Blowing out the candles

J turns 2 yrs old on 2 April but we had an early celebration as Baby M is due anytime. I am sure Baby M would love to have a taste of the birthday cake before he arrives into this world.

When preparing for this party, we asked J what cake would he like and he kept saying "Ting Tang" cake. It took us a while to figure out that he is refering to the Doraemon character. Thus a "Ting Tang" cake it would be.

A few weeks before the party, we have started teaching the "Happy Birthday" song to J and he would sway his body and clap his hands in rythm to the song. At the end of the song, he would pretend to blow out the candle. There are even times when he would stack up some wooden blocks to make a make-belief cake and he would sing the song and does the candle-blowing gestures. I guess he is practicing for his big day.

We had the celebration at a chinese restaurant and invited the immediate family. I had to keep it small as I am too advance into my pregnancy to be a good host if we had too many guests.

We tuck into a feast of buffet and ala-carte dishes but J was not in the mood to eat. He seems distracted and grouchy. However, the minute we brought out the cake, his eyes lighted up and pointed excitedly to the cake and exclaimed "Ting Tang cake" over and over. We sang the "Happy Birthday" song and J sang and clapped along to the music. At the end of it, he even managed to blow out the candles!

What a difference a year makes! When we celebrated his 1st birthday, he had no clue what was going on. One year later, he can even dictate the type of cake he wants and was joining in the celebration.

Come next year, we would be able to celebrate J's 3rd birthday and Baby M's 1st birthday together!