy, but he too fell into that same statistics category- his boy came down with a fever. He did warn me about this a few days before though that his boy was starting to exhbit some symptoms, so it wasn’t as bad as one of Caitlin’s classmates who RSVPed (this colleague has already passed me Caitlin’s present today at work), but when I called all the parents again the day before for confirmation that “Oh, we are actually going to be traveling North..” Yeah thanks for not bothering to tell me; what if I didnt’ call? Another one also didn’t inform me; when we were already 30min into the party I called only to find that the boy was at the Dr’s, also down with something.

Lesson here for organising any-age events:

• Expect 30% to decline invitation, so invite 130%!
• Expect some to RSVP but not bother to advise on their change of plans;
• Call at least a day before again to remind them of the event.

Anyway.

We were very appreciative of the parents who did come on time, and even more appreciative of the presents for Caitlin. I was glad that some of the parents already knew each other; it made playing host a little easier. There were one or two who didn’t know anyone; a pregnant mother sat there the whole 2+ hours, while a dad went window shopping. Glad I decided on this venue- the gym is actually in a shopping center.

All in all, I think everyone had fun. Honestly I was a little skeptical on how well this would go; a feeling I suddenly had halfway through the 2 hour party slot. After the simple meal and games that the staff conducted, the kids were let loose again in the gym, playing and complaining about who wasn’t playing with who, who wasn’t sharing, who was rough on the slide, where are the lollies the staff gave out, and the parents chasing after them with bottled water.

She is four years old already…..

You know how peer reviews are among the most respected write-ups in terms of integrity, authenticity, and recognition, in respective industries and fields of studies?

Well, for me, I think endorsements from fellow bloggers and readers are just as significant.

Fellow blogger, parent, and offline friend Moomykin has given Daddeeyah! an award!

Thanks, Moomykin, for this award! This comes just a little after Daddeeyah! blog reached its first anniversary!

They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship;
there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut or that they propagate?
Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to 8 bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.

1. Since I am a Husband and Dad also
2. Another Good Husband-related blog
3. Toddlerdaddy
4. Lynn Lim
5. Derek Semmler’s The Man Page
6. Parent Hacks! has lots of tips
7. This Cuddly Family
8. My brother’s Flickr site (I know this is cheating, but he does photo-blog somewhat with this)

September actually marked this blog’s 13th (or so!) month – yes I even forgot my own project’s “birthday”! Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten any real human’s birthday; until and unless someone proves me wrong!

It’s been an enriching experience.

• I have changed themes three times, trying to stick to using that smiley-faced candle / banner;
• I have experimented with ads, and will continue to do so;
• I have made some money, but mostly from writing reviews rather than from these ads; the total of which isn’t something to shout about, yet (?);
• I thought I’d enlist the help of Dr Pixie, but things haven’t quite panned out that way;
• I thought I had to be some kinda expert in all things parenting, and ended up just being myself and totally enjoying it!
• In being myself, I guess I have found readers (or they have found me) who enjoy reading what I really am about..

But I guess not surprisingly, I have also made some new friends!

Thanks for sticking around, everybody!

Despite not having enough kids to invite & Daddee’s fumbling in organising it, Caitlin’s birthday party didn’t turn out too bad after all…

Admittedly Mummee, Daddee & Caitlin were out during the most of the day, only coming back to start the preparations a tad too late!

We were going to host the party at the common hall / “clubhouse” at our condo on Saturday. About a week prior, I had purchased some party balloons, a pump, enough simple party packs of annoying horns, masks, hats, & 2 simple Pooh Bear & Disney birthday garlands. But only on Friday did I start to wonder (or mildly panic) that the venue may be looking a bit too bare…..

Although not as creative nor crafty as Forty-Two Roads’ handy crafts, I did try to spruce up the event somewhat!

I had known for a while that Pocoyo’s site has some templates for printing for crayon-colouring, DIY pop-out cards, & coloured graphics for placemats & garlands. So, on Friday afternoon, the eve of the party, I decided to print some out, thinking perhaps spending Friday night after everyone has gone to sleep that I would put these together.

And wouldn’t you know it, the office colour printer decided not to work.

Maybe someone’s programmed into the printer not to print bright colourful graphics of cartoon characters. Maybe someone knew I was planning a party & that I may up to no good with office equipment. Maybe someone’s just simply out to get me. If you know your printers, photos & graphics are a combination of CMYK- cyan, magenta, yellow, black. It is the combination of these that make up a colour printout, photo or graphic. My printouts were all too red- like there was double the red being printed, even on where it was supposed to be white. I kept trying the settings, printing out (effectively wasting the toner) more of the annoyingly same output. And I was fast running out of time.

On the way to pick up Caitlin, I called Mummee (who usually works late) if she has a colour printer in her office, & whether I could print them there. Yes & yes.

So after a quick call to mother in law to say I will be late for Caitlin, I headed over to Mummee’s office. Loaded the pdf files on her machine & alas, they printed out perfect. Looking at the product, Mummee says “Hey these Thank-you cards do look nice; why don’t we paste them onto proper cardboard to make it hardier?”

Not one to have done craft-stuff since primary school, I agreed & proceeded to paste them to sandwich a cardboard. In short, I ruined 4. Either the front & inside pages didn’t align, or that I forgot that once the card folded that the inner pages would crease at the fold.

Again, time was running out.

I won’t bore you with the other mini-disasters of essentially poor estimations of effort & time required to put these things together, suffice to say that we saw Saturday’s sunrise while STILL working on these things. Credit to Mummee who is heavily pregnant to still entertain this Daddee’s late decision on party deco.

In the end we did get the following done:

• Thank you cards, enough for the kids present
• Flip out cheap-animation, enough for the kids present
• Placemats of the characters, laminated and all
• “Happy birthday” garland (pictured)

After only about 3 hours sleep & being out almost the whole of Saturday due to commitments & appointments, we rushed home only around 5pm when the party was supposed to start at 7pm!

This was the first time I used the balloon pump thing. I gotta say it’s a pretty interesting contraption that my older brother & I were wondering during the party how it works- in both direction of the pumping-action there was still air being blown out…

Anyway. My school friend & his family were the first to arrive. Embarrassingly I had to ask him to help continue with the balloons while I went to get the furniture arranged, & putting up the garlands & get the home-made crafts.

Mother in law was the only one who knows how nuts we were staying up so late! But then again she home-cooked a total of seven dishes in all, when we had only asked her to cook three! My own mum brought over some food too, & Sam & Mircle provided a very pretty birthday cake.

I am going to break my own privacy principle just this one time & share a photo of my lovely Caitlin for you guys to see how happy she is!

That’s heavily-pregnant Mummee in the background, cheering at the unveiling of the birthday cake (from its upturned transport box)

The cake is made of jelly. I gotta find out the shop from which Sam got it. We had asked her to get this one because for her own hubby’s birthday she got a similar one (adult version of course) full of fresh-ish fruits inside. We thought it’d be easier to take this given it was a warm few weeks.

Throughout the night, the kids, including Caitlin’s older cousins, were generally having fun. Among Caitlin’s presents was a new bicycle, so she was quite happily trying her luck cycling around the mingling adults not bumping into people. From the start, I am sure our 2 blocks of resident-neighbours were already suffering from the party-pack-horns that Caitlin & her similar-human-sized friends blaring away.

But overall, I think everyone had fun.

Now Daddee is still lacking sleep!

Happy Birthday my sweet Caitlin!