Two years ago something happened

I can still vividly remember the day Adelle was born. It was just past 5 am when I received the phone call from my wife that she was going into labour. When I arrived at the hospital, she was already being rolled into the delivery room. I was allowed to go in as I had attended the pre-natal classes with her. I fondly remember how I, as her breathing coach, simulated the kind of breathing exercises for my wife to follow...only to be told as soon as I started by the mid-wife that what I was doing was wrong! I remember chuckling to myself and telling my wife how what everyone thought what the baby was going to be was wrong. People thought the baby would be a boy (gleaned through the sophisticated means of looking at the shape of tummy), but what arrived was Adelle, a girl.

That was 2 years ago, yesterday. When I look at Adelle today, I realise how much she's grown; she talks quite a lot, she enjoys singing (or rather getting Mommy or Daddy to sing), she's cheeky when she wants to be, and for the most part, she's quite adorable (unless she gets into one of her foul moods due to sleepiness).

Adelle was quite happy (not to mention excited) when her birthday came. Throughout the day, several uncles and aunties called to say their birthday wishes. Also, wife had promised that they'd bake her birthday cake together, so Adelle had a hand in making her own cake though I think it was only limited to putting the flour into the mixing bowl. Anyhow, Adelle was very excited about seeing her birthday cake once it was all ready.

The chocolate birthday cake my wife and Adelle baked

We had a simple celebration after dinner with my parents, and Adelle got her wish to blow out her candles - twice! As you can see from the pic of the cake below, it's decorated with biscuits of Disney cartoon characters, and Smarties. It was the first time Adelle ate Smarties and what can I say...she loved them! We usually don't allow Adelle to eat sweets but since this was her special day, we made a slight exception.

Of course, we made sure we brushed her teeth before bedtime to get rid of all those sweet bits.

A walk in the park

One of the things Adelle likes best is playing. The other thing is swimming in the pool. Yesterday, the weather was good enough to go to our favourite park nearby to let Adelle get a bit of exercise and also to allow her to release all her energy (she hadn't been doing much y because we pretty much stayed inside the house the whole day). She's just rediscovered the joys of the slide as well as climbing bars again. So, she was extra enthusiastic about doing both at the playground at the park. Another of her favourites is playing the see-saw.

Talking about see-saws, do you even call them that nowadays? I mean, I hardly see the 'original' - the ones that are made up entirely of a long piece of thick flat wood with a fulcrum in the centre. All I see nowadays are those bouncy ones with springs. So the movements aren't exactly see-sawing are they? Adelle's still not too keen on the swing, but she's slowly warming up to the idea of swishing through the air.

Of course, as usual, Daddy would be lugging his photo gear along to get some shots of his usually more-than-willing model. The park's actually a good place to meet people. Once, I met an ex-colleague whom I hadn't seen in years for two days consecutively! And yesterday was no different. We met friends and chatted for a while and then we went for a short trip to the local supermarket. When it was time for Adelle to go to sleep, she slept like a baby!

Perfect!



More pictures here.

The night

Remember the concert I talked about in my previous post? Well, everything turned out quite well. Though we did start later than scheduled (there's that Malaysian time creeping in again), but things moved on pretty smoothly when we did start.

I was told before the concert started that there was a possibility of the auditorium overflowing with people as the response to the tickets was overwhelming. But, in the end, there were enough seats for everyone. There was also the possibility of heavy rain (like the previous evening), but thankfully, it stayed dry. It was a cool evening, though.

The evening started out with carol singing, which was followed by performances by one of the beneficiaries of the concert. The first consisted of several children using large black bins which were overturned and used as drums. Then there was a Bollywood-style dance number (which I thought was quite hilarious), and finally, group singing. Of course, all these acted as a prelude to the highlight of the evening which was the choir singing. Yours truly was narrator, and I must say that the point just before you start talking is always the most nerve-wracking. But, thankfully, there were no slip-ups, and the choir performed splendidly.

Well, only 20 more days till Christmas, and this whole thing just sets up a nice mood for it.

Thanks to all who came, and hope you had a wonderful evening!




For more photos, click here.