Immediate Family You Should Know

Today is Christmas Day! It's the birth of Jesus Christ okay, and not Santa Claus. Without Jesus, Mommy and Daddy would not have been born.

Or met.

Or gotten married.

And hence, created you.


When you celebrate your first Christmas in this world, we'll show you pictures of Jesus. Although, we don't think He's really so fair because He lived in the middle east where most people have darker skin.

Daddy and Mommy started the day by opening presents near our Christmas tree. Daddy pretended to be surprised by the shoes I got him (he was there when Mommy picked it out for him). He was truly surprised by the New Order Collector's CD I got him though. As Mommy has repeatedly mentioned to you, Daddy loves music.




Mommy received a silver bracelet with a teddy bear on it. It's the cutest bracelet ever. Daddy knows Mommy likes little trinkets. We also opened Mommy's Godpa's presents for us - a book for me and another CD for Daddy. Lovely.

 















Then we went to collect the Christmas turkey one set of your grandparents ordered earlier. Turkey is what most people end up eating for Christmas lunch or dinner. It's a big bird, what else can I say? Although I admit it's not as big as the yellow Big Bird on Sesame Street.

 
Lunch was at your grandparents' home in Taman Megah. The guests who turned up included Mommy's parents (your other set of grandparents), your great-grandmother (Daddy's mom's mother), Uncle Victor (Daddy's mom's brother), Uncle Brian (Daddy's brother), Aunty Angeline (Daddy's brother's wife), Uncle Raj and Aunty Prema (Aunty Angeline's parents).







Remember what Mommy says in the morning about respecting your elders? Well these are some of the people you must learn to respect and love because they're family.

"Elders" - people older than we are - make mistakes but we must still be courteous to them as this is the mark of a person with inner strength and humility.









There was a lot of laughter during lunch. It was also nice this time because Aunty Angeline's parents were with us. Aunty Angeline is going to marry Uncle Brian in January 2009. So it was a good opportunity to get to know her parents.










Daddy's mom made fish cutlets, a curry chicken plus a lovely coleslaw. She also bought some roast pork from the market. Mommy contributed a potato salad. It was all quite delicious and I'm sure you'll agree: you moved quite a bit for the next few hours. Uncle Brian saw Mommy's tummy tremble while you wriggled, and got excited.










After lunch, we all moved to the living room where we exchanged gifts. Daddy's Mom made jokes about how her presents must have come from a RM5 shop. She also exclaimed that our gift of cufflinks to Uncle Brian was the most exciting gift, probably because it was something expensive.

As you grow older, you'll notice Mommy and Daddy stressing on the importance of "giving from the heart". You could give a hug to Mommy and I'd feel as if it cost a million ringgit. And while many people in this big world may not feel like that, Daddy and I believe it should be the way.

Gifts aren't measured by the price tag on them but the sincerity with which they are given. That's why we hope you'll understand if we say NO when you want a really expensive toy.

 


Learn to appreciate things of value, not of high cost - a smile, words of encouragement, a card, trees and animals, books, friends, rainbows!

It's not easy but when you've been touched by God's spirit, you will understand.


 

It's Technically Your First Christmas!

Last weekend, Daddy and Mommy decided to put up a tree for Christmas. It would be the first tree in our home. And technically, since you "exist", it would also be your first tree and your first Christmas.

We had fun picking out the ornaments at Jaya Jusco in One Utama, one of the big, big malls near our home.

You didn't "protest" too much either so we figure we picked the right stuff.

Our tree has little pastel coloured drums, little pink ornamental balls, mid-sized lime green ones and also large gold and cloth-woven ones. We almost forgot the little pine cones, which always seem to impart a traditional, woodsy mood to any tree. Then there are stars - silver ones and blue ones; and also some snowmen, a sock and a reindeer.

It's simple, not at all glittery and glamorous like the ones in the shopping malls but I guess it's a tree that reflects our personalities - homey, ecclectic, with a bit of shine and sentimentality.

I wonder what your personality will be like?

Even though you have been getting more active in Mommy's womb, you haven't treated the walls like a punching bag. Friends who gave birth in their late thirties tell me that "mature" babies behave more maturely. It seems they have a "sense" of what to do and what not to do.

There's no proof to any of this of course. But it's still fun to wonder.

We don't need you to be perfect, Baby Aidan. Every human being has his or her own cross to bear. We are given some years in life to move towards a better version of ourselves. And in that time, we learn from mistakes made, we learn to be comfortable in our skin, to know who we are, to share our best parts with friends and loved ones, and to finally gain peace and joy - which is a deeper and more lasting form of happiness.

As Christmas is a time of hope and expectations, our wish is for you to be healthy, happy and loving. You are the star on top of our "tree" and we'll do our best to keep you safe and help you achieve the person you're meant to be.

Merry Christmas dear one.

God is with you.

The Story of Your Kicks

Ever since you started making your presence felt in Mommy's womb, I figured you were a pretty calm, gentle baby. You'd move, squirm, wriggle and give little tiny prods and kicks but they never "rearranged my insides" if you know what I mean :)

Plus, you tend to be quiet in the afternoon, too, only gaining momentum right about 8pm and escalate into a bit of an aerobic workout around 10:30m - 11pm.

Well, today, Mommy learned you have secret Jujitsu moves that pack a punch. All 4 kicks came while Daddy and I were praying for you in the car, with the last being a 9.0 if ever the Richter Scale could be applied to "babyquakes".

I actually felt sore inside for a good 15 minutes after. And wondered if my stomach was still the same shape as before.

Don't get me wrong - I'd rather you Bruise Lee me than not move at all. Which therefore brings me to the little scare we got in the evening.

As Mommy said, you normally get pretty active from 8pm onwards; if I balanced the TV remote on my tummy, nobody would call me a nutcase if I said it would soon become a "dancing remote". Well, after the Jujitsu performance, I didn't expect you to go all quiet on me. But that's exactly what you did.

You went all silent. And the only sound I heard were those of my gastric juices digesting the chicken I'd eaten for dinner. Of course Mommy decided that this was "out of your pattern". But as I didn't want to panic, I waited to see what God was trying to tell me. 9 o'clock came. Then 10. Nothing - all was quiet on the Plains of Wombus Maximus.

Mommy then told Daddy about it and together we spent 30 minutes calling out to you, talking to you, singing to you - and if you recall a strong yellow light almost blinding your new little eyes - well, that was our attempt to get a response from you with a flashlight.

At 11pm, we decided that you were either too tired from your Jujitsu performance or struggling with the umbilical cord around the wrong places. So we drove to the hospital to make sure it wasn't the latter.

The sound of raging "horses" spluttering out of the machine was so reassuring! At an average of 140 bpm, your heartbeat told us you were doing fine. The machine didn't allow us to see you but it was equally good to hear you.

As you can see, it's not easy being a Mom. There are little things to watch out for every single month of the 9-month pregnancy.

Mommy's next checkup at the gyne's is on 15 December. Hopefully, my blood sugar levels will be normal or else I wouldn't be able to feed you rice, bread or anything sweet like chocolates, cincau and fruits.