Ian at Four Months Old!

Found a picture of Aiden when he was 4 months old. Decided to dress Ian up in the same clothes and pose him in the exact same way. Don't know about you, but I think Aiden and Ian are starting to look drastically different from each other!

Two babies, one romper. Who wore it best?

Since we're on the last day of April, let me do a quick recap of what Ian was up to during his 4th month on earth!

• He can now understand that he can extend his hand out and grasp things. When I drink while dukung him, he wants to hold the cup. When hubby dukungs him, he grabs on to Hubby's specs. When he's crying, dangle something in front of him and he will immediately stop crying to try and grab the object.
• But funny enough, he doesn't like to suck his own fingers but rather prefers to grab to our hand and suck on our fingers! Enjoys clamping his gums on to our fingers. Suspect he's teething cos his 'bite' is quite intense!
• Despite the initial 'scare' of him being darker than Aiden (serves me right, why did I favour Polka's Melon drink instead of Soya Bean milk throughout the pregnancy???), Ian is starting to become fairer and fairer. Must be all the milk baths we've been giving him. No, I didn't use fresh expressed milk for this. I just diligently kept all leftover milk from his feeds into a tiny container and mixed it with his bath water for a yummy milk spa. Nyum!
• Still doesn't like to laugh out loud. Aiden still holds the title of being able to make him laugh. But he simply loves smiling, especially if I am teaching Aiden how to read. "What is the sound of A? Ah, ah ah! What is the sound of B? Beh beh beh!" Okay you get the drift. He must think i'm super duper funny (or sound super duper ridiculous)!
• Still doesn't like being in the sitting position. Insists on standing up, and to add something new, is starting to want to jump! *buries head in hands* Give it a few more weeks, he will want to jump all day - oh my arm muscles!
• When standing, he's starting to be able to bear his own weight on his legs so instead of having to hold him steady under his arms, I simply have to put a finger in each of his hand, and he stands up quite steadily!
• Starting to consume more milk, less sleep. Absolute nightmare for my maid. *grin* Drinks about 4.5oz of milk per feed. Sleeps twice in the day - about 11am and 4pm. Then 8pm after his night shower then he tortures Mummy by wanting to play at midnight. Huwaaa... Sometimes, he skips the 4pm nap because Aiden wrecks havoc at home or simply because he wants to play with his big brother. Oh my poor maid!
• Dah start kenal orang! Just last week my in-laws came over and he wailed loudly when they picked him up. But we tried it again with our neighbour the next day but he didn't wail pulak. Hmmm...
• Doesn't like cuddling anymore! Or rather not too fond of it - and similar to Aiden, he hates when we put the blanket on his legs - he would try his very hardest to kick it away. I think he needs the space, so I better treasure these few more weeks of cuddling before he learns to push us away.
• Sometimes Hubby would rub his nose playfully Ian's cheek and leave it there, and Ian would stay motionless dengan muka redha jer. Super cute!
• Hair doesn't look like it will be thickening soon. *sigh* He obviously didn't get my thick hair gene. *flips hair*
• Enjoys being outdoors. If I get home before dark, I would make a point to push him in his stroller around the neighbourhood. Aiden would accompany us as well, and we would make short stops at the playground or a neighbour's house. Sometimes by the time we get home, he would fall asleep in his stroller so I would bring the stroller in and park him beside the door. That's how much he loves going out. Jangan dah besar tak lekat kat rumah sudahhhhhh...
• Still on the subject of enjoying being outdoors, he also loves his weekend trips out. Poor Ian, unlike Aiden who was dragged everywhere, everytime - Ian only gets to go out during the weekends - and even then we sometimes leave him with the maid if we want to catch a movie or something. So he is the happiest baby if he gets to be in a moving car (note the word moving - if the car stops and he is cranky, he will wail!), or in his car seat being pushed around in a shopping mall.
• Flips over like a pro nowadays. Starting to show signs to mengesot backwards such as wiggling and trying to lift his torso slightly, but nothing major to report yet. Probably next month. 
• When flipped over, he would (for lack of better words) pull his betis upwards towards his buttock, either simultaneously or one by one. When sitting down, he loves flexing his super chubby legs.

Like this! Notice how mantap his legs are? Tak padan dengan his upper body, which is normal size. And this is when he flexes his legs. If un-flexed, can you imagine the number of layers his thighs have?

Look at those bright eyes!

Inquisitive eyes.

The rare occasions when he would tolerate his fingers in his mouth. Too adorable!

Long lashes, but sorry baby - still cannot lawan Abang Aiden's thick long ones. You can blame Daddy for that gene. *evil grin*

Oh, those layers of nyum! Can I have a bite of those drumsticks?

Grinning happily with his Abang Aiden.

Serious face.

And... apart from the thin hair gene, we also found picture evidence that Ian looks like Hubby! (When we showed Aiden Hubby's old pictures, he was so confident that it was Ian. Even Aiden can't tell the difference!)

See the similarities?

Kan, kan?

So Aiden looks more like me, Ian looks like Hubby. Satu soranggggggg. Life is fair after all!

And that brings us to the close of Ian's fourth month old journey. Happy five months old, baby!

Aiden's 5th Pizza Birthday Party

What would April be, without a post about Aiden's birthday?

As I explained in the previous post, Aiden wasn't too happy with the fact that Ian was going to get a party (read: Aqiqah) before his birthday, so he negotiated (yes, he can negotiate now!) to accelerate his birthday party this year. After giving it a bit of thought, I finally conceded - after taking into account that I could combine the two events together and I would be able to have ample time to plan for both during my long maternity leave.

I initially wanted to have a circus themed birthday party for Aiden, but after a lot of planning I finally realised that I wouldn't be able to juggle circus themed game booths with Ian's aqiqah at the same time. Also, Hubby and I would be in our traditional clothes so we wouldn't be able to join in the games as well. Finally, I settled with a simpler theme - a pizza birthday! At first, making pizza dough and getting the kids to make individual pizzas with various toppings came to mind, but again after considering the aqiqah in the morning, our lack of portable ovens and the effort it would take to coordinate the kids and their individual pizzas, I agreed to just call a magician and get him to take over the daunting task of entertaining the children.

Again, this is a picture loaded post so please read this only when you have a stable and strong wifi connection!

The table centerpieces. Found out that Buon Appetito means Bon Appetit' in Italian!

I used mini 7" pizza boxes and personalized them with matching printables. They were then used as favour boxes for the kids to bring home.

Handmade the chef's hats and paper fans all by myself. Tissue paper chef hat tutorial here.

Pizza party plates, napkin and matching pizza chef cupcake stand from Oriental Trading.

The left side of the dessert table. Red gumballs and rock candy from Party City.

Personalized cookies and pizza shaped cookies. It was quite a tedious task to shape the tiny pepperoni and olives into place!

Personalized milk chocolate and kit kat.

Middle of the dessert table. Green and red macarons. Candy cane lollipops from the Christmas stock.

Spaghetti cupcakes. Buttercream 'pasta' with Ferrero Rocher 'meatballs' topped with strawberry jam 'sauce' and grated white chocolate 'cheese'.

The right side of the dessert table. Red and white candy sticks and push pops. Photo of Chef Aiden was taken when he was two years old.

Chef hat and mustache inspired pushpops. Aren't they cute? Yes, I made those mini chef hats one by one. Talk about effort for my first born!

Cut out individual mustaches and stuck them to striped paper straws for use with the personalized drinking water.

A story about those darn popcakes. It was my first time making pop cakes and I left it as one of the last things I wanted to do. Finally got around to dipping the popcakes the night before the party, but underestimated the complexity of putting colour into the white chocolate. The colour I used kept making my chocolate seize and I wasted a whole big bar of chocolate just by experimenting. In the end I had to just settle with pink popcakes - that was all the colour the chocolate could take before seizing.

Green swirl cupcakes in red striped cups with personalized cupcake toppers.

Last but not least, the birthday cake!

A close up on the detailing of the cake. Hubby and I slept at 3am putting the finishing touches on the cake!

Something else I am absolutely proud of. Constructed this pizza slice pinata from scratch by myself. Drew the mushroom slices freehand and used shredded paper as 'cheese' - even Hubby was impressed!

Right after the aqiqah - we changed Ian into a matching shirt with Aiden, and he promptly fell asleep in his rocker.

The party kicked off with the magician making fun balloon shapes.

Happy kids occupied, so that the adults can eat and gossip in peace.

The magician entertaining the star of the party - Aiden, of course.

Look at that happy smile!

Aiden posing with Danya and his Handy Manny balloon helmet and balloon gun.

Frolicking together in the garden.

A fire wielding magician!

Mesmerized children in awe!

The magician trying to tame the flying magician bench.

Even the adults were having fun!

The newly weds were in charge of distributing the pizza boxes goody bags to the kids.

Aiden was again called to be the center of attention. The magician asked Aiden to hold his magic wand...

...with strict instruction not to 'break' it!

Of course, it broke! Check out Aiden's happy laugh!

The magician asking for a volunteer.

Stuffing (and then pulling) a long cloth in/out of Adam's ear.

After the magic show, everyone gathered around the dessert table for Aiden to cut his birthday cake.

The magician getting everyone to sing the birthday song.

Getting ready to blow.

Big blow! My baby is 5 years old!

Basking in the attention.

Cutting the cake, all by himself!

And then he had help from Aunty Awien.

Don't know what the conversation was about but Aiden was certainly having an animated talk with his favourite Kakak Deena.

Posing with his birthday cake.

BBGS girls!

Family photo. I love Ian's grin!

What would a pizza party be, without pizzas? Piping hot pizzas straight from our oven. I think our 10 pizzas were snapped up in less than 15 minutes!

Games time. Wrap the mummy contest.

Daddy posing behind Aiden the mummy.

Erm, definitely not winning this contest, Aiden!

The various mummies we had during the party.

My porch was absolutely full of both kids and adults having fun.

Next up, the chicken dance. Although this picture made the kids look like they were dancing in a club. Erkkk...

Aiden doing the chicken dance.

Bagi chan newlyweds pun nak chicken dance jugak. Aiden and his partner Iskandar, his best friend on his school bus.

Intense concentration!

Wide grin!

Next up, pinata time! Everyone was asked to make a line behind Aiden.

Of course, Aiden got the first hit. I'm so glad the pinata didn't break with the first hit, if not it wouldn't be much fun - would it?

In fact, it didn't even break after the first few hits.

Iskandar getting a shot at it, and managed to whack some candy out. Kids getting ready to jump for the sweets.

Big whack, and the pinata finally broke!

Look at the kids scrambling to get the candy!

Aiden and Danya posing with their loot.

More candy and sweets!

An absolutely brilliant way of collecting candy from the pinata.

Posing with the BBGS gang.

Everyone was so amused with how Sara was carrying the pizza box.

Thank you for coming, Sara!

Office gang.

The running mate.

The lunch partner.

A lady I have not seen for years!

Ian out of his party suit and into a romper suitable for his afternoon nap.

Aiden posing with his presents.