Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009

The Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009 was held in Putrajaya 2 weeks ago from 19-22 March.

My bro-in-law, CCK, invited us to join his family for a short outing there. We didnt make it the early morning one on that Saturday but we manage to join them for the night glow that same night. It was cool. It was fun indeed. Just a break from the usual routine... :)

Seeing so many people there brings forth an excitement in the air! It was Sarah's first time in Putrajaya and being so mobile now that she can walk steadily, she was pretty excited as well! It was fun to see the family going for outings like this. While the Daddys get their cameras out taking pictures of everything and anything, we Mummys take care of our little ones, enjoying the moments together!

Well, we expected the balloons to fly up in the dark - imagine so many big hot air balloons glowing brightly in the sky! That would really be fun, but no... that only remained in our imagination... maybe we can see that in the future. YES! :)

Sarah and bling-bling

This post is especially dedicated to "great-grandma" Sheela... :) These photos were taken 2 weeks ago when GG Sheela "bribe" Sarah with her "bling-bling" and Sarah was happy to learn that this stuff is cool and that she can wear it at her wrist as well. The chain around her neck was cheh-cheh Saundra's... and when she gets them, it's truly hard to let them go... Very unfortunately, last week Sarah broke GG Sheela's bling-bling... :( So sorry, GG Sheela.

The party... the process...

As all mummies would love to do... (not sure about daddies :p)... we would like to give the "bestest" birthday party for our little one, especially so when they are our first child celebrating their very first birthday of their very own life!

Hmmm..... yeah, I fell into that category of mummies! :p

I wanted my little girl to experience the very best birthday party with everyone who loves her, not just her mummy & daddy, but together with all her grandpa, grandmas, grand-uncles, grand-aunties, uncles & aunties, cheh-chehs & kor-kors, & mei-meis & di-dis.... to some extend I wish I could invite the whole world to celebrate with us this special day...

OK...OK... back to reality ya?! No, we couldnt invite the whole world... No, we couldnt even invite all our relatives, and not to mention friends. I automatically became the organisor, because it was my idea... :p Earlier on about 3 months ago when I had that idea, I was pretty excited, and being the first party I ever organise in my home, I couldnt even sleep (thank God it was only for a night! *phew*) I was imagining how the decos would be like, how the cake would look like, the guest list, the menu of the day, the invitation card, the thank you card, the door gifts, the slide show, the party hats, etc etc... Boy, was I really really excited for the day to come.

Err... in reality? We had some simple decos - balloons & wordings, simple menu for the night (but in the end, ended up with lots of food leftover!), e-invitation card and a video clip showing some pictures taken in her 1 year of life with some video clips of her milestones... (err... my conscience is clear. FYI, i didnt do it during my work. They were all done on one of the nights before the party and during the weekend. hehehe... :p)... OK... So, there were no party hats, no great decos, no thank u cards, no door gifts (except some food that was nicely packed to be taken home. hehehe...)

During the whole process of planning, I learn many things. I learn that 2 heads are better than 1, for sure. Many times I thought of things beyond reality (which is great, but sometimes, some things just have to forgo for now... maybe it can be done later in the future, with better planning, better observation, better experience!). Hubby kept knocking my head, telling me to get back into reality, discussing with me of different options to make things easier and fun for everyone. And yes, we need to do it within our budget as well. I kept being reminded that the party is not to cater for everyone's needs but for Sarah - it's her birthday... make it a wonderful experience for her... most importantly - spend quality time with her! Ah yes... that surely made me think twice about a lot of things. Like the story of Martha & Mary-Magdalene in the Bible, at one time, I felt I became a Martha in this whole party planning process. I was anxious... very anxious indeed.

I learn that to have a good balance of both quality in serving our guests & time in spending with our little one, a good planning is important... that includes time, finance, finding of resources - helpers, food, etc... So, people... if you're intending to throw a party, these are some take-aways:

1. Get the calendar out and start planning the dates/time and work out a checklist. There are many party planning guides out there in the www. Here are some examples: example1 & example2.
2. Have your plans written down - don't let it linger in your head! (You might forget some things along the way & especially on that day)
3. Ask friends & family for help and delegate the tasks out. They'll be more than happy to be part of this. It is needed even though you might think that you & your spouse can handle those tasks. In reality, you would prefer to be freed to be good hosts to all your guests & parents to your child.
4. Tell yourself, "Don't worry... everything will be fine."

5. ENJOY the day!

Oh yes, very important thing... delegate photo-taking to someone. Dont forget to take family photos on that special day. Thank God we have bloggers in our midst. It is very natural of them to take photos here & there on that day :) Hubby was supposed to be the photographer but he was busy with other things. Thank God for back-up plans... hehe... As we didnt manage to take much, back-up photographers are important! We even forgot to take family & friends photos after the cake cutting. That was a regret. *sigh*

All in all, I think the party was a success, except that there were some unforeseen circumstances that affected the "plan" along the way.

Just a short sharing about that...

Firstly, on that day, hubby had to rush out to get our water-filter fixed & called the locksmith to fix our main door lock which suddenly gave way on that day. That kind of taken much of the time needed to get the party preparation done up. Thank God for mummy, ah ees & cousin who helped me with the food preparation & taking care of Sarah while I was busy. Thank God my sis was there to help me with the balloons & hubby quickly spare a short time to put up the wordings. Thank God for my in-laws for helping out with the last-minute SOSes.

Secondly, as i shared earlier, poor Sarah had to go through diarrhea that day and I had to take care of her well-being more than other days. Because this was unforeseen, a good delegation would definitely ease me up.

Thirdly, it was raining the whole night, thus the plan of having some chairs placed at the balcony was disturbed. OK, we really didnt expect that, thus the crowded place in our little hall... :p

Well... thank God it was over (haha!). Thank God tht we have family, relatives & friends who are great people and who are willing to compromise with our short-comings. It was a great party & I was glad to be able to learn many things and experience party-planning. So, more to come? Time will tell... hehehe...

Sarah's birthday : slideshow

We showed a slideshow of our little girl during the birthday party. It speaks about the first year of her life and the milestones she achieved during this one year.

Congratulations, Sarah! You made it this ONE year! :)

Sarah's "pig mouth"

She's been doing the "fish-mouth" and I thought it was cute! Took out the camera, and all we got was...


She loves doing this especially when she is tired, or when she is about to throw her tantrum or cry! Wonder where she learn this from... hmmm...

Scott's Emulsion for Sarah...

We recently bought Sarah a small bottle of Scott's emultion, which is rich in cord liver oil. We got her the original one, which i know can be a little fishy and bland, and not everyone is able to consume it due to its fishy taste. A big clap to Sarah that she took it without problems. Hubby said that's the good thing about being "wai sek" :p

We let her try it for 2 days in a row and she did not reject it. Hubby on the other hand rejected it totally (Yes, it's good for adults too!). I remembered my family used to consume it and it was part of my daily supplement as a child.

Try it!

Sarah's punk hair...

Last night, we couldn't resist taking Sarah's punk hairstyle... hehehe... she was playing & sweating all over, giving her the effect of a natural hair gel. Thus, the punk...

Sarah's 1st birthday party...

Sarah's first birthday party was Mummy's first time being an organizer of a party! How embarrassing... so many things to share about my personal experience, but this post is especially for Sarah. Hehe... So, no complaints... but just to share some pictures taken on her very special day.

Some simple decos... and a birthday balloon given by Aunty Brenda. She couldn't make it for the party, but had this balloon bouquet sent to Sarah before the birthday party. How sweet!
Thanks Aunt Bren! :)

Shoes for sale???
Welcome to our humble home... :)

(just added this pic... thx CK for capturing the food! :))
Let's see... we had fried rice, fried bihun, chicken nuggets, KFC (hot & spicy and original), 3 types of chinese kuih (ang koo kueh, kueh lapis & dono-what-round-thingy-with-red-bean-&-green-beans), chicken curry, egg sandwiches, ah-char, some sour mango thingy, watermelon & cocktail drinks... and of course THE cake!)
We had so much left-overs but thank God we manage to get people to tapao back! Hehehe...
Thank you all who contributed some of the foods.

Babies.... toddlers... young children...
Cousins & friends!
(Clockwise from top-left: Sarah, "Aunt MJ", Janson, Maximus, Ashley, Andrea, Reanne, Paul-Elijah, Ivan & youngest of them all... Priscilla-Anna)

Pix1: Sarah with Ee-por
Pix2: Por-por feeding Sarah some cakes
Pix3: Nai-nai feeding Sarah some porridge... and ah ee looked on...

Bloggers fellowship... :p

Pix1: Children fellowship
Pix2: Aunties fellowship
Pix3: Baba Yeo giving his speech! :p
Pix4: Mummies fellowship

Blessed birthday 2 u....
Blessed birthday 2 u....
Blessed birthday 2 Sarah.....
Blessed birthday 2 u!

We bought a special candle for Sarah. It was a candle with a "No. 1" and 2 stars beside it.
Err... She's too little to know which Disney character she would like on her cake, but Pooh Bear & Tigger seem too cute to resist! :)

Slide show time...

Ah ee helping to cut the cake for Sarah while Grandma Sri Ann giving the instructions. Hehehe...

Pressies for our girl...
Thank you all for the lovely gifts & ang pows.

Notice Sarah was on her "sarong" after the party. Yes, she wasn't feeling well that night. She had diarrhea (suspect due to teething) and caused her butt to be so red & painful, we had to let her wear "sarong" for awhile to "cool" it down.

Finally some family photos with our girl...

Blessed Birthday to U, Sarah.
We love U so so much!

Thank you, Uncle Daniel Lion for some of the photos shown here. We were all so busy during this time, it was good to have backup photographers like you to capture the moments! Really appreciate them much! Thank you so much!

p/s - CK, thank you too! Appreciate the video recording of the birthday prayer & song! :)

[+video] While waiting in the clinic...

Well, as usual... Sarah could not sit still. Thank God there was a small "playground" for the kids (and parents) to hang around while waiting.

Sarah couldn't resist the rocking horse... and the slide too! :)



We let her try the slide... she loved it! :)
It was actually pretty hard to take her attention away from it. Daddy had to distract her with some other stuff there, but soon after that, the nurse called "Sarah Chong!"

Baby Sarah's Weight & Height - Month 12

Last night was Sarah's first visit (after her first birthday) to Dr Khoo to get her Measles/mumps/rubella jab. We were excited as parents to go check out her weight & height too. Hahaha!

Month 12+ (19 March 2009)
Weight=10.12kg (+1.62kg (after 6mths))
Height=75.5cm (+5.5cm)
Head circumference=44.4cm (+2.9cm)

She didn't gain as much weight as last time because she is actively walking and developing her other muscles in her body. So, no... she is not overweight (even though she still has michelin arms...) Hehehe...

She is growing healthily. Doctor says she is following her growth chart and that was important.
Thank You, Lord!

Read previous post on baby Sarah's weight & height measurement (Month 6).
Read previous post on baby Sarah's weight & height measurement (Month 5).
Read previous post on baby Sarah's weight & height measurement (Month 4).
Read previous post on baby Sarah's weight & height measurement (Month 3).
Read previous post on baby Sarah's weight & height measurement (Month 0 - 2).

Happy!

Today, as I was on my way up to the office... as I do everyday... but different this time! I decided one thing that is very important in my life.

I decided to be HAPPY! :)

I know I've been rather grouchy lately, or perhaps for as long as I learn to earn my own money. Nothing is enough. Nothing satisfies me... (except maybe watching Sarah grow! Haha!) Well, I'm not saying that I'm contented. I just decided to be happy and live my best everyday. It's not easy, I know. I'm affected by situations around me rather easily... thus, making me sad, angry, frustrated, annoyed, blablablabla... and the list goes on and on and on.

Today, I decided to be HAPPY! And live my life as how I would when I was a little girl, except that now I am married and am a working mum.

Thank You, Lord for a blessed day today and going forward!

Blessed 1st Birthday, Princess Sarah

Lord Jesus, shower your blessings upon our precious one from this day forth! We pray for blessings of good health, protection, prosperity, wisdom & knowledge, joy & happiness, talents & giftings, spiritual gifts & fruits of His spirit upon our dear Sarah... in Jesus' name we pray - Amen!

Girl girl, Mummy & Daddy love you very very very much! Receive this prayer of blessings from us both! Muaaahhhh! xoxo :)

Sarah's teething again...

It's that teething season again for Sarah. Sad to see her feeling so down at this time... and especially seeing her in pain.

Symptoms:
1. slight fever
2. drool, drool, drool
3. diarrhea

ok.... so No. 3 is not a symptom that many, if not all, pediatricians say... or even in many other sources of knowledge. Hmm... I wonder whether i'd like to debate on this, but for the past 3 other seasons of teething for Sarah, diarrhea seems to be one of the symptom that is so likely to occur to her. The "texture" is different from the normal faeces. It's slightly watery + it has small little faeces in the soiled diaper, size of a pea. And she will poo-poo at least 4-6 times a day for at least 2-3 days in a row. It hurts her bottom so much that whenever we change her diaper, she would cry. I could imagine how painful it is for her, as her bum was really red during this period.

Little Sarah's Milestone: 10 to 12 months

It was between the 10th month and the 12th month (yeah, she's gonna be 1 year old pretty soon! :))... I cant really recall when all these happened exactly as time truly flies before our very eyes! I thank the Lord for His blessings of divine health, protection, knowledge and wisdom upon our little princess.

At Month 10 - 12:
She runs! (oh boy... at this stage, we really had to "catch her if we can"!) And yes, she loves playing catching!

Her vocabulary increases... (oh, she's bilingual by the way! :)) Let's see...
1. "chou-chou" (means smelly in mandarin), ie she will utter these every time she poos.
2. "nen-nen" (means milk in mandarin) when she's hungry.
2. "throw" and she then throws whatever in her hand.
3. "socks" whenever she sees a pair of socks. If she's holding a sock in her hand, she will place it near her foot. If she sees daddy wearing his socks, she will utter that word too!
4. "hallelujah"... she learned this word during one of our cell group prayer meeting time, when daddy kept saying "hallelujah", and suddenly we heard at the background, one little girl uttered "hallelujah" too! That was really really cute! :)
5. "k,k,k,k".... LOL! She will say this after mummy says "OK, OK, OK, OK" to her... :)
6. "star"
7. "duck"
8. "frog"
9. "car"
10."cat"
11. "dog"
12. "ahhhhhhhh" after drinking...
13... hmm... cant recall for now (will update later :p)
ok... some additional stuff after reading the comments... :p
so...
13. "na na"... that means "Mummy"... we're still trying very hard to convince her to call me "Mummy" & not "Na Na"... sometimes "Na Ma"... and also "Ma Na" :p
14. "nen nen ah???" Whenever it's feeding time, i will ask her, "You want nen nen ah???"... and she will copy me, "Nen nen ah???"... and we kept repeating these until she gets her bottle! :p
15. "ak ak"... that means "hug hug". She learned these words earlier on when we got her to hug "Mashi Mashi" every night during bedtime.
16. "ta ta" (means beat in mandarin), so whenever she misbehave, we will tell her "ta ta"... oh yes, since she's an absorber-of-anything-and-everything, she will utter these words too.
17. "oh oi"... that means "sleep"... i think this is a chinese baby lingo.

And some actions...
1. When she coughs or when she hears someone coughs, she will pat her chest.
2. When her stomach's filled, and when we ask her "na ni pao-pao?" (direct translation: where full-full?"), she will pat her belly.
3. When her food is finished, she will show her hand gesture saying "No more".
4. She claps her hand after each song we sing to her, and says "Yeahhhhh!" This happens mainly in the car while we were trying to distract her from crying! Hehehe... Praise God it works! :)
5. She claps her hand after each "achievement" Hehehe... that means, whenever she's able to follow daddy or mummy in her daily development (i would say... this is a "mental development")
6. She waves byebye to everyone downstairs while on the way upstairs for bedtime.
7. She waves byebye and carries a bag (dont exactly know which bag or where she gets it from) and head to the gate.
8. She stands on top of her toy car and balance herself (daddy says like "Mat Rempit"!) and claps her hands! (oh boy... we tried to stop her from doing this stunt, but sometimes she's just too fast!)
9. Whenever mummy or nai-nai prepares her milk, she will stand nearby waiting for it... for me, I will pass the bottle to her (she will feel a sense of independence... i believe! hehehe...) and she will walk to the mattress in the living room, look for a pillow and lie on it (this part needs some help from mummy, else she will lie face down! LOL!) and drink from her bottle. Last weekend, daddy saw her looking for her hanky as well before walking to the mattress!
10. Play hard to get (as what "Great-grandma" Sheela always calls her... a new name given too! "Hard-to-get-babe"! :))
11. When we ask her, "Where pain-pain?", she will reply by patting her head. The funny thing is every time she knocks any part of her body (cheek, hand, leg, etc...) to something, she will pat her head to tell us it is painful. Hahaha!
12. She pats Ivan kor-kor to sleep! LOL! That's what nai-nai does everyday, so yes... Sarah's learning to pat her kor-kor to sleep too! :)
13. We play "1-2-3" game with her every night when we reach home. We'll say "1-2..." and at "3", both her head & ours will knock each other!
14. She responds to instructions like "Give me a kiss...", "Give me a hug...", etc...

At this age, she seems to clearly understand what we say to her or what she's needed to do at a certain time. She's even trying to communicate her wants to us! This stage of growth is rather interesting for me and daddy as we both learned that doing what is right is so important (especially in front of her) because she totally copies almost everything she sees! I'm amazed at the rate she is going and I thank God for developing her well in her days! God bless little Sarah!

Check out Little Sarah's milestone: 6 to 9 months
Check out Little Sarah's milestone: 1 to 6 months