5th year wedding anniversary

Been cracking my head what to get Vin for our 5th year anniversary which was over 2 months ago. He gave me a diamond pendant. Didn't tell me about it and it was a total surprise. I totally melted.

 

The problem is, it's so difficult to shop for men. Plus, with baby to take care of it's not like I have tons of time to go shopping. The thing is, I want something that lasts a really long time, maybe another 5 to 10 years. Not something that will break down after 3 or 4 years like a laptop or a handphone. Vin's complained that I haven't bought him anything yet. Seriously, I just haven't had the time to really look for anything special and I can't think of anything worth getting him that he would appreciate. Having said all that, I think I've just been tired and I haven't taken time out for myself or for getting Vin a special gift.

 

Sigh

Flying Kiss

2 days ago Caity finally did a flying kiss. I've been doing it for 2 months on and off now. I did it one night repeatedly while b-feeding her using her hands on my mouth and then doing it with my own hand. "Flying kiss (hand covering my mouth)...Muah! (flourish when hand comes off the mouth)"

 

So the next evening, I think on Monday, when I said "flying kiss" she raised her hand up to her open mouth and let it fall again. Ahhh! I got so excited. I was jumping up and down squeeling in delight. Ahh...the miracles of learning.

Musical baby

Caity likes music. Vin's singing "Lips" on his xbox and Caity's sorta dancing to the music. She shakes her head and sways from side to side. She'll also wave her hand round and round. 

Getting bigger

There's actually a lot of things I don't have to worry about now that Caity's bigger. I don't have to worry so much about religiously keeping things clean. In another few months I'll probably stop sterilizing her bottles. Also, don't have a worry about pumping milk anymore. Can't believe I did that for  7 to 8 months. As she grows older she'll probably be able to take the bottle to fall asleep. Although she's still pretty dependent suckling first. I don't have to constantly entertain her myself anymore either. She can entertain herself by herself much better now. I'll either let her loose amongst her toys or she'll be happy in front of the TV with a video (although I read that you're not supposed to do that so I've cut back on it at home). I also don't have to carry her everywhere anymore. Caity's getting better at crawling. She only whines when she wants to be carried but not because she gets frustrated at not being mobile. 

What do I worry about now? 

When she gets sick it's not fun for anyone. She's a lot more mobile so that means running around to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. Just the other night, Vin was sitting next to her and she still managed to fall off the sofa. I'm thinking it may be time to try some sort of play group just for a few weeks. During the holidays I'll probably start teaching her different nouns and take her out more. 

I wonder if I'll be able to cope at work. Maybe what needs to happen is that I have to cut back more at work. Adjust my expectations. 

We'll see.

Birthday pictures

Caity at the second party enjoying her walnut-less birthday cake. I'm so glad I made them both. Many babies only get to smell their first cake.

The second cake I made (above and below). This time I sensibly only made one cake tin and cut that in half. The sprinkles were also haphazzardly thrown on top.

I wanted to hire a professional photographer but Vin insisted on veto-ing the idea. He said he would take pictures of me instead.

This monster is two cake tins worth of carrot cake (this time I used a machine to grate 700g worth). Both cakes are cut into 2 so there are 4 layers of cream cheese in between. The "one" candle was bought by Aunty Djin again. Vin's idea to put the cup cake on top. I thought it was cheesy to do that but apparently, it turned out quite attractive.

My first ever carrot cupcake that I made for Caity. The sprinkles were bought by Aunty Djin and they actually come in many different colours all mixed up (below) but I arranged them purple-pink-orange-yellow-white. Yes, I admit it, I'm anal.