We started our day watching a video of Jansen (my CDH survivor champion) at ICU, after a successful surgery, still fighting for his life to stay alive. Despite tubes around him, he was blinking his eyes, trying his best to open his eyes to look around, to look at his daddy.
I showed Jansen the video and he exclaimed, "Wow, I am so cute!"
As curious as he was back then, he is still the same. His curiosity, together with his creativity and imagination, makes him really animated, bold in his own way, mischievous and delightful. He is a keen learner, always trying his best in everything. He is indeed a walking miracle. We are so proud of him every single day.
Time to celebrate
His birthday was on 3rd July, I did not get to blog during the event, because as usual, I got exhausted after celebration although hearts filled with joy. We had our first celebration at his Grandparents' house, combined celebration with his cousin who just turned 8 years old. Bravo to both of them enjoying life to the fullest!
Swimming time
It started with the boys having a blast at home at children's pool. Unfortunately, we had to cut down the time from 1 hour to 30 minutes because there was some minor faulty in the pool. Somehow a tunnel was shooting out some sand or whatever brownish thing, making the pool's water dirty. They still enjoyed the 30 minutes to the max and were very cooperative when we said "Time's up!
Screentime together
They super loved this time — screen time. How the children connect nowadays are so different from how I connected with my cousins last time when I was young. Gen Alpha — they know how to operate phone since birth. Lol... They really had fun time playing games together, just sitting on sofa and fun on phones. Love their simple joy!
Birthday day cake time
When everyone were ready, we quickly started by birthday cake time, asking the boys to stand in front of their brownie and took photos. We sang song, and my father-in-law released prayers to them. Time really flies. In a blink of an eye, my nephew is 8 years old and my son is 9 years old. After the cake, a family photo was a must.
Food from Kungfu Ramen!
I was joking with my sons whether did they want to perform any Kung Fu after dinner? Just some lame jokes with the children. This is a Chinese-Muslim restaurant selling authentic Chinese-Muslim food, from handmade pulled noodle to their signature xinjiang sauce kind of dish. We ordered meat fried rice, hand-pulled noodle, braised beef, potato shredded chicken with rice, beef noodle soup, beef dumplings and chicken dumpling and xinjiang style mixed noodles. I personally really love the taste of the food, although my husband said the portion of meat was little. I even saved some of the remainder sauce to make my own dish the next day by adding more minced meat. I love it because the sauce came with lots of onions and vegetables.
Glowsticks time
My nephew had been wanting to do this glowstick skeleton activity and finally he had it done. It was impressive to see him stood there to let us stick the glowsticks on him. Super not easy but he was lovely and patience to get it done! The outcome was amazing!
It was indeed a memorable celebration especially with your loved ones. Jansen and Levi, may you grow into the best version of yourselves, designed by God.
Jansen, Daddy & Mummy love you so much. Happiest 9th birthday! You and big brother are the best gifts to us. Muacks! XOXO