Life starts at 30!

Finally go to celebrate my birthday yesterday. We had loads of relatives in from China and Indonesia over the weekend and so instead of having dinner outside, Mom cooked a huge feast for me.

It was great. Loads of fantastic food, noodles, crabs, money bags, fish...the list goes on and on. The best thing were the cakes. Yep, you got that right. It is "cakes", not "cake. Cos instead of a traditional big cake, I got seven mini ones, each one measuring no bigger than 3 inch in diameter. Each cake represents each family member and the design of the cake represents them and me or least they were suppose to be.

It was a whole lot of surprise to see the individual cakes.

{Seven Mini Cakes}

{Look how small the cakes are!}

{My Main Cake, look at the big 30}

{Mom and Dad's Cake for me, with a longevity peach at the top}

{Ron's Cake to represent our holidays together}

{Luggage at the top and map at the bottom tier}

{SK's cake for me, graphic design all the way. She is the main designer and baker for the cakes}

{BX's cake for me. A storyboard about how much we look alike and how many times people mistake her for me}

{rather complicated cake, this one}

{XD's cake for me, a representation of his love of food}

{Last and least (by size), C's cake for me, a representation of his love for bus and taxi and also his fave song "Shing a ling a ling"}

{And he drew a picture for me.....}

{What's inside? }

It is my birthday today...

Big 30.....yes it is finally here. I am officially not a young girl anymore but a mature lady or so people like to think.

Am I still busy? You bet! It is my birthday today and I still gotta go to Alpha Course tonight and re-schedule my birthday dinner to the weekend. No complains though (or maybe just a little) since RH is working late and my family is also more free on weekend.

C is now chattering and chattering and chattering.....sometimes just pointing out things around him within his limited vocabulary or sometimes just baby talking. He used to be such a quiet guy, where did he go? I want him back. It is so hard to get a moment of silence now. Hahaha.

I have been taking C to Julia Gabriels for classes once a week for a month now. I would not say that I see tremendous improvements mentally but I do find that he is less timid now and is more willing to try out new things and explore new environments. He is also understanding more things and is able to relate real items to pictures or drawings of these items. For eg. he is able to say "Bus" when he sees a real live bus on the road and also say it again when he sees a cartoon version of a bus on tv.

"Bus" and "Taxi" are now his favorite words in the car as he looks out his window. He gets so excited over them. Although he can name items in English due to the flashcards, he communicates mostly in Indonesian which is good because I do delibrately teach him more Indonesian words as he would not get to learn or use the language in school.

By the way, he hugs, kisses and bites all soft toys now.....

Anyhows, here are some pictures of him. Hopefully I get to update this blog more often.

{Playing in my baking room while we are preparing an order}

{"Act Cute", meaning to put both hands under his chin}

Update Time

Have not posted anything on this blog for the longest time. The past few months have been so busy for me. It has been really hard to get a few moments to catch my breath. Sometimes, I wonder if I should just give up one of my avenue of busyness and then I can relax a little. But what can I give up?

1. Family Time

2. Church Ministry

3. Work

4. Baking Business

Hmm, it is really a tough decision and I think at this point in time, I am unable to yet let go of any of these things. Yet, I have to reconcile and admit that it would mean, I have to sacrifice my sleep and also any leisure time for myself. Well, at least for a few more years.

C has been growing up since the last time I blogged and I mean, he really grew upwards. He is quite tall now and also leaner too, losing some of his baby fats.

{C at 2 months old}

{C at 17 months old}

He is speaking up more and is more daring but this baby of mine is still a scaredy cat by nature and would always shun anything new and mysterious.

He likes to contradict himself as well though, always staring at new things for hours and yet afraid and refusing to go near and touch the thing. For example, my sister bought a cute furry cow soft toy that makes a "mooooo" sound when you press its tummy. C was so scared of the toy that he cried the first time the cow made the "mooooo" sound.

Never give up on the first try, I say! So, I first hugged and kissed the cow to show C that the cow will not harm him. Then I tugged on the cow's tail and said "buntut" which means tail in Indo. I then kept repeating the word until C said the word himself. He calls it "bu-tut" by the way. I followed it with praises and then asked him to show me where the buntut is. He would timidly reach out his hand and point to the buntut at a distance. I reapeated the whole procedure and he managed to actually use his fingers to touch the cow's tail for a second and retreated really fast.

After a few tries and me hugging and kissing the cow, he finally decided that he could also hug the cow and remain unscathed. So my timid little baby threw his arms around the cow for a brief second, then pushed it away saying "n-mau" meaning "I don't want it" Hahaha, he is such a funny little guy.

C went for a haircut on Saturday. The moment that hairstylist whipped out her electric razor, C cried and cried and cried. He did not stop crying until we took him to the window and pointed out the bus, the cat, the imaginary dog, cece......

It really did not stop him crying for long and after 1/2 an hour of crying and lots of fallen hair, here is the result of the cut.

{before}

{after}

Guess, he did not like either of them.

This little guy is always picking up things around the house. Remote controls, pens, papers, newspapers, books, bottles, toys, boxes, his bamboo chair (yes!). It often seems that he does not know his own size and strength.

{picking up things again}

{this time an item twice his size}

Cupcake Pops

After reading Bakerella's blog, it so inspired me to make cake pops. And since there were leftover cupcakes from a customer's order on Saturday, it was the perfect opportunity. The cake pops were easy enough to make, you do need to practice a little because the first batch that I made were horrible.

{Cupcake Pops}

So, I tasted the cake pops and decided that I should just stick to regular cupcakes. The cake tasted horrible, all compressed into a mound and covered with choccolate. They are absolutely cute and adorable though, I must say.

{see how small they are compared to the spice bottle}

For the last one, there was not enough cake to make a mini cupcake so I racked my brain and came up with this. Do you know what this is? When I showed C my end products, he just picked it up and tried to whack it onto anyone who carried him.

{Guess what this is suppose to be?}

I understand, Mama

We brought little C to Jacob Ballas Children's Garden on Sunday but because it was an impromptu outing, we dis not prepare any spare clothings so he was not allowed to play in the water. It was so sad, looking at him watching the other kids play with a longing in his eyes. So, we had to quickly bring him away to other parts of the garden.

{wistfully looking at other kids having fun}

{C had to walk and walk and walk}
{miniature chairs everywhere at the garden}

It was a very interesting place and I am glad that the government thought to invest in children. I believe that C will probably enjoy it more as he grows older too.

Its amazing how much C has developed mentally. Physically, he has grown a little taller and leaner with more teeth in his mouth but he has really grown mentally. He is able to concentrate on individual items better, spending longer periods of time exploring how to open containers with screwed on tops versus those that just pop open. Exploring how my keys jingle together on my key chain. All animals are called "goog goog" now. We taught it to him to imlpy the sound dogs make when they bark but I think we overdid it cos ALL (fish, bird,bug, elephant, cat, turtle, etc.) animals are "goog goog" now.

He loves to open and close containers and I mean any containers. Powder cases, biscuit jars, his toy box, even glass covers. He is also able to repeat quite a substantial number of words. When he is in a good (learning) mood, he is able to repeat almost every word from his flashcards. What amazed me most is how much he is understanding without speaking it out.

Yesterday morning, I told him to get his shoes (spatu in Indonesian). When he did not repeat after me, I thought he did not get it, but he trotted right over to the shoe rack and picked up his own shoes and brought it over to me.

Yesterday evening as we went through the flashcards, I said the word "piglets" but he said "bobok" which means sleeping because the picture showed a mother pig lying on its sides while the piglets are suckling on her tits. He said "koko" instead of blanket because the picture showed a baby covered in a blanket and said "goog goog" instead of turtle, naturally. Hahaha!

Back from Break

It is sooooooo hard to comeback to blogging when you take a break. And I had to take a break from blogging. With all that has happened at home, I was not able to continue blogging and when everything went back to normal, it was so tough getting that first "back to blogging" post posted. Yeah, procrastination and laziness go hand in hand. Well, I am finally back and hopefully to stay.

First off, let's get an update on what has been happening.

Mummy (that's me) Front:

- Grandma passed away right after Chinese New Year, it is just not the same without her

- another run of Alpha Course has started and busy with that

- taking Precepts in church so 2 nights in church and 2 nights less with C

- taken over a colleague's job scope at work in addition to my own

- baking biz has started to see more orders

So, you can see that I am rather busy at the moment. But thank goodness for Baby C. He is becoming bigger, taller and more active now. I spend all my free time with him and he is the one who brings me joy.

{C swimming with Daddy}

Baby C Progress:

- taller, can reach things that are placed on the edge of the table

- walking, running all over the place

- able to walk up and down steps without help

- able to climb sofa and short chairs

- able to hold his own water bottle or juice box

- opens drawers and scatters all items inside

- says more Indo, Mandarin and English words. My sis says that he is a chinese baby cos he pronounces chinese words much clearer than english words

- opens and closes fist when I sing twinkle twinkle little star

- blinks eyes on command

- kiss and hug on command

- says "ah" at the end of the 2nd sentence of twinkle twinkle little star

I now know why every parents are so enamoured by their little ones. God designed it to be just this way so parents are so in love with their own offsprings. Parents get to see their children every single day and every single moment unlike others who see them once in a while. Therefore, parents get to see every single silly, cute, monstrous action that they perform. And of course, the resemblence to their own parents help.

Happy Moo Year?

It is the year of the Ox......moo moo! Will it be a good year? To most people, it is probably going to be the worst year in their recent years. I think every year that the Lord gives to us is good.

As we celebrate CNY this year, we celebrate it with a twinge of sadness. Our 83 year old grandma is in the hospital. In the Koordi family, every CNY is an event to look forward to. Good food, lots of Ang Bao and definitely the family gathering that has us all bonding. This year, unfortunately, my grandma was hospitalized the week before CNY.

To many people, CNY is just another public holiday, to the Koordi family, it is a rather important festival. Withour fail each year, every member of the family turns up for reunion dinner in their new clothes. Each year, without fail, we would have 10 dishes for reunion dinner and 10 vegetarian dishes for the first day of Lunar New Year. Without fail, mom would remind their children not to wash their hair, sweep, or use sharp objects on the first day. Without fail, we would call each and every member of our extended family to wish them Happy New Year.

That makes it extra difficult to have grandma in the hospital and more so in the ICU. We pray that a miracle will happen and that she will recover.

Anyways, on the happier side, here are some pictures from the CNY.

{C, practicing his "Gong Xi, Gong Xi"}

{C, with Papa}

{C in his traditional chinese costume, gift from his aunt}

{Ang Bao Line Up, the Gals}

{Ang Bao Line Up}

{Family Picture}

Little Nonya

Anyone addicted to this Singapore drama? Like me, I might add. This drama started when my in-laws were in town. My father in law had to recuperate at home so we spent everyday having dinner at home which leaves us much time to watch TV together. So, my MIL and me watched the very first episode and got addicted to it. Now that she is back in Surabya, she still would ask me how the story is unfolding. Hehehe!

It is still a wonder as to how we can get addicted to this drama. The plot is completely foolish, the setting unrealistic, the dialogues do not make sense, the actors and actresses are not good-looking and the leading lady absolutely cannot act. So, why are we addicted to this drama, I wonder yet again. But the fact remains that many are following this drama series. From our family gathering this New Year, I gathered that all my cousins and most of my Aunties are actually fans of this show. It goes to show that Singapore can just continue to produce crappy drama serials and still have fans following.

It is the last episode tonight but I have a dinner date so Ican only catch the show after Chinese New Year cos my cousin is recording it for me. :P

A New Year!

It has been a whirlwind of activities since October. I have not had a good rest since then. With my relatives sick, visitors coming in from Indonesia and all, preparing for all the festivities, a first birthday to plan and a wedding to attend, its been a crazy two months, hence the lack of posts. I am glad that it is all over.

Been wanting to do some educational things with C but have not had the time to do so. I thought we could do some flashcards, gym that sorta thing but I guess I need to wait a little while longer. C is such a curious baby...I guess all babies are. There are just infinite things to explore, discover and learn. The thing about C is, when he is willing to learn and pay attention, he does it so well but once he is not in the mood to learn, you can't force or cajole him no matter what. Hence, we have to be always prepared to practice with him when he is in one of his learning mood.

Now, he is able to wave bye2, shake hands, ask for things (tao), kiss bye, Gong Xi (bai2). Hehehe, all the things we make babies do.....its kinda funny. I leave this you with a recent picture we took for my cousin's wedding!

{During the exchange of gifts}

{Me & Mohawk C}

{Family picture at the wedding reception}