Blessed birthday Adrielle

I can't believe my baby girl is TWO!

Mr Liow and I recalled how we had hell of a night the very first time AN came home with us one fine night......

That first night together, She WOULDN'T sleep, so we COULDN'T sleep. She would wake up every half an hour from the time we brought her into the room with us at 10pm, till the sky turned bright the next morning. This 2.325kg doll-sized infant took up 75% of the bed while Mr Liow and I had only enough space to lie on our side. I was aching 'down there' and all over as I tried the whole night to latch her on so that she could suckle.

*phew*...The worst is over, or is it??

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To my baby girl (if blogger.com doesn't close down by the time you are old enough to understand better), mummy promises to read this, and subsequent birthday posts to you:

Before we know it, you are already two years old.

From a little bundle of life that knows nothing except to sleep, eat and poop (and you need considerable practise in latching onto mummy when we first started), you have grown into something bigger.

Now that you sleep less, eat less and poop less, Mummy appreciates the times when I need not worry about your pooping, eating and sleeping.

You were once an infant who would coo and go cross-eyed at objects placed too close in front of you, wave in the air to music from toys above you and try grabbing them. It was like a while ago when we still had the luxury of laying you down, back onto our laps and you would fit nicely. hehe.

You were at your cutest (in mummy's opinion) when you were about 6 months old. Papa was away at Wallaby for exercise for those 2 months of you being at your cutest but thank God for technology, he was able to watch you grow from the webcam each night.

In those 2 months, you learnt to sit steadily, laugh contagiously and flip through the electronic storybook that also sings to you with each button you press. You caught your finger in between those plastic pages and learnt how not to repeat the same mistake again to save yourself the pain. You had those favourite buttons that made you giggle soooo adorably that you kept pressing them over and over again. That seemed to mark the beginning of your growing intelligence.

Soon, you refused to be changed out of soiled diapers coz you wanted to push yourself up from lying down. And then you started rocking on four paws, move to a crawl (a few bumps here and there), stand with help...blah blah blah...suddenly you started walking!

From excitedly listing out words that you can say, to not being able to do that anymore coz the list got too long, from noting down things you learn to do each day, to you progressing and learning faster than mummy has time to log into blogger to post your achievements, I can't help but thank God for making you my baby.

I remember how you used to laugh, chuckle, cry and blabber at different stages of your life and am thankful too for having the opportunity to learn every new thing that you would teach mummy.

Mummy's probably one of the most impatient, least knowledgable, laziest, lousiest mummy one will ever hope NOT to have but God must have His purpose in putting us together, right? He loves you too much to make me your mummy so that you suffer.

It will never be my intention to hurt you, both emotionally and mentally but I have caused you much tears for not being able to see you more as a toddler. Mummy promises to try my very very best to guide you in patience ok?

There's so much I love about you, my baby.

I love your giggles, love joining you in your imaginative play, love nursing you still (hack the pressures to wean you...go ahead and nurse for as long as you want to ok?), love you signing "I love you" to me, love hearing you tell mummy enthusiastically "YES!" when mummy asks if you love me, love watching you help mummy around the house and putting things back where they belong without me having to even ask, love you having your own way of playing with Play-Doh, love you insisting on helping mummy feed Baileys & Maen, even love how you snatch their bones in the midst of them savouring their treats just so you can have them run after you.

Memories of those times mummy got all flared up and upset with you seemed to fade into nothingness as I make this list of the many things mummy loves about you.

It's amazing how you seemed to be expecting a birthday celebration when you started sticking crayons into your Play-Dohs and clapping for yourself 2 weeks back. Since the little sparrow told you about your secret celebration, we started practising how you could sit back and stare at your cake while everyone else sing you your birthday song, and then you practised blowing out your candle.

It was pure joy seeing you enjoy being the centre of attention and blowing out your own candle. It was pure joy watching you share toys with other kids and giving guests hugs when they were leaving. You were superbly adorable when you started posing with the little finger into your cheek at cameras flashing at you.

It is an indescribable joy watching you develope, every baby steps you take to becoming a civilised human!

Mummy forgot to write you a letter last year (we were all too busy with packing and dumping stuff then..*scary*), thus a long one this year.

We love you, baby. We pray the Lord will watch over you every single second of the day, that you will grow up loved and loving. We pray that you will be spared of every wants, that your needs will always be met.

Blessed second year of life, baby.