1 year 5 days old

Hayley is 1 year and 5 days old today. I am sure some of you are waiting for the photos from her 1st birthday, to be honest, I am also waiting for them :-).

A friend who owns a DSLR camera offered to take photo for that day and I'm still waiting for him to send the photos to me. As he's helping me willingly, I don't want to pressure him so will let him take his time to download and send the photos over. It may take another week or even month. Who knows?!

Anyway, I will surely post those photos once they are ready. So stay tuned!

On a different note, I know some parents dread when their babies are turning into toddlers. For a change, I kind of like it. Well, don't get me wrong. I do miss those baby times but I felt that since turning 1 my little girl has grown up so much in the last couple of days. She seems more communicative (she can't really speak yet except for a few simple and basic words), cheerful and playful. She also behaves like an adult sometimes.

Here are some of the cute little things she does which amazes me:

1. The papa was sitting on the floor watching TV with his back leaning against the sofa and his legs slightly curled up. The little one crawled towards the papa and rested her back on his legs (using his legs as the back support) and then curled her legs. She is copying the way the papa sits.

2. I was changing her diaper early one morning before going to the babysitter's house and she pointed at the direction of the dining table and said 'mum mum'. I turned to the table and saw the loaf of Gardenia sitting directly facing her :-)

3. She picked up a dead insect on the floor and looked at me (she know that I will scold her if she put it in the mouth) and when I reached out my hand, she obediently gave the insect to me. I threw the insect into the bin in front of her. Then she picked up another one using her left hand. When I reached out my hand (expecting her to give it to me), this time she reached out her right hand and pretended to put something on my hand and quickly put her left hand into her mouth. Isn't she cheeky!

4. Lately she refuses to drink water. Not sure if because she's teething (her teeth are finally showing, top and bottom 2). So sometimes when I want to feed her water she would pretend to cough!

5. She can dance! My little girl can dance and pretty well too. Apart from moving her bum from left to right whenever she hears music that she likes (she will even dance to the sounds of drums like those from the lion dances) she also moves her upper body as if she's doing ripples. I caught her doing that a couple of times. She surely had my dancing genes :-)

She sure is the love of my life :-)

Hayley's 1st Birthday

As you would have known, we celebrated Hayley's birthday at a friend's restaurant. We booked 3 tables and prepared a 7 course lunch to cater to our close family and friends. Like all celebrations, there would surely be happy and unhappy moments.

Well, let's talk about the unhappy moments first so that I can end the post with the happy stuff :-). Like all parties that involves food, the most common problem is having friends who accepted the invite and then declined at the very last min - aka 'kite flyers'. 3 close friends did that to us so we were rather upset. Although they have valid and genuine reasons but we still can't help but feel upset but of course we do not blame them. So we ended up with only 7 or 8 people at each table with lots of food to spare. Thankfully we invited all close friends so they don't really mind packing back the leftovers else the food would have gone to waste and we do not condone food wasting!

Apart from the above, it was happy moments all the way :-).

Although with only a few friends and families, it was fun nonetheless. Everyone came on time except my mom who had to work so she arrived 30 mins late and everyone was waiting for her with growling stomach. I have 2 pregnant women at the party (both due in May), 2 moms whose babies are born in 2008 (both younger than Hayley) and another 2 moms whose kids are above 3. So the moms-to-be and the new moms and the veteran mom have lots to share and talk about :-). There were lots of kids and babies there to play with too.

I also invited Hayley's babysitter so that she could meet my family. Having aunty there really helped. She helped me feed and watch over Hayley when I had to entertain my friends. The usually friendly Hayley was rather shy on her birthday. She didn't allow anyone to carry her (at least not instantly). She needed time to warm up but thankfully she didn't cry when others insisted on carrying her. As usual, to keep her occupied to her seat, we have to bribe her with food :-).

Hayley tasted cakes for the first time on her birthday (well this is as far as I know as I am not sure if aunty ever fed her with cakes before at her place). We gave her both the cupcakes as well as the jelly cake. We gave her a little bit of each to let her try and she enjoyed them as usual (she'll eat anything and everything - proven from the fact that she ate an ant!). Even though she knew how to blow into the whistle, unfortunately she doesn't know how to blow the candle. She thought they were toys and wanted to reach for them. I had to blow the candles on her behalf and of course cut the cake for her.

Here are some of the special things I prepared for the party (apart from the cake of course):

1. A thank you gift pack for kids (I bought stationery, sticker pictures and M&Ms chocos). I wrapped them up nicely in wrapping papers. I also tailored made the cards with the special cartoon characters that the kids like. Eg Cadence like Barney, Ying Hui likes Winnie the Pooh etc. The gift was given to kids age 3 and above. Unfortunately I did not get anything for babies as I didn't know what to get for them. Sorry friends with babies :-(

2. Twin cupcakes for the adults nicely wrapped in a box which I ordered from Yummies By Audrey. They were specially designed in conjunction with Valentine's Day. If you visit Audrey's blog, you will also see Hayley's cup cakes being posted there :-). As for the thank you card, I did it myself using photo paper and photo printer. I even translated the message into Mandarin (for some of our Mandarin speaking friends) although I don't know how to read them :-). I used the free online translation tools and got some of my colleagues to check.

The party started around 1.30pm and ended around 3.30pm. We wanted to stay longer to chat but we have to respect the restaurant's break time which is from 3 - 6pm. The kids were happy to receive presents. Cadence my 4 year old niece even asked me 'yi yi, how come no present for my little sister?'. I had to explain to her that the presents are not suitable for Caitlin and she nodded her head. What a good little girl she is.

Hayley knocked off immediately in the car on the way back. Nothing I do will wake her up. It was quite funny and rare. She's not really the type who will fall asleep on her own. I guess the air conditioning and the rocking movement of the car really does the trick. Anyhow, it was tiring for her and us as well.

Here are some more photos to share (I am being featured here for the very first time :-)). As I have not received all the photos yet, I will share more in the 2nd post once I have received them:

The birthday girl

With her favourite pose - the pouty lips or ''chu chui' (pigs mouth)

The gorgeous 3kg jelly cake that cost us RM135

The 3 of us

My best bud Jessie and me (look at the bun in her oven :-))

Every successful party would not have been successful without the help and support of friends and families. Therefore, we would like to thank the following from the bottom of our hearts:

1. Andrew & Alexis for buying the 2nd birthday cupcakes and bringing them to us on purpose on Friday night. They were yummy (all the guests said so) and beautiful. Uncle Andrew is like a godfather to Hayley. He's also the Santa Claus as he often brings her gifts :-)

2. Dino (Jessie's hubby) for being my photographer for that day. Dino is now into photography and recently bought a new DSLR camera and the photos he took are beautiful. His first baby will arrive in May and the camera would come in handy to capture those special moments :-). They are expecting a girl with a pointy chin and big round eyes, just like her mom!

3. My sis Ai Nee for helping me collect the cupcakes from Audrey all the way from Mon't Kiara.

4. My eldest sis Alice for the cool Adidas shoe for Hayley.

5. Jodie for giving me discounts for the food, recommending yummy dishes and making sure everything turned out well :-). Everyone said the food was good and I am glad to hear that.

6. All our dear friends (Jane, Ling Yi, Samm, Kin Fei, Samson, PCK, Hock, Bro Chuen, Bro Chuen's wife and son, Dino, Jessie, Jodie, Jadrian and families (my mom, both my sis and tuaso - aka my eldest sis in law) who attended the party and showered Hayley with lots of kisses, hugs, good wishes and angpows!

And guess what, I was told that 14 February 2010 is also the first day of CNY. So it will be 3 happy occassions for us in 1 day next year. She sure is born on a very special date! HEHE

Training my little one to sleep by herself

During the long CNY break I took the opportunity to train my little one to sleep by herself. I am not letting her sleep alone but I am just training her to sleep without me lullabying or patting her. I am quite surprised that it wasn't that hard. I thought by now it would be hard to change her habits but to my amazement it only took me 4 days.

Day 1 - I took her up to bed at 9pm as usual. I put her in the cot and wished her good night and gave her a kiss on her forehead. The moment I turn away she starting crying. I ignored her and lie on the bed. My bed is just next to her cot. She cried and yelled and tried to reach for me. I pretend to be asleep. She actually cried, occassionally with tears and occasionally without (those fake cries) for almost 50 mins! But in the end she fell asleep on her own.

Day 2 - Again we went up at 9pm. I did the same ritual of wishing her good night and kiss on the forehead. This time she cried or pretend to cry for 30 mins and then fell asleep.

Day 3 - Same ritual, 5 mins of crying and it took her 20 mins to fall asleep.

Day 4 - No more crying or yelling when I put her in the cot. She immediately lie down and started playing with her toys, bolster and blanket. She fell asleep on her own in 20 mins.

That was easy or so I thought. On the 5th day we brought her out and came home rather late. It was way past her bedtime. We reached home like 10pm. We immediately got her ready for bed and the moment I put her in the cot, she started behaving like her old self ie DAY 1!

Tonight was actually the 7th night and she took around 20 mins to sleep with 5 mins of crying just like in Day 3. I don't understand why there is a reformat button in their system. Now I think twice if I want to bring her out late. I am so afraid that DAY 1 will happen again. I really cannot bear hearing her cry and yell for 50 mins!

8 more days to go...

See, now I am left with 8 days :-(

Anyway, am happy to say that I have finally made up my mind on how to celebrate Hayley's 1st birthday ... finally... phew....

We are going to celebrate at a Chinese restaurant that belongs to my friend's parents. The extra 20% discount she is offering me is very tempting.. hehe. We have invited 30 close family members and friends for a 7 course lunch. We wanted to invite more but unfortunately since it is Valentine's Day, most of them already had plans with their loved ones. I foresee the same happening going forward if I do plan to celebrate Hayley's birthday each year. I guess this is the downside for being born on a special date.

Well, now that I have picked the venue and confirmed the menu, I need to go shopping this weekend to get some 'thank you' gifts for the kids and adults attending the party. Since it's V Day, I am thinking of stationery for the kids and chocolates for the adults or maybe chocolates for both to save the hassle :-)

Countdown to Hayley's 1st Birthday - 12 days

Boy oh boy, time flies. My baby will turn 1 in 12 days.

I still don't know what to do with her birthday party. Should I invite everyone or just close friends and relatives. Should I have it at a restaurant or should I have it at the club. Should I go for Chinese or Western or buffet... gosh.. all these choices are driving me nuts. And as usual hubby isn't helping. He's really good at 'tai-chi'. Tai-chi-ing all the decisions to me :-(

One thing for sure is that we will surely have a party for her. Both me and hubby didn't have our 1st birthday party as we are not from well to do families so we want our baby to have everything we didn't have.

And talking about cakes, I love those jelly cakes which I got to know from friends and also from www.lifeasamummy.com (http://www.qjelly.com/) and also theme cakes from mamamin (http://mamamin.wordpress.com/) . Again I didn't know which to choose. Sigh....

Anyone has any good ideas on how to make a baby's 1st birthday party memorable?

Please don't ask me to have it at home (although I love to) cause I don't have a maid and the clean up after the party will drive me nuts.

Oh no, Hayley has sticky eyes

Hayley suddenly woke up on Wednesday with sticky substances around her eyes. They were yellowish in colour. Her eyes are often watery and slightly swollen too. The discharge just keeps coming and it got worst at night. The discharge dried up and sealed off her eyes. She couldn't open them and that scared me to death.

Today her condition is slightly better although I didn't do anything other than using cotton soaked in warm water to wipe her as recommended by the babycentre.com website. I will continue to monitor tomorrow and if its still the same, I will surely bring her to the doctor. I did a quick research on the internet and suspected that she could have conjuntivitis. But one other symptom of this is pink eyes which she doesn't have so I am not really sure. Conjuntivitis is caused by a virus/bacteria. It could also happen after a bad flu which she recently had. Anyway, tomorrow I will decide if I should bring her to a doctor.

My mom on the other hand said its due to body heat which could also be true cause she refuses to drink water from the bottle (she will drink milk but not water) and I had to feed her using a spoon. I think she is refusing the teats because her gums are sore. Her lips are slightly red too which is a clear sign of heat. My poor girl. Teething is causing her so much discomfort :-(. I hope it will go away in time for her birthday party.

And because of this, we also cancelled our Penang trip :-(

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Sorry for the late wishes as I've not been blogging for days now as I've been very busy celebrating CNY hehehe. Hayley's been with me since Sat and I will be babysitting fully until next Monday. I am giving the babysitter a break (although she said its ok to send Hayley back on Wed) and I am also planning to bring her to Penang for a couple of days. Although its driving distance away, this will be her first trip away from home and I am getting anxious. I dont know what to pack and bring. I think I will bring the whole house. My kiasuism is kicking in.. hahaha

On the first and second day of CNY, we've been out whole day. We went to my brother in law's place as both my MIL and FIL are in town. We usually will head back to hometown for CNY but this year they decided to celebrate in KL instead as we have babies and little kids and it would be inconvenient for us to travel. They are so nice and so understanding :-)

Anyway, the 2 days at BIL's house has been tiring for me and hubby. Hayley refuses to nap as there were many kids there to play with. She crawls and pulls and climbs and fusses. We left the home early and came back late. We are drained!

Today we get to rest at home as both FIL and MIL are back to hometown and we don't need to go to BIL's place anymore. Later we're bringing Hayley to shop around before heading to my mom's place for dinner. We will be coming home late too but thankfully she's now napping in the comfort of her own home and will be fully charged up for the long day ahead.

She also got a new nickname given to her by my BIL. She's known as the 'vacuum cleaner' as she likes to pick things up from the floor (from food crumbs, stones, dirt, hair, dead insects etc) and puts them into her mouth. Its amazing how her little eyes can spot these dirt (that most of us just ignore) and then her little fingers can pick them up at ease.

And btw, I think her teeth is finally coming. I can see 2 little bulge on her lower gums. Although I don't see white spots yet but I think they are going to appear fairly soon. I hope they will be out on time for her first bite of a chicken drumstick on her 1st birthday :-)

Talking about her first birthday, it'll be here in 2 weeks and I still can't make up my mind on how to celebrate :-(