*Exhales deeply*....okay....this birthday letter is going to be the hardest one yet. I have so many things to say (as usual) and yet so ill-prepared. I should have learnt my lesson from two years ago where I found myself in a similar predicament. But back then, I pulled through just in the nick of time (or so I think). It'll be interesting to see how this birthday letter is going to fare in comparison 😛
You know the Hindi movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai? The one in which the dying mother left a bunch of letters for her baby daughter and then years later, the daughter had those precious memories to remember her mother by? Now, don’t get any morbid ideas....I’m not going anywhere (I hope 😝) but that gesture moved me to my core even though I was just a teenager back then.
But on a serious note, we are all living on borrowed time aren’t we? Nobody knows how long their journey in this world will last. Nobody knows if they have enough time to make sure their loved ones know just how much they are cherished. In the end, it is only the experiences and lasting relationships we form with people during the course of our lives that matter.
But on a serious note, we are all living on borrowed time aren’t we? Nobody knows how long their journey in this world will last. Nobody knows if they have enough time to make sure their loved ones know just how much they are cherished. In the end, it is only the experiences and lasting relationships we form with people during the course of our lives that matter.
Birthday letters to my daughters have come to mean much more than a mere tradition. Each letter is a tangible expression of my love and pride, my reflections combined with my hopes and dreams I have for their future. It serves a reservoir of memories and my emotional constitution locked in passages of time. The most heartfelt emotions can be conveyed more meaningfully in writing rather than everyday spoken words and stories have the ability to communicate actions and events in a way that is more valued than any singular compliment. We prudently think about taking out a life insurance policy to ensure our children’s financial future is taken care of but how about setting aside an “emotional insurance policy” that may cover their emotional needs? To convey those things one might forget about as time goes by or have trouble verbally expressing or the little things that might otherwise go unsaid while children grow up.
I want my children to have these letters so they can feel like they are close to my heart even when I’m not around and to be reminded of their importance in my life. And it is not just the highlights of their early childhood years but my own experiences on motherhood, being a twin mom and the challenges with choosing to be a working mom that I have painstakingly documented so that they can see my life as it has unfolded so far and view me as someone other than just mom 😀
On this sunny Sunday, my girls turned FIVE.
Five, is a milestone that in my opinion, merits a celebration. This is the first birthday that a child will probably remember.
This year, for the twins birthday, we planned to throw them a Shimmer & Shine themed birthday party with their friends at one of their favored indoor play areas in Singapore followed by a trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong. The latter plan had to be cancelled (you know with Hong Kong being recently rocked by a spate of mass anti-government protests and all) but the party went on as scheduled.
i
On Friday, we put together goody bags for their classmates but unlike the previous two years, skipped the cake cutting ceremony at school.
The party at the indoor play area took place yesterday evening. I didn't trust myself to bake the birthday cake for the party so I outsourced the job. With some of their favorite people in attendance, the girls had a marvelous time and true to their nature, were still full of beans hours after the event ended.
i
To keep the birthday cake baking tradition alive, I baked a no-frills vanilla cake with white chocolate buttercream and fresh fruits this morning and as a bonus, made the girls best-loved poori-chole for lunch. Today on their actual birthday, it is going to be just the four of us. Dinner will be a casual affair at a café that the girls love but they don't know that yet.
i
As I'm editing this post, there are two little (sorry I meant big) girls with wide grins, full tummies and contented hearts, gleefully ripping into yesterday's birthday loot 😀
I want my children to have these letters so they can feel like they are close to my heart even when I’m not around and to be reminded of their importance in my life. And it is not just the highlights of their early childhood years but my own experiences on motherhood, being a twin mom and the challenges with choosing to be a working mom that I have painstakingly documented so that they can see my life as it has unfolded so far and view me as someone other than just mom 😀
On this sunny Sunday, my girls turned FIVE.
Five, is a milestone that in my opinion, merits a celebration. This is the first birthday that a child will probably remember.
This year, for the twins birthday, we planned to throw them a Shimmer & Shine themed birthday party with their friends at one of their favored indoor play areas in Singapore followed by a trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong. The latter plan had to be cancelled (you know with Hong Kong being recently rocked by a spate of mass anti-government protests and all) but the party went on as scheduled.
i
On Friday, we put together goody bags for their classmates but unlike the previous two years, skipped the cake cutting ceremony at school.
The party at the indoor play area took place yesterday evening. I didn't trust myself to bake the birthday cake for the party so I outsourced the job. With some of their favorite people in attendance, the girls had a marvelous time and true to their nature, were still full of beans hours after the event ended.
i
To keep the birthday cake baking tradition alive, I baked a no-frills vanilla cake with white chocolate buttercream and fresh fruits this morning and as a bonus, made the girls best-loved poori-chole for lunch. Today on their actual birthday, it is going to be just the four of us. Dinner will be a casual affair at a café that the girls love but they don't know that yet.
i
As I'm editing this post, there are two little (sorry I meant big) girls with wide grins, full tummies and contented hearts, gleefully ripping into yesterday's birthday loot 😀
So, with that, here are my musings from the year gone by,
i