I love Qinzhi’s smile. I love Qinzhi having good food and smiling. It makes me feel accomplished somewhat.

And so CNY celebrations came and went. The three of us did what we could cleaning the house and had lots of fun with snacking and pigging out during CNY.

And on the first day of CNY, Qinzhi and Huaihao did the customary greeting to all elders in the family and snagged lots of ang pows

There’s the customary yusheng toss too.

One day Qinzhi came home crying. I asked her what it was that made her so sad and she said she has been placed out of competition and put on reserve because she ran behind time during a running practice session due to muscle ache. She cried because she felt it was unfair. I listened to took to explaining to her my perspective-of asking her to, instead think of herself as a victim and being at the passive end, to take initiative to train herself up to the best of her ability to render herself competitive—–if, she really wanted to be in the run so badly.

I asked Qinzhi to think about the things she could do and to do them to place herself in competition again. And this girl, took to it. Why wouldn’t she? She is my girl and has that never give up spirit.

Davina shared this photo of qinzhi when she was about 2ish 3? And so much time has flown by. The 51cm long baby whom I gave birth to, and taught me how to be mommy, how to stand up to be honest towards myself, gave me strength when all was hard. Gave me hugs and made me a better person—is now 14 years old.

On the day of Qinzhi’s chinese birthday, popo reminded me to cook Qinzhi mee sua and have her peel 2 hard boiled eggs and daddy bought Qinzhi a lovely strawberry tart. We sang Qinzhi the birthday song and celebrated her.

I always have these 2 pictures of Qinzhi on my desktop

This is Qinzhi in a COS fitting room looking so super awesome. Her signature smile and full face, this dearie has been reading me so much I feel like she knows me better than I know myself now.

And I had to include this photo of Qinzhi at maybe 3 or 4?

On Qinzhi’s birthday, Huaihao presented his present and card to Qinzhi and daddy too. got Qinzhi a brand new iPhone! much to everyone’s surprise. we got ourselves up to a short walk and headed to Jewel for Shake Shack and ice cream.

Dinner was the highlight and on everyone’s mind. Thankfully we got a table at Summer Pavilion, which is what Qinzhi wanted. Chef pampered us silly with all his off menu treats

Happy birthday Princess. Chef Kong reminded me this a few years back,

養兒一百歲 長憂九十九！儿孙自有儿孙福
我們都應該
“平常心，活在當下”

You have come a long way Princess, and there must be a reason why we have all experienced what we experienced. Even if they do not seem to fall in place now. But know that You are so loved, so blessed. And you are a beautiful powerful being. We celebrate you Princess and all of your wins and falls and everything in between. Continue to shine and smile the way you do.