We spent most of Saturday with JY’s friends whose daughter, Felicia, was having her birthday party.
Actually, we originally wanted to visit JY’s friend Stella and remedy a regret we had. Stella graciously offered her son Bruce, to jump on our marital bed right after our wedding. It’s part of Chinese tradition, because Stella and her husband had one girl and one boy, and that their families are all intact, having her son jump on our marital bed was supposed to be auspicious. By having Bruce jumping on our marital bed, along with dates, peanuts, gui yuan, and lotus seeds spread along the bed, we were wishing we would have at least a girl and a boy as cute as Bruce and her sister Iris. And thanks in part to Bruce, our daughter Lauren will be born soon.
Unfortunately, we lost the photos that I took during the “bed jumping” ritual. I was busy moving stuff around to prepare for JY’s move to my house, and somehow misplaced the photos.
I decided to make up for the mistake, and take some more photos of Bruce jumping on a bed with all the nuts so I staged a repeat performance. I also wanted a chance to test out the Maxxum 5D I bought in anticipation of my daughter’s birthday.
Both worked out well. Bruce was a bit reluctant at the beginning because he was very sleepy, but once he got into the spirit, he was jumping up and down without being prompted. Here are some photos of him doing just that.
After that, we went to another friend’s house for her birthday party. There were four families there not counting JY and me, five girls of various ages, and Bruce, the only boy. We were well fed and had a great time. One thing I can tell you for sure though, having so many children in the same house can sure result in utter chaos. The children had quite a few problems, sometime they were able to resolve themselves, the other time, adult supervision was required.
It all worked out well in the end. JY and I had a great time, and that’s the last party we will attend before the birth of our baby because our baby can arrive anytime now.
I’ve linked to the photos I took at Stella’s place and during the party below. As I mentioned, I used my Maxxum 5D with a 28-135mm Minolta lens, and a 5400 HS flash. Most shots used bounced flahs. BTW, for those of you using Minolta, the 5400 HS flash won’t work in TTL or ADI mode. You need to set the AE to Manual, and change the flash output manually on the flash itself. It’s a pain. That’s why a lot of these photos are from the same distance and the same angle.
Here are the photos from the party.
Keep looking here for updates on my daughter’s progress.