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Monday, October 26, 2009

Party: Guests & Gifts

The night before, when Rosabelle woke up from her sleep and I slowly cajoled her to sleep, I told her that she has to sleep early as the next day will be a big day when all her friends come to celebrate her birthday, and in her slumber-y state, she indicated her finger up to point 'one', haha!

So, meet the hostest with the mostest - not me, but Ms. Rosabelle Shi, as she always eagerly and warmly welcomed her friends into our home on party day. One of the first few to arrive (technically, Mai Dou and his mum came at 10:20am, but Rosabelle and I were still getting changed and I had to ask them to come awhile later, haha!), was Qian Qian, a 33-month-old girl, who is big sister to a boy Wan Wan (who didn't come), born a fortnight earlier than Rosabelle.
And the birthday belle posed for pics with the usual gang like Fei Fei, Wang He, Wen Wen, and Jia Jia.
Guests did their sign-in and also read each others' well wishes for Rosabelle.
Chaos started to prevail with more and more kids arriving. At its most crowded, there were 15 kids (apart from Rosabelle) and their guardians, so technically, we found out that our house can hold up to about 35 persons (not all adults, of course), and still have breathing room. Some of the other kids like Gao Yiwei and Han zhu actually came to the corridor, saw the slew of strollers parked outside the house, and heard the noise from inside, and did not dare to come in (haha!), but they very nicely brought gifts the next day. Some of the other guardians plain forgot about the party, tsk tsk...looks like I must remind, and remind, and remind, in future.
Slowly and surely, others like Yu zi, Zhao Zhao, Tian Tian, Mai Dou, Guo Guo, Qi qi, and Bao Bao all arrived.
They all had a whale of a time playing with (and fighting over) Rosabelle's toys I laid out (of course, I selected those that were more durable so that they could withstand the 'torture' by countless little hands...).
Many guardians told me that their kids actually managed to stay awake and excited during the party, even though it was their nap time. A few of them actually went into deep sleep once they reached the lobby of my house, or had deep sleep during their afternoon nap time. Haha, looks like the trick is to tire them all out man! Luckily, other than Tian Tian who cried awhile upon coming into a commotion-filled home (he wasn't used to so many people/noise), the other kids were all used to the mayhem that ensued, and it helped that we all knew each other and the kids were playing with familiar folks.
Rosabelle did a bit of showing off as she toddled steadily with the walker and paraded her frock.
She also got down and dirty by crawling all over to play with her toys. It really is more fun and interesting to play with toys when there are other kids around, eh?
She even let some of the other mummies carry her, heh!
This is a classic gesture of Rosabelle these days, where she will bury her whole head and use her arms to grab somebody else when we ask her to 'love' whoever. So much so that A-man's mum had to ask me to help pull Rosabelle away as she was a little too over-enthusiastic in pulling A-man towards her.
Love is in the air that day, I tell you...
A rare mummies with babies shot, where unfortunately Rosabelle blinked (the other shot had her hand raised and blocking Qi Qi on her right).
Most of the guests came bearing gifts (I really wasn't expecting them to bring anything since it was a simple party)... though some, like this plush toy below, was obviously recycled, with glue on the front of the toy (the tag had probably already dropped off eons ago)...well, it's the thought that counts, huh? And this is her haul of the day! Toys, books, cards, clothing... and of course, not forgetting the many angpows she got from my family members in advance when we were back in Singapore in September.
The Winnie the Pooh tricycle is given by her godparents, Vanessa and Timothy (thanks, thanks!), and she absolutely loves it, pressing the buttons and dancing to the music, using it as a walker by pushing it from the back, and she wants to sit in it even when at home. Of course, the bike attracts alot of attention when we are out, and many other kids want to play with/ride in it, so I have to tell Rosabelle to share her bike with others - she is so far quite ok with it, though I at times will cringe if a dirty-looking kid with germ-infested hands touch it. That is why I am armed with a wet wipe to quickly swipe any part clean before Rosabelle sits back in it (the other day, one of the boys, with buttocks exposed, sat on it - can dieeee.....).
Here she is, happy on her bike, and she is learning to say 'car' alot these days, even waking up from her long afternoon nap just now by saying 'car' when she opened her eyes. She thinks her tricycle is a car, and goes 'vroom vroom', coupled with the action of waving hands. When she crawls around the house, or goes toddling on her walker, and passes by the tricycle parked next to her stroller, she will inadvertently be drawn to it, heh!
Thank you to one and all who made Rosabelle's birthday so happy and memorable!

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