His 4th Birthday

21 May (Friday)

As requested, we ordered a 'big' Ben-10 cake for his little party at school on Friday (21 May). I was outstation so hubby went to collect the cake on Thursday evening. I asked him to MMS the pic to me. When I looked at the pic, I found that the Ben10 print was a little too small from what I have expected but when I asked Ethan, he said he likes it and was very excited about his little party at school. So, it's ok lor.

Initially, I planned to take leave and go to the school with the cake and to take some photos. Unfortunately, I had to go to Penang for 3 days so I asked hubby how? I said maybe we can give our camera to the teacher and ask the teacher to help us to take some photos. Man being man, he said no need to take photo lar. So, no photos lor. Luckily I asked him to MMS the photo me, otherwise, I don't even know how the cake looks like.

The only shot of the cake.

I arrived home on Friday evening. Hubby and Ethan picked me up at the KLIA. Ethan was so happy to see me and the moment he saw me, he called out "MUMMY" and ran to me and gave me a big hug. I asked him "Do you miss me?" he said "I miss you". I'm not sure if he understand what that means but I don't care. He said what I wanted to hear...haha!! I asked him about the party again, he said he was happy and his friend sang birthday song to him and his friends and teacher ate his birthday cake.


22 May (Saturday) - The Actual Day

The next morning, we woke up around 9+. We planned to go out and look for his bicycle in the afternoon and later go out for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Mum called at around 11a.m. and said she wanted to join us with my youngest sis and my niece (her mum, i.e. my another sis is in confinement). Initially, mum said they can't join us so I thought only the 3 of us will celebrate his birthday. Since they are joining us, we changed the plan to celebrate his birthday during lunch and buy his bicycle later. We went to the Curve and had lunch at The Garden. We went to the place to celebrate new year and I like the ambience, decor and food there. Ethan liked their watercress soup and finished almost the whole bowl when we were there the first time. I ordered the same soup but he doesn't like it that much on that day. He was having a bit of my Aglio Olio Shrimp Spaghetti (my new favourite) and pineapple fried rice.

After lunch, we did some shopping and cake hunting there. I wanted to buy cup cakes but couldn't find any. Saw the shop that is selling jelly cake (the place we bought a cake for his 2nd birthday) but the ready made ones are not interesting. In the end, we got a vanilla ice-cream chocolate cake (paid by sis) from Baskin Robbins for him. Actually, it was more for me coz I'm very into ice-cream lately :-P. We went home and had a little cake-cutting session. I really enjoyed the cake but not sure about the others...hehe. After that, we rested for a while and went out for a simple dinner.

He ran to the rides and happily climbed on
it without asking for permission.

The 2 kiddos

The yummy ice-cream cake

23 May (Sunday)

I bought him a Spiderman bag few weeks ago for his birthday. We saw this bag and he wanted me to buy for him. I told him, I will buy it later. After some shopping, I have forgotten about it and when we were on the way back, he asked for it again. So, I told him to wait in the car with Daddy and I will buy the bag. I bought it, hid it in the car boot and told him the stall has closed. He was so disappointed and shed some tears, knowing that he didn't get the bag. He has asked for the same bag a few times after that and I gave some excuses that we can't get it.

I wrapped it up nicely and intend to give it to him after we cut his birthday cake on Saturday. Somehow, we were too exhausted and forgotten about it. So, I gave it to him on Sunday morning and when he opened up the gift, he was soooo happy to see the bag. He said he wanted to bring the bag to school. He also insisted to carry the bag to attend Darren's birthday party. We just let him lar.

His present from Mummy

After opening up the present, we headed to the party venue and met up with Darren's and Terry's family. The boys were having fun. They couldn't remember each other of course but they warmed up pretty fast and were playing together happily. The lucky boy also received presents from Darren's and Terry's mummies. Thanks to these 2 lovely ladies.

More presents. He wanted to open
them immediately.

The birthday boy and the cake admirer

Enjoying the cake

A rare shot of the 3 boys together

After the birthday party, we went to buy his bicycle. It's a birthday present from Daddy and I top it up with a helmet. Got what we want and we promised to bring him to the park to cycle in the evening. As the bike is pretty big for him, he could not cycle properly at first. His legs were barely touching the ground when he tiptoe, but after a few rounds of practice, he was cycling pretty well. He also learn how to use the brake instead of his shoes to stop the bike.

He insisted to put on the helmet even though
he was sweating badly. He said the guard will
catch him if he doesn't put it on.

The happy boy


I love this pic.

Happenings in May

3 years, 11 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old.....

On Ethan:

His Birthday:
He's turning 4 next Saturday. This year, it will be the simplest celebration. It gets simpler and simpler every year. We will buy a cake for his small little party at school on Friday. He told me months ago that he wanted a "BIG....Ben-10 cake" for his birthday. I asked him "must be big? cannot buy a small one?". He said cannot, his friends do not like small cake. Kids nowadays are so demanding. I don't know how big is big and how small is small. Whatever it is, it has to be Ben-10 la. Then, the three of us will celebrate his birthday on Saturday. Mum and sis can't join coz sis just had a baby girl and mum is helping out, so no celebration for them wor. Probably just dinner with a candle blowing session and a present. We're thinking of a bicycle. I want it to be a surprise for him but don't know where to hide the bike and when to buy it. Furthermore, I have to go outstation next Wednesday to Friday. We have to figure this out.

Sleeping on his own:
We have planned to move him into his own room but every time we discussed that, he got all teary and upset. Hubby said wait until end of the year wor...

Diaperless:
Some updates from the previous posts, he is diaperless now, day and night. The first few weeks were difficult as we had to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night. There will be 3-4 'accidents' in a week in the beginning but it reduced week by week. I think it took him around 3-4 months to be totally 'accident-free'. We still have to make sure that he has his last round of milk one hour before bed time and clear his bladder before sleep. Otherwise, we have to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Brought him to watch Toy Story I & II on 25 April 2010.
The movies lasted for 3 hours and the cinema was
freezingly cold. My fingers were all numb
after the movie ended.

A video of him doing his silly dance

On Mummy:
I have just completed the 2nd semester of my study. It has been almost a year since I "dig this big hole and jumped into it". Hopefully I can complete it by end of this year or latest by mid of next year. I presented my proposal to the examiner on 7th May and the preparation was tough. I have 3 supervisors and each of them has different opinions. I can't fulfill everything they asked me to do but just did what I thought was right. I arranged for a mock presentation on 6th May, a day before the actual day and 2 of the supervisors were present. I got shot by them left, right and centre. That made me very down. It seemed like whatever I have done was rubbish. I went home and corrected my presentation, read up whatever I need to read, went through the slides again and again and pray for the best. Still, I couldn't slept well that night as I was too nervous and worried that I couldn't answer the examiners' questions. Went to bed after 1 a.m. that night, rolled around for at least another 30 minutes and woke up at 6a.m., before the alarm went off. I arrived at the campus one hour before the presentation starts and went through the slides again in the car for another 30 minutes.

While I was going through the slides, mum called and told me sis has just delivered a baby girl by C-sec. She was overdue by a week and I was happy to hear that both mum and baby are safe. After the phone call, I went up to the meeting room and waited anxiously for the presentation to start. I was the 2nd presenter. All my 3 supervisors said they will come and they didn't turn up until the first presentation started. I tried to relax and listened to what the first presenter had to say but the more I listened the more nervous I got, so I looked away, kept my mind blank and and tried to think of other things.

My time came, so I did what I had to do. Each of us were given 30 minutes for the presentation and Q&A. The first presenter stood up during the whole presentation but I knew I had to sit down coz my legs will be wobbly. If they ask me to stand, I will tell them frankly that I will be more stable sitting down. I think I finished my presentation within 15 minutes. After countless questions, I looked at my watch and there was still 10 minutes to go. Gosh, that moment seemed like forever. The examiners asked so many questions and gave some not so important comments. There was a question, which I couldn't really answer. Thank God, one of my supervisors backed me up but in the end, the 3 of them were arguing among themselves on my research. I still think I was lucky because all of them showed their support and turned up. I noticed most of the supervisors were not there and their students had to fend for themselves.

After the presentation at 10 a.m., I had a long discussion with my supervisors. Two of them left after 1 hour and I continued with the other one until 1 p.m. I had initially plan to go for a pampering session after the presentation but my head was pounding by noon, so I decided to go home and rest. Went home to sleep and less than 15 minutes in dreamland, hubby called and woke me up. After that, I couldn't sleep anymore and decided to pick mum up and visit sis at the hospital. We were greeted by this little cutie pie....

My 'just arrived' niece