Friday, August 24, 2007

Evan's 2nd Birthday Bash!
















Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? We organized a Sesame Street themed birthday party for Evan this year as he turned 2. Well, he simply adores Elmo and Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch and well, basically all the characters on Sesame Street. The menu was rather simple fare …. Domino’s Thin Crust Pizzas, Rhu CafĂ©’s Kampung Fried Rice, KFC’s Chicken Nuggets, Cupcakes, Orange Juice, Watermelon and Salad. A total of 30 over guests crammed our condominium unit on the evening of 19th August, Sunday.















Evan’s birthday cake was a gift from Sek Kee. It’s a Jelly Cake of Bert & Ernie. I bought the no.2 birthday candle – just wanted to continue the tradition of number candles (Evan had a no.1 candle last year).
















We had a sing-a-long session of Evan’s favorite songs from Veggie Tales and boy, Evan had a nice time jumping and dancing around to the songs! Following that, we sang the birthday song and Evan blew out the candle and cut the cake.
















Forgot to mention that Evan wore a baby Elmo T-shirt during the party. We also had helium-filled mylar balloons of Elmo and Cookie Monster to decorate the place. Again, most of the partyware were bought on ebay USA. Now, that the party’s over….it’s clean up time! And also opening the presents! Well, that will be reported in the next blog because as of now, Evan still has not received all of his birthday presents yet…. Some pending… heheh…..



Friday, August 17, 2007

Birthday Party







We celebrated Evan's 2nd birthday at Lil Beansprouts Montessori on 16th August 2007. I ordered 50 pcs of cupcakes from Ms. Fong of Sweet Obsessions at Ikano Power Center. I provided her with Elmo cupcake rings and cupcake liners and she baked the sponge cakes. This was the first time the kids had cupcakes instead of cake. I set up the Sesame Street Cupcake Kit and we used an Elmo candle. Everyone went "Oooo" and "Aaaa" over the cupcakes!











After singing the 'Cha-cha-cha Birthday Song', everyone sat down at their tables and ate the cake. Evan walloped his in no time!













Then, after cleaning up, all the kids sat down and Evan walked around the 'Sun' twice because he will be turning 2. Following that, the kids got their party packs from Evan. Finally, everyone lined-up and said 'Good-bye!'

Monday, August 13, 2007

Party Preparations






These are the goodies that were packed into the Party Packs for the children at Lil Beansprouts Montessori. There are mini puzzles, mini notepads, Elmo notepads, party bags, stickers, blow-outs, finger puppets, pencils and memory games. Evan will be celebrating his birthday at the nursery on 16th August. I've also ordered cupcakes for the children.





These party items were bought from the USA. Even the party favors above too - most of them came from the USA. A big thank-you to Chieu Yin and Rebecca who helped bring back the items! I also did some shopping on ebay and paid a little extra to ship them back. There are lots more items for the party at home too not photographed.

Birthday Practice

Evan's 2nd birthday is coming up this Saturday & we will be having a party the following evening. Take a look at the video to see how he is rehearsing for the birthday song, cutting the cake & serving it!



He's wearing a Sesame Street party hat, using a FisherPrice block (with a cake inside) as the 'cake', and a hammer as the knife. In case you couldn't make out what he said, it's "Take the knife, cut the cake!"

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Mini Olympics 2007














Mini Olympics 2007 was held on a nice Saturday morning - 11th August at the Taman Desa Field. This was the first time Evan had participated in Lil Beansprouts Sports Day. A rehearsal was held 2 days earlier. A total of about 30 children between the ages of 2-6 participated in the various events. This photo shows the Flag Parade which was part of the Opening Ceremony. The tiny tots marched in 2 groups : Malaysians and Non-Malaysians. Half of the kids have mixed parentage or are from other countries! Prior to this the children passed the Olympic Flame to each other.















This is the ending pose of the Opening Ceremony. Evan competed in Shot Putt and 5m dash for the 2-year-olds. The 3-year-olds had javelin and 10m dash. The 4-year-olds, shot putt and 15m dash. The 5-year-olds had discus and 20m dash, and the 6-year-olds had hurdles and 25m dash.














Evan threw his bean bag even before Teacher Eileen blew the whistle. He was the youngest "2-yr-old" - just a week shy of his 2nd birthday. Well he won 1st runner up for this! After that, was the dash and Evan only ran after everyone ran! A bit blur blur...... and he was right at the end but he completed the race! Phewwww!!! After the all the kids' events, there was even a race for the parents!
















Thank you for the trophy! Evan received a medal too for his effort in the 5m dash. One of the parents gave out the prizes.
















Evan is parading his prizes together with little Isaac who is just 3 months older. For the closing ceremony, everyone sang "We are the World". Then everyone adjourned home. Many more events at the Lil Beansprouts are lined up for year including the much anticipated End-of-Year Party!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Story Time!





















Evan reading Mother Goose Rhymes - his favorite:Old King Cole.
Evan has taken a preference to story books. Before this he was on a staple diet of picture books. He will insist that Hubby or me to read together with him. "Go room! Mummy sit down! This one! Open the book! Open the book!", he demands. And I have to read the stories over and over again at one sitting! He's never bored! But I am! So I bought a variety of story books for him..... some of the titles that he has are : Ratatouille, Toy Story, Lilo & Stitch, Snow White & the Seven Drawfs plus many more from the Sesame Street, Veggie Tales and Winnie the Pooh range. He likes to point out his favorite characters and also reenact the scene in the book eg sleeping and snoring when he reads about Snow White falling asleep after eating the poisonous apple. When he comes to the dangerous parts of the stories, he will say "uh oh" or "oh no!". Besides story time, Evan also likes playing music and singing! He can memorise quite a number of rhymes and songs. I hope that this trend will continue and that he will learn how to read the words soon.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Mommy’s (still & always) the best




















Hi there! Larry here. Hui-Wearn requested me to guest-blog on the topic of (drum-roll please …) ‘breastfeeding!’ (Don’t ask me why… husbands should do as their wives tell them .. the faster they do it, the less they will be nagged at).

Err.. about the topic at hand :) - August 1st–7th is designated ‘World Breastfeeding Week’, [see http://www.waba.org.my/ ] and it’s also almost the 2nd anniversary of Hui-Wearn breastfeeding Evan. (Yes, Evan’s turning 2 on Aug 18th & he’s still nursing.)
 
In hindsight, I’m glad that a few things and events prepared us for the tricky road of breastfeeding. Why tricky? You see, Chinese ladies are not supposedly known for producing generous amounts of milk, and the mighty formula milk companies’ advertising.

We were grateful for the ante-natal classes as the instructor was a lactation consultant and was able to demonstrate clearly the finesse needed in nursing. The hospital that we went to prided itself as a “Baby-Friendly Hospital.” On the second day after Evan was born and with still no milk in sight, my mother suggested that we should at least give Evan some water to drink. So I approached a nurse for some water, only to be told that I would need to sign a release form before they allow Evan to drink water! It was only a little later that I understood that if Evan were to drink water, he might not want to suckle after that, and thus sabotaging the lactation process. “Baby-Friendly Hospital” indeed!

Evan was fully-breastfed for the first 6 months (as per WHO recommendations). So our son did not have a drop of water to drink in the first 6 months of his life! He started solid food at 6 months, but continues to breastfeed up until now, although the quantity of milk has reduced. Sometimes he just nurses for comfort.
It’s also good that Evan’s paediatrician is also a lactation consultant as well as a strong advocate of breastfeeding. We actually came across paediatricians who are ill-informed of the benefits of breastfeeding. One big help is the online forum, www.mymomsbest.com, which provides practical help and advice and fosters camaderie among nursing mothers.

Besides the obvious benefit of not having to buy formula milk powder, we also do not have to lug around flasks of hot water, milk powder and baby bottles when we leave home with the little tyke. We are glad too for the savings on the medical and doctor bills, as nursed babies are more resistant to illnesses and can recover more quickly when they fall sick. However, we invested in a breast pump, nursing bras and nursing wear (Nowadays Hui-Wearn justs wears normal clothes).

I admire Hui-Wearn for her dedication as she has to wake a few times a night to nurse Evan, all this time without complaint. On the days she is working, she takes time off 3 times a day to express milk in the office. Nowadays, Evan wakes up only once sometimes twice for milk – or rather, comforting.

Coming back from work with Hui-Wearn, it is always a joy to see Evan, without fail, running up to us laughing and shouting “daddy come back, mommy come back!” before clutching his mother and demanding “drink nen-nen!”

When the word ‘breastfeeding’ comes to mind, many of us would conjure the image of a baby quietly and demurely suckling at the mother’s breast. Not so with Evan. For a few months now, he has been doing what I call ‘freestyle nursing’ – with his mouth firmly latching on to mommy’s breasts, he will move and position his body, arms, legs and feet in varying poses.

Evan would respond “Nice!” after nursing. I wonder when he will stop?