Arman’s Birthday Party

This year is the first year Arman gets to celebrate his birthday with his friends. If you recall, last year Arman spent his birthday in Malaysia (Daddy missed that one). And the year before, we had a small party at home, having just arrived in Vancouver 3 months before. So today, we’re throwing a ‘relatively’ big party at the Acadia Park Commons Block for Arman. Arman invited about 16 of his friends from Kinderclub. Some of the kids didn’t RSVP back, so we weren’t sure if everyone was coming. And so, we got Melur to invite some of her friends too, at the last minutes… Just to make it more festive. After all, we’re paying good money to get a presenter from Mad Science. So we had a total of 18 kids there.

We started by serving the food first, since Mad Science isn’t starting until 30 minutes into the party. We served pizza, popcorn, veggies & dip, and juice boxes. The veggies and dip didn’t go out very well like Aidan’s party. I think there was a slip in strategy somewhere. Oh well… we tried. Melur had 2 friends over, Audrey and Yan-Lin. They had a separate table… I called it the “adults” table. Audrey looks so mature for her age. It’s hard to think that Melur and Audrey are classmates in Grade 1.

Yan-Lin, Melur & Audrey

Soon, Mommy arrived with the Mad Science guy. He needed some time to set-up, which wasn’t really a problem since the kids kept themselves busy playing the balloons and running around the very large activity room at the Acadia Park Commons Block. Before long, it was time for the show to begin.

The “Mad Scientist” was nice to include Melur and Arman in a lot of the demonstrations, though he did get many of the kids involved as well (as you can see in the video). The kids made slime, which I thought was pretty neat.

After the science show, it was time to cut the cake. We got the Diplomat’s Cake from True Confections. It was kind of sweet, plain vanilla. The kids didn’t really like it that much. But the parents seem to like it.

Finally, it was time to open the presents. As we’ve seen in previous parties, kids will crowd around while the birthday boy opens their gifts. Today was no exception, as you can see in the video.

Qianah (pictured right) was a bit upset since she didn’t have a gift. Her dad explained that Qianah’s mom was out, and that she would arrive soon with the present. Lo and behold, she did, and all was well. Thank you Qianah, for your present. In fact, thank you everyone for all your gifts for Arman. He’ll have a blast with all his new toys. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful party – last one for the year. Till next year, Happy Birthday Arman! For more pictures (and there are a lot), check out our Facebook Album (it's public).

Happy Birthday Anna

We were very late today. Melur has another birthday party to attend – Anna’s birthday party at Telus Science World. The last time we were here was to celebrate Yasan’s birthday back in February. We took the #99 to Main St, and then the #3 bus to the Science World.

When we arrived, everybody called out Melur’s name. I guess she’s a big part of the gang. I left her at the party (these things are usually just for the kids anyway), and headed towards Pacific Centre Mall to rendezvous with Mommy and Arman. Mommy wants to do a little shopping. Anyway, since we were late to the party, and the party isn’t that long to begin with, I didn’t end up spending a lot of time with Arman and Mommy at the mall. Soon it was time to pick up Melur again from the party. I headed back via Sky Train.

When I arrived, the party was just over, and the kids were wandering around inspecting the various science exhibits. The kids were very interested in this one bicycle contraption that makes a little ball float.

Anyway, the Science World is a pretty cool place to take the kids. There are many interesting exhibits, and I don’t think you can see them all in a day anyway. You can get a season pass, and visit here as often as you like. I find it a little expensive. We were hoping to get season passes for the Vancouver Aquarium, but that hasn’t happened yet.

After the party, Melur and I took the Sky Train to Pacific Centre Mall to meet with Mommy and Arman. We rendezvoused at Starbucks. Soon after that, we headed to the bus stop to take the #17 back home. Here’s a video of the kids waiting at the bus stop.

Thanks, Anna for having Melur over for your party. I hope you enjoyed you present (from Melur). And Happy Birthday!

Raspy Arman

I took the day off today to take Arman to see an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) Specialist at the BC Children’s Hospital. It seems like we take Arman here a lot. We've never taken Melur here to see a doctor though... We have an early appointment. Arman’s old speech therapist has been trying to get Arman to see an ENT for the longest time. We’ve just been too busy to arrange it. And after all the usual going back and forth with referrals and whatnot, we finally got Arman an appointment.

Arman’s appointment was quite early in the morning. I took Arman by bus from home, while Mommy took Melur to school. We were expecting Mommy to join us at the hospital after sending Melur, but our meeting with the doctor was quite brief, and we were done before Mommy could make her way here. It was a quick trip. When we arrived, we met with a lady doctor who prepped Arman by performing some checks to his ear. Then we met the specialist, who was extremely nice. I think paediatricians are generally very nice to want to work with kids all day long. He has apparently been to Kuala Lumpur too.

Anyway, as you’ll see me try to get Arman to explain in the video, the doctor inserted a camera into Arman’s nose to see the vocal chords. He confirmed that he has calluses called vocal chord nodes. We all saw it on a large TV screen in the room. His calluses are apparently quite normal, and sometimes takes years to heal if the child doesn’t allow the vocal chords to rest and heal. So I guess we’ll be trying to get Arman to speak a little softer at home.

I took the whole day off expecting to spend a fair amount of time at the hospital. But barely midway through the day, Arman and I were already home with Mommy. Later, I took Arman to pick up Melur at school. Arman got the chance to describe his morning to Jamie and some of his other friends at Kinderclub. He seems pretty excited by it.

We like your raspy voice, Arman. But try to rest your vocal chords a little bit. I think it’ll be good for you in the long run.

Happy Birthday Papa

Many things are happening today, as we mentioned in yesterday’s post. We start with Mommy’s Fall Classic 5K Run early this morning. She’s been training for it, a little bit. And today she gets to put her hard work to the test. Mommy finished in 00:36:58, 2 seconds shy of 37 minutes. That’s a WHOLE SECOND faster than her 2007 UBC Longest Day Run, at 00:36:59. Good Job, Mommy!

After the run, it was time for Arman’s gymnastics class. And right after that, Arman went to attend Aidan’s birthday party. I was surprised to learn that Aidan’s party coincided with my birthday, but as it turns out, his actual birthday is on 19 November. Happy Birthday, Aidan!

As with Melur’s birthday party at the UBC gym, Aidan’s party started with an hour of gym. I left Arman there by himself, and rejoined him at the second portion of the party… the food part. The kids were pretty organized. I was surprised that Aidan’s mom prepared some pretty healthy food (fruits and vegetables) appetizers for the party. I think we should do that too, in the future. After the pizza and cake was served, it was time to open the presents.

Aidan got a lot of presents today. All the kids crowded around to see. Arman got Aidan 2 Transformers. We hope Aidan enjoys them. The kids were very rambunctious, running around with balloons, and rather physical with their play. There were only 2 girls there. And the remaining boy… Well, boys will be boys.

Later in the afternoon, it was time for Daddy’s birthday party. We invited the Malaysian students over for some cake over tea. Mommy got me a nice mocha cake from True Confections. Some of the guests arrived late, so we started a head.

The late guests actually came bearing gifts. I really wasn’t expecting any. I had a wonderful birthday celebration yesterday, and the gift Mommy got for me was excellent! But today, I got a leather strap for my guitar. Thanks, guys! I love it. I spent part of the evening showing off my new net book to the other Malaysians. And that was pretty much our special birthday Sunday, which included a run and another birthday party.

Happy Birthday Papa