Christian's 5th Birthday

This post is long overdue.. we celebrated Christian's 5th birthday at an indoor playground this year. He had asked for a party, and was careful to specify "I don't mean just bring a cake to school...I mean a party like Andrew had, at SAFRA, remember?"

I considered this request carefully because I do not want him to cave in to peer pressure, and did not want to give in all the time. After some consideration, I realised that we did not have a proper party for him since he was born, and we informed him that if we had a party, the next one he will be having will be in another 5 years' time. I also set 2 conditions for him to fulfill. He had to I) start showering himself and II) stop using diapers at night.

Yes. He is still using diapers at night. I was initially quite ashamed of that fact, and blamed it on lack of effort on my part to train him, but after reading some articles online, learnt that boys are usually slower than girls in this aspect and that night toilet training really depends on the individual being physiologically ready - the bladder must trigger a signal to the brain and wake the child up.. So I stopped putting pressure on him, and thought he'll be ready when his diaper finally stops being wet in the morning.

As for party venues, I had considered having a sports party organised by Shaws, a pirate ship party at Sentosa, and a simple indoor party. I settled for the last cos not all kids might enjoy the sports party (especially the girls in his class?) and also cos my friend pointed out "How are you going to top it if you go for the pirate ship party straightaway?"

So we settled on Fidgets, which looks pretty awesome to me, but was a little inconvenient in its location. It's at Bukit Timah, Turf City which I discovered to be a rather family-friendly place, but not so friendly to those without cars.

Christian had also asked for an Elmo cake and so I looked hard for one. It was tough to find a baker who would do a fresh cream Elmo cake, but I eventually managed to find one who would customise it for me at a very reasonable price.

Here's a few pictures of the big day.. (P and I kept thinking (much like typical parents) "we've never had such a party for ourselves..kids these days are so fortunate..")

Christian certainly looked like he enjoyed himself, playing with his classmates in a different environment, and being the star of the day. We are so happy that he has reached this milestone! Half a decade.. only 3 more of these to go, before he is a full-grown adult.. sigh.

Thank you darling for being such a wonderful son..you are so beautiful and precious to us and we love you more than you can imagine.