The Bub in the Belly

Ryan's 1st birthday was celebrated on the day itself, the 22nd of January 2010. We had a 10-course sit-down Chinese dinner with some of our relatives at Grand Imperial Restaurant, Plaza Damas. As Terri put it, "A very dignified way to turn one".

We had been mulling over how to celebrate this special 1st birthday, whether to do a babies' party with other babies, a get-together with our friends in Singapore, etc. I love the idea of having a themed party, with a fantasy cake, elaborate decorations and great entertainment for the kids. We have attended and enjoyed several of such parties and I can't wait to organise one for Ryan - I've got so many ideas in my head!

However, in the end, as this is Ryan's very 1st birthday, we decided to focus on what we felt would make the day most special to Ryan, which was gathering the people who love him the most and ensuring that he was the centre of attention. Once we decided on that, all the decisions were simple. What the cake looked like wasn't important - we wanted people to look at Ryan, and not the cake, when singing Happy Birthday (although the cake was lovely!). The decorations were also not essential - Ryan was what everyone wanted to see. Entertainment was unnecessary - the kids (Ryan's cousins) were completely enamoured with Ryan and we didn't want anything to detract from Ryan.

We kept the dinner small - we invited only our relatives who were in KL at the time and everyone we invited turned up. My mother flew in from Sydney a few days ago so that she could be here for Ryan's birthday. Jimmy closed his clinic early so that he could make it. Everyone was happy to see each other and conversation flowed easily. Laughter was a constant and the feeling was cozy and warm. The restaurant put us in a private room (with an ensuite!) and we played a slideshow of the photos from Ryan's photoshoot with Annie la Rue on the TV.

Mary bought the lovely cake - we didn't know what the cake would look like until we arrived at the restaurant. We told Margaret and Mary that any design would do as Ryan doesn't have a favourite character or colour. In the end, the baker made all sorts of characters - there's Pocoyo, Cookie Monster, KeroKeroKeroppi, Hello Kitty, Barney, Piglet, etc. We asked Ryan to choose a favourite but he preferred the green Happy Birthday lettering instead!


Ryan didn't have to sit in his high chair for more than ten minutes the whole dinner. Everyone was eager to have their time with him and he was constantly hugged and kissed and admired. Half the time, he was laughing out loud from fooling around with his older cousins who simply adore him. He was surrounded by so much love, I was so happy for him. He was the star of the night.

Happy Birthday Baby!