Happy 1st Birthday my boy boy!

Has one year gone past just like that? My little prince is now ONE. Seems like just yesterday that he was my newborn.

Just a few hours before William came out

From jaundice, to bronchiolitis, to bronchitis,
From 7lbs 12 oz, to easily over 11kgs now,
From just sleeping and eating, you're now climbing and exploring.

Minutes just after his grand entrance into this world: Not the prettiest sight

A few days old

My tears flow for you when you are sick,
My heart skipped a beat when I catch your fall,
My soul melt when I see you smile.

Enjoying a meal out with Mummy

Thank you for your joyful spirit,
Thank you for your patience when you wait for Mummy to bath,
Thank you for your understanding when you're hungry and don't throw a fit,
Thank you for your hugs my little boy.

How our lives have changed.
How we thank God each day for giving you to us.
If only I can keep you as my baby forever,
if only I can hold you just a bit longer before you wriggle away.
But now you're ONE and you can hardly keep still,
coz you like to explore the world around and above you.

Every once in a while, Mummy'd whisper in your ear, "Please don't grow up too fast."

Happy 1st Birthday, boy boy!!

You will forever be Mummy's little boy and we all love you very much.

Mummy, I want to sit in an aeroplane

Last Friday Victoria and I together with Gong gong, Popo, Yee Yee, Yee Jiong and Grace (my niece) sent Uncle Julian and Auntie Winnie off at KLIA, after their 3 weeks visit in Malaysia.

It's not every year that Uncle Ju and Auntie Winnie comes back, and Victoria has seen her uncle once when she was a year plus. This is William's first time, although he will not remember this. We were really happy that Uncle Ju and Auntie Winnie could spend a couple of days in PJ with us, and hosting them was truly our privilege.

The kids took to their uncle and auntie almost immediately. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised that Victoria was not shy at all when she saw Uncle Julian. We brought them to Mizu Japanese restaurant in Bangsar on the first day for lunch, then dinner at Telok Gong. The second day was lunch at Pavillion then shopping, and dinner at Uncle Kong Wah's house. The kids enjoyed themselves!

When Uncle Julian and Auntie Winnie left on Thursday morning, Victoria was at school. She came home, disappointed to find them not at home, and she told me that she missed them. All the more reason for me to bring her to the airport to send them off, and for her to say a proper good bye.

When she arrived in the airport, her first question was, "Where are the aeroplanes??" Hhmm.. think she's forgotten her reason for being there. : )

After Uncle Ju and Auntie Winnie went in, we hanged around and Victoria saw the aeroplanes she was "looking" for.


On the way back, she told me that she wants to sit in the same aeroplane that Uncle and Auntie were on. All the way to America. Where Barney and Elmo lives.

My little prince will turn ONE!

Tomorrow my little prince William will officially turn ONE. Or more like... tonight, just past midnight. ; ) We will be outstation to celebrate his birthday (on a very much smaller scale since we've already done the Shang Palace blast) so I won't be blogging for a while.

Dinner at Chilli's Bangsar Shopping Centre

We had dinner at Chilli's the other night and William got restless. After a while, he played "manja" which was how he tilt his head horizontally and laughed as he thinks it's funny.

Baby... you melt our hearts with just your smile and laughter!

Victoria's 4th Birthday... the actual day

Victoria's birthday falls on April 10th, and this year we celebrated it very simply on the actual day, as the next day was the bigger celebration (at Shang Palace).

This year she was not feeling well on her birthday too, sigh... like the previous year. The morning that she woke, we gave her a surprise present, which was her very first, her very own... bicycle!! We let her try this bicycle in Carrefour before buying it secretly, then we hid it in the house for almost a month!

Daddy took her to the Taman Jaya park with her new bike, and she was sooo happy running around, chasing the birds and screaming, "Daddy!! Today is my birthday!! I am sooo happy! Today is my birthday!" She came home at lunch time, exhausted but without appetite for her lunch. She slept in the afternoon.

We promised her we will take her for her favourite Una Don meal at Sushi King as she looovvveeess unagi. This girl can really eat something again and again if it's her favourite, but after the "season" she becomes lukewarm.

Victoria just arrived at Sushi King
Digging into her unagi sushi whilst waiting for her Una Don

William... checking out the jie jies sitting at the table behind us

Vic's 4th and Will's 1st Birthday Celebration

Date: Saturday, April 11th.
Venue: Shang Palace Restaurant, Shangrila Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Theme: Barney / Purple

Two Saturdays ago we celebrated the birthdays of our little princess, Victoria who officially turned 4 on April 10th, and our prince William (almost 3 weeks ahead) who will be turning 1 yo on April 29th.

The party was planned in early February, which started with a call to the hotel to use their Lemon Garden Cafe, then changed to a private function room for more flexibility and an informal layout, but later changed to Shang Palace Restaurant, their non-halal joint for the obvious reason.

Victoria said she wanted to meet Barney, and we thought of a Barney mascot, then I called a friend who could do some magic tricks and balloon sculptures for us. The decos was simple, booked with 6 topiary balloons with a Barney myler balloon as the centre piece for the VIP table.

We had 7 tables altogether, comprising of grandparents, relatives, close friends of ours, Victoria's teachers and classmates with their respective families. It was such a joyous event, despite some last minute changes in the RSVP.

The party was supposed to start at 1pm, but only started at 145pm as some guests were caught in the Saturday KL traffic. Hubby gave a welcome speech to thank the guests (have to la!), then our friend Pastor Alex Tan gave a short sharing, prayed for us and thanked God for the food.

Barney, decos, cake supplier, photographer all arrived before 1pm. We ordered a Barney jelly cake from Madam Lim, cupcakes from +Wondermilk and a Lego fondant cake with cupcakes from Angelina Skelchy. The hotel gave us a complimentary mango cheese cake. The party packs were partially sponsored by a good friend of mine, which we then added some candies, chocolates and balloons inside.

Barney jelly cake
Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream spelling out their name, prior to being arranged

William's LEGO man fondant chocolate cake

+Wondermilk cupcakes

Cake cutting. William was asleep so Victoria jie jie helped to cut his cake

We gave many months of pap talk to Victoria on not being scared of Barney, and we've even asked Barney to take off his headgear so that the children can see that it's just a human inside. But our little girl turn out... still afraid of Barney. Her friends, however enjoyed hugging and taking pictures with Barney though. Phew, so at least Barney don't feel so sad.

Hello... Barney making his entrance!

As for our little boy, initially he was OK with the mascot. Somehow, after his nap (which was just before we sang the birthday songs) he wasn't too friendly with Barney anymore. We tried to take a family picture with Barney but none of the kids want to be next to the dinosaur. : (

William checking out Barney

Victoria and her friends enjoyed themselves walking around, although it was a sitdown luncheon layout. I'm glad because we didn't want the atmosphere to be too formal. It's such a blessing to see the kids laugh, especially during the magic show, where Cookie monster gave a short performance too. Victoria's friend, Katelyn was the assistant to the magician, Uncle Billy, making all her friends laugh as she sportingly did what Uncle Billy asked her.

Uncle Billy in action!

Victoria trying out a magic trick with Uncle Billy
The kids enjoying themselves after the food
Victoria laughing
She must be thinking, "are you for real???"

William with Daddy William in his white shirt, pink striped black tie and cotton vest
He still can't walk on his own, has to be aided


The party ended around 330pm. The presence of all who came touched our hearts, no amount of thank yous can truly reflect the gratitude in our hearts, for making this party such a success. It seemed a little exaggerated for just a childrens' party, yet we wanted this to be special for William's first, and Victoria's 4th party, bearing in mind she is still allergic to certain foods. Of course, next year and the subsequent years, the atmosphere should be much quieter.

Is it the Ventolin or just being a boy?

I'm catching my breathe. I just put William to sleep, after climbing up and down the stairs with him, crawling on the floor (a little... or more like I slide, or just relocate my bum a few steps, since I'm too big to crawl), changed his baju at least 3 times, tried to distract him away from wires and plug points, held his two hands as he tried to walk, and and...

I'm tired. The maid is down with a little flu and today it developed into sore throat. Vic just healed, and William is still phelgmy, (very!) but his cough is only occassional. I'm not taking any chances of her adult germs spreading to my little boy, if that can be helped. I've been making his porridge yesterday and today and putting him to sleep in the afternoon.

Admittedly I can't avoid my kids from her 100% since she's still in the house, and she's still helping out. But I try to minimize her contact with the baby. Even told her to not talk while feeding bb.

Hubby's also caught the virus, probably from Vic since they both share the same room eversince she came down with flu first. Now Vic's back into the masterbedroom (yippeee!) but hubby remained in the other room last night.... all by himself. Poor chap.

Tonight, he says... he'll be back. ; ) I hope that means he'll be better. Tonight we'll be four again in the room.

Oh wait... ya, I was suppose to write abt William. Why did I blabbered on about everyone being sick? So, is it the Ventolin he's taking or is it just being a boy? He's super active. Very adventurous. Very risk taking (that's hubby's trait!). Can't sit still. Can't stand still. Always on the move. Hubby and I are beginning to think, if we read his character right, he might one day leave us and work overseas. Somewhere far.

Are boys like these? Is this what I'm supposed to be "prepared" for?

ZERORISED!!! Praise God

It's weird, but the feeling is finally here. That knowing we can start out 1 year countdown to Victoria's liberty from all her allergies.

Last Monday we made a day trip down to Tangkak for Victoria and William's follow up check up with Dr Wong, their allergist consultant. The anticipation was there, as Victoria's previous readings was

Egg - 2
Yeast - 3
Candida (bacteria) - 3

and the last visit was

Egg - 0
Yeast - 0
Candida - 0

We needed to bring the numbers down to zero, which means she has no more allergies. The battle is not won yet, because doctor recommended that Victoria continue to abstain from all food which consist of the ingredients above, to allow her body's immunity system to build.

If at anytime during this period the numbers should go up, we are back to the drawing board.

Victoria has already told me that she wants a normal cake next year, hopefully in time for her 5th birthday, a normal cake just like William's.

William's progress was very well. His allergy readings for egg fell from 9 to 2. It's wonderful how muscle testing can detect all these whilst the normal blood test does not, and can only show us a high Ige level but not pinpoint his allergy.

On the down side, we discovered that Victoria has allergy to margarine. Not vegetable oil, but because margarine has gone through a process which makes it what it is (I'm no expert here, just purging out what the doc explained, but in layman's terms) therefore she's allergic. I think that makes some sense, since we used margarine to make her egg-free, wheat-free/gluten-free cookies.

Back to School

Victoria left for school this morning. She was rather independent today, wanting to go shi shi by herself, wipe herself and wash her own hands. When I wanted to help her wash her hands, she insisted I wait outside the toilet and closed the door. However, I went to the other room where it's also connected to the toilet to peep at her as she didn't close the other toilet door.

Then she came out to hug me, or maybe wipe her hands on my shirt as she hugged me. : )

At the breakfast table, she ate by herself, Heh Heh said a simple grace. "Dear God, thank you for the food. Bless us in Jesus Name, Amen."

The maid wanted to help her wear her socks, but she didn't want. She told me that she wanted to sit at the sofa bed to wear her socks, just like Daddy. As we were running out of time, I suggested I do it for her, but she said No.

So I let her be. When she was in the car, I wanted to help her wear her seat belt, but she said she will do it herself.

Again, I let her be.

My my... my girl who just turned 4 year old is suddenly more independent. Or maybe it's because it's her first day back to school after one week of MC.

I wanna stand

William's getting more independent these days. Or should I say, he WANTS to be more independent these days, and doesn't like us to carry him for long. He loves climbing up the stairs or attempt going down the stairs and at times when I want to show him how to play with certain toys or gadgets, he will protest by screaming. He'd rather explore things himself.

My my... he's been screaming quite a bit these days especially when we take him away suddenly to another place, or when the sister takes his toy away. This boy is showing his will power now.

He loves to run in his walker, and walk (aided, still). On his high chair, he's getting more impatient and we have to keep him entertained with things so that he can sit in it, and not stand in it.

My boy sure is growing up fast, especially lately after his early birthday bash on Saturday. It's as if he knows.

2 more weeks to his actual birthday. :)

The virus attack

Vic stayed home from kindy a few days before her birthday last week (april 10th) to recuperate from the cough and slight fever before the big party bash for her and William on april 11th, which I will blog about it when the pictures are ready.

The doctor prescribed Augmentin antibiotic for 5 days on Friday when her cough deteriorated. She's been staying home since then till today, and her condition has stayed almost the same, without much visible improvement except for the fever which has stopped. Today, however, she woke up with not even a cough, no running nose and she looks almost as healthy as any other kid on the street. Wow, praise God! We will send her back to kindy tomorrow as she's been missing almost a week's class.

William, however, caught the bug from his sister on Sunday. He developed slight fever on the evening, and cough and flu on Monday. At night, his cough worsen and the next morning, we brought him (and the sis, just for a follow up check up) to see the doc. Since he has had two episodes of bronchiolitis and bronchitis, we're very careful not to let the flu develop any further. His nose was running almost non stop with clear mucous. The doc prescribed antibiotics for him as precautionary if his condition worsen the next 24 hours. I am to continue with the ventolin and promethazine administered thrice daily.

Last night, William's fever peaked, at 38.3deg taken on his armpits with the clothes on. I'm sure it would have been higher if taken under the clothings. We gave him the suppository and sponge the little guy. He slept well, maybe because of the fever, or because we purified the air in the room with a little eucalyptus oil before that.

This morning at 7am-ish, his fever came back and I gave him oral paracetamol first and started the antibiotics. Since then, his cough has lessen very much, and his nose has stopped running.

The kids look like their on their way to recovery very soon. Such a big change from yesterday, but we continue to uphold them in our prayers and pray that they be strong enough to spend some time with Uncle Julian and Auntie Winnie before they fly back to US.

I've always been touched with people concern over my kids' health, especially her teachers. Although the paed has consoled us that kids at Victoria's age who attend playschool will fall sick 7-8 times a year, we still feel sad everytime either one of them catch the cold. A message came in from Victoria's teacher that really touched my heart, it says, "... God be with Victoria"

If Victoria's fine throughout today, tomorrow she will return to kindy. : )

Pavillion and the little celebrity

We were shopping around Pavillion the two nights ago and Victoria played around with some sunglasses at a boutique store. Here are some poses:

I can't resist these
Is this how Zsa Zsa Gabor would pose?
Hhhmm...
A solemn pose... don't mess around with me!
Bond Girl... and William!

Finally... one with Mummy just for fun!

Brother and sister

It's been awhile since I took pics of my two kids together. I've been lazy lar, and of course it's not easy getting them to sit down obediently to smile for me. But the other day before taking them out to the grocer's, I got these few pics.

Smile... I can see your bunny teeth
Look here, Vic!
Smile... William!
Look here again, Vic
Perfect!

Come... it's your turn to pose for the cam!

The sulky doc and the unwilling doc

I sometimes wonder what my kids will choose for their careers in the future. What course will they take up, what country or uni will they graduate from. Whether they'd work and stay overseas, whether they will work near home and come back to see old Mummy.

They fall sick on average 2-3 months once, which the only consolation comes from the paed who says this is normal for a child who attends playschool. Hhmm... I wonder if that's true for the other kids. With every episode, I teach them about medicine (not like I know a lot but...) I explain each type of medicine that I give to them, and how many mls, and how often they should take it, with or without food.

Victoria has a doctor set which we got her sometime back. She uses it on Heh Heh and some of the other dolls. Since last year, her brother seems like to play with the stethoscope which comes with an electronic heart beat when you press on the "listening piece" (sorry, I don't even know the name of that part). Most of the time, the sister insist that he's the patient and she's the doc.

The unwilling doc: Get this off me!!

The sulky doc: I'm not gonna smile for ya

Victoria is a pet

The other day Victoria was playing this game on the computer by herself. When I joined her, I saw that she has typed her name as the "pet name". The blue (why am I not surprised?) cat on the screen was customized by herself, complete with a ribbon and white spots on the fur.

: )

My "new born" baby

I sometimes miss my little boy when he was a newborn. When I think back of the confinement months, I try to remember what William was like. Time really flies. The other day I manage to take some pictures of my soon-to-be one year old baby after his morning bath. We wrapped him up just like when he was a newborn.

A family portrait

Victoria drew this last night. See Tom (the tortoise)?? Our feet is all round because that's the socks. We are all wearing socks (her favourite) and the two vertical lines from the head are the legs. In between the legs, there's a circle which is her version of a body. The hands portrude out from each sides of the head.

I love this pic! I asked her if I can keep it, and she said yes. Btw, she wrote her name and her age there too.

From left: Daddy, William, Mummy and Victoria. Tom is at Mummy's foot.

Happy 4th Birthday Victoria

Today my little darling turns 4. Despite coming down with cough and cold, and having developed fever the past 2 days, she's remained jovial, playful and excited about her growing older another year. (That makes her one year closer to getting her driving licence as she keeps telling me that she will drive when she's 8 yo)

She's asked for nothing from Daddy except for Daddy to wear purple for her and William's joint birthday party tomorrow. Daddy said their "project" will be to look for a purple shirt in the wardrobe, else she will choose something else for him.

We bought Victoria a bicycle a month back, which she tried in Carrefour, and we hid it in the house. She didn't even know that we bought it. : )

This morning when she came down for breakfast, the bicycle was waiting for her in the living room. But this girl ain't gonna give us the reactions that we so longed to see. She kept cool, didn't even rushed to touch or get on the bike, no thank you, no hugs. Hhmm... still warming up after she woke up maybe.

Anyway, we've got a full day, will blog about it later. Tomorrow is the celebrations and we look forward to it.

William doing his stunt on jie jie's bicycle... hehe!