"Days like years, and years like days" was one advice I got and how true is that. One moment we just got news that my dear wife was pregnant, and nine months later, we were at the hospital welcoming the birth of our firstborn. Days and weeks later, we were (and still are) fretting and pulling our hair about fixing her schedules and worrying about her well-being, and the next moment, she was already hitting 100 days old.
We get questions, like "eh boy ah, why 100 days? Last time all full month one." To be honest, we pondered upon whether holding a full month or 100-day celebration was better for us and Olivia. And ultimately, we chose to do the 100-day for a couple of reasons.
One, Olivia had already taken her vaccination shots. A bit kiasi la, but new parents would definitely understand and we couldn't have all the relatives and friends sanitized their hands before carrying her. Two, babies generally slept throughout full-month celebrations. It's like attending sleeping beauty's party or something. Three, during the first month, we were already bogged down by so many matters as new parents. Surviving through that month (our survival included) was our priority and had enervated us both, ain't nobody got time to plan for any party.
Organising the party was no simple feat, in fact, it felt like organising another wedding (slight exaggeration here). We sourced for dessert tables, caterers, venues, gifts and designed our invitation and thank-you cards. But God is good, everything pretty much fell into place despite last-minute arrangements. Most orders were placed on that week itself! God probably knows that we are pretty much drained from baby duties.
We got a perfect, albeit a little ulu, venue at Alexandra, SANDO, which is heavily sponsored, just because my brother co-owns the place. Praise God. Their spread of Japanese-Western fusion food, ranging from sandwiches to rice bowls, soba to salad bowls, are marvellous by the way. Weeks before, the head chef, no surprise - my brother, crafted a speciality menu for his niece's big day, so we had a good spread of signature smoked salmon sandwiches, marinated meatballs, chicken with cream sauce, and crowd-pleasing mini-rice bowls.
We got a perfect, albeit a little ulu, venue at Alexandra, SANDO, which is heavily sponsored, just because my brother co-owns the place. Praise God. Their spread of Japanese-Western fusion food, ranging from sandwiches to rice bowls, soba to salad bowls, are marvellous by the way. Weeks before, the head chef, no surprise - my brother, crafted a speciality menu for his niece's big day, so we had a good spread of signature smoked salmon sandwiches, marinated meatballs, chicken with cream sauce, and crowd-pleasing mini-rice bowls.
Besides that, we also engaged Neo Garden for their food catering services. We even got a nifty 10+5% discount, just because Olivia is a TMC (Thomson medical) baby! For the dessert table, we had the folks from Invited came over to set up a pretty photo backdrop and some really nice desserts to go alongside. While searching for baby shower gifts.. you know Chinese ma, need to give ang ku kueh and red eggs, I chanced upon JoyBox which offers affordable gift sets, which are freshly prepared on that day itself. I highly recommend the ones we had (see below) and if you are interested, you can find more about their different packages here.
No extremely professional photos taken, but I'm sure all are photographed with unspoken words of blessings and love.
Once again, we would love to thank all our family and friends who took time to celebrate Olivia's big day earlier this month, and for your blessings and generous gifts. All these are not possible without you and more important, God who knitted everything so beautifully together.
