Shortly after his 9th tooth came out, his 10th tooth came out about 1-2 days later. These were the two molars at the bottom. He broke a slight fever of about 101.8 degF when that happened. Other than whine a little during the night (in his sleep), everything was pretty smooth sailing. So Shane turned ONE with TEN teeth!
I saw birthday chalkboards on Etsy, and thus decided to put my little photoshop skills to some good use, and made one for Shane. It's now printed and stuck on the wall.
We waited an extra week before celebrating his first birthday as grandpa was only going to arrive in Philadelphia on the 5th of December. On the actual day itself, being a Monday, papa was at school, so popo and I took baby Shane out for some lunch, then a play session at the Nest.
Lunch with Popo & Mummy
Play session @ the Nest - Always a Cheeky Grin
The day ended with a little dinner celebration at home after papa got home from school. I made a japanese cotton cheesecake with chocolate cheese icing. Definitely not professional looking, but it sure was a hit with the little boy. Decided on this because I could pretty much cut the sugar to a bare minimum and the cake would still turn out awesome.
Happily ate his dinner with all the attention he got for his big ONE
Happy 1st Birthday little boy!
We also found out along the way that he was terrified of candle flames. When we lit the candles, he just went bawling all the way. Thankfully we manage to do a quick photo snap in between one of his crying episodes (That explains the clapper in my hands).
Throughout the week, I kept checking the weather forecast for the big day 6th December. Well, the forecast was some heavy rain storm. I prayed it would just wait till the party was over. But well, for some reason, God did not answer those prayers. I'm sure He had his reasons. Anyhow the party still did go on. We had a small party as I didn't invite that many people in the first place. But about 1/3 of our guests didn't show up due to the rain (yes even though the venue was indoors), and some due to other reasons. It's ok - for those who braved the rain… THANK YOU.
Shane's First Birthday Cake
We had an extremely large cake for Shane. No, I didn't ask for such a large one. Our friend, Sophie, made it for Shane. I wanted a 9" round cake, and that was it… But she blessed us with a really large cake with very very cute figurine. For a new baker who started baking only a couple of months back and learning from youtube, I must say I was super impressed.
For those who came to his party, I hope you all enjoyed the carousel rides, and hope you all did come back again during a drier day for the mini golf.
Family Photo with the grandparents!
Again, the little boy was scared of the horses on the carousel! Why? I don't know!!
Oh Oh, and Shane has hit another milestone!! He started walking when he was exactly 1. I know he took a few steps when he was 11m old at Grow Thru Play, but this time, he really walked A LOT. On the 1st of December, after dinner, we were having some fruits, and he decided to try walking. Walking like a little drunkard.
He was not too steady on that day, but he walked quite a bit. The next day was a lot better and he could walk to and from the kitchen.
We spent a day on a road trip to Hersheys & Lancaster while the grandpa was still here. Gong Gong definitely had a lot of fun taking baby Shane on his walk. Since he just started walking, Shane has been wanting to go anywhere and everywhere on his two little feet.
We took the Hersheys Chocolate Tour with Shane (which he surprisingly did not fuss during the whole time)
Finishing off with a Hersheys Milkshake
Then it was Z's birthday that came next. No wait, we celebrated Shane's Lunar Birthday on the 20th December first by a treat to Sesame Place. Well, father and son (together with grandma popo) had a combine birthday treat. The weather was super cold for a day out at Sesame Place, but we still decided to go ahead with our plans. Glad we did!
Papa had his birthday dinner treat at the Mirin Japanese & Korean restaurant. We mostly had Korean food, and it was pretty good Korean food.
Z had a round 2 celebration (just the two of us… thanks to the baby sitter- grandma popo) at Stateside at Passayunk.
Then came Christmas! A couple of my friends from Hall Mercer organized a cookie exchange. It was my first cookie exchange that I attended. I sure did enjoy eating the cookie, but baking like 5-6 dozens of cookies was definitely too time consuming, and not fun at all. I don't mind baking a dozen or two. After that, it just gets a little annoying. Nevertheless, we all had a great time at Haley's and I have to report that Shane drank a whole glass of cows milk for the first time (yes he usually hates cows milk). Must be peer pressure.
It was a little small affair for us because most of our friends were either not around, or we didn't have other family to celebrate Christmas with us. Just us and popo. We made a small roast Chicken and some vegetables, did our usual bed time routine with Shane, and poof, Xmas eve was just over… just like that. Anyhow, Z had to also start packing his bags as he was leaving for his GCP (Wharton stuff) on Christmas Day.
Being blessed with so many presents!!
Since he was only going to be back in early January, we decided to hop on a plane to Houston to visit my dear cousin Rachel, and Jonathan.
HOUSTON
The Houston in my mind was so different. I imagined it to be a city, maybe just a little larger than most US cities. BUT I didn't expect it to be THAT huge. First, it was pretty much impossible to walk anywhere. It's pretty much a copy of Dubai. Large malls, huge cars… just minus the fancy bits. I thought I could stay around city center and walk. Wait… where's city center. Even being in the middle of it doesn't feel like it. We were blessed with nice cousins who lent us their car to go everywhere, including heading out to Bryan, Texas, where we visited Paster Dan at his church.
Dinner with the extended Family
Catching up with Pastor Dan
The month of January was fairly quiet for us. Just a couple of weeks after we got back from Houston, Shane was down with Conjunctivitis and then also had a ear infection & a cold. Till today (Yes, it's been about 3 weeks already), he's still down with the cold, and constant vomiting. So Z&I have been having interrupted sleep… Well, my rant with the USA medical system… shall be on my next blog post.
For now, it's been a long post, and it's late. Let's hope Shane doesn't puke out his dinner in his sleep.
