Marching On

I simply must do a recap of March. At the rate I’m neglecting my blog (let’s blame the baby, please); I might as well do a monthly run down instead of forgetting everything completely.

Where should I start? Hmmm... pregnancy? So far so good. I’m in my fourth month now but this night sickness doesn’t look like it’s going to let down anything soon. On some days my nausea is pretty bad, to the point that my tummy berombak-ombak and if I put a finger down my throat I would most probably puke my heart out. I try to stay away from paracetamol (although my boss keeps telling me off for doing that), so on certain days I just give in and douse first one and if needed, a second tablet.

Baby AY at 15 weeks! Simply couldn't resist buying that oh-so-adorable top for her.

Baby AY is growing great. Alhamdulillah she’s approx 100gm now. Which doesn’t explain my nearly 10kg gain but yeah whatever. I only get three licenses in life to binge on food, so heck, I’m enjoying myself. This baby is a baby Melayu just like his brothers, so I’m always game for ayam goreng minyak with rice. Too easy lah baby! If only I can start craving for lobsters or something. Please make it more challenging for Daddy, darling!

I’m due for a complete detailed scan in my next gynae visit. Asked my gynae about her opinion on going for a cesarean so that I can tie my tubes, but she wasn’t really supportive. Said that the operation itself is 10 times riskier than a normal birth, so why do it if not needed. Other than that, I’m also opting to get the Tdap vaccination (between 27-36 weeks gestation) to give the baby some form of antibodies even as a newborn. This is to protect her from the many Antivacs in the community spreading contagious diseases. If you’re pregnant, you should probably consider this too.

Ah if only that ~10kg lumps itself altogether at the tummy. But noooooo... my thighs and butt suffer first. *sigh*

Kids? Aiden got his first semester exam results and as expected, BM terus ke laut. It wasn’t really fair though - the last question in the paper involved the kids reading a long paragraph and spotting punctuation and spelling errors, then rewriting it correctly. Why unfair? Cos it was a whopping 30 marks. Memang if you’re not good in tatabahasa and vocab, you have no chance at all. Aiden got a measly 3 marks from that. That itself pulled his marks all the way down. But all other core papers Alhamdulillah he did well, so I’m a proud Mummy as always. A talent scout recently approached us to cast Aiden as a young talent for a drama mini-series. The first thing I said was “Dia tak pandai cakap Melayu. Susah nak berlakon!” *chuckles* Aiden is also very dependable now. I can just wait in the car while he buys nasi kerabu from our local stall, top up my Touch and Go, pick up a takeaway order at a restaurant... you get the idea. Memang emulating the abang character! Senang kerja Mummy, sejuk perut ibu mengandung. *smiles*

Loves extreme activities! Did laser tag for the first time and excitedly went into that round tube thing that tumbles you all over the place.

"Daddy's into fashion", claims Aiden. Little did he know that he's sporting the same swag!

Ian? Still meratib everyday in the car, “I don’t want to go (to) school.” Less crying but still adamant about his stance. Enrolled him (and Aiden) in Fun Camp over the last school holidays, hoping that it would inculcate a sense of love for school - but even that didn’t work. (Although I must applaud Aiden for diligently taking care of Ian throughout the duration of the program; from comforting Ian, to even suap Ian makan!) Despite Ian’s apparent hate for school, he loves doing ‘homework’. He can spend hours just coloring and writing, ignoring the TV. We’ve even resorted to bringing his small desk and chair down to the living hall so he can have a proper area to continue doing so. Macam langit dengan bumi with Aiden who would rather sprawl himself on the couch watching cartoons. I’m currently teaching Ian to write lowercase alphabets (he’s aced the upper case ones) and I can’t wait for him to improve on his phonics so he can start reading!

This little brown bear can spend hours just scribbling, drawing and colouring away. That's his interpretation of Mummy with baby (that odd round shape on my tummy). I wonder why I have spiked hair... Hmmm...

Happy face from Ian - during one of the rare occasions that I get to pick him up from kindy.

They both recently entered a Trunki Easter Egg hunt in Hamleys OU. It involved them scooting around in a Trunki and finding cardboard cutouts of Easter eggs hidden in the store. That experience certainly showed me the ugly side of parenting. It’s absolutely normal for parents to cheer and ‘help’ their kids by pointing out the location of the eggs from afar. But for a mother to snatch one and run to give it to his son, right in front of me while I was pointing to it but waiting for Aiden to scoot over in his Trunki to get it? That’s just ugly. I could have easily done the same so that we would win, but how is that fair to everyone else playing fair and square, scooting their butts off looking for hidden eggs? What kind of example are you teaching to your kids?

Aiden got number three!

Aiden bagged a lunch bag, while Ian won a consolation price of a cupboard Trunki; Fold-a-Trunki.

I digress. Let’s talk about happier things. Shopping? I’m definitely enjoying myself with this. Everything in pink is sooooo cute! To date, I’ve filled in a whole three drawers worth of clothes, five new born shoes and twenty headbands... and counting. Just the other day I saw this cute tutu assemble but unfortunately it was only available in 12-18 months size. Went to the counter to check on a smaller size only to find out that it was the last piece. After deliberating, I finally decided to get it. The cashier, probably empathizing with me, asked; “Baby tuh sekarang berapa bulan, Kak?”... implying that she thought I wanted to buy it as a gift for someone. I answered, “Baby tuh tak keluar lagi, nie dalam perut lagi”, while pointing to my tummy. Her face was stunned... she was speechless or should I say terkedu? It was so funny!!!

I’m also shopping for home! My eldest brother is returning from the US with a big-ass kontena in tow. Other than a new baby swing plus diaper bag for baby AY, everything else I ordered was for home. From solar lights to a KitchenAid blender. Can’t wait! Just yesterday my KitchenAid toaster arrived (separate kontena) and it looks so sleek and handsome on my kitchen counter. *drool*

I am so domesticated!

Work? As intense as ever. I’m currently looking to fill up a vacancy in my team, so I’m diligently having GTKYs (Get To Know You) with interested candidates. Unfortunately for one of them, that morning before the meet we had not one but two dramatic issues which compounded to the headache that I was already nursing. Hence during the GTKY I didn’t exactly paint a rosy picture about the expectations of the role. Scary stuff came out like repercussions and the need to be on-call at all times. Needless to say, she didn’t apply for the role in the end. *smacks forehead* I’ve also finally announced to the team about my pregnancy, and informed my #2 that he needs to step up into role while I’m away (he’s completely freaked out btw *giggles*) so that part is sorted. Now I can proudly show off my bump in the office (instead of sucking it in to hide it).

Hence that’s the end of March. Let’s continue marching on (pun intended) to April.

Aiden's Fireman Birthday Party at the Bukit Jelutong Fire Station

You can also read a condensed version of the party here and my DIY efforts here.

I am so so sorry for this long overdue post. Too many blogposts to write, so little time! But I've been getting so many questions about Aiden's fireman party via comments and emails, that I vowed to eventually make this post a reality. Anyway, it's a good excuse to finally use the photos from our official photographer. As usual, vendor credits at the end of the blogpost! 

Before planning a fireman party at the fire station, the first thing you have to do is to contact your local fire station about their availability. We wrote an official letter two months in advance (include your party details, expected number of guests, and your contact details), then we went by the station to drop it off. It was also an excellent opportunity to get to know the Ketua Balai and their awesome crew. They were very helpful; the Ketua Operasi even offered Hubby his official jacket to compliment the outfit we were wearing the day of the party.

Posing with one of Bukit Jelutong's fire engines.

Each balai bomba will have different sets of conditions. Some will state a predefined monetary sum to be contributed to their Sports Club. Some will not ask for anything, so it is up to you if you want to contribute anything. (I suggest you do, as a reward of their hard work and dedication!) Some fire stations will also have tables and chairs for you to borrow so you don't have to bring your own. Ours also had a sound system, which we rented from them.

Once you have your date confirmed, you can now start planning for your party! Most of our party decorations, specifically the fireman helmets, the boys' fireman uniform, and fire extinguisher party favors were ordered from Taobao. Since I can't read Chinese, I engaged a local Malaysian agent to order it on my behalf. If you are ordering bulky items, please order at least three to four months in advance so you can opt for sea shipping. Air shipping will cost you a bomb!! (We did however order the fireman outfit via air shipping as it was a last minute order but thankfully lightweight.)

These fire extinguishers came in many sizes and purpose. The ones in the foregrounds are also squirt water guns.

Locally, I purchased the fire trucks on the dessert table, and the mini fire engines on top of each party favor box, from GM Klang. I received a lot of questions on the latter - the fire engines were sold in a pack of 8 for about RM20. The black boxes were also from GM Klang. I stuck the fire engines onto the box using double sided tape to the wheels.

Each little guest brought a piece of their fire station experience home.

Next up, the dessert table. I went with a rustic theme, hence the use of crates. The fire station graciously allowed us to use one of their fire engines as part of the dessert table. I also hired someone to design a suitable canvas backdrop to match the rustic theme. The A2 poster required very little effort - with my very limited PicMonkey skills, I found an image online and edited it to fit.

It was designed as a party favour tag but I re-purposed it into a thank you poster instead.

All of the baked goodies on the table were homemade, except for the cake pops. I made the birthday cake, cupcakes, fireman themed cookies, macarons, jello and chocolate covered Oreos personalized with edible image. As for store bought candy, I purchased black sixlets from Spotlight, gum balls, chocolate bars and marshmallow from our local candy shop, and red licorice from Candylicious in Singapore.

Homemade fondant cookies. I used a silicone chocolate mould for some of the 3D shapes on the top of the cookie. 

Sixlets, jello, gumballs and macarons. Fire engines from GM Klang (big ~RM9 and small ~RM3.50).

Licorice fire hoses.

We spent all night baking this fire truck shaped cake (with a crooked ladder *giggles*) but it will never beat the Millennium Falcon cake from last year.

Printed cupcake toppers on edible image paper, and used it as Oreo chocolate toppers.

Cute cake pops!

Personalized candy bars. Those curvy edges were such a pain to cut!

Re-purposed the invite design into table posters. These fire extinguishers also double up as a hand fan. They were sold at ~RM5.50 in GM Klang so I borong them all, but I'm sure Taobao offers something similar!

I also dedicated a section of the dessert table for non-edible goodies. Three crates were used to display the mini fire extinguishers (which doubles up as a water gun), fire extinguisher fans, fireman helmets, crayons (I stuffed some crayons in clear plastic and sealed it with a personalized topper) and bubbles (I personalized a wrapper to fit the size of the bottle and printed it onto sticker paper). The kids had a frenzy choosing goodies for themselves!

The bottom crates were dedicated to non-edible goodies. Purchased the 'apartment on fire' standee from a fellow DIY mum on Facebook (which is on sale now if anyone is interested).

Can you see the personalized bubble bottles and crayon packets from this angle? The fire extinguishers just beside the letter A are squirt water guns, ~RM2 per piece. Excellent favours for the kids!

The happy birthday boy in his handsome fireman outfit.

The Bukit Jelutong fire station provided some kid-sized uniforms for our little guests and were gracious enough to offer fun and games for everyone - a ride around the station in the fire engine, giant snakes and ladders game and water play for the kids, and a fire extinguisher demonstration for the adults. (Told you they're an awesome crew!) Do note that the heroic fire fighters will have to attend to emergencies as usual, so keep in mind that they may leave your party at the sound of the alarm. (The emcee for our party turned out to be the fire engine driver! Best to have a family member double up as emcee in case this happens.)

Family photo. Hubby and I wore Kadet Bomba t-shirts (available at most school uniform shops) to match the theme.

Thank you Bukit Jelutong fire station for allowing us to use one of your fire engines as part of our backdrop!

Cake cutting session.

Ian stealing his brother's thunder. Both our boys cutting the cake together. *awww*

The party emcee interviewing the birthday boy.

Ian got interviewed too!

Playing snakes and ladders.

Huge dice!

The fire engine went around the streets at least ten rounds (or more)! The dedicated fire fighters made sure everyone got a turn, and even assisted the kids in and out of the truck. (I am still in awe over their commitment to the party!) Even the parents took the opportunity to get on this once in a lifetime experience. (I remembered my first time at the Jelatek station - hearing the sirens wail above me, truck going at top speed, was absolutely surreal!)

Kids excitedly boarding the fire engine.

The birthday boy was given the best seat in the house.

Happy 8th birthday, Aiden!

Everyone wanted to ride in the front seat!

The water play was extremely fun for the kids. The firefighters turned on the sprinkler on a water tank and left the kids to it. Good thing I left a note in the invitation card for the kids to bring a towel and a spare set of clothes. The kids were ingenious - they used their fireman helmets to collect water, and then splashed each other with it.

I think we emptied the entire (clean) water tank!

The Bomba Kecil outfit provided by the fire station - fire helmet, jacket and even boots!

Aiden having the time of his life! Mummy usually never condones playing in the rain.

Cheerful faces everywhere.

Collecting water in the fire helmet and then splashing others.

The parents on the other hand were entertained by the very dedicated fireman crew. They arranged for a demonstration on how to use a fire extinguisher. They then dressed our guests in uniforms and helmets, and allowed them a chance to try a hand at putting out real fire! (We paid for gasoline and fire extinguisher refills for this activity.)

Enthusiastic parents who joined in the educational session. 

Kudos to the Bukit Jelutong fire station crew for a job well done.

Hands on experience with the fire extinguisher..

Lastly, we ended the event by focusing the last of the kids' energy on the piñata. As usual, we did the piñata ourselves - as we refuse to pay a bomb for something that will ultimately be destroyed anyway. Using a box, we sculpted it to the shape of a fire engine. You can read more about the DIY piñata here.

The pinata - which was torn into pieces at the end of the party. Love the stack of fire helmets just beside it! (Helmets were ~RM8 each via a group buy on Facebook.)

Birthday boy got the first hit.

Happy 8th birthday, Aiden Irfan. We hope you had a tremendous time at your party! Mummy, Daddy and Ian loves you soooooo much. We wish you nothing but the happiest and the brightest future, InsyaAllah.

P.S: Most of Aiden's friends came with their parents, most of whom I met for the very first time. Before they left most of them asked me the same question, "Husband you kerja bomba ke?" *chuckles*

Abang Bomba, I love you! *giggles*

Vendor credits and links:

• Event photography by Photo Havens.
• Adorable fire engine cake pops by Aly.Bakes.
• Printables from How to Nest for Less. (They're free!) I also repurposed their printables into matching food tags, personalized bubble bottle stickers and crayon toppers.
• A2 poster printable from Lambers Lately.
• Firetruck, fireman, badge and flames printable cliparts (used around the dessert table) from Google Images. 
• Colouring page image from Bebo Pandco.
• Silicone chocolate mould from Lazada.
• Fire extinguisher water gun and fan, fireman helmets, fireman uniform from Taobao.
• Mini fire engine (for goody bag) and fire trucks on dessert table from GM Klang.
• Adult Kadet Bomba uniform from Outpost Uniform, One Utama. Also available from most uniform shops in town.

Baby Blue Aqiqah

Oh my... I just realized that I never announced the arrival of our first nephew, on my blog!

My youngest sister-in-law, who got hitched to the man of his dreams exactly one year ago, gave birth to the most adorable baby boy about two months ago. (Bunting pelamin woot woot!) We were over the moon! He is absolutely an angel - tak banyak ragam and soooooo baik. Jarang sangat dengar dia nangis unnecessarily. You can literally leave him in his crib and he would coo himself to sleep. Ian pun excited sangat with the newborn. Peluk, cium, gomol... asyik mintak for us to put the baby in his lap. The first day, he even asked to bring the baby home!

So last weekend, we had an aqiqah for baby Ahmad Daniel Firhad. The mummy wanted a baby blue theme, so we worked with the desired theme. Everyone contributed to the dessert table - I made fondant cookies and macarons, my sister-in-law made brownies, fruit cheese and tartlets while another made sugar cookies and mini cakes. I even went through my arts and craft box and found old props and ribbons that I bought for Ian's aqiqah four years ago. Some were even still wrapped and unused!

The front view. 

My fondant sugar cookies. One of my mother-in-law's guests took home like ten of these, muttering about making the same for her future cucu. *chuckles*

Sugar cookies in the shape of milk bottles and baby rompers.

I found the ribbon with those adorable baby footsteps unopened, deep in my arts and crafts stash box. Also found the baby blue paper doilies at my local baking supply shop.

Sunlight was pouring directly onto the table, making it hard for me to get decent pictures.

Chocolate brownies, topped with desiccated coconut tinged with a hint of blue. Such a creative way to make desserts match the desired theme. 

Three batches and macarons, tapi still tak cukup. It was quite a hit with both the adults and kids. Love those Prince ribbons; leftover from Ian's aqiqah.

A view from the side.

From the top - kek lapis Sarawak, blueberry tartlets, and fruit cheese (fruit cocktail topped with cream cheese). Baby carriage topper from the US.

This one is a funny story. My sister-in-law attempted to tinge the cookie batter blue, but it didn't quite match the theme, so she saved the day by topping it with baby blue icing.

Baby mummy cutting the centerpiece cake - a Ferrero Rocher cake that she baked specifically for the occasion. Baby blocks and cake topper from the US.

Reused the baby blue tissue flowers that I used for Ian's aqiqah nearly four years ago. You can read that entry here. Flanked by marshmallows and crunchy love letters in apothecary jars.

Okay, I honestly think I'm done with the baby blue theme. When can I start decorating with pink??? Doa banyak banyak for a baby girl to make an appearance soon in the family. Amin!