Hubby-jr’s obsession with Baby M jogged to memory a conversation we had a few months ago.

One fateful night during their (my kiddos) nightly prayer, I asked Hubby-jr to pray that God would bless someone close to us with a baby.

Never in a million years would I have thought such a request would take an unexpected turn.

“How about you mommy? Do you want to have another baby?” asked Hubby-jr earnestly.

Holy smokes, where did that come from?! After blinking for seconds, I just had to clarify,

“You want mommy to have another baby?”

Hubby-jr nodded somewhat too eagerly for my liking, and looked at me with such hopeful eyes too. I looked to hubby hoping he’d interject right then to save me but dear ol’ daddy-o was just sitting there with ‘I-can’t-wait-to-see-what-she-says’ look on his face! Plus I was half suspecting that he hoped my son would nudge me into a certain direction.

“Would you want a di-di (little brother) or mei-mei (little sister)?”

I asked just to check if he really understood the implication of me having another baby. Hoping that he’d realise he wouldn’t want another sibling in the family.

BUT I was wrong,

“Di-di!” he replied enthusiastically.

Sigh. I had to let him down gently. So I said,

“I’m sorry darling but mommy is not going to have anymore babies.”

I We I We decided that we’d stop at two, children, having children that is. Well it was more of, I decided and hubby went along with my decision but he’d be more than happy if I decided otherwise.

I thought that would end the discussion but no. Hubby-jr then asked,

“Mommy, is it because you have no more eggs inside of you?”

What?! My dear son stumped me for the second time that night. Eggs in me? How did he know? Was it from our previous conversations? I could only remember this episode. Anyway, I said,

“No, I still have eggs but I’m not going to have another baby. The egg will only become a seed or baby when…, when…”

“Mommy and I decided we’re not having anymore babies. So we are just not going to have another baby, ok? But we are very blessed to have you and mei-mei and we love you both very much. Now can you please say pray?” Hubby finally saved me. Phew! That was close. Way too close.

But just so you know, I’ve since revisited the baby making thingy with my son. I just read him the book “Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts”, again and realised that was where he learnt about eggs. Here’s an excerpt from the book.

When a man and a woman love each other (I added, “they get married”) and decide that they want to have a baby, a man’s sperm joins with a woman’s egg. From the egg and sperm, a baby will grow.

And that is that. And somehow that was (is?) enough to satisfy Hubby-jr’s curiousity (actually he was more curious about the other stuff in the book). AND (last but not least) he has NOT asked me for another baby since. PHEW!

The tentacles episode was hilarious but it reminded me of another conversation Hubby-jr and I had sometime mid last year.

“How do babies get inside mommies?” 

Uh-huh. Yup, the question. The One that we cross our fingers and hold our breath hoping will not  come our way until… they reach puberty??! 

Do not think it won’t happen till your kids reach primary school (like blur me). Uh-ah, noo…o my son asked me this question when he just turned 5, and he is speech delayed. So..o I imagine my girl popping this question, next week! Okay, okay, probably not, then again…

Anyway people, it is never too early to be prepared.

So what was my reply to my son’s question?

I said, “a seed was planted in my tummy and God made it grow.” Thankfully he just had a plant-some-green-beans project at school so I knew that he’d be able to grasp that explanation well. I avoided telling him how the seed got inside me the first place and held my breath for the next few seconds praying he wouldn’t ask. 

Thank heavens he didn’t. Phew!! I managed to dodge that bullet.

That incident stunned me into realising… I had to be prepared yesterday as soon as possible. So I did what I always do, research (i.e. go to the internet)! I hunted for relevant books I could use. After narrowing down to 3 books, I went down to Kinokuniya, found the books and sat myself down and skimmed through them. In the end I settled on this book below, as I felt it was simple and had sufficient information for my kids (for now at least).

Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts  by Gail Saltz

The other two books I browsed (which you may want to check out) were…

It’s So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families by Robie Harris

Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle

There have been numerous occasions where the baby question re-surfaced. To my relief Hubby-jr’s questions always revolved around male and female being able to conceive.

“Did Mei-mei and I come out from your tummy?”

“Did daddy have a baby in his tummy?”

“When I grow up can I have a baby in my tummy?”

I am still nervous thinking about the impending question of how babies are conceived in the first place. I just hope they ask hubby first. Ha ha.

What about you? How did or would you handle such questions?

More than a year ago I wrote about The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle as one of Hubby-jr’s favourite book. So when we found out that there was going to be a arts adaptation of the book, there was no way we did not go. And go we did. Last night. 

We loved it. All of us. Hubby included.

Performed by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, the illustrations from three of Eric Carle’s books vividly came to life on stage against the backdrop of black light. The kids had a ball, they laughed, cheered and clapped. Not just mine but all the kids present. (For more info on their show here in Singapore click here.)

I am so glad we managed to get tickets! It was selling like hot cakes.

Still riding on The Very Hungry Caterpillar fever, hubby found this lovely video on Youtube. Though it is not quite the same as the performance last night, the video is still worth checking out.

If you are a fan or Eric Carle (just like us) you may like this Youtube video on The Mixed-Up Chameleon as well.

Serendipity!

ser·en·dip·i·ty

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

3. An instance of making such a discovery.

We found ourselves at Bras Basah this afternoon and being there I just had to visit the Children’s Bookstore. While the range of books was not as exciting as before I was so, SO thrilled to find Guji Guji on one of its shelves. We (kids and I) absolutely LOVE this story we found over at Storyline Online.

Guji Guji is a story about a crocodile who was brought up as a duck. One day Guji Guji is confronted with the question of his identity and where he belongs – is it with a group of mean crocodiles he just met or with the ducks he grew up with? A very lovely engaging story that will make you smile, warm your heart and teach you about identity, loyalty, and what it really means to be a family.

And guess what? It was selling at only SGD5.60 (SGD8.00 less 30%) per copy! A hardcover copy mind you! I grabbed a few copies as they’d make excellent gifts. I suggest you’d better hurry over there and grab a few too before they run out of stock! (Screams kiasu doesn’t it?)

More serendipity…

While I was at the Children’s Bookstore with the kids Hubby had to pay his pilgrimage to Tecman (a Christian bookshop). Not long later he scurried back to tell me that Tecman was having a 40% storewide sale for members (you can sign up on the spot for only SGD6.00). So we headed that way, kids and Guji Guji books in tow.

Guess what I found at Tecman?!

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. It is the bible storybook. If you’re looking for bible stories for your kids, look no further, get this one. If you already have countless different bible story books for children, you have to get just one more, this one. After reading about it over here I bought one copy via Amazon.com (I couldn’t find it at several bookstores then). I can tell you this, it really is as good as is described. Hubby and I LOVE it because… (this is what is written at the back of the book)

The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the Story beneath all the stories in the Bible. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby, the Child upon whom everything would depend. From Noah to Moses to King David, every story whispers his name. Jesus is like the missing piece in a puzzle – the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together.

Beautifully written and illustrated. The Jesus Storybook Bible invites children to discover for themselves that Jesus is at the center of God’s great story of salvation – and at the center of their story too.

The sale ends 30 June 2008. So if you’re living in Singapore and you’re reading this before 30 June, stop reading, get dressed and hurry over to Tecman NOW!! Go! Go!! Go!!! Well if you’re reading this after 30 June, take your time but still get over there to get a copy of that book. It is WORTH it. In my opinion ALL Christian families with kids should have a copy. Seriously.

So there you have it, my wonderful unexpected fortunate discoveries of the day. Serendipities!

Since Hubby-jr started speech therapy one of the things I’ve to do with him at home is “shadow reading”. Basically he has to repeat after me word for word and imitate the tone and rhythm as I read a storybook to him. This is to improve his articulation. According to the speech therapist he’s too nasal and speaks without really pausing between each word. His sentence could sound like one long word with many, many syllables!

Shadow reading was a tough assignment. I had to correct his pronunciation and rhythm more often than he liked. It made storytime grueling. I got quite disheartened. Thankfully I wised up and tried using his favourite nursery rhymes. It worked a lot better as they were much shorter.

Then recently I discovered a couple of wonderful short videos of storybooks on YouTube and that helped tremendously. You see Hubby-jr loves almost anything that moves on the computer! (I seriously think it’s the male genes, my daughter takes to computers too but at a much lesser degree.) And these videos were perfect because they were basically close up shots of the books (of which I had borrowed or bought), moving page by page as someone narrated the story.

After he watched the videos he was hooked. He watched it again, again and again memorizing not only the words but the tone and rhythm of the narration as well. So much so he could read the book (the real book with the computer off) to me and all I had to do was correct some of his pronunciation!

Here are the videos. The first is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The children’s classic by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. He loved this one so much that he’d recite the story to himself every now and then!

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHCYgO9zh8)

The second is Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha.

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOz_dz0vf4)

I have noticed that Hubby-jr has since started speaking slower and clearer. It works!

We’ve been diligently visiting the library since end of last year. Here’s what we are currently reading.

Hubby….                          Me…

Hubby-jr…

He’s enjoying both these books by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha. Incidentally I found this at youtube.

Last but definitely not least… Little Missy…

She picked this from the library during one of our regular visits and wouldn’t let it go. I borrowed it just to keep her happy and thought that she’d just throw it aside once we reached home (it’s really more of a book for pre-teens with lots of words and some illustrations). I was wrong. It’s one of her favourite books (for now) and “reads” it daily. She loves the illustrations, so much so that she’s wearing the book out (I think I may have to buy a new one for the library!) Go figure huh?

Here’s a snippet of how the “reading” usually goes…

Little Missy: Lying down… (giggles while pointing to the lady)
Me: (Smile) Yes, the woman is lying down under the bed.

Little Missy: Horse… where? (flips through the pages and finds the illustration she was looking for) There! (giggles)
Me: Oh, there they are. Horse (pointing to the horses). There are one, two, three horses.

Little Missy: Heetar! (guitar)
Me: Yes, the man is playing the guitar.
Little Missy: Daddy pay (play) heetar (guitar)
Me: Yes, daddy plays the guitar just like the man in this picture.

And this can go on over and over and over again for about half an hour! It can be tiring but oh it’s so adorable, don’t you think? 

So what’s your family reading?

P/S: Mommy Speech Therapy has these great tips when reading to a toddler.

Ever since Can A Stay At Home Mom Be Sane? I’ve been meaning to write a follow up post but just couldn’t get my thoughts together. Then I read the post Mothering, over at Fruits In Season. It’s so well written and so encouraging.

Yes, life as a SAHM can be quite insane! (If ever there was an understatement…) But keep the faith, sisters, keep the faith. Amidst all the insanity we are building a home for our children and it will all add up to something. Yes, even when we think we’re bad or lousy mommies. You know what? I’m pretty much preaching to myself too cause boy! Do I need something to hold onto to keep sane… daily!

Now head on over to Fruits In Season and read that post. She’s put together the reality and hope of motherhood so well.

As for me, I’m off the hunt down the book, The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child’s Heart for Eternity by Sally Clarkson!

Hubby-jr loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar storybook, to the extent that he has just about almost memorised the entire book. He can repeat in the exact sequence what the hungry caterpillar ate on Saturday!

For the benefit of the clueless, in a gist, the story is about how the very hungry caterpillar ate through a series of different stuff from Monday to Sunday and then becomes a butterfly. In a very interesting manner of course. It’s a wonderful book that children love and also great tool for teaching the days of the week and metamorphosis!

Anyway, I was having fun with him over breakfast this morning asking him what the very hungry caterpillar ate each day. Then we reached “Saturday” and the conversation went like this.

Me: On Saturday the hungry caterpillar ate through…?

Hubby-jr: One piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.

Me: That night he had a…

(After some prompting) Hubby-jr: a tummy-ache (grinning)

Me: Yes, and the next day was Sunday again, he ate through…?

Hubby-jr: One piece of green leaf.

Me: After that he felt…?

Hubby-jr: Much better.

Then I had this “brilliant idea” of seizing the opportunity to reinforce the importance of eating vegetables.

Me: Yes, the hungry caterpillar felt much better after eating the green leaf. The green leaf is a vegetable. See! Even a caterpillar needs to eat vegetables!

Hubby-jr (chewing on his toast bread): Boy-boy (refering to himself) needs to eat…

He continues munching and takes a pause. And I’m expecting him to say “vegetables” and feeling good that I managed to unexpectedly insert a lesson on eating vegetables. Well at least I did up till my son finished his sentence…

Hubby-jr: Toast bread!

We all just cracked up and had the laugh of the day! There goes the lesson on vegetables! And I learnt the valuable lesson (again!) that kids are not easily “tricked” and can outsmart us anytime!