Ethan's First / Full Month Celebration with ecreative

Thinking that Ethan would arrive in mid Jan or earlier, we planned to throw a party for him to celebrate his first month. I looked into possible venues, caterer and decorations and was really excited about everything. Came 15 Jan - Nothing. 16... 17... 18... still nothing! By then I had given up hope on throwing a party as our guests would be too busy to join in the celebration since it is on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. As such, we decided to just give out cakes to announce and celebrate Ethan's birth.

We decided that we wanted to give out red eggs as that would be the best symbol of why we are even giving out anything - to announce and celebration a baby's birth. And we also decided to give out cakes instead of something unconventional such as cookies and durian puffs which I would love to have, but may not be well received by every one.

Price was also a very important factor as we had to give the packages to our families, relatives, friends and colleagues, so we wanted something that is presentable and yet not too damaging on our wallets. Of course, even with an attractive tag, it's very important that the items have to be reasonably tasty.

We did quite a lot of ding-donging around as we were met with some restrictions with our initial choices and we finally settled on ordering from ecreative and I must say it's not bad at all!

What we like:
- affordable packages starting from $5.90 (GST not included)

- it is Halal certified so we could give it to our Muslim friends too.

- friendly and helpful staff! I was served by Ruz via the phone and she was patient and polite even though I made some changes to my initial orders.

- clarity and efficiency. I received my invoice via email very quickly and it's important to me as I dislike being left hanging wondering if my order got through or if the order has been keyed in correctly or not.

- presentable packaging. It arrived in big lovely boxes which are sleek and cute. Totally exceeded my expectations.

- it is near to our home so we could do self collection easily so that only fresh products are distributed out.

- the food items are fresh and quite tasty. We selected cupcakes and they were soft and fluffy. The cream wasn't the best tasting but it was fine. The donuts also tasted good, not dense and stale. We were also happy that the red eggs were evenly dyed!

What we didn't really like:
- I didn't like and wasn't comfortable that I had to give my credit card details to the service staff over the phone. I would appreciate a more secured way of making payment.

- the cream could be make tastier by making it more buttery.

- the cupcakes were not all evenly made. Some had more cake and some lesser. Those lesser were levelled by putting in more cream but I didn't enjoy having so much cream in my cupcake. Less cream more cake, pls!

- ecreative gave us a lot of plastic bags which I think is meant for us to put the boxes of goodies in. But the plastics bags were not exactly the nicest looking around. To be frank, the box itself is quite sturdy so I don't think there's need for those extra plastic bags.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

On the whole, we are happy with ecreative, especially with regard to the box packaging. It would be even better of they could make slight improvements based on what we observed.

Ethan and Mummy

After I've given birth to Ethan, the excited hubby helped to send pictures to my family, relatives and friends, informing them of the good news. The replies I got were all the same - that Ethan looks very much like me. Or some said he looks exactly like me when I was a baby. Looking back at the first pictures taken, indeed, it is so. The similarities are so interesting, especially when we are of different gender.

The little one has a lot of hair. This was usually the first thing visitors commented on when they first saw him. (He even has hair on his ears!) I didn't have as much, but it was comparable. He also takes after my bun face and thick lips.

His lovely eyes, nose and ears take after his Daddy. Quite a 'fair' mix isn't it? Hehe

After interacting with Ethan for 3 weeks, we found other non-physical similarities between us as well. Just like me, he likes to do lazy stretches and also likes to sleep with his two arms spread open, as if he is trying to lift weights. Haha, of all things to take after, right?

Oh well, I'm writing this post after barely sleeping for 3 hours last night. I can't deny that it's a love-hate relationship and it can be very draining physically and emotionally. Moments when he fussed excessively, I'm just thankful that I could walk away and let my mum handle him while I regained my sanity. But looking at him when he smiles and when he's drinking his milk with a contented look... It makes everything so much more bearable and worthy. :)

Ethan, mummy is looking forward to know more about you as you learn more about us as well. Let's get along well! We love you! ♡

The Last Time

Saw this on my mummies forum and thought that it's a good reminder to self.

:)

Welcome, little Ethan! ♡

Let's do a quick update! :)

Overjoyed and brimming with love and pride - we are proud parents to little Ethan! ♡

I often imagined about how Ethan's birth process would be like but things would not always go our way, right? I had imagined my water bag to burst naturally (and also imagined all sort of funny possibilities where it might burst - workplace, supermarket, public transport!!)  therefore kickstarting the labour process and I had also imagined that the labour process would be short and sweet and that I would be able to push the baby out easily.

However, since I was already overdue, Ethan was induced and I was told that an induced birth would likely be more painful and take longer. The water bag burst naturally, but only at the 8th hour into labour. And by the time I was fully dilated, I was too tired to push, and probably too high on gas too! Baby Ethan was not out yet even after 1.5hours of pushing. Raaaah. Haha, nothing according to what I've imagined but it's fine. All is good! :)

Our lives have changed completely upon his arrival and it's only for the better. While he has brought the meaning of sleep deprivation and being patient to a whole new level, my heart melts when I see him smile.

Speaking of smiling! He smiled at us on the 2nd day of birth and yesterday (31st Jan 2015) he laughed for the first time! Hehe. Couldn't remember what made him laugh but it was such a precious and sweet moment. ♡ Can't wait for the next milestone!