On the eve of little man’s first birthday, I got really emotional.

The photobook, our birthday present to him, which I painstakingly sacrificed 1.5 weeks of decent sleep (& TV marathons with the Bo) for arrived just hours earlier.

And as I went through it in enjoyment & detail, savouring page after page of captions and notes to my little man that I had written for every month & milestone he celebrated along with the photo collages; tears started to well up in my eyes.

Admittedly I was exhausted after having spent the evening moving an entire living & dining area of furniture in preparation for the party. But these tears, they weren’t caused by exhaustion. They were tears of joy, pride, love that synced with familiar, beautiful memories that I got to experience with the little fella in the past year.

{our birthday present to the little man – a photobook filled with personal messages and memories of his first year}

Watching Liam grow from baby to the toddler that he is today has been nothing short of amazing and a very, very blessed privilege – thanks to  three very special people who love us both so dearly and made this possible, even to the extend of making some personal sacrifices.

And because I’m aware how I’m often quick to brush things off and slow to express enough how appreciative and thankful I am to be able to enjoy motherhood the way my mom wished she could but never had the chance to due to our situation then, I just wanted to document it here officially to 3 very special people who are also my 3 biggest readers – THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE FOR US.

Each of you have made a positive impact in my life in more ways than you know, and I can’t thank you enough for all the love you’ve showered us with and will continue to shower us more with; for all the contributions, sacrifices, the prayers, the advices, the pampering, the support. Having you in my life was definitely part of HIS perfect plan for I’ve experienced & been overwhelmed by His grace  & love through you.

Being the current stay-home mom that I am, there are times I look back on my career years in hindsight & wished I made a more serious effort to save more for the future, for the family I have now, instead of being the closet hippie I was & attempting the “living-in-the-now” with whatever I earned. But of course, we were all careless with our finances once upon a time. My weaknesses were definitely buying cult jeans, shoes, sunglasses and beauty products. Who would have knew I had to give up on very decent income to become a mom and not have the best of both?

Yet in spite having to work around a budgeted allowance now that I’m a resource sucker, the little one & I have been blessed to still be able to have the occasional nice meals out, explore kid-friendly playgrounds & play gyms, attend all sorts of music, art & other fun social interaction trials – in addition to the wallet-friendly activities that we already do such as walking around the neighbourhood, visit our little friends’ homes for a playdate, visiting the nearby (water)park.

It hasn’t been easy,  adjusting my heavily-influenced-by-media-colleagues-lifestyle around an allowance after being a decently-salaried employee since graduating from school yet the little guy & I do get our regular dose of pampering whenever possible (notwithstanding their nags).

Granted some cost-cutting measures are necessary, such as frequent holidays that we used to go on are frequent no more, along with others – I’m still thankful & grateful for these 3 deeply-loved people in my life.

Thank you Lord for them!

Every person who comes into our life makes an impression. All the people we meet teach us something about ourselves and lead us forward in life.

When I was a teenager, mom used to lament that I took her for granted.

I don’t think I really understood what that meant then, until some years later when I started to reflect on life more often. And became more mature.

Being the only child, mom became my best friend quite early in my life.

While she tried dishing out the best advice without being too ‘motherly strict’ nor ‘judgemental’ about my decisions during the adolescent years, she also did her best to smile, laugh & listen more even if tears were streaming from her eyes because of my ignorant & stupid decisions.

I’m grateful that she has never given up on me. She has stuck by me and through her examples, love & patience; has taught me how to rely more on God for strength and wisdom.  Leading me to be more positive & grateful as I move forward in life.

For thought: Who are you grateful for? And why?

p/s: there are other people I’m grateful for such as my husband, Luke. But I’d leave that entry for another day because I think each of them deserves my full attention at a time.