The Bub in the Belly: Valentine's Day

Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

4th and 5th days of Chinese New Year

Posted by Pinkie Pirate at 6:31 PM

The 4th day of Chinese New Year - time to say bye bye to Ipoh!

We checked out of the hotel and proceeded to an early lunch with my relatives at the food stalls near the Perak Stadium. Everytime we come here (which is during the Chinese New Year period), my uncle and aunt will tell the rest (non-Ipohites) that the food is not as good as it normally is, because the popular stalls are not open for business yet. Nevertheless, we still yum-yum'd it all.

We left directly from there. The drive back to KL was smooth and pleasant and when we got in, we headed for Pelita in SS2 for some roti canai (in Singapore, this is called roti prata). Here's Rachel with a little bit of it. She is very adventurous with food and will try anything. She may eventually decide she doesn't like the taste of it, but she's open-minded and curious enough to give it a go before deciding. In contrast, Ryan makes his decision based on how the food looks. If it doesn't pass the looks test, he won't proceed further. He won't try it at all. Maybe this is a indication of his approach to women in future!

We sent Margaret's BMW X1 for a good bath and polish, while we went for dinner in Subang with Richard's side of the family. After dinner, it was back to the house for the lighting of the Kuomintang lantern. You are supposed to write your wishes on the lantern but we didn't. We just made sure that everyone put their hands on it for a while before it got too hot and lifted off into the night.

We launched fireworks after that and Terri and Vincent popped over for a short visit as well. Richard's parents love Terri and Vincent so they were pleased to see them.

We had quite a late night, left about 2 am, so we were really tired by the time we got home.

The next day was Valentine's Day! I must say that I had quite a crummy Valentine's Day this year. Oh, nothing bad happened. There was just very little Valentine's Day in our Valentine's Day. I didn't get any flowers and I didn't get a present. I could blame it on the fact that we were in the midst of Chinese New Year or that we were travelling but I didn't even get a "Happy Valentine's Day" from my hubby. I'm not happy! It's bad enough that I don't get any acknowledgment on Mother's Day, I should not have to give up my Valentine's Day too! It was so insignificant that it doesn't deserve a post of its own, hence the combined post today. Hmmph.

You know those people who tell you, oh we don't celebrate Valentine's Day "because everyday should be Valentine's Day". Yeah, ok. I don't subscribe to that. Valentine's Day, and any couple-thingy or lovey-dovey thingamajig, is significant to me because it is so difficult to squeeze out time for each other in our usual routine. On Valentine's Day, you have a legitimate reason to prioritise yourself and your other half over your children. Just one day a year. So, yes, I want my Valentine's Day, I want my flowers and everything else. All of it.

Ahem.

Anyway, here's what we did. After our late night, we woke up late. Drove over to Margaret's place because Richard's mum had cooked lunch for everyone.

We did have a vague plan of leaving Ryan with his cousins at Margaret's place so that we could spend some couple time in the afternoon. Ok ok, couple-plus-one-babydoll time. Anyway, that didn't work because Ryan didn't want to stay there. So our whole family ventured out together after lunch.

We felt a little sorry for Ryan, since the darling boy gave up his time with his cousins to stick with us, so we wanted to find something that he would enjoy. We decided on 1 Utama because there is an indoor playground there. After half an hour of rounding the carpark hunting for a lot, we gave up and went to J Kids at Paradigm Mall instead. We got in with zero problems.

J Kids at Paradigm Mall uses the same system as the one in Singkids in Singapore. It was unlimited play for RM20 on weekdays. We took turns accompanying Ryan in the playground (while the other shopped). We rounded off the trip to the mall with a quick meal for Ryan at Old Town White Coffee.

On the way home in the car, Richard and I tried seeing how we could salvage the rest of Valentine's Day. We could at least have a nice restaurant dinner? That thought lasted maybe about three minutes or until we turned around and saw Ryan fast asleep in his car seat. Oh joy. We ended up buying a packet of maggi mee goreng and a packet of nasi lemak and watching "Life of Pi" on DVD at home, while the two littles slept. Cheapest Valentine's Day date ever.

Ryan and babydoll woke up after the movie and so we drove over to Margaret's house, just to sit around and chat for a while.

And that was our Valentine's Day. Pooi.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Belated Valentine's Day outing

Posted by Pinkie Pirate at 12:00 AM

On Saturday, we had a meet up with Shann and Alicia and their respective families for a belated Valentine's Day children's celebration.

We were in charge of snacks so, after we dragged ourselves out of bed, it was off to the market!

Breakfast was noodles from this Teochew Noodle stall in Marine Parade. There's always a long queue, it took us 30 minutes to get our food that day.

Back home, we lazed about for a bit before I started preparing the snacks at about 2pm. Each child got two mini hotdogs (no oil), roasted heart-shaped potatoes and hard boiled heart-shaped quail eggs, a cherry tomato and mini marshmallows.

This was the adult's serving - a grilled cheese sandwich, the roasted potatoes again (including the non-heart-shaped bits), quail eggs, cherry tomatoes and bacon-wrapped cocktail sausages baked with brown sugar.

Richard helped to pack the bento boxes.

A note to myself: the roasted potatoes were way too salty! I used my usual marinade but overlooked the fact that my usual marinade is for WHOLE potatoes. These sliced potatoes absorbed the salt way faster and easier and tasted really sharp. They were ok if you ate them with the bread, but not on their own.

Shann brought fruits and Alicia brought drinks; each family brought a mat and there was a ball to kick about. We brought some bubble-blowers. We were all set for the picnic!

I asked Richard to make these as Valentine's Day cards from Ryan for Brayden and Rou Ern. The sticks are glow sticks slotted into the photographs.

Cute eh? The idea is not mine - I got it from the internet. It's definitely an idea that we will be recycling from time to time.

Shann and Ern baked cookies for the children, and Ryan wasted no time in digging in. He had three in quick succession!

The outing was fantastic! The weather was really kind - no sun, no rain, hardly felt any humidity, just perfect. Chris found us a private spot (I think we'll always camp there from now on).

The children were amazing together, they warmed up almost instantly, stuck together and played so well together. It was heartwarming to watch. Here are some shots from Richard's iPhone.

Ryan giving Brayden a hug. This started out as a group hug.
Ern was the first to let go (no longer in the picture) and Ryan was the last.

Shann had a friend come by to snap some photos of the families. Here's a sneak preview of her work - I lifted this off her facebook this morning. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the shots!

We had 7.30 pm dinner reservations at House at Dempsey, so we left about 7.15 pm. On the way out, we came across this lovely dog. He was huge and breathtakingly beautiful. The children couldn't get enough of him and his owner was more than happy to let them give him some love, even inviting them to sit on him like a horse (we didn't!).

Dinner was great, although not so much because of the food, which was a little patchy - as in not all, although most, of the dishes were good. The star dish was the truffles fries - we had three servings! Other than that, everything was fantastic, especially the ambience. The place was fully booked but we were in a semi-private corner right at the end of the restaurant, which was perfect for us.

Alicia and Shann prepared pre-dinner activities for the children so the children were well occupied while waiting for their food.

Alicia printed some blank faces and the children had fun pasting the facial features (and spectacles) on. These are Ryan's creations.

Shann made some paper animals for the children to paste heart-shaped features on. These are Ryan's - an owl, a raccoon and a dinosaur. Fun!

Here are the three families - hard at work to earn their dinner! (These two photos were taken by Chris)

After that, the children did some doodling and writing while the food trickled onto the table, bit by bit. Upon seeing the soup being served to the others (we didn't order soup), Ryan started to fuss a little. I guessed that he was starting to feel hungry at that point as he didn't eat the snacks that we prepared. He only had three cookies and some mini-marshmallows. Normally he doesn't fuss out of hunger, but lack of sleep makes him edgy and irritable, so I was not surprised as he skipped his nap that day (discounting a 5-minute shuteye in the car on the way to the park). We took him away for a little while to let him vent his feelings as much as he needed to and he regained his good spirits when his food came (specifically, when the truffle fries came!).

After dinner, the ladies sat around and gossiped while the husbands followed the children around. The children went round to the back of the restaurant where there was a pond with fish/turtles, they jumped around in one of the empty private function rooms next to our table, and they trotted around the restaurant in a line pretending they were a train, "choo-choo" included. They were really good and they didn't disturb the other diners, the only loud sounds that could be heard above the dinner hum were their giggles and laughter. Most adorable was when Ern stumbled and fell in the restaurant which led to the other two falling (Ern was the train engine, Ryan was the kaboose at the end and Brayden was in the middle). They all started giggling because it was so comical. Coincidentally, they were right in front of a huge mirror at that point, and seeing themselves in the mirror amused them even more, sending them into more giggling fits.

I knew Ryan was suffering from a lack of sleep and, in that state, there was always a risk that something will irritate or annoy him, but nothing did. Well, actually there was one thing - the children would occasionally come back to the dining table to drink water and to check in with the mummies (no doubt, these were time-outs initiated by the weary fathers). Ern had done her check-in and was already off to the back of the restaurant. Ryan eagerly followed but suddenly stopped and started fussing, stretching his hand out towards the table. At first I thought, oh he wants me to go with him, but no ... he was upset that Brayden was not coming along! (Brayden was still at the dining table). Once Brayden was done and joined up, Ryan happily went off. That was really funny!

About 10.30 pm, the children finally let the parents call it a night. When they parted outside the restaurant, the three of them gave each other a huge group hug and refused to let go despite nearly toppling over. The parents had to tear them apart. Simply adorable.

We got home about 11 pm and Ryan fell asleep just before midnight, tired but extremely happy. It had been a fabulous day for him.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day

Posted by Pinkie Pirate at 12:00 AM

Happy Valentine's Day to these two lovelies of mine!

Our morning was spent at the modelling agency where Ryan had his agency shots updated. He's getting better and better at the whole thing and the session went really well - I can't wait for the photos!

I went into the office in the afternoon, and was greeted by this lovely thing.

It's my Valentine's Day bouquet! Thank you hubs!

Also got these from my office! Love them! Muack Muack!

The three of us had dinner at The Big Bad Wolf in Tanjong Katong where we had the most amazing pulled pork. I am definitely going back there to have it again!

Can you spot the big bad wolf?

To top it off, my dear hubby bought me a new gadget, something I've been dreaming of for some time! I need some time to figure out how to use it though - it looks pretty high-tech! Thank you hubby - big muacks!

Here's to all our loved ones - Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving
And the rosebuds know to bloom in early may
Just as hate knows love's the cure
You can rest your mind assure
That I'll be loving you always

As now can't reveal the mystery of tomorrow
But in passing will grow older every day
Just as all that's born is new
You know what I say is true
That I'll be loving you always

(Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky)
Always
(Until the ocean covers every mountain high)
Always
(Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea)
Always
(Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream)

Did you know that true love asks for nothing
No no her acceptance is the way we pay
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
To last through forever and another day

Just as time knew to move on since the beginning
And the seasons know exactly when to change
Just as kindness knows no shame
Know through all your joy and pain
That I'll be loving you always

As today I know I'm living
But tomorrow could make me the past
But that I mustn't fear
For I'll know deep in my mind
The love of me I've left behind
'Cause I'll be loving you always

(Until the day is night and night becomes the day)
Always
(Until the trees and seas just up and fly away)
Always
(Until the day that eight times eight times eight is four)
Always
(Until the day that is the day that are no more)
Did you know you're loved by somebody
(Until the day the earth starts turnin' right to left)
Always
(Until the earth just for the sun denies itself)
I'll be lovin you forever
(Until dear mother nature says her work is through)
Always
(Until the day that you are me and I am you)
Always
(Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Until the ocean severs every mountain high)
Always mm mm

We all know sometimes life hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet your lifetimes that and twice it's double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed
So make sure when you say you're in it, but not of it
You're not helpin' to make this earth
A place sometimes called hell
Change your words into truths
And then change that truth into love
And maybe our children's grandchildren
And their great grandchildren will tell
I'll be loving you until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky

- "As" by Stevie Wonder

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Our Valentine's Day

Posted by Pinkie Pirate at 12:25 AM

We turned down some social invitations for Monday night and our friends were surprised to hear that our reason was because we celebrate Valentine's Day.

Of course, Ryan is with us but that does not lessen the celebration, in fact we would not have it any other way. Having said that, we don't do anything big - we just have dinner together after work. Some years we cooked at home, some years we go out somewhere. There was one year we didn't manage to have our cozy dinner - that was the year that Valentine's Day coincided with Chinese New Year.

This year, we had dinner at timbré (the branch where Fat Frog once was). The owners are actually clients of Richard's firm. I suppose, if we were younger, we might have stayed on for the live music, but we were pretty tired from work actually. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves. The ambience was casual and comfortable and the crabmeat aglio olio and the thin pizza was delicious. The fish and chips - the fish was not so great, but Ryan enjoyed the chips.

Richard tucking into the spaghetti, Ryan in the background giving his pasta a good chew.

For as long as we have been together, including during our dating years, Richard has bought me flowers every Valentine's Day. If it's a working day, like this year, they are delivered to my office.

Richard and I get each other presents as well and this is one of my presents from Richard this year - it's a big terrarium!

It was delivered on Saturday. Apparently, Richard secretly went down to the shop a few weeks ago and the shopkeeper helped him to select the plants for the terrarium. He told me that there was a cactus called "Leona" which he wanted to include but the shopkeeper said cacti don't do well in terrariums, so that idea was scrapped.