Thing to do prepare for baby's Lunar Birthday

Before having a baby, I never knew all this. Just to caveat, this is not really a "tradition". Both the Hub's parents and my own never did that for us. It is probably an IG trend thing. But we did it cos I:

• Love eating Ang Ku Kueh, the one we got only cost like $13 per pair (which was quite reasonable) 
• Needed a pair of nice shoes and IMM is not that far
• Created our Zhua Zhou Kit which we will share on a separate post. 

These giant ang ku kuehs are called "脚龟". To step on it symbolises a smooth journey in life. We do come from a traditional family it was prayed first before we did the stepping. Tip: Wrap the kuehs up in food film so that it is cleaner logistically and you can eat it too after the meal. 

However, I do think most people are doing it for "trend" or "IG". We got ours from Kueh Garden at $13 a pair, it actually even tasted yummy, we finished it up after the shoot! There are even rainbow 脚龟 available in the market at an eyepopping $40 (including delivery). Note: Our baby refused to put his feet even on it (maybe cos of the texture). Just these 3 photos took a lot of coaxing and patience. 

We put a lot more thoughts into his shoes because we reckoned he is going to wear it for his first walk and that might effect his development. We decided to go for traditional shoemakers instead of some unknown brands. Heard from some Mummies that IMM has the best prices so we went there and got this Gudetama piece from Reebok at $40 (more than half price off!) There is even a button on top that will squeak when you press it. 

The only grouse would be that the design selection is quite limited. For a budget of $50, this was the only piece which caught my eye even after going to all the shoe shops. The first pair of walking shoe is usually gifted by the maternal grandmother (don't know why). My Mum was quite kind to let us choose the design because LOL I am very particular about such things. :P

Zhua Zhou (抓周) gives you a quick peek into your child's future. Usually a list of items which represent certain careers will be placed on a red mat and the first item/ 2 items that the kid pick will be his/ her future career. This set was provided by Bite Size Affair. You just have to top up an additional $10 to include it in your photoshoot ($250)

You can either buy ($20+ onwards) or rent ($8 onwards/ free) if you intend to do yourself. We did a DIY one too! But to be very honest, you will only use it for 15mins max but it can be fun for the parents and child. :P

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Bite Size Affair is currently having a 10% discount in Oct. Quote "ba13yg" for an additional 10% off! On normal times, you can quote and get 10% off. 

A fuss free 1YO birthday party

The Covid situation has made a lot of things really difficult. Given the restrictions, we couldn't invite a lot of people, so make things work, I basically IGS some highlights with my friends. We only invited our direct family members. With everything scaled down, procurement became a lot harder especially when you want to keep the $$/ pax down. 

Some of my friends were telling me to ditch party planners and just sort of buy the necessary deco ourselves. Erms...it is not as easy as it looked. For the 2nd party, I jumbled up my loot - some cheap 99 cents balloons off Shopee and came up with something so disorganised. Firstly, the balloons were much bigger than expecteed (in fact they were bigger than the birthday boy itself) and that caught me off-guard. See above!

Thankfully, I didn't adopt the same strategy for the 2 days. For the first and main party, we got the customised party box from Daisy Entertainment. Basically, they just deliver everything to your doorstep. The planners don't come along (which won't add to your pax count) but still it was fuss free to set up. You don't have to buy and blow up the assorted balloons and think about the colours combination. 

My son woke up to balloons in the living room and he was so thrilled. My family was also quite impressed with the set-up. My brother was telling me how detailed it was. They even drew wavy lines on the balloons to make it more in line with our space themed. It was a gigantic pillar of balloons which we shifter around to hide the ugly areas of the house in the photos!

Apart form the balloons, Daisy Entertainment also provided these beautiful hand-painted name-blocks, which I am absolutely in love with. Somehow, it makes the whole deco a lot more premium too. I love how it can be used as a prop for so many things. I basically moved it around because they were so pretty. You might even see them in future birthday parties and his nursery. 

I really don't want to be that comparing mother but sometimes I just can't help doing it. Unless you are really artistic and have a lot of time on your hand, most DIY projects would look like the sad state of my #2 party :'(

Food wise, we did takeaways for both. Because, we had a lot of old grannies as guests, we decided to have Chinese food instead. That ruled down quite a lot of places. There just ain't as many established Chinese Restaurants as compared to fastfood chains. Overall, the party was really fun. You can read more about our equally eye-catching cake here and some other events we did here :P

In the end, I am glad we decided to still hold a decent one instead of doing a shoddy one because of the restrictions. Many of our friends who seen our IGS also did feel like "they were kinda of there" and gave us thumbs up for the effort we put in. Sometimes, I admit I thrive on validation :P

We went to the Gardens by the Bay (Covid Edition)

 

Another post which may help parents decide whether to bring their kids to Gardens by the Bay. So we went...and it was really empty. (Check out my clean shots!) It is a bit sad but a lot of our attractions are a shadow of the past. There were so little people, I don't even have much of a choice when looking for passer-by to help take a family shot. Some tips which might help your trip there. 

1. Go on a weekday: This is my general strategy to avoid the crowds. It does burn a bit of the leaves. But it is not like we have anywhere to go anyway. 


2. Split the day and night plans: We were staying in a nearby hotel. But still we decided to split the day and night plans so that the bubs can better enjoy the day. He probably could sleep in the stroller should we drag the evening into the night. But I really wanted lighter baggage LOL.


3. Children's Festival: We went to see the inflatables in the night. And hmm...my photos didn't turn up that well. I personally don't find them impressive. But my other friends went in the day (with toddlers that can walk/ run) and they seem to enjoy themselves more. Go in the day!





4. Mid-Autumn lantern sets & displays: Totally not worth seeing in my opinion. The design of the rabbits didn't appeal to me at all. LOL!


5. Flower Dome: We decided to visit one of them because it was too hot in the day and we needed aircon. We booked on the spot ($12/ adult). Thankfully, the number of people is controlled. It is quite empty while we were there too! 


6. Bring a tripod if you have one! There is really quite little people there to even stop a passer-by to help you take photos. We did take a lot of wefies but oh wells, the feeling is kinda of different.





7. Transport: We actually walked there on Day 1 evening and took the MRT there on Day 2 (nobody on the train at all!) Guess these transports are still safe!


8. What we packed: One bottle of milk, lots of snack and 1 diaper (totally not enough) His pee leaked and I did scold myself for missing this out. (The spare diaper and clothes was from our last trip). You can read our previous post on what we packed, which is a lot more comprehensive. Read it here! The changing room is really clean though, cleaner than the zoo!


9. Duration: We stayed only about 2 hours in the dome (walked around twice). Baby actually fell asleep after the first round. He was quite excited cos one of the words he could say was flower so he was pointing and repeating flower. So cute~! 

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Note: Laptop is down, so posts won't be as frequent!