my band heroes
I finally got to meet up with the Queenies for our annual “loh hey” gathering over CNY, with some band hero/rock band activities thrown in.
It was lovely just being able to see, hug & catch-up with all of them again despite feeling very under the weather but I had oodles of fun.
And the highlight has got to be when they surprised me with a birthday cheesecake topped with hagen daaz strawberry ice-cream!
a cozy bday celebration
My birthday celebration this year was simple. Yet cozy.
No cake, no candles, no drinking, no travelling, no noisy merry making, no party.
And it was fine by me, because I already had the best birthday present – who was actively making his existence known in my tummy through the day.
Though the husband wasn’t the first to wish me as I had initially hoped, nor was he able to take the entire day off to spend my hatch day with me – he didn’t forget about my birthday after all! He did take a 1/2 day off after some compulsory meetings & company CNY luncheon, shuttled between venues to get my birthday plans & gift sorted out before meeting me for our quality time together – a lovely afternoon tea followed by some window shopping, watched a movie, before ending the evening with a hearty dinner from a delish heartland hawker.
There wasn’t anything fanciful but it sure tugged the heartstrings out of me that despite managing a busy work schedule & mugging for an impending exam – the Bo still made time.
Mom & J.J also pampered me silly with their gifts too (thank you!), and this really made me tear knowing how blessed I was.
And of course, the celebrations with my friends & family which led into the following day were nothing short of amazing. The food we shared, the laughs we had, the sweets we ate, the catching up…utterly enjoyable.
I had such a great time that I was practically knackered by the time I got home at about 11.30pm last night (having start my day at 10am in the morning).
{a photo booth shot before starting out my lovely day}
{a sweet surprise from Annie – yummy birthday cupcakes!}
{with my gorgeous mommy friends}
{I had a cookies & cream cupcake all to myself}
{Birthday dinner with the cousin at Zaffron’s}
{finishing off the evening with a cuppa hot choco at Max Brenner’s, which was disappointingly sweet}
{And some tutti frutti waffles}
{with the cousin. note to self: unflattering arms}
What an amazing year of adventure it has been, and I know the year ahead will be an even more exciting, albeit challenging one. Thank you Lord for the many blessings, opportunities, for providing & showering me with oodles of love & grace.
And while I’m still in disbelief that this will be my last birthday celebration become I become a a mommy (and birthday celebrations will no longer be in the same, carefree fashion since we will obviously keep thinking of the little one regardless whether he will be out with us or not), I’m totally looking forward to my next birthday celebration, where the chungkin will obviously be a part of it!
{happy 31 weeks}
Birthday: first thoughts
So the first 40+ messages that came through Facebook/Whatapps/SMS all beat my husband to wishing me Happy Birthday at the stroke of midnight as I settled into deep slumber. Part of me actually thinks he might have forgotten it was my birthday – perhaps due to the impending stress of fatherhood, coupled with work and upcoming exam stress. He was still busy cramming to study his daily quota of 50 pages just before I hit the sheets at 11.45pm.
But somehow, it didn’t matter as much as it might have did before. For past years, I remember the Bo either calling me at midnight of 2nd Feb to sing a birthday song (when we were still dating) or surprising me with a birthday cake (once we got married); and it would really melt my heart each time regardless how repeated a gesture it was. I’m old-fashioned in that way.
I wasn’t expecting him to pull up anything fancy this year, seeing how stress was occupying his mind & face…but someone new & amazing took over in giving me a hearty birthday wish.
It was the little chungkin. He was bouncing around my tummy before giving me a nudge, probably to wish me a Happy Birthday. And that absolutely took the icing on the cake.
Bo turns another year older
Every year during Bo’s birthday, I’d usually have something up my sleeves to surprise him with one way or another. It could be just bringing in his favorite Bengawan Solo pandan-kaya cake at the end of an impromptu family dim sum or at the stroke of midnight on 9 Jan, or gathering some of his best buds for ‘surprise’ drinks (which includes injecting in some pranks on the birthday boy as well), organizing a McDonalds’ ‘kids’ party, springing an impromptu trip or even just hiding his good friends in his room all ready to surprise him when he opens the door – yes I’ve that much mischief lined up for the man considering that his special day comes only once a year plus I’ve always been big on birthday celebrations since young; something that has been running in the family for as long as I can remember.
So this year, I felt like a total party popper when I had zero plans & ideas on what to do. Well technically I did think of doing a nice dinner out (our usual) but when the Bo confirmed that he had the rest of his birthday off too just 2 days prior, my brain just could not generate a list of things to do. All I could think of was…sleeping in or visiting the loo…which just made me feel even more guilty that I wasn’t even making much of an effort.
In the end, I told myself to just let the ‘plan-perfectionist’ in me loose. I didn’t have personal disposable cash I usually would have to dispense off spontaneously on a trip or pampering activity to speak to (since everything goes towards baby’s necessities funds now), but I knew I was going to make this birthday count nonetheless. The Bo had been working hard for most of 2011 just so that I could ‘relax & have an enjoyable pregnancy’ so it was only deserving that I reciprocated his love back in my little own way.
8 Jan, eve of birthday: My eyes were shutting on me quickly at 10.45pm, but I struggled and managed to resist, watching his favorite anime series with him till midnight before being the first to wish him Happy Birthday with a huge hug from me & baby chungkin (he actually responded with a kick, well done son!).
Then this morning, I made a mental note not to sleep in nor snooze so that we could have an early start. Woke up by 9am, greeted & kissed birthday boy again; got myself ready quickly so that we could do whatever he wanted (with some backup brunch places and activities in mind) and not before long, we were out of the house! We didn’t end up visiting any of the 4 brunch places I had in mind, but I told myself that I was going to let birthday boy decide what he wanted to do. If he wanted to run some errands, chill at a local coffee shop for a bit before watching a show – then that’s what we’ll do. It was his day anyway.
Come evening time (amazing how time flies when you’re on leave and having so much fun quality couple time together!), we took a little stroll around the quaint neighborhood of Katong before meeting mom for dinner. I also managed to sneak away for a sec & purchase the last pandan-kaya cake on display at the shop on the pretext of ‘needing to take a dump’ (and had mom’s help to aid with collection of cake and restaurant reservations).
All in all, a simple and relaxing celebration. There wasn’t anything fancy going on – no huge surprises as with the past few years, but as mom succinctly reiterated during dinner – this year was indeed a very special celebration for the Bo because it’s the year that he is going to become a daddy! We couldn’t agree more.
Happy Birthday my Bo. Thank you for being the best husband and friend that you have been and can be. I can’t wait for little.C to join in the celebration next year and the years to come – giving you that birthday kiss & hug in person! Here’s wishing you a very wonderful year, a great beginning of fatherhood, may joy, love & laughter continue to fill your heart and that our Good Lord will continue to keep you, bless you and grant you your desires. – much love always.
xo.
{soup}
{a birthday tradition & must have – ee fu noodles}
{papa chung, mama chung & baby chung}
{family}
{birthday boy and his favorite cake of choice}
baby chungkin birthdays i wore this today little ones preg-o: Jelly Belly
by natasha
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It’s almost end of the week, already?
Thank you everyone (post Elphie’s virtual baby shower) for stopping by and sending your love & wonderful wishes this way too. It’s been so amazing – to ‘meet’ & connect with a like-minded community from around the globe. And also to Elphie for that beautiful gesture of a shout-out. Another reason why you rock!
My first week back at doing pretty much nothing (aka. not working) has been flying by quickly & eventful – thanks to a Diwali public holiday which happened mid this week, lots of appointments/catching up in between and the husband taking tomorrow (Friday) off to spend some quality couple time before we meet some friends for pre-dinner drinks to welcome the weekend (can’t believe this will also be the last weekend of Oct’11! – where has the year gone to already?).
We also met up with our designer few days ago to explore 1st cut proposals of project make-room-for-baby-chungkin and realized how practical we’ve become when we rejected the idea of having a low lying bed on a low lying platform section without any hesitation. Any big, delicate showpieces also went out of the window regardless how pretty the sketches looked.
On Saturday, we have the possibility of finding out if baby chungkin is growing a penis or not (fingers crossed that baby chungkin doesn’t get all cheeky and starts bending knees again) and that news alone has been exciting for quite a few people with most placing their bets on camp blue. Mm…hopefully we’ll have some updates then!
Ending it off with some snaps over the week and a 17 weeks+ belly. x
Out & about with cousin and her son, Callum
Celebrating grandma’s 7xth birthday with the family at E-Sarn Thai corner (fab food by the way)
{Wearing French Connection top & shorts, kate spade ballet flats}
the 17 wks+ jelly belly
50 & Fabulous
To my mom,
You are extremely special in my heart
You are kind, generous, joyful, optimistic, compassionate, loving and kind, albeit sometimes naggy as the years go by :)
You have taught me a lot about life by sharing with me what you read, know & learn about as you still do, ever so regularly
You have shown me what it means to love others more than they love you
Your patience have taught me how to be patient
And your dedication & commitment to be the best mother you can be to me as I was growing up inspire me to want to be a wonderful mother some day too
Your laughter is infectious as the whole family always laughs with you
While your warmth is ever so endearing that I get reminded of it everyday
On this wonderful 50th birthday, I want to let you know (again),
Just how much Luke, I & other loved ones (you know who) treasure and love you so much
How you have made our worlds, a happy loving place
And that you are an angel to each of us in your ways
May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you as he always do
Your children,
Luke & Nat
(the above photos are from the surprise lunch we planned for on 2 May 2011. More on that later…)
Sam’s 30th birthday bash
A few of my cousin’s close friends & I got together and started a very long Facebook message thread some 2 months ago to plan for her 30th birthday celebration.
What intended to be a ‘everyone-getting-smashed’ idea turned out to be a very cozy, nice & happy-high one due to a recent slew of events and unanimous agreement that we didn’t want to be seen puking all over, at a chi-chi place.
So instead we booked a lovely corner at Lantern by Fullerton Bay, cozied up amongst some colourful balloons and loaded ourselves with nibbles, fancy cocktails, wine, desserts & laughter. Lots of laughter about everything under the moon.
Most importantly, birthday girl had fun, loved the handmade gifts we created and so did we.
Mission accomplished.
Ed turns 5
My ex-team decided to throw Ed (aka. the geek kid aka. my ex-colleague since 2008) a belated birthday party yesterday. In actual years, he turned 31 last Friday but because he loves McDonalds so much that he even bugs people to have McDonalds for lunch just so he can have his burger…we decide to throw a McDonalds-themed one for him.
As Candice & I weren’t working, we met to get his gift first before taking the circle line down (nearest station: Mountbatten Mrt). And we were the first to arrive!
We settled ourselves with some milkshakes, while the 1st batch of the party arrived…
Birthday boy soon appear some 45 minutes later… :\ thank goodness because we were just aching to play some childish games!!!
I think at some point the McDonald’s facilitator sort of lost it because us adults were acting really childish with our ‘tantrums’ and ‘taunts’ that well…we starting throwing things at each other. But all in all, very fun and different from the one I organized for Luke some 3 years ago. I reckon it was because we had a really sporting crowd today. Heh.
Happy Birthday Ed! :)
My boy turned 1
Wasn’t in Dubai for the bash, but heard he had a lovely one.
Happy Birthday Oskar, my roo. Godma & godpa love you!
Blog Log
5 minutes ago, I clicked on ‘Birthdays’ under Categories and started reading all the entries.
I laughed so hard when I read me describing myself as a “giggly girl that grabs any and everyone when I’m drunk to cam-whore with” drunk in 2009.
Re-reading how I planned Luke’s birthday bashes differently every year amused me too.
Beauty of a Blog Log.
Turning 27 – birthday thoughts
It’s 11 hours into my birth day, and already I’m feeling utterly loved & blessed by the many who have made the little effort to send me well-meaning messages & gifts on the mobile, whatsapp, facebook, in person etc.
And as with every year since we got together, the husband called me last evening asking me how it felt to be an almost-2X (a question he asks on every eve of my birthday). While to him it may have been in jest, to me it was a moment I quietly reflected for a few seconds as my life in the past year flashed before me.
Birthdays have always been a big part of my life. Being mom’s only child and having only each other for most of my life, mom always took the time (however busy she was juggling several jobs just to let me have a cushy life) & effort (in whatever simple way it may be) to let me know how thankful she was to God for sending me to her and how I have always been her greatest motivation in life, striving to work harder just so that I could be presented with opportunities to learn the piano, swimming, speech & drama and wouldn’t feel shortchanged in any way.
Mom always made sure she set aside enough to get me a medium size coffee cake (she loved coffee, I just loved cake) on my birthdays regardless whether of our un-priviledged status, or if it was just her celebrating with me at home or sometimes taking 1/2 day leave just to celebrate it with me in school because she had night classes at the business school.
And along with the cake, there would always be a beautiful hallmark-written birthday card. A card that would beatifully word all the things that she wanted to say, her well intentions & heart’s desires for me.
And now although I have a lovely husband who would always wait till 11:59pm on the eve of my birthday to spring a Birthday song & cake for me, mom is still very involved in this yearly affair in her own way. She would call me in the first few minutes of midnight, sing a Birthday song and followed with a well-intentioned message.
This year her SMS message read:
“A daughter brings much happiness.
She is such a joy from the start.
Watching as she grows reaches deep within your heart.
She is full of love, caring and giving. A real joy to behold.
Watching her as years pass as her talents unfold.
She leaves memories and contentment throughout her years.
These memories will often bring happy tears.
I love you :*
Happy Birthday my darling girl :*
God bless you always.”