At Cranston 2nd Birthday Party

"My birthday all over again??? COOL!!!"

Very nice weather. Very cozy and beautiful home. Fun toys to play with. Many friends. Great theme: Thomas the Train.

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Overall, we just had a lot of fun there! Thanks for inviting us and happy birthday again to Cranston!

A smooch on the cheek

With young children (especially with first born child), every little things meant a lot for the parents.

Recently, Caden is able to kiss with a smooch sound coming out from his mouth and I like it when he does that to me. ^_^

[I had been teaching him quite a while back, but only now he does seem able to do it]

But if we want the sound when he kisses you, we have to remind him to do it, or else, he will do without it.

hehe...

This is new to him, it will take sometime for him to kiss with the sound without us telling him to do it.

Pictures from the birthday party...

I just received the pictures from the party today and I LIKE it... although I am quite sad that I forgot to do the "all together" pictures at the party :(

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HOW CAN I??? Oh well...

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The party itself turned out to be GREAT!! Everything went as planned and I think everyone were enjoying themselves there.

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Anyway, there are hundreds of pictures and I have selected some and uploaded them here.

Only you...

More photos here

Overall Trip

Our overall trip to Jakarta was much better than I have expected. I coped quite well without any help in taking care of Caden and Caden was much more behave than I thought he would be.

I thought this holiday would be one of the most boring holiday I will ever had as we would be stuck at home for most of our 2 weeks stay in Jakarta.
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But in the end, we went out almost everyday, sometimes even twice a day.
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Our most memorable moment of all is meeting Baby Shasa for the first time and being able to see her a few times everyday. She is just too cute and cuddly. We surely hope we can meet again very very soon. Caden miss Baby Shasa terribly!
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For now, I am just glad to be back home in Singapore and can't wait to continue our regular routines again tomorrow.

Pacific Place Mall

With so many new malls are emerging in Jakarta, we thought we checked out this new one. Turn out, they have this 2 boats inside the mall complete with water and some other details that makes us feel like in the real outdoor.
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We can order food from the surrounding restaurants and have it served on either one of them.

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Caden loves the boat! He refused to take a picture on the boat as he kept saying "brum brum brum" -- which means that he was actually driving the boat. He also refused to go home. It took us a while to just sit there and let him drive the boat.

At Gelangang Samudra

I don't remember going to Gelanggang Samudra ever in my life. I was planning to go to Sea World with Caden but decided to go to Gelanggang Samudra instead.

[They are next to each other]

We had fun, although we only stay there for about 1.5 hours before Caden asked to go home. He enjoyed the performances by the different animals; there were seals, bear, hippo, dolphins, etc.

I am amazed that I can actually bring Caden out to this super hot place by myself and actually enjoyed it, too. I guess being a very active mom who didn't like to stay at home all the time makes it looks possible (and it's actually IS possible!).

Glad that I decided to go out to this place today! Maybe next time is Sea World.

at the restaurants

These are one of the very few times I am bringing Caden out for lunch or dinner by myself.

And to my surprise, I think I am doing it quite well.

[I hate it for the fact that quite a few restaurants in Jakarta do not provide any high chair. Just like The Grill. They are known for the best tepanyaki restaurant -- I agree -- and also one of the most expensive one, but they don't have any high chair!!! I am shocked!]

1 Month Old Alicia

We went to Duck King at Grand Indonesia to celebrate Alicia's 1 month old. I am amazed how Grand Indonesia has changed since we visited it last December.

They have this dancing waterfall inside the mall, very similar with like the one in Las Vegas (of course much smaller in size). The performance goes every hour from 12pm - 8pm.

I was very surprise to know that the performance was actually really good --- the sound system was good, the songs were great, and most importantly, the dancing water was very entertaining.
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Today was the first day that Shasa were out to a mall (the only place that she had been so far is home and the doctor office). She was doing really well throughout the whole journey.
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On this 1 month anniversary, we would like to pray that "May GOD bless you and keep you always!!"

on a trampoline

I was surprise to know that Caden was brave enough to try this big kid trampoline.

There was 5 other toddler (one is a boy aged 4 years old) and one girl aged 7 joining us for the outing -- all of them were too scared to try it on.

I tried my luck by asking him if he wants to jump up and down like a frog on the trampoline and he said 'YES'

Though I am not even sure if Caden really understand what will happen next, I brought him to the middle of the trampoline and helped to buckle him up.

and then, up he goes... and he seemed to enjoy the ride.

Definitely will be back here next time. ^_^

Love this huge indoor playground!

I am glad that there is this indoor playground, just like the one we have here in Singapore. Actually, this place is even better. For one it is much bigger and they have this big trampoline that kids that bounce on.

US in the plane

Caden was so excited to be inside the plane!! ^_^

Happy 2nd Birthday, Caden!

I will always L.O.V.E you!!!
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***More pictures here***

Nervous...

So many things will be happening in the next few days. It’s been a little hectic around here.

Tomorrow will be Caden’s 2nd birthday party --- All of us have to wake up early tomorrow to prepare for the food and other last minute stuffs.

The day after tomorrow (on Monday) at 8am, we will have to leave to the airport to catch 10am flight to Jakarta.

Therefore in the middle of preparing for the party, I have to pack our stuffs for the travel as well.

Last but not least, I will have to take care of Caden for the next 2 weeks (starting from Monday) by MYSELF!!! Oh my gosh…I am so used to have people helping me with Caden…I am not sure in what shape I will be later on. I am hoping Caden will listen to everything that I told him to. *yeah…in my dream!!!*

Suster and the maid will be going back home to their village and I will left with no one in Jakarta as most of our helpers will be going back to their village as well…

Luckily we’ll be staying at my sister’s place whom just gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Alicia. Caden and I can’t wait to see them very soon.

PS: At least I will have a full quality time with Caden for that 2 weeks, right??? *thinking very very hard* ;)

The Invitation

By now, all of our friends have received the invitations. Most of them has replied to say if they are able to make it or not. And among them, only three families are not able to join us for the party.

I can't wait for the actual party to happen. I am hoping that Caden would enjoy his special day, just like I will enjoy myself there.

Caden's 'Quiet' Time

I should said that (maybe) we are lucky to have all those en-bloc sales around our area. There are 3 building that are about to be torn down very soon. So we have lots of cranes, diggers, trucks moving around all the time.

That means, Caden could see his (now) favorite moving vehicles everyday.

Before we go somewhere or after we go home from anywhere, we always stop in front of one of the construction building to check out the moving vehicles. And all the time Caden would be so talkative, telling us to see the digger or to see the truck and crane that were moving, just as if we will not see them if he didn’t say so.

He loves to just stand there and see.

One of our most favorite spot is at Isetan Shaw Centre car park. Every time if I park there with him, I always park at the 10th floor (below that would be too low to see) because there we could see the construction of Orchard Scotts and ION very clearly.

We could stand there for a long time.

PS: Here is a clip from him seeing a digger moving in front of our house.

Moving Vehicles and My First Hair Cut

Oma bought the digger when Mommy was away in the US and Caden has been obsessed with it since. He said 'thank you' to oma (without us telling him to) for hundreds of times, everyday, for the next few weeks.

Oma was very pleased and touched by his gestures.

So as Caden’s 2nd birthday is around the corner, oma decided to buy another moving vehicle for him.

I have been planning to bring Caden for his first hair cut, after his last shave at 7 months old. Today we went to the Kiddie Cuts at Forum (inside the Toy’s R Us). Oma decided to come to cheer and distract him.

The whole hair-cue experience was not so bad at all. Although he wriggle and wailing a lot, he actually quite distracted by the Thomas The Train movie and oma’s cheering sound.

I give a thumb up for the woman who did the hair-cut. She was trying her best to be friends with Caden by giving him balloon, candies, and stickers.

Although in the end the hair-cut looked not so neat (because of too much moving around), I should say, I like it. He looks much better this way.

He look just like ‘little Paul’ now (I purposely cut his hair similar to Paul’s). ^_^

After all the wailing from Caden, oma then brought Caden to find a toy. Then they found this Fire Engine truck which Caden was straight away hooked into.

He just learned about this “ni..no…ni…no” thing (that’s how Caden called it, following it’s siren sounds) a while ago from the book that I just bought for him.

He played with it, refused to do anything else and also refused to sit on his high chair for dinner, so he ended up eating on the floor while playing with the fire engine.

And not to forget, he said thank you for about at least 10 times today to oma.

“Thank you oma…” (with his sign language gestures)

Tennis Lesson Updated

I am happy for the fact that after a few weeks, Caden is improving and doing quite well in the Tennis Lesson.

He used to wonder around a lot and doing whatever he likes, rather than following the teachers’ instructions, but nowadays, he could listen and follow instructions much better, although I am still have to be near him all the time.

The other 3 kids in the class are older and have been in the class much longer than Caden (at least for more than 6 months). And all of them now can hit the ball pretty well. Oh, I can’t wait to see Caden hit the ball by himself.

In the picture, the kids were taking turns to hit the ball. I can only take picture when Caden is sitting down because when it comes to his turn, I have to be beside him, teaching him and make him understand the real purpose of the racquet -- not to be banged on the floor.

I am a bit worried, too, because we are going to absent for two whole weeks, due to our trip to Jakarta. I am just hope that he will not going backwards when we come back in 3 weeks time.

Height: 91cm

His head just barely touch the lower bar window partition of our apartment.

Soon, he will go far above it.