Zachary’s First Birthday

Posted on April 15, 2011 · 1 Comment

On March 28, 2011, Zack turned 1. Yes, this post a bit delayed.

Time really flies. It seems like just yesterday when I was in the labour room trying to “poot” out my lil boy. He’s grown into a very heavy, very tall, very active toddler. He’s also got a very lebat head of hair.

First birthdays are always a grand occasion. Not only a milestone for the parents for surviving the first year of parenthood, it’s also a start for the child to look forward to achieving a few significant milestones of his own. My crystal ball tells me when he can start walking, it’ll be like watching a bull in a China store.

We had 2 celebration dinners for Zack. It was more of a eating fest for everyone in the family cos technically he can’t eat what we prepared for the two dinners anyway!

P1020157

He had his mee suah

P1020160

Enjoying his mee suah before digging into his red egg and chicken drumstick…

P1020168

Po Po offered him the drumstick. See his “terkejut” face! He didn’t even dare hold it or touch it *LOL

P1020172

Then came his birthday cake. I baked this cake. And iced it. I also made the bear figurine out of fondant. It looks like it’s slouching whilst holding the number 1. That’s because IT IS slouching and holding the number 1. I was lazy and didn’t use a small percentage of gumpaste in my fondant in order for it to harden quicker. When I finished sculpting the bear, he was sitting up right. Over the course of 3 weeks, gravity pulled it to its slouching position. Yes, i’m blaming gravity. BTW the cake was 2 layers of sponge layered with peach and lychee. Super yums.

P1020180

Here’s a not-so-focused-photo of how bad the bear was slouching.

P1020183

Zack had his first taste of cake (minus icing + minus fruits). Everything else we ate up. BTW i threw the bear figurine away. It was too ugly to keep.

P1020192

My mom, being the traditional Cina old lady that she is, got Zack his first pair of walking shoes. I still don’t understand the significance of not wearing shoes until the kid turns 1. Can someone enlighten me please?

P1020196

Zack’s 1st birthday: Part 2. We had a grander feast with my in laws in Kajang. The highlight of the dinner was definitely his birthday cake. We took inspiration from Monster Fish, Zack’s fav stuffed toy. The cake was devilishly delicious to the max. It was a super moist chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate ganache and the fish is made with Rice Krispies and melted marshmallow. The cake artist behind this is Man Kwan, a very talented lady with a flair for detail. I highly recommend her if you are looking for a cake that is not only pretty to the eyes but also extremely delicious to the very last crumb.

P1020200

Everything on this cake is edible. Except the candle yo.

P1020217

No birthday party is complete without party hats!

P1020224

Or opening presents! (Seen here with Grandpa)

P1020227

Nobody could resist not taking photos with the cake. Even Yvonne (my SIL) was making silly faces with it. And the REAL monster fish.

P1020243

Happy first birthday Zack! Here’s to many many more wonderful years to come!

Filed Under: Family, Just Photos Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Zachary turns 1!

Posted on March 28, 2011 · Leave a Comment

What a year it has been. Quoting my husband, “we survived our first year without a mommy and daddy manual”. One thing we know for sure is that being a parent is an ongoing and continuous process of learning.

Having Zack has brought so much joy to my life. Watching him grow, achieving his milestones, saying Ma Ma (or perhaps mam mam?) or simply hearing him laugh is enough to put a smile on my face. All the worries and stress at work just disappears. All the small things don’t matter anymore. All because of this one small little guy.

Happy 1st birthday Zack. Mommy and Daddy loves you!

Filed Under: Family, Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Happy 3rd Anniversary

Posted on March 8, 2011 · 2 Comments

PC&D_THCeremony.jpg (81)

3 years ago today, David and I were holding hands during Pastor’s message. I remember my heart was beating really fast.

Minutes later we exchanged our vows with God as our witness.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to my partner in crime, and, loving hubby.

xoxo

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy Chinese New Year!

Posted on February 7, 2011 · 3 Comments

First day of Chinese New Year with my dad’s oldest & youngest brothers’ families

Filed Under: Just Photos Tagged With: ,

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2010 · 1 Comment

Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year from The Wangs!

Filed Under: Family, Just Photos Tagged With: ,

a month of celebrations

Posted on July 22, 2010 · 3 Comments

July is the month when 4 of my favourite people celebrate their birthdays. Last Saturday we had a roast chicken dinner celebrating my dad’s 67th, along with David’s 29th, my cousin Debra’s 42nd (she’s like a big sista I never had) and my brother’s 34th. T’was a rare occasion that my brother is around (he doesn’t wanna admit he’s Singaporean-ised) so it made the day even more special.

I prepared dinner—roasting 2 chickens and served with sides of soup, salad and spuds. I slaved in the kitchen for a good 4 hours, proudly making everything from scratch. Yup, nothing from a can or a bag beh beh! Boy, nothing feels better than cooking for the people that you love! We closed the meal with a super amazing Blackforest cake ordered from Fatboybakes—gawd, it’s unlike any I’ve ever had! Very, very, very tasteh.

The celebrations continued on to yesterday as I took the day off to spend time with David and Zachary. Dave’s big 29th birthday surprise started off with breakfast in bed and then onto a 3-course lunch with ginger ale served in our crystal champagne glasses (hey, I would get the real thing IF only I could figure out how to hide it from the husband ok?)

Now you know why he is more *pui* than before he met me LOL.

Now you also know why it’s so damn hard for me to lose weight cos I just love cooking. And eating what I’ve cooked.

But I’m determined now, more than ever, to lose all that weight gained during pregnancy. GO AWAY! MAY YOU FATS BE GONE!

(sorry about that, t’was a random rant moment)

Anyhoo, sometimes we forget how these simple gestures suffice to put a smile on that special someone’s face. I’m grateful that despite the (somewhat) shabby effort I put in, I still managed to make David’s 29th birthday a memorable one. Read his recollection of his special day here.

Dear David, you are my best friend, my confidant, my soul mate, my partner in crime and my greatest treasure ever. I’m looking forward to more milestones in our journey together. Happy (belated) birthday, honey!

XOXO from Me and Muffin!

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: , ,

One month old

Posted on April 30, 2010 · 8 Comments

The hours seem to fly by once David and I went full time taking care of Zack. For me it was endless cleaning, washing, hanging, drying, folding (I think our washing machine is working on overtime the moment we moved back home) and for David he’s been in charge of bathing our son coupled with the occasional diaper duty, feeding baby, burping baby and patting him to sleep. We had to re-organise some furniture around, move some over to my parents’, and made way for Zack’s stuff (as well as space to hang all his laundry!). We are also adjusting our body to the sleep deprivation and working shifts to feed him at night. Thankfully, he goes back to bed immediately after every feed (and burp) so we hope this pattern will not change anytime soon.

We had a simple fullmoon celebration last Saturday. Zack got his first haircut–a trim at the back of his neck–and had a limau purut bath. Not sure what the significance was but I had to bathe with limau purut too. My confinement nanny prepared the traditional pork knuckle vinegar and rice wine ginger chicken, we served up some red eggs, and distributed the fullmoon gift boxes to our relatives and friends. Compared to Eva’s fullmoon do, I reckon Zack had it easy.

After the confinement nanny left on Sunday, I packed up all of Zack’s stuff and we officially brought him home on Tuesday! It was an awesome feeling because:

  1. I finally get to do things my way, without my mom’s voice echoing in the background
  2. We have control over our own Astro remote (not that we have much TV time but at least I’m not stuck with watching what my dad wants to watch)
  3. I have more alternatives to wear beside rotating that 3 t-shirts and 2 shorts I had at my parents’ place.
  4. I reunited with my smelly pillow
  5. Most importantly we finally introduced Zack to his real home (for now until we move to our new home in 2012)

On Wednesday, Zack is officially a month old. We brought him back to SDMC for his check up with the pediatrician. Our lil boy had his second dose of Hep B and boy…did he exercise his lungs! He’s grown quite a bit since, weighing in at 4.9kg and measuring 54.5cm in length. That’s an extra 1.4kg from birth and an additional 5.5cm taller! He has baby acne and cradle cap, so my poor boy doesn’t have flawless skin like most babies are supposed to have. I also had an appointment with my obgyn as I had a problem with the healing of my episiotomy incision–of which was corrected immediately with a minor surgical procedure. So after almost 5 weeks of delivering baby, I’m still recovering “down there” *sobs*.

Wednesday was a huge milestone for us as we brought Zack out, from 11 am to 7 pm! We fed him 3 times, changed diapers 3 times (once in the car, whoa!), and to our surprise he slept through most of that 8 hours we were out! So you must be wondering what we did in those 8 hours?

  • 11 am – 1.30 pm : Got my eyebrows re-shaped, sent out birth announcement cards at the post office, and had lunch
  • 2 pm – 5.30 pm : Doctor’s appointment for both mommy and baby at SDMC
  • 6 pm – 7 pm : Stuck in traffic getting home

I must admit after that trip I felt more confident in bringing him out with us. He seems to love sleeping in his car seat everytime we strap him down! This weekend we’re bringing him back to Kajang to spend time with my in-laws. We’re also bringing him to church, so I’m praying that he’ll be cooperative

Can’t believe it’s been a month, looking forward to many more milestones with Zachary!

Filed Under: Family, Life, Parenthood Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Graduation

Posted on March 19, 2010 · 7 Comments

Last Saturday was my sister-in-law’s graduation ceremony. As I’m with child, we didn’t make it for the studio photo session; instead we dropped by after the ceremony to take photos with Yvonne and parents-in-law. I’m glad we went according to that plan because I’ve never seen such a big crowd gathered at one place (not forgetting with big big bouquets of flowers and stuffed toys clutched in their arms) in my life. Graduating from UTAR, it was sort of expected that the whole she-bang was to be held in Wisma MCA.

Both David and I, along with my brother in law and his girlfriend made our way to the lobby of Wisma MCA, hoping to find a spot where we can wait for Yvonne and have photos taken. It seemed like the ceremony wasn’t over yet and everyone was just waiting around, and honestly, it was almost claustrophobic. We decided to wait it out over at the café in Nikko Hotel together with 2 aunties, an uncle and the cousin. Oh and of course brother-in-law and girlfriend.

Half an hour later Yvonne appeared with her mum and dad, frantically trying to balance in her hands 2 HUGE bouquets, a stuffed bear, 2 mini balloons, a Mont Blanc pen AND the mortar board on her head.

Ashley (the cousin), Yvonne, and Sharon (brother-in-law’s girlfriend)

I then set up my camera on my tripod outside the café, finding a nice quiet spot to take all the family portraits.

One for the album, with the brothers Eric and David

One with me and David

Attending her graduation ceremony reminded me of my own more than 6 years ago. Here’s a photo of me with David at my mock graduation ceremony in Melbourne. Notice I was in a pair of jeans? I had my formal graduation ceremony in Malaysia in September 2003, so that my parents and brother didn’t have to fly 8 hours down under just for my 30 seconds of fame. Yes, I am that considerate. Technically, when this photo was taken, I haven’t sat for my final papers yet, and there was a possibility that I could not graduate that semester. But because of jaga-muka-punya-pasal, and the fact that I’ve taken these mock graduation pics, I knew I had no choice but to pass all my subjects. And I did, with better than expected results. It was the best feeling in the world.

Exactly a year later, in September 2004, it was David’s turn to graduate. Notice his faculty colour is pink? So girly wei. In fact, there were only 2 guys (including him) in that faculty in his graduating year. That explains the pink. P/S: I had a waist back then too *sobs*

P9080013

Looking back, all the memories of being in uni made me shed a tear. Those days of having a housemate from hell to living off instant noodles really made me grow up. No more being a cry baby cos mom ain’t gonna be there. No more getting driven around; public transport was the only way to go about. No more slacking cos it’s entirely up to us to work hard and get those grades to graduate.

Gosh, I’m so grown up. I’m gonna be a momma soon!

Filed Under: Family, Just Photos Tagged With: , ,

It’s our 2nd wedding anniversary!

Posted on March 8, 2010 · 4 Comments

PC&D_THRdmShots.jpg (59)

8 March 2008. Hardly forgettable—we had our Holy Matrimony ceremony at the courtyard of a quaint lil’ restaurant in KL, on the 12th General Election Day! It would have been even more memorable if we went to vote in our wedding attire!

2 years on, we’ve gone through so many milestones in the last 365 days. My top 3 were:

  • We made it to Paris for our 2nd express honeymoon
  • We made a baby! Zachary Wang will join us anytime from mid-March
  • We bought our 2nd home, which will be ready in 2012

To my hubba bubba and my soul mate, I love you more and more each day.

Filed Under: Family, Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Two years ago today

Posted on March 3, 2010 · 2 Comments

We were at Putrajaya, registering our marriage!

IMG_4919

Dear David, I love you more and more, day after day after day.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Older Posts