Counting Down

Same time last year I was 39 weeks pregnant and stressing out E, my roommate (at work). She convinced herself that I was going to go into labour in the office and she would have to catch the baby. Every few days, she would check her phone and make sure that PF's mobile number was still in her phone. Funny E!

Well, it's 4 more days to DN's first birthday. I think it's time to update all on what the little peanut can do! A good friend, C, passed DN a copy of "Baby Signing Time". After some "brain-washing" (LOL), DN can now sign

• milk
• banana
• wash hands
• (i want) more
  

He has also taught us one sign - the sign for "eat". In American Sign Language, you bring your fingers to your mouth to sign "eat". It was the first sign we wanted to teach DN, but he never picked it up. We would be barking "eat! eat! eat!" and jabbing our mouths with our fingers, but he would just ignore us. Until one day, he started opening and closing his mouth whenever we barked "eat!" at him. And he's been doing that ever since. DN's very own sign language. :D

Besides these signs, DN has a few other tricks up his sleeve. On command, he can

• give us a kiss
• wave bye-bye
• give a flying kiss (it started out as a flying lick, eww)
• hug his bear when we ask him to "sayang Brownie"
  
• show us where's his nose and ears
• show us where're mummy's & daddy's noses and ears
  
• mimic making a phonecall when we ask him to "da tian hua"
• clap his hands when we sing "If You're Happy And You Know It"
• open and close his fingers when we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars" (in English and Mandarin... I think his Mandarin is better than mine!)
• lie down when we ask him to rest
• point his index finger up when we ask him how old he is (a very useful party trick for his birthday lunch on Sunday!)
  

Golly. He sounds like a circus seal.

What's your dream cake?

We've ordered DN's birthday cake! We went down to Pine Garden on Sunday to check out the cakes and ended up ordering a wonderful, 3-tiered, light blue dream. :D

I know it's a bit of an overkill for a 1st birthday and might be too much for all our guests on Sunday, but it's got 3 tiers! Phwoargh.

The cake is white, blue and silver and has got stripes on the bottom tier, dots on the middle tier and waves on the top. There'll be a "1" on the top tier, a silver marzipan ribbon and marzipan stars on sticks! The bottom tier is "Lychee Martini", the middle tier is "Triple Chocolate" and the top tier is "Blackforest".

What a wonderful confection!

I know I will get laughed at for buying such a cake for DN because it's his 1st birthday, not his wedding, but bugger that! The party's not really for him anyway right??? It's for PF and me! We survived the first year pretty much unscathed. We didn't kill each other, we never forgot the baby when we went out, we still have our jobs because we managed to drag our sorry asses to the office on 3 hours of sleep and we are still lucid and sane. Pop the champers, it's time to celebrate!


This is just a pic I found on the internet. We didn't suddenly name DN "Thomas", LOL.

DN's cake is something like that, but in light blue, white and silver. His stars will look something like this though. Impressive huh!

For 170 bucks, I'm definitely taking lots of pics of the silly cake.

Happy (Chinese) Birthday

Okay, let's see... according to the Chinese calendar, DN is 3 years old.

My MIL patiently explained the intricacies of the Chinese way of counting birthdays to me, a "product of western influences". According to the Chinese, a baby is 1 year old when he/she is born because the time spent in the womb is counted as well. (Don't waste time ok!) When the Chinese New Year rolled around, he turned 1 year older. So, on 2 Sept 2006, DN was 1. On 7 Feb 2007, DN turned 2. His Chinese birthday was on 22 Aug 2007 and he turned 3!

Er... I hope I got that right. Info is usually lost / distorted during conversations between my MIL and me. My inbuilt translation device has never worked properly despite years of personal Chinese tuition. -_-

It is a Chinese custom to playing this "grabbing game" with babies on their 1st birthday. The baby is presented with an assortment of objects and everyone waits in anticipation to see what catches the little emperor's fancy. Will he pick the book? (scholar) Chicken? (chef) Jewellery? (rich) Toy? (gamer??? something was lost in translation here...)

DN was offered a chicken drumstick and a book.



DN doesn't seem that hot about his drumstick. I, on the other hand...









It only LOOKS like he's taken a bite. DN wasn't impressed with the drumstick at all.








He chose the book! Heh heh.

In Honour of Bear-Bear

Bear-bear, Bear-bear!
You've gone through much wear and tear
Your fur is all clumpy
And you look rather mangy
But you still have your wits about you
And most importantly, four limbs!

Brownie
Finally, a post! Heh.

Meet Brownie, DN's new friend. Brownie was a gift from DN's great-grandma when he was 1 month old, so Brownie is not really "new". Strangely, DN took a sudden liking to Brownie over the weekend. He carried Brownie all over the house and wailed when we took Brownie out of his hands when we went to the market for breakfast. When I laid DN down and changed his diaper, he'd play with Brownie's paws. When we brought DN out for an evening walk, Brownie sat next to him in the stroller. When DN sat on the floor with nothing to do, he'd chew on Brownie's nose. When DN woke up this morning at 630am, I found him standing in his cot holding Brownie by the ear.

Alamak. So cute la. Brownie is his "security bear"! :D

Brownie is a Ty beanie bear, so he's all squishy. He's got a chubby little face and soft beanie paws. He even has his own security bear! Tsk, the bears these days...


Meet Brownie! (and his own security bear)











DN, Brownie and security bear, on the way to grandma's house.









DN held Brownie the whole time while playing with his activity table.









Sorry for the horrible pics.












































My sister had a security bear too. His name was... erm... Bear-Bear. Bear-Bear was one of those stiff, old-school bears with rough fabric fur and those plastic eyes that followed you around the room (eep!) and had the tendency to fall out, but my sister loved him to bits. She still has him.

I wonder if DN will still have Brownie when he's 30 years old?

This post is dedicated to my sister who just passed her driving test. (Finally! You how old already! LOL)