Happy 2nd birthday, Connor!

Our little boy turned two last Saturday. That's right. Two whole years have gone by.

We had a little family do in our apartment. My little brother bought the birthday cake and my mum and I did the cooking. We were in the kitchen from 8am, pounding and chopping and stirring and frying but it was worth all that work to see everyone wolf down the food. We served mi hoon goreng, ayam masak tomato, sambal udang and BBQ chicken wings. Dear Hubby said, "When we were children, birthday party food was always ice-cream, cake, chocolate and jellies." My brother and I stared at him. "Noooooo... party food is always mee siam, karipap, chicken nuggets and fruit juice!"

Early in the morning, Daddy and Gong-gong (my dad) blew up the balloons I'd bought. We tied them up in bunches and when Uncle Mark arrived, he helped put them up. We also put up this Happy Birthday banner I bought (to be recycled for future parties!) and it sure looked festive. Connor was napping and when he woke up, he was amazed to see to see so many balloons in the house. He loves balloons, you see.

We took pictures of him with all his birthday cards. There was one from us, one from his Uncle Mark, one from my parents and two sent with love from the his UK grandparents and aunt. There was a big wrapped present from my uncle to him.

We sang him Happy Birthday as he sat in his highchair in front of his cake. He hasn't a clue but he knows that every time people sing this particular song, they are very happy and they always clap enthusiastically after that. So when the song finished, he broke into a big smile, clapped and clapped and said "Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!" How we laughed.

Presents time! Connor opened his present from my uncle first with a little help from Mummy and Daddy. It was a set of books. When I was little, they would always buy me books when they came visiting. I thought it was rather fitting that their present to my son would be books as well.

Then came Uncle Mark's present. It was a Thomas bicycle! Oh boy. The look on my son's face was just priceless when he saw it. His eyes flew wide open and he was just absolutely delighted with it. Even clapped his hands a little. It's a little too big for him right now but it's all right... he'll grow.

Third was our present to him. When we were at Toys R Us shopping for his present, he got into one of those little cars and refused to come out. When I tried to pull him out, he reversed away from me as fast as he could and knocked down a toy display in his haste to get away. So we ended up buying said car. Daddy put it together this morning and we hid it in one of the spare bathrooms. He was so happy when he saw the car, he couldn't wait to get in and take it for a spin. Men!

Lastly was my parents' present to him. It's a gold pendant with the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac on one side and the Chinese character "fu" on the other. I know it may sound like an odd gift for a 2yo to those not familiar with Chinese culture but this gift is quite common in traditional Chinese families. Not everyone gets gold for their birthday! In the old days, this was a way of ensuring that if the family needed money sometime in the future, they had the gold stashed away for that. It's the Chinese trust fund.

We just ate and ate after that. Connor was too busy and excited over his new toys to eat so I let him be. It was his birthday after all. I think everyone ate too much because we all just lazed around after that chatting and laughing at Connor's off-key rendition of Happy Birthday.

What a great day. What a great year.

Happy birthday Connor, Mummy and Daddy love you very much.