On 2nd May 2009, Juan Or celebrated his first Chinese birthday. His Chinese birthdate is on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month.
On that morning, Grandma boiled a whole chicken, cooked some dishes, hard-boiled some chicken eggs and bought ang koo kueh and roasted pork from a nearby morning market to celebrate Juan Or's Chinese birthday. Some of the food were used as offering at the ancestral altar to 'inform' the late Greatgrandpa that this was the day of his eldest greatgrandson's 1st birthday.
Meanwhile, Grandpa lit some candle joss sticks, then prepared a big tray and picked small objects to be placed in it. These small objects are symbolic of occupations or destinies that the baby has a tendency for in the future. These are the objects that Grandpa (and Mommy) put:
- RM10 bank note - to represent a future plenty of money or high-earning power (Oh, yes, Chinese loves money!)
- hard-boiled chicken egg - to represent someone who loves to eat
- pen - to represent office jobs
- book - to represent academic or scholarly jobs
- toothbrush - to represent dentistry
- abacus (or calculator) - to represent jobs that require counting such as accountant
- toy aeroplane - to represent pilot
- comb - to represent barber or hair-stylist
After Mommy helped Juan Or wear a new set of clothes and baby shoes, Mommy took Juan Or downstairs and placed him on the floor, near to the tray of small objects where he was supposed to pick two objects. Immediately, Juan Or crawled towards the tray and started hesitating what to take (Ha, ha...too many objects to choose from!). At first, his little hands merely touched and held the toy aeroplane and the chicken egg, and then finally his right hand gripped the pen and lift it out of the tray! So Mommy took the pen away from Juan Or so that he could choose and grab the second object. Again, Juan Or hesitated, but finally his little hand grabbed the RM10 bank note and took it out of the tray! So looks like Juan Or has the tendency to hold an office job and at the same time earn lots of money! And then when Mommy gave both the bank note and pen for Juan Or to hold so that Mommy could snap some photos, Juan Or seemed to show more interest for the bank note. He would drop the pen so that he could hold the bank note in both his hands. When Mommy wanted to take the bank note away from him, he would hold on tighter to it and refused to let go.
(Juan Or was holding the pen in his left hand.)
("I want money!")
(Money, money, money, in the rich man's world!)Later on, Mommy took out Juan Or's birthday for the cake-cutting ceremony. The cake was white chocolate with roasted macademia nuts which Mommy bought from Secret Recipe. Mommy also bought a baby sugar doll to decorate the cake. The cake was RM70 and sugar doll RM2. After adding government tax, the total came to RM75.60.
(Juan Or's birthday cake)
("Ready for the cake, Juan Or?")After Mommy came back from teaching piano in the late evening, Papa told Mommy that the babysitter gave Juan Or a birthday present and an ang pau (red packet containing some money). The present is an analogue of Mickey Mouse riding on a bicycle. When you switch on the toy, there will be lights flickering from the Mouse's tail and ears, the legs cycling, and an amusing music sounded. Watch this video of Juan Or enjoying his birthday present.
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