Today is the Chinese Moon Cake Festival celebration day, a cool day for my husband and I to have our "HoneyMoon" night together again once after settle baby Joseph to bed :)

Wishing everyone a very happy Chinese Moon Cake Festival~!

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Moon Cake Festival: A Mid-Autumn Festival (Chung Chiu), the third major festival of the Chinese calendar, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month. This festival corresponds to harvest festival s observed by Western cultures (in Hong Kong, it is held in conjunction with the annual Lantern Festival).

This festival is also known as the Moon Cake Festival because a special kind of sweet cake (yueh ping) prepared in the shape of the moon and filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and duck eggs is served as a traditional Chung Chiu delicacy. Nobody actually knows when the custom of eating moon cake of celebrate the Moon Festival began, but one relief traces its origin to the 14th century. At the time, China was in revolt against the Mongols. Chu Yuen-chang, and his senior deputy, Liu Po-wen, discussed battle plan and developes a secret moon cake strategy to take a certain walled city held by the Mongol enemy. Liu dressed up as a Taoist priest and entered the besieged city bearing moon cake. He distributed these to the city's populace. When the time for the year's Chung Chiu festival arrived, people opened their cakes and found hidden messages advising them to coordinate their uprising with the troops outside. Thus, the emperor-to-be ingeniously took the city and his throne. Moon cake of course, became even more famous. Whether this sweet Chinese version of ancient Europe's "Trojan Horse" story is true, no one really known.

The moon plays a significant part of this festival. In Hong Kong, any open space or mountain top is crowded with people trying to get a glimpse of this season's auspicious full moon.

(Reference: http://www.regit.com/hongkong/festival/mooncake.htm)

Steve Irwin the Australian Crocodile Man who was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, will be sadly missed by us all..  so much was I looking forward to taking my son Joseph to see him at his Australia Zoo http://www.australiazoo.com.au  ... 

Steve has left a very vibrant life journey with colourful memories to many  people, a great inspiration of 'embracing life fully while you can'..  

"He was such a breath of fresh air, wearing his passions shamelessly on his sleeve, and inviting us to share in his enthusiasm" - Laurie Maynard of North Carolina, US. 

About Steve Irwin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin

Steve Irwin's photos http://www.theage.com.au/ftimages/2006/09/04/1157222054689.html

It has always been a great joy watching my son Joseph crawling fast, always moves his body whenver the music is on, laughing hard when we play Peek-a-poo with him.. never thought of experiencing one roller-coaster-like week looking after a totally different Joseph...

Joseph has been extremely unwell for the whole last week caused by some kind of viral infection, he: vomited + refused to eat at all while having severe Diarrhea + drank very little + body temperature reached up to 40 degrees...  It was such a relief  when later on he started to eat a tiny amount of egg yolk ..

Thank God Joseph is much better and is no longer lying flat on the floor most of the time but back to crawling and eating/drinking ..

So much we learned from each day especially with looking after self + our love ones + others, altogether is really something.... be happy and grateful while you/your love ones are healthy and, don't ever take anything for granted ..

Great to be connected with other parents here at Minti esp. after more than an year of wondering around....!

Can't believe it has really been that long since the very last time I was carrying a huge watermelon...... never even in my life thought that I'll one day be responsible for a child's growth, at least for the next 15 years or so..  the "sweet burden" as people usually describe hey :)